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EgyptAir Recorder Found; Trump's Warning; Victims of Sunday's Rampage; Obama Meets with Survivors; Toddler Drowned by Alligator. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired June 16, 2016 - 09:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:30:08] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: All right, as I told you before the break, they have found the flight data recorder from Egypt Flight 804. Bed Wedeman is live in Cairo to tell us more about that.

Hi, Ben.

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, apparently it the flight voice recorder that was found. And according to a statement put out by the investigating committee of the Egyptian Civil Aviation Ministry, the recorder was found in pieces. So it's apparently been damaged. But in this statement they say that it is the memory -- the memory has been retrieved. And, of course, that is the most important part of that.

Now, it will be transferred from this ship. It's called the John Lethbridge, which is a French vessel that's been brought in to help with the investigation. And they say that the voice recorder will be transferred from the ship to the Egyptian authorities. We don't know exactly when. And, of course, once that happens, they will start downloading the information from this recorder and start to analyze it.

Carol.

COSTELLO: And I do understand that some pieces of the plane were found as well. Can you bring us up-to-date about that?

WEDEMAN: Yes, that was announced yesterday by the Ministry of Civil Aviation, that they had located several pieces of the plane. They don't specify which parts of the plane were found, nor do they say where the location is. Now, we know that they had narrowed it down to sort of a five kilometer radius off the northern coast of Egypt, but the precise details of what has been found and where, we still don't know from Egyptian authorities.

Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, Ben Wedeman reporting live from Cairo this morning. Thank you.

On to politics now. exactly one year ago today, Donald Trump burst on to the stage launching his bid for the White House in a glittering New York City event. Some 12 months, and many, many headlines after, the presumptive Republican nominee continues to raise eyebrows. As his rift with the party leaders grows, Trump offering some tough talk to Republican lawmakers and donors who criticize his rhetoric or his policy positions. His message, be quiet.

CNN's Phil Mattingly is live in Atlanta with more.

Good morning.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.

We are now a little more than a month away from the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio. Thirty-three days to be exact. This is the moment where the party is supposed to be coalescing behind their nominee. Everybody deciding that this is the presumptive nominee we wanted and this is the presumptive nominee we have. Instead, it looks like the rifts are growing deeper, and as you noted, Carol, Donald Trump saying literally, if you're not behind me, just shut up.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Our leaders have to get tougher. This is too tough to do it alone. But, you know what, I think I'm going to be forced to.

MATTINGLY: Donald Trump, ready to turn his back on GOP leaders, threatening to go it alone if they fail to fall in line.

TRUMP: We have to have our Republicans either stick together or let me just do it by myself. I'll do very well.

MATTINGLY: The biting response coming after days of backlash from Republicans refusing to back Trump's proposed Muslim ban in the wake of the terror attack.

TRUMP: Don't talk. Please, be quiet. Just be quiet, to the leaders, because they have to get tougher. They have to get sharper. They have to get smarter.

MATTINGLY: House Speaker Paul Ryan continuing to rebuke Trump's views.

REP. PAUL RYAN (R), HOUSE SPEAKER: I actually think a specific -- a Muslim ban based on religion is counter-productive to our efforts to fight terrorism. We believe in the First Amendment, which is freedom of religion.

MATTINGLY: Trump touting that he can move the NRA on restricting terror suspects from buying gun after this week's terror attack.

TRUMP: I'm going to be talking to the NRA about that and starting a real dialogue. I want to really hear what they have to say. They've endorsed me. They're terrific people.

MATTINGLY: The NRA says it welcomes the meeting, but maintains its opposition to an outright ban. Trump, going as far as to say that if more people were armed inside the Orlando nightclub, fewer would have died.

TRUMP: You would have had a situation, folks, which would have been always horrible, but nothing like the carnage that we all, as a people, suffered.

MATTINGLY: Hillary Clinton, firing back, questioning Trump's legitimacy as a candidate.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Not one of Donald Trump's reckless ideas would have saved a single life in Orlando. It's just more evidence that he is temperamentally unfit and totally unqualified to be commander in chief.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MATTINGLY: And, Carol, what we've seen this week, the back and forth between Donald Trump, and not only Hillary Clinton, but also President Obama, a number of Democratic surrogates as the party decides and starts to coalesce behind their likely nominee, underscores the real issue Donald Trump has. No question about it, he's willing to go it alone. His point has been throughout, I did this without all of you to begin with and I'm here, you're not, why do I have to listen to you.

[09:35:11] However, as all of the Democrats get behind Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump very much on an island right now. That's problematic when you look at the next five months and you look at his disapproval ratings and poll ratings as they continue to slide over the course of this week.

Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, Phil, stay right there. I want to bring in Larry Sabato. He's the director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics.

Larry, one of Donald Trump's top aides is picking up where his boss left off. He's absolutely slamming the Republican establishment. He did that on "New Day" this morning. You have to hear it. Here it is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The leadership of the Republican Party needs to figure out what they want. Either they want to get behind the presumptive nominee, who will be the nominee of this party, and make sure that we do everything we can to win in November, or we're just asking them if they can't do that, then just shut the hell up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: So, "shut the hell up." Larry, a question. Donald Trump keeps hinting that he can do it alone. Can he do it alone?

LARRY SABATO, DIR., UNIV. OF VIRGINIA CENTER FOR POLITICS: Absolutely not. I've heard people say, well, look, he won the nomination, and the leadership opposed him, either publicly or privately. That's true. He got somewhere around 14 million votes. Do you know how many people are going to vote in November, 135 million. And they're much more diverse. They're much more different than Donald Trump, and for that matter most Republicans. So the truth is, Republicans, the Republican leadership, at least, I think has made its decision. They're going to do everything they can to try to hold on to the Senate and the House in Congress, and Donald Trump will have to make his way on his own for the most part.

COSTELLO: So, Phil, Donald Trump has a much smaller campaign staff than Hillary Clinton, and he has far less money. He's actually depending on the RNC to help him run a national campaign. So, again, can he really go it alone?

MATTINGLY: Well, this is the issue I think that Larry kind of underscores perfectly here. Donald Trump doesn't have the infrastructure to run a traditional campaign in a general election. Again, he's not just targeting Republican primary voters who via earned media on television, on cable news, will see him as much as he possibly wants. He needs a grassroots operation. He needs a voter turnout operation. And the RNC has that capability.

However, Hillary Clinton's team has been building that capability for more than a year. They have 10 times the number of staff members that Donald Trump and Trump's team have. Donald Trump is relying entirely on the RNC. That is a much more generic team, a much more generic infrastructure. It's a very good one that's been built up to the tune of more than $100 million over the last four or five years, but it's difficult to see. And I think one of -- one of the major questions, Carol, that Republicans have is, how can you take those two things, merge them together, and compete with the Democratic operation that's been built so intensively over the course of the last 10 months.

Now, it's worth noting, Carol, Donald Trump has made very clear, a slimmer operation, a cheaper operation, should be looked upon by voters as a good thing. That would be what -- how he'd run the U.S. government that he says is bloated and bureaucratic and a total nightmare. But I do think if you look at traditional campaigns, and as Larry pointed out, as you look to target more than just the sliver of voters that have cared about you in the Republican primary, you need a bigger operation and a more targeted operation. There's a lot of concerns inside the Republican Party that what Donald Trump is setting out to do right now doesn't accomplish those goals.

COSTELLO: And whether Mr. Trump likes it or not, Larry, his rhetoric appears not to be working because if you look at the recent polls, he's now losing to Hillary Clinton and he's got a 70 percent disapproval rating.

SABATO: Carol, he has got a heap of problems on his plate. And the heap is getting bigger and bigger. And the Republican Convention is only a month away. That's where the marriage ceremony is supposed to take place between Donald Trump and the Republican Party. You don't have to have a crystal ball to project that this is going to be a very troubled marriage. And I think it's pretty obvious already that the Clinton campaign is light years -- light years ahead of Trump in terms of the ground operation, get out the vote operations, and look at even television, which is relatively easy to do. The Clinton campaign is already on the air with a 7-plus million dollar advertising campaign, both positive and negative ads, in virtually every swing state.

COSTELLO: All right, I have to leave it there. Phil Mattingly, Larry Sabato, thanks, as always, you for your insight.

[09:39:57] Still to come in the NEWSROOM, the body of a two-year-old boy found just feet away from the shoreline, snatched by an alligator. Now the hunt is on to find the gator that killed that boy.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: All right, just minutes from now, President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden will be wheels up on their way to Florida. They'll be making a rare joint trip to the site of that mass shooting, where the president will take on a role he says he's played far too often, consoler in chief.

As the president meets with survivors and grieving families, he'll likely hear about Edward Sotomayor Jr. Edward lived -- he lived to travel and made it his mission to open the world to gay travelers. He even worked at an agency that caters to LGBT travelers. Earlier this year, Edward organized the first ever gay cruise to Cuba. Friends called him funny and sarcastic, loyal and clever. Eddie Sotomayor was just 34 years old when he died early Sunday morning.

[09:45:07] I'm joined now by his cousin David.

Thank you so much, David, for being with me this morning.

DAVID SOTOMAYOR, COUSIN KILLED IN ATTACK: Thank you for having me.

COSTELLO: First of all, just tell us about Eddie.

SOTOMAYOR: Well, Eddie was an amazing soul. He -- I got to meet him ten years ago when we first found each other and blessed each other as cousins. I was just touring my first year straight out of (INAUDIBLE). And as soon as we met, we bonded immediately, and we found out we had the same last name. And that's when he, unfortunately, found out that I only knew my father's parents and his three siblings and I wasn't -- I had no relationship with that family, so he immediately said, well, I'm your cousin, there's no question asked.

And he became that one family that I had that I was able to go all around and share so many amazing things that I was accomplishing in my career that I couldn't share at that time with my side of the family. And he just was so amazing. And that's why I'm here, because us, as a community, it's so amazing to see how we open our arms and become family to those who don't have that relationship with their blood family.

And so, you know, these clubs, it's like a second home to a lot of us. It's almost a safe haven, if you will, where you don't have to worry about your sexual orientation or how you identify yourself. Boys can wear lipstick and red bottoms and girls can have dates (ph) and wear white t's. It didn't matter who you want to be and how you want to present yourself. And, you know, we had somebody come in and shake us up, and come into

our home, and, you know, I just want to be able to let everyone know that it's OK to be sad, but stay strong, you can mourn, but continue to have your pride.

COSTELLO: So tell us about Eddie's heroic efforts inside that club, because he died trying to save someone else's life.

SOTOMAYOR: Well, but I also get to meet (INAUDIBLE) tens of thousands that will always tell you that he was always there and put anybody before him. And he was just that guy. There's no one that I have ever met that could say anything bad about him. And I just -- you know, I -- I'm so honored that everybody is paying tributes and respecting and being so supportive to everybody, to the friends, the family of all the victims.

COSTELLO: The president and vice president will be here just -- in just a couple of hours and they'll meet with survivors and they'll meet with family members. How do you feel about that?

SOTOMAYOR: Words can't express how amazing that is to see the support of such -- our leaders, you know, coming down and, you know, taking time to realize that this is a real issue, and that, you know, we do need to stand together, united, you know, full of love, not hate. United, not divided. You know, and just stand tall.

COSTELLO: The club, that it was a haven, should it reopen?

SOTOMAYOR: I mean, that's -- it's -- I can't -- I can't -- I can't answer that right now. I wouldn't -- I don't know how I would feel about that right now. But I do know that we cannot stay fearful. We can -- we have to make a promise to everybody, to all the victims, as a community, we have to still come out, march our parades with our heads held up high full of love and not hate and remember that we are a family and we stick together.

COSTELLO: David Sotomayor, thank you so much for stopping by.

SOTOMAYOR: Thank you.

COSTELLO: I do appreciate it.

For more, I want to bring in Jennifer Granholm. She is the senior advisor to Correct the Record, the only super PAC coordinating with the Clinton campaign. She's also a former governor for the state of Michigan.

Good morning, Jennifer. Thanks for being with me.

JENNIFER GRANHOLM (D), FORMER MICHIGAN GOVERNOR: You bet, Carol.

COSTELLO: The president and the vice president will be heading to Orlando soon. This is a community shattered by Sunday's attack. What do they need to say here?

GRANHOLM: Well, that, I mean, obviously, the president, there's nobody better than the president and the vice president both at consoling people and speaking from the heart. And while everybody says that the victims and their families are in our prayers, there are many who say after the prayers comes action. And I -- my hat is off to Chris -- Senator Chris Murphy and the filibuster that he was orchestrating yesterday to be able to try to do something to get Congress to move in a direction that's consistent with their constituents about preventing gun violence.

And I would say, Carol, just quickly about that. I mean there are three levels of what they could do. They were filibustering this gun -- this loophole that would allow terrorists on the watch list. That's one thing. But if the terrorists on the watch list could go to a gun show and buy a gun without any checks, that defeats the purpose. So both of those loopholes have to be closed.

And I would say the third is that, you know, that gunman was holding an assault rifle, and last night the family of the person who actually created the AR-15, the Smoker (ph) -- the -- I think it's the Smoker (ph) family, those -- the Stoner (ph) family. They came out and they said that their grandfather, who invented that weapon, had no intention for that weapon to be used by civilians. It was a military weapon. So all three of those measures should be something that Congress should consider, because they're constituents demand it.

[09:50:09] COSTELLO: Well, let's talk about that filibuster, shall we, because I know the filibuster went on for 15 hours. But before the filibuster, there were Republicans willing to talk about gun control, which is quite unusual. They were willing to maybe pass amendments, right, instituting more gun control measures, and yet that filibuster, why do that then? Why not just let things evolve because wasn't that just antagonizing Republicans?

GRANHOLM: (INAUDIBLE). I mean -- I mean, Carol, but there were Republicans who joined in the filibuster. How long must be wait for the Republicans in Congress, who have been objecting to this for years and years, how long do we have to wait? How many of these tragedies do we have to see? God bless them for raising the public profile of this. Who knows whether they would have gone forward with it or not, but now there will be some kind of vote. I sure hope that it leads to others. I mean, truly, the NRA, in 1999, Wayne LaPierre, head of the NRA, came out and said that they favored -- that the NRA was reasonable and they favored background checks and closing the gun hole loophole -- the gun show loophole. And now where are we? So, honestly, the NRA has moved so far out of the realm of what is rational that they have become completely against what the mainstream of American voters want to see. I just hope these members of Congress, Democrats and Republicans, listen to their voters and not be held hostage by the NRA.

COSTELLO: And I admire your passion. I'm just saying that after went -- what went down in San Bernardino, there were gun control measures presented before Congress, and those measures went down to defeat. So now this -- this -- now you know you had Republicans coming out and saying, you know, maybe we should look at why somebody on the terror watch list should be able to buy a gun, and then this filibuster happens. So, again, I mean, two steps forward, then the filibuster --

GRANHOLM: But are you -- are you suggesting, Carol, though, -- are you saying that the filibuster will prevent a vote?

COSTELLO: I don't know. I'm just asking the question because it -- it was just kind of like kicking sand in their faces, because some people might term it that way

GRANHOLM: Well, I don't know. I mean, honestly, kicking sand -- kicking sand, when people are being killed in record numbers across this country every single day. Honestly, I don't know that politeness has worked. I think you have to take a strong stand. I mean I -- you know, I've been working with Correct the Record in support of Hillary Clinton. She has been so clear about doing reasonable gun safety measures, things that would be no-brainers to most gun owners. Most gun owners favor this. So this notion of being polite again and waiting again, it's not working. The filibuster actually may result in a vote.

COSTELLO: OK, well, I hope so. Jennifer Granholm, thanks for being with me.

I'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:57:15] COSTELLO: A heartbreaking end to one family's nightmare. The body of that little boy, Lane Graves, two years old, snatched by an alligator at a Disney resort has been found. The sheriff says Lane was found intact. His body was intact. He actually, the little boy, drowned in the lagoon after the gator pulled him under the water. Now the search is on for the alligator that killed the little boy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NICK WILEY, EXEC. DIR., FL. FISH & WILDLIFE CONSERVATION COMMISSION: Our investigation is still ongoing, and we're going to continue to evaluate the evidence we have and we're going to try to continue searching. We're going to make certain that we have the alligator that was involved and that we remove it -- we remove it from the lake. So we're going to either verify that we've already captured that alligator through forensics work or we're going to continue to look for an alligator until we find the right one.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Victor Blackwell live in Orlando with more on this.

Good morning, Victor.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, good morning to you.

We've learned that Walt Disneyworld Resorts, the beaches across the property, are closed today and we're told by an official will remain closed until further notice. Of course they took that move out of what they call an abundance of caution after the death of that two-year- old, Lane Graves. The sheriff here says that because his body was found intact, he believes that the boy drowned. But, of course, the results of the autopsy will share the actual cause of death. Now, we know that the president -- rather, the CEO of the Walt Disney

Company, Bob Iger, has reached out to the Graves family, speaking to them by phone. That happening as the resort management is expressing their condolences and assessing the safety at the water -- the bodies of water, the lagoons and beaches across this property, determining whether or not signs like the no swimming sign that was at that Seven Seas Lagoon where that boy was dragged in and killed are sufficient or there should be a beware of alligator sign or some other message.

We know from the state Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission that according to them Walt Disneyworld Resorts is very proactive about dealing with wildlife here, regularly moving gators from the bodies of water. But, again, the assessment of safety here will go on after this tragic death of the two-year-old boy. The most recent attack was 30 years ago. That was not fatal, but brought back what we understand were some very difficult memories for that person who was attacked here in 1986.

Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, Victor Blackwell reporting live for us this morning. Thank you.

The next hour of CNN NEWSROOM starts now.

[10:00:01] And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me this morning. I'm live in Orlando.

Less than 20 minutes from now, the president, President Obama, will leave the White House, bound for Orlando.