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FBI Recovers Items from San Bernardino Lake; Trump Launches First Attacks Against Ted Cruz; Two Suspected Terrorists Arrested in Switzerland; Obama May Bypass Congress on Background Checks. Aired 11a-12p ET

Aired December 12, 2015 - 11:00   ET

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

[10:59:45] COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS: When you hear about the things that happened in Paris and now in San Bernardino, California -- does that move you?

KEENAN REYNOLDS, NAVY'S ALL-TIME RUSHING LEADER: It definitely kind of reminds you of why you're really here, the commitment -- the bigger commitment you made to serving your country and the evil that we're out to protect. So I think it's kind of a centering thing.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WIRE: Now, Keenan and his teammates will be at the center of attention today. The joint Army/Navy chorus is singing and practicing the National Anthem behind me. It's going to be a wonderful, gorgeous day for a true American tradition, the Army-Navy game. Victor, Christi -- back to you.

CHRISTI PAUL, CNN HOST: Have fun with it -- Coy. That is just great music there.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: Indeed it is.

PAUL: Glad to hear those voices.

Hey -- go make some great memories today.

BLACKWELL: Yes -- much more ahead in the next hour of CNN NEWSROOM. We turn it over to Fredricka Whitfield.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hey -- Victor, Christi -- how are you guys doing.

PAUL: Good -- how are you?

BLACKWELL: Good.

WHITFIELD: Ok -- is it winter? Are we close to Christmas, or --

PAUL: I don't know

WHITFIELD: -- is it summer?

BLACKWELL: Yes. WHITFIELD: I'm confused.

PAUL: I don't know.

BLACKWELL: 70s here.

PAUL: I've got to go get a Christmas tree today. It's now time to do it.

WHITFIELD: Are you? I know. I know.

We did get some of our decorations up this week. But you know, I think it will get a little Christmas later on in the week.

BLACKWELL: We've got some time -- a couple of weeks.

WHITFIELD: All right. Sounds goods.

All right. Well, you all have a great day.

PAUL: Thank you. You, too.

BLACKWELL: Yes, you too.

WHITFIELD: Thank you so much. Good to see you guys.

All right. It is the 11:00 Eastern hour. NEWSROOM starts right now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is CNN breaking news.

WHITFIELD: All right. This breaking news in the investigation into the San Bernardino massacre: divers have pulled items out of a lake there. That's about three miles from the site where Syed Rizwan Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik killed 14 people more than a week ago.

CNN's Ana Cabrera is following the story for us -- joining us now. So Ana, what more do we know about this lake and the items?

ANA CABRERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we only know that they have found items as they've been searching for the past day and a half -- Fred. But FBI officials confirming that, not able to confirm whether those items they found are actually directly related to this case.

And I've been cautioned that you know, in a public lake like this -- divers, investigations find all kinds of different items. They may pull things for further investigation to determine then whether they are actually part of this specific investigation.

But you can see over my shoulder here that FBI officials are back on scene this morning. The sun came up just about an hour ago and they have been now gearing up, getting ready to go back into the lake. We've been told that this search of the lake area could take days.

They were sent here after a tip by the public or by somebody, they tell us, that told them the shooters were in this area on the day of the shooting. We know they are still looking for a missing hard drive that was not in the computer at the home of Tashfeen Malik and Syed Farook when investigators executed the search warrants there.

And they are still trying to determine all the connections that these shooters may have had. Anybody they may have been in communication with over the past several weeks, months, even years before this attack was carried out -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: And Ana -- there was communication as far as we know with Farook's former neighbor, Enrique Marquez. Tell us about what investigators are saying about him, the relationship he had with these individuals and where that relationship went.

CABRERA: Apparently Marquez has been a wealth of information. He has been voluntarily talking with investigators who tell us that he has waived his Miranda rights and has told them not only that yes, he did purchase the two AR-15s that were used in this attack but now telling them that he and Farook together had made pipe bombs in the past.

He basically told investigators that they were more like hobbyists, experimenting with building these devices. He told them he had nothing to do or no knowledge of the devices that were found at the scene of the shooting -- the devices that apparently didn't go off and there were also devices found inside the couple's town home.

Now, Enrique Marquez, according to law enforcement officials who talked to CNN are telling us said that he even joked that if he had been part of building those devices, they would have worked. That's just one piece of information he's given investigators in the past week or so since they raided his home last Saturday.

We also know he's told investigators, according to law enforcement sources, that he and Farook had been planning an attack of their own back in 2012 and that they didn't carry it out because they got spooked after a terror raid unrelated to their plan but was also here in California -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right. Ana Cabrera, keep us posted. Thank you so much.

Let's get more on this investigation, where it goes from here. I'm joined now by CNN law enforcement analyst and former FBI assistant director Tom Fuentes. Good to see you -- Tom.

TOM FUENTES, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Hi, Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: Ok. So this is a public lake. Lots of people have access to it. And from what we know investigators do believe they found some items. What kind of information would be retrieved likely from these items especially if there's a hard drive there after this amount of time, more than a week now, possibly in the water?

FUENTE: Well, certainly the hard drive is the most important piece of evidence that they know they need and don't have so far. And if it was in the water for a week, the technicians at the FBI laboratory in Quantico would be able to take that and literally just dry it out. [11:05:05] And hopefully when it's dry enough, the electronic components would go back to functioning and they'd be able to recover the information off the disks or platters which are what the hard drive is made out of.

Normally, that's short of time in the water is not going to be enough time to deteriorate it compared to if it was in salt water for two years -- like in the ocean. So I think that there's a good chance to recover the data if they didn't smash the hard drive but merely threw it in the water.

The other problem with this is that a lake like that, unfortunately, people use bodies of water as trash bins and throw all kinds of things in it. There are other criminals in the San Bernardino area that do robberies and commit crimes and they may have thrown their guns or knives or other material in that water.

So there's a lot of things that they could find. It's going to be necessary to link it to Farook and his wife.

WHITFIELD: So Tom, you said even if there is a hard drive in there, there might be information that could be retrieved. What about the kind of forensic evidence investigators would want associated with any items that could be linked to Farook and Malik? Like fingerprints, would that be something that would still be able to sustain submersion if indeed those items were found there?

FUENTES: It's possible. I don't think that's the most important link to link a piece of evidence to them specifically. If you find their hard drive it's going to be so uniquely theirs with the Web sites, the information, the log-in information. That's going to come -- that will be a digital electronic fingerprint and DNA, far more than the actual physical fingerprint.

But I think what's important here is they don't know all of the applications on the computer they may have used. They don't know all the Web sites they searched. They don't know all the people that they may have been in communication with over the years and the cell phones recovered may just not have that.

They may not have had those physical phones long enough or those SIM cards with those phone accounts long enough compared to a computer hard drive.

WHITFIELD: All right. Tom Fuentes, thanks so much. Appreciate it.

FUENTES: You're welcome.

WHITFIELD: Coming up: friends turned foes? Donald Trump launching new attacks against Ted Cruz, hitting him where it hurts -- evangelical voters.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:10:42] All right. We're just three days away from the final Republican president debate of the year right here on CNN. Donald Trump scheduled to speak at a rally in fact in about an hour from now with a new target, Texas Senator Ted Cruz, in mind. The rally taking place in Aiken, South Carolina today.

In this latest CNN/New York Times poll Cruz is now ranking second. Last night in Iowa, Trump questioned his rival's evangelical faith by pointing to his Cuban heritage.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: So I think we're going to do -- you know, we're doing really well with the evangelicals. And by the way, again, I do like Ted Cruz but not a lot of evangelicals come out of Cuba -- in all fairness. It's true. Not a lot come out but I like him nevertheless.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: All right. Joining me right now: CNN's Sunlen Serfaty, who is live at the Trump rally about to get underway at any moment in Aiken, South Carolina. So Sunlen, Trump and Cruz have largely been pretty friendly but things changed particularly when Ted Cruz kind of was caught on audio tape saying a few things about Trump and then he says he's counterpunching.

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That is exactly right -- Fred. You know, this battle between the two had been somewhat brewing quietly for some time but it did reach a boiling point this week by that comment made by Ted Cruz, criticizing Donald Trump for the first time in public.

Ted Cruz said nothing bad, really about Donald Trump, refuses to really criticize him even when he disagrees with him. But in public -- in private, Cruz really is singing a different tune -- less timid in taking on Donald Trump and Cruz citing him, questioning whether he's ready to be commander in chief.

Take a listen to these comments that Ted Cruz made behind closed doors to supporters this week.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I like and respect both Donald and Ben. But I think in both instances in particular, you look at Paris, you look San Bernardino -- it's given a seriousness to this race that people are looking for who is prepared to be a commander in chief.

I think, look, people run as who they are. I believe that gravity will bring both of those campaigns down. I think the lion's share of their supporters come to us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SERFATY: So those were the comments that really set Donald Trump off. Clear, he's not handling this criticism very well, feeling that it's almost opened up the flood gates so to speak to be able to counterpunch.

And he really did bring the heat last night in Des Moines. Donald Trump really is going over -- after Ted Cruz in a very pointed, very specific way, in a way that will really resonate with a specific group of caucus goers in Iowa. Saying that Ted Cruz, he thinks Ted Cruz is anti-Iowa according to Trump because he doesn't support ethanol subsidies, something that is very popular in the state.

Also, as you noted, Fred, really questioning what sort of appeal he thinks Ted Cruz will have among evangelical voters. Today Donald Trump in an interview said that he thinks he has a better temperament to be president of the United States. It is very clear he's been ready and waiting to make these distinctions with Ted Cruz -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right. Sunlen Serfaty -- thanks so much. We'll check back with you when Trump comes out there at Aiken, South Carolina at that rally.

All right. So let's talk a little bit about what is going on between Ted Cruz and Donald Trump. Political commentator and former CIA analyst, Buck Sexton with us; as well as Katrina Pierson, national spokeswoman for the Trump campaign.

All right. Good to see both of you. Katrina, you first since you are a Donald Trump supporter. What's going on here? It seemed like there was a bromance between Trump and Cruz. And now gloves are off. What happened?

KATRINA PIERSON, TRUMP CAMPAIGN SPOKESPERSON: Well, this is a competition. Only one person can win. And so I think it was it was pretty much known from the beginning that eventually they were going to have to begin to show the voters who they are compared to each other.

And that's what's happening today. You saw Senator Cruz in his little video, his leaked video talk about Carson and Mr. Trump because those are the top three outsiders and it's coming down to the wire.

WHITFIELD: And so Buck, is this kind of the beginning or is this what happens when you've got less than two months away before the first primary and caucus?

BUCK SEXTON: Well, I have to say I think this is pretty gentle and gentlemanly stuff between these two as far as politic goes. You essentially have Trump making a couple of minor jabs here and there.

[11:15:07] You already have Cruz coming out and saying look, I'm not going to get into a steel cage fight with Donald Trump. I have a lot of respect for the man. So if only this --

WHITFIELD: Yes, kind of back pedaling. What's behind that?

SEXTON: If only this were the way that we could talk about all political races where two individuals seem to have at least some baseline of respect for each other. Both of them clearly want to win in Iowa. I think that the fall of Dr. Ben Carson, for example, has really cleared the path for Ted Cruz to make a much more serious run at perhaps winning Iowa. And to do that, he's going to really rely on two constituencies, evangelicals and Tea Party support.

So of course, Donald is going to start to make some comments about evangelical support for Ted Cruz. But these two as they're going back and forth and it's really more right now, it seems, Trump towards Cruz. You get the sense that they can have a beer afterwards and it would be fine.

So I don't see this turning into some sort of real intramural fight tha everyone is going to be pointing at for a long time. Yet, if all of a sudden Ted Cruz wins, we'll have to see how the Donald responds. And I'm sure, he's willing to throw some harder punches down the line.

WHITFIELD: Ok. Well, you know, you referred to kind of the lineup -- who the top three are. So the latest New York Times/CBS poll shows this lineup with Trump being first, then Cruz and then Carson. So, if these two, in your view, you know, Buck, this is kind of gentlemanly, you know, squabbling right now. Do you see as the clock ticks that perhaps things will get a little bit more tense?

I mean is a competitive race. Everybody wants to be on top. It just seems like a nice little horse race right now in terms of the top three.

SEXTON: I think that what you'll see is in the debate, there will be some pretty acrimonious exchanges with some of the other candidates who are sort of clinging on for dear life at this point with their campaign. So they're going to try to score points against the top three or four.

But let's also be clear that Donald Trump has support that Ted Cruz wants and Ted Cruz knows he may be able to get, not based on what he says about Donald Trump, not based on attacking Trump or his policies, but just not being Trump and not necessarily being the guy who's leading on some of these issues out there and in some cases perhaps being a bit outlandish or provocative.

Ted Cruz feels like he's the more palatable alternative while still being very conservative. But if he attacks Trump, I think Trump supporters may be turned off by that and he won't be in quite the same position. So while I'm saying it's gentlemanly, it's also tactical, it's also smart thinking from Ted Cruz.

I don't think Dr. Carson is going to be able to get the will get the momentum that he had back -- I think that's very unlikely. The wild card for me going into all this is Rubio. And as he decides it's going to get a little fiery with the top two. And I think that's an exchange that I'd be looking for coming up in the debates this week.

WHITFIELD: And Katrina -- you know --

PIERSON: I think Buck is right. We have a situation where Dr. Ben Carson is dropping and Mr. Trump has actually broken the ceiling that no one said he could break. It doesn't make sense for Senator Cruz to go after Trump because we do know that Trump supporters are solid. So it doesn't help him to attack Mr. Trump at all.

At the same time, Mr. Trump is leading in all the other state polls. So he's the one at the top. It makes sense for Senator Cruz to sort of get a little edgy in Iowa because that's really where he has to win or at least show really well to continue his momentum. Whereas Mr. Trump still is far ahead in New Hampshire, South Carolina, even Florida and then Georgia came out yesterday, it's over 40 percent.

It's Mr. Cruz on how he's going to approach trying to maintain Mr. Trump's support. I don't think our voters are going anywhere. I think Mr. Trump has solid ground in Iowa. There's going to be lot of new caucus voters. I think Mr. Trump is going to go all the way.

WHITFIELD: All right. We'll see what happens Tuesday with that debate -- if that influences the numbers in any way.

Katrina Pierson, Buck Sexton, thanks so much.

SEXTON: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: So be sure to watch CNN on Tuesday night, for the final GOP debate of the year, moderated by Wolf Blitzer. Our Coverage from Las Vegas starts at 6:00 p.m. Eastern. Plus be sure to watch CNN's "STATE OF THE UNION" tomorrow when Jake Tapper. He'll sit down with Donald Trump the debate lined up and Jake sits down with Donald Trump tomorrow on "STATE OF THE UNION" -- that begins at 9:00 a.m. Eastern

All right. Straight ahead, Swiss police arrest two people connected to the terror alert and has the country on edge. The unnerving evidence found in their car and a live report from Geneva, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Breaking news out of Switzerland. A diplomatic source tells CNN Swiss police have arrested two suspected terrorists, finding traces of explosives in a car. The city of Geneva remains on high alert after a tip from U.S. intelligence that terrorists were planning a possible attack in the city come this new revelation.

CNN's international diplomatic editor, Nic Robertson joining me now from Geneva with the very latest. So Nic -- what are you hearing about these arrests and this vehicle?

NICK ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Well, Swiss authorities have now said that the two men were arrested, two men of Syrian origin, they're saying that there were traces of explosives in the vehicle.

What these men are being charged with now or being investigated with, an investigation has been opened by the federal authorities, is the manufacturer concealment and transportation of either explosives or a toxic gas. Now, it's not quite clear what this means at the moment. We know that

traces of explosives were found here or detected. They're talking here about the manufacturer possibly, the transportation possibly, the concealing of explosives or toxic gases. But it's not clear at this phase what that we're talking here about explosives that are fully made or just the sort of chemicals that you would put together to make explosives.

That's where the investigation is. These two men of Syrian origin are also being investigated with possible ties to a terrorist organization. That's what Swiss officials are saying. There is a high state of security alert here right now.

And in the Swiss ministry of justice building behind me here, a briefing by officials is about to get under way. We may get more details there.

WHITFIELD: All right, Nic Robertson, thank you so much in Geneva. We'll check back with you.

All right. Meantime, straight ahead, it appears President Barack Obama is done waiting on Congress. What steps the White House is taking to expand gun background checks without congressional approval.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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

As we near the third anniversary of that deadly mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut President Barack Obama prepares to move forward on gun background checks with out congressional approval. The White House could soon be finalizing new executive action.

CNN's Chris Frates joining me from Washington. Chris -- how soon might this be happening?

CHRIS FRATES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The million dollar question here. And that's because President Obama has asked his team to put together a plan to prevent gun deaths. And that plan will include expanded background checks.

Valerie Jarrett, a top Obama aide said repeatedly this week that President has asked for the plan in short order but Fred, she hasn't provided many specifics on the timing there. And remember, here in Washington, Obama's facing a Republican controlled Congress that's very unlikely to pass tougher gun restrictions.

Congress rejected a White House-backed bill to expand background checks after the Newtown shoot innings 2012 and after the San Bernardino attacks last week, the President is considering executive action.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JOSH EARNEST, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I think the President's view is that he is going to forcefully advocate for the kind of gun safety measures that common sense tells us will not prevent every act of gun violence. But, even if it makes some acts of gun violence less likely and we can do all of that without undermining the constitutional rights of law-abiding Americans, then why wouldn't we do it?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FRATES: So one of the ideas being considered for executive action is expanding background checks on gun sales, closing the so-called gun show loophole. And that loophole allows some sales made at gun shows to skip background checks.

[11:29:53] I talked with the National Rifle Association spokeswoman, Jennifer Baker and she said Obama's gun control agenda has already been rejected by Congress. She said, quote, "Now he is doing what he always does when he doesn't get his way, defying the will of the people and using executive action.

In California, President Obama had his wish list of gun control including universal background checks, the strictest gun control in the country and it didn't prevent that San Bernardino attack.

But the plan to take this unilateral action, Fred, has hit both legal and administrative snags and with no clear path forward, it could still be a number of months before we see any new measures announced here -- Fred.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: All right, thanks so much, Chris Frates, appreciate that.

All right, so this Monday is that three-year mark of that massacre in Newtown. I spoke exclusively to one Sandy Hook mother who's using her grief to help schools across the country stay safe.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: When you walk down a school hallway, what does this feel like?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Especially at this time of year, seeing some of the winter decorations and classroom doors and it just -- schools always have a similar feel, look and feel wherever you go.

WHITFIELD (voice-over): That's because Nicole Hochuli's 6-year-old son, Dillon, was among 26 killed in an unspeakable massacre at Connecticut's Sandy Hook Elementary School.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I can't picture him running through the halls. That's hard -- and seeing kids especially the age that he should be now.

WHITFIELD: He would be 9 now, in the fourth grade. She says her memory of what happened on December 14th, 2012 is still incredibly vivid as is the last time she was in Sandy Hook school.

NICOLE HOCKLEY, CO-FOUNDER, SANDY HOOK PROMISE: My husband and I went back and we walked the halls and I was able to spend some time where his body was found. I left behind two purple butterflies, one for him and one for Ann Marie, his special education teacher, to just try to connect with them in some way.

WHITFIELD: Today --

HOCKLEY: That's how you are making a difference.

WHITFIELD: Hockley digs deep, connecting with lots of children at dozens of schools across the country.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What can we do to help our school?

HOCKLEY: For me, wanting to provide a legacy for Dillon and honor his life and also, you know, protect the lives of those who survived, including my older son, Jake and give them something, a positive future to look forward to, that's why I've thrown myself into this issue. And how do we get ahead of violence and stop it before it starts?

WHITFIELD: Turning her pain into a promise that all schools should be, can be safe, not later through legislative policy or stepped up security but now, through personal responsibility. Hockley and other Sandy Hook families founded the group Sandy Hook Promise to help each other heal and provide training for both adults and young people on how to detect and help prevent gun violence.

HOCKLEY: Teaching kids how to learn the signs of someone who might be at risk, such as drastic changes in behavior, drastic changes in actions. Those are just all things that can be anyone who is suffering from any sort of potential crisis and get that person help. There's a very small nexus that leads to gun violence, but it's really about helping everyone.

WHITFIELD: Sandy Hook Promise issued a challenge to schools nationwide, to come up with their own approach. Students at this Oklahoma high school were so moved, they launched their own say something campaign, with signs, bracelets and this.

(VIDEO AD)

WHITFIELD: The video made a big impact.

PAIGE PETERSON, FRESHMAN, MOORE HIGH SCHOOL: We have officers here and staff members that will protect us. We have lockdown procedures. But you know, seeing the video and being in the video, it kind of made me realize, especially the statistics of how many people can cause school violence, based on home life, personal life. It just really got to me.

NOAH RAMOS, SENIOR, MOORE HIGH SCHOOL: Simple things like smiling in the hallways instead of going through with a stony face. Making an effort to talk to people and sit with them if they're not with anybody else and actually actively making friends.

WHITFIELD (on camera): What do you say to that person who's by themselves?

RAMOS: You don't even have to say anything, really, it's just the presence. Just sit down with them. How are you today? Do you want to eat with me? Simple things like that.

[11:35:02]WHITFIELD (voice-over): And so Hockley's group awarded Moore High School $10,000 to take it even further. For students here, their incentive has been personal.

RAMOS: We faced a lot. We've taken a lot.

WHITFIELD: Just two years ago, the natural instinct in Moore of looking out for one another was put to the test. Tragedy of a different kind struck. A killer EF-5 tornado, Noah Ramos remembers.

RAMOS: Minutes after the storm there were already people out digging through the rubble. Friends of my family were at Plaza Towers pulling kids out of the rubble. We know what to do. It's not a drill for us anymore. It's not something new.

It's our way of life. We know what to do. Whenever the traffic lights stop, we do -- we turn it into a four-way stop. We don't need stop sign stop signs or police officers. The first responders are the commune, the citizens. If they can do that, I'm sure we can do something as simple as ensuring the safety of our students.

WHITFIELD: Everyone has a process.

(on camera): What about your husband and Jake?

HOCKLEY: Jake's doing well. This is the first year we're going to put up a Christmas tree. So tomorrow we're going to go find a tree and we're making ornaments with our friends on Sunday, because all of our old ornaments were very personal and every ornament has a memory. We're trying to create new memories now.

WHITFIELD: New memories and a new outlook this mother admits --

HOCKLEY: You guys continue to just take my breath away.

WHITFIELD: -- have come in the hardest way.

HOCKLEY: I didn't know that this was going to be the way my life went. This was not one of my original choices. I was very content just being a mom to my two boys. Losing my son at Sandy Hook, I hope you never, ever have to understand how that feels.

To lose life in that way is even -- can be even more heartbreaking, because you're always consciously aware of what could have been. If you can think about every single time why you want to prevent violence, why you want to save a friend, why you want to have a safer school and community, that inspiration and motivation is going to keep you going.

This is one of my whys. This is my son, Dillon, who was 6 when he was killed. My other son, Jake, was 8 when he lost his little brother and he was also in the school at the time of the shooting. He's also my why.

WHITFIELD: And why, she says, everyone plays a role.

HOCKLEY: Dillon was autistic and he had some developmental delays but one of the things that he did to show his happiness and his energy was to flap. Dillon was a flapper. And I asked him once, why do you flap?

And he said, because I'm a beautiful butterfly. And it's been said that a butterfly on one side of the world flapping its wings can cause a hurricane on the other side.

At Dillon's funeral, I said if that's true then 26 butterflies flapping their wings can do more than cause a hurricane, they can change our country. Well, you know what?

I look out here. There's a heck of a lot more than 26 butterflies in this room. You're all butterflies. You're the ones who are flapping your wings and you're the ones who are going to make the change happen.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: So to help families heal, the old Sandy Hook school was destroyed. A new structure is expected to be open next year. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:43:08]

WHITFIELD: National security will be at the center of Tuesday's GOP debate on CNN. The candidates will have to explain how they would keep America safe from terrorism. We've already heard one of the plans from frontrunner, Donald Trump, that he would temporarily ban all Muslim travel into the U.S. Muslim-American groups are condemning those remarks today. This is just from moments ago in Orlando.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Islam is a religion of peace and we cannot judge people only because a few individuals. If you really know about Islam, you have to go to the right sources and to understand. And that's why we are here, to educate people, to please don't focus on few individuals, just focus on majority. And that's my message to everyone. Please educate yourself about Islam.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Trump's controversial comments, however, about Muslims are not bothering some of his supporters. CNN's Alisyn Camerota talked to some of them.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think he's correct by saying we need to screen people. We need to make sure our borders are secure.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR, "NEW DAY": The reason it's controversial is that he singled out Muslims. He didn't say terror suspects. He said Muslims. What do you think of that?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't think that's unreasonable to do because we need to make sure that the people here are safe.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We wanted as a nation, we could keep everybody out of the country, theoretically, legally, morally, there's no reason we couldn't do that. It's not like due process or constitutional rights apply to people outside of the country coming into the country.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Immigration is not a right, it's a privilege. You have to meet certain criteria to be able to immigrate to the United States. It seems like the majority of terror activities that have taken place over the past couple of decades, more specifically since 9/11, have been perpetrated by people of the Islamic faith.

[11:45:03]UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Jews come to America or Christians come to America, they're not trying to re-invent American. Islam, if you read the Koran or Hadith, they are in conflict with our constitution.

What he's trying to do is put the burden on Congress to step up to the plate or our president who doesn't seem willing to, to stand up and say, look, we need to process in place that's going to protect American citizens.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's about time we stop being politically correct in this country and start talking about the real issues and the real issues is they're coming to get us. It is terrorists that are coming to get us in America. They're not going to be happy until they take over this country and we have to be under Sharia law. I'm not going to bow down to them.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: All right, let's talk more about this. Let's bring in Haroon Moghul, a senior correspondent for "Religion Dispatches" and a fellow at the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding. Good to see you, Haroom. What you heard, what's your reaction?

HAROON MOGHUL, SENIOR CORRESPONDENT, "RELIGION DISPATCHES": We're kind of freaking out as a country. This is unfortunate. People are gravitating to plans that make no sense to me. Let's just look at what Trump has accomplished in the last several months.

He's alienated pretty much every single demographic in the United States. In the last week, he insulted all of the world's Muslims, mocked Angela Merkel, chancellor of Germany. He earned the wrath of French politicians, British politicians.

He's basically burning every bridge the United States has and to defend a proposal that honestly makes no sense, what does he propose, we establish massive government agencies to determine the religion of people trying to enter the country or as people said in the segment, do they want a blanket ban on people entering the country?

And basically and completely and utterly isolate the United States from the global economy. It doesn't make any sense. We're a country that defeated Nazi Germany and imperial Japan at the same time.

Now we're looking at ISIS, which is a barely functioning state in the back water of two failed states. And we've gone to a complete meltdown. He strikes me as a politician who believes America is a powerless country.

WHITFIELD: It's interesting, you say, it doesn't make any sense but then explain why the popularity.

MOGHUL: Because Trump is not an aberration, right? He's just taking what mostly Republicans, not exclusively people on the right but mostly Republicans have been saying for years. We have been dehumanizing Muslims and Islam for a very long time.

Trump sometimes says things in a more vulgar or crass way. What's the difference between what he's saying and what Jeb Bush said about Syrian, Christian and Muslim refugees or Ted Cruz said about Ben Carson saying a Muslim cannot be president of the United States.

He's just taking things to their logical conclusion. When you pump this kind of rhetoric and this kind of bigotry into people's faces and minds 24/7, year after year after year, you get to a point where people honestly believe that the purpose of Islam is to take over America.

That it's not a religion with hundreds of millions of incredibly different types of people from all over the world who have a belief system that's fundamentally similar to Judaism and Christianity but instead it's basically a toxic death cult or something like that.

WHITFIELD: Haroon, Donald Trump's popularity is being measured by the size of the crowds and even the polling. Let's take a look at this polling, which a majority of Americans don't agree with Donald Trump and his supporters.

Nearly six in ten Americans say the U.S. should not temporarily ban Muslims from other countries from entering the U.S. and 67 percent say such a ban would go against the founding principles of this country.

Among Republicans, 51 percent agree with that statement. So you've got, you know, more Americans disagreeing with Trump than agreeing, including members of his own party, but then you look at the polling, as I mentioned, the size of his crowds, et cetera, particularly the polling puts him out front.

Is there any way to kind of make sense of the disparities of the information here from these polls and, you know, what he is continuing to tout and others are continuing to tout that he continues to lead in and his popularity grows?

MOGHUL: What concerns me for our democracy to be healthy we need two strong parties that compete with each other on a substantive basis. Donald Trump is not a serious candidate. He's basically, completely derailed the Republican process at this moment.

He's taken over the Republican Party and Republican leaders and politicians are scrambling. They have no idea what to do. That's a reflection of how far gone the Republican Party is at this point. Unfortunately --

WHITFIELD: Do you see his rhetoric has caused damage or does his rhetoric reveal a sentiment, particularly as it pertains Donald Trump saying Muslims shouldn't be allowed to enter the country. Do the two, you know, parallel one another?

[11:50:01]MOGHUL: I think day do both. On the one hand, it damages the brand among the majority of Americans who are horrified, but it also reveals a worrying undercurrent in some conservative circles.

And let's not forget, how did Donald Trump most recently come to prominence? By basically making a campaign and an issue out of whether or not Barack Obama is even an American.

That's his campaign, and then he kicked it off this summer by suggesting that Mexicans are rapist and murderers and we should just uproot everyone and destroy families and destroy people whose lives are rooted here.

This is not about Islamophobia, specifically. It's not even about security. It's just about racism. He goes after one demographic after another. He has indulged in anti-black rhetoric, racism, he's been endorsed by neo-Nazi groups. This is a problem for the Republican Party, but it's also a problem for us as Americans.

WHITFIELD: All right, Haroon Moghul, thanks so much, always good talking to you. Appreciate it. We'll be right back.

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[11:55:09]

WHITFIELD: All right, this is really intriguing and mysterious. The secret lives of superhero hackers. There are the good characters, the bad characters, and the people that live kind of in that gray area.

Our own Laurie Segall infiltrates this hidden underworld, revealing a community with the will and the skills to crack into cars, computers, and entire companies.

Laurie is with us now with a preview of the special, "The Secret Lives of Superhero Hackers" that airs this afternoon at 2:30 Eastern Time. This is a fascinating world.

LAURIE SEGALL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It really is. And I got to know so many interesting characters in this world. And what I learned is everyone hacks for a different reason, for power, for glory.

I want to play an interview with one guy I spoke to. He's this interesting hacker that hacks for justice. He sees something unjust, like a Nazi forum online.

He will hack into it, mess with the members, and take it down. But how he makes his money, he sells hacking tools on the dark web to anyone. Listen to what he said to me.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (via telephone): I don't really ask questions about what they do with it. You know, they could be using it for horrible purposes or could be using it for good purposes.

SEGALL: How much do you think you've made selling some of these tools?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just like $1,000 for one day, just so I can bypass current security products. It came to a point where I had to make some choices, continue to do what I do or just live on the street, I guess.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SEGALL: Unbelievable. You can hear all of that gray area -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: Unbelievable. OK, we can't wait to hear more, 2:30 Eastern Time today. Look forward to that. And it's kind of an introduction to this underbelly, if we can call it that, as well.

SEGALL: Certainly is.

WHITFIELD: All right, thanks so much, Laurie. Appreciate that. The next hour of the NEWSROOM starts right after this.

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