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Ukraine: All Women, Children & Elderly Evacuated From Mariupol Plant; Russian Aircraft Bombed School With 90 Civilians Inside; WH Adviser: Overturning Roe Would Hurt Economy; U.S. Economy Adds 428k Jobs In April; Judge: Marjorie Taylor Greene Is Qualified For Reelection; New Audio: McCarthy Calls Trump's Behavior On 1/6 "Atrocious And Totally Wrong"; SUV Used In Alabama Jailbreak Discovered In Tennessee; CDC Investigating Cases Of Severe, Unexplained Hepatitis In Kids. Aired 5-6p ET

Aired May 07, 2022 - 17:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:00:17]

JESSICA DEAN, CNN HOST: You are live in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Jessica Dean in Washington. Jim Acosta is off today.

We start with breaking news from Ukraine.

High casualties feared after a school in the eastern part of the country was bombed. Ukraine says a Russian aircraft dropped its payload on the school, which had 90 civilians sheltering inside. And as we gather details on this latest attack, we also know it would not be the first time the Russians have attacked a civilian shelter.

They've been doing it for weeks in Mariupol pinning hundreds of civilians below a steel plant. And just a few hours ago, we received some rare and welcome good news from that site.

We know that all women, children and elderly citizens have now been evacuated from the steel plant. That is according to a top Ukrainian official and the Russian account of that appears to match up.

Elsewhere in Mariupol, Vladimir Putin's forces are erecting Soviet statues swapping in Russian language signs and excavating the theater that they bombed in early March. Those ominous changes coinciding with an over the top military display in Moscow. Monday's Victory Day celebration commemorating the defeat of the Nazis in World War II, a war Putin says is a parallel with the fight with Ukraine.

But in World War II, the Soviets liberated Auschwitz. Today in Ukraine, the Russians are the ones accused of genocide and of sending survivors to camps.

So many of the alleged atrocities have been taking place in Mariupol, but Ukrainian troops there refused to surrender.

CNN's Sarah Sidner spoke to the relatives of some of those soldiers.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): A Ukrainian soldier in shocked silence, his arm shredded and burned, his vehicle hit by a shoulder fired grenade launcher, officials say, another victim in the bloody battle for Mariupol.

The video, a terrible reminder to those who have relatives still fighting there. Olga has a husband in the Ukrainian army in Mariupol. Anna's brother is there as well.

"It's so painful for me. People can't just be silent about the horrors happening there. They don't have days there. They are counting the minutes."

Anna says she fears for her brother who she says is deteriorating physically as he fights the Russians inside the plant.

"He's very skinny. He's exhausted. His eyes have black bags," she says. "He's in horrible condition, but that's just physically. Mentally he's unbelievably strong. They are all so motivated to tear the Russians apart."

Russia is attacking from the ground and the sky. The devastation immeasurable. The human suffering, incalculable.

21-year-old Nicole was able to escape Mariupol. Pictures of her formerly happy life there, now devastate her. This is practically suicide if I do my heart shatters. I don't understand why, how at some point.

On the other side of the battle, a Russian soldier nonchalantly says talks are useless for a cease fire. The war, in his mind, has been ongoing for eight years, since the Russians invaded and occupied Crimea.

Now terror washes over another place and the bombs continue to fall.

Sara Sidner, CNN -- Kyiv.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DEAN: Sara, thank you for that reporting.

I want to bring in retired Lieutenant General Mark Hertling. He's the former commanding general of U.S. Army Europe and 7th army. General, thanks for being with us.

I just first want to get your reaction to this news that a Russian aircraft has bombed a school with 90 civilians inside.

LT. GEN. MARK HERTLING, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Jessica, how many times can we say barbarity? How many times can we say war crimes? It's just more of the same that we've seen for the last 72 days.

Russia has no desire to help the citizens of Ukraine. They are only there to destroy and take over. There's not much else you can say. They are just compounding the kinds of things they've done for over two months.

DEAN: Right. And we're also keeping an eye on the developments out of Mariupol. That's obviously a city that has become a symbol of Ukrainian resistance. If Mariupol falls to Russia, do you believe that changes the course of this war?

HERTLING: It certainly is going to affect some things, Jessica. You know, we've been talking about Mariupol for a few weeks now, and what I'd say is no one has really talked about the military importance of that city.

[17:04:54]

HERTLING: There is a highway, the 14 highway that goes east/west all the way from Russia (INAUDIBLE) in Russia to Odesa and beyond. The Russians need that highway for supplies because not only does it go east and west along the coast, but there's also rail lines along that way and they go into Crimea where they get logistics.

It also goes north out of Mariupol to Donetsk. That's right. another highway the H-20. They have to have that city protected, not under guerrilla warfare from the Ukrainians in order to continue their supply lines.

But there's other areas along that route that can be attacked by the Ukrainians, and I think that will happen. You still have, by the way those fighters inside that plant. That isn't going to go away as a problem for the Russians anytime soon. Having trained soldiers to fight in tunnels and in cave complexes, this is a tunnel complex on steroids. And just a couple hundred soldiers inside that Azovstal plant, if they continue to have ammunition, and water, and food, they can hold off I would suggest against thousands of Russians. It is so deep and so complex, it's going to be challenging for any Russian that tries to go in there.

DEAN: Yes, their perseverance is absolutely incredible. We know that tangible victories have alluded Putin so far, and across the board both in the U.S., Europe, and Ukraine. They are expecting him to ramp up attacks to change that.

We also know that he's got this victory parade coming up on Monday. What do you expect to see unfold on the ground in the coming days?

HERTLING: You know, truthfully, I don't see a whole lot of changes. There are reports of -- excuse me, of Ukrainian forces continuing their assaults against the Russians east of Kharkiv.

Russia is still trying to conduct limited attacks in the northeast and the southeast in the Donbas. They have not proven successful in any of those. The Ukrainian forces are countering all those attacks and what we're seeing is what the military would call an inflection point, a culmination where Russia is going to continue to get weaker. Ukraine with the resupplies from NATO and the U.S. is going to continue to get stronger.

It's still going to take a while but I see the battles in the east and even in the south eventually tipping toward the Ukrainian side, which is something I've said for a long time.

DEAN: Yes, it would be amazing to see that. Today the director of the CIA weighed in on Putin's mind-set regarding the invasion. Let's listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WILLIAM BURNS, CIA DIRECTOR: He's in a frame of mind in which he doesn't believe he can afford to lose. I think he's convinced right now that doubling down still will enable him to make progress.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: How do you strategize against a leader who thinks, as he just said, he can't afford to lose? That seems to leave very few options on the table in terms of an end game. And I know we've talked a lot about is Putin backed in a corner? Is he increasingly isolated? What comes next? But how do you strategize around that?

HERTLING: Well, you don't, truthfully and Director Burns said it succinctly in the clip you just showed. But he also said some other things about the insecurity and the narcissism and all the other things that are affecting president Putin and have been affecting them for a very long time.

The only thing that we can hope for, Jessica, and truthfully this is a hope, it's not a method, but it's a hope is that those around him will eventually stop him from continuing this campaign because it's going to continue to drag Russia into the muck.

They're already experiencing economic woes, which will get worse. They have been shunned from the world stage, and their army is continuing to run contrary to what they want to do.

I think if you see Mr. Putin declare, you know, victory on Victory Day on the 9th, if he declares that the war has to go on, that means he'll have to mobilize literally tens of thousands of people, and we'll see more within Russia of protests and young people not wanting to go to war because they see the effects of the number of deaths and destruction within the Russian military thus far.

DEAN: President Biden just authorized another $150 million in military aid for Ukraine, and we're also learning about how critical U.S. intelligence has been for Ukraine's defense.

Does this suggest to you that the administration's view of provoking Russia might, you know, might have shifted or the line on what may be escalatory has shifted? Or do you think that they're keeping the course here?

HERTLING: You know, I'm not sure about that. That's a great question, Jessica. I just think it's to support a partner in the fight for sovereignty and freedom.

[17:09:45] HERTLING: You know, once the Ukrainians got a taste of freedom and they have had that taste since 1991, they're not going to go back. And neither are the other former Warsaw Pact and Eastern Bloc countries of Europe that used to belong in the Russian sphere. None of them want to go back under the thumb of the Russian aristocracy.

So I think you're going to see a continued effort by the United States and the NATO countries and others in supporting Ukraine as they continue to fight for the freedom that they so desperately need and which they will -- they have the will to fight for as we've seen so many times across the battlefield.

DEAN: Yes, it is incredible. General Mark Hertling, thanks so much for making time for us. We appreciate it.

HERTLING: Thank you, Jessica.

Coming up, the long road to economic recovery. Over 90 percent of the 22 million jobs lost during the height of the pandemic are back. But inflation is still wreaking havoc on stocks.

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[17:14:48]

DEAN: Right now, an eight-foot tall fence surrounds the Supreme Court as the Capitol police warn of potential violence after a leaked Supreme Court draft overturning Roe v. Wade sparked protests. A top White House adviser is warning that if the Supreme Court overturns Roe there will be economic consequences.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JARED BERNSTEIN, WHITE HOUSE COUNCIL OF ECONOMIC ADVISERS: When you deny access to reproductive rights in general but abortion rights in particular to women, they have persistently worse economic outcomes.

Financially it's like losing a job. It's like being evicted. It's like losing health insurance. It's like going to the hospital in terms of its impact on their finances. If you look at occupation, earnings, education, maternal health, all of those indicators are significantly damaged when we restrict access to abortion.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: CNN economics and political commentator and "Washington Post" columnist Catherine Rampell is joining me now. Catherine, thanks for being with us.

We just heard Jared Bernstein of President Biden's White House Council of Economic Advisers saying overturning Roe will erase economic gains for women and immediately hurt women financially. Can you walk us through how that happens?

CATHERINE RAMPELL, CNN ECONOMICS AND POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Sure. Well, what we're talking about is women losing control effectively over when, if, and under what circumstances they decide to have children. And as you can imagine, that affects their careers. That affects their financial prospects, their economic prospects.

There's a slew of research to suggest that when women are denied access to abortion when they have an unplanned pregnancy, they are more likely to experience poverty, more likely to raise children in poverty, more likely to exit the work force.

They're also much more likely to be on all sorts of government benefits like Medicaid, for example. So it's understandable that this issue which is primarily thought of as a social policy or a culture war policy does have serious economic consequences.

DEAN: Right. And back in April before we learned of the initial Supreme Court draft that could overturn this ruling, you wrote about how corporate America has become the last firewall, I believe, is what you said for abortion rights. Do you think that will continue to hold true even if Roe v. Wade is overturned?

RAMPELL: I think for a subset of workers, yes, it will be true. There's this perception that a number of big players in corporate America are woke, and that's why they're wading into these culture war issues. I think that is not at all the case.

Companies are doing what they perceive to be within their own financial interests, what will help their bottom line. And if they perceive that they will have more difficulty attracting and retaining workers if those workers are unwilling to move to or stay in places where their reproductive rights are under threat, then they will wade into these treacherous culture war waters that they have studiously avoided for a very long time.

That's why we saw a number of big companies from Apple, Levi Strauss, Citigroup, I believe, noted that they were offering their employees greater access to reproductive care as well as reimbursement for travel out of state, if they live somewhere like Texas where they have less access to abortion and other kinds of reproductive care.

So I think what you'll see is that companies that have a work force, more often a highly educated high skilled work force that is in higher demand where those companies have been trying desperately to attract women workers in particular, they will go out of their way to try to offer these kinds of benefits, but for lower wage workers, workers with less specialized skills where they may not have as much bargaining power, you know, they're going to be the ones who are not protected either by state law or their employers in terms of having access to control over their own reproductive choices.

DEAN: So it sound like you're just saying in the end this really comes down to business for these companies. They want to retain that talent.

RAMPELL: Yes. Yes.

DEAN: Let's talk about the jobs report. It was out yesterday. It shows U.S. employers added 428,000 jobs last month, but more jobs may actually work against preventing a recession, which sounds very counterintuitive. Help us understand that.

RAMPELL: So the job numbers were very good, and in fact, over the past year, year plus the numbers have been excellent, much better than expected, at least the number of jobs -- the number of jobs being added on that. They're much higher than had been predicted when Biden first took office, for example.

However, wages for those jobs are not -- or wage growth for those jobs is not keeping up with the cost of living, and that's a big problem.

What we are likely to see is that the Federal Reserve will continue to hike interest rates as long as inflation remains especially elevated and out of, you know, what they perceive to be a reasonable range. They're going to have to raise interest rates even more aggressively.

[17:19:52]

RAMPELL: And so as long as the economy remains hot, so to speak, meaning strong job growth, but also this very strong inflation that we have been seeing, then the Fed is going to have to act more aggressively, hike rates even higher and that increases the odds that we will accidentally have a recession.

Historically when the Fed has raised interest rates to try to deal with inflation, most of the time they have raised interest rates so much that it killed the economy, essentially.

Now, obviously they don't want that to happen. They want to cool demand just enough that inflation gets under control, but not so much that it throws a lot of people out of work. But that's a really narrow Goldilocks like path that they have to walk.

And again, historically it's been challenging right now. That path has gotten even narrower.

DEAN: Yes, it's a razor's edge there. You mentioned inflation, of course, gas prices up, housing prices. The stock market also starting to fall, has been pretty turbulent. Not a great combination for Democrats heading towards the midterms considering a majority of U.S. adults in our newest polling says the president's policy has hurt the economy. Do you believe there's anything the president can do either executive action or with this Democratically controlled congress between now and November to shift any of that?

RAMPELL: There are some things that the president and/or Congress can do kind of on the margin to get prices down or at least to get pricing pressures down. Really it's the job of the Fed as I said by raising interest rates.

But you know, Biden could remove some more tariffs. That would have some effect. He could try to get our legal immigration system functioning again, the bureaucracy was basically broken under Trump and under COVID and has been really slow at getting, you know, the number of allowable immigrants under current law actually processed and their work permits processed, so there are some things like that. But realistically speaking, they either don't seem interested in pursuing those policies and instead favor more kind of demagoguing about corporate greed and profiteering and things that won't make any difference. And I think they're really worried about alienating particular constituencies if they go after -- you know, remove some of these tariffs or expedite immigrant processing.

DEAN: All right. Catherine Rampell, thanks so much for your analysis and insight. We appreciate it.

RAMPELL: Thank you.

DEAN: Coming up, Georgia congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene gets a shot at re-election. Why a judge ruled her actions around January 6th were not disqualifying.

[17:22:24]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DEAN: A legal push in Georgia to keep Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene off the ballot has failed. A judge ruling that Greene can run for re-election rejecting claims that she's ineligible due to her actions around the January 6th insurrection.

CNN's Ryan Nobles has details now. Ryan.

RYAN NOBLES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Jessica, this is a significant win for the Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene who was facing the prospect of being thrown off the ballot because of a challenge from liberal activists who said that she played a role in the January 6th insurrection that constitutionally would make her disqualified from being able to hold public office.

Now, there was something that was litigated in a Georgia court over a marathon session which included three hours of her own personal testimony, but it was up to the judge to make a recommendation in this case, and he decided that the facts of the case did not merit the cause that the activists were looking for.

Charles Bordeaux (ph), who was the judge in this case issued a 19-page decision where he said in part that the challengers had produced insufficient evidence to show that Representative Greened engaged in that insurrection after she took the oath of office on January 3rd, 2021.

Now, this is not the final say. This was just a recommendation. The final call will be made by Brad Raffensperger who's of course the current secretary of state. Now, he's someone who is a Republican but has challenged the former president Donald Trump at many different stages including when President Trump put enormous pressure on Raffensperger to try and overturn or delay the certification of the election results in Georgia.

Regardless, there aren't many observers who belief that Raffensperger would take the dramatic step of ruling opposite what the judge in this case did.

Now that doesn't completely eliminate the efforts of the activists. There is another opportunity through appealing this decision through the state court system, but they have a very, very limited time frame. The primary in this race is on May 24th, so the opportunity for this to run itself through the court system and have a different outcome seems very unlikely at this point.

And keep in mind, there are challenges like this playing out in a number of states involving other members of Congress like Marjorie Taylor Greene. So far they've been all unsuccessful. This was the one that seemed to have the most promise, at least from the activists' point of view, and it's now been stymied, Jessica.

DEAN: All right, Ryan Nobles for us, thanks so much.

And House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy hasn't had the smoothest of relationships with Marjorie Taylor Greene because of her history of embracing QAnon conspiracy theories and making racist and anti-Semitic statements.

But according to a new book, McCarthy potentially blew a chance to keep her out of Congress because he was more concerned with pledging his loyalty to Donald Trump.

[17:30:00]

In the book, "This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden, and the Battle for America's Future," the authors write, in part, quote:

"Ever focused on pleasing the president, the House Republican leader told campaign officials he had checked with the White House about the Georgia race and the message back had been an emphatic instruction to back off. She might be a paranoid extremist, but she was a paranoid extremist who loved Donald Trump."

Jonathan Martin and Alex Burns, both CNN political analysts and national political correspondents for the "New York Times," join me now.

Gentlemen, great to see you.

Of course, the rest of that story is history is history. Greene went on to win her primary easily. She's now eligible for re-election.

Jonathan, what does McCarthy's future look like if she wins another term?

JONATHAN MARTIN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, I think the episode that you just sort of read from, Jessica, in our book really captures Kevin McCarthy's willingness to bow to Donald Trump whenever he views it necessary to keep his own grip on control of the House GOP.

And I think that will spell his future. If Eugene were in for Republicans majority of the House, Kevin could be speaker. But it's going to hinge whether or not the far right of the House, people like Marjorie Taylor Greene, are willing to support him.

And if Donald Trump blesses that, then he probably will become speaker. If Donald Trump has any ambivalence at all, it could create real problems for McCarthy.

DEAN: Right. And this is what that's about, McCarthy with his eyes on the speaker's role.

Speaking of him, Alex, this week, you released new audio of the Republican House leader denouncing then-President Trump in some of the harshest language we've heard yet.

This is from two days after the insurrection during a House Republican leadership call. Let's listen to that.

(BEGIN AUDIO FEED)

REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY (R-CA): What the president did is atrocious and totally wrong. I do think the impeachment dividing the nation further and continues to divide even greater.

That's why I want to reach out to Biden. I wanted the president to meet with Biden. That's not going to happen.

I want to see about us meeting with Bidens sitting down, a smooth transition, to show that we continue to keep those statements going.

(END AUDIO FEED)

DEAN: And he was ready to then reach out to President-Elect Biden.

Alex, give us some context around those comments we just heard.

ALEX BURNS, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, Jessica, in some respects, you hear Kevin McCarthy showing a side of himself we've not seen in public, which is at least in a moment thinking of trying to find some kind of conciliatory position to take towards the incoming president.

He's not done that obviously since Biden took office.

But what you are hearing also there and what you hear on a lot of these tapes is Kevin McCarthy trying to find some way out of this jam that doesn't involve told confrontation with Donald Trump.

He's saying that impeachment, you know, however merited it might be, would divide the country.

He says at a different point on the tape that trying to invoke the 25th Amendment, trying to get the cabinet to remove Trump from office would just take too long.

He's raising options and knocking them down for one reason or another.

I think you can hear him talking about outreach to Biden there, both because he thinks that perhaps that's the responsible thing to do. But also because, you know, in that moment he sure seems like he wishes somebody else would make some big decision for the country and for the political system that would sort of set the agenda for Washington in a way that would make Kevin McCarthy's life a little bit easier.

DEAN: He wouldn't have to do it.

You mentioned that call about the 25th Amendment, the aide detailing that. Let's listen to that. We've got that, too.

(BEGIN AUDIO FEED)

UNIDENTIFIED AIDE: I think the options have been cited by the Democrats so far are the 25th Amendment, which is not exactly -- solution here.

MCCARTHY: That takes too long, too, because it goes back to the House, right?

(END AUDIO FEED)

DEAN: And, Jonathan, tell us more about what you know about Trump's relationship with McCarthy. I know you were just talking about how the through line there's McCarthy getting to the speaker's role and Trump being able to exert his influence.

But what more can you tell us about that?

MARTIN: Well, look, I think that McCarthy is not somebody whose ideologically anchored. He does not have a lot of fixed political views. He's somebody who is in politics, I think, to try to advance up the chain and for him being speaker is the ultimate goal.

So in that sense, he has something in common with President Trump, who obviously himself has proven to be ideologically flexible.

I don't think that they have a close relationship. I think it's a transactional relationship, like most political actors have with Trump. They know he's fickle and can turn on them in a heartbeat.

That's why McCarthy works so hard to sort of keep the relationship on solid footing or at least on solid footing as any relationship with Trump can be, Jessica.

The first tapes that we released, McCarthy scrambled to get Trump on the phone and sort of placate him and make sure that all is OK.

[17:35:07]

But as you know, we report in the book, you know, President Trump does not have that high an opinion of Kevin McCarthy.

In fact, he told us, Jessica, he believes that McCarthy has an inferiority complex. That was an on-the-record comment Trump made to us for this book. It's not exactly a deep friendship, we'll put it that way.

DEAN: Right, right, not the best of friends, the most loyal of friends.

Alex, a district judge just dismissed Trump's lawsuit challenging his Twitter ban, which came after the insurrection.

And we know from your book that McCarthy had jokingly kind of pondered whether some of the more problematic House Republicans might suffer the same fate. Tell us about that reporting.

BURNS: Well, this is, again, right after January 6th when you have some members of the Republican conference saying things on Twitter and on television that remain very, very provocative.

And in that sort of, you know, tinderbox environment in the aftermath of the insurrection, Kevin McCarthy is read by a staff member some of those comments and he says, gosh, can't they just take -- why can't they take their anecdotal media accounts, too.

It's an important admission on the part of Kevin McCarthy in that moment that some of his lawmakers really are saying dangerous things out in public. They're making comments. Not just on social media. They're doing it at public events. They're doing it on television, on the radio, that do have the potential to incite violence.

It's also Jessica, a really important illustration of one of the big open secrets in Republican politics, which is that Donald Trump getting banned from Twitter has been great for the Republican Party and even great for Donald Trump.

Because it allows him, it allows sort of the most raw, unfiltered and offensive aspects of Donald Trump's political persona to sort of be shoved away from the foreground of American politics.

And you know, when we hear from Donald Trump, it's in these long, rambling email statements that don't get a fraction of the pickup that his tweets used to. And these rally speeches that frankly not all that many people end up watching.

So if Trump does end up returning to Twitter and other social media, that will be a huge headache for Republicans like Kevin McCarthy and Mitch McConnell and maybe even for Donald Trump himself.

DEAN: Yes, I mean, there's no question that up on the Hill those Republicans are very happy to not have to be commenting on those Twitter posts anymore.

Alex Burns, Jonathan Martin, thank you so much to both of you.

Again, they are the author of the book, "This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden and the Battle for America's Future."

Guys, it's great It's so well-researched. I could not put it down. Thanks again. And coming up, the getaway car used by an Alabama inmate and

corrections officer is found in Tennessee. The clues their escape didn't go as planned. And where the manhunt for them now stands.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:42:39]

DEAN: An Alabama sheriff telling me just a short time ago that it's been, quote, "a difficult, challenging, and discouraging week" since an inmate escaped from a county jail and a corrections officer helped him go on the run.

A getaway car the pair used has now been found in Tennessee. The sheriff also telling me other inmates were able to confirm the duo had some sort of relationship.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RICK SINGLETON, SHERIFF, LAUDERDALE COUNTY, AL, SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT: They were complaining that he got special treatment that he would, you know, get privileges the other inmates didn't get, that he would get extra food on his tray, and his plate. And all of this was coming from Vicky White. That was their complaint.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: CNN's Nadia Romero is following this story. She is live in Florence, Alabama.

Nadia, what's the latest from there?

NADIA ROMERO, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Jessica, we're just now seeing video images inside a Quality Inn Hotel in town where Vicky White stayed the night before the escape.

This would have been last Thursday. And you can see her there prominently standing on that surveillance video.

There was a rumor this week, the sheriff confirmed it yesterday, now we have the evidence to see as we piece together how this escape plan was put together and how they were able to follow through.

Now, the U.S. Marshals also released video of Vicky White or images of her as a potential brunette with darker hair, because we know that she used aliases. The sheriff there saying that she could also be changing her appearance.

But when it comes to Casey White, it's going to be pretty hard to disguise being 6'9" tall, about 300 pounds. And he also has very recognizable tattoos, a full sleeve, tattoos on his chest and his back.

The U.S. Marshals say that he's part of a White supremacist Alabama prison gang called the Southern Brotherhood.

And that is just the tip of the iceberg. We're learning so much more about Casey White's very long and violent criminal history.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROMERO (voice-over): Casey White is slated to stand trial for capital murder charges related to the 2015 death of Connie Ridgeway this summer. But last Friday, he escaped, forcing Ridgeway's family, including her son, Austin Williams, through a rollercoaster of emotions.

AUSTIN WILLIAMS, SON OF CONNIE RIDGEWAY: My feelings have been coming all over the place, just the adrenaline and stress, and just you know not, not sleeping really well.

ROMERO: White's violent criminal history dates back to at least 2010. Court documents allege he beat his brother in the face and head with an axe sledgehammer handle, landing him in prison in 2012. He was released nearly four years later.

[17:45:11]

And in October 2015, Connie Ridgeway was murdered in her apartment in Lauderdale County, Alabama. Police questioned White at the time but did not charge him.

And just months later, in December, White went on a crime spree that included a home invasion, carjacking, and a police chase.

He was indicted on 15 counts in March 2016, and later convicted on seven of those charges, including attempted murder and robbery. He was sent to prison with his first possibility of parole in 2061.

But in 2020, the Lauderdale County district attorney says White admitted to killing Connie Ridgeway. He was then brought to Lauderdale County Detention Center to be arraigned on murder charges in October 2020. White pleaded not guilty.

And that's where he is believed to have met and started his relationship with Corrections Officer White.

While there, deputies discovered White was allegedly planning an escape that included taking a hostage. He was sent back to prison.

SINGLETON: When he was immediately returned back to the Department of Corrections. But he was brought back to our facility setting on February 25th of this year.

We do know and have confirmed that they were in touch via phone during that two-year period while he was in prison and she was still working here.

ROMERO: White was placed in the most restrictive custody level housed in a single cell, restrained and accompanied by armed guards at all times.

Sheriff Singleton says White was brought back to the Lauderdale County Detention Center in February, where Officer White worked ahead of the trial for the Ridgeway murder.

Inmates have come forward with new information about the two of them.

SINGLETON: They were saying he was getting special treatment. He was getting privileges, getting extra food on his tray that Vicky White was seeing that he got, that other inmates weren't getting.

ROMERO: Austin Williams says there should have been extra eyes om Casey White and anyone who was associated with him.

Now, he's worried. More people could be hurt by White while he's on the run.

WILLIAMS: I mean, really no one is safe who's in contact with him. And he -- and could snap at any moment. You can just snap at anything. And that's it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMERO: I want to make sure we say that we reached out to Casey White's attorneys multiple times, last weekend, throughout this week, as recently as yesterday by email and by phone, but we have yet to hear a response.

You just heard Connie Ridgeway's son, Austin Williams, say that he believes that Casey White could snap at any time. That is why authorities still believe that Vicky White, the former officer, the corrections officer, she could still be in trouble even if she was in on the whole scheme altogether -- Jessica?

DEAN: And, Nadia, before we let you go, how important are the tips ask leads they're getting in this investigation? We know they're coming from all across the country.

ROMERO: They're coming in and we know that this this is day eight and we don't know where either of them could be at this point.

We heard from the U.S. Marshals saying that every tip matters. Even if it's just the smallest details, it could help them figure out where they were or where they are -- Jessica?

DEAN: All right, Nadia Romero, for us live in Alabama, thanks so much.

And coming up, growing alarm about a mysterious and deadly hepatitis outbreak affecting young children. Why some kids are going from the doctor's office to the ICU in just a matter of hours.

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[17:52:46]

DEAN: The CDC is investigating more than 100 cases of severe and unexplained hepatitis in children. The CDC saying the cases are currently under investigation in 24 states and Puerto Rico.

Nearly all of the children, 94 percent, needed to be hospitalized. And 15 children needed liver transplants and five have died.

CNN health reporter, Jacqueline Howar, is following the story for us -- Jacqueline?

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JACQUELINE HOWARD, CNN HEALTH REPORTER: Here is what we know so far. CDC officials are looking for answers behind the unusual hepatitis cases among children. That's inflammation of the liver.

It's still not clear what's causing them but most of them also had adenovirus infections. These types of infections are common and can cause cold-like symptom, fever and sometimes diarrhea.

There's been reports before of hepatitis cases in immunocompromised kids with adenovirus. But the virus doesn't usually cause hepatitis in kid who are otherwise healthy.

The CDC says that for children who have hepatitis with an unknown cause, doctors should consider testing them for adenovirus. And doctors should report any unusual cases.

Although investigations are circling around adenovirus and how exactly it might cause hepatitis in kids, that is still unclear. We'll definitely keep monitoring this.

Back to you.

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DEAN: Jacqueline Howard for us. Thanks so much.

Since the start of this COVID-19 pandemic, anti-Asian hate crimes have surged in the U.S., increasing 164 percent last year in 16 of the nation's largest cities.

This week, "CNN Heroes" salutes Michelle Tran, a Chinese and Vietnamese-American whose nonprofit, Soar Over Hate, has provided more than 25,000 personal safety devices as well as self-defense classes to Asian-Americans.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHELLE TRAN, CNN HERO: The day of our distribution, the line surpassed four blocks around the neighborhood where people waited almost two hours to obtain a personal safety device from us.

To make the noise, you pull out the pin, and it scares people away and alerts people around you.

It was simultaneously heartbreaking but also motivating to see so many people come out. I think it highlighted the need and the fears that many folks like me are experiencing right now.

[17:55:11]

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you so much.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you so much.

TRAN: Stay safe. Bye.

I hope that our work saves lives. That's our only hope moving forward.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: To learn more about that story, you can go to CNNheroes.com.

And that's going to do it for me. I'm Jessica Dean, in for Jim Acosta tonight. I'll see you back here tomorrow at 4:00 p.m. Eastern.

Pamela Brown takes over the CNN NEWSROOM live after a quick break.

Have a great night.

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