the pop group joined the ranks of many celebrities to appear at the white house press briefing including angelina jolie, owe l olivia rodrigo and gronk. more on these stories all day on cnn and cnn.com. download the "5 things" podcast every morning, go to cnn.com/5things. cnn's coverage continues right now. good wednesday morning to you. i'm jim sciutto. >> i'm poppy harlow. glad you're with us. critical new questions this morning about the investigation into the school shooting at robb elementary school that killed 19 children and 2 teachers. >> texas officials say uvalde school district police chief pedro arredondo is not responding to officials. you'll remember arredondo was identified as the incident commander who made the call to hold off breaching the

classroom, where all those 21 victims were killed. but in an exclusive interview with cnn this morning, chief arredondo is contradicting that. he says he is in touch with the department of public security. let's go straight to cnn producer aaron cooper, he just spoke with arredondo. aaron, what did he tell you? >> reporter: it was just that, he told me that he is in touch with the texas department of public safety every day. i asked him about the comments that they had been hoping to speak with him, to have an interview with him, and he had not been responsive, he repeated that he was in contact with them every day. he said he was focusing on the families. he was not -- did not want to talk about the investigation, did not want to talk about details of what was going on, but wanted to focus on the families. i asked him about being sworn in as city council member here in -- in his hometown in texas, last night. he told me that was a private affair, not something they

wanted public because they were concerned about the families once again. a very brief discussion, he then hopped in his vehicle and left. after speaking as you see now with some of the police officers that have been watching his home, that have been there -- as a protective measure. >> aaron, just to be clear here this is exclusive reporting just in to cnn you got because he hasn't been talking to the media at all. but can you just explain for our viewers how different it is, what the chief just told you than what dps has been saying, that people have been trying to talk to him. >> reporter: he's making the point he's in contact with dps every day. and that dps told us and said before that they are not getting the responses they're looking for from the chief. so distinction there that probably some explanation is probably due. >> did he specify what in touch -- what he means by that?

is he responding to emails but not the questions? >> reporter: he didn't go into details. he didn't say how he was in contact, he said he didn't want to take questions, it was a very brief discussion, but as you will note, he is still wearing his badge, he's still wearing his gun, so he's still obviously on the force and will be interesting to see. >> aaron cooper, thank you for that really important reporting on the ground. we appreciate it. and just i was going to say can you imagine being these families who are now hearing two completely different things, jim, about who is answering questions and who is not and this is all part of the shifting timeline that is drawing so much focus to the remarks that arredondo made when running for city council before the shooting before a candidate, at a candidate forum in april. the chief was asked about his approach to very complex issues. listen to this. >> to me, nothing is

complicated. everything has a solution. and that solution starts with communication. i always say that something can always be improved or corrected or implemented in a positive manner as long as you're within the means of the law. and guidelines and ordinances in the state. so communication is key to me. >> there is also new information this morning about the door that the shooter used to enter the school. officials now say it was not propped open, as initially reported, but closed by a teacher when she realized there was a gunman on campus. investigators are trying to determine why it failed to lock. >> it is key because this is yet another case where it seemed that the first -- first of all, the police story did not stand up. two, that it seemed there was some diversion of responsibility here. but the facts do not support that. nick valencia is near robb elementary school. nick, there is new audio of the active shooter message that was sent to uvalde parents and as a

parent, i can't imagine receiving the same, reaction would be. tell us how that fits into the timeline as we know it. >> reporter: that's right. it seems like every day, jim, and poppy, there is a new damaging detail that doesn't add up. it seems that the public here is at best being misled and at worst being flat out lied to. there is a lack of transparency. that much is clear. it is adding to the grief and frustration as this broken community tries to make sense of what happened last week. our affiliate ksat obtained new audio of a message that was sent to parents while officers were already at the school. and two children, at least two children were on the phone with 911 begging for help. >> uvalde cisd parents, there is an active shooter at robb elementary. law enforcement is on site. your cooperation is needed at this time by not visiting the

campus. >> reporter: we know that parents rushed to the scene anyway and it created a chaotic scene as they were held back by officers. we know that shooter was inside for more than an hour. and there was at least 19 officers inside the school hallway. but was, again, were given orders by the controversial figure we just talked about, pete arredondo to not breach that door, that classroom door, where the gunman was barricaded inside. jim, poppy? >> nick valencia on the ground there, thank you for that reporting. joining us now to discuss is former deputy director of the fbi andrew mccabe. where do we start? just back to the parents, can you imagine being a parent and having all of these narratives, contradicting narratives consistently? >> well, poppy, like you and jim, i am a parent and the idea that you could not trust the law enforcement officials who you rely upon to protect your children because you would be

given such a morass of conflicting information that you can't really take them at their word, so even now when they come out to try to correct a piece of misinformation, like the propping open of the door, for example, you just have to step back and shake your head and wonder, like, when are they going to change their minds about that next? and this will completely undermine the community's faith and the conclusions of this investigation about who did what when and what the lessons learned here were. just a terrible situation for the community to be in. and it is really a self-inflicted wound by law enforcement involved. >> okay, clearly accountability is key here. so and that could come in the form of civil cases, lawsuits, et cetera, which are likely. let's talk about criminal first. the parkland school resource officer was charged with child neglect under florida law as well as lying to investigators. that case is still pending. what is the legal standard that would be applied to hold a chief

to a similar legal liability, perhaps criminal liability for not going in sooner? >> it is really hard to imagine a scenario in which any of the law enforcement officers who were in charge at the scene, so, of course, chief arredondo and any others who we maybe haven't heard about yet who were in positions of decision-making, it is hard to imagine a scenario where they would be held criminally responsible. criminal responsibility also involves some level of intent. they would have to be proven to have been, like, deliberately reckless in their decision-making or, you know, a pretty high bar to meet. that's hard to imagine, civil liability is -- i would assume -- i'm not a civil lawyer, i would assume it is in the future for each one of these institutions and the leadership that folks that functioned in them because you know the job did not get done here. there is all kinds of laws that

you could point to in a claim for civil liability, failure to train, fail to execute responsibly, failure to make decisions here, all kinds of simple negligence. >> had iwhether it comes to then of command and how it is that arredondo was the incident commander here and in charge for all of those perilous minutes of inaction, it turns out there were other top officials on the scene, heads of other divisions, other law enforcement agencies, could it have been also that those other commanders agreed with his decision not to go in, not to breach the door and how does sort of the hierarchy work here when making a decision in the middle of a crisis about who leads? >> sure. so that system that we're talking about is the incident command system. it is well established, every department trains on the scene,

basicises put out by the department of homeland security. as a default rule, whoever is in charge of that jurisdiction, in this case the school property and that's how the school police officer, the chief arredondo is in charge of incident command from the beginning. but that command can very easily be shifted to a larger more capable, more sophisticated, more experienced law enforcement unit, like in this situation. the first question i have is why uvalde police didn't take command of that scene? they were the law enforcement entity on scene, with a s.w.a.t. team that had trained on active shooter response. so we have a lot to learn about this. all the other commanders who were there working around and with chief arredondo should be questioned vigorously. and the -- and we don't know if they tried to shift the incident

command to uvalde and arredondo resisted it or if they all agreed miraculously that arredondo should retain it, he as the commander of i think five other police officers, that's a really questionable decision, but these are all facts that the independent investigation conducted by the justice department will hopefully get to the bottom of, with some really penetrating interviews. >> there are some indications there wasn't total agreement. a texas legislature said on cnn this sunday that the customs border patrol team wanted to go in earlier. legal liability, andrew, there is another precedent here, the george floyd officers, because they were actually convicted for failure to render aid in the case of george floyd. could the uvalde officers, could that be a path, in terms of criminal liability, failure to render aid, that's a federal charge as i understand it. >> it is possible. but it seems a little bit more

remote under these circumstances. i know that people are probably scratching their heads at that. but here's why. the officers at -- in the george -- in response to the george floyd arrest stood there and watched derek chauvin essentially embark on an intentional act that resulted in the death of george floyd. they were witnesses to mr. floyd's suffering and stood there and did nothing. in this case, it seems likely that the officers in the hallway will be able to point to a leadership decision instructing them not to go forward, not to enter the room, so they may be shielded in the sense from that sort of criminal liability because they were simply following orders, albeit horrendously poor orders, but makes thes the situation a littt different. >> andrew mccabe, thanks so much. >> yeah, thanks. next, the treasury secretary says she was wrong for

predicting how painful inflation would be, how high it would go, how long it would last, and new polling shows the rise in prices that are having a real impact on family budgets. plus, president biden says the u.s. will provide the most advanced weapons so far to ukraine as russia's make something advances, closing in on a key ukrainian city in the east. later the supreme court weighs in on whether social media companies can block hateful content from their platform, one of the rare times that some conservative and liberal justices are on the same side. miss allen over there isn't checking lesson plans. she's getting graded on her green investments with merrill. a-plus. stilill got it. (whiststle blows) your money never stops workikig for you with merrill, a babank of america company. with angi, you can connect with and see ratings and reviews. and when you book and pay throug you're covered by our happines chk out angi.com today. angi... and done.

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say pedro arredondo is not responding to requests for another interview into their investigation into the school shooting. he was the incident commander who made the call to hold off breaching the classroom where all 21 victims were killed. >> a few minutes ago, aaron cooper said he had been in touch with the department of public safety. i understand you got in contact with him as well, what did he say, any news? >> reporter: well, jim, just to give everyone the play by play here, just happened moments ago, you had aaron cooper, our producer, out here, who was at his home, seeing him, saw him leaving his home. we went to the office where we assumed w d he was going and wee sitting in our car when he drove in. we quickly ran out and confronted him essentially as he was going in through the back door of the school district office. and we asked him about the

accusations from the director, the director of the dps who said he was the sole person who made the decision to not have officers breach that door. we also asked him questions about whether or not he's cooperating with the investigation. take a listen to what he said. we want to talk to you about your decision -- >> how is it going? nice to meet you. >> want to talk to your decision and -- >> just to let you all know -- >> i know you did. >> no, no, no. >> so you all know, just so you all know, we're not going to release anything. we have people in our community being -- we're going to be respectful. we're going to be -- >> that you were responsible for the decision -- >> right, we're going to be -- we're going to be respectful to the families. >> i understand that. you have an opportunity to explain yourself to the parents. >> we're going to do that

eventually obviously. >> when? >> when this is done, the families are done grieving, we'll do that obviously. >> do you understand how the families -- how the families -- >> just so everybody knows, we have been in contact with dps every day. >> they say you're not cooperating. >> i've been on the phone with them every day. >> they say you're not cooperating. >> just so you know we have been talking to them every day. >> what is your reaction to -- >> have a good day. >> what is your reaction, sir? >> reporter: and jim and poppy, obviously we gave him ample opportunity, several times asking him to address the accusations from the dps, about his involvement, about his decision-making, he chose to dodge those questions and as you can see, going inside his office, people came out to get him inside, we were the only ones there. we have been looking for him for days, for days we have been looking for him, we have been reaching out to him, wanting him to respond to this community, people here are very upset over

some of the decision-making and finally my producer matt friedman and i, look, we went there, we wanted to ask him questions, he's dodging the key questions in this claiming he's cooperating in this investigation. he claims he's going to address some of these questions at some point. we'll see. look, there is still a lot of questions that he needs to answer as well as law enforcement in general here. >> absolutely. he said when the families stop grieving, they're never going to stop grieving and they deserve answers. shimon, thank you to you, matt, whole team on the ground for that. next, a former treasury secretary predicting a recession could come in the next two years as inflation continues to rise. what larry summers says, new details on how americans view the president's handling of this economy. confidence in the nutritional drink you choose. try boost glucose control®. it's s clinically shown to help manage blood sugar levels and contains high quality protein to helelp manage hunger and support muscle health. try boost® today. hitting the road,

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treasury secretary janet yellen admitted tuesday she underestimated how serious a problem inflation would become. >> i think i was wrong then about the path that inflation would take. as i mentioned, there have been unanticipated and large shocks to the economy that have boosted energy and food prices and supply bottlenecks that have affected our economy badly that

i at the time didn't fully understand. >> quite an admission there, yellen and other white house officials previously painted inflation is a temporary side effect of the economy, returning to normal after the pandemic, yet months later, and i know you're feeling it like we are, inflation is running at a near four decade high at this country. >> let's go to christine romans to discuss. so, i mean, it is really interesting and important that she said that. it is also really interesting what we heard from larry summers this morning about potential for recession, 4% rate hikes. >> let's talk first about the secretary yellen. she -- it wasn't just the white house that underestimated the impact of inflation last year. it was wall street economists, it was the fed as well, the federal reserve, folks at the federal reserve, some of -- most of the forecasters in economics and almost all of the, you know, the business media too. no one really had a good sense

of how bad this would run. listen to secretary yellen in may 2021 when she said she thought maybe you would see inflation average out around 3%. listen. >> i don't anticipate that inflation is going to be a problem. but it is something that we're watching very carefully. >> and they have been watching it carefully. that is when she was having 3% target, you know, or over 8% right now. so you've seen the white house really pushing out there in the last 24 hours or so trying to show this urgency. we know this is a problem. we know that so many of the experts are behind the curve on this. the fed is the real inflation fighter here. we're not going to get in the way of the fed as it does its job and that job is raising interest rates, maybe quickly and aggressively to cool off inflation. >> so one of the correct as it turns canaries in the coal mine, larry summers said we will

see a recession in the next two years. by the way, he's not alone entirely in that, some of the investment banks are doing the same. explain how he comes to this conc conclusion. >> more people are raising their -- the risk of a recession. not everybody is 100% there yet. but larry summers is specifically zeroing in on the inflation rate, rising interest rates, and the unemployment rate. listen to what he said this morning. >> here's the unfortunate painful fact and it is true of the u.s. experience, and it is true of the experience of other rich countries like us. when inflation is above 4% and unemployment is below 4%, you are almost certain to have a recession within the next two years. >> so right now inflation is above 4%, the unemployment rate is 3.5%, a 50-year low and 17 states have a record low unemployment rate i should say. it is very, very low here.

but like any good economist, you guys, he had some caveats, he said however this could be the outlier event. or they could manage to orchestrate what we call a soft landing, so it would be a shallow and narrow recession and it wouldn't last very long and he said he doesn't foresee the kind of recession no it looks like. he said graciously, i would say, that janet yellen got it wrong this time as what the consensus got it wrong in terms of inflation and did say he's gotten it wrong a whole lot of times too. it reminds me of back in 2008, when we kept hearing even before that 2006, 2008, the subprime mortgage market is not going to hurt real estate overall and won't hurt the financial system. the consensus was wrong then too. every time, a little different, we're fighting a different kind of battle and we get some stuff wrong. >> christine romans, thank you so much. we do have new polling that

shows americans view on the economy remains deeply pessimistic. a gallup poll just out yesterday shows 14% of u.s. adults rate economic conditions as excellent or good. vast majority said -- call them only fair or poor. cnn senior data reporter harry enten joins us with more. it is remarkable. inflation is bad. unemployment fantastic. so many inputs to this. these are the worst numbers in more than ten years? >> yeah. that's the worst number in over a decade according to gallup and not just about how they feel about the economy now, it is how they feel about it going forward. do you think the economy is getting better or worse? and look here, only 20% say better. 77% say worse. that's the worst spread again in over a decade. and, you know, it is not just about views of the economy overall, it is views about how you're changing your own habits, right? how is inflation impacting americans? change grocery purchases? 63%. cut back on extras, 63%.

cut back on driving, 54%. they're seeing it bad nationally and feeling it in their pockets as well. >> last night on cnn, paul begala was saying, yes, you have like 160 days until the midterms but only 60 days politically to turn around stuff on the economy, the inflation narrative, et cetera. what does it mean when you have the most, almost 60% of people polled said the economy is the number one issue, right? so what does this mean for biden and the democrats? >> nothing good. nothing good. it is bad. if you ask what is the most important problem, what do you see? you see that inflation far and away the most urgent issue facing america, well above abortion, three times as high at 33%. and, you know, they're blaming biden. that's the key thing i take away from all this. essentially what is president biden's job performance on inflation. 28% approve. just 28%.

68% disapprove and inflation, of course, impacts the use of the economy at large. you look at the net economic approval rating that biden has currently, look at this, minus 26 points, minus 26, that's tied with jimmy carter for the worst in the last 40 plus years. it is awful. folks do not like the shape of the economy and blaming democrats. >> notable on that list is how far down immigration was, that was going to be the story of this election for republicans. now i understand why inflation is the consistent message there. harry enten, thanks so much. still ahead,l u.s. weapons sent to ukraine. this as the ukrainian president says he's losing and these are staggering losses as many as 100 soldiers, ukrainian soldiers every single day. what is this new weaponry mean for the battle? we'll have more coming up.

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oh, you brought your luggage to the airport. that's adorable. with shipgo shipping your luggage before you fly you'll never have to wait around here again. like ever. that can't be comfortable though. shipgo.com the smart, fast, easy way to travel. new this morning, the white house is announcing details of the new $700 million package of security assistance to ukraine. president biden explained much more of this in a new op-ed this morning in "the new york times" that reads in part, we move quickly to send ukraine a significant amount of weaponry and ammunition so it can fight on the battlefield and be in the strongest possible position at the negotiating table. that's i've decided that we will provide the ukrainians with more advanced rocket systems and

munitions that will enable them to more precisely strike key target oz on the battlefield in ukraine. what more does this package mean? i thought it was interesting the biden op-ed was titled what the u.s. will do and won't do when it comes to ukraine. >> so they're trying to strike this balance between providing ukraine the equipment that it needs to fend off the russians and also prevent russia from feeling provoked and like it will retaliate against the west. what the president said in that op-ed was that he is going to be sending these advanced rocket systems, which will according to senior administration officials who spoke to reporters last night be able to launch munitions about 80 kilometers or 49 miles. and that is far greater range than anything the u.s. has sent to date. that is why the russians have been very angry about the possibility that the u.s. is going to be sending this equipment. they have called it a red line, the kremlin spokesman said that it was adding fuel to the fire of the conflict, but in addition

to this -- to these rocket systems, of course, the u.s. is going to continue to send other equipment that it has been sending already including javelin anti-tank missiles, helicopters, tactical vehicles, and spare parts so that the ukrainians can actually maintain the equipment that the united states and the west is sending to them. the kremlin as i said is not reacting particularly well this morning to the biden administration's announcement, they say the u.s. is only seeking to prolong the conflict and that they're doing so purposefully. but the white house is pushing back on that and this morning the deputy national security adviser jon finer, he said that the u.s. does not negotiate its packages, its weapons packages with the kremlin and that essentially the u.s. won't be bullied out of providing ukraine with the equipment that it needs. take a listen. >> we don't negotiate our security assistance packages to ukraine while with the kremlin they have not been pleased by the amount of security assistance we have been providing to the ukrainians since far before this most recent phase, the conflict began.

but i will also say that president biden warned president putin directly and said so publicly as well, that if russia launched a new -- renewed invasion of ukraine, united states would increase the amount of security assistance we were providing including new and advanced systems. >> so importantly, poppy, biden noted in his op-ed that the united states while of course detesting vladimir putin's behavior and his role is not seeking his ouster. in the attempt to reassure the russians that the u.s. is not going to get directly engaged in this conflict by getting in conflict with russian forces. >> thank you for the reporting. jim? let's speak to the director of estonian foreign policy institute christie wright. thank you for joining us this morning. >> thank you. >> let's talk first if we can about this mlrs system, multiple launch rocket system, the u.s. limited the range of it, it could go as far as 200 miles, it goes 50 miles, far longer than systems ukraine has already.

does this kind of weapon change the balance of power on the battlefield? >> well, no doubt this is a very important news at a crucial time. and clearly additional military aid to ukraine is now what is needed and this is really the way to get us closer to peace negotiations since the only way to reach peace in ukraine is to push back russian forces and to make sure that ukraine will regain control over its territory. so the news about new more efficient rocket systems and other military assistance is really now promising to change the situation on the battlefield. >> the sad fact is russia is showing no interest in peace negotiations. stepped up its aggression, its

attacks in the east. the ukrainian president says ukrainian forces are now being killed at the alarming rate of 50 to 100 per day, some 500 injured per day. you know better than me that it is extremely difficult for any military to sustain those losses. how long can ukrainian military withstand this? and is it in danger of losing in the east now? >> well, the question of how long ukraine can sustain has to be really addressed to the ukrainians. but as far as i know, their determination to continue fighting is very strong. and they know very well this is an existential fight for ukraine's future freedom, and on the other hand we also have to ask how long russia can sustain the fighting. so from ukraine and from the western viewpoint, what we have to do now is to weaken russia

and to push back russia in order to reach a more favorable situation on the battleground for ukraine and for future peace talks. >> you recently tweeted that you, quote, don't share the view that no western leader should ever talk to putin, but the way macron of france and scholz of germany is doing it is counterproductive. under what circumstances should western leaders in ukraine speak to russia, do you share the view that russia in effect has to lose in order to make peace here? >> well, the strategic aim of the west really has to be defeat of russia and defeat in the sense that russia is forced to give up its imperialist and revisionist ambitions, not only with ukraine, but also regarding the whole european security order, the fight really is about

much bigger issues than just the territory and the future of ukraine. and what has been the problem with french and german efforts at this point to engage with russia is that it has not been clear what the purpose and aim of this discussions has been, and they have come together with signals from the european countries that they would like to see a rapid end of fighting, rapid cease-fire, putbut the problem with that is this might actually lead to prolonging the war, let's imagine if a cease-fire were established tomorrow, which is not likely to happen, but it would mean that the russian forces would stay on the territories that they have occupied by now, then they would replenish their forces and gather strength, and they would attack again at some point. reaching the rapid cease-fire

now certainly is not a way to get a quick peace. >> trkristi raik, thank you so much for joining us. >> thank you. coming up, an unusual agreement inside the nation's highest court. up next, which justices sided with big tech to temporary block restrictions on social media companies next. our hero needs s. so she starts a miro to brainstorm. “shoot it?” suggests the scientists. so they shoot it. hmm... baback to the miro board. dave says “feed it?” and dave feeds it. just then our hero has a breakthrough. "shoot it, camera, shoot a movie!" and so our humble team saves the day by working together. on miro.

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a 5-4 vote to temporarily block a texas social media law from taking effect. >> so the law originally passed last september, restricts the ability of facebook, twitter, and youtube to moderate or remove content on their platforms based on viewpoint. two said it could allow hateful content to run rampant online. now to discuss, cnn chief media correspondent, brian stelter and joan biskupic. more on this legislation known as hb-20. what exactly does it prevent social media companies from doing, and what was the political background to this? >> yeah, it's wildly vague and could rewrite the rules of the web. that's why it's so important for the courts to be examining this. this originally passed last year in texas. here's a description of the law. it applies to companies that have more than 50 million or more monthly users. in other words, facebook, twitter, google.

it makes it illegal to block, ban, remove, deplatform, demontize, deboost, restrict, deny equal access or visibility to or otherwise discriminate against expression. it would stop twitter and others if from moderating any content at all. in the buffalo supermarket attack, films himself attacking people in that store. that video was taken down by likes of twitter. but theoretically, under this law, that video might have to stay online. the most vitle would have to sty online because of the texas law. he said users are discriminated against. the idea that conservatives are being censored online is one of the animating forces of the gop, even though experts say there's very little systemic evidence that's the case. it is an incredibly popular belief among conservatives. that's why this law in texas was passed, that's why a similar law in florida was passed and now the consequences are really up

in the air. >> so johan, let's talk about this. this is not the final word from the supreme court. justice alito said this is so consequential and novel, we're going to have to take this up fully as a court at some point, but the key question here is, are social media companies like newspapers and make editorial decisions and therefore, first amendment right applies or they like common carriers of the past like telecom? >> that's right, poppy. i think that's why you saw the unusual 5-4 split with justice kagen, and reflects this is a preliminary stage at this point and such a big question. it goes right down to what kind of first amendment protection applies to these large social media companies. are they like common carriers? texas is comparing the media companies to telegraph, telephone, some cable operators

who wouldn't have the full robust first amendment protection that a newspaper or other entity that would be making editorial and content choices would be. i'm sure both sides thought this was too early to sort of even hint at where to go with this, but took certain positions, the majority clearly saying, put this on hold. we don't even want to see it tested in any way, whereas the centers who wrote and i should make clear to our viewers, justices sam alito, neil gorsuch and clarence thomas said they would want to see this take effect so they could see how it would play out and sympathetic to the texas argument that the media companies are more like common carriers, whereas alena kagen wanted to separate herself from that position there. >> the court put this on hold while it was considering, and

not put the texas abortion law on hold while considering the larger issue. is there an inconsistency there? >> that's in the eyes of the beholder, jim. look at what's happened in texas. boy, texas is the thing of so much, isn't it, and women and privacy rights have been completely rewritten in texas because that law has gone forward. this law had not even been tested yet, but yes, that's an interesting comparison and one that shows you kind of where the court is at these days, very much controlled by conservatives. >> joan, thank you so much. joan biskupic, brian stelter, appreciate it. ahead, a cnn exclusive as we ask the uvalde school district police chief about reports that he has failed to respond to texas dps request for a follow-up interview on the school shooting. eir catering with easy-order platters and lunchboxes perfect for any partrty. pool parties... tailgates... holiday parties... even retirement partrties. man, i love parties.

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when people are dying on our streets. good morning, everyone. i'm poppy harlow. >> and i'm jim sciutto. cnn has exclusive new reporting this morning regarding uvalde school district police chief pedro aradondo, the incident commander who made the call to hold off reaching the classroom where all 21 victims were killed at robb elementary school. texas officials have said he has not responded to department of public safety officials asking for a follow-up interview but speaking with cnn this morning in an exclusive interview, chief aradondo said he has been in touch with dps. we'll have much more on that and the video in just a moment. offici