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CNN NEWSROOM

Florida Mass Shooting Investigation; President Obama Visits Orlando. Aired 15-15:30p ET

Aired June 16, 2016 - 15:00   ET

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


[15:00:02]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You're absolutely right, Brooke.

The White House saying this is an emotional trip for the president, understandably so. This is the deadliest shooting in U.S. history, but it's a trip that the president has had to make again and again, not only going back to last December in San Bernardino, California, but before that in Charleston, South Carolina, and even before that in Newtown, Connecticut.

So, this is something he's very familiar with. Now, the White House saying that not only, as you mentioned, is he meeting with the families of victims and survivors, but also with medical personnel, the doctors, surgeons, nurses, and hospital workers that tended to those that were wounded.

He's also meeting with law enforcement. We have heard that he's thanked law enforcement for their swift response in this massacre. Aside from that, it's also important to note the White House says that the president is a symbol of the American people.

And so by coming here to Orlando, not just alone, but also accompanied on the scene by Vice President Joe Biden, but with Senator Marco Rubio riding on Air Force One and meeting with Florida Governor Rick Scott, both of whom are Republicans, he's known to have had an icy relationship with Florida Governor Rick Scott before.

But by putting aside the politics of the situation and focusing on building solidarity with these folks, it shows the American -- it shows the people of Orlando really that the American people are united behind them and also the LGBT community here in Orlando.

So, as the president wraps up his visit at 4:00, we are set to hear from him. And apparently his remarks will detail what he's seen here. And we're also expecting to hear a message of hope and comfort to those who have been so deeply affected by what's happened here in Orlando, Brooke.

BALDWIN: We will take the president live as soon as we see him speak.

Boris Sanchez, thank you so much.

And now let me bring in the man who orchestrated the operation to take down this gunman, to save dozens of people inside of that nightclub. Speaking with CNN for the very first time, he's a commander of SWAT

here in Orlando. He's Captain Mark Canty. Also with us, Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer.

Gentlemen, if I may, Just on behalf of CNN and others, thank you so much for taking the time and your heroism for hours an hours. I just thank you both so much.

Beginning with you, Captain, so you just came out of a meeting with President Obama. What can you tell me about that?

CPT. MARK CANTY, ORLANDO SWAT COMMANDER: I mean, that's kind of special to us that he would take his time to come down here and thank us for our service and thank us for the things we did that night.

BALDWIN: What specifically did he say that will forever stay with you?

CANTY: He said that the whole nation is behind us and supports us and is thankful for what we did that night.

BALDWIN: How about you, Mr. Mayor? Mayor Dyer, the president, what do you think of the president being here?

BUDDY DYER, MAYOR OF ORLANDO, FLORIDA: We're so just excited that he came to support our community and express his support from around the world. He said a lot of the national leaders have called him to express support for Orlando.

And we have received that same thing from mayors and cities not just around the country, but all over the world.

BALDWIN: To Sunday morning. And there's been so much -- and I know we're -- you're still in the thick of it, but, you know, let's just clear it up.

Initially, I understand I have heard reports that the gunman went in to Pulse essentially guns blazing. Can you tell me what you know?

CANTY: What I know is, probably a little after 2:00, I got a page that (INAUDIBLE) SWAT team, one of my squad leaders. And this was also a patrol watch commander. He initiated the page or the call for SWAT.

And then all of a sudden, there was, hey, we have an active shooter a at a nightclub. And we kind of needed to get there as soon as we could. So, we started responding from there.

BALDWIN: Where was he when you arrived?

CANTY: When I arrived, he was in one of the bathrooms. There's two bathrooms on the west side -- there's three on the west side of the bidding. He was in the northernmost bathroom.

BALDWIN: What did he do, before you arrived, when he first walked in, because I understand there was an officer there? CANTY: Right. BALDWIN: What was he doing?

CANTY: We had an extra duty officer there who engaged him. While he started shooting inside, that officer engaged him with gunfire. He kind of retreated back from the club.

The officer called for immediate assistance. Other units started arriving. And two of my SWAT officers who were working patrol that night were some of the first officers to respond. They went inside to assist and they started to engage him as well.

BALDWIN: He has this massive AR-15, which obviously couldn't get through security. According to that one officer, did he have that AR- 15 out and was he shooting upon entry?

CANTY: That's -- we're still kind of trying to determine that, but as soon as officer heard shots, he started reacting and he started going toward the gunfire.

BALDWIN: So, backup arrives. That's back and forth. He holes himself up in the bathroom. You arrive on the scene. Tell me, what was the first thing you say?

CANTY: Let me say before I get to when I arrived, there's patrol officers engaging him. There's other patrol officers running inside and pulling out victims.

So, while gunfire is still going on, you know, or just as our officers are engaging him, other police officers there, you know, with no disregard -- with no regard for their safety, and they're pulling some of those victims out.

[15:05:03]

BALDWIN: It's extraordinary.

Let me focus in on that for a second before even SWAT gets there. So, tell me how large of an area where the gunfire was taking place and how those officers were then able to grab people and get them out.

CANTY: The club is pretty small. And when you kind of went back into the bathroom, they had kind of the rest of the club. So, there's a larger dance area and then a smaller kind of bar, small dance area, where one of our lieutenants was engaging him while he was down the hallway to the bathroom. And while he's doing that, the officers are going in the main part of the club and they're pulling them out through the main part of the club.

BALDWIN: I was talking to someone who's close to some of the survivors who said police came in and said, raise your hand if you're alive.

CANTY: Yes.

BALDWIN: What else were police saying?

CANTY: Just trying to find people who need help. So...

BALDWIN: So then you arrive, you arrive and he's already in the bathroom.

CANTY: Yes.

BALDWIN: Then what happened?

CANTY: Then, as I get there, I meet with my lieutenant who is on scene and we start replacing some of the patrol officers who are there with some of our SWAT operators that are arriving.

So, we're trying to get some of our tactical people who are in heavier vests, helmets. They all have AR-15s. So, we're trying to get them in place, so they can kind of secure that bathroom.

BALDWIN: How did you fine out he had hostages?

CANTY: We kind of knew (INAUDIBLE) weren't sure. We started getting -- our communications center started text messages and phone calls from people inside.

BALDWIN: So from within the bathroom, they were communicating with 911?

CANTY: Right. Correct.

BALDWIN: Saying what?

CANTY: They're saying, hey, we are in here. There's this number -- there's three of us in here. We're in this location. So that's what they were doing.

BALDWIN: When did you first make contact with the gunman?

CANTY: I never made contact with the gunman as far as me. I know our communications center did made a phone call with him.

BALDWIN: He made a phone call to who specifically?

CANTY: To our 911 operator.

BALDWIN: He dialed 911 several times. Correct?

CANTY: Yes. Correct.

BALDWIN: What was he saying?

CANTY: He was saying what his allegiance were and that he was -- he had made peace and that he had a bomb vest.

BALDWIN: That's how -- so were there negotiations that took place?

CANTY: From my understanding, yes, there were, that they were trying to talk to him on the phone.

BALDWIN: Was the negotiation between the shooter and 911 or the shooter and you all?

CANTY: The shooter and 911.

BALDWIN: Shooter and 911.

CANTY: Kind of what we're doing when we're trying to get there, we are trying to make our position better, make sure that we were in a good position to react if he does anything.

Kind of what's key and what a lot of people don't realize is, while we're doing this, we're also rescuing other people.

BALDWIN: All the while? All the while?

CANTY: Right. The entire time, there's -- I think there was at least four people in the dressing room that they were able to get to and get out of a door on the north side.

There was another I think -- up to like eight people that were in another dressing room that we were able to actually tap on an air conditioning unit, pop the air conditioner out of the wall and pull them through the hole that that left.

BALDWIN: So, as you're continuing to save lives, there is a madman holed up with hostages in a bathroom who has called 911. What were his demands?

CANTY: Yes.

I don't know if he had any demands. I think, like I said, he just kind of stated who he was and what his allegiances were.

BALDWIN: Did he say why he was doing that?

CANTY: No, not from my knowledge.

BALDWIN: Have you spoken with the person who received the call at 911?

CANTY: No, I have not.

BALDWIN: What were the allegiances specifically, to the Islamic State, but beyond that? What more?

CANTY: That's all I know. And I think kind of for us that are out there on the scene, that's enough. We are not really concerned with a lot of the negotiations.

We're kind of concentrating on what can we do to get these people out of here safely.

BALDWIN: Are you hearing people try to communicate with you from within the bathroom or are they all keeping quiet? CANTY: They keeping quiet. And I think they were just using text

messages in general. BALDWIN: From there, how long was he in the bathroom?

CANTY: I would guess probably, you know, close to two, two-and-a-half to three hours.

BALDWIN: There are reports that -- from survivors that he had threatened putting almost explosive devices or vests on some of those hostages in the bathroom. Tell me about that.

CANTY: That's what he -- we got -- in one of the calls, he said he was going to put vests on some of the hostages and send them out into the club.

BALDWIN: What -- did he have those vests?

CANTY: That, I don't know. I think that's generally something the FBI investigators to know exactly he had in there.

But when he said that, we believed it. So we kind of take him at his word and we prepare for that situation.

BALDWIN: Did you all ever try calling him? He was calling out. Did he have his number?

CANTY: We didn't have his number right there on scene. So, I don't know what our negotiators did or the communications center.

BALDWIN: Mayor Dyer, can you just react to some of these phone calls he made to 911, to a TV producer at Channel 13 here in town? And we have reporting now that he was texting with his wife.

DYER: I only learned the last part of that. I was in the command center during the course of the event, so I knew that he was calling 911.

And what some of the hostages were doing were texting other loved ones, and then they were calling to 911. So, we were getting some of the independent verification. When he said he had those bomb vests, then we had people on the inside, hostages, that were texting to their loved ones that exact same thing.

[15:10:05]

So, we were certainly led to believe that he was going to put bomb vests on four people. And I think he said that he was going to station them in the four corners of the building.

BALDWIN: Four corners of the club?

DYER: Of the club.

BALDWIN: To maximize casualties.

DYER: Right.

BALDWIN: And you had to take him at his word. CANTY: Correct.

BALDWIN: So then walk me through the decision to breach.

CANTY: Obviously...

BALDWIN: ... the bathroom.

(CROSSTALK)

CANTY: ... our goal, our main goal is to try to save lives.

And when he started talking about the bomb vests, kind of the average or normal inclination of people is once you hear that someone has a bomb is, you want to back up. And our normal protocol is back up 1,000 feet.

(CROSSTALK)

CANTY: But my officers knew that they had to stay there, even though they were in jeopardy, because there was a chance that we could get some of us those people outside.

So, we started thinking about we have a good relationship with the sheriff's office here. They have an emergency -- or a bomb disposal unit that has the capability of creating charges to blow a hole through a wall. So, I asked him to start prepping for a charge.

BALDWIN: What is the charge? Explain that for people.

(CROSSTALK)

CANTY: The charge is they kind of make -- it's actually explosives.

They put in it a shape, and actually they put it on a wall and then be able to blow a hole in the wall.

BALDWIN: And is that what they did?

CANTY: Yes, they did.

BALDWIN: Which wall was it?

CANTY: It was on the west side of the building. What our goal was is, we knew -- we knew the suspect was in the north bathroom and we knew there were some additional hostages from some of the text messages and phone calls that were given.

BALDWIN: In an adjacent bathroom?

CANTY: Right. So, it was a bathroom just south of him.

And we knew there were probably anywhere from 10 to 15 people in that bathroom alive. So the decision was made, hey, that's -- we need to try to get them out as quickly as possible.

BALDWIN: So, you're hearing that he is making these threats to put vests on people and put them in the four corners of the club to maximize casualties.

You immediately realize we will risk our own lives and not back up 1,000 feet because we have got to get in there and get him.

CANTY: Right.

BALDWIN: So then the explosion?

CANTY: Right. They go in and set the charge. I get approved from the chief to go ahead and initiate our plan. And they let the charge go off. The charge detonates. It's only partially effective. So, it kind of kind of creases the wall or partially breaches the wall.

BALDWIN: So, you couldn't fully get in the first explosion?

CANTY: Couldn't get inside at all. So, we have a BearCat, a Lenco BearCat armored vehicle which has a ram on the front of it. I immediately told the guys go ahead...

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: Ram it in.

CANTY: So, they made an initial hole. And they realized they were a little off mark. And it kind of put them in the hallway between two bathrooms. So the commander on the scene, which is one of my lieutenants, immediately had to try to move. And they made a couple of other breaches where they were finally get a hole into the bathroom and start pulling people out.

BALDWIN: Were they screaming at that point?

(CROSSTALK)

CANTY: I think they were quiet initially. And I think as we breached the hole, you know, we're calling it in and tell, hey, come to us. So, they're taking our commands and they're trying to get out.

BALDWIN: What's the gunman doing, obviously, as he's hearing this noise?

CANTY: Right. At first, he's not doing anything. As he starts to realize kind of what's going on, I think he fired a couple shots.

BALDWIN: Within the bathroom?

CANTY: Either within the bathroom or outside the bathroom. That, I'm not sure of that yet.

We threw a couple of our distraction devices in the hallway just to kind of distract him so we could finish getting all the hostages out.

BALDWIN: Gas?

CANTY: No gas, because we had people in there.

Then, as they were preparing to breach another wall, another part of the wall, he came out and engaged our officers.

BALDWIN: On his own volition?

CANTY: On his own volition.

BALDWIN: So, he is -- where is he exactly? Is it a small, tight space where he is, outside of the bathroom?

CANTY: He comes out into the hallway between the two bathrooms.

BALDWIN: How far is he from your officers? Feet?

CANTY: I would say within probably 10 to 15 feet.

BALDWIN: And then what?

CANTY: And then they engaged. He fires. They fire. And it's kind of...

BALDWIN: That's where he was taken down in the hallway?

CANTY: Right. Yes.

BALDWIN: Then, when you all immediately go in the bathroom, what do you see?

CANTY: We actually have to breach another wall to get in, because he can't get by him, so they do a couple more breaches to get the rest of the people out.

BALDWIN: In total, how many hostages did he have?

CANTY: I don't have an exact number. I think we got probably eight to 15 out of the south bathroom and probably another five to six out of the north bathroom that he was in.

BALDWIN: So, people were trapped in those bathrooms?

CANTY: Yes.

BALDWIN: They were trapped in those bathrooms. You take him down. You all have to breach another wall to then get in to get the rest of the people out.

And then all the while, as far as law enforcement, I have seen the picture of the helmet of one of your guys.

CANTY: Right.

BALDWIN: He was hit in his head.

CANTY: He was hit in his helmet, yes.

BALDWIN: How's he doing?

CANTY: He's doing good. I'll tell you about him. He got hit, kind of fell down. Got right back up and was ready to continue. But he had to be pulled away by some of our officers and try to get medical attention. But he wanted to stay.

BALDWIN: He wanted to stay.

CANTY: He wanted to stay.

BALDWIN: Can you just give me some of the -- you were one of the few people who I have talked who has actually been in there. Was the music blaring? Were the lights on? Were they...

CANTY: The lights were not on. I don't remember any music at that time like when I got there. I don't remember any music. And I think a lot of it is, we're focused on our task. And we kind of -- some things that aren't important kind of block it and you kind of focus on what's important.

[15:15:02]

BALDWIN: To you, Mayor Dyer, we know that he had gone into a gun shop. We know he tried to buy this heavy body armor. They denied it. They described his behavior as suspicious. This is obviously previous to Saturday night.

And they called law enforcement. Do you know anymore about that?

DYER: I don't. I learned that today, just like everybody else did.

And I, quite honestly, have not focused on the killer, the murderer. I have focused on trying to heal our community, care for the victims, make sure we're doing what we need to do here. There's enough other people that are worrying about what came before in terms of him acquiring weapons and what type of investigation is done and what type of list he was on.

BALDWIN: Inside the club, just as graceful as we can be, can you just describe what you saw?

CANTY: I would say it's horrific.

I mean, it's nothing like you would ever expect to see. Even in law enforcement, you would never expect to see that many people dead and lying on the floor. It is not something we normally -- go to a call on every day. We don't expect to see that kind of bloodshed.

BALDWIN: Were most of the people that he killed at least -- were they in the front or was he just -- was it everywhere?

CANTY: I'm not sure of the positions of the people. I think that's part of (INAUDIBLE) FBI can tell where the people were.

BALDWIN: How many victims did he kill in the bathroom?

CANTY: That, I'm not sure of, because we weren't able to get an accurate count and we kind of left that for the evidence techs and the (INAUDIBLE)

BALDWIN: Do you have family? Do you have kids? Do you have...

CANTY: Yes, I do.

BALDWIN: I talked to the fire lieutenant the other day who -- texted his wife and said, don't turn on the TV. Tell the kids not to turn on the TV Sunday morning. How have you explained to them what dad had to do?

CANTY: Well, I haven't had to explain it to my wife, because my wife is also a firefighter for the city of Orlando.

BALDWIN: Is she really?

CANTY: She was working that night, so she knows what was going on.

BALDWIN: The two of you were working this night?

CANTY: I was at home. And then she was -- I was at home and got called in. And she was working on shift.

BALDWIN: How are you doing?

CANTY: I'm doing good.

I think probably the hardest thing for me is kind of thinking about the officers that were there and knowing that the things that I have asked them to do and the things the department has asked them to do put them in danger and they went out there anyway.

And I called them to say, hey, come and respond. And they responded and say, hey, this is a job we have to do. And our lives will be in danger. And not one of them budged, and when they should have, when they should have said, hey, this is dangerous. They stayed.

BALDWIN: They said yes.

How are they doing?

CANTY: They're doing good. I just left some of them a few minutes ago, and they're in great spirits. We get together on a regular basis to make sure that we're all OK. They're happy that they could save the number of people that we did.

BALDWIN: Eventually, we are all going to pack up and leave, and this is all left to the community to try to -- I don't even think you can ever, ever, ever make sense of what happened here, you can ever unsee what you saw. All the briefings, you never thought you would ever have to do as mayor of this beautiful city. What do you want to tell people?

DYER: You know, something like this can tear a community apart or it can bring us closer together and unite us. And there's no question that this has brought our community together.

If you attend any of the vigils, see any of the people that are here at the memorial that's in front of DPAC, just the outpouring of support, people standing hours in line to give blood at blood banks, people just bringing food, just trying to figure out something that they can do.

We opened up a victims assistance center yesterday, and it's manned with every agency that you can possibly think of to help the victims and their families. And we were reflecting that they're kind of lucky, because there is something they can do, the people that are in the victims assistance center. There are so many people that want to do something for the families.

BALDWIN: Of course. It ha been actually extraordinary to see it and to feel it.

Captain Canty, just finally to you, people look up to you in this city. You are sort of the chief protector in a sense or one of the chief protectors, caretakers. For people who are fearful in this community, what is your message to them?

CANTY: Know that we are doing everything that we can to keep them safe, and that includes putting our officers' lives in danger.

I think for most of our officers, this job is a calling and they do it because they want to save lives, they want to keep people safe. And that's the biggest thing is we're here to protect. And we want to do a good job. I grew up in the community. My parents live here. I have a lot of family here. And I will do anything I can to protect the people of this city.

BALDWIN: Captain Canty, thank you so much. Mayor Dyer, thank you so much for the time.

CANTY: Brooke.

BALDWIN: I appreciate it. Thank you.

[15:20:00]

We will be back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:24:18]

BALDWIN: Welcome back. You are watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin live here in Orlando.

We do have some new details today about the whereabouts, the behavior of the Orlando gunman in the days before he carried out this mass shooting, and, you know, some of the alarm bells may have been raised to police weeks ago. The manager of a nearby gun store now says members of his staff were

suspicious, that's their word, suspicious of the shooter, his behavior when he came in, wanted to buy body armor, which they denied the him, so suspicious, in fact, that the manager says that they notified law enforcement.

CNN's senior investigative correspondent, Drew Griffin, has more on this angle today.

Drew, what have you learned?

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: Well, of course, we have been reporting for a couple of days now that this Orlando shooter did go to a gun store about 15 miles from his home, his home right here, and tried to buy soft armor, which is a police style 3-A classified armor, about four or five weeks ago, and then also asked for hardened armor.

[15:25:18]

What is new this morning, Brooke, is the store is now claiming that at the time this person had suspicious behavior, obviously, they didn't know it was this guy, was speaking in some language that they thought was Arabic on the phone, and after he left, the store manager told me the store notified law enforcement.

Now, there's a little bit of confusion here, because we can't find anybody in think law enforcement that took that call and the store is refusing to say which law enforcement agency that they did contact. But if this took place, it could be yet another one of these dropped balls or overlooked red flags on the road to the Orlando massacre that we now believe started way back in maybe 2007 -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: Wow. Want to follow up on the law enforcement point with my next guest here in just a minute. For now, Drew Griffin, thank you so much.

I do want to share some just absolutely horrifying video that we now have from within the Pulse nightclub. It was a man who was shot twice, survived, but able to pull out a cell phone and roll on this. And it's tough to make out, but what you are looking at is basically 30 people huddled and hiding in one of the bathroom stalls as they ignore the demands to come out or else apparently they would die, he would shoot them.

Today, we're also learning about what else the gunman was doing during the attacks as people lay dying around him.

CNN justice correspondent Pamela Brown has been gathering new information. I'm also joined by retired major case investigator James Copenhaver.

And, Pamela, just first to you. And if I can, just take a minute. I don't know if you all heard my conversation with the commander of the SWAT team. That takes a special person. I mean, he's referred to it as a calling, but just the bravery, the heroism, I'm still marinated on that.

But on that, start with Drew Griffin's reporting about, you know, going into this gun shop and wanting body armor and suspicious behavior. And, again, there's still no record of law enforcement receiving any sort of phone call.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Right.

We have been reaching out to federal law enforcement, local law enforcement, and at this point, there's no indication a call was ever made. Initially, we know ATF, the FBI talked to this gun shop owner, talked to employees, and they didn't mention anything about a call being made to alert authorities.

So we reached out to the Martin County Sheriff's Office, says no calls from Lotus Gunworks were made to their office reporting anything. We reached out to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. They have no record. FBI says it doesn't have a record.

So, of course, this gun shop won't say which law enforcement agency it contacted. But it's certainly something...

BALDWIN: It is just important. It's obviously one of those examples of if it is true, you look at -- we all Monday morning quarterbacking and looking at potential red flags and wondering what was missed, what was missed?

BROWN: Right. Absolutely.

And so the question is, did they call some law enforcement agency that just hasn't realized that he called and was the ball dropped?

BALDWIN: Sure. Sure.

BROWN: Of course, that's something that the FBI is certainly looking into right now.

BALDWIN: Turning to you, sir, and from just like with a criminal profiler mind-set, what we know about him being in this bathroom for an extended period of time, had a cell phone, we just talked to the -- captain Canty about how, yes, he called 911, declared his allegiance to terrorist organizations, but he also called the TV producer.

And Pamela was just telling us last hour he was texting with his wife.

JAMES COPENHAVER, RETIRED MAJOR CASE INVESTIGATOR: Absolutely.

He wanted everyone that he knew that was on his contact list to know what he was about to do, which shows me that he had the thought that he was going to go there knowing that he wasn't going to come out alive. And he had this thing planned out, and to the point I think the texting to the wife is a treasure trove of information once that's released.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: And also the Googling.

COPENHAVER: Yes. BALDWIN: He had the awareness, I don't even want to give him that

much credit, narcissism, whatever you call it, of Googling Pulse shooting to see if it's popped up on the sites yet.

COPENHAVER: Exactly. He wanted to see if it was in the headlines.

(CROSSTALK)

COPENHAVER: And more importantly, what we're seeing is, if he had ISIS ties, or some type of radical ties, was he looking for that headline as well, so, before he dies, he maybe got credit for doing some radical terrorist act, if you will.

BALDWIN: Yes.

BROWN: And on that note, if I may jump in, I was speaking to law enforcement sources about being radicalized and the influences. And the picture that is emerging is that it was something more recent. And he was apparently in the last few weeks consuming more jihadist propaganda, but it was all over the map. It was ISIS beheading videos.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: Al Qaeda.

BROWN: Yes, all over the map. And so it's a little confusing in terms of what the driver was and if that was the only driver, because the suspicion is that there were other motivations at play.

BALDWIN: Right.

And motivations regarding targeting the gay community specifically as well.

Pam and James, thank you so much.

Right now, I can tell you that, here in Orlando, President Obama's here on the ground. He's been meeting with families here, in addition to the vice president offering condolences. He's just talked to law enforcement as well..