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Biden Gets Emotional In Buffalo: "White Supremacy Is A Poison"; High-Stakes Senate And Governor's Races In Pennsylvania; Proposed NY Congressional Map Could Pit Longtime Democratic Members Against Each Other. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired May 17, 2022 - 15:00   ET

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

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: So it is that lower dose and it's five months plus after the second shot. What we saw with adults are actually with anyone over age 12 that the risk of death went down 20 times with a booster, that's according to a CNN analysis. That's a huge difference. So if your child is at that five months plus place after their second shot, go ahead and get that booster.

ERICA HILL, CNN HOST: Get the booster. I feel like we've said that a few times, Elizabeth. Appreciate it. Thank you.

COHEN: I think so. Thanks.

HILL: Top of the hour here on CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Erica Hill in today for Alisyn Camerota.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Victor Blackwell in Buffalo, New York.

Poison, that's how President Biden is labeling white supremacy in America. His condemnation came after he visited the site of the latest racist rampage. The deadliest this year that left hand black Americans dead.

HILL: This morning, the President and the First Lady laid flowers at the Tops market where as you can see here, a makeshift memorial has been growing. During his remarks, Biden blasted the surge in white supremacy. He noted again how it motivated him to run for office more than three years ago.

Police say it is that surge and help to radicalize a white teenager to commit this mass murder in Buffalo.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: White supremacy is a poison. It's a poison running through our - it really is. Running through our body politic and has been allowed to fester and grow right in front of our eyes. No more. I mean, no more. We need to say as clearly and forcefully as we can that the ideology of white supremacy has no place in America.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BLACKWELL: And moments ago, the Mayor of Buffalo spoke to reporters.

He said that the President and the First Lady met with the families individually. And the Mayor also condemned the hate that investigators say was behind the killings.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR BYRON BROWN (D) BUFFALO, NY: The level of hatred in the heart and head of this individual is a stunning. It's staggering to know that that kind of hate, that kind of evil, that kind of premeditated evil exists in our nation, exists in the state of New York. I think much more has to be done about social media and hate speech on social media, hate speech that comes out over our airwaves.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Let me turn now to CNN Shimon Prokupecz here with me in Buffalo. The more - the mayor talked about more in this news conference, what did he say?

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CRIME & JUSTICE REPORTER: Right. So in terms of the visit with the President, they talked about gun control, they talked about how they could bring change to some of the laws and as it relates to people who are suffering from mental health and having access to weapons, so that's some of the political stuff.

More importantly, for this community is opening the supermarket, right?

BLACKWELL: Yes.

PROKUPECZ: We've been talking to people here who say this is essentially a food desert, so he's hoping he could get that reopened soon. They're still processing the crime scene. Just think about it, we're several days into this and how extensive and big this crime scene is that the FBI has been here now for several days still processing that crime scene.

He also talked about funerals, saying that one of the first funerals he expects to take place here on Saturday, tomorrow, they expect to start releasing the bodies to these families so they could start officially making plans for those funerals. And then he talked about the police officers to continue - we keep hearing this from the police commissioner and other officials, the heroic work by these police officers and, of course, that retired police officer, the security guard, who exchanged gunfire with the alleged shooter and prevented things from being far worse.

BLACKWELL: Yes. What more we learned about the investigation here, specifically what the suspected gunman had on it?

PROKUPECZ: So there was body armor, of course, as we know and that helmet.

BLACKWELL: Yes. PROKUPECZ: But it was also the weapons. He had a total of three

weapons on him. Those weapons were purchased legally, according to the police here. There was nothing to stop him from having access to those weapons. One of the gun store owners where he purchased one of these weapons - it's a store in Pennsylvania, but the owner there spoke to CNN and said there was nothing to prevent him from buying this weapon. This was in December of 2021.

Now keep in mind, Victor, this is months after we get we got word of this mental health evaluation. Even that - there was no real legal basis according to the police commissioner here, even with that mental health evaluation to prevent the shooter from buying that weapon.

BLACKWELL: All right. Shimon Prokupecz with the latest on the reporting. Thank you very much.

[15:05:02]

Let's go now to CNN's Joe Johns. Joe, in Buffalo today, President Biden said that silence on white supremacy is complicited (ph).

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Right. And it was very important to because the administration was hearing more and more and not just from journalists that they needed to actually go out and call out some of these purveyors of hate, for example, on the internet, and by name because other politicians had been doing it as well.

Nonetheless important to say, the first part of the President's speech was really sort of an elegy to both the victims and the survivors of this horrific event in Buffalo. And then he turned to these other issues, talking about both domestic terrorism, he called this crime, as well as the dissemination of hate. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: In America, evil will not win, I promise you. Hate will not prevail. And white supremacy will not have the last word. What happened here is simple and straightforward terrorism, terrorism, domestic terrorism.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JOHNS: So for all those people who may wonder why the President has not called out people by name who are purveyors of hate, as we say, and the White House had already sent out the word that there are a couple of reasons. The first reason was that this, they said, was a day to console the City of Buffalo and the other more practical reason they simply say they don't want to give the people who are putting this kind of information out there any more of a platform than they already have. Victor, back to you.

BLACKWELL: Joe Johns for us. Joe, thank you for that.

An eight-year-old girl was in the Tops supermarket when the gunman started shooting. Her name is Londin Thomas. She was looking at cake mixes with her father while her mother was in a different parts of the store and listen to what she says happened next.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LONDIN THOMAS, EIGHT-YEAR-OLD BUFFALO SHOOTING SURVIVOR: He went to the back of the store where the milk is and like we - it was - the door was locked and we cannot get out until like the manager open the door. Then we had to go out the back door and then like the cops lead us out.

I was scared for my mom. I do not know what happened to her because she was at the front and I was at the back. I didn't know where she was. I thought she was gone.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Unimaginable, eight years old. Now she made it out safely. Her family made it out and she described the 20 minutes when she was separated, the mom says, from her daughter as the longest wait of her life.

Community activist Dominique Calhoun was on her way to the Tops supermarket with her kids to get some ice cream when the shooting started. She's with me here now. Thank you for spending some time with me. Just tell me, you were in the parking lot, when all of this started. Tell me what happened.

DOMINIQUE CALHOUN, SHOOTING AFTERMATH WITNESS: My two daughters and I were pulling into the Tops parking lot and I smelled what I thought to be a strong scent of metal, but now that I know it to be gunpowder. And when we got to the parking lot, people were running out screaming.

I backed out into the Family Dollar parking lot across the street and I parked. And then I walked over to where everyone was standing at and there was a woman and she was screaming at the top of her lungs that her baby was still inside. And at the time I didn't know what was going on until I got - closer to the Tops entrance and that's when I've seen all of the bodies laying in the front of the entrance of Tops.

BLACKWELL: You saw the bodies in the parking lot.

CALHOUN: Yes.

BLACKWELL: And then at that time could you still hear gunshots inside?

CALHOUN: I was in shock and there was so many screams of people coming out of - screams of people going inside for their loved ones. People were pulling up. The officers are still coming onto the scene. But they said that he was still actively inside. And now that I've looked at the footage, yes, he was still inside.

BLACKWELL: Dominique, I'm certain you have thought about this, but one red light, one moment to rush out a little quicker and you and your girls could have been in that grocery store.

CALHOUN: Yes. Yes. I mean, my prayers go out to all of the family members that were affected by this tragedy, they're survivors, our community. This is devastating. We will never be okay. We will never get over this. Someone came into our community. I live right here at the corner. And to 10 of the people that we love, elders from our community, mothers, daughters, brothers, sisters, friends, it's just devastating.

[15:10:00]

And I can't begin to even imagine if it were me and my kids and they're the little girl, that eight-year-old girl that hid in the freezer, my child is eight, this is something this community will never forget.

BLACKWELL: I said at the top you're a community activist.

CALHOUN: Yes.

BLACKWELL: You live here in 14208.

CALHOUN: Yes.

BLACKWELL: And the alleged shooter targeted this, according to police, because it has a high percentage of black residents here. The president today talked about silence on white supremacy is compliciting (ph). What did those comments mean to hear the President come here to this city to say that?

CALHOUN: Well, we were targeted because we're poor black in America and that is the reality of being black in America here. It's just - it's a horrible thing and they keep saying that he came from the outside to Buffalo, but the real reality of it is the way that he thinks, the ideology that he thinks a lot more people in Western New York thinks the same.

Just recently, it was a post on Facebook that there were law enforcement officers laughing at this tragedy. They were making jokes online on their personal Facebook pages about the shooting. So it's not an isolated thought process. It's one that we have to be very clear that it still exists when they're trying to take racism out of the history books and try to not teach our kids that exists, it's still very alive and well here in Buffalo, New York and Western New York and all over.

BLACKWELL: We know that there have been these copycat threats from the DA who says that there were calls made to a pizzeria referencing Tops. There was a call to a brewery, that man has been arrested, could face up to seven years in prison.

Let me ask you now that this, and Shimon mentioned this, this grocery store is closed and will be for some time. What's that mean to this community? Tops has a grocery giveaway and some transport but this is not a resource for now.

CALHOUN: We're already living in a food desert here in Buffalo, New York. We have no access to healthy eating or food really, especially right here on this place that it's occurred. This is the only grocery store here in this neighborhood, so people really will have to travel up for at least 15 or 20 minutes just to get access and many of these people don't even have transportation.

Many of these people are elderly. Many of these people are disabled. So it's just - it's a sad thing. I hope that we can come together as a community because once the yellow tape is gone, once the media leaves, we're still going to have to pick up the pieces and try to figure out how do we help these families in this community get past this.

BLACKWELL: Yes. Dominique Calhoun, thank you so much.

CALHOUN: Thank you.

BLACKWELL: Thank you. Erica, this is obviously - the greatest loss here is the loss of life, those 10 people who were killed here. There are three who are still recovering from bullet wounds. But once the cameras pack up, the President is now gone and the flowers at the memorials, they dry and they die, what then can this community do to come together? What will be the protection for communities like this across the country?

Those are the questions we have to ask next week and next month as we continue to see these mass shootings throughout our country.

HILL: Yes. It's absolutely essential. And as we've heard and we've heard from your reporting, and from our teams there in the ground and other residents speaking out, they have felt the need for better protection and for better resources in their community for some time. This is really exposing that to so many more and it is essential that those needs are not lost when, as you point out, the cameras go away. And so we'll continue to follow it.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

HILL: Victor, thank you. The suspected California church shooter in court today. You'll hear from survivors, just ahead, about the moment they confronted him.

Also ahead, it is primary day in America, voters casting their ballots across five states. We're going to break down which races to watch ahead of tonight's special coverage.

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[15:18:23]

HILL: It's the biggest primary day so far this year, high stakes races being closely watched in both North Carolina and Pennsylvania, races which will also mark the latest test former President Donald Trump's endorsement power. Just moments ago we learned John Fetterman Democratic front runner for the Pennsylvania Senate seat there will receive a pacemaker. This, of course, follows news of his stroke a few days ago. He is still in the hospital recovering. We're told he voted today from the hospital via emergency absentee ballot.

Abby Phillip is CNN Senior Political Correspondent and the host of INSIDE POLITICS SUNDAY, Scott Jennings is a former Special Assistant to President George W. Bush and a CNN political commentator. Nice to see you both this afternoon.

So Abby, let's start in Pennsylvania here with this sort of unexpected three-way race that has thrown a lot of people for a loop in the Republican Senate nomination in Pennsylvania. Trump, of course, endorsing Dr. Oz in a close battle there with former hedge fund CEO David McCormick and now the rising conservative activist Kathy Barnette. How much is this race a real test for Trump's hold on the party, Abby?

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, yes, Erica, there's a lot going on in Pennsylvania, which is why tonight will be so interesting on a number of fronts. But what is happening in the Republican race is fascinating, because I don't necessarily think that this is about Trump's hold on the Republican Party. Trump has a hold on the Republican Party and you can tell because all three of the candidates that we're talking about are all people who are fighting with each other about who is really the inheritor of Trump's legacy, who is the heir to Donald Trump.

[15:20:05]

And so that's where things get, I think, interesting. This is a question of is the Republican electorate - are they moving past Trump, the man himself, and onto candidates that are even potentially trying to outtrump Trump. I mean, in this race, Trump is almost playing the role of the establishment here.

He is picking a candidate who seems disconnected from where the beating heart of the Republican electorate is and I think that is what is being tested tonight, is it enough to have Trump next to your name, meaning Trump has endorsed you or has the movement, the rank and file of the Republican Party, are they making the decision about who really is the Trumpiest candidate in this race.

HILL: Which will be fascinating to watch as we watch those results come in. I'm curious, too, Scott, as Abby sets that up for us, I spoke with former Congressman Charlie Dent in our last hour, who also pointed out just how maddening this chaotic scene is in Pennsylvania and potentially how helpful that could be to Democrats moving forward and moving into November. Is that concerning too?

SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Of course, I mean, the Republican Party is still haunted by the ghosts of 2010 and 2012, when the party nominated bad candidates in several states and failed to pick up the United States Senate, even though gains were being made elsewhere. So that that is definitely on the mind of party leaders in Washington, D.C.

I think this whole Pennsylvania situation, too, is interesting and that - and I think Abby hit the nail on the head, Trump got behind a candidate who immediately a lot of his people in Pennsylvania second guessed his decision. And so if that person doesn't win, it'll be interesting to see how he reacts to his own people there if they don't rally around Dr. Oz. But I'm sure Donald Trump sees himself in Dr. Oz, a TV guy, not a long

standing Republican kind of an apostate on several issues. But I think he views television staying power and television celebrity as the most important credential and policy credentials come second. I mean, that's kind of how he ran it in 2016.

HILL: Yes.

JENNINGS: So it is a real interesting test of celebrity versus conservative credentials. And as Abby knows, in a three way race, you get two people wail on each other, there's always room for a third person to slip right up the middle.

HILL: I mean, it creates a lane, doesn't it, and this is what we're seeing. I want to pick up on one thing you just noted, Scott, about what we're seeing in terms of who Trump is endorsing, where he's throwing his support, how that's going to look, right, the morning after. What's really interesting is this sort of last minute and maybe you should give him a second chance pseudo endorsement of Madison Cawthorn. Do you think that is something that comes from a place of, oh, hey, this guy might win. So I should sort of put my support behind him so I can check another box in the win column?

JENNINGS: Oh, I think above all, Donald Trump cares most about his one loss record. And so he's endorsed in a lot of races around the country this year where the outcomes really are in doubt, because they like to run up the score. I think that's why back in Pennsylvania, he got on Mastriano for governor, because it's quite clear he's running away with the gubernatorial primary there. So he wants - so if he were to lose the Senate race, at least there, he could say, well, I want the governor's race.

So I think in the case of Cawthorn, extremely damaged candidacy, aided by a fragmented field and possibly will survive because of that. And so, if Donald Trump is able to jump on that and take credit for it, that's what's best for him and so that's what he's going to do. But I can tell you one thing, it's not what's best for the Republican Party and I hope the constituents in Cawthorn's district realize they could do a lot better than this guy.

HILL: Abby, I want to get your take on what we're seeing here in New York State. Obviously, the primaries in New York are not today, but boy, they just been shaken up a little bit. It's a major blow really to Democrats. So this proposed new version of New York's congressional map, we're talking about races that will pit incumbents against one another for next month's primaries. Democrats are already worried about losing the House. How concerning is this new map?

PHILLIP: Yes. I think this is an area where Democrats are - they're facing a map that gives Republicans some competitiveness and maybe three or so seats. And when you're talking about control of the House, which is probably going to - it's going to fall on maybe a handful of seats, this really, really matters. And then on top of that, as you mentioned, some of the new districts that are being drawn are going to pit incumbent Democrats against incumbent Democrats in a number of different seats. So it's just - I mean, I think from - for the Democratic Party, it's

probably a headache, but it's also a little bit of a problem because they're going to have some bloody primaries here in this race, and then they're going to - in Long Island, they're going to be dealing with some seats where they're just not favored to win.

[15:24:58]

And in the big picture, in a redistricting environment in which Democrats thought that they did actually fairly okay given the national environment in redistricting, they thought it wasn't as bad as it could have been in New York. It has been pretty bad, but then you also look at a state like Florida, you add Florida to the picture and you're looking at enough seats now in contention for Republicans that control of the House is very much in play and it's not looking very good for Democrats in an already bad year.

HILL: Abby Phillip, Scott Jennings, great to have you both here this afternoon, thank you.

JENNINGS: Thank you.

HILL: Be sure to be sure to stay with CNN for Election Night in America. Our special live coverage begins right here tonight 7 pm Eastern.

As we continue to follow the developments out of Buffalo, it is not the only federal hate crime shooting investigation in this country right now. There was another underway in Dallas after someone shot several people in a Korean-owned salon. We have those details for you ahead.

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