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Latest on Uvalde, Texas School Shooting; Russia's War on Ukraine Continues; Ukraine War Sparks Fears China May Follow Russia's Playbook; Police Face Growing Questions About Timeline, Response; Kevin Spacey Faces 4 Counts Of Sexual Assault In UK; Students, Parents Describe Horror Of The Attack. Aired 2-3a ET
Aired May 27, 2022 - 02:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[02:00:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PAULA NEWTON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hello and welcome to our viewers here in the United States and all around the world. I'm Paula Newton, and we begin with serious questions over the law enforcement response to the elementary school massacre in Uvalde, Texas, specifically how the gunman could get into the school so easily where he was able to kill 19 students and two teachers, and why did it take nearly an hour for officers to end his shooting spree?
Parents are sharing their anger and frustration as they urged police to storm the school and save their children by any means. But officers resisted as the massacre played out.
Meantime, vigils and memorials are giving families and the community a chance to grieve and, of course, begin healing. But nothing will bring back the 21 people they've lost.
And we are now hearing for the first time from the mother of the gunman, Salvador Ramos.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ADRIANA MARTINEZ, MOTHER OF SALVADOR RAMOS (through translator): I have no words. I have no words to say. I don't know what he was thinking. He had his reasons for doing what he did. And please don't judge him. I only want the innocent children who died to forgive me.
UNKNOWN (through translator): What do you tell their families?
MARTINEZ (through translator): Forgive me, forgive my son. I know he had his reasons.
UNKNOWN (through translator): What reasons could he have had?
MARTINEZ (through translator): To get closer to those children, instead of paying attention to the other bad things. I have no words. I don't know.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NEWTON: CNN's Ed Lavandera begins our coverage.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ED LAVANDERA, CNN NATIONAL 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.
VICTOR ESCALON, TEXAS DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY: There is 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.
ESCALON: He walked in unrestricted initially. He was not confronted by anybody, to 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 backdoor.
ESCALON: He went in at 11:40. He walks approximate 20 feet, 30 feet. He makes a right and walks into the hallway, he makes a right, walks another 20 feet, turns left into a schoolroom -- into a classroom that has doors open in the middle. Officers are there, the initial officers that gunfire. They don't make entry initially because of the gunfire they're receiving.
LAVANDERA (voice-over): 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 gunman sooner?
UNKNOWN (voice-over): Can you explain to us how he was barricaded?
ESCALON: I hear you.
UNKNOWN (voice-over): Because we've been given a lot of bad information. So, why don't you clear all of this up?
UNKNOWN: Like shooting, shooting. Hitting the dirt on the floor.
UNKNOWN: The bullets are hitting close. Bullets from where?
UNKNOWN: I guess he was -- I guess he was coming from the school this way.
LAVANDERA (voice-over): Parents are 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 his daughter in the shooting. He is angered by what he saw officers doing outside the school.
JESSE RODRIGUEZ, FATHER OF ANNABELL RODRIGUEZ: They should have moved in. I don't think they had a right to sit there on their ass waiting. 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 Border 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.
CHRIS OLIVAREZ, LIEUTENANT, TEXAS DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY: We are still trying to establish if there was any type of locking mechanism on the doorway from the inside of the classroom because the gunman was able to barricade himself.
LAVANDERA (on camera): The changing details over what happened when the gunman 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.
[02:05:00]
LAVANDERA (on camera): Ed Lavandera, CNN, Uvalde, Texas.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NEWTON: Now, the families of those who were shot and killed at Robb elementary have already endured, of course, days of pain and grief. And now, it gets even harder as they try and prepare funeral arrangements for their lost loved ones.
And it comes as another victim has been identified. The family of Layla Salazar confirms to CNN that the 11-year-old died in Tuesday's horrific shooting. Her parents say she was an active child, loved to run, filmed TikTok videos, and danced. Layla's grandfather says, our hearts are shattered.
CNN's Lucy Kafanov now on the victims whose lives were cut far too short.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LUCY KAFANOV, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Look at their faces. Fourth-grader Jackie Casarez just had her first baptism and first communion.
JACINTO CASAREZ, FATHER OF JACKLYN JAYLEN CAZARES: She was full of love, full of live. And she would do anything for anybody.
KAFANOV (voice-over): Nine-year-old Ellie Garcia was just a week from her 10th birthday.
UNKNOWN: The sweetest girl you ever had chance to meet.
KAFANOV (voice-over): Ten-year-old Nevaeh Bravo, her first name spelled backwards is heaven.
Angels now to their families. Nineteen children and two teachers. 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, want you to know that she tried to call 911 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 10 years old, she dreamed of traveling the world.
UNKNOWN: She wanted to go to Australia.
UNKNOWN (voice-over): She wanted to go to Australia?
UNKNOWN: She wanted to go to law school.
UNKNOWN (voice-over): Law school?
UNKNOWN: At St. Mary's because that is where I go.
KAFANOV (voice-over): Annabell Guadalupe Rodriguez, also 10, 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 of 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 doctor describes them as critical but stable, wishing there were more lives she could save.
LILLIAN LIAO, DIRECTOR, UNIVERSITY HEALTH PEDIATRIC TRAUMA: I think that is what hit us the most. Not of the patients that we did receive, 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.
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.
KAFANOV (on camera): And a tragic footnote to the piece that you just watched. You 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)
NEWTON: And so many are wondering, how did they make sure this doesn't happen again? The top Republican in the U.S. Senate is indicating he may be willing to work on bipartisan legislation to respond to the shooting. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell exclusively told CNN that he has asked fellow Republican, John Cornyn, to see if he can find a middle ground with Democrats.
Now, Democrats want to bring two background check bills that have already passed in the House to the Senate floor. One Democrat says if bipartisan talks take too long, votes on those bills will be used to force Republicans to go on the record.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. CHRIS MURPHY (D-CT): If we don't succeed, we are having votes. We are putting people on the records. Right? One way or the other, we're going to have a debate here. We are going to force people to tell America which side they are on.
[02:10:00]
MURPHY: Right? So, we are going to work our tails off to try to get that compromise. But we are not going away. We are not being silent.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NEWTON: So, despite the shooting and the tragic loss of life, the National Rifle Association says it plans to move ahead with its scheduled convention this weekend. The powerful gun lobby meets Friday in the same state as the Uvalde school shooting, Texas.
According to the lobbying research group, Open Secrets, the group spent $29 million in the 2020 election cycle. Former President Donald Trump is among those scheduled to speak. Texas Governor Greg Abbott will send a pre-recorded video. Now, he canceled his in-person appearance, so he could attend a news conference in Uvalde. But not all Texas officials think the timing of the event is a good idea.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYOR SYLVESTER TURNER, HOUSTON, TEXAS: Even though the city cannot cancel a contract because we don't agree with the position on guns, certainly the NRA can postpone the convention for a week or two to allow the families to bury their children.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NEWTON: Now, at least four musicians have indeed canceled their performances at the convention following Tuesday's deadly shooting.
Joining me from New York's is Republican strategist, Doug Heye. He is the former communications director for the RNC. Doug, another difficult discussion here, but there does seem to be an appetite among Americans on both sides of the political spectrum to try and get something done.
You know, the survivors of the Parkland high school shooting are saying that they feel that perhaps this time is different. They don't want to get their hopes up. But I know you have been an advocate of this. So, show us where we are. What is in the middle here that can be done that is productive, that doesn't mean people are just shouting over each other?
DOUG HEYE, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST, FORMER RNC COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: Well, I think you nailed the right word there, it is productive. We are not going to get probably, you know, grand bargain-size bills.
I think what we are going see is Senate Democrats and Senate Republicans, you know, the working group that there is together so far, trying to figure out a few specific things that they can do where each side will be able to claim some victory and reassure their base.
It's not something that necessarily will make every side happy. Might make some sides difficult. That's also why we are upset. That's also what we see when we negotiate legislation in the Senate and in the House, is that what's negotiation is supposed to be. It looks like looking at red lines would be a good way to start in an area of agreement.
You know, in Washington, look, we haven't seen a whole lot of bipartisan agreement for a long time. Where we can get agreements is usually on specific things that members and senators in discussions together can give each other incentives to yes instead of reasons to say no if they're able to do that. Then if not, being overly optimistic. At least, there is some hope of getting something done.
NEWTON: You know, common sense means a lot to many Americans, and we've heard common sense coming from unlikely people who have nothing to do with politics. I want you to listen now to Damion Lee, NBA player. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DAMION LEE, GOLDEN STATE WARRRIOR GUARD: Guns shouldn't be as easily accessible. Like, it's easier to get a gun than baby formula right now. That's unbelievable in, you know, this country that we live in.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NEWTON: That's not hyperbole. He's absolutely right. A young man who is 18 was able to buy guns. If he had been looking for formula for his family, he may not have been able to find it.
So, where are we? Do we go back to background checks? Are we talking about more red flags? Are we talking about more money for mental health? Are we talking about all of it, because right now, you tell me, is it likely that there is actually going to be any kind of guns off the streets? Because that doesn't seem to be the direction that we are going in here.
HEYE: Right. At this point, that doesn't seem to be the direction. What can we agree on? And, you know, so often, what we see -- and his point is right. Look, there is a lot of frustration in America about somebody in that kind of state, where there were warning signs, being able to get access to those kinds of guns.
And, you know, every time we have something like this, whether it's how they got a gun, whether it's what's happened with police officers, we always hear the line that they fall through the cracks. And obviously, there are too many cracks. And that's what will be, I think, first and foremost on, you know, the senators' minds who are working on this right now together. What are the cracks that we can fill and where are those areas of agreement?
If they're able to do that, then we'll have something at the end of the day or at the end of the week, so to speak, that again won't solve every problem, but one of the challenges that we have in Washington so often is that we try and find the solution at the expense of a solution, perfect being the enemy of the good.
[02:14:58]
HEYE: If we can get some good here, I think that will be a great place for the Senate to start and for the House to follow.
NEWTON: And as the NRA, the National Rifle Association, opens its convention, Houston, on Friday. What is the good, do you think, as far as they are concerned? Because they've already had some people saying, look, you shouldn't be holding this at all. And if they're going to hold it, what do you think they will do to move this forward, or is it completely, you know, not a talking point for them right now?
HEYE: Yeah, it typically hasn't been a talking point. When we're seeing things like Newtown and other, you know, real mass shootings that jarred the whole nation and obviously got a lot of attention and sadness internationally as well, is that they've retreated into a bunker, said, if anything, that they feel terrible about the situation, thoughts and prayers usually there follow, and that's about it. It does seem and we've said so many times, this time seems different, and it has felt different so many times. But the conversations that we are seeing in the Senate are significant, that this may be different.
And what I'm going to be most interested to see is, ultimately, you know, as we see some politicians and some musicians cancel from what really is a big event and an economic driver for Houston and other cities where they've had these, is what does Donald Trump say.
My main disappointment or one of the many that I've had as a Republican, I was never a Donald Trump fan, is he built himself out to be the great negotiator. That he was the smartest art of the deal president that we've ever had.
And yet he never really tried to cut the deal with Democrats and some Republicans on guns or even on immigration that a President Jeb Bush or President Marco Rubio, Scott Walker wouldn't have been allowed to, because a Donald Trump that goes to the NRA and his base and says, I'm not going to be the one that takes away your guns, or on immigration, I'm the one who is also going to build the wall, get some political leeway from the base.
But he never tried to move his base anywhere. And ultimately, you know, he could have had that Nixon in China moment that might have made all of us think a little bit differently of him. He just never took that opportunity, unfortunately. So, what does he say this weekend?
NEWTON: Yeah. And to put a fine point on it, he is the guest speaker. You said NRA would be in its bunker. The bunker is not allowing guns because the Secret Service says it is too dangerous.
Doug Heye, we'll have to leave it there.
HEYE: Thank you.
NEWTON: Okay, the U.S. is considering supplying Ukraine with one of its most formidable weapons as Russian forces slowly advance in parts of Eastern Ukraine. The latest on the war just ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[02:20:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NEWTON: Ukraine's military says it continues to slow a Russian advance into Donbas from the north. Still, Russian forces have made some modest gains in recent days. The Donbas region has been under constant and intense Russian assault for weeks now. On Thursday, Ukrainian officials report at least nine people, including an infant, were killed by dense shelling of residential areas of Kharkiv.
Multiple sources say the Biden administration is now considering Ukraine's request for advanced rockets. Now, those have a much greater range than the recently deployed howitzers. And new video from Mariupol shows one of Russia's so-called filtration centers set up at a supermarket. It is now believed that hundreds of thousands of people in Eastern Ukraine have been processed through such screening facilities and then forcibly sent to Russia.
On Thursday, Finland's prime minister, Sanna Marin, became the latest European leader to travel to Ukraine. She visited the heavily damaged villages of Bucha, Irpin, Kyiv and pledged additional weapons for Ukraine.
CNN's Nick Paton Walsh is near the frontlines in Eastern Ukraine and has the latest on the fighting there.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL SECURITY EDITOR (voice-over): Putin would leave little of what he claimed to liberate. An artillery jewel (ph) has been raging for days, torching around the vital Russian held town of Izyum. Up on high and a position we were asked not to reveal, these Ukrainian troops, dug in and buoyant, have a clear view of the damage below, but also the enemy.
(On camera): So, the Russians are just a kilometer on the brow (ph) of this hill in that direction.
(Voice-over): This unit, only here two days, but say they have already destroyed a Russian tank. Yes, they play to the cameras, but it's pretty clear up here their morale is sky-high.
UNKNOWN (on-screen translation): Where is my armored Hummer?
PATON WALSH (voice-over): They are exposed but ready, keen to show off, actually gleeful at the international menu of weapons they've been sent. Almost a silly amount. The Swedish anti-tank munitions and, of course, a British (inaudible).
Then, from out of the grass, a German one, which they particularly like. A Polish grenade, no training on them, just practical use, they joke, giving them the widest experience of anti-tank weapons in Europe. Parading also what the Russians left, thermal optics, and a Soviet-era anti-tank weapon that they wind up like a telephone.
Yet still, the Russians persist, even as the prisoners these troops have taken have revealed how young the soldiers they're fighting are.
UNKNOWN (on-screen translation): They're children who have grown up only under Putin. They don't know any other kind of power. They say, "Putin said so - he can't deceive us. We're doing everything right." Like zombies. It's like the firmware in their brains was updated because they only quote phrases. Poor and unhappy.
[02:25:00]
UNKNOWN (on-screen translation): Sad to look at them.
PATON WALSH (voice-over): In the village below, the endless shelling is flushing the remaining life out.
This woman said telling me her name would make no difference.
UNKNOWN (on-screen translation): There were eleven explosions around my house last night. Holes! Eleven! Go and count them. I sat in the cellar, on my knees asking God to put goodness in people's brains. Will the brain hold up? It will. See? I am here.
PATON WALSH (voice-over): They really don't know where they'll go or what, if anything, they can come back to, just that life has no space left here.
Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, near Izyum (ph), Ukraine.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NEWTON: So, a group of international legal analysts has now weighed in on whether Russia's actions in Ukraine constitute genocide. A new report concludes that Russia bears state responsibility for direct and public incitement to commit genocide, and a pattern of atrocities that appear aimed at destroying Ukrainian national identity. Now, the report concludes that all 151 countries that signed the Genocide Convention have a duty to stop what is happening in Ukraine.
Earlier, we spoke with the author of that report. He said that Ukraine represents a unique situation because the atrocities are going on as we show you every day, and that signatories to the Genocide Convention have a responsibility to act.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AZEEM IBRAHIM, DIRECTOR, NEW LINES INSTITUTE FOR STRATEGY AND POLICY: The implications are very clear. The Genocide Convention was set up to prevent and punish genocide. On too many occasions we, you know, we only examine the genocide after the fact. It becomes an academic exercise. (INAUDIBLE) and the purpose of the convention is to actually prevent genocide.
And so, here, we have a situation where 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 this Russian aggression in Ukraine before it spills over into a full-scale genocide which will then be too late.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NEWTON: Genocide reporter there, Azeem Ibrahim speaking to us earlier, speaking to our John Vause.
Now, as Russia faces scrutiny over its conduct in Ukraine, Washington is concerned China may be learning from Moscow's military failures. And concerns are growing that Beijing may use that knowledge in a possible future invasion of Taiwan.
Ivan Watson has our story. (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 presidents when they met on February 4th, 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 defend Taiwan against China, the U.S. president had this explicit warning.
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Yes.
UNKNOWN (voice-over): You are?
BIDEN: That's the commitment we made.
WATSON (voice-over): Beijing has long called for peaceful reunification with Taiwan, but it has also never ruled out using force against Taiwan's democratic reelected 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 strategist 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 (on camera): 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's 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 in the waters around Taiwan.
[02:30:03]
WATSON (voiceover): The Russian Navy has suffered major losses from suspected Ukrainian anti-ship missiles. First losing this landing ship in the Russian-occupied Port of Berdyans'k, 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 the lessons from Ukraine, both in a positive and also in the negative manner.
VLADIMIR PUTIN, PRESIDENT OF UKRAINE: Speaking a foreign language.
WATSON: 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 the changer calculation of the Washington, DC.
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 reunification with Taiwan.
Ivan Watson, CNN, Hong Kong,
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PAULA NEWTON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Texas communities demanding answers about what took so long to stop the attack on an elementary school, while hysterical parents pleaded for police to do something. The latest on the investigation when we return.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[02:35:00]
NEWTON: Welcome back. I'm Paula Newton. Texas authorities are facing unsettling questions after giving conflicting accounts about how the Uvalde school shooting unfolded. Why did it take an hour for the gunman to be killed, and why was he able to barge into the school through an unlocked door?
Now, they drew a response time and lack of information triggered tremendous confusion outside the school, panicked parents desperate to know if their kids were alive, shouted for officers to stop the shooter, or at least let the parents go in themselves. Meantime, the mother of the 18-year-old gunman is asking for forgiveness for her son and says she hopes the children who died forgive her.
Now calls for common-sense gun control laws are growing louder in the United States and a Republican senator who opposes them that flustered and defensive when he was confronted by a Sky News Reporter. Watch this interaction with Senator Ted Cruz.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARK STONE, SKY NEWS: So 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 awful. I think -- STONE: This aspect -- this aspect of it.
CRUZ: I think -- you know what? You get your political agenda --
STONE: No, it's all seen.
CRUZ: God loved you.
PAIGE SKINNER, BUZZFEED: Why is America the only country that faces this kind of mass shooting?
CRUZ: You know what?
(CROSSTALK)
STONE: You can't answer that, can you? You can't answer that can you, sir? You can't answer that. Why is this country --
CRUZ: Why is it that people come from all over the world to America? Because it's the freest most prosperous safest country on earth.
SKINNER: (INAUDIBLE)
STONE: Maybe there -- and maybe the freest, maybe the most --
CRUZ: And stop being this propagandist.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NEWTON: OK. As you heard there during that altercation, many wonder why school shootings seemed to be a uniquely American problem. CNN Brian Todd is taking a closer look at how other countries tackle the issue.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voiceover): Another slaughter of children inside a school, another instance where a shaken president pleads for an end to inaction.
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: When in God's name, we do we all know in our gut what needs to be done?
TODD: But if there's any new movement in Washington after the Uvalde, Texas mass shooting, any movement to ban or cut back the sales of assault weapons, and the movement to strengthen background checks, it could join a heartbreaking list of past attempts following horrific school shootings that failed.
BILL CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We must do more to keep guns out of the hands of children.
TODD: That was President Bill Clinton three days after the massacre at Columbine High School in Colorado in April 1999 when two students killed 12 fellow students and a teacher. Federal legislation was proposed to close loopholes for background checks at gun shows. It failed in Congress.
MARGARET TALEV, MANAGING EDITOR FOR POLITICS, AXIOS: For president after president since Bill Clinton, there are tragedies, there is a call to action, their efforts of legislation, and that legislation falls short.
TODD: The Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Connecticut in December 2012 when 20 children were gunned down along with six adults was a moment so horrifying that Democrats and Republicans said something had to be done.
BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This time the words need to lead to action.
TODD: Many believed tighter gun laws had a real chance of passing, they didn't pass, not a proposed assault weapons ban, not a bipartisan measure for expanded background checks. President Barack Obama was still upset years later.
OBAMA: Every time I think about those kids, it gets me mad.
TODD: Four years ago after a gunman killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, then-President Donald Trump went against the NRA and called for sweeping gun legislation.
[02:40:00]
DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We want to be very powerful, very strong on background checks and -- especially as it pertains to the mentally ill.
TODD: That movement lasted about a day at the federal level. The father of a Parkland victim following the Texas shooting on Tuesday remained pessimistic and angry.
FRED GUTTENBERG, LOST DAUGHTER IN PARKLAND SHOOTING: It is so infuriating because in all of these instances, we know the next one is going to happen because we haven't done anything to fix it.
TODD: One analyst says there's plenty of blame to go around and not just among politicians who point fingers at the other side of the aisle.
TALEV: The public has not demonstrated a will to put this issue above everything else at the ballot box. Are they willing to prioritize that above voting on inflation or their pocketbook?
TODD: And now after this school shooting, a similar conundrum in Congress, House Democrats passed legislation strengthening background checks. Now, Democrats in the Senate can either try to ramrod that through quickly with the likelihood that it would lose, or that can take more time to try to negotiate something bipartisan with Republicans with the outcome of that, far from certain.
Brian Todd, CNN, Washington. (END VIDEOTAPE)
NEWTON: Police in Toronto, Canada meantime have shot and killed a man who was seen carrying a firearm near three schools. Now, officials say two officers opened fire after what they called an interaction in the eastern end of the city. At least four schools were put in lockdown as investigators tried to determine the extent of a threat. Shooting itself is also under investigation. Now, the Provincial Premier later tweeted his thanks to police and emergency services for their "quick response." And Toronto's police chief did acknowledge more traumatic of course considering the events in the United States.
Coming up here for us, actor Kevin Spacey is facing new sexual assault charges, this time in the UK. That story and much more when we're back.
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[02:45:00]
NEWTON: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, predicts it may be July before the nationwide baby formula shortage is resolved. Now, during the heated Senate hearing Thursday, the FDA commissioner said the agency didn't reveal problems sooner because of concerns about panic buying. In fact, panic buying in recent weeks has contributed to empty shelves right across the country. The commissioner also said the FDA needs more money and authority to conduct inspections, and that the U.S. may need to stockpile baby formula to prevent future shortages.
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 now from London.
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CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The announcement Thursday by the UK's Crown Prosecution Service relates to four separate counts of alleged sexual assault by Kevin Spacey involving three men that took place between 2005 and 2013. There's also a fifth potential charge of "causing a person to engage in a penetrative sexual activity without consent." The CPS' decision to authorize criminal charges follows an investigation by London's Metropolitan Police that 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.
And 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 in an Italian movie. Clare Sebastian, CNN, London. NEWTON: CNN has reached out to Kevin Spacey's representatives and they were not immediately available for comment. Hollywood's consummate Goodfella, the actor Ray Liotta has died.
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LORRAINE BRACCO, ACTRESS: What do you do?
RAY LIOTTA, ACTOR: I'm in construction.
LIOTTA: If we wanted something we just took it and you didn't even think about it.
NEWTON (voiceover): Such a classic role. Liotta played tough guy Henry Hill in the film Goodfellas so well. It did, in fact, become his trademark role. But he portrayed himself as an actual good fellow, not a fighter, a co-star suggesting he was just a softy. His publicist says Ray Liotta died in his sleep. He was at a hotel in the Dominican Republic where he was in fact filming a movie. Co-stars say they're shattered at his death, an actor so versatile. He also played a sensitive Shoeless Joe Jackson in Field of Dreams, did commercials and soap operas, and was working steadily. Liotta leaves his fiancee and his daughter. He was just 67 years old.
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NEWTON: Coming up for us, experiencing the horror of Uvalde shooting through the eyes of a second-grader. We'll hear the heartbreaking account just ahead.
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[02:50:00]
NEWTON: No child should ever have to experience a mass shooting but in the wake of the massacre in Texas, some brave children and their parents are speaking out about the painful ordeal they've all endured. And, of course, their experiences are just heartbreaking. Listen.
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EDWARD TIMOTHY, STUDENT AT ROBB ELEMENTARY SCHOOL: Oh, I have the fear of guns now because I'm scared someone might shoot me.
AMBERLYNN DIAZ, EDWARD'S MOTHER: Because he was asking me does he have to go to school next year and I just don't want him to be afraid of school. I want him to continue learning and not be scared, you know, of going back to school. Yes. I have to have a normal life again and --
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NEWTON: Imagine, it's rational he's afraid of going back to school. Now one of the most impassioned pleas for politicians to finally do something about gun control is coming from Golden State Warriors' Head Coach. Now on Tuesday, you'll remember that Steve Kerr delivered this message before he took his team to the court in the NBA Western Conference Finals.
[02:55:00]
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STEVE KERR, HEAD COACH, GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS: When are we going to do something?
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NEWTON: So he expanded on that Thursday, challenging people to urge their own lawmakers to tackle gun violence.
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KERR: So many people want to help and want to know how they can make an impact. What I'm asking people to do is to get involved in their local communities or there's lots of amazing gun safety, gun prevention groups out there. Call your Senators, call your representatives. It's all very helpful. But again, this is -- I got lots of friends who are Democrats, I got lots of friends who are Republicans, and all I know is they all want gun violence to go away.
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NEWTON: Now, Kerr went on to say that gun violence in the United States is really about public health in his opinion and shouldn't be a political issue. Now, if you would like to offer support for those affected by the Texas School shooting, please go to cnn.com/impact. I'm Paula Newton, and I'll be right back with more news in just a moment.
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