France Smolders After Protests Turn Violent

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And to combat negative poll numbers, it would be nice to have a press conference. It might be best if she reconsidered. Amid record low approval ratings, a dramatic departure at the White House. From ABC News, this is Start Here. I'm Brad Milkey. Last week, it became clear that a series of big demonstrations on the outskirts of Paris were becoming something much larger. These had started about protests about conditions in local high schools. Students tired of not having school. Having enough teachers. And crumbling buildings. With a sense that the system had been so stretched thin, it had simply stopped caring about them. That was their perspective, at least. It was also no coincidence that these protests were picking up in some of the poorer parts of the city. Well, then, these demonstrations grew. They grew from a couple cities to dozens. They grew in numbers from thousands to hundreds of thousands. And they also grew well beyond high schoolers and their parents. They started encompassing broader dissatisfaction with the French state. Well, this week. This weekend, these protests reached a fever pitch. And in some cases, started transforming into riots. We've seen violence. We've seen looting. Fires. Suddenly, an entire nation has been plunged into crisis mode. So let's go straight to ABC's foreign correspondent, Tom Soufie-Burge. He's based in Paris. Tom, what is happening there? So the protests on Saturday were pitched as something larger than all of the demonstrations we've seen in recent weeks, Brad. So we've had this protest movement. We've had this protest movement. And Saturday was billed as a wider demonstration, not only about the condition of French schools and the students joining that, but also about the cost of living crisis, the high price of gas. And also, it was organized also by the movement Gilets Jaunes, the yellow vests. People think back to 2018. There was a huge demonstration movement right across France going against the government. The demonstrations didn't take long to spiral out of control on Saturday. And it went to a whole new level. And it went to a whole new level of violence. There were massive confrontations with the police in cities right across France, even in some of France's overseas territories. There was tear gas being used by the police, water cannon. There was complete pandemonium in multiple cities. I mean, there was a sense of anarchy, I think, for a while. In the capital, Paris, there was mass, mass widespread violence right in the center across quite a significant area. A lot of destruction. Now, France is not new to violent protests, but this was something we haven't seen for quite some time in France. There was just wanton violence, a huge amount of destruction, people torching cars, people smashing windows, people smashing buildings. And even in certain cities, we saw iconic historic buildings torch, for example, in the city of Limoges, in central southwestern France, the town hall, the Mairie, a very old historic building. It was just engulfed with flames. And even the spiral of that historic building just came collapsing down. We also saw the tourism office in Lyon, in the southeast of France, torched as well, arson attack. So, you know, this was huge violence. There were a lot of police officers injured. There were nearly 2,400 arrests on Saturday alone across the country. About more than half a million people. People participated, according to the French Interior Ministry, and the French Interior Ministry say nearly 1,000 of its officers were injured, severed them in a serious condition. What has been the response of the government, Tom? Because, I mean, if the initial complaint was the government's not taking us seriously, how do you deal with this without making the protesters point for them? Or, I mean, because this seems so dangerous to so many people in the streets. The French government has come out quite clearly and blamed elements of the far left and says that delinquents, youth, basically got involved. We saw, like, crowds, gangs, mobs, whatever you want to call them, of young, masked, mainly men, carrying out the violence, attacking police, attacking police fans. And really, I think the police lost control in certain French cities at certain points. Now, there is this kind of blame game now. The far right, who's doing very well in the polls, six months out from an election, has come in, blaming the far left. The government is also blaming the far left. The far left. The far left is hitting back and saying, well, actually, you know, it's the government incompetence, police incompetence, which led this to happen. I mean, there has been a lot of anger amongst the French population in particular about the conduct of the police, basically saying the police have been too heavy handed in previous protests. For example, there was a case of a young man who who lost his hand from a stun grenade. The French police were banned from using stun grenades in certain demonstrations prior to Saturday. But then on the eve of Saturday's demonstration, the French interior minister said, actually, stun grenades are back on, they're allowed by the police. It was ominous, that sign, I think, in the sense that it was almost as if the French government were expecting something quite big to happen and potentially expect, you know, a confrontation to happen. The French President Emmanuel Macron, late on Sunday, addressing the nation, and his message was twofold. His one message was, we will not accept this level of violence that the French government is now going to crack down and crack down hard. Those who. destroyed property must pay, those who looted, because we saw widespread looting, shops, people just going into shops, grabbing what they wanted, smashing the windows first and then going in and literally just taking what they wanted. Some shopkeepers, storekeepers were trying to, you know, protect their own stores, you know, absolutely desperate scenes for those people. And then the other message from the French President Emmanuel Macron was that we will listen to the concerns of youth people, that people who demonstrate peacefully and have a legitimate cause, like improving French schools, they will be listened to, they will have a seat at the table, they can take part in and coming up with concrete proposals to address people's concerns and improve the situation in French schools. But, you know, there's no doubt about it, the French government is now coming out and saying, if anyone now tries to perpetrate this kind of violence on the streets, then the French government's going to crack down. Arguably, they've tried to do that in previous protests, and it hasn't worked, and then Saturday was a complete escalation in terms of violence. So, I don't think it will be easy. Right, and I mean, you've talked about it before, like France is no stranger to like really visceral protests, there's a big protest culture. This was something different. I mean, this really reached an inflection point. We'll see if that kind of affects the conversation around these protests going forward. Tom Sufiburic, thank you. Thanks, Brody. Next up on Start Here, what drove a young man to return to his elementary school and open fire? We'll take you to Bend, Oregon after the break. Today, I want to tell you about our friends at Layla Sleep. 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When a mass shooting claimed the lives of three children and a teacher last week in Bend, Oregon, we didn't know some of the barest details, including the identity of the shooter, the weapon the shooter used, or the relationship to the school in question. This weekend, we got a lot. lot more information, and a lot of it is fitting in line with some really troubling trends we have seen elsewhere. Let's take you there right now. ABC's Alex Stone spent the whole weekend in Bend. In fact, Alex, I believe you're on scene right now. What is it like there in that community right now? Brad, this many days later, there is still so much emotion here in the community. I'm outside of Silver Rail Elementary, and still there are large crowds that are showing up. And it is primarily here families with young children, some who attended this elementary school, some who have no connection to this school at all, but they want their young children, who are five, six, seven years old, to show up here and be able to pay their respects and to try to explain to them what unfolded in this school. I'm looking right now at probably 150 people. Many of them are sobbing, leaving flowers and balloons, and just this growing memorabilia. There are therapy dogs that are here, probably a dozen different therapy dogs walking around. It's gutting, obviously, because just seeing this, it looks like a movie scene. The crime scene tape is up all around this school. Just beyond the crime scene tape, investigators are still doing their work. Well, have we learned more about how this unfolded? Because when I heard the initial ages of the victims, I would have thought they would all be the exact same age because they're in the same grade in the same room or something. But it was a five-year-old, an eight-year-old, an 11-year-old. I mean, does that tell us more? About where the shooter went once he shot his way inside? We know from police, he went into a special needs classroom, and the shooter was a special needs student here at this school. And he knew that classroom. He had attended class in that classroom with potentially even those teachers, but it was a setting that he knew well. So it does appear that he targeted a specific classroom. But what we know is it was just before one o'clock on Thursday when he went in. There was, actually, somebody driving by who saw him jump a fence, holding onto the shotgun. That person yelled at the 16-year-old, and the shooter turned at him and actually fired at his vehicle. Right by the driver's seat, through the window. That man's truck is all covered now in bullet holes, but it didn't stop the shooter from continuing in. There were a lot of heroes here. There was not only that first man who tried to stop him, but then there was a teacher who threw her cell phone at the shooter, tried to tackle him. Wow. That didn't work. There was a man who was driving by, and he is the one who, in this community, people are saying, thank goodness for him. Caleb Giamonco, his name, father of two children who attend this school. And he's a concealed weapons permit holder. He happened to be driving by, saw commotion going on, ran in, had his weapon on him, and shot and killed the shooter. We want the bystander who intervened to know, we know he is going through a rough time, but we are grateful, and we think he is a hero. And the belief is? The belief is, had Giamonco not run in and stopped what was going on, the killing would have continued. And this is a horrific incident no matter what, but likely the numbers would have been much higher. More people would have been killed had he not run in there. Right. Well, I mean, a lot of the things you've mentioned so far fit into what investigators have described as a pattern in these types of shootings, right? We have another young man who goes back to his original elementary school or a place from his childhood to carry out a mass attack. You said he was armed. He was armed. By the way, a law enforcement source now says the gun was purchased by his mother. I mean, it sounds like we're still trying to figure out how he got the gun, though. Somehow he got his hands on it. And the question is going to be, did she buy it for him? Did he steal it in some way? That we don't know yet. And here in Oregon, it seems that if it is a long gun, that a parent can give a child a long gun if they are 16 years old. And in this case, he was 16 years old. But we've been talking now to neighbors who say that on Thursday night, police were, you know, raiding that apartment, going through it. Police have been knocking on neighbors' doors asking, do they know either the mother or the shooter? Now we know 16-year-old John Griffin II. Most of the neighbors say they didn't know either of them, that they were very quiet. They didn't socialize with anybody. They never saw him. She rarely came out. But most of the neighbors say, except for police coming over the last couple of days and asking, do you know anything? And raiding the apartment on Thursday night. Otherwise, they haven't seen a whole lot going on at that apartment. Just a terrible scene. Of course, the shooter is dead. And as we know, these three children and a teacher are dead as well. Alex Stone there in Bend, Oregon. Thank you so much. You got it. Thanks, Brad. There's a special phrase in Washington, a Scaramucci. It refers to Anthony Scaramucci, a New York financier who was shockingly named President Donald Trump's communication director back in 2017, only to be dismissed 11 days later after a series of embarrassing leaks and slip-ups. Odds were stacked against me in the job. A Scaramucci became known as a measure of time, 11 days, pretty much the shortest possible amount of time someone can work at the White House. Like, oh, wow, so-and-so only lasted a month? That's less than three Scaramucci's. Well, last Friday, Katie Zachariah managed to set a new record. She resigned after five days. I am so honored to work for President Trump and the American people as the new White House press secretary. She held on to one of the most high-profile jobs in politics, the White House press secretary, for half a Scaramucci. Now, maybe this reflects a rocky first week. Maybe it reflects a growing sense of urgency as new polls come out. In fact, just this weekend, ABC News, The Washington Post, and Ipsos released a new poll showing record-setting numbers for the president. And just like Zachariah, these are not the types of records he wants. ABC's national correspondent Stephen Portnoy joins us from Washington. Stephen, before we talk about anything else, I need the post-mortem on Katie Zachariah as press secretary. How did this happen so quickly? And was she fired or did she resign? She was encouraged to step aside, probably the best way to describe it, Brad, after half a mooch in the office. Look, this really played out in real time, all before our eyes. It was last weekend that we heard from the president that he had announced that Katie Zachariah, whom, frankly, very few of us had ever heard of. She was a pundit on cable news. She had served briefly in the aid. She briefly served in the Trump media organization, the parent company of the president's social media company, Truth Social. And all of a sudden, she is going to be the White House press secretary. And because not much was known about her, except for the fact that she claimed to be a lawyer, when reporters started to do a little digging, the first time she appeared with the president on the South Lawn of the White House, a reporter for The New York Times asked her, where did you pass the bar? And the president, who had called her an attorney in his own social media post, turned to his new press secretary and said, yeah, which state? And Katie Zachariah said, I moved to China. Now, she later explained or tried to that when she moved to China with her husband, it was just after she graduated from Pepperdine University Law School. She had taken the bar exam, didn't pass it, moved to China, did some international transaction law work for a firm based in Beijing. And then it came forward to the end of last week, where by the end of it, after a series of interviews with conservative outlets, including Fox News, where she was challenged on this, the president said to our Rachel Scott, that it might be best if she reconsidered. And I said to Katie, just two minutes ago, I said, Katie, you know, you don't have to do this. You know, she said, this is a lot tougher. I said, welcome to the world of Trump. I'm going to let her make that decision. So last we heard, Brad, there were was perhaps some conversation here in Washington about finding some other opportunity for Katie Zachariah inside the White House. But she did post on social media that it was an honor to work for the president. Past tense. Right. And there's so many clips of her saying, I practiced law. I was a lawyer, served as a corporate lawyer. I don't know what the qualifications are in China, but what a turnaround. In the meantime, Stephen, like it's not just soap opera stuff. Like a press secretary has a couple jobs. One of them is to give information about the president and the policies to the press. The other, though, is to kind of shape how Americans see the White House. According to these new polling numbers, I mean, Americans do not seem particularly keen on this White House at this moment. Two weeks to go until the midterm elections as millions have already cast their ballots. Right. To have all this happening with the press secretary not being at the podium and have this sort of pratfall at the White House as a new ABC News, Washington Post, Ipsos poll illustrates just how unpopular President Trump is in the country. This poll gives the Democrats an eight point lead when voters are asked what candidate they're choosing to send to the House of Representatives. Democrats lead Republicans on that score, 52 percent to 44 percent among likely voters. When it comes to Trump's approval rating, it's at a record low, neither in the second term nor in the first term. Even after January 6th, has Donald Trump been this unpopular in our polling? He's at 33 percent approval, 66 percent disapproval, and just over half, 52 percent, say they disapprove of him strongly. And that's worse than the president was polling just after January 6th. What's behind it? Concerns about the cost of living and about the Iran war. 71 percent in our survey say that gas is unaffordable, and that's up from 28 percent who said the same thing in February before the war began. Nearly two-thirds, 65 percent, say it was a mistake to use force against Iran. Brad, I was over the weekend in northern Kentucky, Cincinnati, Ohio. I happened to talk to a dozen people and asked, what's on their mind. Here's what they had to say. - Gas prices are insane. Just the basics, you know, milk, eggs, and gas. I bought a truck at the worst time, apparently. Everything has gone up and up and up, and you see no end in sight. But beyond concerns about the war, beyond concerns about the cost of living, there are other factors that are weighing on the president's approval rating and popularity. Roughly two-thirds in our poll say the president is not committed to respecting the authority of Congress or of the courts. And 66% say they believe that Trump is using the presidency to enrich himself. It's really interesting because a few years ago, people were like, wow, you know, opposing parties usually do pretty well in the midterms, but then they looked at this map this year and said, ugh, Democrats would be proud just to hold on to what they've got. If they end up picking up seats, let alone four seats, I mean, that would represent a huge sort of shift in the way these parties are seen in the country. All right, Stephen Portnoy, thank you. You bet, Brad. Okay, one more quick break. When we come back, ForeGather. It's twice as cool as being two-gather, and one last thing is next. 30 seconds response time requires monitoring plan with outdoor protection starting at $49.99 a month. Tammy regularly hauls stuff to her kids at college. That's why she shops at BJ's Wholesale Club, saving up to 25% off grocery store prices. Beef jerky, microwave meals, laundry pods, even they can't screw up. Have you met my kids? And with BJ's gas, she gets there for less. They call me the road warrior. This is your home, road warrior mom. Home of the safe. Join for just $20 at BJs.com slash Mesquite. And save 10 cents per gallon for six months. Open soon. Limited time offer, new members only. BJ's, home of the safe. And one last thing. As a child of the 90s, I know a thing or two about boy bands. But I'm not sure what I just saw this weekend. This is from the American Dream Mall in East Rutherford, New Jersey, in which you can hear a crowd going absolutely berserk for a boy band. But compared to NSYNC or the Backstreet Boys, these guys' dance moves? Those were a little less finessed. Meet Boy Throb. About a year ago, a trio of American musicians gathered in Los Angeles with the goal of starting a world-famous boy group. They documented every step on their YouTube channel. They actually showed up for their very first gig dressed in their matching pink tracksuits at a senior living home. But as they perform, you might notice it's not just the three of them on stage. Off to the side, via a computer screen, is the fourth member of Boy Throb. My name is Pink and I'm really glad to meet you. This is Darshan Magdum, a guy in his early 20s from India who has gained a wide internet following for his covers of pop songs. Early on, this group decided they were going to harness this online power. They announced Darshan was their fourth member. They had him record himself separately, add his voice to their songs. They incorporated videos of him into their music videos. Soon, they were publicly campaigning. To get him a visa to the U.S. to join them in person. Our two biggest goals have always been, one, get Darshan to America. And number two, win a Grammy. And this got a ton of traction. Millions of TikTok views. They even got celebrities like Jimmy Kimmel to make public pleas to the State Department. Darshan is more talented than these three guys combined. But overhanging all of this was a hint of suspicion. Like, Darshan is very endearing, but how do I put this? He's not like a singing prodigy or anything. Some of these other guys had once auditioned for American Idol, but hadn't progressed. As a quartet, something about their act was a bit amateurish. Some suggested that perhaps this was kind of a guerrilla art campaign. Ironic fan fiction come to life. Maybe even part of a Nathan Fielder documentary project. And yet, despite the out-of-sync steps and 90s bubblegum pop synthesizer sound, fans from the U.S. and Canada have been following him for years. The internet started flocking to their events in real life. Well, in recent weeks, guess what happened? I got the visa! The group announced Darshan has been approved for an O-1 visa. That's reserved for artists with, quote, extraordinary ability. The immigration lawyer they hired had submitted folders worth of songs, news clippings, petitions, which all led to this scene in New Jersey on Friday, billed by the band as Darshan Day. The American Dream All posted interviews with the fans streaming in. Welcome to New Jersey. Darshan! A live stream crew had actually followed Darshan from the moment he arrived at the airport from India, an American flag draped around his shoulders. Then for the first time, all four members of this group pop, locked, and performed in person. The crowd went wild. A lot of music debates center around who has the best voice, whose songs are the most profound. But if boy throb is any indicator, that's not the only reason we become fans. We really want to be part of a story, part of a journey together. And in the most. online way possible, this group has managed to make a 10,000-mile journey for wannabe celebrities into a saga of togetherness. Excuse me, I forgot the name of their most recent song, Forgetherness. Yes, their new song is actually called Forgether. You cannot tell me that's not a reference to the MTV show Together, the satire about a boy band back in the day that actually then started doing real concerts and they got real fans. I had their album, so that set the stage, clearly, for whatever. world we are living in now. I'm Brad Nolke. I'll see you tomorrow. One gather, two gather, three gather, four gather. Hank joined BJ's Wholesale Club the day he became a father of 30. I coach football. 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