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FBI Has Credible Information of a Threat to New Jersey Synagogues; Elon Musk, Civil Leaders Meet as N-Word Use Surges on Twitter; 911 Audio of Another Uvalde 4th Grader During School Shooting; Ukrainian Official: Russian Claim of Kherson Withdrawal A Trap. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired November 03, 2022 - 15:30   ET

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

[15:30:00]

BRIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN HOST: And this upsetting news just into CNN. The FBI has received what they say is a credible information of a broad threat to synagogues in New Jersey.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: CNN's Polo Sandoval is following this story. What are you learning, Polo?

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, Victor and Brianna, we are currently working our sources as we try to find out exactly what is behind this -- you can call it an alert that was issued by the FBI field office in Newark. We've actually can put it up for our viewers.

This was tweeted actually just in the last 30 minutes or so by FBI saying that the agency has received credible information of a broad threat to synagogues in New Jersey. The FBI then goes on to ask at this time that people take all security precautions to protect their community, also facilities.

And then the FBI wraps up by writing: We will share more information as soon as we can. Stay alert in case of emergency. Call police.

But the FBI not elaborating on what exactly is behind this threat. As you can imagine, the FBI and its intelligence analysts certainly receive just countless sort of threats that they have to go through. So certainly, this would lead us to conclude that they at least have some solid information here to issue this really broad alert right now for people to remain alert. Again, we are trying to find out exactly what's behind this alert that was issued by FBI agents in New Jersey -- Bianna, Victor.

BLACKWELL: Yes, and for years now, synagogues have had to reconsider their security plans and, in some cases, fortify their physical locations there because of the very real threats.

[15:35:00]

Polo Sandoval --

SANDOVAL: Yes, sadly, we've seen that before. BLACKWELL: Yes, we certainly have. Polo, keep us up to date if you get

more. Thank you.

GOLODRYGA: Twitter's new leader, Elon Musk, is facing increased criticism over the rampant hate speech seen on the social media app.

BLACKWELL: On Monday evening, the billionaire held a Zoom call with representatives from seven nonprofits about the disturbing trend, and one of those leaders is with us now. Rashad Robinson, president of Color of Change. Rashad, good to see you again. Tell us first how this call came about. Was this something that you all approached him to do, or you were invited to be a part of?

RASHAD ROBINSON, PRESIDENT, COLOR OF CHANGE: Well, our organization, the organization was on the call, many of them have been engaged in these issues, have been engaged with Twitter for years, but also a number of us led the $7 billion boycott, as The Stop Hate For Profit coalition. And so, when they reached out to a number of members of the coalition just to be in conversation, this call sort of developed. And it developed very quickly. Elon through a colleague of his, who is a friend of his, reached out. And so, it really did come from the Twitter side.

And it moved very quickly within 24 hours. We were all on a Zoom conversation. We ended up sort of engaging in a conversation. Many of our groups, mine included, had already began conversations with advertisers or been engaging and pushing advertisers to both hold Twitter to a set of principles that they were going to continue to advertise, and to continue to maybe build energy around a potential boycott if some of the changes that we've been hearing about and some of the stories that were bubbling up from inside of Twitter headquarters were actually true.

GOLODRYGA: And I know that the meeting had been described as productive, that he appeared receptive to your comments and suggestions, and that he agreed to hold off on any major changes to the platforms content moderation policies before the election. Now that also means allowing people back on to the platform when they had been kicked off for breaking their rules. He's holding off on that, but was there any indication he gave as to when that would change possibly?

ROBINSON: Well, we asked for a transparent and clear process for any of those type of changes. He committed to that on the call. And you know, after the call, in a Zoom, none of us tweeted out or went to the press to talk about this. Actually, it was Elon Musk who, you know, very early yesterday morning tweeted out that he had had this meeting, tweeted out what was agreed by the groups and him.

And now that this is out there, in his own words, time will tell. Word are one thing, actions are another. What I will be clear about is what we addressed on that call is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the issues at Twitter, in terms of the challenges. And holding off to big changes until the election is very much about harm reduction. It's about making sure that there are not these swift issues inside of a platform that has problems even if they don't make any changes. And so, what we are sort of very clear about is that there are a lot

of issues to deal with, with this platform. This kind of singular leader who shoots from the hip and talks about changes that he's going to make without oftentimes the kind of transparency around those decisions. And sometimes not really sharing thoughtfulness about how it's going to impact a whole range of people, as well as a whole set of systems that are impacted by Twitter. So, we are paying close attention, and we are continuing to be in conversation with advertisers about the path forward.

BLACKWELL: Yes, of course we saw according to an organization that watches social media posts, 500 percent peak in the use of the "N" word on Twitter. In the 12 hours after the Twitter deal was done. Some of these sites that perpetuate these racial and hate groups and these ideas, they see this as carte blanche now that the bird is freed. We'll see how much actually changes. Rashad Robinson, thank you so much for sharing what happened on that Zoom call.

GOLODRYGA: Thank you.

BLACKWELL: Well, CNN has obtained another 911 call from a child who survived the mass shooting in Uvalde. Again, it is raising questions about the police response. You are you going to hear a portion of the call yourself. That's next.

[15:40:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: New developments now in the Robb Elementary School massacre. The Texas State Senator who represents Uvalde says that he believes police there are involved in a cover-up over their botched response to the shooting.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STATE SEN. ROLAND GUTIERREZ (D-TX): We have to be very clear that officers cared more about their own safety than the safety of their children. They literally stood out of room and said I'm not going to go in because it's dangerous. It's clear by now that this is actually a cover-up. For what reason, I do not know. If it's as sick as this upcoming election, that's very disturbing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GOLODRYGA: And CNN has also obtained chilling 911 calls from yet another student who was trapped inside a classroom during the massacre. CNN has that. Shimon Prokupecz has that for us. Shimon, you were here yesterday, and you were literally running off set to take calls from families who I guess have no one else to turn to but you.

[15:45:00]

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Right, and so we played another call -- the same call -- to another family member, parents of another little girl who was inside that room. She took the phone from the girl who we played, Khloe Torres, yesterday. Miah is the other girl on the phone here who sort of captures kind of the middle of this terrible, terrible situation inside this classroom on the phone. You can hear gunshots. We don't air those gunshots.

But she's describing to officers what's going on. She's asking for them to come in and help her. She recalls hearing one of the -- the gunman in the room and then also hearing officers outside the room. And what we did hear is we took her voice, her audio and paired it with video of officers in the hallways of what they were doing in those moments. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MIAH CERRILLO, ROBB ELEMENTARY SHOOTING SURVIVOR: Hello?

DISPATCHER: I'm here. I'm here. I'm here.

MIAH CERRILLO: OK. Is the killer in the building?

DISPATCHER: I'm sorry?

MIAH CERILLO: Is the killer in the building?

DISPATCHER: Yes, he's still there in the building, so I need you to be quiet and do not open the door until we tell you to.

MIAH CERRILLO: OK.

DISPATCHER: Everyone needs to be as quiet as possible.

MIAH CERRILLO: He's shooting.

DISPATCHER: Stay quiet. Make sure everybody stays quiet.

MIAH CERRILLO: OK.

The officers are (INAUDIBLE).

DISPATCHER: Are there officers there?

MIAH CERRILLO: (INAUDIBLE).

DISPATCHER: OK. Hold on. Hold on. Don't do anything.

MIAH CERRILLO: The officers are in the building.

DISPATCHER: What was that?

MIAH CERRILLO: I think the officers are in the building.

DISPATCHER: OK, officers are in the building , but do not open the door until I tell you.

MIAH CERRILLO: OK.

DISPATCHER: Everyone needs to stay as quiet as possible. MIAH CERRILLO: OK.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PROKUPECZ: Then you saw on the screen we wrote in the words "gunshot" because that's when the gunshots are being fired. She can hear them. She mentions them. But yet it would still take almost 30 minutes, 30 minutes for officers to enter that classroom. They start heading toward that classroom, but then they stop.

We know that there was so much hesitation as they were trying to figure out exactly how to get inside the classroom. They were waiting for keys. But officials there said there was no need to wait for keys. You had the equipment, you had the weaponry, you should have gone in sooner.

This is just devastating. You hear the sort of her fear in her voice, the heart pounding, and it's so hard for these families.

BLACKWELL: And asking is someone coming? Are the officers in the building?

PROKUPECZ: This keeps happening in that call. The other girl does the same thing, where are they?

BLACKWELL: Shimon Prokupecz, thank you for the reporting.

GOLODRYGA: Thank you, Shimon.

New video appears to show a Russian flag being removed from an administrative building in Kherson, an area that's been under Russian appointed officials. We're live in Ukraine with the latest on this story up next.

[15:50:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GOLODRYGA: Some new evidence that Ukraine's counteroffensive is gaining ground. In the key port city of Kherson, video appears to show that the Russian flag was taken down from an administrative building.

BLACKWELL: There's been growing uncertainty in Kherson, rooted in conflicting reports about Russian troop movement. CNN's Nic Robertson has the latest from Kramatorsk. Was the latest there?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, there's concern by Ukrainian officials that what they're witnessing in Kherson right now might be an elaborate trap being set by Russian officials. You had the Russian governor -- Russian-imposed governor of Kherson speaking to a propagandist there -- Russian TV propagandist -- saying that there was the likelihood, very likelihood that the Russian forces were going to move east across the river, out of the city, essentially.

Residents of the city saw today that the Russian flag had gone down from the main administrative building. They saw as well that all the Russian checkpoints in the city had gone. CNN spoke with a resident in the city who said, no, it's different, there are changes here. The checkpoints are gone.

But what Ukrainian officials are saying is, hold on. We're seeing Russian -- the Russians fortify positions but also the Ukrainians are saying that we think there are Russian soldiers inside the city dressed in civilian clothes. And it wouldn't be the first time in this war, if one side duped the other about what was happening.

Ukraine's lightning offensive in the north here, just a few months ago, came about essentially because they spun a story that they were going to attack in the south and then attacked in the north, instead. So, I think everyone's wary of being sucked into a trap here and residents also saying that they are seeing Russian forces dug in on the outskirts of the city, as well.

So, a lot of caution, a lot of skepticism and no one really knows what Putin has in mind. I think what is generalcy is they're losing ground there. It's not a question of if they're going to lose it, it seems, but how they're going to manage or stage manage the fight as they pull out, not to seem like a loss, but maybe to score some kind of victory through trickery, essentially.

GOLODRYGA: Yes, to underline that point, Nic, Defense Secretary Austin just today said Ukrainian forces, in his mind, have the capability to retake Kherson from Russian Troops. And we'll continue to follow this. Thank you.

BLACKWELL: President Biden is in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Big names in both parties out on the campaign trail. We'll have more on that ahead.

[15:55:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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GOLODRYGA: With no winner last night, it's now one of the largest prize pools in U.S. lottery history. You have until Saturday night at 10:59 Eastern to grab a ticket. Man, Victor, $1.5 billion that's some serious money.

BLACKWELL: I don't really start playing until it's over a billion dollars.

[16:00:00]

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GOLODRYGA: $1.5 Billion, different story.

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GOLODRYGA: Big money.

"THE LEAD" starts now.