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Erin Burnett Outfront

January 6 Rioter Barred from Holding Office, A First in 100+ Years; Ex-AG Under Trump: Judge's Special Master Ruling "Deeply Flawed"; Some Republicans Shifting Positions On Abortion Amid Dem Gains; Uvalde Parents, Students Grapple With Return To School; U.S.: Supply Shortage "Not Going Well" For Russia; One-Third Of Pakistan Underwater, Flooding Death Toll Tops 1,300. Aired 7-8p ET

Aired September 06, 2022 - 19:00   ET

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

[19:00:22]

ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: OUTFRONT next, booted from offense, a judge removing a January 6th participant from his elected position because of his actions that day in a law that hasn't been used in over 100 years. So, could other lawmakers be next?

Plus, it was wrong, Trump's former attorney general slamming federal judge who sided with Trump and his request for a special master. So, who is the judge behind this controversial choice?

And America's fight over abortion rights firing up female voters. I'm going to talk to one Democratic strategist who says he has never seen anything like it in a multi-decade career.

Let's go OUTFRONT.

And good evening, I'm Erin Burnett.

OUTFRONT tonight, ousted. For the first time in more than 100 years -- I'll put it in another way -- in more than a century -- an official in the United States has been barred from holding office and barred under the Constitution's ban for insurrections. This is in New Mexico where a judge is ordering the founder of the Cowboys for Trump, Couy Griffin to be removed from his position as county commission, he's been convicted of participating in the January 6th riot.

The judge writing: Mr. Griffin engaged in that insurrection. The court therefore concluded that effective January 6th, 2021, Mr. Griffin became disqualified under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment from serving.

Now, according to the Department of Justice, Griffin was there. He was on the Capitol steps, well within the restricted area on January 6th when he made this video.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COUY GRIFFIN, FOUNDER, COWBOYS FOR TRUMP: The people have shown that they've had enough. The people are ready for fair and legal elections, or this is what you're going to get. You're going to get more of it. (END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: This is what you're going to get and you're going to get more of it. This is, though, a history making decision by this judge. I mean, the last time a public official was removed based on this clause of the 14th Amendment was in 1869. That is according to the liberal watch dog group which took part in the lawsuit.

Griffin tells "Vice News", quote: All they're doing with me is laying the groundwork to do this with other people including President Trump. And that is the big question tonight, whether the history making move in New Mexico, the county commissioner, is this the butterfly flapping its wings, it becomes the hurricane. Is that what ends up moving the needle on Donald Trump himself, the former president, who according to leaders of his own party called people like Couy Griffin to Washington, summoned them to violence?

The former president is still defending what happened that day.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT: I met with and I'm financially supporting people that are incredible and they were in my office two days ago. It's very much on my mind. It's a disgrace what they've done to them.

If I decide to run and if I win, I will look very, very strongly about pardons. Full pardons.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

BURNETT: And that's now. It comes as we're learning more today about attempts by Trump and his supporters to overturn the 2020 election. There's more to be learned. It keeps coming up.

CNN obtaining surveillance video from January 7, 2021, which shows a local Republican official escorting two pro-Trump operatives in a county elections office. That took place on the very same day a voting system in that office was breached. The officials seen on camera is also under criminal investigation for posing as a fake elector in the 2020 election.

Evan Perez is OUTFRONT live in Washington.

So, Evan, I start with you know, I referenced it sort of facetiously, right, as is this the butterfly flapping its wings. But that is the big question, right? What could this ruling in New Mexico mean for other pro-Trump officials who tried to help him to overturn the election?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's certainly, Erin, is something you're going to see at least attempted in other parts of the country. We know this group, which is Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, they have tried, and other groups have tried to disqualify other people including members of Congress in Georgia, in North Carolina, trying to use the fact that they voted or they tried to overturn the election results to try to have them disqualified from office.

Those efforts have failed. In this case, the judge simply said that what he did, what Couy Griffin did was essentially insurrection. He cited that his involvement in the stop the steal movement where Couy Griffin talked about this is a war to keep former President Trump in office. He cited the as a matter of fact that he seems to have no regrets about what he was doing.

So, this is a unique situation that happened in New Mexico.

[19:05:00]

We also have somebody who this summer declined to certify the election results in the primary election in New Mexico. So, that's all of the things that led to this decision by this judge in New Mexico.

We don't know whether those same circumstances will apply in other cases because, keep in mind, he was present at the January 6th riot. So, that's the other part of the circumstance that I think played into this judge's decision, Erin.

BURNETT: All right. Evan, thank you very much.

So, let's go to Elie Honig now, CNN's senior legal analyst, along with Stephanie Grisham, the former press secretary for then-President Trump.

Let me start with you as Evan is explaining this. How significant is this ruling that Couy Griffin, right, who happens to be the founder of Cowboys for Trump, a county commissioner, is now barred from holding office specifically because of his role on January 6th citing the Constitution?

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Erin, it's historically significant. We haven't seen a judge make a ruling like this or a politician be disqualified under the 14th Amendment going back well over 100 years. The 14th Amendment, it's important to know, was passed during Reconstruction after the Civil War in 1868. It was ratified. The idea was let's keep Confederates away from holding office, and now, we see it applied today in 2020.

But understand, this is not over. There absolutely will be an appeal because the problem here is, yes, the 14th Amendment tells us that any public official who engages in insurrection is disqualified from holding future public office. The problem is the Constitution doesn't tell us anything about how it works. It doesn't tell us who has to make that determination. Is it Congress? Is it state legislatures? Is it federal judges? Is it a state judge like we saw in this Griffin case? Is it a jury?

So, all that remains an unknown. So, it's a certainty that Griffin will appeal. But still, this is the farthest any of these cases have gotten in well over a century.

BURNETT: Obviously, as you point out, historically significant. Stephanie, the reality of it is, every time something like this happens -- I'm kind of thinking like this, this is obviously extremely unusual, hasn't happened in 100 years. You have one part of the country say finally, finally something is happening, and then the other part, the Trump loyal supporters, they get even more energized, just like Mar-a-Lago. You get the search of Mar-a-Lago and they're more energized.

So, how much would any kind of a legal effort or more legal efforts like this for other Trump-backed officials who backed Trump or Trump himself, any efforts to block him from running for president again, how much would that just energize his base?

STEPHANIE GRISHAM, FORMER TRUMP WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I mean, I find the entire thing fascinating. In listening to Elie, too, that gave a lot of context, of course it will energize the base. And, of course, it will be something that Trump and all his minions to decide to play victim and fundraise off of.

But I think what's important, we're never going to chase the base's mind. We're never going to change that MAGA extremist section of the Republican Party.

I do think it's interesting. Even for me, I thought immediately as a citizen, wow, that shows there are consequences to your actions, the fact he was at the January 6th siege on the capitol and now there are some real consequences. And I think that will really resonate maybe with independent voters and maybe center right voters.

BURNETT: So, Elie, Couy Griffin told "Vice News", and I mentioned to this, but he said in part, all they're doing with me is laying the groundwork to do this with other people including President Trump. You know, there's been a lot of talk out there, Elie, about that, whether there's going to be a push to ban Trump using the same thing or whether he would do some sort of a plea related to what is going on at Mar-a-Lago which would involve not running for office again.

I mean, where do you think this goes?

HONIG: Well, I think he's right. I do think that other groups will try to use the 14th amendment to disqualify other members of Congress and office holders. Evan alluded to this in the opening, to disqualify Marjorie Taylor Greene, that effort failed, and to disqualify Madison Cawthorn in North Carolina. That effort also ran aground.

But what's different This individual, griffin, he pled guilty to one of the January 6th cases. What he pled guilty to was trespass, that's it, a misdemeanor. What the judge did in this case, the state judge in New Mexico, looked at all the factors, looked at the video and said, look, yes, he pled guilty to trespass, but I look at all the facts and conclude this is insurrection or rebellion.

So, it's still a long shot. We have to keep this in perspective that all this stands up and is applied more broadly to higher ranking federal officials including Donald Trump. You can bet this will spur on, no pun intended with Cowboys for Trump, inspire future efforts to try to disqualify others. BURNETT: Stephanie, it is in the context of many supporters of Trump

wondering how permanent the rule of law in all this will be, right, because Trump hasn't just repeatedly praised the members of the mobs that stormed the Capitol, he has promised pardons of them if he's president again. I played a clip of him doing it, you know, the other day. Here he is just recently.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)

TRUMP: If I run and if I win, we will treat those people from January 6th fairly. We will treat them fairly. And if it requires pardons, we will give them pardons.

January 6th defendants are having these lives totally destroyed and being treated worse than terrorists and murderers. If I become president, some day, if I decide to do it, I will be looking at them very, very seriously for pardons.

It's a disgrace what they've done to them. If I decide to run and if I win, I will be looking very strongly about pardons. Full pardons.

(END VIDEO CLIPS)

BURNETT: Stephanie, how much of an impact are those words having right now?

GRISHAM: Well, they disgust me. I can tell you that right now. You know, again, it goes back to what I said earlier, I believe that is something he's saying to rile up the base. He's getting out in front of that crowd. They love to hear that kind of talk, that kind of rhetoric, love to hear him act like he's a king and bandy about pardons like they're not that big a deal.

But in the end, I do believe -- I have to believe that would back fire. If that were to become a nominee, that will not sit well with women voters, with center voters and independents. And I do think it would back fire. You cannot treat pardons like it's candy that you just pass out at a parade. It's ridiculous and it's disgusting.

And I believe that like-minded calm-thinking, rational people see that.

BURNETT: All right. Thank you both very much.

And next, Trump's attorney general blasting the decision by a federal judge to appoint a special master in the Mar-a-Lago investigation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARR: It's deeply flawed in a number of ways.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: So who is the Trump-appointed judge who made that decision?

Plus, the post-Roe voter surge. I'm going to talk to a strategist who said the number of new women voters is nothing like he's ever seen.

And it's being called a monsoon on steroids. You're going to see the images. Nearly a third of the entire country of Pakistan is now under water. Fifty million people displaced. And there's no end in sight.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:15:56]

BURNETT: Tonight, Donald Trump's former attorney general says the DOJ should appeal a federal judge's ruling -- a judge's ruling, I'm sorry, ordering a special master to review documents taken from Mar-a-Lago. Bill Barr says they should do that and they would win.

(BEGN VIDEO CLIP)

WILLIAM BARR, FORMER TRUMP ATTORNEY GENERAL: The opinion I think was wrong, and I think the government should appeal it. It's deeply flawed in a number of ways. I think if DOJ appeals eventually it would be overturned.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: Barr joins a number of legal experts, all questioning the decision by Aileen Cannon, the 41-year-old judge appointed by Trump.

Leyla Santiago is OUTFRONT.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JUDGE AILEEN CANNON, SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF FLORIDA: My sincere thanks to the president for the honor of his nomination.

LEYLA SANTIAGO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): That's what Aileen Cannon said at her Senate nomination two years ago. Now a federal judge, she ruled in Trump's favor this week.

JOHN KING, CNN HOST: The federal judge granting the former president's request for a special master.

SANTIAGO: Trump appointed cannon to the bench. The 41-year-old granted his request for a third party attorney to examine documents, some marked classified seized from his Florida home last month. It's a decision that temporarily halts the Justice Department's review of the material.

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: For the Justice Department investigation, they can no longer have access to these documents.

SANTIAGO: According to the questionnaire she filled out for her nomination, she took part in Greek life, a member of Delta Delta Delta, graduated from Duke University, part as of the Federalist Society, a national network of right-leaning lawyers, and a member of a yacht and country club in Vero Beach, Florida. She attended law school at the University of Michigan, graduated magna cum laude. Cannon has worked for the U.S. Department of Justice. And as an

attorney for private firms and the U.S. attorney's office, she wrote that she's handled a range of cases from firearms and narcotics to government investigations.

But before the Senate committee considering her nomination --

SEN. BEN SASSE (R-NE): On behalf of Senators Rubio and Scott from Florida, to introduce Aileen Cannon.

SANTIAGO: She focused on her personal story. She's a mother, wife, a woman born in Colombia to a mother from Cuba.

CANNON: At the age of 7 has to flee the Castro regime in search of freedom and security. Thank you for teaching me about the blessings of this country and the importance of securing the rule of law for generations.

SANTIAGO: The Senate confirmed her by a vote of 56-21, only Democrats and an independent voted against her. Two U.S. senators from Florida, both Republicans, publicly praised her nomination. In fact, Cannon states in her questionnaire, it was Senator Marco Rubio's office who first reached out to her about first being considered for the nomination. Records also show she donated $100 to Republican Governor Ron DeSantis in 2018.

When it comes to Trump, the judge was specifically asked during the nomination process if she'd had any discussions about loyalty to President Trump. Cannon replied; No.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANTIAGO (on camera): And we should mention we reached out to judge cannon on multiple occasions. She has not responded yet to our request. One of the things, Erin, I found interesting to her responses to the senator's questions during her nomination process was that at one point she was asked about President Trump's past comments and whether or not she agreed with them. Her response to that was that it was inappropriate of her to comment on any political statements made by an elected official. Erin.

BURNETT: Of course, all now seen with context, it matters. Leyla, thank you so much for that report.

So, I want to go now to Ryan Goodman, former special counsel at the Department of Defense, now co-editor in chief of the "Just Security" legal blog and professor at NYU School of Law.

So, Ryan, as you've been following this in such detail, Bill Barr comes out and joins you and many others who have said this ruling does not add up. He's saying the Department of Justice should appeal it and try to get this special master ruling overturned. He says they'll win. Do you agree?

[19:20:00] RYAN GOODMAN, CO-EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, JUST SECURITY: I basically agree with him. I think they need to do an urgent appeal to especially lift this injunction, this hold she's put on the Justice Department using any of the materials that came out of the search. I think that's kind of intolerable for the investigation. And if there's anyone piece that might --

BURNETT: There's a thing they can do that would speed up the appeal? They can actually do that?

GOODMAN: They can do that, but the court of appeals gets to decide. That's why he also says, like, how long could this take? It could take months. It's really their choice.

But while they are deciding, they could put in place this order that says do not worry about what she said to you with respect to this very unprecedented idea that they could not even use the material in the meantime.

BURNETT: So, let me ask you about that. As you point out, she didn't say, okay, have a special master. She said that the investigation has to stop -- the criminal investigation has to stop while the process is under way. The special master process obviously could take a period of time.

How long does this delay in a scenario where there is a special master and in the scenario where there's appeals that you're saying could go months?

GOODMAN: Yes, that's the -- that's the $100,000 question. It's damned if you do, damned if you don't. It's really unchartered territory because we've never in this country had a special master reviewing documents for executive privilege. Special masters are set up to review documents for attorney client privilege and they know what that means. They can just call balls and strikes.

Here, it's totally uncharted and her order is really remarkable. She doesn't put any boundaries. She doesn't say what she means by executive privilege. She doesn't say how the special master should apply a framework.

So, who knows? All of that could be litigated itself when the special master tries to decide and the parties contest what they think is special privilege or not. So, I think that part could be really long. Who knows what the results are.

The other process is appeal it to the 11th circuit, but then they might take a very long time to decide. While all this is going on, the federal government is trying to investigate an espionage case --

BURNETT: Right.

GOODMAN: -- and the intelligence community is trying to do a damage assessment from the leaks. That's also hampered by the ruling.

BURNETT: And the country is entering midterm elections and after that a presidential election cycle. Incredible.

All right. Ryan Goodman, thank you very much as always with the context that matters.

And next, Republican Senate candidate Dr. Mehmet Oz changing his tune. So, he had referred to abortion as murder during the primary, but now this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. MEHMET OZ (R), PENNSYLVANIA SENATE CANDIDATE: Strongly pro-life, but I have three exceptions.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: Are hard line anti-abortion stances putting Republicans at risk of losing in November.

Plus, an emotional day as teachers and students return to school in Uvalde, Texas.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:26:40]

BURNETT: Tonight, an unprecedented surge in women voters. That's what one Democratic political strategist found after analyzing voter registration data after the Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe versus Wade.

And here's the thing about the surge. It isn't just unprecedented. It isn't just happening in red states like Kansas. You remember voters there overwhelmingly rejected an abortion ban last month. It's also in swing states including Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.

So, there are now nine weeks until these crucial midterm elections. The question is what was once seen as going to be sort of a Republican surge and wave, could this now be the opposite?

OUTFRONT now, Tom Bonier. He's a Democratic political strategist behind this new research, along with Abby Phillip, our anchor of "INSIDE POLITICS SUNDAY", and senior CNN political correspondent.

So, Tom, let's just start with the phenomenon that we're seeing. You have been doing this for nearly 30 years and you say the surge you are seeing in new women voters is unlike anything you have ever seen. What stands out to you the most about the trend?

TOM BONIER, DEMOCRATIC POLITICAL STRATEGIST: Well, really it's exactly what you said. If you think of the context of this election, this was supposed to be a red wave election, and there was that expectation really after even the Dobbs decision. We didn't see anything changing until, as you mentioned, we saw the Kansas results.

And a lot of people, myself included, were very surprised not only by the win there for the pro-choice position but the margin of the women. So, we set forth to look at that and better understand it. The number we saw there was absolutely shocking. When you look at after Dobbs in Kansas, from June 24th when the decision was handed down, women were out-registering men in Kansas by a 40-point margin, accounting for almost 70 percent of registered voters.

I've never seen anything like that in my career. And it was clearly what drove the victory. As you said, we're now seeing that repeated across the country including in red states.

BURNETT: It is pretty stunning. I mean, 40 points.

Abby, you're seeing this now in politics on the ground. Pennsylvania Republican Senate candidate Dr. Mehmet Oz made it clear earlier that he doesn't have strict abortion views, or he's trying to say that now. Here is how he is putting it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OZ: There shouldn't be criminal penalties for doctors or women regarding abortion. I'm, you know, strongly pro-life, but I have three exceptions. Life of the mother, being an important one, rape and incest.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: So, Abby, he's giving exceptions and he's saying there should be no criminal penalties. He had earlier referred to abortion as murder during the primary. But I'm just giving him as an example. We have seen Republican candidates scrub their campaign websites of past hard line anti-abortion views.

Are Republicans really worried right now, Abby, that overturning Roe v. Wade could basically do what they expect at the midterms?

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, I think they absolutely are worried. Months ago, after the Dobbs draft was leaked, even Democrats weren't convinced of how much of an effect this would even have on the midterms. I think that both what we're seeing here is not just that it's having an effect, but the magnitude of the effect is far greater than either party really expected.

[19:30:03]

And the problem for candidates like Dr. Oz, people like Blake Masters in -- Blake Masters in Arizona, is that these candidates are not going to be able to separate themselves from what the far right wing of their party has been saying for 50 years when it comes to abortion.

BURNETT: Yeah.

PHILLIP: And that is that they want it to be outlawed. And the exceptions for rape and incest and life of the mother, that's not necessarily going to be enough to undo what has basically become common knowledge in this country.

You don't have to go that far to explain this issue to American voters. It's everywhere they go. I think that's one of the reasons you see it resonating so deeply and so widely across the electorate.

BURNETT: So, Tom, the big question is you talk about Kansas and nobody saw that coming. You went and looked, a 40-point margin in terms of women out-registering men after the Dobbs decision. You're seeing this women surge in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, swing states. This could be an incredibly significant thing.

What are you seeing in those swing states?

BONIER: What we're seeing is that the surge isn't just more women registering which by itself is significantly impactful, but the women who are registering are much younger. When we look again at the Kansas results but seeing the same state that in states like Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Ohio, Michigan, is that the women under the age of 25 especially are really surging in their registration.

In Kansas, they account for about a third of the new registrants before Dobbs. After Dobbs, 52 percent. And these younger women are more likely to register as Democrats. Certainly in terms of landscape potentially being reshuffled in the final nine weeks, that data suggesting that is what's happening.

BURNETT: Abby, it is pretty stunning when you think about that in that context. President Biden is not really talking about it. Speeches yesterday on Labor Day touting legislative wins didn't mention abortion. Should he be doing that or does the math, the numbers that tom is talking about show that he doesn't need to?

PHILLIP: Look, I think one of the things you're seeing is this is a state by state strategy. Democrats are executing a strategy of talking about abortion explicitly in the places they think will make a difference, in the places where it's basically in the ballot, in Pennsylvania where the next governor can decide how abortion laws are written in that state, in Michigan, in Wisconsin, in other places like that.

And so, you're seeing that executed in districts and states. But at the national level, Biden is talking in general terms because they believe that that is how you do it with broad strokes.

BURNETT: Abby, Tom, thank you both.

And next, more office, more monitors, an eight-foot fence. That's what they're doing in the elementary school in Uvalde where parents say it's not enough. Students and teachers are returning to school today.

Plus, Ukraine stepping up the counteroffensive. Russia is now asking North Korea for help. We're live in Ukraine tonight.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:36:54]

BURNETT: Tonight, we're learning about new active shooter protocols in Texas as students in Uvalde return for the first day of school. CNN obtaining an email from Steve McCraw, the director of Texas's department of public safety in which he tells his employees and I quote, when a subject fires a weapon at a school, he remains an active shooter until he is neutralized and is not to be treated as a, quote, barricaded subject.

Now, we all know officers waited more than an hour outside the elementary school in Uvalde where 19 students and two teachers were killed in May. Police say they did that because they considered the gunman to be a barricaded subject and not an activated shooter. You may or may not add up to anyone listening, but that's what they're saying.

And the school district is also ramping up security. Some students, though, say it still is not enough to make them feel safe.

Ed Lavandera is OUFRONT.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Before walking to school, Celeste and her two daughters held hands in prayers.

CELESTE IBARRA, PARENT IN UVALDE: Aubriella usually prays that my grandpa, my dad, will protect her, that the shooter won't come for her, he won't hurt her. He won't take her and for her to have a good day and come back home.

LAVANDERA: This isn't just any other first day of school. Aubriella was a third grader at Robb Elementary last May. This morning, she's walking to a new school building, but the new walk hasn't escaped the horrors of the last school year.

IBARRA: I bought toys, everything, colored pencils, everything cute for them. They didn't care.

LAVANDERA: They didn't care.

IBARRA: No. Usually they do, not today.

LAVANDERA: So, this doesn't really feel like a normal first day of school.

IBARRA: No, at all.

LAVANDERA: Celeste says the members of the day have let her daughter struggling with nightmares and depression. When Aubriella heard the gunshots at Robb Elementary, she hid inside a bathroom that the gunman walked past.

IBARRA: She's literally having a panic attack and she's putting chairs on the doors. She's like literally asleep crying that he's right over her.

LAVANDERA: The Uvalde school district put up eight-foot fencing around some school campuses. More officers and school monitors will be stationed at campuses around the city. Even on the day before school, parents like Celeste were struggling with sending their children back to school.

IBARRA: I know she needs to go to school. At the same time, do I send her and lose her or keep her home and she doesn't get to study or any of that stuff.

LAVANDERA: As Uvalde students return, a group of artists spent the summer ensuring that the memories and names of the 19 students and two teachers who were killed are never forgotten. The portraits of each victim are breathtaking.

Abel Ortiz helped organize this project.

ABEL ORTIZ, MURALIST: We're defined by how we respond to the tragedy. And for me the murals take us on that positive path towards that definition of our community.

ZAYON MARTINEZ, STUDENT: I don't know what this is called.

LAVANDERA: This is called globe.

MARTINEZ: A globe.

LAVANDERA: Zayon Martinez was also at Robb Elementary last year. This school year, he'll be more than 130 students staying home and attending school virtually. His dad has turned his man cave garage into a classroom.

ADAM MARTINEZ, ZAYON'S FATHER: I told him, you know, that they're going to have more cops, they're going to have higher fencing. He wasn't having it. He said it doesn't matter. They're not going to go in the class if it happens again, they're not going to protect us.

Z. MARTINEZ: Whoa.

LAVANDERA: At home he feeds his chickens. He also has a new guinea pig his parents say has helped him emotionally. He feels safe here.

What scares you the most about going back to school in person?

Z. MARTINEZ: I had a -- I had a friend who got killed.

LAVANDERA: You had a friend who got killed? I'm so sorry.

Z. MARTINEZ: I just don't want to end up like that. Because I love this family that I have right now.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BURNETT: Ed, I can't imagine how it felt having that conversation with that child. I know you also did speak to some of the children when they left school just a little bit ago. How was the first day?

LAVANDERA: You know, all in all, we heard from a couple different students, and some of them were very nervous going in. But the two students we spoke with this afternoon said they had a wonderful day at school. They look forward to coming back to school tomorrow. It was interesting that they both told us there was no mention of what

happened on May 24th, and the murders of 19 children and two teachers. That was interesting. Erin, I should also point out this afternoon, just a short while ago, we heard from the Uvalde school district with enrollment numbers, they said total enrollment was about 90 percent of what they expected. So, a little bit lower, and also, the number of people attending virtually is actually 59, not the 130 we mentioned there in the story. I want to clarify that because we just got those updated numbers -- Erin.

BURNETT: So, more ended up going in.

Ed, thank you very much for that report.

Actually, a significant part of this here is what we're about to discuss. Katherine Schweit joins me now, retired FBI special agent who created the active shooter program after the Sandy Hook school massacre in 2012.

So, Katharine, Ed is updating the remote learning. Fewer kids than opted for that today expected. But you heard the boy in Uvalde who is doing virtual learning because he's afraid. He doesn't think the new fencing, that additional officers will protect him if a gunman tries to get on campus.

When you think about this in the macro, do all these additions, eight- foot fences, things like that, make a difference?

KATHERINE SCHWEIT, FORMER FBI SPECIAL AGENT: Fences, more police officers, locks that really lock, keys that the students actually -- teachers have keys to their own classrooms which many of them didn't have, those are physical security matters that can make people -- that can provide safety. Safety is really two things. Safety is being safe. Maybe that's the locks and the fences, but it's also feeling safe.

And it's going to take a long time for people to feel safe because it's such an illusive thing once you lose that feeling of safety. It's going to be a challenge, because I think they also need to make sure that they think about long term.

This is great. But how long is that eight-foot fence going to stand up? How long are those other officers going to be standing by?

BURNETT: Right, right, you can't have those things in perpetuity. And you talk about safety, it is top of mind across the U.S. right now. Children are going back to school.

So, what should parents be telling their children about how to respond? I thought it was interesting that head said it wasn't mentioned in Uvalde today. But what should parents say?

SCHWEIT: Well, in Uvalde they taught lockdown. A lot of schools in the United States teach lockdown. The federal government advocates run, hide, fight. The hide part is the lockdown.

And I would urge every parent who's sending a kid to school not just in Uvalde to have a conversation with their own children who are going to school and say you can be safe in school, but remember, you can leave the school, you can run if you need to, because we do have so many schools that just teach the hide part, and that is exactly what we heard in Uvalde, and we heard in other places.

Parents can have those conversations with their children today even if their school isn't having them.

BURNETT: Really significant. Katherine, thank you.

SCHWEIT: Thank you.

BURNETT: And next, Russia's weapons likely running so low that Russia -- Putin is now turning to North Korea for ammo, as we hear from a former U.S. marine who chose to fight on the Ukrainian front line.

And devastating images coming out of Pakistan. Floodwaters there stretching as far as the eye can see. People are dead. Tens of millions are displaced.

This is Pakistan, and the situation is getting worse.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:48:47]

BURNETT: Tonight, Russia is turning to North Korea for help. The supply is running low on the battlefield in Ukraine. CNN learned Russia is buying millions of rockets and artillery shells from Kim Jong-un.

This as Ukraine continues the counteroffensive to push Russia out of the south, a battle that has now injured another American in the fight.

Sam Kiley is out front with an exclusive report that you might find disturbing.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go, go, go, go. No panic, no panic. This normal, this normal.

SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Among the most forward troops in Ukraine's latest counteroffensive, this really is normal. When the crunch of incoming artillery is this intense, casualties in this reconnaissance unit, which includes three foreigners, are inevitable.

Mark Ayres, a Briton, was lightly wounded on day one of the offensive. On day two, he was more seriously wounded in the leg by artillery, alongside Michael Zafar, a former marine from Kansas. He was hit in the hand, stomach and head. They joined Ukraine's Army together but met fighting ISIS in Syria.

[19:50:04] Zafar is the former U.S. Marine's Kurdish code name.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I am fine. Go.

KILEY: As recon troops, they've been the tip of Ukraine's attacks on its southern front in the fight to recapture Kherson.

MICHAEL ZAFAR, AMERICAN FIGHTING IN UKRAINE: I remember looking to my left and pop. I couldn't see anything for a bit. Everything looked the same. Everything came to. Looked at my left, looked fine. Looked at my right, okay. I'm (EXPLETIVE DELETED) there, (EXPLETIVE DELETED) there. Okay. To the hole, to the hole.

KILEY: It's going to be a slow grinding fight, they say, whatever the claims of Ukraine's government.

This counteroffensive is being billed as kind of a quick process. Do you think that's --

MARK AYRES, BRITON FIGHTING IN UKRAINE: No, definitely not. It won't be quick. I mean it's hard, slow-fought, meter by meter, position by position because we haven't got resources to do a massive blitzkrieg.

KILEY: U.S. weapons and other NATO equipment have proved useful, but not decisive as Ukraine has captured a handful of villages since the counteroffensive began. Here, Russian troops wave a white flag of surrender after precision artillery strikes by U.S.-supplied howitzers are monitored by Zafar's unit with a drone.

Russia has motivated its troops with false claims that they're liberating Ukraine from Nazis.

So you feel sorry for the Russians?

AYRES: No. No. Not at all. It's not like Ukraine has invaded Russia. They've invaded Ukraine. They're here killing civilians, killing our soldiers. I've got no sympathy for them whatsoever.

KILEY: Ukraine's imposed a news blackout on the southern offensive and keeps his casualty figures secret. But for these men being wounded isn't the end of combat. It's an interruption.

Are you going to go back?

ZAFAR: Yeah, once everything heals on my body probably within three to four weeks. I should be right back out there.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KILEY (on camera): There have also been some limited successes in the longstanding counteroffensive around the northern city of Kharkiv, but this is a 1,500-kilometer front line that is absorbing large amounts of troops and as we heard at the top of that, new weapons coming or new material coming in from North Korea as the Russians, at least, urgently resupply themselves.

BURNETT: Sam Kiley, thank you very much, live in the south of Ukraine in Odesa tonight.

And next, the catastrophic flooding that we're seeing right now. More than a third of the country of Pakistan is underwater. People displaced, 50 million people displaced, thousands dead, and now fear of the flood and snakes and mosquitoes and more.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:56:41]

BURNETT: Tonight, 58 million Americans under heat warnings and advisories as temperatures break records. California residents warned again to prepare for rolling power outages. Extreme weather across the globe, including Pakistan, where a third of the entire country is under floodwater.

Anna Coren is OUTFRONT.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANNA COREN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Stretching to the horizon and beyond, an expanse of endless brown, murky water dotted with tops of trees and roofs of houses. Never before has Pakistan seen this scale of flooding as water now covers one-third of the country.

This climate change-induced disaster has been months in the making. With more than double the amount of rain falling since May, in what the U.N. has referred to as a monsoon on steroids.

Last month's deluge unleashing even more misery as violent for torrents of water damaged crops, the sheer volume unable to drain away.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hundreds of thousands of families now have absolutely nothing. The land where they had their house is totally flooded. They don't have anything more than what they're wearing.

COREN: Thirty-three million people have been affected. That's around 15 percent of Pakistan's population. More than 600,000 people have moved into displaced persons camp, but some of the most vulnerable have been left stranded.

On this tiny strip of land are a number of families, their surviving livestock, a few belongings, and 24-day-old Shamal (ph). Her mother is sick, exhausted and struggling to care for her sixth child. She's marked the baby's forehead to ward off evil spirits.

I want my baby to survive, but it's God's will if she dies, she says. We cannot afford to move from this area. We are at the mercy of nature because we are poor people. She says she labored with the baby through the rains.

The World Health Organization says 1.2 million pregnant women are among those displaced across Pakistan.

A few bags of aid have been dropped off, but it's not enough to sustain the families according to its 70-year-old grandmother, who has witnessed three floods in her lifetime but nothing quite like this.

We keep our eyes on our children after sunset. They could fall down into the water and drown. We have one meal a day. We have to save food for our kids. God, please help us.

But it's not just a lack of food they're worried about. Mosquitoes, venomous snakes, and waterborne diseases are a constant threat. The WHO says cases of typhoid, malaria, and diarrheal diseases are rising and will undoubtedly worsen.

Foreign aid is slowly trickling in. Former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. and now head of USAID, Samantha Power, and U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres are due to arrive in Pakistan this week in a desperate bid to ramp up international assistance and support.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Pakistan, looking forward, is very dire. We've got to be there for the long term. We've got to be there for three or four months at the minimum in order to save lives.

COREN: But for these people, mere survival is a daily struggle, and these clear blue skies aren't expected to last long. More devastating monsoonal rains people, mere survival is a daily struggle, and these clear blue skies aren't expected to last long. More devastating monsoonal rains are days away to further terrorizing a traumatized country.

Anna Coren, CNN, Hong Kong.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BURNETT: And thanks for joining us.

"AC360" starts now.