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At Least 22 Confirmed Dead in El Paso Attack; North Korea Launches Another Two Missiles. Aired 2-3a ET
Aired August 06, 2019 - 02:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Hello and welcome to our viewers all around the world. I'm Rosemary Church and this is CNN NEWSROOM.
Coming up, two cities left shaken. Communities are grieving for the victims of mass shootings in the United States. And as we learn more about the gunmen, the outrage is growing over the country's gun laws.
Plus the trade war is shaking global markets as the Trump administration labels China a currency manipulator. Markets are showing their displeasure worldwide.
And another provocation from North Korea as Pyongyang launches two more missiles all to show its opposition to joint military drills near its border.
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CHURCH: Now 31 people are confirmed dead after two mass shootings in the span of 13 hours here in the United States. That is nine in Dayton, Ohio, and 22 in El Paso, Texas.
The alleged Texas shooter is a white supremacist and the case is being treated as domestic terrorism. The suspect is alive in custody and faces the death penalty; authorities say that he has shown no remorse.
Thousands of miles away in Dayton, Ohio, the killer was shot dead by police and there is still no obvious motive. But there are signs he may have backed far left ideology and in what appears to be his Twitter account, he has extreme anti-police posts. On top of that, the account shows support for the violent protest group Antifa.
Authorities have also searched his home. Sources say that he had writings showing an interest in killing.
Well, U.S. president Donald Trump is set to visit El Paso and Dayton in the coming days. In Washington he blame several factors for the attacks but did not acknowledge his own divisive rhetoric. He also tweeted that stronger background checks might be needed for gun purchasers. But he left that out of his spoken remarks; take a listen.
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TRUMP: The shooter in El Paso posted a manifesto online consumed by racist hate. In one voice, our nation must condemn racism, bigotry and white supremacy.
We must stop the glorification of violence in our society. This includes the gruesome and grisly video games that are now commonplace. It is too easy today for troubled youth to surround themselves with a culture that celebrates violence.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: The attackers in Texas and Ohio didn't just kill 31 people; they also wounded dozens of others. CNN's Ed Lavandera has this look at the case in El Paso and how one family is healing.
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ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Police say the El Paso Walmart shooter, 21- year-old Patrick Crusius is cooperating with investigators but showing no signs of remorse.
DEE MARGO (R), MAYOR OF EL PASO: I don't know how we deal with evil. I don't have a textbook for dealing with evil other than the Bible. I'm sorry.
LAVANDERA (voice-over): The death toll for the El Paso Walmart Massacre jumped to 22. Officials announced two more victims could not overcome their horrific wounds and died in the hospital.
Gospel music filled this hospital waiting room as family and friends of 33-year-old Michelle Grady waited for her to come out of her second surgery. Grady's family tells CNN, Michelle was struck by gunfire three times. Suffered a shattered pelvis as well as serious intestinal and stomach injuries.
MICHAEL GRADY, MICHELLE'S FATHER: Michelle had the presence of mind to get shot three times and yet pick up the phone and called her mom and said -- and that's when she said, "Mom, I've been shot."
Of course, my wife became frantic.
LAVANDERA (voice-over): Her father, pastor Michael Grady, says he raced to the scene and was heartbroken by what he saw.
GRADY: Then I finally saw my wife bringing Michelle on this cart and pushing her towards the ambulance and it was at that moment that I realized that this was not just something unbelievable that this was real.
LAVANDERA: You get emotional thinking of that image of your wife pushing your daughter.
What is it about that moment that just hits you so hard? GRADY: That I couldn't get there quick enough to help.
LAVANDERA (voice-over): At that moment, these victims and --
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LAVANDERA (voice-over): -- the city of El Paso did not know about an online posting ranting about a Hispanic invasion of Texas. Court documents show the gunman has no income, has been out of work for five months and lived with his grandparents in Allen, Texas, for two years.
Across the city, there is an outpouring of grief. The question many in El Paso can't answer is how the gunman could drive more than 600 miles for 10 hours from Allen, Texas, and never feel a sense of doubt.
But families like the Grady family are focused on healing the wounds. Michelle Grady hasn't spoken since arriving at the hospital, but they've received a sign of hope. Michelle opened her eyes and gently squeezed her family's hand.
GRADY: It was an amazing moment because that meant that she could hear us.
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LAVANDERA: Many El Paso residents are trying to figure out why the gunman picked this Walmart to carry out the massacre. El Paso police say they believe the gunman drove straight here to El Paso, making that 10- to 11-hour drive from the Dallas area, and arrived in this area, got lost in a nearby neighborhood and then picked this Walmart because he was hungry -- Ed Lavandera, CNN, El Paso, Texas.
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CHURCH: Steve Moore joins me now to talk more about this. He's a CNN law enforcement contributor and former FBI supervisory special agent.
Great to have you with us.
STEVE MOORE, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CORRESPONDENT: Good to be here, Rosemary.
CHURCH: We want to start with the Dayton, Ohio, shooter. Police moved into action very quickly but not before nine people were killed, including his sister. Now we don't yet know his motive but we have learned that he had a hit list in high school and he was suspended as a result of that.
How is it possible, though, that someone with that sort of history was able to legally purchase a weapon of war?
MOORE: Here's the problem we have. You can have some freedoms but you can't have absolute freedoms. This is why our society needs to revise some things. I do not want to take freedom away from anybody. But on one hand we say if you are a minor, we want to keep earlier indiscretions secret so that they don't follow you the rest of your life.
But this is not just a minor indiscretion. He's coming up with a list of people he wants to get. So that needs to be a part of a record at least as far as purchasing firearms goes.
We don't have in the United States a way to vet efficiently or effectively a potential firearms owner. So if we are going to have guns in society, we need to take that second step. And right now we have guns in society but no way to effectively vet the people who have them.
CHURCH: Right, that is the big problem and, of course, that is what the politicians need to work on. But before we get to that, we are learning more about the motive of the El Paso shooter, who posted a racist, anti-immigrant manifesto online just before shooting and killing 22 people at a Walmart.
This shooting is being treated as a domestic terrorism linked to white supremacy.
What more are you learning about the investigation into that shooting?
MOORE: It's basically your standard -- and I hate to say this when you see such an atrocity -- but it is the standard atrocity that white supremacists will commit. It is coward, almost faceless because they want to hit and run. They even -- I've interviewed these people hours immediately after they had been arrested.
And they told me things like, well, I planned to get killed by the police but I just did not have enough guts to do it. They are cowardly when they do this so they are following the playbook of how they behave.
CHURCH: Right and then President Trump blames the shootings on mental health problems, video games, the media. But critics suggest that it is more about easy access to guns and reining in anti-immigrant rhetoric.
What does this country need to do to stop the gun violence and the hate linked to white supremacy ideology?
MOORE: They need to do all of that, Rosemary, you can't just say that this is a one- solution problem. It's like cancer and there's a million different ways you need to fight it so, yes, we need to ratchet back anti-immigrant rhetoric and, yes, we need to make sure that people who are unstable can't get firearms like this.
We have to find a way to identify dangerous individuals in society but what we have to do mainly is learn from these things, learn --
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MOORE: -- about the people who commit these with the view as we go forward being able to predict and prevent this.
CHURCH: What's frustrating though is, we have to ask after all these mass shootings, why does nothing seem to be done about them?
And why is it that this is tolerated in this country?
It's just hard to comprehend.
MOORE: You know, it's hard for me to comprehend and my limitation is, I was 25 years in the FBI, I'm not a politician. But all I can tell you is that once this happens, people stop listening on both sides.
One side says it's this, it's this, it's this and the other side says, no, I'm not even listening to you on that and we start to attack each other. Look at the rhetoric on both sides of the aisle since this has happened. It is pure attack rhetoric, political attack rhetoric.
So when these things happen, the anger at the incident is channeled into anger at the opposition when both should be channeling into anger at the attack and finding common ground, not dividing themselves like they're doing right now.
Because I can promise you, a solution to this is not going to be unilateral. It has to be bipartisan and until we stop attacking the other side immediately after one of these atrocities, we are not going to get anywhere.
CHURCH: It's just so very frustrating, I think, for everyone, when you consider most people in this country want to see some form of gun control and it is just not happening. Steve, thank you so much for joining us, we appreciate it.
MOORE: Thank you.
CHURCH: We are learning more about those who were killed in the most recent mass shootings: 60-year-old Arturo Benavides was a bus driver. His niece says that he loved to tell stories about his time in the Army as a staff sergeant.
Nicholas Cumer, 25-year-old, was killed in the Dayton attack and he was one week away from finishing an internship at a non-profit for cancer patients and was about to graduate with his masters degree. A professor describes Nicholas as special, humble and sincere with a great sense of humor.
Thomas McNichols, 25-year-old, known as a gentle giant to his family and friends, was also killed in Dayton. His cousin says that he had four young children and was a great father.
One woman came face to face with the shooter and feared that she would not live to see her daughter again. CNN's Gary Tuchman has the story from El Paso.
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GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Maribel Latin is recovering after being shot twice at the El Paso Walmart. She heard what she thought was firecrackers but saw the gun and gunman. She tried to run away. MARIBEL LATIN, WOUNDED IN EL PASO SHOOTING: When I threw myself, I saw him reloading the gun.
TUCHMAN (on camera): And what was the demeanor?
What was he doing?
What did his face look like?
LATIN: Normal.
TUCHMAN: Normal?
LATIN: Normal.
TUCHMAN: Not yelling?
LATIN: With all the time in world.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): She heard the gunshots ringing out. She ran and didn't realize right away she had gotten shot.
(on camera): You have a bullet that hit you here near your elbow and a bullet -- do you mind -- that hit your foot.
LATIN: No.
TUCHMAN: When were you shot?
Before you put yourself down on the ground or after?
LATIN: I have no idea.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): Maribel was at the Walmart with her 10-year-old daughter Maylene and several members of Maylene's soccer team. They were selling lemonade as part of a fundraiser but Maribel's daughter was outside a different part of the store. Maribel didn't know if Maylene was alive and the gunman was still shooting outside as she hid.
LATIN: I saw him walking towards us.
At that point I said what do I do?
TUCHMAN: Maribel says she played dead.
LATIN: And he shot eight more bullets. I counted them because I said one of these is going to be mine.
TUCHMAN (on camera): Were you afraid that your daughter had already been shot?
LATIN: Because I don't know if he was by himself or he have other people.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): Horrifying minutes went by. The shots stopped. Maribel went in the store, out of the store, back in the store and finally found her daughter in the other girls on the soccer team. They were all OK.
(on camera): What was the first thing you did and she did?
LATIN: I ran. I ran towards them and I yelled her name. They were all in a little ball just shaking and holding each other.
She saw me and she saw me like, Mom, I see you. And at that moment, her face changed --
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LATIN: -- and she got scared.
And that's when she realized that I was bleeding.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): Maribel also realized that two of her daughter's soccer coaches that were there were also shot. One of them on the right, Memo Garcia, is in critical condition. Maribel says he step in front of other members of his family.
LATIN: He sacrificed himself for his son, daughter and wife.
TUCHMAN: Maribel hasn't been able to see her daughter in person since the shootings. Because of the measles outbreak, children aren't allowed in the hospital.
(on camera): When you see your daughter in person for the first time since she's not allowed in the hospital to see you, what's going to happen?
LATIN: We're going to cry. I'm going to hug her so hard. And she's not going to tell me, Mom, let me go. She's not. She's going to hug me right back.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): Gary Tuchman, CNN, El Paso, Texas.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: Terrifying moments for that family and so many others.
Later this hour we will have reactions from U.S. officials facing intense public pressure to act.
Well, financial analysts are not sugar coating their concerns about the U.S.-China trade war. One said it is going off the rails and global markets are shaken. On Monday China announced that it will stop buying U.S. agricultural products and allowed its currency to weaken against the dollar.
The Trump administration responded by designating China a currency manipulator. It was the worst day of the year on Wall Street. The Dow plunged to 767 points and Asia's markets extended the selloff Tuesday. Last week president Donald Trump stunned investors by announcing plans to impose a 10 percent tariff on $300 billion worth of imports from China on September 1st.
Sherisse Pham joins us now from Hong Kong with more on all of this.
Good to see you. China allowed the yuan to weaken against the U.S. dollar and the Trump administration accused them of currency manipulation.
What is going on here?
SHERISSE PHAM, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Well, actually this is even worse than an accusation; this is an official designation of China as a currency manipulator.
And what does that really mean at the end of the day?
I spoke to a couple analysts and some very wonky people this morning and really it does not actually do much for China in terms of economic penalties; 10-15 years ago, yes, absolutely.
Experts and analysts say that China was absolutely manipulating its currency. These days that is just not the case. China has been broadly opening its economy, trying to introduce more open monetary policies to let the yuan trade at a rate that is reasonable.
But now, of course, China broke through this very psychologically important barrier on Monday. It led the yuan fall through 7 and that has absolutely rattled investors. Let's take a look at global markets across Asia. Investors are not happy with this at all. All three indices in Japan and in China and Hong Kong were down about 2 percent this morning.
They are a little bit better, paring back those losses, the Nikkei down 0.7 of a percent, Hang Seng down 1 percent, the Shanghai Composite just shy of down 1.5 percent.
But investors, they are not exactly reacting to the U.S. designating China as a currency manipulator because that is a political move. What this reaction is the U.S. has signaled that the tensions between the U.S. and China will not change soon, which means a trade deal to end this ongoing trade war, that is unlikely to come anytime soon -- Rosemary.
CHURCH: Yes, and meantime, global investors are shaken and it will not go away anytime soon. Sherisse Pham, thank you, joining us live from Hong Kong, appreciate it.
A U.S. official says North Korea has fired more short-range ballistic missiles into the waters off its east coast.
What's pushing Pyongyang to ramp up its weapons program this time around?
We will have a live report for you next.
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CHURCH: Welcome back, everyone.
The U.S. is escalating sanctions against Venezuela. President Donald Trump says he is now imposing a total economic embargo against the country. Mr. Trump says it is necessary to block Venezuela and its leader, Nicolas Maduro, over his power grab and for human rights abuses.
The embargo freezes the government assets and prohibits economic transactions except those related to humanitarian aid.
Well North Korea is apparently protesting military drills between the United States and South Korea with more missile tests. A U.S. official says that Pyongyang fired two unidentified projectiles east coast Tuesday. It is the fourth launch in less than two weeks.
North Korea has repeatedly warned that the drills would cause a backlash and Pyongyang says the exercises violate diplomatic agreements and will block progress in denuclearization talks.
Our Ivan Watson joins us live in Hong Kong with more on all of this.
So North Korea launches two missiles but President Trump is downplaying the significance.
So what signal does that send and what is going on here?
IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think it shows how heavily invested personally President Trump is in his face to face diplomacy with the North Korean dictator, Kim Jong-un, that he is willing to downplay and almost turn away.
He has literally said on the record that he is not bothered by these short-range ballistic missile launches that North Korea has conducted, four of them in just the last week.
But if you want to put it very bluntly and simply and show how North Korea is unhappy with something, it fires missiles. It is kind of a basic thing. So look at this timeline after a self imposed moratorium on ballistic missile launches, North Korea broke that in early May with missile launches.
And then it followed that up in the last two weeks with two short- range missiles fired on July 25th, more fired on July 31st and another series of missiles launched on August 2nd and then two more short- range ballistic missiles fired early this morning.
And they were accompanied by a statement that was published on the North Korean state news agency, quoting a foreign ministry spokesperson, saying that North Korea was justifying it because the U.S. is expected to hold joint military drills with South Korea. And also the U.S. is delivering new weaponry to the region such as F-
35a stealth fighters and it says, hey, if the U.S. is going to do things like this with South Korea, then we have every right to continue to test and develop our own defense capabilities.
CHURCH: Ivan, we are --
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CHURCH: -- also hearing from the United Nations that cyber crime finances a lot of the weapons program.
What is the reaction to that?
WATSON: The U.N. does this twice-annual report on sanctions busting by North Korea. And the latest report that CNN has gotten a hold of its summary, says that North Korea carries out these kinds of hit jobs on financial institutions and cryptocurrencies, accusing North Korean state actors of basically stealing up to $2 billion to date, mostly by sophisticated cyber attacks and these illegal transfers of funds.
It also accuses North Korea of continuing to bust sanctions by conducting ship to ship transfers of petroleum in violations of United Nations Security Council resolutions. The interesting thing is President Trump has gone on record, saying things like short-range ballistic missile launches may be in violation of the Security Council resolutions but they are not in violation of the agreement he has face to face with Kim Jong-un. So it does not bother him -- Rosemary.
CHURCH: Thank you for keeping an eye on both portions of that story, Ivan Watson, many thanks to you, bringing us a live report there from Hong Kong.
Well, President Trump isn't mentioning guns after the mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton. And my next guest looks at why the president is sidestepping the issue, even as many Americans say that it is time for tighter gun control laws. We will look at that in a moment.
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CHURCH: Welcome back, everyone, I'm Rosemary Church. I want to update you on the stories we have been following this hour.
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CHURCH: In a speech Monday President Trump blamed hate and racism for the attacks but not guns. However, that hasn't stopped many Americans from demanding tightened gun control laws. CNN's Kaitlan Collins reports from the White House.
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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Our nation must condemn racism, bigotry and white supremacy.
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Tonight, President Trump is condemning white supremacy after two mass shootings in less than 24 hours.
TRUMP: The sinister ideologies must be defeated.
COLLINS: But he is offering few details on what he'll do to stop another from happening. In a solemn address from the White House, the president said says he is directing the FBI to examine ways to identify and address domestic terrorism, but he stopped short of calling for new gun laws, instead, turning his focus to mental health.
TRUMP: Mental illness and hatred pulls the trigger not the gun.
COLLINS: Trump making no mention of his morning tweet, suggesting tying background checks to immigration reform. The president did reference the El Paso shooting suspect's manifesto that warmed of an immigrant invasion and advocated views he said, predated the president.
TRUMP: The shooter in El Paso posted a manifesto, online, consumed by racist hate.
COLLINS: Today, Trump ignored how some of its language echoed his own.
TRUMP: I was badly criticized for using the word, invasion, it's an invasion, but how do you stop these people --
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Shoot them.
TRUMP: -- you can't. There's -- that's only in the Panhandle you can get away with that statement.
COLLINS: Democrats aren't brushing off the similarities.
BETO O'ROURKE (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He's been calling Mexican immigrants, rapists and criminals. I don't know -- like, members of the press, what the [BLEEP] hold on a second. You know, I -- it's these questions that you know the answers to, I mean, connect the dots about what he has been doing in this country.
COLLINS: Instead, Trump says other factors are to blame.
TRUMP: We must stop the glorification of violence in our society. We must recognize that the internet has provided a dangerous avenue to radicalized disturbed minds and perform demented acts.
COLLINS: Today, he repeated a talking point from House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, that video games play a part in increased violence in America.
TRUMP: This includes the gruesome and grisly videogames that are now commonplace.
COLLINS: It's an old claim not substantiated by any research and was even dismissed by Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia in 2011. For the most part, Republicans are staying silent and those who are speaking, are struggling to propose new solutions.
REP. TED YOHO (R-FL): Bad people are going to do bad things if they're hell-bent on doing that.
COLLINS: Democrats are calling on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to reconvene the Senate for a vote on stalled gun legislation, they argue could prevent the next shooting, a step sources say he's unlikely to take. The question now is what happens next? Trump has called for gun restrictions in the past.
TRUMP: I think it's something you have to think about.
COLLINS: But later backed off of them after sitting down with NRA leadership.
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CHURCH: Kaitlan Collins reporting from the White House. So, let's talk more about all of this with Linda Feldmann, she is the Washington Bureau Chief for the Christian Science Monitor, thank you so much for joining us.
LINDA FELDMANN, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR: Sure, my pleasure.
CHURCH: Now, in his nationally televised address about these shootings, Monday morning, President Trump mentioned the word, gun, only once, and instead blamed mental illness, videogames and the media for the shootings.
He didn't offer any solutions, but he did condemn white supremacy without recognizing his own anti-immigrant rhetoric which may have emboldened the El Paso shooter. What was your reaction to all that he said about these two shootings?
FELDMANN: My reaction was that he was doing, frankly, the bare minimum. He needed to talk about white supremacy and about ugly rhetoric, but frankly, I didn't expect him to do anything that could possibly be called introspection, he's not an introspective person.
There was no way he was going to question statements that he had done in the past that might have inspired acts of terrorism, so, frankly, there were no surprises in his statement.
CHURCH: Right. So, how likely is it that Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will return to D.C., help pass that bipartisan background checks legislation that has already gone through the Democratically-led House in February, and why wasn't this done long ago, given the majority of Americans? They want to see that happen.
FELDMANN: So, America is stuck in a big rut on gun control, I mean, after the Sandy Hook massacre, several years ago, during the Obama administration, we thought maybe now, finally, with the massacre of 6- year-olds that this would be a tipping point, but it wasn't.
[02:35:13] The gun lobby, in America, is very dug in, the Republican Party is joined at the hip with the gun lobby and thus, Republican members of Congress and of the Senate, absolutely do not want to do anything. But, I will say, there is, I think, maybe a bit of a chance that we have what we call a Nixon and China moment, where you have a leader who is -- has really staked out a firm position on an issue.
But then, bowing to public opinion might go in the other direction, so for Donald Trump, he has made it very clear that he is in lockstep with people who favor gun rights in this country, but he may decide because measures like universal background checks are very popular. He may decide that this is something he can do and not trigger fears that he will allow, say, massive confiscation of weapons.
CHURCH: Right, because Dayton's police chief says it is fundamentally problematic, his words there, that anyone has access to weapons of war in a civilian environment and unregulated, as this was. People in Dayton are asking the same question, and they like to have their guns.
So, what needs to be done about this to stop talking about it and actually do something, should this country ban assault-style weapons?
FELDMANN: Well, we've had a ban on assault-style weapons, but it expired and there was just no will to --
CHURCH: Why is there no will, though, why? Because most Americans want to see that happen, don't they?
FELDMANN: Right. But you do have this very strong undercurrent of support. We have the second amendment to the constitution that guarantees the right to bear arms, and this right has been upheld in the Supreme Court.
So, you have Americans who feel very strongly about this and those people are largely Republicans and are strong supporters of President Trump and he personally is not a gun person. He doesn't own guns, as far as I know, he doesn't -- you know, he's not -- he's an urban person and largely, in America, in urban America, people typically don't own weapons.
So, Donald Trump, personally, isn't a gun person, but he knows where his votes are coming from, and they're coming from people who support guns and they don't want to give an inch. There's a slippery slope argument that if they give on even something minor then, the whole thing will go and they'll lose their guns.
CHURCH: Right. And in the -- in a very long statement posted on Facebook, former President Barack Obama responded to the mass shooting and, in part, said this, we should soundly reject language coming out of the mouths of any of our leaders that feeds a climate of fear and hatred or normalizes racist sentiments.
Now, that is a clear dig at President Trump even though he didn't actually mention him by name, what's your response to those comments from Barack Obama?
FELDMANN: It was very interesting because President Obama has been under pressure for a long time to speak out and this, really, for him is personal because president -- because Donald Trump, years before he became president, was claiming that Barack Obama was not born in the United States and was not eligible to be president.
And this was seen as a very racist and ugly sentiment, not true. Fast forward to Trump as president, really, before he became president, launching his campaign, talking -- speaking of Mexicans as rapists and drug dealers.
Then, as president, going after members of Congress who are of color, minorities, African-American, Hispanic, Middle Eastern descent, and telling them to go back where they came from, mocking a member of Congress -- an African-American member of Congress who was burglarized over the weekend in his home in Baltimore.
So, Trump has this history of engaging in what many see as racially- charged rhetoric. And here's Barack Obama, the first black president, saying nothing, and he's finally spoken out.
CHURCH: All right. Indeed, he has. And we'll continue to follow all of this reaction. Linda Feldmann, thank you so much for joining us. We do appreciate your time.
FELDMANN: Sure, my pleasure.
CHURCH: Well, U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden is lashing out at President Trump over these mass shootings during an exclusive interview with CNN's Anderson Cooper. Biden said the president's rhetoric against immigrants and minorities has emboldened white supremacists. Biden calls it a dangerous game that's dividing the country.
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ANDERSON COOPER, ANCHOR, CNN NEWS: That may be behind the rhetoric you're saying, an effort basically to stoke white supremacists or white nationalists to, at least, give them a dog whistle.
JOE BIDEN, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, it is -- they do have a dog whistle, they do have a dog whistle. Look, this is a president who has said things no other president has said since Andrew Jackson.
[02:40:19] Nobody said anything like the things he's saying, and the idea that this doesn't contribute to or legitimate or make it more rational for people to think that we, in fact, can now speak out, we can speak out and be more straightforward and we can make this an issue, we've been through this before.
We went through this before in the 20s with the Ku Klux Klan, 50,000 people walking out of Pennsylvania Avenue in pointed hats and their robes because they, in fact, decided they didn't want any Catholics coming into the country. We went through it after the Civil War, in terms of the Ku Klux Klan and white supremacy. This is about separating people into good and bad in his mind. That it's about making -- it's about an access to power. It's a trade used by a charlatans all over the world, divide people, divide them, pit them against one another.
COOPER: If that's the case, I mean, it is a very dangerous game than -- that he is playing.
BIDEN: Oh, no, no. There's no question it's a dangerous game. There's no question that his rhetoric has contributed to at a minimum -- at a minimum, of dumbing down the way in which we, as a society, talk about one another. The way we've always been. Look, we've always brought the country together, we've never -- you know, we, the people, we hold these truths self-evident.
He flies in the face of all the basic things that we've never really met the standard. We've never abandoned it before. He looks like he's just flat abandoned the theory that we are one people.
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CHURCH: Biden also doubled down on his support for a new assault weapons ban in the United States. He suggested that he would try to create a buyback program to get those weapons off the street, if he's elected president. Well, more reaction to the mass shootings just ahead. I'll ask a Hispanic activist and CNN opinion writer, why he says Donald Trump has failed the country. We're back in just a moment.
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[02:44:53] CHURCH: Memorials and vigils have started for the 22 people confirmed dead in Saturday's mass shooting in El Paso, Texas. That's in addition to the nine people killed in a separate shooting in Dayton, Ohio hours later. El Paso sits right across from Mexico, and the tragedy shattered communities in both sides of the border.
Mexico says, at least, eight of the dead were its citizens. The alleged shooter is a white supremacist. It's believed he poses -- posted a racist and anti-immigrant manifesto before the attack.
Joining me now is Raul Reyes. He is an attorney and immigration analyst, and he's also a CNN opinion writer. Thank you so much for being with us.
RAUL REYES, CNN OPINION COLUMNIST: My pleasure.
CHURCH: Now, you wrote about the El Paso shooting. In your opinion column in USA Today with this headline, "Open season' on Hispanics in America. Thanks to racist in chief Trump."
And you also wrote this: "Trump has utterly failed in the president's traditional role of uniting the country. His legacy will be stained by his deadly xenophobia and racism. They are strong words, but is it all the president's fault or are there other factors at play here? REYES: There are certainly other factors in play, but I think, you know, this type of hatred and violence, it doesn't emerge from a vacuum. And what we've seen from this president, literally, from day one of his campaign when he characterized Mexicans as drug dealers and rapists, is this continuing focus on Latinos and Hispanics as a threat to the -- to the country.
He has used words like invasion and infestation. And that type of language, not only is it hate speech, it's the humanizing language, and that makes it very easy and it emboldens people -- this extremist to take -- to take action and to commit these horrendous acts.
And I have to say, this issue for me is, is very personal because my entire family is from El Paso. I was there this weekend for a family reunion. I have been to that mall a million times. So, when I see a community that I love, literally, you know, in the crosshairs of this type of violence.
And our president has played a role in it, it truly hits home for me. It's very disturbing for me, personally. As I think, it is for so many Americans.
CHURCH: Yes, I totally understand that. And in the manifesto, apparently, posted online by the gunman just minutes before the El Paso shooting, he talks about a Hispanic invasion of Texas, echoing President Trump's language that you just referred to.
How likely is it that Mr. Trump will reign in his anti-immigrant rhetoric going forward, fearing, of course, that he may fuel more attacks. Could this perhaps be a turning point?
REYES: You know, I am not a fan of this president. But that's it. I wish this were a turning point. I wish that would happen just for the safety of our country and for the betterment of our society.
But sad to say, I -- it seems highly unlikely at this point. Because the president created his campaign -- his signature issue was immigration, specifically, illegal immigration. And he has really never wavered from the way he has characterized Latinos -- you know, he has -- he has denigrated people who are Latino journalists, Latino judges, people in Congress.
He has repeatedly gone back to this idea of seeing Latino somehow as foreign to this nation. Even though, most American Latinos were born in this country. So, I don't see him changing course.
And to me, one of the reasons that I say that is I watched the speech that he gave today where he did speak -- he -- this was his version of disavowing the violence and distancing himself from it.
But in everything that he said, there were two words that he did not use. He did not use the word Hispanic or the word Latino. And considering who the targets were of this dreadful crime, this mass shooting, that really strikes me as a glaring, really an unforgivable omission. CHURCH: Right, and of course, the problem here is the gun violence, the link to white supremacy, what solution is there to this country's gun violence problem? What needs to be done to fix it do you think?
REYES: I think the solution is very easy, starting with greater background checks for these types of weapons that we have. And I say very easy in the very -- in the most theoretical sense, because given our Congress that cannot pass the most basic safety measures, I think, it's very unlikely to happen in term -- in this Congress, at least, until after the next election.
But right now we have a situation where are the leadership in Washington, D.C., specifically, the Republican leadership is vastly out of touch with what Americans want. Most Americans do want more gun control and gun reform. They do want greater checks on the type of people who can purchase these assault rifle -- rifles and weapons.
We have public support for this in our country. And we've seen it, again and again, like after the Sandy Hook massacre of children, after the Parkland High School shooting, after Pulse Nightclub, and yet, continued inaction by Congress, specifically, by the Republicans. And at this point, it also seems -- again very sad to say, the Republicans in Congress are willing to really back this president and stand up to him, and demand guns greater -- gun safety checks even if maybe they personally want that because the president is still very popular with his base.
And that's a sad state of affairs for this country, and until something drastic changes perhaps in the upcoming election, it seems like we're just going to continue down this path of more and more tragedies, touching all these different American cities, places like movie theaters, churches, shopping malls, even in schools, unfortunately.
[02:50:42] CHURCH: Yes, we shall watch to see if this is indeed a turning point. That is the hope for most people.
REYES: I hope that it is, yes.
CHURCH: Raul Reyes, thank you so much for joining us.
REYES: My pleasure.
CHURCH: And our thoughts and prayers for your community. Thank you so much.
REYES: Thank you.
CHURCH: Well, hate spreading online is, of course, nothing new. And sites like 8chan are making it easy. Is there anything that can be done to stop it? We will take a closer look after this short break. Stay with us.
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CHURCH: Welcome back, everyone. Well, mass shootings like the one in El Paso shine a harsh light on the darker side of the Internet. Just before the El Paso attack, authorities believe the alleged gunman posted a hate-filled anti-immigrant message on the web site, 8chan.
The site is known as a forum for extremist content. And while several Internet companies have pulled their support for 8chan, many other sites operating on the web fueled the same racist and xenophobic content. CNN's Sara Sidner has more.
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SARA SIDNER, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Minutes before the chaos and terror unleashed on family shopping at Walmart in El Paso, the accused gunman may have spelled out why he waged war on innocents. A hate-filled manifesto railing against immigrants, calling it the Hispanic invasion.
The post also praises ideas set forth in another manifesto, written by the person identifying himself as the Christchurch, New Zealand shooter who massacred 51 people as they prayed in two mosques in March.
And months later, police believe another racist suspect posted an open letter, minutes before shooting up a California synagogue. All of them posted in the same place, 8chan, a public web site that is a racist virtual paradise.
KEEGAN HANKES, RESEARCH ANALYST, SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER'S INTELLIGENCE PROJECT: I think 8chan is among one of the more influential sites that plays a role in radicalizing young men when it comes to far-right extremism.
SIDNER: It is just one of many open forms that host hatred. 4chan, Gab, and the neo-Nazi site, Daily Stormer are favorites of white supremacist and neo-Nazis.
JOANNA MENDELSON, ASSISTANT REGIONAL DIRECTOR, ANTI-DEFAMATION LEAGUE: What we have now are attacks that are not only designed to kill, but they are designed to be replicated online. To spread their poison across the Internet and to -- and to inspire others.
SIDNER: These web sites and forums use companies that provide infrastructure for the sites to run smoothly online. Cloudflare, run by chief executive Matthew Prince service the Daily Stormer. Until 2017, when he faced pressure to drop it after the deadly violence in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Last night, Cloudflare dropped 8chan, calling the site lawless and that it caused multiple tragic deaths. And another service provider, Voxility, earlier today, also dropped 8chan.
8chan has not responded to CNN's inquiries. One of the administrators of 8chan has said on Twitter that "We will be moving to another service ASAP, please excuse any downtime.
For their part, law enforcement is grappling with how to keep up with these forums. In July, the FBI put out requests for bids for social media monitoring companies. So, investigators can mitigate multifaceted threats. But if the sites are shut down, it could make it harder for law enforcement to monitor.
[02:55:35] JOSH CAMPBELL, FORMER SPECIAL AGENT, FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION: The FBI can't simply troll through web sites. There has to be a predicated investigation. But even if they could, they would be hampered by the fact that there's so much garbage out there on these sites. Also, rarely do the shooters telegraph in advance the carnage that they're about to cause.
SIDNER: In a congressional hearing on domestic terrorism this year, homeland security officials were asked about how to deal with these sites. Their response? An uncomfortable silence.
REP. MIKE ROGERS (R-AL): Do you have any recommendations for what can be done to address the viral hate speech and incitement of violence found on fringe sites like 8chan and Gab? And that's for any of you.
You all don't have any suggestions for us? That's scary.
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CHURCH: Deafening silence there. And that was CNN's Sara Sidner reporting from El Paso, Texas. On Monday night, CNN's Erin Burnett spoke with the creator of 8chan, Fred Brennan, who resigned from the site in 2016. Says, the moderators are to blame for not better policing what users post. And the consequences could extend beyond the web site itself.
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FREDRICK BRENNAN, CREATOR, 8CHAN: If they continued to operate it as they are operating it, it is going to cause like effects way beyond 8chan on the Internet, on U.S. law even. Because they're so callous and they don't seem to care at all.
You know, even Cloudflare, Matthew Prince, call them lawless. And that's pretty much true. They just seem to not really care about these shootings, they don't even want to do the bare minimum. And you know, a lot of people have criticized me for changing this.
But if 8chan were to go down, there would be a new -- there would be a new equilibrium that would set itself up.
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CHURCH: And shutting 8chan down is exactly what Brennan says should happen.
Thank you so much for joining us this hour. I'm Rosemary Church. Remember to connect with me anytime on Twitter, @rosemaryCNN. And I'll be back with more news in just a moment. You're watching a CNN, do stay with us.
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