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Uvalde Shooting Report Released; Did IRS Target Trump Critics?; Father of Highland Park Suspect Speaks Out; Brittney Griner Pleads Guilty; British Prime Minister Boris Johnson Resigns. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired July 07, 2022 - 13:00   ET

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

[13:00:00]

JOHN KING, CNN HOST: Including the war hero and former Republican Senator, presidential candidate John McCain and the Apple co-founder Steve Jobs.

Plus, this quick programming note: Join CNN as we explore the diverse land, marine wildlife of Patagonia's Desert Coast. "Patagonia: Life on the Edge of the World" premieres this Sunday night 9:00 Eastern right here on CNN.

Thanks for your time today on INSIDE POLITICS. Hope to see you back here this time tomorrow.

Don't go anywhere, very, very busy news day.

Ana Cabrera picks up our coverage right now.

ANA CABRERA, CNN HOST: Hello, and thank you for being with us. I'm Ana Cabrera in New York.

He's out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BORIS JOHNSON, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: I know that there will be many people who are relieved, and perhaps quite a few will also be disappointed. 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)

CABRERA: U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson resigns, as top members of his government revolt, a growing list of scandals just too much for even members of his own party.

Johnson says he is staying on, on the job, until his party picks his successor, but some just want him out now. So the big question is, what is next for one of the United States' strongest allies?

We began with CNN's Bianca Nobilo in London and Michael O'Hanlon, senior fellow in foreign policy at the Brookings Institution. Thank you both for being here. Bianca, Johnson just survived a no-confidence vote. That was just last

month. And that was after coming under fire for Partygate and his handling of the economy. So what changed? What was the final straw?

BIANCA NOBILO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the confidence vote is always key, because few prime ministers manage to stagger on for many months after there is a confidence vote in them, because even if they manage to survive, it bleeds them of all their power and authority.

And they tend to be a prime minister in name, but not really in practice. In terms of what the final straw was, it all bubbled out because Chris Pincher, the deputy chief whip of the Conservative Party, so essentially one of the men that's in charge of party discipline and the welfare of M.P.s, being aware of any scandals that might be affecting their personal lives too, and controlling the way they vote, it transpired that he had many allegations against him involving sexual misconduct.

The prime minister denied ever knowing of those allegations. It then came out that he was aware. There was an official complaint against that member of Parliament, that it was upheld. The prime minister said that he didn't recollect those events, as is often his excuse.

And that really resembled the narrative we heard about the prime minister when he explained Partygate, when he said that, at first, he didn't remember correctly. And then his story changed yet again. So the broader issue that was at stake was the prime minister's integrity and trustworthiness, which has long been called into question.

And the more immediate issue was the fact that he was sending out his ministers, his Cabinet to defend him in public to journalists, to his fellow parliamentarians, giving them a story that wasn't true, which transpired the next day to be full of holes.

And that was humiliating, and they felt like they simply couldn't keep being brought out like lambs to slaughter. And that made them snap.

CABRERA: And, Michael, Boris Johnson has said he plans to stay in office until a successor is chosen, which looks like would be the fall in terms of timing.

But here's the thing. One of the reasons he was sort of forced to resign was people started abandoning ship. In fact, there were 59 people who resigned in the last 48 hours or so from his government .Can this government even function with so many people gone?

MICHAEL O'HANLON, BROOKINGS INSTITUTION: You know, it's a great question.

Yes, at least get by on the major crises of the day. We just had a NATO summit. And, of course, Britain's now out of the E.U., but we had an important meeting or a series of meetings showing solidarity in dealing with the Russia Ukraine problem, continuing to make progress against COVID.

I'm not trying to say everything is going swimmingly or those problems are solved. But I did notice that the Brits seem to be part of the constructive dialogue. And I think, those issues being so important on the world stage today, Britain will do, the U.K. will do what it tends to do in tough times.

And that's sort of get by on at least the biggest, most crucial immediate challenges the world faces now. So I'm not that worried about Britain's role in broader American or European security, even though, as you say, its government is a mess.

CABRERA: So, again, the U.S., the U.K. very close allies. The president coming out today, the president of the United States, that is, just moments ago, saying that they're the closest of friends and allies, looking forward to continue a very close working relationship.

But how does this resignation potentially affect everything from national security to intelligence sharing? You're not worried about it, but how can it stay so cohesive?

O'HANLON: Well, it's always good to be a little worried. So I don't want a project complete insouciance.

[13:05:00]

But I do think that Boris Johnson was always an unusual prime minister. It's not my role to have a strong opinion on him, but I don't have any reason to think that the next prime minister will be tougher for us to deal with or less focused on important transatlantic issues.

So I don't really see it as a crisis in the alliance. As you point out, we do have to get through these next few weeks and months, but there's a good chance that Britain, the U.K., will turn out stronger and the alliance stronger under someone new.

CABRERA: Bianca, in terms of choosing Johnson's successor, what happens next? How does this work?

NOBILO: OK, so this isn't something that the country has any say over.

It's purely a Conservative Party and Conservative Party members matter. So what will happen is, Boris Johnson's M.P.s will put themselves forward if they desire a go at that role of prime minister, and then the names of candidates will get whittled down to two by the parliamentary party.

Then those two candidates will be presented to the around 200,000- strong Conservative Party membership in the country. And in terms of the front-runners at the moment, there was a poll taken of that membership in the last few days. And the defense secretary, Ben Wallace, who's been lauded for his handling of the Ukraine crisis, considered to be a very serious figure, was also applauded for his handling of the fall of Kabul and the disarray of Afghanistan last year, unlike the Boris -- Boris Johnson and the foreign secretary, who were heavily criticized for that. He is the front-runner at the moment in terms of the membership. And, again, that would mean more stability in the relationship between the U.K. and the U.S., because this is somebody who prioritizes defense and national security relationships.

Another front-runner is the former defense secretary, the first female defense secretary in the United Kingdom, Penny Mordaunt. She's got a colorful past. She was actually on a reality TV show in this country called "Splash!" which involved diving competitions.

Then there's the former Chancellor Rishi Sunak, many others, Sajid Javid, the former health secretary with a strong compelling backstory of being the son of a Muslim immigrant Pakistani bus driver, which is appealing to different types of voters.

So it is a very wide field. And it's very much begun now as well, because the deputy prime minister, Dominic Raab, has just announced that, contrary to a lot of expectations, he will not be standing for prime minister. So that gives you the sense race has really begun. People are clarifying their positions now.

CABRERA: OK, Bianca Nobilo and Michael O'Hanlon, thank you both.

A major development out of Moscow. Just a short time ago, detained WNBA star Brittney Griner pleaded guilty to drug smuggling charges, punishable by up to 10 years in a Russian prison.

Want to bring in CNN's Kylie Atwood now.

And, Kylie, this is a surprise. Why would she plead guilty?

KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, well, there's a few factors to consider here, Ana.

I think the first of which is that, in the Russian judicial system, there is a 99 percent conviction rate, which essentially means it was highly unlikely that Brittney Griner, even if she was guilty, was going to get off with any sort of guilty verdict here. So that is something to consider.

Another factor here, according to a senior U.S. official, is that the U.S. expected that she would have to admit guilt and be convicted before any potential prisoner swap could happen. Now, we don't know if a prisoner swap is going to be what would secure her release, but that is something that has been discussed.

And so that is why today is significant as well. We should also note that Brittney Griner, according to a source familiar with her, told Abby Phillip that this was her decision alone. But this situation of admitting guilt was something that she discussed at length with those in her family, with lawyers, with experts, all of those who have been in touch with her as she has been detained in Russia since the middle of February.

Now, after this guilty verdict today, her lawyer came out and said that they hope for some leniency from the Russian court, because, essentially, she confessed guilt, but she also said this was unintentional. She had no intention of carrying any drugs into Russia or of not abiding by any Russian laws.

And she explained that this was the result of packing up her bags in a hurry -- Ana.

CABRERA: Kylie Atwood, thank you for that reporting.

Today, back here at home, we are now hearing new details from the father of the Highland Park shooting suspect. He's the one who initially helped his son get a gun license back in 2019. The alleged shooter's father tells "The New York Post" that he thought his son would use the guns he had at a shooting range. And he says he spoke to his son about a different mass shooting the day before the parade attack.

CNN Adrienne Broaddus is live now in Highland Park.

And, Adrienne, this father also spoke with ABC News. What more are we learning?

ADRIENNE BROADDUS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Ana, the father essentially telling ABC News he doesn't think he should be legally responsible for his son's actions.

As you mentioned, he also told "The New York Post" he thought his gun -- his son was going to use the guns he purchased at the shooting range. And he said to "The Post" that's why he sponsored that firearms owner I.D. card nearly three years ago.

[13:10:05]

Listen into more of his conversation with ABC.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

ROBERT CRIMO JR., FATHER OF ROBERT CRIMO III: I love my son, but it's devastating to everyone involved.

I filled the consent form to allow my son to go through the process. They do background checks, whatever it entails. This has taken us by complete surprise. Three days before the 4th, my wife had asked him: "Hey, do you have any plans for the 4th?"

And he simply said no.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROADDUS: Robert E. Crimo III, Jr.'s son, is charged with seven counts of first-degree murder.

And there could be more charges. His father also telling "The New York Post" he is furious. Listen in to what he said here. I want to read some of that to you.

He says: "I want a long sentence. That's life. You know you have consequences for actions. He made a choice. He didn't have to do that. I think there's mental illness there, obviously." And he ends by saying: "I didn't see a lot of it."

Meanwhile, you may remember we have been reporting over the last few days, back in 2019, a family member called police saying Robert E. Crimo Jr. (sic) threatened to kill his entire family -- Ana.

CABRERA: Adrienne Broaddus, so disturbing. Thank you.

It turns out James Comey and Andrew McCabe have a lot in common. Both former FBI directors, both Trump critics, and both audited by the IRS. Audits are rare. So that's raising some serious questions about political payback. It's why McCabe is calling for a probe. We have this just in. He's getting one. He joins us next.

And a gas station owner takes a $12,000 hit to give some very lucky customers a big discount at the pump. But Ravi Patel says he has no regrets. We will talk to him just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:16:20]

CABRERA: Just in to CNN, the head of the IRS has referred the decision to audit former FBI Director James Comey and Deputy Director Andrew McCabe to the inspector general for an investigation.

This comes after "The New York Times" reported Comey and McCabe, both fierce Trump critics, were subjected to intense IRS audits. Now, to give you some perspective, "The Times" reports the odds of anyone getting selected for this level of audit are about one in 30,000.

CNN's Kara Scannell is following this for us.

Kara, you got this news about this potential investigation that's going to go forward. What more are you learning?

KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, we just learned from the IRS that the IRS commissioner personally made this referral to the inspector general yesterday after they received this first inquiry from "The New York Times."

And, of course, this raises a lot of questions. How were two critics of former President Donald Trump selected for this intensive audit program that is more intense than a normal audit that a regular person would undergo?

CABRERA: And they're not just any critics. I mean, they both were part of the FBI.

SCANNELL: The head of the FBI and the deputy director.

And those two jobs at that time -- remember, Jim Comey got fired by Trump because he was handling, overseeing the investigation into Russia's interference in the election. And McCabe was also looking into whether Trump obstructed justice by firing Comey.

Now, these audits -- one of these audits actually began under the Biden administration. McCabe has said that he received a notification in 2021. But the big question here is, the IRS commissioner is a holdover, Charles Rettig. He was appointed by Trump. He is still in charge of that agency.

Now, the IRS has been pretty adamant about this. They said it's ludicrous and untrue to suggest that senior IRS officials somehow targeted specific individuals for this audit known as the National Research Program.

But this is a lot of questions to come here. We will see if the inspector general takes this up and if they publish any of these findings publicly. And, also, these investigations can take quite a while, so we might not have an answer on this in the near term.

CABRERA: All right. Thank you. Keep us posted, Kara.

And joining us now is former Deputy Director of the FBI and CNN senior law enforcement analyst Andrew McCabe. He's also the author of "The Threat: How the FBI Protects America in the Age of Terror and Trump."

Andy, you asked for an investigation. It looks like now you're going to get it.

ANDREW MCCABE, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Yes, well, I guess so.

Ana, that's the responsible thing for the IRS to do under these circumstances. I'm glad that the head of the agency made the referral. And it looks like the I.G. is going to take it up. The question is, will they do it quickly and thoroughly? And, more importantly, will they make those results public?

I think the answer should be yes to all those things. But we will see. I was discouraged to hear their comments about it last night, that -- to declare it ludicrous without even looking into it is a pretty pathetic act of prejudging the entire issue.

So it's good to see that it's actually going to get investigated.

CABRERA: As a former federal investigator, I have to ask, what's your level of suspicion that something happened here that wasn't by the book?

MCCABE: You know, when I received the notice back in October of 2021, I accepted it at its face. I took the IRS for their word. It says in the notice that it's an entirely random process, that people are selected, there's nothing that trips this sort of audit.

But, honestly, Ana, as an investigator, I don't like to make -- draw conclusions about things I don't know. I like to focus on the things that we do know. And we do know that, in this situation, it's almost mathematically impossible. The odds are so far that James Comey and I would both be so elected for the same random audit. [13:20:02]

And then you layer on top of that what we know about each of our histories with Donald Trump, being targeted by Donald Trump and his administration and being publicly castigated and attacked by him for years now. It's still going on to some degree. I think when you put all that together, it's very reasonable to be concerned that there's something untoward happening here.

CABRERA: And just to be clear for our viewers, say, you got notified about this audit in 2021, after Joe Biden was already president, but it had to do with audits or years during the Trump administration.

Can you describe what this whole audit experience was like for you?

MCCABE: Yes, it's -- I mean, I think everybody can relate to the fact that it's kind of terrifying to be notified by the IRS that they're going to start poring through every aspect of your financial life for an entire year. That's essentially what this sort of audit is.

It is ostensibly a randomly selected program. And it's for the purpose of just doing compliance research for the IRS to figure out how closely people are following the IRS requirements. But, as I said, I took them at their word and contacted the agent.

The agent that I dealt with on my audit was absolutely professional and responsive and handled herself and the whole thing, I thought, very well. So I don't have any concerns about that. It's simply about, how was I selected for this? It really doesn't seem random when you look at the whole situation.

CABRERA: Have you spoken to former FBI Director James Comey about all this since you learned he was audited as well?

MCCABE: I haven't talked to Jim. I only learned that he was subjected to the same audit when I was contacted by the reporter who wrote this story.

I had no idea until the reporter from "The Times" reached out to me. So it's -- it was a bit of a shock, I have to tell you, and discouraging really. I mean, it's -- for me, this is the latest in what's been a long saga of being targeted by the former administration.

I mean, I was subjected to a really biased I.G. investigation that resulted in my wrongful termination, which the Justice Department implicitly admitted when they reinstated me last year, a week before this audit was called for, I will point out. I was investigated for two years under a criminal investigation, a completely baseless criminal investigation that ultimately went nowhere and was declined.

We're still dealing with the fallout from Mr. Durham and whatever it is he's doing. So it just really feels like this stuff is never going to end. But we will march on either way.

CABRERA: Do you feel piled on? MCCABE: Yes, for sure I do. For sure I do. And it's exhausting.

But all I can do is continue to stand up for myself and tell people transparently and truthfully what happened and what's going on now and hope that people draw reasonable conclusions for themselves.

CABRERA: Andrew McCabe, really appreciate you taking the time. Thank you for sharing with us.

MCCABE: Thanks, Ana.

CABRERA: Missed opportunities. A stunning report on the police response to the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, has a lot of people asking the maddening question: What if?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:28:18]

CABRERA: After initially refusing to testify, we have just learned the Uvalde sheriff has now agreed to appear at Monday's Texas House investigative committee meeting on the Robb Elementary School shooting that left 21 people dead.

Now, this comes on the heels of a damning new report that lays out three missed opportunities to stop the Uvalde gunman from entering the school and killing 19 students and two teachers.

We have known about a couple of these opportunities, that the exterior door was left unlocked. We learned that the school resource officer apparently didn't see the gunman as he drove right past him in the parking lot.

But this report now reveals there was a Uvalde police officer outside the school who actually saw the shooter heading towards the building. However, the officer armed with a rifle asked his supervisor for permission to fire. And while he waited for a response, the gunman made his way inside.

This report also criticizes law enforcement's actions during the more than one hour it took to take down the shooter, citing lack of effective command, failure to accurately return fire, and the fact that officers retreated from the classrooms where the gunman was holed up with his victims.

CNN's Shimon Prokupecz spoke to one of those victims, somebody who was shot, was in the classroom with those students who died. This is teacher Arnie Reyes. And he talked about the agonizing wait for help.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ARNULFO REYES, ROBB ELEMENTARY SCHOOL TEACHER: He did a lot of things to make me flinch or react in some way.

And that was one of them, where he -- he, like, got my -- like, as I'm laying down, like, either like this or like this, tapping it, but it was splashing on my face.

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: The blood?

REYES: Yes.

PROKUPECZ: Was he trying to see if you were still alive?

[13:30:00]