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Police Face Growing Questions about Timeline, Response at Texas School; Uvalde Mourns 19 Students, 2 Teachers Killed in Attack; Report: Russian Actions Pose 'Serious Risk of Genocide'; Gun Control Legislation Remains Stalled in Congress; Ukraine War Sparks Fears China May Follow Russia's Playbook; Kevin Spacey Faces 4 Counts of Sexual Assault in U.K. Aired 12-1a ET
Aired May 27, 2022 - 00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JOHN VAUSE, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. Live from CNN world headquarters in Atlanta, I'm John Vause, and this is CNN NEWSROOM.
[00:01:58]
Texas officials are facing a growing number of questions, as well as increasing criticism of a law enforcement response to the mass shooting at Robb Elementary.
For two days now, the official account has been inconsistent, contradictory and outright confusing at times, with some major changes to some important details.
Did police exchange gunfire with the shooter as he entered the school? On Tuesday and Wednesday, the answer was yes. But Thursday, no. The shooter was never confronted by a school resource officer, or anyone, for that matter. It just never happened.
Authorities say it took up to an hour before the gunman was killed, and during that time, police were called for backup, evacuating students and teachers from other parts of the school. Negotiating with the suspect himself, pinning him down in a classroom.
But later said they did not know his exact location for an immediate takedown.
Video from outside the school shows parents screaming at police, pleading for them to enter the school and save their children. One parent told "The Wall Street Journal" she was put in handcuffs. Another claims to have been tackled by the police and thrown to the ground, while a third was pepper-sprayed.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JESSE RODRIGUEZ, FATHER OF ANNABELL RODRIGUEZ: As a father, I would -- I would've just went in. I don't need nobody telling me to go in and defend armless children. Why wait?
(END VIDEO CLIP) VAUSE: We have more now on the investigation from CNN's Ed Lavandera.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Two days after the mass shooting at Robb Elementary, the story of what happened when the gunman arrived on the campus has fundamentally changed.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's a lot of possibilities. I don't have enough information to answer that question just yet.
LAVANDERA (voice-over): The new details revealed in a bewildering press conference with the Texas Department of Public Safety.
VICTOR ESCALON, TEXAS DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY: He walked in unobstructed initially. He was not confronted by anybody. To go clear the record on that.
LAVANDERA (voice-over): Police revised earlier reports that the gunman engaged with a school resource officer. According to investigators, 12 minutes passed when the suspect crashed his grandmother's truck on Tuesday morning, and when he entered the school through an unlocked back door.
ESCALON: He went in at 11:40. He walked an approximate 20 feet, 30 feet. He makes a right. He walks into the hallway, he makes a right, walks another 20 feet, turns left into a school room, into a classroom that has doors open in the middle.
Officers were there. The initial officers that receive gunfire, they don't make entry initially because of the gunfire they're receiving.
LAVANDERA: Police say most of the gunfire was in the initial minutes. There was a standoff for almost an hour before police forced their way into a classroom and killed him. The question remains why they couldn't get to the gunmen sooner.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can you explain to us how he was barricaded?
ESCALON: I hear you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because we've been given a lot of bad information, so why don't you clear all of this up?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Like, the shooting, shooting, hitting the dirt on the floor, and --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The bullets were hitting close. Bullets from where?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I guess he was -- I guess he was coming from the school, this way.
[00:05:00]
LAVANDERA (voice-over): Parents were frustrated police wouldn't let them help save their children, despite safety procedures that keep people away from an active crime scene.
Jesse Rodriguez lost the daughter in his shooting. He's angered by what he saw officers doing outside the school.
RODRIGUEZ: They should have moved in, you know. I don't think they had a right to sit there on their ass, waiting. You know? They should have moved in faster.
LAVANDERA (voice-over): In all, more than 100 federal officers responded to the shooting, in addition to local police. For one young third grader hiding from the gunman, it seemed like even more.
CHANCE AGUIRRE, ROBB ELEMENTARY SCHOOL THIRD GRADER: All we saw were thousands of police and law patrol coming into the cafeteria. And we were all hiding behind a stage in the cafeteria when it happened.
LAVANDERA (voice-over): The Uvalde School District did have a safety plan with a system in place to provide a safe and secure environment, 21 measures, including a locked-door policy.
LT. CHRIS OLIVAREZ, TEXAS DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY: We're still trying to establish if there was any type of locking mechanisms on the doorway from the inside of the classroom, because the gunman was able to barricade himself.
LAVANDERA: The changing details over what happened when the gunmen went inside Robb Elementary is frustrating and angering many parents here, and what is still not clear is what the responding officers inside the school were doing during the hour that the gunman was barricaded inside the classroom.
Ed Lavandera, CNN, Uvalde, Texas.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: For two days now, the families of those who were shot and killed have been struggling with the pain and grief like no other. And it's about to get worse.
The bodies of 19 of the 21 victims have been released at funeral homes. So instead of celebrating the end of school and summer vacation, families are now planning funerals and memorial services.
In a small town like Uvalde, it seemed everyone knows everyone else, and no one is untouched by this tragedy. And then there are the youngest survivors, the little ones who saw what no child should ever see and will now live with those emotional scars for years to come.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AURALEIGHA SANTOS, STUDENT: I got really scared, and I didn't know who was hurt or dead. And then we started looking around on Facebook, and then I realized that all the people I knew were dead.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What do you mean, how many?
SANTOS: I knew all of them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: CNN's Lucy Kafanov has details now on lives lost in Uvalde.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LUCY KAFANOV, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Look at their faces. Fourth grader Jackie Cazares had her first baptism and first communion.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She was full of love, full of life. And she would do anything for anybody.
KAFANOV (voice-over): Nine-year-old Ellie Garcia was just a week from her tenth birthday.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sweetest girl you've ever, ever had the chance to meet.
KAFANOV (voice-over): Ten-year-old Nevaeh Bravo, her first name spelled backwards is "heaven." Angels now to their families, 19 children and two teacher. This is the pain of their loss.
ANGEL GARZA, RAISED AMERIE JO GARZA: How do you look at this girl and shoot her? Oh, my baby. How do you shoot my baby?
KAFANOV (voice-over): Angel Garza, who raised Amerie Jo Garza, wanted people to know that she tried to call 9-1-1 to save her classmates and teachers.
GARZA: She was the sweetest little girl who did nothing wrong. She listened to her mom and dad. She always brushed her teeth. She was creative. She made things for us. She never got in trouble at school.
KAFANOV (voice-over): Lexi Rubio loved sports, and at just ten years old, she dreamed of traveling the world.
FELIX RUBIO, FATHER OF LEXI RUBIO: She wanted to go to Australia.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She wanted to go to Australia?
KIMBERLY RUBIO, MOTHER OF LEXI RUBIO And to go to law school.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Law school?
K. RUBIO: At St. Mary's, because that's where I go.
KAFANOV (voice-over): Annabell Guadalupe Rodriguez, also ten, loved to dance and was in the same class as her cousin, Jackie Cazares. Jackie's father, Jacinto, called her a firecracker, posting his range of emotion, first at the cowardly way his daughter was killed: "It hurts us to our souls.
Then, a note to his daughter: "Be in peace with the rest of the angels, sweetheart. Baby girl, we all love you with all our hearts." At a community vigil in Uvalde, the dead are mourned. They include
teacher Irma Garcia, who was in her fifth year teaching alongside Eva Mireles. Both died, their families say, shielding students from gunfire.
Not lost here, the children still being treated in the hospital. A pediatric trauma director describes them as critical but stable, wishing there were more lives she could save.
DR. LILLIAN LIAO, DIRECTOR, UNIVERSITY HEALTH PEDIATRIC TRAUMA: I think that's what hit us the most. Not of the patients that we did receive, and we are honored to treat them, but the patients that we did not receive. That is the most challenging aspect of our job right now.
[00:10:03]
KAFANOV (voice-over): The Flores family was among those who rushed to hospitals in search of their children. It was there that Jose Flores Sr. lived the moment that would befall 21 families in this close-knit community.
JOSE FLORES SR., FATHER OF JOSE FLORES JR.: I didn't get to hold him no more. I didn't get to see him no more.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KAFANOV (on camera): And a tragic footnote to the piece that you just watched. We saw those images of Irma Garcia, the elementary school teacher gunned down in Tuesday's massacre. CNN has sadly learned that her husband, Joe Garcia, collapsed and died on Thursday morning. He was preparing for her funeral.
He suffered a heart attack, but his family says they believe he died of a broken heart after losing the love of his life for more than 25 years.
Lucy Kafanov, CNN, San Antonio, Texas.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Despite the mass shooting, the loss of lives, the carnage, the community in mourning, the National Rifle Association's annual convention will go ahead as planned, in Texas.
Members of the gun lobby will meet Friday in Houston. Among those who are expected to speak, former president, Donald Trump; junior Texas Senator Ted Cruz and Congressman Dan Crenshaw.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott will send a prerecorded video. He canceled his in-person appearance at the NRA convention so he could attend a news conference in Uvalde.
At least four musicians have canceled their performances at the convention. Tony Montalto's daughter Gina was 14 years old when she was killed by
gunmen during a mass shooting in 2018 in Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. He is founder and president of Stand Up for Parkland, which advocates for school safety.
Tony, thank you for being here. And I mentioned Tuesday must have been difficult day for you, to say the least. Now that you've had some time to process what happened in Texas, what are your thoughts now on where this country is in terms of gun control and gun violence?
TONY MONTALTO, FOUNDER AND PRESIDENT, STAND UP FOR PARKLAND: Well, anytime we see our students and teachers murdered in their school, it -- it greatly affects us. And of course, for my family, the news coming out of Uvalde took us right back to that terrible day in 2018, when we found out Gina, 13 of her classmates, and three of her teachers had been murdered at their school.
We feel for those families, and we know the pain they went through with the reunification process and the horror that they're going through now as they choose coffins for their children.
VAUSE: On Friday, the three-day annual NRA convention kicks off in Houston. It's about a four-hour drive up the U.S. 90 East from Uvalde. And while the decision to continue on with its annual conference not far and not long after a mass treating has drawn a lot of criticism, the mayor of Houston says the city cannot cancel the convention for legal reasons. Here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYOR SYLVESTER TURNER, HOUSTON, TEXAS: Even though the city cannot cancel a contract because we don't agree with their position on guns, certainly, the NRA can postpone that convention for a week or two to allow the families to bury their children.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Just a postponement. Not even that. That seems to be a fair point but one which the NRA and many of its members just seem oblivious to.
MONTALTO: Well, it's sad that they wouldn't consider the families of this tragedy.
VAUSE: The NRA is also pushing this idea that, if there were more guns in schools, if teachers were armed, that basically, the schools would be safer. And others just say that that is a fallacy.
MONTALTO: Well, actually, Stand Up Parkland and the National Association of Families for Safe Schools, which I'm the president of, we look at school safety in a uniquely nonpartisan and -- and inclusive way.
We also look at it holistically, with the school safety triad, which is securing the campus, better mental health screening and support programs, and finally, should you choose to own one, responsible firearms ownership.
We know that all of those three things failed us in February of 2018, and I'm sure we're going to find out that all three of those things failed the families in Uvalde.
(CROSSTALK)
VAUSE: Sorry -- Continue please, sir.
MONTALTO: In the aftermath we passed, you know, some laws here in the state of Florida. And one of them, we do require now, each school, to have an armed individual on campus. That armed individual is there to protect the children and the teachers, should the worst happen. We feel it's necessary.
It's been shown by the U.S. Secret Service and the National Threat Assessment Center, in their 2019 study on protecting America's schools, it was shown that none of the 43 attacks that they studied in that report was stopped by law enforcement coming from off the campus.
[00:15:05]
So the research shows that it's better to have someone armed on the campus. Now, to be clear, Stand with Parkland believes that should be a security professional or other school resource officer. It should not be an armed teacher. We are against arming teachers.
VAUSE: I want you to listen to part of the statement from the NRA. It reads, "As we gather in Houston, we will reflect on the events, pray for the victims, recognize our patriotic members, and pledge to redouble our commitment to making our schools secure."
And here's the White House press secretary to sort of correct the record if you like. Here she is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KARINE JEAN-PIERRE, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: So it's not about the convention. What is inappropriate is that the leadership of the National Rifle Association has proven time and time again that they are contributing to the problem of gun violence, not trying to solve it. They represent the interests of the gun industry, the gun manufacturers, who are marketing weapons of war to young adults.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: And in many ways, that's the issue here. It's not necessarily guns themselves or gun owners. You know, this is all about the deals which are being made in the back rooms to try and ease gun restrictions nationwide.
MONTALTO: I certainly don't think we need any easing of gun restrictions. However, we know that there are ways to allow people to own weapons while keeping us, the rest of us safe.
Some of the things that Stand with Parkland does support are background checks on weapons sales. We also support, once you own one, safe storage. That means someplace where it's not -- not accessible by children, and where it's not likely to be stolen.
And finally, we believe in red-flag laws, or extremist protection laws, which we passed here in Florida, sadly, in the wake of the shooting that took my daughter and her classmates, and her teachers.
But these laws, after a due process period, do allow someone who's deemed a threat to themselves or others to have their weapons removed until they can come back and prove that they are no longer a threat. This keeps firearms in the hands of responsible owners. Yet, it keeps the rest of us safe without restricting anybody's rights.
So those three simple things would go a long way to solving the firearms problem in this country.
VAUSE: Well, we'll see what happens in the coming days, and weeks. Maybe this time, it will be different. Tony Montalto, thank you for your minutes, sir.
MONTALTO: Thank you, have a good night.
VAUSE: The latest on the war in Ukraine is just ahead, with details on why the U.S. is now considering supplying Ukraine with one of the most formidable weapons, as Russians gain ground in Eastern Ukraine.
Plus, a damning new report condemns Russia's aggression in Ukraine, for its flagrant violations of the Genocide Convention. We'll speak with the report's author, in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[00:22:08]
VAUSE: Welcome back. It seems Ukraine's military continues to slow the Russian advance in Donbas from coming in from the North. Still, Russian forces have made modest gains in recent days. The central Donbas region has been under constant and intense Russian assault for weeks.
U.S. defense officials say the Russians are trying to push towards the cities of Kramatorsk and Sloviansk. Multiple sources say the Biden administration is now Ukraine's request for advanced rockets that have a much greater range than the recently deployed Howitzers.
A new video from Mariupol shows one of Russia's so-called filtration centers set up in a supermarket. Sources familiar with Western intelligence say it's through facilities like this that hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians have been forcibly sent to Russia from Eastern Ukraine.
As noted by Ukraine's president, the mass deportation and other acts of aggression are further evidence of genocide.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): In cities and communities closer to the Russian border, in Donetsk and Luhansk's, they gather everyone they can to fill the place of those killed and wounded in the occupation contingent. All of this, including the deportation of our people and the mass killings of civilians is an obvious policy of genocide pursued by Russia.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: President Zelenskyy's claim of genocide by Russia is now backed up by a damning new report by more than 30 international experts. They conclude criminal propaganda, destruction of Ukrainian cultural sites, mass graves, forced relocations of Ukrainians and more pose "a serious risk of genocide, triggering all states' obligation to act in order to prevent under Article I of the Genocide Convention."
Azeem Ibrahim is the director of the New Lines Institute, a nonpartisan Washington think tank, as well as author of the report on Russian breaches of the Genocide Convention.
Professor, thank you very much for being with us.
AZEEM IBRAHIM, DIRECTOR, NEW LINES INSTITUTE: Thanks so much for having me.
VAUSE: OK, so this report points out the main purpose of the Genocide Convention is essentially prevention, as well as the responsibility to act by all 152 countries who are signatories to this, and that includes Russia, and when they should intervene.
"The instant that the states learn of, or should normally have learned of, the existence of a serious risk that genocide will be committed."
It would seem, when it comes to Ukraine, we reached that point a long time ago.
IBRAHIM: Yes, you're absolutely right, John. You know, the word "genocide" is used very often, and it's used very interchangeably with mass murder. But it does have a very precise, legal definition, which is articulated in the 1948 Genocide Convention.
And that is an intent to destroy an entire group of people. This is a first report from the New Lines/Wallenberg Institute to examine whether Russians' actions have breached the Genocide Convention.
We put together three teams of experts, open-source intelligence experts, language experts and an army of lawyers, who are 35 of the top legal minds, that examine the evidence. And the conclusions are very clear, and the conclusions are damning that this Russian federation is in clear breach of the Genocide Convention.
There'd be a state responsibility for incitement to committing genocide. And there's a pattern of their atrocities that indicate that they have an intention to destroy Ukrainian as a national and ethnic group. And so the conclusion of this is essentially that there is a very
serious risk of genocide, which triggers Article I of the Genocide Convention, which is to prevent a full-scale genocide from actually occurring.
VAUSE: Let's take a look at some of those details, though, that you mentioned. So in terms of atrocities, the report has found "national and international investigators and analysts have documented rapidly expanding mass graves and a pattern of Ukrainian civilian corpses found with hands tied, tortured and shot at close range."
In this report, the point is made that many of these Russian soldiers have been totally immersed in Russian state propaganda. So how does that build into this case for genocide?
IBRAHIM: Yes, we have to understand, John, that that it is not the killing itself, but the manner in which they're killed that would constitute genocide. It's intent.
And we can see from the propaganda that's emerging from Russia and the manner in which that propaganda has been interpreted on the ground that this is a genocidal war that Russia is engaging in in Ukraine.
For example, Putin in one of his essays, has clearly indicated himself that he does not believe Ukraine is a real country. He believes that it is an artificial creation. The chair of the Duma, for example, said that there is no Ukraine; there is no Ukrainian-ness. And this is a disorder of the mind, and there is no nation.
And we've seen these repeated claims, a denial of Ukraine existing. A denial of people of Ukraine, their own identity.
And this is not just rhetoric. It's actually translated into action. We have reports of over 180,000 Ukrainian children that have been transferred forcibly into Russia and dispersed throughout Russia to ensure that they do not coalesce and -- as a collective identity group.
And so the evidence is overwhelming in terms of what Russia's intentions are in Ukraine. It is to wipe out Ukrainian identity.
VAUSE: A hundred and 80,000 children, that is staggering.
There are individual actions of the Russian soldiers, as well as the big picture of military tactics. And on that, in this report, you write, "In besieging cities, Russian forces have followed a similar pattern of striking water, power, and communication sources early on, and further targeting medical facilities, grain warehouses and aid distribution centers, demonstrating a military strategy and policy of deliberately inflicting fatal conditions on Ukrainian inhabitants."
And the argument goes on that this directive must have come all the way from Vladimir Putin, either directly or implied. So what does that actually mean now in terms of state responsibility for genocide?
IBRAHIM: Well, the implications are very clear. The Genocide Convention was set up to prevent and punish genocide. And on too many occasions, you know, we only examined genocide after the fact. It becomes an academic exercise: Were we looking at a situation of genocide? Was Srebrenica genocide? Was Darfur a genocide?
And the purpose of the convention is to actually prevent genocide. And so here, we have a situation in which the evidence is overwhelming. And the evidence has now been presented. So the obligation is now on all 151 state parties who are signatories to the Genocide Convention to intervene and put a stop to the Russian destruction aggression in Ukraine before it spills over into a full-scale genocide, which will then be too late.
VAUSE: Never again, huh? Azeem Ibrahim in Washington, thank you. Thank you, sir. Appreciate you being with us.
Well, Texas authorities are facing some angry questions. Why did it take so long to stop the attack on an elementary school, while hysterical parents pleaded for police to do something? The latest on the investigation in a moment.
And in Washington, could Republicans long opposed to any kind of gun control laws be softening ever so slightly, or just cracking under the pressure? The tiny step they're taking towards a possible compromise. Back in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[00:33:42]
VAUSE: Welcome back to our viewers here in United States and around the world. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm John Vause.
Unsettling questions are emerging about the timeline of the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, as well as the police response. A law enforcement official says the shooter was not confronted by police before entering the school, which contradicts earlier comments from authorities.
And it took more than an hour for officers to take down the 18-year- old gunmen. The lengthy response time and lack of communication to the public caused chaos outside the school. Frantic parents started arriving, desperate to know if their kids were still alive, begging officers to go inside the school and stop the shooter, or let them do it.
Meantime, on the other side of the country, support from a community that knows the particular pain felt in Uvalde.
A candlelit service was held in Newtown, Connecticut, where a hauntingly similar massacre happened at Sandy Hook Elementary almost a decade ago.
Republicans have long refused to compromise on gun control. Many, like Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, have received hefty campaign contributions from the National Rifle Association.
But he and other conservatives are under tremendous pressure to take action.
McConnell exclusively told CNN that he's now calling for a bipartisan effort on a potential legislative response to the shooting by encouraging Republican Senator John Cornyn of Texas to begin discussions with Democrats.
[00:35:08]
The other Republican senator from Texas, Ted Cruz, shows no willingness to budge on gun reform. He was pressed on the issue by two reporters, one of them from Sky News, and got very defensive.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But why does this only happen in your country? I really think that's what many people around the world just, they cannot fathom. Why only in America? Why is this American exceptionalism so awful?
SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX): You know, I'm sorry you think American exceptionalism is so awful. And --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think this aspect -- I think this aspect of it.
CRUZ: You've got your political agenda. God love you.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why is America the only country that faces this kind of --
CRUZ: You know what?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- mass shooting?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can't answer that. You can't answer that, can you sir? You can't answer that. Why is this country --
CRUZ: Why is that people come from all over the world to America? Because it's the freest, most prosperous, safest country on Earth.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Democracy --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It may be the freest.
CRUZ: Stop being a propagandist.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It may be the most --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Meanwhile, the U.S. president is preparing to meet with victims of the families. He's heading to Uvalde on Sunday. CNN's Phil Mattingly has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: As the country continues to try and grapple --
MATTINGLY (voice-over): -- with the horrors that cost the lives of 21 people down in Uvalde, Texas, 19 children, President Biden will soon be down there himself with the first lady to meet with the families, to grieve with families, to let them know --
MATTINGLY: -- the entire country is thinking about them in this moment. This was how the White House press secretary framed that visit.
JEAN-PIERRE: While he's there, the president will meet with the community leaders, religious leaders and the families of the victims. The president and first lady believe it is important to show their support for the community during this devastating time, and to be there for the families of the victims.
MATTINGLY: Now, the visit is set. The president will arrive there on Sunday. But what happens next from a policy perspective in a country where these shootings, these mass shootings, these shootings at schools or grocery stores, places of worship, that remains very much an open question. It's been an open question for years, decades, even, as efforts on Capitol Hill have started and failed, repeatedly.
Once again, an effort has started. Whether or not it's actually going to get anything across the finish line to the president's desk, also still a very open question.
There is a group of nine Republicans and Democrats in the U.S. Senate that had their first meeting on Thursday, trying to figure out some type of bipartisan compromise.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell --
MATTINGLY (voice-over): -- a long-time gun rights advocate, has given the greenlight to his members in the Republican caucus to try and find some bipartisanship compromise.
MATTINGLY: However, when you talk to White House officials here behind the scenes, they make clear they are very skeptical that this time will be different --
MATTINGLY (voice-over): -- despite the fact President Biden has repeatedly said in the wake of this shooting that this time has to be different.
The White House itself not deeply engaged in this point in time in those negotiations, waiting to see what happens in these talks over the course of the next several days; making clear the president will continue to urge lawmakers to do something.
MATTINGLY: One official saying earlier today the president can't do this himself. Congress has to do its job. That process has started. Whether anything changes when it comes to legislation, whether anything actually get to the president's desk, that process failing so many times up to this point, certainly, has a long road ahead.
Phil Mattingly, CNN, the White House.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: The Democrat nominee for governor of Texas is doubling down on his criticism of the current Republican governor over the response to the shooting.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sit down!
BETO O'ROURKE (D), TEXAS GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE: The time to stop the next shooting is right now, and you're doing nothing. You're offering us nothing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Beto O'Rourke was shouted down as he confronted Greg Abbott at a press conference in Uvalde on Wednesday. The Democrat blames Abbott for gun violence in the state, partly because the governor encouraged people to, in his words, "take matters into their own hands" after an earlier mass shooting in El Paso three years ago.
Now, O'Rourke says he has no regrets about what he did.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
O'ROURKE: We can continue to do things the same way and expect a different result, but that's the definition of insanity. Or we can decide that we're going to stand up for one another and change this, and do everything we can to make sure that not another child is killed in their own school. Not another teacher has to face a gunman with an AR-15 weapon originally designed for use on a battlefield.
To commit ourselves to changing this, so this does not become our permanent future or fate. I'm going to do everything I can. I'm going to do whatever it takes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: O'Rourke is facing an uphill battle when he runs against Abbott in November in very conservative Texas.
The White House makes it official, announces a long-term strategy towards China. Up next, how the U.S. plans to keep up pressure on Beijing but still nudge it to negotiate.
Plus, growing concern China could decide invade Taiwan. How experts say Beijing is likely taking notes from Russia's war on Ukraine, on how to proceed.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[00:44:04]
VAUSE: Well, it's taken 1 months, but now the Biden administration has a China strategy. Secretary of State Antony Blinken outlined it in a speech on Thursday, saying China poses the most serious long-term challenge to the international order.
To counter that, Blinken says the U.S. will close ranks with its allies, be ready to defend its interests. But heh also says Washington does not want to start a new cold war or change its political system. That's China's political system. Instead, Blinken is making it clear the door is open to diplomacy.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANTONY BLINKEN, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: This is a charged moment for the world. And at times like these, diplomacy is vital. It's how we make clear our profound concerns, better understand each other's perspectives, and have no doubt about each other's intentions. We stand ready to increase our direct communication with Beijing across a full range of issues.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Blinken made the announcement against the backdrop of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. He calls it alarming that China is defending Moscow. Washington is concerned China may take a page from Russia's playbook and do the same with Taiwan.
[00:45:10]
Senior international correspondent Ivan Watson has our report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Russia and China enjoy a friendship with no limits. This announcement made by the Russian and Chinese president when they met on February 4, on the eve of the Beijing Winter Olympics.
Twenty days later, soon after the end of the Olympics, Moscow invaded Ukraine. Russia's unprovoked war sparking fears China could have similar plans for Taiwan.
Beijing claims the self-governing island belongs to China. Asked if he would get involved in militarily to fund Taiwan against China, the U.S. president had this explicit warning.
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You are?
BIDEN: That's the commitment we made.
WATSON: Beijing has long called for peaceful reunification with Taiwan, but it has also never ruled out using force against Taiwan's democratically-elected government.
And when it comes to military force, China dwarfs Taiwan, boasting the largest navy in the world and the largest air force in the region. But if Russia's deadly adventure in Ukraine taught strategists anything, it's that size doesn't always matter.
BONNIE GLASER, GERMAN MARSHALL FUND OF THE U.S.: A country may clearly have a conventional military advantage over an adversary, but that doesn't mean that it would necessarily achieve easy military or political victory.
WATSON: The war in Ukraine highlights another potential challenge for China. To attack Ukraine, Russian troops simply drove across the border from Russia and from neighboring Belarus.
But to reach Taiwan, Chinese forces would have to cross the Taiwan Strait, more than 100 miles, 180 kilometers of open water.
PHILLIPS O'BRIEN, PROFESSOR OF STRATEGIC STUDIES, ST. ANDREWS UNIVERSITY: Amphibious assaults are the most difficult complex operations in warfare. If the Chinese tried to send an invasion force from the mainland to Taiwan, they would have to contend with salvos of anti-ship missiles. And what we would see is a massacre of shipping, probably, in the waters around Taiwan.
WATSON: The Russian navy has suffered major losses from suspected Ukrainian anti-ship missiles, first losing this landing ship in the Russian-occupied port of Berdyansk. And then losing the Moskva, the flagship of the Russian Black Sea fleet.
Analysts say Taiwan has a much larger arsenal of anti-ship missiles at its disposal. And its military has been training for 70 years against the threat of a Chinese invasion.
KEN JIMBO, PROFESSOR, KEIO UNIVERSITY: China is learning a lesson, from Ukraine. Both in a positive and also in the negative manner.
WATSON (voice-over): Early in his Ukraine war, Vladimir Putin publicly put Russia's nuclear weapons on alert, a thinly-veiled threat to the West.
JIMBO: Probably that the China will bring in the kind of advantage of the nuclear threats in the early phase of the scenario. That will potentially, I think, change the calculation of Washington, D.C.
WATSON: As a warning to the U.S., China's foreign ministry declared this week that no force in the world can stop China from achieving unification with Taiwan.
Ivan Watson, CNN, Hong Kong.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: A tragic scene coming out of Western Senegal. Eleven newborn babies dead in a fire at a neonatal unit at a hospital.
The country's health minister says the fire may have come from an initial (ph) short circuit. He also says hospital staff tried to intervene.
The president there has ordered an investigation, as well as three days of national mourning.
When we come back, actor Kevin Spacey facing new sexual assault charges, this time in the U.K. A detailed report after the break.
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[00:53:2]
VAUSE: British prosecutors have authorized criminal charges against Kevin Spacey. The Academy Award -winning actor faces four counts of sexual assault that allegedly took place between 2005 and 2013.
CNN's Clare Sebastian has the latest, reporting in from London.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The announcement Thursday by the U.K.'s Crown Prosecution Service relates to four separate counts of alleged sexual assault by Kevin Spacey --
SEBASTIAN (voice-over): -- involving three men that took place between 2005 and 2013.
There's also a fifth potential charge of, quote, "causing a person to engage in a penetrative sexual activity without consent."
SEBASTIAN: The CBS's decision to authorize criminal charges follows an investigation by London's Metropolitan Police.
SEBASTIAN (voice-over): It will now be up to them to formally charge the 62-year-old actor. In a statement, the Met said this would happen at a later date.
Well, Kevin Spacey, a double Academy Award-winning actor, has faced a series of sexual assault and harassment allegations in the past. In 2017, Netflix dropped him from the hit series "House of Cards" after a CNN report uncovered allegations of sexual harassment on the set of the show.
That same year, the Old Vic Theatre in London, where he was artistic director between 2004 and 2015, uncovered 20 allegations of inappropriate behavior by Spacey.
The actor had, though, been set to return to the public eye after being cast last year as a detective --
SEBASTIAN: -- in an Italian movie.
Clare Sebastian, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: And we should note, CNN has tried to receive Spacey's representative. They did not immediately respond for comment.
[00:55:00] Hollywood's consummate goodfellow, the actor Ray Liotta, has died.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What do you do?
RAY LIOTTA, ACTOR: I'm in construction.
If we wanted something, we just took it, and you didn't even think about it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Liotta played tough guy Henry Hill in the film "Goodfellas." He played it so well it became his trademark role.
But he denied he was a fighter. A costar once called him "mushy on the inside."
According to his publicist, Liotta died in his sleep. He was at a hotel in the Dominican Republic, where he was filming a movie. Costars say they're shattered at his death, an actor so versatile he also played a sensitive Shoeless Joe Jackson in "Field of Dreams."
And he did commercials and soap operas, and was always working, it seems.
Liotta leaves his fiancee and his daughter behind. He was 67.
You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm John Vause. Back with a lot more news after a very short break.
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