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Police: Motive Still Unknown In Colorado Rampage That Killed 10 People; Source: AR-15 Style Pistol With Arm Brace Used In Grocery Store Shooting; U.S. Health Officials Raise Concerns About AstraZeneca Vaccine Data That May Be "Outdated"; In Stunning Legal Defense, Pro- Trump Lawyer Sidney Powell Argues No "Reasonable Person" Would Believe Her Election Fraud Claims; North Korea Launches Two Projectiles In First Known Weapons Test Since Biden Took Office; All 10 Victims In Colorado Grocery Store Shooting Identified. Aired 5-6p ET

Aired March 23, 2021 - 17:00   ET

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

[17:00:00]

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: All right, depressing.

Tom Foreman, thanks so much. Our coverage on CNN continues right now.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: Welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the wolf. Wolf Blitzer is off today. I'm Pamela Brown in THE SITUATION ROOM.

And we are following new developments in the Boulder Colorado grocery store mass shooting. Tonight all 10 people killed have been identified the victims ranging in age from 20 to 65 years old. And we're learning more about the 21 year old suspect who has been charged with 10 counts of first degree murder. His motive is still unknown. His brother says he may have suffered from mental illness.

President Biden is responding to the massacre saying, "We have to act on gun control." He is calling for a ban on assault weapons and expanded background checks.

Let's go straight to Boulder with CNN Senior National Correspondent Kyung Lah. So, Kyung, lots of disturbing new details tonight.

KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: A lot of disturbing details as this community continues to grieve outside this grocery store. The investigation increasingly looking at why and who this gunman is. And we're hearing for the first time from his family, a brother who says that he has struggled with mental illness.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The entire building is surrounded.

LAH (voice-over): As the officers first made their way in they confronted the gunman, 21 year old Ahmad Alissa, the arrest warrant says he was walking to SWAT officers to surrender. He'd been shot in the leg. Removed a green tactical vest, all of his clothing except for shorts. The affidavit said he had two weapons, an aerosol rifle and a handgun. The affidavit says the suspect did not answer questions, though he asked to speak to his mother.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 136, we're in a gunfight, hold the radio.

LAH: That suspect accused of killing 10 people at this Colorado grocery store

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 136, we have multiple shots being fired at us.

LAH: The gunman's brothers says he believes his brother suffered from mental illness and was increasingly paranoid. Alissa's brother says he was bullied in high school for being Muslim. The family had immigrated from Syria in 2002. But the brother says he never knew him to have a gun. Law enforcement did recover additional weapons from the gunman's home.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I copy, we're taking multiple rounds.

LAH: Witnesses first heard shots in the parking lot around 2:30 in the afternoon, Anna Haynes lives across the street from King Soopers grocery store.

ANNA HAYNES, WITNESSED GROCERY STORE SHOOTING: I saw a body in the middle of the parking lot. And I also saw the gun man himself holding a semiautomatic rifle. He was on the handicap rail to the entrance of the store.

LAH: Newly released arrest documents say witnesses saw the suspect fatally shoot at least two people in the parking lot, a man in a vehicle and an elderly man. Store employees say they watched through a window as a gunman walked up to the elderly man stood over him and shot him multiple additional times.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's armed with a rifle, our officer shot back and returned fire. We do not know where he is in the store.

LAH: The first officer to confront the gunman was killed, shot in the head. As a shooter continue to roam the store busy with shoppers and people waiting to be vaccinated in the store.

STEVEN MCCUE, GRANDCHILDREN INSIDE STORE DURING SHOOTING: That's when at least one shooter came in and killed the woman at the front of the line in front of him. They ran upstairs to hide a hidden a coat closets standing up for 45 minutes.

LAH: As the gunman was led away, 10 lay dead at the store.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Officer Eric Talley, 51.

LAH: One by one the police chief spelled out all the names of the 10 victims including her own officer Eric Talley.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This officer had seven children ages five to 18. I just had that officer's whole family in my office two weeks ago to give him an award. And so, it is personal. This is my community. LAH: Boulder now becomes another city on a list of mass shooting locations.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The victims who are food shopping were engaged in an everyday act, something we all do. And it turned out to be their last day on earth.

LAH: Another president struggling to find words to heal and what has become a part of America's violent normal.

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Our hearts go out for the survivors. They who had to flee for their lives and who hid terrified, unsure if they would ever see their families again their friends again.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

LAH: And late today, Facebook and Instagram scrubbed the history and the accounts of the alleged shooter. They do though shed a little more light into his thinking. He did make homophobic comments on those accounts, Pam, but you also heard the brother talk about this mental illness that he's long suspected.

[17:05:11]

This gunman also said that years after he graduated from high school, he believed his high school was somehow hacking into his personal phone, Pam.

BROWN: CNN's Kyung Lah live for us in Boulder.

And joining us now is Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser. Thank you for joining the show.

This shooting suspect was taken into custody alive. What can you tell us about where the investigation stands now? Is he talking to investigators? Do you have any better idea of the why behind the shooting?

PHIL WEISER, COLORADO ATTORNEY GENERAL: This point, we don't have a lot of insight to what led this alleged shooter to take on what is such an horrific attack, killing a police officer there to protect people, 10 innocent people killed. This is hard to wrap our minds around, we don't yet have enough clarity to explain it. This will be an ongoing investigation, it will be very thorough.

The disk attorney of Boulder is an extremely capable prosecutor. All of us are working with him to provide additional resources. We're going to take the time and do a thorough and effective investigation here.

BROWN: Can you tell us if he is talking to investigators now?

WEISER: We can't get into any specifics about the nature of investigation. We have a great team here in Colorado who are going to be working on it, a thorough both at the scene and doing background work. This is obviously a very important matter. It's important we get this right for Colorado, for the community of Boulder, for the families. And I'm confident will be done right.

BROWN: Right. And I'm not asking you to tell us what he could have potentially been saying to investigators, but we're just wondering if he is being cooperative.

WEISER: Yes. Not (ph) isn't it to talk about specifics. And this will be a matter that is going to take a little bit of time. The criminal justice process does take some time. I know that's something that sometimes people wonder why can't move quicker, but it's going to be done right and thorough. That's what the survivors, that's what the victims deserve.

BROWN: The suspect faces 10 counts of first degree murder, but do you expect additional charges that could be added on later?

WEISER: It's possible, depending on what the investigation reveals. Obviously, at some point, you have a certain number of charges that already set up someone to spend the rest of their life in jail without any parole. It'll be a judgment call whether it's worth adding additional counts on top of that.

BROWN: What can you tell us about the weapons used and the shooting? What more have you learned about them and how the gunman acquired them?

WEISER: We've yet to get the story out and to fully understand how the gunman received the weapons. That's important. Every time we've had a tragedy like this in Colorado, we've had too many of them, is you just report it.

We look to understand, what do we learn from it? What sorts of protections can we adopt to avoid this type of tragedy? After Columbine, we set up a program called Safe to Tell so we could find out anonymous tips about people planning attack, which at that time, people knew that they were planning an attack. And now we've got a place people can go.

We've also developed a magazine capacity restriction after Aurora so that we couldn't have as many rounds in a background check law and most recently red flag law. So, any lessons we can learn from this are going to inform how we adopt protections to prevent future attacks.

BROWN: But also this shooting came just 10 days after a ruling that blocks Boulder from enforcing its ban on assault style weapons. Do you know yet if that ban would have prevented this attack or what this means for Boulders gun control efforts?

WEISER: The legal issues in that case are going to proceed if Boulder chooses to appeal the case. It'll be a decision they'll be making soon. We don't know enough about how this individual got the weapon to know whether that particular ordinance would have been relevant here.

The story as to how these weapons ended up in his hands is one that we need to get our arms around because that's going to tell us something. It's going to give us guidance on how we learn from this tragedy.

BROWN: And I imagine investigators are also speaking to family members of this gunmen. Can you tell us any more about that? Have they been helpful?

WEISER: We can't get into any matters about the ongoing investigation. I, again, know that we are getting the effective and thorough investigation that this matter deserves. In terms of civics, I'm not able to get into any right now.

BROWN: All right. Well, you have also reached out to other victims of gun violence? Colorado has gone through Columbine, the Aurora movie theater shooting. How traumatic is it for these communities to see yet another attack?

WEISER: The wounds don't heal. Columbine is still feeling the effects. And if you trace back the story of Columbine survivors, the people survived the attack, those are tragic stories too. Everyone who is in that parking lot, in that shopping center was traumatized. And the people were traumatized at Columbine at Aurora are re traumatized, based on what happened yesterday. That's how trauma works. It reverberates.

[17:10:18]

We're hurting in Colorado. And part of what we need to do and we are doing is be there for one another, and then rededicate ourselves to how do we do our best to avoid such tragedies in the future?

BROWN: I can tell you, the rest of the country is hurting for Colorado as well. It could have been any one of us, just going to the grocery store to get milk and bread or whatever and then this happens. It's horrific.

Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, thanks for joining us.

In next hour, we're going to be joined by Colorado Governor Jared Polis.

Let's get more on all of this with former Aurora, Colorado Police Chief Daniel Oates, CNN Legal Analyst and former New Jersey Attorney General Anne Milgram, and Cedric Alexander, former president of the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives. Thank you all for coming on.

Anne, I'm going to start with you. What do you make of what we just heard from the Colorado Attorney General on this case?

ANNE MILGRAM, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, I think there are a couple of points that are worth making. The Colorado he said that this is going to take time and sort of cautioned against moving too quickly.

But I think it's also really important to note, Pam, that they've already done a lot. They've brought charges against the suspect, as you noted, 10 first degree murder charges. They also, as we know, recovered additional weapons, which means that they did search warrants on the suspect's house, they're clearly talking to family from public reports.

And so, I think they're moving very quickly. And now the question will be, can they go back, understand motive, understand the timeline. And you know, I will tell you, I worked closely with Michael Dougherty when I was in the Manhattan DA's office with him, he's now the Boulder County District Attorney. He is an absolutely excellent, outstanding prosecutor, smart, thoughtful, fair. And so I think that they are proceeding thoughtfully and smartly, because this is, as you said, an absolute tragedy in the community and they want to make sure they do everything right.

BROWN: The stakes are so high.

Chief Oates, we now have video from an eyewitness who walked into the store, live streaming the scene. What does this tell you about the situation first responders we're walking into?

DANIEL OATES, FORMER POLICE CHIEF, AURORA, COLORADO: Well, it's a brief video. But the one thing it tells you has -- is how vulnerable the officers were as they entered. If you think that the suspect is armed with a high powered rifle, which is a superior weaponry compared to the handguns that the officers are carrying, he knows they're coming in to get to him. And he's capable of hiding anywhere in that store.

And you saw from that brief video, the officers have what they have, the entrance to a store, no cover as you go in. It's tactical superiority on the part of the shooter. And I'm sure that officer Talley knew that when he went in, and he faced that danger, because that's what the training is. That's the oath American police officers take is to go towards violence shooters and disrupt what they're doing to innocent civilians. And it's just a terrible tragedy.

And if you think about the department, they're suffering like the rest of the Boulder community over this loss of life in this monumental tragedy. And they're also suffering personally because one of their own has been killed.

BROWN: And we know now more about the suspect, that he was armed with an AR-15 style weapon and a tactical or armored vest.

Cedric, how big of a disadvantage is that, for officers responding beyond what we just heard described?

CEDRIC ALEXANDER, FORMER PRES. NATIONAL ORGANIZATION OF BLACK LAW ENFORCEMENT EXECUTIVES: Well, anytime you go up against an AR-15, which is a long rifle automatic weapon, it can have a large capacity as high velocity, high velocity. The rounds can travel as fast as 2,000 feet per minute, it is a deadly weapon.

And going up against that type of weapon with a sidearm is almost impossible to do. But the bravery of those officers to enter into that store, when they heard gunshots, assuming that others are about to be hurt or injured or killed, those officers took the ultimate risk and one officer lost his life. But those are highly, highly powerful weapons that are out there and he was in possession of one. But like you heard Chief Oates said, officers are sworn to do and are trained to do the job. And they did the job that way. But unfortunately, it cost the lives of 10 people.

BROWN: And Anne, a big question in this investigation, of course, are the weapons. How did he acquire them? Where did he acquire them? When do you think we'll have more information about that?

MILGRAM: I think I'm hopeful that we'll know that within, you know, days or weeks. I don't think it will be that difficult to understand that. I do think it will be really critical also to understand, you know, the timing of purchases or acquisition, how many guns he had, what the machine -- what the magazine capacity was. And really just to do that timeline.

[17:15:10]

And again, I think that that can happen fairly quickly. It may not be released right away, because the officers will check and double check again in an investigation like this, and in a criminal prosecution like this. They're going to cross their T's dot their eyes, make sure that everything is just as sort of strong as it possibly can be before they move forward. But I think it can happen fairly quickly.

BROWN: And Chief Oates, as we were discussing earlier, the shooter was taken into custody alive. How will that help police determine a possible motive? What does that questioning look like?

OATES: Well, it will be very important. Ultimately, when we get to a trial, what he said and how he behaved when he was taken into custody, I fully expect that he's going to make an insanity defense, much like the shooter in Aurora. And the challenge for the prosecution is going to be able to -- going to be to prove that he understood the consequences of his actions that he knew right from wrong.

And in that circumstance, every little scintilla of information about the suspect, what he said, how he behaved in the moments after his arrest, and later on in dealing with the police, will be really, really important to the jury. Even if he invokes his right to counsel, that information will still be very helpful.

There's a real challenge here for the department, they've got to make the case. And it's a tremendous pressure on top of everything else. On these investigators, the chief and her leadership team is to do the best possible work they can on this investigation, including his digital profile, what he had said and done on media to people in his life in the days and months before this event occurred. That will be crucial to convicting him.

BROWN: And also, I'm just looking at the affidavit. Now we know that the suspect did not answer questions, though he did ask to speak to his mother. So, just going to the point you were making earlier.

Thank you all so much. We appreciate you coming on providing your expertise and analysis.

MILGRAM: Thank you.

ALEXANDER: Thank you.

OATES: Thank you.

BROWN: And up next on this Tuesday, President Biden responds to the Boulder shooting, saying that the country must act on gun control. But does he have the political capital to make it happen?

Plus, lawmakers already divided over the issue. Details of a tense Senate hearing, up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:20:23]

BROWN: In the wake of the Colorado shootings, President Biden says the country has to act on gun reforms. The President is in Ohio right now. Let's bring in CNN Chief White House Correspondent Kaitlan Collins.

So, Kaitlan, this is another trip that's supposed to be about health care on the economy, overshadowed by a mass shooting.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, last week it was Atlanta where he had to cancel a political event because of shooting there. And Pam, now, just days later, he is having to change his schedule, once again making remarks on this before leaving for Ohio. And even while on the ground there, he was being pressed on this again.

And of course, while on the ground he was talking about whether or not he has the political capital to get those gun reforms that he called for where he left Washington done and actually passed through Congress. And Pam, he looked at reporters he crossed his fingers and he said he hopes so.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

COLLINS (voice-over): After two mass shootings in less than a week, President Biden is calling for action.

BIDEN: I don't need to wait another minute, let alone an hour to take common sense steps.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's a shooter, active shooter somewhere.

COLLINS: Biden said he was "devastated" after 10 people were killed in Colorado and urge the Senate to pass legislation expanding and strengthening background checks

BIDEN: The United States Senate, I hope someone listening, should immediately pass the two House passed bills to close loopholes in the background check system.

COLLINS: Then, Biden went even further.

BIDEN: We should also ban assault weapons in the process.

COLLINS: Despite the President's calls for action, Capitol Hill is already divided on how to respond.

SEN. RICHARD BLUMENTHAL, (D-CT): Thoughts and prayers are not enough. And yet thoughts and prayers is all we have heard from my colleagues on the other side. Thoughts and prayers must lead to action.

SEN. TED CRUZ, (R-TX): Senator from Connecticut knows that is false. Every time there's a shooting. We play this ridiculous theater where this committee gets together and proposes a bunch of laws that would do nothing to stop these murders.

COLLINS: Former President Barack Obama also calling for stricter gun laws, saying it's, "time for leaders everywhere to listen to the American people when they say enough is enough, because this is a new normal we can no longer afford."

President Biden now finds himself in a similar position to the one he was in in 2012 when President Obama tapped him to lead the effort after 26 people, including 20 children were killed in Sandy Hook.

BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: That's why I've asked the vice president to lead an effort that includes members of my Cabinet and outside organizations to come up with a set of concrete proposals.

COLLINS: The concrete proposal turned into only a modest measure on expanded background checks, and never made it out of the Senate. Aides would go on to say Biden had wanted to do more, including his longtime adviser Bruce Reed, who told Politico in 2015, "Even before Newtown, the Vice President had wanted the administration to push harder on the issue." This time aides say President Biden is considering executive orders in addition to urging Congress to act as families from Atlanta to Boulder grieve.

BIDEN: Those poor folks who died left behind families and leaves a big hole in their hearts.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

COLLINS: And Pam, we should also note the Biden administration is extending that special enrollment period for the Affordable Care Act. It was supposed to go through May, now it is going to go to the middle of August. And of course, that would allow Americans to take advantage of those benefits that were granted to them through that coronavirus relief law.

[17:25:07]

BROWN: And also tonight, Kaitlan, the White House is facing pressure from two Democratic senators over cabinet diversity. What are you learning?

COLLINS: Yes. Tensions appear to be rising in the wake of that shooting. That, of course, started a national conversation last week about Asian Americans and the treatment that they faced over the last year. And it's also brought up this fact that there are no Asian Americans in President Biden's cabinet.

And the White House has responded and did so last night who concerns about that from Democratic Senators Mazie Hirono and Tammy Duckworth when they were pressing White House officials on why there was not more representation in his cabinet.

They pointed to, of course, the Vice President's heritage and the Trade Representative. But there is no one who is actually holding a major cabinet position that is of Asian American descent. And so, these senators were not happy with the White House's response. And now they are saying that they are going to vote against all non-diversity nominees coming out of the White House when they're going up for Senate confirmation until the White House makes more of a commitment to do so.

And we've asked the White House what their responses because the senators say these are concerns that they communicated directly to the West Wing, and so far they have not gotten back to us yet, Pam.

BROWN: All right, Kaitlan Collins live for us from the White House. Thanks so much, Kaitlan.

And coming up us health officials raise a red flag over data use in the AstraZeneca vaccine trial. Plus, we'll talk to the Colorado governor as his state is reeling tonight from the Boulder shooting that left 10 people dead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:30:58]

BROWN: One day after promising trial results from the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine, U.S. health officials are raising concerns that some of the data used may be outdated. Let's talk about that and more with CNN Medical Analyst Dr. Leana Wen, an emergency room physician and former Baltimore City Health Commissioner. Dr. Wen, good to see you. Let's listen to Dr. Fauci explain what happened here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, CHIEF MEDICAL ADVISER TO PRESIDENT BIDEN: When they saw that press release, they got concerned and wrote a rather harsh note to them, and with a copy to me saying that, in fact, they felt that the data that was in the press release were somewhat outdated, and might in fact be misleading a bit and wanted them to straighten it out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: So what does that mean exactly? What's going on here?

DR. LEANA WEN, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: Yes, I think there is a lot that we should be taken away from what just happened with AstraZeneca. It sounds like what happened is that the press release that they announced may have contained incomplete information that it didn't include the most recent up to date data, which we don't have. And actually this brings up the broader point of trying to do things by press release, that at the end of the day, we really need much closer scrutiny.

We need to remember, though, that AstraZeneca has not yet submitted form -- Emergency Use Authorization to the FDA. So the FDA does not have their complete data. But we really need to trust the process going forward. Because the FDA, when they received those data, they're going to be looking through every piece of the data that industry is releasing. They're going to be vetting it.

They'll be performing their own analysis, then there's going to be an independent committee that'll make its recommendation to the FDA. And so a lot of things will happen with through a regular normal process. And I think, we, the American people should take a lot of comfort in knowing that that kind of regulatory process does occur.

BROWN: But the bottom line is, this does not feel confidence in taking the vaccine for those who may have been on the fence. How concerned are you about that?

WEN: Yes, I am very concerned because there is already so much misinformation and disinformation out there. And with this amount of public scrutiny, I think every company really should be aiming for full transparency and accountability. And we really need to understand what happened here. AstraZeneca owes us an explanation.

BROWN: How much of a red flag does it raise if they didn't include the most recent information in the press release?

WEN: I think it just raises the question of why, I mean, why cherry pick your data. You know this is all going to come out. It actually looks like based on what we're hearing from the independent federal officials, it looks like the actual data are pretty good as well. It may not be as good, but it's pretty good. So, why cherry pick. It just raises all these new questions.

BROWN: I want to ask you about the long haulers, because we're learning more about coronavirus long haulers who may experience neurological symptoms for six weeks or longer. What are studies showing about these long lasting battles against this virus and how might the vaccine help? I spoke to one long hauler who told me his brain fog disappeared after taking the vaccine.

WEN: Yes, so that's the good part of it, that it's -- there is some accumulating evidence that maybe, maybe, again, we don't have the studies to prove this yet, but maybe getting the vaccine can actually reduce these long haul symptoms. So what we know about coronavirus is that, unlike other respiratory illnesses that only basically affect your respiratory system, this is a virus that seems to affect your entire body.

And there's a new study that just came out that found that people have neurological symptoms that 86 percent of people experience brain fog, and many other neurological symptoms, too. And so, I think this is yet another reminder of why this is not just like the flu. This is a very serious disease that can wreck havoc on many parts of people's bodies.

BROWN: And it just reaffirms what those long haulers have been feeling and experiencing. Dr. Leana Wen, thanks so much for joining us.

WEN: Thank you.

BROWN: Well tonight, we are following a new and bizarre claim by one of the attorneys who tried to help then President Trump pushes big lie about election fraud. Well, that attorney now says no reasonable person should have expected to believe her claims.

[17:35:13]

Let's bring in CNN's Brian Todd. This seems very strange, Brian, tell us more.

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Strange indeed, Pamela. This lawyer's name is Sidney Powell and now she and her attorneys are now trying to convince a court not to take her previous lies too seriously now that she is facing a $1.3 billion lawsuit.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TODD (voice-over): Conservative lawyer and Trump ally Sidney Powell made several outlandish, false claims about the election being stolen from the former President. She pushed lawsuit after lawsuit on the claim and made several media appearances, often targeting the election infrastructure firm Dominion voting systems.

SIDNEY POWELL, MICHAEL FLYNN'S ATTORNEY: I can hardly wait to put forth all the evidence we have collected on Dominion, starting with the fact that was created to produce altered voting results in Venezuela for Hugo Chavez.

TODD (voice-over): All of that unfounded. Dominion sued Sidney Powell for defamation, seeking more than $1.3 billion in damages. Now, Powell and her attorneys are claiming in court papers that she was merely expressing her opinion on fraud, that the public could reach their own conclusions about whether votes were changed by election machines.

And that reasonable people would not accept such statements as fact, but only as claims that await testing by the courts through the adversary process. A 180-degree legal pivot from Powell that one legal analyst believes won't fly in court.

ELIE HONIG, FORMER STATE AND FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: As she tries to make these excuses while it was political speech, while it was related to a lawsuit, you do have some leeway in those areas. But in neither of those situations, can you live freely and knowingly without consequence.

TODD (voice-over): Following President Biden's win in November, Sidney Powell, Rudy Giuliani and other Trump allies tried to overturn the results with a series of lawsuits. Dominion voting systems they kept falsely asserting in media appearances, was doing Biden's bidding to cheat. DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Dominion systems are able to switch votes with a mere push of a button.

TODD (voice-over): Even after the campaign distanced itself from her, Trump kept supporting Powell's claims, met with her at the White House, even considered naming her as a special counsel to investigate voter fraud, as he repeatedly attacked Dominion.

TRUMP: We have a company that's very suspect. Its name is Dominion. With the turn of a dial or the change of a chip, you can press a button for Trump and the vote goes to Biden.

TODD (voice-over): Out of nearly 60 cases, the Trump hail (ph) Giuliani and their teams contested, they lost or dropped all but one minor case. Still, many of those who believe the false claims Trump and Powell made on election fraud were the same people who stormed the Capitol on January 6th.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The doors are open.

TODD (voice-over): Even if Dominion wins its lawsuit against Sidney Powell, political analyst Ron Brownstein says there is serious damage that Powell's claims have already done to America's voting public.

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: This is a precarious and frightening moment for American democracy because the vast majority of the Republican electorate is saying that they believe these discredit out allegations of fraud from Trump and his allies which even the authors of those claims are now renouncing for fear of legal liability.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TODD: Ron Brownstein is also concerned about another affect that Sidney Powell's claims might have. He says the success that she and Trump have had in convincing some conservative voters that the election was stolen from them is now fueling Republican efforts in several states to restrict some voters' access to the ballot boxes. Pamela?

BROWN: CNN's Brian Todd, thanks so much.

And coming up in The Situation Room, North Korea starts making trouble for the Biden administration. Stay with us for details of that country's latest weapons test.

And we're also standing by at the top with Colorado's Governor about the mass shooting in Boulder.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:43:09]

BROWN: And just into The Situation Room, word that North Korea has conducted its first weapons test of the Biden administration. Let's go to CNN Pentagon Correspondent Oren Liebermann. So what can you tell us?

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Pamela, we've spoken with several defense officials who say that the North Koreans launch two projectiles over the weekend from Saturday into Sunday. These appear to be short range projectiles. So perhaps, cruise missiles or even large artillery, not a new or advanced intercontinental ballistic missiles.

It is the first time the North Koreans have carried out a weapons test under the Biden administration. And for that it is certainly significant as well as the timing of these actions on the part of the North Koreans, that is right after the Secretary of State and Defense Secretary wrapped up a visit to the region and shortly after a U.S.- South Korean joint military exercise.

Many officials and experts were expecting the North Koreans to take some sort of action, some sort of weapons test around this visit and early in the Biden administration because that's what they've done in the past. What was not expected was the relative silence in which this was done. No boisterous, loud statements from the North Koreans and crucially no response or no follow on statement from either the South Koreans or the Japanese. And that raises the question of what was happening here.

Why would the North Koreans carry out their first weapons test under the Biden administration without making a big deal out of it? And that is what officials are still trying to figure out at this point. What was the intent of what appeared to be these short range weapons launches over the weekend from the North Koreans.

One non-proliferation expert who spoke with CNN said this is fairly routine and small scale especially after the visit of U.S. officials of the region and the U.S. South Korean joint military exercise. On a scale of one to 10, that non-proliferation expert puts this at a 2, fairly routine, he called this, and not meant to send a loud statement or a statement meant to imply some sort of escalation with the Americans.

This is certainly a situation to keep an eye on because it is so new and because it is the first North Koreans weapons test under the Biden administration.

[17:45:05]

Crucially, how will the Biden administration respond if it chooses to, it's something that appears at this point to be fairly small scale.

BROWN: And it also is interesting that it comes up to the Biden administration, had made multiple attempts to reach out to Pyongyang through multiple channels. Oren Liebermann, thank you so much for the latest there.

Meantime, valid counting is underway in Israel following the fourth election in just two years. This one widely seen as a referendum on the country's longest serving Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. CNN's Hadas Gold has the latest from Jerusalem. So Hadas, how comfortable is Netanyahu's position after these first exit polls there?

HADAS GOLD, CNN REPORTER: Well, Pamela, I met Netanyahu's election party headquarters in Jerusalem and according to the people who are trickling in here, they feel pretty good about it because they believe that these initial exit polls show that Netanyahu does have a slim path towards being reelected with a coalition of right-wing and religious parties. Now, I should warn our viewers that these exit polls are preliminary, their initial, they are not official results, and they can change over time as they continue to tabulate and count them.

But when we look at the graphic here, you can see that the Pro- Netanyahu Bloc has 54 seats. Now that yellow segment, that's the Yamina party, and if they sit with the Pro-Netanyahu Bloc, then Netanyahu has that 61-seat majority he needs to stay in power. Now Netanyahu ran this campaign quite differently than he has previous campaigns. And the previous three campaigns, former President Donald Trump dominated, he was all over the billboards here. Netanyahu was touting their relationship.

Trump has completely disappeared from the conversation here. It has been replaced instead by, of course, the coronavirus. And Benjamin Netanyahu has been touting the rapid and successful rollout of the vaccines here that have brought a sense of normalcy almost back to life here in Israel. In fact, his campaign slogan has been back to life. And of course, as we see these results trickle in, the question will be as we see these official results, whether his political future will also be brought back to life. Pamela?

BROWN: We'll see. CNN's Hadas Gold, thanks so much.

And coming up, we'll remember the 10 people killed in that grocery store massacre in Boulder. And Colorado Governor Jared Polis will join us live to talk about the investigation and what we're learning about the suspect and more. We'll be back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:51:46]

BROWN: Tonight, all 10 victims in the Boulder grocery shooting have been identified and the suspect charged with 10 counts of first degree murder. CNN's Sunlen Serfaty remembers those who died.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The victims going about their daily lives in a grocery store, customers, employees some there to get their COVID vaccine. The 10 lives loss from all backgrounds and ages from 20 to 65 years old.

GOV. JARED POLIS (D), COLORADO: Our hearts ache for those who lost their lives.

SERFATY (voice-over): Among them, 25-year-old Rikki Olds, a manager at King Soopers store. She was raised by her grandparents. Her uncle describing her as charismatic, a strong, independent young woman, a shining light, he says, in this dark world. And 51-year-old officer Eric Talley, a husband, a father of seven, who, within minutes of the first 911 reports of an armed man inside the store, ran into danger. He was the first officer on the scene and then shot and killed.

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: On the moment the act came, Officer Talley did not hesitate in his duty, making the ultimate sacrifice in his effort to save lives. That's a definition of an American hero.

SERFATY (voice-over): Talley had been an I.T. before becoming a police officer. But at age 40, he pursued a career change, joining the Boulder police force 10 years ago.

CHIEF MARIS HEROLD, BOULDER POLICE: And he didn't have to go into policing. He had a profession before this. But he felt a higher calling. He was willing to die to protect others.

SERFATY (voice-over): His father saying it didn't surprise me he was the first one there and revealing he was learning to become a drone operator in the force because the job would be safer. Today, Talley's police car parked outside the Boulder police station becoming a memorial. And the procession of his fellow officers honoring him Monday evening. Boulder police today revealing the other eight victims.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The families of the victims have been notified.

SERFATY (voice-over): 20-year-old Denny Stong, 23-year-old Nevin Stanisic, 49-year-ol Tralona Bartkowiak, 59-year-old Suzanne Fountain, 51-year-old Teri Leiker, 61-year-old Kevin Mahoney, 62-year-old Lynn Murray and 65-year-old Jody Waters. Lives lost, families shattered.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Our hearts go out to all the victims killed during the senseless act of violence.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: CNN's Sunlen Serfaty, thank you.

And just moments ago, President Biden weighed in on the massacre in Boulder, Colorado and here's what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: Earlier today at the White House, I address the mass shooting in Boulder, Colorado. While the investigation is ongoing, and I spent time in the telephone with the Attorney General as well as the head of the FBI, the investigation is still ongoing.

My heart goes out to the families of the victims and the survivors. I want to commend the heroic actions of Officer Eric Talley, the father of seven children, who left for work yesterday morning assuming he'd be able to go home. And for the ultimate sacrifice he made for others.

(END VIDEO CLIP) [17:55:08]

BROWN: So our President Biden there.

Coming up, disturbing new details are emerging and the investigation into the Boulder grocery store shooting that left those 10 people dead. And we'll go one-on-one with Colorado Governor Jared Polis to get the latest. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. Wolf Blitzer is off today. I'm Pamela Brown in The Situation Room. And we're learning more about the shooting massacre at a grocery store in Boulder, Colorado.