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Arrest Warrant Issued For Petito's Fiance For Actions After Her Death; 1 Killed, 13 Others Wounded In Mass Shooting At Kroger In Tennessee; Senate GOP Poised To Block Key Vote On Funding Govt., Raising Debt Ceiling; Senate Takes Key Procedural Monday On Govt. Funding, Debt Ceiling; DHS Secretary: Small Number Of Migrants Have Been Allowed To Stay. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired September 24, 2021 - 09:30   ET

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

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[09:31:27]

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: The manhunt ramping up the FBI now issuing a federal arrest warrant for Brian Laundrie. He, of course, is the fiance of 22-year-old Gabby Petito. Authorities say that warrant, though, isn't connected to her death, but it relates to activities after she was killed including the use of unauthorized devices.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: We're also learning new details about the last time Laundrie may have seen his parents before vanishing nearly two weeks ago. CNN Correspondent Amara Walker live from Venice, Florida. And Amara, source telling CNN his parents concerned about Laundrie last time they saw him, why?

AMARA WALKER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's what we're hearing. So a source close to the Laundrie family, as you said, is telling CNN that Brian Laundrie left his North Port, Florida home without a cell phone and without his wallet. And his parents apparently quite concerned that he might hurt himself. Look, we don't know why he left his home without these items.

North Port police not commenting on this. The FBI hasn't yet responding -- responded to our calls as well. But we do know that it was on September 14th that Brian Laundrie's parents reported to police that he had left for the Carlton Reserve here behind me with just a backpack, apparently to go hiking. So here at the Carlton Reserve this morning, the search is underway, again, for the six day for Brian Laundrie.

And as you were mentioning, as all of this has been happening, a federal arrest warrant was issued by the U.S. District Court in Wyoming for alleged activities that Brian Laundrie apparently partook in after the death of Gabby Petito. When you look at the indictment, it says that he is suspected of using a debit card and pin numbers to two bank accounts that did not belong to him and charging these accounts for over $1,000. What's key here is the dates between when these alleged activities happened, between August 30th and September 1st.

You might recall, Brian Laundrie was last spotted, according to witnesses in Wyoming around August 29th. That is according to a woman who posted a series of videos on TikTok saying that Brian Laundrie was hitchhiking with her and her boyfriend and then he shows up on September 1st, you know, abruptly at his North Port, Florida home. So, when you look at this timeline, he was placed in Wyoming around August 29th and then in Florida on September 1st. So, presumably, he must have been traveling during this time, these alleged activities happened.

Jim and Erica?

SCIUTTO: So much more to learn. Amara Walker, thanks very much.

Now to a horrifying scene, sadly a familiar one, this one in Tennessee. One person killed, 13 others shot after a gunman opened fire to Kroger store, is just outside Memphis on Thursday. The shooter later found dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.

HILL: Overnight the victim who was killed in that shooting was identified as Olivia King. Her family says they are, quote, devastated by this senseless act of violence.

CNN National Correspondent Ryan Young joining us now from Collierville, Tennessee. So Ryan, what more do we know this morning?

RYAN YOUNG, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, just seen as you can imagine, some people are still so very much in shock about what happened here. But there is some activity here at the scene that we want to show you behind us. I will use our mass cam to show you the FBI evidence collection team is also now arrived on site. They've maintained this perimeter throughout the evening as they continue to go through that scene a bit by bit.

[09:35:01]

Talking to the police chief this morning, he was telling me that his officers were responding almost as this shooting happened. Someone who actually wave someone down as the first 911 calls happened. They ran on the inside. They've been practicing for active shooters for quite some time. And they started trying to engage with that shooter.

Now on top of that, there is video of this man apparently standing on top of the building. So many people have questions about exactly what happened. On top of all these, we've learned that people on the inside were doing all they could, not only to help each other, but also faking like they had been shot to avoid being shot by the shooter.

We asked Kroger today was a person who did the shooting and employee, they said no. We asked if they were the contractor, they would not elaborate on that just right now. But again, listen to someone who was inside this store during this harrowing moments.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) CHIEF DALE LANE, COLLIERVILLE, TENNESSEE POLICE: Our officer saw the best in humanity where people were helping each other. And the fact that they knew what to do, save many lives. This could have been so much worse, John (ph), but people did what we've been talking about for the last 20 years and that's, you know, run, hide, fight. And they -- we were pulling people out of freezers, we were pulling people out of closets. They were hiding, helping each other hide. And so I'm thankful for that.

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YOUNG: Jim, and actually, Erica, that was me talking to the chief just about an hour ago, and he was telling us how he was -- after they watched the video and seeing how everyone just responded, they were so happy to see so many people from this community helping each other. Now Olivia King is the woman who was shot and killed here. As you can imagine her family is so upset.

There are people in this community who know this Kroger very well. There's obviously as a strip mall, and people come here all the time. This shooting happened just after lunchtime. Let's not forget there'll be a news conference in about an hour, so we're hoping to get some more information. Maybe learn about the shooter.

I will leave you with this one point. The chief says they are actively looking to make sure that no one else helped this shooter or knew about the shooting before it happened. That's something that they're doubling down on as we speak.

HILL: All right, Ryan Young, we know you continue to keep us updated. Ryan, thank you.

Up next, Democrats calling a vote for Monday on a bill to keep the government funded and raise the debt ceiling. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, though, and many other Republicans expected to be a firm no on that. Just ahead, I'll speak with McConnell's former Deputy Chief of Staff about the strategy behind that.

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[09:42:06]

HILL: Senate Republicans are planning to block a key vote to advance a government funding bill put forth by Democrats on Monday. That measure includes a provision that would also suspend the debt-ceiling which is fueling GOP opposition. And the vote, of course, coming just days before the government could run out of money. The U.S. facing the possibility of defaulting on the national debt for the first time ever.

Joining me now Rohit Kumar who previously served as Deputy Chief of Staff for Senator Mitch McConnell. He's now a tax policy expert at accounting firm PwC. So you worked with Senator McConnell during the debt-ceiling crisis in 2011. At the time when he was talking about the negotiations, he called the debt-ceiling, quote, a hostage that's worth ransoming. It's been made very clear that Senator McConnell has no intention of budging here. You know, we also learned this week of former Treasury Secretaries Mnuchin and Paulson even reaching out, expressing their concerns about what could happen. But the message from Mitch McConnell is he's not budging. Is there any reason to think that that would change?

ROHIT KUMAR, FORMER DEPUTY CHIEF OF STAFF FOR SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL: Now, I don't think it's going to change. And, you know, he's been saying rather publicly since July, right, that you should not expect Senate Republicans to participate in raising the debt limit, not in the wake of the $2 trillion COVID bill that was passed in March that Senate Republicans, House Republicans thought substantially overshot the mark. And I think they feel vindicated in that view, and then doubling on especially with a $3.5 trillion spending bill, you know, simultaneously being processed by the House and the Senate.

HILL: So when it comes to the debt-ceiling, right, or the debt limit, as we've been talking about, you're just reminding folks at home, this is essentially saying you're going to pay the bill for what you've already purchased, right? It's basically paying your credit card bill for what's already out there. Look, he's done that before, is this a purely political move on the part of Mitch McConnell?

KUMAR: You know, it's not really. There's sort of -- I think there are two conversations happening. Unfortunately, it's not the same conversation. What you see from Secretary Yellen and Secretary Paulson, Mnuchin and others and Senator Schumer is, this is really important, we need to do it.

And I don't think -- and you should not interpret, nobody should interpret Leader McConnell statements of saying no, this is not important, we don't need to do it. What he is talking about is the way in which it will be done. So you have a substance conversation, and you have a process conversation. No one is disputing the substance, unlike, say, the March COVID bill or the $3.5 trillion spending bill where Republicans said that's a bad idea, we shouldn't do it. They're not saying that you shouldn't raise the debt limit.

What they are saying is, Democrats have the House, the Senate and the White House, they have a mechanism and ability to do it on their own. And if they're going to spend $2 trillion in March, another $3.5 trillion later this year, that as a part of going alone on that, they should also go it alone on raising the debt limit.

And moreover, you know, and Senator McConnell is a -- if nothing, if not a student of history, if you look back over time in the instances where one party has controlled the House, the Senate and the White House, in all but one circumstance -- then that one exception was in 2017 which we can talk about -- in all but that circumstance, the party that had the House, Senate and White House was the party that carried the debt limit across the finish line with their own vote.

[09:45:14]

So this approach that he is taking now is substantially in keeping with historic norms.

HILL: So, I do want to drill down on 2017, because we talked a lot about what happened in the past, what he did or didn't do, what he said at the time. But in 2017, you were part of those negotiations, when -- sorry, part of the negotiations closer in 2011. In 2017, you wrote this piece in The Wall Street Journal, I'm going to pull part of it, you co-wrote it with Jason Furman, of course, a democratic economist who served under President Obama.

And you made the case that when we talk about the debt limit, really, the issue at this point is it needs to go away all together. Does that need to be a true focus of the conversation? And what would that change?

KUMAR: So I do think that that needs to be the focus of a conversation, but it's too late to have that conversation in the context of this exercise. That is a broader, longer term conversation.

HILL: It is a broader, longer term one, but does it need to be pushed to the forefront now? Because, look, we keep going through this. I mean, this is an exercise in frustration for a lot of people because it feels like a hamster wheel.

KUMAR: It definitely feels like a hamster wheel. And I very much would like for us to get off of it. The problem is, you could try to have that conversation right now, but I don't -- just my knowledge of politics and working in government, you couldn't have that conversation quickly enough to avoid the --

HILL: Sure.

KUMAR: -- default (ph) that might happen at the end of October.

HILL: That's for sure. Do you think that there's any appetite, though, for that conversation moving forward, not this week, as you point out?

KUMAR: Yes, I don't know. Honestly, at the moment, I doesn't feel that way. It feels very much like we are still and this is not true just on the deadline, but this is true more broadly. We are very much in our respective partisan corners. And this is something that it's going to happen, requires real bipartisanship.

HILL: Real bipartisanship, something a lot of people are searching for and not fighting these days. Rohit Kumar, appreciate you joining us this morning. Thank you.

KUMAR: Thank you.

SCIUTTO: Well this just in to CNN, an update on how many migrants are still left under that bridge in Del Rio, Texas as the Biden administration rapidly deporting many of them. We're going to be live on both sides of the border there, that's next.

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[09:51:44] SCIUTTO: Right now the Department of Homeland Security is rapidly reducing the number of migrants camped under a bridge at the Texas border waiting for processing there. DHS officials returned some 550 migrants to Haiti. Just yesterday, many thousands more prior. This is tractors and dump trucks clean out portions of that camp in Del Rio, Texas.

HILL: CNN Correspondent Josh Campbell is in Del Rio, CNN International Correspondent Matt Rivers is in Ciudad Acuna, Mexico. So Josh, to start with you, the mayor of Del Rio just said over 2,000 migrants now remaining at that encampment, that is a significant --

SCIUTTO: Yes.

HILL: -- reduction because at one point we were talking about some 14 -- 13,000, 14,000 people. What are you seeing this morning?

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That is right, that the reporting from our colleague Rosa Flores talking to the Laredo mayor, just over 2,000 as you mentioned, you know, that number had swelled over 14,000 now down to just 2,000. It shows you how rapidly officials are working to try to reduce the number of people here under the Del Rio International Bridge which, of course, remains closed at this hour.

Now authorities have picked up on these repatriation flights, there -- where were five alone yesterday to Puerto Prince, to other parts of Haiti. 548 people there on board those flights that brings a total of 17 flights so far since Sunday. Now there's been this question about who is allowed to stay and who must go. Of course, the Homeland Security Department said initially that people here would be rapidly expelled, but CNN is reporting that some were actually allowed to stay.

The Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas spoke with CNN yesterday, he described that it's actually a very small number that are permitted to stay. Take a listen to what he said.

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ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: It's a minority of the individuals for the reasons that I have articulated, and they are placed in immigration enforcement proceedings.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: This --

MAYORKAS: Where they are able --

BLITZER: Yes.

MAYORKAS: -- where they appear before a judge. And if, in fact, they make a valid claim to remain in the United States, then of course, we honour that and if not, they are removed as well.

(END VIDEO CLIP) CAMPBELL: Finally, I want to take you live right now over that bridge, CNN Air can give you that shot that shows you this clean-up effort that's been underway since yesterday. Yesterday, we saw construction equipment brought in to try to raise some of the makeshift tents that were down there as they tried to clean up that area. We also see there from our shot two buses. This is part of a pattern that we've seen, wave after wave of buses being brought in, loading up migrants taking them out to processing centers, again, as authorities tried to reduce the number of people who have been camped out here for many, many days.

SCIUTTO: We have very different scene from just a few days ago.

Matt Rivers, he's on the other side of the border from you. And I wonder what you're seeing there? I mean, do you still see a flow of folks attempting to come across?

MATT RIVERS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: So at this point, Jim, things are really changing kind of by the hour here in Mexico. It was this time yesterday that we saw people going back and forth between the U.S. and Mexico. As we had seen for a few days, people staying in that USC camp and coming here to Mexico mainly to just get supplies, food, water, easier to get here, less chaotic. You can use the bathroom, charge your cell phone and then many people going back.

It was yesterday afternoon that for a few hours, Mexican immigration officials seemingly wanted to stop that flow. So we saw a line of police officers come exactly where we were. They stopped dozens of migrants who were trying to cross back into the U.S. It caused a bit of a panic for many people on this side.

[09:55:03]

We spoke to one man who said that his kid and his wife were still on the U.S. side. He had only come here for a few hours to charge his cell phone expecting to come back. But this morning, we come back here and now those immigration officials are gone. And now seemingly, you can cross back and forth between both sides if you so choose.

We've asked the immigration officials here in Mexico why that is, they haven't responded to us. Clearly, some very sporadic enforcement here. What we do know officially, roughly 600 migrants, Haitian migrants remain on the Mexico side in this encampment behind me, at this point.

We also know that DHS in the United States says that several thousand migrants who were in that U.S. camp have come back here to Mexico. The Mexican government says that they're either going through asylum claims, they're going to send them back to southern Mexico to go through those asylum claims, or -- and you can see here, people -- at least, this man is going to cross back into the U.S. behind me. That scenes we've been seeing for several days now.

But migrants either being processed in Mexico for those asylum claims further south, or they're being sent to other cities along here along the border. A very fluid situation, Jim, and I think it's safe to say that this situation here not over yet. SCIUTTO: Yes.

HILL: Yes. Wow. Matt Rivers, Josh Campbell, appreciate it. Thank you both.

SCIUTTO: Any moment now, President Biden will speak about the pandemic response, just as the CDC Director gave the green light for booster shots for some vulnerable Americans. More next.

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SCIUTTO: President Biden speaking live now about the pandemic response specifically booster shots. Let's listen in.

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I laid out a six-part plan for the fall that does just that. One, vaccinate the unvaccinated, including with new requirements. Two, keep vaccinated -- keep the vaccinated protected. Three, keep children safe and schools open. Four, increase testing and masking. Five, protect the economic -- our economic recovery. And six, improve the care for people with COVID-19. Now, we've made important progress on each front.

And this week, as planned, we took a key step in protecting the vaccinated with booster shots, which our top government doctors believe provides the highest level of protection available to date.

The Food and Drug Administration, the FDA, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the CDC, they've completed their independent scientific review. And based on that review, the majority of Americans who were fully vaccinated with the Pfizer vaccine are now able to receive the booster shot six months after they've received their second shot. Six months after you receive the second shot, you're eligible.

Those eligible include, in addition to meeting the requirement of six months after the second shot, those people that are 65 years or older. Adults 18 and over with certain underlying health conditions like diabetes and obesity. And those who are at increased risk of COVID-19 because of where they work or where they live, like healthcare workers, teachers, grocery store workers.