this is cnn breaking news. top of the hour, i'm kate bolduan, thank you so much for sticking with us. here is what america is waking up to today, another u.s. city in mourning right now after another mass shooting, this time at a grocery store in boulder, colorado, a short time ago police and investigators held a press conference about yesterday's attack, which left ten people dead. and a lot of information came out. most importantly, what we've learned are the names that you are seeing on your screen and it

takes a bit to show you all of them. authorities released the names of all ten killed in the shooting yesterday. they range in age from 20 years old to 65 years old, all of them going about their lives, some at work, some customers, one of them, a 51-year-old police officer. eric talley, who leaves behind a wife and seven children. he was the first officer on the scene, and he was killed in the line of duty. while this investigation is really just getting under way they were still processing the scene, they last -- they removed the last victim from the scene, they said, at about 2:00 this morning. while that is still under way those who witnessed the horrific attack, they're just trying now still to make sense of what they lived through. >> what i saw was a terrified face running towards me. she was a woman, you know, shorter than myself, and the

first two shots happened. i saw her face and her running down the aisle towards me. i turned and kept up with her, and we all ran down the aisle towards the back of the store together. the employees in the back of the house didn't know what was going on so we told them that there was a shooter, and they told us where the exit was. >> when we had gotten out of the store there were people laying in the street. i tried to run for him and my son pulled me back and said that we had to get away. i just tried to focus on my son. i was mostly focused on like just making sure that he stayed as close to me as possible and that he didn't stand up too far because i just didn't want him to be too tall and become like a moving target because we couldn't tell exactly where the

shooter was. >> boulder police do have a suspect in custody. he is charged. they've released his name. he is headed to the boulder jail shortly. he's been charged with ten counts of first degree murder. this is the country's seventh mass shooting in this country in the last seven days and it comes less than a week after eight people were gunned down at the spas in the atlanta area. it was just a week ago. we were still talking about this even yesterday. as this tragedy played out. this is all something that colorado's governor, when he spoke today, he says makes it all the more tragic. >> flags have barely been raised back to full mast after the tragic shooting in atlanta that claimed eight lives. and now a tragedy here close to home at a grocery store that could be any of our neighborhood grocery stores. >> we have reporters covering all of the angles of this story, for all of us. cnn's dan simon is on the ground in colorado and cnn's stephanie elam is learning much more about

the victims. stephanie, what can you tell us about those who were killed? >> reporter: it's worth noting, kate, when you take a look at the time this happened. a tragedy happened around 2:30 in the afternoon. people just trying to duck into the grocery store, get a few things to go on with their life. as we're looking at the end of this pandemic. maybe they've made it through it. maybe they've been sick and now they've lost their lives in this moment. you look at the names of those ten people, and see that they range in age from 20 years old to 65 years old, all gunned down senselessly in a grocery store, and you listen to governor jared polis talk a little bit about just what this means for these people, for this community. in fact, take a listen to what else he had to say. >> people of all ages. and people who started their day with a cup of coffee and reading the morning paper, or perhaps getting their kids ready. and putting on a winter coat to

go out. maybe they were making last-minute spring break plans. but none of them expected that this would be their last day here on the planet. >> and obviously devastating for these families that found out overnight about their loved ones. one of the people that we are now getting more information on is ricky olds. she was 25 years old from lafayette, colorado. her uncle says that she lived alone, and that she was a strong independent young woman. she was a manager at this king sooper grocery store, as a matter of fact, he called her energetic and charismatic, a shining light in this dark world. you see that picture of him there with her. and then also we've been speaking about officer eric talley. he's the one who was the first to show up on scene and respond right after the 911 calls started to come in, a 51-year-old father of seven, who according to the police chief

really didn't need to become a police officer. didn't become a police officer until 2010 when he was 40 years old but she said that he had a profession but this was a calling. listen more to what boulder police chief maris herold had to say about him. >> and he's everything that policing deserves and needs. he cared about this community. he carried about boulder police department. he carrieded about his family ae was willing to die. to protect others. >> you can hear the emotion. in her voice there. i think it's also noteworthy that many of these first responders, they also live in this community. you heard governor polis talk about the fact that he used to shop in that very store. you heard the police chief said that that's her local grocery store, she lives a few blocks away. this is hitting them very close to home to look at this, in this college town, in this beautiful town of boulder, colorado, just gorgeous, and now all of this

shattered by what has happened and all these people who have lost so much in just a few moments of a senseless act with a gun. >> just a few moments. stephanie, thank you. so, dan, about those -- about the few moments. we've learned much more about what they believe happened yesterday, how it played out but also what are you hearing about the investigation now? >> reporter: well, hi, kate. first of all, the focus, of course, should remain on these victims and i promise you will hear their names a lot over the next several days as the community and the country mourn their loss but here at the scene i can tell you that the mobile police crime lab is still in front of the grocery store as investigators continue to process the scene. they indicated that it could take several days to gather all the evidence and that the investigation as a whole could last an entire year. in the meantime we did learn the name of the suspect. he's been identified as 21-year-old ahmad al aliwi

alissa charged with ten counts of murder. he has spent most of his life in the united states. they did not indicate where he may have lived prior. he is currently in the hospital after there was an exchange of gunfire with police when they went into the grocery store. you saw those images where the suspect who was bloodied was escorted out of the grocery store, put on a stretcher and then taken to the hospital. he is in stable condition and we are told will be brought to the jail soon and authorities expect to release some of the legal documents this afternoon. he did talk to investigators. they did get some information from him but at this point they're not releasing what he said. kate. >> long road ahead on that. dan, thank you very much. stephanie, thank you very much. joining me right now is cedric alexander, former president of the national organization of black law enforcement executives. good to see you again. reaction from everything we've learned in the last hour, which was a lot from this press

conference, about the victims, about the shooter, about this investigation now. >> well, we're all learning what we hear much too often here is the tragedy. we're hearing the names. we're beginning to see faces to go with those names of those victims who lost their lives. the bigger question becomes for us as a nation what we're going to do about this. or is this just going to be a news story over the next two or three days and we're off to something else. this is a continuous ongoing problem for us in this nation. we're going to have to have some real conversations around gun control. and understanding all of us understanding, regardless of what side of the aisle you may sit on, it's very convoluted and complicated, a very emotionally driven subject but we continually, continually see these types of deaths that really just do not make sense in

a country such as ours. so that's the real work that's going to be -- have to be done and we can -- all of our hearts go out to those who lost their lives but we say that tragedy after tragedy after tragedy. we're in the middle of a pandemic. we're going to come out of this, we're coming out of it slowly, gradually. we're going to defeat this and we've got to defeat really the next big launch of the one that's been hanging around for a long time and that's how we're going to be able to identify those that can do harm to others, without -- without violating the rights of those who subscribe to our second amendment. >> you speak so eloquently about this. and sadly we have had this conversation before. i'm sitting here thinking about the last time that we had this conversation. i'm sitting here thinking of the picture of that victim rikki olds saying she looks similar to another victim of another shooting we've covered in the past and i'm sure on tv together

cedric it is startling and striking and saddening to think about it. just when you think about the impact that this has on one community, the chief of the colorado university boulder police chief she is, you know, i feel numb. i live three blocks from here. i just had officer eric talley in my office two weeks ago to give his son an award for being clearly an amazing human being for saving his little brother who was choking. as a former chief i just wonder, kind of what you think in these moments because you know what that tperson is standing up thee to the microphone to say. >> it's tough for her, when you're a chief you're responsible for the community you serve but you're also responsible for the men and women that serve under you. you get to know people personally, intimately sometimes people who work under your command. you know their work ethic and dedication to duty. you know their courageousness

even before today, or yesterday i should say. so for all of us who have been chiefs, we have lost people, somewhere along the line. i know i have, having chief twice in this country, lost officers from suicide, from on duty deaths, which oftentimes, and is very tragic and painful. when we have to meet with those families, when a police officer is crying because men and women they work with, they see laying there in pain or suffering or have lost their lives. i know the empathy. i have great empathy for this chief and what she's going through and what the entire department is going through. they have been traumatized, horribly so, in a tragic act that should not have happened but it did. and you have one officer who runs to the aid, who gets there to try to save lives. so courageous. we can't bring none of these

people back but what we can do to honor them is to begin to have some real conversations around what it is that we're going to do different so that we don't have to continually and so frequently and so painfully continue to go through what we go through in this nation. around those who get their hands on guns and do harm to others. this has to stop. >> and are left as a nation asking why, why, why and why again. cedric, thank you so much for coming in. >> thank you for having me. coming up next for us, we're going to speak to a local reporter in colorado who says this is at least the fifth mass shooting he has covered in the state since he's been reporting. his reporting on the police radio calls that came in as the events unfolded. that's next. plus, while all of this is developing in colorado a fiery debate is already starting again in washington. live to capitol hill next.

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today, less than 24 hours after boulder's mass shooting lawmakers are debating gun legislation on capitol hill, the debate quickly becoming heated. cnn's lauren fox is joining me now from capitol hill. lauren, this hearing, as i understand it, was scheduled before yesterday's tragedy. what are you hearing? what's been happening here? >> well, what you have seen over the last several hours, kate, is really this debate unfolding in a way that's very familiar to anyone who has watched the gun debate on capitol hill. you have both sides really digging in over the question of whether or not it's appropriate to expand not only background checks but other measures that could protect americans from these kinds of mass shootings. early on in this hearing you already had some of these fireworks between republicans and democrats play out. here's a moment i want to lay out for you. >> thoughts and prayers are not enough.

and yet thoughts and prayers is all we have heard from my colleagues on the other side. >> we play this ridiculous theater. where this committee gets together and proposes a bunch of laws that would do nothing to stop these murders. >> and kate, you know, one thing that really stood out to me in today's hearing that is a little different than what we saw in the aftermath of the sandy hook elementary school shooting and then the subsequent gun debate is the scope of what we're talking about up here on capitol hill, what this debate has not been today is really a discussion much about an assault weapons ban or limiting the number of magazines in a gun. i think what you have seen today is really a much more focused debate on background checks, what you could do around the edges to make sure that when someone goes to buy a gun there are the restrictions put in place that a dangerous person can't actually buy that weapon and, you know, you're seeing some pushback from republicans up here on capitol hill, that they don't want to have this

discussion. even after what we saw yesterday unfolding in colorado, they're arguing that this is what democrats always do. they always want to have a debate about gun reform. democrats are arguing this is what republicans always do. they always want to offer thoughts and prayers, what they don't want to do is talk about background checks as a real legislative change to move things forward. kate? >> thanks so much, lauren, really appreciate it. let's head back to colorado right now. i want to take -- i want you to take a look at the front page of one of the newspapers in colorado, the colorado sun. had this headline, and this article, as you can see right there, he's -- he just shot at us twice. in this article political reporter jesse paul describes the unique way his newsroom was able to stay on top of the news, getting the details as they were unfolding, and sadly piecing together exactly how this played out and the response from the police officers to this tragedy. jesse paul is joining me right now. appreciate your time. talk to me about how the

afternoon unfolded as you and your team were covering this. >> this has really become almost something we know how to do very well. you see a tweet come across from a local police agency and you start sending resources to the scene, listen to the police scanner and, you know, these things we get false alarms all the time but you can tell quickly this is something real and serious. >> yeah. unfortunately you become good at this. which is so sad. you and your team were able to reconstruct kind of the police response as you were able to go through archive scanner traffic. i have hadst i was reading this in your article today. what did you find, walk us through that. >> it's almost typical, right, for all of these mass shooting events but police officers raced to the scene, it was almost normal, people were calm, and then, you know, kind of chaos breaks out when they start seeing, you know, bodies lying in the parking lot, and inside the store, and then the gunman shooting at them and then the

s.w.a.t. team comes and then the medical helicopters. and it provided a really chilling kind of realtime view of what people were facing as they responded to the shooting. >> yeah. we're learning a little bit more. we learned the names of all of the victims just, i guess now, about an hour ago, hour plus ago, all ten victims. what more are you learning about officer talley? >> officer talley, you know, was a guy who by all accounts didn't have to go into law enforcement, who joined the boulder police department in 2010, had seven kids, and, you know, really tragically it sounded like he was trying to get out of the front line job and was maybe trying to become a drone operator. his father has told, i think, cnn and multiple news outlets he was really aware something like this could happen and didn't want to do that to his family. the fact he was one of the first officers on scene and the

officer died is just heartbreaking. boulder is not a community that is used to this kind of violence, rarely is there, you know, a shooting in boulder. this is only the sixth police officer in boulder's history to be killed in the line of duty and i think it's been 30 yiers since the last one died in the line of duty. >> wow. you wrote on twitter something that i want to read for everybody last night. you wrote, i've been a reporter in colorado for 11 years, including four in college, and this is at least the fifth shooting that you have covered where more than four people have been shot. you know, as a -- as reporters and journalists you have to cover it and you take yourself out of it but this also happens kind of in your community, how do you reflect on that? >> yeah, and i actually realized there was another shooting i hadn't counted that i've also covered with more than four people that have been shot. and so it's -- it's impossible. i mean, it's -- you know, the planned parenthood shooting in 2015 happened a mile from where i went to college.

and i wondered if there were students in there that had died. and this morning i woke up and just started crying. you know, it's really hard to watch this happen to your community. and you get numb to it in the moment but then as it unfolds it really kind of hits you about what's happening. >> the adrenaline keeps you going, and then the reality sets in when you have a moment to take -- to breathe, which is the hardest part. please continue doing your fantastic reporting and serving your community. thanks for coming on, jesse. >> thanks for having me. >> all right, we have to transition because we have this just in, former president barack obama release add statement on this mass shooting in boulder, colorado, just coming in, let me get to cnn's kaitlan collins at the white house with more on this. kaitlan, just starting to look at it. it's a lengthy statement coming

from the former president. >> this is coming out before the president has even spoken on this. he is expected to do so before he leaves the white house for ohio at 1:00 p.m. but he hasn't spoken on it yet. he's been briefed on it and we've heard that from senior aides but we are hearing from the former president barack obama putting out this lengthy statement on the shooting that happened in colorado last night. i'm not going to read it all to you but i'm going to go to the end. this is part where he's really talking about what we've had as this national conversation in the last 24 hours since this has happened and barack obama said in the statement that a once in a century pandemic cannot be the only thing that slows mass shootings in this country. we shouldn't have to choose between one type of tragedy and another. it's time for leaders everywhere to listen to the american people when they say enough is enough, because this is a normal we can no longer afford. he also says it's long past time for those empowered to fight this epidemic of gun violence to do so. so that will be interesting to see how that shapes the response that we get from the white house

any moment now. of course, every president unfortunately in modern history has had to deal with these mass shootings for the last several decades. of course, and president obama, when he was in office, was no stranger to it as well and in 2012, remember, he actually tasked then vice president biden with coming up with those gun measure proposals in the wake of the sandy hook shooting. the question of how the white house will respond here, what president biden will say any moment remains to be seen. a lot of the focus today is on those victims given we just got their names from the authorities. but it is notable that we are already hearing from former president obama on what he believes the aftermath of this shooting should look like, at least here in washington. >> as you read this statement, you can read his sorrow. but also his anger as you're just noting because he knows that one of the things that angered him most as he left office was the fact that there was a failure to get any kind of legislation through after the tragedy of sandy hook. if babies -- if babies being

slaughtered, young children being slaughtered wasn't going to shake america awake to get something done then what are we as a country? one line that sticks out to me, is when he writes we should be able to live our lives without wondering if the next trip outside our home could be our last. we should, but in america we can't. that's what we're hearing from president obama, and soon as kaitlan points out we'll hear from president biden. tragedy striking america once again, this statement is very strong. kaitlan, thank you very much for coming on and bringing that to us. much more ahead, colorado state lawmaker as her state mourns yet another deadly shooting. much more, a lot coming in, stay with us. for as little as $25 a . but when you bring a friend, you get a month for $5. so i'm bringing everyone within 12 degrees of me. bam, 12 months of $5 wireless. visible. wireless that gets better with friends. today let's paint with behr ultra scuff defense... so that you can live that scuff-free life.

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any moment now we are standing by to hear from president joe biden, we already hearing his first remarks to the nation in the aftermath. bringing you the president's remarks as soon as they begin. while we await the president, joining me now is colorado state representative edie hughton. thank you for being here. as we await president biden, i'm curious how you're doing and what you would like to hear from the president but also what you are hearing from your community.

>> thank you, kate, for this opportunity. you know, it's hard to put into words how traumatic the shootings were yesterday to boulder. we're talking ten people who all live in the community. the impact on their families, that ripple effect. boulder is a small community. we're very tight knit. in fact, we actually characterize our spirit, the spirit of our community by our togetherness and our cooperation. it's just in this moment, in the time i would just ask any viewer who knows anyone in boulder to reach out to them because when you're mourning and you feel this deep shock and pain and grief, it just means so much to

hear from others. so i know that we are very resilient. the last time we had something tragic like this was our flood in 2013. it absolutely devastated our community and we came together quite quickly. and rebounded from that. this is a different tragedy. we average less than one murder a year. and so now just this year, just this event, are more murders than the last nine years. it's a community that has a major university, 33,000 students. it's young, it's vibrant. we take great pride in our actions towards social justice. and climate change. we're very unified as a

community. and so when something like this happens, we take it quite personally. but are also quite committed to redoubling our efforts for meaningful gun legislation. and i think perhaps some of the viewers know that boulder had a ban on assault weapons. and that enforcement of that ban was just recently overturned by a local judge, saying that it -- we weren't able to do that because it violated our state constitution. this has to be done at a state level. really, the action that we need has to come from washington. we can't not have just piecemeal laws around the country that change from border to border. so i know this is a challenge in d.c., but it's the time for

thoughts and prayers and moments of silence have passed because it's not helping the victims or their families. >> well, and we -- we expect to hear something similar to what you're laying out right here from president biden when he is soon to be speaking. we're actually standing by right now to hear from president biden, the first time he will be speaking to the nation in the aftermath of this tragic, tragic shooting in your community. edie hooton, thank you for coming in. still ahead, all too familiar, another mass shooting, another round of calls for gun reform. coming up next, we've got much more coming up next. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ if you're 55 and up, ♪ ♪ t- mobile has plans built just for you. ♪ ♪ switch today and get 2 lines of unlimited

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tonight...i'll be eating loaded tots for march madness. ( doorbell ) thanks boo. ( piano glissando ) i think you better double them tots. no, this me was last year. i didn't get my madness last year, so we're doing double the madness this year. we are standing by to hear from president biden, expected to speak very shortly anytime now really about the shooting massacre in boulder, colorado at the very same time the

investigation is continuing into the shooting and we are learning more about the suspect. the senior law enforcement source is telling cnn now that a search of the boulder shooting suspect's home turned up other weapons. the source also describing the weapon used in the shooting as an ar-15 style gun that had been modified with an arm brace. this latest shooting is, in the long list of shootings that we can all list out by name now, is also increasing pressure not only on the biden administration, but also on congress, renewing calls for gun reform, for gun safety measures from the administration officials to lawmakers. >> victims and the survivors of these tragedies are always going to have my thoughts, they're always going to have my prayers. but my job is to make laws. they deserve my action. >> the regular sentiment of hearts and prayers are not enough. we need action on this in the country. this president has a track

record of fighting against the nra and beating them and we need to make sure that we have gun regulations in this country to ensure safety. >> the majority of americans support common sense gun violence prevention legislation. the inaction that's occurred is costing people their lives. >> monday's shooting, that left ten people dead in boulder, and there -- but just look at this. they released their names today, but this shooting now joins the -- is the seventh mass shooting in this country in the past seven days. increasing pressure on biden to act on gun reform. joining me now for what this means. what is the political pressure and what does it look like on capitol hill now? cnn's abby philip and manu raju. manu, starting with you, what does pressure on congress to move towards gun safety measures, what does that look like right now? >> reporter: well, it's not changing the math in the senate,

which is not enough support to advance legislation that would expand background checks, universal background checks that democrats have been pushing for years, and that senate majority leader chuck schumer reiterated today that he plans to bring to the senate floor in a matter of weeks. the house has already passed two bills to expand background checks with commercial sales and private sales and also another bill as well in dealing with the so-called charleston loophole in dealing with how certain firearms purchasers can evade background checks. holding federal licenses. those proposals, though, do not have the requisite support to advance in the senate. you need 60 votes to advance in legislation. talking to a range of republicans today it's very clear that despite the seventh shooting mass shooting in the united states, in as many days, there is not the political will among the republicans to do that. they argue that the bills don't

do enough, they say the bills don't address the problem. they say that it would chip away at second amendment rights. that's what cynthia lumes, a wisconsin republican, told me earlier today, she said every time there's an incident like this, the people who don't want to protect the second amendment use it as an excuse to further -- i know longer believe the goal of people who want to erode our rights little by little is to effect or tweak our rights. i now believe their ultimate goal is to abolish our rights. that is what a lot of republicans are saying. now, the question of will there be enough who could break ranks, cut a deal. there's some discussion by one of the sponsors of a narrow background checks bill, pat toomey of pennsylvania who teamed up in 2013 with a democrat, joe manchin, a bill narrower than the house passed bills and expand background checks on commercial sales. i talked to toomey moments ago, telling me he's going to have discussions to see the reprise

that bill would make modifications to win more support but even that would either be incremental, not go far enough in the eyes of many democrats or question whether or not republicans would break rank. skepticism anything could get done despite what we're seeing across the country, kate. >> and abby, as we wait to hear joe biden now, from joe biden now, what is the -- i mean, manu lays out the challenge, but what is the pressure and the challenge that he is really facing here, he has a unique perspective in history with trying to stick a deal when it comes to gun reform. >> right. i mean, joe biden is an example of actually, frankly, how far we've come as a country on the issue of guns that the idea that we could have a so-called assault weapons ban in this country like joe biden was able to sort of be a part of that negotiation decades ago seems

really unlikely now. you have lawmakers in washington now pushing back hard against the idea of universal background checks. background checks for anyone who wants to purchase a weapon in this country which would seem like a common sense idea that shouldn't prevent anyone who is, you know, a law-abiding citizen from acquiring a weapon. but that is where we are right now, and joe biden, i think, is going to suggest that there's still a possibility of bipartisanship on this issue, but in some ways the increasing, you know, horror of these mass shootings seems to actually only have hardened the republican side against gun safety measures we've had sandy hook. we've had, you know -- the shooting at a high school in florida. we have this incident now, and many, many, many others. and none of them have moved the ball, and that seems to indicate that republicans are much farther away from compromise on

guns now than they have been perhaps in the last 15 or even 20 years. >> and the conversation also on the hill, manu, turns to -- it seems to now -- it's a question -- it's a conversation about the filibuster again, it has kind of become the answer to every question, what are we going to do about gun rights and the gill buster, what are we going to do about voting rights measures and the filibuster, what are we going to do about something else and the filibuster, and i know you know the math, but describe it to everyone, how would you describe kind of the level of pressure to actually make this move, to change the rules of the senate so they don't have a 60 vote requirement anymore. >> well, there is a lot of pressure coming from the left and a growing number of senate democrats who do want to change the rules of the filibuster, to a simple majority, 51 senators can overcome any efforts to stall legislation. right now it's 60 votes that are needed, which is why -- one reason why gun legislation will not pass in its current form in the united states senate but the democrats can invoke, what's known here is the nuclear option

to essentially change the rules on straight party line vote so they can pass legislation, push it through on just their majority alone, something that has not been done for legislation before to get it down to that level. there is still opposition in the ranks to do that among democrats. joe manchin, the west virginia democrat told me yesterday very clearly he does not support bringing the threshold down from 60 votes to 50 votes. he believes that would blow up the institution, that's designed to protect minority rights. he's not alone. angus king of maine is skeptical. kristyn synema of arizona as well. democrats need to keep the party totally unified to -- so the majority can rush out essentially. that's not going to happen in the moment but if gun rights -- gun control legislation continues to stall, perhaps that

equation changes but at the moment that is not the expectation here in the senate, kate. >> it's interesting, abby, because when it -- you see in the biden administration that they have lessons learned from past negotiations with congress. last time they tried to -- they stretched out negotiations over the stimulus bill or when it came to the affordable care act they learned lessons from that, hence why we saw the parliamentary move of reconciliation when it came to the covid relief bill. i am wondering if there are lessons learned as well from biden's unique history here when he was tasked by obama after -- of the sandy hook killings of those sweet children, to come up with a deal on gun reforms with congress, those conversations stretched out, that failed in the senate, and i'm wondering if they see lessons learned there as well. >> they absolutely do. i mean, the lesson learned from that experience is the same lesson learned from probably most other efforts to reach across the aisle on issues,

whether it's on, you know, recovery relief or something else. it is not always going to pay off to spend time negotiating with the other side on this. the problem for joe biden, though, is that they have a very, very long list of priorities. gun safety is just one of many things that many democrats think are crucial, essential to get done in this year. you know, you're talking about immigration, voting rights. and in terms of priorities where does this fall? i think it's a real open question. maybe we will hear from joe biden today about how he prioritizes it but these are tough questions, for which there are no easy answers. are all of these on equal playing fields in terms of the priorities? the reality is, is that it cannot be because as manu just laid out it's not just about republicans also, it's about democrats too. you know, joe manchin wants the

senate to operate in a certain way, and if he feels like joe biden is pushing toward unilateral action with just democrats alone he might push back in a hard way, and take virtually everything else off the table for the biden administration and that is what they're juggling now. they have to figure out, what do they put that trump card on the table for, will it be gun rights, or will it be one of the many other things they think are really essential to get done in this year. >> guys, thank you very much. we are all collectively standing by to hear from president biden. he's expected to speak very shortly. he's going to be speaking about the shooting massacre in colorado. when we stand by for that, let me get back to cnn's kate listen collins at the white house. what are you hearing that's going on behind the scenes today there? >> reporter: what's notable is how this could potentially shift priorities here because of course gun control was something that president biden talked about on the campaign trail as a candidate. it was a really big platform that he often spoke about but ever since he took office the white house has been very clear

that, of course, the pandemic and the economic recovery has been there for his priority. we've seen that play out with the conversations they've had with lawmakers on the hill. but the question now that we've had two mass shootings in just a week is how this shifts those priorities. and what president biden does. and as you were referencing earlier, what lessons he learns from his time as vice president, and even his time in the senate to change what he is going to do for his legacy as the actual president because of course you know -- you heard abby talking about how in 2012, when president obama had then vice president biden be in charge of really coming up with these gun control measures that took a few weeks after the sandy hook shooting happened to introduce them we later heard from bruce reed, a close adviser to president biden and now works in the white house, and saying that at the time president biden wished they had pushed for more and moved faster. that is a conversation that you've got to know is something they are thinking about, as they are wondering and plotting what

they are going to do in response to this, and how that response is going to be shaped. and one more thing i should note, my colleague kevin -- reported last week that in the wake of that shooting in atlanta there was so much focus on the national conversation in the identity of the victims and what that meant that you did not hear a lot from president biden on gun control measures. i don't know if he referenced it at all publicly in those remarks. he did privately in conversations so the question is whether or not given there has been a second shooting this training changes the trajectory of that and that is something you hear from him when he does speak. any minute now, i can hear marine one, it's on the south lawn. after he speaks he's going to go to ohio as was initially planned and of course his comments are coming after the former president barack obama issued a statement earlier calling for tougher gun control measures and calling on those in power to act. so we'll see how those comments and those experiences shape what we're going to hear from president biden any moment now. >> absolutely. kaitlan, thank you as always,

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the motivation of the killer in boulder, colorado and other critical aspects of this mass shooting. i've been briefed this morning by the attorney general of the united states, the director of the fbi. i have spoken with the governor. and i'll be speaking with the mayor on the aircraft. we're working very closely with the state and local law enforcement officials and they're going to keep me updated as they learn more. you're going to ask me to speculate, understandably, you're going to ask me to speculate about what happened and why it happened. i'm not going to do that now because we don't have all the information. not until i have all the facts. but i do know this, as president i'm going to use all the resources at my disposal to keep the american people safe.

as i said at this moment a great deal remains unknown. but three things are certain. first, ten lives have been lost, and more families have been shattered by gun violence in the state of colorado. and joe and i are devastated. and the feeling i just can't imagine how the families are feeling, the victims whose futures were stolen from them, from their families, from their loved ones who now have to struggle to go on and try to make sense of what's happened. less than a week after the horrific murders of eight people and the assault on the aapi community in georgia, while the flag was still flying half staff for the tragedy, another american city has been scarred by gun violence and the resulting trauma. i hate to say it, because we're saying it so often, my heart goes out. our hearts go out for the

survivors. who had to -- had to flee for their lives, and who hid, terrified, unsure if they would ever see their families again, their friends again. the consequences of all this are deeper than i suspect we know. by that i mean the mental consequences, the feeling of -- anyway, it's just -- been through too many of these. the second point i want to make is, my deepest thanks to the heroic police and other first responders who acted so quickly to address the situation. and keep the members of their community safe. and to state the obvious, i commend the exceptional bravery of officer eric talley. i send my deepest condolence to his family. his close, close family of seven children. you know, when he pinned on that badge yesterday morning he didn't know what the day would

bring. i want everybody to think about this. every time an officer walks out of his or her home and pins that badge on, a family member that they just said good-bye to wonders subconsciously whether they'll get that call, the call that his wife got. he thought he'd be coming home to his family and his seven children. but when the moment to act came officer talley did not hesitate in his duty making the ultimate sacrifice in his effort to save lives. that's the definition of an american hero. and thirdly i want to be very clear. this is the one thing i do know enough to say on in terms of what's happened there. while we're still waiting for more information regarding the shooter, his motive, the weapons he used, the guns, the magazines, the weapons, the modifications that apparently are taken place to those weapons that are involved here, i don't need to wait another minute, let

alone an hour, to take common sense steps that will save the lives in the future and to urge my colleagues in the house and senate to act. we can ban assault weapons and high capacity magazines in this country once again. i got that done when i was a senator. it passed. it was a law for the longest time. and it brought down these mass killings. we should do it again. we can close the loopholes in our background check system, including the charleston loophole. that's one of the best tools we have right now to prevent gun violence. the senate should immediately pass -- let me say it again. the united states senate, i hope some are listening, should immediately pass the two house passed bills that close loop holes in the background check system. these are bills that receive votes of both republicans and democrats in the house. this is not