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Ransomware Attack Launched Against World's Largest Meat Producer; Biden Taps Harris to Lead Voting Rights Effort; Pelosi Searches for New Ways to Investigate January 6th; Newly Released Body Cam Video of Railyard Shooting; Children Involved in Shootout with Police. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired June 02, 2021 - 09:00   ET

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

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[09:00:33]

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. Glad you're with us. I'm Poppy Harlow.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Jim Sciutto.

The breaking news this morning, another debilitating cyberattack. The White House responding to this new cyberattack. This one has sweeping implications that could affect millions of Americans. The world's largest meat producer, JBS, hit by a cyberattack. It has prompted shutdowns at processing plants around the world. The company hopes to have the issue resolved today, but the attack sparking fears of a major disruption to global supply and yet one more example of the power, Poppy, of these cyberattacks.

HARLOW: That's exactly right, completely debilitating for companies.

Joining us now is our senior national security correspondent Alex Marquardt and our chief business correspondent Christine Romans.

Good morning, guys.

And, Alex, let me just start with you.

You've got the White House saying JBS was hit with this ransomware attack, likely from a criminal organization based in Russia. Another cyberattack on the U.S. supply chain. Very similar to what we saw with Colonial, which was also ransomware.

What answers do we have this morning?

ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, the similarities are striking. They're almost identical. Criminal groups operating from Russia, according to the U.S., and targeting companies here in the U.S. and demanding ransoms.

We are hearing from JBS, getting a little bit more clarity on what was impacted. They say that it was their operations in America -- North America and Australia, which makes up a huge amount of their business and of meat production around the world. All nine of their meat -- their beef processing facilities here in the U.S. have been shut down. All of their meat processing facilities have been impacted in some way.

Now, last night, we got a statement from JBS with a bit of good news. They say that they expect their operations to get back online today. The vast majority, they said. Here's a statement from them. Our systems are coming back online and we are not sparing any resources to fight this threat. The vast majority of our beef, pork, poultry and prepared food statements -- plants, rather, will be operational.

That is reflected. We have seen in the FaceBook pages of the plants themselves, which have been updating employees. We've checked out a number of those pages. They are telling employees that they do expect to get back up online, operations to be running today.

But as you said, Poppy, the White House came out very quickly accusing a ransomware group operating out of Russia and calling on Russia to -- essentially to deal with this because they have accused Russia in the past of essentially helping harbor these criminal groups. And we have heard from the Russian side, the foreign ministry saying that there has been contact between the State Department and the embassy here in Washington on this issue.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

Listen, nothing like this happens in Russia without the knowledge of the Kremlin. By the way, the Kremlin has used groups like this to pursue its ends with cyberattacks in a lot of instances.

Christine, one reason we see ransomware attacks like this, and they've been going on for years, is that they are good business.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

SCIUTTO: I mean they charge ransom. They hold companies to ransom. And the trouble is companies pay those ransoms. Colonial Pipeline revealed that it paid several million dollars to these hackers. I mean are companies changing their practices here or they're just allowing this to go on?

ROMANS: This is their big fear. And when you talk to CEOs across the spectrum of companies, their biggest concern is their exposure to cyberattacks and how quickly they can try to protect from it but then also resolve it as well. I mean you look at the amount of disruption we saw yesterday, 20 percent of processing capacity here gone in one day. That's hundreds of thousands of animals that didn't get to market that all those people who are not there boning and slicing and working in those factories and that will have a ripple effect, of course, into the American meat supply.

We already saw meat prices up before this cyberattack on JBS and that's because the economy is reopening and there's demand heading into the summer for barbecues again, right? People are spending money on eating out and on cooking more expensive cuts of meat. So this is something that was already seeing higher prices.

If this is really resolved today, as the company says, you'll have a blip on the impact of prices. But if it is something they can't get their hands around soon, it could be inflationary for American consumers.

HARLOW: You know, and beyond the, you know, the supply, which is a real issue that you bring up, Christine, and the increase in prices for a few days, Alex, this is waging a war, a different kind of war, right, on our supply chain.

[09:05:07]

And Jim brings up such a good point that, you know, Colonial paid $4.4 million in ransom. Companies do this. There is insurance to protect against that. So the hackers know they're going to get paid. There has been talk about making insurance like that illegal because it is seen as an incentive for this kind of action.

What do you think, covering these huge hacks all the time now?

MARQUARDT: No, that's absolutely right. I was talking to a top cyber security expert yesterday who was just saying, it's just such a gold rush and that people -- cybercriminals who did other types of crimes online are now moving into this space because it's so lucrative, because they can target some of the most vulnerable, hospitals, school systems. Frankly, you know, a lot of areas and industries that -- they can't afford this. But, you know, there are companies like Colonial that are handing over millions of dollars to these criminals and it just further incentivizes them.

We don't know whether JBS paid a ransom.

HARLOW: Right.

MARQUARDT: We do know that a ransom demand was made. The company has said that they're restoring from their backup servers. That's an indication maybe they were able to do it themselves.

But this is going to continue. Companies and countries have not figured out a way to deal with what is really a thriving criminal industry.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

And, by the way, a sophisticated one because they know the dollar figures that companies are insured to and then target their ransom payments to that, that insurance amount.

HARLOW: That's a good point. Wow.

SCIUTTO: They did it on Colonial.

ROMANS: They're pirates.

SCIUTTO: Yes. ROMANS: They're modern pirates, you know, using computer code instead of, you know, ships and bows and arrows and cannons. And, really, it's -- consumers around the world can feel the impact from it, which is why companies are always so eager to resolve it as quickly and cheaply as they can.

SCIUTTO: And companies and nations haven't figured out how to solve this problem yet. They haven't.

ROMANS: No, not at all.

SCIUTTO: Alex Marquardt, Christine Romans, thanks very much.

Turning now to what President Biden is calling an unprecedented assault on American democracy. The president is calling out the wave of new voting restrictions stemming from the big lie. And he is demanding action. After months of Republican-led state legislatures attempting to restrict voter access across the country, also give partisans the ability to overturn election results or more power, lowering the standard to do so. Biden says the month of June is about fighting back, taking, in his words, action on Capitol Hill.

HARLOW: And he's not just leaving things in the hands of Congress. He is ramping up White House efforts to try to protect voting rights and reinstate them in many cases. He is tapping his vice president, Kamala Harris, to lead that charge.

Let's go to Jeremy Diamond. He is outside the White House with more.

I mean, look, she was basically put in charge of the crisis at the border. And now she's in charge of this, which seems near impossible to get something federally through, not just given the objections of Republicans, but some Democrats, too.

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, this is going to make her initial task from the president, which was to address the root causes of migration at the southern border, it's going to make it look easy in comparison to this intractable fight that Kamala Harris, the vice president, and President Biden now face in terms of getting this voting rights legislation through Congress. Keep in mind, the For the People Act, that is the bill that was passed by Democrats in the House of Representatives. It has stalled against a wall of Republican opposition in the Senate. And there is no sign right now that that dam is going to be breaking. And that is the bill that the White House and House and Senate Democrats are pushing to try and push back on what we are seeing around the country, which is several -- a slew, frankly, of state legislatures, most of them controlled by Republicans that are either pushing through or currently considering new restrictions on voting laws in their states.

Now, look, it's not just Republicans in the Senate. There's also this question of the filibuster that still remains. Keep in mind that filibuster remains. President Biden, so far, has not said that he's willing to do away with that. And even if they were able to do away with the filibuster, then you coming up against Joe Manchin, for example, who has said that he is opposed to that For the People Act, instead would like to see another bill, the John Lewis Civil Rights Act, passed instead.

And so there are these questions. The president, yesterday, expressing some very clear frustration with not only Joe Manchin but also Kyrsten Sinema, the other moderate Senate Democrat who often stands in the way of some of these filibuster reform efforts. He talked about the fact that those two senators, though he didn't name them by name, vote more with Republicans than they do with Democrats. That's not quite true. But, clearly, the president is starting to sense a frustration. And even as Kamala Harris tackles this voting rights effort, President Biden still pushing ahead on infrastructure.

Today, this afternoon, he will be meeting here at the White House with Senator Shelley Moore Capito. She is the Republican senator who's been leading the negotiations. But, again, even there, just a week to go before the White House, White House officials have indicated that it is coming to a point where they're going to have to make a decision about whether they continue to negotiate with Republicans or push ahead on a party line basis.

[09:10:09]

HARLOW: OK, Jeremy, at the White House, thanks very much for that reporting.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi already searching for new ways to try to investigate and really get answers on the January 6th Capitol insurrection. This comes, of course, after Republicans blocked that bipartisan push to have a commission.

SCIUTTO: This is interesting because there are multiple paths here.

CNN's Jessica Dean is on Capitol Hill this morning.

And, Jessica, you have the select committee path, right? You basically form a Democrats committee. I mean the way the Republicans, you know, explored Benghazi repeated times. But there's also this idea that she could call back or -- not she, but that you could make it so that the Senate comes back because you have a Republican like Portman who says, well, if I was there, I would have voted for it. Sinema, Democrats saying the same.

I mean, is it possible you go back to the Senate and try to get to 60?

JESSICA DEAN, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I mean, that's certainly one option that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has laid on the table. Whether or not that can actually happen remains to be seen because, remember, they fell four votes short on Friday. Pat Toomey wasn't here. He said he would have voted for it. So that's three votes they still have to make up. So the question is, where are those three votes? And what we know is that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, just yesterday, emphasized that he does not see a need for a bipartisan commission. That he believes the DOJ can go forward with its criminal prosecution of individuals and that that is enough, that there are enough investigations going on here that he doesn't see that. So without that kind of breaking, it's very difficult to see a path forward to 60. But that was one of the options that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi laid

out to her members in a phone call yesterday. So it's to go back to the Senate again with another vote on a possible bipartisan commission. She also offered up, Jim, as you mentioned, a House select committee that they could put together. Additionally, she also floated the option of letting the committees that are already probing this just continue forward with their investigations, or appointing maybe one committee or zeroing in on one committee, like Homeland Security, to really take the lead on all of this.

And there's going to be ongoing discussions about what the pathway is forward. I had asked House Speaker Pelosi about what would happen if the Senate Republicans voted this down exactly as it went down on Friday, and she continued to say she wanted that bipartisan commission.

Jim and Poppy, they want to make sure that this has Republican involvement because they want the American people's buy-in. And there are Senate Republicans who voted for this who want Republicans in it as well. But what exactly happens remains to be seen.

What we do know is Democrats are not giving this up any time soon.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

DEAN: Jim and Poppy.

SCIUTTO: That's right. And Portman was one of those Republicans who voted for it.

DEAN: Yes.

SCIUTTO: Toomey, as you said, he was out of town and said, but had he been in town, he would have voted for it.

DEAN: Right.

SCIUTTO: Well, we'll know if there's another vote.

HARLOW: Jess, thank you.

SCIUTTO: Jessica, thanks so much.

HARLOW: Still to come, overnight, police body camera footage from the San Jose mass shooting.

Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, (EXPLETIVE DELETED).

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Moments that officers arrived at the scene and when they confronted the shooter. You'll see more, next. SCIUTTO: Plus, President Biden taking not so veiled swipes at Democratic senators as his push to get his agenda passed shifts into new gear but still faces lots of obstacles. We're going to discuss.

And two children, 12-year-old and a 14-year-old, were in a shootout with police, firing at sheriff's deputies with multiple weapons, including an AK-47. A weapon of war. Details on what happened, next.

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SCIUTTO: Well, one more startling view of gun violence in this country. Police in San Jose, California, have released chilling new bodycam footage from the deadly mass shooting at a railyard last week. It is just heart-stopping to watch.

HARLOW: Look at this video. It shows the moments that officers encountered the gunman, who killed nine of his co-workers and then took his own life.

Our Josh Campbell is with us with much more on this new video.

And, Josh, I mean you were there from, you know, hours after this shooting happened and the subsequent days. Now we're seeing this.

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: It's very chilling, this new video from the sheriff's department showing these officers from different agencies arriving, quickly forming what's called a contact team to make entry.

We want to warn our viewers that the video you're about to see is graphic. It might be disturbing. But this is what it's like for police officers arriving at the scene of a mass shooting.

Watch.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We need access through these doors.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And we just heard another fired shot down here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, get your hands up.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right, hey, all right, hands on your head.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Come on out. Turn around.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everybody stand by.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Keep that door (ph).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Back up, back up, back up. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What do you got?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm a (INAUDIBLE). (INAUDIBLE) communication (ph).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. OK. Go back.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you able to open that door for us?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I am.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. Give me your key card.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where's your key card at?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Come behind.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Absolutely you can have it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We'll take it.

OK.

This (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We need his key card.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have a key. I have it. I'm (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. This door. This door.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE).

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CAMPBELL: Now, at this point, officers are making their way into the third floor of this railyard. And, again, at this point they have not heard shots fired that would vector them to the location of the shooter. That is about to change.

And, again, we warn the viewers that this is graphic. The sound you're about to hear is gunfire. This is the shooter taking his own life.

Watch.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, (EXPLETIVE DELETED).

(INAUDIBLE)

[09:20:01]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) third floor. Shots fired, third floor.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Conference room.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. OK. I got somebody down (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, we've got somebody down.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: On three.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And five six (ph) maybe.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let me see your hands!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hold right. Hold right. Hold right.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hold on. Hold on. Hold on.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've got that stairwell.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sheriff's office. Sheriff's office. Sheriff's office.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, he's in here.

(INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hold left. Hold left.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Watch his hands. Watch his hand.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Be careful. Watch his hands.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Watch his hands.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hold that stairwell.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stairwell. Stairwell.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hold that stairwell.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Top side's clear.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, you hold this.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No one's here (ph).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, the gun -- I see the gun in his hand right there.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. Stand by. Stand by.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's just clear it all.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hold this. Hold this.

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CAMPBELL: Now, after those officers determined that that was indeed the shooter who had died by suicide, they worked to render aid to the victim. Sadly, nine people lost their life in the shooting.

But just a chilling moment there. You see what officers face.

And it's obviously been a trying year for law enforcement. We've reported on a number of incidents of abuse of authority. But it's also worth noting, we will continue to do so to report on those acts of heroism as seen on that video. As everyone else is running out of that building, you have this group of brave officers rushing towards gunfire.

Poppy. Jim.

HARLOW: Right. Yes.

SCIUTTO: I mean, Lord, it's more than chilling, it's heart-stopping. I mean that was the shooter there after taking his own life.

Sorry you have to see that, folks. That's happening in the country. Dozens of times so far this year.

Josh Campbell, thanks very much.

New this morning, a procession was held before dawn to honor an L.A. County firefighter who was shot and killed at a fire station. Police say one of the victim's colleagues went into the station Tuesday morning while off duty and opened fire. The captain was also critically injured in that shooting.

HARLOW: And officers later found the suspected gunman dead from what appears to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound. They say his house was on fire when they arrived. They're conducting interviews, trying to figure out everything that led up to this.

Also this incredibly troubling scene in Florida where a sheriff says a 14-year-old girl was shot after she and a 12-year-old boy opened fire and engaged in a shootout with sheriff's deputies. The sheriff says the two foster children had run away from the juvenile home where they were staying and then they broke into another home that had multiple guns in it, including an AK-47.

SCIUTTO: It happened in Deltona. It's about 45 minutes north of Orlando, Florida.

Leyla Santiago joins us live with the latest -- very latest. So these gunmen were gun children, 12 and 14 years old.

LEYLA SANTIAGO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, you're right, it's hard to hear that, Jim. And, you know, the Volusia County sheriff says in his 30-plus years in law enforcement, he has never seen anything like this. It left his deputies with nowhere to hide but the trees. That's a quote.

We are expecting the body cam footage to be released later this afternoon. So we're hoping to learn a little bit more of how this went down and what led up to it then.

But here's what we have learned from the sheriff himself. He says that, as you mentioned, a 12 and 14-year-old ran away from their foster home, ended up breaking into a home with guns. When police approached, they tried several de-escalation tactics, according to the sheriff, but eventually the 14-year-old ended up threatening to kill one of the sergeants.

Shortly after that, the shootout took place. According to the sheriff, the teens were shooting from different angles in the homes. And there were eight deputies involved. None of the deputies were hurt, but we understand, according to the sheriff, the 14-year-old is fighting for her life.

As for the 12-year-old, the sheriff says that the 12-year-old was a severe diabetic, but beyond those issues is expected to be OK.

I've got to tell you, this sheriff, when he spoke, he was so angry, impassioned, even questioned the future of law enforcement.

Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHERIFF MIKE CHITWOOD, VOLUSIA COUNTY, FLORIDA: Deputies did everything they could tonight to de-escalate and they almost lost their lives to a 12-year-old and a 14-year-old. Where have we gone wrong that 12-year-old and 14-year-old think it's OK to take on law enforcement?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANTIAGO: He was very critical of the juvenile justice system. The system these teens fall under.

We did reach out to the foster home where these children were staying. We have not heard back.

But something else he said, a message to lawmakers in Tallahassee.

[09:25:04]

He said, wake up. Come and ride along with them and see what's happening on the street instead of, quote, going out for cocktails.

HARLOW: Wow.

And, Leyla, they even threw a phone inside the house, right, your reporting is, to try to -- to try to have a dialogue with these -- with these children, as Jim says, before this all took place.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

SANTIAGO: Correct. Correct. The sheriff said that his deputies showed more constraint than he did last night he was so angry about it. But that was one of the de-escalation tactics that the sheriff says they used.

HARLOW: Leyla Santiago for us in Florida, thank you very much for that reporting.

Well, President Biden taking on voting rights and in the process seemingly, without directly calling them out, calling out two Democratic senators he sees as road blocks to this.

SCIUTTO: And we're moments away from the opening bell on Wall Street. U.S. stock futures are flat. Stocks look to rally Tuesday but then fizzled by the end of the day. Investors disappointed by the latest manufacturing data. The new numbers showed that the theme of shortages, high demand and pricing pressure will not be fading any time soon. We're monitoring.

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