here's why you should switch fo to duckduckgo on all your devie duckduckgo comes with a built-n engine like google, but it's pi and doesn't spy on your searchs and duckduckgo lets you browse like chrome, but it blocks cooi and creepy ads that follow youa from google and other companie.

and there's no catch. it's fre. we make money from ads, but they don't follow you aroud join the millions of people taking back their privacy by downloading duckduckgo on all your devices today. failure in uvalde, a scathing report blasting the response to the shooting that killed 19 children and two teachers. detailing how 77 crucial minutes past with nothing done to stop the killing. plus, looking for a new

hampshire knockout, donald trump stepping up his attacks on nikki haley, knowing that she needs a strong showing in the granite state, with the primary only days away. >> border battle in texas with migrants caught in the middle. the latest on the fight between the feds and the state, the control of the border at stake. following these major developing stories and many more coming in right here to cnn news central. >> thank you for joining us this afternoon. today the justice department released a damning report on wide scale law enforcement failures that played out during the response to the 2022 uvalde school shooting. family members of the 19 kids and two teachers who were killed that day are frustrating. they are demanding accountability for those failures. here is some of what they shared with the press earlier. >> it's hard enough waking up

every day and continuing to walk out on the streets and walk to an h tv or drive to an hiv and see a cop that you know was standing there while our babies were murdered and bleeding out. it is hard enough that. this community doesn't care and i hope that this makes you all. i also hope that this lights a fire under the district attorney's but because we know that she has not done a dam thing. we refused to accept that. understandably, demands for accountability after this critical incident review, 20 months in the making. throughout its 575 pages, it takes through failures in leadership, tactics, training, all of which contributed to the faithful 75-minute gap from the moment when police arrived on scene at robb elementary two when police finally took out the shooter. we have cnn's shimon prokupecz

on the scene in uvalde since he has been since the shooting. shimon, you and your team uncovered these critical failures well before this report arrived. the family welcomed the comprehensive nature of this report. what stands out to you in this first official account? >> well, it is just the chaos of that day and just how there was simply no leadership on any level, on any level. we know a lot of this. but to see this in the way the department of justice laid out from the moments the officers first arrived, just today how the family's have been treated by law enforcement, by city officials, it's very painful. and i think the department of justice made a point in this report to make this about the victims, about their suffering, about their need for

accountability. and because, really, if they had not done this nobody would have done this. and so it was an important moment for the families to hear this from the attorney general, the united states attorney general, the top law enforcement official stood before these families and said there was failure here today. something also he said that was very very important event and investigation, lives could have been potentially saved if law enforcement acted properly. it's very significant because we've never really heard anyone here say that before. and that brings us to a whole another level, whether or not the district attorney here is going to be able to file criminal charges against the people who failed the families here today. that is the big question. you know, it is the division in this community that is so hard to comprehend and so hard to

explain. you would think that when so many families have been suffering in this community, kids were killed, kids were injured for life both psychologically and physically. the community would get behind them. people would support them. that is not what has happened here. it's been a level of frustration for these victims. that is why you hear like a guy -- say thank you to department of justice for this because you are justifying our feelings. you are agreeing with us, finally, someone in a position of power is saying you are right, you have been mistreated. officers didn't act right. that is what this day is for many of these families. >> crossed, specifically saying he wants those who waited outside those classrooms as children and teachers, who were suffering,, to be called out by name. we should know that we're actually going to speak to brent cross one-on-one in the

next hour on cnn news central. shimon, please standby, we want to go to cnn law enforcement and intelligence analyst, john miller, also former deputy fbi director, andrew mccabe. i want to start with you because the report named some officers but it did not make any recommendations for punitive steps. the attorney general was asked whether the federal government could somehow intervene towards that process. he effectively said that the shooter is dead. there is no real move towards any kind of federal charges at this point. is there anything the doj can do? >> well, unfortunately, for, us there's very little. i think the attorney general handled that well during the press conference. so the justice department gets involved in the aftermath of mass shootings, typically when the shooter is still alive, they can pursue criminal charges against the shooter for violations of civil rights.

that sort of thing. it's obviously not the case here. you know, the attorney general also pointed out that it is doj policy to specifically name high-ranking people in the sort of after action reports, and not name lower ranking people. i think it's important to remember that reflects the purpose of the critical incident review. the purpose of the review is not to hold people accountable, it is not the responsibility of the department of justice to impose personnel violation offenses on members of other law enforcement agencies, or things like that. they are simply coming in and making an absolutely complete statement of fact for the families, for the victims to understand what happened. then also for law enforcement to learn from the disasters, the cascade of failures that took place at uvalde in an effort to make law enforcement

better across the country. that is really the purpose of the report, holding officers accountable is the responsibility of their individual law enforcement agencies and the government in texas. and let's hope the d.a.. but we have not heard much about that yet. >> john, these cascading failures that -- you had family members saying it was good to see all of this laid out in one place so they could see it. as they look for accountability they are taking up a mantle to try to make sure this does not happen at other schools. to that and, what do you think this report will do? >> i think the report is a useful document. it's useful to the families emotionally because it's the first report that doesn't come from somewhere in texas where many agencies and bodies have a stake in the outcome. this is an independent report from the department of justice, they took their time and a great deal of care to write it. i think that the police agencies, the chiefs all over the country, they are

downloading this report today and saying, are we ready for a similar situation? in big cities, we know the answer. the answer is yes. but i think in a lot of smaller towns like uvalde, police chiefs have to push themselves and say, what is in this report that our lessons that i can put to work today to make sure that they don't become that person who they are looking at because the situation was badly handled. >> john, there were nearly 300 recommendations from the doj. how hard would it be to implement some of those lessons? i imagine there would be law enforcement agencies that may hesitate to lead the doj in to try to remake some of the policies? >> you know, when you look at a 600-page report with 273 recommendations and you go through the recommendations, they are recommending stuff that we already know, which is have an active shooter protocol, active shooter training, cross agency training.

have an incident command system where there's unidentified clear incident command. and then a unified command system because you know other agencies are going to show up. you know, i was involved in building the active shooting program in the lapd. this was after mumbai and active shooters in the united states. i live drill we did was at los angeles international airport. why? because we knew the lapd which go up, the airport police would show up, the sheriff would show up. what we wanted to see is, after all the training, the contact teams, to lapd people, move towards the shooter. the next group, form another contact team. ultimately we saw them -- the nypd, we didn't have much other agencies crossing over because it's a giant police department in a big city. but we did training in live situations where we put hundreds and hundreds of cops,

then they had a card that they kept with him that said this is what you have to remember in the active shooter situation. they broadcasted it over the radio. this is -- over and over again. but when you have a town like uvalde, what you see here, boris and breonna, it's an incident that was just too big in a place that was just too small. you had the small school police department, you had the small town department, you had the sheriff. and you had the department of public safety, which is a big experienced agency. but they were not going to take over the incident unless the incident commander said i'm overwhelmed, i need to take over. so this is real problem about clarity that day. >> yes. andy, i'm curious to get your perspective on what john just went through, the fact that the guidelines put out by the department of justice are things that are already known to law enforcement and his perspective that part of it had

to do with uvalde has the -- such a hope high-profile incident. >> that is undoubtedly one of the factors that contributed to this disaster. but let's not forget, boris, the protocols, the response protocols for active shooter situations are well-known in texas. they are part of the law in texas. every law enforcement officer in texas is required to be trained on those protocols before they are certified as a law enforcement officer. the foundation was there, the follow-up and the training and the coordinated training opportunities that you have to engage in when you are a small department, you, no small departments rely on agreements with other departments in the area. we call it mutual aid agreements to come in and help when there's a bigger incident that overwhelms a tiny school

police department or a small town police department. you have got to bring those officers together, train under those circumstances, like john alluded to in the training at the l.a. airport, you have to do it on a regular basis. clearly none of that was done here. and that is just one of the many failures of leadership. those police officers on the scene that day who did not distinguish themselves, they were also hampered by an absolute total failure of leadership. no one was stepping forward to tell them where to go, what to say, what to do. and how to attack that gunman. it just went from there, the report details, failures of the medical response after the shooter was killed. the regional director of the texas department of public safety walked into the crime scene with no apparent purpose, contaminating the crime scene. it is a multi level failure that now has to be sorted

through. >> the mistakes cascaded through each other. we appreciate the perspective. >> these are live pictures that we are watching here. president biden speaking in north carolina, trying to sell his vision for the american economy. the president is hoping to win over north carolina's with a new 82 million dollar investment that will connect thousands of homes and businesses to high-speed internet. this is the president's first visit to a state other than pennsylvania this year. senior white house officials telling cnn that they think the president could flip the state for the first time in 15 years, positioning it as a top priority for democrats in 2024. we are monitoring his comments and we are going to bring you any headlines from his speech. in the meantime on the gop side of the race, nikki haley all in on new hampshire. her campaign and allies, spent roughly twice as much on advertising in the granite state as former president

trump. for the first time, it is targeting trump by name and its advertising. jeff zeleny is on the ground in manchester, new hampshire. jeff, the battle over new hampshire's airwaves really heating up. haley's directed attacks -- on major turning point for her. >> there is no question, breonna. it is striking the degree to which nikki haley is returning fire to the former president. of course he has been taking attacks at her for the last several days here, refusing -- accusing her of trying to infiltrate the new hampshire primary by bringing in moderates and independents. that is allowed here. these voters are the biggest swath of the electorate. in hollis, new hampshire, she returned fire and pointed out the distinctive differences between their candidacies. >> trump says things that americans are not stupid to just believe. the reality is, who lost the

house for us? who lost the senate? lost the white house? donald trump. donald trump. donald trump. nikki haley will win every single one of those back for us. the second he said he would get on the stage, i'm ready. he hasn't done anything. he threw a temper tantrum last night. >> you can certainly hear the intensity as this race is now five days from the new hampshire primary. this primary is really an opportunity for her to continue her momentum beyond this. it's a question of if it is going to slow the former presidents march to the nomination. she was returning fire on some specific issues, social security, the border, immigration, those are some essential issues that he is running attack ads against her own. she will be able to answer questions from new hampshire voters this evening. she appears in a town hall in henniker, new hampshire. i talked to many republicans at her event this morning, they are listening and playing close attention.

today, she is not in new hampshire, she has the campaign trail all the herself. >> jeff, thank you so much. jeff zeleny live from manchester. texas attorney general, ken paxton, defying the federal government in a standoff at the border. state law enforcement taking the extraordinary step of arresting migrants in one town. plus, cnn sitting down with u.s. attorney general, merrick garland, after the justice department releases this scathing 575 page report on the failures surrounding the deadly school shooting in the uvalde. the e cnn presididential towown, live f from new hahampshire tott at nine e eastern.

the state of texas has -- the border battle with biden administration up several notches. not only did the state defy a federal order to restore border access to u.s. officials, but texas authorities have begun arresting migrants and eagle pass. this video, armed officers handcuffing men and women, tensions began late last night at shelby port, which is at the center of this border dispute. hours before those arrest,

cnn's close-up -- witnessed military officers installing multiple layers of razor wire barriers inside the park. we want to go live to eagle pass to rosa flores. rosa, tell us more about these arrests. how many were taken into custody? what exactly are the charges? we >>, they are charged with criminal trespassing. i'm waiting on the numbers from texas dps to get a better sense of how many migrants were arrested. i want to show you around because shelby park is just behind me. i want to show you how migrants actually get into the united states while they are still razor wire deployed. this razor wire was deployed by state authorities. you can see there are either garments, jackets and shirts and sometimes blankets that are used by migrants and placed in between this razor wire and trying to protect themselves. this is how they actually get

into the united states. you can see that there are several layers of razor wire that have been deployed by the state of texas. back to those arrests, the state of texas took over shelby park last week. it's been a week since they have been deploying extra border barriers at shelby park. it was last night that they started arresting migrants. according to texas dps, they are arresting single adult males and females. they are charging them with criminal trespassing into shelby park. if a migrant family or another unaccompanied child crosses into the united states, they were handed over to border patrol. that shows you just how this relationship between the biden administration and the state of texas is so heated and in disarray. normally, if the u.s. border control had access to those areas, to enforce federal immigration law, it would be border patrol that would be apprehending those individuals and forcing federal immigration

law. but that is not happening right now. so boris, what we're waiting for is for dhs. dhs issued a cease and desist order to the state of texas saying that the state of texas needed to give u.s. border patrol access to shelby park into the area. we are waiting to hear what dhs is going to do. -- that deadline has expired. texas says it will hold down the fort here. let's see what dhs at the end of the day does. we are waiting for that. boris, fact. you >> are showdown likely headed for the supreme court. rosa flores from eagle pass, texas. thank you so much. breonna? >> we are keeping an eye on the senate. these live pictures here. borders -- key part of discussions on capitol hill. there is no room for error as congress races to avert a partial shutdown by tomorrow. the senate now voting on that stock gap bill.

let's get straight to cnn's -- who is on the hill. what is the latest here on this spending battle? >> listen, there is two different tracks. one is to keep the government open before friday at 11:59 pm. we time and again, kicking the can down the, road trying to find the federal government. that plan to keep the government open really -- is on this track at the moment. 71 votes, not officially closed -- 60 to advance the plan. that it will go over to the house, we'll get final passage, kicking the can down the road until march. this is a separate issue, which is the issue involving emergency made -- part of a negotiation over border security, new immigration policies. there are tighter restrictions on the border with mexico before they agreed to greenlight ukraine aid in israel aid. there are senators that have

been negotiating for weeks, closing in on a new immigration deal. senate leaders want to vote on that package as soon as next week, which is adding a lot of urgency to the issue. there's a new wildcard, the former president coming out on social media railing against what he considers not a perfect deal. he is throwing cold water on at the senate talks. they are reaching a compromise on this issue. they are talking to republicans in particular about the impact of the former president's comments, many of them want immigration deals saying it's going to make it harder. >> i think it's going to weigh in heavily. >> will it be harder to get behind a deal if president trump opposes it? >> i think so. i think that the increasing number of senators that have been endorsing president trump and it's not that far away now,

6 to 8 months ago would be different, it will weigh more heavily as well. >> there are some folks without question who don't want to get any solution to a problem because they think that it might help the other side. >> do you think donald trump has influence over republicans? >> yes. >> i'm encouraging president trump to oppose the contours of the senate deal such that i've seen it, as you pointed, out, there is not legislative text. but what i've seen as the contours of the deal that would constitute -- amnesty, i encourage president trump to oppose that. >> that is exactly what donald trump did on social media on wednesday night. i should caution that there is still no deal yet. there is also no legislative text. the republicans are criticizing this, they have characterized it in a way that they say they simply could not support those republicans. speaker mike johnson was throwing cold water on the senate talks as well. this will put them in a very difficult spot. the senate, castile de oro for it, what will the speaker do in

that situation as they raise concerns about doing something at the border? they could potentially do something at the border. if you hear from donald trump, he doesn't want to do something unless he believes it is perfect. they are raising questions about if anything can be done. >> manu, thank you for that report. still ahead, a cnn exclusive of attorney general, merrick garland, what he's telling us after a new doj report found police report to uvalde texas school shooting as a cascading failure.

the families of the uvalde shooting victims are demanding accountability after the justice department released a

scathing report. the law enforcement response to the -- robb elementary school. >> let's go to cnn, seven perez. he is on scene in uvalde, texas. evan, you just sat down for an exclusive interview with attorney general, merrick garland, who was unveiling this report. what did he say? >> rihanna, not a dry eye in that room as the attorney general spoke to us. the family members were here for a press conference and then we sat down with the attorney general to talk a little bit about his visit here in uvalde. and everything that he finally got to see with his own eyes. listen to him talk about this. >> you have met with the families here in uvalde last night. tell us what you heard from them. >> look, what i heard was enormous pain, as any human being would express given what happened to their children and loved ones. i don't want to talk about the details of what they said, you

are totally free to talk to them about that. we will say that i began the day by going through the school house. >> robb elementary? >> yes. rob elementary with the expert team. i will say that it is considerably different. i have read the entire report and being there, seeing how small the school rooms are, they are attached to each other. the holes in the wall left by the shooter. the places where the children tried to hide, it's just a different experience, both in terms of understanding why tactics -- but also in terms of understanding what happened. we then went to the murals that are painted of the children that died. we saw that they intentionally painted them to express the joy of life and the energy.

and if you just think about the difference between that and what happened to them, then we went with the families -- they then expressed pain, anger, and human emotion that you would expect. >> does it anger you going through that school? it's not a scroll sprawling place. to know that there were 370 police officer standing outside while these children and teachers we are trapped with the shooter for soso box. does it anchor you to put yourself in that place? >> yes. it makes me angry that this event had to happen in the first place. a shooter could come in in the military grade weapon until students and teachers. it angers me that the tactics used where the opposites of the tactics that were -- active shooter situation. that is the reason we did this report, so we can tell the

community exactly what happened. also so we can prevent this kind of thing from happening again with the point of view of a response, to make sure that we are well aware of the generally accepted tactic. >> one of the things reading this report nearly 600 pages, some of the things that stand out, 45 rounds fired by the shooter while law enforcement is present. families being told that their loved ones are alive when they were not. the false information that was coming from the press conferences, beginning with them by governor abbott and -- public safety. do you, looking at what you see in this report, do you believe that anyone who was involved in that response still belongs serving in law enforcement? >> look, the justice department does not have jurisdiction over these kinds of personnel questions. what we can do and what we've done in this report is to

identify minute by minute, sometime second by second, what was happening. the failures of the leadership of law enforcement on the scene, as well as the failures of preparation in advance and of the aftermath and the way that things went afterwards because of communications, in terms of medical assistance provided and the information thereafter. it's now up to the community, the state local officials to make the appropriate determinations. >> this is a tiny police department here that was responding. is it reasonable to think that the departments that small would have that kind of training? what have this preparation that maybe bigger city police departments wouldn't? >> after columbine every police department should have had this kind of training. for myself, and everybody else who is in law enforcement, 25

years later columbine is seared into our memories. but it is true, in all of these situations a more regional response is required. there are a lot of law enforcement agencies on the scene. you said there were more than 300 responders from different agencies. what is necessary is for them to all bring together, not for the first time when the incident occurs, so that if everybody trains together and get the equipment, the various different local agencies have -- that is a way to protect ourselves in the future. >> breonna and boris, it is clear from the attorney general today that there were lives lost unnecessarily. lives could've been saved if police acted in a better fashion that day. one of the questions is the question of accountability. his visit here has brought back the flooded memories of what

happened at robb elementary. one of the big questions is, what happens with an investigation being led by the local district attorney who says that the investigation is still ongoing? that is not something the justice department is in charge of. we wait to see if anything happens from the local investigation. breonna? >> we will see if the report has any effect on that. evan perez, thank you so much for sharing that exclusive interview with us. seen there in uvalde, texas. e. jean carroll is off the stand after it day and a half of testimony in the damages trial against donald trump. what happened in court is that she says she is fighting to bring her reputation back.

important news out of capitol hill. just into cnn, they have passed a stopgap funding bill that would keep the government open and avert a partial government shutdown that was set to kick in tomorrow night. the shutdown was one of two that were set up by a previous continuing resolution that was set up by congress. the vote ultimately was 77 to 18. this now sets up a funding extension that would have a deadline on march 1st and march 8th. of course the house is set to take up the continuing resolution later this afternoon. they are rushed to avoid bad weather that is said to hit d.c. tomorrow. capitol hill lawmakers in the house are on recess next week, they want to avoid that and get to recess early. that's why they're holding the vote right now. >> not a lot of love for this deal with house republicans. we will see the path ahead here. in the meantime, e. jean

carroll has said finished on the stand, but her defamation trial against trump is not over. a short time ago, an expert witness estimated that take between 7.2 and 12 point $1 million to repair carroll's reputation. >> last, year federal civil jury found that trump sexually abused carroll in the 1990s and defamed her in 2022 when he said he did not her, did not know her and said she was not his type. this trial now determines how much trump should pay her hint images. cnn chief legal affairs correspondent has been following the case. paula, donald trump not in court today, he's in florida attending his mother-in-law's funeral. how did things proceed today? how are they proceeding so far? >> the highlight of the day so far has been e. jean carroll wrapping up her testimony. a big focus of that was cross-examination. this is trump's attorney asking her questions. it is something that has really been significant in the course of a proceeding where you're talking about sexual abuse.

that was the core of the trial back in the spring. now they're just talking about damages. everything that she has said on the stand, no matter how difficult it has been for her, is now subject across examination by defense attorney. it is not it was a very pleasant experience for the witness. and the trump defense is largely that, well, she is arguing she is owed damages because of what happened to her career and reputation after he attacked her publicly. they are arguing that, no in, fact your career prospered. so alina have, a trump's attorney, asked her questions about how much money she was making, at the height of her career. we heard she made $400,000 in one year at her peak in the 1990s. a significant about of money. but they argued that by 2018 her career had dwindled. she is making $60,000 through her work at l magazine. and then in 2019, he points out that this is when e. jean carroll decided to publish a book and talk about her allegations against trump. they are trying to insinuate that she made these allegations to revive her career.

she also testified that she now makes $100,000 from substack. her newsletter. she also has a much larger social media following. but e. jean carroll also testified that even though she has a bigger profile, she would gladly return to the reputation that she had before he attacked her. going forward, we expect some additional witnesses. right now, hearing from a professor in its -- testified to trial in the spring about how much she should be out in damages. they also expect to hear from robbie myers, carols for more boss. the judge has not ruled if they will hear from other trump accusers. that is still an open question. they also want to note carroll's lawyers also had a chance to do redirect. they brought up a clip of trump's -- that is significant because one of the themes of the case is that they are arguing that not only did he defamed her in 2019, and again in 2023, but he continues to do so as recently as yesterday.

they played a portion of the statement, clearly the goal was to attack the judge and cherry-pick things that e. jean carroll has said to paint an unflattering portrait of her. >> paula, quickly, there's another infamous tape that the plaintiffs may play in court. >> that is. right the access hollywood tape, it was played in the trial back in the spring. that could come up again. the judge may allow it just to show the jury how trump views women, visa to be relevant in this case. we will see if they will bring it back into the case this time on damages. >> paula reid, thank you for keeping an eye on this. we appreciate. it still to come on cnn news central. a sign of just how dire the situation in ecuador has become. the assassination of a prosecutor who is investigating a high-profile attack in that country. details after a quick break.

(vo) meet fargo, the new virtual assistant from wells fargo. fargo makes banking faster, and easier. (woman) fargo, turn off my debit card! (vo) lets you pick up the tab, even if you forget your wallet... (kaz) i got this. (ben) fargo, send kaz $145 dollars with zelle®. (kaz) smooth. (vo) fargo puts important information at your fingertips. (dad) fargo, what did i spend on groceries this month? (son) hey dad, can the guys stay for dinner? (dad) no... (vo) want to see everything fargo can do? you can, with wells fargo.

just a shocking wave of violence is taking over ecuador. ecuadorian police announcing the arrest of two people in connection with the assassination of caesar suarez. a prosecutor who had been investigating the armed takeover of a local tv news station during a live broadcast. some dramatic scenes that you may have seen previously here. a state of emergency was declared by ecuador's president following the prison escape of a notorious gang leader which triggered a series of explosions, police kidnappings and murders. cnn senior national correspondent david is joining us now live from ecuador. we are just learning details about a prison search.

how is all of this connected. >> reporter: this is just coming in. the armed forces went into one of the major prison complexes right here and conducted a scheduled search. they are essentially looking for prohibited items and trying to maintain control. the reason this is significant when looking at that complex, a notorious gang leader named fito is known to have escape fred that complex. the reason i say believed to have escaped, they are not quite sure if he is still in there or if he is out of there. which makes it clear this is not under control. this is a very dysfunctional system when it comes to how the prisons are run. many of them are run by the gangs themselves that are in

there and we are talking about a capacity of 5,000 or so. but they are nearly nine to ten thousand. that is why what happened today is so significant. we are also wondering and we asked the question, is it connected to that prosecutor's assassination yesterday. as of now, they are not drawing a link between the two. but it brings you into really the understanding of what this country is going through. the president speaking to christiane amanpour earlier this week saying that this country needs the u.s.' help. and the president is asking the u.s. for resources. as far as gear for the military, intelligence to help combating the terror groups, the u.s. is spread thin with the middle east and ukraine so that will be a drain. if this doesn't happen, you are talking a destabilized ecuador. people would want to flee. where would they go? the u.s. >> thanks so much for that report from ecuador. family in uvalde demanded answers and today they are

getting them. the report on the shooting that killed 19 students and two teachers. a damning report that cites law enforcement and the names that should bear the blame, next.

- [young alec] my favorite people in shriners are the doctors and the nurses, because they help people through life. - [adult alec] wow, i was a really cute kid, (laughs) but it's true. shriners hospitals for children is awesome. the first time i went to shriners hospitals for children, i was two months old. because of their care, now i live a full, independent life. i got my driver's license, and i'm going to college. when you call right now, and give just $19 a month,