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Details on 59-year-old Man Who Police Say Opened Fire Inside A Movie Theater In Lafayette, Louisiana; New Fuel to the Fire Over How Hillary Clinton Handled Her State Department Emails. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired July 24, 2015 - 15:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


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[15:31:45] BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN HOST: All right. You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

More on this breaking story out of Lafayette, Louisiana, where we're now learning new details about this 59-year-old man who police say opened fire inside a movie theater last night, killing two people, injuring a number of others before ultimately turning the gun on himself. Authorities in Phoenix City, Alabama, where John Russell Hauser once lived, they just gave a news conference and the sheriff there said, he had never been arrested for any kind of violent act but he did say a number of things. This man was apparently accused of tampering with a gas line and damaging a home where he had been evicted. He had also been denied a gun permit because of his criminal history specifically a report of domestic violence filed by his then wife. And he has been arrested for a previous arson case. So that explain that they say.

More and more, we are also witnessing these unprovoked violent attacks on unlikely targets, public places that should typically be presumed safe. So why is this happening?

Let me bring in our CNN legal analyst Phil Holloway who is with me now.

And before we get into -- listen, guns and movie theaters, just from your legal perspective, you listened to the news conference with the sheriff there in Russell County, Alabama, talking specifically about how they had denied him the concealed carry permit. You had some thoughts on that. What was that?

PHILLIP HOLLOWAY, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, the sheriff is absolutely correct. That was a legitimate reason for him to deny being granted the permit to have a concealed weapon. It would not, however, have been enough to prevent him from purchasing, if he wanted to, a gun from a federally licensed firearm dealer because the federal firearms forum ask if you have been adjudicated as mentally defective, not if merely have you ever had treatment for any kind of mental disorder but have you been adjudicated as such or are you currently under a restraining order of some type. BALDWIN: OK. And we know he had been treated apparently for some

sort of mental illness in 2008 and 2009. That had been sealed hearing though from his then wife, specifically manic depression and/or bipolar disorder.

As far as firearms in movie theaters, you are there in Georgia and so you do -- I don't know if it's all the time or on occasion, you go to the movie with your firearm.

HOLLOWAY: One will never know. But that's correct. Sometimes I do.

BALDWIN: And so, why do you do that?

HOLLOWAY: Well, to me, it's a matter of personal security, personal safety. I believe that my personal safety is my own personal responsibility. If I have a right to live, I have a right to protect my life.

I've been in and around the criminal justice system. I was a deputy sheriff when I was 18 years old. I started shooting guns when I was nine or ten years old. So to me, they are something that is a - they are comfortable. It's a tool. It is an option in the event of a threat posed like this guy that went into the movie theater last night.

It's not for everybody and I'm not suggesting that everyone should go out and buy a gun and take it to the movies with them every time because active shooter situations are very, very dangerous. And if you have 15 or 20 people in a movie theater who are carrying a concealed weapon and don't know where the gunfire is coming from, who know what is could happen. That could be an absolute disaster because active shooter situation as the police officers are trained that just because somebody has a gun and they are in plain clothes, they may not be the bad guy.

[15:35:03] BALDWIN: Do you think, just quickly final question, do you think when we talk about soft targets, sporting events, movie theaters, obviously we are watching this trial play in Aurora, Colorado, should we be walking through metal detectors? I mean, should things change, sadly?

HOLLOWAY: Well, of course, there's no really good answer to that question because, you know, security can be as simple as a police officer posted at the front door off duty maybe working a second job. We can have metal detectors. At some point there's a cost/benefit analysis. And you and I are both right now sitting in very secure buildings that are not soft targets. We have armed guards here.

But, you know, when you're out in public, who knows what is around. Just because there's a sign on the door that says no guns allowed, that's not going to stop somebody from walking in and opening fire because by definition of criminals, Brooke, as you know, do not follow the law.

BALDWIN: Right. Well, a metal detector may not either. Phillip Holloway, thank you. HOLLOWAY: Yes. James Holmes snuck it in the back door.

BALDWIN: He did, sadly. Thank you.

Coming up at the top of the hour, we learn more about the troubled history of this gunman who shot and killed those two young women in that theater last night in Lafayette.

And next, more importantly, we're learning about these remarkable two women who were killed. More on their stories. That's where we want to focus, next.

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[15:40:46] BALDWIN: Now to those two women who died as a result of the shootings in the movie theater last night in Lafayette, Louisiana. Police say 21-year-old Mayci Breaux died there in the theater. She was with her boyfriend who was wounded. The other, 33-year-old Jillian Johnson, died at the hospital. And here she was just actually over the weekend playing in her band, playing the ukulele.

With me now, I have CNN's Boris Sanchez who can tell me just a little bit more about these two young women.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So sad to see these lives cut short, Brooke. 21-year-old Mayci Breaux, 33-year-old Jillian Johnson. They were both killed in the shooting.

And Macy was a student at LSU. She was set to begin radiology classes at Lafayette general health in the coming days. She was in the theater, as you mentioned, with her boyfriend. They sat in front of the shooter. And they were among the first injured in the shooting. Matthew, her boyfriend, is still in the hospital right now. Coincidentally, at Lafayette general health, where she was supposed to start studying in a few days.

Meantime, Jillian Johnson's friends and family are coming forward. They say she was an artist, someone who is extremely creative. She played ukulele in that band. She was also very active in the community. She ran a boutique with her husband and her brother in Lafayette as well.

In all this, we're hearing about some glimpses of heroism from two teachers that were in the theater, yes, Alley Martin and Jenna Mo. Alley apparently dove in front of her friend to kind of get her out of the shooter's range. She wounded her leg during that and despite the wounded leg she ran and pulled the fire alarm potentially saving lives. One of her friends, Camille, spoke with CNN today saying that she's not surprised that her friend Alley did this.

BALDWIN: Do we have it, guys? Sorry, we don't have it.

SANCHEZ: It appears we don't have that sound bite. But Camille was saying that as teachers they are trained to put themselves in from of danger to protect their students and to protect each other. That this was part of her training. We heard from law enforcement if it hadn't been for him pulling out an alarm, this could have been much worse.

BALDWIN: Hearing about a hospital worker and his wife who happen to be in the theater as well. And they took it upon themselves to take one of the wounded to the hospital. All of these stories coming out on the wake of something so tragic.

Boris, thank you so much.

Coming up here, more controversy and confusion over the handling of Hillary Clinton's state department emails. Both "The New York Times" and justice department issuing corrections today. We'll talk to Karen Finney, senior spokeswoman for the Clinton campaign, next.

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(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

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(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: And if you know someone extraordinary like that, please tell us. Go to CNNheroes.com.

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[15:52:38] BALDWIN: All right. Here we go. New fuel to the fire over how Hillary Clinton handled her state department emails. Fast- moving developments today. Let me bring you up to speed here. An inspector general for the intelligence community telling members of Congress some material Clinton emailed from her private server contained classified information.

But here's the catch. The inspector noting that the material was not identified as classified, so really it's unclear if Hillary Clinton realized she could be compromising classified information. Just a short time ago during the public appearance she criticized what she called a lot of inaccuracies. Here she was.

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HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: First, I want to say a word about what's in the news today. And it's because there have been a lot of inaccuracies, as Congressman Cummings made clear this morning. Maybe the heat is getting to everybody. We all have a responsibility to get this right. I have released 55,000 pages of emails. I have said repeatedly that I will answer questions before the house committee. We are all accountable to the American people to get the facts right and I will do my part.

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BALDWIN: All right. So first up, let me bring in CNN global affairs correspondent Elise Labott who has been all over this today.

Elise, continue to set this up for me. Explain this.

ELISE LABOTT, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: It was such a roller coaster today, Brooke. You know, last night as we were going to bed, the "New York Times" printed a story that there was a criminal investigation into Hillary Clinton's use of her emails, that these inspectors general at the state department and the inspector general sent that to the department of justice. By the time we talked to our sources, it appeared that wasn't necessarily the case. "The New York Times" backtracked and said it was the criminal investigation of the use of classified information, but didn't necessarily finger Secretary Clinton and now there is no criminal investigation.

What's really going on here is that the inspector general of the intelligence community is concerned that some classified material is in Secretary Clinton's email server. That there was some material that was sent around, but that wasn't properly marked by the state department.

[15:55:03] BALDWIN: OK.

LABOTT: And so, it looks likes there's a tug of war now between the state department and the intelligence community over how to classify information, and basically this is all a result of the use of the private server. The intelligence community is concerned that this was all on a private server. They don't have access to the server, and that further emails could be compromised as the state department is going through trying to release it to the public.

BALDWIN: OK. With that as the backdrop, and Elise, I appreciate it and stay with me, if you want to pipe up in this conversation. Karen Finney is with me here on set. She is the senior spokeswoman for the Clinton campaign.

Karen Finney, thank you so much for coming by.

KAREN FINNEY, SENIOR SPOKESWOMAN, HILLARY FOR AMERICA: Great to be here.

BALDWIN: So let me just begin with. Because I'm sure you have maybe some words about "the New York Times." We're CNN, so I want to keep this focused, if I can. Listen, if Hillary Clinton was saying she did not know that those certain classified emails were indeed classified, that they weren't marked that way. My first question is someone did designate them classified, who would that be?

FINNEY: So let me take a step back.

BALDWIN: OK.

FINNEY: The reason we are here is because the "New York Times" was fed a story, we believe from congressional Republicans, they went with it, and then today piece by piece, as information has come out, it's been corrected. You have the DNI, you have Congressman Elijah Cummings who is the ranking member on the committee, as well as the justice department all saying that the "New York Times" story was wrong. There was no criminal investigation.

BALDWIN: OK. Let's move "the New York Times" story.

FINNEY: No, no, it's important, though. Then in terms of classification, and this is the other piece of that, this is essentially, the state department just had their briefing. And essentially, I think where we're at is when the decision is made, so Hillary said, I want my emails released. So they were going through a process of reviewing and then making them public.

In that process, another department can weigh in and say we now want to classify this information. So you have one intelligence agency saying, hey, that information should have been classified, and the state department, as they just said a couple hours ago saying we don't consider that to be classified information. So at the time she sent it, it wasn't classified, and people have been clarifying that, and yesterday another agency is saying they think it is.

BALDWIN: So who dropped the ball in not classifying it?

FINNEY: It's a disagreement. I mean, I just want to say disagreement between two agencies about what should or should not be. But here is the thing. Within that sort of disagreement, again, I think the congressional Republicans have exploited that to attack Hillary again rather than - you know, she has said, if you got questions for me since last November --.

BALDWIN: She had a private server, Karen.

FINNEY: No. That's not the reason -- that's not what happened.

BALDWIN: Explain it for me.

FINNEY: So if she had sent the -- remember there's two parts of -- two ways you can sent emails at the state department. There's a classified system and a non-classified system. Again, remember from the state department's perspective at the time the email was sent, it was not classified. So even if she would have sent it on a dot-gov. non- classified system.

BALDWIN: So who screwed up?

FINNEY: You know, I don't know the answer to that, because there's so many pieces of information that we don't really know. And again, the "New York Times" kind of went with stuff without actually even seeing the documents they were talking about. So again, I think this is why we have to let the facts play out and not get ahead of the facts as Hillary was just saying.

BALDWIN: Elise Labott, let me just pivot and turn to you because I know you've been all in this all day. You have a question for Karen?

LABOTT: Well, look, I think it's a legitimate argument that, you know, it's necessarily about the state department's classification and, you know, this would have taken place if the secretary was operating on a state department network. But I mean, I think the question that's raised is, you know, clearly this was sensitive information that was being passed around on a private server. Whether it was considered classify or not, the question is should this have been done on a classified server? And I think that's what the classified community is saying here. This was all done in a private server that they don't have access to and that, you know, classified information could be compromised on something that the government doesn't have access to.

BALDWIN: You have 30 seconds.

FINNEY: Actually, the letter that I saw that was released by Congressman Cummings' office was talking about the process of releasing information, the process of classifying or declassifying the information.

LABOTT: It's both.

FINNEY: Not what server the email was on. They're disagreeing about pieces of information, should it be classified or should not be classified? Again, thanks to the Republicans on the hill and the very motivated attacks on Hillary, here we are, yet again, correcting a story.

BALDWIN: We have to leave it, ladies.

Karen Finney, thank you for coming by. Elise Labott, thank you so much. I'm sure we will hear more on that.

In the meantime, I'm Brooke Baldwin here in New York. Thank you so much for being with me. Have a wonderful weekends. But don't move. "The LEAD" with Jake Tapper starts right now.