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FBI Director On Hill After GOP Blocks Key Spy Tool; Leon Panetta, Former Defense Secretary & Former CIA Director, Discusses GOP Blocking FISA; Bill Barr Blasts "Reckless" Bid To Kill FISA; Report: "Shocking" Lapses Before 6-Year-Old Shot Teacher; USAID Chief: Assessment That Famine Underway In Gaza Is "Credible"; UNICEF: Convoy Came Under Fire While Delivering Aid In Gaza. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired April 11, 2024 - 14:30   ET

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

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[14:32:35]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Right now, FBI Director Christopher Wray is testifying on the Hill about national security threats. And Wray just spoke about FISA, which is the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which was just kind of kneecapped by some House Republicans after former President Trump told them to.

Specifically, we're talking about Section 702 of FISA.

Here is his warning for lawmakers about what could happen if FISA is not renewed. This is Wray.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISTOPHER WRAY, FBI DIRECTOR: Let me be clear. Failure to reauthorize 702 or gutting it with some new kind of warrant requirement would be dangerous and put American's lives at risk.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Specifically Section 702 to expire on April 19th.

And yesterday, Trump allies in the House blocked it from getting renewed after the former president called on Congress to, quote, "kill FISA." That's even though that, as president, Trump himself reauthorized it.

Let's discuss further with Leon Panetta, who served as defense secretary and CIA director under President Obama.

Sir, thanks so much for being with us.

There appears to be confusion, even by former President Trump, over which part of FISA was actually being voted on yesterday? So let's start with the basics. Walk us through what Section 702 actually does.

LEON PANETTA, FORMER DEFENSE SECRETARY & FORMER CIA DIRECTOR: Well, 702 basically allows the FBI to be able to do surveillance on foreign terrorists, who are calling from abroad and be able to determine just exactly what their plans are that usually involve some kind of terrorist act against the United States.

So it isn't -- it isn't focused on Donald Trump. It's not focused on American citizens. It's focused primarily on terrorists abroad, who are making phone calls to those that they're trying to work with in this country in order to conduct a terrorist attack.

KEILAR: OK. So when -- and we just interviewed a House Republican who is talking about wanting reform, that Wray is saying would be so cumbersome that it's dangerous, which is some warrant requirement to review communications from an American, right, who is talking to a foreigner in these communications.

[14:35:05]

In your view, is it realistic to have some kind of warrant requirement? What would that do? Why is Wray so worried about that?

PANETTA: Well, it involves obviously a national security threat. And time is of the essence. Because terrorists -- look, the primary goal of terrorists is to attack our country and attack innocent men, women and children in this country.

We saw that on 911. And so you've got -- you've got to be able to move quickly to be able to pick up these calls in order to determine whether or not there is an immediate threat that is taking place.

FISA was very important, for example, in going after a terrorist who had planned subway attacks in New York City. And it gave us the opportunity to be able to prevent that from happening.

So it's absolutely critical to our security to be able to gather this kind of critical and vital intelligence.

SANCHEZ: Secretary, Donald Trump's former attorney general, Bill Barr, ripped Trump for pressuring Republicans to block this reauthorization.

Let's actually listen to a sound bite of that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL BARR, FORMER ATTORNEY GENERAL (VO): We're faced with probably the greatest threat to the homeland from terrorist attack. And our primary means of defending against that is FISA.

And to take that tool away, I think, is going to result in successful terrorist attack and the loss of life.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Specifically in the context of this moment, when we're watching this war unfold in the Middle East that has inflamed tensions, and we've just this week reported on the arrest of an American who had taken up the cause of ISIS and was planning to attack a series of religious locations.

Why is it so important in this moment to make sure that this passes smoothly and without serious objection?

PANETTA: Look, let me let me, first of all, make this point. In the United States of America, we do not have to choose between protecting our security and protecting our freedoms. We really don't have to choose.

This law is obviously aimed at protecting our security. But the reality is that it also includes protections to make sure that our freedoms are protected as well.

Not only with the FISA court, which has to provide permission for this kind of action to take place, but in addition to that, there are committees in the Congress, such as the Intelligence Committee, that have oversight responsibility over these operations.

When I was CIA director and conducted operations, I had to go to the Intelligence Committee to lay out those operations and make clear that they understood what I was doing.

So the reality is we can conduct these kinds of vital surveillance intelligence operations in order to make sure that there are not terrorists -- and there are a lot of terrorists around.

We're seeing what's happening in the Middle East. Terrorism is still a very real threat to this country. And 911 was very real as to what happened in this country.

So for those Republicans who are blocking this, let me tell you something, the reality is that if a terrorist attack takes place, the blood from that terrorist attack will be on their hands.

SANCHEZ: Secretary Leon Panetta, thanks so much. Appreciate the expertise.

PANETTA: Thank you.

[14:39:13]

SANCHEZ: Still ahead, the shooting of a Virginia school teacher by a six-year-old boy was a, quote, "avoidable event." What a special grand jury report says lead up to the shooting and the warning signs that we're missed.

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SANCHEZ: Some new developments now to share with you in the shooting of an elementary school teacher by a six-year-old student last year in Virginia.

A special grand jury report describes a "shocking" lack of responses to multiple warnings that the first grader had a gun.

KEILAR: Yes. This report is sharply critical of the school's former assistant principal who resigned shortly after the incident and has now been indicted actually.

We have CNN's Brian Todd covering the story. He's joining us with new details here.

Brian, what else does a special grand jury report?

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, as you guys know, that assistant principal, former assistant principal, Ebony Parker, was just indicted on eight counts of child abuse and neglect.

This report really especially condemns her and her alleged actions on the day of the shooting, but also before.

Here's a quote from the report. Quote, "Dr. Parker's lack of response and initiative, given the seriousness of the information she had received on January 6, 2023, is shocking."

The report also cites the warnings that she got at least three times the day of the shooting that the boy had gone and that he was in what the teacher called a violent mood.

[14:45:00]

And here's some sound from Howard Gwynn -- he is the Newport News Commonwealth's attorney -- about one warning that a young boy, he was a friend of the shooter, gave to administrators.

This is Mr. Gwynn.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HOWARD GWYNN, NEWPORT NEWS COMMONWEALTH'S ATTORNEY: There was the friend who actually told one of the administrators that the shooter had a gun.

And I'm sure, as you read the report, you saw what that friend thought and feels guilty today because nobody listened to him. And his mother had to put him in counseling. And she's in counseling herself.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TODD: Another new nugget from that report that really is sobering, guys, the report said this:

"As bad as the shooting was, it could have been much worse. That the student himself had a gun filled with bullets, with 15 students cowering around him at the time of the shooting, that the godhead jammed because of his lack of strength.

"But the gun had seven more bullets in it that we're ready for firing at the time of the shooting."

We do have to say that CNN has reached out to Ebony Parker, the former assistant principal, for comment on this, as we'll as the Newport News school system. We've not heard back from them on that. SANCHEZ: Brian, this is just the latest chapter in the story. Previously, the six-year-old shooter's mother was sentenced, right? Bring us those details.

TODD: Yes, more accountability. And we just talked about the Michigan case with those parents getting held accountable. This one, too.

Daysha Taylor, she is the mother of that six-year-old boy, who is now seven years old. She was sentenced in federal and state courts on several counts of child neglect and firearms violations. Her last sentence was in December.

She's going to serve a little less than four years in prison on federal and state charges related to this case.

You know, it really is kind of a new era. We were talking about that. Administrators now -- and this might be the first time a school administrator is being actually criminally charged in a case like this.

And parents. I mean, we saw the Michigan case, and now this parent of this now 7-year-old boy, who is living with his grandfather.

KEILAR: And it'll depend on state law. That's also what we've learned on how administrators --

TODD: Right.

KEILAR: Brian, thank you.

TODD: Sure.

SANCHEZ: Still plenty more news to come on NEWS CENTRAL, including a top U.S. humanitarian official saying that famine is already happening in Gaza. What we're learning about efforts to get aid in, as UNICEF says, one of its vehicles came under fire while delivering supplies.

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[14:51:42]

KEILAR: So we're hearing a warning of -- or warning about how widespread food shortages are becoming more and more dire in much of Gaza. And now for the first time, a U.S. official is publicly acknowledging that famine is already underway in the Palestinian enclave.

The nation's top humanitarian official, Samantha Power, confirmed this during a House hearing on Capitol Hill.

SANCHEZ: She said that she finds that an international metric measuring hunger in Gaza is, quote, "credible."

Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) REP. JOAQUIN CASTRO (D-TX): Do you think that it's plausible or likely that parts of Gaza, and particularly northern Gaza, are already experiencing famine?

SAMANTHA POWER, USAID ADMINISTRATOR: The methodology that the IPC used is one that we had our experts scrub. It's one that's relied upon in other settings. And that is their assessment. And we believe that assessment is credible.

CASTRO: So there's -- a famine is already occurring there?

POWER: That is --

CASTRO: Yes.

POWER: Yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: CNN's Jeremy Diamond is live for us in Jerusalem.

So, Jeremy, before we get to the hunger crisis, there was another example of how dangerous it is for aid workers that are transporting humanitarian supplies. We've learned that a UNICEF truck was attacked.

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right. There was a convoy of UNICEF vehicles that was waiting at a checkpoint going from southern Gaza to northern Gaza.

And while that convoy was at that checkpoint, in a holding area there that they believed to be safe, live ammunition was fired in the direction of that convoy, hitting one of the vehicles. At least three bullets hitting one of the vehicles.

Tess Ingram, UNICEF spokeswoman, was actually in one of those vehicles. And this is how she described that very scary incident.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TESS INGRAM, UNICEF SPOKESWOMAN: Shots we're fired from the direction of the crossing towards civilians, who then ran in the other direction away from the crossing. We were caught in that line of fire. Three bullets hit the car that I was in.

This incident is just another example of how dangerous it is for us and for the people that we're trying to serve in Gaza.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DIAMOND: And obviously, this incident comes less than two weeks after that World Central Kitchen convoy was struck.

These are two very different incidents. Though we should note, in the World Central Kitchen case, that was the deliberate targeting of vehicles that we're clearly marked with logos of a humanitarian organization. Drone strikes in that case. In this incident, Tess Ingram, who was in this vehicle, says that she does not believe that the vehicle was deliberately targeted.

But nonetheless, it underscores how dangerous the work of aid workers currently is in Gaza.

And the fact that even when they we're in one of these areas that was designated as safe, a holding position, designated by the Israeli military, that there was still live fire being shot in the direction, not only of this aid convoy, but also in the direction of civilians, according to that UNICEF spokeswoman.

And amid all of this, the convoy that they we're delivering -- they we're set to deliver fuel and nutrition supplies to one of those hospitals in northern Gaza that has been treating children who are suffering from malnutrition in particular.

[14:55:02]

That convoy was never able to make it to that hospital as a result of this incident at a time when one in three children in northern Gaza are currently suffering from acute malnutrition and at a time when that aid is needed, more than ever -- Boris, Brianna?

SANCHEZ: Jeremy Diamond, live for us from Jerusalem, thank you so much.

Still to come, back to our breaking news. Former football star and accused murderer, O.J. Simpson, dead after for a battle with cancer.

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