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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson Resigns Amid Scandals, Cabinet Resignations; Report Shows Uvalde Officer Asked for Permission to Shoot Gunman Before He Entered the School But Did Not Hear Back in Time; New Report Shows Shooter Tried to Kill Himself with Machete in 2019. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired July 07, 2022 - 10:00   ET

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

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[10:00:00]

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, top of the hour here. I'm Erica Hill.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Jim Sciutto.

The major news we are following this hour, embattled British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has now resigned. The conservative party leader faced an avalanche of resignations of top cabinet ministers from his own party over the last 48 hours. This follows multiple scandals for his government though he did not directly mention those in his departure speech. Have a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BORIS JOHNSON, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: And I want you to know how sad I am to be giving up the best job in the world. But them's the breaks.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: Johnson giving no timetable for when he will leave office, saying only that it will be announced next week.

Let's bring in CNN's Nic Robertson who is live outside Downing Street. So, how will this work? What happens next? And how quickly could there be a move?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITR: The immediate sense of what is happening next is being played out right behind me right now, cabinet members walking in for a cabinet session with Boris Johnson. The attorney general walked up the street, she's just gone through the door. She's already put her hat in the ring to be one of the contenders to become next prime minister. She just smiled when a colleague asked her that question if next time prime minister.

It is though Boris' government, now a caretaker prime minister, but running the affairs of government. We've heard that from several senior ministers saying this is important to show unity, to stop the chaos but the actual transition from the prime minister still seems to be up in the air.

Precisely how that will play out, precisely when it will play out remains unclear. There have been calls from former Prime Minister Sir John Major, who is conservative prime minister back in the '90s, saying that it would be unwise for Boris Johnson to continue as caretaker prime minister right now because he is still in a position of having patronage over some of the positions, the cabinet positions that he is still handing out at the moment.

So, there is a move within the conservative party to transition more quickly away from Boris Johnson. He wants various ways of trying to achieve that are being suggested. But at the moment, it is being left and presented as Boris Johnson, caretaker, trying to carry on. But the way that he framed it when he was leaving office there, that this was a hard thing to do, and even hinted at his low esteem of some of his own party members. This is how he framed it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHNSON: The reason I have fought so hard in the last few days to continue to deliver that mandate in person was not just because I wanted to do so but because I felt it was my job, my duty, my obligation to you to continue to do what we promised in 2019.

As we have seen Westminster, the herd instinct, when the herd moves, it moves. And, my friends, in politics, no one is remotely indispensable.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTSON: Which the prime minister is finding out no one is remotely indispensible. But that reference to when the herd moves on, the herd moves, seems to be implying that when the cabinet members and other senior officials in his party began resigned, that was the momentum that pushed him from office. And the herd, therefore, is his own party. And that must be stinging for some of those members of his party right now.

SCIUTTO: remarkably steep, rise and fall for the British prime minister. Nic Robertson outside Number 10, thanks so much.

Well, now that Johnson is stepping aside as prime minister, a big question for the U.K. is what happens to its staunch support for Ukraine? It's often led the way among western countries.

CNN's Wolf Blitzer just sat down for an exclusive interview with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

[10:05:01]

Wolf joins me now.

And, Wolf, when Johnson barely survived a no confidence vote a number of weeks ago, Zelenskyy welcomed his survival there, noting how loyal a supporter he was for Ukraine. I wonder, given that Johnson is going now, what is Zelenskyy's reaction? WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Well, Zelenskyy -- President Zelenskyy was very, very firm in saying what a great friend of Ukraine Boris Johnson has been. And he's very confident that the U.K. will continue to support Ukraine right now, even after the resignation of Prime Minister Boris Johnson. He was very, very pleased by almost everything that Boris Johnson did. And he spoke very, very movingly about the soon to be ex-prime minister of the U.K. It was an important note the gratefulness that he showed for the U.K. and for Boris Johnson.

Let me play a little clip, a little excerpt from the interview. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT: He resigned not because he was in Ukraine. What Johnson was doing for Ukraine, he was a true friend of Ukraine. He totally supported Ukraine. And the U.K., it's on the right side of history. I'm sure the policy towards Ukraine of the U.K. will not be changing and our relationship obviously gained a lot from Boris Johnson's activities.

Yes, we don't know if something will affect our unity, but, first of all, we have got military support from the U.K. and that's been secured.

And I understand that for some time, he will still be working, still be performing his duty, so it's not going to stop.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Very important statement from the Ukrainian leader as far as the British prime minister is concerned.

He also made it clear that Ukraine, Jim, and this, I thought, was important, still would love to be a member of NATO. He's pleased that Finland and Sweden are about to join NATO, but he thinks that Ukraine should be a member of NATO as well. And he was very, very appreciative to President Biden and the United States for all the military support, the financial support, the political support that the U.S. has been providing Ukraine. So, he was very firm on that point as well.

And he did make a note in response to my question that he would be grateful if President Biden were to make a trip to Ukraine. He thinks that would be a really, really symbolically important move to show the world that the United States is with Ukraine. He understands there are some problems, certainly some security risks and all of that. But he thinks if President Biden were to go to Kyiv, that would be really, really important.

SCIUTTO: Yes, it is notable because Biden, to some degree, an outlier here. So many heads of state have. And Johnson, I believe, twice went there to show his support.

Wolf Blitzer, great that you were able to speak with him. Thanks so much for joining us to walk us through some of it. All of you will be able to see Wolf's full interview with the Ukrainian president tonight at 5:00 P.M. Eastern tonight on The Situation Room, a CNN exclusive.

HILL: Joining us now to discuss, Ian Bremmer, the president of Eurasia Group and GZERO Media. Ian, good to have you with us this morning.

As we look at this resignation of Boris Johnson, now he's the caretaker prime minister, as Nic just pointed out, he did tout those efforts in Ukraine in his speech this morning. What he did not really do was acknowledge all of the scandals.

You tweeted a short time ago with a picture of Boris Johnson, can only think of one person upset that Boris is done, seeming to imply that would be Boris Johnson himself. What does happen next, right? If the U.K. is at this point, what does that mean for the coming weeks as this is being worked out?

IAN BREMMER, PRESIDENT, EURASIA GROUP AND GZERO MEDIA: Well, Boris Johnson leaves United Kingdom diminished on the European stage, on the transatlantic stage and on the global stage. Of course, post-Brexit, but also post all of these scandals, they have an inflation rate today that's even higher than that of the United States. And the U.K., including his own party, had jettisoned him.

And it is true that when the herd moves, it moves. But that wasn't just his own cabinet and his own backbenchers, it was also the voters who did give him a significant victory, his party a significant victory. But his popularity was in the toilet over the past months because of scandal after scandal after scandal that he was caught up in that he lied after lied after lied. And finally no more was willing to be tolerated.

So, I mean, I do think, whether it is the prospective of Washington, where it's the perspective of Xi Jinping, whether it's the perspective of Vladimir Putin, you look at the U.K. today and you are not even sure that that country is going to exist in its current form in another decade, the tensions internally with Scotland, with Northern Ireland.

This is Boris Johnson's legacy. He's an outsized political figure. He's incredibly intelligent. He's very witty. He's fun individually. I have known him for a long time. I enjoyed talking with him. But his rule over his country has been shambolic and most of his citizens and most of his party are very, very happy to finally show him the door.

SCIUTTO: Many made the comparison between Johnson and Trump. And there are things to that comparison, two elites who attack the elites, but also attracted voters, working class voters, it's conservative party in U.K., the Republican Party here in the U.S., that didn't typically vote that way.

But one major difference were I think the words you heard from number 10 today from Johnson himself to say, nobody in politics is indispensable as he steps down, something of course Trump didn't say and hasn't said.

BREMMER: And would never say. And, fundamentally, I mean, you know, the fact is that Boris Johnson did ultimately resign when he recognized that he had lost the support of his own party. Donald Trump never would have done that. He would have kept going. And even after resignation he would have said that he still was the legitimate prime minister, right?

So, I mean, the reality is that Boris Johnson does himself as Churchillian, he's a man of letters, he's someone that takes enormous pride in his education, in his intellectual erudition and capacity. Again, Donald Trump wants to be seen as a man of the people. And, remember, we love the uneducated. We love the undereducated. Boris Johnson wasn't saying that. And he will be remembered differently as a human being, certainly, than Donald Trump. It has been.

SCIUTTO: Certainly for the exit. Ian Bremmer, thanks so much.

BREMMER: Sure.

HILL: This just in to CNN. CNN has learned detained WNBA Star Brittney Griner has pleaded guilty to drug charges in Russia.

CNN's Kylie Atwood following these developments for us from the state deputy. Kylie, what more do we know?

KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Well, we're just learning that Brittney Griner pled guilty to drug charges. This is her second hearing as part of this trial that she is facing in Russia.

We don't know what she has been sentenced to yet but we do know that she could face up to ten years in prison. We will wait to see in the next trial, which will be on July 14th, if she will receive her sentencing at that point.

But just the fact that she pled guilty here doesn't necessarily mean that she is guilty. We know that the Russian system obviously alleges things that aren't necessarily true. But it is significant that she pled guilty today.

We will wait to hear more from her family, potentially, today. She did not make any remarks when she was leaving that Russian courtroom today. But it is significant that the last prisoner swap that occurred, Trevor Reed, earlier this year, he was an American who was also wrongfully detained in Russia.

And I was told by a senior U.S. official that just days before he was actually -- partook in that prisoner swap, he was forced to plead guilty. That is something that he had avoided doing. He signed a document that said he was guilty of the charges even though he had been resisting that for years of being wrongfully detained.

So, this could very well pave the way towards a potential release, towards a potential prisoner swap, which, of course, we have been discussing at great length. But we really don't know the direction that this is headed today but it is significant that Brittney Griner has pled guilty in court.

SCIUTTO: Well, we should acknowledge that this is a judicial system in Russia that is under the control of the Kremlin and there are a whole host of political implications diplomatic here deciding her fate going forward.

Kylie Atwood at the State Department, thanks so much.

Coming up next, new details about the Uvalde school shooter and an officer who had but missed an opportunity to take out the killer before he went into the school. Why? What happened?

Plus, the warning signs about the gunman who attacked the July 4th parade in Highland Park, Illinois, yes, another shooting. Newly released police reports show more than 20 police calls to his home.

HILL: And later, Trump's former White House counsel, Pat Cipollone, set to give testimony to the January 6th committee tomorrow. Details on what that panel is hoping to learn.

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[10:15:00]

SCIUTTO: A new report examining the police response once again to the Uvalde school shooting lays out a series -- not just one but a series of missteps that could have prevented the tragedy. Officials say an officer had a clear shot to take out the gunman and prevent him for entering the school before he killed all those people but did not take that shot because he was waiting for permission, which legally he didn't need from a supervisor.

HILL: The report also points to two unlocked doors, ineffective command and the fact that officers waited an hour to confront the shooter. Those failures bring no comfort to a teacher who survived while 11 of the children in his classroom did not.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ARNULFO REYES, SURVIVED UVALDE SCHOOL SHOOTING: I am just thinking and waiting for somebody to come in and save us. You always think, you know, something bad happens, that the cops get there so fast, they rush in and they help you, you know. And I was just waiting for that. I was waiting for anybody, anybody to come save us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: Anybody. CNN's Rosa Flores joining us now, live from Houston. Rosa, what more did this report find?

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, Erica and Jim, the details of this report are numbing because we know the carnage.

[10:20:00]

According to this report, there were at least two instances in which law enforcement could have stopped the shooter before the shooter even entered the school. The first one was very early on after the gunman crashed near the school. There was a police officer. That police officer was armed.

I'm going to quote from the report. Here is what it says. Quote, the officer, armed with a rifle asked his supervisor for permission to shoot the suspect. However, the supervisor either did not hear or responded too late. The officer turned to get confirmation from his supervisor. And when he turned back to address the suspect, he had entered the west hallway unabated.

Now, here's the second instance. There was another police officer, this time a school police officer, in the parking lot, in his vehicle. But according to this report, this officer was driving too fast. The authors of this report saying that if this driver would have been driving slower or would have stopped, he would have seen the shooter before the shooter got inside the school and could have stopped that threat.

The next failure, according to this report, happened once police officers actually entered the school. This report says that once officers entered the school and the gunman started firing, they, quote, lost momentum because they didn't return fire with exact fire. They had that opportunity. Instead, they retreated.

And then there is the portion about the incident command. And we have heard a lot from Texas DPS pointing the finger at the school police chief, Pete Arradondo, calling him the incident commander, something that he has denied.

Well, according to this report, that was part of the problem, the lack of incident command. I am going to quote from the report. It says, quote, it does not appear that effective incident command was established during this event. The lack of effective command likely impaired both the stop, the killing and the stop the dying parts of this response.

Now, we, of course, know that 21 people died, including 19 children and 2 teachers. And, Erica and Jim, I can't help but think of that phrase that we hear so much, all it takes is a good guy with a gun to stop the bad guy with a gun. Well, in this case, there was a lot of good guys with guns, they just didn't use them.

SCIUTTO: Yes, a lot of good guys with guns in Highland Park as well.

HILL: Yes. Rosa Flores, I appreciate it, thank you.

Still to come, you're speaking of Highland Park, the mayor of Madison, Wisconsin will join me live next after learning the July 4th parade shooter considered a second attack, an event in her city.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR SATYA RHODES-CONWAY (D-MADISON, WI): On his way here, he drove past hundreds of communities celebrating the Fourth of July. All of us are at risk when weapons of war are on our streets. (END VIDEO CLIP)

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[10:25:00]

SCIUTTO: New this morning, the 21-year-old Highland Park shooter, currently in custody without bond after investigators say that he admitted to carrying out the deadly attack. We are getting new details from police records that reveal that Crimo attempted to kill himself using a machete just a week before authorities visited his home for a wellness check, this back in 2019. The documents also outline more than 20 police calls to his home related to domestic disputes between his mother and father, lots of past warning signs here.

Here to discuss, CNN Law Enforcement Analyst and former D.C. Metropolitan Police Officer Mike Fanone.

I mean, it strikes me that after so many of these shootings, you will have had missed warning signs. Threats, in this case, suicide attempt, clearly a troubled home here. But, I wonder, it strikes me that what folks are being asked to do, right, is that the burden is on everyone, family, et cetera, to report this to the police in advance. Here's a case where they did but that wasn't enough.

MIKE FANONE, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Yes. I mean, as far as I have seen law enforcement, at least at face value at this point, they did their job. And they respond to these calls, they documented them. But the reality is, at least from what I know, the firearms that were used in this horrific event were acquired after police intervention in those instances. And so, you know, they are limited in what they can and cannot do. And, obviously, they can't remove firearms from a household when there are no firearms present.

I -- you know, I was watching Andy McCabe's comments yesterday or the day before and talking about the onus falling on the parents in this situation. And as a parent myself, I could not imagine supplying a weapon like this to a -- you know, a child, my child, who had exhibited this type of behavior. It's unimaginable to me.

SCIUTTO: So, let's look at the weapons. Here's an image of a gun that was located in Crimo car when he was taken into custody. It's what's known as a Kel-Tec rifle, foldable carbine, available as a 0.9 millimeter, for 0.40 caliber. He had 60 rounds of ammunition in his car at the time.

And I want to play the sound once again. I know it is shocking to hear. I really do. But the -- well, the sound of the weapon that he used during the murders that day at Highland Park. Have a listen.

[10:30:00]