Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Biden Calls for Assault Weapons Ban, Tougher Background Checks; Lawmakers Spar in Contentious Hearing on Gun Violence; Today Marks 100 Days Since Russia Invaded Ukraine; White House: COVID Shots for Kids Under 5 Could Begin June 21. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired June 03, 2022 - 13:30   ET

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

[13:30:00]

ANA CABRERA, CNN HOST: The president also wants a national Red Flag law to get guns out of the hands of people deemed an immediate danger. The research on states with Red Flag laws indicates they've averted suicides that contributed to a decrease in intimate-partner homicides.

In Buffalo and Uvalde, along with Michigan school shooting, in 2021, the California Garlic Festival shooting, in 2019, Parkland, in 2018, and all the way back to Columbine, the shooters all exhibited warning signs.

So what do lawmakers have to say about this today?

Let's go live to Manu Raju on the Capitol Hill.

And, Manu, what's the response now to the president's call for action?

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Talks are ongoing on the Senate side of the capitol. Ultimately, next week is the decisive week on deciding whether or not any deal can be reached.

But any deal almost certainly will fall short of what Joe Biden called for in his speech last night. For instance, an assault weapons ban is not even being discussed as part of the negotiation.

Also raising the age of 18 to 21 to buy the semi-automatic rifles like an A.R.-15, I'm told it's unlikely to get into this final proposal.

What they are talking about is issues dealing with bolstering state's Red Flag laws, dealing with school security issues, dealing with the mental health issues in this country.

But there are a lot of issues I am told that they need to overcome. Differences on both sides, how much money they need to spend, will that money be offset?

And also issues such as how to score these guns safely in people's homes. Democrats are pushing for mandates to provide so people would have to follow it in how they store guns in their homes. Republicans are pushing to incentivize people to store them safely.

So there's disagreements about the philosophy. There's disagreements about the policy. And it's still uncertain yet, Ana, whether or not a deal can be reached.

But next week, they'll have to decide whether to move forward or whether or not this all will collapse.

CABRERA: There was a very heated debate in the House yesterday on a new gun bill in the Judicial Committee. Tell us about that.

RAJU: This was over a bill that was approved along straight party lines in the House Judiciary Committee that would do things, including banning large capacity magazines.

Republicans pushed back and said this would infringe on Second Amendment rights, prompting a day-long debate in the committee.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. GREG STEUBE (R-FL): Here's a seven-round magazine, which would be less than what would be lawful under this bill if this bill were to become law. It doesn't fit. So this gun would be banned.

UNIDENTIFIED CONGRESSMAN: I hope that gun is not loaded.

STEUBE: I'm in at my house. I can do whatever I want with my guns.

REP. KEN BUCK (R-CO): In rural Colorado, an A.R.-15 is a gun of choice for killing raccoons before they get to our chickens. It is a gun of choice for killing a fox. It is a gun that you control predators on your ranch, on your farm, on your property.

REP. DAVID CICILLINE (D-RI): You know who didn't have due process? You know who didn't have their constitutional right to life respected? The kids at Parkland and Sandy Hook and Uvalde and Buffalo, and the list goes on and on. So spare me the (EXPLETIVE DELETED) about constitutional rights.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: Now, Democrats are moving forward with other legislation next week in the House in order to include a national Red Flag law standard to ensure authorities could take away guns from people with deemed a risk.

But, Ana, as you know, the House is a majority rule institution. Democrats can do that because they have a narrow majority.

The Senate you need 60 votes to overcome a filibuster. They need 10 Republicans need to join 50 Democrats. So it's uncertain what ultimately will get to Joe Biden's desk -- Ana?

CABRERA: Manu Raju, thank you for asking the tough questions.

For more on this, we have CNN law enforcement analyst, Jonathan Wackrow. He's also a former Secret Service agent, and "Texas Tribune" reporter, Joshua Fechter.

Jonathan, there's no one magic solution to this problem in the U.S. So if you were to strip out the politics, based on your expertise, which of these proposals laid out by the president could have the biggest impact?

JONATHAN WACKROW, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, listen, I think that what we're seeing here is the president gave a very impassioned speech last night because he had to. We're going on week two of these mass shootings, nonstop, that are impacting our daily lives in -- the victims are just mounting.

But when we talk about the gun issue, right, what we're really facing against is this political paralysis around the topic.

And we have to think about -- you have to have the gun conversation, because it's the common denominator in all of these -- the acts of violence.

But we also have to think about other approaches to solve this.

In your intro, Ana, you talked about these missed warning signs. Those missed warning signs are things that we need to key on prior to someone even getting to a gun and committing acts of violence.

And what we have to do is actually take a whole of community approach on figuring out how do we identify the most at-risk individuals early and have early intervention in getting them help.

[13:35:07]

This isn't mental -- we're talking a lot about mental health care. That's not the issue here. This is more behavioral health, cognitive issues that are affecting individuals.

Just that data point that you put earlier, from 2018 to today, that that shift in age of perpetrators of the most violent acts, and, again, we look back, those are behavioral issues.

So how do we get ahead of that early on, prior to them getting a weapon in their hands?

CABRERA: And I know you're trying to shift the conversation because we don't have control over what happens necessarily in Congress, and in the Senate. And the fact of the matter is there is that political paralysis right now.

But when you look at some of these proposals, these plans, for example, the president calling for an assault weapons ban like the one back in 1994, we know, when that law took effect, there were about 400,000 A.R.-15 style guns in American. That's according to "The Wall Street Journal."

That law expired in 2004. And now, there's an estimated 20 million in circulation. Jonathan, would a new ban be too late?

WACKROW: You know, when you have -- again, this is playing to scale. If you have 20 million of these weapons out in circulation, the likelihood that one of those 20 million will be used to perpetrate a violent crime is high.

But, Ana, your point is well-taken. We have to try to do something. We have to move the needle when it comes to the gun conversation, whether it's universal background checks, high-capacity magazines.

Have the conversation but have a robust conversation around it to figure out how we can solve for this problem.

But I want to also put one other data point out there. There's a wild card right now. And that's the ghost guns. So when we talk about these regulations, we're actually talking about legal purchasing and background checks.

The rise of these ghost guns that are un-serialized, basically gun in a box that can be delivered overnight to any state in the United States, that's a big concern on the horizon for us. And that impacts the gun issue debate ongoing right now.

CABRERA: I want to get Joshua into the conversation here.

Because, right now, in your state, in Texas, that's where emotions are the rawest following the Uvalde shooting.

The data shows in states where there are more guns, there's a higher gun death rate. There in Texas, that's a state with the most total gun deaths this America.

Are people in Texas ready for change? Are they ready for gun reform?

JOSHUA FECHTER, REPORTER, "THE TEXAS TRIBUNE": Well, you see this on the ground in Uvalde where this shooting took place.

And this is a community where gun culture is really engrained into the community. It's a good -- people like to go there to hunt. And gun culture is pretty engrained in Texas.

But if you look at the polling -- our most recent polling that "The Texas Tribune" has, shows about 60 percent of voters would like to see a nationwide ban on semi-automatic weapons.

More than two-thirds would like to see stricter background checks on firearm purchases.

But at the same time, you've seen the state's Republican leadership not really embrace gun restrictions. Governor Abbott has all but sort of put that down in response to the shooting.

And has kind of preferred more to focus on things like mental health or hardening schools, for example. That's kind of the thing you're seeing out of Texas right now.

CABRERA: So I'll list some of the shootings that have happened there, Sutherland Springs, El Paso, Odessa/Midland, now Uvalde.

All the mass shootings that took place there in Texas. All in the last five years, while Greg Abbott has been governor. And the day after the Uvalde shooting, Governor Abbott argued tougher gun laws aren't a, quote, "real solution."

I'm curious how Governor Abbott's leadership is being received right now.

FECHTER: Well, yes, it's true that he's basically taken sort of this hard line.

You get -- I attended a town hall meeting with his opponent, Beto O'Rourke, and you can kind of sense in the room that even if people weren't really on board with Beto O'Rourke, they wanted to hear somebody basically trying to change these gun laws and basically head in the opposite direction.

Because kind of in the wake of each of these mass shootings in Texas, you've seen Republicans try to enact looser restrictions on gun laws.

And you have this kind of political shift going on where perhaps Texans may be looking for something else. They might want to see those be tightened.

[13:40:04]

But at the same time, you have a Republican-dominated legislature that is probably not going to be too amenable to that. They're going to want to shut all of that down.

CABRERA: I think that's the big question now is, is this a tipping point moment when it comes to voters and how they react as well. Not just what lawmakers are doing, but how voters react?

Jonathan Wackrow, Joshua Fechter, thank you both very much for joining us.

One hundred days since Russia invaded Ukraine. Is Vladimir Putin the only one who can end this war?

CNN's Ben Wedeman is in Kyiv.

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right. Russian forces are slowly gaining ground in the east of the country.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:45:24]

CABRERA: Defiance and devastation in Ukraine as it marks 100 days at war with Russia.

A warning, some of the images we're about to show are disturbing.

The past 100 days have been hell for Ukrainians. While we don't have an exact number, we know thousands of Ukrainians have been killed, according to the United Nations.

Twelve million are displaced within their own country. Close to seven million are now refugees in other countries. The scale of destruction defies comprehension, according to the Red

Cross.

And President Zelenskyy says 20 percent of Ukraine is now controlled by Russian forces.

CNN's Ben Wedeman is joining us from Kyiv.

Ben, 100 days into the war, what do we need to know about the state of play on the battlefield?

WEDEMAN: For the state play, if you look at the big picture, for instance, look at Kyiv, it couldn't be more peaceful. Russian forces are far away from the Ukrainian capital.

But really, all eyes are focused on the area around the city of Severodonetsk, a city I spent a lot of time in, in April. And back then, it was being pounded by Russian artillery. But now the situation is much worse.

Ukrainian officials say the Russians now control about 80 percent of that city. There apparently are still a few hundred people hiding out in a bomb shelter under a chemical plant. We visited the bomb shelter back in April.

And we also understand from the Ukrainian high command that Russian forces are massing near the town of Sloviansk, which is just a 25- minute drive north of Kramatorsk, which is -- this is sort of the largest urban area in the eastern Ukraine, still in the far east of Ukraine, still controlled by Russian forces.

So the big picture is obviously much better than it was, say, a month and a half or two months ago.

But what we are seeing is that the Russians are taking full advantage of their numerical superiority, so to speak, with artillery and air power to try to make gains in the eastern part of the country.

And Ukrainian officials continue to stress that they desperately need more weapons from Western countries, better weapons, and more weapons to try to stop the Russian advance in the east and perhaps push it back -- Ana?

CABRERA: Ben Wedeman, thank you for that update. Stay safe there.

And year three of this pandemic, finally, kids under five could be getting their first COVID shot soon.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:52:38]

CABRERA: It's a party 70 years in the making, but the guest of honor wasn't there today. Her Majesty, the queen, sitting out day two of her four-day Platinum Jubilee celebration. Buckingham Palace says the 96- year-old monarch experienced some discomfort yesterday. Queen Elizabeth will also miss the Epsom Derby on Saturday but she

plans to watch on television from Windsor Castle, we're told.

All the royals except Prince Andrew still turned out for the service today at St. Paul's Cathedral, including Harry and Meghan. Their first royal event together in the U.K. in two years.

Less than three weeks from now, back here in the U.S., children under age 5 could get their first COVID vaccine. FDA advisers will soon review the results of clinical trials.

And if the vaccine is authorized for emergency use, the White House says the first shots could be given as soon as June 21st.

Senior medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen, joins us now.

Elizabeth, that timeframe would allow parents several months before the COVID surge in the fall or at least before kids go back to school.

Given all the variants and these subvariants we've been discovering, just how effective are the vaccines now?

DR. ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, Ana, it's interesting, in this trial, and this is only preliminary data, it was really effective against the Omicron variant.

So the advantage of having done this childrens' trial sort of relatively late in the game, it was against Omicron, not against the original COVID strain, against Omicron, and it really seemed to work quite well.

Let's take a look at this Pfizer clinical trial. So it was in more than 1,600 children who received three doses of the vaccine. And for children, their original round is not two dozes like adults. It's three doses.

Preliminary data -- and I want to emphasize "preliminary" -- shows it was 80 percent effective. And again, Omicron was the predominant variant. So that's really important to know that it was during the time of Omicron.

And certainly, if children can start getting vaccinated in June, that is plenty of time before the fall surge, and in many school systems, plenty of time before school as well -- Ana?

CABRERA: OK, that sounds like good news all around. We'll stay on that one.

Elizabeth Cohen, thank you so much.

[13:54:57]

And thank you all for being with us on this Friday. That's going to do it for today. I hope you have a wonderful weekend. We'll see you back here on Monday.

The news continues with Alisyn and Victor right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)