Return to Transcripts main page

New Day

Funerals Begin Today For Victims of Texas School Shooting; DOJ to Investigate Police Response to Texas School Shooting; Zelenskyy Visits Frontlines in Eastern Ukraine. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired May 30, 2022 - 07:00   ET

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


CAROLYN MANNO, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Check their flag at F1's crown jewel, his third career victory for Red Bull, an incredible race after a significant rain delay.

[07:00:006]

And more than 325,000 fans turning out for Sunday's Indy 500, the largest crowd to see a sporting event since the start of the pandemic. Look at that crowd, and the race coming down to the final few turns, a crash by NASCAR Great Jimmy Johnson with six laps to go setting up a very unconventional two-lap sprint to the finish forced Marcus Ericsson to hold off a late charge for his first Indy 500 win, Ericsson becoming the second man from Sweden to sip the milk and kiss the bricks.

He used to be in Formula 1, John, you probably know this, and then left to become a global super star. And now, he has won a legendary race, and that's how legends are made.

JOHN AVLON, CNN ANCHOR: That how legends are made. That is a hardcore sports weekend.

MANNO: Absolutely, for sure.

AVLON: All right. New Day continues right now.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to our viewers here in the U.S. and around the world, it is Memorial Day, Monday, May 30th. I'm Brianna Keilar with John Avlon. John Berman is off.

On this day set aside to honor fallen members of the U.S. military, the town of Uvalde, Texas, is preparing the first of many goodbyes to the children and the teachers murdered last week inside of an elementary school there.

This afternoon, there will be visitation and rosary for ten-year-old Amerie Jo Garza. Her father told CNN that Amerie died trying to call police and save her classmates. Uvalde's funeral homes so overwhelmed that it will take weeks to bury all 21 victims.

AVLON: And the president and first lady visited Uvalde Sunday to meet with the grieving families and comfort the grief-stricken community. President Biden promised action on gun reform after the crowd pleaded with him to do something. The Justice Department is now planning to investigate how the police responded to this shooting.

KEILAR: Let's go now to CNN's Adrienne Broaddus who is live for us in Uvalde this morning. Very difficult days ahead, Adrienne.

ADRIENNE BROADDUS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, this will be the start of the toughest week for some of these families. I spoke with a woman in town who said the initial shock of the shooting is starting to wear off, but now the reality is sinking in. And the pain, she says, gets heavier each day.

We have heard from members of the community, we've talked about the anger, but today I want to focus on the victims and I want to begin by highlighting Amerie Jo Garza who will be laid to rest later today. I want folks to know who she was.

And online, there is a photo of her. She's wearing the most beautiful violet dress, smiling, and that photo is paired with her obituary. But in that obituary, her family says she was a sassy little girl, also sweet and funny, who hated to wear dresses but she wore them.

Her biggest dream was to become an art teacher because she was creative. She loved, her family says, eating at Chick-Fil-A and her favorite drink of choice was a frappuccino, the vanilla bean ones from Starbucks. And for those of you who aren't familiar, the vanilla bean frappuccino is so sweet and refreshing on a hot summer day and it has no caffeine in it.

Her family also says she was a protector of her brother. And we've since learned not only did she protect her brother but she tried her best to protect her classmates. That Tuesday, using a cellphone she got for her tenth birthday, two weeks ago, to call 911. Back to you.

KEILAR: Thank you, Adrienne, for sharing that with us. We appreciate it. Adrienne Broaddus, live for us in Uvalde.

AVLON: All right. Let's bring in CNN correspondent and the anchor of Early Start, Laura Jarrett. Laura, this is just -- we are the parents of young kids and you are also obviously a counselor. What do you make of this DOJ investigation given the fact that for 75 minutes police stood in the hallway as kids were being killed in the classroom?

LAURA JARRETT, CNN ANCHOR: That's right, 75 minutes, 911calls, all of that we know, but there's still so much we don't know. And it's one of the most basic lessons dating back to Columbine, you stop an active shooter as quickly as possible. Yet nearly a week later now and there are still so many unanswered questions about why police didn't act faster in this case.

Now, the Justice Department says it will review what happened at the request of the town's mayor. In a statement last night, DOJ said this, the goal of the review is to provide an independent account of law enforcement actions and responses that day and to identify lessons learned and best practices to help first responders prepare for and respond to active shooter events.

[07:05:05]

Bottom line here, the idea is to help local authorities do better in the future and figure out what went wrong in this case.

Now, typically, these are not criminal investigations. The department conducted similar reviews after 14 people were killed in San Bernardino, California, we remember that, back in 2015, and also after that mass shooting at the Pulse Nightclub in Florida.

Now, here the department said it will publish a report with its findings of what happened which could prove really illuminating, as the authorities have provided simply shifting explanations, sometimes contradictory explanations for exactly what happened that day in Uvalde.

AVLON: And those lessons are what we're looking for. We need to find out what happened, why we weren't told the truth and how we can make sure --

JARRETT: And we know the parents want to know exactly what happened. We know that they are angry and they deserve some accountability.

AVLON: They deserve nothing less.

Before you go, I want to ask you about Attorney General Merrick Garland giving a speech at Harvard where he said democracy is under threat. This is the attorney general of the United States. Take a listen, I want your response.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MERRICK GARLAND, ATTORNEY GENERAL: There is one particular reason that makes my call to public service especially urgent for your generation. It is an urgency that should move each of you regardless of the career you choose. It is the urgent need to defend democracy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AVLON: I don't want us to get numb to this. This is the attorney general of the United States saying there is an urgent need to defend democracy.

JARRETT: Yes. Anytime the top law enforcement officer in the United States speaks, we should take him seriously, but it's interesting to have him back at his alma mater this weekend saying it in that way, especially because he has received so much criticism, I think, from the blue checks on Twitter who feel as if he hasn't done enough to address the ongoing threat to democracy.

And they want more transparency from the Justice Department, a department that is notoriously not so transparent when it comes to active investigations, but he has tried to say there and he's said it many times, I'm going to follow the facts wherever they take me, wherever that might lead, no matter how high up it goes.

It's interesting, we are starting to get a peek back -- the peeling back of the curtain of what's going on. We know there is a grand jury investigation but he pointed directly to January 6. He wasn't shy about that, to say this is an active threat and you should do something about it. He called on the students to take the threat to democracy seriously, which is worth noting.

AVLON: He is the one in the driver's seat right now.

JARRETT: Yes.

AVLON: Laura Jarrett, thank you very much.

JARRETT: Sure.

KEILAR: While Congress remains gridlocked on federal gun reform, some Democratic-led states are attempting to move forward with their own restrictions.

CNN's Congressional Reporter Lauren Fox is joining us now. Lauren, what are they doing?

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, you have states that have liberal state legislatures that are already being called to action and you have the governors in states like New Jersey and New York making a vow that they want to raise the age at which you can actually buy an AR-15 or assault-style weapon from 18 to 21. That's something that states are looking at.

You also have states like California where the governor is asking the state legislature to get busy working on strengthening gun laws. Now, there is a patchwork of gun laws across the country. There is also a patchwork of calendars as to when these state legislatures meet.

So, some of these steps are going to be taken over the next few weeks, some of these steps are going to be taken over the next few months, but it's certainly just an impact that you don't always see on Capitol Hill, where lawmakers are going to have these conversations that may get dragged out a little bit longer.

Now, over the weekend, you did have Democrats, you know, having an optimistic tone about the fact that they think this time could be different. You had the majority whip, Dick Durbin, and the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, who is going to hold hearings on this issue of gun violence in America, saying that he thinks Republicans may be willing to come to the negotiating table on some of those more narrow provisions we have talked about, things like red flag laws, things like strengthening background checks, things like mental health support. So, those are some of the areas that lawmakers are looking at.

You also had some interesting comments this weekend from Representative Adam Kinzinger, a Republican who is not running for reelection, who said he thinks his mind has been changed on the issue of assault weapons and he could potentially see banning something like an AR-15.

Now, that is a significant statement coming from a Republican. Again, important to remember, he is not on the ballot come the midterms in November.

KEILAR: Yes. And I just think, look, they're starting to bury the kids in Uvalde today and Congress is away, right? They are on break. There is momentum to do something and they are away from Washington.

Lauren, thank you so much for that, Lauren Fox.

Let's talk now with one of the doctors who is treating some of the shooting victims from Uvalde. Dr. Ronald Stewart is the senior trauma surgeon at University Hospital in San Antonio.

[07:10:03]

Doctor, thank you so much for taking the time to join us this morning, we really appreciate it.

I know that you're treating three patients including a 66-year-old woman that we know to be the shooter's grandmother. How are they all doing?

DR. RONALD STEWART, SENIOR TRAUMA SURGEON, UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL: Everyone is significantly seriously injured but making progress, making progress. So, that's where we sit with respect to patient -- and the patients.

KEILAR: So, when you say they're making progress, I mean, are they able to speak? Are they able to move? What does progress look like?

STEWART: Well, progress means improving day-to-day following a course of getting better. I think, you know, our children have -- they went through an extremely traumatic event and is truly a moment of crisis with the potential lifetime of impact.

And so we have a terrific team of surgeons, reconstructive surgeons, mental health professionals, nurses, therapists who are working with them and everybody is making progress and doing better. They are heroes. These patients, these children, these families are incredibly strong and resilient and working super hard to improve.

KEILAR: You mentioned the long-term impact here. I mean, you get them through this acute phase, which is -- it's amazing work that you're doing. We've been speaking to your colleagues. It's truly -- I mean, we are in awe of the work you're doing. But they do have this recovery that will span their lifetime ahead of them, right? Can you tell us about that?

STEWART: Yes. I mean, it's -- for serious physical injuries, so physical injury is oftentimes particularly when life-threatening is accompanied with psychological injury too, so you have physical and psychological trauma, and both those things really require healing and treatment and really early aggressive intervention both from a surgical physical and emotional mental health thing are important. And, you know, we need to know a lot more about these things. We actually need -- we need to understand it better, but we know the -- our teams know the basics of how to minimize those long-term effects. And so we've got teams who are committed to working with them over the course of their lifetime because, you know, oftentimes that's what it takes, both from a reconstructive -- from a surgical point of view and a psychosocial point of view.

KEILAR: Can we talk, Doctor, about how the type of weapon used contributes to what you are discussing here about this long-term impact? I know you also help treat victims -- you and your colleagues helped treat victims of the Sutherland Springs Church shooting, where 26 people were killed. What do people need to know about the injuries that you are seeing from AR-style rifles versus, say, a handgun?

STEWART: Yes. I mean, so these are high-capacity magazine fed, that means it can be -- multiple rounds can be fired in rapid sequence with high velocity. And these high velocity wounds cause significant, massive tissue destruction, and, obviously, when -- when that impact is to a small body, that's a lot of energy and a lot of damage. So, it has an extremely high lethality and the ability to create mass injuries, multiple injuries, multiple injuries to people and multiple people injured within a very, very short timeframe.

KEILAR: Dr. Stewart, we appreciate you being with us this morning. We know that you personally have been doing such important work and we know that you all have been compartmentalizing what you're doing in order to do that work and we just want to say thank you. Thank you so much for talking with us, for sharing your knowledge.

[07:15:00]

STEWART: Thank you. I'd just like to say kudos to the entire community of Uvalde, our patients, their families and the amazing team across the entire region. It's really -- I'm just a tiny piece of that and really truly grateful to be a part of that team. So, thank you.

KEILAR: Thank you, Sir.

Ukrainian President Zelenskyy making his first appearance outside of Kyiv since Russia's brutal invasion began. The site of intense fighting that he visited, next.

AVLON: Plus, gas prices seem to keep up soaring with no end in sight. A look at the few options President Biden has left to help, that's ahead.

KEILAR: And House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband arrested for driving drunk. Details, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:20:00]

KEILAR: Thousands of religious nationalist Israelis paraded through Muslim parts of Jerusalem for the annual flag march. Clashes erupted in the streets after Palestinians warned the event could ignite a new wave of violence.

CNN's reporters are around the world covering the latest.

HADAS GOLD, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: I'm Hadas Gold in Jerusalem, where violence erupted Sunday as tens of thousands marched through the old city waving Israeli flags, commemorating when Israel took control of all of Jerusalem in the 1967war.

The flag march has become a magnet for far-right Jewish nationalists and some extremist groups. The route went through the Muslim corridor where violent clashes erupted in the streets. And some of the marchers even chanted things like death to Arabas.

The Israeli prime minister condemned the far-right groups, calling them a minority, trying to set the area ablaze. It was this same flag march last year that prompted Hamas to fire rockets towards Jerusalem igniting that bloody 11-day war. This year though, the skies were quiet.

VEDIKA SUD, CNN REPORTER: I'm Vedika Sud in New Delhi. Search and rescue have recovered several bodies from the crash site of a small passenger plane in Central Nepal Monday. There were 19 passengers and three crew members onboard Nepal's Tara Air aircraft.

According to officials, the plane lost contact with air control 12 minutes into the journey Sunday. The plane was flying from the city of Pokhara to a popular tourist town, Jomsom, in Nepal. Authorities believe the incident could have been caused by poor weather. And according to Nepal's home ministry, two German nationals, four Indians and 13 Nepali citizens were on board the plane.

STEFANO POZZEBON, JOURNALIST: This is Stefano Pozzebon in Bogota, Colombia, where one of Washington's strongest allies in South America seems to have taken a step towards the unknown with two major political outsiders progressing to the second round of the presidential election on Sunday. Gustavo Petro, a former guerilla fighter in his third bid for the presidency will face off with Rodolfo Hernandez, a 77-year-old populist entrepreneur who has been compared to former U.S. President Donald Trump in the runoff for Colombia's presidency on June 19.

AVLON: Ukrainian President Zelenskyy meeting with troops on the frontlines in a visit to the Kharkiv region over the weekend. This region has seen intense fighting in recent weeks with Ukrainian military finding some success mounting a counteroffensive in the area.

Joining us now is retired Army Major Mike Lyons. Good to see you, Major. Let's talk about this trip to the frontlines. This seems pretty extraordinary. What do you make of it?

MAJ. MIKE LYONS (RET.), U.S. ARMY: Yes, it's important. You have got a charismatic president that's trying to improve troop morale there at Kharkiv where they've won significant battles. They couldn't have done this in the last few weeks. And you could see on the map some of the yellow were the places that the Ukraine military has taken back. However, the battle is not over. I think Kharkiv is still in danger. I think he has to be careful. This is all about the communications war and this president with his charisma has done a pretty good job of projecting that.

AVLON: So, President Zelenskyy winning the information war, but you say that the Russians are making gains, the Ukrainians say that they're making some push back, so not only Kharkiv but in the south.

LYONS: If you come to the south here, you have -- in Kherson, this is kind of the last area by Crimea here in Mykolaiv. Offensive operation into Kherson shows that the Ukraine military is willing to continue to open up other fronts. And the fact that in this area here, they were able to likely move weapons that came in from the west quickly from Kyiv down to the south here and create a mini offensive here.

It's going to cause Russia to put troops there and has to respond to it because the key is protecting Odessa. That is the key right now. They have got to make sure that that stands and for all practical purposes this is where they are going to try to put an offensive operation.

AVLON: This is where you see the operational advantage, the Russians using artillery in a way that outpaces what the Ukrainians have right now and you see that also up in the Kharkiv region. What do you make of the current state of Russian gains? Because you say, like it or not, they're making some incremental gains right now.

LYONS: No, they are, with a scorched earth campaign and purely annihilating these cities that they occupy inside Ukraine. In Luhansk, in this region here, their artillery is outpacing unfortunately right now Ukraine.

So, this area here, this pocket of resistance here in Severodonetsk, and they're claiming that they have taken that city now, the Russians have, for example, that's important for them because that pushes straight into Bakmut. And from here, they can close off that salient here.

Any military operation doesn't want to see the bulges. The create security issues all around. The fact that the Ukraine defenses have been able to hold up the shore and make sure that the Russians are kind of paying for that land one at a time is good but I just don't know if they are going to be able to hold off because of that artillery.

AVLON: Well, scorched earth, you say. That is the Russian policy. That includes just lies, disinformation warfare.

I want to play for you a clip from the Russian ambassador to the U.K. this weekend talking to British television and get your reaction.

[07:25:03]

LYONS: Yes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDREY KELIN, RUSSIAN AMBASSADOR TO THE U.K.: The mayor of Bucha, in his initial statement, he has confirmed that Russian troops have left, everything is clean and calm, The town or village, this town, yes, in a state -- in a normal state, nothing is happening, no borders are on the street, but next after it has been done. But, anyway --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So, this is all made up, sir? This is all a fabrication, all of this evidence is a fabrication?

KELIN: In our view, it is a fabrication. It is now why -- it is used just to interrupt negotiations.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AVLON: He's saying that all the evidence we have of what has been accused of being war crimes in Bucha is a fabrication. That is the official Russian line. What does that tell you about this scorched earth policy and what's the right way for the west, for Ukraine to respond?

LYONS: Yes, more propaganda perhaps in the result of Zelenskyy's trip to Kharkiv. But this is a good wake-up call maybe for western leaders. We still have western leaders calling Putin, asking him to stop. Everybody wants the status quo to be restored. The status quo is gone. This is a whole new world 90-plus days after this invasion in February.

Are we going to actually commit to economic states craft? Are we going to actually put in sanctions that's going to cause Russia to possibly react? I just don't see that the west is that mobilized on it yet. Scorched earth means just that. They are destroying everything in its path, infrastructure, it's all going to go away.

So, again, the west is going to decide if they want to do not just the military aid but also the true economic sanctions to Russia that's going to cause it to change its behavioral and, frankly, I just haven't seen that.

AVLON: They're stopping to buy the oil completely?

LYONS: Yes.

AVLON: All right. These are the stakes. This week will mark 100 days since this war began. Major, thank you.

All right, on another note, millions of Americans are hitting the road this weekend even as gas prices hit an all-time high. So, is President Biden running out of options to tackle fuel prices?

KEILAR: And loved ones of the Buffalo mass shooting victims are going to join us here on New Day. What Vice President Kamala Harris said to them, what they said to her as they laid their family members to rest.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:30:00]