Transcript of Trump Meets CEOs At Mar-A-Lago, School Shooting In Wisconsin, Pig Kidney Transplant

CEOs and foreign leaders have been visiting Mar a Lago.

Some kept their distance from president Trump in his first term, but are now trying to get close enough to persuade him. What did he say about his visitors and other things in a post election news conference?

I'm Steve Inskeep with Michelle Martin, and this is up first from NPR News. Here is how the day unfolded at a Wisconsin school.

A second grade student called 911 to report a shooting at school.

What do police know about the student who opened fire killing 2 people and then herself?

And a gene edited pig kidney has, for the first time, been transplanted into a human.

Feel like a whole new person. Like, I got a second chance in life.

What does this mean for people desperately waiting for an organ? Stay with us. We'll give you the news you need to start your day.

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President-elect Donald Trump has been holding court from his home in Palm Beach, Florida.

Business leaders have been making their way there, tech CEOs, pharma CEOs, and yesterday, the CEO of a Japanese investment bank promising to spend $100,000,000,000 in the United States. The president-elect talked about this at his first news conference since the election.

This is 1 of the big differences, I think, between we were talking about it before. 1 of the big differences between the first term in the first term, everybody was fighting me. In this term, everybody wants to be my friend.

In truth, some people wanted to be his friend last time, but there is a difference. People who don't like this say wealthy people are bending the knee, but how do the executives see it?

NPR senior national political correspondent Mara Liasson was watching, and she's with us now. Good morning, Mara.

Good morning.

So the president elect says everybody's trying to be his friend. Sounds about right?

Yeah. It does. Some of this is the normal anticipation and enthusiasm that the business community, billionaires, Wall Street would have to any new Republican president who's gonna cut their taxes and limit regulation. Some of it's because Trump's takeover of the Republican party is now complete. There are no more Ramnies and Flakes and Shainies around.

And some of it is that he's seen as a more legitimate president this time because he won the popular vote, but a lot of it is just a change in the approach of foreign leaders and business leaders and Democrats. They are using a different way to resist Trump compared to his first term. They're choosing their battles instead of across the board resistance. They believe his mind can be changed on things like TikTok, which now he sees as useful to him, or cryptocurrency because his family is now in the crypto business. So I think it's a different kind of resistance.

He talked about various dinners he's having with the CEOs. What stood out to you there?

Well, you know, he described the dinner he had with 2 big pharma CEOs and that industry's lobbying group. They're concerned about his pick for health and human services department, Robert f Kennedy, who is an anti vaccine activist. Here's how Trump described RFK Junior.

No. I think he's gonna be much less radical than you would think. I think he's got a very open mind, or I wouldn't have put him there. He's gonna be very much less radical.

So he was asked about his own views on vaccines, and he gave full support to the polio vaccine. He said it's not going anywhere. But Trump did leave the door open to those who believe that vaccines are linked to autism, something that has been widely debunked. He said, quote, we're going to find out. He also wasn't clear about his position on vaccine mandates.

He was asked if schools should mandate vaccines, and he said I'm not a big mandate person. But he also gave the pharma executive something they wanted. He was very hard on pharmacy benefit managers who pharmaceutical companies blame for price hikes. He scornfully referred to them as middlemen.

Well, he and he also invited reporters into his home for a press conference. I think this is the first 1 since the election. Just say more about that. How did it go?

Well, it was a bit like all of his rallies in the campaign condensed into an hour and 10 minutes. He covered a lot of the same ground. He said that everything was pretty much perfect when he was president. There were no wars, no inflation. Now that he's gonna be president again, he said that things will be great again.

There were a lot of exaggeration and that he won the the youth vote by 34% or that he brought down the price of insulin to $35 which although he did something on that, it was Biden who who brought it down to $35, and there were still a lot of grievances. He talked about how he was gonna sue the board of the Pulitzer Prizes and the Des Moines Register for publishing a poll that showed him losing. So very similar to the old Trump.

That is NPR's Mara Lisen. Mara, thank you.

You're welcome.

An all too familiar ritual took place at a church outside of Madison, Wisconsin last night, a vigil for the victims and the survivors of a school shooting yesterday at Abundant Life Christian School.

Pastor Marcus Allen worked to comfort the crowd with prayer.

We just ask that you come to the hearts of parents on tonight to take a chance by sending their kids to school, a place that should be safe for them, god.

Police say a teenager opened fire at that school yesterday, killing 2 people and then herself. 6 others are wounded.

Sarah Lehr of Wisconsin Public Radio has been following the story, and she's with us now. Good morning, Sarah.

Hello.

So what do we know now about what happened inside the school?

Madison police chief Sean Barnes says the first law enforcement officers arrived at the school on the east side of the city of Madison within 4 minutes of a second grader calling 911.

Don't let that soak in for a minute. A second grade student called 911 at 10:57 AM to report a shooting at school.

Police believe the shooting happened inside a study hall where there were students gathered from multiple grades. The 2 people killed by the shooter are a teacher and a teenage student.

So as we as we just heard, we know that the shooting occurred at the school late yesterday morning. I know that the police spoke to the public several times throughout the day. And finally, last night, the police chief, Sean Barnes, as you just told us, he told us some details about the shooter. Could you just remind us of what he said?

Yes. So the shooter has been ID'd as 15 year old Natalie Rupnow. Her first name was Natalie, but she went by Samantha. Police say she died of what's believed to be a self inflicted gunshot wound.

And what do we know about the survivors? How are they doing?

As of late Monday, police said at least 2 students were in critical condition with life threatening injuries. Other victims, including a teacher, suffered injuries that weren't life threatening. 1 mother, Mireille Jean Charles, has 3 boys who all go to school at Abundant Christian. And she was relieved that none of her sons were injured, but she also says she expects them to have emotional trauma for a long time.

This is not okay. If your kids has had school, they are not okay. If they are church, they are not okay. If they are outside elsewhere, they are not okay. Where where are they going to be sick?

When Jean Charles was reunited with her boys on Monday, she says she cried and prayed. But she also says thoughts and prayers aren't enough.

Sarah, obviously, there are some things we still wanna know. And then the chief among them is why? Like, why? But what else are the authorities saying that they're still investigating?

Right. So the biggest question, why? That's still unclear. Police say they're still trying to to piece together a motive. Officers have recovered a handgun from the scene.

Madison police say they're working with federal officials to trace the origins of the gun. The police chief said late Monday, it's not clear how exactly a 15 year old got this gun. Officers have searched the shooter's home in Madison. They searched it on Monday. And police say the family of the shooter has been cooperative.

So are the authorities saying they're gonna share more as they know more?

Yes. There's another news conference set for this afternoon, and Madison's police chief has warned people to be wary of rumors and misinformation on social media.

That is Sarah Lehr of Wisconsin Public Radio. Sarah, thank you so much.

Thank you for having me.

We can reveal this morning what doctors have done for the first time to save people who need organ transplants.

Surgeons have implanted a new kind of engineered pig kidney into a living person.

Pig kidney, human being. NPR health correspondent Rob Stein was in the operating room during the procedure, the only journalist in there. Hi there, Rob.

Hey, Steve.

Wow. What an experience. What was it like?

You know, it was quite dramatic. I met the patient at NYU Langone Health in New York City just minutes before she was wheeled to the OR. Her name is Tijuana Looney. She's 53 from Gadsden, Alabama. How are you feeling this morning?

I feel blessed. I'm excited.

Why are you excited?

To get a kidney. You know, it's gonna change my life. We're gonna make history today.

Looney's immune system would reject a human kidney, so the FDA let her get a pig kidney that's been genetically engineered so her body could accept it even though this is all very experimental.

This is blowing my mind because you're telling me, Rob, not just that people are using a pig kidney because human organs are in short supply, which they are. They're using a pig kidney because they think, in this case, it is the best choice better than a human organ for this person. So how did this operation come together?

As 1 team of surgeons started preparing Looney for the kidney, another team flew to rural Virginia to retrieve 2 kidneys from a modified pig cloned at a biotech company's research farm. After the chopper returned with the kidneys, the surgeon stitched 1 of them to Looney's blood supply, then started blood flowing from Looney's body into the pig kidney for the first time. Let's give a listen.

I'm taking the clamp off of the vein. You'll see it'll be kinda a little bit dark colored initially. And now I'm taking the clamp off the artery, and it should be nice and pink.

Yeah. That is.

Then, Steve, the next test came. That's when surgeons made sure the kidney was doing its job which is making urine.

Mhmm. Look at that. Beautiful. Gorgeous. Just pouring out.

Thank you.

And here's what doctor Robert Montgomery, the lead surgeon, said right after the 7 hour operation.

When you really think about what we just did, it's pretty amazing. Why is that? Putting a pig organ in a human being and having it work right away, and it's like Star Wars stuff. Right?

I especially like the applause there, Rob. So what happens now?

So far, the pig hit, he seems to be working great. In fact, Looney was just charged earlier than expected to an apartment near the hospital where doctors are keeping a close eye on her. I visited her there 2 weeks after the surgery.

So how are you doing? I am doing wonderful. It's amazing. Feel like a whole new person, like I only got a second chance in life.

Now, Steve, it's important to point out that 2 other patients who got pig kidneys with different modifications died within weeks of their operations. So did 2 men who got genetically modified pig hearts, but the pig organs seemed to work well in those cases, and they were much sicker than Looney. So doctors are hopeful this time. And the hope is that someday, genetically modified pigs could provide an unlimited supply of kidneys, livers, hearts, and other organs to help solve the organ shortage. But, you know, it's important to point out that there are worries about all this, about pig organs spreading dangerous viruses to people, about breeding and slaughtering thousands of pigs just for their organs, and about experimenting on desperately ill patients like this.

So there's still a lot to be worked out.

Well, Well, thanks for your eyewitness account, Rob. Really appreciate it.

You bet, Steve.

NPR health correspondent Rob Stein.

And that's up first for Tuesday, December 17th. I'm Michelle Martin.

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