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In 8 Days Since Uvalde, The U.S. Had 20 More Mass Shootings; Buffalo Shooting Suspect Charged With 25 Counts, Including Murder; Sen. Sean Ryan (D-NY) Discusses About The Action New York Is Taking After The Buffalo Mass Shooting; 1/6 Committee Invites Witnesses Ahead Of Hearings Next Week. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired June 02, 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.

President Biden will address the nation tonight about the gun violence epidemic in America. As we're getting new details about yesterday's shooting in Tulsa Oklahoma, police say a gunman killed four people, injured nearly a dozen others at a hospital. They say he killed his orthopedic surgeon, another doctor, a receptionist and a patient.

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CHIEF WENDELL FRANKLIN, TULSA POLICE: We have also found a letter on the suspect, which made it clear that he came in with the intent to kill Dr. Phillips and anyone who got in his way. He blamed Dr. Phillips for the ongoing pain following the surgery.

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CAMEROTA: The shooter purchased the AR-15 rifle at a gun store at 2 pm yesterday. Three hours before he went on his shooting rampage. That doctor's office massacre is only one of 233 mass shootings this year.

A mass shooting is defined as an event where a gunman shoots and kills or injures four people or more. And in the eight days since the Uvalde elementary school massacre, there have been at least 20 mass shootings, 104 people have been injured or killed.

CNN's Lucy Kafanov is live outside of that Medical Center in Tulsa. So Lucy it sounds like officials are zeroing in on this gunman's motive.

LUCY KAFANOV, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's right. They cite the letter that you've pointed out in the intro that was found on the gunman's body, indicating that he had effectively a grudge against his surgeon, Dr. Preston. And I want to go through the timeline - Dr. Preston Phillips, I should correct myself. We know that on May 19th, Michael Louis, the gunman, the suspected

gunman went into the medical campus here, he had back surgery, with Dr. Preston Phillips. He was released on May 24th. After this release, he reportedly called the medical office multiple times complaining of pain, seeking additional treatment.

He got that treatment on May 31th. That is when Dr. Preston Phillips saw him one more time. And then yesterday, we know that he purchased that AR-15 style rifle. We also know he purchased three days before the shooting a handgun. Both weapons were used in the deadly massacre. Yesterday the gunman taking his own life but not before taking the lives of three other individuals, four other individuals.

And I want to talk about the victims, we mentioned Dr. Preston Phillips, who was 59 years old, the surgeon who treated the gunman. He spent his time, Alisyn, volunteering abroad. He worked for a nonprofit organization for which he traveled annually to deliver surgery services for people in need. He had a trip to Africa planned later this year, a trip that he will obviously no longer be able to take.

He was killed alongside Dr. Stephanie Husen, a 48-year-old sports medicine specialist. He was also killed alongside Amanda Green - pardon me - Glenn, a receptionist. She had a supervisory role at the clinic also losing his life yesterday. William Love, he was a patient who just happened to be in the office. He actually, according to police, helped another person escaped with their lives. He was critically wounded, taken out he died. The medical trauma team was unable to save him. The doctor here breaking down into tears at the press conference earlier today apologizing to William Love's family. Take a listen.

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DR. FYAN PARKER, ST. FRANCIS ASSOCIATE CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER: I was in our emergency department last night and I saw the trauma hall lined with our trauma team. Our emergency department team, staff from the OR, our nurses, techs, respiratory therapists, they are trained just like our police departments are.

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We so wanted to be able to utilize our skills and training to save these precious lives. To the family Mr. Love, I'm so sorry we couldn't save you. We are grieving with you.

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KAFANOV: And guys, earlier this week, my team and I were standing in front of the San Antonio University Health Hospital talking to and about traumatized surgeons and nurses who were responding to their second mass shooting. Nobody knew that we'd be standing in front of yet another hospital this time, the target of a mass shooting as you point out, the 233rd one so far in America in 2022. Guys?

BLACKWELL: Every intersection of public life we have seen the target of one of these mass shootings from churches to theaters and now hospital. Lucy Kafanov for us in Tulsa, thank you.

CAMEROTA: Now to Buffalo, New York. The suspect there accused of killing 10 people at a supermarket, he just pleaded not guilty to 25 charges and that includes multiple counts of murder as a hate crime.

BLACKWELL: Official say this suspect went to great lengths to target a predominantly black community and his actions were motivated by hate. Let's go to CNN Miguel Marquez in Buffalo. Miguel, officials - they just held this news conference, what did we learn?

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. They are still in that news conference. They are not talking about the evidence directly but they are getting a sense of what happened in court today. A very, very brief hearing, the suspected shooter dressed in an orange jumpsuit, his hands and his feet shackled. In all he faces 25 counts, the most serious is that domestic terror counts in the first degree, 10 first degree murder counts, 10 second degree murder counts as a hate crime. Three attempted murder counts as a hate crime and one weapon charge.

His attorney pleading not guilty to all those charges. The District Attorney here who is still speaking says the most serious crime that he faces is that domestic terror charges.

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JOHN J. FLYNN, DISTRICT ATTORNEY, ERIE COUNTY: It is the first time in the history of New York State that this domestic terrorism charge motivated by hate in the first degree has been filed. That charge only has one sentence if in fact the defendant is found guilty of that charge and that is life without parole.

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MARQUEZ: And now while the District Attorney today is not speaking about the evidence, investigators along the way have said they have no doubt this crime was racially motivated. Saying that the 180-page racist screed that the defendant released shortly before this heinous crime indicated that he was a white supremacist and anti-Semite and espouse this replacement theory, this idea that white Americans are being replaced by minority Americans. Something that was once in the dark edges of not only our society and our culture, but the in the internet, but is now mainstream in many places.

This is somebody who targeted this particular area, they said because it had a very high percentage of black Americans that that zip code he looked into 14208, researching that to figure that out. They also say that he had - he was armed, had more guns in his car to go on to other places to kill more African-Americans. Back to you.

BLACKWELL: Miguel Marquez in Buffalo, thank you.

CAMEROTA: Let's discuss with Democratic New York State Senator Sean Ryan. Senator, it's interesting what's happening in New York, because so often after these mass shootings we see politicians who are paralyzed and no action is taken. But in New York, it sounds like this massacre is going to change things.

SEN. SEAN RYAN (D-NY): Yes, we are definitely going to respond to this massacre. It's hard to believe that just 19 days ago this occurred in Buffalo, New York. But unfortunately, we seen a horrific shooting in Texas right after that. Another horrific shooting in Oklahoma. So we're not going to be frozen in our grief. We in New York State are going to move forward and we're going to try to take concrete steps to make sure shooting like this does not happen in Buffalo or anywhere in New York State again.

BLACKWELL: Let's put up the map. You mentioned the shootings that have happened since Buffalo 19 days ago, 36 mass shootings in this country from sea to shining sea, some locations here had more than one mass shooting in the last 19 days. Law is changing in New York, but state lines and borders are not walls. There are no moats. Without federal action, how vulnerable still is the state of New York?

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RYAN: We know that there is no one thing that you can do to make this stop. Federal intervention will be the best, but the federal government has been so stagnated on this issue, and so many other issues that we as a state have to move forward. So, you know, we're hopefully going to pass a lot today, that makes it so a - you have to be 21 to buy a semi-automatic rifle and not - in addition to be 21, you have to be licensed.

So what you saw in Buffalo at the shooting and you saw in Oklahoma is that somebody just so easily went in and purchased a rifle and walked right out with it. You often hear that New York State is one of the strictest states in the nation on gun control. But guess what, an 18- year-old who just hit his 18th birthday was able to walk into a store, walk out minutes later, with an assault style weapon, no questions asked.

CAMEROTA: Well, yes, and we've seen that time and again and so I'm wondering, we just put up the list of the 10 measures that state lawmakers are now considering passing, including one that I know that you sponsored, which is - I think about the body armor not allowing the sale of body vests, like we saw in Buffalo to civilians and I think that that makes total sense. But what about the sales? I am so interested in the point of purchase, did you consider any measures that would make gun sellers have to ask more questions, wait longer? I mean, was there anything that you could do that would allow something to stop at the point of purchase?

RYAN: Well, for the gun sales now for a semi-automatic weapon, you're not going to be able to walk in and do a same day purchase. You're going to have to go through a whole licensing and approval process. It's not just a federal background check, it's going to be more involved in it's going to make it so the process takes a longer time and it takes many more steps.

So we're going to make it so these impulsive shootings are - is just not - it's not going to be an easy thing to acquire a semi-automatic rifle in New York State. In going through the body armor, you've seen in recent - the recent decade, a real proliferation of the sale of body armors to civilian, that was not something that ever really happened in America.

But this 18-year-old, a man child was able to purchase all this body armor on the line - online and his parents didn't know what's happening, packages just came to the house. So we're going to make it in New York State that you cannot buy body armor, unless you are involved with - it's something to do with your work, law enforcement, security personnel, so we're going to make it so it's very difficult to buy body armor.

CAMEROTA: Mm-hm.

BLACKWELL: Mm-hm. State Senator Sean Ryan, I know Buffalo is your city and that shooting hit the city like a wrecking ball. It's only been 19 days and we have covered mass shooting after mass shooting, cities still healing, I thank you so much for your time and insight.

RYAN: You're welcome.

CAMEROTA: President Biden is set to deliver a primetime address on gun violence tonight.

BLACKWELL: CNN's Kaitlan Collins is at the White House. So what are we expecting to hear from the President?

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, a rare evening address from President Biden. He is going to be speaking at 7:30 tonight. And Victor and Alisyn, we should note this is a speech that was actually under consideration by President Biden even before four people were killed in Tulsa last night. But it is something that has, of course, become a recurring theme of his presidency, certainly one in the last several weeks where President Biden has been briefed on with shootings it seems almost every other day. He's gotten at least three briefings on three shootings in the last three weeks alone, of course, starting with what happened in Buffalo, then what happened in Texas as he was on his way back from Asia. And then yesterday, he was briefed on what happened in Tulsa.

And now, tonight, he is going to address the nation on guns and the White House says that speech is going to include a call for Congress to take action on guns. What remains to be seen is whether or not the President is going to call for anything specific, because so far over the last several days, the President has said he served in Congress for 36 years, he's not fully confident that they can get anything done. But you've seen those negotiations playing out on Capitol Hill, even though there have been differences and what the White House says is the problem in the wake of these shootings and what some Republicans like Senator Mitch McConnell believe is the problem.

CAMEROTA: And Kaitlan, we know that this week was supposed to be a focus on the economy. The Biden administration is facing some questions over their handling, of course, of the baby formula crisis. And when the President knew or was told or was alerted that it was a problem, what have you learned? COLLINS: Yes, there's a lot of concerns here at the White House

because they have been talking about the fact that they say they've been working on this issue since February, which is one that Abbott Nutrition plant closed.

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That has exacerbated a lot of the sort of shortages that you're still seeing present across the nation right now. But President Biden said yesterday when I asked him about this and how this timeline has moved and how the FDA has moved to respond to this, he did not find out about just how severe the shortage was the depth of the shortage until April.

And, of course, that's about two months after that plant had closed and the President, of course, this came after he was meeting with executives talking to them about whether or not they realized what kind of impact this was going to have.

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JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I don't think anyone anticipated the impact of the shutdown of one facility.

COLLINS (off camera): Didn't those CEOs just tell you that they understood it would have a very big impact?

BIDEN: They did, but I didn't.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: There have been many questions for the White House since then about why the President was not informed whether or not by his own staff or, of course, his deputies and top aides at departments like the Health and Human Services Department about just how bad this shortage was and whether or not more could have been done sooner to alleviate it and not leave parents scrambling like they still are right now.

CAMEROTA: Okay. Kaitlan Collins asking all the questions, thank you.

BLACKWELL: Trump's Attorney General Bill Barr met privately with the House Select Committee investigating January 6th.

CAMEROTA: And in Atlanta, Georgia Secretary of State is in front of a grand jury, that's next.

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BLACKWELL: Some highly anticipated public hearings and the investigation into the insurrection begin next week and the House Select Committee is reaching out to potential witnesses. CNN has learned that some associates of Mike Pence will be called along with former officials from the Justice Department. CAMEROTA: CNN Congressional Correspondent Ryan Nobles joins us now.

So Ryan, who's being asked to testify.

RYAN NOBLES, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Victor and Alisyn, of course, we're just a week away from this first hearing of the January 6 Select Committee and we're told that invitations have already started to go out including to two associates very close to the former Vice President Mike Pence, his chief counsel, Greg Jacob and then Michael Luttig, who is a former federal judge who was part of a team that was advising the vice president during that period of time where he was under intense pressure to stand in the way of the certification of the election results.

Luttig wrote a lengthy text thread on January 5th that Pence actually cited as one of his reasons for not attempting to stand in the way of the certification of the election results. Now, in addition to Jacob and Luttig, we're also told that Marc Short who is Pence's former chief of staff and was with Pence on January 6th is also expected to be invited to be - to testify. The invitation may not have come yet but Short is expecting it.

Now, there's also the possibility that a some senior officials from the Justice Department will be called to testify, including the former acting Attorney General at that time, Jeffrey Rosen, his deputy, Richard Donoghue, and then another assistant attorney general Steven Engel. These were all individuals that inside the Justice Department were pushing back on this pressure campaign to use the Department of Justice to investigate claims of voter fraud that just did not have any merit.

The Committee has already interviewed all of these gentlemen behind closed doors, so bringing their testimony out into the light of day will be a big part as they push this narrative of exactly what they've learned about their investigation over the past 10 months. Victor and Alisyn?

BLACKWELL: Ryan, CNN also has exclusive reporting about text messages between Mark Meadows and others leading up to and the day of the insurrection, what do we know about those?

NOBLES: Yes. We have gone through these text messages. We've obviously broken a number of stories as it relates to this, but what we've done in this particular story is break down exactly the text messages that Mark Meadows was receiving on January 6th itself and it's pretty astounding to see them all in one place.

There were members of Congress, Republican officials imploring him to do something to get the former President Donald Trump to tell his supporters to leave the Capitol. Here's some of them from Rep. Jeff Duncan of South Carolina, "POTUS needs to calm this sh-- down now." Then also from a former HHS Secretary Tom Price, "POTUS needs to go on the air and defuse this. It's extremely important." Also former conservative lobbyist Tom Cors. He texts, "Please have POTUS call this off at the Capitol. Urge the rioters to disperse. I pray to you.

And then there were other Republican members of Congress, who also had some interesting things to tell Meadows at that time, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene who said that last night Sen. Graham told me that if I found 100 names of dead voters in Georgia that he would object I have 100 dead voters names." "Tell President Trump." And then, "Send them," and then Mark Meadows is saying, "Send them to Lindsey Graham."

So this is just an example of the important role that Mark Meadows plays in this investigation and how these text messages with the - which the Committee have obtained have become an important part of that process. Last night on CNN, Denver Riggleman a former member of Congress who served as a senior adviser to the Committee talked about what he has seen in these text messages and why he believes they're so important.

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DENVER RIGGLEMAN, FORMER U.S. REPRESENTATIVE OF VIRGINIA: I think the Committee is going to do a great job of linking those text messages to the other interviews and data that they have. But I think what people are going to understand about the Meadows text messages is how horrible they are. I have to tell you this, Anderson, when I first saw them, my amusement turned into horror pretty quickly when I saw some of the language that was being used in there. I actually had to get away from the computer a couple of times as I was looking at these text messages. We are limited in what we can see, but what we can see is absolutely damning.

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So now this investigation for the most part behind closed doors, it comes out into the light of day next week. I should point out though, Victor and Alisyn, before I go, there was another big witness today, the former Attorney General William Barr appearing before the Committee behind closed doors. We're told his interview took a little more than two hours. So the investigation continuing on a number of tracks, Victor and Alisyn.

BLACKWELL: All very interesting there, Ryan Nobles, thanks.

All right. CNN'S Sara Murray is outside of Georgia courthouse where the state's Secretary of State just wrapped up testimony in front of a special grand jury. This is part of the investigation into Trump's efforts to overturn Georgia's 2020 election results. What do you know about that?

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right. Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger was here at the courthouse for about five hours today. And, of course, he is a central witness to Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis' investigation into Donald Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election and that's because of his phone call with Donald Trump. Let's remind people with just a snippet of that now infamous call.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: So look. All I

want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more that we have because we won the state.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MURRAY: So, of course, we would expect the grand jury to be getting information from Raffensperger about that call, about Donald Trump's efforts to pressure Raffensperger to overturn the results of the election. But we also got a copy of the subpoena for documents that was sent to Raffensperger's office and it shows you sort of the scope of what they're looking into.

They want any writings that memorialize that call. Any phone logs between Secretary of State's office and Donald Trump. They want the results from the audit here in 2020 and the hand counts. They want to see the forensic audit of the Dominion voting, of course, all of this to conclude that Joe Biden won the 2020 election that there were not widespread problems with the Dominion voting equipment and they wanted a transcript of a Georgia Senate election hearing that was when Rudy Giuliani went and spread conspiracy theories.

So you can see why they probably had a lot of ground to cover with Raffensperger today. This special grand jury is just beginning to get rolling when it comes to hearing from witnesses. In addition to Raffensperger, they're going to hear from a number of other current and former staffers of his office, as well as Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr. Back to you.

CAMEROTA: Okay. Sara Murray, thank you.

So Texas officials issuing search warrants now on the Uvalde school massacre, we have the details ahead.

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