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School Shooting in Georgia; Kamala Harris to Unveil New Economic Proposals. Aired 11:30a-12p ET

Aired September 04, 2024 - 11:30   ET

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

IAN SAMS, HARRIS/WALZ CAMPAIGN SENIOR ADVISER: Donald Trump thinks that billionaires and big corporations rule the roost and that giving them more tax cuts and putting more money back in their pockets is somehow going to help the economy.

[11:30:05]

We think that's wrong. The vice president thinks that's wrong. She thinks that the engines of this economy are the American small business and the American worker. Small businesses account for more than half of the private sector jobs in this country, and it costs almost $40,000 to start a small business in America.

So she's going to propose something really important to small businesses in this country and to people who are thinking about starting a small business. Right now, the tax deduction, if you try to start a small business, is $5,000. She's going to expand that tenfold to $50,000 to help those small business owners and entrepreneurs who are trying to start a business and create jobs in their communities across this country to actually be able to get off the ground.

Too often, they don't have the financial resources they need to do so. That's such a contrast with tax cuts for the rich and big corporations. And it's because she has a vision that actually wants to dramatically expand small business growth in communities across this country up to, as you mentioned, a goal of 25 million in her first term.

We have set the record in the Biden/Harris administration for most small businesses created in the administration, millions more than were created in President Trump's administration. But the vice president wants to go even further. And she's going to offer these financial incentives and she's going to push cutting red tape.

There's often too many burdensome regulations for small businesses who are trying to get off the ground. And so she's going to be talking about this as part of her economic vision to move the country forward, away from the Trump plans of trickle down and to her own plans to help support American workers and American small businesses.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: As you know, Ian, the latest polling also shows Trump and Harris virtually tied, tied in both Pennsylvania and Georgia. These are two battleground states that have been decisive in choosing the last two presidents. What's the Harris campaign's plan for those states in the upcoming two

months, shall we say?

SAMS: Well, we try not to take the horse race polling too seriously, especially at this stage of the game.

What we're actually trying to do is turn the enthusiasm, the energy that we have seen, that we saw at the Democratic Convention, that we're seeing on the campaign trail with Vice President Harris, and turn it into real action, harnessing thousands and hundreds of thousands of volunteer shifts across those battleground states, hiring hundreds of staff who are organizing in those communities, having dozens of offices in these states so that we can really be rooted in these communities to help share her vision for the country with voters and mobilize them to go to the polls in November, or to cast early ballots when early voting begins in a few weeks.

BLITZER: The debate is now...

SAMS: We really don't take a lot of stock in these polls.

I will say that some of the...

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: I was going to say the -- go ahead.

(CROSSTALK)

SAMS: An attribute from those polls, people are seeing President Trump -- people are seeing President Trump's proposals as extreme and Vice President Harris's as sensible.

And so that's why you see her talking more and more about these plans that really resonate with people and their lives and not really getting distracted by the horse race polling.

BLITZER: The presidential debate is now, what, just six days away.

Jamal Simmons, a man you probably know, a good friend of ours, the former communications director to Vice President Harris, offered some specific advice for preparing Kamala Harris to debate Trump. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAMAL SIMMONS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Somebody's job also has to be in the debate prep -- can you say this word, A-hole on national TV?

(CROSSTALK)

SIMMONS: Somebody's got to sit there and really pepper her and get her to get annoyed and aggravated, because that's probably what Trump's going to do. And what you want her to do is to work out that aggravation in prep and not do it when she's on stage.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: So is this happening in the debate preparations for Kamala Harris? What do you think?

SAMS: Well, here's what I will say to what Jamal just said. Kamala Harris has been dealing with bullies her whole life, going all the way back to the schoolyard in California.

But when she was the attorney general, she took on bullies who were preying on people, who were who were taking advantage of people. She took them on and she won. She got $20 billion from the big banks who were taking advantage of homeowners. So I think she knows a thing or two about how to handle a bully in a scenario like that.

I think what she will do in the debate is talk about her vision for the country and talk about how Donald Trump is offering the same old, same old chaos and division that we have seen for the last decade. And aren't we tired of that? Don't we want to turn the page on that and move forward?

That's what she's going to offer to the country, including her economic vision, which she continues to talk about today.

BLITZER: Ian Sams, thanks so much for joining us.

SAMS: Thanks.

BLITZER: I want to bring in CNN business anchor Julia Chatterley right now.

Julia, what do you make of the Harris campaign's plans for small businesses, the plans that are expected to be announced today?

JULIA CHATTERLEY, CNN BUSINESS ANCHOR: I think he's correct, what Ian was saying, about the importance of small business and workers to the economic outlook.

But I think this tax deduction rises a splashy way of suggesting that you're providing support. It's probably a smart way too of differentiating that you are trying to provide support for small business while taxing larger business. And he mentioned that.

[11:35:02]

The impact, sadly, Wolf, I think is debatable. One good point about this is the cost is absolutely minimal compared to the billions and billions of other dollars of policy potential spending that they're talking about doing.

Look, bottom line, anything that cuts red tape, that provides support, encouragement and incentivizes businesses to start up and grow is a good thing, something that saves them time filling out paperwork too.

But one could argue that much of what stimulated the record numbers of job applications -- and, by the way applications aren't businesses, by the way -- is the post-pandemic era, the fact that people left their jobs and decided to work from home and start businesses of their own with the incentives that existed already.

The big challenges, and we want to hear this from Harris today, if you want to start a business, you need cash, you need credit. Can you get credit access at a price you can afford? That's one of the critical issues. The other thing is, you have to pay payrolls, you have to pay wages, of course, provide products, buy equipment.

How are you going to do that? Again, you need cash. A tax deduction doesn't really kick in, in the first few years if you're losing money. Extending the time that that's available is important, and they are talking about that.

The final point, Wolf, and it's a critical point, and it's going to be key for Harris to address, particularly one week out from the presidential debate, right now, the vast majority of small businesses report their income on their personal tax returns.

Right now, they get a write-off of around 20 percent or up to 20 percent of their income. That could roll off next year as the tax, Trump tax cuts roll off. Trump has said he will extend that. Harris is operating right now in a gray area, and that will dwarf anything that she talks about today, unless, of course, she decides to address it and clarify, please.

BLITZER: Julia Chatterley, excellent analysis. Thank you very, very much.

And we will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:41:30]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

BLITZER: We're following breaking news right now, very sad, very depressing breaking news, indeed. We're learning about another school shooting here in the United States.

CNN's Nick Valencia is joining us right now.

Nick, what do we know so far?

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, still very an active -- very active and fluid situation.

But this is what police tell us, the Georgia State Patrol saying that they are looking at an active scene right now in Barrow County, about 45 minutes Northeast of Atlanta, Georgia, at Apalachee High School. That's a ninth-through-12th grade high school.

And we don't know a lot right now. We don't know victims, the number of them, if there have been any casualties. We just know that there is a very active scene with police swarming the area, a scene of large ambulances. There is at least one medical helicopter could be seen airlifting a patient from the scene, all of this unfolding just within the last hour-and-a-half, so still very, very fluid situation.

We're still getting details here. But, still, you're looking at an active scene in Winder, Georgia, 45 minutes Northeast of Atlanta, where there is potentially an active shooter there on the scene, police being very limited with the details, only saying that they were responding. But you can see there it's a tense situation there in Winder, Georgia, Barrow County -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Yes, it's awful every time we have to report on one of these shootings like this. It's just a depressing thought that these things continue to go on here in the United States, these kinds of shooting incidents.

Nick, what else do we know right now? Are there going to be any briefings coming up? Are we going to be learning more information in the next few hours?

VALENCIA: We hope so. We haven't been told by law enforcement officials that they are planning a briefing so far. We're repeatedly working the phones, our assignment desk here.

But this goes without saying that school just started here for a number of counties across the state. There are some school districts that started as early as the middle of July, towards the end of July, but many of the students here across the state of Georgia, they just came back to school.

And now we're dealing with something that's become all too familiar in the United States, reports of an active school shooting here Northeast of Atlanta -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Very depressing indeed in a town called Winder, Georgia, as you say, just outside, not too far away from Atlanta.

I want to bring in Chief Charles Ramsey, retired chief, former police chief here in Washington, and Philadelphia. He's a senior law enforcement analyst for CNN right now.

What can be done about these kinds of incidents? What needs to be done in our country right now, Chief Ramsey, to try to prevent these kinds of shooting incidents occurring? And we're seeing these pictures from this school in Winder, Georgia.

CHARLES RAMSEY, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, first of all, Wolf, it is depressing, but it's not surprising that we have something like this occur now at the school year has started up again across the country.

What can be done about it? That's a good question. I mean, obviously, banning assault weapons, things of that nature, but the bottom line is nothing's going to be done about it because Congress is not going to take any kind of action that's going to be meaningful that will keep the guns out of the hands of people who should not have them.

Schools have been taking steps on their own to have better security, locking doors, making sure each classroom door can be locked. I don't know about this particular location, but schools have been taking steps on their own to have better security.

But even so, you still have incidents like this take place. All we can do is just hope that there are no fatalities or anyone seriously injured.

BLITZER: Chief Ramsey, stand by for a moment. I want to go back to Nick Valencia.

[11:45:00]

You're getting new information. I understand, Nick, on what's going on there in Winder, Georgia.

VALENCIA: That's right. A source that works at the regional hospital is telling me, Wolf, that they are receiving victims there, that those victims, some of them, from the shooting, are en route to Piedmont regional hospital in Athens.

I'm also getting text messages right now, as I'm on the air, from individuals that are there at the scene, and they're telling me that they are still in lockdown. There's some unconfirmed rumors right now of just how many individuals were injured. We're not going to report that out. They're not verified yet by CNN.

But what I can tell you is, it's still an active situation, individuals texting me, some of them still in lockdown. You can see crowds out there at the track and field of the local high school, Apalachee High School, again, ninth through 12, about 1,900 students.

And we got these unconfirmed reports of a shooting earlier this morning. Now that shooting has been confirmed with a hospital source telling us that there are several, or some, I should say, victims from this shooting on their way to the hospital right now -- Wolf.

BLITZER: All right, I know you're going to be getting more information, Nick. So stand by. We will be getting back to you.

I want to bring in Steve Moore right now. He's a CNN law enforcement contributor, retired FBI special agent.

Steve, I'm sure it's depressing to you as well. When I drive around here in the Washington, D.C., area, whether in suburban Maryland or in Virginia, and I pass a high school and I see police cars in front of the high school, I say to myself, that's a sign of how awful the situation potentially could be when there have to be police in front of high schools to try to prevent these kinds of shooting incidents.

What's going through your mind as we're hearing about this?

STEVE MOORE, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CONTRIBUTOR: Well, first of all, yes, all those thoughts that you had. It's just -- it's sad. I have responded to school shootings. There's nothing like seeing blood on the floor of a school that brings you right back to reality.

I will tell you that in -- I agree with what Chief Ramsey was saying. What we're doing now, besides -- just put the gun issue just to the side for one moment, not that we should as a society, but we know that we're not going to get gun legislation in the near-term.

And right now, there's so many guns out there. What we need to do is make these schools about five minutes slower to access. And I don't mean for the regular students. I mean, if you have school in session and you can slow down a shooter maybe three minutes until the average police response time, you can save multiple lives.

And there is some fencing on this school, but it looked to be hop-over size. So I think as horrible as it sounds to have to do this, we have to harden our schools the way we have hardened our airports a little bit.

BLITZER: Well, do you think kids going to high school or even elementary school, for that matter, should have to go through metal detectors to enter a school building?

MOORE: No, I would I would hope that they wouldn't have to. But I would also hope that they wouldn't be shot at school.

And so you kind of have to say, well, are we going -- this is a hard decision. Are we going -- I'm not saying you take an elementary school and put a metal detector in it necessarily, but a high school? Maybe. But what we find is that the shooters don't come in with the students necessarily the very first moment school starts.

They wait until school is under way. So simply protecting the school while this -- while the students -- or while class is in session, that's something I think we can do. And, again, I'm not saying stop everything else. I'm just saying that we can't wait until there's some action on what guns are available in society.

BLITZER: And you're seeing these live pictures coming in from Winder, Georgia. That's about a 45-minute drive Northeast of Atlanta right now, very heavy police presence there at the Apalachee High School.

We're watching all the breaking news unfold right now. We will take a quick break. We will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:53:47]

BLITZER: I want to get back to the breaking news we're following, very disturbing breaking news, Georgia State Police now telling CNN they are responding to a very active scene at a high school in Winder, Georgia.

Video from outside the school, the high school, shows several ambulances and a very large, active police presence. You can see the images we're showing you right now. At least one medical helicopter could be seen airlifting a patient from the scene around that high school.

CNN's Nick Valencia is joining us right now. He's in Georgia.

What do we -- what else do we know about what's going on right now, Nick?

VALENCIA: Wolf, this is terrifying. And, as a parent, it's the last kind of phone call that you want to get that there's an active shooter at your child's school.

But that's exactly what parents of those students at Apalachee High School, they got that call earlier this morning. We were working the phones and trying to verify the reports. They are verified now. We're told that there are some of the victims from the shooting en route or possibly have arrived already at this point to Piedmont Regional Hospital in Athens, Clarke County, area.

This incident unfolded earlier this morning about 45 minutes Northeast of Atlanta in Barrow County, Winder, Georgia. And we don't know how many victims there are at this point. We just know that there's a large police presence. We're told in the last several minutes that the FBI is on the scene, that they are involved, and that the school system are telling students that they're being cleared to leave the building and parents have been notified to pick them up at the Apalachee High School there.

[11:55:12]

Georgia State Police among the agencies, the multiple law enforcement agencies at the scene. Earlier, we did see a medical helicopter there airlift at least one of the victims from that high school area. But there's a lot that we don't know right now.

We are calling the Georgia State Police to see if there's a media briefing potentially planned later on finding out more of these details, but, again, this active shooting scene still very much so active there from the video that we see on the ground -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Very disturbing indeed. It happens way too often here in the United States. We have to find out exactly what's going on.

Nick Valencia, thank you very much for that update.

And, to our viewers, thanks very much for joining me here in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Wolf Blitzer in Washington.

Stay with CNN for continuing live coverage of this breaking news.