Axios PM

June 21, 2022
Happy Tuesday. Today's PM — edited by Justin Green — is 597 words, a 2-minute read.
1 big thing: "Abject failure" in Uvalde

Uvalde police had enough armed cops inside the school to stop the shooting three minutes after it began — and waited 74 minutes before breaching an unlocked door.
Why it matters: This was "an abject failure, and antithetical to everything we’ve learned over the last two decades since the Columbine massacre," said Col. Steven McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety.
- "The only thing stopping a hallway of dedicated officers from entering Room 111 and 112 was the on-scene commander, who decided to place the lives of officers before the lives of children," McCraw said today at a state Senate hearing investigating the shooting.
A review of security footage doesn't show any officers testing to see if the door was locked, The Texas Tribune reports.
- Instead, police waited around for a key.
- It turns out that the door couldn't be locked from the inside, McCraw said. A teacher reported before the shooting that the lock was broken.
The dizzying chronicle of failures, via Axios' Ivana Saric:
- 8 minutes after the gunman entered: An officer onsite said he had a "hooligan" crowbar that could breach a door. Officers opted to wait for keys.
- 19 minutes after the gunman entered: Police had a ballistic shield onsite.
- 19 officers were in the hallway outside when the first 911 call was made from inside one of the classrooms.
Texas lawmakers hearing the latest details reacted with fury.
2. 🏛️ Trump targets Jan. 6 witness
Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and Georgia Secretary of State COO Gabriel Sterling are sworn in today. Photo: Michael Reynolds/Pool via Getty Images
Multiple election officials spoke today about the intense harassment and protests targeting them in the aftermath of the election, Axios' Shawna Chen reports.
- Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) testified that he and his family faced a barrage of violent threats and a home break-in.
- Arizona's Republican House Speaker Russell "Rusty" Bowers fought back tears as he testified that it is now a "pattern in our lives" to worry about what will happen because so many different groups have set up shop outside his home.
Former President Trump singled out Bowers prior to his testimony today, saying Bowers had once told him "the election was rigged."
- Bowers, who denied ever calling the election rigged, said that after asking "multiple times" for Rudy Giuliani to substantiate claims of voter fraud, Trump interrupted and said, "Give the man what he needs, Rudy!"
3. Pic du jour

For today's summer solstice, people gather for sunrise at Stonehenge in Wiltshire, England.
4. 🌛 Axios takes a (simulated) spin on the moon

Axios' Joann Muller hit the biggest pothole she'd ever seen — a crater on the surface of the moon — while driving GM's new lunar vehicle in a simulation lab.
- Why it matters: With its Artemis missions, NASA wants to create a sustainable presence on the moon. So a few dozen lunar pickup trucks will come in handy as the agency builds infrastructure.
What's happening: A joint effort between GM and Lockheed Martin is building the rover — the Lunar Mobility Vehicle, or LMV.
- The companies' goal is to launch the first autonomous vehicle on the moon by 2025 — before Artemis astronauts arrive.
Using an advanced simulator borrowed from its NASCAR racing activities, GM engineers created a virtual lunar surface, complete with craters, rocks and one-sixth Earth gravity.
- "Driving on the moon is like driving on ice," Jeff Vogt, GM's advanced vehicle dynamics lead engineer, tells Axios.
Joann's simulation confirmed that:
I never lost control of the vehicle — I was only going about 5 mph. But in low gravity, especially when I drove into the crater, it felt like I could get into trouble fast.
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