Return to Transcripts main page

New Day

Embattled Police Chief No Longer Cooperating with Investigation; Why the U.S. Fails to Address Gun Control; Americans Hitting the Road Despite Record High Gas Prices; U.S. Sending Most Powerful Rocket Systems Yet to Ukraine; Ukrainian Police Begin Search for People Missing in War. Aired 6-6:30a et

Aired June 01, 2022 - 06:00   ET

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

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to viewers here in the U.S. and around the world. It is Wednesday, June 1, and I'm Brianna Keilar with John Berman.

[05:5955]

The investigation into one of America's deadliest school shootings is taking new turns this morning. Police in Uvalde, Texas, say a teacher closed a propped-open door shortly before a gunman used it to get inside, but it did not lock. Now investigators are trying to figure out why.

This new detail reversing earlier claims the shooter breached the building because the door was left ajar.

There are also new questions about law enforcement's response to the massacre. CNN affiliate KSAT has obtained audio of the school district's message alerting parents of an active shooter incident.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: UVALDE CISD Parents, there is an active shooter at Robb Elementary. Law enforcement is on site. Your cooperation is needed at this time by not visiting the campus.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Both the school's Facebook post and the audio message, according to KSAT, came during the time that officers were inside the school and apparently believed the situation had become a barricade situation.

CNN has learned that Chief Pete Arredondo has stopped cooperating with investigators, failing to respond to a request for a follow-up interview. But he was sworn in as a city council member Tuesday.

Funerals will be held today for Irma Garcia, the heroic teacher who died protecting her students; and 10-year-old Jose Manuel Flores Jr. Family and friends will also gather today at visitation and rosary services for 10-years-old Neveah Bravo, Jayce Luevanos, and Jailah Silguero.

KEILAR: CNN's Nick Valencia is live in Uvalde, Texas, with the very latest. These are some big developments overnight here, Nick.

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Yes, good morning, Brianna.

And it seems with each passing day, there's a new damaging detail that emerges. As this broken community tries to make sense of last week's massacre, there is anger, so much anger amidst the grief, anger that more could have been done to save those little lives.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VALENCIA (voice-over): More inconsistencies coming to light about the crucial minutes when the gunman began a rampage at Robb Elementary School. The Texas Department of Public Safety's chief communications officer says just two minutes after the shooter's truck crashed into a ditch, an unidentified teacher ran to close the door, but the door did not lock behind her. At the time, he said she was calling 911.

ROLAND GUTIERREZ (D), TEXAS STATE SENATE: We are told now that door -- that she closed the door. She removed the rock that she had placed there before he came in. The video indicates that she closed the door properly, but it didn't -- it didn't engage. It didn't lock.

We are being told that there was another door in the building that didn't lock properly. There's a lot of responsibility here.

VALENCIA (voice-over): Just one minute later, the gunman is in the school parking lot, shooting, and enters the school two minutes after that.

This is starkly different than the initial account DPS gave last week, when they said the shooter entered the school through a door that was propped open by a teacher.

There was also no school resource officer confrontation with the gunman outside the school, as initially reported by law enforcement.

The officer did hear the 911 call about a man with a gun and drove to the area. He sped to the back of the school, where he thought the suspect was located.

COL. STEVEN MCCRAW, DIRECTOR, TEXAS DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY: In doing so he drove right by the suspect, who was hunkered down behind a vehicle, where he began shooting at the school.

VALENCIA (voice-over): The new audio obtained by CNN affiliate KSAT went out to parents while officers were already on site and two students were calling 911, begging for help.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There is an active shooter at Robb Elementary. Law enforcement is on site. Your cooperation is needed at this time by not visiting the campus.

VALENCIA (voice-over): Parents rushed to the campus anyway, and a chaotic scene ensued when they were held back by officers.

One teacher describing to CNN the moment she saw the shooter outside her classroom window.

NICOLE OGBURN, FOURTH GRADE TEACHER: I just kept hearing shots fired, and I just kept praying, "God, please don't let him come in my room. Please don't let him come in this room." And for some reason, he didn't.

VALENCIA (voice-over): The command officer who made the decision not to engage the shooter was Uvalde School Police Chief Pete Arredondo. According to DPS, Arredondo is not responding to its request for a follow-up interview.

He was elected to the city council last month and was privately sworn in Tuesday at city hall. Uvalde's mayor had previously said a planned special meeting to swear in new council members would not take place as scheduled. Instead, the mayor says Arredondo took the oath in person and signed paperwork.

ROCHELLE GARZA (D), TEXAS ATTORNEY GENERAL NOMINEE: I think there needs to be a full investigation of his actions and his role in this. And if he -- if he is found accountable for -- for making huge mistakes, then he should be held accountable. He should not hold office.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VALENCIA (on camera): And later today, there will be more visitations and funerals held for some of the victims, including that beloved teacher, Irma Garcia, who died protecting her students.

And also, we got an update from some of the victims of last week's shooting that are still in the hospital, including the 66-year-old grandmother of the gunman, who he shot in the face before the attack. University hospital in San Antonio says her condition is now listed as

good -- Brianna.

KEILAR: Wow. Nick Valencia, thank you for that report from Uvalde.

BERMAN: So congressional staffers will continue bipartisan talks on gun safety today. One thing you hear is that around 90 percent of Americans support background checks, but does that tell the whole story about how much agreement there really is?

Joining me now is Harry Enten, CNN senior data reporter.

Harry, when we talk about possible areas of agreement, maybe not exactly what you think.

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA CORRESPONDENT: Yes, you know, to me the bigger question is, you know, it's not just how do Americans feel about gun control but how powerfully do they feel about it?

So there's this great question from Gallup, which essentially is, Are you satisfied with U.S. gun laws, and if aren't satisfied, or you're dissatisfied, do you want stricter gun laws, do you want them to be less strict? Only 36 percent -- only 36 percent of Americans say they are

dissatisfied and want stricter gun laws. Dig this: 54 percent say they're either satisfied or they're dissatisfied and actually want less strict gun laws.

This to me tells the story, because it could be that you want stricter gun laws, but you're generally actually satisfied. And this 54 percent gives it away. Most Americans are either satisfied or they actually want less strict gun laws.

BERMAN: That is really interesting. So the majority here doesn't seem to want more safety measures in place.

And, again, on background checks, the polling says a lot of people think they're a good idea, but when you actually put it to a test on the ballot, Harry.

ENTEN: You know, what I love is when you actually look and say, OK, do these polls actually follow where the voters are when they get a chance to vote on it?

And back in 2016, there were two ballot measures to expand background checks. One was in Maine; one in Nevada.

Remember, both of these states are right in the middle of the national electorate, right? They're both within a point of the national presidential vote.

Look what happened in Maine. "Yes" only got 48.2 percent. The ballot measure actually failed to expand background checks. The majority, 52 percent, said no.

In Nevada, it barely passed, just with a little bit more than 50 percent of the vote.

So you look at those polls that say background check, 80, 90 percent. When you look at people actually voting on the measure, it's not anywhere close to that. It's much more of a 50/50 proposition.

BERMAN: What else do you see in terms of differences among the parties?

ENTEN: Yes, so, you know, a question I get, OK, why did it seem like Republicans were much more willing to come to the table back at the beginning of the century, or the end of the last century?

And the reason is, is because look at this. Is it more important to protect rights to own guns than control gun ownership? Look at this. Look right here.

Republicans, back in 2000, only 38 percent said it was more important to own guns than control gun ownership. Look at where that's now. More than doubled, 80 percent.

Democrats are the ones who haven't moved. Their opinions have actually stayed pretty much the same. It's that Republicans have gone all the way to the right; and that explains the great divide we are currently seeing, versus people more willing to come together back at the turn of the century.

BERMAN: We are seeing these bipartisan talks happening in the immediate wake of a mass shooting. We tend to see opinions shift in the weeks after these types of events.

ENTEN: Yes, look, if something is going to happen, it's going to be now, now, now.

Support for stricter gun laws changed from the prior polls, unfortunately after previous mass school shootings. I mean, we have a sample size, which is terrible.

Look, after Columbine, up 6 points. After Sandy Hook, up 15 points. After Parkland, up 7 points. So what we see here, generally speaking, is after school shootings, there is support for stricter gun laws. So if we're going to see change, it's going to be now.

BERMAN: What do we know about the geographic distribution in terms of gun violence?

ENTEN: Yes. You know, we can break this down by the 2020 presidential results. Look, not much of a surprise. The Trump states, they're more likely to be households with guns than in the Biden states.

And you know what? Where there are more guns, there are more deaths, 19 per 100,000, versus just 11.

But here's the thing I want to point out. You know, we talk about mass shootings all the time. Look, most gun deaths are not by mass shootings. In fact, most of them are not even murders. The vast majority of gun deaths are, in fact, suicides, 54 percent compared to murders, just 50 [SIC] -- 43 percent. And that's the story of gun violence here in this country.

BERMAN: Harry Enten, I appreciate this. This is an interesting look, revealing in many ways.

ENTEN: Thanks, John.

BERMAN: Brianna.

KEILAR: New this morning, record high gas prices don't seem to be keeping Americans home. They're hitting the road, despite the surge.

CNN's Amara Walker joining us live with the numbers. They are undeterred, Amara.

AMARA WALKER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They are undeterred, Brianna. It's really remarkable, the sheer number of people who've been hitting the road over the holiday weekend, despite those record gas prices.

[06:10:02]

Right now, the national average stands at $4.67 for regular gasoline. If you compare that to prices around the same time period last year, prices were hovering around $3 a gallon.

But look, it's virtually impossible right now to find gas below $4 a gallon. In fact, there are seven states that are at that $5 mark. New York and Arizona are just pennies away from hitting that average.

But per usual, California taking the cake on this one with a sky-high price, the highest price in the nation, at $6.19 on average for a gallon. That's $2 more than here in the state of Georgia, which is at $4.16.

I want to show you this video, though, in Los Angeles. If you take a close look, your eyes are not deceiving you. Over $8 a gallon for regular unleaded gasoline there.

Look, still, the AAA is estimating that about 35 million people were going to hit the road over the Memorial Day holiday weekend.

And, Brianna, if you're asking why we're seeing such record prices, there are several factors for this. No. 1 of course, the war in Ukraine, which is disrupting the global oil supply.

But also high demand from drivers that keeps continuing.

But another variable to throw in there is hurricane season. Hurricanes, obviously, can disrupt the oil supply chain, as well, and that could further increase prices this summer, Brianna.

KEILAR: My goodness. Eight dollars a gallon at some places in California. It really is eye-popping. Amara, thank you so much.

BERMAN: So high gas prices not the only thing plaguing summer travelers. Surging airline ticket prices and flight cancellations also creating major headaches.

Here with me, CNN business correspondent Rahel Solomon and CNN chief business correspondent, Christine Romans.

Romans, what exactly are we seeing here in terms of the challenges that flyers are facing?

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT/ANCHOR: Look, it is a really tough summer here for travel. You're seeing higher prices and a lot of hassles here.

You're seeing delays. You're seeing flight crews and operations staff at airlines and, actually, the airports that are having COVID staffing issues. You've got labor shortages in general, transportation labor shortages.

All of this means you've got all these millions of people who are rushing to travel again, want to travel again, who want to travel like it's 2019. It ain't 2019, so you really need to plan for the worse. Higher prices, especially.

BERMAN: I mean, should the airlines have seen this coming, Rahel? RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: I mean, I think there are

certain factors that perhaps they could not have controlled, right? There are certain weather impacts that we're seeing. Maybe they can't control the weather.

But there are certain things that I think critics would say you should have seen this coming. In fact, you know, when you look back at some of the comments that the airline CEOs have made, this one coming from Delta during their last earnings call.

The CEO said, "Look, we've been at this in terms of COVID and the issues with the airlines, for the better part of the last 18 months getting ahead of it. And we hired over 10,000 people last year, and we are largely where we need to be on staffing."

So it's sort of hard to sort of reconcile that comment with what we're seeing this weekend and could perhaps see throughout the summer at times.

ROMANS: The demand unleashed is really unbelievable. I mean, you look at some of these lines at airports this weekend. This weekend, 13 million people in five days the TSA screened. That's, like 93 percent of pre-pandemic levels, and all the experts think you're going to get back to pandemic levels of travel this summer, even with all of these higher prices.

I think you need -- many of the airlines are being very flexible with your change fees. Because look, people are still getting COVID, right? So people have to change flights. There's still some flexibility among those airlines.

But you really have to be prepared for a hassle if you're flying. And the experts tell me, if you want to buy a ticket for later this year, don't think it's going to go down. You're just going to have to assume the airfares are going to keep rising.

BERMAN: You're talking about higher prices. Let's talk about higher prices, shall we? Because right here on CNN, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who's spent her life watching inflation and judging it, admits she made a mistake last year when she didn't think it was going to get this bad. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JANET YELLEN, U.S. TREASURY SECRETARY: I think I was wrong then about the path that inflation would take. As I mentioned, there have been unanticipated and large shocks to the economy that have boosted energy and food prices; And supply bottlenecks that have affected our economy badly that I, at the time, didn't fully understand.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: What a perfect storm for forecasters, right? They don't have a crystal ball, first of all. Second of all, transitory, a year ago she thought 3 percent maybe would be where inflation would settle out. It's 8.3 percent. There were a few voices like Larry Summers, the former treasury

secretary, who were warning about inflation in the pipeline. You could argue the Fed and people in the administration have been late on this.

They're trying to get urgency now in the message that we feel your pain. It's the Fed's job, by the way, fighting inflation, but we feel your pain.

[06:15:06]

Maybe there will be an inflation peak this summer. No one really knows for sure.

But, boy, after 20 or 30 years of literally no inflation in the American economy, it came back with a vengeance. And a lot of experts just didn't see it coming.

SOLOMON: They didn't have a crystal ball, but there were critics who were pretty vocal --

ROMANS: Larry Summers.

SOLOMON: -- saying, look, we don't think -- Larry Summers for one. Mohamed El-Erian, a very popular economist, who had said, Look, we don't think that it's going to be transitory.

And so, look, I mean, to her point, yes, no one saw, necessarily, the war in Ukraine happening. No one saw these China lockdowns reoccurring. No one saw the supply chain issues lasting as long as they did.

But there were some very prominent economists saying, Look, this is actually not going to be transitory. And you could argue maybe they should have paid a little bit more attention to the critics and the concerns that it might not have been.

ROMANS: Reminds me of 2008 when we kept hearing that subprime mortgage problems would not affect the entire real-estate market, and that would never take down the economy. Oops.

So a reminder: Sometimes you just can't see how these things are going to play out.

BERMAN: Right. But in this case, they can't say no one saw this coming, because there were plenty of people who did see it coming.

ROMANS: Well, the question is now what do you do about it? And that's what they're trying to get on the message here. It's one thing, as I said yesterday. You're dealt a terrible hand. If you play that hand badly, that doesn't help you at all. Right? I mean, they've got to play the hand of cards a little better.

BERMAN: Christine Romans --

SOLOMON: I would just add, you know, they've admitted that they were wrong. The question now is how quickly can they right that wrong in terms of inflation.

BERMAN: We're asking the questions. Rahel Solomon, Christine Romans, thank you very much.

On the front of someone who saw it coming, Larry Summers, who was warning right here on this show exactly one year ago, he will join us later. What he thinks now about this admission from the treasury secretary, Janet Yellen.

So as Russia's war in Ukraine drags on, President Biden signs off on sending the most powerful weapons yet to the Ukrainian military.

Plus, new video recordings reveal Republican plans to have party operatives in place as poll workers to oversee and contest elections.

KEILAR: And "Star Wars" calling out racist attacks against an actor starring in the franchise.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:21:23] KEILAR: The U.S. is planning to send an additional $700 million worth of weapons and defense systems to the Ukrainian military. The package includes the most powerful and advanced rocket systems to date.

CNN's Jeremy Diamond is live for us at the White House on this. Jeremy, what is in this new security announcement?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brianna, as you said, President Biden announcing that the U.S. will provide Ukraine with these very advanced rocket systems and munitions capable of striking over longer distances than anything that the U.S. has provided Ukraine with so far.

This is the 11th security package from the U.S. to Ukraine, $700 million. It also includes other material like rockets, Javelins, artillery rounds, helicopters and more.

But it is, according to President Biden in a "New York Times" op-ed, an effort to strengthen Ukraine's position at the negotiating table, which the president says will be determined by conditions on the battlefield.

The president writing in the "New York Times," quote, "We have moved quickly to send Ukraine a significant amount of weaponry and ammunition so it can fight on the battlefield and be in the strongest possible position at the negotiating table. That's why I've decided that we will provide the Ukrainians with more advanced rocket systems and munitions that will enable them to more precisely strike key targets on the battlefield in Ukraine."

And now Brianna, this has been the subject of debate inside the Biden administration for weeks now, whether or not to provide Ukraine with these more advanced, longer-range weapon systems. Concerns within the administration that Russia might view this as a provocative step, giving Ukraine the ability to strike within Russian territory. That's why the United States actually sought assurances and secured

those assurances from Ukraine that they would not use these -- these rocket systems to strike Russian targets on Russian territory.

You heard President Biden laying out some of those concerns on Monday when he said very clearly, "We're not going to send Ukraine rocket systems to strike Russia."

Now, the president also used this "New York times" op-ed as an opportunity to make clear that the U.S. is not seeking a war with Russia, even as it continues to escalate the types and caliber of weaponry that it is providing to Ukraine, saying very clearly that he is not seeking war with Russia; nor is he seeking Vladimir Putin's ouster -- Brianna.

KEILAR: Jeremy Diamond, live at the White House. Thank you.

BERMAN: All right. Joining me now, CNN senior international correspondent, Matthew Chance. He's live in the Borodyanskiy district, not far from Kyiv.

Matthew, give us a sense of what you're seeing there this morning.

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right, John. We're about 40 miles outside of Kyiv in the area that was conquered and invaded by Russia, you know, in March, basically.

And so we've come back. The Russians have been pushed out, of course, as we know, a couple of months ago. And now people are starting to return to their villages, you can see some of those villages utterly destroyed or at least houses individually inside them.

And it's not just their property that's been destroyed. There's also thousands of people across the country that are missing, and the police have started the painstaking effort of trying to recover and find those missing people. Of course, some of them are dead.

And you know, the reason we've come to this village today is there have been reports by the local villagers that there have been some bodies they've found as they've come back to their property, and the police are going to investigate that, possibly exhume and try to identify who they are.

It's something that's happening here in a small way. But that's being repeated across the country as areas that were once occupied by Russia are being retaken by Ukrainian forces.

So we'll bring you some more of that later on.

In the meantime, there has been reaction from the Ukrainian government about that decision by President Biden to deliver or to give those long-range weapons systems to Ukraine.

[06:25:05]

It's something the Ukrainians have been talking about and requesting for some time now, long-range missile systems, artillery systems, to push back the Russian advance, which they're struggling with at the moment.

Of course, as we said, the Ukrainians wanted, you know, very long- range weapons. The Biden administration is giving them weapons that have a range of up to about 50 miles, perhaps just a bit less than that. That's more than double the range of their current artillery pieces.

But it's still not the long-range weaponry that the Ukrainians say they actually need to really turn the tide of this battle against Russian forces, particularly in the East of the country, John.

BERMAN: And in the East, Matthew, we are learning of some setbacks for the Ukrainian military, particularly around Severodonetsk right here, this key sort of linchpin city there. Now at this point, the Russians occupy, what, 70 percent of the city, at least?

CHANCE: Yes, 70 percent is the figure I've heard. It's going to be 100 percent at some point, you know, within the days ahead. That's -- that's almost certain.

But what the Ukrainians are trying to do is to make it as painful as possible for the Russians to take control of that city.

It's -- it's significant it's Severodonetsk, because it's the last big city in the Luhansk region of Eastern Ukraine, the Donbas. Luhansk makes up half of the Donbas region of Eastern Ukraine, the Donbas. Luhansk makes up half of the Donbas, the other half being Donetsk.

And the Russians have made it clear that securing the whole or invading the whole of the Donbas is a military priority for them. So it would be a big political win for them to say they've captured Severodonetsk.

But in military terms, they're having to throw in so many weapons, so many personnel. They're losing so much armor in the battle for that political victory, a lot of military assessments out there including Ukrainian and American assessments, they may be unable in the near future to stage another offensive elsewhere in the country. And the Ukrainians are trying to capitalize on that with counteroffensives, John.

BERMAN: Matthew Chance for us. Thank you so much, Matthew.

Michigan Republicans reportedly recruiting poll workers as the midterms approach. How they're working to expand their party's influence when voters head to the polls, next.

KEILAR: Plus, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp locked in an ongoing feud with former President Trump, but a new report says Kemp may be ready to patch things up, ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:30:00]