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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Nine People Shot Overnight at July 4 Party in D.C.; White House Blocked from Communicating with Social Media Firms; Substance at White House Sent for More Tests; Israel Strikes Gaza After Wrapping Jenin Operation; GOP Candidates Hit Campaign Trail on Holiday. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired July 05, 2023 - 05:00   ET

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

[05:00:27]

RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to our viewers in the U.S. and around the world. I'm Rahel Solomon, in this morning for Christine Romans.

Overnight, another American city, another mass shooting. This time in Washington, D.C. Police say nine people including a nine-year-old were shot outside during a Fourth of July celebration. It happens in a neighborhood, about five miles from the Capitol.

D.C. police updating the media a short time ago near the scene. The victims' injuries are said to be non-life-threatening. No arrests yet, investigators say they are looking for a dark SUV.

Now, this comes just one day after mass shootings in Indianapolis, Fort Worth and Philadelphia. The Philly suspect said it be arraigned today for killing five people and wounding several others.

CNN's Ed Lavandera has more on the deadly holiday in America.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Police say a 40-year-old man moved through a Philadelphia neighborhood, shooting randomly at people Monday night.

ERNEST RANSOM, STAFF INSPECTOR, PHILADELPHIA POLICE: The suspect, while wearing body armor, a ski mask, and holding an AR-15 assault rifle, was observed at several locations. The suspect then began shooting aimlessly at occupied vehicles and individuals on the street as they walked. None of the victims engaged the suspect or were aware the suspect was going to inflict this act of violence upon them.

LAVANDERA: The shooter has not been identified, and investigators say he will be arraigned on Wednesday and face murder charges. The attack spanned several neighborhood blocks.

Philadelphia authorities expressed outrage with the senseless violence on the eve of the 4th of July holiday.

MAYOR JIM KENNEY, PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA: This country needs to re-examine its conscience and find out how to get guns out of dangerous people's hands.

LAVANDERA: Hundreds of people took over Horne Street in Southwest Fort Worth for an impromptu and chaotic 4th of July street party that turned deadly. Mike Valle says he heard 30 to 40 shots as he ran from the scene to take cover.

MIKE VALLE, SHOOTING WITNESS: Everybody was right here and there was a -- there was just popping up fireworks, like doing fire nuts (ph) and stuff. And then there was a lot of gunfire that just started ringing out. And then everybody just started running everywhere.

LAVANDERA: Fort Worth Police say three people were killed and eight wounded in the shooting after several unknown men started firing indiscriminately into the crowd. No arrests have been made and it's not clear what caused the shooting to start.

CAPT. SHAWN MURRAY, FORTH WORTH POLICE DEPARTMENT: We don't know if this is domestic related, if it's gang related. It's too early to tell at this point. We just know somebody shot multiple times and a bunch of people were injured in reference to that.

LAVANDERA: A year after a 4th of July mass shooting in the Chicago suburb of Highland Park last year, the community returned. The city sponsored a walk to reclaim the space where a gunman killed seven parade watchers and wounded nearly 50 others.

MAYOR NANCY ROTERING, HIGHLAND PARK, ILLINOIS: Nobody wanted a parade. It was inappropriate. But it was important for us to say that evil doesn't win. And this is our parade route. And this is our community that we are taking back.

LAVANDERA: Back on Horne Street, families returned to enjoy the Como neighborhood 4th of July parade. The route cut through the very spot where the deadly shooting kicked off this national holiday. And they watched balloons released into the sky honoring Monday night's victims.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LAVANDERA (on camera): What really stands out when you look at the mass shootings across the country in the last few days is the number of young people impacted by this gun violence. Here in Fort Worth, an 18-year-old with dreams of joining the U.S. Air Force was killed. In Philadelphia, two-year-old twin boys were wounded, and in Indianapolis, a 16-year-old girl was killed at a block party. For victims' families and survivors, these shootings inflict scars which will last a lifetime.

Ed Lavandera, CNN, Fort Worth, Texas.

SOLOMON: A federal judge has sided with some Republican attorneys general and blocked the Biden administration from communicating with social media companies on certain content. It's a response to a lawsuit, accusing the White House of going too far to crack down on COVID disinformation. The White House officials say the Justice Department is now looking into its options. CNN's Vanessa Yurkevich has more now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: A federal judge has blocked key Biden administration agencies and officials from communicating with media companies about certain content.

This injunction comes in response to two state attorneys generals from Missouri and Louisiana who in 2022, filed a lawsuit that says the Biden administration overstepped in communicating with social media companies during the pandemic when it asked those social media companies to police speech on topics such as COVID-19, election integrity, and the security of voting by mail.

[05:05:16]

Now, this judge said the agencies and officials are barred from, quote, specifically flagging content or posts on social media platforms, and they are forwarding such to social media companies, urging, encouraging, pressuring or inducing in any matter for removal, deletion, suppression or reduction of content containing protected free speech.

Now those affected include the Department of Health and Human Services, the CDC, the FBI and the Justice Department, as well as more than a dozen top officials, including the U.S. surgeon general and White House press secretary.

By this order, they are prohibited from communicating with Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Twitter, YouTube, Google and TikTok, as well as other online platforms. Now, we reached out to those social media companies for comment and have not heard back. Meta, though, did decline to comment.

There are a few exceptions, the Treasury Department, Commerce Department and FDA can still have contact with these social media companies. But the agencies named can only communicate with these social media companies if there is any illegal activity or national security threats.

Judge Doughty, a Trump appointee, has not made a final ruling on this case, but this is a significant victory for the states that are suing the Biden administration in this matter.

Vanessa Yurkevich, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SOLOMON: And we are learning more about a suspicious powder found at the White House which prompted an evacuation on Sunday. A preliminary test shows that it might be cocaine. It has now been sent for more analysis.

CNN's Jeremy Diamond has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, the Secret Service says a powdery substance was discovered at the White House on Sunday evening. It prompted a brief evacuation of the White House complex, a hazmat team with the city of Washington, D.C. came in, deemed the substance nonhazardous. But two sources familiar with the matter say that powdery substance tested positive for cocaine.

Now, that was done via a field test, which is sometimes inconclusive. And it has been sent out for further testing and evaluation. Now, a Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi, he says that this powdery substance was found in a work space within the West Wing. President Biden, for his part, he was not at the White House when this took place.

Now, we should note on the weekends here at the White House, there are often tour groups that go through the West Wing of the White House. So, it's certainly possible, that that is how that baggy of cocaine apparently should be confirmed, made his way into the West Wing. That being said, the Secret Service is conducting an ongoing investigation into the matter to determine exactly how that substance made its way on to the White House grounds.

Jeremy Diamond, CNN, the White House.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SOLOMON: Now to the Middle East where Israeli forces say they have launched new airstrikes in Gaza after a Palestinian rocket attack. This comes hours after Israeli forces pulled out of Jenin after wrapping their largest military operations in the West Bank in 20 years. The operation centered on a refugee camp that is really officials call a hornet's nest for terrorist activity.

Palestinian officials say at least 12 people were killed, more than 100 were injured in the airstrikes and subsequent raids.

Let's bring in CNN's Nada Bashir. She joins us live from London.

Nada, tensions have been simmering for decades, but it does feel as if they have really picked up these tensions recently.

NADA BASHIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. I mean, Jenin has seen waves and waves of violence over the last two decades. This is, of course, the largest military operation or incursion and we have seen by the Israeli defense forces since the second intifada in the early 2000s, and it is important to underscore the civilian impact here.

There is a real concern now, that while the Israeli military have withdrawn now from Jenin, they say they were successful in achieving all of their targets, there is a real concern that there is still the real potential for yet another escalation in violence. Of course, Jenin is no stranger to this type of violence, as we saw back in the second intifada. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) BASHIR (voice-over): This is Jenin, the focal point of deadly

confrontations, after the Israeli military launched its largest operation against suspected terrorist targets inside the Jenin refugee camp since the second intifada. Jenin refugee camp, located in the north of the occupied West Bank houses some 17,000 Palestinian refugees across an area that is less than half a square kilometer in size.

[05:10:01]

The vast majority, descendants of Palestinians who expelled, or fled from their homes, after the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948.

Over the last two decades, the city of Jenin has seen waves of violence. In April, 2002, Israel launched a major assault, targeting suspected militants inside the Palestinian refugee camp. At the time, the operation of frame by the Israeli government as a response to suicide bombings inside Israel.

But the scale of the incursion, which became known as the battle of Jenin was unprecedented. The camp faced days of sustained missile and sniper fire, with many residents trapped in their homes, unable to escape to safety.

A report from humans rights watch found that attacks by the Israeli defense forces were indiscriminate, with many civilian deaths, amounting to unlawful or willful killings by the Israeli military. Some cases documented by the international human rights group, even amounted to in their words, summary executions, a clear war crime.

Back then, as now, the IDF used armored bulldozers to push through the narrow, winding alleys of the camp. The aftermath left hundreds of family homes destroyed, rendering thousands homeless. The report also said that many deaths could have been avoided if Israel did more to protect civilians. Israel however dispute that, saying 23 of its own soldiers had died in the fiercest urban warfare the military had experienced in decades, adding the military had conducted the operation carefully to result in a minimum number of Palestinian casualties.

Scenes from those violent days still stand out today. The Jenin refugee camp emerged yet again as a flash point in recent waves of violence, gripping the occupied West Bank. The Israeli military says they are targeting suspected terrorists in the city, with several Palestinian armed groups known to have a presence in the camp, including Islamic jihad and other fighters operating as part of the Jenin brigades.

At least a dozen Palestinians were killed, with some 100 injured. And thousands of others forced to flee their homes as a result of the ongoing violence and infrastructural damage, with limited access to electricity, water or Internet services.

Aid agencies have also accused the Israeli forces of obstructing access to the camp, and impeding the medical response, claims the IDF has however denied.

A spokesperson for the IDF acknowledged on Monday that civilians were among the injured, but insisted that the operation was targeting terrorists.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has however described the large scale Israeli military operation as a new war crime. And while the Israeli military said Tuesday that its troops would be leaving Jenin, fears persist over the potential for yet another unprecedented escalation in violence.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BASHIR (on camera): And, look, what we heard from an IDF spokesperson saying that the operation is not over. They do reserve the right to return, according to the IDF, if they do receive intelligence which would want yet another incursion.

Of course, as you mentioned there, we have seen that exchange of rocket fire overnight between Gaza and the IDF. There is still real tension as families now begin to return to the Jenin refugee camp. Of course, they are returning to seems utter destruction, many of them warning the loss of life in Jenin.

SOLOMON: UNICEF also saying that among those who were killed in Jenin, the death toll stands at three, at least three children.

Nada Bashir live for us in London. Thank you, Nada.

Well, coming up for us, stumping on the Fourth, Republican candidates who are trailing Donald Trump, that could make them or break them.

Plus, a shark scare on a crowded beach.

And could Russia be willing to make a deal to free a jailed American journalist? We'll be right back.

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[05:18:16]

SOLOMON: Welcome back.

It might have been a hot summer holiday, but that did not stop a number of Republican presidential candidates from hitting the trail in New Hampshire with Mike Pence deciding on Iowa.

CNN's Omar Jimenez has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The weather rained on the parade for Fourth of July festivities here in New Hampshire, but it didn't dampen the spirits of everyone who came out to support not just the country and general patriotism, but also some of the GOP candidates who were here very much on the campaign trail. Among them, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who, his super PAC, or I

should say the pro-DeSantis super PAC, Never Back Down, their spokesperson even acknowledged that they feel they are way behind in the polling, and this is an uphill battle, though not one that they say is unwinnable.

And that's part of why he hit this trail hard, meeting a lot of people along what was two parade routes across New Hampshire over Fourth of July, shaking hands, doing some of the on the ground presence that could help make inroads into what has been a shadow over the GOP field.

And what I mean by that is that the significant lead that polling has shown former President Trump to have over the rest of the field. Recent CNN polling has shown that, among Republican and Republican- leaning voters, 47 percent who support the former president, and the next closest, which is DeSantis, is double digits way.

And that's also why we saw not just DeSantis, but South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, former Texas Congressman Will Hurd out and about to try to close some of that gap, as we, of course, approach the first debates in August. But the more significant date that we approach is the first primary dates.

[05:20:03]

And at the end of the day, what's more American than campaigning for president on the Fourth of July?

Omar Jimenez, CNN, Merrimack, New Hampshire.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SOLOMON: All right. Let's bring in Daniel Strauss. He's a senior political correspondent and coauthor of the "Run-up" column at "The New Republic".

Daniel, welcome. Good morning.

So I just want to pick up on where Omar left off, but the super PAC backing DeSantis, essentially acknowledging that they are way behind in the polls. What's your read on that? What's your take on that?

DANIEL STRAUSS, SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, THE NEW REPUBLIC: This rare event in American politics, usually don't see a spokesman conceding without a huge amount of caveats that they are struggling behind their chief competitor. But, I mean, look, it's true that DeSantis and the rest of the Republican primary field are lagging behind Donald Trump right now.

It's still early. A lot could happen, but at this moment, in a state that DeSantis needs to w in, a state that has a history of propelling long shot candidates to the front of the primary field, the Florida governor is trailing Donald Trump.

SOLOMON: Well, speaking of Donald Trump, as you know, he was notably absent from July 4th campaign events. How do you read this? I mean, a sign of confidence?

STRAUSS: Yeah. That's actually exactly what I read here. I mean, look, back in 2016, Trump was not one to march in a lot of parades, and yet at the same time, I remember going to a very early Trump event at a high school in New Hampshire and the line to get in was wrapped around the corner.

And I really think that, in truth, this is part of the appeal among Republican primary voters to Donald Trump. They see him as authentic, they know that, deep down, it is not his style to kiss babies and march in state parades and that's what he's doing.

SOLOMON: Daniel, take a listen to part of what DeSantis had to say in New Hampshire yesterday and we'll discuss on the other side.

STRAUSS: OK.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Each generation has got to step up and be a custodian of freedom. I think right now is our generation's time to do that, because I think that freedom has been under assault under the country by Biden and the bureaucracy, but also with corporate America, the education system, all of these things. And we need people to stand up and fight back and that's exactly what we're going to do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOLOMON: Okay, Daniel, so defending freedom, going after Biden, going after corporate America. But I wonder, does the messaging need to become more specific to really resonate with voters?

STRAUSS: Again, it's really early. It depends on the crowd that we -- that DeSantis is in front of. He has made it very clear that he's eager in these early days of the 2024 election to focus on cultural issues and some of the topics that Republican base voters really respond to, that is what books people can read in schools, education, and that seems to be focusing, directed at the base of the Republican primary voters that any candidate really, really needs early on to stay at the front of the Republican primary field.

SOLOMON: Let's turn to another Republican candidate, former Vice President Mike Pence. He chose a different path, quite literally on Tuesday going to Iowa instead of New Hampshire. Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE PENCE (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I can't account for what other campaigns decide, but for me, it was vitally important to be here where the journey to the White House always begins.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOLOMON: Iowa. Trying to differ from the pack, do you think? STRAUSS: Yeah, it's more natural that pence would focus on Iowa with

the strong evangelical base there. And that's where Pence himself, a social conservatives with a strong religious feelings, would feel that he has a chance to break through in this primary. It's no surprise that he's focused there more than New Hampshire.

SOLOMON: Okay. "The L.A. Times" also had an interesting article on Monday. Newsom hits the road to campaign for Biden in Idaho, building his own base in red states.

Daniel, how important will big names be in the Democratic Party like Governor Newsom for Biden's reelection campaign?

STRAUSS: Only somewhat important. It's -- we have seen that Newsom has gone out and fundraised and campaigned for Biden. Biden most recently was in Illinois with Governor J.B. Pritzker, another potential candidate if Biden were not running. So, it is more in acknowledgment about Biden being the party's nominee, or the de facto nominee, and not having any kind of serious challenger among the primary field.

This is less important though because right now, most voters know that Biden is the incumbent president and the heavy favorite to win reelection.

[05:25:04]

SOLOMON: More important perhaps for figures like Newsom in terms of raising their own profile and their own political ambitions. He, of course, has been a bit coy about future political ambitions, but you think it benefits them more?

STRAUSS: I mean, Newsom has said again and again that he is not running for president this cycle and yet, the buzz is still persisted among him and a few other governors that they can run for president some day. But right now, if you are a Democratic potential candidate for president, one day you want to acknowledge that Biden is the nominee and that you want to get in line behind him.

SOLOMON: Daniel Strauss, thank you for the time today.

Quick hits across America now.

One person is dead for others injured after fireworks exploded, this happened in northeast Texas. A fire broke out as the fireworks were being prepared for July 4th events. The sheriff's office says no foul play is expected.

Well, police say an alligator killed a woman on South Carolina's Hilton Island while she was walking her dog. This is the second fatal gator attack in that area in less than a year.

Like a scene out of "Jaws", panicked moments for beachgoers in the Florida panhandle when a large shark was spotted right near the shore. Fortunately, no one was hurt. Quite a scare nonetheless.

President Biden about to welcome a key world leader to the White House today.

And Scotland honors its king with the crown jewels.

We'll be right back.

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