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Biden Invites Oil CEOs to Meeting Next Week on Soaring Gas Prices; Robert Reich, Former Labor Secretary, Discusses High Gas Prices, Oil Profits, Economy; Police Responding to Shots Fired at Mall in Virginia; Interview with Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) about the Next January 6th Hearings; January 6th Committee Exposed Proud Boys Intent to Kill Vice President Pence; CDC Director Signs Off on COVID Vaccines for Children Under 5. Aired 3-4p ET
Aired June 18, 2022 - 15:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[15:01:06]
JIM ACOSTA, CNN ANCHOR: You are live in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Jim Acosta in Washington.
Just days after a conservative judge labeled him a clear and present danger to democracy, former President Donald Trump got up on stage and proved yet again he would rather spread lies than admit the truth about what happened on January 6th.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT: These are government tapes where they're stuffing ballot boxes to put it crudely. They're stuffing ballot boxes on government tapes. And what did they say? They go, oh, that was debunked. Then -- that was debunked. Oh, OK. Most people say, oh, it was? Oh, I didn't know that. No, these are tapes. One, two, guys looking up at the camera, let's see, where's the camera? Oh, there it is.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ACOSTA: Trump's own Justice Department, Republican officials in numerous states, we should point out, did not find a single shred of evidence to corroborate any of that nonsense you just heard there. Yesterday Trump also sided with the Capitol rioters again just like he did during the attack according to Select Committee testimony.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: If it were an insurrection that took place at the Capitol, you would have known it very soon. They would have -- these were strong people. These were great patriots, they were policemen, they were firemen, they were soldiers, they were sailors. Most people should not be treated the way they're being treated. And if I become president someday, if I decide to do it, I will be looking at them very, very seriously for pardons. Very, very seriously.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE) TRUMP: They've been treated very unfairly.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ACOSTA: Next the committee will focus in on the pressure campaign on states to overturn Biden's election win, a plan that was summed up in no uncertain terms in Trump's own words during a call with Georgia's top election officials. Of course, you remember this one.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: So, look, all I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have because we won the state.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ACOSTA: The man on the other end of that call will testify next week, Georgia Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. And just in to CNN, a source telling CNN that Arizona's House speaker will testify. This is a Republican who supported Donald Trump's 2020 run but refused to go along with the scheme to reverse Biden's win in Arizona.
Joining me now is a member of the January 6th Committee, Democratic Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren.
Congresswoman, great to have you on. As always, thank you so much. I'm guessing that we will hear more than just that infamous audio of Trump saying just find me 11,780 votes. I suppose there's more to the story of that day than just that. What are you hoping to hear from him?
REP. ZOE LOFGREN (D-CA): Well, we want to hear about the entire pressure campaign. It was Georgia, but it went -- was in other states as well. And we will get information about this broad effort to illegally seize the election, even though he -- seize the presidency even though he had lost the election. As you can tell from our first hearings, there are different ways he tried to do that, by pressuring the vice president and failing, and then now we'll hear about his pressures on the states to replace the electors chosen by the voters with Trump non-elected electors.
ACOSTA: And I noticed throughout these hearings, you know, we would have a discussion about the pressure campaign on Pence, for example, as you mentioned. We're going to hear about the pressure campaign on Brad Raffensperger, some of which was already in the public records. Some of which we already knew about, a sound bite here, that sort of thing. But then along the way we've learned new things. New details that we hadn't heard before new photos or new clips of audio that we heard -- had not heard before.
Might that also be the case with the day in which we'll hear Brad Raffensperger testify? Should we be looking for that?
LOFGREN: Well, I think it will. I mean, obviously some of the information has been in public, some we've discovered through our investigations. So stay tuned for the hearing next Tuesday. ACOSTA: All right. That's what we call a tease, obviously. It sounds
as though we will be getting some new information. And can you confirm what a source is telling CNN that in addition to these Georgia election officials, Arizona's House Speaker Rusty Bowers will also be testifying about the pressure he faced from Trump -- to Trump?
LOFGREN: That's my understanding. That's my understanding.
ACOSTA: And what do you hope to hear from him?
LOFGREN: Well, the truth. You know, these individuals are Republicans, they voted for Trump. They are, you know, supported him, but they wouldn't do illegal things that he asked them to do. So we expect to hear, in some detail, about the pressure that was placed on them and why they were true to the law instead of the pressure.
ACOSTA: And speaking of officials that we would like to hear from at these hearings, how are talks going to have the former White House council Pat Cipollone appear at one of these upcoming hearings and how would his testimony figure into all of this?
We know from some of the testimony that's been released publicly, the White House Counsel's Office was telling Mark Meadows, the chief of the staff at the time, that, you know, this idea of, you know, alternate electors and that sort of thing, overturning election results is just not legal. It's just not going to work. How is that going to get Cipollone in there to testify?
LOFGREN: Well, we can't -- I can't really discuss the negotiations with potential witnesses. Obviously we would like to hear from Mr. Cipollone. But we've also, from other witnesses, found out what he said. So, you know, when we can't get a direct testimony we get testimony from others who were present and are able to give us the information about what was said, by whom, to whom, and we're piecing the picture together.
Obviously it would be easier if everyone we asked to speak to us did so readily, and most people have, but the holdouts are not going to defeat our intention to get the whole truth and reveal that to the American public.
ACOSTA: Should I take that to mean that Mr. Cipollone is resisting coming in?
LOFGREN: I really -- I can't discuss the connection and the state of the communication at this point. Obviously you're aware that we would like to hear from him.
ACOSTA: And I know the committee also wants to talk to Ginni Thomas, wife of the Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas about e-mails she sent to John Eastman. I guess among other folks, Eastman we know was scheming to keep Trump in power. Thomas has said that she looks forward to clearing up this misconceptions as she calls them with the committee. I'm sure you've seen that she said that publicly now.
Does that mean she's coming in and would you issue a subpoena to the wife of the Supreme Court justice if it came down to it?
LOFGREN: Well, we sent her a private letter and she made the decision to make it public, which is her right to do. I was glad to hear that she was eager to come in and talk to us. So I expect that to happen. And I look forward to it. And I think that will be a useful thing. It sounds like there would be no need for any kind of coercion. She's eager to come in and talk to us. And so we'll look forward to that.
ACOSTA: And so if I may explore that a little bit, are you saying that there have been communications from Ginni Thomas to the committee saying she'll come in and testify publicly at a public hearing in front of the cameras?
LOFGREN: No. I'm relying on her public statement that she was eager to come in and talk to us. I'm sure she wouldn't say that publicly if she didn't mean it.
ACOSTA: And one thing we saw during the last hearing was that Eastman asked Rudy Giuliani to put him on the list for a pardon, not that that necessarily is going to get him a pardon but he -- I guess he communicated that to Rudy Giuliani and that he pleaded the Fifth 100 times. We can watch some of that sound.
LOFGREN: Right.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN EASTMAN, FORMER TRUMP LAWYER: I assert my Fifth Amendment right against being compelled to be a witness against myself. Fifth. Fifth. Fifth. Fifth. Fifth.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ACOSTA: I mean, what does that tell you about Eastman's, you know, view of his activity surrounding the events of January 6th and this whole notion that he was looking for a pardon?
[15:10:11]
LOFGREN: Well, I don't think usually you take the Fifth Amendment and seek a presidential pardon if you don't think you have some criminal liability. So that is a reasonable assumption. You know, in a criminal trial you're not permitted to make assumptions based on your Fifth Amendment assertion, but in civil matters you can and people frequently do make judgments based on that civilly outside of the criminal proceedings.
So I think it's logical to assume that he's got a problem. And I'll say also, Judge Carter, in the evidence case, said it was more likely than not that both Eastman and former President Trump had committed fraud and crimes. So there you have it.
ACOSTA: And I've run out of time but I have to ask you very quickly before I let you go. Donald Trump was at an event, I'm sure you saw some of this video yesterday, and he is still spreading the laws, he's even talking about pardoning some of the insurrectionists and rioters from January 6th. Just your reaction to that?
LOFGREN: Well, I think it's not a good thing. I mean, some of these rioters, I mean, you saw the damage that was done and the assaults that were made against our police officers, some of them have not yet fully recovered that he would think about pardoning the people who assaulted our police is disgraceful. And it's also disgraceful that he continues to peddle these lies. Whether it's part of the grift that he continues to try and raise money off these lies, I don't know. But it's really far short of what you would expect from someone who had once held the presidency.
ACOSTA: Indeed. All right, Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren, thank you very much for your time. We appreciate it.
LOFGREN: Thank you, any time.
ACOSTA: All right. Thank you.
And we now know that the mob also got within 40 feet of then vice president Mike Pence, seen here sheltering in an underground safe room while the attack unfolded. The January 6th Committee also revealing this detail courtesy of a government informant.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. PETE AGUILAR (D-CA): Make no mistake about the fact that the vice president's life was in danger. A recent court filing by the Department of Justice explains that a confidential informant from the Proud Boys told the FBI that the Proud Boys would have killed Mike Pence if given a chance.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ACOSTA: My next guest actually filmed a meeting that took place between the Proud Boys and another extremist group, the Oath Keepers, on January 5th. Nick Quested had been traveling around and filming the Proud Boys for a documentary and testified before the January 6th Committee about the moments that led up to the violence on Capitol Hill. And he joins me now.
Nick, thank you very much for being with us. And thanks for all of the work that you did around January 6th. Just really important stuff. What was your reaction to this revelation from the FBI informant that was disclosed, that the Proud Boys would have killed Mike Pence if given the chance?
NICK QUESTED: Well, I think it's not just the Proud Boys. I think the whole crowd would have -- could have potentially, you know, murdered the vice president. The crowd was so agitated. And there were many inflection points that this could have happened. And I believe that the crowd was close to Nancy Pelosi, too. Within a few minutes of when they climbed the stairs to her office. They were within a few minutes of her being in her office.
ACOSTA: And you also testified that on January 6th the Proud Boys started moving toward the Capitol even before Trump had started speaking. I mean, I think that's fascinating they were already moving in that direction as if that was the plan all along. I guess they weren't there to hear Trump speak, I suppose. And can you tell us what were they talking about during that walk up to the Capitol?
QUESTED: So we left -- we arrived at the Capitol around 10:30, around the Washington Monument, and then we immediately started walking towards the Capitol. And it was mostly -- it wasn't like a discourse, there was mostly chanting about 1776 or where's Antifa, or whose streets or whose Capitol. So there was a, you know, we were walking briskly towards the Capitol.
ACOSTA: And so I guess that may answer my next question, and it's something I've been wondering, is if you've picked up on any communications between the Proud Boys or other people you were documenting on that day, and folks in Trump world. Was there any discussion going on between those two camps?
[15:15:04]
QUESTED: Well, I don't know. We did film them using their walkie- talkies but we don't what they were using the walkie-talkies for.
ACOSTA: And did you ever hear anyone that day talking about taking the Capitol and trying to hold on to it somehow, you know, in an attempt to freeze the certification of Joe Biden's victory? Was -- did you pick up on any kind of a plan as to what they wanted to do?
QUESTED: No, but there's a live streamer for the Proud Boys, Eddie Fisher, and he caught a Proud Boy called Milkshake saying now they're off to storm the Capitol, which he was admonished to by Nordean. So there was -- you know, that sort of implies some intent. And I didn't know that they were going to occupy the Capitol. But, Jim, you tweeted that.
ACOSTA: I did. I heard from a source that day that there was some discussion about that. And so that was one of the reasons why I wanted to ask you, was to see whether or not you had heard anything about that.
QUESTED: No. We've seen a flyer floating around that said occupy and it had like a big sort of like death skull Trump thing with 1776 in the middle. But I did -- you know, but there's a lot of hyperbole, you know, rhetoric going around at that time. Put maximum pressure on Congress. You know, sort of a lot of different catchphrases. It was hard to see which one was the -- going to play out.
ACOSTA: And even though, Nick, you shot some of these very crucial moments connected to the attack. You've still -- I guess you've said how much you still learn from watching these hearings. What is it that stands out to you?
QUESTED: Well, I mean, the access and the -- you know, the broad scope of the investigation has been fascinating. And, you know, they've got -- you know, there are many lines of investigation whether there will be the political or popular or extremism. You know, I'm -- the resource that they had of showing some real deep-seated revelations, which I'm excited to see more truth coming out. Because until we can agree what actually happened, how do you get to a solution?
ACOSTA: That's exactly right. All right. Nick Quested, thank you very much for being with us. Good to talk to you, sir. And hope to talk to you again soon. Really appreciate it.
QUESTED: Thank you so much, Jim.
ACOSTA: Thank you.
The White House says President Biden is doing fine after falling off of his bike in Delaware earlier today.
(VIDEO CLIP)
ACOSTA: The Secret Service quickly helped the 79-year-old president back onto his feet. Biden says he had his foot caught in the pedal of the bike and that's what had him tumble over. A girl in the crowd later asked the president what it's like to run the country, and here's what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's like any other job. Some parts are easy, some parts are hard.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ACOSTA: And the White House says President Biden did not require medical attention after the fall. Good to see that he's doing OK.
Breaking news, more than two years after the pandemic began, a major moment for parents waiting to vaccinate kids under 5. What we're now hearing from the CDC.
Plus join some of the biggest stars as they lift their voices for "JUNETEENTH, A GLOBAL CELEBRATION FOR FREEDOM" live tomorrow night at 8:00, only on CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[15:23:03]
ACOSTA: Breaking news, the director of the CDC has just signed off on the recommendation for children as young as 6 months old to receive either the Pfizer or Moderna COVID vaccine. It's the news that many parents of young children have been waiting so many months for.
CNN's Miguel Marquez joins me now from New York.
Miguel, thank you so much for jumping on this. This was the final step in the authorization process. When do we think we're going to see some shots going into some little arms here?
MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Very soon. Maybe as soon as Monday in some places. Here in New York City they're planning for it as soon as Wednesday. But it is still unclear how many parents will really want to get their children vaccinated. One thing that came out during this long discussion today among the advisory panel is that the likelihood of parents getting their children vaccinated has gone down as the pandemic has worn on.
That said, this was the last big tranche of Americans, the youngest, most vulnerable Americans of almost 20 million of them, under 5's, that now are able to get vaccinated. A couple of other things they discussed during their many hours of presentation and then lots of questions is that they decided that, you know, vaccines are more effective at preventing severe illness. They are certainly more effective than previous infection, which some parents saying my child got infected with COVID-19, they're probably fine now.
They're saying actually not. It's better to get them vaccinated. And that there are side effects like for you, for me, whenever you get vaccinated with the COVID-19 vaccine, there were side effects but they are manageable. And they spent a lot of time figure out how they are going to distribute and administer getting all these vaccines out there. Two different vaccines, Moderna and Pfizer, slightly different regiments for both. The Moderna has two shots over several weeks, Pfizer is three shots over several weeks.
[15:25:02]
But now that it's signed off completely we can see them, they're already starting to ship to some states. We could see shots going into arms as soon as Monday. Back to you.
ACOSTA: OK, Miguel Marquez, we'll be looking for that. Thank you very much.
Coming up, President Biden's candid response to the mood of the nation amid record high gas prices and soaring inflation. Can anything be done? We'll talk to former Labor secretary Robert Reich. He's with us again once again to answer these important questions, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[15:30:00]
ACOSTA: Sky high inflation and soaring energy prices, how long will it all last?
Next week, the Biden administration has invited oil company CEOs to discuss these painfully high gas prices, which are averaging near $5 a gallon nationwide.
And while you're paying record prices, the oil companies, we should note, they're pulling in big money. Look at this. Shell, more than $9 billion, a record quarterly profit. More than $6 billion for Chevron and B.P. and $5.5 billion for Exxon mobile.
Joining us to talk about this is Robert Reich, the former labor secretary under President Clinton. He's also the author of "The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It."
Great questions. He has the answers.
Robert Reich, thank you for being with us.
You were last on the show last week saying that the president needs to be taking on these record profits from these oil companies. We showed some of them right there. They're eye-popping figures.
When the Biden administration meets with these companies next week, what should the president say?
ROBERT REICH, FORMER LABOR SECRETARY & AUTHOR: Hi, Jim. I think he needs to say that you, oil companies, are making record profits, there's no reason for you to be charging as much as you are charging at the pump.
And if you don't stop we're going to go after you, in terms of anti- trust. We'll go after you with a windfall profit tax. We're going to go after you in the court of public opinion. I'll be talking about how much you are raking off from consumers.
This is indefensible.
ACOSTA: And, you know, we talked about this a little bit, and it sounds like there's some new reporting on this front, whether or not the president can get Congress on board with perhaps taxing these big oil companies.
And sending out some kind of rebate check or rebate card to Americans who are hurting.
What do you make of, I guess, some of the discussion taking place on that front? It does sound like those ideas are starting to percolate here in the nation's capital.
REICH: I think they are, Jim. Not only among Democrats but also I hear among Republicans.
You know, the conservative party in Britain, Britain's conservatives, did impose a couple of weeks ago a windfall profit tax on oil companies. There's no reason we should not do the same thing. Again, using the revenue to help consumers bear the higher costs.
And also discouraging oil companies, who are already making more money than they've made ever, many of them record profits, from raising their prices further.
The other thing I want to emphasize is these oil companies are not using the profits to invest in green energy or more oil drilling. No. They're using their profits to buy back their shares of stock, to increase the value of their shares of stock.
This is purely financial. It is purely greed. It is capitalism, yes. But capitalism also requires that the government take some action sometimes when the public interest requires it.
ACOSTA: We should point out, last time we talked about this, I was thinking we should show this to our viewers.
When Trump was president, he made a big deal he was sending out the stimulus checks to folks at home with his name printed on them. There you see one there.
Even though Biden's economic team debated sending these rebate cards to millions of Americans to buy gas, CNN has learned that that option is unlikely because the administration sees some complicated logistics in getting rebate cards out there. But why not checks?
What do you make of some of the consternation inside the administration that, well, we can't make the logistics work, that sort of thing?
REICH: Well, I understand it. Been there, done that.
But I think the administration needs to respond to the real needs that Americans have. And show Americans that it is taking action.
There are a lot of ways of dealing with this. In other words, the revenue from a windfall profits tax could be used by the treasury and rebated to the states so the states and the treasury could temporarily take off gas tax, the federal and state gas tax.
I mean, there are a lot of ways you can use the revenue. The point is that the oil companies right now are simply -- they are price gouging.
ACOSTA: And, you know, one thing we should mention is that some Republican lawmakers claimed that last year's COVID-19 aid plan was to blame for the inflation that we're all dealing with right now.
What do you make of that?
REICH: Well, I don't think there's anything to that whatsoever.
The inflation we're dealing with right now is basically this huge pent-up demand coming from, hopefully, the end of the pandemic. Coupled with supply shocks as all suppliers worldwide are trying to catch up with demand.
And on top of that, Putin's war in Ukraine, which is pushing up energy prices and food prices.
But beyond all of that, we also have the reality that American corporations have been sitting on profits there at a 70-year high, Jim, 70-year high.
[15:35:07]
These big corporations, they are not facing much competition. They're using inflation as a cover for raising their prices further. And that is a factor that is -- well, is simply indefensible.
ACOSTA: And you know, we should note, while the oil companies are doing well, people are very worried about the financial markets right now, which have been almost in a nosedive for several days now. What are the warning signs that you're seeing? Could this be taking
the country towards a recession?
There's so many Americans out there who have invested in the financial markets, have their 401K invested, and are looking at these 401Ks day after day and starting to freak out a little bit.
REICH: Well, I understand. I think that the financial markets are responding really to the Fed raising interest rates in an attempt to fight inflation.
But as the Fed raises interest rates very quickly, at a rate that we haven't seen since the early 1980s, because this inflation is analogous to the early 1980s -- what happened in the early 1980s financial markets, remember, is the Fed plunged us into a huge recession.
It is very difficult to arrange what's called a soft landing. And the Fed, as it raises interest rates, could very easily plunge the economy into a recession.
ACOSTA: And the markets are reacting accordingly, it looks like.
REICH: Absolutely.
ACOSTA: All right. Secretary Reich, great to have you on. Let's have you on as much as we can. It's great to have you break it all down for us.
Thank you so much.
REICH: Thank you, Jim.
ACOSTA: We appreciate it.
Coming up, we are following breaking news right now. Police are responding to a call for shots fired at Tysons Corner Center in Virginia. We're told a fight broke out between a small group.
There are no reports of injuries. But video posted on social media shows panicked people running from the scene.
Again, that's at Tysons Corner Mall in northern Virginia. It's right outside Washington D.C., right outside the Beltway in northern Virginia, in Fairfax County.
We're going to stay on top of this story. We'll have more on it as it develops.
A quick break and we'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[15:41:52]
ACOSTA: Breaking news. We're following a shooting at a mall in Tysons, Virginia, that's Tysons's Corner Mall right outside of Washington D.C., right outside of the Beltway.
Fairfax County police tweeting in the last several minutes, "A fight broke out between a small group. One man described as a black male in a black hoodie with black jeans and white shoes, displaying a firearm and discharging the weapon. No reports of injuries right now.
That is just reading a tweet there from the Fairfax County Police Department. "Officers are now clearing the mall."
CNN's Marshall Cohen is following all of this for us.
Marshall, we're looking at video right now of what looks like shoppers at the mall taking what appears to be sort of an evacuation stairwell or stairwell that shoppers wouldn't typically use at the mall to get out of that area.
What can you tell us?
MARSHALL COHEN, CNN REPORTER: Jim, we have a nation on edge. None of this is happening in a vacuum. People follow the news. They know what's going on. They have seen the mass shootings in last several weeks. And the footage here, this is what happens.
Police were called to the Tysons's Corner Mall, about half an hour of Washington D.C., a popular upscale mall. They were called to reports of shots fired.
According to a tweet by the local police, they say there was a fight that broke out among a small group of people at the mall. We want to stress this point here, Jim, no reports of injuries at this time according to police.
But you can see what happened. The footage is scary. I'm sure everyone has thought what they would do if they heard something like that going off. And these people had to live through it today in Tysons's corner, northern Virginia.
That happened outside of D.C. No reports of injuries.
We'll continue staying on top of this, Jim. We'll let you know if we hear anything else.
ACOSTA: All right, thank you very much, Marshall.
Of course, it's important to note, underline, say this as many times as possible, the initial reports that come in sometimes have to be clarified by local authorities. And sometimes the information we bring you now about one of these situations, it may be different as the hours go on throughout the afternoon.
But I want to bring in CNN national security analyst, Juliette Kayyem, to talk about this.
Juliette, we're showing this video right now of what is, you know, essentially the scene at Tysons Virginia, at Tysons Corner Mall. These panicked shoppers, people just really worried and freaking out
over the possibility that there might be a mass shooter on the loose inside this popular mall in Washington.
This goes to show you this is what's happening across the country right now. People are completely terrified of the possibility that something like this can happen in their community.
JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: That's exactly right. I mean, you sort of think, oh, there's not 10 people dead, this is good news.
Well, there's a potential shooting incident at a major mall on a Saturday on a long weekend, that can hardly be called good news because there's a lot of terrified people evacuating that.
As Mashall said, this is not happening in a vacuum. We have the consistent mass shootings, one a day, sometimes more than one a day in the United States, as well as a gun legislation fight that's ongoing. And we don't know where that's going to be, right?
[15:45:08]
I do want to say there's a big debate in first responders world about whether active shooting protocols, testing we have our students do day in and day out, about whether they're worth it because they can be traumatic.
I look at pictures like that. I say, who needs training and exercises when we're having incidents like this happen, in which these kids -- a lot of them look like teenagers -- are learning how to protect themselves.
Remember, the rule is run, then hide, then fight. That, I tell my kids. There's only one of you, run. And that's what these kids are clearly doing.
ACOSTA: Run like hell?
KAYYEM: Run like hell. It's the simplest parenting advice one ever needs to give. You run because hiding sometimes gets you trapped. So that's exactly what we're seeing here.
And this is -- you know, we are so acclimated to this in the United States, we don't see how unique and exceptional in a bad way it is in other countries. Our kids at malls on a Saturday, and this is what happens.
If our standard is, as it often is, I'll admit it is with mine, right? When I'm getting the calls from you all, from CNN, how many are dead, are we really going to go on air with this, our standards now for what is sort of acceptable gun incidents, is so low now because this is good news. This is good news.
And we have to check ourselves. I have to check myself. And we all have to check ourselves. This is not normal. ACOSTA: No, it's not. How depressing is it this is what our teenagers
have to deal with now.
By the way, if you're a parent of a teenager at home, I'm one myself, teenagers around the world don't do this on a regular basis.
KAYYEM: No.
ACOSTA: Basically, only American teenagers do this.
KAYYEM: That's right, Jim. I have teenagers, too. I have teenage boys who, you know, I love them to death but sometimes their judgment isn't the best. I do have to talk to them seriously.
And these are not -- my -- you know, these are kids that tend not to get into trouble.
But if there's an incident like this that, you know, the most heroic move they can make is run. Your judgment has to be to run. And that's very hard.
And when you think of other issues like racial issues and others that many teenagers face, African-American boys and whatever else, it is not -- it is -- with police. It is not a -- it's a tense time.
And if anything, if there's any benefit to being on right now, besides the fact we had a shooting incident with no deaths, is to remind people that it's the shooting incident that is the bad news, right?
And the fact that there were no deaths is a pretty low floor. And we should remind ourselves of that in a culture that is seeing these mass shootings once a day.
ACOSTA: It's a reminder that the specter of mass gun violence hangs over every community in the United States of America. It's the way of life in this country right now. It's become an accepted way of life for many Americans.
And we should note, this is also occurring as gun legislation is, once again, predictably, stalling in the Senate.
Juliette Kayyem, thank you very much. We appreciate your time.
KAYYEM: Thank you.
[15:48:44]
ACOSTA: And coming up, how a skit for "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" ended with staffers getting arrested on Capitol Hill.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[15:53:32]
ACOSTA: A comedy sketch for "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" ended with U.S. Capitol Police arresting members of the production team. The crew had been filming a segment with Triumph, the Insult Comic
Dog, seen right there, when officers charged them with unlawful entry at a House office building.
CBS says the crew was allowed to be there and had set up interviews with members of Congress. But they stuck around the House building hallways to film some more.
Capitol Police says the seven people arrested could face additional charges.
Days after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, "CNN Hero," Aaron Jackson, traveled to Poland to help refugees coming across the border after finding dog friendly accommodations for those traveling with their pets.
He recently took over an animal shelter in the city of Poznan, and welcomed 17 dogs, along with two women who helped them survive the fighting.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AARON JACKSON, CNN HERO: When the dogs were already en route to us, they told us that two refugees had joined the convoy and asked if we could help them.
When Valerie and her mother first got to us, I could definitely tell they were a little nervous and scared.
I couldn't help but notice that all the dogs really loved the two refugee ladies that had accompanied them.
(BARKING)
JACKSON: Then I learned these dogs had been in a bomb shelter with Valerie and her mother for the last 40 days before coming to us. Forty days with hardly any access to food, hardly any access to water.
Valerie was so good with dogs we gave her and her mother a job, which we are excited about.
(BARKING)
[15:55:05]
JACKSON: The dogs helped her get through the worst 40 days of her life, and she helped get those dogs through the worst 40 days of their lives.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ACOSTA: Those are some beautiful dogs right there.
And to learn more about their journey with the dogs, go to CNNheroes.com. While you're there, you can nominate someone you think should be a "CNN Hero." We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:00:05]
ACOSTA: You are live in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Jim Acosta in Washington.
And this just in. A moment many parents have been waiting for since the pandemic began.
