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Wisconsin Voters Divided on Importance of January 6th Hearings; Explosions Rock Russian-Held Town in Southern Kherson Region; Iran Preparing to Send Russia Weapons-Capable Drones; Uvalde Moms: Our Children are Not the Same Anymore. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired July 12, 2022 - 04:30   ET

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

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MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): ... Mark Becker was chair of Green Bay's Brown County Republicans. He left the party in 2015 as Trump rose to power.

MARQUEZ: How important are the January 6th hearings and the investigations that's happening?

MARK BECKER, FORMER BROWN COUNTY, WISCONSIN REPUBLICAN OFFICIAL: I think right now in the way the world is right now, it is not as important as it should be. I think in ten years, we will look back at this and say, yes, it was a big deal. That was a really big deal.

MARQUEZ: Why? What do you mean?

BECKER: It was a coup attempt.

MARQUEZ (voice-over): And even some progressive Democrats, Adrianna Pokela says she can do something here and now about abortion rights. But January 6th?

ADRIANNA POKELA, ABORTION RIGHTS ACTIVIST: We can't do anything about that. But what we can do is something in our community immediately to save lives.

MARQUEZ (voice-over): Rick Beverstein seems a rarity here, a conservative and paying a close attention to the January 6th hearing.

RICK BEVERSTEIN, WISCONSIN, VOTER: Democracy is what is at stake.

MARQUEZ (voice-over): His take, all our current problems won't be solved if trust and democracy isn't restored.

BEVERSTEIN: We have huge issues in our country. But we don't have a country if we can't come together. We don't have a country to solve these issues if we can't reconcile who's in charge and how they got there.

MARQUEZ: Miguel Marquez, CNN, Green Bay, Wisconsin. (END VIDEOTAPE)

MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: All Right, Ukraine says it is amassing a million strong fighting force to retake Russian occupied territory in the south. It comes as Ukrainian troops have been setting counter attacks in the Kherson region. Video from social media shows a series of explosions rocking a Russian held town on Monday night there. A Russian backed official say at least seven people are now missing and dozens more are wounded. A Ukrainian officials says the strikes were aimed at an ammunition depot.

Ukraine is also urging civilians to evacuate occupied parts of Kherson, warning that the humanitarian situation is deteriorating and accusing Russia of escalating terror against civilians.

But the heaviest fighting is still in eastern Ukraine. Russian forces there are ramping up attacks in Donetsk as they look to capture the entire Donbas region. Meanwhile, it appears Russia may be turning to other countries for help replenishing its stockpiles. The White House says U.S. intelligence indicates that Iran will soon supply Russia with weapons capable drones. CNN is covering the story from every angle. Clare Sebastian here in London monitoring those developments from Russia. But first let's go to CNN's Scott McLean who's live in Kyiv for us. And the battle for the Donetsk continues.

SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Max. One quick update on the situation in Chasiv Yar in the Donetsk region. Officials there say that now 34 people are confirmed dead after that missile strike or series of missile strikes on an apartment building -- and a five-story apartment building there leaving people trapped under the rubble. Miraculously nine people have been pulled out alive. Of those who are confirmed dead, they also include a 9-year-old boy. They say about three quarters of the rubble has now been removed.

I want to tell you more though about the situation in the southern part of Ukraine, those strikes that you mentioned, Max, were on a town called Mykolaiv, that's about 60 kilometers or so east of Kherson. The Ukrainians, as you mentioned, say a cache of ammunition and other weapons was hit. Initially Russian state media said this wasn't ammunition, this was actually part of the hydroelectric power station. They were contradicted though soon after by a local official who said that this was a cache of chemicals for fertilizer, potassium nitrate. That's an element of fertilizer. It's also what caused the Beirut explosion two years ago.

The Russians say that whatever this was, the damage is absolutely enormous. They say that the damage is in a two kilometer radius from the actual blast site and they insist that these are not military targets. They say the warehouses, stores, pharmacies, they were all amongst the areas that were hit. As you mentioned, seven people missing, more than 70 they say were injured in that blast.

This is actually the second time that that particular town has been hit in the last four dairies. There were similar disputes between the Ukrainians and the Russians over what exactly was hit. But this is all part of a growing trend in the southern part of the

country as Ukrainians really ramp up their efforts to take back territory there. They are trying to target Russian supply lines, hamper their efforts to get weapons to the frontlines. They are also making progress in actually taking back land. One village that they say that they seized is only 30 kilometers from Kherson.

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And Kherson remember, Max, is a city that has long been under Russian occupation, it's also entrenched in the Russian system. Since May people there were actually eligible to get Russian citizenship and you can use the Russian ruble as legal tender as well.

FOSTER: OK, Scott McLean thank you. Clare, on this report that the Iranians are going to supply hundreds of drones which could be used to carry weapons as well.

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT Yes, so this is interesting. This came from Jake Sullivan, the U.S. national security advisor. He says that the U.S. has intelligence. The White House later confirmed this as recently declassified intelligence that shows that Iran is preparing to provide hundreds of potentially weapons capable drones to Russia to sort of resupply their forces during this conflict. Now this if true is not just a business deal, this is about really military cooperation. Take a listen to Jake Sullivan.

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JAKE SULLIVAN, U.S. NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR: The information further indicates that Iran is preparing to train Russian forces to use these UAVs with initial training sessions slated to begin as soon as early July. It's unclear whether Iran has delivered any of these UAVs to Russia already.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SEBASTIAN: So, we don't know if they have them yet. We also don't know -- according to Jake Sullivan -- how sophisticated they might be so we didn't exactly know how bad the news on this is for Ukraine. But what this does show -- and the U.S. was at pains to point this out -- is that as the conflict grinds on -- as Scott was just describing -- in the Donbas, significant losses are being incurred on both sides.

It would suggest that Russia can no longer restock its forces only from its domestic production. We know that there have been impact from sanctions on that. And it's interesting that the U.S. is declassifying this intelligence in publicizing it now. It seems strategic to sort of use this information to counter the Russian narrative on its sort of gradual gains in eastern Ukraine and reinforce the reputational hit that the Russian Armed Forces took as we know at the very beginning of this conflict.

FOSTER: OK, Clare, thank you.

Still to come, preventing the next school shooting. U.S. President Joe Biden touts a new gun law he says could help prevent massacres like the one in Texas. But some say it is not enough.

Plus, the mothers of students who survived the Texas school shooting explain how the tragedy has affected their children. We hear from one of the students who witnessed it all.

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JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There's proof that despite the naysayers, we can make meaningful progress on dealing with gun violence.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You have to do more than that! You have to open it up between the White House, name a director, a name that you promised.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: U.S. President Joe Biden interrupted there whilst touting a new law meant to reduce gun violence. He was heckled by a man whose son was killed in the Parkland, Florida School shooting. Manuel Oliver told President Biden that the law which increases background checks doesn't go far enough.

Meanwhile families of the victims of the Texas school shooting want answers over what they call a botched police response to the massacre. CNN's Shimon Prokupecz spoke with mothers of several of the children who survived and one of the students. A warning what they have to say is graphic and difficult to hear.

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KASSANDRA CHAVEZ, MOTHER OF AJ MARTINEZ: He said he just saw that the shooter come to the door and tell his teacher goodnight and shot her. And then he then he just announced, are y'all ready to die and just went crazy.

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CRIME & JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For Kassandra Chavez, Azeneth Rodriguez and Jessica Orona, mothers of children who survived the Robb Elementary shooting, life will never be the same.

CHAVEZ: I know what they endured those whole 77 minutes. They shouldn't have.

PROKUPECZ (voice-over): Teeth scattered on the floor, pools of blood so thick to a child that looked like red Jell-O. These moms see the pain of that day live on through the eyes of their sons.

JESSICA ORONA, MOTHER OF NOAH ORONA: One of the little girls that he was laying by you know, all he could hear was her gurgling because she was trying to breathe, but she couldn't because you know, she was shot and you could just hear her, you know, choking pretty much.

PROKUPECZ: He told you that?

ORONA: Ah hmmm.

PROKUPECZ: And there's nothing.

ORONA: And nothing that they could do.

PROKUPECZ (voice-over): Witnesses to one of the country's worst school shootings and victims of a failed police response. For these mothers guilt, regret, frustration now the realization that healing will be a long and difficult process.

ORONA: He could be fine one minute, and then another minute totally, you know, change of moods.

PROKUPECZ: It's just different.

CHAVEZ: It's like, a switch that kicks on in them like --

ORONA: Immediately.

CHAVEZ: And, you know, we can be something that we miss said to them or, you know, something drops or, you know --

ORONA: A smell.

CHAVEZ: -- a smell like this.

ORONA: We were actually barbecuing the other day. And it's like, what did -- what does that smell that burn smell? And I was like, what is wrong? And he just said, I smell that smoky smell and that's the way we were in the classroom. Yes. Because it was, you know, smoky in the room, and that's what it was at the gun all the gunpowder.

AZENETH RODRIGUEZ, MOTHER OF JAYDIEN CANEZALAS: I feel like my son's not going to be normal for several years, because he's going to remember what happened that day. And it's going to stick to his head for the rest of his life.

PROKUPECZ (voice-over): Azeneth Rodriguez's 10-year-old son Jaydien hid under a table in room 112.

JAYDIEN CANEZALAS, SURVIVOR: Me and my friend were scared and we didn't want to talk or nothing and we have recovered our ears so we won't hear the gunshots.

PROKUPECZ: You cover your ears. Where you hearing a lot of gunshots?

CANEZALAS: Me and my friend didn't have a lot of space. So, we just tried not to move, so he won't see us.

PROKUPECZ: And were you wondering what was going on? Why you had to be there for so long?

CANEZALAS: Yes.

PROKUPECZ: What were you thinking?

CANEZALAS: I was thinking what was going on? And I wanted to see but I didn't want to the gun -- the gunman see me.

PROKUPECZ (voice-over): Seven weeks after the attack, parents in Uvalde are still begging for clear answers. They want to know why police waited in the hallway outside the classroom, while their children would terrorize for more than an hour by the gunman.

CHAVEZ: He's like mom, I heard him outside mom.

[04:45:00]

They were yelling and telling the shooter to come out. He was talking and laughing to himself walking around. And whenever he heard, I don't know what little girl was called out. Officer, like when an officer called out. She's like, I'm in here. He went over and shot her.

PROKUPECZ: So, the police were close enough to the door where your kids can hear them.

CHAVEZ: Yes.

ORONA: Yes.

PROKUPECZ: And then the girl answers back, we're in here.

RODRIGUEZ: Yes.

PROKUPECZ: And then he kills her.

RODRIGUEZ: Yes.

PROKUPECZ: And the police never go in.

CHAVEZ: There were still lives that could have been more saved. They would just gotten there faster and just gone in. Like you wear a badge, you have a gun.

RODRIGUEZ: They shouldn't be scared.

CANEZALAS: When they got there, they were still outside waiting for a little bit. And I was telling my friend, I was whispering to my friend I was falling asleep.

PROKUPECZ: Is there anyone in particular you miss?

CANEZALAS: My cousin Rojelio, my best friend Jayce.

PROKUPECZ: They died? You miss them. What kinds of things would you guys do together?

CANEZALAS: When we would have recess, we would always play together and play hide and seek or tag.

PROKUPECZ: Do you feel comfortable talking about what happened? And is it helping you? Yes.

CANEZALAS: I feel a little bit happy because my friends are in there but my friend and my cousin are in a better place.

PROKUPECZ: In a better place, where?

CANEZALAS: In heaven.

PROKUPECZ: Shimon Prokupecz, CNN, Uvalde, Texas.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: Birth control pills are one step closer to being sold over the counter in the U.S. On Monday, HRA Pharma as the FDA for permission to sell its Opill contraceptive without a prescription. It comes just weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the constitutional rights to an abortion. The company says it expect a decision from the FDA in about a ten month time.

On Monday, the Biden administration issued additional guidance on abortion services saying health care providers must offer the procedure if the life of the mother is at risk. The White House says federal law preempts state abortion bans when emergency care is needed. The guidance also says providers do not need to wait for a patient's condition to worsen to be protected under federal law.

Now the U.S. is also working on a plan that would allow all adults to get a second COVID-19 booster. Right now, a second booster is only available to adults 50 and older or to some with weakened immune systems. A White House official tells CNN the plan is a high priority for the FDA. It comes amid rising concerns over the new omicron subvariant able to evade immune responses, but it's unclear how many adults would get another shoot if it is offered.

Ahead, which extreme heat bringing extreme challenges across the United States. From electricity shortages to hundreds of giant trees under threat of wildfires. Meteorologist Gene Norman is tracking it all for you.

GENE NORMAN, CNN METEOROLOGIST: That's right, and I'm tracking the blistering heatwave also across parts of Europe. I'll show you how long it's going to last, how hot it will get, that's ahead on CNN NEWSROOM after the break.

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FOSTER: Crews in California are taking extraordinary measures to put out a fire threatening the state's beloved sequoia trees in Yosemite National Park. Crews installed a sprinkler system to dampen the ground around one of the most famous trees. Fire is burning in a grove of more than 500 giant sequoias some thought to be thousands of years old. Firefighters say they have the blaze 22 percent contained.

A demand for electricity has set another record in the state of Texas, according to the group that operates the state's power grid. Customers are being asked to conserve energy, limit their use of big appliances and turn their thermostats up during the afternoon hours.

Now in Nevada, a sunken World War II era military vessel is emerging from Lake Mead as water levels continue to drop in the extreme drought conditions. This is the Higgins landing craft and is the latest object to emerge as water levels plunge. The National Park Service isn't entirely clear how the vessel ended up there. Today Lake Mead is a source of water for millions of people. It has reached its lowest point since 1937. Extraordinary conditions over there -- Gene Norman. Take us through it.

NORMAN: Hey, Max. We're talking about that heat across Texas, it is blistering. In fact, San Antonio set a record yesterday, 107, that's a record for the day. It's also tying their hottest July day ever. The heat continues across Texas and on into sections of Arkansas. We're looking at heat index values climbing as high as 112 degrees. The combination of the temperature and humidity -- that's the heat index -- will make it feel like it's 106 in Shreveport, 105 in Houston, 104 in Dallas, 106 in Little Rock.

But that is not the only place dealing with heat. We have an excessive heat warning across sections of Utah that includes Salt Lake City, a little piece of Montana and parts of Northern California and southern Oregon as well.

We're also tracking some storms that are going to make their way across the middle of the country today. That's giving some people relief. Where they're not getting any relief is on the other side of the ocean there. We're talking about scorching summer heat in Europe. Western Europe saw temperatures in the triple digits as well. A good portion of Spain as well as Portugal and that will continue there.

And as far as back here in the U.S., we're looking at these storms pushing their way eastward and that's where we're going to be looking at the possibility of storms that could be bringing some damaging wind as well as some hail. So, we'll be watching out for that. Temperatures again in the triple digits in the middle of the country and even up to 91 degrees in New York before that rain moves through.

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FOSTER: It really is an extraordinary map. Thank you so much, Gene Norman. Torrential rain and intense flooding have hit Pakistan's financial capital inundating their business district in Karachi on Monday. The chief minister in the region says the city got a whopping 126 millimeters of rain, almost 5 inches in just three hours. Homes and banks in the city's most affluent areas were flooded. Nationwide dozens of deaths have been reported as a result of the monsoon rains since they began last month.

K-pop supergroup BTS has signed a major streaming deal with Disney+. The boys will be the subject of new shows and documentaries including taped concerts and reality shows. BTS recently announced they would take a break from making music together to pursue other projects. At least one of the shows will focus on a solo member of the group. This is part of a major push for content from the Asia Pacific region. Disney says it plans to greenlight more than 50 original titles from the region by 2023.

Now unless you live under a rock, you already know that Amazon Prime Day is here. It's more than just a day, it's actually a two day shopping extravaganza that rivals Black Friday Christmas sales now. This is where Amazon Prime members are told they will get deep discounts on tech gadgets, kitchen tools, clothes and home goods, streaming services as well, and much more. And sale prices are available to new and existing Prime members we're told.

Thanks for joining me here on CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Max Foster in London. "EARLY START" with Christine Romans and Laura Jarrett next right here on CNN.

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