this is "andrea mitchell reports." with new reaction to that damming report from the texas house of representatives condemning the response by officers and the egregious decision making that prevented law enforcement from storming the robb elementary classroom and stopping the mass shooting when 19 grade school students and two teachers were killed. >> there's nothing we didn't already know. the only difference was they stopped pointing fingers. leave it to the department of public safety to have superior fire power. should have gone in. they knew better. they stood around just like

everybody else. >> police body cam footage showing the police force waiting more than an hour in the school's hallways after the initial interaction between police officers and the gunman. along with an earlier attempt to communicate with the shooter by embattled police chief pete arredondo. there was a deadly mass shooting in indiana at a mall outside indianapolis where three people were killed and two others injured by a gunman who was fatally shot by an armed bystander. here in washington, the january 6th committee is preparing for a critical hearing this week, providing a minute-by-minute account of the former president's inaction during the insurrection. >> this is going to open people's eyes in a big way. i'll give you this preview. the president didn't do very

much but gleefully watch television. we begin in uvalde, texas, with priscilla thompson. you've been speaking with members of the community since the report was released. tell me their reactions. >> reporter: this report confirms what so many people already believed and, in fact, what many people saw with their own eyes when that surveillance video was released last week, that this appears to be a complete failure on the part of law enforcement. that report that was released going so far as to say that the void in leadership at the scene may have contributed to loss of life. so a lot of the family members i've spoken with say this report doesn't change anything. really the conversation is shifting towards accountability and what that will look like. already the district attorney has said that criminal charges could follow in the wake of this report. we also saw yesterday hours

after that report was released the mayor placing the acting city police chief on administrative leave pending an investigation. i spoke to some of those family members about what accountability looks like to them. listen to some of what they shared. >> do you think there will be any accountability? >> not really, not what they should do to them. >> what? >> in my book, they should fire them and take their pension away and give it to the parents that lost kids. >> if the you were to see chief arredondo right now, what would you say to him? >> tell him he should go, give up the gun, grab a goddamn mop, go to the school and be a janitor. that way he can go and hide in

the closet instead of having to go defend the kids. >> reporter: so much anger here, andrea. there will be a school board meeting tonight where the question of chief arredondo will certainly come up. it will be interesting to see if any decisions are made on that front, as right now he remains on administrative leave. >> joining us now texas democratic congresswoman veronica escobar. this is just so overwhelmingly sad and incomprehensible. how could this happen? how could they have been in that hallway for 77 minutes? there were almost 400 law enforcement officers with body armor, with long guns. >> you know, i have to repeat once again that el paso stands

with uvalde. hearing that gentleman, his rage and his pain, it really does bring back what el paso suffered nearly three years ago. it will be the third anniversary august 3rd coming up pretty soon. so that rage that he feels and that pain is still very present in my own community as well among many people. i think the report is important, but i also think we need to zoom out a little bit, because the leadership void goes far beyond law enforcement. what the report did not touch on, two things, number one, the governor, who is the highest ranking elected official, the chief elected official of the state. and number two, frankly, the state legislature that makes open carry the law of the land in texas so that anyone can get access to a gun without any training and really a loosening

of gun laws that was historic. it's so important that these reports and this analysis look at what happened on the ground that day. but we also have to look at the context in texas, the environment that has been created by republicans who want to create a wild west sort of environment in a state that has led us to be the deadliest state, if not the deadliest state for mass shootings. >> you speak of the wild west. there were more law enforcement officers in that hallway than were in the alamo, defending the alamo. >> right. >> it's outrageous. one of the things you also mention is the governor. the state senator roland gutierrez mentioned the governor's not been back since the day after the shooting.

>> right. he's been pretty silent. he's very eager to pointing the finger at others, really on any given situation, including uvalde. as the highest ranking elected official in the state of texas, i have yet to hear the governor accept responsibility for bring forward any ideas for meaningful change. he is literally someone who has only used his position to make texas less safe for its citizens and uses our resources for a political stunt. when you think about the amount of mental health funding that greg abbott has diverted in order to fund his border political stunts, we have a deeply under funded mental health system in the state of texas. when you look at how under funded rural or economically disadvantaged school systems are under greg abbott, they have

very few resources. communities like uvalde, communities like el paso, school districts have fewer resources because the state hasn't stepped up. meanwhile, he's always there to politically posture and to perform for voters. you know, the reports stop short of taking it further up the chain. >> background checks are universally supported across the country. you don't get 80% support for background checks if texas is not somehow included in that. i have not done the data on texas per se, but assault weapons. none of that is going to be done by congress, so it really has to be done at the local level. >> it can be done by congress and it can be done through an election this november. really voters in america need to decide if the status quo is acceptable. in the house of representatives we passed sweeping and popular

and common sense gun violence prevention laws. in the senate where democrats do not have a significant enough majority, that's why we ended up with the bipartisan compromise that frankly would not have stopped the uvalde shooting. the state of texas is not going to pass red flag laws. mental health funding, i'm afraid it will continue to be diverted under this governor. so voters have an opportunity to make their wishes known in november. do you want to live in a wild west environment in our country where we become numb to this tragedy and this carnage, or are we finally going to demand change and finally elect people with the courage, the spine, the backbone willing to say i want to put our community's safety first and i'm going to tackle what is at the root of this problem and it is the guns and

it is a system that completely needs to be reformed. >> thank you so much. turning to another act of deadly gun violence in indiana, where a shooter was stopped by an armed bystander after the deaths of three innocent mall shoppers. local law enforcement is calling the individual who fatally shot the gunman a good samaritan. what else do we know about this whole situation? >> reporter: we expect to learn a lot more in the next couple of hours. we know a press conference is scheduled for 2:00 p.m. eastern time. this is an investigation being led by the local police department, by the county sheriff with assistance from the fbi. they've been going through the scene talking with witnesses and going through the surveillance video that existed in the mall. as they laid it out so far, this started about 6:30 p.m. yesterday. a man opened fire at a food court at a mall.

we know that three people were shot and killed. there were two others injured. one was a 12-year-old girl who police say suffered physical wounds, but minor injuries at this point. we expect to learn more about the identities of those lost and injured in this shooting a little bit later today. what investigators point to in their praising that 22-year-old good samaritan, an armed civilian who happened to be in the food court who they say shot and killed the shooter and saved countless lives. we don't know the identity of this person, but they're saying it was because of his quick action and his heroism that helped prevent this from being a bigger tragedy than what it already was. and we are following breaking news here in washington, where jury selection is finally under way in steve bannon's criminal contempt trial after bannon and his legal team

spent months and months trying to dismiss or delay the proceedings. pete williams is covering the trial. hey, pete. what's happened so far? did they start jury selection? >> yes. this has been the amazing shrinking defense for steve bannon because of rulings by the judge. this judge carl nichols is a trump appointee, but he's tied both of bannon's hands behind his back in terms of the defense. he cannot argue when he refused to develop with the january 6th committee that he was just acting on the advice of his lawyer, who told him he didn't need to respond because of justice department policies. the judge says he can't argue about the lawyer or the judgment policies, and he can't say to the jury that he refused to cooperate simply because he was advised by a lawyer for former president trump not to appear because of executive privilege.

the judge says it's not clear that the lawyer told him to completely refuse to cooperate with the committee. at one point in the proceedings leading up to the trial, one of bannon's lawyers said, what's the point if there isn't much of a defense? and the judge said agreed, which was probably a strong hint that bannon could consider pleading guilty. but so far there's no sign of that and it looks like we're heading to a trial. the only argument bannon has left is to argue that he was confused about the deadline of complying with the subpoena. >> he obviously knew the deadline. what are the implications, if any, for mark meadows, who was the other criminal referral? >> well, remember that if bannon is convicted, all that happens here is that he is punished for

refusing to cooperate. it doesn't force anyone now to comply with the subpoena. if he is convicted, he simply gets punished for refusing to comply. there's no way to legally force him to comply with the subpoena. it doesn't mean much. it may sends a message if he is convicted and sentenced to jail time. he could be. it would probably maybe cause others to have second thoughts about not complying with the subpoenas. you know, there's not much to help the committee in a guilty plea other than to send the message that you ought to comply with the subpoenas. and the slippery slope. sloe

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just three weeks after the supreme court overturned roe v wade, republican senator ted cruz is taking aim at another landmark decision from the high court, same-sex marriage. he says the supreme court was wrong when it legalized it in 2015 and that it is a states rights issue. >> it ignored two centuries of our nation's history. marriage was always an issue left to the states. the court said, no, we know better than you guys do, and now every state must sanction and prevent gay marriage. i think that decision was clearly wrong. it was the court overreaching. >> joining me is david boise, an attorney who successfully argued against california's same-sex

marriage ban. i want to point out that it was justice kennedy who wrote that majority opinion in the case of approing same-sex marriage. what is ted cruz talking about? he's a harvard lawyer, i should point out. >> i think he's got his law kind of backwards here. first of all, the division in favor of marriage equality was grounded in due process and equal protection principles that have been widely applied. it is true, as senator cruz says, that for many years marriage was restricted to a man and a woman, just as for many years marriage was restricted to people of the same race, for many years laws required blacks

and whites to go to separate schools. for many years, women were prevented, if they were married, from owning and controlling their own property. all of those rights have been held to be established under settled constitutional principles. so there really is no basis to argue that because a right has only been articulated by the supreme court in the last decade or so, that it somehow is suspect. if you did, you would be going back to the dark ages, where blacks and whites had separate facilities, women couldn't control their own property, blacks and whites couldn't marry. if you think about what senator cruz's legal argument really means, it's something i don't

think anybody, including the senator himself, could find acceptable. >> and women and blacks could not vote. >> when my mother was born, women weren't able to vote. when my grandfather was born, there was still slavery. when i was born, it would have been a felony for justice thomas and his wife to marry in places like virginia. so we've come a long way. i don't think anybody, including senator cruz, really wants to go back to those days. >> i'm not sure i would agree with you in your assurance about senator cruz's views, but this is what justice thomas said in his concurring opinion on abortion . in future cases, we should

reconsider all of this court's substantive due process precedents because any due process decision is demonstrably erroneous. what's wrong with the cruz argument or the thomas argument about leaving it to the states? i should also point out that justice alito in his roe decision and some of the other justices said, no, they're not visiting the other due process decisions. you've got a leading senator going exactly there. >> i think he's going there as a senator, not as a jurist. because i think the fact that dobbs was decided the way it was -- and i think dobbs is wrong, but i don't think dobbs

is a harbinger of additional reconsiderations of these basic constitutional rights. for one thing, in the marriage equality litigation, it was absolutely clear that these bans on same-sex marriage seriously harmed loving couples and the children they were raising and did not benefit anyone. there was no legitimate governmental interest in preventing these loving couples from marrying. i think that if you look at the history of our constitutional process, those kind of rights are basic to what every american depends on. and i think that the court is not going to reexamine these fundamental things. i think to do so would be politically disastrous for the legitimacy of the court as a judicial institution.

>> thank you very much. missing messages, the secret service on deadline to hand over deleted texts tomorrow from the day of the insurrection to the january 6th committee. day of the insurrection to the day of the insurrection to the january 6th committee. wealth is shutting down the office for mike's retirement party. worth is giving the employee who spent half his life with you, the party of a lifetime. ♪ ♪ . with you, the party of a lifetime. ♪ ♪ (grandmother) thank you for taking me home. it's so far. . (young woman) don't worry about it, grandma! this'll be fun. a lifetime. (young woman) two chocolate milkshakes, please. (grandmother) make it three. (young woman) three? (grandmother) did you get his number? (young woman) no, grandma! grandma!! (grandmother) excuse me! (young woman vo) some relationships get better with time. that's why i got a crosstrek.

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here in washington, as we've been reporting, jury selection under way for former white house chief strategist steve bannon despite his attempts to delay his trial on criminal contempt of congress involving his refusal to cooperate with the january 6th committee. bannon greeted the media outside the courthouse today. u.s. district court judge carl nichols said last week he was hopeful they would be able to find a jury that had not been paying close attention to the january 6th committee hearing to fairly decide the case. this is in response to bannon saying he couldn't get a fair

trial here. does steve bannon have a viable defense for criminal contempt of congress? because we talked to pete williams earlier, the judge one by one eliminating his various defenses. >> he doesn't have any defenses. all the things he asserted before were baseless locally. the only thing he can try to show is somehow he didn't understand the deadline. i think good luck with that. i think we'll see steve bannon's promises to go amid evil, whatever that means, and make this the misdemeanor from hell to try to engender outrage in the jury that this was somehow government overreach. even though he's in violation of the law, that justice would not be served by convicting him.

>> what does the committee hope to learn from steve bannon? there's no way to compel him. even with a conviction, he would not be compelled to testify here. >> no, he would not. first of all, i'm reminded of a headline from this weekend that was akin to bannon pledges to go medieval. judge goes, eh. doesn't seem like they're too concerned about what he may do. you're right. the committee would like to hear from steve bannon, but privately aides acknowledge odds are they never will. he is someone who clearly enjoys being a maga martyr. he has had an up and down relationship with donald trump, but is back in trump's good graces right now. bannon was caught in a newly released interview well before january 6th, caught on tape talking about how there may be

issues there for the president. he's talked about how on election day trump would just simply declare victory and go from there, that that would be the plan to declare victory and hope his supporters would go with it. he of course was also one of the architects for the movement to block the certification of joe biden's win and hopefully have mike pence go along with it. he's open about this. he's simply talked about it on his podcast. his feelings and role in the january 6th insurrection already well understood. >> let's move onto the january 6th hearing this week and what they expect to receive tomorrow. they expect to receive secret service text messages from january 5th and 6th that had been erased, perhaps recovered. they were subpoenaed, of course. let's listen to what two committee members had to say this weekend about those erased

texts. >> we need them and we expect to get them by this tuesday. i was shocked to hear that they didn't back up their data before they reset their iphones. that's crazy. i don't know why that would be. >> i think we're going to know more tuesday. it is quite crazy that the secret service would actually end up deleting anything related to one of the more infamous days in american history, particularly when it comes to the role of the secret service. >> the spokesman for the secret service was tweeting over the weekend that the secret service has been cooperating fully with the committee beginning last march and that the committee established in june that their cooperation will not waiver. well, there's cooperation and then there's cooperation. the fact is, you know, how dumb was it to erase anything or even upgrading their devices over this critical period.

>> i think government is largely occupied by people who are capable and competent, but i have seen human error occur inside large organizations. so it is possible. how do you not make a decision it's really important to retain all data, especially the data relating to january 5th and 6th when we know some very unusual things were happening on the secret service's watch? you had to know there would be an inquiry done afterwards. i think it would be inexcusable for any of those to be gone. it sounds like they have some. which ones do they have and will they be illuminating as to what happened? text messages is a place where people often speak with great candor, not really thinking about how they look after the fact, but trying to communicate urgent matters. certainly there was plenty happening that was urgent on january 6th.

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president biden is back at the white house following his controversial trip to saudi arabia. he's still facing backlash for fist pumping and meeting with saudi crown prince mohammed bin salman, who the cia has concluded was responsible for the brutal murder of jamal khashoggi. the "washington post" publisher fred ryan calling the fist bump shame full. the president was asked this question when he returned to the white house from his trip.

>> the saudi arabia foreign minister said he didn't hear you accuse the crown prince of khashoggi's murder. is he telling the truth? >> no. why don't you guys talk about something that matters? >> joining me now is john brennan, the former cia director for president obama. let's talk about the fist bump or the optics of the trip. you told us before he arrived that you would have advised against this trip. do you think it was worth it in terms of the reputation in the region, the negative in the region as well as the criticism from human rights groups and 9/11 families? >> president biden made a tough decision. i think it probably bothered him that he felt the need to make this trip to meet with mohammed

bin salman. first, on the energy front, this was a real motivating factor that president biden went out there to get the saudis to raise oil production. they have said they promised to increase their production about a million barrels per day to 13 million barrels. secondly on the human rights front, i think we need to see saudi arabia make positive moves in terms of releasing political prisoners it has. third, it's having the saudis play a more constructive role in the region on issues like the war in yemen, moving toward diplomatic relationship with israel and maybe trying to reconstitute the iran nuclear deal. i hope this very controversial trip is going to pay dividends,

but i don't think we have seen it so far. allowinging it was insufficientt i think it was a positive step. we'll see in the months ahead. >> let's listen to what richard hawes said earlier this morning. >> all the time you've got to deal with bad guys, xi in china, putin in russia, kim jong-un in north korea, mbs in saudi arabia. you can't choose the people you deal with. saudi arabia matters. the administration simply doesn't have the luxury of ignoring the guy who quite possibly will run this country for half a century. >> you could argue that doing something about iran, pushing back against a growing nuclear

threat and a present missile threat from iran is almost enough, especially if it's coupled with a better saudi/israeli relationship. >> yes. for better or worse, the saudis play a very, very important role in the region and globally. the more the saudis can see the practical benefits of cooperating with the united states on these regional issues and other things, i think we're all going to be better off. i agree with richard. you cannot choose the foreign leaders you're going to have to deal with, especially if they're in leadership positions in countries that you have to have interactions with. that's why i think president biden felt it incumbent upon him to not forgive mohammed bin salman for what he did, but that the economic and political relationship needs to be sustained in a time of great turbulence globally. >> you have vladimir putin heading to tehran for a meeting

there with turkey as well. turning to ukraine, president zelenskyy has removed his security chief and suspended his top state prosecutor saying that many cases had come to light of members of their agencies collaborating with russia, especially in eastern ukraine. how concerning is this during wartime? >> it's very concerning since there's an active war going on. i'm sure ukraine is the number one intelligence target right now for the russian intelligence services. i'm sure they've been recruiting ukrainian officials. it's appropriate that president zelenskyy if he thinks there's widespread treasonous activity, he needs to take action. those russian infiltrators who have been put there by moscow during the puppet regime in place in kyiv.

i think president zelenskyy recognizes if he's going to withstand this russian invasion and prevail in the war, he needs to take serious and significant action to make sure nobody within his organizations are working collaboratively with the russians. >> thanks as always. appreciate it. and leslessons ignored, wil the monkeypox face the same fate as the early days of covid. for meningitis b. although uncommon, up to 1 in 5 survivors of meningitis will have long term consequences. now as you're thinking about. fishing helps ease my mind. kinda like having liberty mutual.

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...and that means everything.lr of improving my skin and joints... new york city's health commissioner says the city is fighting two pandemics at the same time, rising covid cases and now monkeypox. the city accounts for 25% of monkeypox cases nationwide. demand for vaccines is far outpacing supply. over the weekend current and former health officials issued stern warnings. >> this is something we definitely need to take seriously. we don't know the scope and the potential of it yet, but we have to act like it will have the capability of spreading much more widely than it's spreading

right now. >> the window for getting control of this and containing it probably has closed. >> antonia hilton joins us from new york city's chelsea neighborhood. how worried are officials about this shortage of testing and vaccines? they don't know who has been vaccinated. >> reporter: that's right. there is a lot of worry on the side of officials who are working with the federal government to get as much supply as they can here to new york city, which is right now the epicenter of the spread of this virus. they estimate they need tens of thousands more doses here in new york alone. right now they're prioritizing just getting first shots in people's arms even though this is a two-shot regimen vaccine. on the part of the folks trying to get these shots in their arms, there's a lot of anger and frustration. they describe trying repeatedly trying to book appointments in

online portals that have failed them. so there is lessons from the last two years of the covid pandemic. take a listen to the conversations i have had today. >> a bit of mess, i would say. i was really hoping given that we have been learning how to roll out vaccines for almost two years now, we would have had a better system worked out. >> it's been chaos. you have come to expect that with health care in the country, but a couple thousand slots at a time and the website crashing as soon as you try to make an appointment, it was nuts. >> reporter: right now, eligibility is restricted to the queer community here in new york city, but there's concern that this virus is going to be spread ing much more broadly. so officials are saying that people should be reaching out to

their health departments if they have concerns about close contacts. >> thank you. joining us now is assistant health secretary dr. rachel levine. thank you for being with us. first of all, when can we expect more vaccines to be made available? you saw the reporting about the website is crashing. it is rem any sent of the rollout of the covid vaccine. >> we will be expecting more shipments of the vaccine. the and we ordered more for future distribution throughout 2022 and to 2023. certainly, we need to coordinate with local, state, and public health to be able to address this significant public health threats. >> how significant is the threat? we understand that monkeypox is not transmitted the way covid is. through aerosol transmission. it's usually through sexual partners, fluid exchanges, but

that still means it is very contagious, correct, and it is a real threat. is this a pandemic? >> this is not a pandemic. and this is not covid-19. as you have been saying, this is not transmitted through the air like covid-19. but it is a significant public health issue that we're taking very, very seriously. >> is it limited to men who have sex with with men, transgender or nonbye nar individuals? give us a sense of the population how widely spread it is in the general population? >> it's important to remember that anyone can contract monokey pox, but right now, the community most affected is the lgbtq community, particularly as you said, men who have sex with men. so gay and bisexual men have been most impacted, but it does have the potential to spread, which is why we're working in

the federal government with state and local health departments for containment. we have increased testing and. the them to be working on contact tracing. with isolation and quarantine. and then we are distributing all the vaccine that we have and purchased more and will had continue to distribute that. and there are effective treatments. the vaccine and treatments were originally designed for smallpox, but they are aeffective against monkeypox. >> we have a press release here from sonic health care usa, which is quoting dr. walensky saying there is an agreement with this company for better testing. i assume that is an official announcement? >> so we are increasing the amount of testing throughout the country through many other commercial testing companies to make sure that we get more information and more data about the extent of the spread of

monkeypox, which gives us much more information in order to address it. >> also want to ask you about covid. the most immune sub variant is driving cases up. hospitalizations are rising. we know booster is going to be available in september. but how concerned are you about the summer surge? will that booster be after the surge? will it be too late? >> so we are certainly still concerned with covid-19. the pandemic is not done yet. we are concerned with the rise of the ba 5 variant, which seems to be the most contagious yet. we know what works. we have the tools in order to address this. that includes our safe and effective vaccines and boosters, as well as testing, which is available throughout the country. ask then wearing masks according to the cdc guidelines depending upon the amount of community spread in the area in which you live. >> i want to ask you also about

transgender americans because you're the first openly transgender official confirmed by the united states senate. in a recent op-ed, you urged people to base medical decisions on real data and compassion rather than slander. you spoke to transyouth in florida recently. tell whaus you told them. >> transyouth are vulnerable. they suffer significant harassment and bullying, sometimes in schools or their community. they have more mental health issues, but there's nothing inherent with being transgender or gender diverse, which would predispose youth to depression or anxiety. it's the harassment and bullying. now they are suffering politically motivated attacks through state actions against these vulnerable transgender youth. this is not based upon data. these actions are politically motivated. so we really want to base our treatment and affirm and to support and empower these youth

not to limit their participation activities in sports and even limit their ability to get gender affirmation treatment in their state. >> you chose florida, the home of the don't say gay bill, which has been notably restrictive. >> that is correct. the studies show from the trevor project that all it takes is one supportive adult to make all the difference for an lgbtq youth in terms of their risk of depression and suicide. one supportive adult. that often is a teacher or a school personnel and the don't say gay bill is very damage ing to their health. >> admiral rachel levine, thank you for being with us. that does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." follow us online on facebook and twitter. katy tur starts after this. r. r. katysecond honeymoon.

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