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Interview with Governor Rick Scott; FBI Searching for Motives in Killer's Electronics and Previous Travels to the Middle East; Wildfire Overruns Interstate; Trump Slams McCain's Status as War Hero; Seven Prison Workers Charged with Helping El Chapo Guzman; Aired 1-2p ET

Aired July 18, 2015 - 13:00   ET

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

[13:00:01] BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Meantime as you mentioned, supporters coming in by the hundreds to reflect on those killed as the investigation moves forward.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ (voice-over): As the community of Chattanooga gathered to remember the lives lost, new details emerged revealing how the shooting unfolded. According to investigators police followed 24- year-old Mohammad Youssuf Abdulazeez down the highway after he shot up a recruitment center and pursued him to the Naval facility where he crashed the gate and opened fire.

PAUL STONE, SHOOTING WITNESS: It was just the volley of fire, you know, going off. And then I started hearing the bullets ricochet. So that's when I knew, you know, that something was going on.

SANCHEZ: Paul Stone works the glass shop across the street.

STONE: It was about probably 30 round bursts, you know, in just a matter of seconds that went off.

SANCHEZ: Abdulazeez was armed with at least two long guns and a handgun, killing the four Marines inside a fenced area before police shot and killed him. A sailor that was also wounded died over night.

CHIEF FRED FLETCHER, CHATTANOOGA, TENNESSEE POLICE: There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that Chattanooga Police officers prevented loss of life yesterday. I have never been prouder to be a police officer.

GOV. BILL HASLAM (R), TENNESSEE: I think what you'll see throughout the next days, weeks, months, and even longer is Chattanoogans who are saying, we're not going to forget what happened, and four people whose lives were lost right here.

SANCHEZ: Paul Stone certainly will not forget.

STONE: Because this is home. You know. This is where we live. And for somebody to come in where we live and kill our people, you know, it breaks our heart. You know.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ: And investigators are now looking at travel records for Abdulazeez seeing where he may have gone in recent years. Yesterday a source telling CNN he had gone to Jordan several times including most recently in 2014 reportedly to visit an uncle -- Fredricka.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Boris Sanchez. Thank you so much in Chattanooga.

I'm joined now on the phone by Florida Governor Rick Scott.

Governor, thanks so much for being with me. So you just issued this executive order relocating the National Guardsmen at these six store front recruiting offices. Help better explain for us what is taking place, what is your executive order mean?

GOV. RICK SCOTT (R), FLORIDA: Sure, Fredricka. First off, my heart goes out to the family members that have lost these loved ones. I served in the U.S. Navy, and I cannot imagine that we don't want to make sure all of our military are safe. So we're going to do three things. First we have six store front recruiting centers. We're going relocate all of those to our armories until we have some recommendations on how we can make sure they're safe.

Second, we're going to work with local law enforcement agencies to get regular security patrol check for all of our National Guard armories, and third, I'm going to make sure all of our qualified Guardsmen are adequately armed for their personal protection. We're going to do everything we can to make sure that all of our National Guard members are safe.

WHITFIELD: And when you say all qualified Guardsmen will have adequate protection, what does that mean especially when in contrast -- it's been understood that it would take a presidential executive order in which to arm any kind of recruiting station. So help understand the balance here.

SCOTT: Well, we can be armed at our armories. And we will be armed at our armories. They -- so we will not reopen our store fronts until we're very careful that they're safe. But at our armories, all of our qualified Guardsmen are going to be provided arms. We're going to -- for afterhours, we're going to the ones that don't have concealed weapon permits, we're going to accelerate their ability to get a concealed weapon permit for personal protection when they're not on duty.

But we're going to do -- we're going to make sure that in Florida our National Guardsmen are safe. Men and women.

WHITFIELD: Give me your overall reaction to what did take place days ago in Chattanooga. It's still very unsettling, very difficult for anyone to comprehend how in the world this would happened, what would motivate anyone to do something like this. Today we've learned that the fifth person, the U.S. Navy seaman, died in this heinous attack. Express to us your thoughts and feeling on this and how this did provoke you to make this Florida executive order. SCOTT: You know, Fred, I just can't imagine what these families are

going through. What this gunman did is change the lives of those five families, and a lot of the families in that community, and to me we should all wake up to understand that, you know, we have people in our country that want to harm our law enforcement.

[13:05:06] And so my heart goes out to every one of those family members. And I'm going to do everything I can in Florida to make sure our Guardsmen are safe. And I'm sure that other governors are going to be doing the same thing to make sure their guardsmen are safe.

We've got to understand that, you know, we have people in our country that want to harm the military. The ones that are defending the freedom. So they need to be -- they need to be safe and they need to be armed.

WHITFIELD: So even though this is a -- this might be a temporary measure that you are taking to move these -- the personnel from these recruiting stations to the National Guard, where National Guardsmen are able to be armed, is it your feeling that this may be a prelude to a national change at recruiting stations that would eventually, by way of a presidential executive order, allow U.S. military personnel to be armed?

SCOTT: Well, I give you an example. In Orlando, we've got -- there's that one strip center that has -- I think it has Army, Navy, I know it has National Guards, all the other, and they're -- you know, if you think about it, when people know that they cannot be armed, that's a pretty easy target if you wanted to harm our military. So we're going to make sure in Florida that we will not reopen ours -- our store fronts until we are very comfortable that our Guardsmen are safe.

And I hope -- I hope everybody is thinking about this, how do we take care of our military? They're out defending our freedom each and every day and putting their lives at risk. We've got to make sure they're safe. You wouldn't put somebody -- you wouldn't put somebody in the position -- and in harm's way without adequate security. You wouldn't do that in our local law enforcement. And we surely shouldn't be doing that in our military.

WHITFIELD: All right. Florida Governor Rick Scott, thanks so much for your time. Appreciate it.

SCOTT: All right. Have a great day.

WHITFIELD: All right. Thanks so much.

All right, joining me right now is CNN national security analyst and former assistant secretary for the Department of Homeland Security, Juliette Kayyem, and former FBI agent and founder of South Asian and Middle East Consultants, Foria Younis.

Good to see both of you.

Hey, Juliette, I wonder if I can get your response first on the Florida's governor move here, in moving these recruiting offices, the personnel, I should say, to the National Guard armories, where National Guardsmen are armed and he says they will be adequately armed especially in the climate of what has happened just two days after Chattanooga, Tennessee.

JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Right. And to be clear the governor only has jurisdiction over the National Guard, not the active military. So it wouldn't apply to the situation that we just saw happened this week.

WHITFIELD: Right.

KAYYEM: I think what we have to do is separate site protection or physical protection with personal protection. And in this instance, I think the governor is absolutely right in the sense that we need to protect physical locations that might be targets because they are military and while his fix is only going to apply to the -- Florida National Guard recruitment centers, it is something that the Pentagon is clearly going to be thinking about for site protection of recruitment centers.

I have to say I'm not sure we know enough or we have enough standards to say that we should begin to arm all service members wherever they may be or under concealed weapons rule. I think that is such a dramatic change that it may take -- you know, to say that about the active military will just be such a change from not just tradition, but also rules regarding the arming of active military members when they're not on base, when they're at home or in other places.

So I just want to separate them for viewers and make clear, but I think in the site -- the physical protection, I think he's absolutely right.

WHITFIELD: OK. That clarity very much appreciated. Thank you so much.

All right, let's now talk about the gunman, Mohammad Youssuf Abdulazeez.

And Foria, we are learning now as now the FBI and Virginia will be going through this cell phone and the computer trying to figure out at what point did he make this turn given so many friends and family members use words like kind, you know, and that he was a good guy. And -- but something happened potentially once he visited Jordan a few times, that he came back different.

So, Foria, what is the kind of information that investigators might be able to piece together? What are the things that they're looking for whether it be in the social media footprint or in any other exhibited behaviors?

FORIA YOUNIS, FOUNDER AND CEO, FOUNDER OF SOUTH ASIAN AND MIDDLE EAST CONSULTANTS: Yes. And firstly, I think some of this might have started. He might have started to have some opinions about the American military even before he went overseas. But I think sometimes these overseas trips will give him more confirmation that what he is thinking about doing is right. And he might be able to get some training and some other things from overseas that he may not be able to do so much here.

[13:10:12] But what's the FBI going to be looking at? They definitely are going to be focused on what did he do overseas for all that period of time. And also, Fredricka, keep in mind that he was fired from his job because he didn't pass a background check. What caused him not to pass that background check? So something was null.

WHITFIELD: Do you think it could be more than just the DUI? Because apparently that is -- there's a photograph that we're seeing repeatedly which really was kind of the mug shot of that DUI, you know, arrest and offense. You think there could be something more than that.

YOUNIS: I think there could be something more than that. I'm not sure in terms of the time line what came first, you know, between all of these things. It could be the DUI, but there also could be something else that we need to know about. But the investigators would definitely be looking so closely at all the people he was in contact within the U.S. What did he do overseas? Did he leave the country? Where did he get training?

Maybe what type of Web sites he went to while he was overseas? It's a little bit harder for the FBI to do some of these things overseas, but the Jordanians are very close allies of us, and I'm sure they're working very closely with the FBI office in Amman, Jordan.

WHITFIELD: And Juliette, at what point are there red flags? Because apparently even though he went to, we hear reportedly Jordan, maybe even four times in a short amount of time, there didn't appear to be, at least reportedly there have not been any real red flags that were raising real suspicions. The FBI eventually did ask him about -- at least one of his trips, he said he was visiting his grandmother, but it may have gone away from there.

KAYYEM: Right.

WHITFIELD: Why do you suppose that is?

KAYYEM: I mean, for one is there are a lot of Americans traveling to the Middle East and Jordan is not going to raise any red flags in and of itself. Jordan is an ally, it is a monarchy that has supported us in our counterterrorism efforts. If you were going back and forth to Yemen, that would raise a lot of flags. So in it of itself it's not going to do anything plus if he had no social media presence or anything to trigger the FBI here domestically to look into him, travel alone would not have triggered it.

What might have triggered it but appears that he had explanation the period of how long he was in Jordan for. Now I want to make, you know, clear -- he could have gone to Jordan to reaffirm or to help support a radicalization process , but had no training there. In other words, what he did on Thursday requires no training. I mean, it essentially is you get a lot of guns, and you chose soldiers. So it's not like building a bomb or 9/11.

WHITFIELD: Right. All right. Juliette Kayyem, Foria Younis, thank you so much.

YOUNIS: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: All right, a simple drive home turned into an emergency in California. Wildfire jumped on to a California highway and then simply engulfed cars. A live report on the fires next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:16:17] WHITFIELD: All right. Parts of a scorched interstate are reopening today in California. The flames jumped Interstate-15 in San Bernardino County, and sent terrified drivers running from their cars and up a hill to safety. About 20 cars and two semi-trucks were destroyed and dozens more were damaged as the flames seared the freeway there. And we're also getting new details that five personal drones being flown in the area actually hampered the firefighting efforts for about 25 minutes.

CNN's Dan Simon is covering the fires for us from San Francisco.

Dan, what is the latest?

DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, hi, Fred, talk about a few hard pounding, anxious moments. You know, you've heard the analogy before but that really did look like an action movie set with those helicopters trying to put out the flames on the freeway. Now we should tell you about the drones. You talked about it. We had five drones there that were interfering the firefighter effort. So this is a situation that is getting more and more dangerous by the day every time you have one of these wildfire. You have these hobbyists who come out and take these drones and try to get their own pictures.

But this is a situation that could have been very dangerous. And I think we're seeing the beginning of a very massive public education campaign. You see tweets like this one just from the U.S. Forest Service trying to get out the message that says that if you fly we can't. I had a viewer ask me just a little while ago on Twitter, you know, what's the problem if a helicopter, you know, sees one of these drones, what's the problem?

Well, the problem is very simple. If a helicopter collides with the drone, it could damage the helicopter and be, you know, a major -- you could have a tragedy unfold there on the freeway so fortunately that didn't happen.

We can talk a little bit about where the things stand now with the fire. Five percent contained and the flames do seem to be dying down, but talk about a lot of damage and destroyed vehicles. You have 20 destroyed vehicles right there on the freeway and then when the flames jump the freeway went to the nearby community of (INAUDIBLE), destroyed three houses and then destroyed another 44 vehicles. So 64 cars destroyed in total with this fire -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: Oh, my goodness. All right. Terrible stuff.

Dan Simon, thank you. All right. The Obama administration isn't taking the weekend off.

It's full-court press to sell the Iran deal.

Sunlen Serfaty is live for us right now at the White House -- Sunlen.

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Fred, President Obama lashing out against his critics saying there have been dishonest arguments about the Iran deal and their sales pitch continues. The secretary of Defense travels to the Middle East this weekend. More on the latest after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:22:47] WHITFIELD: Defense Secretary Ash Carter leaves for the Middle East tomorrow. Israel is his first stop. And he will address concerns over the historic nuclear deal with Iran. Today Iran's supreme leader spoke out about the deal for the first time and he had some harsh words for the U.S.

Our Sunlen Serfaty joins us now from the White House with more on this.

So, Sunlen, what did the ayatollah say about the U.S.

SERFATY: Well, Fred, notably he didn't criticize the deal as it came together, but he didn't fully endorse the deal either. You know, as expected, he underscored that the draft of the nuclear deal would have to be ratified through the legal process going forward, and he really had some harsh words, as you said, for the United States promising that Iran will uphold this anti-American policies.

I want to play you a moment from the speech but pay attention to the reaction from the people and the crowd as it was translated by the translator.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AYATOLLAH ALI KHOMEINI, SUPREME LEADER OF IRAN (Through Translator): Our policies will not change vis-a-vis the arrogant government of the United States at all. We have repeated multiple times with the United States. We have no talks vis-a-vis regional issues.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SERFATY: And this was a televised speech to mark the end of the holy month of Ramadan that the ayatollah, by far his most detailed comments about the deal since it was struck. He is the supreme leader, so his voice really is important here. He's the final decider whether this deal will go forward or not. So it's certainly everyone watching very careful each and every word, Fred, especially here at the White House.

WHITFIELD: All right. And of course the president, President Obama, is pushing this deal very hard. What is he say and to whom?

SERFATY: Well, it's interesting. President Obama's weekly address was released today and he really took on his critics really head on, noting that there's a lot of skepticism about this deal and seeing that there have been many dishonest arguments -- that's his words -- about the contours of this deal. And he predicted that it will definitely get over heated in the next few weeks as people debate this. But the president says he's ready for that. Here's what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Does this deal resolve all of the threats Iran poses to its neighbors in the world? No. Does it do more than anyone has done before to make sure Iran does not obtain a nuclear weapon? Yes. And that was our top priority from the start. That's why it's in everyone's best interest to make sure this deal holds.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[13:25:15] SERFATY: And the White House has launched an all-out lobbying campaign to push for this deal both on Capitol Hill and abroad. We can expect the same sort of arguments to be echoed in those meetings next week on Capitol Hill. And Secretary of State John Kerry and the Energy Secretary Moniz who had a key role in negotiating this deal will both be on briefing the full House, the full Senate.

They have a lot of skepticism on Capitol Hill. Also abroad. They're dispatching, as you said, the Secretary of Defense Ash Carter to the Middle East this weekend. His first stop is in Israel. As we know Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been one of the fiercest critics of this deal so it's certainly trying to reassure him as this deal potentially goes forward -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right. Sunlen Serfaty, thanks so much at the White House.

All right. Still ahead the investigation into the Tennessee shooter's trip to Jordan and how he may have been radicalized on the recent trip.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right. Mortgage rates picked up to the highest averages of the year. Have a look.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right. Hello, again. Thanks so much for joining me. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

The people of Chattanooga, Tennessee, servicemen and women around the world, and the family of a Navy sailor are mourning the loss of one of their own today.

[13:30:04] Randall Smith, a logistics specialist with the U.S. Navy, passed way from injuries he sustained during the shooting rampage in Chattanooga. He is the fifth victim of this shooter. His death was confirmed by his step grandmother. Smith was shot three times in the attack at the Naval Operational Support Center.

And in the wake of the killings in Tennessee it began with a drive-by shooting at a recruiting center near Civilian Store Front.

Texas now will be arming National Guard personnel across the state. And Florida is relocating store front recruiting facilities to National Guard armories.

Four U.S. Marines were also shot dead in the attacks on Thursday in Tennessee. Lance Corporal Squire Wells, Gunnery Sergeant Thomas Sullivan, Staff Sgt. David Wyatt, and Sgt. Carson Holmquist.

There are more questions than answers at the moment. Investigators are looking for a motive that could have been sparked during a trip Abdulazeez -- Mohammad Youssuf Abdulazeez took to the Middle East. A friend of Abdulazeez tells CNN that he was certain, quote, "something happened over there," and wasn't the same when he came back to the U.S.

Let's go now to CNN senior international correspondent Nick Payton Walsh who is in Jordan.

So, Nick, what are we learning about these trips that he took to Jordan and what may have happened?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we know there were several. We know he used his U.S. passport. And that's going to create some complication for investigators because he used his newer name Abdulazeez rather than the family's older name of Saeed Hajj Ali on that particular American document.

He travelled a number of times, the latest one being 2014, last year. And some, a matter of fact, report is suggesting he could have been here as long as seven months. Now the one person we do know, according to Jordanian officials, he met was his uncle. Now we don't know the man's whereabouts at this stage but it's part, I'm sure, of what Jordanian officials are frantically trying to piece together right now along with their American counterparts.

Where did he go? Who did he see? What possibly happened to him here? What did he hear? What did he feel that may have led him on a more radical path on his return.

Now Jordan isn't really a place you would normally associate with radical hotbeds. There have been radicals from here and there have been flourishes of ISIS briefly at times, but it's not regionally known that. In fact the opposite, frankly. The police here are quite strung as the government and ISIS are very unpopular. So it's a complicated destination to explain broader now about how this man came to be the violent gunman we know in Tennessee.

But there is another potential solution that in fact Jordan was a transit point and he may have gone east into Iraq, a lot of ISIS there, less likely perhaps he travelled north into Syria. That's some very unestablished route, or maybe he went elsewhere in the region, too, simply using Amman as a crossing point. But there certainly was a family background here and in the West Bank, the territory of Israel, where he may have visited people, too. So a lot for investigators to look into.

WHITFIELD: And then I wonder, Nick, what kind of questions might have been asked whether it'd be in Jordan or even departing Jordan since that last trip he was there for seven months, if that in it of itself would have seemed unusual or whether that would seem that questions need to be asked?

WALSH: Well, we should bear in mind this is a man of Palestine heritage. His parents were from (INAUDIBLE), Israel, and subsequently were naturalized in the United States. So going back to Jordan where many Palestinian refugees and Palestinians now live. That's not abnormal. Exploring your family heritage is quite common for those in this region who are being naturalized U.S. citizens. But that said, this is of course also a period, a time which -- sorry, a place he went back to repeatedly.

So investigators will be trying to work out well, that did perhaps his psyche, was it simply tourism, catching up with the family or was it something which perhaps led him to become that gunman.

WHITFIELD: All right. Nick Paton Walsh, thank you so much, in Jordan.

All right, still ahead imagine the panic. Drivers jumping out of their cars and running for their lives as a wildfire rips across a California highway. We'll get the latest next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:37:56] WHITFIELD: A portion of Interstate 15 in California scorched by a wildfire has reopened even as firefighters continue to battle the blaze nearby. The flames jumped the interstate in San Bernardino County, sending terrified drivers running from their cars and up a hill to safety. The fire destroyed about 20 cars and two semitrucks and damaged several other cars.

We've also learned that five personal drones being flown in the area hampered the firefighting efforts for about 25 minutes. Officials fear that they would collide with firefighting helicopters. Right now the 3500 wildfire is only 5 percent contained.

Let's bring in analyst and National Forest spokesperson, Nathan Judy. He is on the phone with us now from Wrightwood, California, where firefighters are working to put out the fire.

So, Nathan, what is the process like right now?

NATHAN JUDY, NATIONAL FOREST SPOKESPERSON: Well, Fredricka, actually I'm on the Pine Fire. It's different from the North Fire. The North Fire is the one that shut down the 15 Freeway. The Pine Fire is a 200-acre fire just west of the Wrightwood community and right by the 15 Freeway. So these fires happened pretty close to each other.

WHITFIELD: OK. So what are the obstacles, similar in both fires? JUDY: No, not that exactly similar. In the North Fire you have more

of a flat area. You know, it's down by the freeway so you have it going up to the hills and it caters off to a plateau really. And on our fire we're in thicker tinder that's a little bit higher elevation and it's a little bit steeper for our folks to access this area. So with the thick timber that's really the concern and making sure this fire doesn't go any further than it already has of the 200 acres.

Being in thick timber, we're lucky we actually got some weather in today. So we've gotten some rain, slowed the progression of fire so we're looking pretty good right now.

WHITFIELD: And how is the weather hurting or helping?

JUDY: Right now it's helping. Last night it was hurting because last night we did have some winds that are kicking up and they were pushing this fire was up the ridge line then down the slopes, when we had some spot fires associated with it.

[13:40:11] And with the spot fire is when you have your main threat of a fire, the wind will kick behind it and grow embers out, and slowed the main front of the fire, and that's where we get the spots outside of our main fire. And we have to make sure we take care of those as well.

WHITFIELD: All right. Nathan Judy, I know you have your hands full. Thank you so much for taking the time out. All the best to you and your team.

JUDY: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: All right. Still ahead the Donald, going after Senator John McCain, questioning his record as a war hero. Our Mark Preston was there and will get the whole story next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right. Welcome back, I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

Donald Trump has done it again, stirring up major controversy. This time going after John McCain over his record as a war hero.

CNN's Mark Preston is live for us from Ames, Iowa.

Mark, what happened and oh my gosh, the fallout already.

MARK PRESTON, CNN POLITICS EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR: No question, Fred. Listen, today was supposed to be a day of talking about policies, specifically social conservative policies and how these 10 Republicans who are addressing this very influential crowds here in Iowa, how they would act as president. However, Donald Trump, one of those presidential contenders, on stage had a direct attack on Senator John McCain. Let's see to what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)