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Uvalde Teacher's Aide Wants Deposition From Firearm Manufacturer; Russia's War On Ukraine; White House Defends Cyber Activity On Behalf Of Ukraine; Queen Elizabeth II's Platinum Jubilee; January 6 Investigation; Biden Administration Cancels $5.8 Billion In Student Loans. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired June 04, 2022 - 03:00   ET

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

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KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): New details in the deadly Texas school shooting and the plea from one student who called 9-1-1 only to wait and wait for anyone to come.

Optimism from Ukraine's president as his country endures 100 days of war and Russia gains ground in the east of his country.

And we're live in London as Queen Elizabeth's Platinum Jubilee celebration is in full swing. We'll tell you what's planned and who will be absent from today's festivities.

Live from CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta, welcome to all of you watching here in the United States, Canada and all around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber. This is CNN NEWSROOM.

And we begin in Uvalde, Texas. The mass shooting in an elementary school there was an unthinkable tragedy, 19 young students and two teachers gunned down. And we're now hearing more chilling details about police failures on that terrible day, details on 9-1-1 calls made from inside the classroom while the attack was underway.

And CNN is speaking with the attorney for a teacher's aide from Robb Elementary. And she is sharing her side of the store after police falsely blamed her for leaving the door propped open. Omar Jimenez has that.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was supposed to be an end of the year class party before it became a nightmare.

DON FLANARY, ATTORNEY FOR : She saw everything from the time he wrecked to the time she was taken out of there.

JIMENEZ (voice-over): Special Education Aide Emilia Marin was meeting a coworker with food before she sees a car crash. So she prompts the door open to get her phone and call 9-1-1 to report the crash, her lawyer says, before returning to the door. FLANARY: And she looks over to the funeral home to her right and the two men are yelling, he's got a gun. And she looks and sees him and he has a weapon that she can't identify but a big weapon flung over him and he hops over the fence and starts running toward her.

JIMENEZ (voice-over): So she kicks the door shut.

JIMENEZ: And does she expect it to lock?

FLANARY: Yes, absolutely. She thought it was going to be locked.

JIMENEZ (voice-over): Marin scrambles into a nearby classroom as she begins to hear gunshots.

FLANARY: He's inside now. She hides. The 9-1-1 call drops. They don't call her back. She doesn't attempt to call back because she doesn't want to make any noise. There's some sort of counter that she gets under but it's exposed. She said that she thought that at that point she was going to die and she made a piece of that.

JIMENEZ: So she hears every single gunshot?

FLANARY: Every single gunshot.

JIMENEZ (voice-over): But she was one of the lucky ones who survived. Days later though, she hears law enforcement say she had left the door the shooter used open.

JIMENEZ: And she's second guessing herself?

FLANARY: Right. Yes, it even made her second guess her own memories. And she had already spoken to the FBI and the rangers and told them what happened.

JIMENEZ (voice-over): The Rangers eventually publicly corrected the record.

As the community grieves, a flurry of unanswered questions linger, including more about Texas School Police Chief Pete Arredondo, acting as incident commander during the shooting.

ROLAND GUTIERREZ (D), TEXAS STATE SENATE: That I had been told that this person did not have -- this person being the incident commander -- did not have radio communication and I don't know as to why.

JIMENEZ (voice-over): At question if the 9-1-1 calls were properly relayed to first responders on the scene, CNN has calls out to Arredondo and law enforcement to confirm. All as documents to prepare death certificates were released listing the grim realities of what was at stake, multiple gunshot wounds, gunshot wound to the head and more.

Outside that horrific day, the teaching aide, Emilia Marin, has now filed legal documents to get a deposition from Daniel Defense, the manufacturer of the gun used in the shooting, with our attorney saying because, the shooter got the weapons on his 18th birthday, he was likely planning the purchases beforehand.

FLANARY: So his motivations to get that gun was when he was a minor. Are there, you know, gun companies that are marketing to minors?

Is that what they're doing?

And how many mass shootings do we have to have by 18-year-old men?

It's cookie cutter. So what are they doing to change?

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JIMENEZ: Now it's worth noting the legal petition does not formally accused the gun manufacturer of wrongdoing. Instead, it's looking to investigate whether Emilia Marin has a basis to file a claim against Daniel Defense -- Omar Jimenez, CNN, Uvalde, Texas.

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BRUNHUBER: And the teacher Omar mentioned in that report isn't the only one demanding answers from the gunmaker. Another is Alfred Garza, whose 10-year-old daughter was killed.

His attorneys sent a letter to Daniel Defense, asking for information about its marketing, especially to teens and children. The letter also demands all communications between the company and the shooter.

Garza says he is making that push to honor his daughter. But using legal action to go after U.S. gunmakers is often an uphill battle. That's partly because of the law known as Protection of Lawful Arms Act. I asked Jessica Levinson how much of that law shields gun manufacturers. Here she is.

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JESSICA LEVINSON, LOYOLA UNIVERSITY LAW SCHOOL: I think it's had an enormous effect. This is a 2005 law. As you said, it was passed under George W. Bush. And it was passed basically to protect gun manufacturers from civil liability.

And that's because, starting in the late 1990s, people were filing suits against gun manufacturers under the theory that they were actually causing a public nuisance, based on the way that they were manufacturing and selling and allowing to be sold guns. And some of these cases were dismissed but a lot of them settled.

And the gun manufacturers started lobbying very aggressively to say, we need some protection here. Now we have seen some exceptions to this particular law, where we've seen some successful settlements.

But it's really changed the ability of people to try and hold gun manufacturers liable. We're not holding gun manufacturers accountable in all cases when somebody commits a crime. What we're doing is saying, you're taking very specific actions. You're trying to target guns to certain people. You're advertising in a very specific way. We can reasonably understand what might happen. And therefore, the

argument is, at least, don't bar liability, allow the suits to go forward. It doesn't mean everybody wins. It means they get their day in court.

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BRUNHUBER: And we'll have more on legal protections for U.S. gunmakers in the next hour.

Western leaders have begun a renewed emphasis on a ceasefire in Ukraine and on getting Moscow and Kyiv to negotiate an end to the war. But neither side is interested in diplomacy right now. Here is Ukraine's president.

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VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): We have been defending Ukraine for 100 days. Victory shall be ours. Glory to Ukraine.

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BRUNHUBER: The front lines have moved little in recent days. But intense fighting is reported in and around the strategic city of Sievierodonetsk. Britain's defense ministry expects the entire Luhansk region to fall to the Russians over the next two weeks.

Now to the south, Ukraine claims its forces have progressed into the Kherson region, reclaiming several kilometers of Russian occupied territory. Meanwhile, European officials are calling another fact finding mission into human rights abuses and war crimes.

Some 12 million Ukrainians have been internally displaced by the fighting, according to President Zelenskyy. And even if the war ended right now, many of these people would have no homes to return to. CNN's Ben Wedeman is in Kyiv with the latest.

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BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Russia's invasion of Ukraine has now hit the 100-day mark. The critical battle is now in the eastern Donbas region.

Ukrainian officials concede that Russian forces now control up to 80 percent of the city of Sievierodonetsk, until now, the easternmost city under Kyiv's control. It's been under intense and steady Russian artillery bombardment for weeks and weeks and weeks.

Now most of the civilians have fled the city but as many as 800 people are still huddled in bomb shelters in the city's chemical complex.

Elsewhere in the Donbas region, Russian forces are amassing for a renewed offensive against the city of Slovyansk, that according to the Ukrainian high command. The first 100 days of this war have shattered Moscow's ambitions. Friday, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy vowed in his words

that victory will be ours. Yet victory -- or just an end to this war -- is still nowhere in sight -- I'm Ben Wedeman, CNN, reporting from Kyiv.

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BRUNHUBER: The U.S. has provided Ukraine with millions of dollars' worth of weapons and humanitarian aid but it's refrained from any direct involvement in the conflict.

Now the general in charge of U.S. Cyber Command has publicly admitted for the first time that the U.S. has been engaged in cyber operations in support of Ukraine. Now the exact nature wasn't disclosed except that they included offensive, defensive and information operations.

The White House's national cyber director offered this explanation.

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CHRIS INGLIS, U.S. NATIONAL CYBER DIRECTOR: He's correct in what he said, which was not, in any way, shape or form, breathless. It was just a statement of fact. And the statement of fact was that cyber is an instrument of power, whether it's financial sanctions, whether it's lethal materiel applied in military ways across Ukraine.

What we're trying to do is assist the defense of the Ukrainian people. Cyber then, as an instrument of power, can and should play a role in that.

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(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) And for more on this, I want to bring in Ciaran Martin, who is the former head of Britain's National Cyber Security Centre and teaches at the University of Oxford.

Thank you so much for being here with us. Obviously, we don't know the exact details of these U.S. cyber operations. But what are the likely targets here?

CIARAN MARTIN, UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD: Well, thank you for having me. I would take very much the same view as the U.S. national cyber director Chris Inglis, from whom we just heard.

I think the statement was a statement of obvious fact. That the U.S., long before the invasion of Ukraine, were talking about the policy of persistent engagement, digging (ph) principally Russia as far back as 2019.

If you look at the triplet of activity, offensive, defensive and information, there is a lot going on in the information domain, combating disinformation, the battle for hearts and minds and, of course, Ukraine has been doing so well. And various operations there, both combating disinformation from

Russia and trying to spread truthful information will be a legitimate use of power. There is an awful lot around defensive support to Ukraine in cyberspace.

Russia has tried to attack Ukraine in the course of the war. And Ukrainians have trended very, very well in cyberspace with U.S. and other allied assistants.

And the less obvious part is what does offensive mean and understandably the U.S. has been rather coy on that. But that could simply be espionage operations, which happen all the time, either insights into Russian strategy or specific military tactics.

Persistent engagement can mean things like hacking the hackers, trying to make sure that Russian ability to do disinformation or cyber operations is limited. I don't think it has moved into any sort of wider escalatory activity because that would tend to be visible.

I think we learned less than perhaps some people believe from remarks earlier this week.

BRUNHUBER: That all makes it very hard to assess what impact it might have on the ground then.

MARTIN: Well, I think there's an obvious point which is there hasn't been the sort of cyber shock and awe suffered by Ukraine or indeed the West that many might have thought at the start of this conflict.

If you look back, a commentary on January and February, a lot of people were really concerned that this would be the first scale sort of cyber war, where you would be waking up to news every day about a particular service in Ukraine and had lost and access had been lost to it. But that would have real world battlefield impacts.

The defensive side of this is very important. In terms of the offensive side, I think you're right there. Hasn't been any sort of direct obvious strategic impact from either side. And what will happen -- and going back to the Second World War when you have this, over the subsequent months and years and in the case of the Second World War, decades, some of these covert operations emerge over time.

Some had marginal impact. Some, like the Enigma operation in the Second World War had serious strategic impact. We don't really know at this stage. What I think we do know is, as director Inglis said, cyber is a sort of supporting capability.

It's just computer code. It's not a high-tech missile. So it's not going have that strategic battlefield impact that people thought it might. That sort of covert contest in the information space will take quite a lot of time for us to work on what's been happening.

BRUNHUBER: Yes, interesting comparison there to the Second World War and how things sort of came out later; the Cold War as well, I guess.

MARTIN: Absolutely. BRUNHUBER: We'll see what affect it will have. But you talked about

it not being seen as escalation. But many people might see that it way. Many are asking if what the U.S. is doing goes against the U.S. policy not to engage with Russia.

And earlier this week, the White House press secretary responded to that question. Here she is.

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KARINE JEAN-PIERRE, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: We just don't see it as such.

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JEAN-PIERRE: We have talked about this before. We've had our cyber experts here at the podium lay out what our plan is. That has not changed. So the answer is just simply no.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: But I imagine Russia might see things differently. I mean, they've already long accused the U.S. of being behind the cyber war against their country and has threatened grave consequences.

Do you think that will lead to more hacks, especially during an election year?

MARTIN: Well, it depends on what is being done and what's seemed to be done. The answer is not necessarily. In fact, my default position would be it's unlikely on the current trajectory to be seen as escalatory.

There is no such box called cyber where, if you use it, is some sought escalatory or an extension of policy or a violation. It depends what you do. So espionage is seen by all sides as legitimate -- as legitimate activity.

Supporting Ukrainian cyber defenses is not escalatory, any more than potentially supplying Ukraine with weapons or sanctioning Russia in support of Ukraine's right to defend itself. There are activities that could be undertaken via the cyber domain, which would be seen as escalatory. But we haven't seen clear evidence of that yet.

We know that Russia has the capability to strike against the West in cyberspace. It's done so over many years. It's also host to a large unorganized group of cyber criminals, who caused havoc in the U.S. and elsewhere in the West in 2021, taking out pipelines and hospital administration networks and so forth.

So the threat from Russian cyber has been there. I think legitimate U.S. activity, to undertake tactical support of Ukraine's right to defend itself in cyberspace, is by no means automatically escalatory. And we shouldn't kid ourselves that Russia's cyber activity somehow started 100 days ago. It has been going on for years. BRUNHUBER: Yes, it will be interesting to see what repercussions

there might be. We'll have to leave there it. Fascinating stuff, Ciaran Martin in Oxford, thank you so much.

MARTIN: Thank you.

BRUNHUBER: After the break, we'll go to London for the queen's Platinum Jubilee and what celebrations are in store for today and whether Her Majesty will be attending. Stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: Some disappointing news amid the royal pageantry of the Platinum Jubilee. The queen won't be attending the Epsom Derby scheduled for later today. But the event will still go on as planned.

The queen was also absent from the Thanksgiving service at St. Paul's due to "discomfort" she felt after the day's celebration. Anna Stewart is live in London.

The queen unable to be there. Unfortunate but maybe not surprising, given her age.

Or are there more serious concerns here about her health?

ANNA STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I don't think there are more serious concerns. We were always told that the decision would almost be made on day-to-day basis whether Her Majesty would be able to attend events given.

She's had months now of episodic disability. The first day was very long and active. She'll be disappointed because she loves horse racing. To miss the Epsom Derby, which she usually makes most years, will be disappointing. She will be watching that on television.

We had a statement from Epsom, who said they have big plans still to celebrate Her Majesty's contribution to horse racing and the nation. I know there was going to be a guard of honor of jockeys past and present. Perhaps they'll still do that in some form.

Today is going to be a busy day for other members of the royal family. They're visiting all four nations of the U.K. Yesterday Princess Anne was in Scotland. Today Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge go to Wales and Prince Edward and the Countess of Wessex are going to Northern Ireland.

And it all culminates tonight right here at Buckingham Palace. You can actually see some of the stages being sort of set up and the rehearsals are soon to be underway for a big party. This is the Platinum Party at the Palace, a concert with all sorts of people. Brian May from Queen and Adam Lambert, Craig David, Elbow, George

Ezra. I think we're likely to see the Cambridges here for that and possibly the Duke and Duchess of Sussex as well.

BRUNHUBER: Let's hope the weather holds out. Not to be a downer but I did want to ask you this. We saw Boris Johnson get booed by the crowds. Harry and Meghan got some boos as well. It seems a bit out of keeping with the spirit of the day.

STEWART: Yes, possibly. There was a bit of a pantomime scene yesterday for a service of Thanksgiving on those arrivals. Generally, I would say there were cheers. But yes, particularly for Boris Johnson and his wife their arrival, you could hear some very audible boos.

That I think relating to Partygate, but the law breaking parties that happened at Number 10 Downing Street during lockdowns under Boris Johnson's watch. He actually attended some of those parties.

When the Duke and Duchess of Sussex arrived, more cheers than boos.

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STEWART: And they were very high up in the order of arrivals in St. Paul's Cathedral, which shows the royal family very much want them to be a big part of the family.

BRUNHUBER: We'll keep following along throughout the day. Anna Stewart, thank you so much.

And I'm Kim Brunhuber. If you're watching from here in North America, the news continues after a quick break. For our international viewers, "AFRICAN VOICES: CHANGEMAKERS" is next.

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BRUNHUBER: Welcome back to all of you watching here in the United States, Canada and around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber. This is CNN NEWSROOM.

CNN is getting new details about the deadly school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, last week that killed 21 people, including 19 children. A Texas state senator says the incident commander on the scene that day, who decided against breaching the classroom where the shooter was, didn't have a police radio on him at the time of the attack.

And "The New York Times" reported on the call made by a young shooting survivor; 10-year-old Khloie Torres called 9-1-1 half an hour after the shooting started. And part of her gut wrenching message said, "There is a lot of bodies. I don't want to die. My teacher is dead. My teacher is dead. Please send help. Send help for my teacher. She is shot but still alive."

That shooting wasn't even the most recent incident of gun violence in the U.S. Days later a disgruntled patient in Tulsa, Oklahoma, shot and killed the doctor who treated him and three others.

And we're learning that an 8-year old was killed last week in South Carolina by a man randomly firing into cars. And that man is now facing multiple charges, including murder.

Friday was Gun Violence Awareness Day here in the United States. The White House was lit in orange to mark the occasion. U.S. President Joe Biden has called on Congress to take action against gun violence.

But some states are taking steps on their own. New York's governor announced a new $18 million investment in existing initiatives to combat gun violence.

California is giving $11 million to groups that campaign for red flag laws. And they allow restraining orders that block possessions of firearms if a person is a danger to themselves or others.

And Hawaii will now require physical inspection of firearms in some circumstances.

Well, there seems to be a price that is paid for Republicans who come out in support of gun control. Congressman Chris Jacobs has announced he won't be running for reelection after his gun control stance cost him the support of conservatives.

The Buffalo, New York, representative called for assault weapons bans after 10 people were killed in a racially motivated mass shooting in a supermarket in Buffalo last month.

Yet another former Trump adviser has been charged with criminal contempt of Congress for refusing to cooperate with the January 6 committee. But the investigation was dealt a blow when the Department of Justice revealed it won't indict two other Trump former Trump White House officials. CNN's Ryan Nobles has the latest from Capitol Hill.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RYAN NOBLES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The Department of Justice informing the January 6th select committee it will not indict the former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows or his deputy Dan Scavino for criminal contempt of Congress, despite that the two men did not comply with the subpoena request.

This is a blow to the committee as they try to put some weight behind the subpoenas they've handed down. They still have a number of subpoenas outstanding at this point, including five subpoenas for Republican members of Congress, that these Republican members have defied up until this point. And the committee has not said how they plan to enforce.

While that was certainly a blow to the committee to lose out on the Meadows and Scavino subpoenas and criminal contempt referrals, they did have some success in that Peter Navarro, a former White House trade advisor, openly defiant of the subpoena, was indicted by the Department of Justice and will now face criminal prosecution.

And if convicted, he could face up to two years in prison and fines of around $200,000. This all comes at an important time for the committee. They begin their hearings, their big public hearings, Thursday of next week; the first one in prime time, 8:00 pm Eastern.

That's where the committee promises they will reveal much of what they've been working on behind closed doors, essentially lay the groundwork for what will be a month's worth of hearings on a number of topics, different parts of their investigation and what they have learned.

This could be an important part of their public relations strategy as they try to reinvest the American people into what happened here on January 6th and why there needs to be changes and people held accountable. Of course, they're still planning on issuing a final report sometime this fall -- Ryan Nobles, CNN on Capitol Hill.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: A member of the right wing extremist group the Proud Boys pleaded guilty Friday to a felony charge connected to the January 6 insurrection.

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BRUNHUBER: According to his plea agreement, Josh Pruitt admitted breaching the U.S. Capitol building and chasing senator Chuck Schumer and his team. He also admitted confronting police officers and throwing a sign inside the building. He will be sentenced in August and faces up to 63 months behind bars.

Well, fears of a recession may be lingering over the U.S. economy but new jobs numbers are hardly in short supply. Still ahead, job creation streams ahead, despite the impact of high inflation.

Plus, Joe Biden cancels billions in student loan debt. Some say more is needed. I'll have that story and more. When we come back. Stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: The U.S. economy keeps churning out new jobs, despite fears of a recession. Employers added 390,000 jobs in May. That's lower than the previous few months. But it's still more than twice the monthly average from before the pandemic.

The unemployment rate remains at 3.6 percent, which is near record lows. But inflation is near 40-year highs, adding to concerns a recession could be coming down the pike. President Biden is striking an optimistic tone, insisting that the U.S. is well positioned to tackle rising costs. Here he is.

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JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There is every reason for the American people to feel confident that we'll meet these challenges. Because of the enormous progress we made on the economy, the Americans can tackle inflation from a position of strength. It's still a problem but we can tackle it from a position of strength.

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BRUNHUBER: But despite Biden's optimism, Americans are understandably worried about inflation, particularly at the gas pump. The global oil benchmark shot up past $124 a barrel earlier this week, its highest level since early March after the E.U. announced it would slash 90 percent of its Russian oil imports by the end of this year.

And President Biden plans to meet Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler, crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, later this month. It would likely coincide with the meeting of the Gulf Cooperation Council in Riyadh. But Biden says nothing is set in stone yet.

The U.S.-Saudi relationship has been strained partly because of the Saudi human rights record. This week the president praised the kingdom after the truce in Yemen was extended.

OPEC has also decided to step up oil production this summer. But Biden says he's still not backtracking on anything he said about human rights.

And this week the Biden administration canceled $5.8 billion in college student debt for more than half a million borrowers, the largest loan cancellation for the administration to date.

But millions of others are anxiously waiting for President Biden to keep his campaign promise, to forgive $10,000 in federal debt per student. Adrienne Broaddus has this.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Vinessa Gabriell Russell.

VINESSA GABRIELL RUSSELL, RECENT COLLEGE GRADUATE: It's been such a trials and tribulations.

ADRIENNE BROADDUS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Vinessa Russell became the first in her family to earn a bachelor's degree but she's also graduating with student loan debt.

RUSSELL: The last time I checked, there was approximately 48,000. They come to find you.

BROADDUS (voice-over): Russell says a debt collector called her while she was working.

RUSSELL: They asked for Vinessa. They're like this is the debt collector basically collecting. We were trying to find you, like when are you going to pay your student debt.

BROADDUS (voice-over): At one point, Russell temporarily dropped out of school.

RUSSELL: I did have to leave Columbia and pay a balance that was due in order for me to go back.

BROADDUS (voice-over): But she is not alone. Data shows there is about $1.6 trillion in federal student loan debt. Tayvia Ridgeway wants a six-figure salary. But right now, she has nearly a six figure student loan debt.

TAYVIA RIDGEWAY, COLLEGE JUNIOR: I'd be in the range of like 80 to 100k just based on my tuition rates right now.

BROADDUS (voice-over): That's even after Tayvia became a resident adviser to cut down on her room and board cost.

RIDGEWAY: You should get a free education because you can't put a price on knowledge.

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm going to make sure that everybody in this generation gets $10,000 knocked off of their student debt.

BROADDUS (voice-over): On the campaign trail, Joe Biden promised to cancel $10,000 in student loan debt for each of the 43 million people with federal student loans. Due to the pandemic, he did pause loan repayments until August 31st.

But it is not clear if and when the White House will move forward with some form of permanent loan forgiveness, despite pressure from fellow Democrats at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue.

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY), MINORITY LEADER: You don't need Congress. All you need is the flick of a pen.

BROADDUS (voice-over): Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer pushing to cancel $50,000 of debt per borrower. Biden has rejected those calls.

BIDEN: I am not considering $50,000 debt reduction.

BROADDUS (voice-over): The White House does say Biden is considering some debt forgiveness for those making up to $125,000. Gabby Bach, like Ridgeway, was a resident adviser. She calls it a broken campaign promise.

GABBY BACH, RECENT COLLEGE GRADUATE: I think this is something that Biden has promised and has something that I feel like he hasn't delivered on yet during the campaign or just knowing like that this was something that a lot of people who voted for him that this was something that they wanted.

RIDGEWAY: I've say it would only help a little bit if anything, I'd want my full tuition covered.

[03:45:00]

RIDGEWAY: But you know, that's not the world we live in.

BROADDUS (voice-over): Russell welcomes any relief.

RUSSELL: It would help me so much. It's like an emotional experience because it's taken me so long and I almost gave up and -- sorry, just thinking about it.

BROADDUS: And 1.5 years into his presidency, Biden has canceled more than $17 billion in student loans. But that is tied to faulty loan practice investigations and institutions that no longer exist -- Adrienne Broaddus, CNN, Chicago.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: The contestants have finally crossed the finish line in the marathon Republican Senate primary race in Pennsylvania. Dave McCormick conceded Friday to television doctor Mehmet Oz. Their race went into an automatic recount two weeks ago. The results had to be reported by next Wednesday.

McCormick says it's now clear he can't catch up. In November, Oz will face Democratic lieutenant governor John Fetterman. He is recovering from a mild stroke.

We've been tracking a storm system slamming Cuba right now and already soaking Florida. We'll get the latest details from the CNN Weather Center coming up ahead. Stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: Hong Kong police have closed parts of Victoria Park, hoping to prevent what they called unauthorized assemblies commemorating the Tiananmen Square massacre in Beijing. Saturday marks the 33-year anniversary of the crackdown on peaceful protests in 1989.

Since then crowds have gathered in Hong Kong on the anniversary to mark the occasion. Pictures show police searching pedestrians on the streets Friday. They say they'll be targeting those inciting others to gather. We'll have more next hour with CNN's Ivan Watson live in Hong Kong.

Millions of people in southern Florida, Cuba and the Bahamas are under tropical storm warnings and watches. They're bracing for the system already in the area to gain strength and possibly become tropical storm Alex.

And then in the coming hours, it'll likely move over Florida Saturday afternoon. And looking there, you might be able to see it's already slamming Cuba, where one person has been found dead and 50,000 people in Havana are without power. The system is expected to bring heavy rain, flooding and possibly tornadoes.

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BRUNHUBER: A very rare turtle just made a public debut at a tropical zoo in Switzerland.

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BRUNHUBER: This white shelled baby is a unique albino Galapagos tortoise. It's the first observed in captivity or in the wild. She was born last month and is described as energetic and funny with a good appetite.

And finally, it's not just the queen's loyal subjects joining in on the Platinum Jubilee festivities but dogs as well. Some 100 corgis and their owners gathered near Buckingham Palace to celebrate Her Majesty's seven decades of service to the British crown.

Many even dressed up, wearing costumes and Union Jacks. Of course, Queen Elizabeth has owned more than 30 of these pint-sized pups throughout her reign.

Well, that wraps this hour of CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Kim Brunhuber. I'll be back in just a minute with more news. Do stay with us.