hello, everyone, i'm alisyn camerota. welcome to "cnn newsroom". >> i'm victor blackwell. for the first time since the day of the school shooting in uvalde, texas, the chief of the school district police is

commenting publicly, exclusively to cnn. he was called out as the commander responsible for the delayed response at robb elementary last tuesday. the tactical teams took more than 45 minutes to enter the classroom where a gunman had locked himself in that room with children he had just shot and students who were calling 911 pleading for help. >> so the texas department of public safety says arredondo has not responded to its request for a follow-up interview with the texas rangers who were investigating this shooting. but just last night away from public view, from any media coverage arredondo was privately sworn in and onto the uvalde city council as a councilman. >> cnn's shimon prokupecz is in uvalde with this. what did the chief tell you? >> reporter: he insists that he's cooperating, that he's calling the dps, the state investigators. they obviously say he hasn't been returning their calls, but the key question here, the key question over what his

decision-making was, what his thought process was, and when he decided as the on scene commander to not allow officers to breakthrough that door to stop the gunman he dodged, he wouldn't answer despite repeated efforts. take a listen. >> we have people in our community being buried, sir, so we're going to be respectful -- >> i just want your reaction to the -- >> we're going to -- >> -- saying that you were responsible for the decision decision how do you explain yourself to the parents? >> we're going to be respectful to the family. >> i'm giving you an opportunity to explain yourself to the parents. >> we're going to do that eventually, obviously. >> when? >> whenever this is done, let the families quit grieving and then we'll do that obviously. just so everybody -- and just so everybody -- >> you understand hows family feels. >> we've been in contact with dps every day, just so you all know. >> 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've been talking to them every day. >> what is your reaction to -- >> you all have a good day.

>> what is your reaction, sir? >> reporter: and there you see it. there is -- there has been issues here with information, as you both know. we've been getting a lot of incorrect information from officials, so it is important for us to confront these officials, to hear their side of the story, and as you can see there, he really did not want to talk about his decision-making saying that when the family quit grieving. well, quite honestly, you know, that kind of response has really concerned a lot of people here saying that no one is ever going to keep -- no one is ever going to quit grieving here. so the fact that they're waiting for that, that simply isn't going to happen. nonetheless, of course, family members, the community here still demanding answers, and we may get them at some point. on friday we're told there's a possibility that state investigators may release a report. >> shimon, something else, okay, and it's what happened last night. so chief arredondo is still the

chief of the school district police, and then last night there was all of this seeming secrecy surrounding him being sworn in to the city council. why didn't they hold that publicly? why didn't they alert the media after they told the media, no, that won't be happening? >> right. clearly they did not want us confronting him in any way, talking to him in any way, and it would seem that the city -- this was all the mayor's doing, that the mayor wanted to protect him because we had been asking the city about this, the mayor about thris, and they were givig indications that this was not going to happen. the process was to be that this was supposed to be a public event, that they were going to swear him in 6:00 p.m. local time last night with other city council members in a public area of the city hall. we were told that was not going to happen, and then last night we get word that it did happen, but they kind of did it in a slick way here in that they

brought each council member in on their own therefore not requiring them to do it publicly if they have a quorum where they're all present. what they did to avoid the media and public presence, they told them all to come in separately, and that's how they got sworn in. again, of course, this all raising so many questions here from local officials to city government, to the state investigators. >> yeah, and some local officials are wondering if that violates some public meeting laws there in the city. shimon prokupecz, thank you so much. police officials are, they call it, clarifying another key detail now saying that a teacher did close the door the killer used to get inside the school, but it didn't lock. that contradicts an earlier claim by police that the shooter entered through the door that had been left propped open. >> joining us now is cnn law enforcement analyst jonathan wackrow, a former secret service agent. great to have you here. what are your thoughts as you listen to all of this confusion?

>> every single day there's more confusion, right? there's confusion coming from multiple different sources, and we haven't reached a point where we fully know what happened inside. there's questions about the precipitating events prior to the shooter going into the building, how the shooter got into the building, and then what happened inside both from the shooter's standpoint but also from the law enforcement response. all of this confusion and the trickle of information, then walking back of that information is only revictimizing those who have been impacted. this community needs closure to start to heal, and they're not getting that. you know, what we see is the incident commander, you know, being coy saying the information will come out later, but the people need this, and this is part of the grieving process, and i'm just stunned that law enforcement is acting this way. >> he says that he'll give those answers when the families, in his words, quit grieving. that's not helping not to give these answers. >> it will never happen, as

shimon says. that day will never come. >> listen, i'm a parent, i have three small children. i'll never stop grieving if i lost one of them. these parents are never going to stop grieving. they need this closure to be able to, you know, just try to make some sense of why did they lose this child of theirs? >> how is pete airrredondo stil the chief of police? >> bonkers. i have no idea. i have no idea why, one, he was the incident commander for so long on the scene. there obviously, you know, was a complete breakdown of incident command. listen, law enforcement around the country, public safety around the country has put into place a structure to respond to multijurisdictional, multiagency responses to these types of incidents. it's the incident command structure. it's a framework that people train on. and every single aspect of that was broken down. it failed during this. that's a failure of leadership,

and i think what's going to happen with the doj as they look into this matter during their critical incident review, they're going to look at the training, the tactics and the experience of the leadership. why were there so many failures made on that day that we now know cost children their lives? >> so we heard from dps that he's not responded to this request for a follow-up interview, chief arredondo says he is speaking with dps every day. there's now an fbi investigation review. is he obligated to speak to the fbi as part of that investigation? >> it's not a criminal investigation that they're launching right now. this is a scoping by the doj in terms of their critical incident review, so it's a little bit of a gray zone there. he should be personally obligated, right? he should want to be -- >> morally obligated. >> morally obligated to come out of and give his point of view. if mistakes were made, own up to it and take the consequences

that may come. you chose this job in law enforcement for a reason. you're supposed to protect and serve a community, and you failed that community on that day with, you know, repercussions that will be felt for years by this family. >> still so many questions and the chief could answer a lot of them. jonathan wackrow, thank you. >> thank you. the uvalde superintendent put out a statement announcing that students and staff will no the be returning to robb elementary. the district is now working on plans to move them to other campuses. cnn's nick valencia is in uvalde. the community is still dealing with understandably so much trauma. how are people reacting now to more changing accounts from police about what happened? >> reporter: victor, they're sick to their stomachs. they come here to this memorial site with grief and anguish. we've seen grown men brought to tears. we've seen some of those school shooting survivors who come here not just as survivors but mourning the loss and grieving the loss of some of their best

friends. some have turned their anger and outrage towards pete arredondo, while others like the great grandfather of alexander rubio who was killed in last week's massacre, he's instead choosing to focus on healing, though he did say that three days ago if you would have asked him, he would have given anything to at the very least just cuss out arredondo. now instead he tells me that he's focusing on the healing. and an interesting point he made before we toss to his soundbite. he did say that he didn't believe that arredondo was the only one that failed. he thinks that the community at large here in uvalde failed because this shooter didn't come from somewhere else. this shooter was born and raised right here in uvalde. >> if you could say something to pete arredondo right now, what would you tell him? >> why didn't he do more? that's all. why didn't he do more? but again, why didn't the grandmother do more? why didn't the teachers do more while he was going to school? you see, i say everybody, the

community. we didn't do enough for that kid. >> reporter: we're getting these reactions from local residents, while the grief is still front and center, funerals will continue today. including the funeral for 48-year-old irma garcia who died while protecting her students. there's also the funeral of 10-year-old jose flores jr., the oldest of four siblings whose father told cnn that he held out hope that jose was just injured. when he was taken to the hospital and to a room with a chaplain he knew his child had been killed that day. the tiny caskets were prepared by soul shine industries, who customized these caskets with the things these kids cared about most. these are passions they will never be able to fulfill again. >> i mean, seeing those caskets is so touching and yet devastating, just devastating to

see them now, their hobbies on their caskets. thank you very much for that reporting. new york's governor kathy hochul announced a package of ten new bills designed to tighten gun laws across the state. lawmakers say they could close loopholes that may have contributed to that mass shooting at tops market in buffalo last month. if passed, the legislation would raise the age for buying semiautomatic rifles to 21, tighten existing red flag laws and ban civilians from buying body armor. >> the bills are expected to pass because of the state's democrat-controlled legislature and be signed into law later this month. joining us now is new york state's senate majority leader democrat andrea stewart cousins. thank you so much for being hear. what of these laws would have changed what happened, the tragedy in buffalo? >> again, thank you for having me. but, you know, i think when we look at buffalo, we look at what new york has done, we wish

everything could have changed, but what we do know is that we have red flag laws, and we're looking into why they weren't utilized, for example. people spoke to this young man who had threatened to i guess commit suicide and do a shooting, and yet he was let go. so one of the laws that we'll be pa passing tomorrow will say there's a responsibility for the police, for the district attorney, and also there will be an opportunity for health care providers to be able to apply for these extreme risk protection orders. i think people want to know that we have laws that could really prevent some of this, and people should be using them properly. i think that would be helpful. the other thing that we want to make sure is that you have to be 21 or older to get a semiautomatic rifle. i mean, there is no reason why we are just having anyone wait until their 18th birthday and

run in and get something that's a weapon of mass destruction. so we will be changing that law as well. there will be a licensing process that you cannot really enter into unless you're ci21. we're looking at social media. here's a guy, again, apparently in buffalo he was on social media. he was actually telling people that he was planning to do this mass shooting, and so we've established a department, we will be establishing through this legislation, a department in the district attorney's -- i'm sorry, in our attorney general's office that will be able to look at social media, violent extremism, hate speech, and really try and have some accountability with these social media platforms so that these things are not ignored and absolutely followed up on. so there are a number of things. we're also doing microstamping, and oh, by the way, the security guard, the retired police officer, mr. salter who shot at

the perpetrator of the tops mass shooting didn't wound him because he was wearing a vest, body armor, so what we've done now is we'll be outlawing the sale of body armor because unless you're law enforcement, military or there's some other reason, emergency services, et cetera, that you should be wearing body armor, we don't necessarily think that's important for people to just go in and buy vests. so there are a number of things that we are doing. hopefully we will lead, but i mean, even more hopefully we will stop this culture of guns and violence, and just, you know, not be in a position where we're burying our seniors. we're burying our children. we can do much, much better. >> it's a suite of ten bills, and i want to zero in on one specifically because i think a lot of people don't know that most states do not require a license to purchase one of these

semiautomatic rifles or a long gun, even states that require licensing for handguns, and that point alone, requiring a license to get one of these guns can go a long way to keep them out of the hands who do not -- or should not have them. speak to that if you would. >> that is exactly right. i mean, again, these are weapons of mass destruction. they're weapons of war. what is the need? but if you do need this, then you go through a licensing process. the licensing process will -- i mean, if necessary, it will be a cooling off period, whatever it is. but again, the permitting processing will only be applicable if you're 21 and older. so i hope that people will think twice about what it is they are doing and certainly if they're not thinking twice, we already have background checks. we've got now this permitting process that's going to have to happen, we will force them through the process to have the time to think about what exactly

they're planning to do with a weapon of mass destruction. >> new york state senator andrea stewart cousins, thank you very much for all the information. >> thank you so much. breaking news now, there's a verdict in the johnny depp amber heard defamation trial, and we expect it to be read at the top of the next hour. depp sued his ex-wife for $50 million over an op-ed that she penned in "the washington post," and she countersued for $100 million. >> cnn's jaean casarez joins us now. what does the timing mean here now that there's a verdict? >> it's interesting. this was a six-week trial. there were over 100 hours of testimony. it's a very complex case. it is born from that opinion piece that amber heard published in 2018 in "the washington post" where she says that she was a victim of domestic abuse, and the online headline is saying i survived sexual violence. well, johnny depp filed a

defamation suit because of that op-ed alleging that he was defamed, that he did not get disney's "pirate of the caribbean 6" role because of that op-ed. amber heard tried to have the case dismissed. it wasn't dismissed, so she counterclaimed saying that statements that made it to the daily mail didn't have johnny's name attached, but you, johnny depp put those statements in and you actually defamed me. so this has been a complex defamation case. the verdict will be read at 3:00. both sides are asking for money, but johnny depp's side says we don't care about the money. we care about his reputation. that's what needs to get back because these statements were false that were put in "the washington post." she is alleging that she's asking for damages of up to $100 million as well as punishment damages of $350,000. we'll see what happens, but here's the interesting part, johnny depp is not expected to be in court when the verdict is

read, and i think we have a statement because his team issued a statement moments ago that he actually is on tour in london due to previously scheduled work commitments made before the trial. mr. depp will not be physically present for today's 3:00 p.m. verdict and will be watching from the united kingdom. they don't have to be in the courtroom. we believe amber heard will be. let me give you the back story t to that, the judge told the jury initially that this case would be over by memorial day. closing arguments were friday before memorial day weekend. the case actually went longer because there were additional witnesses. the judge had to take a week off, and so whether this was scheduled or not in accordance with what the judge said, we don't know but he will be watching. >> jean casarez thank you very much for all that information. we will bring you that verdict live as soon as it happens. also a few minutes from now, president biden will meet with manufacturers to talk about the baby formula shortage as a major

airline offers to help ease that crisis. and treasury secretary janet yellen makes a candid admission about inflation. we discuss the impact to the white house messaging strategy and the economy next. bogey's on your six, limu. they need customized car insurance from liberty mutual woooooooooooooo... we are not gting you a helicopter. only pay for whayou need. ♪libey, liberty, liberty. liberty.♪

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is the white house saying when more supply will be on the shelves? >> reporter: i think the big question is when those shelves are going to start to look back to normal because so far they have still been pretty bare, when you've checked in with retailers. it's not always equivalent across the united states, but it has still been a struggle for parents across the nation to find formula for their children, especially those parents who need that specially designed formula for certain children, some of them who have even been sent to the hospital because they haven't been able to get their hands on the formula that they need. that is why you are going to see president biden sitting down with five of the top manufacturers of baby formula in the united states here in the next few minutes to discuss this shortage that his administration has been dealing with. it has become this acute crisis over the last several weeks ever since the fda shut down that plant back in february. it was a voluntary recall, but of course done at the urging of the fda. that is what has led the president and this administration to start this endeavor called operation fly formula where they are distributing formula, announcing

these new flights today to try to speed up imports into united states to try to restore those shelves. the latest is from united airlines. they're going to be bringing in formula from london over the next three weeks. the other is from australia. that's expected to go to california and pennsylvania next week, though there are still big questions of when those shelves will be back to normal. >> so the economic rollout, the pr push from the white house, inflation now at 40-year highs, new remarks from the treasury secretary may complicate their messaging. what do you know? >> reporter: yeah, this new rollout from the administration to show voters they are paying attention to these higher prices came with a pretty surprising admission yesterday from the treasury secretary janet yellen, who did say that she did not anticipate inflation being as high as it is. that is not something you've heard other administration officials say when asked if it was a mistake to refer to inflation as temporary and transitory for as long as they did, but secretary yellen, of

course, who runs the treasury department did say that last night to wolf blitzer that she didn't anticipate it. and she says that's because of shocks that happened not just because of russia's invasion of ukraine and what it has done to energy prices as we are seeing how high gas prices are today alone, but also unexpected shocks to the supply chain that disrupted food prices as well. it is a notable admission from the administration. it is one that comes as they are trying to show voters they're working to bring down prices but of course really relying on the federal reserve to do a lot of that. >> thank you. let's discuss now with mitch landrieu, senior adviser to the president and infrastructurecoordinator for the white house. good to see you again. let's start here. i'm doing well, thank you. let's start with what we heard from larry summers former treasury secretary in reaction to what we heard from janet yellen in which he says that this could be the outlook for

the future of the u.s. economy. let's listen. >> here's the unfortunate, painful fact, and it's are true of the u.s. experience, and it's true of the experience of other rich countries like us. when inflation's above 4 and unemployment's below 4, you are almost certain to have a recession within the next two years. >> he was right about inflation when white house officials were wrong. what do you think about this calculation? >> well, i'm not an economist, la larry summer ss a smart guy, but so is janet yellen and much of other economists, and they will argue about whether things are transitory or whether they last a long time. here's one thing they agree on. we are in a global economic challenge. larry said it right there. there have been some unforeseen shocks, if not the thing itself but the length and the breadth of it, the first of which was the resurgence of omicron, and the second was putin's war in the ukraine, and both of those things have really shocked the

global economic scene. one of the things that's also they all agree on is that president biden's plans have put us in a really good position to respond to what larry summers said were the very difficult challenges coming our way, the most important one of which is inflation, and of course lowering prices. so the president and his team have been working hard on this, and there's a lot of evidence that there's a lot of success in making sure that we have a really good foundation upon which to try to dig ourselves out of. >> what's the evidence of that. >> of this very difficult circumstance that omicron -- the president and his team have produced 8.3 million jobs in the first year that they have been in office, which is the largest number that has been created in the first year of any presidency. unemployment is as low as it's been in a long time. applications for unemployment insurance have been reduced by 90%. jobs are up. wages are up. debt at household level is down, and credit card debt is down. that puts us in a strong

position to recover, but it does not alleviate the pain. the president understands the pain parents have, whether it's related to baby formula or whether it's related to the prices of gas. he says this all the time that when he was a kid, if the price of gas went up, they felt it at the kitchen table like all of us do. >> i understand that, but larry summers says that's exactly the type of -- those variables are what make a recession likely coming down the road. let me ask about the president's plan moving forward, right? we read his plan that was published in "the wall street journal," in which he said essentially let the fed handle it. he's going to make sure that they're independent, which is essentially their job to slow inflation or control as much as they can inflation, and then ask the congress to pass legislation. is there anything else that this president can do unilaterally? >> well, first of all, you might recall that larry summers also agrees that the fed is independent and we knneed to le

them do their job. all the economists are going to argue about what that is. the president expects them to do what is necessary to bring inflation down. and we hope that they do sooner rather than later. the president has already enacted a massive piece of legislation called the infrastructure act, which is designed to actually help rebuild the supply chains and to fix the rails and to fix the roads and to fix the air and to fix the water. on top of that, he released product from the strategic pe tr petroleum reserve to bring down gas prices. >> that certainly didn't bring down gas prices. >> they announced that release and today gas is $4.67 a gallon. >> the president himself doesn't control the price of gas. you asked whether or not there was anything in his power that he can do. >> certainly, he does not control the price of gas, but the president said releasing from the strategic reserve would bring down the price of gas, and all we've seen since then was a

series of record highs. >> it's clearly not guilthe onl factor in bringing down gas. you asked what he could do. he did what he could do. he also is asking congress to reduce the costs on american citizens for child care, for prescription drugs, for insulin to make sure that we have credits so we can manufacture things. just today the president announced we created 545,000 manufacturing jobs. so what we're doing is moving from explosive growth to stable growth, and we have to manage it. this is not an easy ship to right, and you don't get to necessarily say how high the waves are going to be. you can say how strong you're going to be. we think we're in a good position to weather what's going to be a very difficult storm. nobody has disagreed with the fact that we're in treacherous waters right now. omicron has made everybody sick. putin's war in the ukraine has put us in a dangerous situation, and we're going to do everything we can to make sure that we stabilize this for the american people, and that's what the president and our team are doing. >> mitch landrieu, thank you.

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security assistance package for ukraine. that will include more advanced rocket systems and munitions as well as more rounds, helicopters, and tactical vehicles. >> in a "new york times" op-ed the president made clear america's goal, quote, we want to see a democratic, independent, sovereign and prosperous ukraine with the means to deter and defend itself against further aggression. cnn national security correspondent kylie atwood joins us now. you also have some new reporting about the grain supplies, as we know, russia's been blocking the ukrainian exports. >> reporter: that's right. biden administration officials are working behind the scenes to try and get temporary storage containers for these grain and for agricultural products in ukraine into the country so that when they establish these over land routes from ukraine to neighboring countries, they're able to quickly put the ukrainian grain into these bags or into these boxes and get them quickly out of the country. it will also help for this

year's crop because most of the storage facilities in ukraine are nearing capacity. so in an effort to try and salvage the grain from this year, they want to provide them with some of these temporary solutions. and of course this comes as the administration is also looking at longer term efforts that they can employ to try and essentially blunt the impact that the war in ukraine is having on this global food crisis, things like how they could incentivize american farmers to produce more grain in next year's harvest or how they could teach other countries to use fertilizer more effectively so they are less reliant on ukrainian grain and are able to grow more on their own, so these are altogether not going to create a solution to this crisis, to these millions of tons of grain that aren't getting out of the country, but the biden administration is looking to blunt the impact of this. it's yet to be determined how effective these steps are going to be. and we should note, of course,

that this comes as the biden administration announced just this week $700 million in additional security assistance to ukraine with these advanced rocket systems that they will be sending and listen to what the secretary of state said earlier today when talking about the motivation for sending this additional security assistance to the country. >> what we are working to do and the secretary general said this very eloquently, is to make sure that the ukrainians have in hand what they need to defend against this aggression, to repel it, to push it back, and as well -- and as a result to make sure that they have the strongest possible hand at any negotiating table. >> now, the secretary of state also said that the expectation is that this conflict is going to go on for months and months more because there is no signal of russia letting up anytime soon, but he also said that a diplomatic solution is the only way out here, but it is yet to

be determined when that will be an option. guys. >> all right, at the state department for us, kylie atwood, thank you. mental health, too few armed guards, some republican lawmakers are blaming everything but guns in the wake of the uvalde massacre. we'll ask a texas gop congresswoman about that next. but your stomach doesn't. that disagreement ends right now. lactaid ice cream is the creamy, real ice creamam you loe that will l never mess with your stomach. lactaid ice cream.

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today texas governor greg abbott requested that a special legislative committee convene to offer solutions in the wake of the uvalde shooting. the governor wants lawmakers to discuss, quote, school safety, mental health, social media, police training, and firearm safety, and senate minority leader mitch mcconnell just announced he will push republicans to make changes without, quote, betraying the

second amendment. with us now is republican congresswoman from texas, beth van dine. thanks so much for the time. thanks for being here. here's what the democrats in your state are proposing to keep people safe, raise the minimum age to purchase a firearm to 21. require universal background checks for all gun sales, implement red flag laws. regulate civilian ownership of those high capacity magazines, and requiring a cooling off or a waiting period for all gun sales. can you support any of those in congress? >> i think what we've seen is, you know, over and over and over again these laws haven't worked. we've got protocols in place, and what failed us here was lack of following the protocols. what we have seen is best practices that were ignored. looking at having a school resource officer at that school armed and ready to confront the assailant first thing before the shooter was ever allowed into the school, into a classroom in front of a child would have been the number one thing to have

prevented this. but in our quest to find solutions, i think what we're failing to do is actually blame the shooter and we have done that over and over again, especially in our large cities and the lack of prosecutors actually going up against and actually filing charges against violent offenders and criminals. my focus on this -- >> hold on, let me just get into one thing there because obviously there are lots of different factors that go into any school shooting but there is one common denominator and that's the gun. so is there anything that you would accept in terms of access to guns? >> yeah, i think there's more than just that one common denominator. i think you've got evil people committing crimes. you know, i would say that gun in many situations is used to save lives to prevent more damage. you know, there was a woman in san antonio recently in the last couple of weeks who was able to use a gun to be able to protect h herself from a burglar breaking into a house.

she had three children. >> i have to stop you there, in terms of school shootings it hasn't worked. there are school resource officers. there have been at very high profile school shootings. there was one in uvalde who just wasn't on campus. there was one in parkland who was on campus. there were two -- hold on. there were two in columbine. buffalo had an armed security officer. the point is congresswoman -- hold on congresswoman, let me just ask the question and then you can answer. hold on, congresswoman. the point is they can't protect every single entrance and exit. they just can't. they've tried. >> well, i think, one, if you had had one exit, which you had one entrance, multiple exits, but one entrance in that school, we don't know whether or not that would have worked. it has worked at other schools. there was not a student -- a school resource officer at that school, and that was a problem. there was not one there to confront the gunman when they came in. those protocols need to be followed. we can add red flag laws, but as was shown in buffalo, they don't work. we can have background checks, but if we have prosecutors who are unwilling to actually

prosecute criminals and put that in a database, no background check would work in this example alone, in uvalde, there was a background check that was put on. it didn't work. why? -- >> because he had just turned 18, and so everything is scrubbed from a minor's record so obviously that part is not working. there's a way to fix that. hold on, i just want to get your point on this -- hold on congresswoman. there's another common denominator, and that's teenage boys under 21 having access to ar-15 style weapons. here they are. robb elementary they were 18, buffalo supermarket, 18. oxford high school he was 15. gilroy garlic festival, 19, marjory stoneman douglas 19. column buy high, they were 17 and 18. how about raising the age of purchase to 21? >> you want me to -- do you want me to answer the question? >> please. >> i'm assuming. i will tell you that's why i've

actually introduced legislation that would not scrub an 18-year-old's record. if you have -- if you have kids who right now are being preyed upon by gang members and drug abusers, drug sellers, if you have to commit crimes or kids under the age of 17 who have committed violence crimes and been convicted my bill, hr 3290 would prevent them from being able to buy a weapon at 18. i have introduced this bill. we have not even had a chance to debate it on the floor. i could not get a single democrat to support that bill. but i agree with you, violent offenders, violent criminals need to be prevented from purchasing guns. if we actually work and talk, that's where we have our conversation, i'm ready. i'm ready. i will take to anybody in the room who's willing to have that conversation. >> and are you open to having a conversation about increasing the age?

>> are we talking about changing the age of adulthood in the united states? >> just on purchasing, just let's say from 18 to 21. just for ar-15 style, you know, semiautomatic rifles, long guns. >> people can join the military, we're talking about the age can people become police officers at what point does a woman's right to defend herself have an age limit. you know, when i was mayor of the city of irving, i had gotten desperate. i'm a single mom of two kids. and i really appreciate the ability of being able to have a weapon in my home to be able to defend myself and my children. those are conversations that we have to have. and i'm more than willing to have them. i think instead of pointing the blame at other people, we need to sit down and figure out where the problem is happening. we're seeing it in urban areas all around the country. we're seeing it where you can't get prosecutors to actually -- >> but we're also talking about school shootings here, and by the way, texas, your state has

the highest number of gun deaths in the country. so obviously something has to be done in texas, but congresswoman, we do appreciate your time. we appreciate your sharing your ideas. thank you very much for coming on. >> i appreciate your time. the verdict in the johnny depp, amber heard defamation trial will be heard in a few minutes from now. heard has entered the courtroom. johnny depp will not be there. he is working, performing with the band in the uk. we'll bring you the reading of the verdict live. like how i cud this scarf? check out this backpack i made for marco. only pay for what you need. ♪liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty.♪

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today! coming up to the top of the hour now on cnn newsroom, good to have you with us, i'm victor blackwell. >> i'm alisyn camerota. any moment now, the verdict in the johnny depp, amber heard defamation trial will be read. >> depp sued his ex-wife for $50 million. this is over an op-ed she wrote in the "washington post" four years ago. heard counter sued for $100 million. cnn's jean casarez is with us now. first, lay out what the claims are here. >> this is a defamation case and johnny depp actually brought this civil case against his ex-wife amber heard because of a 2018 "washington post" op-ed where she says that she had to speak out against sexual violence, and that two years ago before that that she became a public figure and a face of

domestic abuse. it was two years before that she had gone to court to get an ex parte restraining order against her estranged husband johnny depp and that hit the headlines everywhere. the reason in this trial you have heard testimony about their fights, arguments, alleged domestic violence, emotional abuse, psychological abuse, sexual abuse, and financial abuse is because the credibility of really both parties is at hand here. amber heard's credibility is front and center because she is the one that wrote that op-ed, and johnny depp is saying it's false what you wrote about me. you have stopped my career. and i have to do something about it because you lied in that op-ed. and now it's in the hands of the jury to determine if that's so. >> but he, johnny depp will not be in the courtroom, you have learned. >> we have learned through his spokesperson that johnny, we knew he was in london this

weekend, closing arguments were on friday, he was in the courtroom, flew to london after that, and has been performing with jeff beck, a very famous guitar player on stage in london, and we have seen some of the video of the performances. the trial was supposed to end before labor day. that is what the judge told the jury, but obviously -- >> memorial day. >> memorial day. but obviously it went longer than that. because of that, potentially, there were these commitments that are based on contracts, and he is not in the courtroom. amber heard is in the courtroom, and i even saw her sister in the courtroom, so she does have support there. >> stay with us. >> we're expecting this to be read at the top of the hour, just a couple of minutes away. until then, let's bring in cnn legal analyst, joey jackson, and former l.a. prosecutor, lonnie coomb co coombs. this is a defamation case, as much as we learned about the

terrible relationship between the two. >> on the reset about what is defamation, defamation is a false statement, could be in writing, statement generically, that is injurious to reputation, so as a practical matter, the jury has to make an assessment in terms of johnny depp first, then we'll get to amber heard whether or not that op-ed in 2018 was demafamatory. was it false and injurious to reputation. how do you prove it injured your reputation, you bring in people to discuss where you were in the industry prior to that statement to where you are now, and then you have to assess the causation element. there was a lot of testimony with respect to his falling in the industry not being attributable to any op-ed, but being attributable to lateness, being attributable to drug use, being attributable to a difficult individual. the jury has to make that nexus. the next thing to establish because they're public figures is actual malice. what does that mean. it means you publish or write

something, right, which is actually false. you have knowledge of its falsity or you publish it with respect to reckless disregard as to its truth. the jury has to make that assessment as to the claims they're addressing from johnny depp to amber heard and may have to pivot, victor, and determine whether or not amber heard in terms of her saying your lawyer said me being a domestic survivor was a hoax, was that in effect defamatory too. there's a lot for them to have gone through, and there's a number of things to evaluate with respect to reaching this unanimous seven-person verdict. >> we see the judge coming out here now. let's see. >> yes, your honor. >> let's listen in for a second. >> everybody in the gallery, this is a court of law, and regardless of verdict, i will not tolerate any