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Dispatcher Apparently Heard Saying Child In Room "Full Of Victims;" Bipartisan Group Of Senators Tries Again For Deal On Guns; Thousands Of Flights Canceled During Holiday Weekend; Gas Prices Hit New Record High On Memorial Day. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired May 30, 2022 - 15:00   ET

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

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ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST: It's the top of the hour on CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Alisyn Camerota.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: I'm Victor Blackwell. Good to be with you.

For the first time we are hearing what appears to be dispatch audio about a child trapped in the room with the Uvalde shooter during the attack. Now CNN has not been able to confirm this recording first reported by ABC News.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Advise we do have child on the line. Child is advising he is in the room, full of victim. Full of victims at this moment.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: It is unclear what time that audio came in. But the Texas public safety director says there were at least eight 911 calls from two callers coming from inside Robb Elementary.

BLACKWELL: And we now know at least 19 offices were just on the other side of the door of the classroom where a student was calling from. And Texas public safety officials reported the first call from a child came in at 12:03 pm. Not until 12:50, 47 minutes later that officers break in and kill the gunman. The Justice Department is going to investigate the local law enforcement response.

CAMEROTA: A local official believes one child could have been saved, if police had gone in earlier.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. ROLAND GUTIERREZ (D-TX): I sat down with a parent - a set of - a family yesterday. 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. CAMEROTA: That's just awful. I mean, on top of all the other awful

things that we've heard.

So now Democrats are trying to seize whatever momentum exists on Capitol Hill for gun safety measures. Today, President Biden said he believes there are some Republicans who recognize the need for some kind of change.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think there's a realization on the part of rational Republicans, and I consider McConnell rational Republican and Cornyn is as well. I think there's a recognition on their part that we can't continue like this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: CNN Correspondent Lucy Kafanov is in Uvalde, Texas. So we heard the 911 dispatch recording for the first time. What are we learning about the lead up to police eventually going into that classroom?

LUCY KAFANOV, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Victor, so many unanswered questions about that and we know that this is going to be the subject of a Department of Justice investigation. The law enforcement response and specifically the length of time that it took for officials to go in.

We now have the clearest account from one official that alleges that no command decision was ever made to breach that classroom. And that comes from Sen. Roland Gutierrez who you played a little bit of in the intro there. This is based on his briefings with law enforcement. We have not heard this at CNN firsthand from DPS or the CBP, but take a listen to what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Do you know if - when they finally decided to go in was that a decision made by the school police force chief?

GUTIERREZ: What's been made clear to me is that at that point, the CBP team that went in, in frustration said we're going in.

BASH: So that's a no.

GUTIERREZ: That's a no.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAFANOV: Again, so many unanswered questions. Questions that the families and also members of this community who have been streaming here for three days now to pay their respects to those who lost their lives at this vigil. They want answers. They want to know whether more children's lives could have been saved that fateful Tuesday. Victor? Alisyn? CAMEROTA: So Lucy, we know that the first funeral services have

started for two of the girls who were killed at the elementary school. Tell us about those.

[15:05:00]

KAFANOV: We know that a visitation is currently underway for Amerie Jo Garza who was just two weeks past her 10th birthday when her stepfather dropped her off at school not realizing it would be the last time he would see her alive. She was actually one of the students who made 911 calls trying to get help.

We also know that there will be, later on this evening, a service for 10-year-old Maite Yuleana Rodriguez. She wanted to be a marine biologist. We know that the Texas A&M University according to her mother is actually launching a marine biology scholarship on behalf of her daughter. And I want to read you a quick statement that her mother posted on social media.

She wrote, "The passing of my beautiful daughter has rocked me to my core and I simply cannot wrap my head around what's happened. I'd like the world to know about Maite Yuleana Rodriguez that her favorite color was green, that she loved those lime green Converse shoes, so much that she drew a heart on the right one. She loves to call me 'mama'. Her favorite meal was number 13 from Whataburger with a side of sliced jalapenos. She was sweet, charismatic, loving, caring, loyal, free, ambitious, funny, silly, goal-driven and best of all my very best friends."

So many young children and their two teachers, 19 little kids, their two teachers, no longer with us, the families, the community, the nation continues to grieve. Victor? Alisyn?

CAMEROTA: Lucy Kafanov, Thank you very much for reporting from Uvalde for us.

Some Democrats say they sense a shift on Capitol Hill and they're optimistic that some kind of gun reform can happen.

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SEN. DICK DURBIN (D-IL): I can tell you I sense a different feeling among my colleagues after Uvalde.

SEN. CHRIS MURPHY (D-CT): I've seen more Republican interest coming to the table and talking this time than at any other moment since Sandy Hook.

SEN. BEN CARDIN (D-MD): I really do think that there is a real urgency that we can show that we can act.

SEN. CORY BOOKER (D-NJ): Whatever we can get done, if it saves a life, it's worth doing. And so my colleagues were entering the bipartisan talks. I fully support that, but I'm under no illusion that we're going to do the things that need to be done.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: CNN Congressional Correspondent Jessica Dean joins us now from Capitol Hill. So get us up to speed on potentially a deal in the works.

JESSICA DEAN, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Right. So here's what we know Victor and Alisyn, Sen. John Cornyn, the Texas senator who's been deputized by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to really lead Republicans on this issue says that they plan to meet virtually tomorrow. We also know that this bipartisan group has been meeting all through the weekend as they try to continue to build on the momentum that exists right now.

And they have been kind of talking about what they're discussing in the room and they said this is - that right now, they're talking about things like red flag laws. They're talking about expanding and strengthening background checks, if not making them universal. Again, that's on a spectrum. They're trying to figure that out.

They're talking about safe storage of guns, about mental health resources and also resources for school safety trying to put together what they hope will be a comprehensive package. Sen. Chris Murphy who's really led the charge on this for years. He's a Senator from Connecticut, where, of course, Sandy Hook happened. He says that he's optimistic and that he's not going to let perfect be the enemy of the good in this situation that they want to find some sort of compromise.

But as they continue in these talks, the feelings and the beliefs and the opinions on the Republican side for this issue really vary and we're going to let you listen to a couple examples of that.

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REP. ADAM KINZINGER (R-IL): Look, I have opposed a ban fairly recently. I think I'm open to a ban now. It's going to depend on what it looks like, because there's a lot of nuances on what constitutes certain things.

REP. DAN CRENSHAW (R-TX): What you're essentially trying to do with a red flag law is enforced the law before the law has been broken. And that's a really difficult thing to do. It's difficult to assess whether somebody is a threat.

Now, if there's such a threat that they're threatening somebody with a weapon already, well, then they've already broken the law so why do you need this other law?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: And, of course, those are both House members and this is now focused in the Senate where Democrats need 10 Republicans to join them to overcome that filibuster. Again, Sen. Murphy is saying that he's optimistic that this logjam can be broken. But Alisyn and Victor, important to note too, we're on recess. It's Memorial Day. It's a federal holiday. They will be out this entire week and there's a lot of hope and some angst that perhaps the moment passes that if they the momentum slows down, if the calling stops from constituents in their states, who are putting pressure on senators to act. So we will see if they're able to keep this momentum during this recess week. They're back here next week, Victor and Alisyn?

BLACKWELL: Jessica Dean watching it all for us on Capitol Hill. Thank you.

Tom Hoyer, who lost his son in the Parkland shooting says the Uvalde massacre has caused him physical pain. Luke Hoyer was just 15 when he was shot and killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018. Well, Tom is now I treasure for the group Stand with Parkland.

[15:10:02]

Luke's mom, Gena, is also a member of the group. They're with me now. Thank you for spending a few minutes with me.

I don't know if you heard that last report on Democratic senators saying it feels different. Well, we have heard senators say it feels different before and no federal legislative change. Does it feel or appear to be different this time from your vantage point?

TOM HOYER, SON LUKE WAS KILLED IN PARKLAND SHOOTING: It feels like there's a little more energy in this at the moment. I can't really recall if it feels different than when the Parkland shooting happened four and a half years ago. But we're encouraged to see the Cornyn negotiations going on.

There's another group of senators, nine Democrats and Republicans. We're very happy to see that Lindsey Graham and Sen. Blumenthal are back together. We've been talking with them about red flag laws back in 2019 and that had made substantial progress back then. And unfortunately, the impeachment kind of derailed all that. So we're very hopeful that they're going to get back on track with this.

BLACKWELL: Let's talk about the gun and the sale of that gun. The Parkland shooter was 19 years old. Another one of these under 21, 18, 19 year olds just like the Buffalo shooter, just like the Uvalde shooter who was able to legally buy this semi-automatic rifle. And there's a question now of can Texas do what Florida did, raise the age to buy that from 18 to 21. I want you to listen to Texas Governor Greg Abbott on that.

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GOV. GREG ABBOTT (R) TEXAS: For a century and a half, 18-year-olds could buy rifles and we didn't have school shootings, but we do now. Maybe we're focusing our attention on the wrong thing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Gena, he says focusing on the age is the wrong thing. What would you tell the Governor?

GENA HOYER, SON LUKE WAS KILLED IN PARKLAND SHOOTING: From our experience, I disagree with that statement. Our shooter was 19 years old. He was able - 18 when he purchased his gun along with other many additional weapons. If he had not been able to do that we probably wouldn't be on your show today.

BLACKWELL: Tom, there's another suggestion, the President, the Vice President have now said that they want an assault weapons ban reenacted, of course, after the '94 ban expired, highly unlikely that's going to happen, especially in an election year. But Adam Kinzinger, outgoing Republican Congressman, had another suggestion potentially he's open to - I want your reaction, let's listen to Kinzinger here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KINZINGER: My side is not coming forward with reasonable ways to defend an amendment that we think is very important. And so I'm looking at this going, fine, if people are going to put forward solutions about certifying maybe who can buy an assault weapon, I'm certainly open to that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Tom, what do you think, an additional license, an additional certification, would that be enough?

T HOYER: Yes. Assault weapons are just an unusually dangerous weapon. So yes, something like that would certainly help. One thing that I want to stress though is all the things that we're talking about have to do with guns and what we've learned in our case, it's more than just the guns.

In your lead up, you mentioned a couple of other things, things that we advocate for in the areas of mental health and school security. It's amazing how many schools don't know what to do, simple things like lock doors, single point of entry, safe corners, what to do if an active shooter enters the school.

And in mental health, obviously, the mental health for the students more expanded programs, suicide intervention, because a lot of these shooters are suicidal. But just as importantly, the revelation after all these mass shootings is that the shooter had sent out signals that the shooter had talked to somebody, they posted something online, they had written something and we have to find a way to help identify those things, those kinds of people and mitigate before they get to the point where they shoot.

And the National Threat Assessment Center, which is the same group for the Secret Service that looks for threats against the President and Congress has been studying school shootings for over 20 years. And they have a lot of good information that we need to get out to schools and school districts and communities so that they can learn how to see and detect and mitigate some of these shooters before any of this happens and we're doing some of that here in (inaudible) and it works.

[15:15:00]

BLACKWELL: I spoke with the daughter of the teacher who was killed at Columbine 23 years ago who said it's not one thing, it's everything that must be addressed. And I would be remiss if I end this without asking you Gena to just take a few seconds and talk to me about Luke. Tell me about your son.

G HOYER: Sorry. Luke was our youngest of three. He was very sweet, loving and he was better known in our family as 'luki bear'. That was the nickname I gave him when he was young. He was funny. Always made people laugh. He was our surprise baby and I used to always say to Tom, we used to watch him play and he was so funny and being cute as always. I'm like, "Tom, what are we going to do without him?" He was our surprise baby.

And little did I know I won't be having to face that reality and I miss him so much. I still - the families of Uvalde are just going to be in shock forever. I still can't believe I say my son is gone. Just when we go ask - when people ask me how many kids I have, that's one of the hardest questions. He was a great kid. He is missed dearly.

BLACKWELL: Well, we obviously are sorry for your loss and I thank you for taking a few minutes not just to talk about policy, but to talk about your boy who would be a man today. Tom Hoyer, Gena Hoyer, thank you.

T HOYER: Thank you, Victor.

G HOYER: Thank you, Victor.

CAMEROTA: That was beautifully said. I mean, she'll always be a mother of three.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

CAMEROTA: She'll always be a mother of three.

BLACKWELL: Yes. And on the website, on their Stand with Parkland, it is not Tom was Luke's father. Tom is Luke's father.

CAMEROTA: Forever.

BLACKWELL: Yeah.

CAMEROTA: So gun violence continues across the country, even while the country mourns the massacre in Texas.

BLACKWELL: And more than a thousand flights have been canceled this holiday weekend that's prompting chaos across the nation's airports. Stay with us for that.

CAMEROTA: But first, premiering tonight, CNN new film, Julia. Here's a quick preview.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JULIA CHILD: Hello. I'm Julia Child.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Julia was more than a cook. She was a cultural force.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Julia with a pop icon.

JULIA CHILD: Julia Child presents the chicken sisters.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Today you have rock star chefs, Julia was the first.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think I love you.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She absolutely expanded the possibilities of what women could do.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Julia really paved the way for this incredible moment of food and pop culture, making this very domestic profession something extremely popular.

JULIA CHILD: We were right for a change. There I was.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Whether you cooked or didn't cook, people would just watch her for fun.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You were mesmerized, spellbound by what she was saying.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She just seems so unpretentious that you thought if she could do it, you could do it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The delicious life of America's first celebrity chef.

JULIA CHILD: Bon appetit.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Julia, a CNN film premieres tonight at 8 on CNN.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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[15:22:40]

BLACKWELL: More than 2 million people pass through airport security yesterday but thousands of flight cancellations are derailing travel plans.

CAMEROTA: CNN Aviation Correspondent Pete Muntean joins us live from Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C. Pete, what's causing these delays?

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Well, Alisyn, this is a huge test for the airlines not only is this the first major travel rush without the transportation, mask mandate that was in place for a long time, but also a huge rush coming when there are fewer and fewer airline workers and now airlines are having to cancel flights.

So many of these flights have been canceled today, 393 According to the latest data from FlightAware in the United States, 2,200 In total since Friday when so many people are coming back to traveling, 2.1 million people screened by TSA at airports nationwide just yesterday. The TSA says it anticipate screening 2.2 million people today.

These numbers are about 90 percent of where we were back in 2019 before the pandemic and the TSA says as summer travel ramps up we could see these numbers go even higher than pre-pandemic levels. I just want you to listen now to an interview I did with Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg when I asked him whether or not airlines are really up to the challenge now.

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PETE BUTTIGIEG, TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY: We saw a lot of airlines during the pandemic thinning out their schedules and thinning out their workforce, not knowing when demand was going to return. Now faster than expected, the demand has come roaring back and they are struggling to keep up. That's true whether we're talking about flight attendant crews, whether we're talking about pilots and so we've got to make sure that we have short-term and long-term approaches.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MUNTEAN: One of those short-term fixes airlines proactively cancelling flights, Delta is the latest to announce that saying it will cancel about a hundred flights a day in the month of July. Of course, Memorial Day travel is really more about driving. AAA anticipated about 34.9 million people driving 50 miles or more during a five day Memorial Day traveled period and that's coming as gas prices are so high. The national average for a gallon of regular $4.62, even when you adjust that for inflation, Victor and Alisyn, this is the highest gas price we have seen since Memorial Day 2012, a 10-year high.

CAMEROTA: Wow. Okay. Pete Muntean, Thank you.

BLACKWELL: All right. Let's take that right to Matt Egan now.

[15:25:01]

The highest gas prices even when adjusted for inflation in 10 years, what are the numbers?

MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: That's right. Road trips are going to be way more expensive this summer. We now have nine states where the average is $4.90 a gallon or higher. The latest being Arizona, Illinois and New York. California now stands at $6.15 a gallon. As Pete mentioned, the national average $4.62 a gallon, that's up $0.44 from a month ago.

The problem is that supply just cannot keep up with really strong demand as people travel more. The U.S. is not producing as much as it used to neither is OPEC and so prices have nowhere to go but up. We were invited by the White House to take a rare tour of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which is really the federal government's biggest weapon to try to get gas prices down. And Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, she told me that the President

is 'obsessed' with trying to get outrageous gas prices lower. But she conceded that even the most powerful person on the planet, the President of the United States, only has so much power here.

CAMEROTA: And then even if you're staying home this Memorial Day, your prices even at home are going to be more.

EGAN: That's right. So have you guys ever had someone who insists on coming over ...

BLACKWELL: Yes.

EGAN: ... even if they may be weren't invited.

BLACKWELL: Right.

CAMEROTA: You objective to my - inviting myself over?

BLACKWELL: Every Friday night after the show.

EGAN: I was going to say don't - you don't have to name names. This year, though, that uninvited guest is going to be inflation, because you look at the prices going up for food, sticker shock all across the board. Look at these prices, double digit price percentage gains for everything from mustard, buns, ketchup, barbecue staples like ground beef and hotdogs up 15 percent year over year, frozen sausages 24 percent more expensive.

And food inflation is really been driven by a whole lot of factors, demand, again, is strong. Supply has been hurt by extreme weather that's lowered crop yields. Labor costs are up. The war in Ukraine has disrupted supply. So all of these different factors adding to the cost of living.

I mean, I think the good news is that after COVID kind of ruin plans for two summers in a row, people are feeling more comfortable to gather again in groups. I think the bad news is it's just going to cost more.

CAMEROTA: Yes. You just can't eat anything when you get together.

EGAN: Exactly.

CAMEROTA: That's my advice. Matt Egan, Thank you.

EGAN: Thank you, guys.

BLACKWELL: Thanks, Matt.

Well, the FDA says it's now investigating a possible link between the hepatitis A outbreak and strawberries. What you need to know there ahead.

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