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Rep. Edie Hooton (D-CO), Is Interviewed About The Boulder Shooting; Biden Pressured To Act On Guns After Latest Mass Shootings; Biden Praises "Hero" Officer Killed In Colorado Mass Shooting. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired March 23, 2021 - 12:30   ET

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

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[12:32:23]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN HOST: Any moment now we are standing by to hear from President Joe Biden. We will be hearing his first remarks to the nation in the aftermath of another shooting tragedy in America. We are going to bring you the President's remarks as soon as they begin. And while we await the President, let me bring in, joining me now is Colorado State Representative Edie Hooton. She represents much of Boulder in the Colorado legislature. Thank you so much for being here. As we wait, President Biden, I'm curious, well, how you're doing and what you would like to hear from the President, but also what you are hearing from your community?

REP. EDIE HOOTON (D-CO): You know, and thank you, Kate for this opportunity. You know, it's hard to put into words how traumatic the shootings were yesterday to Boulder. We're talking 10 people who all live in the community. The impact on their families, that ripple effect of Boulder is a small community. We're very tight knit. In fact, we actually characterize our spirit, the spirit of our community by our togetherness and our cooperation.

It's just in this moment, in this time I would just ask any viewer who knows anyone in Boulder to reach out to them because when you're mourning, and you feel this deep shock and pain and grief, it just means so much to hear from others. So I know that we are very resilient. The last time we had something tragic like this was our flood in 2013. It absolutely devastated our community. And we came together quite quickly and rebounded from that.

This is a different tragedy. We averaged less than one murder a year. And so now just this year, just this event, are more and more murders than the last nine years. It's a community that has a major university, 33,000 students. It's young, it's vibrant. We take great pride in our actions towards social justice and climate change. And we're very unified as a community.

[12:34:59]

And so when something like this happens, we take it quite personally, but are also quite committed to redoubling our efforts for meaningful gun legislation. And I think perhaps some of the viewers know that Boulder had a ban on assault weapons. And that enforcement of that ban was just recently overturned by a local judge, saying that it, we weren't able to do that because it violated our state constitution. This has to be done at a state level.

Really, the action that we need has to come from Washington. We can't not have just piecemeal laws around the country that change from border to border, so I know this is a challenge in D.C., but it's the time for thoughts and prayers and moments of silence of past because it's not helping the victims or their families.

BOLDUAN: Well, and we, we expect to hear something similar to what you're laying out right here from President Biden when he is soon to be speaking. We're actually standing by right now to hear from President Biden the first time he'll be speaking to the nation in the aftermath of this tragic, tragic shooting in your community. Edie Hooton, thank you for coming in.

Still ahead for us --

HOOTON: Thank you for having me.

BOLDUAN: Still ahead for us, it's all too familiar, another mass shooting, another round of calls for guns -- for gun reform. Coming up next, we've got much more coming up next.

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BOLDUAN: We are standing by to hear from President Biden expected to speak very shortly anytime now really about the shooting massacre in Boulder, Colorado. At the very same time, the investigation is continuing you into the shooting. And we are learning more about the suspect. The senior law enforcement sources telling CNN now that a search of the Boulder shooting suspects home turned up other weapons, the source also describing the weapon used in the shooting as an AR-15 style gun that had been modified with an arm brace.

[12:40:17]

This latest shooting is in the long list of shootings that we can all list out by name now is also increasing pressure not only on the Biden administration, but also on Congress renewing calls for gun reform for gun safety measures from the admin -- from administration officials to lawmakers.

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REP. JASON CROW (D-CO): victims and survivors of these tragedies are always going to have my thoughts. They're always going to have my prayers. But my job is to make laws. They deserve my action.

CEDRIC RICHMOND, WHITE HOUSE SENIOR ADVISER: The regular sentiment of hearts and prayers are not enough. We need action on this in the country. This President has a track record of fighting against the NRA and beating them and we need to make sure that we have sensible gun regulations in this country to ensure safety. REP. VERONICA ESCOBAR (D-TX): The majority of Americans support common sense gun violence prevention legislation, the inaction that's occurred is costing people their lives.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Monday shooting that left 10 people dead in Boulder, and they're that in looking -- but just look at this. They released their names today, but this shooting now joins this -- is the seventh mass shooting in this country in just the past seven days increasing pressure on Biden to act on gun reform.

Joining me now for what this means, what is the political pressure and what does that look like on Capitol Hill now is CNN's Abby Phillip and CNN's Manu Raju. Manu if I could start with you, what does pressure on Congress to move towards gun safety measures? What does that look like right now?

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's not changing the math in the Senate, which is not enough support to advance legislation that would expand background checks, universal background checks that Democrats have been pushing for years and that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer reiterated today that he plans to try to bring to the Senate floor in a matter of weeks.

Now the House has already passed two bills that would expand background checks on both commercial sales and on private sales. And also another bill as well in dealing with the so called Charleston Loophole and dealing with how certain firearm purchasers can evade background checks. We have -- they are holding five federal licenses.

Those proposals, though, do not have the requisite support to advance in the Senate. You need 60 votes to advance legislation and in talking to a range of Republicans. Today, it's very clear that the despite the seventh shooting, mass shooting in the United States in as many days, there just is not the political will among the Republicans to do that. They argue that the bills don't do enough. They say the bills don't address the problem. They say that it would chip away at Second Amendment rights.

That's what Cynthia Lummis, who's a Wyoming Republican told me earlier today. She said this, Kate, she said, every time there's an incident like this, and the people who don't want to protect the Second Amendment, use it as an excuse to further erode Second Amendment rights. I no longer believe the goal of people who want to erode our rights, little by little, is just to affect or tweak our rights. I now believe that their ultimate goal is to abolish our rights.

And that is what a lot of Republicans are saying. Now the question is, will there be enough who could, who may break ranks, cut a deal, there's some discussion by the one of the sponsors of a narrower background checks bill, Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania who teamed up in 2013 with a Democrat, Joe Manchin, on a bill that's narrower than the House passed bills but also would expand background checks on commercial sales. He -- I just talked to Toomey moments ago, he told me that he's going to try to have some discussions to see the reprise that bill, may perhaps, make some modifications to win some more support. But even that would either be incremental, not go far enough in the eyes of many Democrats or it's still a question of whether or not enough Republicans will break ranks. So still a lot of skepticism that anything can get done despite what we're seeing all across the country. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Yes. And Abby is we wait to hear Joe Biden now, from Joe Biden now, what is the, I mean, Manu, lays out the challenge, but what is kind of the pressure and the challenge that he is really facing here? He has a unique perspective in history with trying to strike a deal when it comes to gun reform.

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Right. I mean, Joe Biden is an example of actually, frankly, how far we've come as a country on the issue of guns, that the idea that we could have a so called assault weapons ban in this country, like Joe Biden was able to sort of be a part of that negotiation decades ago, seems really unlikely now.

[12:44:59]

You have lawmakers in Washington now pushing back hard against the idea of universal background checks, background checks for anyone who wants to purchase a weapon in this country, which would seem like a common sense idea that shouldn't prevent anyone who was, you know, a law abiding citizen from acquiring a weapon. But that is where we are right now.

And Joe Biden, I think, is going to suggest that there's still possibility of bipartisanship on this issue. But in some ways, the increasing, you know, horror of these mass shootings seems to actually only have hardened the Republican side against gun safety measures. We've had Sandy Hook, we've had, you know, we've had the shooting at high school in Florida. We've have this incident now, and many, many, many others, and none of them have moved the ball. And that seems to indicate that Republicans are much farther away from compromise on guns now than they have been perhaps in the last 15 or even 20 years.

BOLDUAN: And the conversation also on the Hill, Manu, turns to it seems to now, it's a question, it's a conversation about the filibuster again, right? It is kind of become the answer to every question, what are we going to do about gun rights and the filibuster? What are we going to do about voting rights measures and the filibuster? What are we going to do about something else and the filibuster?

And I know, you know, the math, but describe it to everyone, how would you describe kind of the level of pressure to actually make this move, to change the rules of the Senate, so they don't have a 60 vote requirement anymore.

RAJU: Well, there is a lot of pressure coming from the left and a growing number of Senate Democrats who do want to change the rules of the filibuster a simple majority just 51 senators can overcome any efforts to stall legislation, right now its 60 votes that are needed, which is why -- one reason why gun legislation will not pass in its current form in the United States Senate.

But the Democrats can invoke what is known in here is the nuclear option to essentially change the rules on straight party line vote so they can pass legislation, push it through on just a majority alone, something that has not been done for legislation before they get it bring it down to that level.

Now, there is still opposition, though, in the ranks to do that among Democrats, Joe Manchin, for one, the West Virginia Democrat told me yesterday very clearly, he does not support bringing that threshold down from 60 votes to 50 votes. He believes that that essentially would undermine, blow up this institution that would -- is designed to protect minority rights.

But he's not alone, Angus King of Maine is skeptical about going down that route, Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona as well. So Democrats would need to keep their -- poke the party totally unified to make that history making move to change this filibuster rule so a majority can run roughshod, essentially, over the minority in this institution. That is not going to happen at the moment.

But if gun rights legislate -- gun rights, gun control legislation continues to stall, perhaps that equation changes. But at the moment, that is not the expectation here in the Senate, Kate?

BOLDUAN: You know, it's interesting, Abby, because when it can't -- you see in the Biden administration that they have lessons learned from past negotiations with Congress. Last time they tried to -- they stretched out negotiations over the stimulus bill or when it came to the Affordable Care Act. They learned lessons from that, hence why we saw the parliamentary trick of right -- the move of reconciliation in the -- when it came to the COVID relief bill.

I'm wondering if there are lessons learned as well from Biden's unique history here, when he was tasked by Obama after Sandy Hook -- of the Sandy Hook killings of those sweet children to come up with a deal on gun reforms with Congress. Those conversations stretched out that failed in the Senate. And I'm wondering if they see lessons learned there as well.

PHILLIP: They absolutely do. I mean, the lesson learned from that experience is the same lesson learned from probably most other efforts to reach across the aisle on issues whether it's on, you know, recovery relief or something else. It is not always going to pay off to spend time negotiating with the other side on this.

The problem for Joe Biden, though, is that they have a very, very long list of priorities. Gun safety is just one of many things that many Democrats think are crucial, essential to get done in this year. You know, you're talking about immigration, voting rights. And in terms of priorities, where does this fall? I think it's a real open question. Maybe we will hear from Joe Biden today about how he prioritizes it. But these are tough questions for which there are no easy answers. Are all of these on equal playing fields in terms of the priorities, the reality is, is that it cannot be because as Manu just laid out, it's not just about Republicans also, it's about Democrats, too. You know, Joe Manchin wants the Senate to operate in a certain way. And he feels like Joe Biden is pushing toward unilateral action with just Democrats alone. He might push back in a hard way and take virtually everything else off the table for the Biden administration. That is what they're juggling.

[12:50:14]

Now, they have to figure out what do they put that trump card on the table for? Will it be gun rights? Or will it be one of the other many other things that they think are really essential to get done in this year?

BOLDUAN: Yes, guys, thank you very much. We are all collectively standing by to hear from President Biden. He's expected to speak very shortly. He's going to be speaking about the shooting massacre in Colorado. While we stand by for that, let me bring -- get back to CNN's Kaitlan Collins at the White House. Kaitlan, what are you hearing is going on behind the scenes today there?

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think what's notable about this is how this could potentially shift priorities here, because of course, gun control was something that President Biden talked about on the campaign trail as a candidate. It was a really big platform that he often spoke about. But ever since he took office, the White House has been very clear that, of course, the pandemic and the economic recovery has been their first priority. We've seen that play out with the conversations they've had with lawmakers on the Hill.

But the question now that we've had two mass shootings in just a week is how this shifts those priorities and what President Biden does. And as you were referencing earlier, what lessons he learned from his time as Vice President and even his time in the Senate to change what he is going to do for his legacy as the actual President, because, of course, you know, you heard Abby talking about how in 2012, when President Obama had been Vice President Biden be in charge of really coming up with these gun control measures. That took a few weeks after the Sandy Hook shooting had happened to introduce them and talk about those.

We later heard from Bruce Reed, who is, of course, a very close advisor to President Biden, and now works in the White House say that at the time, then Vice President Biden wished that they had pushed for more and that they had moved faster. And so that is a conversation that you've got to know is something they are thinking about is they are wondering and plotting what they are going to do in response to this and how that response is going to be shaped.

And one more thing I should note, my colleague, Kevin Liptak, reported last week that in the wake of that shooting in Atlanta, there was so much focus in the national conversation on the identity of the victims. And what that meant that you did not hear a lot from President Biden on gun control measures. I don't even know if he referenced it at all publicly last week in those remarks. We know he did privately had conversations.

So the question is whether or not given that there has been a second shooting, this changes the trajectory of that. And that is something that you hear from him when he does speak basically, any minute now. I can hear Marine One. It's on the South Lawn, because after he speaks, he is then going to go to Ohio as was initially planned.

And of course, his comments are coming after the former President Barack Obama issued a statement earlier, calling for tougher gun control measures and calling on those in power to act. So we'll see how those comments and those experiences shape what we're going to hear from President Biden any moment now.

BOLDUAN: Absolutely. Kaitlan, thank you, as always, great reporting.

Well, we're standing by to hear from President Joe Biden. We'll be right back.

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[12:56:06]

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: -- and the motivation of the killer in Boulder, Colorado, and other critical aspects of this mass shooting. I've been briefed this morning by the Attorney General of the United States, the Director of the FBI. I've spoken with the governor, and I'll be speaking with the mayor on the aircraft.

We're working very closely with the state and local law enforcement officials, and they're going to keep me updated as they learn more. You're going to ask me to speculate, understandably, you're going to ask me to speculate on what happened, why it happened. And I'm not going to do that now because we don't have all the information, not until I have all the facts.

But I do know this, as President, I can use all the resources at my disposal to keep the American people safe. As I said, at this moment, a great deal remains unknown. But three things are certain. First, 10 lives have been lost, and more families have been shattered by gun violence in the state of Colorado. And Jill and I are devastated.

And the feeling, I just can't imagine how the families are feeling, the victims whose futures were stolen from them, from their families, from their loved ones who now have to struggle to go on and try to make sense of what's happened.

Less than a week after the horrific murders of eight people and the assault on the AAPI community in Georgia, while the flag was still flying half-staff for the tragedy, another American city has been scarred by gun violence and the resulting trauma.

And the state that I even hate to say it because we're saying it so often, my heart goes out. Our hearts go out for the survivors. The -- who had to flee for their lives and who hid, terrified, unsure if they would ever see their families again, their friends again. The consequences of all this are deeper than I suspect we know. By that, I mean the mental consequences, a feeling of, anyway, it just -- we've been through too many of these.

The second point I want to make is, my deepest thanks to the heroic police and other first responders who acted so quickly to address the situation and keep the members of their community safe. To state the obviously -- the obvious, I commend the exceptional bravery of Officer Eric Talley. I send my deepest condolences to his family, his close, close family and seven children.

You know, when he pinned on that badge yesterday morning, he didn't know what the day would bring. I want everybody to think about this, every time an officer walks out of his or her home and pins that badge on, a family member that they just said goodbye to wonders whether they'll subconsciously will they get that call, the call that his wife got.

He thought he'd be coming home to his family and his seven children. But when the moment to act came, Officer Talley did not hesitate in his duty, making the ultimate sacrifice in his effort to save lives. That's a definition of an American hero.

And thirdly, I want to be very clear, this is the one thing I do know enough to say on it, in terms of what's happened there, while we're still waiting for more information regarding the shooter, his motive, the weapons he used, the guns, the magazines, the weapons, and the modifications that apparently have taken place to those weapons that are involved here, I don't need to wait another minute, let alone an hour, to take commonsense steps that will save the lives in the future and to urge my colleagues in the House and Senate to act.

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