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CNN This Morning
21-Year-Old Airman Charged with Leaking Pentagon Secrets; Supreme Court Extends Access to Abortion Drug While Considering Case; Minneapolis Settles Excessive Force Lawsuits Against Chauvin For $8.8M; Recession Fears And Banking Crisis Fuel Retail Spending Drop. Aired 7-8a ET
Aired April 15, 2023 - 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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VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to Saturday and CNN THIS MORNING. It is April 15th. I'm Victor Blackwell.
AMARA WALKER, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Amara Walker. Thank you so much for spending part of your day with us. How's it going? You moved here. You know what I have in my mind right now is when we're getting that invite to your place once your bar is all built out.
BLACKWELL: The bar is being built out; the bottles have not yet arrived from storage but it's coming, it's coming.
WALKER: Well, if the bottles haven't arrived yet, so no invitation.
BLACKWELL: You know, just come and look at the shelves. It's coming.
WALKER: Sure. I'm sure the shelves are beautiful. Here's what we are watching this morning.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MERRICK GARLAND, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: This is not just about taking home documents.
WALKER (voice-over): A 21-year-old airman charged in connection with the leak of classified documents appeared in front of a federal judge Friday. What we're learning about him, and the questions being raised about who should have access to classified information.
BLACKWELL: President Biden is weighing in on the Supreme Court's decision to temporarily extend access to an abortion drug while it considers the case. The next steps in the process and why next Wednesday could be a pivotal day in the abortion fight.
WALKER: Consumers held on to more of their money last month. Retail sales fell as the banking crisis fueled recession fears. Where we saw the biggest cutbacks and where people are spending their money instead. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I am hopeful that we come with the prosecuting attorney to try to come to a resolution of the case in a plea agreement. That would be short of actual jail time.
BLACKWELL: The mother of a 6-year-old who shot his elementary school teacher appeared in court. The key defense her attorney plans to argue to keep her out of jail.
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BLACKWELL: Well, first, arrested and charged. The 21-year-old Air National Guardsman is in custody charged with leaking classified documents. Jack Teixeira appeared before a judge in Boston and was charged under the Espionage Act.
WALKER: The documents he's accused of leaking included a wide range of highly classified information including Intel gathered by eavesdropping on key allies and adversaries and blunt assessments on the war in Ukraine. Details now from CNN National Correspondent Jason Carroll.
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JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Jack Teixeira's family leaving federal court in Boston this afternoon refusing to answer any questions. The 21-year-old Massachusetts Air National Guardsman made his first appearance in front of a federal judge today. He's now charged with unauthorized retention and transmission of National Defense Information and unauthorized removal and retention of classified documents and or material.
An unsealed affidavit shows that Teixeira was granted top secret security clearance back in 2021 and had high level access to the nation's most guarded intelligence and other highly classified programs. The affidavit alleges he began posting classified documents starting in 2022. And then, recently, on April 6th, used a government computer to search a database using the word "leak" once it was publicly revealed that someone was leaking classified documents.
GARLAND: This is not just about taking home documents. People who sign agreements to be able to receive classified documents acknowledge the importance to the national security of not disclosing those documents.
CARROLL: Teixeira was an I.T. specialist for the Air National Guard whose job was to help maintain a network where top secret information was held. According to official U.S. sources, Teixeira is believed to be the leader of a small group of the social media platform, Discord, a site popular with video gamers, and where are the classified documents had been posted.
The leaked classified documents included a wide range of highly classified information, including eavesdropping on key allies and adversaries, and blunt assessments on the state of the Ukraine War. Investigators ultimately narrowed in on the chat group. According to a U.S. government source familiar with the case, Teixeira was under surveillance for at least a couple of days prior to his arrest. While President Biden played down the security damage on Thursday,
today he released a statement saying in part: "I've directed our military and intelligence community to take steps to further secure and limit distribution of sensitive information, and our national security team is closely coordinating with our partners and allies." But the ultimate national security impact of the leak still to be determined.
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GARLAND: The Department of Defense is leading an important effort now to evaluate and review the national security implications.
CARROLL: Jason Carroll, CNN, Boston.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLACKWELL: Let's get some insight and analysis now. Joining us now is former FBI Special Agent Mike Rogers, also former Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. Mr. Chairman, good to see you again. This is where I want to start. You told one of our producers that you see some resemblance here of Chelsea Manning, Edward Snowden. And they were whistleblowers, who I guess, their leaks were ideologically driven. Where are the overlaps that you see, because this appears to be a guy who was saying, look what I know, look what I can what I have access to.
MIKE ROGERS, FORMER FBI SPECIAL AGENT: Yes. Thanks, Victor. Great to see you again. And there's a profile that you would go through on these individuals. So, Snowden had this feeling that he wasn't appreciated, he needed to have more authority than he did; people didn't understand how smart he was, all of those kinds of things. You saw that same kind of thing in the Chelsea Manning case.
So, their internal kind of mechanism was already compromised. They believe that they weren't getting credit weren't having these other issues, they wanted to be more important. And so, they took different routes. Snowden certainly published it, and then stole millions of copies, and files, if you will, and took them to Russia. Chelsea Manning exposed a lot of information.
And by the way, all of these cases, Victor, they had access to information that was flowing by them, they were all supposed to keep things moving, not necessarily read them, analyze them, understand the information that was in front of them. So, there is this resemblance. And again, this particular individual went to the chat room to try to puff himself up, exactly the kind of language we saw in Snowden and Chelsea Manning.
BLACKWELL: So, it's interesting, that answer takes me in two different directions. First, let me go to, you highlight a profile of a person who leaks. Four different motivations here, but the key is to identify those characteristics before they can potentially leak national secrets. How do you do that? Was that something that you see potentially was missed here that superiors should have seen before the opportunity to leak these on these, these sites? ROGERS: Yes, hard to say. And so, how you catch someone like this, is by making sure you have good protocols that they can't get this information out. Again, remember, he's a pretty Junior guy -- his job was to keep the zeros and ones, that digits, your e-mail traffic, going back and forth in a way that stayed in the classified system.
And so, this is what they would call an insider threat nightmare for American businesses, international businesses, and our intelligence community, because so much data flies around in decision making, and even collection of intelligence. So, the way you -- I don't know if you can catch them by profile generally upfront, you know, good supervision certainly helps.
But the other piece of that is how -- what they're going to have to go through is how did he get a paper copy of anything. He's an I.T. guy, shouldn't have been able to print anything off. You know, the civilian intelligence agencies went through this, after the Snowden event, and everything is locked down. It appears to me that Department of Defense did not go through this after the Chelsea Manning case.
And I think they're going to have some explaining to do. This is the second time in relatively recent history where these have had such damaging leaks for people who have access to the network, but really don't have access to this information.
BLACKWELL: So, we're talking about locking down information, making sure that those who do not need access to specific details, do not get them, and then go the step of printing them or downloading them. A couple of months ago, we were having a conversation about over classification.
This was in the context of the documents that were found at former presidents' and vice presidents' homes, are they part of the convert -- same conversation here finding a middle or should we be looking at this in two separate contexts of the classifying of this type of information and over classifying potentially others?
ROGERS: Yes, I think this is two very different conversations. And we should be really careful not to mix them. This was really damaging. So, it damaged our relationship with very important allies. It exposed at least gives a counter intelligence agent.
So, remember, on the other side: the Russians, the Chinese, the Iranians, everybody who has intelligence services working against the United States, they're all going to take this information and flyspeck it, and they're going to try to re-engineer How did they get this particular piece of information, how did they come to this particular conclusion? And they're going to walk it back.
Some believe that some of the information that was released may have pointed out that there was somebody cooperating overseas somewhere. And guess what, that will create real problems for the U.S. intelligence services, and any individual that that might apply to.
[07:10:27] And so, all of that really, really dangerous. And if you think about the Ukrainian thing, people said, it's not a big deal. It's old, it's less than a month old, number one. And number two, it pointed out vulnerabilities in logistics supply chains. Well, when you're planning an offensive, like the Russians probably will do in the spring, that's very helpful information really dangerous.
And so, there is this need to classify that information so policymakers can make a decision, number one. And two, we need to do it in a way that our adversaries can't see it. And so, that's what's so dangerous about this particular leak.
This was really almost real time information had a sense of immediacy, really, really sensitive, could get people hurt or killed. And I think there's going to be more charges candidly, Victor, on this as this goes. I read the, the affidavit and I think you're going to see more charges.
I think they wanted to get the charges on the books, they had an easy hook on that. As they go through this investigation, they're going to, they're going to have -- I'm going to bet there are going to be more charges coming down into this.
BLACKWELL: So far, charged with unauthorized retention and transmission of National Defense Information and unauthorized removal of classified information and defense materials. We'll see. He's back in court midweek. Former Chairman of House Intel Mike Rogers, good to have you. Thank you.
WALKER: Women and health care providers across the U.S. can still access one of the most common abortion drugs this morning. Last night, the Supreme Court temporarily halted a ruling from a federal judge in Texas.
Justice Samuel Alito extended access to the abortion drug, mifepristone, while the full court considers an emergency appeal filed by the Biden administration and a drug manufacturer. Significant restrictions on mifepristone had been set to go into effect early this morning.
Well, now that's been pushed back to midnight Wednesday. CNN Supreme Court Reporter Ariane de Vogue joining us now this morning. Good morning, Ariane. So, less than a year after the court overturned Roe v. Wade, you have the issue of abortion back at the court, but this is about the FDA's approval process.
ARIANE DE VOGUE, CNN SUPREME COURT REPORTER: Right. As you said right now, the state at play is that these restrictions are on hold for now. Alito basically freezing that lower court opinion, just to put everything on hold, to give the justices more time to get read in. He said that the freeze will remain until Wednesday at midnight, and then the justices will rule.
So, this freeze that we have in play right now, it doesn't really forecast how the justices will eventually rule. It's just meant to give them a chance to catch their breath, read the briefs, get read in.
The Biden administration and the manufacturers here, they want the Supreme Court to say that that lower court opinion that put those restrictions on access to this significant drug was wrong. They said if it's allowed to stand, then things like labeling will have to change. They'll say that now the labels will have to reflect, reflect that women can only use this drug up to seven weeks of pregnancy, before it was 10 weeks of pregnancy. They'll say that women now would have to come in person to get it administered instead of being able to receive it by mail.
They say all that is wrong. They want the Supreme Court to either step in now, freeze that lower court opinion permanently while the appeals court plays out, or for the justices to even bypass the lower courts, decide to take this issue up themselves and decide the whole thing this term. It all comes a year after that they issued that major decision in Roe v. Wade. So, we'll see what they're going to do and we'll hear about it, Wednesday.
WALKER: Yes, obviously causing a lot of confusion, right, in the meantime, for so many women who don't know what this means today versus tomorrow, or the next. Ariane de Vogue, appreciate your reporting, thank you. And President Biden is weighing in on the Supreme Court's decision to put things on pause for now.
BLACKWELL: CNN White House Reporter, Jasmine Wright, joins us now from Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, where the President is spending the weekend. The White House has opposed enforcement of a Texas ruling. What are they saying about this, this pause?
JASMINE WRIGHT, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yes, well, the President was actually asked about the Supreme Court's latest action, when he touched down early this morning in Delaware after spending a week in Ireland. Now, he actually sidesteps talking specifically about the Supreme Court, but he did talk about the Texas ruling generally. Take a listen.
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JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think it's outrageous what the court has done relatively in concluding that. They're going to overrule the FDA, whether or not -- I think it's out of (INAUDIBLE), and -- but we'll see what happens, we'll see.
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WRIGHT: Now, President Biden's comment, I think it's out of their lane. It fits really in line with the Department of Justice and the drug manufacturer's argument to the Supreme Court, basically saying that these anti-abortion doctors do not prescribe the medication abortion drug, and therefore they are not able to intervene on behalf of patients who have face complications because they are not their patients. Now, though, we didn't hear the President Biden talk specifically
about the Supreme Court action, we did hear about it from the White House earlier on Friday. In the statement, they said, "For now, mifepristone remains available and approved for safe and effective use. The President and his administration continue to stand by FDA's evidence-based approval of mifepristone, and we will continue to support the FDAs independent expert authority to review approve and regulate a wide-range of prescription drugs."
The White House continued that right now in this moment, the stakes could not be higher and they pledge once again to fight tooth and nail to really try to reverse this Texas ruling as people really look to the White House in the Biden administration largely to talk about what they're going to do steps forward and how they're going to safeguard access beyond those limited actions we've already seen them take. Victor and Amara.
BLACKWELL: Jasmine Wright for us in Rehoboth Beach, Rehoboth Beach, thank you very much.
The City of Minneapolis is paying out millions of dollars in settlements and civil suits against former police officer Derek Chauvin. You know Chauvin is the person who convicted for murdering George Floyd. What we know about those lawsuits and we'll show you the newly released body cam video of those arrests.
WALKER: Plus, we are following a developing story out of Sudan. There are reports of heavy fighting around the presidential palace. The U.S. ambassador there is sheltering in place. We're going to have the details ahead in a live report.
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WALKER: David's Bridal is the latest retailer to announce it is laying off thousands of workers. The wedding gown retailer is eliminating over 9,000 positions through August. It only employs about 11,000 workers, according to the Wall Street Journal. The company telling CNN that it is evaluating its strategic options. The New York Times is reporting the company is filing for bankruptcy for the second time in five years.
BLACKWELL: Retail spending fell in March across the country, apparently, all is spending less on electronics and gas and groceries. Investors are blaming the drop on the lack of tax returns or slowing labor market and recession fears. CNN's Chief Business Correspondent Christine Romans breaks it all down for us.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Victor and Amara, the American economy is run more than anything on the confidence in spending of the American consumer. And in March, consumer spent a little less. Retail sales down one percent from February.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) ROMANS (voice-over): So, what happened? Well, in March banking stress
dominated the headlines. Three U.S. banks failed; Swiss authorities engineered the rescue of Credit Suisse. American consumers wary of bank drama: still too high inflation and recession worries pulled back. Spending less on gas, electronics, groceries and at department stores, spending a little more online -- may be a sign of being budget conscious.
We learned this week the staff of the Federal Reserve raised the risk of a mild recession later this year because of that bank stress. But current vitals on the economy overall are pretty strong. Job growth still better than normal. Layoffs are rising but they're still relatively low. And inflation is showing meaningful signs of cooling.
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ROMANS: And earnings from the big banks, meanwhile, beat expectations showing strong revenue there. Amara, Victor?
WALKER: All right. Thank you so much, Christine Romans.
The City of Minneapolis has settled to excessive force lawsuits against former Minneapolis Police officer and convicted murderer, Derek Chauvin, for more than $8.8 million
BLACKWELL: Now, Chauvin is prison for killing George Floyd. You remember, he put his knee on Floyd's neck for more than nine minutes. Well, three years before that, two other people in Minneapolis complained to Chauvin had used the same kind of force when he had detained them. CNN's Natasha Chen brings us the details.
NATASHA CHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Amara and Victor, the Minneapolis City Council on Thursday unanimously voted to approve these two settlements for John Pope and Zoya Code, awarding Pope $7.5 million dollars; and Code $1.375 million. Now, these two incidents happened both in 2017. And the two people, through their attorney decided to release the body camera footage.
We're going to show you some of it and have to warn you that it's very difficult to watch. We're going to start with a video of what happened with John Pope. He was 14 years old at the time and you're going to see police arrive on scene for a domestic disturbance call. Here's what happened.
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JOHN POPE, SUED DEREK CHAUVIN: Get on, get on your stomach now. What did I say?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do not kill my son, please. Please, do not kill my son.
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CHEN: And now you're seeing officer Chauvin with his knee on Pope's neck there. According to the lawsuit, this lasted for more than 15 minutes. Very difficult to watch. And you definitely saw in that earlier clip, Chauvin hitting Pope with a metal flashlight. The attorneys in these cases say that this incidents with Pope and Code are strikingly similar. And that Chauvin used his "signature pose" with a knee on the neck.
We're going to show you next the clip from what happened in Code's incident, where again, it is very disturbing to watch. You're going to see Chauvin dragging Code out of her house during a domestic disturbance call. Here's that video.
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ZOYA CODE, SUED DEREK CHAUVIN: Lift me up, you weak. You strong enough. Ouch! That's how you going to slam me on the ground? That's how you do me? Just like all other black people, huh? Just like the rest, huh?
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CHEN: Chauvin is currently serving a sentence of more than 20 years in prison for the murder of George Floyd. That happened in 2020. And of course, these two incidents were three years earlier. The Minneapolis Mayor apologized on Thursday and said if the supervisors had done their job and fired Chauvin in 2017, George Floyd would not have been murdered. Amara and Victor, back to you.
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BLACKWELL: Natasha Chen, thank you for that.
Montana is now the first state to pass legislation that bans TikTok on all personal devices. We'll have more on that ahead.
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BLACKWELL: Top Stories now, we are following several this hour.
The first ever Rutgers University strike and one of the largest higher education walks out -- walkouts is over now.
The administration and unions reached a tentative agreement this morning with what they say is a framework for new contracts.
About 9,000 faculty, researchers, and education staff walked off the job on Monday, demanding better pay. They cancelled classes at all three campuses for five days, just weeks before the end of the spring semester. Classes will resume on Monday.
WALKER: Montana now, the first U.S. state to pass legislation banning TikTok from all personal devices.
House lawmakers voted 54 to 43, approving that bill over potential security concerns. Governor Greg Gianforte still has to sign it into law, but it could still face significant legal challenges from TikTok. Montana has already banned a social media app from government and state university devices.
BLACKWELL: Officials are meeting today to decide whether 1000s of people in Indiana can go back home. Days after a massive fire at an Indiana plastics recycling plant triggered evacuation orders.
Today, officials will look at air and water samples for contamination before making that decision. The state fire marshal said the huge fire that sparked Tuesday was definitely toxic. The EPA reported dangerous chemicals and asbestos were found at the fire center, but not outside of the evacuation zone.
BLACKWELL: CNN is following Developing news out of Sudan, where there has been fierce fighting around the presidential palace and army headquarters in Khartoum.
WALKER: The U.S. ambassador to Sudan, says he and the rest of the embassy team are sheltering in place, as the official military of Sudan clashes with a paramilitary group known as the Rapid Support Force.
WALKER: CNN's Larry Madowo is live in Nairobi, Kenya with the latest.
Larry, this is still unfolding. What do we know?
LARRY MADOWO, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It is still unfolding. We've now had several hours of gunfire, intense fighting on the streets of Khartoum, the capital there.
We've seen some smoke coming from some key installations and buildings in the city. It is a confrontation between the official military of the country, the Sudan armed forces and the paramilitary rapid support forces, which many people fear could escalate into civil war or even a coup in Sudan.
A country that's already known so much conflict and destabilization. Sudan has been under military rule since October 2021, and it is run by what is called the Sovereign Council.
The head of that Sovereign Council is the de facto leader of Sudan General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan. But the vice chair of the Sovereign Council is General Mohamed Dagalo, better known as Hemedti. And he leads the Rapid Support Forces that have a huge support from Russia. And they are known to be better funded, better supported than the main military.
In recent weeks, there's been an agreement between the military wing and civilians to return to civilian rule in Sudan. And now, this confrontation which has been building up for the past couple of days.
I want to read a tweet for you, from the U.S. ambassador in Sudan, who said he just arrived last night and "woke up to the deeply disturbing sounds of gunfire and fighting. I am currently sheltering in place with the embassy staff as Sudanese throughout Khartoum and elsewhere are doing." He goes on to say, the ambassador, that "Escalation of tensions within the military component to direct fighting is extremely dangerous. I urgently call on senior military leaders to stop the fighting."
And the U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was asked about this while travelling in Vietnam. This is what he said.
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ANTONY BLINKEN, UNITED STATES SECRETARY OF STATE: It's a -- it's a fragile situation. There are other actors that may be pushing against that progress. But this is a real opportunity to finally carry forward the civilian led transition, and one that we and other countries are trying to bolster.
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MADOWO: One of the elephants in the room here is Russia, which has supported Hemedti, the leader of the Rapid Support Forces.
But CNN investigations have revealed that some Sudanese gold was being used to fund Russia's war in Ukraine. And there's been huge international pressure for Sudan to disavow its ties with Russia here.
So, if this does develop into a coup, it could be a deeply disturbing situation. Many embassies not telling their staff, their citizens of Sudan just stay in place.
WALKER: Yes, very worrying indeed. Larry Madowo, thank you for staying on top of that.
All right. Still ahead, a Texas library at the center of a book ban battle will stay open for now after officials voted to continue operations.
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WALKER (voice over): We're going to discuss with the executive director of the Texas Library Association. That's next.
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WALKER: County commissioners in one rural Texas country -- county, considered shutting down the public library system, after a federal judge ordered it to return more than a dozen banned books to library shelves.
They include books on sexual identity and racism. But, on Thursday, county commissioners voted unanimously to drop talks of cutting funding to the county's library system.
Now, the case comes amid ongoing fights across the country to protect access to books in response to a banning boom. Shirley Robinson is the executive director of the Texas Library Association.
She is with us now. Good morning to you. It seems really like Texas is ground zero for this push that we're seeing to ban books.
First off, in Llano's county (PH), where do things stand right now? Is the fight over?
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SHIRLEY ROBINSON, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, TEXAS LIBRARY ASSOCIATION: I think the fight is hardly over. I think that it's been very clear that the value of libraries has been underscored, and the importance of citizens being able to speak up and defend their libraries.
The decision that was passed down from the judge a couple of weeks ago that prompted the decision in Llano County to start discussions of closing the library was that it was a very clear violation of the 1st and 14th amendment rights of the citizens in that community.
And closure of the library system would have removed many valuable services in addition to finding great books, but things like help filing taxes and support and grief groups and many other wonderful things that our public libraries offer.
WALKER: Yes, people forget, you know, all the resources that the public libraries offer.
It's not just happening at the county level. Right? There are two bills moving through the Texas State legislature right now, trying to either ban books or control the material in schools. Can you tell me about those bills? And do you expect those measures to pass?
ROBINSON: Absolutely. So, in total, there have been almost 40 bills filed in the Texas State legislature this session about libraries and library operations. These two bills, specifically, would really undermine the existing, vetting processes and school board approved processes for how books are already placed in schools.
It would do things like create restrictions on English teachers being able to get A.P. materials for their students, or even, you know, think about your student who is desperately waiting for that latest book in a series to come out.
It would have really slow down the process almost to a halt of being able to get books into the hands of students in libraries, as well as create incredibly burdensome processes for groups of volunteers and school board members who don't have the training, the professional librarians do to review every single title, and a list of hundreds of books that are ordered every single school year.
WALKER: Yes, I'm sure the resources would be a huge issue. Look, I want to show the list of those 17 books that the Llano County commissioners wanted to ban.
If you look closely, several of those books include a series -- this is what stuck out to me, a children -- children's books about flatulence, right? Can I say farting on the air? How were these book -- how are these books even chosen? I mean, these were children's books, humorous books. Tell me about this "weeding" process that was referred to.
ROBINSON: Right. Well, and so, weeding is a very common practice in the library profession. Books come and go. They go home, they get chewed on by the dog. And so, sometimes they have to be removed.
But they're also very specific criteria that determine when a book is no longer, you know, relevant or necessary in a community. What happened in the case of Llano County was that a small group of citizens approached the elected leadership of that county.
They had an agenda. Their agenda was to remove books that had to do with LGBTQIA topics or by those types of authors or by authors of color.
And to place them on either a, you know, a back shelf in the library or to remove them from the collection entirely. They were able to convince elected officials to go around established library policies for things like weeding, and determining where a book was going to go in the library.
And then, they were able to have the entire library board fired and replaced. And then, meetings started happening in back rooms behind closed doors.
Fortunately, there was a lawsuit filed and we know the result of that lawsuit now.
WALKER: Well, and again, this is not unique to Texas, right?
I mean, the American Library Association reported more than 1,200 book challengers nationwide, just in 2022. That is the most since the group started tracking them, what, 20 years ago. Why are we seeing this trend?
ROBINSON: Yes. You know, I mean, this all started in Texas back in the fall of 2021, we became aware that there was a movement under foot to really sort of ferret out titles and authors and content that had to do with LGBTQ topics.
And so, at PEN America and ALA have both reported that there are very organized groups sweeping across the country to try to get these titles removed from our library shelves.
And librarians spend years in school to curate appropriate collections through established best practice procedures that are, you know, approved by their boards and governing entities to make sure that the right materials are available in a community for all of its citizens, or students.
Not every book is right for every student, but one book might save a life of or really make a difference in one student's life.
(CROSSTALK) WALKER: Right.
[07:45:04]
Exactly. Fair point. Shirley Robinson, appreciate your time. Thank you.
BLACKWELL: Coming up, the mother of a 6-year-old, who shot his elementary school teacher in Virginia made her first court appearance after turning herself in on charges of child neglect and recklessly leaving a firearm as to endanger a child. The latest on that, next.
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BAIER: New this morning, the mother of the 6-year-old boy who shot his teacher in a Newport News, Virginia Elementary School, made her first court appearance before a judge yesterday.
WALKER: Deja Taylor is facing two charges: felony child neglect, and a misdemeanor count of leaving a firearm in a way that could endanger a child. And her lawyer says they hope to work out a plea deal.
CNN's Brian Todd has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
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BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): CNN has new details into the legal strategy for Deja Taylor, whose 6-year-old son, shot and wounded teacher Abby Zwerner inside their first-grade classroom.
A judge in Newport News, Virginia has set a starting date of August 15th for a bench trial for Taylor. Just a judge, no jury. But her lawyer tells CNN, they're trying to avoid that.
JAMES ELLENSON, ATTORNEY FOR MOTHER OF BOY WHO SHOT TEACHER: I am hopeful that I could come with the prosecuting attorney to try to come to a resolution of the case in a plea agreement that would be short of actual jail time.
TODD: Taylor has been charged with felony child neglect and recklessly leaving a loaded firearm so as to endanger a child.
James Ellenson says he will cite so-called mitigating factors, which he hopes will sway prosecutors and the judge. Taylor's had several miscarriages, he says, including and especially difficult one in January 2022, a year before the shooting.
ELLENSON: She had to go to the hospital for a couple of days. And after that, she has really been suffering from postpartum depression.
TODD: Could those mitigating factors help Taylor's case?
SHAN WU, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: I think it could work in terms of getting sympathy from the judge and getting a lesser sentence. TODD: But it may not speak to what could be the critical question in this case.
Can you tell us how the child got access to the gun that he brought to school?
ELLENSON: I cannot -- it's just not clear. I don't know that there's an adult necessarily that can answer that question.
TODD: Ellenson had previously told CNN, the parents claimed they'd kept the gun secured with a safety on the top shelf of the mother's bedroom closet.
Ellenson says in the fall semester of this school year, an adult in the boy's family would sit in class with him as the school required, because of his past behavioral problems.
But he now levels a jarring accusation against administrators at Richneck Elementary School, a decision he says they made after the holiday break.
ELLENSON: After Christmas break, it was determined about in school that this child was OK to come to school by himself.
TODD: Ellenson, says that call was made on January 3rd. The boy shots Zwerner on January 6th.
Contacted by CNN, the Newport News school district declined to comment on that accusation.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TODD: Legal Analyst Shan Wu says even if Deja Taylor strikes a plea deal and has to serve time. Even if she does go to trial and is found guilty, there's a good chance that she would eventually get custody of her child again.
She'd have to give assurances to the court of her competence, Shan Wu says. And it's likely the court would be sympathetic to her. Victor, Amara?
WALKER: All right, Brian Todd, thank you. Coming up, we are tracking the potential for severe weather in the parts of the U.S. today. We'll tell you where, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[07:57:12]
WALKER: More than 50 million people are under severe storm threats across the Mississippi River Valley this morning, and danger of potential tornadoes, powerful winds, and large hail.
BLACKWELL: Let's go to CNN's Allison Chinchar in the weather center. So, what are these storms in the Mississippi Valley expected to hit? ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Right. So, we've already got some that are beginning to form, say along the upper Mississippi and areas of the Midwest right now.
None of them are severe just yet. But once the sun comes up, you start getting that heating of the day, then, things are really going to start to ramp up not only up here, but a little bit farther south.
And that's actually where we have the bulk of the severe weather, basically stretching from Missouri, back down through areas of Louisiana.
The main threats are going to be damaging winds and very large hail. We're talking the size of golf balls, tennis balls, or even perhaps larger.
And there may be a couple of tornadoes mixed in there. But hail is certainly going to be the biggest concern of all of them going forward.
And it's a pretty widespread area. Remember, even if it's on the smaller side, say just quarters or things like that, it can still denture car, that can break a windshield, especially as we start getting up around that golf ball size hail. So, again, still, very serious.
Here, you can see a lot of those showers and thunderstorms already ongoing in the Midwest. But we really start seeing that southern edge of that front really begin to develop once we get into this afternoon. And that will continue into the evening and even into the overnight hours as well. So, before you go to sleep, make sure you have a way to get some of those emergency alerts.
Another concern is going to be flash flooding. This particular storm itself it's not necessarily dumping a ton of rain. Most areas one to three inches. The concern is so many of these places have had so much rain in the last week or two, that, that ground is already saturated.
So, for many of these areas, it will only take an extra one to three inches to trigger some subsequent flooding.
BLACKWELL: All right, Allison Chinchar, thank you for watching it for us.
Have you been watching "Searching for Mexico"?
WALKER: Yes, yes. Oh, my gosh.
BLACKWELL: And this is some good eating on the show.
WALKER: Yes. Well, I feel like the cuisine in Mexico is just incredible.
Eva Longoria, as she's got another good one for us. This time, she's enjoying the food of her childhood.
All new episode, here is a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
EVA LONGORIA, AMERICAN ACTRESS: Arturo is preparing his famous charro beans.
This smell so good.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is not a traditional. We call it charro because there has a -- has a little secret.
LONGORIA: He has a secret?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Say this --
LONGORIA: Yokracy Konesto (PH).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
LONGORIA: This is (INAUDIBLE) Texas or no?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, yes.
LONGORIA: Oh, my God, you all I grew up with this. I grew up with ranch-style free collars (PH). Every day of my life, I think I ate these.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You are going to spend maybe three hours boiling the precoles (PH), and these was -- is all ready.
LONGORIA: So, you just use that, but you add other stuff too.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. Stuff -- we put chorizo.
LONGORIA: Oh.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bacon, onion, chili morron, black pepper, and some spicy --
[08:00:00]
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Jalapeno?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Jalapeno.
LONGORIA: OK.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In Monterey (PH), we make carne asada (PH), because -- well, always.
LONGORIA: Always.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If there is a birthday for someone --
(CROSSTALK)
LONGORIA: Carne asada.
