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Shooter's Father Blames Gun Laws; Flooding in South Carolina; Hospital Bombing in Afghanistan; Clinton About to Unveil Gun Control Plan. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired October 05, 2015 - 09:30   ET

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

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[09:30:50] ANA CABRERA, CNN ANCHOR: Hello again. Thanks for staying with us. I'm Ana Cabrera, in for Carol Costello. Good to have you with us.

Now, the father of the Umpqua Community College shooter says he doesn't know where his son got his weapons. He also declined to give details on the mental state of his son in his exclusive interview with CNN. But he was quick to say what he thought was to blame for the deadly attack - guns (ph).

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

IAN MERCER, FATHER OF UCC GUNMAN: Anything I would like to say, a question that I would like to ask is - is - is how on earth could he compile 13 guns? How can that happen, you know? They talk about gun laws. They talk about gun control. Every time something like this happens, they talk about it and nothing is done. I'm not trying to say that that's to blame for what happened, but if Chris had not been able to get a hold of 13 guns, it wouldn't have happened.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's a very powerful statement coming from you. So now I have to ask you, the idea, how did he get the 13 guns? Because, you know, that's - that's what everyone's going to want to ask now, even when you're asking that question.

MERCER: Well, look all over the world, you don't see these kind of mass shootings all over the world on a consistent basis like you do in the United States. So somebody has to ask the question, how is it so easy to get all these guns? How is it so easy? Thirteen guns? I've never held a gun in my life and I never want to but I know there are people that do. But you have to ask that question is, how was he able to compile that kind of arsenal?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: Let's bring in CNN contributor Casey Jordan, joining me now. She is a criminologist, behavioral analyst and an attorney.

Casey, first, I want to get your reaction to the father, essentially blaming the gun laws.

CASEY JORDAN, CRIMINOLOGIST: And you've got to remember that he hails from Europe, where he is correct, across the world, it's just not that easy to get guns like this. But I think that one of the things - and it's - it's a conversation that we're having and it has to be had, but he's also not doing any commentary about his son's history of mental illness, which I think the shooter's mother has concern - has confirmed. And so the conversation, obviously, has to be a hand in hand one about gun laws and safety and control in the hands of mentally ill people. And it's good because it keeps the conversation going, to have the father confirm that this is a huge issue.

CABRERA: It is still uncertain though what kind of mental illness specifically the shooter may have suffered or been living with.

JORDAN: Right.

CABRERA: The mother of a survivor told CNN that the shooter apparently spared her son just so he could deliver a message to police, some kind of a package of sorts. But then the shooter also made him watch as his classmates were killed. What does that tell you about this killer's psyche?

JORDAN: Well, you have to remember, they have the writings and we do not. And perhaps some of them will come out over time. But the biggest theme that we have seen so far in what they have told us those writings indicate is scapegoating. This was a young man who had no ability to cope with frustration. A low tolerance for frustration. Clearly anger management issues.

He was wearing fatigues and had this fascination with guns for quite a while. We know he spent one month in the Army before being discharged before even finishing basic training. So it is that connection between whatever haunts his brain and his deciding that the outlet is violence. And we need to figure out how and why this particular group, and we see it with mostly young males in their 20s, sometimes a little older, mostly white, mostly raised in good families, in tight-knit communities. We don't see it so much with females.

And we really do have to ask ourselves, what are all of these variables, which, put together, combined with access to guns, made this particular man implode, not snap. It happened over years. It didn't happen overnight. And why did he pick that particular venue, his college campus? That could just be the theater for his violence, or there could have been perhaps a woman in that classroom who spurned him romantically. The details will come out. And without ever glorifying the shooter, we need to look at these things so that we can approach this with an eye toward prevention in the future because it will happen again.

[09:35:04] CABRERA: And that is the goal, is to try to prevent these types of tragedies, but nobody has the answers it seems.

JORDAN: Not yet.

CABRERA: Casey Jordan, thanks for offering your insight.

JORDAN: Great to be here. CABRERA: Let's get back to who's happening in the southeast right now. Dramatic rescues happening in South Carolina. This as the death toll climbs. We're seeing historic flooding. It's now claimed the lives of at least seven people. Rescuers are going door to door. We know there have been hundreds of water rescues in the past couple of days.

Joining me on the phone right now is the man who took this video. Fire Chief Dennis Ray with the Lugoff South Carolina Fire Department.

Chief Ray, thanks so much for joining me. Tell us what you're seeing this morning.

CHIEF DENNIS RAY, LUGOFF SOUTH CAROLINA FIRE DEPARTMENT (via telephone): Thank you, Ana. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to share some of the things going on here in our state.

It certainly a catastrophic situation. We began preparing for this last Wednesday. Our fire department here in Lugoff actually went from a monitoring status to alert status, which is our operations that brings in more (INAUDIBLE), as well as equipment, in preparation for this. We didn't get the bulk of the rain until late Saturday, Saturday night, and then, of course, all day yesterday, Sunday, we were just inundated with, in our case, over 12 inches of rain or more that came in our Lugoff area. We're located in central South Carolina, in Kershaw County, and been working very close with our South Carolina Emergency Management division, our Emergency Management Agency he in Kershaw County.

We tried to make as many preparations as we could, but it was totally inundated. And all throughout South Carolina, and our area included, we have roadway infrastructure that has collapsed. We have bridge structures that are collapsed. Again, you shared the fatalities here in Lugoff. We just got confirmation from our federal coroner here in Kershaw County, David West. We did have one rescue last night, but also one fatality in the same vehicle. And really this stretched our resources. Ana, it's really been stretched to the limit. And we're just very thankful for our South Carolina mobilization and being able to bring outside resources from other parts of the state to help us out.

CABRERA: Well, when you look at some of these images, it's amazing that there aren't more people injured or, you know, God forbid, killed. You talk about some of the rescues that you guys are doing out there. What have those rescues been like for you and your crews?

RAY: It's been very, very turbulent water, especially in creeks. South Carolina has a very large creek system, has a large river distribution system, but there's also many private ponds. And this much water that's inundating the area, we've had dam collapses. We've had some here in Lugoff area. Many of the creeks are well over their banks and it is causing massive amounts of flooding into people's yards.

We have four vehicle rescues into last night. Last night was the fifth one up to about 2:30 yesterday morning where swift water crews had to actually enter the water. And we had over 30 homes we've had to evacuate here from Lugoff directly, dealing with - directly with the homes. So we definitely had our hands full. There's been a lot going on here throughout the state and here in Lugoff and we're just hoping we'll get more rain today. It's continuing to rain even now. And it's really hard for us to survey the rest of our area when it's this continuous (INAUDIBLE) to give us this precipitation. We just can't seem to get (INAUDIBLE).

CABRERA: Oh. Well, our thoughts and prayers are with you. Good luck in continuing to try to work through this difficult situation. Chief Ray, good to have you with us. Stay safe.

Breaking news we're following. The U.S. Coast Guard now telling CNN it believers the cargo ship El Faro sank in Hurricane Joaquin. The Coast Guard says they are still conducting search and rescue missions for the 33 people who were aboard that ship. El Faro was last heard from on Thursday, October 1st. We're expecting a press conference from the Coast Guard at the top of the hour. We will try to bring you any updates we get between now and then and, of course, any update that comes from the presser. We'll be right back.

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[09:43:24] CABRERA: Doctors Without Borders now demanding an independent investigation after a hospital in Afghanistan was bombed, apparently in a U.S. air strike. Now, this group is calling the bombing a war crime. It's leaving the city of Kunduz. At least 23 people were killed by this blast, including 13 staffers, also 10 patients and children were among the victims. Now, the Pentagon admits it may have accidentally hit this facility during a military operation. Let's go live to Kabul, Afghanistan, and bring in CNN's senior international correspondent Nic Robertson.

Nic.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, hi, Ana.

Well, we're hearing from Doctors Without Borders here very strong language. They say that claims by the Afghan government that the Taliban were using the hospital as a base are despicable and they say that that sort of undermines what U.S. officials believe is that potentially the hospital could have been collateral damage in a nearby air strike.

So what are we hearing from Doctors Without Borders? They're insisting that there's this independent, international and transparent investigation that's conducted. We've heard just a few minutes ago from U.S. General John Campbell, in charge of all forces - all U.S. forces here in Afghanistan. He says that this investigation, that the U.S. military are conducting, will be transparent. It will be accountable. Anyone who's done anything wrong will be held to account.

And, indeed, he gave us some more details in addition to what we've had already, saying that the air strike was called in not because U.S. special forces were under fire from the Taliban, which is earlier what NATO had said, but because Afghan forces were under fire from the Taliban. That's what he's explained there. [09:45:12] We've also heard recently as well from U.S. Secretary of Defense himself, saying very, very clearly, anyone who had any wrongdoing here will be held to account. This is what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ASH CARTER, U.S. DEFENSE SECRETARY: As far as the United States is concerned and as far as our forces are concerned that we be full and transparent about our investigation and also, that we hold accountable, if there is someone to be accountable, anybody responsible for doing something they shouldn't have done.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTSON: Now Doctors Without Borders have said that they don't think that any party to this incident should be involved in investigating the incident. Clearly there is a big effort here to show what the United States is going to do in terms of an investigation should answer a lot of the questions that Doctors Without Borders have.

Ana.

CABRERA: Tough situation. What a shame. Nic Robertson, thank you very much.

Still to come, days after the deadly Oregon shooting, Hillary Clinton is about to jump into the gun control debate. Our Brianna Keilar is live in Manchester, New Hampshire, where Clinton is about to lay out her plan.

Brianna.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Ana. Hillary Clinton is struggling here in the polls in New Hampshire, trailing behind Bernie Sanders. She's trying to really in a full day of events today, set herself apart from him. That includes with some of the gun proposals that she's unveiling. I'll have a live report after the break.

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[09:51:07] CABRERA: Live pictures in New Hampshire right now where any minute Hillary Clinton is set to arrive to address the voters here at a town hall. She's going to lay out her plan to curb gun violence in this country. Of course, this all comes just days after the mass shooting in Oregon that left nine people dead.

Let's get the details on her plan from CNN senior political correspondent Brianna Keilar. And Brianna, walk us through Clinton's plan.

KEILAR: Hi there, Ana. Well Hillary Clinton when she comes here to Manchester Community College is going to lay out a number of proposals, including closing a loophole that allows occasional sellers of weapons to not conduct a background check on those who are purchasing them. It's known as the gun show loophole. Also, she would propose to allow victims of gun violence to sue gun manufacturers and she's going to promise that she will take executive action, which is somewhat key, because we've seen that there is really no appetite in Congress, even for bipartisan efforts to tackle gun violence.

Her other proposals include banning domestic abusers from being allowed to purchase weapons and also extending the waiting period if a background check is not completed. This has come to be known as the Charleston loophole where the shooter there really should have been prevented from purchasing a weapon, but his background check was not completed in the amount of time allotted and so it ended up defaulting to him being able to purchase a weapon, Ana.

CABRERA: Is it strategic for the Clinton campaign to choose New Hampshire to make this announcement specifically dealing with gun control?

KEILAR: You know, this is really interesting because New Hampshire does have this libertarian streak. But when you look at the strategy here, this is also a place where Hillary Clinton is struggling in the polls. Bernie Sanders is leading her in this all-important state that in the past has been very friendly to Hillary and her husband.

So that one proposal that would allow gun violence victims to sue gun manufacturers, this is something that sets her apart of Bernie Sanders. While he's to the left of her on many things, he's actually a supporter of gun rights in a way that Hillary Clinton has not been. So, he's actually voted against allowing gun violence victims to sue gun manufacturers. She's trying to set herself apart from him in that way.

And then also we heard her in her earlier televised town hall talking about a distinction between their education plans. She said that she doesn't believe in free college for all because she doesn't want to pay for college for Donald Trump's kids. So that's her line there about how she's trying to separate herself from Sanders.

CABRERA: So all business today, but over the weekend, a little different. She was on "Saturday Night Live" cracking jokes, she even did an impersonation of Donald Trump. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KATE MCKINNON, "SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE" (as Hillary Clinton): Oh Val, I'm just so darn bummed. All anyone wants to talk about is Donald Trump.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE (as Val the bartender): Donald Trump? Isn't he the one that's like, oh, you're all losers?

(AUDIENCE LAUGHTER & APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: All right, Brianna, you heard lots of laughs there. Do you think that was effective for her? KEILAR: You know, I do think it worked. And I think the campaign

certainly feels that it did. They actually were playing that skit here on the screen behind me for this crowd that is awaiting Hillary Clinton. So the campaign really using this as -- really for two-fold. To humanize Hillary Clinton and also -- and to make her -- to sort of show her humor, but also to use Donald Trump as this device to rile up the base.

They're really trying with these efforts because we've seen here in the first recent months of Hillary Clinton's campaign, she's gone through this slog with the e-mails, with the controversy over her e- mail practices while secretary of state. It's been a tough few months for her and they're really trying to turn a corner with things like this, Ana.

[09:55:04] CABRERA: All right. Brianna Keilar in Manchester, New Hampshire, with Hillary Clinton's campaign. Thank you so much. Of course, we'll be listening in to that town hall, following along throughout the day and we'll be bringing you the highlights that come from it.

You can get your first chance to see Democratic presidential candidates go after each other on one stage at the CNN Facebook Democratic Debate. It's the first Democratic debate next Tuesday, October 13th, right here at 9:00 p.m. Eastern.

Still to come, breaking news in the search for a missing cargo ship and the 33 people aboard. We'll hear the very latest from the Coast Guard in just a few minutes.

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CABRERA: Good morning. It's 10:00 a.m. on the East Coast, 7:00 a.m. on the West Coast. I'm Ana Cabrera, in for Carol Costello. Thank you for joining me.

We begin with some breaking news. Any minute now we're expecting an update from the Coast Guard on that missing cargo ship