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Shanghai COVID Lockdown Leaves Residents Desperate for Food; Shanghai Reports 26K-Plus New COVID Cases Amid Lockdown; Biden Announces New Rule Regulating "Ghost Guns." Aired 2:30-3p ET
Aired April 11, 2022 - 14:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: China's zero-COVID policy has people in Shanghai literally walking out to their balconies and just shouting.
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BLACKWELL: You could hear the public anger. People are screaming for food and basic medical supplies. This has been weeks of this very strict lockdown.
And China is struggling to get the soaring COVID cases under control. Cases there rising to levels never seen before in China.
And China is now promising to ease the lockdown measures in some areas of Shanghai. That announcement came today.
The daily new case count in Shanghai went from double-digits to more than 26,000 in a month.
CNN's David Culver is in Shanghai.
DAVID CULVER, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Victor, if you thought Wuhan 2020 was bad, welcome to Shanghai 2022. This is like no other lockdown. And in the country's cosmopolitan and affluent financial hub, of all places.
The door behind me is my exit out to the alleyway. And last night, I heard taping of my door, along with the doors of my neighbors. They were placing a paper seal to keep it closed.
Now some buildings with positive cases going a step further, locking shot from the outside, using a bicycle lock or padlocks.
[14:35:04]
The biggest issue here has been food shortages. It is difficult to source food with stores closed and delivery drivers also locked down. So neighbors are coming together to try and source directly from suppliers. We're buying in bulk, essentially.
There have been, for some, a few government handouts but not enough. It has led to residents under lockdown demanding supplies as food shortages worsen here.
Some shouting, "We are starving, we are starving." My you, this is Shanghai.
A city leader, in a news conference over the weekend, apologizing to the city's more than 25 million residents for failing to meet expectations and she promised improvements.
One thing to keep in mind is Beijing is now in charge. China's zero- COVID policy is a directive straight from the top. President Xi Jinping wants the virus stomped out.
So there's a military mobilization that's underway to make more than 100 makeshift hospitals that will have the capacity to hold more than 160,000 people.
It sounds impressive. And the state media is portraying it as such. They're also considering it to be a very orderly and sterile environment.
But the reality from folks on the ground, people we've spoken with, shows cramped and unsanitary conditions.
So how does this all end and when? Well, officials on Monday announced plans to begin lifting lockdowns on certain neighborhoods. But not nearly enough to bring this city back to life any time soon -- Victor?
BLACKWELL: That is remarkable.
David Culver for us there in Shanghai.
French President Emmanuel Macron will face far-right candidate and Putin admirer, Marine Le Pen, in a second round of presidential election there.
Macron is a centrist. And he and Le Pen were the top-two candidates in Sunday's first round of voting. Twelve ran for president in all. But none received more than 50 percent of the vote.
Yesterday's outcome sets up what is expected to be a tense, high- stakes runoff in two weeks.
Now Macron beat Le Pen easily five years ago. But experts say Russia's invasion of Ukraine and France's economy could make the contest between the two much tighter.
The sanctions on Russia, they're taking a toll. Russia has defaulted on its foreign debt. But Ukraine's economy is also taking a hit. We're going to take a look at how the war has impacted the global economy. That's next.
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BLACKWELL: Russia has just defaulted on its foreign debt. This morning, the credit rating agency, S&P Global, placed Russia under selective default.
CNN business reporter, Matt Egan, is here.
We'll have to get to him in a moment because President Biden is now speaking about ghost guns at the White House.
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JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Wow! Thank you, Madam Vice President, Deputy Attorney General Monaco.
And, Mia, you're an incredible young woman. We spoke for a moment inside of the Oval Office.
And a lot of people here, who have lost someone, and too many here have lost someone, know that no matter what the occasion, celebratory or not, it is when you have to repeat it, you relive it like it just happened a moment ago.
Your poise, your confidence, and your intellect are really impressive. I mean they really are.
And you know, I think most people here could tell you've gone through serious loss that the best way to deal with it is to find purpose. And you found real purpose. And you're impressive.
And thank you for sharing your strength for helping us remember your friend, Dominique Blackwell and Gracy Muleberger.
And you know, Dominique and Gracy's parents are with us here today.
Are you prepared to stand up? I don't want to embarrass you, but would you stand up?
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BIDEN: If you have a moment afterwards, maybe you could come in the Oval with me if you wouldn't mind. I would like to talk to you.
Frank and Nancy, Brian and Cindy, everyone here, as they say, feels your pain a little bit. Particularly when they've suffered serious loss.
You've now joined a terrible fellowship of loss that many people have experienced. But too many survivors and advocates here for me to name everyone today.
But let me say the loss in this crowd is in calculable. But so is the strength. So is the strength. I believe our nation will be safer for your bravery. And I really mean that. Survivors like me and Manny and Claudia, Los Angeles deputy sheriff
who survived an ambush by a shooter with a ghost gun, representing individuals and families all across this country whose lives have been forever changed because a ghost gun.
[14:45:05]
Some made national headlines, many others did not. Today, we honor your strength and your action.
A year ago this week, standing here with many of you, I instructed the attorney general to write a regulation that would reign in the proliferation of ghost guns because I was having trouble getting anything passed in the Congress.
But I used what we call regulatory authority. A year later, we're here to keep that promise.
The gun lobby tried to tie up the regulators and paperwork for a long, long time. The NRA called this rule I'm about to announce extreme. Extreme.
But let me ask you, is it extreme to protect police officers, extreme to protect our children, extreme to keep guns out of the hands of people who couldn't even pass a background check?
The idea that someone on a terrorist list could purchase one of these guns is extreme. It isn't extreme. It is just basic common sense.
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BIDEN: You know, if you buy a couch you have to assemble, it is still a couch. If you order a package like this one over here, that includes the parts you need to -- direct assembly of a functioning firearm, you bought a gun.
Take a look. Take a look at this. It comes in this package. You could see the picture down here maybe. This is the gun.
It is not hard to put together. A little drill, hand drill at home. Doesn't take very long. Anyone can order it. Anyone. Folks, a felon, a terrorist, a domestic abuser could go from a gun kit to a gun with as little as 30 minutes.
Buyers are required to pass background checks. Because guns have no serial numbers, these guns, when they show up at a crime scene, they can't be traced. Harder to find and prove who used them. And I mean you can't connect the gun to the shooter and hold them accountable.
In fact, the ATF reports that they've been able to trace less than 1 percent, less than 1 percent of ghost guns reported by law enforcement.
So it makes sense that police across the country are increasingly finding ghost guns at crime scenes.
And by the way, ghost guns could be quote, "rifles," assault weapons as well. This is one version of a kit you could buy.
Alone, law enforcement reported approximately 20,000 suspected ghost guns to be -- to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. And that is a 12 percent increase from 2016, tenfold in five years.
And these guns and weapons are of choice for many criminals. We're going to do everything we can to deprive them of that choice. And when we find them ,put them in jail for a long, long time.
Law enforcement is sounding the alarm. Our communities are paying a price. We're enacting today -- the United States Department of Justice is making it illegal for a business to manufacture one of these kits without a serial number. Illegal.
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BIDEN: Illegal for a licensed gun dealer to sell them without a background check.
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BIDEN: Starting today, weapons like the one used in Saugus High School and to ambush deputies, that re with us here today, are being treated like the deadly firearms they are.
And if somebody sells a ghost gun to a federally licensed dealer, for example, a pawn shop, that dealer must make the firearm and mark it with a serial number before reselling it.
All of a sudden, it is longer a ghost. It has a return address. And it is going to help save lives, reduce crime, and get more criminals off the streets.
And this role is only part of our strategy to go after ghost guns. In February, the Department of Justice launched a nation -- a national gun -- ghost gun enforcement initiative and intensifying our efforts to bring cases against those who use ghost guns illegally.
We're teaching investigators and prosecutors best practices how to build these cases. And assigning a coordinator in each of the ATF field divisions to serve as a point person for every federal, state and local law enforcements to go after ghost guns.
[14:50:00]
If you commit a crime where a ghost gun, expect federal prosecution. Not just state. Expect federal prosecution.
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BIDEN: This is an important step. It is going to make a difference, I promise you, and a lot of other things we know work to reduce gun violence and other violent crimes and save lives.
That's why I put together a comprehensive strategy to supercharge what works while continuing to push Congress to act on sensible legislation to end gun violence.
In addition to today's rule, we're working on four areas.
First, we're going after rogue gun dealers. The last time we had data on this was more than 20 years ago. And 5 percent of gun dealers sold 90 percent of illegal guns found in crime scenes, 5 percent sold 90 percent.
These merchants of death are breaking law for profit. Selling guns that are killing innocent people. We're cracking down on these gun dealers and the violent criminals they knowingly arm.
Second, we're disrupting illegal gun trafficking. Attorney General Garland has directed all U.S. attorneys to prioritize gun trafficking that is moving guns across state lines and city boundaries.
The Justice Department is surging prosecutorial resources to help shut down these trafficking corridors, including the one known as the Iron Pipeline that funnels weapons --
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BIDEN: -- from gun shops in states like Georgia to crime scenes up and down the east coast.
Thirdly, replenish a strategy we know reduces gun crimes, community police and community violence interruption.
Look, I've said it many times. The answer is not to defund the police. It's to fund the police and give them the tools and training, to support their need to be better partners and protectors of our communities in need.
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BIDEN: I've already made clear I want city, states, counties and tribes to use some of the $350 billion we sent to them in the American Rescue Plan that I wrote in the first month to reduce gun violence, hire police officers, community policing, pay police over time, purchase crime fighting technologies.
They were given the money, they can do it. Spend it.
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BIDEN: Now, on top of that, I'm calling for additional funding to put police on the streets for community policing.
One thing we learned in the middle of the crime wave not long ago, when the cop know, by first name, who owns the corner drugstore, who lives in the apartment above 6B, the pastor at the churches, guess what, people talk to them. They trust them.
My son, the attorney general in Delaware, he would go around and make sure everybody literally in this high-crime rate neighbors, he would give them his cell phone number and instructed the cops to do the same thing.
They did. The crime plummeted. Not a joke. Look at the record. Not just my son but all across the nation. The ATF to hire agents they need the help to fight gun crime, more agents.
My budget funds body cameras, make sure police work are our local communities and are accountable to the local communities.
We're also investing in community violence intervention. These are areas, local programs that utilize trusted messengers, community members and leaders, to work directly with people who are the most likely to commit a gun crime or become victims of gun crime.
Get to them early. It works.
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BIDEN: It works. They intervene before it's too late.
Fourth, funding jobs and training for young people. Summer program, drug treatment, mental health, housing availability, criminal justice reform and reentry support for people coming home after incarceration.
Right now, you get let out of prison after serving your time and you get a bus ticket and 25 bucks. End up under the same bridge you left two, five, 10 years earlier.
If you serve your time, you qualify for Pell Grants. You qualify for housing. You qualify for food. You qualify to get back into the community. Give them fighting chance.
These are all demonstrated ways to reduce crime.
I'm strongly urging city, state, counties and tribes to use the Rescue Plan funding we sent them to do more in each of these areas. They need to do more and do it quickly before the summer when crime typically surges around America.
[14:55:06]
So, we're pushing in each of these areas. But none of this absolves Congress, with all due respect to my members of Congress here and the people I've been talking to, for the responsibility to act.
We need Congress to pass universal background checks.
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BIDEN: Universal background checks.
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BIDEN: I know it's controversial but I got it done once. Ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.
(APPLAUSE) BIDEN: I was getting criticized when I first passed this law when I was a Senator. Guess what? I was down in southern Delaware to do a lot of hunting and fishing down there. I was walking up one of the creek beds.
And the guy standing there said, you want to take my gun? I said, I don't want to take your gun.
He said, well, you're telling me I can't have X number of bullets in my gun. I said, what do you think, the deer you're hunting wear Kevlar vests? What the hell do you need 20 bullets for? You must be a hell of a terrible shot.
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BIDEN: I'm serious. Think about it. Thing about the mass shootings. As many as 100 rounds. It's a weapon of war. Nothing to do with recreation.
Outright ban and sell and possession of un-serialized guns. Eliminate gun manufacturers' immunity for liability.
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BIDEN: The only outfit --
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BIDEN: They're the only outfit in the country that's immune. Imagine had the tobacco industry been immune to being sued. Come on.
In February, the families of nine in the Sandy Hook shooting victims achieved the settlement against the maker of guns that was used to kill their children.
The Sandy Hook folks are here. Would you be embarrassed if I ask you to stand up?
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BIDEN: These folks right here did more to keep all this going than anybody.
We owe you, man. We owe you.
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BIDEN: It never goes away, does it? God love you.
Look, this is incredibly rare because gun manufacturers have more immunity from liability than any other American industry. They've never had to take responsibility for the death and destruction their products caused.
But as part of this settlement, Remmington agreed to release thousands of pages of internal documents. They did that. Here is why it's so important. Remember, it wasn't until we saw the
internal documents that we really understood what cigarette manufacturers were doing to our kids and our families.
Now, we may begin to see what gun manufacturers are and are not doing when it comes to making and marketing their deadly products.
By the way, it's going to sound bizarre. I support the Second Amendment. You have a right. It didn't say you can own any gun you want, as big as you want. You couldn't buy a cannon when the Second Amendment passed.
Certainly, people from the very beginning weren't allowed to purchase guns. It's nothing new. It's just rational.
Look, this should be just the start. We need to repeal the liability shield of gun manufacturers and finally hold them accountable for false advertising and many other things they do.
There's one more action I'm taking today. There has only been one Senate who has confirmed the director of Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in the bureau's entire history.
It used to be it didn't require Senate action when I first got to the Seante. It's only been one since it became required confirmation.
This is an agency whose mission is to protect communities from violent criminals, illegal trafficking of firearm, acts of arson and bombing, and a lot more. The mission isn't controversial. It's public safety.
Today, to lead and support the dedicated men and women of the ATF, I'm proud to nominate Steve Dettelbach.
Excuse me. I mispronounced your name.
I just - director of Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Steve is immensely qualified. He served in the Department of Justice for two decades. He worked side by side to support the work of federal state and law enforcement, including ATF agents.
And one of those was a case he was personally -- tried and a U.S. attorney where the serial arsonist firebombed the courthouses and police headquarters in Mansfield, Ohio.
[14:59:58]
For his work, Steve got death threats. But the defendant got 60 years.
Steve also partnered with community leaders and law enforcement to help prevent violent crime.
