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Democrats End Filibuster for New Gun Laws; Grand Jury to Weigh Charges Against Widow; Clinton Not Vetting Sanders for VP; CIA Director Warns Of Growing ISIS Threat. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired June 16, 2016 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:33] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning, I'm Carol Costello in Orlando, Florida. Thank you so much for joining me.

President Obama and the vice president are expected here in the coming hours. They're going to meet with survivors and also the family members of survivors in an effort to comfort them.

I'm sure on the agenda, too, will be gun control. It was a big discussion last night in the halls of Congress. There was a filibuster that lasted nearly 15 hours.

Manu Raju was there. He has this report.

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: Good morning, Carol. Now Chris Murphy's nearly 15-hour filibuster marks the ninth longest in the history of the Senate. But whether there is any deal after the theatrics on the floor is an open question. The main issue, whether suspected terrorists should actually have the right to obtain firearms. But for months Republicans and Democrats have squabbled over how to construct such a bill. And each party's bill on this very issue has already been defeated this Congress. So the big question now is whether Chris Murphy's move has actually changed anything.

Now, Carol, there were negotiations happening behind the scenes yesterday, led by Republican Senator John Cornyn and Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein of California to exactly address how to prevent terrorists from obtaining firearms. Now Republicans wanted to ensure there is involvement by the courts to ensure Americans are not swept up unfairly, but what Harry Reid told me yesterday, he said, quote, "Anything Cornyn wants, the NRA wants, I'm opposed." And that's some strong language from the Democratic leader of the Senate.

And even if the Senate does vote on these bills, it's very unlikely there'll be any significant change to gun laws this year and we have not seen changes to gun laws in a major significant way in nearly a decade, Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, Manu Raju, thanks for that reporting.

For the first time, we're now hearing from the Orlando gunman in his own words. What you're about to see is from a 2012 documentary about the BP oil spill. The shooter was interviewed while he was working as a security guard. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OMAR MATEEN, ORLANDO NIGHTCLUB SHOOTER: No one gives a (EXPLETIVE DELETED). No one gives a (EXPLETIVE DELETED). Like everybody is just out to get paid. They're like hoping for more oil to come out and more people to complain, so they'll have jobs because once people get laid off here, it's going to suck for them. They want more disaster to happen. Because that's where the money making is.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. It's all about the money, right?

MATEEN: All about the money, exactly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: We're also learning chilling new details about the shooter's final moments. An official telling CNN the shooter not only posted to Facebook during the attack, but actually searched online for Pulse Orlando while it was happening.

And the investigation intensifies around the gunman's widow. A grand jury is set to weigh whether she will face charges.

Let's bring in CNN's Polo Sandoval and Evan Perez. Evan, I want to start with you with the latest on the investigation.

EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Carol, well, the investigators have now uncovered these Facebook postings by the gunman in Orlando, including various accounts that he used, including during the attack. Now Senator Ron Johnson has sent a letter to Facebook -- he is the chairman of the Homeland Security Committee in the Senate -- asking for Facebook to provide more information about these various accounts that the gunman used.

I'm not going to really give much air time to some of his rants, but I will mention one last posting that he made. Apparently during his rampage, it says, "In the next few days, you will see attacks from the Islamic State and the U.S." He rants about the U.S. and Russia bombing the Islamic State in ISIS territory in Syria and Iraq, Carol, over these various postings over a period of months.

He made searches for al-Baghdadi, the leader of ISIS. He makes searches for Pulse nightclub, apparently part of his surveillance and reconnaissance for what he was planning to do. It really gives a picture of a gunman who was planning this act -- this attack for months perhaps for certainly in the last few weeks as he prepared to do this.

Now we've also learned that he was consuming a lot of ISIS videos, including beheading videos, in the past few months. His wife has told investigators that she noticed a change in his behavior. She noticed that he was becoming more violent and she even on the day that he was leaving the house on Saturday, the day before the attack -- the night before the attack, she says that she had an inkling that he was up to something, that he might be going to carry out an attack. Perhaps even against the Pulse nightclub.

[09:05:02] She said that she tried to talk him out of it, and -- but she didn't call the police, which is why this is now an investigation focused on her and what she knew and whether or not she should have acted to try to prevent this tragedy, Carol.

We do know that as part of this investigation the Justice Department prosecutors there in Orlando plan to use a grand jury to present evidence to determine whether or not to bring charges. We expect that that will happen in the next -- in the coming weeks, Carol.

COSTELLO: So, Evan, going back to the shooter, while he was inside this nightclub, he called 911, he called a television producer, he called one of his friends to say goodbye. And he, like, posted stuff on Facebook?

PEREZ: Right, exactly. This really gives you a picture of somebody who wanted people to know why he was doing this, or at least in his mind, why he was doing this. Obviously there is more complicated picture behind all of this. We do know that investigators have uncovered his presence on gay chat rooms on the Internet. And there seems to be some kind of struggle that he seems to be having with his identity, his sexual identity.

He visited Pulse nightclub. We don't know whether it's simply to prepare or to case the location for -- to prepare for an attack, but, you know, some people who saw him there think that he also was struggling with his own sexual identity in the months and years before this attack, Carol.

COSTELLO: Unbelievable, Evan Perez. Thank you so much.

Polo Sandoval has also been digging into the investigation, finding out more about the shooter and his possible motives, and also the wife's possible involvement in all of this.

Polo, what have you found out?

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, at this moment, we do understand that a grand jury now taking a closer look at the evidence here, and of course, Carol, as you may assume, we have a lot of evidence that already been -- has been compiled by federal agents and they would be the ones to ultimately decide whether or not she would have some sort of criminal culpability here.

So that is something that we are keeping a close eye on, as of course the president and vice president now prepare to travel here. President Obama expected to land here this afternoon, and then at about 4:30. It'll be four hours in a presidential trip that will come with plenty of symbolism and also plenty of significance, Carol. We have to remember that this was the largest terror attack on U.S. soil under the Obama administration, so as a result, a lot of people will be watching the president today to see exactly what his remarks will include.

Obviously he's been heavily criticized for his reluctance to use the word -- the term radical Islam, and also, according to many critics, not to recognize the threat posed by that. However, you hear from the administration and of course they are very quick to call this a terrorist inspired act, and then also recognizing what is his homegrown terror issue, as they try to get closer at least inside the mind of a man who caused so much pain.

In the meantime, we're also hearing from a local producer, who tells us that -- well, at this point, that there was -- at least he received a phone call from the shooter himself during the actual act.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MATTHEW GENTILI, NEWS 13 PRODUCER: On the other hand, I heard do you know about the shooting. And I said yes, I'm getting information, I'm receiving some calls right now. And he cut me off and he said, I'm the shooter. He started saying that he did it for the Islamic State, he did it for ISIS. I asked him, you know, who is this, where are you. And he told me that's none of my f'ing business.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANDOVAL: Again, that's just one of several pieces of this puzzle here, several elements in what is a very fluid investigation, Carol. At this point investigators obviously know who this was, know what happened, but that lingering question is why.

COSTELLO: All right, Polo Sandoval, reporting live for us this morning, thanks so much.

I want to bring you now to Capitol Hill. The Senate Intelligence Committee is meeting right now. There is about to be a hearing. Set to testify is the CIA director, John Brennan. He is expected to tell us the U.S.' progress in fighting ISIS overseas, and whether it is helping with domestic terrorism at home. We are monitoring this hearing, of course, we'll keep you posted when John Brennan begins his testimony.

I want to bring in now Lorenzo Vidino. He's the director for the Program on Extremism at George Washington University.

Welcome, Lorenzo. Thanks so much for being with me this morning.

LORENZO VIDINO, DIRECTOR, PROGRAM ON EXTREMISM, GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY: Thank you. Good morning.

COSTELLO: Lorenzo, you have done extensive studies on extremism in the United States and what causes someone to be radicalized. With all that you've heard about the shooter, what happened to him?

VIDINO: Obviously very difficult to know. A lot of the pieces of the puzzle we still have to put together. And a lot of things we'll never going to know obviously. It seems that this is somebody that on one hand had some identity issues, this whole story about him in a way being confused about his own sexual identity.

[09:10:08] Both reports need to be confirmed but it seemed to be for some degree part of the story. At the same time, this is somebody that for quite some time had also flirted with jihadist ideology. As much as the two things seem incompatible, in reality it's not that unusual. We often see people who struggle with identity, with different and opposing ideology, and messages and tendencies.

This is somebody that was on the radar screen of the FBI for quite some time. This is somebody that even though he didn't apparently live a pure, strict Islamic way of life, at the same time, he sympathized with ISIS and with other groups. He had popped up on the FBI radar already back in 2012.

So obviously, there is these two parts that need to be put together. Obviously, growing radicalization that seemed to have peaked over the last couple of months. Now whether he chose that specific target, a gay club because he had this internal struggle with his own homosexual tendencies, and conflicting with his own sense of guilt for not living a pure Islamic lifestyle, that's part of the question we never fully know the answer to.

COSTELLO: So supposedly right before the -- right before he decided to go to the Pulse nightclub and begin shooting, he sat down and he watched ISIS beheading videos online. Do you find that that sort of thing happens with the other domestic terrorists that you've study?

VIDINO: That is very common behavior. We saw that with the pair who carried out the attack in San Bernardino last December, or in Garland, Texas, last year. There is a process in which individuals watch increasingly violent propaganda, and especially in the days leading up to their actions, they sort of build themselves up, they pump themselves up with watching very graphic videos in a way to give themselves there the strength, the courage, the motivation. It's very common.

The other common behavior that we have seen is being online as they carry out the attack is that idea of going on Facebook or tweeting or any way sending messages out, as they carry out the attack. So that's also dynamic, as we've seen in Garland. They given the Internet accompanies every aspect of their radicalization trajectory from the beginning to the very moment in which they carry out an attack. It's very common.

COSTELLO: All right, Lorenzo Vidino, thank you so much for joining us this morning and providing some insights. We do appreciate it.

Let's talk a little bit about politics and Democratic politics, shall we? We understand that Hillary Clinton is not vetting Bernie Sanders, her Democratic rival, for the VP spot.

Suzanne Malveaux is covering the story for us. What have you found out, Suzanne?

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Carol. Well, this was after that meeting between Sanders and Hillary Clinton that happened at the Capitol Hilton Hotel on Tuesday evening. So this is all according to Democrats familiar with the decision here, saying that Hillary Clinton is not considering Bernie Sanders as her running mate.

Now, Carol, I have to tell you, it's not a surprise. Sanders was not expecting it. And we are told that it was not discussed at their meeting on Tuesday. So Bernie Sanders has returned -- he returned Tuesday night from that meeting back to his home in Burlington, Vermont, and what we're going to hear tonight, Carol, at 8:30, he is going to deliver a live Web stream message. This is from a studio to thousands of supporters around the country. We are not expecting an endorsement of Clinton per se, but perhaps talking about his agenda and how he wants to change the Democratic Party.

Now the Clinton campaign is now saying that they are actively considering, among others, Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts as a potential running mates. And of course as you know, she would satisfy the progressive wing of the party, a very popular figure, Carol. No time frame for this decision but certainly a move forward -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Suzanne Malveaux, reporting live.

I've got to take our viewers back to Capitol Hill for the Senate Intelligence Committee hearing. This is the CIA director, John Brennan. He's beginning his testimony. Let's listen.

JOHN BRENNAN, CIA DIRECTOR: Our assessment of the terrorist threat our nation and citizens face, especially from the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and Levant or ISIL. On the battlefield of Syria and Iraq, the U.S. led coalition has made important progress against ISIL. The group appears to be a long way from realizing the vision of that Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, its leader, laid out when he declared the caliphate two years ago in Mosul.

Several notable indicators are trending in the right direction. ISIS has lost large stretches of territory in both Syria and Iraq. Its finance and media operations have been squeezed. And it has struggled to replenish the ranks of its fighters in part because fewer foreign fighters are now able to travel to Syria.

Moreover, some reports suggest that a growing number of ISIL members are becoming disillusioned with the group and are eager to follow in the footsteps of members who have already defected.

[09:15:10] The anti-ISIL coalition is taking steps to exploit these vulnerabilities. In addition to efforts underway to liberate cities, like Falluja and Mambage (ph), the coalition is also removing ISIL leader from the battle field, thereby reducing the group's capabilities and its will to fight.

Last month, for example, a U.S. strike killed an influential ISIL leader in al-Anbar (ph). ISIL, however, is a formidable, resilient and largely cohesive enemy and we anticipate that the group will adjust its strategy and tactics in an effort to regain momentum.

In the coming months, we can expect ISIL to probe the frontlines of its adversaries on the battle field for weaknesses, to harass the forces that are holding the cities that previously controlled, and to conductor terror attacks against its enemies inside Iraq and Syria.

To compensate for territorial losses, ISIL will probably rely more on guerilla tactics including high profile attacks outside the territory in Syria and Iraq that it currently holds.

A steady stream of attacks in Baghdad and Damascus demonstrates the group's ability to penetrate deep inside enemy strongholds. Beyond its losses on the battlefield, ISIL's finances are also taking a hit.

Coalition efforts have reduced the group's ability to generate revenue and forced to cut costs and reallocate funds. Yet, ISIL is adapting to the coalition's efforts, and it continues to generate at least tens of millions of dollars in revenue per month.

Primarily from taxation in those areas it controls and from crude oil sales on the black and gray markets inside of Syria and Iraq. Unfortunately, despite all our progress against ISIL in the battlefield and financial realm, our efforts have not reduced the group's terrorism capability and global reach.

The resources needed for terrorism are very modest. The group would have to suffer even heavier losses on territory, manpower and money for its terrorist capacity to decline significantly.

Moreover, the group's foreign branches and global networks could help preserve its capacity for terrorism regardless of events in Iraq and Syria.

In fact, as the pressure mounts on ISIL, we judge that it will intensify its global terror campaign to maintain its dominance of the global terrorism agenda.

Since at least 2014, ISIL has been working to build an apparatus to direct and inspire attacks against its foreign enemies resulting in hundreds of casualties.

The most prominent examples are the attacks in Paris and Brussels, which we assess were directed by ISIL's leadership. We judge that ISIL is training and attempting to deploy operatives for further attacks.

ISIL has a large cadre of western fighters, who could potentially serve as operatives for attacks in the west. The group is probably exploring a variety of means for infiltrating operatives into the west including in refugee flows, smuggling routes, and legitimate methods of travel.

Furthermore, as we've seen in Orlando, San Bernardino, and elsewhere, ISIL is attempting to inspire attacks by sympathizers who have no direct links to the group.

Last month, for example, a senior ISIL figure publicly urged the group's followers to conduct attacks in their home countries if they were unable to travel to Syria and Iraq.

At the same time, ISIL is gradually cultivating its global network of branches into a more interconnected global organization.

The branch in Libya is probably the most developed and dangerous. We assess it's trying to increase its influence in Africa and to plot attacks in the region and in Europe.

Meanwhile, ISIL's Sinai branch in Egypt has established itself as the most active and capable terrorist group in all of Egypt. The branch focuses its attacks on Egyptian military and government targets.

But it's also targeted foreigners and tourists as we saw with the downing of a Russian passenger jet last October. Other branches worldwide, while also a concern, have struggled to gain traction.

The Yemen branch for instance has been ribboned with factionalism. In the Afghanistan-Pakistan branch has struggled to maintain its cohesion in part because of competition with the Taliban.

Finally, on the propaganda front, the coalition is working to counter ISIL's expansive propaganda machine. ISIL paints a carefully crafted image to the outside world, lauding its own military efforts.

Portraying its so-called caliphate as a thriving state and alleging that the group is expanding globally, even as it faces setbacks locally.

ISIL releases a multitude of media products on a variety of platforms, including social media, mobile applications, radio, and hard copy mediums.

To disseminate its official online propaganda, the group primarily uses Twitter, Telegram, and Tumblr, and it relies on a global network of sympathizers to further spread its messages.

[09:20:05]In sum, ISIL remains a formidable adversary, but the United States and our global partners have succeeded in putting the group on the defensive, forcing it to devote more time and energy to try to hold territory and to protect its vital infrastructure inside Syria and Iraq.

And though this will be a long and difficult fight, there is broad agreement in the international community on the seriousness of the threat and the need to meet it collectively and decisively.

It also dominates my conversations with my intelligence and security counterparts globally worldwide. I frequently engage with them about what we need to do together in terms of information sharing, joint operation activity, and being able to complement our respective strengths and capability so that we can destroy ISIL thoroughly.

As you well know, CIA is not just a counterterrorism agency, we are a comprehensive intelligence service with a global charter when it called up to address the full range of 21st Century threats.

As I often tell young officers at CIA, I have never seen time when our country faced such a wide variety of threats to our national security. If you run your fingers along almost any portion of the map from Asia Pacific to North Africa, you will quickly find a flash point with global implications.

China is modernizing its military and extending its reach in the South China Sea. North Korea is expanding its nuclear weapons program. Russia is threatening its neighbors and aggressively reasserting itself on the global stage.

Then there is the cyber domain, where states and sub national actors are threatening financial systems, transportation networks, and organizations of every stripe inside government and out.

I particularly appreciate the work of this committee to try to come to grips and to address the cyber threats we face as a nation. The face of these many daunting challenges, our nation depends on CIA and our intelligence community partners to help keep our country strong and secure.

Indeed in today's volatile and complex world, policymakers depend on CIA more than ever for intelligence insight and options. If we are to meet the national security challenges that confront us, we must constantly adapt and innovative.

That is why we announced the comprehensive effort last year to modernize our agency for the future. Since launching our modernization program just over 15 months ago, we have taken important steps to ensure that our agency fully adapts to the challenges of our time.

We still have work do and in some respects we always will that's because modernization is more about lines and boxes on an organizational chart. It is also about a mindset. The commitment to innovative constantly so we can keep up with an ever changing world.

A key part of this mindset is our commitment to making --

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: All right, we're going to break away, this is the CIA Director John Brennan testifying before a Senate Intelligence Committee.

I want to bring in our Pentagon correspondent, Barbara Starr. Because what Director Brennan said, I don't know, it didn't inspire much hope. So parse this out for us. What is he really saying?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. The director is giving one of the most candid, blunt assessments of ISIS that I think the Washington bureaucracy has publicly heard and the American public has heard in sometime.

He is acknowledging the battlefield successes that U.S. troops are having some success against ISIS, particular places in Syria, and in Iraq. But Brennan steps to the larger picture, and it is pretty dire what he is talking about.

So I want to go back over a couple of those points. First, he says and let me just read it to you in part, he says we judge the CIA, we judge that ISIL is training and attempting to deploy operatives for further attacks. ISIL has a large cadre of western fighters who could potentially serve as operatives for attacks in the west. What he is talking about there is ISIS directing people to attack in the west.

Perhaps something quite different than what the world has seen in Orlando, someone that it is believed at this point was inspired, self- radicalized if you will on the internet.

The CIA director saying, again, large cadre of western fighters, who could potentially serve as operatives for attacks in the west.

Then he goes on to give his agency's assessment of where it all really stands right now from his point of view. Let me read this to you, the director of the CIA says and I quote.

"Unfortunately despite all our progress against ISIL on the battlefield and in the financial realm, our efforts have not reduced the group's terrorism capability and global reach."

ISIS, of course, establishing affiliates around the world now, one its strongest affiliates in Libya, off the coast of North Africa to south of Europe where ISIS has an estimated 6,000 operatives in that North African country on Europe's southern flank.

[09:25:07] So the director of the CIA giving a fairly grim overall assessment of where the fight against ISIS stands. The Pentagon often talks about successes. We've seen them talk about that all the time. Brennan acknowledges that but warning today, there is a much larger picture -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, Barbara Starr, reporting live from the Pentagon. Of course, we'll continue to monitor that Senate Intelligence hearing and the testimony of John Brennan, the CIA director.

I have a bit of breaking news right now. The flight data recorder from EgyptAir 804 has been located in the Mediterranean Sea. We told you yesterday that parts of the plane had been retrieved from under the water.

They've now found the flight data recorder. We'll have much more on this in the minutes to come on CNN in the NEWSROOM. Right now, I have to take a break, I'll be back with much more.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: All right, as I told you before the break, they have found the flight data recorder from Egypt Flight 804.