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Suspect in Mass Shooting in Highland Park, Illinois, During Fourth of July Parade Charged with Seven Counts of First-Degree Murder; New Polling Shows Large Majority of Americans Think Country is On Wrong Track; Some Democratic Supporters Frustrated with Biden Administration in Wake of Supreme Court Overturning Roe Versus Wade; Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) is Interviewed on the Mass Shooting in Highland Park, Illinois. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired July 06, 2022 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Now I play "Paradise City" for my four- year-old. That's one of my favorites. That's not 80s.

CHRISTOPHER JOHN FARLEY, CULTURAL COMMENTATOR: That is 80s. You've got Guns n Roses being used right now --

KEILAR: Is that 80s?

FARLEY: It's being used right now in the "Thor, Love and Thunder" trailer. They have "Sweet Child O Mine" Guns n Roses. And the great thing about music is, you know that one scene in "Ratatouille" where the food eats the ratatouille and is transported back to his childhood?

KEILAR: Oh, yes.

FARLEY: That's what music does every time. It's a time machine that takes us back to places we loved, great moments that we had. And so whenever they have this music in films, in T.V. shows, it brings us back, and is just a great feeling to have.

KEILAR: I love that evoked that beautiful scene. It's so beautiful Christopher John Farley, thank you for being with us.

FARLEY: Thank you.

KEILAR: And NEW DAY continues right now.

Good morning to viewers here in the U.S. and around the world. It's Wednesday, July 6th, and I'm Brianna Keilar alongside John Berman this morning.

There are so many troubling new details about the disturbing past of the man accused of murdering seven people in a Fourth of July parade in Illinois. Two incidents with the police raising questions about how he ever obtained guns, why he went unchecked. Seven Americans lost their lives celebrating their freedom. Here's the latest. Investigators say the suspect may have planned the

attack for several weeks, that he dressed in women's clothing during the shooting to conceal his identity and facial tattoos. He had two incidents with law enforcement in 2019, as we mentioned, first, when authorities were notified about a suicide attempt, later after a family member reported that he threatened to kill, quote, "everyone." Police removed 16 knives, a dagger, and a sword at that point.

Shortly after that, though, he legally purchased five firearms. Since he was under 21 at the time, he was sponsored to do so by his father.

BERMAN: Prosecutors have filed seven counts of first-degree murder against the suspect. They promise more charges are coming. One victim, Katie Goldstein, she was gunned down right in front of her daughter. Her father spoke to NBC.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CRAIG GOLDSTEIN, HUSBAND OF HIGHLAND PARK SHOOTING VICTIM: I've been talking to people on the phone today, and I can't believe how many best friends Katie has, how many people have said she was my best friend.

CASSIE GOLDSTEIN, DAUGHTER OF HIGHLAND PARK SHOOTING VICTIM: I looked up and I saw the shooter shooting down at the kids, and I told her that it was a shooter and that she had to run. So I started running with her. And we were next to each other. And he shot her in the chest. And she fell down, and I knew she was dead. So I just told her that I loved her but I could not stop because he was still shooting everyone next to me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Josh Campbell is in Highland Park this morning with the latest for us. Good morning, Josh.

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Hi, my friend. The suspect in the shooter now formally charged with seven counts of first degree- murder, one for each of the victims killed in that July 4th parade attack. This is the first wave in what prosecutors are saying could be more charges coming down the road. He will have his first appearance here in court today as the wheels of justice continue on the prosecution side.

We're also learning new information about the investigation into the shooter's background. As you mentioned, there were these two troubling incidents in the past, these encounters with law enforcement. In April of 2019, police say there were called to the suspect's house, a family member said that the suspect had attempted to kill himself. Police ultimately determining that wasn't a policing issue. He was be treated by mental health professions.

In September of that year, police were called back to the shooter's home, a relative said that the suspect had threatened to kill every member of his family. Authorities determined that there were a set of knives inside the house included a dagger and swords, those were confiscated. I pressed police yesterday on what can be done here, if you have someone who is exhibiting signs of wanting to harm themselves or others, what can police do? Here is that exchange.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CAMPBELL: How are these things supposed to be handled? How do you stop a shooter if someone is calling police, saying hey, we have a problem?

CHRISTOPHER COVELLI, DEPUTY CHIEF, LAKE COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE: Police responded there. Police can't make an arrest unless there is probable to make an arrest or if somebody is willing to sign complaints regarding the arrest. If there is an issue where there is the necessity to involuntarily commit somebody to the hospital, that's an option, but that wasn't an option at the time.

CAMPBELL: Can you explain that? What are the options for officers?

COVELLI: Based on that time, based on those circumstances, that was not an option. It did not fall in that category?

CAMPBELL: What would it require?

COVELLI: Again, it's case by case specific.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMPBELL: Here is what is so troubling in that incident. Police say that they notified state police, their role was to determine whether the suspect had access to firearms. They determined that he didn't.

[08:05:05]

But fast forward to just three months after that. The suspect then went to apply for a state firearms license. It was, according to police, his father who sponsored him to obtain that license because the suspect was underage. So many troubling questions this morning for the shooter's father. We are told that he contacted police after that knife incident and said that these knives belong to him. He obtained possession of them. And then just months later sponsoring his son to obtain a firearm. Of course, this is the son that the family had called the police on, saying that he's exhibiting these signs, wanting to kill himself, wanting to kill other people. We are told by police that over the course of a year, the suspect, he obtained five firearms including that assault style rifle that was used in this massacre here on 4th of July, killing seven people, injuring dozens of others, John.

BERMAN: Josh Campbell, these new details emerging, just raising new questions. Thank you very much.

Ahead we will speak with Senator Tammy Duckworth of Illinois with the very latest on this investigation.

So from the shootings to divided politics, the polls shows that Americans seem to be losing confidence in the country. A new Gallup polls shows that 30 percent of U.S. adults say they are extremely proud to be American. That's the lowest point of the extremely proud rating since Gallup started asking that question back in 2001. The same poll shows the confidence in major institutions at the lowest point since they've been asking the questions. A Monmouth University poll found that 88 percent of Americans say the country is headed in the wrong direction.

With us now, John King, chief national correspondent and anchor of INSIDE POLITICS. Well, that's not very rosy, John. That doesn't indicate that Americans think things are going well.

JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It doesn't, and you can understand the reasons just listening to Josh Campbell and the details of the 315th, I believe it is, mass shootings in 183 days this year, fills your chest up, right, fills your chest up with grief.

Americans are coming out of Trump-haustion (ph) two-and-a-half years of a pandemic, whether we are talking about public health aspects, the education aspects, the economic aspects. Then you finally think you might have a moment to breathe, and you get whacked by inflation. You're looking for some other headline to focus on. There's a war in Ukraine, there's droughts, there's wildfires. Everywhere you look there is something that is depressing.

But I think the most dangerous part there, John, is the lack of faith in institutions, right. The American creed, we'll get through it. Somebody will lead us out of it. We'll have a North Star and get through it. The declining faith in institutions is what makes it all the more problematic, and it becomes kind of a cesspool. People think it's on the wrong track, they don't have faith in their politicians to fix it, and so it swirls. If you are the current president of the United States, it affects you. But if you are a country, it is just unmistakable. The country is in a funk right now, and the question is, how do you get out of it?

KEILAR: Mitt Romney wrote this really interesting op-ed where he is talking about this is a country is wishful thinking, both sides blaming each other in at least this paralysis. But I thought, John, maybe one of the most interesting things was that he says said the prescription is leadership. But not to be pessimistic, where is the leadership? He says it is sort of in everyday people because maybe it just isn't there right now while people are waiting for that leader.

KING: We are in an election year, so we will see what the Americans think come November. We are watching in the primaries what they think at the moment. Mitt Romney makes the case that Joe Biden, the Democratic president, is not the president for this time. He calls him a good and decent man. He says he doesn't think he's the president for this time. And he powerfully makes the case the Republicans are nuts if they think they should bring back Donald Trump.

The question is, Mitt Romney uses the word "denial." If there's anything in the article I dispute, he lays out the problems in America, the big issues in America quite thoughtfully. Is it denial or is it dysfunction? I covered the White House back with Bill Clinton was president, then when George W. Bush was president. That's a long time ago, right? What were the issues on the table? Reforming Medicare and Social Security, immigration reform, big steps in education. Some of these problems have been with us for 25 plus years, and this town, Washington, has simply refused to reach common ground to deal with it. So the list gets longer because of the political dysfunction.

So I think the challenge for Senator Romney is we just did have that modest gun safety package. Will more Republicans and more Democrats be willing to try one step at a time, incremental things, to, a, to try to get a few things done, and b, to try to break through that pessimism out there in America that our political system is simply broken and can't fix anything. So he lays out the problem thoughtfully, set the politics aside for a minute, but he lays out the issues thoughtfully. The question is what will he do and what will others do to try to break the dysfunction?

BERMAN: This is all a hell of a challenge for any White House, John, any White House facing this kind of political environment heading into a midterm, it's an enormous challenge. But our colleague Isaac Dovere has a story out overnight which says that the Democratic Party, or people within the party are particularly unhappy now with how the White House is managing this problem. What do you think of that?

[08:10:03]

KING: It is striking if you read Isaac's reporting in the sense that there are a lot of complaints, some of them anonymous, which be courageous people. If you ever complain about the president, attach your name to it. But some of them on the record. I think the most fascinating part to me in that piece was the on the record pushback from senior administration officials or people who had just left the White House like the former Congressman Cedric Richmond, essentially telling liberals in the party shut up. If you read the article, that's what they're saying. You are complaining, you said Hillary Clinton wasn't good enough and that's what got us Donald trump. Now you're saying Joe Biden isn't good enough.

Look, the Democratic Party is diverse. There are generational fights in the Democratic Party. There are ideological disputes in the Democratic Party. There are regional disputes in the Democratic Party. The Democrats are in charge right now. And so you see this frustration. They want the president to do more, the president says I don't have the math.

If you look in there, Mitch Landrieu, for example, the former New Orleans mayor, now an adviser to President Biden, say hey, Congress, stop complaining, pass all the things the president has asked. That's easy to say, too, when you have a 50-50 Senate. They don't have the votes. So you have this spinning dysfunction, spinning disagreement, spinning argument in the Democratic Party.

And John, the election is four months from now. It was four months from Tuesday, and the Democrats are in this essentially a circular firing squad right now which is not good for the party, which a lot of Democrats think why won't the president lead us out of this? the president's response back essentially is if you stop complaining, maybe it would help some. But that's where we are. KEILAR: A lot of this boiled over after the Supreme Court eviscerated

Roe v. Wade. And then you have all of these difficult solutions, right, which are not popular when it comes to the economic issues. How much of this, John, do you see as actual grievances that are real or founded, verses these are folks who are really mad at the current state of things and they're looking for someplace to put their blame?

KING: The grievances are legitimate. If you are a Democratic voter, you want action on climate. You want more action on guns. You want the government to do something about a Supreme Court decision that if you're a progressive you think is wrong. Dobbs is now the law of the land, not Roe v. Wade.

The question is, how much power does the president have to do anything about that? So the grievances are legitimate. The policies concerns of progressives and Democrats are legitimate. The question is what can you do about it?

In some ways, the Democratic Party, Democrats will get mad at me saying this, but in some ways, when the Democrats won those two Georgia Senate seats and they're in charge of everything, right, their majority in the Senate is 50-50. But the expectations of the party went way up here. We control the White House, we control the House, we control the Senate, we can do all these things. Guess what? They can't. They don't have the votes. And because of that, you have this boiling disillusionment, discontent within the president's own party. And again, four months before an Election Day, that's a recipe, unless they can change it, four months is a lot of time. Can they use these issues to mobilize people? You need to vote in November if you care about abortion, you need to vote if you care about guns, you need to vote if you care about climate. Or do Democrats say we had everything, and we did nothing. I'm staying home.

BERMAN: The White House Democratic Party needs to try to do the former, whether they can pull it off.

KEILAR: Debra Messing says maybe do the letter in the piece, though.

BERMAN: John King, thank you very much for being with us. Everyone needs to watch INSIDE POLITICS at noon.

We're going to speak to the former lead investigator for the House January 6th Committee as committee members revealed threats against them.

KEILAR: Plus, new CNN reporting on Jayland Walker who was killed by police as he fled a traffic stop. Why he was still handcuffed when his body arrived at the corner.

And new video this morning, a man falling more than 600 feet while climbing Mt. Hood. We have more on this rescue mission ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:17:21] BERMAN: The House committee investigating the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol has announced its next public hearing will be on Tuesday. That's July 12th. They have not yet announced the topic.

Committee member Adam Schiff previewed the hearing earlier this week.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA): Our next hearing will be the focus on the efforts to assemble that mob on the mall, who was participating, who was financing, and how it was organized, including the participation of these white nationalist groups like the Proud Boys and Three Percenters and others.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Joining us now is John Wood, former senior investigator for the House Select Committee investigating the January 6th insurrection. He is running for Senate in Missouri now as an independent candidate.

John, thanks so much for being with us.

I know you're reluctant to tell us what you saw inside the committee, give us the secret information. I get that. So, I want to look forward if I can.

If the goal next week in this hearing is going to be to show the connection or a connection between the White House in some of these groups that attack the Capitol, how do you connect those dots?

JOHN WOOD, FORMER SENIOR INVESTIGATOR, HOUSE JANUARY 6TH COMMITTEE: So, I think the committee is going to try to sort of widen the aperture a little bit. So, so far, the committee have been focusing a lot on Donald Trump and for obvious reasons. But by taking a little bit broader view and looking at the roles of some of these groups like the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys, you're going to get a better understanding for the American people and better understand the causes of what happened on January 6th in ways that Donald Trump exploited the existence on some of these domestic violence extremist groups and the tragic results that followed.

BERMAN: Sarah Matthews, the deputy press secretary at the end there, we understand she has agreed to testify in person there. She's someone who you are familiar with. She came up during your part of the investigation.

Where does she fit in this?

WOOD: Yes, I led the staff part interview of Sarah Matthews. She's an extremely credible witness. She's very young but had a lot of responsibilities as deputy press secretary in the White House.

Saw a lot of what went on and publicly reported, she resigned because she had deep concerns about what happened on January 6th and the lead up. So, she'll be able to help fill in some of those gaps about what happened on the build-up to January 6th and January 6 itself. Her testimony may not be quite dramatic as what we heard from Cassidy Hutchinson but it will be consistent to what Miss Hutchinson said.

BERMAN: So, Congressman Adam Kinzinger, one of the Republicans who sits on the committee, released I guess voice mails that he has been getting, threatening him and his family.

[08:20:02]

Listen.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I guess I can't say a whole lot more other than I hope you naturally die as quickly (EXPLETIVE DELETED) you little piece of (EXPLETIVE DELETED).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You backstabbing (EXPLETIVE DELETED). You go against Trump y'all know y'all (EXPLETIVE DELETED) are sitting up there lying like a damn dog.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey you little (EXPLETIVE DELETED. Going to come protests in front of your house this weekend. We know where your family is and we're going to get you, you little (EXPLETIVE DELETED).

(END AUDIO CLIP)

BERMAN: What does it tell you about the environment right now?

WOOD: It tells us our country is very broken right now. We are in a fractured republic. Those are some of the voicemails that Congressman Kinzinger got. Recently he recently, rereleased a letter that was sent to his home threatening him and his wife and their infant child. It is horrific what's happening in our country.

We need to take a moment whether Republicans or Democrats or independents and say, this is craziness and it has to stop. You mentioned my Senate race, the leading Republican candidate right now in the polls, the former Governor Eric Greitens recently released an ad where he said he's RINO hunting and RINO referring to Republicans in name only, and he's banging down the door and carrying a long gun, and glorifying, hunting and shooting political opponents, of his own party no less.

And that's just not acceptable. We need to get to a point where we come together as Americans, even if we disagree on a lot of issues, we recognize we are fellow countrymen.

BERMAN: You mentioned that you are running for Senate as an independent in Missouri. You're I think a lifelong Republican. You clerked for Clarence Thomas. You worked with in the party.

Why is it that you comfortable running as a Republican there?

WOOD: Yeah, I am a lifelong Republican. I am still a Republican today. I have not left the party but I am taking a different route to get to the U.S. senate. The reason is the Republican primary and I think the primary for both parties unfortunately, have become a race at the bottom, to see who could be the most de divisive and the most extreme.

And that may work as far as winning a primary election because it plays to a very small portion of the base, whether it's on the left, or on the right. But the vast majority of Americans and the vast majority of Missourians really want somebody in the mainstream.

And I'm still a conservative, I'm a Republican, but I think I represent the mainstream conservative views of Missouri voters and it doesn't work so well in the primary but I think it's going to work really well in the general election that I look forward to winning.

BERMAN: John Wood, I appreciate you being on with us this morning. Thank you.

WOOD: Thanks so much for having me on.

BERMAN: We're going to have more on the development of Highland Park and the attack of the 4th of July parade that left seven people dead. The suspect had two incidents with law enforcement, interactions in 2019 including a family member reported that he threatened to, quote, "kill everyone". Shortly after that, he legally purchased five firearms with the help of his father.

With us now is the senator from Illinois, Democrat Tammy Duckworth.

Senator Duckworth, thank you so much for being with us. We are sorry for what your state is going through this morning.

The fact of these interactions with police that this suspect had, does this tell you that the laws on the books didn't work or the right laws in the Illinois are not on the books?

SEN. TAMMY DUCKWORTH (D-IL): Well, what we need on the books is an all-out assault weapons ban, as well as an all-out ban on high capacity magazine. The city of Highland Park actually has an assault weapons ban in effect. But, obviously, this young man left the city and bought legally with the help of his father an assault weapon somewhere else.

What this tells me is that we need better coordination between all the different databases that would set up a red flag. We recently passed in the bill of our gun reform legislation last month additional funding to allow these databases to -- to invest in these databases so that they can communicate with each other more accurately.

And in Illinois, we have a firearm owners ID card law. And that means that, you know, everybody who wants to buy a firearm has to pass background checks. But obviously, the reports set forward by the Highland Park Police never made it to, for example, the other databases and that this young man was able to pass multiple background checks.

BERMAN: Do you think the new law that you just passed in the Senate may have caught something along the way here?

DUCKWORTH: I think that -- yes, I think additional funding that we have provided in the law would allow these databases so we can catch more red flag incidents.

But bottom line: get these assault weapons off the streets of our cities. You know, I carry an assault weapon my 23 years in the Army. I fire them on the fire range.

[08:25:00]

I know what they can do to the human body, and they don't belong on the streets of America.

And, you know, in fact, since the assault weapons ban was allowed to expire, the number of mass shootings in this country has tripled. And then another characteristic of mass shooting is the presence of high capacity magazines.

If you listen to that horrific video, the sound of the gunfire of this young man killing and massacring these people, you'll hear there's a pause where he was forced to change magazines, which gave people more time to run away.

We need to get rid of the assault weapons as well as the high capacity magazines.

BERMAN: You mentioned he fired 70 rounds and you heard it. You were just describing. What did that sound like to you in your experience?

DUCKWORTH: Well, as I said, you know, it sounded like war. The last time I heard that -- the sound of that rapid gunfire and that many rounds going on the 4th of July was actually Iraq. I never thought I would hear it again here on U.S. soil.

And, by the way, you don't hear that on a gun range. When people say, oh, I need a high capacity magazine because I like to shoot target practice -- nobody does that on the gun range. In fact, at the highest level of shooting competitions, magazine, swapping out magazines is part of the contest.

And so, no one needs a 50-round drum, no one needs a 30-round magazine. And even if you are a marksman, I'm a marksman. You know, real marksmen don't do that.

BERMAN: Senator, we learned overnight the identities of two more of the victims, two more of the people killed in Highland Park. Young parents, Irina and Kevin McCarthy, who are killed. We're showing their picture right now.

Their young son Aiden, two years old, survived. He was a child who at the time we're told was wandering, basically looking for his parents after it all happened. And now, he has no parents.

I know you have a 7-year-old child. Just -- how do you process something like that?

DUCKWORTH: A 7-year-old and a 4-year-old.

I hug my daughter as tightly as I can every single night. I was in the emergency operations center with the mayor when the police came into brief on having found this young boy. In fact, he was pulled off from underneath his father who was still bleeding by a Good Samaritan and they went to work on his dad because his dad's leg was still bleeding and a couple scooped him up and took him into safety and his dad died on the scene.

But yes, his dad did everything he could to protect his son and he was successful in that. But, you know -- after every one of these mass shootings, I promise (ph) of doom scrolling on my phone and looking for ballistic backpack I could buy for my girls to wear and ballistic proof white board markers for their schools.

And the tragedy of all of these is that, you know, these sites are bookmarked on my cell phone because I've done this multiple times. We have to get rid of assault weapons. We have to get rid of high capacity magazines.

You know, we can have sensible legislation. But it takes -- you know, right now, it's going to take 51 senators to do that and we don't have 51 Democratic senators who can do that.

BERMAN: Senator --

DUCKWORTH: Who can make that vote.

BERMAN: Senator Duckworth, thank you for being with us.

DUCKWORTH: Thank you.

BERMAN: Obviously, when you think about those parents and that child now who'll be raised by relatives, his parents are gone.

KEILAR: When I read that the things I was so grateful that there were family members around. But it should never come to that, that they're in charge of raising that child. Like, you said, where is mommy and daddy, and they should be right there with him.

BERMAN: So British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, his government on the brink after more cabinet ministers resigned. What he is saying this morning.

KEILAR: And a new autopsy report revealed Jayland Walker was handcuffed when his body arrived at the medical examiner's office. We have new CNN reporting next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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