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First Funerals Today For Victims Killed In Uvalde Massacre; Hospital: Shooter's 66-Year-Old Grandmother Now In Good Condition; Questions Grow Over Law Enforcement Response In Uvalde; Biden Meets With Top Economic Team As Inflation Plagues Economy. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired May 31, 2022 - 15:00   ET

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

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: The special grand jury is going to start hearing from witnesses this week and we expect Brad Raffensperger to be one of the first ones. He's one of many folks in Georgia who've been receiving subpoenas with - lately in Georgia. We know that there are five other people, current and former officials, from his office who have also been subpoenaed to testify. Back to you guys.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: Sara Murray watching it all for us. Thank you.

MURRAY: Mm-hm.

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.

The first of 21 funerals in Uvalde Texas is starting right now. It's for 10 year old Amerie Jo Garza. She was killed during the shooting rampage at her elementary school. This is a tribute video made for her. She was in the fourth grade. Now, the day after the massacre, her father told Anderson Cooper how he learned that a Marie was gone.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANGEL GARZA, FATHER OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL SHOOTING VICTIM: She was hysterical saying that they shot her best friend that they killed her best friend and she's not breathing and then she was trying to call the cops and ask the little the name and she's - and she told me - she said Amerie.

She was the sweetest little girl who did nothing wrong. She listened to her mom and dad. She always brushed her teeth. She didn't - she was creative. She made things for us. She never got in trouble in school. Like I just want to know what she did to be a victim.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Fellow classmate, Maite Rodriguez, also just 10 years old, will be laid to rest later today as well. At Sacred Heart Church where Emory's funeral is taking place, there are 21 crosses. One for each of the 19 children and two teachers killed a week ago today and funerals for 12 of the victims will be held there.

CNN Nick Valanecia joins us now from Uvalde. So Nick, tell us what's happening as this little girls' funeral is starting.

NICK VALANECIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Hey there, Alisyn. Amerie is funeral is reportedly being attended by many people wearing the color purple, which is reportedly her favorite color. We also understand from local reports that there are several Girl Scouts there in attendance.

And as you mentioned, it's one of two funerals that will happen today. The other happening later today at 7 pm, according to the family of 10-year-old Maite Rodriguez, who had dreams of being a marine biologist. And look, all of these children had dreams, dreams that will never be realized, dreams that will never come to fruition.

And when you stand in this community and talk to the residents here, there is still so much pain and grief that is still very, very much so raw one week since this massacre happened at Robb Elementary and the agony is reflected on the face of nearly everyone that you see.

It was earlier that I spoke to the grandfather of Layla Salazar, Vincent Salazar, 68 years old, he says he's a retired grandfather. It was one of his greatest joys in life was to be the grandfather to little Layla. He said that he not only is hopeful that gun reform will happen. He says that he expects it to change and he is going to be the person, he says, that leads the charge. Listen to what he had to say to us.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VALANECIA (off camera): Do you believe there's going to be change?

VINCENT SALAZAR, GRANDFATHER OF SHOOTING VICTIM LAYLA SALAZAR: I'm going to make change. I do believe we're going to make change. Myself and of these parents that lost loved ones get together with me, we are going to make change. This isn't going to be Sandy Hook. This is not going to be Sutherland Springs. This is not going to go - you can go as far as back to Colorado shooting, no. This stops now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VALANECIA: After the interview, Vincent took me to his pickup truck where he showed me where little Layla had taken her finger and written in the dust of his pickup truck her name. And he said that's one of the last things that she did before she died. Earlier today, we also saw one of the hometown heroes here, Matthew McConaughey, show up to pay his respects at the elementary school, the site of last week's massacre. He didn't take any questions, but much like everyone here, was very solemn and clearly very disturbed by what happened. Victor? Alisyn?

BLACKWELL: We have seen these families in states and at the local level make that change that they have committed to. We just spoke with a man in Colorado who did that after the Columbine shooting. Let me turn to the investigation now, the new audio from the incident. It appears that a child is heard, tell us about that.

VALANECIA: Yes. It appears that a child is being or telling an adult that they've been shot. It was a video that we obtained overnight from an individual who did not want to be identified. But it appears as though it was shot while this video while the shooting was taking place. It's unclear at what point during the shooting that it took place, but in it we hear, as you mentioned, Victor, a radio call from what we now understand is Customs and Border Protection radio traffic.

[15:05:02]

And according to the individual who recorded this video, he said as soon as CBP agents realized that he could hear the video or hear this audio on the radio traffic, they turned it down. It is chilling video and agonizing and we want to warn you it may be disturbing for some of you to watch and listen to.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you injured?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I got shot.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where? Where?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A kid got shot?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Inaudible) ...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A kid?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They shot a kid.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VALANECIA: Just still so many unanswered questions and video, more and more cell phone videos coming out, surfacing like that, bringing up just even more questions here from the community. Victor? Alisyn?

CAMEROTA: Also, Nick, obviously, one key witness in this whole thing is the shooter's grandmother who was shot. She's still in the hospital. She may have some important information. Do you know how she's doing?

VALANECIA: Yes. We got an update earlier from the university hospital in San Antonio about three victims who were shot but survived. We understand that she has been upgraded to good condition, that's the grandmother of the shooter. There are also two young victims, I believe, 10 and nine years old, their conditions are serious and stable, but it is a bright spot when this community is looking for any positive news at this point. Victor? Alisyn?

BLACKWELL: Nick Valanecia in Uvalde, Texas as the funerals begin. Thank you.

Well, earlier today, President Biden spoke about the time he spent in Uvalde this past weekend as he mourn with families of those 21 victims.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I've been to more mass shooting aftermaths than I think any president in American history, unfortunately. The day before I was up or down in Texas and people sat in the room about 250, I'm in a large room, with me for almost four hours. Not - nobody left. They wanted to (inaudible) till I spoke to every single person in that room. Every single person. They waited to the very end and the pain is palpable.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Well, a bipartisan group of senators planned to meet virtually this afternoon to discuss gun reform. This is a Zoom meeting between two Democrats: Chris Murphy and Kyrsten Sinema, and two Republicans: John Cornyn and Thom Tillis.

BLACKWELL: A short time ago, Sen. Murphy told reporters the Democrats will not sit at the negotiating table forever. CNN's Manu Raju joins us now from Capitol Hill. Manu, when are Democrats expected are hoping to have some compromise here?

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer indicated that he wants a compromise deal reached by next week. If not, he plans to take steps to try to force a vote on a House-passed bill, two House-passed bills that would expand the background check system.

Now, those bills that passed the House have no chance of getting the 60 votes needed in the U.S. Senate to overcome a Republican filibuster. So the hope over the proponents of getting a law actually enacted rests on these bipartisan talks about whether anything can be reached.

They're talking about some narrow changes to gun laws, including changing the red - so-called red flag law system and was allowing states laws that are already on the books on some states in which you could get a court order, for instance, to try to prevent someone who is mentally ill or has other issues, prevent them from maintaining a firearm changes to other background check, system changes to how guns are stored in residences.

Those are among some of the different discussions are underway right now. So the ultimate question is can they get any - some sort of narrow agreement among this bipartisan group of senators? Will that be enough to pass the Senate all big questions in the days ahead. Otherwise, there will be a showdown vote potentially as early as next week, which will fail and lead to both sides pointing fingers ahead of the elections.

CAMEROTA: Manu, we have heard some lawmakers say that they feel the climate is different this time. They're feeling a sense of optimism. But Democrat Cory Booker says he's not optimistic that there will be change, what's that about? RAJU: Yes, we caught up with Cory Booker just off the Senate floor

earlier today. He's a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and he indicated while he is hopeful that there will be some change this time around, he is not as optimistic that it will end the 'daily carnage' as he said of what we are seeing and these mass shootings take place in America because Democrats wants something much further. They want to either try to prevent people from owning semi-automatic rifles like AR-15s or potentially raise the legal buying age of AR-15s to 21 amongst a number of other measures such as enact universal background checks to close the so called gun show loophole and mandate background checks on internet sales as well, all of which seem to be highly unlikely to be enacted under the current narrow Democratic majority in the House and in the Senate.

[15:10:01]

So that's why anything can be enacted will be a small change, a marginal change and something that Democrats like Cory Booker say simply won't go far enough.

BLACKWELL: Manu Raju for us on Capitol Hill, thank you.

CAMEROTA: Joining us now is the Democratic nominee for Texas Attorney General Rochelle Garza. We also want to note we have invited her opponent, the Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to appear on this program many times in the past week, but so far he has declined. Ms. Garza, thank you so much for being here.

I want to start with the police response. On Friday, we heard from the head of the Department of Public Safety that a grave mistake was made and in hindsight, the police should have gone in to that classroom, to should have stormed the classroom and not waited more than an hour. Who should be held responsible for this and what should happen to him?

ROCHELLE GARZA, (D) TEXAS ATTORNEY GENERAL NOMINEE: Well, first of all, thank you for having me on the show. What happened - we need to make sure that we're keeping our children safe and have a full investigation of what occurred with the police response, because we did see - I mean, what we're learning is that children died during this process, during the inaction.

So I know police have a big job on their hands, but we need to make sure that this never happens again.

CAMEROTA: But is there any person in particular and I'm thinking of the commander on the scene and that's Pete Arredondo. And he is the person who we've been told by other agencies, was the person making the calls, the person who decided not to storm the classroom. And he today was supposed to be sworn in as a new city councilman, we don't know if he's still being paid, if he's still on the payroll of the school police district.

We've heard from the Mayor of Uvalde, who says Pete Arredondo was duly elected to the City Council. There's nothing in the city charter election code or Texas Constitution that prohibits him from taking the oath of office to our knowledge. We're not currently aware of any investigation on Mr. Arredondo. So should he become a city council member and should he still have his job today?

GARZA: I think there needs to be a full investigation of his actions and his role in this. And if he is found accountable for making huge mistakes, then he should be held accountable. He should not hold office.

CAMEROTA: Do you know if any of the police on scene were wearing body cam - body cams, body cameras, and if audio of their cross talk or any video will be released?

GARZA: Look, I can't speak to the specifics of what occurred on the ground. What I can say is that we need to do better. We need to have a better response to these issues. But even more than that, we need to have stricter gun laws. We need to have - ensure that the legislature takes action now. We've called for the Texas Legislature to have a special session before school starts again in the fall and we need to start passing laws that are going to prevent things like this from occurring again; red flag laws, background checks, these are all the things that are going to start protecting people in the state of Texas. That's what we need to focus on.

CAMEROTA: That's exactly what the Florida Legislature and if Republican Florida governor did in the weeks after Parkland, do you have any optimism or any evidence that the Texas State Legislature is going to move with that same determination and speed?

GARZA: I think we need to keep the pressure on. I'm running for Attorney General against Ken Paxton who wants to arm our teachers and fight for silencers in the state of Texas. We need to change our leaders right now and we need to hold our leadership accountable for their inaction.

So the more pressure that people are putting on our on our legislators to have a special session to address these issues now and not wait, the better off we are. And we have an election coming up in November and we're going to vote these folks out because this - enough's enough, Texas is tired, the entire country is tired of seeing things like this occur and we need to stop it now.

CAMEROTA: By the way, Texas is the state according to the latest numbers, with the highest number of gun deaths every year. Here it is, Texas is number one. This is according to the latest CDC numbers that have been published, then California, then Florida, then Georgia, then Ohio. What is the one thing that you think could change today in Texas that would change that.

GARZA: We need to get illegal guns off the street. We need to close the gun show loopholes. We need to do better by Texans. And we have the opportunity to do it. We just have leadership that has failed to do it, so we need to change in leadership. We need to make sure that we have stricter laws so that we can start protecting people because it shouldn't be a death sentence to go to school or to go shopping or to go to a place of worship. That's not who we are as a country. That's not who we are as a state and we need to do better.

[15:15:06] CAMEROTA: Rochelle Garza, thank you for your time.

GARZA: Thank you.

BLACKWELL: Inflation is at a 40-year high and the White House is intensifying the effort to slow it. Now, President Biden just met with Fed Chair Jerome Powell in the Oval Office. We have details of the President's plan next.

[15:19:44]

BLACKWELL: President Biden met today with Fed Chairman Jerome Powell and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to talk about inflation as prices of gas, and food, and housing continue to skyrocket and voter satisfaction sinks. Last hour, I spoke to the Chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers who says that they're optimistic.

[15:20:04]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CECILIA ROUSE, CHAIR, WH COUNCIL OF ECONOMIC ADVISERS: What we understood about inflation at the time was it was tied to the pandemic. We are still in the midst of this pandemic. The Russia's war in Ukraine disabled not only gas prices and food prices, but also disrupted supply chains. We didn't foresee Delta, we didn't foresee Omicron and so, yes, there have been unexpected challenges, which have disrupted the natural - getting us back to equilibrium, which would help bring down those prices.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: A new poll shows 46 percent of Americans think economic conditions are poor and the government is not doing enough to fight inflation.

Joining us now is Robert Reich. He served as Labor Secretary under President Clinton and is now the Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy at UC Berkeley. He's also the author of The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It. Secretary Reich, thanks so much for being here.

Before we get to how to fix it and solutions, let's just talk about how we got here, because there were various times during 2021 that President Biden and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and the Head of the Fed, Jerome Powell, downplayed inflation, so let me just give you one example from Jerome Powell.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEROME POWELL, FEDERAL RESERVE CHAIR: I really do not expect that we'll be in a situation where inflation rises to troubling levels.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Okay, so that was wrong. That was February of 2021. Did they miss warning signs? ROBERT REICH, FORMER U.S. LABOR SECRETARY UNDER CLINTON: Well, it's

easy to say in hindsight, Alisyn, that they've missed warning signs. But I think the consensus among economists, people who were analyzing the economy was that actually the inflation we saw back then three, four or five months ago, was mostly pent up demand from years of pandemic, combined with supply shocks, I mean, all around the world.

Those are still big, big issues and there's a good reason and good reason to think that inflation may have peaked, may be coming down. But undoubtedly, they were a little bit optimistic.

BLACKWELL: So the President in his op-ed in The Wall Street Journal talked about his three-point plan. And I spoke with Cecilia Rouse trying to figure out what is the action behind this plan. But short of legislation and we know the reality of 60 votes to pass anything and Democrats changing the filibuster, beyond let the Fed handle it, how much of a plan can a White House actually execute to slow inflation?

REICH: Well, probably not all that much, Victor. But if you look at the big oil companies, for example, ExxonMobil net profits of $5.5 billion, more than double from a year ago, Shell, the biggest profits ever, Chevron, the highest profits in a decade. I mean, these oil companies are raking it in while consumers are paying more than ever at the pump.

I think there is an argument here for a windfall profits tax on the oil companies at the very least. At that - incidentally, that's what the conservative government in Britain just instituted last Thursday.

CAMEROTA: So Secretary, what's more to blame, the pent up demand and all the other factors for inflation or corporate greed, as you've spelled out?

REICH: Well, it's all of the above, Alisyn. I think it's probably more pent up demand and supply shocks. But undoubtedly, big corporations are taking advantage of inflation as a cover to increase their profits and it's not just oil companies, also you have food companies.

There are four major food processors in America, including Tyson Foods, they are making huge record profits. And what are they doing, they're increasing their prices. They are saying, well, we can't help it because of inflation. That can help it. The real issue for them, like the oil companies is that they don't have very much competition. And without much competition, they have free rein to increase their prices.

BLACKWELL: So we've had members of the administration, I mentioned Cecilia Rouse, Jared Bernstein, also on Brian Deese on the network today. They're available everywhere. But the polls show that despite the PR push, the American people are dissatisfied. Only 14 percent say that the economy now is good or excellent, 46 percent say that it's poor. If gas stays at $4.60, how much can a PR push accomplish?

REICH: Well, I think a PR push cannot accomplish all that much. I mean, it's important the administration get arguments out there and make sure people know that job growth has been steady and increasing and very good. It's important that the administration get all the good news out there that is possible.

But in the end, there is not a huge amount that an administration, any administration can do. This is why I've been pushing a windfall profits tax.

[15:24:58]

Because if even the conservatives in Britain can pass a windfall profits tax and oil companies, especially, it seems to me it's egregious, it's outrageous how much they are charging well over $4 a gallon, while they aren't making record profits. I mean, an administration should be - it's easy to say this, I'm not in the ministration.

But the Biden ministration could be reaching or should be reaching out to Republicans right now and saying, this is outrageous and no conservatives ought to be paying this amount of money while the oil companies rake it in. And therefore, please join us in a windfall profits tax and we will - the receipts will be distributed to people who desperately needed, who are paying really a huge percentage of their incomes for gas as it should be forwarded and distributed for a lot of other things like food.

CAMEROTA: Do you think the Biden administration will take your advice on that tax?

REICH: No. I wasn't - I don't think so. Although, maybe it will. I'm - again, I'm impressed by the fact that inflation is around the world. This is just a United States problem and you have very large companies that are taking advantage of this inflation all over the world, the oil companies are kind of leading the pack and if you have countries like Britain, who are instituting a windfall profits tax, and then using the money to help consumers get through all of this, well, that's a tremendous, tremendous kind of measure. It's an important measure and the United States should take heed.

BLACKWELL: Former Labor Secretary, Robert Reich, thank you.

REICH: Thanks very much.

CAMEROTA: Well, a federal grand jury reportedly handed down a subpoena to former Trump official Peter Navarro. We have all the details next.

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