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Biden to Visit Buffalo, Blast Hateful Ideology Behind Shooting; Voters Head to Polls in Tight Pennsylvania GOP Senate Primary; Millions Saw Attack on Facebook After Site Kept Up For Ten Hours. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired May 17, 2022 - 07:00   ET

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


[07:00:00]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Good morning to our viewers here in the United States and all around the world. It is Tuesday, May 17th. I'm John Berman, Brianna is off this morning, Chief White House Correspondent Kaitlan Collins here with us.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Thank you, thank you.

BERMAN: Now, where you normally are, the White House, we have some live pictures of the White House this morning. Very shortly, President Biden will depart for Buffalo to meet with the families of those killed in the racist mass shooting there. Moments ago, officials gave us a preview of what the president will say, he will condemn, quote, the terrorism motivated by the hateful and perverse ideology that tears at the soul of our nation. We're also told the president will call on Americans to give hate no safe harbor and to reject the lies of racial animus that radicalize and divide us. He will also call for federal legislation to keep guns from the mentally ill.

This morning, we are getting new details about the suspect, the investigation and also new copycat threats against the city of Buffalo. There is cell phone video taken by an eyewitness at the moment the suspect, the shooter was taken into custody by police. New evidence shows he spent several months carefully planning this attack.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COMMISSIONER JOSEPH GRAMAGLIA, BUFFALO POLICE: He was here. We found some things that showed that he was here in early March. And then, again, we know that he was here on Friday basically doing reconnaissance on the area.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: A manager at Tops, the store where this attack took place, tells ABC News she actually saw the gunman at the store on Friday, the day before the attack, and that he was wearing the same camouflage outfit that he wore during the attack. He was told to leave because it looked like he was bothering customers.

The suspect, meanwhile, wrote online that that he had considered attacking churches or even elementary schools but hesitated because of the security often found at schools. We'll have more on those disturbing details in a moment, as well as how he was easily able to purchase a firearm, including the one he used to gun down ten people, despite the fact that he had been given a mental health evaluation less than a year ago.

CNN has obtained a photo of two of the rifles that the shooter brought with him to the scene in Buffalo. And writing appears all over then, including a racial slur and a phrase, white lives matter.

BERMAN: CNN Anchor Victor Blackwell on the ground in Buffalo for us tracking the latest developments, and, Victor, a whole bunch of information coming to light just over the last several hours. Give us the latest.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: John, an extraordinary amount of details about the extent of the planning that went into this attack on Saturday. You heard from the police commissioner that not only was the alleged shooter here in Buffalo in March, but according to social media posts that have been attributed to this suspect, he was in the store, in Tops Supermarket, on March 8th, he says, at noon, 2:00 and 4:00, so many times that the person that he noted as the black armed security guard there asked why he was coming in and out and he lied and said he was there to get information for the census.

But on those social media posts, there were maps of the stores noting the exits, the bakery, the pharmacy. He noted the races of the people who were there in the store. And in one post, he wrote -- let's put it up on the screen, I'm going to have to kill that security guard at Tops. I hope he doesn't kill me or even hurt me instantly. Well, we know that that security guard, Aaron Salter, at least on Saturday, no confirmation that it was the same person in March, fired shots at the attacker after the shots in the parking lot. But because of that body armor, they did not hurt the attacker. The shots were fired back and Salter was one of those ten victims.

Now, you mentioned the photos of weapons. CNN has obtained photos of two rifles that were in the vehicle of the shooter with writing on those weapons including the phrase, white lives matter, on the main rifle that was used in the shooting, the Bushmaster XM-15, according to investigators. The owner of Vintage Firearms, where that weapon was purchased, said that the suspect passed a background check, did not stand out among his other customers, despite having that medical evaluation, after the generalized threat related to a report on murder suicide in June of '21, when he was in high school.

So, so many details coming out about the planning that went into this for months before the attack here on Saturday, John.

BERMAN: Some of these many details, victor, you're giving us are just chilling, so chilling.

I do want to keep the focus on the victims here and that includes the ten deceased, the ten who were killed, but also the survivors, Victor, who will live, I think, with this experience of what happened. And we're hearing from an eight-year-old survivor. What can you tell us?

BLACKWELL: Yes, her name is Londin Thomas.

[07:05:00]

She was here in the store on Saturday when this attack happened. She was here with her parents. They were buying groceries for a cookout. I mean, it was a beautiful day on Saturday. So, they were going to have a cookout, a birthday surprise, and then the shots started. She and her father were separated from her mother. They went to the back of the store and hid in a freezer. Listen to her story.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LONDINTHOMAS, EIGHT-YEAR-OLD BUFFALO SHOOTING SURVIVOR: We went to the back of the store where the milk is, and like it was the door was locked and we could not get out until like the manager opened the door. Then we had to go out the back door. And the cops lead us out.

I was scared for my mom. I don't know what happened to her because she was at the front and I was at the back. I didn't know where she was. I thought she was gone.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Unimaginable. And now these parents had to explain to their daughter what happened. And we're all living in this now landscape where you have to teach your children where to go, what to do if this happens.

The three of them all safe. We know that counseling is available for the survivors and those who were there. The governor has allocated $2.8 million for not only the victims and their families but for things like the counseling that's going to be needed in this community. John?

BERMAN: What a blessing, what a miracle that she's alive, Victor. But what an affront, I mean, what an absolute tragic affront that something like that that she had to live through something like that, to witness it, and imagine what that will do to her for the rest of her life. Victor, thank you so much for your reporting this morning.

COLLINS: And in addition to the people who were forced to witness this attack, only 22 people saw the actual livestream from the camera that was on the suspect's helmet during the Buffalo mass shooting, but millions more have seen it since. Facebook did not remove the footage for more than ten hours.

CNN's Donie O'Sullivan joins us for more. And, Donie, I think this is such a big question since after we saw what happened in New Zealand just a few years ago, where it was livestreamed. They wanted it to go viral, this terrorism theater. And now, the fact that this was put on a website, Twitch, it was up there only for a matter of moments before the company said they removed it within two minutes of the first gunshot. So, why did it remain up on so many other websites?

DONIE O'SULLIVAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. This was made for social media massacre. As you said, the suspect streamed live on this websites, Twitch, which is owned by Amazon. The company said two minutes, two minutes after the violence began, they had taken down that video. That still was not quick enough because the people who were watching us, we believe about 20 people or so, they were from dark corners of the internet because where the suspect posted the links to this Twitch are on the chats, a lot where the hate-filled forums online.

Somebody watching that, possibly a few more than one person, downloaded the video, as it was happening in real-time. And then we went back. We went 4chan, which is also referenced in the document which was posted by the suspect. He said he was that influenced by what he was seeing on 4chan, the racism on there. Somebody right after the shooting posted in 4chan saying, hey, I have a copy of this video. That video got uploaded, it got re-uploaded everywhere, all around the internet, and it's now been viewed millions of times. So, it lives on.

COLLINS: And it just shows you how little has changed since what happened in New Zealand. And after that, you saw officials talk about tech companies in how they wanted to make sure that when something like this happens, it gets removed and it gets removed quickly. But even when the original site removes it, it's still distributed everywhere.

O'SULLIVAN: Yes. And, I mean, I think tech companies have a lot of responsibility here. What I would say, though, is we also have to account for the fact that there are a lot of, frankly, sick people out there who keep uploading these videos, who want people to see this stuff. And we saw on Facebook were slow to take down some links, they were quick to take down others, but they're up against it. We're all up against it where there are so many bad faith people, I guess, online who want to post this, who wants to spread that message.

And one important point to remember here is the suspect in his documents, he said that he was influenced, inspired even by the video he found on 4chan, the video of the New Zealand attack. So, when these videos percolate out there, when they continue to live online, they can inspire future violence.

COLLINS: Such a (INAUDIBLE) circle, Donie, thank you.

BERMAN: All right. A huge political day, voters lining on for primary voting this morning in several key states across the country, a lot of eyes on the swing state, or shall we say the swing commonwealth of Pennsylvania and its pivotal races for governor and Senate.

Kristen Holmes joins us live outside of a Pittsburgh polling station.

[07:10:03]

Kristen?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John. Yes, we just saw the first group of voters go in to cast their ballots later today. David McCormick, who is one of those candidates on the Senate Republican side, is scheduled to vote here. That race remains wide open between the top three frontrunners. You have McCormick, a former hedge fund CEO. You have celebrity Dr. Mehmet Oz, who is endorsed by Donald Trump. And you have late surging political novice and ultra conservative Kathy Barnette.

And we watched all three of them making their final appeals to the state of Pennsylvania -- excuse me, the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Yesterday, McCormick doing several small events, we saw Barnette answering questions that had come up about her background, and we saw former President Donald Trump calling into a rally for Oz, reiterating his support for him.

But I will tell you this. I have talked to advisers from all three campaigns and they all say essentially the same thing, they feel good but they think it could break any way.

Now, on the Democratic side, there is less drama but still little uncertainty as Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman, who had been leading in the polls, has -- still recovering from a stroke that he had last week. Now, he had had a comfortable lead over his opponent, including moderate Representative Conor Lamb, but this adds a level of what is next given his health situation right now.

And the last race I want to point to is the governor's race, particularly on the Republican side, where you see Trump-endorsed election denier Doug Mastriano still leading here. And has between him and Barnette. It has a lot of Republican strategists pulling their hair out. They believe that these candidates might not be able to pull out a general and that these ultra conservative candidates might cost them a vital seat.

BERMAN: Kristen Holmes for us in Pennsylvania. Kristen, if all three leading Republican Senate candidates are telling you they feel good, I promise you at least one of them is lying. That's just a map issue more than anything else. But, again --

HOLMES: You're probably right. But the polls are all over the place, John. They really are. I mean, you're seeing all three candidates leading in different polls.

BERMAN: We have no idea what's going to happen. And I think that's what makes this so interesting to watch. Kristen Holmes, thank you.

COLLINS: It's also important to remember that if you call Pennsylvania a state today, you have to put a quarter in Jake Tapper's swear jar.

BERMAN: I was going to say I'll have an electric shock. Tapper gives me an electric shock every time I call Pennsylvania a state.

COLLINS: North Carolina is also fascinating to watch today because a key GOP Senate primary is going to be decided along with the fate of embattled House Republican Madison Cawthorn.

CNN's Eva McKend is joining us live from a polling place in Mocksville, North Carolina. Eva, what are you seeing so far as the sun, we can tell, is just coming up over there? EVA MCKEND, CNN NATIONAL POLITICS REPORTER: Yes, good morning, Kaitlan, from Davie County, North Carolina, really the place to be on this Election Day, So many key races to watch here, including the race for Senate. I've been tracking the Senate Republican primary. I was out on the trail yesterday with Congressman Ted Budd, a third term congressman, he is leading in the Republican primary here.

He was endorsed by former President Trump last year and that really changed things in terms of gaining him name recognition across the state, as well as helping with fundraising. He has run heavily on the Second Amendment. He's an immigration hard-liner. He is a member of the freedom caucus. And still notably, he won't say that President Biden won the 2020 election. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. TED BUDD (R-NC): And that I have great constitutional concerns about 2020, And I don't think it's should be a partisan issue. I think whether someone is a Democrat unaffiliated or a Republican, we should trust our institutions. I fully support voter I.D. North Carolinians overwhelming supported that across party lines several years ago, and yet an activist judge overturned it.

MCKEND: But you still won't say President Biden won the election?

BUDD: Well, I will say that he is the current president and I have constitutional concerns about 2020.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCKEND: So, Congressman Budd is going to be voting here in just a few hours with his family. He is competing against former Governor Pat McCrory as well as former Congressman Mark Walker. If Budd is successful, he will compete against likely Democratic Nominee Cheri Beasley. She was the first black woman to become the chief justice of the Supreme Court in this state. Also, all eyes on Madison Cawthorn as well if he will be able to maintain his House seat in the wake of so much controversy. Kaitlan?

COLLINS: Yes, a big question. Eva, thank you so much.

And I want to bring in someone who is no stranger to primaries himself, former Minnesota Senator Al Franken. Thank you for joining us this morning.

And I just wonder first what you're watching for today because there are so many implications on the line, not just in North Carolina but in Pennsylvania and all over the place?

FMR. SENATOR AL FRANKEN (D-MN): I'm really looking at Pennsylvania in a way because that state used to produce moderate Republicans, Thornburgh, Specter, Heinz, people like that.

[07:15:06]

And this is Trump. And this party has become Trump's party. So, these candidates -- first of all, Oz, he picked Oz, I guess, because none of these candidates really live until Pennsylvania, but at least Dr. Oz was in T.V. land where Trump lived, so that's who he picks. He's a celebrity.

And I got to tell you, none of those three people is actually feeling good today, feeling comfortable. I've been in a very, very tight race. I won my -- I clobbered Norm Coleman by 312 votes.

COLLINS: And what you're referencing there is Mehmet Oz and David McCormick both have faced these accusations of carpetbaggers because they've just moved back recently. Kathy Barnette, who has been surging, she's been there eight years, she says.

FRANKEN: Yes. She's been there for eight years.

COLLINS: There are some questions about her background, of course, a lot of unanswered questions.

BERMAN: It's interesting, though, you talk about this being a Trump primary, David McCormick has got a lot of Trump staffers working for him, right, Hope Hicks and others. Mehmet Oz has Trump's endorsement. And Kathy Barnette, in a way, is running one of the more Trumpy campaigns. So, they're each in their own way trying to grab a slice of that. And I suppose we'll learn what matters most, if it's the actual Trump endorsement that gets you over the finish line.

FRANKEN: But guess who claims victory no matter who wins?

BERMAN: And that would be?

FRANKEN: Trump. See? But either way, it's a MAGA person that's going to win that race.

COLLINS: And I wonder what Democrats are sitting back and thinking while they're watching this. Because you've seen some say that's great, let's have what we believe is the furthest right candidate win this primary because it's easier for us to defeat in November, but the political headwinds are against Democrats right now. And so I think the question that some Democrats have put out there is, okay, well, what if the candidate that we want to win today wins, and then come November, they actually become governor or they become the senator from Pennsylvania?

FRANKEN: Well, you remember 2010 was a very bad year but we dodged a bullet because they picked some nut cases, you know, in Nevada and in Delaware. So, we're kind of -- we're still rooting for the nut cases today.

BERMAN: What do you think of the Democratic -- let's talk about Pennsylvania, because, in a way, it represents a microcosm of the types of races you might see around the country. You have John Fetterman, the lieutenant governor, who just had a stroke, by the way, and we hope he's doing well, but seen in some ways as the more progressive of the candidates. You have Conor Lamb, who is certainly more of a centrist candidate there. You also have Oregon -- you have some primaries in Oregon, we have more centrist candidates against more progressive candidates. Which way do you think the wind is blowing in terms of primaries for your own party?

FRANKEN: Well, it feels like Fetterman was very up in that race, and I don't know how the stroke is going to affect it. But Conor Lamb won in a pretty conservative district and that was -- he's a hero for doing that in the special. But I don't think that carries over. Fetterman captured people's imagination. I imagine he'll do it.

BERMAN: Do you think this shows some strength for the more progressive way of the party as it gets can closer to the midterms?

FRANKEN: I think it kind of shows the division in our party. And I just hope that we can bridge it. And I hope that we pick up some Senate seats, because you saw, we didn't bridge some of those gaps when we had the majority by just one seat. So, I hope we're picking up enough so that we can get things done with 53 votes, or 52 votes.

COLLINS: And why weren't Democrats able to bridge that cap before, do you think?

FRANKEN: Well, because you have Bernie Sanders and Joe Manchin. And, mainly, Joe Manchin, in terms of not getting the stuff done, and I don't know. I wasn't there. I think we should have been able to get some very, very popular pieces of -- you don't want to say build back better because that has such a negative connotation now. But if you think about Medicare and negotiating for drugs or universal pre-K or subsidizing child care, if people had heard what was in the package -- they heard these individual items. I've been calling since October for us put those on the floor individually so people can see what they are. And now, it's gotten too late.

BERMAN: Senator Al Franken, great to see you.

FRANKEN: Good to see you.

COLLINS: Thanks for joining us.

FRANKEN: Nice to meet you. I haven't met you before.

[07:20:00]

COLLINS: Nice to meet you as well. I'm just filling in. I'm normally at the White House. I'm just here hanging, making sure John behaves.

BERMAN: Trying, trying, doing your best.

Big day, right? It is election night in America with primary races in five key states or four states and a commonwealth. Did we say that?

COLLINS: Yes.

BERMAN: Huge uncertainty in these races, so it promises to be a dramatic night. Special live coverage begins at 7:00 Eastern.

And just moments from now, President Biden heads to Buffalo to meet with the victims of the racist attack at the supermarket there. We're getting new information about what he will say. COLLINS: Plus, in Ukraine, Mariupol is on the brink this morning and we'll tell you why Ukraine is giving up that fight.

And --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What if anything in this op-ed was incorrect?

AMBER HEARD, ACTRESS: Nothing. Every word of it is true.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: Amber Heard is back on the stand today in Johnny Depp's $50 million defamation trial against her. We have more on this testimony, ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:25:00]

COLLINS: And moments from now, President Biden will head to Buffalo with First Lady Jill Biden to grieve with the families of the victims in the deadly racist attack.

Joining us now to preview that trip is Deputy Homeland Adviser at the National Security Council Josh Geltzer. Josh, thanks so much for joining us today.

Can you start with what message the president plans to bring to Buffalo?

JOSHUA GELTZER, DEPUTY ASSISTANT TO PRESIDENT BIDEN: Thanks for the chance to join you, Kaitlan. And I think today is a day to emphasize condolences, to convey how awful it is to see another community devastated by not just mass violence but by violence particularly targeting a community, it seems.

And so there is policy work, there is strategy work that we do here at the White House every day. But I think, in some ways, the focus for today will be to grieve with a grieving community.

COLLINS: We know that the president is also expected to call for stricter gun control measures while he's on the ground. What can you tell us what that is expected to look like?

GELTZER: Look, the president has been very clear about this, that we have a firearms problem in this country. This weekend drove that home, not just in Buffalo but elsewhere in the country. And so you'll hear more from the president about how we will continue to use executive action where we can to try to protect Americans. We will also continue to call on others, including Congress, to join us in addressing this problem. But it just takes looking at the headlines for a weekend like this to realize there's much more work to be done.

COLLINS: Does the president believe that the suspect in this attack should have been prevented from getting a gun, given he just had a mental health evaluation done last year?

GELTZER: Kaitlan, I will let law enforcement continue to do the very hard, very important work that it has been doing to dig into the particulars of this case. But stepping back, I think we can all see an event like Saturday, with ten dead, with families grieving, with a community shattered, and realize that something has gone wrong when we get to that moment.

COLLINS: I think one big question has also been whether or not the president is going to call out people that have been accused of amplifying a lot of the racist ideology that people believe played a role in this attack. You saw Senator Chuck Schumer, of course, on the Senate floor yesterday doing this. Is that something that you think the president will mention while he is giving these remarks in Buffalo today?

GELTZER: Look, I think the president has been consistent and clear about this, frankly, not just as president, but going back to when he entered the primary race to become president. He pointed to the vitriol, the racism, the bigotry on display in Charlottesville, Virginia, back in summer of 2017 as an animating factor for entering the race, to become president. And since then, he has been consistent that we are in the fight for the soul of this country, that we have a path forward that we believe is better, is more equitable, is good for public safety, is good for national security. And we will keep expressing that and doing what we can to make that real through our actions and our policies.

COLLINS: And when he often talks about what happened in Charlottesville, he doesn't hesitate to talk about and invoke the former president. So, I do wonder if the president will answer those calls from some people in his own party to name names directly in these remarks.

GELTZER: You know, I will let the president speak to that today. He's far better at that than I could be. But I will emphasize that the president and others in this administration have not hesitated to point to those who can contribute to polarization, to contribute to even what becomes the justification in some quarters for violence that communities should not have descend upon them the way we saw on Saturday.

COLLINS: And, Josh, Democrats are vowing to push through domestic terrorism legislation. It would improve intelligence sharing, coordination between law enforcement agencies following what happened in Buffalo. And so when it comes to the administration, I wonder what your plan is to combat more effectively the domestic extremism that we've seen play out in a lot of these attacks?

GELTZER: Look, tackling domestic terrorism has been a priority for this administration truly since its first days in office. We announced during the very first week of the administration that we would be doing a 100-day review to figure out how the government can do better in addressing this issue. We released in June of last year the country's first ever national strategy for countering domestic terrorism. And we have been working relentlessly to implement that strategy since. That includes improving how we generate and share assessments of domestic terrorism threats. It includes directing millions and millions of additional dollars to prevention work, to stop those from being radicalized to violence in the first place.

[07:30:05]