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Heavily Armed Gunman Wearing Body Armor Goes on Shooting Rampage in Philadelphia; Three People Dead and Eight Wounded in Parking Lot Shooting in Fort Worth, Texas; Republican Presidential Candidates to Participate in Parade in New Hampshire. Trump, DeSantis Urge End To Birthright Citizenship; GOP Presidential Candidates Push Big Ideas In Campaign; Israel Police: 8 Injured In Car Ramming Attack In Tel Aviv. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired July 04, 2023 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00]

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Happy Tuesday morning, everyone. Audie Cornish joins me. I'm Phil Mattingly. And we are starting with breaking news that's been developing throughout the course of the morning, last night into the morning. We are following now three mass shootings during a violent July 4th weekend. Breaking this morning, the death toll now rising in Fort Worth, Texas, where police say three people are now confirmed dead and eight others wounded in a shooting in a parking lot. In Philadelphia, police say a heavily armed gunman wearing body armor went on a shooting rampage through the city streets. At least five people were killed, two children injured, including a two-year-old toddler.

AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: Investigators say the suspect had an AR-15 style rifle, a handgun, a police scanner, and multiple magazines of ammo packed in his body armor when police officers arrested him in an alley. Now, the hunt is still on for suspects in Baltimore after two people were killed and 28 wounded during a block party.

We have team coverage on all the latest developments, and the former police chief Charles Ramsey is standing by. But first, we're going to start with Danny Freeman in Philadelphia. Danny, what more have you learned about the suspect there?

DANNY FREEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we still have a number of questions about the suspect, especially the question of why this suspect decided to open fire in a residential community in southwest Philadelphia yesterday evening. What we do know is that the suspect is in his 40s, he was taken into custody. And of course, as you mentioned, he was carrying multiple weapons and armed with a bulletproof vest last night when he went on this shooting spree.

I want to illustrate something so we know also about how this all started. Everything kicked off at 8:30 last night. Philadelphia police got reports of multiple gunshots in the Kingsessing area of Philadelphia. Again, that's in the southwestern part of the city. And when officers arrived, they found there were multiple gunshot victims, but also they heard a number of gunshots still happening in the surrounding blocks. So officers ended up chasing after the sound of those gunshots, they found their suspect, they chased after their suspect and eventually were able to arrest him without incident and without firing a shot.

But I just want read off exactly what they found, what officers found when they were able to make that arrest. They found the man in question here had a bulletproof vest, an AR-style rifle, a handgun, multiple magazines, and also a police scanner. Now, in the end, the Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw, last night she told us that there were six shooting victims, two children who ultimately survived, but four people who were killed. But then overnight we learned new information that a fifth person had been killed, likely in connection to this shooting.

I should say one other person was also taken into custody. That person was suspected of picking up a gun and actually returning fire at the gunman. So he is not the primary suspect at this time. But again, Audie, like you said, a chaotic start to the Fourth of July holiday, a day where otherwise Philadelphians are looking forward to concerts on the parkway and celebrating the birthplace of the nation. Once again, though, we are facing a shooting incident. Audie, back to you.

CORNISH: Oh, sorry. Not just chaotic, but it case a pall, right? We are talking about children being injured in this shooting as well. I don't know if the police said anything, but what is the mood in Philadelphia right now?

FREEMAN: Listen, Audie, the mood is tense. Shootings happen often in Philadelphia. There is no question about that. But we usually don't see four or five people killed in one incident. I should also say last year on the Fourth of July during one of the main concerts on the parkway, there was a high-profile shooting. The theory was that somebody fired a gun into the air and a bullet actually hit an officer back on the parkway. So there is memories of that as we head into this holiday at this time. Audie?

CORNISH: Danny Freeman, thank you.

MATTINGLY: We are going to bring in now CNN senior law enforcement analyst and former Philadelphia police commissioner Charles Ramsey. Commissioner Ramsey, I think holidays are always a concern, particularly summer holidays are a concern for law enforcement. It's the details of this case in terms of the suspect who was arrested that I think are a little bit jarring this morning, having body armor, having magazines stuck into the body armor, police scanner, an AR- style weapon. When you see and hear that, what do you think about what actually happened here?

CHARLES RAMSEY, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, another thing that's unusual about that is the fact he is 40 years old. Usually, the suspect is a bit younger than that. But nothing seems to surprise me much anymore. But one thing I do want to really highlight that the reporter did point out, and that is those police officers were able to take this guy into custody without using force, without firing not a single shot. Here is a guy with body armor, heavily armed, AR-15. And we talk all the time about officers' use of force that really doesn't go consistent with policy. Here is an example of officers that really, really did an excellent job, and that just needs to be highlighted.

[08:05:00]

But this is also just -- I mean, this is the world we are in now. Whenever you have a large gathering of people, block party or whatever, you are always concerned about somebody showing up with a gun and just indiscriminately firing into a crowd, and you wind up with dead people, you wind up with seriously injured people, you wind up with traumatized children, all those things. And it's ridiculous. And it's not going to stop.

MATTINGLY: I was just going to ask, in your view, is this an acceleration or is this -- I feel like summer block party type situations have long been an issue. I've talked to law enforcement officials about that, that have been concerning, where elements of what you are describing can happen and have happened over time. Why is now different, or perhaps worse?

RAMSEY: I don't know if it's that it's different. It's worse because of the types of weapons that we're talking about now, AR-15s, and semi-automatics that really can spray a high number of bullets in a very short period of time, and that obviously increases the number of people that you are having to deal with that have been shot, seriously injured.

But I was a major city chief for 17 years. And we always dreaded those holidays, especially in the summertime, because we knew that we were probably going to have an uptick in violence. So that goes back. That part is not recent. But what is recent is the number of these kind of assault weapons that are on the streets that are being used on a consistent basis. Not just on holidays, but every single day of the year they are being use.

And we talk a lot about guns and laws to contain guns. The one thing that's often not discussed, some of these guys need to be in prison. They need to be locked up. They need to be off the street. If you use a gun to commit a violent crime, you need some jail time. And oftentimes that just isn't happening. They are being released right back on to the street. They are not being held accountable for these crimes, and it's not going to stop.

CORNISH: Charles Ramsey, I want to bring in another person to this conversation, Ed Lavandera, who is in Fort Worth, Texas. The shooting there last night left at least three dead, eight others injured. Ed, what more are you learning about what happened?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's still early and we are trying to figure out exactly what led up to this particular shooting. But as you mentioned, 11 people shot and killed here on the streets of southwest Fort Worth where you can see out here the remnants of the fireworks and Fourth of July celebrations that were going on here last night on the streets. But right now, police say of those 11 people that were shot here just before midnight central time in southwest Fort Worth, three of those victims have died, most of them adults. There is a juvenile who is a victim.

But we are still waiting word from investigators as to whether or not they have been able to track down any suspects or what might have been some of the details and the causes that led the eruption of this shooting here in this neighborhood last night. But clearly this was coming on the heels of the remnants of a pre-Fourth of July celebration here on Monday night, and police and neighbors here in this particular neighborhood waking up to this particular news. We talked to a couple of gentlemen who said that they live several blocks away, and they didn't hear any of the gunfire going off. So many of the people walking streets here this early morning still trying to figure out exactly what all unfolded here last night and what led up to it.

MATTINGLY: All right, Ed Lavandera for us in Fort Worth. Ed, we appreciate the hustle, getting out there and getting new reporting. Keep us posted throughout the course of the day.

I do want to ask Chief Ramsey if we still have him, Commissioner Ramsey, if we still have him, one final question, which is, should people be taking this into account when they go to Fourth of July celebrations? I think there is always a concern of making fear a driving factor here, but this is a reality. We have seen it. We saw it in Illinois last year. Is this something people need to be thinking about when they take their families out to events today?

RAMSEY: Unfortunately, people need to be aware of their surroundings, and they do need to be aware that these kinds of things can happen. I don't want people to stay home and not celebrate holidays. But this is a new reality.

But what people also need to do is put pressure on their elected officials to actually do something other than provide thoughts and prayers. If that worked, we would be the safest country on the planet, if prayers by themselves worked. You have to have action. You have to have long-term strategies to deal with a lot of the drivers of crime. Poverty, education, all those sorts of things. But if you use a gun to commit a crime, you need to go to jail, period. There has to be strong consequences. And we've got to stop thinking we can save everybody. We have some very violent people on the streets of our city, and they are going to continue to harm others until we take them off the streets of our city, period.

[08:10:00]

This is crazy. We keep talking about the same thing over and over again and wonder why it doesn't change. And it doesn't change because we don't change.

MATTINGLY: Commissioner Charles Ramsey, thank you. We have Ed Lavandera in Texas, Danny Freeman in Philadelphia. We'll keep you guys updated on the stories throughout the course of the day.

CORNISH: Turning now to the race for the White House, Ron DeSantis, Mike Pence, Tim Scott, and other GOP presidential hopefuls are hitting the campaign trail on this Fourth of July. Omar Jimenez is in Merrimack, New Hampshire, where three candidates are set to participate in same parade. Omar, what is it looking like today?

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Audie, well, look, if you've got presidential candidates in a march, in a parade, then you know it is campaign season, and that is what we are going to see here today. In Merrimack, New Hampshire, we have got a Fourth of July parade where we are going to see Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, former Texas Congressman Will Hurd, North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum and more people over the course of the day. And yes, it's to celebrate the Fourth of July, but it is also to campaign. What is more American than that?

And over in Iowa, we're going to have former vice president Mike Pence and former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson. So all of these candidates are going to be out and about. And when you look at the reality of this field right now, it really has been former president Donald Trump against the rest of the pack, and polling has reflected that up to this point. The latest CNN poll shows 47 percent for Donald Trump. The next closest is Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. And the spokesperson for DeSantis, for a pro-Ron DeSantis super PAC Never Back Down, even admitted they are way behind in the polling, but they feel this race is winnable. But take a listen to their spokesperson at what they feel has been a major factor in at least recent support for the president.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEVE CORTES, DESANTIS PAC SPOKESPERSON: Clearly, Donald Trump is the runaway frontrunner, particularly since the indictments. That was not the case before the indictments. It is the case afterwards. And it is understandable that a lot of folks want to rally to him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JIMENEZ: And even with that dynamic, they still do feel that this race is winnable from their perspective. But obviously, when you look around, there is a lot of work to be done. And even I came out here after former president Trump was indicted in Florida over the alleged mishandlings of classified documents. I spoke to some of his supporters just to see if maybe they would be swayed one way or another by those pretty damning allegations. And if anything, they were emboldened. And that's the dynamic that a lot of these candidates are dealing with here. And we're going to see if they can at least begin to start making up some of that ground on this Fourth of July.

CORNISH: All right, Omar Jimenez, enjoy the parade.

MATTINGLY: Coming up, we will talk about some of the big policy ideas, it's not a big policy campaign so far, but there are policies that GOP candidates are pushing, including one that may actually be unconstitutional. That's ahead.

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[08:15:00]

CORNISH: On America's Independence Day, the two Republican Presidential front runners are on each campaign to end the fundamental rights afforded to people born in this country Birthright Citizenship. Now, the 14th Amendment, ratified in 1868 after the Civil War states, all persons born or naturalized in the U.S. and subject to the jurisdiction thereof are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside.

So, it was included to make sure formerly enslaved Americans and their descendants would be citizens. Recently, Governor Ron DeSantis has argued this, "The dangling the prize of citizenship to the future offspring of illegal immigrants is a major driver of illegal migration. It's also inconsistent with the original understanding of the 14th Amendment. We will force the courts and Congress to finally address this failed policy."

MATTINGLY: Now, this is something DeSantis and his rival, former President Donald Trump, actually see eye to eye on.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: On day one, my new chairman office, I will sign an executive order making clear to federal agencies. That under the correct interpretation of the law, going forward the future children of illegal aliens will not receive automatic U.S. citizenship.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: That something former President Trump considered while he was in White House never actually moved forward or tried to. And that reality was in stark contrast to past Independence Days where we saw Presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama presiding over naturalization ceremonies for New Americans. You can see it there back in 2008 and 2012. Our panel is back with us right now. CNN Senior Legal Analyst Elie Honig.

Republican Strategist Joe Pinion and CNN Political Analyst, Natasha Alford. Elie, I'm going to start with the legal here, I think that we can build out and extrapolate on the politics to some degree. The word original intent and the DeSantis statement, I feel like has -- is intentionally loaded to some degree to try and make a point. For people who are looking at this listening to what Audie just read off the actual text. Is there actual legal ambiguity here?

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: No. There's no legal ambiguity whatsoever. It says all persons born in the United States are citizens. And when Ron DeSantis talks about the original intent back when those passed after the Civil War. There were people who were benefiting from that in 1868, there were people coming into this country and having first generation here. So, that was the original intent.

All of this, by the way, I just want to make clear, this is constitutional amendment fantasy land. It's a political device, even if there was some meaningful argument against it, you would have to amend the Constitution. Here's what that takes, two-thirds of the House, two-thirds of the Senate and three-quarters of the States. The States have to call special constitutional assemblies. That is just not going to happen. Democrats do this to an extent, let's get rid of the Electoral College, let's get rid of life tenure for federal judges. So --

JOSEPH PINION, POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: (inaudible) hasn't proposed constitutional amendment on guns.

HONIG: Yes, which will never pass, its political posturing. But I do think it's important because Birthright Citizenship is so fundamental to what we do here. This is going nowhere. This is a political talking point. Legally, it has no traction whatsoever.

NATASHA ALFORD, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: And even in 2018 when Donald Trump first brought up this idea, he suggested removing it through executive order, right? Which is something that you just can't do. So --

PINION: So, you could fear the White House Legal Counsel?

(CROSSTALK)

ALFORD: Right. Just, you know, just sort of throwing their hands in the air. So, it is a political tool. And it is important to acknowledge that even when Birthright Citizenship was offered to African Americans, there was resistance, right? There were movements that wanted African Americans to leave the country and to settle somewhere else. Native Americans were resettled, so to speak. And so, there's always sort of a push and pull in terms of advocating for rights, it did not come easily.

[08:20:00]

CORNISH: When it comes to what I would call kind of perpetual messaging, right? Something like this, which comes up several congresses in a row. Can you talk about who the constituency is for it? Who does it appeal to?

PINION: Well, look, I think that this is the inevitable political posturing that comes from the paralysis of our D.C. body politic. But also, comes from our refusal to actually deal with kind of the underlying issue, which is that we do have problems on the border, securing the border, which is that we do have a migrant crisis in this country.

And so, I think, you know, to Natasha's point, yes, this is a fundamental aspect of who we are. Certainly, you will alienate more voters than you will bring in voters by having this type of message of saying that you're going to get rid of something that seems to be a sacrosanct practice in this country.

The remedy to trying to implement this kind of extra judicial process seems to be legally dubious at best. But I do think, again, all of these issues I get this will inevitably, if it does happen, end up at the Supreme Court. Because we seem to have decided the Supreme Court is going to carry the burdens of society for politicians that effectively refuse to do their job. And deal with the underlying causes of these problems that Americans are rightfully pointing to.

MATTINGLY: When we talk about big ideas in the Republican primary, I struggle sometimes to see where the policy actually sticks out and is important. And I'm not saying that in a pejorative manner to Republican primary voters, I think that's the reality. But, you know, you think back to the 2020 Democratic primary, and it was, I mean, everyone was going bigger and more progressive and more dramatic in terms of systemic change on climate, on health care on everything. And I think that was the reason Joe Biden ended up winning that primary to some degree. On the Republican side, do you have a sense policy wise of where the party is actually moving right now?

PINION: Well, look, I think there is a certain level of intellectual staleness in our -- the entirety of our politics. I would push back a little bit about what happened with Joe Biden, because I think inevitably, yes, certainly there were candidates that were talking about climate. Certainly, there were issues, we're talking about progressive issues on health care, but in the end, we have reverted back to the norm. I think --

MATTINGLY: Well, that's why I think he was, right? Because he didn't fall that.

PINION: Right. And I think part of the reason why you see a damper enthusiasm across the board for this type of Trump versus Biden rematch is because of the absence of the kind of unexplored idea. At a time when we need those unexplored ideas the most from education, where we see again, the educational deficits, just widening the yield. We've got public schools that are in crisis, we've got again, a border crisis.

So, I would agree with you that we there is an appetite from the American people and even within the Republican primary, to see somebody come out with what is that bold idea for how we're going to deal with the threat of China? What is that bold idea to figure out how we're going to both leverage the advantages that A.I. can provide. And also, deal with the imminent threats that those things are going to be causing.

And I think even on the issue of climate. When you look at the policies that have been put forth by a Biden administration, that effect the in some cases make the earth a dirtier place. When you see effectively moratoriums being had on nuclear energy. When we see people pushing back on natural gas at a time. We know if we're trying to hit these environmental objectives, you need both of those tools at your disposal to be able to hit those emission reductions.

So, I think there is plenty of oxygen in the room for somebody willing to enter the fray and talk about those. But I think again, with President Trump sucking up all the oxygen with what you see on the left, but then circling the wagons, against around Joe Biden. And really preventing the competition from occurring, and lots of these things that America is in dire need of or not going to come to the forefront.

ALFORD: Joe, to your point about intellectual staleness, the theme that I see with the ideas that are being proposed are about limiting, right? Rather than expanding and sort of welcoming in it's about limiting. Vivek Ramaswamy proposed that we raise the voting age to 25. Not only is it just ridiculous, it blocks out a large number of young people.

For example, in college who would come out and vote. It feels like it is an attack on the American ideal of inviting in and sort of raising the bar similar in the way to, you know, how Jim Crow laws work to implement literacy tests. And tell people that, you know, you could not participate in this process, if you don't meet a certain standard. It's about blocking.

HONIG: No, I agree with you. And I think when you have this sort of bumper sticker slogans and Birthright Citizenship, it undermines the meaningful discussion that you're both talking about with actual policy.

CORNISH: Natasha Alford, Joe Pinion and Elie, thank you so much for being with us.

MATTINGLY: Appreciate it, guys. All right, we have live images right now out of Tel Aviv, Israel where a car rammed into pedestrians were police recalling a terrorist attack. We're going to take you live to the scene coming up next.

[08:25:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MATTINGLY: Now, welcome back. This just into CNN live images out of Tel Aviv, Israel where a car just rammed through pedestrians outside a shopping center. Official said the driver did proceed to get out of the vehicle and stabbed civilians with a sharp object before he was killed by police. CNN's Hadas Gold is live on the scene. Hadas what can you tell us right now?

HADAS GOLD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. So, what's going on right now, there's a bit of a commotion and that's because Itamar Ben-Gvir, he is the National Security Minister. One of the more right-wing members of this Israeli government has just arrived on the scene to survey what's happened here. So, we are in northeast Tel Aviv. And what we see here, according to witnesses, is that a car came driving up this street, rammed into pedestrians.

You can see the truck behind the groups of people -- behind the groups of people, the groups of police here scanning. You can see the truck that rammed into the pedestrians. You can see that it damaged this bus stop quite badly. According to police, and according to witnesses we have spoken to, the driver after ramming into the pedestrians got out of the car, then try to stab some of the people around before he himself was shot and killed by an armed civilian.

Now, the reason you're hearing a lot of noise here is because you have both Ben-Gvir's supporters and Ben-Gvir's opponents because these Ben- Gvir's opponents are all coming into the same time, both yelling some in support, some in opposition of him. He has called -- much harder against who he calls terrorists, he has called for the death penalty for terrorists. Now, what we know so far, I've regarding the attacker is that --