right now, texas senator roland gutierrez. senator gutierrez, i know that you have been speaking out since yesterday's tragedy. us early this morning. first of the gate i need to know what your reaction is to this horrific shooting from yesterday. do you know how the community is currently doing? >> katie, as you know that areas up near, dallas texas i can tell you that we are all devastated from the perspective of how horrific this is. i texted a few of the uvalde families, and every time there is a mass shooting in around texas or anywhere in the united states, they feel a horrific sense of guilt, oddly enough. that they did not do enough to stop all of this. when indeed it is the responsibility of lawmakers. . i'm disgusted by the fact that we have a governor and lieutenant governor there refuses to do anything. we have a long way to go. we have three weeks left in this legislative session. it is my hope that this governor and this lieutenant governor will do something in this space. and we can do some things. it is my hope

this is what texas state senator roland gutierrez said just this morning on this network. >> you don'tom this, you don't get over this, every one of those families has been devastated. they have been devastated by legislature in texas that has done absolutely nothing. the biggest insult is that we did absolutely zero pieces of legislation that would have a monumental change or the legislation that those families were seeking. >> nbc's guad venegas is in uvalde, texas. also with me today, a parents' reporter, daniela moore, and politics report zach despart. thank you all for being here. guad, i can't imagine what it's like there today. talk a little bit about what you're seeing and hearing on the ground in uvalde today. >> reporter: it's an emotional day for all members of the community, for friends and family members of the victims, and also survivors just steps away from me, i can see one of the teachers that survived the shooting who's out here with a group of individuals. they're wearing orange shirts and they're promoting or pushing for gun law reform. he spoke into the media earli

i want to bring into our conversation texas state senator roland gutierrez. senator, i am struck by the fact that you and i stood together outside of rob elementary law less than a year ago and had a very similar conversation to the one that we are going to have right now, which is, how did we end up here? >> you know, alicia menendez, this is just the same thing that we have been seeing for months on and in this nation, for years on end. it just too many guns in the hands of people that should not have them. and we have to do something. this is insanity. this is not normal. we are broken as a country, and we need to do something now, i absolutely. >> tell me about texas, and about this moment you find yourself in, and having a governor who calls this unspeakable tragedy, having an a.g. who senses prayers. >> this is the chaos that these republicans have started. this is the chaos that happens when you allow everybody to walk around with an ar-15. i spoken to director mccraw already. he has information that there is at least five dead, that there are ten woun

matthew watkins, state senator roland gutierrez, my friend, thank you all so much.the debt ceiling standoff continues. there is no easy solution in sight, with both sides saying as the treasury of secretary -- about possible economic catastrophe. and later, closing arguments in the civil rape case against donald trump, the breakdown of what happened in the courtroom today, what it could mean for the former president. the 11th outer, just getting underway on monday night. asthma isn't pretty. it's the moment when you realize that a good day... is about to become a bad one. but then, i remembered that the world is so much bigger than that, with trelegy. because one dose a day helps keep my asthma symptoms under control. and with 3 medicines in 1 inhaler, trelegy helps improve lung function so i can breathe easier for a full 24 hours. trelegy won't replace a rescue inhaler for sudden breathing problems. trelegy contains a medicine that increases risk of hospitalizations and death from asthma problems when used alone. when this medicine is used with an inhaled corticost

state senator roland gutierrez is a democrat representing state senate district 19, which of course includese, the sight of that tragic robb elementary school shooting last year. they both join me now. great to have you both of you with us tonight. i hate that it's about this object and the response of the texas governor to it all. let me start with you, congresswoman, escobar, here. i want to start by posing discussion regarding governor greg abbott it's excuses for seeming, you know, just any basic humanity in the way he responds to mess shootings. do you believe he's and competent or callous? >> first of all, thank you for having this conversation. it's so important that we confront hate speech. whether it be in -- incompetence or callousness, what we have seen from governor greg abbott is in that governor leading more and more into extremism. he believes probably that is the only way he can win texas. what we get instead of compassion is -- in humanity. it is in humanity towards some of the most vulnerable populations we have in our country and our state, starting with immigrants. the go

i want to bring in texas state senator roland gutierrez, he's the democrat from the 19th district. senator, for years, texas republicans have looked the other way as paxton's legal troubles have piled up. how most -- in your estimation, what has changed? , what has>> well, alicia, i thins changed is we've seen an abundance of misdeeds here. it's important to note that, i'm going to be a tourist in the senate. so i have to be very impartial as i look at the evidence. but what we cannot turn away from is he is currently under indictment at of collin county. that indictment began sometime in 2015. as you suggested earlier, he is under investigation from the fbi for some of the things that arose in this impeachment. the evidence that the house has seen and present it was substantial enough for them to start this process looking into issues you just discussed. i think that as the committee saw that evidence, they felt that there was enough matter of fact evidence, evidence that could not be refuted, to go forward. and i think at some point for republicans, because they are in charge of

including a state senator, roland gutierrez, whose district includes uvalde.a listen to a portion of the conversation i had with him then. >> if it isn't enough of a red flag to have a kid go into a store and buy two of these things in 48 hours, at 1800 bullets. that's a red flag. we needed a red flag law, like joe moody present in 2019. and we are still here, in this place, and we have no change because we are have a feckless leader in austin that has done nothing to help our community. >> so, what is it what you do to get change? what you do? >> they controlled legislator an often for 20 years. if i get to do is yell and scream, i'm gonna yell and scream for as long as i'm there. on this issue. because enough is enough, we've had five school massacres under his watch. and he has done nothing other than school hardening. he's very proud of that. we saw the effects of school hardening here. the officers were able to access the door. because of school hardening. that isn't the answer. he says that it's a mental health problem, go fund and mental health number o

matthew watkins, state senator roland gutierrez, my friend, thank you all so much.e debt ceiling standoff continues. there is no easy solution in sight, with both sides saying as the treasury of secretary -- about possible economic catastrophe. and later, closing arguments in the civil rape case against donald trump, the breakdown of what happened in the courtroom today, what it could mean for the former president. the 11th outer, just getting underway on monday night. underway on monday night. hehe [buzz] you can always spot a first timer. gain flings with oxi boost and febreze. how to grow delicious herbs: step one: use miracle-gro potting mix. that's it. miracle-gro. all you need to know to grow. introducing astepro allergy. now available without a prescription. miracle-gro. astepro is the first and only 24-hour steroid-free spray. while flonase takes hours, astepro starts working in 30 minutes. so you can [ spray, spray ] astepro and go. - booked our trip to vegas! - in this economy? what are we, rich?! ♪ ♪ are we rich? oh, what a relief. no more secretly rentin

joining me now, texas state senator roland gutierrez. senator, thank you for making the time to come back with us. texas, home to some of the loosest gun laws in this country. this ritual of gun violence, it continues to get worse. what will it take to change the direction of this debate? when it comes specifically to republican lawmakers in your state. >> yeah. first off, thank you. you know, i don't know. clearly they are fueled by money from the national rifle association. your fueled, some kind of weird article of faith on this issue. i don't know what is going to get them to wake up. i mean, you have got federal people like our senator ted cruz who is wreaking in as much as half 1 million dollars in nra money and affiliates. this is over the course of his tenure's. ashley -- substantial mount of money, reaching close to $100,000. clearly, at that federal level there isn't a abundance of money. certainly our state legislators, same thing. our governor, our lieutenant governor, our attorney general who seems to claim that there is not

he is the state senator who represents uvalde, texas, roland gutierrez. senator, thanks for joining us, unfortunately, again, you represent uvalde the scene of the robb elementary school shooting that killed 21 people last year almost all of them children. your reaction once again to scenes of horror from a mass shooting once again in texas? >> thank you, jake. first off, that gentleman that you just had, that footage, he'll never be able to take those images from his mind. i've seen hundreds of hours of body cam of what happened in uvalde. as much as you don't want people to see that in america, you know, what happens, literally, their face is gone. i've seen two images like that in the uvalde victims where the little girls' faces are just gone. the rest of the children, the bodies riddled, damaged, mangled like you can't believe. people need to really wake up. i mean, wake up to what's happening here. it is almost -- it has almost become some normal event for everybody. this is happening in your communities. it can happen anywhere in the united states.

the state senator from uvalde, democrat roland gutierrez will join us with his efforts to change gunand tough talk. prsz and speaker mccarthy set to meet with the financial stability hanging in the balance. >> america is not a deadbeat nation. we pay our bills. >> will we, when the bill comes due next month? democrat dick durbin will be here to talk about that and the crisis at the supreme court. power struggle. new setbacks for russia and a growing threat in the middle east. a special cnn exclusive as the house intelligence committee heads overseas. republican chairman mike turner and rank raing democrat joyner n me. >>> hello. i'm jake tapper in washington where the state of our union is once again shaken. eight people are dead and at least seven others injured outside dallas, texas. the victims of a murderous rampage at an outlet mall. as a sunny, saturday afternoon family shopping trip became an all too familiar scene these days in an america of carnage. >> i never imagined in a hundred years i would be thrust to be in the position to be the first responder on the site to take ca

. >>> joining is texas state senator roland gutierrez. i'll ask you about this. no red flag law.s guy clearly not well. who does this if they're well? you heard what ken laid out about his postings on social media, violent threats, not to mention all the other stuff. what could have been done to stop him from getting a weapon? >> absolutely nothing in texas. clearly because republicans in texas continue to expand access to assault rifles or guns to just about anybody. there's no registry. there's no red flag laws. as you suggested, you can walk around congress street here in austin with your ar-15 loaded and a cop can't even ask you a question. what's most interesting to me, katy, is that after the walmart shooting that we experienced a couple of years back in 2019, the governor created the domestic terrorism task force because that shooter was a white supremacist, much like this one. that task force, which he is on, includes the director of public safety, steve mccraw, and was supposed to establish some units within the department of public safety to go track people like this, t

the state senator there, roland gutierrez who has been fighting for this, and he is a state senator for uvalde and he said, finally their voices are being heard and the voices are making a difference, and sod something, a small measure here, but certainly the next steps here are going to be a uphill battle for the families and the legislators. >> thank you, shimon prokupiez. over to you, boris. >>> from the extreme angle of the patch that he was wear, the rwds stands for right wing death squad according to the southern poverty law center which is groups like the proud boys have been wearing on their tactical vest. keep in mind, this is coming from a staggering jump in terror-related investigations. the government accountability says that the number of investigations has grown 357% over the last decade. i want to bring in national security expert juliet kayyen and tell us about that insignia. >> well, the fact that he had it means that he is a proponent of that wing. let me explain, because it is complic complicated. the rwds is a death squad, and they are of course violent, and cases or

. >> hinojosa: the author of the senate bill, roland gutierrez, arrived in uvalde just hours after theay one, and i stood there as families were informed that their children had passed on. i heard screams that i'd never heard in my life. they haunt me still today. it shouldn't be partisan. how in the world can we not have a law that says an 18-year-old shouldn't have this type of weapo we have an age limit on a handgun. an 18-year-old can't go buy a handgun, but he can go buy an ar-15. put your head around that one. >> hinojosa: so you believe that just raising the age from 18 to 21 is the bare minimum that possibly could happen? >> i think it can happen, and that's why we filed it. it's not gonna prevent this from happening again, but let's make it a . those folks in uvalde are not asking for the moon and stars here. they're asking for a little bit of common sense. >> hinojosa: but what the senator calls "common sense" is considered a violation by many republicans and gun owners in texas. what is your opinion about the bill? >> to raise the age? >> hinojosa: to raise the age. >> we ar

democratic texas state senator roland gutierrez says he's planning a 2024 run for republican ted cruz'shington post" he will make a decision soon. gutierrez has become a fierce champion of the families impacted by the uvalde school shootings. last week democratic congressman colin allred announced he seat well. >>> the college football nvitation to visit 1600 pennsylvania avenue next month citing scheduling conflicts. thanks for your time today. hope to see you tomorrow. "cnn news central" starts right now.

here's what texas state senator roland gutierrez told cnn on sunday. >> i just don't understand theseepublicans that want to just pray and do absolutely nothing. our country and our state is burning down because we have these guns in the habits of people that shouldn't have them. it's a chaos that is wholly created by the republican party and the nra. we can stop it, and we can stop it now. but we don't have anybody with the plit political will to do it. >> matthew lippman is executive director of the gun safety organization 97%, and he joins me now from los angeles. so here we are again, tragically discussing yet another mass shooting in america. >> you know, i was on capitol hill this week, rosemary, and then spoke to a church in maryland today about what we could do on gun issues. and i feel as though every day that we don't get something done, there's another mass shooting. and it's not that i feel that way, it's what happens. every day, no matter what we're trying to do for reform on guns, there's -- seems to be a mass shooting every day. there are more mass shootings this year a

for more, we are joined in san antonio by texas state senator roland gutierrez, whose district includessite of the school massacre less than a year ago when 19 children and two teachers were killed, also with an ar-15 semiautomatic rifle. he was at the state capitol in austin yesterday to demand some of the uvalde families who came to demand a vote on gun safety legislation. senator, welcome back to democracy now! it is great to have you with this. why don't you start off by responding to governor abbott's response to the murder of the five people, including a nine-year-old boy, talking about the dead "illegal immigrants." >> thank you, first off. it is clear greg abbott has just reached an all new low. they were just people. they were human beings and he refuses at every step along the way in his policy, his goal is to dehumanize people, dehumanize latin americans, dehumanize hispanics. that is what he has done for the last several years. certainly, the last you days was a culmination of all that hatred that he spews. it is part of why we are broken as a nation. we certainly need to co

. >>> joining us now, is texas state senator roland gutierrez. senator, thanks for being with us. we appreciate it. you played a major role in highlights the botched employee response to the shooting in uvalde. i'm curious of what you make of the response of allen. police are not having a press conference, they are not telling public the latest. we have to get through the sources what the latest we believe to be. part of which being what josh campbell reported a short time ago, that this gunman may have been motivated by extremist ideology. what's your view on this? >> jim, i'm at a loss for words, frankly. we have seen this rodeo before. we saw it in uvalde. the lack of transparency there was there to hide all of the failure that happened over the course of that 77-minute response. my fear is that we don't know exactly how long it took that police officer to get there. i'm glad he was able to do the work and take down this suspect. but, you know, i also fear that maybe there's this other more possibly gross motivation by people in charge of this thing to change the news story. th

joining me now is texas state senator, roland gutierrez. senator gutierrez, i'd like to get your reactions to this horrific shooting. and why you might think that officials have yet to make public anything about the suspect. victims i understand, victims need to be notified. are you hearing anything about that? >>, alex we've tried to reach out and find out ages. from some identifier's, as to who the eight the victims are. we received no such information, we are understanding that a press conference should be undertaken very soon, and hopefully we'll be able to get more information. i want to ask you about how i'm feeling, this is horrendous, it's dÉjÀ vu all over again. i want to compare that gentlemen in the cowboy hat that was there, that witness that little girl without a face. those are images we've seen in uvalde, that i've seen on body cams. but compare what he said to what governor abbott said on fox news earlier. saying, look, this is a mental health crisis, this is a mental health problem. this is a problem that is unique to the u

democratic texas state senator roland gutierrez says he's planning a 2024 run for republican ted cruz's seat. sources telling the "washington post" he will make a decision soon. gutierrez has become a fierce champion of the families impacted by the uvalde school shootings. last week democratic congressman colin allred announced he seat well. >>> the college football nvitation to visit 1600 pennsylvania avenue next month citing scheduling conflicts. thanks for your time today. hope to see you tomorrow. "cnn news central" starts right now. >>> 13 federal charges against a sitting member of congress. george santos accused of wire fraud, money laundering, stealing public funds. so will republicans call on him to resign with every vote in the house critical? santos due to be arraigned at any moment. >>> public pressure campaign. president biden hitting the road and hitting republicans over a fierce budget standoff. in minutes he's making the case for raising the debt ceiling once again without conditions, with potential economic consequences just weeks away. >>> and heroes in action. newly r

joining me now is democratic state senator roland gutierrez whose district includes uvalde, site of last year's elementary school shooting, and shannon watts, founder of moms demand action for common sense. i want you to respond to the latest round of useless thoughts and prayers by your state's leaders. >> thank you for having me. listen, i think we have all just had enough with the prayers. we want commonsense gun solutions. we want to get something done because that's what the citizenry across this state and across this nation deserve. we're living in a state of chaos right now, and it's chaos that has been wholly created by greg abbott, dan patrick, and others. they have created a system in place over the last ten years or so where they have -- we have a loose and lax system of gun laws. there really are no gun laws in texas, not the kind of gun laws that shannon watts and others would like to see. the kind of gun laws that republicans oppose are how to give access to more militarized weaponry in the state of texas. point in fact, we have gotten very far this year in that we have got

roland gutierrez, we'll continue this conversation with you sir.or being with us. >> thank you so much. >>> elise, so many mass shootings in this last year, you have to stop and read the stories again and remember what happened, you can't turn your head and move on from something like a bunch of fourth graders being shot in their school. >> the fact that we've become almost numb to it. it happens nearly every week in same way, shape or form. it's just shocking that we're that stagnant as a society. it's not about shotgun, we're talking about weapons of mass killing and the laws haven't caught up with what's on the market right now and every day that this continues is unbelievable. and every day that parents have to worry that their child is going to get mown down at school it's just shocking. >> yeah, we'll go live to uvalde coming up on the show. also coming up, where things stand on the debt ceiling negotiations with just over a week until the default deadline. we'll get a live report for the white house. >>> and national co-chair for president b

senator roland gutierrez who represents uvalde and several family members of those victims plan to beversary of that horrific shooting as well here. mika. >> priscilla thompson, live in allen, texas, thank you so much for that report. there have been 201 mass shootings in the u.s. this year. we're not even halfway through the year, according to the gun violence archive, which defines a mass shooting as an incident in which four or more people are injured or killed. in texas alone, there have been 17 this year. a reporter from the austin american statesman highlighted some of the most high profile shootings in the state. the shooting in allen, texas, brings the number of victims killed in mass shootings in the state to at least 100 during governor greg abbott's two-year term since 2015. that number does not include the shooting in cleveland, texas, last week, which saw five people killed. as the "new york times" reports, texas has some of the country's most permissive gun laws, priding itself on being a state with more than 1 million gun owners despite its recent history of mass shooti