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Gunman Befriended Transgender Women, Gay Men on Gay Sites; Sen. Chris Murphy Proposes Gun Ban for No-Fly List, Terror Watch List; Trump Meeting with NRA on Keeping Guns from Those on Watch List, No- fly List; Boy, 2, Snatched by Alligator at Disney; First Responds Talk Pulse Nightclub Chaos. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired June 15, 2016 - 14:30   ET

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


[14:30:00] BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: -- or I'm saying good-bye because I know I'm going to die.

MARK O'MARA, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: That's significant.

BALDWIN: The wife -- to either of you -- she went to Pulse. Again, you're married, you're going in a gay nightclub. Some folks do that for fun to go to dance. I'm not sure if that's what they were doing. We know he cased out Disney Springs.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. I don't want to take away from you but, I can tell you just from speaking to my law enforcement sources, she's under a lot of scrutiny right now, and what they're looking at is whether they can charge her with a felony called misprision, which is concealment or knowledge of a crime. She told investigators that she knew her husband wanted to commit an act of jihad, that he expressed this to her. She claimed she didn't know about the specific plans that he was going to target Pulse and she claims she tried to talk him out of it. At the same time, we're getting information that she went to some of these places with him and investigators believe --

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SEN. CHRIS MURPHY, (D), CONNECTICUT: Having come through the experience of Newtown, I've had enough. It's been four years and nothing has been done despite the fact that 90 percent of the American public wants us to act. The vast majority of gun owners want us to expand background checks. Polls suggest that 80 percent of Americans believe that people on the terrorist watch list shouldn't be able to buy guns. There's no controversy out there about these two provisions. We can work it out.

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[14:35:13] ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: That's Democrat Chris Murphy now in his third hour of filibustering on the Senate floor demanding Congress take action to ban people on the terror watch list from actually buying guns. He has a unique perspective. When he served in the House, his district included Newtown, Connecticut.

CNN's senior political reporter, Manu Raju, is on Capitol Hill.

Manu, what are you hearing from people at Capitol Hill about the idea of anything actually changing?

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: There are certainly discussions that are happening right now, Anderson, but it's unclear whether or not it will actually lead to legislation that could pass both chambers of Congress and be signed by the president. Of course it's a very tall order after we saw what happened in Newtown in 2012. There was a big push of course to expand background checks at that time, and that failed. Since then, Democrats have moved on and tried to readjust their strategy. No longer are they pushing an assault weapons ban, at least that's not at the top of the agenda. The real issue is try to force folks on the terror watch list, on a no-fly list from preventing them from getting firearms.

Dianne Feinstein has proposed if there's a reasonable suspicion that a terrorist could get a firearm and that person is a terrorism suspect, that person should not be able to purchase firearms. Republics blocked that measure in December because they believed it was too broad and would sweep up people who should not be on that list and they have proposed an alternative measure. That allows the Justice Department to seek court approval before determining whether or not someone is trying to get a gun for terrorism-related purposes. Democrats bought that in, in December, because they believed it would make it too difficult in order to crack down on folks who -- potential terrorists from getting guns. We've been told that John Cornyn and Dianne Feinstein have been discussing possible areas of agreement between their two perspective proposals but we're not getting a sense there's any major movement at this point, Anderson.

And separately, there are some talks between Michael Bloomberg's gun control group with Pat Toomey, Republican Senator of Pennsylvania, who did author that universal background checks bill. It's unclear whether that is something that will get support here in Congress -- Anderson?

COOPER: Manu Raju.

Manu, thanks very much.

Just a short time ago, the presumptive Republican nominee for president, Donald Trump, says he will meet with the NRA about this same issue. Donald Trump tweeting this morning, a tweet that went out, it said, "I will be meeting with the NRA, who has endorsed me, about not allowing people on the terror watch list or the no-fly list to buy guns." The NRA just responded saying, in part, and I quote, "We are happy to meet with Donald Trump. Anyone on a terror watch list who tries to buy a gun should be thoroughly investigated by the FBI and the sale delayed while the investigation is ongoing. At the same time, due process should be put in place to allow law-abiding Americans who are wrongly put on a watch list to be removed."

Joining me now to talk more about this, CNN political analyst, David Gergen.

We should note, David, that this is not the first time that Donald Trump has said he thinks people on the watch list should not be allowed t| buy guns. The fact that he said he's meeting with the NRA, that's a bold prove for a conservative.

DAVID GERGEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: It is a bold move, Anderson. I think it could help break this log jam. This is the moment, the best moment we've had for some sort of bipartisan agreement that would move us forward and ensuring that people on terror watch lists and no-fly lists can't get guns. I think it's important that Donald Trump has done this. He would be breaking with the Republican leadership. There are reports that he would only support the Cornyn view which is seen as a very watered-down Republican counter proposal to what the Democrats are proposing. If he goes for the Democratic proposal, it could break up the log jam, and who knows what it will do to his politics and Republican Party politics.

COOPER: David, Trump is holding a rally in Atlanta. I want to listen to a little bit of what he said earlier.

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DONALD TRUMP, (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE & CEO, TRUMP ORGANIZATION: The foundation has taken millions, tens of millions of dollars from countries that want to enslave women, enslave, want to enslave women. As far as the gay community, they kill gays. And she's taking money in. Hillary wants to bring people in, spend billions and billions of dollars on bringing people in. As to whether they assimilate or not, you make the decision. But assimilation has not exactly been a positive factor.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: David, what do you make of the line he's going at here?

[14:40:10] GERGEN: He's been pushing this for the last few days and I don't think it's helping him very much. Right now, in the talking political circles, is how much his position has eroded, deteriorated politically over the last two, three weeks, the attack on the judge and everything. These new polls came out today, "Washington Post," ABC, showing that his overall disapproval rating is up to 70 percent. It's in the stratosphere. Among women, it's 77 percent. Among Latinos, it's nearly 90 percent. Among Blacks, it's over 90 percent. And Bloomberg had a poll yesterday saying he's down 12 points against Hillary Clinton. This is a campaign that's in some trouble and he's going to have to -- maybe the move with the NRA would help him, but I think he's got some really strong problems right now. One would like to think that he would find a way through this Orlando business to find bipartisan agreement on that as well, and not keep pushing a position on a ban on all Muslims that's not very popular in his own party.

COOPER: David Gergen.

David, thank you very much as always.

Brooke, back to you.

BALDWIN: Anderson, thank you.

We have more breaking news from Orlando, more just absolutely tragic news in this part of the country. This alligator -- you heard about this? An alligator snatching this toddler, 2-year-old boy, at a nearby Disney resort. Now this desperate search is under way. It started last night, still going on. Disney has closed all of its beaches. We will take you there and tell you what we know, coming up.

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BALDWIN: We're back on the story. We'll take you back to the story regarding the massacre at the Pulse nightclub here in Orlando.

But let's also talk about another tragic story here. Disney World, right around the corner from where I'm standing. This first and frantic search and recovery mission is under way still, not far from here, after this toddler, this 2-year-old boy, was snatched and dragged into this lagoon by an alligator. This happened at the Seven Seas Lagoon at Disney's Grand Floridian Hotel. They were standing along the edge of the water when he was attacked. Sheriff's officials say the toddler was wading in the water. The water was about a foot deep with the water between his ankles and knees. The father tried to pull his son, wrestling that alligator, pull their son out of the gator's grip, but both parents could only watch as their son was dragged away.

As a precaution, Walt Disney World has closed all of its beaches until further notice.

CNN's Boris Sanchez is at the resort with the latest on the search.

Boris, we all woke up this morning and thought this is the worst possible thing for any parent. You come to Disney World to have fun and you lose your little boy.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's hard to believe it was real. When I first saw the headline I thought there has to be some mistake, especially when you consider that Friday night there was a shooting in Orlando and Saturday night, this horrific shooting and now this. It seems like so much for a city to deal with in such a short span of time.

The last bit of information we're getting is about the process of searching this lagoon. They tell us they've captured five alligators from this lagoon and they're examining them for any evidence that one of them may have been the one that snatched this young toddler. So far, they tell us there's no indication of that.

[14:45:20] During the press briefing, there were questions about Disney, could they have done something to prevent this from happening. The sheriff said that the company has been in central Florida for more than 45 years and nothing like this had ever happened before. He described it as a freakish incident. But he also described a shift. As you mentioned, this is no longer a search-and-rescue. It's now a search-and-recovery.

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JERRY DEMINGS, SHERIFF, ORANGE COUNTY, FLORIDA, SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT: This is a very human experience that we're talking about where we're dealing with this family now, who, there's no question, will lose a 2- year-old child. It has been now about 15 hours since the child was taken into the water by the alligator, so we know that we are working on recovering the body of the child at this point.

It is somewhat of a complicated operation that we have going because this is a man-made body of water. It is a sizable body of water. And it has certain systems built in the water way.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: The sheriff also said that now this is all about bringing closure to the family.

The difficult thing about this is, how do you bring closure to a family who's dealing with this. The sheriff said that Disney is doing all it can to bring them some kind of comfort -- Brooke?

BALDWIN: Your heart goes out to this family.

Boris, thank you so much there.

A spokesman for the local sheriff's office tells CNN that officials have euthanized several gators while searching for this boy.

With me, Tim Williams. He has worked with alligators for the last 43 years. He is the alligator rescue expert here at Gatorland in Orlando.

Tim, I know I'm sure when you heard this you grieved like the rest of us.

TIM WILLIAMS, ALLIGATOR RESCUE EXPERT, GATORLAND: It breaks your heart. I've raised children and I have small grandchildren. Our heart and prayers go out to that family that lost that little fellow. It's heartbreaking.

Orlando, the happiest place, a wonderful city. Disney World, can't ask for better security, better safety. In their history, never an incident like this.

BALDWIN: How quick can this happen?

WILLIAM: In the flash of an eye. Alligators are opportunity eaters. They wait for the opportunity. They catch something. A small child represents nothing more than a small animal. They sneak up at nighttime splashing. That's when they like to hunt, when they look for prey. And they don't make a distinction between human or any other animal. BALDWIN: I know you're not a lawyer. This was apparently a huge body

of water. We're in Florida. We know that there are gators here. I've seen pictures. There were pictures that said, no swimming. So that means don't go near the water. But I haven't seen anything that says no gators. What do you make of that?

WILLIAMS: In all fairness to Disney and anyplace elsewhere where there are alligators, Florida is full of gators. Fresh water, brackish water, good chance of an alligator. You can put signs up all day long. That's not going to stop people from accidently walking down there, especially a little child. It's a place they want to play. People don't see them. They don't observe the signs. They forget about them. It's a tragedy. Signs would not have prevented this. I think it's just the fact that it's an alligator in alligator country.

BALDWIN: Orlando is supposed to be the happiest place on earth and, this week, far from it.

Tim Williams, stand by with me, please.

For the first time, we are hearing what first responders did here when victims were running out of this nightclub in the wee hours of Sunday morning here in Orlando. I was able to go under some crime scene tape and get exclusive access to this Fire Station Five just basically next door to the nightclub. These four firefighters on duty heard the shots from the firehouse. It's one lieutenant's story, coming up next.

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[14:51:01] BALDWIN: Welcome back. We're live in Orlando. You're watching CNN special live coverage. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

When the killer began his rampage early Sunday morning, those who could escape did. Many ran to the nearby fire station, Fire Station Number Five, only about 300 feet from Pulse. The survivors were running, looking for cover behind brick walls, anywhere they could try to hide from these methodical shots as it was explained to me. Some were injured, including the first victim who had been shot twice in the abdomen.

I was able to speak exclusively with the lieutenant here who has been a firefighter for 35 years. He was a supervisor that night. Four guys in the firehouse. He went right into work helping the wounded, even as the piercing sound of gunshots echoed a short distance away.

Here's one part of my exclusive interview with the fire lieutenant here, Davis O'Dell.

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BALDWIN: Had you ever imagined you would see what you saw this weekend?

LT. DAVID O'DELL JR, FIREFIGHTER: Couldn't. Could never imagine. BALDWIN: You were the boss that Saturday night into Sunday morning.

You were the lieutenant on duty.

O'DELL: Supervisor.

BALDWIN: Supervisor. And we are sitting next door to the club.

O'DELL: Less than 300 feet.

BALDWIN: You all had responded to something totally unrelated 45 minutes before.

O'DELL: 45 minutes earlier we were there for one of the patrons that had too much to drink and we were right out in the front of the club, attended to him and getting him stabilized and sent to the hospital.

BALDWIN: Have you thought about the fact that you all could have been in there with him?

O'DELL: It's not lost on me that he may have been out in the parking lot working up his nerve or could have already been in the club but I don't see how he would have gotten an AR-15 in the club.

BALDWIN: I understand you all actually heard the shots.

O'DELL: Absolutely.

BALDWIN: From right here?

O'DELL: Absolutely. When I walked out of the dorm room into the bay, immediately when I walked out I could hear people screaming and running and I looked through the bay door, there's some viewing ports in the bay door, and I saw people running across the street screaming and I heard the steady pow, pow, pow, the methodical pow, pow, pow. I said whoa, that sounds really close and really cloud.

BALDWIN: What did you do?

O'DELL: Got my radio off the engine and immediately got in contact with dispatch to advise them that we had an active shooter situation and that until the scene was secure we were going to shelter in the station. I had already made my mind u to stage inside the station because of our close proximity. It's not like the old days. We don't go into shooting situations with the hot shell casing still laying there on the ground. Now we've gotten to the point where we let the police go in and stabilize the situation. I didn't know if he was chasing them down the road or how it was going to happen.

BALDWIN: How long before you started having the victims be brought to us right here, brought to you right here, how long did you hear that methodical shooting? Minutes?

O'DELL: You know, it was just over a matter of seconds when the gun was going, pow, pow, pow, and you could tell it wasn't a small caliber pistol. It was definitely a long gun. But because I had to get on the radio and immediately begin transmitting the information updates to our dispatch and at the same time they had realized that this was not going to be just a small incident, they were sending multiple units from downtown to come to support us. So that dispatch was going on. We usually stage within about 300 feet, but because of the rifle fire, I staged everybody about nine blocks down the road because I just did not know what was going on outside.

BALDWIN: How many of you were here that night?

O'DELL: Four. Four-man engine company.

[14:55:04] BALDWIN: So at what point -- as you're seeing people screaming and running out of the club, at what point do people start being brought bloodied to you?

O'DELL: You know, I had our guys shelter in a safe position behind the wall because I didn't know if there were going to be bullets coming through the door or the window, so I placed our firemen in a position of safety because as a first responder, if you go into a situation and then become part of the issue, you're not going to be able to do your job. A position of safety until I saw an OPD officer outside with an AR-15, and another OPD officer, because there was a massive police response, massive police response. So it was probably a little over e and a half or two minutes of us staging here until I went up to the bay door and asked the OPD officer, hey, you got us covered? I'm going to put the door up. There were groups of people in front of the fire station hiding behind the wall over there, crying and screaming, and as soon as we put the bay door up, we had our first person shot through and through.

BALDWIN: What was that person saying?

O'DELL: He wasn't saying anything. He was shot twice through the abdomen through and through. So what happened when the bay door went up, we immediately helped and carried him in there and laid him down on the floor right next to the engine. The medics went to work on him and immediately began to stabilize and triage him. Then we had another victim come in with a shot through the wrist, another shoot through the leg. So the walking wounded, we could bandage those up and stabilize them rather easily, but the man who was shot through the abdomen twice was a priority. He was really patient number one for the Orlando Fire Department's response.

BALDWIN: Did he make it?

O'DELL: I have no idea. I have no idea. I don't know who he was, other than the fact that when we got a rescue down here to transport him, we unload him in the back and it was a hot scene and off he went to the hospital.

BALDWIN: Do you even know how many people you all treated in this makeshift triage fire station?

O'DELL: Immediately, we treated three patients here, but because of the location of the Einstein's Bagel over there, it's directly across the street from the Pulse. They were carrying, dragging people straight over to Einstein's so they had a building between Pulse and that back parking lot. And then what happened was we segued from this treatment area after we transported those patients to a multitude of patients that were right across the street. I broke my team up and sent my medics over there to begin treatment over there and we began assembling backboards and we had no idea of the number of the casualties. We just heard it could be 15 or 20. We had no idea in the end how many were going to be. I couldn't have been prouder of my crew that night and the Orlando Fire Department and police department. What I saw was such an extraordinary circumstance that not only did they do everything that was asked of them, they did way more. I knew they were good but they were great. They were great that early Sunday morning.

BALDWIN: How are they doing? You all have seen things you never should have seen in your lifetime.

O'DELL: There are people that are deeply rattled, the dispatchers. They had to take those calls and hear those people.

BALDWIN: They were running out of the meeting crying.

O'DELL: They definitely were overcome today.

The reports of a bomb, reports of another shooter. We had to move. We had to move from the triage across the street and move it down the street. Then we moved it another block. All this was going on over a period of 90 minutes to two and a half hours, and it was chaotic.

I'm proud to be a member of these guys. They shine like diamonds, especially the police department.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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BALDWIN: -- Lieutenant O'Dell.

Meantime, let me bring in my next guest, Pedro Julio Serrano. He is an LGBT activist in Puerto Rico who came up here to offer his support.

Thank you for joining me.

What people cannot see is your rainbow vans that you are rocking currently and that is because you've been meeting with victims today, yesterday. Tell me about that and how you bought them.

PEDRO JULIO SERRANO, LGBT ACTIVIST: We are waiting for Michael to come out of surgery and we went to get some shoes because one of his sisters broke one of his shoes. And we went there and we saw these vans that had rainbow colors and decided to get a pair for each one of us.

BALDWIN: What is the theme of these different -- you're going to different families. What's the theme you keep hearing from all these different --

SERRANO: It's the resiliency of the families and the love. And they know that the world is standing in solidarity with them. So they are supported by that love and that compassion. But they also lost their loved ones.