Return to Transcripts main page

Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Alligator Drags Child Into Water At Disney Resort; Orlando Gunman's Wife: He Spoke of Jihad; Obama Unleashes Tirade Against Trump; Trump Lashes Out At Clinton and Obama. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired June 15, 2016 - 04:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:31:40] ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking right now, an alligator attacks a 2-year-old boy, a 2-year-old boy from Nebraska, drags him in to the water at a popular Disney resort, an intense search happening right now for that toddler. We are live.

Did the Orlando club killer's wife know anything about his plan? What she told the FBI as his ex-wife reveals new details about what she calls the gunman's secret, double life.

Welcome back to EARLY START. A lot going on this morning. I'm Christine Romans, here in New York.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: I'm John Berman live in Orlando this morning. The breaking news not far from here at Walt Disney World.

A 2-year-old boy was attacked by an alligator and dragged into the water. The parents tried to rescue the child but to no avail. The kid is still missing. Cruz at the Grand Floridian Resort, that's right next to the Magic Kingdom. They have been unable to find the boy in the dark.

CNN's Martin Savidge joins us now with the very latest.

Martin, what can you tell us?

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: John, it's been an all- night effort. They've had at least 50 police officers that have been out of the water or they've been searching on the shore line. But you've pointed out to no avail, they've not been able to locate this 2-year-old toddler as of yet.

This all unfolded around 9:15 this evening when a family of four, down by the waterfront, they are staying at that hotel, their 2-year-old child is right at the water's edge when apparently a four to seven foot alligator emerges and grabs the child. The parents desperately tried to intercede, fight to get the child back. This is the sheriff describing what is almost unimaginable.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHERIFF JERRY DEMINGS, ORANGE COUNTY: The father entered the water, and he tried to grab the child, was not successful in doing so. At some point, I'm told, that the mother also may have entered the water. So the parents diligently tried to get the child. They alerted a nearby lifeguard who was there in the area as well, but they were unsuccessful in their efforts.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAVIDGE: Disney World has also released a statement. It reads like this. Everyone here at the Walt Disney World Resort is devastated by this tragic accident. Our thoughts are with the family. We are helping the family in doing everything we can to assist with law enforcement.

The greatest assist would be finding the child, beyond that, daylight would be a help as well. Extremely dark right now and will be for a few more hours. We expect an update in about 90 minutes, but hope is fading, John.

BERMAN: All right. Martin Savidge, this search is so difficult in the dark. Thanks for giving us those new details.

We have more breaking news at this hour from the Orlando Pulse nightclub. I'm in front of the Orlando regional health center. This center has 27 of the patients who are still recovering from their injuries inside. Six are still in critical condition in this building.

[04:35:03] That as we're getting new details on the investigation. Three nights ago, of course, a gunman went into the Pulse nightclub, murdered 49 people, injured 53 others. Officials are now focused on whether anyone else knew, anyone else knew about this planned attack before it happened. Law enforcement officials tell CNN that the wife was told he wanted to carry out a jihadist attack.

The wife Noor Salman also told authorities that she and her husband visited the Pulse nightclub and Disney Springs earlier this month. Now, investigators think these visits were to case the locations as possible targets. The wife told the FBI she tried to talk her husband out of anything violent, and she did not know about a specific plan to attack the nightclub. CNN asked the gunman's father whether he thought his son's wife might have been involved.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: Can we just ask one question related to the news that's breaking? It is that Noor Salman is cooperation and that she has told police, the FBI, that she personally went on a trip to Orlando and brought your son to that club?

SEDDIQUE MATEEN, ORLANDO GUNMAN'S FATHER: I don't know anything. I wait until they talk to her.

REPORTER: It appears she could be charged with a crime. MATEEN: I don't know. I can't say anything.

REPORTER: Do you think that your daughter-in-law helped your son commit this crime?

MATEEN: I don't think so.

REPORTER: Is she an accomplice?

MATEEN: I -- we'll wait.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: The FBI does not believe that the wife was a co-conspirator with her husband, but investigators are looking into whether she knew about the plans and failed to call police, that would be a crime. There is new information this morning about the gunman's personal life. Investigators are looking at reports that he visited a gay chat rooms, gay hookup apps and patronize gay nightclubs. His ex-wife is revealing new details of their relationship to CNN.

And joining me now with the latest in all of this, CNN's Nick Valencia.

Good morning, Nick.

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John.

We are learning that Omar Mateen, the man responsible for the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history may have been very familiar with the LGBT community. This as currently, the FBI is interviewing people that say that they ran into him online on gay dating websites. This, as his ex-wife tells CNN that she would not be surprised if her ex-husband was leading a double life.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SITORA YUSUFIY, EX-WIFE OF ORLANDO SHOOTER: He did have a different side of him that he could not open up to his father about, the fact that he liked to go to nightclubs, the fact that he liked to drink. These were not things that were welcome in his family's structure at all, and especially any indication of homosexuality.

In the Islam religion, homosexuality is not that tolerated, and especially when somebody's a political figure as prominent as his father was, it is especially, really looked down upon and disgraced and could shame the entire family.

It doesn't surprise me that he might be gay. And it doesn't surprise me that he was leading two totally different lives and was in such deep conflict within himself.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VALENCIA: Federal law enforcement officials have seize a number of items from Mateen's residence, including a laptop, digital camera and a laundry list of other related media. They want to glean anything they can from those personal items to find out more about Mateen. They're also focusing in on his widow, to try to find out what she knew and when she knew it.

Did she know specifics about this attack? She did tell investigators that she knew her husband wanted to carry out a jihadist-style attack but denied knowing specifics about his plans to carry out this shooting at the Pulse nightclub which is just behind me here.

We also learned Mateen may have been casing out this place, this nightclub as well as other Orlando locations for weeks -- John.

BERMAN: All right. Nick Valencia, a lot of new information there. Thanks so much, Nick.

Let's talk about the latest developments in the investigation right now.

Joining us from Washington, CNN military analyst, Cedric Leighton, the wife -- the wife is the subject of this investigation right now.

Clearly, anytime there's an incident like this, you do go right to the family members many you go right to the people who lived with the criminal here, and in this case, the wife was there, and there at important locations at important times before finding out what she knows is crucial.

CEDRIC LEIGHTON, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Absolutely, John, and good morning.

There are so many aspects to this, that clearly raise questions in the minds of investigators.

[04:40:01] So, what they're going to be looking for is what exactly she knew and when she knew it. Also, was she in some ways an accessory to the crime? Did she know what he was planning?

The first reports clearly are that she didn't know. But we don't know enough as to what she knew, what she suspected and what she should have reported if anything. And those are the kinds of things that become very, very important as a case like this unfolds.

BERMAN: There's some legal gray area here, right? Because if she had knowledge of a specific crime, of a specific attack, that is in itself a crime, and I'm sure that's what investigators are leaning on her right now.

But, if the husband had said, you know, he wants to attack America in a broad sense, if he had said things against America in a broad sense. That's where it gets more complicated. I imagine that's where they're focusing right now.

LEIGHTON: That's exactly right, because if he makes -- he made very broad statements, if Omar Mateen made a very general statement, then it would be very hard to say, OK, this is going to be something that he a going to do. He's actually going to act on that sentiment or on that desire, but when it comes to very specific things, like I'm going to attack a certain club at a certain point in time, that, then, becomes the one thing that really would require anybody with another knowledge of that particular act to report that possibility and let law enforcement then take it from there.

And if that in fact did happen, then of course she should have reported it, if the statements that she knew about and heard and understood were only very general in nature, it becomes very hard to prosecute her at that point.

BERMAN: Of course, one of her problems right now, legally speaking is that she was at some of the places where investigators now believe he may have been casing sites, whether it'd be Disney Springs not far from here, whether it be in at least one instance we believe, you know, taking him to, dropping him off at the club itself. You know, so many questions there. Did she go inside with him, if she was dropping him off at a gay nightclub, what would she have been thinking at that time? Those are difficult questions to answer.

LEIGHTON: They sure are, and especially whether it comes to a life style issue like this, you know, should she have known? You would say yes, she should have known that he was either leading a double life or that there was something in there. He may have said this guy owes me money, so I'm going to go in there and get the money, wait for me here. I mean, there are all kinds of possible ways in which he could have covered it up.

But to most people who are married to each other know something about the spouse in a way that few other people do. And law enforcement is going to look for those kinds of clues and are going to try to find out exactly what she knew and what she suspected at each of these points in time. The other thing that's very interesting, John, I think is the fact that she apparently went to the nightclub with him a week or two before the attack.

And if that's true, then we have an indication that she knew what was going on inside that club, who the clientele were or could suspect who the clientele were, and that could have led her into a very different set of knowledge that she may not have otherwise have had.

BERMAN: A whole lot of questions there. Cedric Leighton for us this morning, thanks so much.

LEIGHTON: You bet, John.

BERMAN: Obviously, what happened here in Orlando is dominating the subject in the presidential race. President Obama and Hillary Clinton say that Donald Trump, how he wants to approach it, that he's out to destroy American values. Donald Trump has now fired back. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:47:56] ROMANS: An intense search under way right now at a Disney World Hotel, trying to find the 2-year-old boy dragged into a lagoon by an alligator. Police now say it is unlikely they will find this child alive. It has been an unimaginable few days for Orlando, first, Christina Grimmie, a popular singer from the NBC talent show "The Voice" was gunned down after her concert Friday night. She died a few hours later.

We just learned that Sunday's nightclub shooter scouted out a Disney venue ahead of his attacks on the club in Orlando. Police say the shooter visited the Disney entertainment and shopping complex known as Disney's Spring at the beginning of June during this year's gay days celebrations.

So, what will this mean for tourism in the area? More than 63 million people visited Orlando in 2013, making it the most visited destination in America. Ten million visits Disney World alone each year. Disney operates four theme parks, 27 resort hotels in Orlando, all of this is happening just as Disney gets ready to open it's highly anticipated Shanghai location half a world away tomorrow.

President Obama denouncing Donald Trump, making the case that GOP's presumptive nominee is the one who is an un-American. The president clearly angered by Trump's remarks in the wake of the Orlando terror attack, especially his comments about the president's reluctance to use the term "Islamic extremist."

Listen to the president fired back.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We now have proposals from the presumptive Republican nominee for president of the United States to bar all Muslims from immigrating to America. Where does this stop?

We don't have religious tests here. Our founders, our Constitution, our Bill of Rights are clear about that. And if we ever abandon those values, we would not only make it a lot easier to radicalize people here and around the world, but we would have betrayed the very things we are trying to protect.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[04:50:05] ROMANS: Trump is not letting up on President Obama or Hillary Clinton. And he's repeating his call for a ban on Muslims entering the U.S. The presumptive Republican nominee calling his Democratic rivals weak and ineffective.

Here's CNN's Sara Murray.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SARA MURRAY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John and Christine.

On a day when Democrats are united on their criticism of Donald Trump, he arrived in Greensboro, North Carolina, ready to hit back, unleashing a fiery speech in which he suggested President Obama's anger was misdirected and that he should be angrier with the shooter in the Orlando massacre rather than direct his anger at Donald Trump. DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: And I watched

President Obama today, and I was more angry at me than he was at the shooter! And many people said that.

(BOOS)

One of the folks on television said, boy, has Trump gotten under his skin? But he was more angry, and a lot of people have said this. The level of anger, that's the kind of anger he should have for the shooter and these killers that shouldn't be here.

MURRAY: Now, of course, Trump's latest comment comes after he's already been facing criticism for appearing to suggest that President Obama might be sympathetic to Muslim extremists.

Of course, Obama wasn't his only target last night. He also went after Hillary Clinton, suggesting that America would never be the same if she were president, saying if liberals are elected over the next eight years, so many Supreme Court justices will move in that people will lose their gun rights and continue to lay into Clinton as crooked Hillary. Now, he continues on the campaign trail today, this time in Atlanta.

Back to you, guys.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: All right, Sara, thank you for that, Sara. The final primary of the season goes to Hillary Clinton. And just moments after the polls closed in Washington, D.C., Clinton met face-to-face with Bernie Sanders.

When they left the Capitol Hilton Hotel nearly two hours later, Sanders was still in the race. His campaign releasing a statement saying the candidates continue to seek common ground on issues like minimum wage and campaign finance reform and how to defeat Donald Trump. Clinton spent most of Tuesday blasting Trump for his response to the Orlando terrorist attack, calling him shameful and temperamentally unfit to be president.

New stories of survival from those who escaped the massacre, that's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:56:37] BERMAN: New memorials overnight honoring the victims of the attacks here in Orlando. This was the University of Central Florida. You can see students, faculty, staff filling every floor of the student union, raising lights as the names of those killed were read, so moving. It was followed by a moment of silence. So many names.

This as the survivors of this awful night are sharing their stories, how they had to hide in terror as the gunman stalked the nightclub, shooting dozens of people, reloading and firing again and again. Survivor Samuel Maldonado told me about his horrifying experience. He

was crouching under a table. He was separated from his husband Junior.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SAMUEL MALDONADO, PULSE MASSACRE SURVIVOR: Sometimes you don't think about yourself, the first thing you think about your kids, you're not going to see them no more, Junior, is he OK? Because when I saw him got out, yes, he was -- he had blood on his clothing. So sometimes you go oh, my God, he got hit, but I was finally able to see him, you know, he was OK.

But it's hard. It was hard. The most thing was just seeing all these bodies, just there in the middle, because sometimes I don't know what made me do, but instead of running and just going to, but I was still running, but I was still looking toward that door and just see him, the way he was just shooting. On the ground, just literally, these people, they were already on the ground.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Survivor Jeannette McCoy said she watched in horror as the gunman shot her friend five times.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEANNETTE MCCOY, PULSE MASSACRE SURVIVOR: There's so many mixed emotions from anger to frustration to sorrow. For me, it's the people who were in their bleeding to death. The question of why -- why am I here? And why they're not?

REPORTER: You think about that a lot?

MCCOY: It plays. It plays in my head every day.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: So hard for all the survivors. You know, luckily, her friend Angel Colon survived. He was here still recovering at the Orlando Regional Medical Center.

He was shot five times. He was shot three times in the leg. His leg was trampled and smashed. And then later, the gunman came back and shot him again in the hand and the hip. Simply terrifying.

So many stories like that as this city continues to recover.

EARLY START continues right now.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

ROMANS: Breaking news right now, a 2-year-old attacked and dragged into the water by an alligator at a popular Disney resort. An intense, desperate search under way right now for that boy. What did the wife of the Orlando club gunman know about his plan to

attack? New information on what she told the FBI, as his ex-wife reveals intimate new details about the killer.

Good morning. Welcome to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans in New York.

BERMAN: I'm John Berman, live in Orlando this morning. It is Wednesday, June 15th. It is 5:00 a.m. in the East.

Breaking news this morning happening not far from here at Walt Disney world. A two-year-old boy was attacked by an alligator.