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CNN This Morning
Two Killed, Six Injured In Wisconsin School Shooting; Russian Nuclear Protection Chief Killed By Bomb In Moscow; Atmospheric River Fuels New Storm In Northwest; RFK Jr. Meets With Senators Ahead Of Confirmation Battle. Aired 5-5:30a ET
Aired December 17, 2024 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[05:00:33]
KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: It's Tuesday, December 17th.
Right now on CNN THIS MORNING:
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ADLER JEAN-CHARLES, SIXTH GRADE STUDENT: I'm scared. Why did they do that?
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HUNT: Another deadly school shooting. This time, it's a 15-year-old girl opening fire at a Christian school in Wisconsin before taking her own life.
Plus, breaking overnight, a top Russian general killed in the streets of Moscow. The new details just in to CNN claiming Ukraine may be behind it.
And --
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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: He's going to be much less radical than you would think.
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HUNT: President-elect Donald Trump trying to calm fears about RFK, Jr., his controversial pick to head the Health and Human Services Department.
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HUNT: All right, 5:00 a.m. on the East Coast, a live look at the Washington monument, White House there in the shadows in front on this. Boy, what day is today on this holiday week?
Anyway, it's Tuesday. Good morning, everyone. I'm Kasie Hunt. It's wonderful to have you with us. Just days before the start of the holiday break, tragedy strikes a
Madison, Wisconsin school and another community is left in turmoil in the wake of a mass shooting, this time at Abundant Life Christian School. Police say the shooting started Monday morning, leaving a teacher and a student dead and six others injured. The 15-year-old attacker then turned the gun on herself.
First responders were at the school within three minutes after a second grader called 911.
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CHIEF SHON BARNES, MADISON, WISCONSIN POLICE DEPARTMENT: Let that soak in for a minute. A second grade student called 911 at 10:57 a.m. to report a shooting at school.
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HUNT: The suspect has been identified as Natalie Rupnow. Police say her parents are cooperating with the investigation and are not suspected of committing a crime at this time.
The school has about 420 students from kindergarten to high school. Students as young as eight years old are telling their stories of coming face to face with gun violence at school.
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JEAN-CHARLES: We heard them, and then some people started crying, and then we just waited until the police came, and then they escorted us out to the church. I was scared, and why did they do that? Why?
NORA GOOTSCKALK, SECOND GRADE STUDENT: I just heard sobbing and there was a teacher and she was screaming like, ah, my leg! Help, help! I was -- I was really scared and I was really sad.
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HUNT: It's so heartbreaking to watch, those students have to talk about going through this.
Joining us now to talk about it is Jennifer Mascia, senior news writer at "The Trace".
Jennifer, good morning. Thank you so much -- Jessica, excuse me -- for being here this morning.
This obviously an incredibly difficult situation that we have seen unfold all too frequently here in the United States. Of course, in this case, it's a 15-year-old girl who is apparently the person who brought this gun to the school.
What do we know about why at this point? And how can this community try to grapple with this tragedy?
JENNIFER MASCIA, SENIOR NEWS WRITER, THE TRACE: There's very little we know about why at this point. Of course, investigators are going to be looking into her background. Was there any bullying? Was there any leakage? Were there any written plans that she left around to find? Was there anything on social media?
I assume investigators are going to be scouring that. When I saw that this was yet another young teenager, I was shocked. You know, we've had several shootings in recent years. Appalachia high school, just in June, that the shooter was 14 years old, Oxford High School a few years ago, the shooter was 15 years old.
Here we see yet again, another trend of young teenagers getting ahold of weapons somehow. And I'm sure investigators are going to look at where this minor got ahold of this weapon. If an adult gave this minor a weapon, we could see charges just like we did in the Appalachian high school shooting and oxford, where parents were charged. And in the case of the oxford high school shooting, actually convicted.
HUNT: Yeah. You know, I was going to ask you about that as well, because it does sound like in this case, as we've reported here, that the parents are cooperating, are trying to help investigators. How much can that does that matter in the context of potentially holding them accountable?
[05:05:05]
MASCIA: I assume that, you know, they're going to want cooperation above all else in the early stages of this investigation. Charges would probably come later. Investigators really need to piece together what happened and which adults along the way. It may not be the parents. We actually have no idea where this person got the gun, which adults along the way have allowed a child to access this gun, which we really don't know at this point.
HUNT: Jennifer, how unusual is it to have a girl be a female shooter in a situation like this?
MASCIA: Female mass shooters are quite unusual. We've only seen this about a dozen times in the last 50 years. And in terms of school shooters, though, we've seen it a couple of times in the last several years, the covenant school shooting was somebody who was assigned female at birth. And now this shooting, we also saw last year we had a church shooting in Texas, the Lakewood Church shooting, that was a female shooter. The Stem Highlands ranch shooting, that was a high school shooting five years ago. One of the perpetrators there was female.
What this is showing me is that these gun attacks, which usually used to be the province of white males of a certain age, is now diversifying. We're seeing different races, different genders, were seeing Americas gun virus really extend to other groups.
And this is -- this is troubling to me. It means that there's no corner of this country that could really be untouched by Americas gun violence epidemic.
HUNT: All right. Jennifer Mascia, for us this morning. Jennifer, very grateful to have you on the show. Thank you very much for being here.
MASCIA: Thanks for having me.
HUNT: All right. Coming up here on CNN THIS MORNING: breaking overnight, a top Russian general killed in an electric scooter bombing this morning, a source telling CNN Ukraine may have been behind the assassination.
Plus, arrested again, that stowaway who tried to get on a plane to Paris facing new charges after attempting to sneak into Canada.
And lobbying senators. RFK, Jr. on the hill, answering questions about his views on vaccines.
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SEN. RICK SCOTT (R-FL): What he wants with vaccines is which is why I believe in is transparency.
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HUNT: Breaking overnight, the leader of Russia's nuclear protection forces killed in a bombing in Moscow. Russian officials say the bomb was hidden inside an electric scooter and detonated remotely outside an apartment building. Today, the Russian general was wanted by Ukraine for using chemical weapons.
A source with knowledge of the operation telling CNN Ukraine's security service was behind the assassination.
Max Foster joins us live now from London with more on this.
Max, good morning.
A remarkable event here. Tell us more about who this general is and why the Ukrainians wanted to do this.
MAX FOSTER, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Well, what a brazen assassination on the streets of Moscow, just four miles from the Kremlin. A remote controlled bomb planted on an electric scooter. And they got their man because very quickly, we heard from sources within Ukraine that this was a revenge attack. This was a general who ran the forces that look after the nuclear weapons, the chemical weaponry, and the Ukrainians had very clearly accused him specifically of ordering the use of chemical weapons effectively on the battlefield against the Ukrainian military.
So they targeted him. They got him just four miles from the Kremlin, as I say. So, a massive breach of security for the Russians. We await to hear their response. But, you know, you could call it a triumph for the Ukrainians, but there will be a response as well to this. HUNT: Yeah, well, I was going to say, Max, I mean, this is an
intriguing time, I suppose, for Russia, considering, of course, the fall of Assad in Syria, where, of course, Russians were. They've given him asylum there and Putin making an appearance in public without even mentioning what was going on there, really, in many ways an embarrassment for them and potential security problems, since they have access to a warm water port through Syria.
Now, something like this. And to have the Ukrainians talking about it in public, it seems like Putin is under some pressure. No?
FOSTER: Certainly. I mean, Syria was, you know, Russia's only base, really reliable base within the Middle East. They've still got their military installations there.
I'm sure there's some negotiation going on between the Syrian regime as it is now, and the Russians, about protecting those assets. Whether or not they'll be able to stay. But losing, you know, under a major pressure within Syria, in the Middle East also clearly under pressure in Ukraine, they have been pretty successful, though, on the battlefield, pushing forward on those front lines.
So they've been claiming triumphs on the battle in Ukraine. But this is a major blow. A big embarrassment, which does show some vulnerability, to think that you could attack anyone in central Moscow as a Ukrainian agent is pretty extraordinary, let alone a top, a top general who was specifically targeted.
HUNT: Right. Well, and I mean, those electric scooters, they're all over cities around the world. I mean, what a -- what a, um, sort of sinister use of that, of that technology. But of course, all this, you know, coming as the Russians are scrambling to, to take territory in Ukraine ahead of President-elect Donald Trump coming into office and Zelenskyy mounting a charm offensive to try to win him over quite a complicated battlefield, I suppose you could call it.
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Max Foster for us this morning -- Max, thank you. I really appreciate it. See you soon.
All right. Ahead here on CNN THIS MORNING -- it's a bird. It's a plane. How about a drone? We still don't know where they're coming from.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We don't see any public safety risk.
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HUNT: What the federal government is doing to look into these strange sightings?
And what the defense for the accused killer could argue in court. We're going to talk to a state attorney. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[05:20:21]
HUNT: All right, 19 minutes past the hour.
Here's your morning roundup.
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JOHN KIRBY, NATIONAL SECURITY COMMUNICATION ADVISER: I can't rule out the fact that we might find some sort of illegal or criminal activity, some nefarious activity. All I can do is tell you that right now, we see none of that.
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HUNT: White House national security adviser, communications adviser John Kirby, acknowledging that the federal government is still not certain about the origin of all of those recent drone sightings. House intelligence committee members are expected to receive a classified briefing on the matter this afternoon.
A woman caught stowing away on a Delta flight from New York to Paris last month -- remember this? Yeah, she's been busted again. This time she was trying to get into Canada.
Law enforcement sources tell CNN that she cut off her ankle monitor, and then she later boarded a Greyhound bus headed for Canada. She will be turned over to U.S. marshals later today.
Wow. A powerful 7.3 earthquake hitting the island nation of Vanuatu earlier today. It's just east of Australia. The U.S. embassy among the structures heavily damaged in the quake.
Right now, one person is confirmed dead. And it's unclear how many are injured. Officials fear that people may be trapped under rubble.
All right. Time now for weather. A storm forming in the Northwest today. Apparently, it's going to bring coastal rainfall, mountain snow, lots of wind. And there's a new fire threat brewing in southern California.
Let's get straight to our meteorologist. Our weatherman, Derek Van Dam.
Derek, good morning.
DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Kasie.
So this storm system you're talking about is all related to each other.
So the mountain snow is also going to yield in the stronger winds in southern California. And that, of course, equates to the potential for some fire weather conditions going forward in the future. So let me explain. Here's the latest satellite loop. And you can see its kind of a stream of moisture into the western parts of the U.S.
So this is gathering some shape, and it's produced a lot of snow, particularly across the ski resorts. This is what the snowboarder likes to see. Look at that. Almost two feet of snow at Jackson Hole, also coming in at 15 inches.
So additional snow still to come. So, yeah. Why are we mentioning this, yeah. Some of the overpasses here could get a bit on the tricky side of travel, but its all part of the same storm system that will impact a larger part of the western U.S.
So the radar very busy, again, high elevation snow, low elevation rainfall, a few different. Few inches of rain possible from Seattle southward towards Portland, especially into the coastal regions. But let me show you what happens in the future as this system kind of departs.
We have a high pressure that will settle in across the Great Basin. So what that does is it sets up this onshore or I should say offshore flow offshore winds across southern California. That equates to Santa Ana winds.
And when that comes up and over these mountain ranges, this creates that drying effect. And also the increasing in the wind speeds. So the high wind alerts in place across the same areas that were impacted by the fires last week. So this is something well monitor here going forward today over the next couple of days. Very dry conditions continue across southern California -- Kasie.
HUNT: All right, for sure. Derek Van dam for us this morning -- Derek, thank you. Always wonderful to see you.
VAN DAM: All right. Take care.
HUNT: All right. Still ahead here on CNN THIS MORNING: RFK, Jr. making the rounds on Capitol Hill, trying to win over skeptics as he's trying to convince them to let him be the next health secretary.
Plus, Trump's mandate. The president-elect leaning on his election win is a clear message from voters. Can he deliver?
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TRUMP: America has given us an unprecedented and powerful mandate.
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[05:28:42]
HUNT: All right, 5:28 a.m. here on the East Coast. A live look -- that's the Embarcadero in San Francisco, 2:30 2:28 a.m. Pacific Time. Still quite as active as when we look at the Vegas Strip at this hour of the morning.
Good morning, everyone. I'm Kasie Hunt. Its wonderful to have you with us.
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. will be back on Capitol Hill today continuing his series of meetings with key Republican senators this week, crucial to his potential confirmation as the nation's next health secretary. The former presidential candidate working to ease concerns over his history of vaccine skepticism. But walking the halls of the Capitol yesterday, he stayed mum when he was pressed on whether or not he believes that vaccines are linked to autism. That's a claim that's been debunked.
And he briefly weighed in on his reported link to an effort to nix the polio vaccine.
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REPORTER: Should the polio vaccine be revoked?
REPORTER: -- who were worried you're going to take away their vaccine?
REPORTER: Should. the polio vaccine be revoked?
ROBERT F. KENNEDY, JR., HEALTH SECRETARY NOMINEE: I'm all for the polio vaccine.
REPORTER: Sir, do you stand by your previous comments about vaccines being linked to autism? Do you stand by those comments, sir?
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HUNT: President-elect Donald Trump, in his first post-election news conference Monday, appeared open to exploring those theories.
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REPORTER: Do you believe there's a connection between vaccines and autism? Do you believe there's a link?
TRUMP: Well, I don't -- look, right now, you have some very brilliant people looking at it.
