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CNN NEWSROOM

Gun Shop Owner Claims Alerting the FBI; Funeral Services Today for Massacre's Victims; Blame Game on Capitol Hill Over Gun Control. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired June 17, 2016 - 10:00   ET

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


[10:30:01] MANDY PIFER, PARTNER OF SAN BERNARDINO SHOOTING VICTIM SHANNON JOHNSON: This isn't written down as part of the president's, you know, job description, but he's finding himself doing it, like, 10 times that he has to come visit families. It is so frustrating because I know that he alone can't change anything. I wish if there's a next shooter -- shooting like this, I hope members of Congress and the House of Representatives have to go and meet with these families, and with the survivors, and that is what's different about this time is that the president was able to take the time to meet with the survivors of the shootings.

Unlike he could do in San Bernardino. The survivor guilt is incredible and there are a lot of people that need to be comforted, but it's so frustrating, and, you know, I won't swear on air, but it's a silent, very silent rage for now. It's silent anyway.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Mandy Pifer, thank you so much. Thanks for your time. Appreciate it.

PIFER: You're welcome. Thank you.

WHITFIELD: The next hour of the CNN NEWSROOM begins right now.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. I'm Pamela Brown in Orlando.

WHITFIELD: And I'm Fredricka Whitfield. Thank you so much for joining us.

Here in a city reeling from so much tragedy this past week, another heart-wrenching day unfolds. At least nine people of -- that were massacred at that gay nightclub Pulse will be remembered at funerals today. They are scattered across the Orlando area, the services today. This as a gun shop owner makes a haunting claim that he alerted the FBI to the killer weeks before the attack. Did the feds miss warning signs of the terrorist's deadly intentions?

And Senator John McCain ignites a fierce new debate. Does President Obama deserve blame for a strategy that has struggled to fight terrorism? Pam.

BROWN: Fredricka, thanks. Let's begin this hour with the latest on the investigation. I want to turn to my colleague, CNN's Jessica Schneider. She's here with the very latest -- Jessica. JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Pamela, you know, Robert

Abell is the owner of Lotus Gunworks in Jensen Beach, Florida, and he tells officials that he had a man that came into his gun shop and wanted to buy 1,000 rounds of ammunition as well as body armor, but it wasn't until after the Pulse nightclub shooting that Abell realized it was actually Omar Mateen who had tried to make that purchase, and then was turned away.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBBIE ABELL, CO-OWNER OF LOTUS GUNWORKS: When he was on his cell phone, he had a conversation in a foreign language that was more concerning. Then he came back and he was requesting ammo. So he wanted bulk ammo only. So at that time, he declined any business, and he left the store. We had no link, no contact, we had -- didn't know who he was. But we did contact authorities and let them know, we just had a suspicious person that was in here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHNEIDER: Now Abell said he called the FBI about this attempted alarming purchase, but with no purchase records and no surveillance and no I.D. on this person, this investigation could just not move forward.

Now in the meantime, we're also learning that Omar Mateen and his wife corresponded numerous times while the attack was unfolding. At 4:00 in the morning while Omar Mateen was barricaded in the bathroom and the police standoff was going on, he texted his wife, have you seen the news? At one point his wife responded that she loved him. She also tried to call him numerous times.

And we understand that while the gunman was barricaded in that bathroom he also posted to Twitter warning of future ISIS attacks.

Now while all of this is ongoing, we're seeing a disturbing profile of the gunman. In fact, we've learned from school disciplinary records that he was suspended for 48 days during high school. He was also written up 31 different times in elementary school. In fact, his third grade teacher saying he was violent. Classmates complained that he threatened to bring a gun to school, and at one point classmates say he claimed that Osama bin Laden was his uncle -- Pamela.

BROWN: Jessica Schneider, thank you so much for bringing us the latest there.

And I want to talk about all of this, the investigation. I want to bring in my panel, CNN senior law enforcement analyst Tom Fuentes, CNN legal analyst Lauren Coats, CNN military analyst, Lieutenant General Mark Hertling.

Thank you to the three of you for coming on. I want to go to you first, Tom, because I just spoke to the Governor Rick Scott, and he said that ISIS is to blame here. This has nothing to do with guns. It has to do with ISIS.

[10:05:02] Let's take a listen to what he had to say and I'll talk to you on the other end.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. RICK SCOTT (R), FLORIDA: Nobody would think that a -- anybody on a terrorist watch list should have a gun. Right? That should -- you know, we all can agree that we they should -- you know, we don't want somebody that's going to do something like that to be walking around with any weapons, but the Second Amendment didn't kill anybody. This is ISIS. This is evil. This is radical Islam. I'm tired of what's going on in our country, that we're not focused enough on ISIS.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: So, Tom, from what you know of all the subjects you investigated in the FBI, do you think if it hadn't been for ISIS and all the propaganda he was taking in recently, he wouldn't have gone on that rampage?

TOM FUENTES, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, I think, Pam, that's more or less a perfect storm of a number of issues that we have in this country. Yes, number one, ISIS has land. That they have a safe haven from which to put out thousands of social media messages every day worldwide for people to self-radicalize and carry out an attack in their own country, in their own city, by whatever means, knife, hatchet, car, bomb, anything.

We also have the reports of this kid, Mateen, having trouble since about third grade threatening classmates and disturbing his elementary school and being disciplined 31 times, and then previous co-workers and others saying he's been a troublemaker, you know, and had anger management problems with being brutal with his first wife and his current wife. So you have mental health issues with this guy, and then, of course, you would have, you know, his hatred of gay groups or whether he was or wasn't, wanting to carry out that.

So you have a combination of a terrorist act, a hate crime, and a mentally disturbed individual, and as far as I'm concerned about anybody that espouses ISIS philosophy of beheading, torture, murder, they're already somewhat mentally ill in the first place to do it.

BROWN: So you're saying that ISIS may not be solely to blame here. That even if ISIS wasn't at play, this could have still happened?

FUENTES: Well, we might not have the full massacre. He might have acted out in another way, but I'm saying, yes, ISIS is definitely at play here in inspiring him and helping him find a self-justification for carrying out this act at that club.

BROWN: Yes. And I want to turn to you, General Mark Hertling, because I asked the governor, what do you do about someone like this gunman who is self-radicalized, he's taking in all this jihadist propaganda and he said, well, get rid of ISIS. Eradicate ISIS. Can we do that?

LT. GEN. MARK HERTLING, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: We certainly are working on that, but this is a multi-hydra solutions, a headed hydra. You have ISIS in Iraq and Syria and in other parts of the world, and, yes, you have to go after them. We're doing that. You have ISIS and terrorists who are committed to ISIS and who are operational agents of ISIS who are also flowing into various countries, but then you also have these kind of shooters. These kind of individuals who have a combination of a terrorist background, who are associating with ISIS, who are inspired by ISIS, but they also have access to guns.

You can't solve all these problems with just one solution. I heard the governor, and I think what the governor said was somewhat simplistic. It's going after ISIS on the battlefield is what he was implying, and, yes, that's part of the problem, but you also have to look at other various factors that are contributing to this problem, and I agree with Tom, you know, there are many things to go after, not just ISIS on the battlefield.

BROWN: All right. I'm going to talk about the police and the investigation with Laura Coats because we know, Laura, that the wife is under investigation right now, that there were some text messages exchanged during this, that she had an inkling when her husband left the house on Saturday that he might go to launch an attack and apparently she tried to talk him out of it, and even during the attack apparently she was frantically calling him after she saw the news at Pulse nightclub, had a suspicion he was responsible for this, but she never called police.

How much trouble could she be in and what are the factors at play here?

LAURA COATS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, as the investigation unfolds, it looks less like she was aware of a hypothetical act that may happen and more that she may have known about a specific activity that was going to cause the massacre that did. And if that is, in fact, true, the trouble that she's facing is a lot. It would mean that she was not only aiding and abetting somebody who was going to commit not only a felony but perhaps a terroristic attack by either encouraging, inducing, or assisting by casing out Pulse nightclub or by helping to purchase ammunition and knowing he spent apparently thousands of dollars in the weeks leading up to this event and then more importantly maybe she was involved in the conspiracy to actually commit this act.

And mind you, even if she somehow was involved in the conspiracy, which we still don't know, she would have an affirmative duty to try to withdraw.

BROWN: I'm just curious because she is claiming she didn't know any specifics about his attacks. So does that give her any protection at all?

[10:10:06] COATS: Yes, if she does not know about the specific attack. If she didn't know about the actual date and location, perhaps there is some limited liability. But as the investigation is going on, it appears that she was aware and feared that there may be a more imminent attack and then if her involvement up to that date indicates that she was somehow conspiring or that she was in any way involved in the planning or execution of the actual event, even if it wasn't a date certain, well, then she had a duty to also withdraw and to inform and try to prevent the actual commission of the act.

So it all hangs on what the government is able to know about the timeline and the specific point in time that she actually knew that an act was going to occur and whether she aided in trying to conceal evidence after the fact.

BROWN: All right. Lauren Coats, Tom Fuentes, Mark Hertling, thank you so much for sharing your very important perspective on this story.

Fredricka, back to you.

WHITFIELD: All right, Pam, thanks so much.

So today at least nine of the murder victims will be remembered at funeral services. Two of them will be honored the way they lived. Luis Daniel Wilson Leon and Jean Carlos Mendez Perez were together for eight years. Some friends have said that they had plans to be married.

CNN's Boris Sanchez is here with a closer look at this couple.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Fred, initially I reported there were five funerals today. It turns out there's actually eight funerals for nine victims. Just gives you an idea of just how expansive and how many people all of this affects.

We wanted to give you a closer look at exactly who these people were. Christopher Joseph Sanfeliz was 24 years old. His friends described him as a positive guy who worked at a bank. Yilmary Rodriguez Solivan was a mother of two young sons, she was 24 years old. Luis Vielma who's 22. He worked at the Harry Potter Ride at Islands of Adventure. Jimmy Dejesus Velazquez who was 50. He was a dancer that specialized in Puerto Rican folks music. There's also Corey James Cornell, a 21- year-old, and Anthony Luis Laureano Disla, he was 25, a dancer that was born in Puerto Rico, as well as Joel Paniagua, who's a 32-year- old, aside from that couple that you mentioned.

All of these services happening on the heels of President Obama's visit yesterday, a very emotional one. The White House described it as. And the president said that the families of these victims when he met with them pleaded with him to do something about these mass shootings that seem to keep happening again and again. Here is what the president said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I held and hugged grieving family members and parents, and they asked why does this keep happening. And they pleaded that we do more to stop the carnage.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: The president recommitting to doing something about these shootings but saying that he can't make any promises. Sadly, it's a script that we've heard before. The president has made 10 trips to cities that have been scarred by mass shootings. Coincidentally, today mark's one year since the shooting in

Charleston, South Carolina. Clearly it's a problem that has been difficult to address. Hopefully one that we won't have to keep confronting in the future, Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right. The healing still continuing there in Charleston and of course here as well.

Thanks so much, Boris Sanchez, appreciate that.

All right. Straight ahead, we'll talk to one of the families that met with President Obama right here in Orlando yesterday. That interview at the bottom of the hour.

BROWN: All right. Still to come, the terror attack in Orlando reviving calls for gun control in the nation's capital, but as Republicans and Democrats point fingers on the issue, can common ground be found?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:17:51] WHITFIELD: Welcome back. I'm Fredricka Whitfield live in Orlando.

Gun control comes up for a series of key votes in the Senate on Monday as the blame game over how to stop gun violence rages between Republicans and Democrats. John McCain right in the middle of the fight after saying this about President Obama.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: Barack Obama is directly responsible for it. Because when he pulled everybody out of Iraq, al Qaeda went to Syria, became ISIS, and ISIS is what it is today. Thanks to Barack Obama's failures.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: All right. McCain later said he misspoke and in a statement wrote, quote, "I did not mean to imply that the president was personally responsible. I was referring to President Obama's national security decisions, not the president himself," end quote. A spokesman for Harry Reid slammed the Arizona Republican's remarks as, quote, "unhinged."

Senior political reporter Manu Raju joining me now from Washington.

So, Manu, good morning to you. So quite the dust up and now the clean up.

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right. And actually we're headed into a series of votes on Monday evening in the Senate on four bills, two Democratic bills, two Republican bills, but what we're expecting is sort of more of the same. There will be gridlock in the United States Senate. The bills deal with how to prevent folks who are on the terrorist watch list from getting guns. That's what Democrats are trying to do, have a blanket prohibition against folks who are on that list from getting guns.

Republicans believe that is much too broad. They're trying to narrow that scope and give the courts and the FBI some authority to investigate whether or not people should be on that list and whether or not they should not get guns. In both of those bills are being opposed by Democrats and Republicans. They actually came up for a vote last December and they failed on a party line vote, so expect more of the same on Monday.

Now yesterday House Speaker Paul Ryan had a chance to weigh in really laying out the Republican concerns with the Democratic approach.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. PAUL RYAN (R), HOUSE SPEAKER: Is going after the Second Amendment how you stop terrorism? No. That's not how you stop terrorism.

[10:20:03] We have a bill that's being voted on right now to go after homegrown jihadists. Let's not take our eye off the ball here. This is a person who is radicalized by Islamic radical terrorists. By -- he claimed it was by ISIS.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: Now this issue is going to become a major one in Senate races in particular across the country after this vote on Monday. Democrats believe they have the upper hand on this issue and they're going to push pretty hard especially for vulnerable Republican senators, and including Marco Rubio of Florida who is considering running for his seat re-election in Florida.

Now Rubio voted against that Democratic bill last December joining those concerns that we heard Paul Ryan just voiced, but Democrats believe that they can really make this stick to Marco Rubio if he decides to run for re-election. So watch for this to continue to play out and it's just a sign that the gun issue is not getting resolved on Capitol Hill but it's getting litigated on the campaign trail -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right. Manu Raju, thank you so much, in D.C. Pamela.

BROWN: Thanks so much, Fred.

And I just want to bring in Phil Mattingly now for more on the politics of gun control.

Phil, "The Washington Post" had some interesting analysis on McCain's comments. In fact this article reads in part that, "The effects of Trump's willingness to go there rhetorically is that it ups the ante for every other Republican."

So, Phil, "The Washington Post" calls this Trumpism and says it has had a strong influence on the Republican Party at large. You've been talking to GOP officials. Is this something that's real inside the party? PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Pam, the landscape has shifted,

shifted actually might be an understatement. It's been an earthquake of sorts for Republicans who are running up and down the ballot. What does Donald Trump actually mean?

Now you've seen some candidates hug Donald Trump, embrace the rhetoric, try and mimic his bombastic performances on the campaign. The real question, though, becomes on the other side. You've seen even more Republicans, particularly those running in tough races in November, walk away from Donald Trump, criticize his statements, distance themselves on a regular basis.

The reality is this, Pam, if you look across the Republican Party, this has been a paradigm shift. You haven't seen something like this in recent history, so top Republican officials, particularly those responsible for a lot of those up and down ballot races, are very uneasy and very uncertain as to what to do next.

Now it's important to note, with John McCain, with his comments yesterday, what he said in his walk back statement has been his position throughout, that he criticizes the Obama administration for their decision to pull troops out of Iraq. That's what caused or led to ISIS in his telling of things.

What was jarring I think to a lot of people, even Republicans on Capitol Hill that are long-time supporters of John McCain, is John McCain has consistently been the, quote, "statesman" in the Republican Party. The guy who said I think Barack Obama, the president of the United States, is a good man, I just disagree for his policies. So for him to diverge on that even for just a couple of moments as what happened yesterday raised a lot of eyebrows, particularly John McCain, in a tough re-election battle in Arizona, a state that Donald Trump, I might add, won by 25 points -- Pam.

BROWN: All right. And speaking of Trump, Phil, he is weighing in on the gun control issue. And he spoke at a Dallas rally yesterday. Let's take a listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I just watched President Obama, one after another we have tragedy after tragedy, and it's a tough -- it's a tough situation, but he's largely to a large extent he's blaming guns, and --

(CROWD BOOS)

TRUMP: And I'm going to save your Second Amendment, folks. I'm going to save your Second Amendment.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: But, Phil, Trump also plans to meet with NRA leaders to talk about taking away gun rights from people on terror watch lists. That is not the view of many Republicans, so how does he square -- I mean, how does he reconcile those two different views? MATTINGLY: And Pam, it's worth noting that event last night in Dallas

also an event on Wednesday in Atlanta, both following that tweet saying he was going to meet with the NRA to talk about banning people on terror watch lists from buying firearms. He did not mention that tweet or that issue in either of those events. Instead, saying what you just heard there.

And I think it's an interesting thing here. Republicans themselves are trying to reconcile what Donald Trump means versus what maybe Donald Trump tweets, and the idea that he would break ideologically or away from Republican orthodoxy is not new. He's been doing it often, regularly throughout the campaign. It's been one of the most frustrating elements for a lot of establishment Republicans, but I think the question now becomes what is he going to say after his meeting with the NRA? Is he going to back the Democratic proposal that they're going to be voting on on Monday? Or is he going to try and pull off a little bit, and go with the Republican position?

I can tell you that when you talk to people on Capitol Hill, Republicans on Capitol Hill, they don't appreciate him, weighing in on this issue as such because it's such a heated fight on Capitol Hill but everybody is really waiting to see what happens next, Pam.

BROWN: All right. Phil Mattingly, thank you so much for that.

[10:25:02] Fred, back over to you.

WHITFIELD: All right, Pam. All right. Still to come, as Orlando pays tribute to the victims, we're also hearing incredible stories of survival. Up next, the family of one of those survivors joining me live.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Good morning. I'm Pamela Brown just a few blocks from the Pulse nightclub.

WHITFIELD: And I'm Fredricka Whitfield at the Orlando Regional Medical Center where 23 victims are still recovering inside.

[10:30:03] So today families and friends will be saying their good- byes, their final good-byes, to at least nine victims of the Orlando massacre.