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Uvalde Outlines Multiples Failures by Several Entities; Bannon Shapes MAGA Narrative for Republican Party; "United Shades of America" Airs Tonight 10PM ET/PT; Mayor Releases Body Camera Footage of Law Enforcement Response to Uvalde Massacre; Uvalde Report Lays Out Systemic Failure by Law Enforcement Entities. Aired 7-8p ET

Aired July 17, 2022 - 19:00   ET

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

[19:00:00]

RYAN NOBLES, CNN ANCHOR: We appreciate you all hanging with us and providing your perspective. Thank you so much.

And you are live in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Ryan Nobles in Washington, in today for Jim Acosta. And we are tracking a flood of new damning information about the law enforcement response to the Uvalde school shooting. The massacre that left 21 people dead in May, most of them children.

CNN has just been granted access to police bodycam footage providing a chilling look at the disorganized police response that day after a gunman entered Robb Elementary. We're going to walk you through that disturbing video.

CNN's Shimon Prokupecz joins me again.

Shimon, the mayor thought it was important for the public to see what happened that day. He released the video to you after the families were given the chance to review it, correct?

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Right. Yes. So we were able to view this video and put it together obviously and so we only released it after we were told that the families viewed the video or given access to the video, I should say, and after they were told that it was going to be released publicly because remember they were so upset over the other video that was released.

It was specifically about the gunshots and the gunman that was seen in that video. So the mayor being aware of that sensitivity wanted to give the families an opportunity to be aware of this. For him this is about transparency. He feels that the entire story needs to be told. And what we see in this body camera footage which we should warn our viewers certainly is disturbing. The language certainly disturbing, and the footage is disturbing.

It really takes you inside those moments inside that school. You have a police sergeant who's outside the school making all kinds of decisions and deploying officers, fully unaware of what's going on inside. At one point unaware that there are children in a classroom, and then we get to see finally, because in that other video that was released of the hallway we finally get to see Chief Pete Arredondo, the school police chief, who's been scrutinized greatly over his inactions in this incident.

And then we also get to hear a 911 call, a radio transmission, a police operator telling a police officer late in the incident, in the 12:00 hour of this incident, saying that there was a student calling 911 saying that they were inside that classroom. This story here, it really gives you a full picture of the action outside, the action inside, and really a full hour. There are hours of footage that really paint a picture of what was going on. The disorganization, the chaos, and no command, no one taking charge at the scene.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SGT. DANIEL CORONADO, UVALDE POLICE DEPARTMENT: Holy shit, shots fired. Get inside. Go, go, go.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Shot in the head.

PROKUPECZ (voice-over): New bodycam video released by the Uvalde mayor shows the frantic first moments police arrived on scene at Robb Elementary. This video taken by Uvalde Police Sergeant Daniel Coronado as he made his way inside the building. But within moments more gunshots.

CORONADO: Shots fired inside the building in Uvalde.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Which building?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I can't break.

CORONADO: Careful, guys. Shot fired.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can't break in here. Can somebody break?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's in the classroom right here on the right.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Anybody in there?

CORONADO: Take cover, guys.

PROKUPECZ: After taking cover outside, Sergeant Coronado gives his first update on the situation to responding officers.

CORONADO: OK, guys. He's armed inside this building. We have it contained. He's going to be on the building on the west side of the property. Careful with the windows facing east right there.

PROKUPECZ: Minutes later Coronado tells dispatch what he believes is happening, that the gunman is in one of the school's offices, not a classroom.

CORONADO: Now the subject is in the school on the west side of the building.

[19:050:02]

He's contained. We got multiple officers inside the building at this time. We believe he's barricaded in one of the offices. I'm outside. There's still shooting.

PROKUPECZ: But as the minutes continue to tick by, the urgency first seen by the initial response fades away. Instead Uvalde police officers are seen hunkering down waiting for more backup. Critical moments pass by at a time children were still alive in the classroom. At one point you can hear Sergeant Coronado asking for permission to open a door into the hallway where armed officers are already inside.

CORONADO: Officers inside the building, am I clear to open the door here on the south side of the building?

PROKUPECZ: It's after this moment that we learned that Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District Police Chief Pete Arredondo is inside the building as other officers crowd around looking for guidance.

Arredondo has been a central figure in the state's investigation of the shooting. DPS Director Steve McCraw calling his actions on the day of the massacre a, quote, "abject failure." As more officers arrive and more inaction, you can hear police begin to seek direction.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What are we doing here?

PROKUPECZ: We also have video from Officer Justin Mendoza who also arrived on the scene. At 11:58 local time, police helped the first students and teachers from a nearby classroom escape the building. At the same time, Sergeant Coronado can be seen helping children escape from a window outside, at this point it had been nearly 25 minutes since police first entered the building.

More than 12 minutes later we get our first glimpse of Chief Arredondo in the hallway of Robb Elementary. You can hear him pleading with the gunman to give up, but seemingly unaware that children may still be inside the classroom.

CHIEF PETE ARREDONDO, UVALDE CONSOLIDATED INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT POLICE: Just let me know if there's any kids in there or anything? This could be peaceful. Would you tell me your name? Anything I need to know, please?

PROKUPECZ: Moments later a critical piece of the puzzle from the camera of Officer Mendoza. 911 dispatch gives a chilling account from a student still in the classroom.

UNIDENTIFIED 911 DISPATCHER: We do have a child on the line.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What was that?

UNIDENTIFIED 911 DISPATCHER: It's going to be room 12. (INAUDIBLE). I think he is in a room full of victims at this moment. PROKUPECZ: And yet even with that information, six minutes go by

without any sort of response. Then we see Arredondo with a set of keys trying and failing to make entry into a classroom near where the gunman is barricaded, eventually handing the keys off to another officer who does make entry. More heavily armored officers arrive, but no one gives the order to go in. Then suddenly a new round of gunfire. But after those gunshots, Arredondo again tries to talk with the shooter.

ARREDONDO: Can you hear me, sir?

PROKUPECZ: And, again, minutes later --

ARREDONDO: Sir, if you can hear me, please put your firearm down, sir. We don't want anybody else hurt. I know. I know.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's what we're doing. We're trying to get him out.

PROKUPECZ: After no response, police still stand around without much urgency. Over the course of the next nearly 30 minutes we see more officers arrive.

The video obtained by CNN cuts out moments before police breach the classroom and kill the shooter at 12:51 local time. By then, many young innocent children and their two teachers were dead.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PROKUPECZ: And, Ryan, you know, it's that lack of urgency that you see in some of these officers that are standing in the hallway trying to figure out what to do is really just infuriated so many of the families here. They were really upset today. They got that chance to meet with some of the legislative investigators and we're told it was pretty emotional, at times pretty heated. And despite all this release, you know, the fact that it has taken families so long to get information is just unacceptable.

And, you know, I think this mayor here in this town, you know, he's taking some heat. I think he's now realized that more information needs to come out. We have been asking for more information and so I think in this situation this is something that he wanted to do, but this is all of course in the end about the families and what it is that they're dealing with.

NOBLES: Yes. Shimon, I can't imagine being a family member and seeing the chief patiently attempting to negotiate with someone that is firing shots at their children. It's just -- it is so hard to watch.

Shimon Prokupecz, terrific job getting that video out so the world can see it, we appreciate your reporting as always.

I want to now bring in CNN senior law enforcement analyst and a former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe to join me now.

Andrew, first, just tell me, you know, you're seeing this video for the first time. What's your reaction?

ANDREW MCCABE, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: You know, Ryan, I have been to a lot of crisis scenes and situations.

[19:10:01]

None of them are pretty. It's always confusing and chaotic and stressful, but this one stands out because of the complete and total lack of leadership. As you watch the hour and 17 minute video from -- that we first saw last Friday, and now you add this to it, in all of these scenes it's impossible to identify one officer, one leader who seems to be in charge, who's clearly executing leadership, coordinating communications, you know, consolidating the intelligence they have about what's happening inside the room.

All those critical functions, things that are absolutely essential to running a crisis scene are just missing, and that's the thing that really jumps out to me watching these heartbreaking videos.

NOBLES: So crystalize this for me because obviously, you know, I don't have a law enforcement background. And maybe there's part of me that understands that in a situation where you have an individual with a weapon that has a lot of ammunition in it, and he's in a room with a bunch of unarmed people that maybe try and take that situation delicately, right. That you don't go busting in with more guns because that can make the situation worse.

That's not what we're dealing with here, though, right? I mean, they heard the gunshots go off. They had a 911 call where a child called to say that there were victims. They're not -- should they have still been politely negotiating with this individual?

MCCABE: Not even close. Not even close, Ryan. So you're right. This is the kind of historical approach to these things was set up a perimeter, wait for the SWAT team to arrive, maybe try to negotiate, and all of that changed after incidents like Columbine and mass shooting at Virginia Tech. And the widely accepted, widely trained approach to these active shooter incidents is the first responders on scene whether it's the chief of police or the lowliest beat cop, grab the weapon that you have in your car, coordinate with whoever else is there with you.

If you're by yourself then you go by yourself. Go to the sound of gun, you try to take that shooter out. You try to kill that person before they can kill or hurt other victims. And it is inexplicable that this massive team of law enforcement from multiple agencies with heavy body armor and long guns, AR-15s, and then eventually multiple ballistic shields never took that crucial action, and you see it is hard to watch that video. Just keep asking yourself like what are they doing? They don't even appear to be, you know, really, really acting with any purpose. It's incredible.

NOBLES: I want to pinpoint what you just said there that if it were a beat cop all by him or herself cop they would take their weapon and barrel into that room. In this video we see dozens of heavily armed police officers and law enforcement officers just standing there which if you're a member of that family I just don't know how you'd respond to that.

MCCABE: I don't think you can. And, you know, that's why police officers now carry that sort of armament in their patrol cars. You know, after -- again, after Columbine, we realized you have to arm the actual beat cops on the street with AR-15 style weapons in order, you know, to be able to have the sort of guns that you need in a fire fight like that. So for the first time, you know, police cars started carrying those sort of tools with them as a regular -- you know, regular kind of situations. The tools were there. The people were there. But it didn't happen. It's inexplicable.

NOBLES: Yes. So, Andrew, let's also talk about this report that was issued today, and the lawmakers on the Texas House Committee that investigated the massacre said that they believe the responding officers should be held accountable for the failures that day. What does accountability look like? What can be done to hold them accountable for what happened that day?

MCCABE: Well, I mean, and I know this is frustrating to everyone, certainly people in Uvalde and anyone that's watching, following this, like before you hold officers accountable you do have to go through some level of process. There has to be an investigation, and people have to be -- you know, you have to determine whether or not folks actually failed to live up to their responsibilities.

It seems pretty clear here but you obviously have to go through the process. Nevertheless in a situation where you have one police officer in a large thriving police department, you can hold that officer accountable by reassigning them or firing them. There's all kinds of things that you can do. This is a different situation, though. You're talking about at least initially the Uvalde police, the school police agency appears, you know, it would appear that the most reasonable thing to do would be to obliterate it in its entirety.

[19:15:06]

It's Chief Pete Arredondo should never lead a law enforcement entity of any size anywhere again. He's proven that. And the officers in that department, you know, you really need to start -- wipe the slate clean and start over. And I think they need to think about that as they think -- as they widen thereafter and think about Uvalde Police Officers who were there and everybody who is there.

This is a failure that you're not going to be able to kind of give somebody a couple of days on the bricks and bring them back and everything is fine. I just -- you know, this one is not going away.

NOBLES: Yes. All right. Andrew McCabe, thank you so much for being here. We appreciate your expertise as always. Thank you.

MCCABE: Thanks.

NOBLES: And much more to discuss on what's in this preliminary report out today on the May shooting at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas. Our breaking news coverage continues after this short break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:20:02]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. That'll be it for today. We've got to get to mass. The archbishop has invited us and we're going to move on out. Thank you so much.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You kept us waiting. You kept the kids waiting in the school and you don't have time to answer our questions at the school community? This is appalling. So what are you going to do to take action? Speak to us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NOBLES: Anger and sadness of family members of the Uvalde school shooting victims and members of the community. This after a briefing by the Texas House Investigating Committee. The committee released a damning 77-page report today finding what they say are multiple systemic failures.

Our Rosa Flores was there. Rosa, are you hearing some of the family members of the victims? Obviously they sounded frustrated after that press conference wrapped up. What are they telling you?

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, there's so much outrage, Ryan, in this community. A lot of families very upset. They're demanding answers and they're also demanding accountability. Now I was able to talk to one of the fathers one of the victims on the sidelines. And let me set the scene for you because actually the way that I met him first was he was having a very heated discussion with the mayor of this city because he said that he was kicked out of the private meeting that both lawmakers and the city had with the victims' families earlier in the day.

And so he was asking the mayor questions about why if he was a father of one of the victims why he was kicked out. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALFRED GARZA, FATHER OF UVALDE SHOOTING VICTIM AMERIE JOE GARZA: I wasn't like, I wasn't a parent where like hey, daughter this is a birthday card. And I'll see you next year. I wasn't that kind of parent. I have pictures with my daughter. I have tons of pictures in my phone. So who kicked me out of the meeting?

MAYOR DON MCLAUGHLIN, UVALDE, TEXAS: Who what?

GARZA: Who kicked me out of the meeting?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He was police escorted out.

GARZA: I was escorted out of the meeting. MCLAUGHLIN: I wasn't in there when you were escorted out. You didn't

see me there.

GARZA: So who made the --

(CROSSTALK)

MCLAUGHLIN: There was a list, this went out to the families.

GARZA: OK.

MCLAUGHLIN: They made a list of the families who are coming to that meeting today. I don't have that list. OK. What I told them is I would facilitate the legislature coming to speak to the families. They helped me touch the families. And that's how it was done. So --

GARZA: I'm the father of one of the kids and they said, well, you still got to go, you weren't on the list.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was actually the dean, Mr. Gonzales, right?

GARZA: Yes.

MCLAUGHLIN: I mean, we meant no disrespect to you but I didn't make that list.

GARZA: OK. So who did?

MCLAUGHLIN: And the families gave the list to Hector Gonzales (INAUDIBLE).

GARZA: There was a meeting at the college at 2:00 and that was for the families to -- it was like a review of the investigation for the families directly, and so I went to go sit inside and I was asked to get up and to leave because I wasn't welcome and I wasn't on the list even though my daughter passed away. You know?

FLORES: Tell us about your daughter.

GARZA: She was -- I mean, she was just an awesome person. She was the light of my life. And she was -- I mean, she was like me. You know, she was -- we had a special bond. You know? And it's all been hard. Right? But then somebody telling me like, hey, you don't have a right to be here. That hurts even more. I have a document here that says I paid my financial duties, I visited with my child. I was her birth father. I don't have the birth certificate right now. It's public record. I can go get that. You know, so, you know, unfortunately this is a state where sometimes moms get the upper hand, right, and sometimes people other lose sight of that. They only listen to one side of the story and not the other side, right. And that's what happened.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FLORES: Now, Ryan, the question that I asked him after was, what emotions were going through him as he was going through that earlier in the day where he was kicked out of a meeting where he very rightfully wanted to be because he was the father of one of the victims and he used one word. He said rage -- Ryan.

NOBLES: Not surprising. Rosa Flores, live in Uvalde, Texas. Rosa, thank you for your reporting.

Stay with us. We're going to have more on this breaking news right after a quick break. Stay here.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:28:44]

NOBLES: And we are following breaking develops out of Uvalde, Texas. An explosive report from Texas state lawmakers details a series of law enforcement failures in their response to the Robb Elementary School shooting in May.

Let's break this down now with the founder of the Educators School Safety Network, Amy Klinger, and former Philadelphia Police commissioner and CNN senior law enforcement analyst, Charles Ramsey.

Chief, let's start with you. This is just some of the ways the legislators described the law enforcement response. Multiple systemic failures. Lackadaisical. Void of leadership. These are not the kind of thing you want to hear when nearly 400 law enforcement officers descend on an active shooter situation. As someone who worked for a long time in law enforcement, how can you explain this?

CHARLES RAMSEY, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, you can't explain it. I mean, it was a total failure at a lot of different levels. There's no question about that. Just the fact that you got 300 or 400 police officers show up at a scene, I mean, there's -- that's a problem in and of itself. You can't actually have too many people respond.

You know, you need the people there that has specific roles and responsibilities, so, you know, when you set up incident command you have to deal with what's going on inside the building but also control what's happening outside. And clearly there was no leadership at all. No incident command set up or unified command set up. You had a variety of agencies responding.

[19:30:00]

Apparently, nobody knew what was expected of them, what to do. No tactical planning to make entry into that classroom until after 70- some odd minutes had passed.

So, it's just one thing after the other, all bad.

RYAN NOBLES, CNN HOST: Yes, so Amy, in that press conference last hour, we heard one of the Texas State lawmakers say that Robb Elementary was not adequately prepared for the risk of a school shooter. From your perspective, what security lapses stood out? AMY KLINGER, FOUNDER AND DIRECTOR OF PROGRAMS, THE EDUCATOR'S SCHOOL

SAFETY NETWORK: Well, I think it's really important that we look at it's not enough to just write down a policy that says, oh, we're going to lock this door, you have to do it. You have to make sure that people are trained, that they understand the rationale for why we're doing these things, but they understand the importance, that we hold them accountable if they don't do those things.

The number one mission is to keep kids safe, and you can't just write it down and say that's good enough. You have to live it every single day, and not just for an active shooter, for any of the myriad of threats that schools face. It needs to go far beyond just talking about active shooter, but talking about what do we do every single day in schools, whether there is law enforcement present or not?

NOBLES: Should this be a wake-up call for schools across the country, Amy? I mean, I think our natural instinct is to think, "Well, it's not going to happen in my backyard." But really, any of us could be vulnerable to something like this.

You know, how important is it for educators, administrators, teachers across the country as we prepare to go back to school to make sure they do simple things like making sure that the doors locked properly and other things? I mean, what should school officials be doing right now to prepare for the upcoming school year?

KLINGER: It is the most important thing, and I don't know how many more wake-up calls we can get. I think the problem is we fixate on an active shooter event as the only school safety issue that there is, because clearly, we see the horrific consequences when we're not adequately prepared.

But every school faces a crisis event, whether it's a medical emergency, or an accident, or a noncustodial parent. And if we don't expand the capability of school people, and provide them with training and resources to respond, you're just going to live these nightmares over and over and over until you have actually trained and empowered the people who are going to be faced with these incidents first. They are the first, first responders.

NOBLES: So Chief Ramsey, the report also couldn't definitively answer if the classroom door was ever locked, because nobody on the scene actually tried the handle. I mean, that seems like basic police work. Should they have been doing everything they possibly could to get into that room?

RAMSEY: Absolutely. There is no question about that. I mean, that's consistent with the training. I mean, since Columbine and Virginia Tech, training has changed. It used to be contain, wait for SWAT. Now, it is first officers on the scene, you go to the sound of gunshots, you'd neutralize the shooter. Period.

Now, the first officers that arrived did that. I mean, they went to the door, they went toward the gunfire. But when they got fired upon, they retreated, which is understandable. But rather than regroup, and there was about six or seven officers in the hallway at the time, regroup to go back down, come up with a tactical plan. Nobody did anything for another 70 minutes or so. And that's just totally unacceptable.

You have to have some kind of tactical plan put together, do it quickly. Create a diversion. Find a way to get into that classroom, whether it is, you know, the door is unlocked; whether you have to use a tool to be able to pry the door open, whatever it is you have to do.

But you know, you've got people seriously injured. You know, you've got people that are bleeding in and they've got to get medical attention as quickly as possible. So, you've got to do what you have to do.

NOBLES: And Chief, the Texas officials behind this report really took some of the officers to task. Let's listen to a little bit of that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DUSTIN BURROWS, CHAIR, TEXAS HOUSE INVESTIGATIVE COMMITTEE ON UVALDE SHOOTING: The officers who knew or should have not known that this was an active shooter situation, by their training experience should have done more. We are very clear on that.

EVA GUZMAN, MEMBER, TEXAS HOUSE INVESTIGATIVE COMMITTEE ON UVALDE SHOOTING: The report says if you're not willing to put the lives of the people you serve, of those children before your own, in my view, you should find another job.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NOBLES: You know, at this point, there haven't been too many of these officers that have been taken to task. You know, the Acting Chief of the Uvalde Police Department on that day has been placed on administrative leave. But Chief, do you expect to see suspensions even possibly firings as this investigation goes forward?

RAMSEY: I really do, and I think there should be, I mean, listen, you know when you become a police officer, you realize that you may be called upon to put your own life at risk in order to protect others.

I mean, that's part of the job and hopefully that situation never comes up, but if it does, you have to step up. You have to do what it is that you have to do.

[19:35:10]

RAMSEY: If you can't do that, then you have chosen the wrong profession to be in.

I mean, I've been in shootings. I've been fired upon. I mean, it's not a good feeling. But you have to do what you have to do in order to protect yourself and to protect others, and that's just the way it is. And they failed to do it.

I don't know how they live with themselves if they were in that hallway for that long a period of time without taking action, knowing that there are many of those people probably bled to death while you're standing around.

No, I mean, something's got to happen. And I don't know how the community of Uvalde can ever trust that police department again. I mean, the Mayor is going to have to make some serious decisions, not just that Mayor, but other Mayors from other jurisdictions where those officers responded. I mean, this is not good.

NOBLES: So Amy, after every school shooting, you know, there is a sizable number of people that might argue that teachers should be armed. Can you really expect that giving a Math teacher a gun in a situation like this would have made this situation any better?

KLINGER: No. What we need to start with is giving teachers basic training and resources to respond to events that are active shooter in nature, or all the other myriad of things that happen. We're talking about teachers who typically get no training they are faced with, in this case, an environment that is unsafe, that doesn't -- the lock doesn't work. Nobody locks the doors. We have all these different things happening.

We've got trained people and give them the ability to work with the confines of what they have. A teacher being armed would not have locked that -- made that door lock. A teacher being armed wouldn't have changed the outcome.

Let's give teachers and educators the tools they need to respond to all of the events that they are absolutely going to be dealing with.

NOBLES: Chief Charles Ramsey, Amy Klinger, thank you both for being here. We appreciate it. Your expertise, vital on a story like this. Thanks so much.

And I do want to take a moment tonight to put this into perspective. This report detailed multiple failures in the law enforcement response to the Uvalde school shooting, and that the school had a culture of noncompliance with safety policies requiring doors to be kept locked.

Now, there are so many more questions about what and more importantly, why there were so many failures. But I want to show you these faces. These are the 19 kids and two teachers who were killed on that day in May in Uvalde. Twenty-one people killed after a gunman entered Robb Elementary School and began shooting, 21 lives cut short and families are now left shattered and fighting for answers.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:42:14]

NOBLES: Top Trump ally, Steve Bannon goes on trial tomorrow for criminal contempt of Congress charges. Even with his trial looming, Bannon has been leading a movement to install 2020 election deniers in key positions for the next election. CNN's Drew Griffin reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Steve Bannon has never been elected to any office, never confirmed by Congress for any position, but potentially has more influence on the political direction of the nation today than almost anyone besides Donald Trump.

STEVE BANNON, HOST, "WAR ROOM": We believe in the ballot box. We believe in fair and free and transparent elections and we're winning everywhere. We're going to win 80 to 100 seat pickup in the House of Representatives. We're going to win the Senate. We're going to win the governorships and we're going to win the State Legislatures.

This is going to be a massive bloc. You're witnessing right now a political realignment, and we will govern for a hundred years after he win a hundred seats.

JOSHUA GREEN, AUTHOR, "DEVIL'S BARGAIN": Bannon sees himself as the narrator in a great grand conspiracy of his own devising.

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Steve Bannon is the intellectual and cultural navigator for the modern day Trump-era Republican Party setting the agenda even more than Donald Trump.

BANNON: This is illegitimate.

GRIFFIN (voice over): Bannon sets that agenda through his daily show "War Room." It's on TV, radio, the internet. And the podcast version is often among the top three political podcasts on Apple.

BANNON: The whole reason we started the six o'clock show, "Battleground" was to focus particularly the primary and then the run up to this November where we're going to have destruction of the Democratic Party.

GRIFFIN (voice over): His pathway to destroying the Democratic Party, control who runs the elections by putting the ultra MAGA in charge.

BANNON: It is about who counts the votes and guess what? We're going to count them because we've got the election officials that are showing up.

GREEN: One thing that stopped the overthrow of the 2020 election was that Republican precinct workers said no, they said, we are not going to overturn what was a valid election. I think Bannon saw that and said, if Donald Trump runs in 2024, and the same thing happens, I want to make sure that we have people in those positions that will overturn the election for Trump, even if he loses it.

GRIFFIN (voice over): Bannon insists he wants every vote to be counted legally, but his entire movement is based on the lie that Donald Trump, not Joe Biden actually won the 2020 election.

BANNON: We will never concede. We will never say this election was not stolen.

STACY ALTIERY, DEKALB COUNTY GOP PRECINCT CHAIR: I was never inspired to be involved in politics until this last election.

GRIFFIN (on camera): And what about that election inspired you?

ALTIERY: To see all the anomalies during the elections, to see there is no way that Biden could have ever won an election. He didn't campaign. The most unpopular person.

If you believe that that was a safe and fair election, then, I mean, I just can't help you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[19:45:10]

NOBLES: Well CNN senior investigative correspondent, Drew Griffin joins me now.

So Drew, many of these people that you talk to in this report were actually motivated to get into local politics because of Steve Bannon. Is that really an actual reshaping of the Republican Party that's taking place from the grassroots level up?

GRIFFIN: It surprised us, Ryan, to see how powerful this lie has become and how powerfully motivating Steve Bannon has been in using this lie to get what he wants to get people who are believing in this detached from reality view of politics in the United States, to actually run for positions, get into positions and seek positions which would oversee the elections of this country.

That is what he is trying to do, both in these midterms, and certainly by 2024. And that's where I think it is the reason why we put this story together to show people who aren't in this Republican right-wing echo chamber that Bannon exists in to see what is actually taking place right under their noses.

NOBLES: Yes, and what's interesting about Bannon, too, Drew is that he is the one with the ideological policy core who really wants to reshape American policy where Donald Trump is really more just about his own power, Bannon is the driver behind all of that. So your special tonight is going to be very illuminating.

Drew Griffin, thank you so much for being here. We appreciate it.

And be sure to watch his CNN Special Report, "Steve Bannon: Divided We Fall." it's Tonight at eight o'clock Eastern right here on CNN, and we're going to be right back.

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NOBLES: In this week's episode of "United Shades of America," W. Kamau Bell is taking a look at the significant but largely unknown population of black Americans who have called Appalachia home for centuries. Here's a preview.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

W. KAMAU BELL, CNN HOST, "UNITED SHADES OF AMERICA": Often America tells the story of Appalachia without the Black folks.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right.

BELL: You know, so do you think, can we tease that apart from people watching like what it to be Black from Appalachia?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If I am in a place where there are Black people in mountains, I'm at home. It feels like home.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's the land that makes you an Appalachian. My family has been here since before there was such a thing as Tennessee, slaves, and then free. And yes, like my own relationship with like these hill, like I can probably name every one of those hills out there.

I am going to exist today in these mountains.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NOBLES: And joining is now to talk more about this is the host of "United Shades of America," W. Kamau Bell.

Kamau, thank you so much for being here. You're of course the co- author of the new book, "Do the Work: An Anti-Racist Activity Book," which comes out on Tuesday.

You know, Kamau, one of my favorite things about your show is the fact that you introduce us to communities that we may have not even known existed, and this week shows a perfect example of that, Black communities living in Appalachia, you know, why has their presence and contribution to the culture of the region been so overlooked?

BELL: I mean, I think it's about how we tell stories. In this country, often we tell stories, we focus on the stories of white Americans. And so Appalachia is a place where you can certainly say that's been the case. So even someone like me who is well-traveled when I first went to Appalachia, in Season Two of the show, I believe it was, we passed a place called the Lynch Colored School, and we were like, "Wait, there is Black people in Appalachia?" And there, there is a thriving Black history in Appalachia.

NOBLES: So you talk in the episode about how this is another group of Black Americans that are being cut off from their land, their culture, and their history. But you've met up with some people working to reclaim those connections. Explain both ends of that to us. Why are they being cut off? And what are they doing to try and preserve it?

BELL: Well, you know, the stories you tell about Appalachia in this country is the same for Black folks, White folks and everything else living there. It was a place that had a thriving industry through coal, that industry is not thriving anymore, and there hasn't been a new economy that has replaced it.

And so people, so in places like we were tonight, in Lynch -- we were in Lynch, Kentucky, where you see like, where -- what was there? You see later, they would say there were houses all over these hills, and this was a cosmopolitan area, and it's gone and the young people who are born there, don't really see the same reason to stay, and as they leave, they lose property, they lose stories.

NOBLES: So what was the most surprising thing for you about visiting Appalachia and meeting the people there?

BELL: I mean, I guess, maybe this is a little personal to me as a Black man who is married to a white woman with mixed race Black kids, there is a lot of mixed folks in Appalachia. That's something else.

I think we think that Black and White folks there would not get along. Well, those mixed kids show that many of them are getting along quite well.

NOBLES: Wow. It's also so beautiful, right? I mean, just the scenery. Appalachia is one of the most beautiful places in America, isn't it?

BELL: It is, but I think the thing is, you have to be going there. It's not something you're going to stumble across and I think we need to be more intentional about going there and really seeing it and maybe supporting them through our contributions to the economy.

NOBLES: All right, and just tell us what are you most excited for people to see in this episode?

BELL: I am most excited -- I get to cook a meal with poet legend, Nikki Giovanni. I get to hang out with Nikki Giovanni, so "United Shades of America" has taken me to a lot of places where I don't want to be, but this episode, I get to hang out with the legend, Nikki Giovanni herself.

NOBLES: What did you guys make? Or is that a spoiler?

BELL: So I mean, you know, there was this old school soul food, so there were some pig's feet. There were some chitlins, the classics.

NOBLES: Well, great. Kamau, thank you so much for being here. We are really excited for this episode of your show.

And be sure to tune in, an all-new episodes of "United Shades of America" with W. Kamau Bell. It airs tonight at 10 o'clock only on CNN.

And also tonight, an all-new episode of "Patagonia: Life on the Edge of the World." We look at the flooded valleys that were carved out by ice and are home to the largest animals that ever lived.

"Patagonia: Life on the Edge of the World" airs tonight at 9:00 PM right here on CNN.

And that does it for me tonight. Thank you so much for watching. Reporting from Washington, I'm Ryan Nobles.

Jim Acosta will be back next week.

Have a great night. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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