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Uvalde Surveillance Video Fuels New Questions Over Law Enforcement Response; Biden Opens Trip Aimed at Strengthening Ties with Israel, Arab World; Attorney: Alex Murdaugh Could Face Murder Charges this Week; White House COVID Response Coordinator: The Pandemic Isn't Over; Report: Women Who Give Birth Have About $19,000 More Health Care Costs. Aired 1:30-2p ET
Aired July 13, 2022 - 13:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[13:30:00]
ANA CABRERA, CNN HOST: Not just the failure that happened in the moment, but now this failure in the investigation and the communication related to it has been handled so poorly.
Last week, we finally got a look at a preliminary investigative report where we thought we had more answers. But now, we are being told final report will likely contradict that preliminary report.
Specifically a crucial part. The part about an officer reportedly asking his superior about shooting the suspect while he was still outside the school. In fact, we highlighted that last week because it was something we hadn't heard of before.
So, how does anyone know what, or who to believe at this point?
BILL STANTON, SAFETY SECURITY EXPERT & FORMER NEW YORK POLICE OFFICER: : Well, you are exactly right. What is happening now, in my opinion, it's becoming a political issue. No one wants to be guilty of not making the call.
So what we are seeing, in my opinion, is everybody's pointing the finger. Well, I don't know. I he did this. I don't know. I did that. It's become a CYOA-type issue.
But I'm going to go back to is, you hear the shots, you hear the screams, you go.
CABRERA: It is as simple as that in terms of proactively work toward the next situation and figure out what needs to happen.
Bill Stanton, thank you very much for joining us and offering your expertise and insights.
STANTON: Thank you.
CABRERA: It's going to be a serious balancing act, broker deals but don't inflame tensions. President Biden's Middle East trip isn't just about his role on the world stage. It is sending a message about our entire country and its influence on the world stage. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[13:36:19]
CABRERA: It is a short trip overseas with a long to-do list. Today, President Biden kicked off his Middle East visit in Israel. It's his first visit to the region as commander-in-chief.
Bottom line, there's a lot on the line as the president tries to flex his muscle on the world stage and keep his eye on a growing list of issues back home.
CNN's Hadas Gold is in Jerusalem for us.
Hadas, walk us through the president's key goals on this trip.
HADAS GOLD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Ana, first of all, a lot of what we saw today, which is reaffirming the relationship, the strong bond between the United States and Israel, despite no matter who is the political leaders.
Because keep in mind, here in Israel, there's been quite a bit of political chaos recently and the caretaker prime minister only took over less than two weeks ago, Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, who welcomed President Biden when he landed in Tel Avia.
President Biden also today toured the Israeli new missile defense system, the Iron Dome, which the United States largely funds, as well as a new missile defense system, which is based off of lasers, called the Iron Beam. And likely the Israelis will be asking the Americans for funding for that as well.
Another issue that is top of mind during this trip is actually advancing a Trump administration achievement, which is, of course, the Abraham Accords, those normalization agreements between Israeli and Arab countries.
For Israel, their main goal out of any sort of advancement of these normalization agreements will be Saudi Arabia, which is where President Biden is headed straight from Tel Aviv on Friday.
And while nobody's expecting some grand new normalization agreement to be signed doing this trip, there's an expectation that there will be small steps towards that ultimate goal with Saudi Arabia.
There will likely be things like an announcement that flights to and from Israel will be allowed to fly over Saudi airspace, which, right now, they are not able to do.
These are things that seem small but they would have seemed as unthinkable just a few years ago before the Abraham Accords.
For President Biden, he's hoping to reset the relationship was Saudi , who, during the campaign, he called a pariah.
One thing you won't hear much of that was any sort of major advancements on peace between Israelis and Palestinians. President Biden acknowledging during his remarks on the tarmac today that, while he would like a two-state solution, he knows it is nowhere in the near future -- Ana?
CABRERA: Hadas Gold, thank you for setting the table. We'll keep watching.
[13:38:36]
Up next, to a bizarre true-crime drama that has inspired podcasts and amateur detectives. We're told Alex Murdaugh, the North Carolina (sic) scion, connected to multiple death investigations expects to be charged with murder this week, but who, his wife, his son, his housekeeper, who was recently exhumed?
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[13:43:46]
CABRERA: Starbucks says it is closing 16 stores by the end of the month because there simply to unsafe to operate. The locations being shuttered are in major cities both on the east and west coasts, Portland, D.C., Philadelphia.
In a letter to his employees, Starbucks acknowledged unique challenges some workers have faced at certain stores, including drug use. The company plans to offer active-shooter and other types of training to ensure workers feel safe.
The ugly battle between Elon Musk and Twitter is now for the court system to sort out. The social media giant is now suing Musk for trying to back out of his $44 million purchase of the company on Friday.
Twitter wants him to either complete the sale or pay a $1 billion breakup field fee. Musk says he wants to back out because Twitter withheld data about bot accounts.
Some analysts, however, suspect the billionaire fears he would be overpaying for the company after seeing texts fall off dramatically in recent months.
And now to story with all the trappings of a crime thriller, a powerful family, a series on unsolved killings, a deadly fall, a botched hitman, suicide plots. And now possible murder charges.
An attorney for Alex Murdaugh, whose wife and son were found dead last year outside of the family South Carolina home, says he expects murder indictments against his client. But for whose killings?
[13:45:10]
I'm going to bring in CNN's Jean Casarez to pick up the story here.
And, Jean, there were other untimely deaths in this bizarre drama so what do we know about who the murder indictments could be for? JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know they really mysteries at
this point and law enforcement is investigating everything.
But let's start with June of 2021. It was last June, and Alex Murdaugh, who was a very elite attorney, a family of prosecutors in South Carolina.
Alex Murdaugh found his wife and his son with multiple gunshot wounds on their property in South Carolina. He made the 911 call, saying please come quickly, they've been shot. And they were deceased.
And so, the South Carolina Department of Law Enforcement began an investigation, a criminal investigation on who could've done this.
Several weeks after the investigation began, there's a name that authorities are saying began to relook at another case. His name is Stephen Smith.
In 2015, he was a teenager. His body was found in the road. And was believed it was a car accident, blunt force trauma to his head, case closed. But there were no skid marks, there was no debris. That case has been reopened.
Also, next, Gloria Satterfield, she was the housekeeper, longtime housekeeper for the Murdochs. In 2018, she allegedly fell down the stairs, outdoor stares at their home, blunt force trauma to the head, she died. It was a natural death, it was determined, case closed.
Now you start to get into the financial crimes. Because that is what he's been charged with so far.
The family bought a $500,000 claim for wrongful death. He said, "I was willing to settle it and then you will take all the proceeds, $500,000." But the family didn't get us a cent. And now it is believed that there was misappropriation of all those funds. Financial crimes.
I'm not done yet. September 2021, last September, Alex Murdaugh was shot. Authorities believe that he conspired with a man to shoot him and kill him, Alex Murdaugh, so that his son, Alex Murdaugh's only remaining son, would get $10 million in life insurance funds.
One more thing. Mallory Beach, 2019, she was on a boat. It was owned by Alex Murdaugh. His son, Paul, now deceased, was allegedly driving it. She was ejected from the boat out to sea. She was deceased.
And before Paul, the son, was murdered, Paul the son, was charged with boating under the influence, causing serious bodily injury. And that's a very serious crime.
CABRERA: This is all real life and yet it seems like straight of a movie script. Unbelievable.
Thank you, Jean. We will watch the developments on that one.
It isn't over. White House health officials today sounding off on Covid-19's most contagious strain yet.
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[13:52:40]
CABRERA: Masks are off, and guards are down, But the White House is warning this pandemic isn't over. COVID response coordinator, Dr. Jha, says the latest variant, which is causing the majority of new cases, is the most invasive yet.
CNN's Elizabeth Cohen is joining us now.
Elizabeth, do we know if boosters will help protect against BA.5? And are people getting them?
DR. ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Ana, we do know boosters will help you from getting very sick with Covid. In other words, if you get a booster, it increases the chances you will only get mildly ill.
These boosters, these fourth shots or second boosters, however you want to call it, they were offered to people over 50 at the end of March. Only about one in four people over 50 have gotten that fourth shot. We'll see if that number increases as we go forward in time.
CABRERA: Let's look at some of the other health headlines. You can have a baby, but a new report says it's going to cost you.
COHEN: It is going to cost you and your insurance. This new study looked at how much does it cost to have a baby. They compared the cost of women who haven't had babies in a certain period of time to women who did.
They found is that insurance and mothers when you put it together paid about $19,000 per birth when they looked at more than two million insurance claims between 2018 to 2020.
For the mothers paying out of pocket, that was $2,854 of that $19,000 that mothers were paying out of pocket. That's almost $3,000 to be pregnant and have a baby. That's a lot.
For women who were having C-sections, the costs were 77 percent higher than women who didn't have C-sections.
CABRERA: It is a lot of money to go through all of that.
Now to another major issue in this country, and that is fentanyl overdoses. What's going on there?
COHEN: Unfortunately, this is no good news. These overdose deaths are still so high and so heart breaking, Ana.
Let's take a look at the new numbers from the CDC. When you look from February 2021 to February 2022, 109,000 deaths from drug overdoses. Two-thirds of those were fentanyl, one-third of them were methamphetamine and other types of stimulants. This continues to be a problem that just keeps getting worse and there
really is no end in sight -- Ana?
CABRERA: It's impacted so many families and so many people.
Thank you, Elizabeth --
COHEN: Thanks.
CABRERA: -- for breaking down all those headlines for us.
[13:54:58]
That does it for us today. Really great to have you with us. We'll see you back here tomorrow, same time, same place. Until then, you can always find me on Twitter, @AnaCabrera. I hope you enjoy the afternoon.
The news continues with Alisyn and Victor right after this.
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