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More Than 80 Feared Dead After Tornadoes Rip Through Eight States; Tornado Demolishes Illinois Amazon Warehouse Killing At Least Six; Interview With Rep. Ruben Gallego (R-AZ). Aired 3-4p ET

Aired December 12, 2021 - 15:00   ET

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

[15:00:39]

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN HOST: Hello again, everyone. Thank you so much for joining me. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

All right, we start with a frantic effort to find survivors after a swarm of powerful tornadoes ripped through eight states, entire towns levelled in the blink of an eye as the storm swept through Friday night.

Officials say one single tornado actually carved a path of destruction more than 200 miles long and they fear more than 80 people may have been killed. Search and rescue teams are working around the clock for survivors who may be trapped under mountains of debris.

The heads of Homeland Security and F.E.M.A. are in the region today bringing with them much needed Federal resources. Mayfield, Kentucky is seeing some of the worst of the damage. Few buildings left standing in the town of roughly 10,000 rescuers sifting through a collapsed candle factory there where more than 100 people were working and so far, only about 40 people have been rescued from the wreckage.

And new video shows what is left of an Amazon warehouse in Edwardsville, Illinois. At least six people died when the building collapsed during a violent tornado there. Many more fear dead in Dawson Springs, Kentucky a town of just 2,700 people. F.E.M.A.'s Administrator calling the scale of destruction unprecedented.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DEANNE CRISWELL, F.E.M.A. ADMINISTRATOR: You know I think it's incredibly unusual. We do see tornadoes in December. That part is not unusual. But at this magnitude, I don't think we've ever seen one this late in the year, but it's also historic, even the severity and the amount of time this tornado or these tornadoes spent on the ground is unprecedented.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: CNN's Pamela Brown anchoring our coverage on the ground there in Mayfield, Kentucky. And I mean, Pamela, the pictures are extraordinary, and you are from Kentucky. And I'm wondering, you know, people that you know, were they impacted by this storm? PAMELA BROWN, CNN CORRESPONDENT AND ANCHOR: No one that I know

personally. I grew up a few hours away from here in Lexington, but of course, you're a Kentuckian, you know, you feel this sort of kinship with others and I have been going around and talking with folks here, and it has been really incredible to see the way that Kentuckians have come from all over the state to help out.

I was just at that courthouse. We have seen so many images of the courthouse here in the Town Square that was so severely damaged and clerks from across Kentucky have come here to help salvage some of those historic documents that are hundreds of years old and important documents, voter registration, wedding certificates, that kind of thing.

And so you're really seeing people come together as they also try to process the devastation here. As one man said I spoke to, he said, look, you just have to take it a day at a time as he was shaking his head looking and surveying the damage in his town that has been decimated.

We do have a team of reporters covering the devastation across this region. I want to go first to CNN's Brynn Gingras. She is also here in Mayfield.

So, Brynn, I know you've also been talking to people. What are you hearing?

BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Pam, like you said, there are a lot of people coming out helping each other. There is a big community here, but so many of them are as you said, in disbelief.

Their landscape, their neighborhoods are completely different than they were just a few days ago. You can see this group of family here behind me, they are serving their home, taking out some of their possessions that are important to them, whatever they have left, and this is what we are seeing repeated all across Mayfield.

I do want to tell you while there is so much loss in Mayfield, there are so many people that are just so happy to be alive. One story I have to tell you about. This is a piece of plywood that one man held, he said until his fingers were numb. He held this shut in the back of his house, while his six-year-old daughter and his girlfriend were inside a crawl space. And he said he felt the strength of 10 men pulling from the opposite side as that tornado ripped through past their house.

I want you to hear how they kept their six-year-old daughter calm through that storm.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SAMANTHA BURNS, SURVIVED TORNADO IN BASEMENT: I just told her to close her eyes and she started counting. So she's like -- and was like hide and seek mom. So we just counted until we didn't feel any more pressure, any more wind and so -- then we stayed down there until we heard other people letting us know, you know whether there is supposed to be two more, I think so, I wasn't coming out of here until we know for sure it was okay.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[15:05:26]

GINGRAS: And when they did come out their house, about a foot off its foundation, again they feel they are the lucky ones. And I've got to tell you, after he held this shut for his family, he ran down the street and saved his aunt who was crushed by her fireplace and he talked about the adrenaline he had just --

BROWN: And we just lost Brynn Gingras there. As you can expect, it is technically very difficult out here in the mayhem, in the wake of this tornado that swept through Mayfield, Kentucky.

CNN's Polo Sandoval is in Edwardsville, Illinois, that is the sign of that Amazon warehouse collapse.

Polo, what are you seeing there?

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's a full on cleanup process right now that is happening, Pam. These crews are doing so confident right now that everybody has been accounted for. In fact, local police releasing a statement earlier today saying that they no longer have any sort of missing persons reports that are pending when it comes to the Amazon warehouse that you see behind me.

This is -- was actually at least is a shipping center that was used, obviously to ship products throughout the region here. Now, what we do know again is authorities right now are, in fact, you could see it from there -- from here, you could see how the tornado basically just cut a large gap in that warehouse.

Now, we should mention the crews have been working to clear it. In fact, from here, you can actually see them clearing out some of the portions of the building that have been compromised. They do hope to eventually go in there and see if that buildings can still be used.

But in the meantime, authorities did release the identities of those six people who sadly did not survive when that EF 3 tornado touched down on Friday night. Their ages ranging from 26 to 62 years old.

I had an opportunity to speak to the family of Clayton Cope, a 29- year-old maintenance worker with Amazon here that sadly did not make it out alive. She is certainly emotional as she described a remarkable and kind individual that her son was.

In the meantime, we also know that Amazon representative had been out here working with crews and also answering some of those questions that we had yesterday about what kind of protocols and procedures were in place in the event of severe weather to try to keep their employees safe.

This is the way one spokesperson described what went down on Friday night when that tornado touched down.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KELLY NANTEL, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL MEDIA RELATIONS FOR AMAZON: The tornado warning siren actually went off and we had about 11 minutes from that time to the time that the tornado hit the ground in order to get our employees and our partners into a safe place.

So our managers were on the loudspeakers telling people to get to the shelter in place area. They were also being guided by other managers and other employees who were trying to get everybody to that safe location.

We had people in two different sheltering areas.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANDOVAL: Separately, another Amazon spokesperson telling me that they are still actively working with the community to make sure that they have the resource that they have, and most importantly, to work with the family members that have been affected, especially, Pamela for the families of those six workers who died on Friday night.

BROWN: All right, thanks so much, Polo Sandoval live for us in Illinois.

CNN's Ed Lavandera is in Dawson Springs, Kentucky, a town -- another town decimated by the storms.

Ed, you're not so far away from me. Describe what you're seeing there.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, here in Dawson Springs, the Emergency Management Director for this county tells us that about two- thirds of this city has been decimated by the tornado, and it is a search and rescue operation day and also a day for volunteers to help out.

Back over here, you see a group of volunteers trying to help a young mother who has lost medication for one of her special needs children. They are going through the rubble. They are trying to find a small box with that medicine in there, but the scope and the devastation of the damage here is really just breathtaking.

We are told that the storm damage goes from the Western county line all the way to the Eastern county line. It is extensive.

And if you look in the distance, we have a camera shot, you can see the intensity of the damage here. Cars stacked on top of each other in this neighborhood. It is really, Pamela, just breathtaking to take all of this in, and still several days after the storm hit people here, still kind of coming to terms with what has happened.

And if you look at the damage here at this home that you see right here, this is one of the spots that people here in this neighborhood are really touched by. There were two elderly sisters who lived in this home together. We are told by several neighbors here that those two women are some of the 10 people that were killed here in this county by the storm damage, so a great deal of sadness as people are mourning the loss of these beloved neighbors.

And that is what people here, Pamela, are dealing with, so much and so intensely today as search and rescue operations continue -- Pamela.

[15:10:16]

BROWN: They sure do. Here in Mayfield, I know that they are still there at the candle factory, doing their hard work. Many of them have been up for days. They worked a full shift before the tornado and they have not stopped ever since.

Ed Lavandera, Polo Sandoval, Brynn Gingras, thank you so much.

And Fredricka, as I said, I have been going around this little town and talking to people and it is amazing to see how many volunteers there are handing out water. I spoke to one family who said they actually went to church this morning in the sanctuary that somehow was unscathed by the tornado. That's right here in Town Square.

And as you can imagine that sort of fellowship, getting together with your fellow community members in the wake of this just so important -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: It really is. I mean, the generosity clearly is unstoppable, and that began with that night when the tornado hit. You know, some of the first people to jump in to action trying to move the debris to say people in that candle factory were just ordinary citizens who came out to help. Extraordinary.

All right, thank you so much, Pamela. We'll check back with you.

All right. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and F.E.M.A. Administrator Deanne Criswell are meeting with Kentucky's Governor today and getting a briefing from the disaster zone. They are expected to hold a press conference in the next hour from Mayfield, Kentucky and of course we'll try to bring that live as it happens.

In the meantime, Governor Andy Beshear spoke with CNN's Jake Tapper this morning about how this tragedy is impacting his state, and here is what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. ANDY BESHEAR (D-KY): This is the deadliest tornado event we have ever had. I think it's going to be the longest and deadliest tornado event in US history. We know that one of these tornadoes was on the ground over 227 miles and Jake, 200 were in Kentucky.

I've got towns that are gone, that are just -- I mean gone. My dad's hometown, half of it in standing. It is hard to describe.

I know people can see the visuals, but that goes on for 12 blocks or more in some of these places and it is going to take us time. I mean, you think you'd go door to door to check on people and see if they're okay. There are no -- there are no doors. The question is, is somebody in the rubble of thousands upon thousands of structures? I mean, it is devastating. It's just the massive widespread damage

makes rescue efforts a challenge. And if we haven't found somebody by now, it is a really great concern.

You know, the area that was hit the hardest Mayfield, I was there yesterday, we will be back today, certainly a candle factory there that it'll be a miracle if we pull anybody else out of that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Kentucky Governor Beshear, and we know that many of you want to do something to help the victims of this tragedy. The CNN Impact Your World site has verified ways to do just that and will be updated as more information on resources becomes available.

You can go there right now and visit cnn.com/impact to learn more about how you can help.

All right, still ahead, a small U.S. Congressional delegation is right now in the capital of Ukraine as tensions rise at its border with Russia, our exclusive interview with a Congressman who was part of that delegation, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

00:02:45]

WHITFIELD: All right, CNN can exclusively report that right now, there is a small U.S. congressional delegation in the Capital of Ukraine, Kiev. They are there to assess the situation as Russian troops have built up a massive presence along the Ukrainian border.

Congressman Ruben Gallego is part of that delegation, and he is joining us right now. Congressman, so good to see you. Can you tell us you know whether Russia has reportedly amassed more troops along the Ukrainian border?

REP. RUBEN GALLEGO (D-AZ): Look from every indication I've gotten both on confidential sources, non-confidential sources and just those public information, there is a serious threat to Ukraine, and we have to accept that that is occurring and we have to, you know, be prepared to act on that.

WHITFIELD: And how did this trip of this U.S. delegation come about? And what is your goal? What are you hoping to accomplish?

GALLEGO: Look, I'm the Chairman of Intelligence Special Operations Subcommittee, and under that jurisdiction, I have a couple of areas that I'm responsible for, particularly Intelligence gathering for the military Intelligence side, as well as like our uses of Special Forces

And so, I had planned this about a couple of weeks ago, recognizing there was this kind of buildup happening so we can get an in depth understanding what's happening in Ukraine, both from the United States' side, but also from the Ukraine, you know, government side. And so, it ended up being even more special timing concerning the

environment that we're dealing with right now and what I'm learning is a lot of is classified, but the most important thing we have to understand is that this is a real issue.

Russia is trying to influence and/or invade Ukraine at some point, and that we, as you know, liberal democracies have to stand together to make sure that we resist this.

WHITFIELD: So, the warnings from the international community are only growing louder. President Biden and Putin had their video conference this past week, but does anyone believe that Putin is going to acquiesce to any U.S. requests or even warnings?

GALLEGO: Look, you don't know. You can never predict what Putin is going to do because Putin is not really a rational actor in the sense that he is trying to take into account what's important to his country.

What largely matters for him is what is important to his ego and secondary to his country, and at the same time, you know Russia is a slowly failing state and a lot of what they kind of figure is their national -- sorry, their international status that is dependent by where they are in terms of their, you know, competition, vis-a-vis how they look at the world and how the world looks at them in terms of their competition with the United States.

[15:20:16]

GALLEGO: So it is a very difficult situation for us to calculate what it is going to do, but in my opinion, it's always important for you to believe when someone is telling you that they are, and if they are showing you that they want to invade Ukraine, that they are going to intend to do it, then we might as well plan for it and we should make sure that we're helping out Ukraine in terms of the capability for them to resist this invasion.

WHITFIELD: So your instinct tells you more that he -- Putin -- is more likely to try to invade Ukraine, as opposed to this being a moment of just simply flexing his muscle and then possibly retreating.

GALLEGO: I think at some point, you know, given enough room that Putin is willing to do something, whether it's going to be one month, two months, or five months from now, or one year from now, but whatever we do now has repercussions.

Russians don't understand weakness, they only understand real, real politic power moves, and so we have to make sure we stand strong against them with our allies, and with the people of Ukraine, because anything less than that gives an invitation to Russia to invade Ukraine without any consequences.

WHITFIELD: And a moment ago, you said, you know, most of the information as it pertains to your trip is classified. Is there anything that you are able to share that you have gained from this trip or that you hope to gain? GALLEGO: Look, a lot of what I can tell you is already in the public

domain. There is more than a hundred thousand Russian troops that are amassing on the Ukraine border. We know that they have been very aggressive when it comes to the Donbass border. They have acted in a very illegal manner in the past, so we shouldn't be surprised that they will try to act in an illegal manner in the future.

The best we can do is that we have a unified voice with our partners and with the people of Ukraine to say that we will resist any attempts from Russia to take more sovereign land of Ukraine.

WHITFIELD: And you said, you are leaning toward reading Putin's actions as it is most likely it is inevitable that he is going to invade Ukraine. So, what is the U.S. poised to do? What are the options on the table for the U.S. if that happens?

GALLEGO: Well, number one, we -- yes, so number one, we need to go to extreme sanctions against Russia. Look, in 2014, they shot down a civilian airliner killing more than 200 U.S. civilians and there was hardly any repercussions to that. And that was a big lesson to Russia, they could push the envelope. We cannot let that happen again. There needs to be extreme sanctions on Russia, the oligarchs, every industry, if possible, shutting them off from the U.S. dollars --

WHITFIELD: What are extreme sanctions? Define extreme sanctions?

GALLEGO: As I was saying, shut them from the U.S. dollar, so they can't trade anymore, they can trade on the U.S. dollar. In order for them to invest or sell, they have to go through a secondary market, and if that market ends up being the, you know, the euro, then we also have to put pressure on that. So that's number one.

Number two, we have to make sure that we are willing to back Ukraine in any possible way, especially when it comes to resistance. We have to give them the capability for them to resist Ukraine -- sorry, a Russian invasion, both prior to the invasion, but even post invasion, making sure that we're bringing in weaponry that will actually, you know, put a toll on the Russian troop movements.

And, you know, unfortunately, that means you have to kill some Russians and that is the only thing they understand. They only understand pure power. And we have to give the Ukrainian Army and Special Force the ability to do that.

WHITFIELD: Do you feel you have full cooperation with allied nations?

GALLEGO: Look, from what I understand from my conversations with the administration, we do have, at least at this point, some cooperation when it comes to -- on the economic sanctions. I think there is just going to have to be a lot more work when it comes to the other areas when it comes to potentially military capabilities to be able to help the Ukrainians to resist, you know, the influx and the invasion of Russia to Ukraine.

Look, we need to accept that this may happen. This may be the largest land invasion in the European Theater since World War II. And I think there's a lot of people, both in the United States government, as well as the European Theater that aren't saying that this may happen.

But from what we've seen in the past with Putin, whether he is acting in Georgia, whether he gas acted here, and other states around the world, including Syria, this man does not conform to norms. So we need to accept that this may happen. We have to ready our allies as well as Ukraine who is going to bear the brunt of this to accept what's going on and make them ready for it.

WHITFIELD: All right, Congressman Ruben Gallego, thank you so much. Have a safe trip while there and of course your return back to the U.S.

[15:25:10]

GALLEGO: Thank you for your time.

WHITFIELD: Thank you. All right, straight ahead, search and rescue operations continue at the Kentucky candle factory that had over a hundred workers inside when a tornado tore through it. We'll hear from the CEO of the family-owned company right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:30:00]

WHITFIELD: All right, as the full scope above the deadly weekend tornadoes unfolds, help is pouring in from all parts of the country.

Mayfield Consumer Products which operates a candle factory decimated by the tornado has put up a website to receive donations, it says 100 percent of those donations will be given to victim relief.

The CEO of the family-owned companies spoke with CNN's Nadia Romero earlier this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TROY PROPES, MAYFIELD CONSUMER PRODUCTS: Our factory was built as a manufacturing facility and the concrete walls and the steel frame and the structure, you would have -- you would have thought it could have been one of the safest places. But ironically, this -- as you can see with this devastation, there wasn't anything safe about this storm.

The protocols for where people go in a tornado disaster is what is deemed to be the safest location, right, and, you know, if you're in your home, they say go to your bathroom, go to this.

You know, in our facility, the center of the building and the bathrooms were that location because there are no windows, it's surrounded by concrete walls, steel roof, no windows, no glass, no, anything. And so that is where everybody was moved to per the protocol.

NADIA ROMERO, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Do you plan on changing those protocols, knowing that this happened this time? Would you do something differently in the future? PROPES: Based on all the information I have now? No, I wouldn't do

anything different than what we did. Do I wish I could change what's happened? A hundred percent.

ROMERO: What do you say to that the criticism that your stores, that your operation should have shut down Friday?

PROPES: You know, I think that -- I think again, I think hindsight is always 20/20, and if I would have -- you know, I think anytime you know what you know, now, I think that you always make different decisions when you do that.

But I know that we did everything that was supposed to happen. I know that people, you know, always have the right to come to work or not. You know, we don't try to do that, we try to provide opportunity for people and, you know, my heart bleeds for absolutely everyone.

Yesterday afternoon, we got reports of a couple of other people that were pulled from the rubble. As of this morning, you know, F.E.M.A. is on site. We're thankful for F.E.M.A. and the Red Cross and the State and all of the first responders that came out.

Unfortunately, you know, they have not found anybody else, but it is still a rescue mission.

We are a resilient community, we are a tight community. I think when the going gets tough, you know, we really -- we really stick together.

My mom and our management team said that so many people have come up to us and said, we are so sorry that this happened to you. And my mom said on the contrary, God needed it to happen to this family because we could handle it.

So with that, we're going to be here to handle it and we're going to do everything we can for our employees. We're going to do everything we can for this community. As a family, we're going to use the global resources that we have to really try to pull everything together and do the best we can.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: And then earlier, CNN's Brynn Gingras spoke with one young woman who works at that candle factory. Luckily, she was not there when the tornado struck. Her boyfriend's father though, Robert Daniel, he did work there and lost his life during the devastating storms.

She told Brynn that she can't begin to imagine what that moment was like. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHANIA, WORKS AT THE MAYFIELD, KENTUCKY CANDLE FACTORY: We've had our candles person, he is not okay. Now, then people can't take food to their table. What are they going to do? What if some of them people who are still down there, you know, their kids are still wondering what's going on? I couldn't imagine what these people are going through, and even

though I was here, I couldn't imagine what they're going through, the people under there. Some -- we've got to have more help. There's got to be more people in there.

If I could do something, if they would let me down there, I would be digging right now until daybreak. I'll be digging right now if I could.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Lots of heartbreak and anguish there in Mayfield, Kentucky.

All right, coming up, we are starting to get a clearer look at the full picture and the path of this string of tornadoes that devastated so many states and where storms just might be heading next. We'll bring you the latest forecast straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:39:07]

WHITFIELD: All right, the National Weather Service now confirms at least five powerful EF 3 tornadoes hit Missouri, Illinois, and Kentucky this weekend. Those tornado ratings could go even higher as damage surveys continue.

CNN's Tom Sater is live for us in the CNN Weather Center and joining me now. I mean, that's extraordinary to have this kind of, you know cluster, of so many high-powered tornadoes all at once.

TOM SATER, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Fredricka, yesterday was 30 tornadoes in six states and now it's over 50 in eight adding Indiana and Ohio.

I mean to get a mid-December tornado in states such as Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio, I mean, that's staggering in and of itself.

Now, to give you an idea how everything is connected in the world, Remember last week when we had the blizzard warnings on the Big Island of Hawaii and the record rainfall? That intense parcel of energy actually made its way on the Pacific Jetstream, to the Pacific Northwest, to the Central Rockies and was responsible for unleashing again quite a horrific fury here -- all connected -- that same parcel of energy.

[15:40:11]

SATER: Little Rock, Arkansas in the infancy, we started to see this supercell storms develop, warnings were in good place along this entire chain from Monnet, Arkansas to Mayfield. They had a 20 minute warning that is twice as long as you typically have on average, more on that in a minute.

Coming up to Central City, survey crews from St. Louis, Louisville, Paducah, Memphis, Little Rock and help from all around the region are doing diligence trying to understand what the intensity of all of these tornado were, what the width was and their path, and it's important. This is the candle factory before and after, and I know we have the CEO on and hindsight is 2020.

And you can see the destruction even with 20-minute lead time. Where are you going to go? If you don't have a cellar? If you don't have a basement? You get in a car and drive in what direction?

But here is the EF3 still waiting. These can be adjusted to EF4 or higher when you see the slabs just -- that's all that's left, with bark off of the trees. They've got a lot of work. Over 100 warnings were issued, each one of these will be surveyed. It could take weeks to do it.

Typically, only 23 tornadoes in the month of December, and over one day, we have over 50, a little bit of climate change, but we need more information.

Cold mornings, we're going to see the 60s. It is important here on Wednesday, Fredericka, we could get near 80 like Memphis to set the stage again for another event, Thursday. We're going to be watching this one of course extremely, extremely close.

WHITFIELD: Wow. I mean, just the clash of these extreme temperatures. I mean, now we see what can happen. It's extraordinary to think about the Hawaii connection because that's you know, what was shocking for many of us and to think that there is a correlation now.

Thanks for breaking that down for us.

SATER: Yes --

WHITFIELD: Yes, thank you, Tom Sater. Appreciate it.

All right, still ahead. It has been almost nine years since one of the deadliest mass shootings in American history and we'll talk with a mother of a six-year-old that died in the Sandy Hook school shooting about how to move forward and turn pain into love.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:46:44]

WHITFIELD: Tuesday will mark the ninth anniversary of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. In 2012, twenty first graders were murdered at their school in Newtown, Connecticut alongside six staff members. It's one of the deadliest mass shootings in American history.

Scarlett Lewis lost her six-year-old son, Jesse that day. She then started an organization in his name called the Jesse Lewis Choose Love Movement. And Scarlett is with us now.

I mean, you've turned so much pain into so much love through this foundation, and I look at your website and you say that Jesse Lewis Choose Love Movement was inspired by the bravery of a six-year-old boy and a mother's choice to forgive.

How have you been able to do that?

SCARLETT LEWIS, FOUNDER, JESSE LEWIS CHOOSE LOVE FOUNDATION: Fredricka, thank you so much for having me on. Jesse left a message on our kitchen chalkboard shortly before his murder. He wrote three words "nurturing, healing love." And I felt that that was a message for our family, a message of comfort.

And I also saw it as marching orders for me because I knew that if the shooter had been able to give and receive nurturing, healing love, the tragedy would never have happened. And so that started me on my journey nine years ago.

I knew what happened at Sandy Hook Elementary School was 100 percent preventable, as are all school shootings. It is just going to require that we all start looking at it in a different way.

WHITFIELD: So tell me about this journey? What you have discovered along the way, and how you believe you have been able to make an impact.

LEWIS: There are two ways to deal with school shootings. One is a reactive stance. That's what we've been doing. It is hardening schools. It is active shooter drills, door lock, See Something, Say Something programs, gun control, and those are good, but clearly not enough.

The other is proactive and preventative, and that's what I have chosen to dedicate my life to. And that stance neutralizes the threat a decade before it starts.

WHITFIELD: Wow. And you recently even partnered with the New Hampshire Governor, Chris Sununu on a bus tour. I mean, tell me what you're hoping to do in this way to extend your outreach.

LEWIS: So within the last six years, we have developed programming that's now in schools, homes and communities all across the country and 120 countries.

This RV tour, this bus tour is an extension of our community program and it is literally bringing this these essential life skill goals to kids and big kids alike and giving them the opportunity for an experiential experience so they can understand the power of bringing control back to themselves and being able to choose love.

WHITFIELD: You know, here we are. I mean Scarlett, sadly, I mean we're at this nine-year marker, you know since Sandy Hook and the school shootings haven't stopped. Everyone thought at that moment -- that that was a moment that would provoke a real change, that it couldn't possibly happen again.

So how do you assess what progress or perhaps setbacks have occurred in this nine-year period?

[15:50:24]

LEWIS: I think at this point, a lot of people are feeling helpless and hopeless. We've had 350 school shootings since Sandy Hook within the last nine years, and 28 this year alone, but I want everyone to know that they are 100 percent preventable. It is going to take all of us taking responsibility for the safety of our children, making sure that our kids are equipped with coping skills, emotional management.

They are facing difficulties that they've never faced before. And with cell phones, they have 24/7 access to information, some of which can't be unseen. They all have a lot of trauma. We have a pandemic. There is a lot of difficulty that they're facing.

And we need to be able to give them skills and tools that help them manage what is going on in their world and kids that are well- adjusted, kids that have good mental health and general health and wellbeing, they are not going to want to harm themselves or harm others. It is going to have to take us out of this anti-stance, anti- bullying, all the things that we're doing that focus on problems, including suicide and substance abuse, and school shootings.

We have to rethink all of it. All of those issues are skyrocketing. And all of those issues can be prevented by giving kids essential life skills that they need to make different choices and what we say is choose love

WHITFIELD: And Scarlett, I mean, I hear your optimism and I see your optimism, you know through your smile. And I wonder this Tuesday, how will you be spending this Tuesday?

LEWIS: This Tuesday is going to be very difficult. You know, when you've had a child murdered, it changes everything every day. You never forget it, obviously.

This Tuesday, we can go to the school in the morning and stand in honoring and remembering. We can go visit the Memorial that is halfway done that's adjacent to the school.

My family and I usually choose to go to Jesse's grave site and be there together for a while and then go to dinner. It's a very difficult day, it's a day that didn't have to happen and it's a day that now I share with so many other unfortunate parents.

And you know, for those that are around those parents in Oxford, Michigan and we know that this is going to happen again, unfortunately, really important that you have the courage to do something, to stand with these parents and to honor and remember and to go to your schools and be proactive and to make sure that they have programming that helps the kids address these issues and implemented in your homes and communities.

This is something that we can do. We're not helpless and hopeless. We have a lot of hope that we can prevent these school shootings from happening in the future and that's what I've dedicated my life to and that's what we do here at the Choose Love Movement.

WHITFIELD: You are indeed led by love, Scarlett Lewis, you're incredible. Thank you so much. And of course our hearts continue to be with you and the 26-plus families directly impacted there at Sandy Hook and beyond.

Thank you so much.

LEWIS: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: All right, we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:58:49]

WHITFIELD: All right, the 15th Annual CNN Heroes All-Star tribute salutes 10 extraordinary people who put others first all year long. It airs live tonight at 8:00 PM Eastern. Here's a preview.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JENNIFER COLPAS, TIERRA GRATA: There was not drinkable water. Something inside me started saying you need to do something about it.

DR. ALA STANFORD, BLACK DOCTORS COVID-19 CONSORTIUM: I could not allow one additional life to be lost.

LYNDA DOUGHTY, MARINE MAMMALS OF MAINE: I feel this responsibility to help these animals. This is what I was put on this earth to do.

SHIRLEY RAINES, BEAUTY 2 THE STREETZ: They started calling me the makeup lady. I love them because I am them.

ZANNAH MUSTAPHA, FUTURE PROWESS ISLAMIC FOUNDATION: What keeps you going is the resilience of these children.

HECTOR GUADALUPE, A SECOND U FOUNDATION: We want to give you your second chance at life. It provides you a way to dream.

MICHELE NEFF HERNANDEZ, SOARING SPIRITS: We help people live through something they did not think that they would survive.

DR. PATRICIA GORDON, CURE CERVICAL CANCER: I'm just doing the job that I'm supposed to do. I think I'm the luckiest doctor that ever lived.

DAVID FLINK, EYE TO EYE: I want them to know that their brains are beautiful. You have to love each other across our difference.

MADE JANUR YASA, PLASTIC EXCHANGE: There is no small dream. If you believe, you will succeed.

ANNOUNCER: Join Anderson Cooper and Kelly Ripa live as they name the 2021 Hero of the Year.

KELLY RIPA, ACTRESS: Welcome to the CNN Heroes Family.

ANNOUNCER: The 15th Annual CNN Heroes All-Star Tribune tonight at 8:00 Eastern.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Oh, it is going to be a great show and per usual, it is going to be a tear jerker, but you will be inspired. It begins tonight at 8:00 PM.

All right, thank you so much for joining me today. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

The CNN NEWSROOM continues with Phil Mattingly right now.

[16:00:19]