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Texas Gov. Abbott "Livid" After Being Misled About Police Response; Survivors Describe Horror In Classroom Where Students, Teachers Were Killed; French And German Leaders Tell Putin To Negotiate With Ukraine; America's Failed Attempts To Pass Gun Safety Measures; Rather Than New Gun Laws, TX Governor Wants Increased Funding For Mental Health, School Safety; McConnell Directs Cornyn To Work With Dems On Bipartisan Gun Solution; VP Harris At Buffalo Funeral: "Enough Is Enough". Aired 1-2p ET

Aired May 28, 2022 - 13:00   ET

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

[13:00:00]

JESSICA DEAN, CNN HOST: Hi, everyone, and thanks so much for joining me. I'm Jessica Dean, Fredricka Whitfield is off today. And we begin with haunting questions in Uvalde, Texas ahead of President Biden's trip there tomorrow. Heartbroken parents demanding answers and accountability after a gunman murdered 19 of their children and two teachers at Robb Elementary School.

Authorities are facing scrutiny over conflicting information as well as the police response time. We now know the gunman was not confronted by police before entering the elementary school. And we know more than an hour passed between the first 911 call and when the shooter was killed. Police now acknowledge that tragic mistakes were made.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEVEN MCCRAW, DIRECTOR, TEXAS DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY: A decision was made that this is a barricaded subject situation, there was time to retrieve the keys and wait for a tactical team with the equipment to go ahead and breach the door and take on the subject at that point. That was the decision. It was the wrong decision period.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: The incident commander has been identified as Uvalde School District Police Chief Pedro "Pete" Arredondo. Arredondo made two brief statements to the press on the day of the shooting and is not spoken since. Texas Governor Greg Abbott faced questions about the praise he initially offered the first responders after the shooting. He says he was misled.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. GREG ABBOTT, (R-TX): I was misled. I am livid about what happened. There are people who deserve answers the most. And those are the families whose lives have been destroyed. They need answers that are accurate, and it is inexcusable that they may have suffered from any inaccurate information whatsoever. (END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: When President Biden travels to Uvalde tomorrow, he's going to meet with victims' families and other members of the community. CNN's Boris Sanchez is live there in Uvalde this afternoon. Boris, tell us more about the message the president is expected to deliver to these families tomorrow.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Jessica, tragically, it is a message that we have heard this president deliver far too often already. Remember, we're just a few days removed from President Biden visiting upstate New York following another mass shooting in Buffalo, a racist massacre.

The President there, consoling families and trying to assure the American people that something will be done to prevent these kinds of tragedies from happening. We expect a very similar message tomorrow in Uvalde, Texas when he tries to console families here, and again, tried to assure them that something will come from lawmakers in Washington that could perhaps prevent a similar atrocity in the future.

Meantime, here on the ground, there was a sense of shock in this community. People are still processing everything that unfolded here on Tuesday, not only the grief of losing 21 people, 19 of them small children, most of them no older than 10, and also this investigation, the response from law enforcement where investigators have acknowledged that officials responding to this attack made mistakes on the ground.

Keep this in mind. This attack happened only two days before the start of summer break. And in this community, instead of making plans for vacations or summer camp, these families of second, third, and fourth- graders are now planning funerals.

We are hearing more from the survivors of the shooting as the children are starting to express fears about returning to the classroom again. Survivors afraid this may happen again and they may be targeted. Let's bring in CNN's Adrienne Broaddus. She spoke to one of the survivors. She joins me now here in Uvalde. Adrienne, give us a sense of what these kids are feeling. What did they share with you about the trauma that they experienced?

ADRIENNE BROADDUS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know what, Boris? I spoke with a 10-year-old who was down the hall from where the shooting was happening. He told me it was terrifying. He described it as awful. And he said I don't want to go back to school because of what happened to me. And I asked are you afraid something like this will happen again? And he nodded his head, said yes, and then quickly followed up and said, I know it will happen again, probably. That student was 10-year- old Jayden Perez. Here's what he said about that day.

[13:05:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BROADDUS: What happened to your friend? JAYDEN PEREZ, STUDENT SURVIVOR: The shooter shot through the window and hurting my friend and my teacher, like my teacher, got hurt like on right here like, on what -- I don't know which side but she got hit, like, hit on the side. And then -- and then my friend got like, shot through the nose. And they had -- and they both had to get surgery.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROADDUS: So, Jayden says he and his classmates were hiding in the classroom, the moment his teacher heard gunfire, she quickly raced to the door, locked it, and told them to be quiet and hide. But he told me that still didn't stop his friend and his teacher from being injured. And this is something he's processing. This is something he's still living within, Boris.

What's interesting, I asked him, when you were able to reunite with your mom, what's the first thing you told her? And he said, I told her, I forgot my water bottle at school. That speaks to his innocence. And despite this -- the magnitude of what happened, he still was concerned about making sure he brought home his water bottle at the end of the day because that's a reminder he gets. You know, those reminders we all get from our parents, don't forget your boots or shoes, your homework, he still quite hadn't dealt with what happened inside of the school.

SANCHEZ: It's heart-wrenching and it speaks to the ramifications of something like this happening because it's something that that young man is going to have to process for the rest of his life. And seeing so many other incidents like this happened, it is a burden that stays in communities forever. In addition to that anguish, there's now a series of questions that the community has for law enforcement. Bring us up to speed on the latest on the timeline of what took place and the response from police.

BROADDUS: You know, parents are frustrated, quite frankly, they're upset after hearing that timeline revealed right here out of the school. The first call came in around 11:30 in the morning from a panic teacher who was inside. Shortly after, around three after noon, a caller, a young girl who identified herself she was in room 112 of the building, she's whispering and she's letting the 911 dispatcher know there's a shooter there. She calls back.

She tells the dispatcher that multiple people are dead. And at one point, she calls and says eight to nine students are alive. And that was key. She's letting the dispatcher know, please, you know help us people are still alive. A different caller calls. And then at one point, a caller says please send help now. She says that at least twice.

And so parents are now wondering, Boris, what if? Our kids were inside. They did what they were taught to do. When there's trouble you call 911 for help, and someone will be there.

SANCHEZ: It's excruciating because not only were there 911 calls coming in from children just like that pleading for police to breach the room as some 19 officers waited outside, but you're also hearing from parents who rushed here after they heard that there was a shooting and they heard screams and they heard gunshots inside and they had officers stood by. Adrienne Broaddus, thank you so much for your reporting. We appreciate it very much.

I do want to share with you that earlier, I spoke to Texas State Senator Roland Gutierrez. He's been here seemingly every day since the unthinkable happened. He became very emotional earlier as he was walking to the memorial that is behind us.

There was a family, a young boy that came from out of town. Here he is right there. And he asked if he could leave flowers at this memorial alongside his mom. The state senator becoming very emotional about that seeing that this young man, similar age group to the children that were impacted by this tragedy, wanted to make a connection, wanted to give his respects to those who passed. We want you to listen to what state senator Roland Gutierrez shared with CNN earlier today.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROLAND GUTIERREZ, DEMOCRATIC STATE SENATOR, TEXAS: His father had asked me, they sold a shirt and he asked me if they could take their little boy over there. He -- they're from a family from the Rio which is just a few miles down the road. And he asked his parents, he said I want to go pay my respects.

And you saw his trepidation. You know, we asked -- you know, the rangers to allow him to go there, DPS to go with and he went over there and he was so -- he was so heartbroken. This little boy, I mean, he just isn't only buddy here but it's just a heartbreaking experience to be here with all of these families.

SANCHEZ: And you were sharing with me just a moment before we came back on-air that there's something unique about this community, there's something about families in Latino communities.

[13:10:00]

GUTIERREZ: You know we're all it's -- you know Latinos, we were -- it's there's something very humbling about us, you know. I'm the son of immigrants, you know, and he strived to be in this country and you come up. And we try to -- we work hard. And this community is an incredibly hard-working community, multigenerational Americans here, four, five generations of Hispanic Americans, and they're just such wonderful people. And I'm just heartbroken for them all.

SANCHEZ: That resonates so much with me as an immigrant myself. When I was growing up my parents, all the sacrifices that they made to offer my sister and I an education. They always repeat it to us, this is for you. We're doing this for you. And we've heard from multiple members of the community now talking about the youth, the children here in Uvalde being at the center of the community. What's your message to those folks who are grieving children -- innocent children, like the boy that you met earlier this morning?

GUTIERREZ: So to the families that were directly affected, they're just destroyed, first off. It's hard for me to talk to the few that I have been able to talk to and tell them, they're going to be OK because they're just -- you and I both know, they're going to be destroyed for so long. I have to make sure that we have the mental health resources in this community long term. And I've asked the governor to drop $2 million immediately into a community health clinic. I've not gotten a response back. That's the resource side.

To the people of Uvalde, I'm not leaving. I've got a vast district, from San Antonio all the way to Alpine. We're now putting a district office here. We're going to make sure that state resources are here long-term. All I can say is that we love you, and we're here for you. And we have to. We must create change at the Capitol. Certainly, I have asked my Republican colleagues for that. We'll see what unfolds in the next few weeks and months.

SANCHEZ: And you have put out the request directly to the office of Governor Greg Abbott to invest $2 million in a mental health resource facility here in Uvalde.

GUTIERREZ: There's a Community Health Development, Inc., which is a nonprofit here. It's a Clinica Del Barrio. You know which it serves the people of this community, 11,000 patients, so it tells you how many people were underserved. In rural Texas, there are no psychiatrists, there's only one psychiatrist in Uvalde, and it happens to be at this clinic. There's -- the therapists have to do telemedicine, teletherapy.

That's not what needs to happen. We need to have therapists here in place. So they have to compete with you know big-city wages to get folks to come out into the rural area. And so I've asked him to develop a budget, it is around $2 million for the next two years for behavioral health. And that's the space that -- that's where I'm at. If I go -- if I can't get it from the governor's office, I'm going to get it from the private sector.

SANCHEZ: Sir, I don't want you to speculate. I don't expect you to answer for an ongoing investigation, whatever decisions were made by law enforcement. But specifically for the families that we have heard from, who are questioning the police response, who are angry, what would you say to them?

GUTIERREZ: Now we're all angry. Law enforcement's angry. I had a long conversation this morning on the way in with Steve McCraw and he was crying to me and I'm crying to him and everybody is frustrated about the failures of what happened. He has assured me that he -- we'll have a detailed report including ballistics by next week. I want to know when each agency was here. Moving forward, never -- he assured me that never again will DPS stand down for any law enforcement agency. I hope that that's true.

SANCHEZ: State Senator Roland Gutierrez, thank you so much for sharing some time with us and for being candid. We hope that we'll keep lines of communication open and be in touch because we can't let this get swallowed up by the news cycle. We can't forget about what happened here. GUITERREZ: I would ask -- I would simply ask that when the news cycle is over here next week after some funerals, and you guys leave town, America needs to understand that no community should have to ever deal with this kind of tragedy. No community, anywhere in the United States should have to deal with this. How an 18-year-old can access militarized weaponry? Anywhere is beyond me. And so please stay engaged -- please stay engaged because they'll listen to you.

[13:15:00]

SANCHEZ: We'll be in touch. State Senator Roland Gutierrez, thank you so much for the time. We appreciate it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ: His message is so vital and it speaks to the fear that we've heard from others in this community that this tragedy, among so many others, may soon be forgotten, the murder of the 21 innocent lives at the hands of a single gunman. We want to share with you their images, their faces. CNN NEWSROOM, we'll be back after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DEAN: The French president and German Chancellor held a call with Vladimir Putin today and pressed the Russian president to open negotiations with Ukraine, and pressed for an immediate ceasefire. That call coming as Russian shelling continues in the southwest and eastern parts of Ukraine. CNN's Nick Paton Walsh explains the Russian assault is taking its toll.

[13:20:00]

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL SECURITY EDITOR (voiceover): Here's how it feels when Russia is coming. This is severe Donetsk in Putin's crosshairs. Only one bridge left in from here we're told, on which anything that moves is shelled. Across that river next in line is here is twin city Lysychans'k. The remnants of its once 100,000 people facing an enemy they rarely see, only hear and feel the loathing. Police are here helping evacuate the last needy.

This is essentially a bit collecting as many people with disabilities, who need as much help as they can to get them out. For Ekaterina, age 74, the war so far has swelled around her one-room flat. Now, it is time for her and her husband, Valentin, to go once and perhaps for all.

EKATERINA, LYSYCHANS'K RESIDENT: Speaking a foreign language.

WALSH: These moments are the correct way to measure Putin's invasion, not in tanks lost, alliances forged or buildings hammered. But in twilight days, totally uprooted in tiny moments of unconsolable panic.

EKATERINA: Speaking a foreign language. WALSH: This briefcase carefully packed by Valentin, contains all their documents for whatever it is that comes next with here, closer to Russian-backed separatist areas of Ukraine, loyalties are not that simple. And this large young family, which like so much of the town has relatives in Russia, but no gas or electricity seems to prefer an outdoor stove on nights in the basement to leaving.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Speaking a foreign language.

WALSH: They do not seem too perturbed despite the blasts and say they want peace. Sometimes you feel they don't want you to know whose side they're on, especially this man when we mentioned America.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Speaking a foreign language.

WALSH: But still, that world is underground with fine dust in the damp air. Their kitten, born into the war, their children's sleep broken by shelling. At the cemetery, the cost is starker. It has three types of mass graves. This line, already filled with some of the 160 dead whose relatives can't bury them yet. This one, half-filled with the bodies collected daily, their names recorded on each bag. And this one, yawning empty, a sign of the savagery they know is to come.

Nick Paton Walsh, CNN Lysychans'k, Ukraine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DEAN: Nick Paton Walsh in Ukraine for us, thanks so much. Still ahead. There is a familiar movement happening on Capitol Hill, a renewed push for gun reform in the wake of yet another mass shooting. But for years, decades, legislation has been stalled in Congress. Will it be different this time? We'll discuss ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:25:00]

DEAN: Whenever there's a school shooting in America, the movement for gun reform gathers momentum. Then it hits a wall in Congress, despite polls showing overwhelming support for action. CNN's Brian Todd has more.

(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, any 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, there are 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.

[13:30:00]

TODD (voice-over): Many believe 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.

BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: 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.

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 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.

MARGARET TALEV, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: 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 (on camera): 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 a likelihood that it would lose or take more time try to negotiate something bipartisan with Republicans with the outcome of that far from certain.

Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JESSICA DEAN, CNN HOST: Brian, thank you.

And here now to discuss the latest efforts, CNN senior political analyst and senior editor of "The Atlantic," Ron Brownstein, and the editor of opinions of "The Houston Chronicle," Lisa Falkenberg.

It's great to see both of you. Thanks for making time.

Ron, I want to start with you.

I read your newest piece for "The Atlantic," And you write about the stalemate over gun control legislation and over gun safety law legislation. And you talk about how it is directly linked to what you call the growing crisis of majority rule in American politics.

Can you explain that to us?

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Sure. I've been covering the gun control debate since the passage of the Brady Bill and the assault weapon ban under Bill Clinton.

And essentially, what has happened is a combination of geography and ideology has made it impossible for majority opinion to exert itself through legislation.

As you noted, as Brian noted, there's substantial majority support for many of the key ideas to restrict access to gun ownership, universal background checks, banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.

That is important, just not only by a majority of Democrats but a majority of Republicans who don't own guns. The only group in the society who oppose those ideas on a majority basis are Republican donors. And yet, they have a veto.

The Republican Party has moved to a position of total opposition to gun control. In the '90s, there were 54 House Republicans who voted for the Brady Bill and 38 voted for the assault ban. And I think it was just eight who voted for background checks. And the party has moved to that opposition and, at the same time,

they've become dominant in the smaller rural states where gun culture is stronger. And because that dominance, they are able to use the filibuster in the Senate to prevent any action.

That is what we saw in 2013 after sandy hook and that is what we're almost certainly going to see again in 2022.

DEAN: Right, they're able to exert that control.

And, Lisa, Texas Governor Greg Abbott said he's not going to commit to signing any new gun laws in the state. Instead, he's talked about wanting to increase funding for mental health and for school safety.

Is that what you believe the majority of Texans want? Are they looking for more here? Or do you think acceptable to the majority of Texans?

LISA FALKENBERG, EDITOR OF OPINIONS, "THE HOUSTON CHRONICLE": What is frustrating about this debate is it seems to be an either/or proposition.

I think the majority of Texans, 80 percent want universal background checks. And the majority of Texans favor sensible gun regulation.

Why does it have to be an either/or prep position. We can't do mental health because of gun reform or we can't do gun reform because we're doing mental health? We want it all. Why can't we have it all?

Why can't we look at what went wrong in this case, many other shootings and address all of the weaknesses in our site that allow this to keep happening.

DEAN: And do it a comprehensive way that comes at it from all angles.

Ron, I want to take us back to Capitol Hill and D.C.

We heard from Mitch McConnell on Thursday that he had, in his words, encouraged Texas Senator John Cornyn to take part in these bipartisan talks about legislation that is, again his words, directly related to Uvalde.

We're not sure what that means in terms of are those background checks, what kind of legislation.

But it was interesting, as you well know, when McConnell said something, there's a reason for it, when he goes public with it like that. What do you make of all of this?

[13:35:06]

BROWNSTEIN: Well, first, could I just say, Lisa is exactly right. I think the public views this as a false choice. The idea that you could -- that doing gun control -- dealing with mental health precludes the need for dealing with gun control is ludicrous to average people.

And Texas ranks 49th in the nation in the share of people with mental health who have access to Medicaid, according to Kaiser, so it is not like they are emphasizing on that front.

On McConnell, delay has always been the central part of this strategy for the opponents of gun restrictions.

I mean, in every case, the goal is to stretch out negotiations, and to move -- to allow the legislative process to drag on past the point where public outrage is at its highest and allow the structural advantages that they have in the system to bake in.

It is worth noting, in the 2013, as Brian noted in his piece, there was a vote on the Senate floor about universal background checks.

The Senators that supported those universal background checks, if you assign half of each population to each Senator, they represented 194 million people. The opponents represented 118 million people.

But because of the filibuster, 118 million prevailed. And that, I think, is ultimately the goal of McConnell and the other opponents. You delay and you allow the structural advantage to kick in eventually.

DEAN: And, Lisa, what do you think -- from your perspective, what do Texans think about -- what do you think they're think about Senator Cornyn's efforts?

And are you seeing more -- is this different this time? Do you feel like it is different? Or do you feel like this is more of the same?

FALKENBERG: Of course, it feels different when it is fresh. When you're looking at the grieving families, when you're -- when you're seeing all of the tragedy and feeling it in your own state, it always feels different.

And I've said before, I and my editorial board is just as angry as every other Texan, but we can't despair. We can't lose hope.

So, yes, we've been here before. Senator Cornyn has worked with other Senators before, presumably behind the scenes, to get compromise and it failed. And in the end, he still voted against sensible gun regulation.

Texas is basically represented by one Senator. And that is John Cornyn, who actually has shown efforts to -- willingness, rather, to have this discussion and, frankly, to represent his constituents and be a Senator.

And he's our only hope. So if he's just giving this lip service and doesn't follow it through with action, we won't have any hope left.

If nothing is done this time, I can't see it every being done. Unless Texans really get out and vote. Because we don't vote in this state.

Maybe this will wake people up. We have to elect people who represent our values.

DEAN: Right. The voting ballot is where you could make your values known for sure and people want to stay in power.

So Ron and Lisa, thank you both. We appreciate your time.

BROWNSTEIN: Thank you.

DEAN: We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:43:15]

DEAN: "Enough is enough." Those words from Vice President Kamala Harris, who spoke moments ago at the funeral of Ruth Whitfield, one of the victims in the Buffalo grocery store mass shooting earlier this month.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm not going to say anything about Reverend Sharpton right now.

(LAUGHTER)

HARRIS: Good afternoon, Church.

(CROSSTALK)

HARRIS: To the Whitfield family, the father of the Whitfield family, Mr. Whitfield.

(APPLAUSE)

HARRIS: The pain that this family is feeling right now, and the nine other families here in Buffalo, I cannot even begin to express our collective pain as a nation for what you are feeling in such an extreme way.

To not only lose someone that you love, but through an act of extreme violence and hate.

And I do believe that our nation right now is experiencing an epidemic of hate.

And as we know, and scripture teaches us, when we talk about strength, the strength of personality, the strength of spirit, the strength of faith, I think we all know that a true measure of strength is not based on who you beat down. It is based on who you lift up.

[13:45:04]

(APPLAUSE)

HARRIS: Who you lift up.

And it means then also, in that strength, understanding we will not allow small people to create fear in our communities that we will not be afraid to stand up for what is right to speak truth even when it may be difficult to hear and speak.

There's a through line. What happened here in Buffalo, in Texas, in Atlanta, in Orlando, what happened at the synagogues?

And so this is a moment that requires all good people, all God-loving people to stand up and say we will not stand for this. Enough is enough.

(APPLAUSE)

HARRIS: We will come together. Based on what we all know we have in common. And we will not let those people who are motivated by hate separate us or make us feel fear.

So I'm here to say that we are all in this together. No one should ever be made to fight alone. We are stronger than those who would try to hurt us think that we are. We are strong.

We are strong in our faith. We are strong in our belief about what is right and our determination to act, to ensure that we protect all of those who deserve to be protected.

That we sue all those who deserve to be seen, that we hear the voices of the people and that we rise up in solidarity to speak out against this and to speak to our better angels.

Thank you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: Again, Vice President Kamala Harris just moments ago at the funeral for Ruth Whitfield in Buffalo, New York.

Both Vice President Harris and President Biden are on opposite sides the country as they honor the victims from two different mass shootings.

Biden is headed to Uvalde, Texas, tomorrow to meet with victims, families there who are still reeling, grieving, and in shock following the elementary school massacre.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:52:15]

DEAN: The new CNN film, "JULIA," tells the story of the legendary and beloved culinary icon, Julia Child.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JULIA CHILD, FORMER CHEF: I'm going to try and flip this over. It's a rather daring thing to do. You just have to have the courage of your convictions, particularly if it's sort of a loose mass like this.

Well, that didn't go well.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If she made a mistake, she wasn't remotely rattled.

CHILD: I didn't have the courage to do it the way I should have. But you can always pick it up, if you're alone in the kitchen. Who is going to see?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She felt making a mistake was a good thing, just so she could then show you how to fix it.

CHILD: Any time that anything like this happens, you haven't lost anything because you can always turn this into something else. We'll pretend this was supposed to be a baked potato dish.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: And joining us now is Jet Tila, of Food Network's "BBQ Brawl." He's also a celebrity chef, author and restauranteur.

Jet, great to see you.

I know you come from Asian food royalty in L.A.. You say growing up you always wanted to cook like Julia Child. What was it about her that drew you to her?

JET TILA, CELEBRITY CHEF, AUTHOR & RESTAURATEUR: Jessica, thanks for having me.

Firstly, like you said, I came from an Asian food family. So watching French chefs and French techniques seemed so out of reach.

Julia had the ability to talk to everybody. They didn't have to have a French background. She made it approachable and fun. And showed us all, as in this clip, you could make mistakes and still push on.

So she was a true inspiration.

DEAN: It takes the pressure off, especially for amateurs like me in the kitchen, that it doesn't haven't perfect all the time.

We know you eventually followed in Julia's footsteps. You studied at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris also. Did that give you a greater connection to her style of cooking?

TILA: Yes. You know, without her, Julia, Jacques, and kind of our forefathers, in my generation anyway, I would never have had the guts to even attempt to believe that I could, as an inner-city Asian kid from Los Angeles, you know, like we said, she made it approachable.

But she also made it fun. She also gave us -- gave me an air of, you know, if she could do it, anyone could do it. She was always so encouraging.

It was so pivotal for me to take those steps and learn from her initially. Because before I worked in French restaurants, Julia was my first French teacher, like so many of us, and gave us terms like vichyssoise and chiffonade.

[13:55:03]

So with her giving me my first building blocks, I was ready to go off to French culinary school.

DEAN: That's amazing.

Well, thanks so much for sharing your thoughts, Jet Tila. It's great to see you. We appreciate you making time this afternoon.

TILA: Always glad to be here. Super excited about this film.

DEAN: Yes, I think it's going to be great.

Thank you so much.

And just a reminder to all of you watching, you can watch the CNN film, "JULIA." It's Monday at 8:00 p.m. Eastern, right here on CNN.

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[14:00:01]

DEAN: Hi, everyone. And thanks so much for joining me. I'm Jessica Dean. Fredericka Whitfield is off today.