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President Biden Visits Survivors In Uvalde, Texas; Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) Is Interviewed About Gun Laws; Anderson Cooper's "A Mother's Diary Of War" Premieres Tonight. Aired 5-6p ET

Aired May 29, 2022 - 17:00   ET

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

[17:00:01]

JIM ACOSTA CNN HOST: This is significant as Texas officials and law enforcement are under intense scrutiny for the way officers responded. A top Texas official admitting the decision not to breach the classroom even as the kids were calling 9-1-1 begging for help was wrong, period.

Right now, President Biden is in Uvalde meeting privately with families who lost loved ones in this horrific attack. He and the First Lady placed flowers at the memorial site and attended mass at a church that will host far too many funerals in the coming days. Nineteen children and two teachers gone. This small town of only 16,000 people forever changed.

CNN's Arlette Saenz is in Uvalde. Arlette, the president is once again offering comfort after yet another mass shooting in this country.

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes. This is something we've seen President Biden do time and time again. But today he is here in the community of Uvalde, Texas, wanting to offer some type of solace, some type of comfort to the families who lost so many loved ones in that horrific massacre right here at Robb Elementary School behind me earlier this week.

Now the president right now is privately meeting with survivors and the family members of victims. He's been meeting with them for almost two and a half hours. The White House really blocking off a significant amount of his time here on the ground in Uvalde to hear directly from those family members who lost loved ones.

But first President Biden stopped here at the memorial site at Robb Elementary. He and first lady Jill Biden took about 20 minutes reading each of the names, seeing and taking in the life-sized photos of these 19 children and two teachers who were gunned down during the school day on Tuesday.

And the president, while he's also been here in Uvalde, has also been hearing really from the local community members issuing calls to action both here at the elementary school and as he was departing mass at Sacred Heart Catholic Church. There were demonstrators who were urging the president to do more. Take a look at that moment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNKNOWN: President Biden, we need help! We need help, President Biden! (CROWD PROTESTING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAENZ: So, you heard those chants from those demonstrators saying do something, and President Biden mouthing those words, we will. Of course, there are so many questions about what that action will be. The president has said in the past that there's little more he can do via executive action on gun control and the White House insisting that it is time for Congress to act.

There is that bipartisan group of lawmaker senators who are holding those early preliminary discussions to see if there are some type of gun safety reforms that can get passed in the wake of this shooting here in Uvalde, but there are so many questions about whether the two sides will actually be able to come together to get anything passed.

You talked to members of the community here and they simply say they want to see some type of action. They don't want Uvalde to be forgotten in six months or a year from now. And I'll just note, there are incredibly long lines here at the elementary school, people from the local community driving -- I talked to one man, four hours to come here today. One person just told us they waited 90 minutes in this Texas heat to try to pay their respects, as so many families are grieving at this time at the loss of those 19 children and two teachers.

ACOSTA: Arlette Saenz, just so much desperation there in Uvalde. Thank you very much for that coverage. We appreciate it. And joining me now is someone who knows firsthand the pain of losing someone to a mass shooting, Manuel Oliver's son, Joaquin, was among those killed in the 2018 Parkland shooting. He has since co-founded Change the Ref, a nonprofit hoping to end gun violence.

Manuel, it's good to talk to you again. I'm so sorry that it's again after another one of these mass shootings. And as we wait to see if Congress will do anything on gun control, there's a picture that sums up the challenges that we're facing as a country. I have to ask you about this because it just, it's outrageous.

Daniel Defense, the gun maker of the weapon used in the Uvalde mass shooting, perhaps you've seen this, posted this online ad in the days before the massacre in Uvalde. It shows a small child holding an AR-15 style rifle and the ad says train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

[17:05:04]

I mean, what goes through your mind when you see something like that?

MANUEL OLIVER, FATHER OF PARKLAND SHOOTING VICTIM, JOUAQUIN GUAC OLIVER: Well, my first thought is that the gun industry has a green light to do whatever they want. Part of -- will graphic that, what I just told you, is that you are not allowed to make an ad with a whiskey or beer brand and a kid holding the bottle or a can or from Philip Morris using a kit. That will be a whole scandal when it comes to the advertising industry and their limits.

But you can apparently do that anytime you want using kids and guns and put them together and pretend that people will believe that that's an honest advertising strategy.

ACOSTA: In the last hour I spoke to an NRA board member and I asked him why on earth teenagers should be allowed to purchase assault weapons. And here is part of that exchange.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIP JOURNEY, NRA BOARD MEMBER: -- because an 18-year-old have one in the army. So, the 18-year-old in the army --

ACOSTA: They had military training in the army. This 18-year-old in Uvalde did not have military training. He turned 18 and he went out and bought an AR-15.

JOURNEY: The fact is that these kinds of issues are far more complicated than whether we remove something from the public. Now maybe we should start prosecuting convicted felons who are trying to buy guns because we get thousands of them every month who are denied.

ACOSTA: I know, but Judge, we hear that all the time and you have these 18-year-old kids shooting up shopping centers and schools and everything. They're not felons. They're just kids and they have access to --

JOURNEY: You know, there are over 40,000 --

ACOSTA: -- an ocean of guns in this country. It's an ocean -- we're swimming in guns.

JOURNEY: There were over -- well, we do have per capita a high number of firearms in this country.

ACOSTA: Yeah.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: I guess it was remarkable, Manuel, that he at least acknowledged that, that we have a lot of guns in this country floating around. But I mean, he was really at a loss for really any reasonable answers to any of our questions.

OLIVER: Well, I think they're running out of answers that make any sense like after what happened here, I've been in so many debates and how some are trying to change the narrative and just blame it on the delay from the law enforcement which is, of course, a big part of a problem, but we all know that there is a higher delay on our politicians and members of the Senate to make final decisions on more gun restrictions.

So, these guys are at some point going to run out of answers and eventually we will have society that reacts. ACOSTA: And last time we spoke you were holding these daily protests

outside the White House in order to get a meeting with President Biden to talk about gun control. I know you were invited to the White House last month when the president discussed a crackdown on ghost guns, and you went to the event wearing the shoes your son joaquin would have worn to prom.

I know that was very emotional for you. How much progress have you seen under this administration? You know, the White House, as Arlette was saying just a few moments ago, our White House correspondent, there's only so much they can do from an executive action standpoint. The filibuster stands in the way in the Senate. But what would you like to see done?

OLIVER: I totally disagree with a White House that that's the message that they have. They throw out the fact that they can't do more. This is no time for baby steps, okay? I know that the ghost guns was a big issue and still is a big issue, but we have to look at the picture as it is and this is an 18-year-old that legally was able to purchase an AR-15.

By the way, raising the age, which is also something that I've heard today from the White House, is also a baby step. Explain that to the victims from Vegas, the country music concert. So, don't give me baby steps because we need real solutions.

And by the way, it's not even time for us to be tolerant anymore. So, you either fix this or you're going to be forced to fix this. We have a mid-term election around the corner and we're going to do everything that we have from our side to change whoever is not letting things happen and move forward and save lives, must be thrown out of their position.

[17:10:07]

ACOSTA: And Manuel, you helped create a sculpture called "The Last Lockdown" to show the gruesome reality of school shootings. There it is right there. It's just remarkable. Do you remain hopeful after so many failed attempts to get gun violence reform passed, you know? Do you think that something could happen? I've heard others say maybe this is the tipping point. What do you think?

OLIVER: I think it's up to us. I don't think this is a tipping point unless we do something. I am sick of waiting for people to things solve by themselves. It's not going to happen. This might be the tipping point because we had enough of saying enough is enough. We had enough of voting for the wrong people and we have to make disruptive reactions.

I'm going to give you a perfect example. When I see a politician like Beto O'Rourke, my personal friend, doing what he did, getting to the middle of the room and calling out things by their name and then you see more people doing that, that in fact works in a society. And that's exactly what I'm expecting from President Biden, by the way.

So, don't tell me that the White House, their hands are tied. No, they're not. You are the president of the United States and Kamala Harris, you are the vice president. So, it requires more than just saying we got to wait for Congress and Senate to solve the problem. Don't blame it on me as a voter. So, do your thing. Do your job and raise your voice.

ACOSTA: And Manuel, unfortunately, you are now an expert in this area of grief after a mass shooting. As a father who deals with the grief of losing your son every day, what advice do you give to the parents down in Uvalde?

OLIVER: I wouldn't be able to give an advice to anyone. There's no -- there's no magic formula here. It's a process. I can tell you what I felt. I felt five years ago that there was no reason for me to continue living. I thought about killing myself.

That's what most of us think about because the reason, the main reason why you are living in this world, in this planet, is to raise your kids, enjoy them, get to meet your grandkids. That is our retirement plan. That's the ideal thing in America, in the United States.

We are going through something that limits that option. So, it's a process. It's going to take time. I was able to find reasons to keep from being here. I think I'm more useful for Joaquin being alive than dead. I think that Patricia enjoys being a mother of Joaquin and representing him in every single event we go. So, it takes time. The pain stays. But it will make you do good things and become part of a solution eventually.

ACOSTA: Manuel Oliver, thank you very much. We're showing pictures of Joaquin again, and we'll do it every time you come on to keep his memory alive. Thank you for what you do. We appreciate it.

OLIVER: Thank you, Jim. It was a pleasure.

ACOSTA: All right. Coming up, a CNN exclusive with the doctors and nurses in the Texas trauma unit that treated young victims of this week's shooting.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COLLEEN DAVIS, TRAUMA PATIENT CARE COORDINATOR: After a while you start realizing more aren't coming and you start realizing why and then the weight of that just kind of sets in and it stays with you for the rest of the day and all the days after.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:15:00]

ACOSTA: A Texas state senator says the delayed response by law enforcement in Uvalde may have cost lives. Roland Gutierrez spoke to CNN today about a little girl who might have survived if police had reached her sooner.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) ROLAND GUTIERREZ, TEXAS STATE SENATE: A mom told me that her child had been shot by one bullet through the back, through the kidney area. The first responder that they eventually talked to said that their child likely bled out. In that span of 30 or 40 minutes extra, that little girl might have lived. That little girl might have lived.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: Gutierrez says it is not just the police who failed those children. He says everyone, including lawmakers, failed them. CNN's Lucy Kavanaugh joins me now. Lucy, you spoke to pediatric trauma doctors and nurses in San Antonio. I can't imagine the stories that they have to tell. What did they tell you?

LUCY KAFANOV, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jim, a lot of them described a sickening sense of deja vu. Many of those doctors and nurses were also working in 2017 when a gunman burst into the Sutherland Springs First Baptist Church killing 26 people.

And, you know, I can't help but think about these concentric circles of trauma that happened when these shootings take place for the families of the victims, for the community at-large, many of whom have been lining up here to pay their respects, but also for the unsung heroes, those first responders, the doctors and the nurses who are responsible, tasked with keeping the survivors alive.

We got to spend time inside a trauma unit at San Antonio's university health hospital and even though these doctors and nurses are very well trained to respond to humanity at its worst moments, for a lot of them the personal toll as parents and as humans is adding up.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNKNOWN: Get the glide scope in there please.

KAFANOV (voice-over): At San Antonio's university health hospital --

LILIAN LIAO, PEDIATRIC TRAUMA MEDICAL CENTER DIRECTOR: All of us would be in a level one alpha if one came in.

UNKNONW: Anesthesia is on their way. Blood bank is on their way.

KAFANOV (voice-over): Doctors and nurses prepare to receive the most critically wounded. It's one of the busiest trauma centers in the nation.

[17:20:00]

LIAO: You have your blade when you cut?

UNKNOWN: Yes. I got a 21 and a 15 up.

LIAO: Okay, perfect.

KAFANOV (voice-over): And CNN got exclusive access inside as pediatric trauma medical center director Dr. Lilian Liao and her team demonstrated preparations for a mass casualty event.

LIAO: Anesthesia is here. So, (inaudible), get up there with Kelly so we can back her up in case it becomes a difficult airway.

KAFANOV (voice-over): Today it's a drill.

LIAO: This is one of the teams that we formed and the day of the mass casualty event, we formed multiple teams such as this.

KAFANOV (voice-over): But it wasn't a drill on Tuesday when a teenaged gunman burst inside Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, murdering 19 children and two teachers, injuring at least 17 others, officials say.

LIAO: It's devastating, you know. I think the same thing that every other person in this country is thinking, you know, how horrible their last moments were, right, and what that scene looks like.

KAFANOV (voice-over): The trauma unit prepared to receive dozens of Uvalde's wounded.

UNKNOWN: The blood has been checked.

KAFANOV (voice-over): Nurse Colleen Davis recalled the agonizing wait for patients and a grim realization.

DAVIS: After a while you start realizing more aren't coming and you start realizing why and then the weight of that just kind of sets in and it stays with you for the rest of the day and all the days after.

KAFANOV (on camera): Four of the victims were brought right here to university hospital. Three little girls and the shooter's grandmother. The doctors and nurses working here, it, unfortunately, wasn't their first mass shooting.

KAFANOV (voice-over): Less than five years ago, a gunman slaughtered 26 people at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, just 34 miles southeast of downtown San Antonio. Dr. Liao was on duty.

LIAO: None of us anticipated that we would be involved in yet another mass casualty event. It's not something we imagined.

KAFANOV (voice-over): Trauma nurse Kristell Flores was working alongside Dr. Liao in 2017 as patients wounded in the church massacre began to flood in. She can't believe it's happened again.

KRISTELL FLORES, TRAUMA NURSE: I immediately got like this horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach and deja vu basically because it was even in the same location where we got notified from Sutherland Springs.

KAFANOV (voice-over): Flores is haunted by the lives her team couldn't save.

FLORES: Just keep replaying things in my brain and thinking like what if they would have gotten here like 30 minutes after the first notification probably would have saved a lot of people, but it's just very, just what ifs, what ifs, what ifs and it just doesn't change the outcome.

KAFANOV (voice-over): Like many of her trauma center colleagues, Flores is also a parent.

FLORES: He just turned 6 and he is in kindergarten and today is his last day of school. And I have a 1-year-old. It is just hard and it's just, how do you tell them.

KAFANOV (voice-over): Dr. Liao says she copes by focusing on the good, her team, her family and her little ones.

LIAO: That's what you want to amplify at a time like this, is amplify being grateful and the kindness that the world shows rather than focusing on the negative because that can really put you in a wrong place moving forward.

KAFANOV (voice-over): She breaks down when she talking about the invisible scars the surviving children will carry.

LIAO: You know, I kind of thought back to when I was 10 years old. And so, when I was 10 years old my family immigrated to this country and my biggest challenge was learning to speak English, and you just can't imagine what these children are going through, and it's really unfair. It's really unfair.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAFANOV (on camera): And, Jim, that impact felt so far beyond Uvalde. And I have to add, you know, it didn't make it into our piece but when you walk into that hospital there's this huge banner there that was sent to the doctors after the Sutherland Springs massacre. It was sent by the trauma doctors and nurses in Aurora, Colorado who, of course, experienced their own mass shooting in 2012 when a gunman opened fired inside a movie theater.

The San Antonio hospital sent its own banners to the doctors treating the Pulse nightclub shooting victims in Florida. The woman, the P.R. woman at the hospital actually broke down into tears when describing sending out these banners saying I don't know how many more of these I'm going to have to keep making. Jim?

ACOSTA: Lucy, that was an excellent report. And, you know, nurses and doctors who work in trauma units there accustomed to dealing with so much heartbreak and to see that woman you were speaking with breaking down, it just -- it just breaks my heart. Lucy, thank you very much for that report. We appreciate it.

[17:25:04]

And for more information on how you can help victims of recent mass shootings including the one in Uvalde, Texas, log system on to CNN.com/impact. And we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) ACOSTA: In the wake of Tuesday's school shooting a bitterly divided Congress is once again taking up the issue of gun reform. Today, President Biden was at the site of the tragedy promising action as some top lawmakers from both sides have expressed cautious optimism. But plenty of Republicans have already made it clear they will oppose any new gun measures. Senator Ted Cruz laid out his reasoning at Friday's NRA convention.

[17:30:03]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX): Many would still tell us that the evil on display in Uvalde or in Buffalo derives from the presence of guns in the hands of ordinary American citizens. But it's never been about guns.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: And days before that speech, Democratic Congressman Ruben Gallego blasted Senator Cruz for his stance on guns tweeting, "FU @tedcruz you care about a fetus but you will let our children get slaughtered. Just get your ass to Cancun. You are useless." And Congressman Gallego joins me now. Congressman, some choice words there for the senator from Texas. But they're not backing down. I mean, even in response to what happened in Uvalde. Basically, the stance is no new gun restrictions whatsoever coming from the GOP.

REP. RUBEN GALLEGO (D-AZ): I mean, it doesn't surprise me. Look, they care more about the gun than they care about the humans that are affected by it. And until there is actually political pressure, they're going to continue doing it.

Maybe they'll throw, you know, do a little dance here and there, but at the end of the day they're going to stay with what they know, which is, you know, they're going to stall. They're going to say thoughts and prayers and at the end of the day we're going to have more massacres and it will continue to happening until we actually really decide that this is no longer feasible and actually pass real laws and real reforms.

ACOSTA: Let me ask you about that because Vice President Harris this weekend called for a new assault weapons ban. We saw what happened in the mid-1990s. There was an assault weapons ban was passed in 1994. It lasted for 10 years. It ended in 2004.

But during that time there were just 400,000 AR-15 style guns in America. Now it's estimated to be something like 20 million in this country. Do you think a new ban is possible?

GALLEGO: I think at a minimum, it is tough for 20 million already weapons out there, but at minimum, we should at least look at the logical conclusion of what's happening here. The last two shooters were 18 and they both bought weapons that are AR-15 variants, the type what I used in Iraq. It is illegal for someone from the age -- of below the age of 21 to

buy a handgun. What we're seeing is dangerous for someone below the age of 21 to own a handgun. Why are we saying it's okay for them to have a weapon that is essentially used to have -- is designed to have mass killing, you know, something that, unfortunately, is happening a lot in this country?

ACOSTA: And there has been a lot of debate about raising that age, from 18 to 21 to purchase an AR-15 style rifle. Do you think that there might be some room there to make something happen, potential?

GALLEGO: I would hope so. Look, I know there's a bill that I've signed on the House side. I think there's some momentum also on the Senate side. It's logical. It already meets with some of the standards that we already understand. If you are too young to own a handgun, then you should be too young to own a weapon of this, you know, caliber and size.

And, you know, I'm not saying you can't have a hunting rifle. But you sure should not have this type of weapon that is, you know, basically designed to kill as many people as fast as possible.

ACOSTA: And I just spoke with an NRA board member, Phillip Journey, who was attending the NRA event in Houston despite this shooting in Texas. And I wanted his reaction to kids who will never be the same again, who don't want to go back to school after what happened there, and this is what happened.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: I want to get your reaction to what the survivors of Tuesday's school shooting told CNN. Let's listen

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNKNOWN: Do you ever want to go back to school?

JAYDEN PEREZ, UVALDE SHOOTING SURVIVOR: I don't want to, no, because I don't want anything to do with another shooting and me on the school.

UNKNOWN: Are you scared it might happen again?

PEREZ: And I know it might happen again probably.

EDWARD TIMOTHY SILVA, UVALDE SHOOTING SURVIVOR: I have the fear of guns now because I'm scared someone might shoot me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: What do you say to these children who say they're afraid somebody is going to shoot them if they go back to school?

JOURNEY: Well, I say to the children that we all pray for you and we all want to lift you up in prayer, that we want to hope that you get through this without the consequences that we see so often in victims of domestic crime. I practiced law for 25 years and I've been a judge in criminal court for over 14 years. And now I'm doing family law. So, I do think I understand what's in the best interests of children. I've been doing thousands of cases.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: Best interests of children and essentially saying thoughts and prayers.

GALLEGO: Look, this is America. We don't have -- it doesn't have to be this way. It was not always this way. We're accepting some standard that we would never want our children to have, you know. We want our children to have a better life than we have and I honestly cannot say that we're actually offering that to our children. I got to live in this probably the last period of time where I could go to school without this threat. It's ridiculous that our kids have to live that way and they don't. They just don't.

ACOSTA: And the other thing that this NRA board member said, and you and I were chatting about this before the segment got started, he was saying, well, there are 18-year-olds in the military with AR-15s.

[17:35:03]

GALLEGO: Well, number one, they don't own those weapons. They're in an armory. Every bullet is accounted for. You do a background check before you get that weapon. There is psychological tests also before you even get that weapon. You have to, you know, at least in the Marine Corps, it's almost 2 1/2 weeks of just dry firing before you have to shoot that one weapon. You have to requalify every year.

If you want to have those standards, I'm up for those standards. But for them to say that, you know, they 18-year-old in -- that's grabbing a gun off the street or off some dealer is the same as an 18-year-old in the military, it's absolutely not even close to each other.

ACOSTA: Yes. They get training in the military. You got training in the military.

GALLEGO: They got training and they got -- and every day you lock away your weapon. That weapon is not -- unless you're in a war zone, that weapon is in an armory, it's accounted for every day.

ACOSTA: Yes. Some 18-year-old playing video games at his grandmother's house, he turns 18, can go buy an AR-15.

GALLEGO: Right.

ACOSTA: Not the same as an 18-year-old in the military.

GALLEGO: Correct.

ACOSTA: You also slammed Democratic Senator Kirsten Sinema on twitter telling her to just stop because she won't get rid of the filibuster to pass gun legislation. A lot of people have been pushing you to challenge Senator Sinema. Have you made a decision on that? GALLEGO: No, I didn't make a decision. Again, I'm going to wait for

this year to be done. More importantly, let's focus on what's happening here. The reason why we're not getting anything done is because Senator Sinema and Senator Manchin are holding up the filibuster. If these Republicans knew that the filibuster was going to go away, they would actually compromise, probably could actually get a very good compromised bill.

Maybe it is universal background checks. Maybe it is stopping 18-year- old -- people below the age of 21 from buying AR-15 weaponry. But because these Republicans know that there's a filibuster and that they won't break the filibuster, they're just going to buy their time and we end up getting some kind of symbolic vote and nothing is going to happen and, unfortunately, more kids are going to end up getting slaughtered.

ACOSTA: Yes, I suspect some of them may want, maybe just a few of them, may want to see that filibuster go away on this issue just so they can vote on something like this to show their constituents they're doing something about it. Congressman Gallego, thanks very much for your time. We appreciate it.

GALLEGO: Thank you.

ACOSTA: Coming up, the war in Ukraine through a mother's eyes as she takes shelter in a basement with her three young children.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:40:00]

ACOSTA: Tonight, CNN brings you a unique look inside the war in ukraine through the eyes of a mother caught in the middle of it. CNN's Anderson Cooper gives us a preview.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks, Jim. You know, we've all seen a lot of images in the war in Ukraine, but this is something you really haven't seen. It's the war through the eyes of one mother as she shelters in a basement with her three children in Kyiv.

Her name is Olena Gnes. And before Russia invaded, she was a tour guide and she used to post videos about her family and about life in Ukraine on YouTube. But when the bombs started falling, she kept recording and she decided to make basically a video diary of what she and her husband and kids were experiencing as they moved into a basement shelter never knowing if they would survive through the night.

I talked to Olena on "360" since the early days the war and was able to finally meet her just a couple of weeks ago in Kyiv. But when I realized just how much video she had shot and I started to watch it, I realized what an extraordinary thing it was that she had created. It's a view of the war that we've rarely seen before. It's very intimate and poignant. It's very personal, and she's really just a lovely, thoughtful, caring person.

This is the war diary of Olena Gnes. Here is a brief clip.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER (voice-over): In the morning against all odds, Kyiv is still in Ukrainian control.

OLENA GNES, UKRAINIAN CITIZEN: The latest update is that we are alive. I am alive. This is Tarina (ph). She is sleeping on the floor. There is some other people in the shelter, woke up. It's already morning. It's like more than 7:00 in the morning. (inaudible) is sleeping on the small sofa here. It's very important that we survived this night.

Now the day has come. You know, at night everything looks much more scary for people. So, as you can see, even many people left the bomb shelter right now because it's more than 7:00 in the morning.

COOPER (voice-over): Many in Kyiv are leaving. Long lines of cars clogged the roads heading west. Train stations around the country fill with families trying to get out. Olena decides she and the kids will stay.

GNES: I feel safe here. The chances for us to die here in Kyiv are equal to the chances for us to die on the road somewhere. And another thing, I want my children to be alive, of course, but both physically and spiritually. I want them to be strong. I want them to be free.

COOPER (voice-over): Olena's husband, Sergey (ph), brings supplies for his family. He's volunteered to fight despite having no military training.

UNKNOWN (through text): Daddy, what were you doing today?

SERGEY GNES, HUSBAND OF OLENA GNES (through translation): I can tell you, Katya. Bye.

COOPER (voice-over): He leaves quickly to rejoin his unit.

[17:45:01]

UNKNOWN (through text): Mom, I want to go to Daddy.

UNKNOWN (through text): Me too. Where did daddy go/

O. GNES, (through text): He went to defend us.

UNKNOWN (through text): To war?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER (on camera): Her family, like so many others, have been through so much and it's given them a lot of hope to know that the world is watching what happens in Ukraine. So, I really hope you can watch it tonight. It's really worthwhile. I think you'll come away with a whole another understanding what it's like to be in war as a mom with kids living in a shelter. It's really an extraordinarily personal view of the war. Jim? ACOSTA: Thanks, Anderson. And be sure to catch Anderson's special "A

Mother's Diary of War" airs tonight at 8:00 p.m. right here on CNN.

And one other programming note, CNN brings you a brand-new episode of "Nomad with Carlton McCoy" tonight. Here's a preview.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CARLTON MCCOY, CNN HOST, NOMAD WITH CARLTON MCCOY (voice-over): Next, we order something I've never tried before, Kumitas (ph) made with corn, basil and onions and I love it.

(On camera): It's almost like corn ground up in like a meat grinder and like steamed together. But it's like summer time so it's sweet as hell.

UNKNOWN: Really good. I do like living here a lot. You know, Toronto was a good place for community when you have universal health care. Child care is covered in a very significant way. But in a lot of ways, Canada really compares itself to America. In, you know, 2020 two people were killed by cops in around that time here as well. And you know, it's something like that what happens and everyone is like, how did this happen? We're not America.

MCCOY: So, what you're saying is like, you really -- America is like the black sheep of the family.

UNKNOWN: Yes.

MCCOY: It doesn't say -- so --

UNKNOWN: It's like, what are we, Americans now? Yes.

MCCOY: So, their national identity is like --

UNKNOWN: We're not America.

MCCOY: Like, like, I know it's bad, but it's not as bad as America.

UNKNOWN: Yes.

MCCOY: That's really -- that's the defense?

UNKNOWN: Yes. That's the defense.

MCCOY: That's tough to hear, I'll be honest with you, as an American.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: "Nomad with Carlton McCoy" airs tonight at a special time, 9:00 p.m., followed by another new episode tonight at 10:00.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:50:00] ACOSTA: On this Memorial Day weekend, Americans across the country are gathering in solemn ceremony to remember the fallen heroes of our armed services, men and women who gave their lives for this nation. Over the generation, Americans have traveled to quiet places of remembrance like Arlington National Cemetery to visit the final resting spots of our parents, grandparents, brothers, sisters, spouses and children. It cannot be said enough how grateful we are for their service.

On this Memorial Day weekend, there is a different kind of grief welling up inside of all of us. In Uvalde, Texas, families are just beginning to mourn the deaths of the children and teachers who lost their lives in the massacre at Robb Elementary School.

In Buffalo, New York, the relatives of the victims of that recent mass shooting only two weeks ago are still laying their loved ones to rest. Perhaps in the future, this country will need a day of remembrance for America's mass shooting victims. There are so many of them now. They are also our parents, grandparents, brothers, sisters, spouses, and children. They, too, should not be forgotten.

In Texas, the lives lost in the mass shooting there have yet to be laid to rest. As a tribute, members of the community lined up 21 empty classroom chairs for the children and teachers killed. Their lives should also inspire us to be better Americans. To do better or at the very least, to do something.

That's the news. Reporting from Washington, I'm Jim Acosta. I'll see you back here next Saturday. Pamela Brown takes over the CNN NEWSROOM next. Good night.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:59:56]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNKNOWN: He hasn't really step foot into his room. He does have a lot of nightmares. He does run, scream and cry in his sleep.

UNKNOWN: What we need right now is action. Why are our gun laws so lax?