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Florida Mass Shooting Investigation; Trump Delivers Foreign Policy Address. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired June 13, 2016 - 15:00   ET

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


[15:00:00]

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: These actions, along with our disastrous Iran deal, have also reduced our ability to work in partnership with our Muslim allies in the region.

That is why our new goal must be to defeat Islamic terrorism, not nation-building, no more nation-building. It's never going to work. And by the way, we have spent almost $5 trillion over the years on trying to nation-build in the Middle East. And it has been a complete and total disaster.

We're further away now than we were 15 years ago. For instance, the last major NATO mission was Hillary Clinton's war in Libya. That mission helped unleash ISIS on a new continent. I have said NATO needs to change its focus and stop terrorism. We have to focus on terrorism.

And we have to stop terrorism. Since I have raised that criticism and it's OK -- I have gotten no credit for it, but these are minor details -- NATO has since announced a new initiative, front page of "The Wall Street Journal" four days ago, focused on just that. America must unite the whole civilized world in the fight against Islamic terrorism.

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: Pretty much like we did with communism during the Cold War. We have tried it President Obama's way. Doesn't work. He gave the world his apology tour. We got ISIS and many other problems in return. That's what we got. Remember the famous apology tour. We're sorry for everything.

I would like to conclude my remarks today by again expressing our solidarity with the people of Orlando, who have come under this horrific attack. When I'm president, I pledge to protect and defend all Americans who live inside our borders.

Wherever they come from, wherever they were born, I don't care, all Americans living here and following our laws, not other laws, will be protected.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: Thank you. Thank you. We're going to be tough and we're going to be smart and we're going to

do it right. America will be a tolerant and open society. America will also be a safe society. We will protect our borders at home. We will defeat ISIS overseas. We have no choice.

We will ensure every parent can raise their children in peace and safety. We will make America rich again. We will make America safe again. We will make America great again.

Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: The Republican presidential presumed nominee, Donald Trump, issuing a very, very strong statement, strongly reiterating his call for a ban on Muslim immigrants coming to the United States. He says the U.S. has to suspend immigration from areas where terrorism is prevalent right now.

"We have no choice," Donald Trump said. "We need to tell the truth about radical Islam," repeatedly going after Hillary Clinton, the presumptive Democratic nominee, point after point after point.

Gloria Borger is with us, Dana Bash, Peter Bergen, Bob Baer, David Gergen.

Gloria, Hillary Clinton, we had her speech an hour or so ago. She implied very severe criticism of Donald Trump. Never mentioned his name at all. He was not that reluctant.

GLORIA BORGER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: No.

She talked about scapegoating in reference to his policy on Muslims and his ban. But she didn't mention Donald Trump's name. This speech was all about Hillary Clinton. This speech was laying the blame for all of this basically at the feet of Hillary Clinton.

He said Hillary Clinton supports policies that promote the growth of radical Islam. And he said the days of deadly ignorance will end. He declared the end of political correctness. He said very strongly that, you know, you can't -- you know, you can't have political correctness and attack the problem at its core.

And, you know, it's very clear to me that we saw today two completely different visions of what we have to do to stop these attacks in this country. And also, by the way, he had this reasoning which said that Hillary Clinton can never be a friend of the gay community if she lets in these people in this country who would attack and kill gays.

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And, so, he sort of turned Hillary Clinton's reasoning on its head, clearly playing to his base in the Republican Party, but also trying to expand his base and say the Republican -- the Democrats haven't done a thing about this. I am the only one who can say it and actually get these things done, because they have been hamstrung by President Obama and Hillary Clinton.

BLITZER: Dana, he said she has no clue what radical Islam is. When she was on CNN earlier this morning, she did say something previously she had been reluctant to say. Let me play a clip of that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: From my perspective, it matters what we do more than what we say. I have clearly said that we face terrorist enemies who use Islam to justify slaughtering innocent people. And, you know, whether you call it radical jihadism, radical Islamism, I think they mean the same thing.

I'm happy to say either. But what I won't do, because I think it's dangerous for our efforts to defeat this threat, is to demonize and demagogue and declare war on an entire religion. That plays right into ISIS' hands.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: In her speech an hour or so ago, she did speak of radical jihadists.

DANA BASH, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right.

Look, that was a very clear attempt to try to take one rhetorical, very potent rhetorical weapon away from Republicans and right now Donald Trump, which is, and we heard it from all of the Republican candidates before there was only one left, that you can't -- it's weak to not say that, say the term radical Islamic terrorism, because it shows that, you know, you sort of care more about political correctness than defining the problem, and if you don't define the problem, you can't find the solution.

That was certainly the goal of Hillary Clinton there. In terms of Donald Trump's speech, I thought it was vintage Trump, using all of the buzzwords and again the sort of catchphrases that made him so successful with Republican primary voters. You got to be tough. We got to end it. We have to make sure that we, you know, do the right thing, stay at this, make America great, I mean, a lot of kind of Trumpisms, not a lot of policy prescriptions.

He talked about sharing intelligence, intelligence-gathering, hiring an attorney general, appointing one who is going to fight radical Islamic terrorism. You know, that certainly I think you would hear the Obama administration argue that they have tried to do that. The Bush administration post-9/11 tried to do that as well.

So, that's interesting. Also, just one note that, you know, I think that there are probably a lot of conservatives out there, maybe not a lot -- there are some conservatives out there who heard what Donald Trump said about the gay community and went, oh, OK, that's where the Republican Party is now. I think that we should note that, the fact that he said -- obviously, this attack in Orlando was on a gay nightclub -- people who people should be able to love who they want and express their identity, for a Republican nominee to say that is pretty incredible, especially...

BORGER: And Hillary Clinton is not really for you.

BASH: Yes, exactly. Exactly.

But if you go back in time to 2004, when the last Republican president ran against gay marriage, and here you have him, as you said, trying to sort of be supportive of gay rights, but also use it a club on those who want to get rid of gay rights, is pretty astonishing.

BLITZER: Peter Bergen, you were listening very carefully. You have been studying terrorism for a long time. You heard Hillary Clinton's recipe for dealing in the aftermath of the Orlando terror attack. Now you have heard Donald Trump's recipe for dealing with it. Your thoughts?

PETER BERGEN, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: his big idea is banning Muslim immigration from countries where terrorism exists.

The problem with that idea, I have looked at 300 terrorism cases since 9/11. Four out of five of them were -- are American citizens or American legal permanent residents. And in fact every lethal terrorist attack in the United States since 9/11 has been carried by an American citizen or an American legal permanent resident.

So, you know, we can't -- I mean, for his idea to work, you would have to go back 4.5 decades to ban the parents of Major Nidal Hasan, who killed 13 people at Fort Hood, Texas, when they arrived in Arlington, Virginia. And history doesn't work like that . You can't go back.

So, I mean, whole idea is nonsensical, it would be ineffective. I think it's also unconstitutional. It was interesting. He was quite careful not to say we're going to ban Muslim immigration. He said going to ban immigration from certain areas, because obviously it would unconstitutional to have a religious test for immigration to the United States.

We have never done that. And we have never done anything similar to that in our history. It would like saying, well, members of the mafia are Italian and therefore no Italians should come into the country in the 1920s. Obviously, no one said that. And if they had, it would have been a bad idea and the country would have be a very different place.

So I think there are grounds to be very -- constitutionally, I think what he's suggesting is unreasonable, but also I think it would be ineffective.

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BLITZER: He said suspend immigration from areas where terrorism is prevalent. That's referring to Middle East countries, Muslim countries, if you will, until, he said, until we fully understand what is going on. That's similar to what he had said earlier.

Let's get Bob Baer to weigh in on this as well. Bob, what did you think of the presentation?

BOB BAER, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, I agree with Peter.

It is impractical to ban immigration from places like Saudi Arabia, Pakistan. There's just way too many people that are coming this way. On the other hand, what I will say is -- and I have to agree with Trump -- is the immigration system is broken.

A lot of these people are just waved through. The background investigations depend on the countries they come from. A lot of these countries in the Middle East are not turning the police files over. So what scares me now is, there's going to another attack and it's going to be an immigrant and it's going to be somebody who passed through the filters of some country that's not cooperative, and this is going to be a whole new discussion.

But right now, he hasn't offered any solutions that are going to work. This man in Orlando was an American citizen. And there was no grounds to arrest him. He hadn't committed violence. He had spoken his mind, which for the FBI is not enough, and we simply cannot bring on preventive detention on people like this.

So, you know, he is not offering a helpful solution.

BLITZER: David Gergen, we did hear, also, from Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump two very, very different approaches toward the issue of guns in America. You heard that distinction. And it was powerful.

DAVID GERGEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: It was, indeed.

This is one of the most important speeches Donald Trump has given in the campaign. I think it was Trump at full-throttle, fiery, passionate and it's going to be very polarizing for his supporters. And I think he will gain some supporters out of this speech.

There will be an argument. Listen, he took the bark off. He told it like it is. He was very plainspoken about what we face, radical Islam, and that these other candidates, the president, are dancing around the realities here. They will not give -- they not only use rhetoric that's politically correct, but they don't take strong action. He's going to take the action.

It may be impractical, but at least he's a man who brings a sort of muscular sense to responding to it. Where I think he's going to really, really anger the left is that he dismisses so quickly anything about guns. You know, he wraps himself in the Second Amendment and the NRA, when, in fact, there is room here for finding ways to work together across party aisles on guns.

And that is whether the question -- why isn't the -- how is it that a guy who has been interviewed three times for ties to terrorism and is on a list, is in a database, and he goes out and buys an assault weapon, an assault rifle, why doesn't that database on the assault rifle purchase ping the database on this guy and so that people are alerted to it? It's nuts that these databases are not connected to each other. And

you are going to find reasonable political figures say, listen, let's do some things that actually work, not fiery rhetoric from each side. Stop calling each other names. And let's settle down and see if we can't find some real solutions.

That's what the 9/11 Commission did after 9/11. We need some effort like that now.

BLITZER: All right, guys. Everybody, stand by, because we're going to continue our special coverage on the aftermath of the Orlando terror attack.

In the meantime, I want to go back to Brooke Baldwin. She's live in Orlando -- Brooke.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Wolf. Thank you so much.

And thank all you for being here with me in Orlando. I'm Brooke Baldwin. You're watching CNN's special live coverage of America's worst terror attack since 9/11 and the deadliest shooting in U.S. history.

Just a quick lay of the land here, as we are midday here in Orlando. Just over my left shoulder, you can see it is the Pulse nightclub. You can that black sign and actually just another block the other way is the hospital where so many of these victims are being treated. We will have an update for you in just a moment.

But let me just pause because we're getting new video here. And this is just absolutely gut-wrenching video from inside of the Pulse nightclub showing the exact moments when those initial shots rang out. I want to play the video for you in full just so you can hear, you can feel how this night went so horribly wrong.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED WITNESS: I'm at the club.

(GUNSHOTS)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: The woman right there who you saw in the glasses on that Snapchat video, here name, Amanda Alvear, 25 years young. She did not make it out of that nightclub Sunday morning. She recorded the video on Snapchat, a recording that actually would be her final moments here.

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The gunman, we are learning a little bit more about him, apparently inspired by ISIS. He actually dialed 911 himself three different times in the midst of opening fire on all of these innocent young people. In one of these calls, he pledged his allegiance to ISIS, he pledged

his allegiance to the Boston bombers, the FBI declaring just a short time ago this killer was radicalized, but he was not following any direct orders.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAMES COMEY, FBI DIRECTOR: We are going through the killer's life, as I said, especially his electronics, to understand as much as we can about his path and whether there was anyone else involved, either in directing him or assisting him.

So far, we see no indication that this was a plot directed from outside the United States, and we see no indication that he was part of any kind of network.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: We are also learning a very good possibility, that this exact attack appears to have been in the works for a number of weeks. Authorities telling CNN today that the shooter recently tried to buy -- we know he had obviously weapons, but he tried to buy this military-grade body armor and those store owners refused to sell it to him.

Let's begin this hour with justice correspondent Pamela Brown, who has more on the investigation in, and also, Pam, on the shooter who we now know was investigated by the FBI at least once before. He was on some sort of watch list. He was cleared years ago. What is the FBI saying to you as far as determining the why, the how this happened?

PAMELA BROWN, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, the FBI director, James Comey, came out today, defended the way the FBI handled it back in 2013, when it looked into the gunman.

Essentially, he had made some inflammatory remarks to his co-workers talking about associations that he had with al Qaeda and Hezbollah, so his co-workers came to the FBI and he was checked out, the FBI says. They looked into his past travels to Saudi Arabia and found that there was no ties to any terrorist groups there.

They looked at any holdings related to him, his past criminal record. And they actually him twice where he admitted that, in fact, he did make these remarks, but he said that he made them up because he felt like his co-workers were taunting him because he was Muslim.

So after 10 months of investigating the gunman, the FBI decided to close the case because it didn't find any derogatory information on him, according to James Comey, and then again the next year, the FBI interviewed him as part of an investigation into this American suicide bomber. The FBI wanted to know how close his relationship was with him.

We know they went to the same mosque. But, again, the FBI at that point essentially found that he did not have close ties to the suicide bomber and didn't find any derogatory information and moved on, and essentially he just fell off the radar for the FBI and was not considered a high-priority target. But now, of course, the FBI is going back, taking a good, hard look to see if anything was missed.

Here's what James Comey had to say about that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COMEY: We're also going to look hard at our own work to see whether there's something we should have done differently. So far, the honest answer is, I don't think so. I don't see anything in reviewing our work that our agents should have done differently. But we will look at it in open and honest way and be transparent about it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: So right now, the FBI still trying to piece together the timeline here. When did he decide that this would be his target, Pulse nightclub?

There are indications he may have scoped out other targets. And also when he decided that he would target the gay community, Brooke. We know just from talking to family members and through sources telling us that he did share these anti-gay views others, and so there's still a lot to piece together here, especially whether or not she was in touch with any terrorist groups.

But I can tell you the FBI's a little perplexed right now in terms of what exactly motivated him, because, as we know, Brooke, al-Nusra is an enemy of ISIS. And he mentioned the suicide bomber aligned with al-Nusra in that 9/11 call. He mentioned the Tsarnaev brothers, who were inspired by al Qaeda. So, there are some confusing mixed signals going to investigators, still a lot to learn at this stage -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: It's all over the place. This just doesn't make sense.

Pamela Brown, thank you so much here in Orlando with me. I can tell you that the police searched the gunman's home, FBI's searched the gunman's home in Fort Pierce, Florida. That search is now apparently complete.

Let's go to Brian Todd, who is just outside of his home. And, Brian, what have you learned so far?

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brooke, the search may be complete, but police and evidence specialists are still coming in and out of Mateen's apartment.

So, this scene still very active, as far as we can see here at his apartment. You talked to Pamela a short time ago about some of the concerns that law enforcement had or was reported to law enforcement about Omar Mateen in the years that he was a security guard.

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Here's what we can add to that. One of the security guards who worked with him guarding a place called the PGA Village, a guy named Daniel Gilroy, said that while he was working with Mateen, that Mateen made inflammatory comments all the time, he would homophobic and racist comments all the time, he would talk about killing people, and that he, Gilroy, became so concerned about that, that he told the supervisors at G4S Secure Solutions, that security firm, several times about it, and they did nothing.

We have reached out to them. They have no immediate comment on that, but they do say that Mateen had two extensive security screenings, once when he was hired in 2007 and again in 2013, and that those security, Brooke, involved extensive psychological screenings as well.

Now, along the lines of what law enforcement did know about Omar Mateen, the FBI director, James Comey, said that they first became aware of him in 2013 when some of his co-workers at a place that he was guarding, a local courthouse, became concerned about his comments about being affiliated with al Qaeda, about being a member of Hezbollah, which is considered a terrorist organization.

According to James Comey, Mateen at that time also said that he hoped that law enforcement would raid his apartment and assault his wife and child, so that he could become a martyr.

And James Comey said when the FBI found out about those comments, they did an extensive 10-month basic investigation of him, they tailed him, they introduced him to confidential informants, they interviewed him twice, as Pamela mentioned a moment ago, and they concluded at the end of it that he was not a security threat and they ended that investigation, Brooke.

So, some really kind of eye-opening detail about this man's behavior a couple of years before this attack took place.

BALDWIN: Yes. But then my question, too, would be if the employer would have been rescreened, you mentioned all the T's they crossed and I's they dotted, if they would have done another psyche test in the last couple of years as well, all details, I'm sure, we will know in time.

For now, Brian Todd, thank you so much.

And, yes, we are focusing on this investigation, the how, the why, but also, the priority here today, the people. We cannot, we will not forget about the many men and women, many of them so, so young, who lost their lives in this absolutely senseless shooting.

Al Ferguson is good enough to be with me today. He was a close friend of Eddie Sotomayor Jr., who was killed in that nightclub just in the wee hours of Sunday morning. And Al's also the owner of a travel company where Eddie worked.

Al, thank you so much for being with me. And I'm so, so sorry for your loss.

AL FERGUSON, FRIEND OF VICTIM: Thank you very much.

BALDWIN: Can we just begin with the fact that you were -- Eddie was sending you videos. Am I right? He was here at Pulse with his partner Saturday night and he was sending you videos having a great time on the dance floor and pleading for you to come out.

FERGUSON: That's -- he sent me a text about coming to Pulse and he made a funny joke. Eddie was just in Cuba in April organizing the first gay cruise in the world.

And he made the joke that Pulse was like the Malecon, which is a very famous area in Havana, and I should come to Pulse. And I told him I couldn't because I was visiting a friend that I hadn't seen in a long time. And then about 23 minutes before the shooting began, he sent me a Snapchat of him and his partner inside Pulse with the stage and the music in the background.

And Eddie was -- he's very famous in the gay community in the United States and in Europe as this black top hat he wears, and the Snapchat that he sent me had a graphic top hat in it and he sent me this Snapchat, and then shortly after everything else began.

BALDWIN: How -- Al, how did you find out what unfolded and then how did you find out about Eddie?

FERGUSON: I was -- I was approximately an hour away. I live here in Sarasota, as Eddie does, Eddie, working in our Sarasota office. But someone came to wake me up at -- very early, about 6:30, to tell me what was going on and to call his partner.

I called his partner, and he was obviously very emotional and had not heard from him. He was actually outside the club. And I have said...

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: They were on their way out.

FERGUSON: They were on their way out. In fact, I really believe that Eddie saved his partner's life, because Eddie and his partner were staying with the manager of Pulse for the night.

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And they had come over for the Latin night. And his partner was outside loading the trunk of the car when the shooting began. And he texted Eddie, and Eddie told him about the shots and that he was hiding, but he was safe. But he told him not to come back into the club and to immediately go to the manager's house.

And he did do that. And then about 25 minutes later, another text between the two of them, and Eddie said that he was still safe, and he was -- but he was hiding, but he was safe, and then, after that, there was no more message.

When I talked to his partner, he had not heard from him, and he was obviously distraught and going to Orlando Regional Medical Center to try to get accurate information. And I left my location and went there yesterday morning. BALDWIN: Can you tell me -- I mean, it's extraordinary, the

selflessness that he said to his partner, don't come back in and to your point probably saved his life. Tell me more about Eddie the man, top hat Eddie. What will you miss the most?

FERGUSON: Well, Eddie was very smart. He was very funny. He was very sarcastic.

He had so many friends. You can see him all over social media today where people are changing their profiles to top hats and they're posting pictures of him. And I mean thousands and thousands of people are doing that.

It's a reflection of what a great spirit and a person he was. Eddie was a person that people wanted to be with. They wanted to talk to Eddie. And Eddie would be sarcastic and joke and that would give you the opening, an opportunity to be sarcastic and joke with him.

And when you spent time with Eddie, you would enjoy that time because it would be very special to you because you would enjoy it so much. And that's what I'm going to remember so much about Eddie is his sense of humor and also his desire to get out and explore the world. He wanted to come to ALandCHUCK.travel because he loved travel so much. He had traveled extensively in his years as our national brand manager.

I remember after the Paris attacks, he was one of the first people in the gay community to suggest in the gay community that we should change the colors of our profile to the French, and specifically he would talk about it's not about Paris. It's about all of us.

And he convinced -- and many people did in the gay community in supporting Paris.

BALDWIN: Yes.

FERGUSON: And he encouraged people too to Paris. He did the same on Brussels. And he constantly talked about the idea of getting out in the world and that when we got out in the world, you learned about other people, and it helped tear walls down, instead of building them up.

BALDWIN: And now, sadly, sadly, Paris is returning the favor and changing the colors of the Eiffel Tower to reflect the community here in Orlando.

Al Ferguson, thank you so much.

And, by the way, I have seen a number of top hats here in Orlando already, so now I fully understand Eddie's legacy. Al, thank you so much for your time. I'm so sorry. My condolences to you.

Coming up next, we will continue to hear stories of those who lost their lives and of course those who survived as well. We will also talk about the standoff between these SWAT teams and the gunman as these club-goers actually had to hide in bathrooms, wherever they could, and just ran as fast as they could away from this madman.

Also ahead, our chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, he is here in Orlando. He just went inside the hospital where some of these injured are now fighting for their lives. Hear what Sanjay says what happened in those frantic moments after the shooting there inside these hospitals. How did they handle this influx of victims?

I'm Brooke Baldwin. You're watching CNN's special live coverage.

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