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Accused Pelosi Attacked Said He Was on a Suicide Mission; Chilling 911 Call from Girl Inside Uvalde Classroom Release; Ukraine Says, No Effective Defense Against Missiles Iran Sending Russia. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired November 02, 2022 - 07:00   ET

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

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DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Wednesday morning, everyone. Don Lemon, alongside Poppy Harlow and Kaitlan Collins here. It is Wednesday, November 2nd. We're so glad that you chose to wake up with us and tune in.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, it's a big news day too.

LEMON: It is a very big news day, so we're going to get right to it. The big questions this morning, do politicians and their families need more protection after the attack on Paul Pelosi? Capitol police making a desperate plea.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: The second big question this morning, what were those officers waiting for? We have exclusive and chilling 911 audio from a little ten-year-old girl. Her names is Khloie. She called police. She begged for help during the Uvalde school massacre.

COLLINS: Our third question is whether or not former President Barack Obama had help push struggling; Democrats over the line in the last few days over the midterms. The former president is campaigning today with Katie Hobbs in the Arizona governor's race. The Democratic candidate will join us live.

LEMON: And, finally, this is a really important question, what would you buy first if you won $1.2 billion, meaning after you picked yourself up off the floor? The Powerball jackpot soaring to record highs. So, we'll talk about all of that.

But we're going to get to our big story this morning, the man accused of attacking Paul Pelosi was on a, quote, a suicide mission. Court documents revealed that's what David DePape told police at the Pelosis' San Francisco home. He also reportedly planned to target other politicians.

Now, police say the moment DePape hit Paul Pelosi with a hammer was captured on body camera video. The San Francisco's police chief says it is clear to him from viewing the footage that the suspect tried to kill Paul Pelosi. Sources are also telling CNN that U.S. Capitol police first learned of the break-in about ten minutes after the incident when an officer noticed that police lights and sirens on a live camera feed at the command center in Washington, that there lights and sirens at their home there. With House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other lawmakers becoming targets, Capitol police are calling for more security to protect members of Congress.

Straight now to CNN's Whitney Wild live for us on Capitol Hill. This is a very important story here Whitney, because security for lawmakers at the utmost importance right now, and this story bringing it home for everyone.

WHITNEY WILD, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CORRESPONDENT: It is another data point on a long line of examples of why security is so necessary. The 2011 shooting of Gabby Giffords, the 2017 shooting at the ball field of Steve Scalise, notably being shot in that case, the January 6th case, these are all the examples Capitol police are pointing. And they say, we are desperately in need of more resources as political climate is becoming more and more heightened, tenser and tenser by the day and that requires more resources.

Capitol police issuing a statement saying just that, really sounding the alarm here, saying, we believe today's political climate calls for more resources to provide additional layers of physical security for members of Congress. They have a plan and say it would include emphasis on adding redundancies to the measures that are already in place for congressional leadership. We very likely expect, based on what Capitol police has told us, is that this plan will result in a formal request to Congress. We'll see how lawmakers take that. Back to you, Don.

LEMON: His first appearance yesterday, David DePape, making, what happened?

WILD: Well, he pleaded not guilty. He remains behind bars and he is to have no contact with the Pelosi family, Don.

LEMON: All right. Thank you, Whitney Wild, we appreciate that.

HARLOW: Well, as calls clearly growing after this attack for increased security for members of Congress, their families as well, former Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson told CNN the political climate today is at least as combustible as it was in the 1960s. Listen to what he said.

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JEH JOHNSON, FORMER HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: I'm a child of the 1960s. As you'll recall, within a five-year period from June 1963 to June 1968, we lost to assassination Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, John and Robert Kennedy. I think that this environment that we're in now is at least as combustible as the mid 1960s. But it's a miracle that no member of Congress was seriously injured on January 6th.

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It should not require someone to die before our leaders who command a microphone, who have a voice, get together and decide we need to take the temperature down.

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HARLOW: He's exactly right, it should not take it. And you have sitting Republican and Democratic lawmakers, Debbie Dingell, Susan Collins, so many more warning someone is going to die.

LEMON: Yes. But I think people -- they need to be more adamant, which is a conversation that we had yesterday, adamant about violence. There shouldn't be so much whataboutism about what is happening that shouldn't be so much both sides. It does happen on both sides of the aisle. Our politicians should not be contributing to the violence.

We tend to -- and you saw the pictures of the folks there who were assassinated in the 1960s, we tend to want to romanticize history. Our history has been violent from the beginning, the start of this country. But as we progress as a society and as human beings, one would think that we would learn something from the violence that has taken place.

HARLOW: That's such a good point.

COLLINS: Well, one thing interesting that Governor Sununu said the other day when he was talking about this, as he was saying, it's not just about increasing security for lawmakers. That seems like an obvious answer, well, they should have security. Well, Nancy Pelosi has security, but she wasn't home at the time when this attack happened.

He talked about it being a fundamental conversation basically in society about how the fact we do get to this where politicians are so dehumanized that people think things like what David DePape did is okay, that he felt like he was called to do that on this suicide mission.

LEMON: Well, he was co-opted and in large part by politicians. And that is the point. Listen, the people -- we the people decide who the politicians are going to be. But if those politicians aren't honest in their actions and in their words, then you end up with a David DePape and other violence.

HARLOW: And the FBI is warning of an increase of it around the midterms.

LEMON: There's a lot to discuss, especially when it comes to violence here, talking about David DePape, that was in California, but also in Texas as well.

COLLINS: Yes. Obviously, the aftermath of the Uvalde school shooting and what happened there is still present here. And we are learning new details that are incredibly chilling, including that it took 40 minutes for police to react after a ten-year-old girl repeatedly called 911 from her classroom, asking and begging them for help, asking them to send a police officer to her classroom, as the Uvalde school massacre was unfolding.

The chilling call has been obtained exclusively by CNN. CNN's Shimon Prokupecz is the one who broke this story. It's difficult to even read the quotes from Khloie in here, as she was calling repeatedly, saying, I don't want to die, my teacher is dead, oh my God.

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: And this goes on and on and on for 20 minutes. It doesn't just end. And then there are more calls from Khloie.

LEMON: She's ten years old.

PROKUPECZ: A remarkable young lady, so composed on the call, just begging, but not only that, her heroic efforts. And this is why her parents wanted her story out there. We spoke to them before we aired this, obviously, and they gave us permission to air this.

It is one of the most terrifying things I have ever listened to, for 20 minutes to hear kids begging for the police to come in and save their lives. But also the importance of this is, is that it shows just how horrendous the police response was that day. And we should warn viewers that some of these audio you're about to hear may be difficult to listen to.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just advising we have a child on the line.

PROKUPECZ (voice over): This was the moment everything at the scene in Uvalde should have changed. At 12:10 P.M. on May 24th, fourth grader Khloie Torres, who survived the shooting, was inside Room 112 at Robb Elementary and spoke to 911. Police just a few feet away in the hallway were just minutes later made aware the worst case scenario was unfolding.

Khloie along with her classmates and teachers, some dead or dying, were alone, trapped with an active shooter. It's the phone call that should have made the difference. Instead, it would be another 40 minutes until police finally enter the room and kill the gunman.

CNN has obtained the call never made public until now. A warning to our viewers, it's painful to hear. We're choosing to play portions of the audio with the approval of Khloie's parents, and because it is crucial to understanding the full scope of the law enforcement failure that day.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hello?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm calling the police department. Are you okay?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, there's a school shooting.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Okay, yes, ma'am. I have multiple units. Are you with officers or are you barricaded somewhere? UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm in classroom -- what's the classroom number? Room 112.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Room 112.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: 112, 112, yes, ma'am.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What's your name, ma'am.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Khloie Torres.

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Please hurry. There's a lot of dead bodies.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Stay on the line, okay? You said you're in Room 112?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, ma'am. Please send help.

PROKUPECZ: You can hear injured people in the room crying out in pain. The dispatcher asks Khloie to tell her classmates to stay quiet. She does her best.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You need to tell them that they need to be quiet.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I am. I am. I'm telling everybody to be quiet and now nobody is listening to me. I know how to handle these situations. My dad taught me when I was a little girl. Send help. Some of my teachers are still alive but they're shot.

PROKUPECZ: Less than two minutes into the call, at 12:12 P.M., the Uvalde dispatcher sends an urgent message to police on the scene.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 3-20. Go ahead with that child's information. Relay it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The child is advising he is in the room full of victims, full of victims at this moment.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 10-4, Uvalde. Can you confirm to see if that shooter is still standing or has he shot himself?

PROKUPECZ: If active shooter protocol had been followed, this dispatch should have triggered police to spring into action and breach the classroom. Instead, 38 minutes were allowed to go by as more officers arrive on scene with more equipment until something is done. Nearly 400 officers responded in Uvalde. Khloie wanted to know where they were.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How far are you all away?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They're inside the building, okay? You need to stay quiet, okay?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They're in the building we just need to stay quiet.

PROKUPECZ: On the other side of the door, the law enforcement response was disorganized and chaotic. Official reports detail the catastrophic mistake that was made. Police on scene thought the shooter was a barricaded subject and not an active shooter. Khloie's call makes it clear an active shooter situation is unfolding.

Body camera footage from local and state police departments obtained by CNN shows the officers on scene knew about the phone call and that there were children inside the room hurt and in desperate need of medical attention.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, we haven't heard that. No. We're in the 4s, right? This is building 4?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Anybody hurt?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, not here. No, sir. Here?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: EMS in there already?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No. No, sir. No, we have an active shooter.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's in here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's in here, yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Okay, I'll stand here and be ready.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The last contact we had -- hold on. The last contact we had was one of our school P.D. officers. His wife just --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They just had a number of kids in Room 12, a kid in Room 12, most of the victims in Room12.

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COLLINS: And, Shimon, you were the reason the parents actually got -- Khloie's parents actually got to hear this 911 call.

PROKUPECZ (on camera): Right.

COLLINS: Can you tell us how that evolved?

PROKUPECZ: Yes. So, when we started reporting on the story, we reached out to the family, the parents, both Jamie and Ruben. And so we played the audio for them in its entirety. And Jamie, I could tell, was crying on the other end. It was the first time they had really listened to this call.

What has been happening in this investigation is that it's been shutdown. No one has been providing any information to the families. And, really, the only way they're learning information is through us, through reporters, and a lot of the information that we've been able to obtain and report on. And it should not be that way, but, sadly, that is what's happening now.

COLLINS: It is really sad. And, Shimon, thank you, though, for -- it's important for people to hear this, to speak to the level of just how bad that police response was.

HARLOW: Malpractice, thank you.

LEMON: So, as Shimon was just talking about the parents, and joining us now, Khloie's parents, Jamie and Reuben Torres. This is the first interview since the shooting. Good morning to you. We appreciate you joining us. We're so sorry for what happened to Khloie and for everyone there in Uvalde. And I think that you're brave for doing this.

The details are terrifying, and I have to ask first off, how is Khloie?

JAMIE TORRES, MOTHER OF TEN-YEAR-OLD STUDENT WHO CALLED 911 DURING UVALDE SHOOTING: She's not doing very good. She's a really strong girl. So, one day at a time is how we have to do it.

HARLOW: Jamie, it is every mother's, every father's worst nightmare to imagine this happening to their child. When Shimon called you and played this audio for you and we heard your little girl, as we just heard, begging, saying, please send the police soon, please send the police soon, what was it like as a mother to hear her have to beg for that?

J. TORRES: Extremely sad. I'm really upset about it. There's just no words can describe the feeling.

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COLLINS: And, Ruben, reading this, she's repeatedly calling the operator, and at one point, your daughter says, I'm telling everyone to be quiet but nobody is listening to me. I understand what to do in these situations. My dad taught me when I was a little girl. I know she's just ten years old. What did you have -- what kind of

conversations did you have with her before this?

RUBEN TORRES, FATHER OF TEN-YEAR-OLD STUDENT WHO CALLED 911 DURING UVALDE SHOOTING: Well, the -- you know, the shootings ain't a surprise. They're happening all over our country, unfortunately. So, when shootings happen like this, I give scenarios. I was a Marine, and, you know, I try to prepare them as much as possible how to handle themselves in situations like that, how to help. That's the biggest thing. Unfortunately, that's the one thing that didn't happen to her and her teachers and her students that day. They received absolutely zero help.

LEMON: It's sad that you have to do this, but considering what's happening, you know, school shootings happen all the time, and it's sad because they stopped getting the attention that they deserve. This story obviously deserves everyone's attention. It should stay at the top of the headline on the paper and the top of the newscast, as it is now. And you felt that you had to prepare your child, and, luckily, you did, because of so many things that are happening.

R. TORRES: Yes, you know, and we see it now, you know, as we go on day-by-day. She -- I know, I talked to Shimon on the phone, she's just more -- you know, more aware now, and she's actually, you know, a lot of those kids actually that day, in my opinion, stopped being kids that day and now have to be as grown, as parents, in survival mode, protection mode. And that's what we see with our daughter and that's what we hear from the other survivors as well. And it's very -- it's pretty sad.

And not just them, it's teachers as well now, they're being distracted from actually doing and performing their duties and their job as teachers, in which teaching, now they have to, you know, do these drills, now they have to be security guards when that's not their profession and it's pretty sad. LEMON: I just (INAUDIBLE) on the preparation, because you prepared --

sorry Poppy -- you prepared her for this, but can you prepare a child for what happened after this? That's the question. That's something I don't think that any parent can do.

J. TORRES: When you think that what happened to you, nobody thinks that it could happen to them. But I strongly advise all parents to talk about situations like this. You never know when they're going to use it.

R. TORRES: And with us, it was simply the phones. I know phones are real huge nowadays. Just to have their phones and to be able to think in situations like that and be able to use their phones that day, going back, she would always take her phone and I would notice that it would be a distraction. So, she was trying to honor us by not taking her phone because she knew it was a distraction. So, she was honoring us in that way and showing us that, hey, I want to respect y'all's wishes and not take my phone that day. It's just heartbreaking because, like, man, she should have had her phone.

These are little things that can be crucial in a situation like that. So -- and the way I prepare them is, you know, always -- you know, in life, things going on around us, always have your phone charged at night. If you're on the road by yourself, make sure you have your flashlight, be constantly on the lookout. It's just extremely sad to be talking to children that way because of this.

HARLOW: Jamie, I think, Don, you made such a good point, because you said, how do you prepare your child for what happens after this? As I understand it, Jamie, Khloie is not going to school. She is doing online schooling. You have got a librarian helping tutor her twice a week. I mean, this fight for your Khloie, right, it says Khloie is strong on the state of Texas behind you. This is a lifelong fight now that she is going to have to fight, right? And it never ends, does it?

J. TORRES: No, it'll never end. You know, she's very different now.

COLLINS: Can I ask, before we let you go, and we're so grateful that you two are coming on to talk about this, because we know how difficult it is, but what is it like to prepare Khloie to talk to her and have these conversations with her about what she should do if she's ever in this situation and then to have the adults who were paid to be trained, to respond to this situation, wait that long, wait those 40 minutes of her calling repeatedly to ask for help before they responded?

J. TORRES: It's really sad like that she had to do all that and wait so long. Like the officers didn't want to go in because they said, we're waiting for armor, back up. All the kids didn't have backup in there. Nobody had armor in there. You know, they were -- they went through a lot and they had absolutely no help from the police protecting and serving us.

LEMON: Clearly, the adults around her failed her. But as parents, you are serving your child very well. Thank you very much, Jamie and Ruben. We really appreciate you joining us. And our best to Khloie. Please keep in touch with us so we know the progress and how you guys are doing. We really appreciate you joining us.

R. TORRES: Thank you for having us.

LEMON: Jamie and Ruben Torres there, wow, awful. She was failed.

HARLOW: What a brave girl.

LEMON: She's got great, great parents.

HARLOW: Shouldn't have to be so brave.

LEMON: And, of course, as we go to break here, those are the people who died, sadly, the students and teachers who died in that.

We'll be right back.

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HARLOW: This morning, Ukraine says it has, quote, no effective defense against the ballistic missiles that Iran is planning to send to Russia. A Ukrainian Air Force official warns missiles being supplied will allow Russian forces to strike anywhere inside Ukraine. This is a huge development and it could mean the war falling to Russia's side.

CNN's Clarissa Ward joins us live from Kyiv. I mean, I think this is so important, Clarissa, that they have been saying, the Ukrainians, we have air power but we don't have the defense needed against these missiles coming from Iran.

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Poppy. Basically, what they're saying is we have air defense but we don't have missile defense. And we don't have anything that really defends against these types of missiles.

There are two in particular ballistic missiles that they're concerned about. One of them can travel about 200 miles, the other one can go 500 miles. And what the Air Force is basically saying is, if you're firing those, if you're positioning those on Ukraine's northern border, they can hit anywhere inside the country and they just don't have the equipment to effectively intercept them.

And, by the way, that's not the only thing that they're anticipating that the Iranians are sending to the Russians in the beginning of November, so, any day now we're talking about.

The other thing they're very concerned about are these Arash-2 drones. They have roughly five times the amount of explosives that they can carry than those Shahed head drones, which we have already seen have been used with devastating effect here in Ukraine. So, really, a lot of concern that in the coming days you could start to see some really major weaponry arriving on the battlefield that they don't know how to contend with, frankly.

HARLOW: And this, Clarissa, heading into the winter, heading into an energy crisis across Europe, which Russia has much of the power on. I mean, we have learned that power outages in Kyiv are becoming much more widespread. How much does that complicate their ability to defend against all of this?

WARD: So, the irony is right now, Poppy, it is like unbelievably warm for this time of year. You can see I'm standing here in Kyiv, I'm wearing like a light sweater. But, normally, it would be very cold at this time of year. And you can certainly expect that in the coming weeks, the temperatures are going to plummet. Today, even, three days after that initial barrage on Monday of Russian missiles targeting civilian infrastructure, there are still 18,000 households here in Kyiv that have no power.

Now, we've heard from Vitaly Klitschko, the Kyiv mayor, he says they're going to set up heating centers during the winter, a thousand of them around the city, where there will be generators, there will be water, it will be warm, you can get a cup of tea, you can charge your cell phone. And so they're trying to grapple and improvise with the moment to sort of mitigate the damage and devastation that this could have, but they have warned people that this is going to be the toughest winter that Ukrainians have lived through in quite some time, Poppy.

HARLOW: Clarissa Ward live for us in Kyiv, thank you. You've been on the ground for weeks, Clarissa. Your reporting adds so much every morning. Thank you very, very much.

LEMON: The interesting thing, if you look at Clarissa, where she is today as opposed to where she was yesterday, it looks like a normal city. Well, that's the thing in Ukraine, is that you may have some normality in one place and then there is -- everything is bombed out. The infrastructure is gone. So, that's -- and then at any moment, you never know what is going to happen, especially now that there's this threat of bringing in more weapons from Iran.

In the meantime, we're going to talk about North Korea as well launching at least 23 missiles overnight. The south now responding. The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, is here to discuss. She's next live on the program. COLLINS: We'll also talk about why Arizona voters are feeling forced to take extra precautions just to cast a ballot.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I covered my place because they're taking pictures and all that stuff. I mean, this is what we have come to in America. These guys call themselves patriots. Really?

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