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Growing Questions About Police Response to Massacre; Funeral Services Begin in Devasted Uvalde Community; Bipartisan Group of Senators Hold Talks on Gun Reform; Yellen: I was Wrong About Path Inflation Would Take; Biden Vows to Give Fed Space to Curb Inflation; U.S. to Send Advanced Rocket Systems to Ukraine; Ukraine: Russians Control Most of Severodonetsk. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired June 01, 2022 - 04:00   ET

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

[04:00:00]

ISA SOARES, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and a very warm welcome to our viewers joining us in the United States and right around the world. I'm Isa Soares in London. And just ahead right here on CNN NEWSROOM --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is this what we want to protect or are we going to do our jobs and protect our children?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The community of Uvalde deserves answers.

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: My plan is to address inflation, respect the Fed.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think that I was wrong then. There have been unanticipated and large shocks to the economy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The return of hustle and bustle on many streets in Shanghai after so long.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: Live from London, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Isa Soares.

SOARES: A very warm welcome to everyone. It is Wednesday June 1. And we begin this hour in Uvalde, Texas where the governor has now declared a state of disaster. A week after 21 innocent lives were cut short in that horrific school shooting. The declaration will accelerate state and local resources to assist of course the devastated community.

Meantime questions are mounting over the police response to the massacre, but officials say the incident commander during the shooting school district police chief Pete Arredondo is not responding to investigators' requests for a follow up interview. However, Arredondo did appear in person on Tuesday to be sworn into the Uvalde City Council. The mayor says no ceremony was held out of respect to the families in mourning. And as new details of the shooting timeline emerges -- as you can see

there -- those families are demanding answers. Grief now mixed with anger that the gunman was inside the school for more than an hour before he was killed. Authorities have given conflicting statements about how the tragedy unfolded. Have a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COL. STEVEN MCCRAW, DIRECTOR, TEXAS DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY: Continue to keep him pinned down in that location, you know, afterwards until a tactical team could be put together comprised the border patrol agents on the front end, some members of their board tech unit which is a SWAT team for border patrol.

MCCRAW: First of all, when it comes to an active shooter you don't have to wait on tactical gear. Plain and simple, you got an obligation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOARES: Well, that was May 24 and May 27. And now we're learning the door shooter used to enter the elementary school was closed but not locked. Authorities had initially said a teacher propped open the door earlier in the day. Another discrepancy frustrating of course an already shaken community.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. VERONICA ESCOBAR (D-TX): The community of Uvalde deserves answers, it deserves a thorough complete investigation. And every key piece of testimony and evidence will help those families get answers.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOARES: Investigations are now under way into the shooting in Uvalde which includes taking a closer look at the actions as well as the response by the police. CNN senior law enforcement analyst Andrew McCabe breaks down what decisions and actions may be scrutinized here.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANDREW MCCABE, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: What investigators will do is focus on those undisputed facts. Things like the timeline in the way that it is established by things like the video capture inside the school, the phone calls to 911 that happened at definitive places and times.

[04:05:00]

Maybe phone records between people who were involved in the incident, the dispatcher calls to the law enforcement folks on the scene, and then they'll add into that the information they get from witnesses. Whether those are police officers or leadership folks, or in this case one of the most critical sources of information is from the actual child survivors. And that is as you would understand as a mom incredibly sensitive thing do to do, to be able to sit down with some of those children if they're able to talk about their experiences. What they saw, what they said to each other, maybe if they made those 911 phone calls.

So, you lay in all of those -- all that informational, the narrative that you get from those interviews on top of the undisputable facts that help you frame up the timeline. In this situation much of that information exists. It's credibly frustrating that we haven't heard more of it in a clear and concise manner so far.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SOARES: Indeed. Well, on Tuesday in Uvalde the first funerals were held for two 10-year-old victims, Amerie Jo Garza and Maite Rodriguez. And more funerals and visitations are expected this week. CNN's Omar Jimenez has the story for you.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): One week ago, 19 families sent their children to school and they never came home. Leaving loved ones only memories as community members, even actor Matthew McConaughey whose hometown is Uvalde come to pay their respects. Those close to the 21 killed can't help but think about those last moments as they prepare to lay their own to rest. The funeral for 10-year-old Maite Rodriguez is among the first. She's remembered by family as sweet, charismatic and loving as seen in this video with her cousin.

DESTINY ESQUIVEL, COUSIN OF SHOOTING VICTIM MAITE RODRIGUEZ: Her classmates said that she was brave, that she was grabbing all the other student and telling them where to hide before the gunman turned on her. But that she was so brave and courageous to tell the kids to hide.

JIMENEZ (voice-over): A heartbroken community, attending five services, two funerals and three visitations for four children and one teacher among the 21 killed, as more details come to light. It's unclear at what point during the shooting this video was taken. The apparent radio call was videotaped by a man who told CNN he heard the dispatch from radio of the Customs and Border Patrol vehicle outside the school.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you injured?

UNIDENTIFIED KID: I got shot --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where? Where?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A kid got shot?

JIMENEZ (voice-over): The radio traffic audio adding new concerns about what law enforcement knew during that hour they were still waiting to enter the classroom and before they killed the gunman. One off-duty Customs and Border Patrol agent ran to the school when he heard about shots fired. JACOB ALBARADO, U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION AGENT: The kids -- the police were breaking out the windows from the outside and the kids were jumping out through the window.

JIMENEZ (voice-over): Officials say at least two children called 911 multiple times begging police to come while the gunman was still inside their classroom.

ROLAND GUTIERREZ (D), TEXAS STATE SENATE: The information is flowing in. Why doesn't DPS have that information, the sheriff's office, the federal guys, the local police, this is a failure at every level.

JIMENEZ (voice-over): The Texas Department of Public Safety director says one child told the 911 operator eight or nine students were still alive. Audio from the unconfirmed source revealing at some point, law enforcement was aware kids were inside the classroom.

DISPATCHER: Child is advising he is in the room full of victims.

GUTIERREZ: At what point do people not use some common sense here. Listen to 911 calls that are coming in. Understand that kids are still alive inside and know that they have to go in there and do their jobs under the active shooter protocol.

JIMENEZ (voice-over): One teacher who escaped the shooting said she wants the blame to focus on the gunman.

NICOLE OGBURN, TEACHER, ROBB ELEMENTARY SCHOOL: And I just hate that we have to look for blame to somebody else besides the person that actually did this to us.

JIMENEZ (voice-over): But the families are now left with more questions than answers as they focus on the lives that are lost.

ESQUIVEL: She isn't just another victim. But she's a hero.

JIMENEZ: As you walk around in this community, it's hard to find anyone who isn't affected by what happened. If not directly, they know someone who is. So, as we will see families continue to mourn, it is not an understatement at all to say this community will be mourning right there with them.

Omar Jimenez, CNN, Uvalde, Texas.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SOARES: Well, in the wake of the tragedy in Uvalde, some members of Congress are pushing for gun reforms. The House Judiciary Committee plans to vote on wide ranging gun control legislation as early as Thursday. A small bipartisan group of Senators already met on the issue. Any familiar with that meeting says Senators are optimistic that a small package of gun reform measures could come together but that it was too early to tell if the effort will be successful.

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ROLAND GUTIERREZ (D), TEXAS STATE SENATE: I have Republican constituents calling me saying this makes no sense. You have to be 21 to buy a handgun. How can you buy an AR-15 at the age of 18. It is astounding to me. We can fix this problem to a certain degree in Texas. We can have wait periods. We can certainly raise the age. And we can certainly create -- we have enough money to create our own Texas-sized ATF.

SEN. RICHARD BLUMENTHAL (D-CT): Americans are saying do something. Inaction is not an option. Inaction is complicity.

SEN. CHRIS MURPHY (D-CT): Over the course of this week and next week, to try to get enough of our Republican colleagues to yes.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SOARES: And while Congress weighs really nationwide gun policies, New York state lawmakers have now introduced ten bills aimed at tightening the state's gun laws. And that includes raising the minimum age to 21 to buy a semiautomatic rifle. The legislation would ban civilians from purchasing bullet resistant vests unless they work in law enforcement. It would also broaden the red flag law and require new pistols to have micro stabbing technology which will help to identify the gun.

President Joe Biden met with Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Tuesday to discuss soaring levels of inflation in the United States. The president has said curbing inflation is a top priority for the White House while also reassuring Americans the economy is still strong. It's a difficult balancing act of course of course for the Biden administration. Have a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Does he consider it a crisis for American families that prices are at this 40 year high?

KARINE JEAN-PIERRE, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: He understands the hardship that people with going through. He understands how difficult it is for families. He understands that.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A problem is that a hardship is at crisis, what is it that people are facing?

JEAN-PIERRE: You know, it is -- we're just in a difficult time right now with this inflation.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SOARES: And while it is rare for anyone in Washington to admit they're wrong, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told CNN she failed to anticipate just how rising inflation rates would plague Americans.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JANET YELLEN, U.S. TREASURY SECRETARY: Well, look, I think that I was wrong then about the path that inflation would take. As I mentioned, there have been unanticipated and large shocks to the economy that have boosted energy and food prices and supply bottlenecks that have affected our economy badly that at the time didn't fully understand.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOARES: Well, our Kaitlan Collins has more on those comments by Janet Yellen and the Biden administration's concerns of course about the state of the U.S. economy.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, at least one top White House official is admitting that they were wrong when they said that inflation only posed a small risk if any risk at all last year. That's Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen who told Wolf Blitzer she was wrong about which direction inflation was headed. That is of course something that not only she said and also President Biden and several other of his top economic officials at the White House. Who down played the risks of inflation which of course now voters say is their number one economic concern and the president says is his top economic priority. His top domestic priority that he is dealing with.

That is something that was on full display as he met with the Federal Reserve Chairman Jay Powell at the White House on Tuesday to talk about inflation. That is something that really President Biden says is largely in the Federal Reserve's hands, tamping down inflation but also making sure that they didn't send the economy into a recession. That's a major concern here at the White House as they are facing new questions about that.

But President Biden says that he will remain hands off, let the Federal Reserve do what it feels is the best because they have also said inflation is their number one concern.

Though of course you are seeing in the poll numbers this is a problem that's not likely going away for the White House anytime soon. More voters say they are pessimistic about the state of the economy now than they were just several months ago. So of course, whatever it is that the Federal Reserve does here is only -- not only going to depend on the fate of the economy but also potentially President Biden's political prospects.

Kaitlan Collins, CNN, the White House.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SOARES: Thanks very much Kaitlin. Well inflation is impacting Americans at the tank with gas prices creeping higher every day. Video here shows pumps in California charging more than $8 per gallon, that was on Tuesday. That is double the national average according to AAA which hit a record over Memorial Day weekend and has continued to rise. The price at the pump has risen nearly $2 since last year when drivers could fill up for just over $3 -- as you see there -- a gallon. Well, global oil prices spiked on Tuesday in response to EU partial

ban on Russian oil imports. Of course, we brought you that story yesterday.

[04:15:00]

The oil embargo is part of the sixth sanction package aimed at punishing Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine. Brent crude gained 1 percent on Tuesday. EU leaders met to finalize a deal, eventually settling at nearly $123 a barrel. That is its highest level since March. Will stay on top of those numbers for you.

You are watching CNN NEWSROOM live from London. The U.S. president announces new advanced rockets systems for Ukraine. Joe Biden's message to Vladimir Putin. That is just ahead.

Plus, Russian forces are close to capturing a key city in Ukraine's Donbas region. Will have the story behind that ominous orange cloud -- as you can see on your screen -- that's in Severodonetsk. That story after a short break.

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SOARES: U.S. President Joe Biden is hoping advanced rocket systems and munitions will help Ukraine defend itself against Russia. He announced his decision to send the weapons in a "New York Times" op-ed entitled, "What America Will and Will Not Do in Ukraine" -- as you can see there.

Officials stress the U.S. is not encouraging or enabling Ukraine to hit targets in Russia.

[04:20:00]

But these new systems have a far greater range than any weapons the U.S. has sent to Ukraine so far.

Our Clare Sebastian joins me now with more. Clare, let's talk through what was written in exactly that op-ed. Because there was some reluctance, I remember a couple of weeks ago from the U.S. to actually send heavier munition to Ukraine. So why the shift?

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I mean, the military aid that the U.S. has been providing to Ukraine has sort of ramped up in stages. And at each stage we've seen this debate around, you know, how to balance giving -- trying to give Ukraine an edge on the battlefield with potentially provoking Russia and being seen even as a combatant in this war with Russia.

So, they've now agreed -- President Biden saying in this op-ed that they are going to send more advanced rocket systems. Senior administration officials telling reporters on Tuesday that those will be high mobility artillery rocket systems.

So, the reason that's significant is because so far, the highest grade artillery that the U.S. had sent were the M777 howitzers. Which have a range of about 25 kilometers. With the new system given the munitions they're sending, the range will be about 80 kilometers. So, that's a significant uptick.

But you can see the fine balancing act at play here because that is the maximum that these systems could provide with this sort of highest grade munitions that go with them. They could reach a range at about 300 kilometers. So, you see how the U.S. is trying to balance this, you know, we don't want to have a war between NATO and Russia.

SOARES: And given of course you are three months into the war, how the, you know, the push and pull that we've been seeing has intensified specifically in the last few weeks in the Donbas region, how critical this is. But what has President Biden said about President Putin? Because back in, what, late March he had said, you know -- everyone remembers this quote -- he said, you know, for God's sake, you know, this man cannot remain in power. This man referring to Putin. Does he still stand with that statement or has he shifted his view here?

SEBASTIAN: So, at the time it was sort of an unscripted remark in the emotion at the moment in that speech in Warsaw. The White House then later clarified that he wasn't talking about a sort of U.S.-backed regime change.

And in this op-ed, he says: We do not seek a war between NATO and Russia. As much as I disagree with Mr. Putin, and find his actions an outrage, the United States will not try to bring about his ouster in Moscow.

So, this is a very public way of him directly clarifying. Not trying to put the point across to Russia that they are not seeking this. Because the risk with the talk of regime change in Russia and even the comment that we got interestingly from Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin at the end of April that he wants to see Russia weakened --

SOARES: That was very clear.

SEBASTIAN: -- of this conflict is that it feeds and sort of reinforces the Kremlin narrative at home the West is trying to contain Russia, trying to sort of reduce its power. And that really reinforces the West as an enemy within Russia and supports the base of President Putin, reinforces his support there. So that's the risk here.

SOARES: Not just fine balancing that of course, on the battlefield but also with the rhetoric and how their propaganda will play out in Russian. Clare Sebastian, thank you very much.

Well, Russian forces -- as Clare and I were just talking about -- appear to be close to a major victory on the battlefield in eastern Ukraine. Local authorities report Russian troops now control most of Severodonetsk. CNN has geolocated video posted on a social media app Telegram showing Russian troops patrolling -- as you can see there -- the central part of the city. Severodonetsk has been a key target of Russian fighters in their offensive to claim Luhansk and the entire Donbas region. Ukraine blames Russia for a missile strike on a metric acid tank in

the industrial area. Russian backed separatist say Ukrainian fighters blew up the tank as they retreated. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Ukraine is losing 60 to 100 solders a day in the war with Russia.

Meanwhile, in the Donetsk region, Ukraine reports a Russian missile strike on Sloviansk killed at least three people. The president's office says a school and seven high rise buildings were damaged.

And to make matters worse, Ukraine is also facing a fuel crisis. The country has become completely dependent on imported fuel. This after its largest oil refinery in the city of Kremenchuk was destroyed by Russian missiles. The leader of Ukraine's oil and gas association says there are many hurdles to increasing production not to mention of course the current war.

While Ukraine is showing off some of the Russian military equipment it has captured and destroyed over the past three months, our Matthew Chance has the story for you from Kyiv.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, this looks like the aftermath of a ferocious battle, but it's in fact an exhibition that's been assembled here in the center of the Ukrainian capital using real Russian military hardware that has been destroyed on the outskirts of the city.

[04:25:00]

Obviously, this is a T-72 Russian tank, absolutely devastated of course by some kind of anti-tank weapon.

You walk across here, some missiles on the floor, the casings have been put on show. An anti-aircraft gun here with its turret that people can come and look at. It's all here for the benefit of the people of Kyiv to show them the weaponry that has been essentially threatening their lives over the course of the last four months.

I spoke to one visitor here and you can see there are lots of people here are taking photographs, showing their children what the Russians have been throwing at them over the course of the past several months.

One guy told me, he said, look, it's the first time we've actually seen these stuff up close. Because even though it's been very, you know, on every television screens, not everybody has had the chance to come this close to this kind of Russian armor. And he said it is important because seeing this Russian weaponry destroyed in this way makes us believe that we can win. I thought that was a really poignant remark by just one of the visitors we spoke to here looking at this destroyed armor in the center of the Ukrainian capital.

Matthew chance, CNN, in Kyiv.

(END VIDEOTAPE) SOARES: Still to come, the jury is still out in the Johnny Depp/Amber

Heard trial. The latest on the defamation case including a question from the jurors.

Plus, a CNN exclusive, how investigators are taking unprecedented steps as they try to get to the bottom of the stunning leak of the draft opinion from the U.S. Supreme Court. We'll explain after this short break.

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