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19 Children, 2 Adults Are Killed in Texas School Shooting; Biden Calls for Gun Reform: "I'm Sick and Tired Off" Mass Shooting. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired May 25, 2022 - 05:00   ET

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

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to our viewers in the United States and away the world. It is Wednesday, May 25th. I'm John Berman live in Uvalde, Texas, this morning. Brianna Keilar is in New York.

And there was just carnage here in this elementary school behind me, the Robb Elementary School. Second, fourth graders targeted and slaughtered by an 18-year-old gunman. This morning, we are hearing calls from around the country to do something. This small Texas community is shattered.

This is what we know at this hour: 19 children and two adults are dead.

[05:00:03]

Police say the gunman shot his grandmother who is in critical condition before going on a rampage. He then crashed his vehicle before entering the Robb Elementary School wearing body armor. The 18- year-old shooter has been identified, he attended the high school. He was killed by law enforcement officers at the scene.

A photo of two AR-15-style rifles appeared on an Instagram account linked to the gunman just three days before the shooting. His TikTok page had a bio under his profile picture that said "kids be scared".

President Biden addressed the nation last night calling on the country to turn its collective pain into political action following the deadliest elementary school shooting since Sandy Hook a decade ago.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: A family member is confirming to CNN that Eva Morales, a fourth grade teacher was killed. None of the victim identities have been released by police so far.

It was a gut-wrenching day for so many parents with children there at Robb Elementary. Many of them waiting helplessly into the night with no word about the fate of their sons and daughters. Cries of anguish could be heard from the local civic center where they were gathered every time a child was identified through DNA samples.

There would be too many empty seats at the dinner table for so many devastated families.

BERMAN: And I'm joined here in Uvalde by Adrienne Broaddus this morning.

And, Adrienne, just so people get a sense of where we are, behind us again is the school, all these vehicles people see here are part of the emergency response that have been here for hours and hours. At this point, families are waiting at a separate location, but this entire town is devastated.

ADRIENNE BROADDUS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Indeed, this is a time where parents are learning to have a greater capacity for patience. Many of those families patiently waiting earlier in the day to be reunited with their children, but as many of you know, no parent should have to bury their child.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BROADDUS (voice over): The city of Uvalde, Texas, reeling after a school shooting at an elementary school left at least 19 children and two adults dead.

HAL HARRELL, SUPERINTENDENT, UVALDE, CONSOLIDATED INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT: My heart is broken today. We're a small community and we need your prayers to get us through this.

BROADDUS: An 18-year-old gunman drove to Robb Elementary School around midday Tuesday. He crashed his vehicle in a ditch nearby and ran toward the building, weapons in hand.

SGT. ERICK ESTRADA, TEXAS DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY (voice over): There was several law enforcement that engaged the suspect, but he was able to make entry into the school where he did go into several classrooms and, unfortunately, he did fire his firearm.

BROADDUS: Texas Senate Senator Roland Gutierrez says the shooter, quote, had no problem legally purchasing the assault-style rifles used in the massacre.

STATE SEN. ROLAND GUTIERREZ (D-TX): He went to high school here in Uvalde. And, unfortunately, on his 18th birthday, he bought those two assault rifles that you've been talking about, and they are assault rifles. That's the first thing he did when he turned 18.

BROADDUS: The FBI and ATF are assisting local authorities with the investigation. Area hospitals were treating at least 20 patients. Customs and Border Protection, the largest law enforcement agency in the area, dispatched more than 20 agents to the shooting. The shooter was apprehended but later pronounced dead.

GOV. GREG ABBOTT (R), TEXAS: He himself is deceased. And it is believed that responding officers killed him. It appears that two responding officers were struck by rounds but have no serious injuries.

What happened in Uvalde is a horrific tragedy that cannot be tolerated in the state of Texas.

BROADDUS: The shooter is also believed to have shot his grandmother first.

GUTIERREZ: What I do know is that this young man shot his grandmother and then fled that scene. The grandmother is still holding on, that she was airlifted to San Antonio.

BROADDUS: As the predominantly Hispanic city of about 15,000 comes to terms with the attack, the school district's chief of police ruled out any other suspects in the shooting.

CHIEF PETE ARREDONDO, UVALDE CONSOLIDATED INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT POLICE: And we are not actively looking for another individual or any other suspects in this case. We definitely ask you all to keep the family, the families that are involved, in your prayers.

BROADDUS: For the second time in fewer than ten days, President Joe Biden addressed the nation after a mass shooting.

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I am sick and tired of it. Why are we willing to live with this carnage? Why do we keep letting this happen?

[05:05:01]

Where in God's name is our backbone?

BROADDUS: Biden calling for action and demanding lawmakers stand up to the gun lobby, as another community is added to the list of sites of mass shootings in the United States. There have been 30 shootings at K through 12 schools so far in 2022. The Uvalde shooting makes it the worst attack on an American school since the Sandy Hook massacre in Connecticut in 2012 that left 20 children and six adults dead.

A senator from that state, Democrat Chris Murphy, begged his colleagues to help pass gun safety laws.

SEN. CHRIS MURPHY (D-CT): Our kids are living in fear every single time they set foot in a classroom because they think they are going to be next. What are we doing? Why do you spend all this time running for the United States Senate? Why do you go through all the hassle of getting this job, of putting yourself in a position of authority if your answer is that, as the slaughter increases, as our kids run for their lives, we do nothing?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROADDUS (on camera): So much passion on the Senate floor there, 19 children dead and two adults. This was supposed to be a week of celebration as students who attended Robb Elementary were preparing for the end of the school year. Today they had what former Senator Gabby Giffords described as a fancy shoe day, reminiscent of spirit week, something we all took part in toward the end of the school year.

BERMAN: One person who lives near here said that she heard pomp and circumstance, the music that you hear at graduations, being played because they were preparing for the end of the school year which was, what, supposed to be tomorrow at this point. Adrienne, what are we learning about what the shooter was telling

other high schoolers?

BROADDUS: Well, we know that he attended the high school here in the community and one of his friends spoke with CNN and he told us that they played video games together on Xbox, that is where most of their conversations would take place.

But he said the shooter was quiet and kept to himself. He also said that he was bullied and made to feel less than by his peers. This person also told CNN the alleged shooter shared photos with him and that friend questioned what was going on.

And that is the big question now, a lot of people are wondering why? Why did it happen?

BERMAN: It's a question the nation wants to know, why did it happen, why does it happen, why does it keep happening?

Adrienne Broaddus, thank you for being here with us this morning.

Joining me now, CNN counterterrorism analyst Phil Mudd, former CIA intelligence adviser and CIA counterterrorism official.

Phil, one interesting thing here is that there appears to have been an interaction with law enforcement before the shooter entered the building. It is a curious thing. First, he shot his grandmother, then he came here, ran his car into a ditch. Police saw him there, then apparently saw him running into the building wearing the body armor.

What do you make of that?

PHIL MUDD, CNN COUNTERTERRORISM ANALYST: Boy, I like at this and we're just half a day from the shooting, and I look at this and say that they're going to develop a timeline, with state and local police and at the FBI. The timeline to me includes the incident you talk about, entry in the building going back to when he killed his grandmother.

But there are now calls based on security around schools, there are 100,000 plus public schools in America, John, there are now calls to say should we have better perimeter security so that someone running into a building as we saw him do can be contained and maybe prevented from entering a school building.

Let me repeat, 100,000 plus public schools in this country. And our solution to this is to try to ensure that every one of those is fenced with security personnel and an entry. Boy, John, if that is our answer, be prepared to spend a lot of money. I'm not sure that is a great answer but I'm afraid that is one of the results that people will be talking about today.

BERMAN: Phil, I'm very sensitive to the fact that what is happening now in this town is DNA samples are being taken of the family members to identify the 19 children who were murdered in the building behind me. And that is devastating. But as that is happening, there is also an investigation going on into

the individual who did this. Talk to me about what you believe to be happening now in that investigation.

MUDD: There are a couple broad things. What is happening on the ground there and what is happening in Washington, D.C. It sounds like the first stage of the investigation is complete, that is looking at the individual, talking to friends and family.

You heard the conversation about talking to one of the kids would used to play video games with this individual with the shooter.

[05:10:04]

Looking into social media background, looking at his phone, phone, looking at his email to know that there wasn't anyone not necessarily participating but that sympathizes with him.

There's a couple of steps beyond that. The first step is to ensure that nobody was aware. You recollect there was a charge against two parents in a shooting in Michigan recently where the parents were charged with complicity in that. And you got it before, that it isn't going to happen.

And then finally, there is one big issue in Washington, D.C. We've seen the FBI talk about the increase in the number of incidents in America, a spike in gun purchases in America. The FBI will be talking to the Congress about the broad issue of what is happening in this Congress, how does that compare to other countries and by the way, as you discussed, do you want to do something about it because the FBI can't solve this, that is for sure.

BERMAN: Phil, for investigators, for the law enforcement officers, for the medical personnel or coroners at this point that have to walk into this building, how difficult is to go into the classrooms for them?

MUDD: You know, I spent 25 years in the security business and 4 1/2 years going in every morning, about 7:00, 7:30 in the morning, we had morning briefings with the FBI director. And when you do the business of people dying, whether it is in an accident like this or an incident of terrorism overseas, the mornings, they never get easy, John. They never get easy.

You would think that you'd get numb to this. And I tell you when you walk into the FBI director's office with another 12 people and talk about this, it is very difficult.

Let me be direct. The difficult part is as someone who spent my life looking overseas and traveling overseas and seeing what happens in terms of laws and access to weapons in similar countries, in places like Asia and Western Europe, to see that other countries have solved this and because we believe America is exceptional, we can't look at another country and say maybe we can learn a lesson.

You walk into those morning meetings with the FBI and people will say, why didn't you investigate this guy thinking that the answer is law enforcement instead of looking at themselves and saying, we can't come up with an answer because we think that we're special and because we think that we can't learn from somebody else. It is really painful, John.

BERMAN: It's got to be. It's got to be painful. It's got to be frustrating for anyone working to try to make this stop.

Phil Mudd, thank you for being with us this morning.

MUDD: Thank you.

BERMAN: President Biden addressing the nation when he returned home from his trip to Asia. Listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: As a nation, we have to ask when this god's name are we going to stand up to the gun lobby, when in God's name we do what we all know in our gut needs to be done.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:16:49]

BERMAN: I'm John Berman live in Uvalde, Texas. This is the Robb Elementary School behind me where yesterday 19 students, second through fourth graders, were killed. Two adults also killed.

President Biden has ordered flags to be flown at half-staff after the shooting. An 18-year-old gunman killed as I said 19 children and two adults.

In an emotional speech to the nation, the president voiced his grief and anger.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: To lose a child is like having a piece of your soul ripped away. There is a hollowness in your chest, you feel like you're being sucked into it and never going to be able to get out. And how many scores of little children who witnessed what happened see their friends die as if they are in a battlefield for God's sake.

The idea that an 18-year-old kid can walk into a gun store and buy two as assault weapons is just wrong. What in God's name do you know assault weapon for except to kill someone? Deer aren't running through the forest with Kevlar vests on for God's sake. It's just sick.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Joining me now, CNN White House correspondent John Harwood.

John, obviously, President Biden found out about this shooting on his way home from Asia, he wanted to address the nation last night as soon as he got back.

JOHN HARWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: John, the magnitude of this tragedy ways such that President Biden had to address the nation when he came back from this long flight from Asia. And as has become familiar, he empathized with the parents and those who lost loved ones as a parent who himself has lost children.

He also expressed outrage as he implored Congress do what it hasn't done after so many incidents of this kind including Newtown which is to take some action on gun restrictions. Here is the president.

BERMAN: John, obviously, Joe Biden was vice president --

HARWOOD: I guess we don't have that.

BERMAN: He was vice president during the Sandy Hook massacre. Joe Biden was chairman of the -- he was working hard on the crime bill in 1994. He helped pass the assault weapons ban. This is something that he's worked on his entire career.

HARWOOD: That's right. And that is the one time in recent memory when Congress was able to act. But, of course, the assault weapons ban expired and was not renewed by Congress.

Now, one thing the president did not do in his statement is point a finger specifically at a political party. President Obama was willing to do that in a statement that he put out. He said it is the political party that won't act. The reason President Obama said is that this is not a generic failure of Washington or Congress. This is very specifically about the Republican Party.

[05:20:02]

And that's because the same extremism that causes so many Republicans to reject election outcomes has locked the party into resistance to almost any restriction or legislation on the purchase and ownership of weapons, including assault weapons.

Now, it is possible that in an otherwise very promising election year, Republicans decide to try to take this issue off the table by doing something. I noted on Twitter last night, Brendan Buck, who was former top aide to Republican House speaker, said I think that there is a good chance that background check bill passes in Congress this year. But after so many failures to act before, this is clearly a "believe it when you see it" kind of situation, John.

BERMAN: Yes, it is. John Harwood, thank you very much for that.

Brianna?

KEILAR: Well, after years of political gridlock on gun control, is there anything that Congress can do it on finally put forth legislation to end these massacres?

Let's talk about it now with the anchor of CNN "EARLY START", Laura Jarrett. Sometimes I feel like asking that question is like banging one's head

against a wall because I think we know the answer, but we have to ask it every time this happens.

LAURA JARRETT, CNN ANCHOR, EARLY START: We have to ask it because Congress can actually do quite a lot. The issue is one of political will, especially when power is so closely divided in Washington. Every time there is a mass shooting, think Newtown, Las Vegas, Parkland, the list goes on, there are a whole bunch of proposals on how to attack assault style weapons or high capacity magazines.

Those proposals go nowhere. The reality is even modest efforts of beefing up background checks face roadblocks, lots of lot of road blocks on Capitol Hill. Senate Democrats took steps Tuesday night to place a bill called the Enhance Background Checks Act of 2021 on to the legislative calendar.

Now, that bill which passed the House tries to close what is known as the Charleston loophole which allows some gun sales to go through before a background check is even complete. It was how Dylann Roof was able to kill nine Black parishioners at that church back in 2015 in South Carolina.

Now, the legislation would increase only the waiting period from 3 to 10 days before handing over a gun to someone. But even though it got Republican votes in the House, there is no sign that it would pass the Senate.

The other bill on the table that easily passed the House, HR8 would expand background checks for all sales in the country. But the same story with that bill, it holds here, it doesn't currently have the backing to overcome the 60 vote threshold and pass in the Senate. So if Congress won't do anything on this, what about the White House?

The problem there is what can be done by executive action is very limited and it can always be undone by the next president. So far, the Biden White House has tried to crack down on so-called ghost guns. You've heard the president talk a lot about them. You see them there.

These are those kits that someone can use at home to make an unlicensed gun without a background check. Ghost guns are a real issue. They cause thousands of deaths. But that is not what we're talking about when it comes to yesterday's shooting in Texas or the one at Parkland or the one at Sandy Hook or one of hundreds of other shootings, to do mo more, to tackle assault style weapons.

That's going to act of Congress, something so far it has been unwilling to do.

KEILAR: When we go back to more than nine years ago and we look at that Manchin/Toomey bipartisan agreement to address background checks --

JARRETT: Yeah.

KEILAR: -- I think we have to remind people -- well, it failed obviously, but there were four Democrats, well, five actually, but one is procedural, it's Harry Reid, four Democrats who voted in principle against.

Four Republicans who voted for it. But it was five months after the Sandy Hook shooting. There was some period of time where the numbness kind of sets in. And I wonder if that is part of the issue here.

JARRETT: Yeah, I think that is the part of the issue. I think the momentum and the movement and as you and I were talking about during the break, sort of the will of the people has to be there. The elected officials are not going to move unless they think that the people are going to actually hold them accountable for it.

KEILAR: Yeah, the voters might have more courage than the people they elected. We see it time and again.

Laura, thank you so much.

America is grieving for this small Texas community that is reeling after the deadly school shootings since Sandy Hook almost a decade ago. So where does the investigation go from here? We are live in Uvalde, at Robb Elementary School.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:29:07]

BERMAN: I'm John Berman live at the Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. This is the site of the second deadliest shooting in U.S. history, second, third and fourth graders were targeted here. Nineteen children and two adults are dead. Police say the gunman shot his grandmother who is in critical condition. He crashed his vehicle outside the school before bettering the building wearing body armor.

KEILAR: The 18-year-old shooter has been identified. He attended the local high school there. He was killed by law enforcement officers at the scene.

And a photo of two AR-15-style rifles appeared to an Instagram account linked to the gunman just three days before the shooting. His TikTok page had a bio under his profile picture that said "kids be scared".

An emotional President Biden addressing the nation, calling on the country to turn its collective pain into political action following this deadliest elementary school shooting since Sandy Hook.