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Officer Under Investigation Over Uvalde Response; Judge Expected To Sentence Bannon After A Short Recess; Twitter Shares Fall As Elon Musk Takeover Looms; Mortgage Rates Creep Closer To 7% Amid Fed's Aggressive Rate Hikes; Trump's Boeing 757 Updated, Ready To Fly After Months Spend Idle. Aired 10:30-11a ET
Aired October 21, 2022 - 10:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[10:33:26]
BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN ANCHOR: In a CNN exclusive report this morning, new audio reveals a Texas State Police captain's commands may have contributed to the failed law enforcement response to the Uvalde shooting that left 19 children and two teachers dead. As a tactical team was ready to breach the classroom, they were ordered to stand by.
CNN Shimon Prokupecz has the details.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Amid the chaos at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas where nearly 400 law enforcement responded to a deadly school shooting last May, CNN has learned commands by a high-ranking state police officer may have contributed to the broader failed response that day.
While a gunman sat in a room full of dead, dying and traumatized children, new police radio transmissions obtained by CNN show Texas Department of Public Safety Captain Joe Betancourt given an order to stop police from entering the classroom. And one internal memo describes him before he arrives telling officers to stay away from the school and remain on the perimeter during the initial response to the shooting.
Captain Betancourt was one of 91 DPS officers on scene in Uvalde. We are now learning he is one of the seven referred for further investigation over his actions. After lionizing the police response in the initial days, the Texas governor and state officials have pushed the blame for what has since been acknowledged as a failure on the local and school police.
But CNN has now reviewed memos written just two days after the shooting. The detail actions by the DPS that allegedly went against protocol for mass shootings.
[10:35:06] One lieutenant wrote, "I heard someone shout out, Captain Betancourt said all DPS personnel need to be on perimeter. Do not enter the building. And a sergeant reported he knew this was clearly against established training. And so he entered the school anyway." By the time Betancourt says he arrived outside Robb Elementary, students and teachers had already been trapped for more than an hour.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They think there's kids in there. Supposedly one kid called in and he was in there with him.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We don't know if he has anyone in the room with him, do we?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think he does.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He does.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Eight or nine children.
PROKUPECZ (voice-over): Some at the scene like this border patrol medic are aware of the urgency inside the classroom.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I thought he said victims, room 12.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, we hadn't heard that, no. We're in the fours, right? This is building four?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Anybody hurt?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, not here. No, sir.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, there are.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Here?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: EMS in there already?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't know. No, sir. We have an active shooter in there.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's in here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's in here. Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, I'll stand here and be ready.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The last contact -- hold on. The last contact we had was one of our school PD officers. His wife is a teacher. She called him and said she's dying.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They just had a number of kids in room 12. A kid in room 12. Most of the victims in room 12. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Fuck we're taking too long.
PROKUPECZ (voice-over): A Border Patrol tactical unit is preparing to end the standoff and stormed the classroom.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Units making breach, come in.
PROKUPECZ (voice-over): In a move that sources tell CNN has shocked people inside DPS, Betancourt picked up his radio and try to stop the breach.
JOE BETANCOURT, TEXAS DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY CAPTAIN: Hey, this is DPS Captain Betancourt. The team that's going to make breach needs to stand by. The team that's going to breach needs to stand by.
PROKUPECZ (voice-over): The transmission can be clearly heard on several body worn cameras inside and outside the hallway of Robb Elementary. The tactical unit was already making entry.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Subject down! Subject down!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Kids, kids, kids!
PROKUPECZ (voice-over): The shooter is killed and a devastating scene is revealed inside the classroom. In an interview with investigators that has been detailed to CNN, Betancourt said he did not know there were any children in the building until after the breach. That's despite 911 calls from children inside the room.
Betancourt says he was relying on information from Uvalde Sheriff Ruben Nolasco that the gunman was a barricaded subject and no longer an active shooter. And that a better SWAT team was on its way. He admits he never spoke to former school Police Chief Pete Arredondo who has been labeled the on-scene commander until after the shooter was killed.
The memo referencing Betancourt's actions and another corroborating it are some of the clearest evidence that questions are being raised internally at the Department of Public Safety about the actions of its officers. His orders over the radio contradict the official narrative that the state police were never in command of the scene and never issued substantive orders.
When questioned by CNN in September, DPS Director Colonel Steve McCraw confirmed the investigation into Betancourt and promised to resign if his agency was shown to have culpability for the botched response.
(on-camera): Was there a bodycam -- there's apparently footage of him inside the hallway, telling people not to breach that door. Have you heard that?
COL. STEVE MCCRAW, DIRECTOR, TEXAS DEPT. OF PUBLIC SAFETY: You know, I've heard a lot of things, but --
PROKUPECZ (on-camera): But is there incredibility to that?
MCCRAW: I don't know if there is or not, but that's one of the reasons why we're doing the investigation, OK?
PROKUPECZ (on-camera): No, I know. OK.
MCCRAW: And we're going to be sterile.
(CROSSTALK)
PROKUPECZ (on-camera): I don't want to do this but --
MCCRAW: Hey, hold on. I'll be the first resign, OK? I'll be gladly resign or tender my resignation to the Governor, OK, if I think there's any culpability within the Department of Public Safety parade (ph), OK? But we're going to hold our officers accountable. No one gets a pass. But every officer is going to be held accountable.
PROKUPECZ (on-camera): But you are looking at this Captain Betancourt for information that you have that he may have told officers not to go in the hallway.
MCCRAW: Yes, yes, absolutely.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PROKUPECZ: And Bianna, there are now people calling for the resignation of Steve McCraw, the head there of Texas Department of Public Safety, as you heard him telling me, he said he would resign, that he would leave the Department of Public Safety if he was found -- if it was found that any of his officers, any of his agents were culpable.
We have not gotten a response from the Texas Department of Public Safety to our story. But we are expected to hear from the head of that agency, Steve McCraw next week, Thursday at a public safety commission hearing where on the agenda they say is Uvalde. They say that he is expected to address Uvalde at that hearing. Perhaps, Bianna, we will get an update on the investigation.
GOLODRYGA: Thank you so much for your incredible reporting, Shimon, just revealing failure upon failure upon failure. Keep thinking about all those families that have to suffer through it.
Well we turn now to mortgage rates which are on the rise, making it harder to buy a house today, that just -- than just a couple of months ago. That's all straight ahead.
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[10:44:23]
GOLODRYGA: And this just into CNN, we're learning that the sentencing hearing for former Trump adviser Steve Bannon is now in a brief recess. The federal judge now weighing the sentence he will hand down. Bannon was convicted earlier this year on two counts of contempt of Congress. All of this stemming from his refusal to testify before the January 6 Select Committee. The judge saying this morning that Bannon is subject to a sentence of at least one month. We will bring you the latest when we get it.
Also right now, Twitter stock price is taking a hit as Tesla CEO Elon Musk's takeover draws closer. Let's get right to CNN's Matt Egan. So Matt, we've got some more back and forth between Elon Musk suggesting what he may and may not do once this deal is closed. What are we hearing?
[10:45:06]
MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: Yes, Bianna, this has really been one of the most fascinating corporate mergers we've ever seen. I mean, you know there's going to be an HBO special --
GOLODRYGA: Yes, yes.
EGAN: -- drama on this in a few years and probably won't live up to the reality. The latest twist that Bloomberg News is reporting that Biden officials are discussing whether the U.S. should subject Elon Musk ventures to national security reviews including this Twitter deal. Bloomberg says officials have grown increasingly uncomfortable with Musk-Russia friendly stance.
Twitter shares plunged on this news. They have since pared back some of their losses only down around 4 percent. Now, we asked the White House about this and they're pushing back. National Security spokesperson told me that they don't know of any such conversations over a national security review here. And this is a big deal because this takeover is supposed to close in about a week.
And the only way it falls through is if, one, the financing falls through which seems unlikely or, two, if regulators somehow block it. So we have to watch this closely. Meanwhile, if this deal does get through, Musk has signaled deep job cuts. The Washington Post is reporting that Musk has told investors he plans to get rid of almost 75 percent of Twitter's workforce. That would leave it with just the skeleton staff of around 2,000 people.
Now the Post is citing corporate documents and people familiar with the company's deliberations. We haven't heard from either Twitter or Musk on this. But we do know that Musk himself has conceded that he overpaid --
GOLODRYGA: Yes.
EGAN: -- for Twitter, $44 billion, and it's not going to be easy to make this into a money-making machine. They're probably going to have to cut costs.
GOLODRYGA: Has he hinted at costs that are this deep that he would be making before?
EGAN: He has hinted in text messages that came out through court documents of deep job cuts. We don't know how deep but this Post reports suggest they could be very deep.
GOLODRYGA: Matt Egan, we continue to cover both stories. Thank you. EGAN: Thanks.
GOLODRYGA: Well, home borrowing costs have now skyrocketed to a 20- year high in the U.S. as mortgage rates creep closer to 7 percent amid the Federal Reserve's unprecedented campaign to tamp down inflation. CNN's Rahel Solomon has the details.
RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Bianna, mortgage rates are more than double what they were at the start of the year when the average 30-year was closer to 3 percent. This means that buying the same home today costs much more than even just a few months ago. For example, if you bought a $390,000 home today and put 20 percent down, that same home cost an additional $700 more every month, and that is causing viruses set up this market.
New data this week shows that sales of existing homes in September fell nearly 24 percent compared to last year and are down 1.5 percent compared to the previous month. So why are mortgage rates rising so much? Well, like many things in this economy, the answer lies with the Fed. As the Fed tries to cool inflation by slowing spending, it's been raising its key interest rate. That then impacts borrowing costs for us consumers, including mortgage rates.
And in the housing market, we're absolutely seeing a slowdown in spending. Existing home sales have fallen for eight months in a row. But what about home prices? Well, supply is still tight, so prices have yet to slow in a meaningful way. Prices are still on average higher than they were a year ago, although slowing on a month-to-month basis.
So what's the buyer to do in this market? I talked to Dottie Herman, she's a real estate pro with Douglas Elliman who said, if you can still afford to buy, you might have better luck negotiating with a seller. But key words being, if you can still afford to buy. Bianna?
GOLODRYGA: Yes. It's a fast-moving market at that too. Rahel Solomon, thank you.
After four years on the ground, President Trump's private Boeing 757 is ready for takeoff. What that could indicate about his plans for 2024, up next.
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[10:53:33]
GOLODRYGA: Well, Trump Force One is once again ready for takeoff. The former president's plane that was a regular backdrop of his campaign rallies is now back in West Palm Beach. CNN White House Correspondent Kate Bennett has more details. So Kate, bring us up to speed on this jets journey.
KATE BENNETT, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, when last we saw it, it was shrink-wrapped engine, sitting on a tarmac at an airport in New York. This was in March about of 2021. And it didn't look like it was flyable. And it really quite frankly wasn't at the time. However, in the last year, it has been at a airport, a small airport in Louisiana, we found out and it has been going under refurbishment.
Repairs have been made, a new paint job was done in July, the summer. And then recently, my colleagues on the Aviation team and I noticed that there were some movements happening above this airport in Louisiana by this plane via its tail number. And it was doing some loops and clearly testing out some new parts. And on Wednesday, it arrived in Palm Beach back at its home base.
We reached out to the Donald Trump's team to ask what the plane is doing there, how they intend to use it, when is it going to be unveiled with its new paint job which includes a new American flag on the tail, not a big T for Trump, which was there before, we did not get a response. But, you know, where this plane goes, is typically where Donald Trump used to go in terms of campaigning and big announcements. So we'll just have to see, but definitely, it is air worthy again and what it signals, you know, we could wait until November to find out.
[10:55:07]
GOLODRYGA: Yes. I believe was it LaGuardia where it was parked for a while there? Now, Kate, I know we have yet to see what this really means, but does this perhaps suggest that we could see the former president on the campaign trail sooner than we thought?
BENNETT: Well, we've learned that the plane is going to be in the air and used by the former president sooner rather than later. So I think we can expect to see him. If he does more campaigning for some of these midterm candidates, yes, I believe he'll bring the plane. And as we know, it is that backdrop that he used. You know, his supporters love it as this symbol of wealth and power. And I think, yes, keep your eye out. It's going to be flying again.
GOLODRYGA: Yes, that they had a plane, to helicopter make for -- a really interesting backdrops that you said supporters really did love. Kate Bennett, thank you. Have a great weekend.
BENNETT: Thank you. Thanks, you too.
GOLODRYGA: And thank you all for joining us today. I'm Bianna Golodryga.
At this hour with Kate Baldwin starts in moments as we wait for a judge to hand down a sentence for former Trump adviser Steve Bannon.
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