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Former Wisconsin Judge Killed in His Home Reportedly Targeted by Gunman; Report Indicates Aide to Former Vice President Mike Pence Warned Secret Service before Capitol Riot that President Trump could Turn on Pence; Justice Department Will Not Prosecute Two Former Trump Officials for Contempt of Congress; Chair of January 6th Select Committee Representative Bennie Thompson Profiled; U.S. Military Jets Scrambled When Small Plane Flew into Restricted Airspace over President Biden's House in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware; Parents Left Frustrated After Uvalde School Board Meeting Ends with Questions Left Unanswered; People Gather for Day Three Of Queen Elizabeth's Platinum Jubilee; Flights Delayed and Canceled Due to Unexpected Travel Demand. Aired 2-3p ET.
Aired June 04, 2022 - 14:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[14:00:00]
ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: -- where the rubber meets the road. President Biden is struggling to balance his ideals and principles with the realities of what the U.S. now needs as well as the security and the stability that the U.S. wants to see in the Middle East and all around the world. Fred?
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello again, everyone, thank you so much for joining me. I'm Fredricka Whitfield in Atlanta.
And we begin this half hour in Wisconsin where a deadly shooting left a former judge dead. And sources tell CNN the gunman was planning to target several other high ranking government officials, including Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
Former Juneau County circuit court judge John Roemer was gunned down in his home on Friday. Police say the shooter then shot himself. CNN's Whitney Wild has the details on this. So Whitney, what more are you learning?
WHITNEY WILD, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CORRESPONDENT: Fredricka, sources tell CNN that the suspect had a list of targets, a long list of targets. And officials say that this was somehow related to the judicial system, but we don't yet know how.
Was it a single case, was it a series of cases? These are all of the questions. We continue to ask all of the questions that law enforcement continues to ask as well.
Police say this all began around 6:30 Friday morning when someone ran out of Judge Roemer's home and called 911. That person reporting that someone had broken inside and fired off two rounds from a firearm. Throughout the morning, once police arrived, they tried to negotiate
with the suspect who was inside, but eventually those talks simply broke down.
Around 10:15 a.m. Friday, the tactical teams made entry into that home, and that's where they found 68-year-old John Roemer dead. They also found a 56-year-old suspect with a self-inflicted gunshot wound inside.
Throughout this investigation they've learned that this was not random. Here is what the officials in Wisconsin said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOSH KAUL, WISCONSIN ATTORNEY GENERAL: This, as I mentioned before, does appear to be a targeted act. And the individual who is the suspect appears to have had other targets as well. It appears to be related to the judicial system.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WILD: Fredricka, officials stressed that the risk did not go beyond Judge Roemer. There is no one else who at this moment is in danger. However, this all fits into this larger threat pattern we've been talking about.
For months federal officials have been warning that we remain in a heightened threat environment, some of that threat coming from people with antigovernment sentiments, antigovernment grievances.
And the real concern for law enforcement and what they've been warning about is the very real possibility that these people who are inclined to violence are ramping up, and they will seek out highly visible and also soft targets like former circuit court judge John Roemer.
And this is really concerning for law enforcement here in Washington. It is certainly concerning for federal officials throughout the country.
And I assure you this is a case that law enforcement nationwide is watching, especially local police, as they seek to assess the threat environment in our area, Fred.
WHITFIELD: This should be concerning to everyone. Whitney Wild, thank you so much.
And this stunning new report in "The New York Times" says that a top aide to former vice president Mike Pence warned the Secret Service that President Trump could turn on vice president, and the aide feared for Pence's safety on the eve of the Capitol riot.
"The Times" report claims Pence's chief of staff Marc Short warned the Secret Service of his safety concerns one day before the insurrection.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) MAGGIE HABERMAN, "NEW YORK TIMES" WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: This is an extraordinary moment to think that there is a chief of staff to a sitting vice president so concerned about the potential threat that is being created by a pressure campaign led and encouraged by the president, who picked this vice president, it is jarring and it just takes a minute to absorb.
Marc Short had a conversation, according to sources, with Tim Giebels, the lead Secret Service agent, saying exactly what you just said, that the president was going to turn on Pence and that they might have a security risk.
Short, as I understand it, did not have a sense what have that threat could look like. I don't believe, based on my reporting, that he envisioned what we saw on January 6th the way we saw it.
But what he did realize is that the former president had supporters who were very reactive to him, who basically acted -- responded to things he would say.
And he could see one person, two people, three people, several people doing something that could be problematic safety-wise for the vice president, just based on this pressure that the former president was exerting.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: And a senior Secret Service official disputes this exchange and told CNN that concerns about violence directed at Pence or any risk posed by the former president's actions was never communicated to them.
Meantime, two former Trump administration officials will not face charges for contempt of Congress in the January 6th investigation. The Justice Department says it will not indict former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and former deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino.
[14:05:07]
The select committee begins its first public prime time hearings this Thursday. The panel is expected to reveal new evidence and witness testimony. CNN national security reporter Zach Cohen joins us now. So Zach, walk us through this decision not to charge these men and how it might impact the investigation.
ZACHARY COHEN, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER: Yes, Fredricka, the committee is saying that it, frankly, finds this decision by the Justice Department puzzling, especially because the committee had made clear over last several months that both Scavino and Mark Meadows were considered key witnesses that they wanted to hear from.
And that was something that the committee reiterated in its response to the news last night that the Justice Department would not be pursuing criminal charges against both men. They said, look, they undoubtedly have knowledge about Donald Trump's role in efforts to overturn the 2020 election as well as the events of January 6th. This is why the committee had expected the Justice Department to help
enforce the subpoena that they issued to both men and compel their testimony, to compel their cooperation.
It should be noted, though, that the circumstances surrounding the subpoenas for both Scavino and Meadows are a little different than what we've seen with other witnesses who have refused to cooperate with the committee.
That's because in part both men expressed that they were open to cooperating, and in the case of Mark Meadows, he actually provided thousands of text messages to the committee which are expected to feature prominently in the upcoming hearings.
But still, the committee is really miffed as to why the Justice Department made this decision, and they're asking for an explanation.
WHITFIELD: Zachary Cohen, thank you so much.
When the January 6th public hearings get under way next week, a Mississippi Democrat will be in charge of the high stakes prime time events. CNN's Gloria Borger traveled to Bennie Thompson's home state and has a closer look at the man leading the panel.
GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Fred, Mississippi Democrat Bennie Thompson, chairman of the January 6th committee, has a very personal view of the meaning of a free and fair election. In fact, making sure every vote counts has been his life's work.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
BORGER: The way Bennie Thompson saw it from the House gallery on January 6th, his congressional lapel pin was a badge of honor.
REP. BENNIE THOMPSON, (D) JANUARY 6TH SELECT COMMITTEE: Security told us you need to take your pin off because they'll break in and see you with that pin on, they could kill you.
I said, as many people I know who fought and died in this country for me to have the right to represent and for them to have the right to vote, I'm not going to let any insurrectionist, rioter, crazy person come here and take this pin.
BORGER: He's been wearing the pin for 13 terms, the only Democrat and only black member of Mississippi's congressional delegation, representing one of the poorest districts in the country.
Now, cast into the national spotlight as chairman of the January 6th committee, taking on a challenge unlike any other in American history.
What's at stake with these hearings?
THOMPSON: Our democracy is at stake. We have to defend our democracy. We have to defend our government.
BORGER: For Thompson, now 74, this job is about a personal history come full circle. As a product of the Jim Crow south, the right to vote and be counted in a free and fair election has been his life's work.
REP. JAMIE RASKIN, (D-MD): It's an extraordinary arc in a political career. He had to struggle for representation at the local level, at the county level, at the federal level.
REP. ADAM SCHIFF, (D-CA): It wasn't possible in his state for a person of color to be elected.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When he was growing up, voting was such an important and treasured thing. So many Mississippians lost their lives over the right to vote. That sticks with you for a while.
BORGER: Or a lifetime. In Washington, D.C., Thompson hasn't been one of those well-known faces parked in front of a camera. But in his hometown of Bolton, population 521, everyone knows Bennie and the way to his office.
DERRICK JOHNSON, PRESIDENT AND CEO, NAACP: People walk in, they sit down. They go get something to drink out of the refrigerator, water or a soft drink, and they leave. And it's like the community office. And that's the person he is.
THOMPSON: This was the police station, city hall, everything.
BORGER: He lives in the same brick ranch house, in the same affordable housing community that he fought to build as mayor in the 70s.
THOMPSON: The person who sold us this land got his life threatened because he sold it to the black community.
BORGER: And he's back every weekend, driving around his 300-mile-long district, which includes the capital city, Jackson, and the rural Mississippi delta. He likes to travel with his fishing pole and guns in the truck.
[14:10:07]
THOMPSON: I will call friends and say, look, I'll be in the area, let's go hunting.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Duck, deer, we're going to quail.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People like that about him. He's just a regular person.
BORGER: Who grew up in the segregated south.
THOMPSON: I want to Bolton colored school. We had no indoor plumbing, obviously, no cafeteria, no library.
BORGER: Until he got to the private, desegregated Tougaloo College in 1964, the place where black power found its voice and Thompson found his. THOMPSON: Martin Luther King Jr., Stokely Carmichael, sitting in this
very building. Mississippi, at that point, did not allow black and white people to assemble in public buildings. And for me, having never gone to school until I got to Tougaloo with a white student.
BORGER: Never?
THOMPSON: Never. It was like, whoa.
BORGER: It was a revelation of sorts. He was determined not to be one of those people who got an education and left. He was going to get it and use it at home. He started by registering voters.
THOMPSON: I told my mother how excited I was to go to Sunflower County, Mississippi, and help poor African Americans to register and vote. And my mama said, we don't vote here in Bolton.
BORGER: Did you register your mother?
THOMPSON: Oh, absolutely.
BORGER: For years the courts became his battleground as his local election wins were consistently challenged. And when he became Bolton's first black mayor in 1973, winning by just 18 votes, he was sued once again by a white challenger.
THOMPSON: We proved that there were people eligible to vote that election officials denied. And under the Voting Rights Act, they couldn't do that. People somehow said I cheated, that it just couldn't be a lawful election.
BORGER: Rigged election, I've heard that before.
THOMPSON: Fast forward, some of the same comments that I heard back then resonated on January 6th.
BORGER: Now he's leading the investigation into what happened that day.
DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: We're going to walk down to the Capitol.
BORGER: So do you believe that Donald Trump provoked and led the insurrection, and then was applauding it as it occurred?
THOMPSON: I believe Donald Trump was the puppet master. He allowed, with his rhetoric, people to be bamboozled into believing that the election was stolen.
BORGER: And for Thompson, that's personal.
THOMPSON: My daddy died when I was in tenth grade. But he never had a chance to vote. And for his son to be elected I think is a sense of how far we've come.
The bragging rights as Americans is, you can support the candidate of your choice. And sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. But you don't tear the place up if you lose.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
BORGER (on camera): And Fred, when Thompson strikes the gavel Thursday, that's only the beginning of the story he wants the American people to hear.
WHITFIELD: And a story that is.
And this just in to CNN now. Some tense moments this morning after military jets were scrambled over the president's beach house when an unidentified plane flew overhead. Details on that, next.
And go inside the Watergate scandal like never before with journalists Woodward and Bernstein, the Watergate prosecutors, and the man who turned on Nixon, White House counsel John Dean.
Get a complete picture of how it lapped and how it set the stage for future White House scandals. The new CNN original series "Watergate, Blueprint for Scandal" premieres tomorrow night at 9:00 right here on CNN.
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[14:18:03]
WHITFIELD: This just in to CNN, U.S. military jets were scrambled just moments ago when a small plane flew into restricted airspace over the president's house in Rehoboth Beach. CNN's Arlette Saenz is live for us at the White House. So what more do we know?
ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Fred, President Biden and first lady Jill Biden were temporarily moved from their residence in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, after a small plane entered restricted airspace near the area.
That is according to a White House official. The U.S. Secret Service has also put out a statement regarding the president's movement. The spokesperson, Anthony Guglielmi saying shortly before 1:00 p.m. today, "A privately owned aircraft entered the restricted airspace over Rehoboth, Delaware, after mistakenly entering a secured area.
The aircraft was immediately escorted out of the restricted airspace. Preliminary investigation reveals the pilot was not on the proper radio channel, was not following the NOTAMS," which is notice to airmen, "that had been filed, and was not following published flight guidance.
The United States Secret Service will be interviewing this pilot," according to Anthony Guglielmi of the U.S. Secret Service.
Additionally, a White House official said that precautionary measures were taken that included moving the president, and that they are now back at the residence and that they believe that there was no immediate threat to the president or his family. This all happened very quickly. Typically, any time that the president
makes a movement outside of his home when he is away from the White House, the traveling pool, press pool that is traveling with the president is notified.
They were not notified in this instance, showing just how quickly the U.S. Secret Service was moving.
But at this moment, the Bidens are back at the residence and the White House officials say that there was no threat to them even as this small private plane entered that restricted airspace in the Rehoboth Beach area.
WHITFIELD: All right, keep us posted. Arlette Saenz, thanks so much.
[14:20:00]
Coming up, shifting stories in Uvalde, Texas, as a community looks for answers. Next, the decisions made at last night's school board meeting.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: More than a week after a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers in a Uvalde, Texas school, there's growing frustration today over continued gaps in information provided by authorities.
Let's go straight to CNN's Nick Valencia who is in Uvalde right now. So Nick, what more are you learning?
NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, there, Fredricka. There are still no clear answers here in Uvalde, Texas, not even when it comes to what next steps are going to be taken at Robb Elementary school.
Yesterday the school board held its first meeting since the massacre at Robb Elementary, and during that school board meeting, the superintendent reiterated what we already knew, that students wouldn't return to class there.
[14:25:08]
But what was most striking was the information that wasn't provided. There was absolutely no mention about the future of chief of police here of the school district, Pete Arredondo, the disgraced police chief of the school district here. It was a fact that clearly disgusted some parents in attendance.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I have a fourth grader that was in the room next door, that's terrified. My niece died. I have a six-year-old that just told me I don't want to go to school, why, to be shot? I have one going into junior high. I have a third grader. We want answers to where the security is going to take place. This was all a joke.
(END VIDEO CLIP) VALENCIA: Chief Arredondo has not spoken publicly about his decisions or lack thereof that fateful day. But we did catch up with him -- a team of CNN caught up with him earlier this week during which he said that he would address his inaction that day when parents here quit grieving.
But for anyone who has gone through loss, you know that grief isn't just something that ends. It's something that's managed. And there's absolutely no timeline for it.
Meanwhile, "The New York Times" is reporting that Chief Arredondo did not have his radio on him even though he was the incident commander. It is common for some cases, in some cases like this, for police to use cellphones and not radios when incidents like active shooters go on.
But for the families here who have really not gotten many answers from police, it is yet another example of the incompetence of police here in Uvalde, incompetence they feel cost lives. Fredricka?
WHITFIELD: Nick Valencia, thank you so much.
All right, straight ahead, 70 years on the throne, how the world is celebrating Britain's longest service royal.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[14:31:27]
WHITFIELD: Today in the U.K., a celebration 70 years in the making. Queen Elizabeth marking her Platinum Jubilee as England's monarch. Buckingham Palace will be the scene of a huge party in the queen's honor later on this evening.
You can see the folks are already poised and lined up, ready for the party to get started.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GERRY HAINES, CELEBRATING THE PLATINUM JUBILEE: It's great that it is happening in Britain. And we're still on the world stage even after all that mess-up we've had with leaving the E.U. and Brexit and that. It's a party mood, and it's a party in London.
It is going to be something that people talk about for years to come, I'm sure.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: And you know what, this is day three of a four-day celebration. Earlier the iconic Epsom Derby was run, as you see right there. The 96-year-old did not attend. Instead, watching the race from home because of ongoing mobility issues according to officials at Buckingham Palace.
The royal family did, however, gather yesterday for what's called a service of Thanksgiving at St. Paul's Cathedral.
And you can see the gathering including Prince Harry and his wife Meghan, the duchess of Sussex, while William and Kate visited Wales today with their kids, Prince George and Princess Charlotte, ravishing in red there.
Sally Bedell Smith joining us now. She is a CNN contributor and the author of the book "Elizabeth the Queen." Well, let's begin with the queen, Sally. So good to see you. So mobility issues, and there Max Foster describing her earlier.
She is 96, she will be watching in her house clothes, all of the events of day two and day three. But what do you make of the mobility issues? What does that mean? How do you interpret her health to be?
SALLY BEDELL SMITH, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: I think her health per se is fine. She for a number of years has had problems with her knees. And I know there has been discussion at one point of having knee replacements. She really didn't want to do that. She wasn't persuaded that she would be much better.
Really, what she wanted to keep doing more than anything was horseback riding, which she did until maybe nine months ago.
And so I expect that it's a skeletal problem, it's a mobility problem, pains in her knees, perhaps even in her lower back. In other words, she's not suffering from, as far as anybody can tell, from any awful disease. It's just she's having a hard time walking.
There was a moment when she received two men from the military about a few months ago, and she said, I can't walk. They had to come to her. Obviously, when she went out two days ago, she was -- when she lit the jubilee beacon, she walked a short distance.
And this has been sort of happening gradually over time for events like the state opening of Parliament. They had to make sure she could go up in an elevator instead of walking up steps. Obviously, at St. Paul's Cathedral yesterday, there is a very long staircase.
And I think what everybody was saying is that what she did on the first day, which was two balcony appearances, and host states, it was a lot.
[14:35:00]
And I think she was tired out. And she would have loved to have gone to the Derby and was there instead of her -- Zara, her granddaughter, was adorable in an interview before the race. And she said my grandmother's going to be sitting on the sofa wearing comfy clothes.
WHITFIELD: Yes, I loved that. I want to know what her comfy clothes look like, because that was one that you want to envision.
SMITH: I know. It's probably not a sweat suit.
(LAUGHTER) WHITFIELD: Just as I'm always curious about what is in that handbag she's always carrying? But that's an aside.
So for tomorrow, though, tomorrow is the final day. Do you think that a couple of days off might allow her to muster strength to appear on the final day of this four-day celebration?
SMITH: I think everybody is hoping there will be one more balcony appearance, perhaps even with a larger group than was there on Thursday. They were working Wales. But we don't know what the weather is going to be like.
Today, the weather forecast has been bad, and it turned out to be sunny. So I think with everything, they're not promising anything. They're just waiting until they know kind of what's in the balance and what she is capable of doing on the day.
And I think that's what will happen tomorrow. We can just hope that she's feeling more energetic.
WHITFIELD: Yes. Well, the other stars of the show continue to be Prince William and Kate, and of course Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex. So the latter couple, they made the trip to England for this jubilee. Overall, how -- what's been the reception for their visit?
SMITH: I think the sense is that they're being very proper. They went to the service yesterday. And otherwise, they've been keeping a pretty low profile. Today is the birthday, first birthday of little Lilibet, and they were said to have observed that privately.
So I think they're doing everything exactly as everybody hoped they would, not presenting themselves, not going off on private engagements, but sort of sticking very much to the script.
WHITFIELD: How would you gauge kind of the popularity of the monarchy, particularly Queen Elizabeth and how she's managed to endure, weather all kinds of things, involving whether it be her life, the life of her heirs, particularly Prince Andrew with his latest scandals and what he's been dealing with? How do you assess how she has carried on through all of this?
SMITH: She has such a deeply embedded sense of duty. And to her, duty -- the duty -- she looks at it as joyful service. And it's grounded really in her religious faith, and that has happened her withstand all sorts of difficulties that have come her way.
That's what most of the people who know her well say, that that gives her great strength and great resilience. But above all, she has this extraordinary sense of duty and this kind of steadfast personality.
And I think that's most of it. She's temperamentally just able to take the ups and the downs that life brings to everybody.
WHITFIELD: I'm smiling because it's so cute to see her grandkids too, and to see how they're smiling and enjoying. SMITH: And that's it, family is everything. Family is everything to
her. And having the family on the balcony with her meant so much. And she sees a lot of them, and they sustain her enormously, particularly William and Kate.
WHITFIELD: No, go ahead.
SMITH: And I was saying, Edward and Sophie who live nearby, they spend a lot of time with her. And Charles has been spending a lot more time with her, and particularly since the death of the Duke of Edinburgh, her family has rallied around her.
WHITFIELD: Do you know what the grandkids call her? Do they call her grandma or grammy? What do they call her?
SMITH: Yes. Well, some of them call her gam-gam. I think grandma is what they mostly call her.
(LAUGHTER)
[14:40:03]
WHITFIELD: All right, the queen to everybody else. Sally Bedell Smith in London, thank you so much, it's been a pleasure.
SMITH: You're welcome. Thanks.
WHITFIELD: Still ahead, canceled flights, no rental cars. Summer travel is not looking like a whole lot of fun. We'll explain what's at the root of all these problems, next.
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[14:45:04]
WHITFIELD: Dr. Mehmet Oz will be the Republican nominee in the race for Pennsylvania's open U.S. Senate seat after his challenger, businessman Dave McCormick, conceded Friday. Oz, who was endorsed by Trump, is now set to face John Fetterman, the Democratic lieutenant governor, who is recovering from a stroke last month.
Both of them looking to take over for retired Republican Senator Pat Toomey. And this will be one of the most significant midterm races that could decide whether Democrats or Republicans control the U.S. Senate.
Experts are predicting a summer of travel chaos. Thousands of flights were canceled just last weekend as major airlines cope with the rising number of travelers and a shrinking number of employees. CNN's Pete Muntean has a look at how airlines are responding.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
PETE MUNTEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: With summer travel already heating up across the country, the world's largest airline is vowing it will not melt down. DAVID SEYMOUR, CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER, AMERICAN AIRLINES: We have to
be nimble.
MUNTEAN: On an exclusive tour of American Airlines operations center, hundreds worked behind the scenes to avoid canceling flights as an unexpected thunderstorm popped up over Dallas.
SEYMOUR: This is the person making the calls, OK.
MUNTEAN: Chief Operating Officer David Seymour showed me how dispatchers diverted arriving flights and reshuffled flight crews so departing flights were ready as soon as the weather cleared.
How confident are you that this summer will be a smooth one when it comes to travel?
SEYMOUR: I'm confident. I think that my team is confident. But we're not overconfident.
MUNTEAN: U.S. airlines canceled more than 2,700 flights over Memorial Day weekend and delayed another 21,000 nationwide. Delta Airlines led cancellations after saying it will scale back its summer schedule with coronavirus causing higher than planned worker absences.
ED BASTIAN, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, DELTA AIRLINES: We added capacity coming into the spring. Memorial Day was the first full test of it, and we did see with some challenges.
MUNTEAN: Crew shortages have hobbled the airline industry. A CNN analysis of the latest federal data shows the largest four airlines with 24,000 fewer workers than before the pandemic.
BRIAN KELLY, "THE POINTS GUY": It's a perfect storm. There's staffing shortages and weather issues.
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.
MUNTEAN: American Airlines says it has hired 12,000 new workers in the last year. Now the question is whether airlines have prepared enough for passengers packing planes at levels not seen since before the pandemic.
SEYMOUR: You can't let your guard down. We have the resources to run the airline, and that's the key thing for us.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: All right, Pete Muntean, thanks very much.
So what does all this chaos mean for your summer plans? David Slotnick, the senior aviation business reporter and photographer for "The Points Guy" website joining me now to talk about all of this. So David, good to see you.
DAVID SLOTNICK, PHOTOGRAPHER AT "THE POINTS GUY": Thanks for having me.
WHITFIELD: Do you think the higher prices and airline inefficiencies are actually going to deter people from traveling this summer?
SLOTNICK: So far all the data suggests no. We're seeing that prices are going up. They're up between 25 and 35 percent over last year. Their operation is having trouble. We've been seeing issues just caused by too much demand, basically.
And that hasn't really changed anything. Bookings are strong, flights are full, and the airlines are still seeing demand continuing. So it doesn't look like it's having much of an impact yet.
WHITFIELD: So how long do you see these prices to continue to soar?
SLOTNICK: I would say at least through the summer. At this point people are still planning for the end of summer travel season, as well as the beginning, a few people who put off planning until the last minute.
And the demand is just going to stay there. Once school starts back usually, that's what's referred to as the shoulder period. That tends to have a bit of a downward effect on pricing, but it's really just a new situation.
We haven't seen anything like this before. So who's to say? Maybe it will be the same as most years, maybe not.
WHITFIELD: So we saw the Delta COO say that they've had a problem being able to retain some of the workers, and that has meant not enough workers, not enough flights to get in the air.
Do you think that the airlines will be able to fix, get to the root of all the issues, be able to get more people to work, be able to increase the number of flights in the air?
SLOTNICK: I think eventually, yes. This is sort of the same thing that we're seeing in the rest of the labor market.
There's just more demand, really it's a job seekers' market now. It's a matter of just attracting people with the right benefits, getting people to work below the wing, above the wing, in reservations, in baggage handling.
But then the real challenge is pilots and flight attendants. It's hard to get them hired and trained quickly. It takes time. There's a lot of requirements. And that's something that does take a while.
[14:50:02]
So I think that maybe by next summer we're going to see a lot of improvement. But this isn't something that can be fixed right away.
WHITFIELD: So this is going to be a brutal year, not just summer, you say.
So David, then, if that's the case, this is the long haul, so many people have felt very cooped up for the last two the three years. They want to get out.
So what are your tips to help people go ahead and make some summer, fall, winter plans since you say this is going to be a while before things return to kind of normal?
SLOTNICK: The best things you can do are just book your flights as far in advance if you can, make your plans early. Try and take the first flight of the day if you can. That's usually the best, and it's before delays from things like weather start stacking up.
And then just in the week and the days before travel, make sure to check your reservation, keep looking, see if anything has changed, fi there are delays or cancellations.
And if you find out early, you can really just jump on it ahead of time, manage it yourself on the website or the app, and just avoid a lot of headache.
WHITFIELD: We're focused on airlines, what about rental cars? If we're talking about rental car places are out of vehicles, tip on that?
SLOTNICK: Same thing, just try make a reservation.
(LAUGHTER)
WHITFIELD: Go ahead.
SLOTNICK: Yes. No, it's just the same thing, just make your reservation as early as you can, try and get there early in the day. Just make sure they haven't given your reservation away or anything. And it's really an early bird catches the worm kind of situation here.
WHITFIELD: All right, David Slotnick, thank you so much. Great tips, great advice. And happy travels this summer and beyond.
SLOTNICK: Thanks for having me. Take care.
WHITFIELD: All right, thank you.
And finally, some good news on the baby formula shortage. Abbott Nutrition restarted work at its Sturgis, Michigan, plant today months after it was shut down.
The closing of the plant has been at the heart of the nationwide baby formula recall and has left millions of families across the nation scrambling to figure out how they will feed their babies.
The Biden administration is still trying to figure out what went wrong after clear miscommunication and mishandling by the FDA. The first batches of new formula are expected to be available to consumers around June 20th. And thank you so much for joining me today. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.
The CNN Newsroom continues with Jim Acosta in a moment.
But first, here's CNN's Rachel Crane with space's next chapter.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
RACHEL CRANE, CNN INNOVATION AND SPACE CORRESPONDENT: Two-hundred- and-fifty miles above the earth, history is being made. Jessica Watkins is the first black woman to do a long duration mission onboard the International Space Station.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I certainly would like to spend as much time in space as I can.
CRANE: Despite her history-making mission. Watkins and NASA know diversity in space continues to be a problem. According to NASA, 622 people have been to space, yet only 75 of them have been women.
That's just 12 percent. Speaking to CNN while orbiting in microgravity, Watkins says she's doing all she can to work toward a pine line of young talent that is more diverse.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Investigating in school programs and education.
CRANE: Does the space industry have a gender inequality problem?
PAM MELROY, NASA DEPUTY ADMINISTRATOR: I think absolutely. The entire aerospace industry, I'll add, has a gender inequality issue.
CRANE: NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy is taking action from the ground. As a former astronaut who made three trips to space and was one of only two women to command a space shuttle, she knows it's a tough problem to solve.
MELROY: We're just ignoring untapped potential. We have to take the proactive steps to make that number more similar to what the average population is.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Liftoff of STS-7 and America's first woman astronaut.
CRANE: Sally Ride was the first American to open the doors for women like Melroy with her historic mission to space in 1983.
That opened the floodgates for a series of firsts -- first female commander of the International Space Station, first black female in space, first all-female spacewalk.
MELROY: There were a lot of people who told me that women couldn't be pilots, couldn't be astronauts. But it is very tough when you are the first or the only. But I had a reason to keep going.
CRANE: Still, nearly four decades after Ride's first flight, women make up just above 36 percent of NASA's active astronaut class.
BRIDGET CHATMAN, CHAIR, WOMEN IN AEROSPACE: We really have to go deeper in the academic channel.
CRANE: Bridget Chatman is an executive who also chairs Women and Aerospace, and she says the key is to start young.
CHATMAN: Middle schoolers, those little girls who are excited about science and math before someone whispers in their ear that they should look at a different profession.
CRANE: NASA has more plans for Watkins. She has been selected by the agency to be a part of her astronaut class for Artemis, a mission which plans to send the first woman and the first person of color to the moon.
But she hasn't been chosen to make the journey yet. No matter who is selected, Melroy is convinced the impacts of sending a woman to the woman will be astronomical.
[14:55:04]
MELROY: You can believe it if you see it. This is going to have an impact far beyond that lucky individual who I'm already jealous of.
CRANE: Rachel Crane, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
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