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GOP Hardliners Vow To Sink Debt Bill In House; U.S. Still Gathering Info On Drone Attack In Russia; Family Sues Mississippi Cop Who Shot 11-Year-Old. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired May 30, 2023 - 14:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[14:00:00]

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JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: Just one hour from now, Speaker McCarthy faces his first major test on the Hill. Will hardline Republicans tank this debt deal and is McCarthy's speakership potentially at risk? We're on top of it.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: Plus, the United States assessing what happened after drone attacks allegedly reach Moscow. The Kremlin is accusing Ukraine of terrorism. We're going to take you live to Kyiv with the Ukrainian response and the explosions that shook the capital city.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: And new developments in the James Brown death mystery. Bags of evidence that a woman handed over to the Fulton County District Attorney's office had disappeared. And she claims it proves the Godfather of Soul was murdered. We're following these major stories and many more all coming in right here to CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

SCIUTTO: One hour from now, the hard-fought debt deal forged by President Biden and Speaker McCarthy will face its first test on Capitol Hill. The bill has to get through the Rules Committee today before tomorrow's broader House vote. But hard-right Republicans are now saying they will do whatever it takes to prevent this bill from advancing, including they say threatening Kevin McCarthy's speakership.

CNN's Manu Raju, he's at the Capitol. Manu, I mean, we're hearing a lot of public pronouncements right now. Red lines, etcetera. I wonder, are these -- are these serious? Is it politicking? Does this have the chance of stopping the bill but also threatening the speakership?

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, at the moment, those members who are upset don't have the votes to stop the bill, but they're trying to do just that. And they're also warning that they may actually take a move in the speakership, actually vote to -- force a vote to essentially seek his ouster. This all comes ahead of a key vote this afternoon in the House Rules Committee that does -- this is the first step in the legislative process. Even as the members on the far right are trying to build up GOP opposition.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) RAJU: How much -- I mean how much confidence do you have in the speaker right now?

REP. DAN BISHOP (R-NC): None. Zero. What basis is there for confidence? You cannot forfeit the tool of Republican unity. It was not necessary to do.

RAJU: Does the speaker lying about the way he's characterizing this bill?

BISHOP: Yes, he's lying. But the bill is chock full of things that are -- that are cosmetic and artificial that have the same exact effect.

REP. RALPH NORMAN (R-SC): McCarthy has lost some trust in how this has been handled.

REP. CHIP ROY (R-TX): What I said was we got to re-look at how our leadership structure is in place, something like that on Glenn's show because we can't do what we're doing right now. We were being very successful for five months. This was a mistake.

We abandon the structure that was making us successful, so we're going to have to rethink it all. What was emphatically clear in all of our conversations in January was that we would be reporting things out of the rules committee unanimously. And right now, that is in jeopardy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: So, that last comment about a private deal that Chip Roy contends was made in order for McCarthy to secure speakership back in January. He says -- Roy says that McCarthy agreed to only move on bills that had the support of all nine committee Republicans on the Rules Committee. Now, Roy sits on the rules committee, as does Ralph Norman. Both are expected to vote against the rule.

If one other Republican votes against it, assuming all Democrats do as well, that could stop the bill in committee. McCarthy's team and his allies don't agree with what Roy -- what Roy is asserting they privately agreed to.

But it all speaks to the building tension internally as McCarthy is moving to lock down the votes and he just told reporters, the speaker there, that he's not concerned about losing his gavel despite those threats you heard from those members of the hard-right Freedom Caucus, Jim.

[14:05:03]

SCIUTTO: Yes. It's quite an accusation saying right out loud there that the speaker is lying in his view. Mana Raju on Capitol Hill, thanks very much. Boris.

SANCHEZ: Let's get some perspective now from the other side of the aisle. We're joined by the whip for the House Progressive Caucus, Democratic Congressman Greg Casar of Texas. Congressman, thanks so much for sharing part of your afternoon with us. Given the shape that this deal has taken, will you be voting for it?

REP. GREG CASAR (D-TX): So, the -- this is not both sides kind of an argument. Right now, as you were just saying in the last segment, you see extreme right-wing Republicans trying to push the American economy into default. In all parts of the Democratic caucus, all of our members, whether you're progressive or moderate, are united against preventing a default. And I think that's what you're going to see happen as this deal go through and a default be prevented.

Now, your question is how will I and other progressives be voting on this issue? Because we know some Democrats will vote yes to get the deal done and they are going to do exactly that. But many progressives, including myself, we know because we continue to hold the line against kicking people out of their homes.

Folks losing the meager food assistance that they're given. We're going to continue to protect the environment in working-class people against things like these Republican attempts to finance and pay for big corporate tax breaks on the backs of working-class people.

SANCHEZ: So, Congressman, it sounds like despite your reservations about some of the details, perhaps in the bill, you will be supporting it. The chair of your caucus said that the president should be concerned that he may lose votes from progressives. That doesn't seem to be a concern that you're sharing.

CASAR: I think you might have missed up part of what I was saying, which is no. I and many other progressives lean no, even though we expect the bill will pass because we are holding the line against people getting harmed by these Republican attacks. We expect the bill will move forward because progressives care about preventing a default. But we also are deeply concerned --

SANCHEZ: Right.

CASAR: -- with McCarthy things in this bill that essentially hurt working-class people while in the same bill --

SANCHEZ: Sure.

CASAR: -- he's trying to cut to the IRS programs that go after tax cheats.

SANCHEZ: I appreciate you clarifying that. The White House does argue that many of the things that the president championed in recent legislation over the past couple of years remain intact and funded in this bill. They argue that perhaps progressives are letting the perfect be the enemy of the good. What's your response?

CASAR: My response is that the president has worked very hard to reduce the ransom payment being demanded by the hostage takers. And the hostage takers are the right-wing Republicans that are controlling the House of Representatives right now. So, we did very hard work in this lose-lose situation to reduce the ransom payment.

But the question we should be asking ourselves is, why is there a hostage situation where the American economy has been taken for hostage in the first place? Why is the president having to make any sort of ransom payment and so on principle? I think it's important for a significant number of progressives to say, we don't stand for that and we're never going to stand for that in the future.

We don't want any future president to be put in a bind like this, like President Biden because the threat that we're hearing from extreme right-wing Republicans, for example in the Rules Committee today, is that they could take the entire American economy.

Millions of people losing their jobs, folks watching at home losing all of their savings, and that's unacceptable. So, progressives and moderates stand united against default. And progressives will also be standing against this kind of hostage-taking.

We think we should abolish the debt ceiling in the first place. In fact, when I was first elected to Congress, I was in the meetings where we were pleading for us to not let folks like Marjorie Taylor Greene have their finger on the nuclear button and raise the debt limit before McCarthy became speaker.

SANCHEZ: What about the invitation from the White House? President Biden putting the word out there that he's open to speaking with skeptical Democrats, such as yourself saying, talk to me. Have you heard from the White House? Are you inclined to speak with President Biden directly about this?

CASAR: Of course. And I'm a supporter of President Biden and I'll be alongside him in his reelection campaign and rallying for him, but he was in a lose-lose situation that nobody should have ever had been put in. I was in three hours of White House briefings yesterday.

And what's clear to me is what a farce this entire process has been from the -- coming from the Republican side. They said that this was about deficits. If you talk to the White House and look at the ultimate deal, this isn't about the deficit. This is about folks like the hard-right of the Republican Party coming after a chunk of funding from the IRS so they can let their billionaire buddies off the hook who are cheating on taxes.

They aren't actually serious about reducing the deficit. At the end of the day, some of the harm they're doing in this bill is trying to kick 50 to 54-year-olds off of food stamps. The food stamp program for folks watching at home provides two dollars a meal to people. So, that's what they were doing all of this about. That's what they were threatened the economy about.

So, I think it's right for Democrats to get this deal done. But for a large number of progressives to say no, this entire process where the American hot economy can be held for ransom, that's a no-go.

[14:10:13]

SANCHEZ: Congressman Greg Casar, we have to leave the conversation there. We appreciate you joining us.

CASAR: Thank you so much for having me.

SANCHEZ: Of course. Brianna?

KEILAR: A national security official says the U.S. is still gathering information on who was behind that drone attack over Moscow today. It is the first time the civilian areas in Russia may have been targeted in the 400-plus days since Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine. The Russian president said the eight drones that were shot down over Moscow show Kyiv chose "the path of intimidation."

And the Russian Interior Ministry has now issued arrest warrants for two senior Ukrainian commanders following the attacks. No one was killed. That's something we should note here.

Russia says several people were hurt, several buildings were damaged. Ukrainian officials are denying it needs direct involvement with these drones. In the meantime, their capital city has been under bombardment for days, the 17th aerial assault by Russia this month alone.

CNN's Frederik Pleitgen is in key for us. So, Fred, there were several drones that were downed near one of Putin's homes.

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, you're absolutely right. It was apparently in the district called Rublyovka, which is sort of to the west of Moscow, an extremely upscale area of the Russian capital. And there is one of the residencies that is officially a residency of the Russian President -- of Vladimir Putin.

So, fairly close to the area, apparently, where these drones were downed. And in general, as you can imagine, a lot of people in Russia are up in arms a lot of people in the Russian government, certainly also a lot of Russians on the ground as well. And I think some of the things were pretty interesting about that alleged attack that unfolded.

First of all, some of the videos that came out, they're quite remarkable because those drones that we saw there, they were pretty substantial in size. The Russians making a big point at the very beginning when all this happened -- when it first started to say these were fixed-wing aircraft, right? These weren't little copter drones. These were fairly large drones that came flying towards the area in Moscow.

And the Russians say that in total, they down eight of these unmanned aerial vehicles. And they say that they needed both electronic jamming to do that, but they also needed to activate their missile air defenses as well taking down five of those drones using their missiles. Vladimir Putin came out later today and he then condemned all this and accused Kyiv of being behind it, saying that they had chosen the path of intimidation called terrorism.

The Ukrainians, as you noted, Brianna, continue to say that they had nothing to do with this, that they were not directly involved in all of this, as they put it. Nevertheless, of course, Ukrainian officials rejoicing at this and saying they predict that more and similar attacks of this kind are going to happen. At the same time, of course, the Ukrainians are saying, look, drone attacks are something that they face pretty much every day.

And one of the things that we witnessed last night overnight was that massive barrage of drones that came here to the capital city of Kyiv. And overnight, you could hear for several hours, Brianna, as these drones were hovering overhead. They have propeller engines, they have a very distinct noise, and the Ukrainians trying to take them down, Brianna.

KEILAR: Yes, 17 days out of 30. This month so far, and that is just in the capital, let alone the rest of the country. Fred Pleitgen for us in Kyiv, thank you so much for that report. Jim?

SCIUTTO: Well, the family of the 11-year-old boy who was shot by a responding police officer after he called 911 for help, has now filed a lawsuit. We're going to speak to their attorney next. And the suspect in the disappearance of Natalee Holloway all those years ago agrees to be transferred to the U.S. to face criminal charges.

Just after being involved in a serious prison fight. We're going to tell you what Joran van der Sloot's attorney is saying about it just ahead. And later, leaders in the AI industry sign a joint statement warning of a risk -- wait for it, of global annihilation. We're going to explain. You're watching CNN NEWS CENTRAL. And we'll be right back.

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[14:18:02]

KEILAR: An 11-year-old boy in Mississippi calls 911 trying to get help for his mother. But when the police arrived, the officer shoots him. Aderrien Murry was shot in the chest and now his family has just filed a five-million-dollar federal lawsuit. The child suffered fractured ribs, also a lacerated liver and he was put on a ventilator after his lung collapsed. His family is now demanding that the officer also be charged and they want him and the police chief fired.

CNN's Nick Valencia just spoke with Aderrien. Nick, how's he doing?

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, he's still in some pain, Brianna. And he's having some noticeable trouble breathing. But what he seems to be most bummed about is not being able to play with his friends.

He can't go outside swimming. It's the summertime coming up here. He can't go outside running because he's still recovering from the hole in his chest after he was shot by a police officer a little over a week ago. Aderrien is remarkably in good spirits for what he went through. But he does tell me when he's alone in his room at night, the weight of what he went through does hit him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ADERRIEN MURRY, 11-YEAR-OLD SHOT BY POLICE OFFICER RESPONDING TO 911 CALL: Sometimes I can see myself laying inside the coffin. It come into my thoughts at night, my only was. Sometimes I think people are watching me but my main thought is me dead. (END VIDEO CLIP)

VALENCIA: He said he was so convinced that he was going to die that day that he started to tell his mother his last words. Telling her to say sorry to the family members who he acted up in front of. Tell them to say sorry to the teacher that he was bad towards.

The mother said that she is so overfilled with joy that she really doesn't have enough time to be angry even towards the police officer, Sergeant Greg Capers, with the Indianola Police Department. She doesn't even have to be -- time to be angry at him. She says.

[14:20:00]

She does though want him fired and never to work as a police officer in this country again. We're standing in front of the attorney's office because just in a few minutes, they're going to announce a federal lawsuit that they filed seeking five million dollars in damages from the city as well as the local police department. This is still under investigation.

The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation is handling this. They have a body camera that they have not yet released of this incident. Meanwhile, Brianna, very quickly, we have reached out to Sergeant Greg Capers repeatedly but he has not gotten back to us. Brianna?

KEILAR: Yes. Maybe that body camera will reveal how this could happen. I think that is what is on everyone's mind as we see this traumatized little boy. Nick, thank you for bringing that to us. Jim?

SCIUTTO: All right, let's discuss more what happens next in this case. The Murry's family attorney Carlos Moore joining us now. And, Carlos, thanks so much for taking the time today.

CARLOS MOORE, MURRY FAMILY ATTORNEY: Thanks for having me.

SCIUTTO: Well, first, when I -- when I hear that little boy, 11 years old struggling a little bit as he continues to recover, just feel so much for him. You can see how much he's been through here. Can you tell us how he's doing?

MOORE: Yes. He has been through more than any 11-year-old boy should ever go through.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

MOORE: Especially in the summertime when he shouldn't be vacationing from hard work -- years of work at school. But he's struggling. He is trying to stay in good spirits.

He's trying to comfort his mother because she feels that it's her fault. But he's a remarkable young man, still has some pain inside, still a struggle to breathe, but he's blessed to be alive and he gets out. Praise to God.

SCIUTTO: Yes, he did. I was thinking the same thing. He's lucky to be alive.

All right, when we look at your lawsuit here, I believe asking for five million dollars. You say that the officer involved here, Greg Capers, "failed to assess the situation before displaying and or to start discharging his firearm." What are the circumstances of the shooting as you know them?

MOORE: What I do know is that on May the 20th after 4:00 a.m., the police was called to the scene by my client, Aderrien Murry, at the request of his mother. Her ex-boyfriend had come to the home around 4:00 a.m. She got him in and he became irate. She became afraid and she's now (INAUDIBLE), give him the phone and asked him to call her mother and the police.

He called both his grandmother and the police. The police arrived. His grandmother arrived. The police tried to kick in the door. Nakala Murry opened up the door.

They hit the -- Greg Capers had his gun drawn in her face at that point. He had shouted step outside. She stepped outside. And then he yelled in the house, anyone in the house come out with your hands up. And that's when Aderrien came out with his hands up, and then we believe he was shot as soon as he got to the living room.

SCIUTTO: Goodness. How tall is -- how tall is he?

MOORE: Aderrien appears to be about four feet 10 -- 10 inches tall.

SCIUTTO: Wow. So, he's small. I mean it is difficult to have mistaken him for an adult. Now, the Indianola police chief -- how do they explain the circumstances here? Do they have a defense yet?

I mean, we should note that Officer Capers, he was named Policeman of the Year just in 2021. How do they explain the circumstances here and the justification for this?

MOORE: The city of Indianola has not even attempted to explain the situation. I don't think there's any earthly justifiable reason that you would shoot an unarmed 11-year-old. No veteran cop should have been afraid -- even a rookie would not make that mistake.

There was a rookie officer with a sergeant at night. She didn't make that mistake. But the veteran officers shot this boy point blank range, in the center -- center masks in his chest. Could have killed him graveyard day and he came within an inch of losing his life. And that's why we got filed that five-million-dollar lawsuit.

SCIUTTO: Your lawsuit alleges negligence here. Are you alleging the possibility of criminal behavior here by the officer as well?

MOORE: We do believe it is criminal. According to the statute, any reckless behavior where someone is shot, that can be charged with aggravated assault. This man was shot by a cop on -- needlessly and so that's aggravated assault. And we're hoping that the attorney general will pursue the correct criminal charges. The family has hired me to pursue justice from the civil (INAUDIBLE). True and complete justice would be an immediate arrest for aggravated assault and immediate termination of both Greg Capers and the chief of police. That's what this family has demanded. And we will not take anything less.

SCIUTTO: Carlos Murry, attorney for the family of Aderrien Murry, thanks so much for joining us -- Carlos Moore, I should say.

MOORE: Thanks for having me, Jim.

SCIUTTO: Thanks very much. Boris, over to you.

MOORE: Thank you.

SANCHEZ: We're following some important breaking news in Hollywood, Florida, where police are giving an update on yesterday's shooting at a Boardwalk. Nine people were shot including a one-year-old child. Let's listen in.

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DEANNA BETTINESCHI, HOLLYWOOD, FLORIDA POLICE: We just wanted to give everybody an update on the shooting incident from last night. We also do want to remind you that obviously, this is an ongoing investigation at this point, so we're going to try to release as much information as we possibly can to you. Monday evening after the shooting happened, officers were able to detain multiple people. This resulted in the arrest of two men who we believe to be involved in the incident, and they were arrested on weapons charges.

[14:25:00]

At this point, we do need the community's help. We are looking for three individuals we believe may be related to the shooting. We sent out the pictures of these three people who we believe are involved so we are asking the community to please look at those pictures. If you notice who they may be, or recognize anything about them so please call the police and you can also remain anonymous by calling Crimestoppers.

We did want to give an update on the victims. All of them are still in stable condition. Three were released and six still remain in the hospital. We will -- also get questions about additional officers.

During any special event or holiday weekend, we do have additional officers that are here to help with the additional people who are coming to the beach. That was the case last night as well. Our officers did hear the shots and sort of at the same time as those 911 calls were coming in, our officers were responding and trying to help the victims in need.

At this point, that's all I have on my end. And I'm going to introduce Mayor Josh Levy, the city of Hollywood.

JOSH LEVY, MAYOR OF HOLLYWOOD, FLORIDA: Thank you, Deanna. Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for being here.

I want to thank the Hollywood Police Department for the update that was just given by the Public Information Officer, certainly reassuring to myself and the public that the Hollywood Police Department acted so quickly and apprehending and detaining two persons yesterday who were in possession of firearms and are now detained on gun charges. It's something that's certainly not ordinary to be carrying a weapon here on Hollywood Beach. And so, I'm reassured that the police have also recovered five weapons in total as of yesterday and that the investigation is proceeding very rapidly.

I'm very confident that we will apprehend those three persons that the PIO had mentioned the police were in search of. When you do something like this in broad daylight, with CCTV cameras up and down our Broadwalk, you will be identified and you will be caught and brought to justice. We're not going to tolerate this kind of behavior in a beautiful beach setting. We're a very peaceful city, and we will not tolerate people coming into our city behaving in this way with no regard to people that are in harm's way with innocent bystanders being injured like they were yesterday.

I want to also express our support to the families and to the victims who are currently still at the hospital being treated. Hopefully, they make a quick and easy recovery here in this difficult circumstance. So, our thoughts are with them, our support is with them, and I want to thank everyone again, who supported yesterday.

We saw Good Samaritans rendering aid right away. Police and paramedics right away rendering aid, being transported to the hospital. Nurses and doctors at Joe DiMaggio Children's and also Memorial Regional Hospital getting to quick trauma response and everyone being stabilized to the greatest extent possible. So, we have a lot to be thankful for. We have a strong community, a resilient community, and we have a very inviting community. But that doesn't mean that anyone can come in here and --

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ: We've been listening to officials in Hollywood, Florida giving us an update on Memorial Day shooting at Hollywood Beach. Two groups apparently getting into an argument yesterday evening, opening fire at each other. So far, two people have been arrested. They are facing weapons charges.

We understand from officials they are searching for three more potential suspects. The mayor of Hollywood, Florida, Josh Levy, put out the word saying you will be caught. Again, nine people shot there in Hollywood, ranging in age from 65 to just one year old. Brianna?

KEILAR: Coming up on CNN NEWS CENTRAL. The attorney for Joran van der Sloot says he won't appeal his transfer into U.S. custody. We'll have details on why. Next.

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