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Police: Walmart Employee Kills 6 In Virginia Attack; Witness: Walmart Employee Shot Co-Workers In Break Room; Gun Violence Archive: Over 600 Mass Shootings In U.S. This Year; Police: Walmart Gunman Used Pistol To Kill 6; Soon: First Court Appearance For Club Q Shooting Suspect; Suspect Had Chaotic Childhood, Allegedly Bullied As Teen; Trump Faces Rapid-Fire String Of Legal Setbacks In One Day; Sen. Lindsey Graham Testifies Before Georgia Grand Jury Investigating 2020 Election Interference. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired November 23, 2022 - 12:00   ET

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

[12:00:00]

JOHN KING, CNN HOST, INSIDE POLITICS: Hello, and welcome to Inside Politics. I'm John King in Washington. Thank you for sharing your day with us. Deadly days out move. For the second time this week, gun violence infects another American town. This time, Chesapeake, Virginia and a Walmart packed with Thanksgiving shoppers.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. GLENN YOUNGKIN, (R) VIRGINIA: It is a just a horrendous event. Our hearts are just completely broken this morning yet again in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It's a horrendous, senseless act of violence. And today, we have to come around families and support them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Plus, count them up, a miserable day, miserable day for Donald Trump's legal team ends. The Supreme Court loss, loose ends in Georgia and allowed signal the Mar-a-Lago documents case may not break in the former president's favor.

And Kevin McCarthy's math problem. A big flip flop puts a threat to impeach Biden's Homeland Security Secretary on the table. Why this switch. Republicans take control of the House in 41 days and McCarthy tacking even more to the right because he still lacks the votes to become speaker.

Up first for us though, the American flag visits Virginia. The shooter shattering the lives of six families right before the Thanksgiving holiday. Bullets interrupted the normal routine of picking up roasting trays, box stuffing and employee shuffling on and off the floor at this Chesapeake, Virginia Walmart.

This hour six are dead. Four other victims are hospitalized, their conditions unknown. Police giving few details so far. The gunman a Walmart employee entered a break room and then opened fire with a pistol. A source says that individual was a manager at the store and overnight team lead. Listen here through a witness describe the sudden shift from calm to chaos.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEVIN HARPER, WALMART EMPLOYEE: (Inaudible) just left out the break room, didn't come in this darkness cap and people up in to start shooting bro. Like um, hold on y'all. Sadly though, we lost a few of our associates pretty much - came in and started dumping man. It seems like they've had to break when he went in there, man. By the grace of God, you man, oh no.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Police say they arrived on the scene within two minutes of the first call to 911. By the time they got there, the gunman had turned the weapon on himself. Police caution they're piecing together just what happened will take time and involve painstaking work, just processing the crime scene they say will take days. And at this moment, we do not know the motive for this crime.

Let's get straight to the scene now, CNN's Brian Todd is there live for us. Brian, what else do we know?

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, we can confirm from a source familiar with the situation that the shooter was an overnight manager at the store. I think you mentioned he was a team lead. There was a woman who was a survivor of this shooting, Briana Tyler. She told ABC News that this was a manager who she had been told to "look out for because there was always something going on with him, just having an issue with someone."

Briana Tyler said that she had gathered with co-workers in a break room on Tuesday night for their shift that she looked up and her manager opened the door. At that point, they saw the shooter opening fire. He wasn't aiming at anyone specifically according to Briana Tyler. He did not say anything as he moved around the room shooting at people.

Here's a quote from Briana Tyler. "He looked directly at me but luckily he missed my head by an inch or two." Again, she's telling ABC News that this was a manager who she was told to look out for because there was always an issue with him. Police filled in a couple of other gaps for us too, as well, John, as well as law enforcement sources.

Police saying that this shooter used a pistol in this attack. They're not aware of any other weapons that he used. The timeframe from when first 911 calls came out at 10:12 pm Eastern time from the time that police entered the building, four minutes enter the building at a 10:16 pm Eastern time and secure the building a safe 11:20.

But I can tell you that the overnight hours police were taking a long time to get information to report because they were still combing through this building for hours, looking for anyone who might be a survivor, anyone who might be hiding. A lot of places to hide in a Walmart and they had to take several hours to process the scene. John?

[12:05:00] KING: Brian Todd live for us at Chesapeake. Brian, appreciate to be on the scene reporting. Let's get some more insights. Now joining me the former homeland security official Juliette Kayyem, and the former federal prosecutor and national security analyst Carrie Cordero. Juliette, let's listen more to Briana Tyler. Brian Todd just mentioned her witness account. This is her speaking to ABC this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRIANA TYLER, WITNESSED VA WALMART SHOOTING: Yes. He just literally just started shooting throughout the entire break room and I watched multiple people just drop down to the floor, whether they were trying to just recover or they were hit. He just opened fire. He looked directly at me, but he luckily, he missed my head by like an inch or two.

He just came around the corner and he just started shooting. The first person that was in his eyesight, he shot him down. And then next thing he know, he just started reading throughout the entire basement, but he did not say a word.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: What are the questions at this moment? From an investigative standpoint, clearly motive, but the gunman turned the gun on himself, the police say. But the other thing that just strikes me as the gentleman we have the top of the show, and then the witness there, speaking in almost matter of fact, tones about this as if it's something they talk about all the time.

JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Right. I mean, it is part of our culture and a part of people who are in their 20s and 30s. We don't call them generation locked down for not being the 20 rolls like the woman looked, like the people in the room look like the people that we're talking to 20 and 30. Those are people who are used to, that's a generation that's used to the idea of mass shootings in a way that I think even people in their 40s and 50s are not talk to anyone in their 20s and 30s. And they call themselves generation lockdown for a reason.

And they're also in shock. So, I think that their sort of description that may seem a little bit off putting right now to us. It may be just they haven't even processed what they were so close to. So, the investigation is actually narrowing.

Last night it was all through the evening. He didn't know what it was, and Walmart's are large. We don't know what kind of shooter it is. It now appears that they - he's known. The reason why he was at that store, you know, maybe we don't know the triggering event. We know the weapon. And the victims are in isolated group, unfortunately.

So, the investigation will mostly - I mean, you have a dead killer. So, there's going to be no trial. So, the investigations mostly going to go to motive at that particular moment what issues he was going through. And then also what kind of supervising him? Supervisors know that he might be a danger. Did Walmart know those kinds of issues will be investigated as well?

KING: And you watch them play out. And again, I can't find the right word for this. I get depressed every time you do one of these stories. And sometimes you think you do so many of them, you would just learn to blaze through it. I would just show you a graphic here. There are 20 mass shootings involving casualties of five or more people, five or more fatalities across the country.

There have been 600 plus mass shootings so far, in 2022, which is why. This is Louise Lucas' state senator. Carrie Cordero from Virginia saying, saved me the thoughts and prayers, we need to do more.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LOUISE LUCAS, (D) VIRGINIA STATE SENATE: And a lot of us didn't get much sleep last night, did not rest well and will not rest well, until we get a handle on this gun violence. For all the people who are saying that their hearts and prayers go out to these people. I don't want to hear any more about that until they get serious about gun violence prevention.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: In this case, again, the Congress is not poised to do anything at the moment. But if in a case of a semi assault weapon or AR-15, you have one conversation. This is someone who worked there, walking in with a pistol. As you heard one of the witnesses saying a manager, she has been told to watch out for so anger issues of some kind. Is there anything here from a legislative standpoint? Is there anything that can be done about this?

CARRIE CORDERO, CNN LEGAL & NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, the difficult policy issue is whether or not the country or individual states want to try to restrict access to weapons. From a law enforcement homeland security perspective, this is mostly about trying to identify whether there are warning signs and having friends and family members to bring those to law enforcement. So that's something that Virginia state police, for example, want people to be able to bring individuals to them and bring warnings so that law enforcement potentially can have a better idea of how to prevent it.

But you know, at the center for American security, we did a survey of a focus group of cross section of Americans to try to figure out what are people most afraid of, and mass shootings by far top the list. And when we were looking at the timing of when could we actually do this survey.

We thought well, there was just the - we did it last summer, there was just the buffalo shooting. And then we looked at well, what if we would have waited a couple of weeks and we would have run right up into Highland Park in Chicago. There is no good time because this happens constantly in America.

KING: It happens constantly in America. And Juliette to the idea that you mentioned - Carrie mentioned buffalo that was a supermarket. This is a Walmart, another big box store. Among the softer targets, if you will, especially in the holiday season people - employees going in and out, people going in and out. I mean, in this case somebody can carrying a pistol easy to conceal.

[12:10:00]

KAYYEM: Yes. I mean, look, there is no society that you and I want to live in where you can be safe, right? Because what would that mean? It means your experience of going to the store, your experience of walking down the street, would be so fortified it's not even worth it anymore.

So, the idea that we can get that we can defend our way into this solution is just - it's ridiculous at this stage This is a Walmart. I don't know what kind of security they have at the door. But this was an inside threat. You're not going to be able to stop a manager who is, you know, hell bent on wanting to co-employees.

So, we will continue to have a never-ending conversation about gun control, but I think period are also reflecting on a sort of, you know, I think we have to admit it that without that gun legislation, it is going to take a stepping up by community members, family members about whether someone in their midst is a threat. They have got to consider the rest of the community and not wish it away. This is where we are now in the absence of control over gun and gun usage and responsible gun ownership at this stage.

KING: Right. And again, nearly a hundred mass shootings since September 20, involving five fatalities of more this year, more than 600 this year. Hopefully this conversations do, tough time to have them around Thanksgiving, but they need to be heard. Juliette Kayyem, thank you. Carrie will be back with us for a conversation in a few moments.

And let's moving on to another tragedy, learning more now about the troubled past, the suspect to open fire inside an LGBTQ+ Colorado Springs nightclub, the other night killing five people. Next hour the suspected shooter, Anderson Lee Aldrich will make an initial court appearance. CNN's Rosa Flores is covering the story live for us in Colorado Springs. Rosa, what else do we know?

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, we just learned from the court that cameras will not be allowed inside the court but there will be a live stream, which means that this will be the first time that we will be able to see the suspects as he was beaten and subdued by those heroes who stopped the carnage.

Now this is a first appearance. Here is what's going to happen. A judge will inform the defendant of his legal rights and then the charges will be read as they are in the charging documents. We're expecting that these will include five counts of first-degree murder and five counts of hate crime.

Now this is not an arraignment. Those are not the formal charges. According to the district attorney, the former charges could be presented next week or the week after that. We also know that the suspect is being held without bond all this is we're learning more about his troubled past.

Now, all of this has been digging done by CNN investigates. A lot of our producers working really hard on this. I'm going to go in chronological order and bear with me because there's a lot of details here. I'm going to start with this mother and father. The suspects mom has multiple charges in her past that include falsely reporting a crime.

Do you why the suspects father was a porn actor and MMA fighter and was pretty much out of the picture which left the grandmother to raise this child. By the time the suspect was 15, there are online records that show vicious, vicious bullying of the suspect. And before he turned 16, there was a name change from Nicholas F Brink to Anderson Lee Aldrich.

And then in 2021 last year, there's that report, John, that we've been talking about. The mother of the suspect calling police about her son having weapons and ammunition and a homemade bomb. Those charges were dropped. And now last night, the last thing we learned is that the suspect identifies as team leader non-binary, John?

Rosa Flores on the ground for us in Colorado Springs. We await that court hearing a bit later. Rosa, thank you. Up next for us. One day, four different courtrooms with cases involving Donald Trump, showcasing the major legal challenges he's facing. Just a week after announcing yes, he's running for president again.

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[12:15:00]

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KING: Donald Trump and his legal team had a very, very bad Tuesday. First, a big loss at the Supreme Court. The justices there, clearing the way for the House to get Trump's tax returns. Next, tough questions about Trump's legal strategy in the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case. In that hearing, three appeals court judges all sounded skeptical of Trump's argument that a special master should be kept in place to sort through those records.

Plus, a state judge in New York set a trial date for the New York attorney general's lawsuit against the Trump organization. That trial now scheduled for October of 2023. Just in time for the presidential election. And there's more Senator Lindsey Graham was forced to testify before the special Georgia Grand Jury investigating Trump's effort to reverse the 2020 results there.

And the former Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows lost a second bid to block the January 6 committee from enforcing a subpoena for his testimony and additional records. With me now to sort through this list. Out senior justice correspondent, Evan Perez, still with us, Carrie Cordero, CNN national security and legal analyst, and also joining the conversation our CNN crime and justice reporter Katelyn Polantz. Where to begin. Let's start with the taxes debate because Trump has fought for years to keep - he kept saying he was going to release, release, release. He has fought for years to keep his taxes private. The House now has them and in the Trump organization trial, the tax trial going underway in New York right now. The testimony said that he didn't pay personal income taxes for a long stretch of time. What is the significance of that? The Democrats lose the House in 41 days. Does it matter that they have these documents now?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, I mean, they have a very short period of time in which to try to say what they think this means as far as legislation is concerned as, what they said this was also out, right. They said that they wanted to look at possible legislation on auditing by the IRS. And it does raise some questions right, of why this has been - what the former president says that there has been this long running audit.

[12:20:00]

But we learned certainly from that testimony yesterday, that go going back to 2010 and years afterwards, he was claiming these huge number of sums of losses which meant that he didn't pay, he wasn't paying taxes on those numbers. And that has become, that's going to be a big part of what Letitia James is going after, which is that, you know, essentially, he was fudging numbers to avoid paying taxes.

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER: This also gives you a little bit of finality of the long arc of House power. I mean, the House is getting these tax returns after pursuing them for three years in court. And you're also seeing the end of this House select committee that was particularly powerful, investigating their own body of attack on their own body. So, for them to be able to get stuff right in the nick of time before the Congress ends, it really does underline the power of Congress.

KING: And so, moved to the other case, the one of the other cases of this one, the Mar-a-Lago documents and the idea that hearing the three judges in the Eleventh Circuit court of appeals. Do you need a special master? Is that necessary? What is the significance if they say no?

CORDERO: Well, the significance of this case goes far beyond this particular search. And that's why I think the Justice Department is pushing so hard to try to get an appellate court to throw out this special master. Because at its core, any individual who was the subject of investigation, who is the subject of a physical search, that the FBI conducts person to a warrant obtained under probable cause from a federal judge, which is what happened in this case.

Each individual who had - is in that situation across the country does not get a special master appointed to their case to review the documents. And that's the argument that the Justice Department is making is that in this case, the judge ordered the special master, gave former President Trump basically a special privilege, treated him differently than anybody else would be treated.

And the Justice Department needs to think about all the other national security investigations and regular criminal investigations where they don't want that precedent set. And that's why I think also the Eleventh Circuit is open to these arguments that the Justice Department is making.

KING: Right. And the chief judge, I just want to read from it, essentially says because Donald Trump has former president before his name. Other than the fact that this involves a former president, everything else about this is indistinguishable. We've got to be concerned about the precedent that we would create. That's to Carrie's point that, you know, if they come to my house and serve a legal search warrant, can I tie up the system for months and months fighting?

PEREZ: Right. And by the way, when he was president, that's exactly what he was able to do. He was successful in being able to do that. And that was a big theme of the hearing yesterday. The two judges who previously ruled against him and even the judge that we were watching a lot---

KING: Two of the three, I just want to jump in, two of the three are Trump appointee.

PEREZ: Right, exactly. But what was the big theme of this was, Trump's legal team kept saying that they didn't want special treatment, but that's exactly what he's looking for. And that's exactly what the judge in Florida gave him. And so, that's the reason why I think you heard a lot of skepticism from these three judges yesterday saying, you know, you're not special, you know, after all, and so you can't expect that you're going to be treated differently, especially because you're the one that commingled classified documents with personal items. So that's not the government's fault.

KING: Another person who fought and fought and fought, you'll notice the theme to try to refuse testifying was Lindsey Graham, who did have to go testify before the special grand jury in Fulton County, Georgia. We know from the former secretary of state - the current secretary of state, I'm sorry, Brad Raffensperger, who's secretary of state back at the time in 2020. He got a call. We know about the call from Donald Trump, right? Can we find 11,000 votes - over 11,000 votes and change. He also says he got a call from Lindsey Graham, listen?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LINDSEY GRAHAM, GEORGIA SECRETARY OF STATE: It's just an implication that look hard and see how many ballots you could throw out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: So how important is this testimony in the OK, Lindsey Graham made the call that's well documented? I think it wasn't the question before the grand jury be. Did anyone who asked you to make that call? What materials did they give you when they asked you to make that call?

POLANTZ: Well, at this point, John, though, we don't exactly know what Lindsey Graham answered. There's lots of ways. He was able to decline to answer questions. And he was already set up by the Supreme Court, they said, you know, we're not going to block your testimony in full. You do have to show up. But he can still come back to court.

If he wants to, they can - the Georgia grand jury can take him to court and try and litigate these things. It takes time to work that out, especially when you have people in protected positions of elected officials where speech and debate - speech or debate clause, sorry, related to Congress would apply around them.

But Graham is in a different position than Trump, right? Trump is having issues, go to the Supreme Court in their last rounds, and he's getting some sort of finality. Now, there's a forcefield that's falling around him. People are testifying. So even if Graham doesn't give answers, there may be others who would be able to fill in the blanks that Graham is unwilling to answer to.

CORDERO: And I think, you know, the other takeaway from this is that a sitting senator testified pursuant to legal process after exhausting his legal remedies and the sky didn't fall. And so, what we're seeing whether it comes to the Eleventh Circuit, looking at these other cases, whether it comes to the release of the tax records or whether it comes to the fact that the senator finally did give testimony and answer questions, is that some of the other institutions and the courts in particular are holding them up.

[12:25:00]

KING: What's the old saying, patience is a virtue. I guess that's a patience, but it worked. All right. Up next first, Marjorie Taylor Greene leaning in on her pick for speaker of the House. Will it be Kevin McCarthy? He sure hopes of.

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