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FBI Releases Killer's Conversations with Cops; Senate Set for Showdown on Gun Control; Cleveland Fans Celebrate End Of Title Drought; GOP Donors Increasingly Uneasy About Trump. Aired 9-9:30a ET
Aired June 20, 2016 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
[09:00:06] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now in the NEWSROOM, the, Orlando shooter in his own words. Today, the FBI releases conversations he had with police.
LORETTA LYNCH, ATTORNEY GENERAL: He talked about his motivations for why he was claiming, at that time, he was committing this horrific act.
COSTELLO: Plus, showdown in the Senate. Four bills. One issue. Gun control.
SEN. CHRIS MURPHY (D), CONNECTICUT: We still have hope that we can get Republicans to support the bill stopping terrorists from getting weapons.
COSTELLO: And Cleveland rocks. The Cavs and the king take home the city's first major sports title since 1964.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We deserve this. We've been waiting so long.
COSTELLO: Let's talk. Live in the CNN NEWSROOM.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.
Inside the mind of a killer through his own final words. In the next two hours, the FBI is expected to release transcripts of the nightclub shooter's conversations with police all unfolding as he carried out the worst U.S. terror attack since 9/11. His pledge to ISIS, his anger with America and his motivations to slaughter so many innocents.
And remembering those who died in the massacre. Tens of thousands gather in an Orlando park to light candles and they also looked to the heavens. Overheard mourners celebrated the appearance of a rainbow. A long-time symbol of gay pride and perseverance.
CNN's Polo Sandoval in Orlando with more for you this morning. Hi, Polo.
POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Carol, good morning. Florida Governor Rick Scott back at the crime scene. One of several
officials that we expect back out here in the next couple of hours before that fairly significant press conference. The Department of Justice and the FBI expected to release new details and shed more light on what was an extremely tense conversation, a series of conversations between the gunman, Omar Mateen, and police.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SANDOVAL (voice over): This morning, authorities set to release the killer's words. The FBI and local law enforcement will put out limited transcripts and a timeline of the Orlando killer's conversations with negotiators during the three-hour standoff.
LYNCH: The reason why we're going to limit these transcripts is to avoid re-victimizing those who went through this horror.
SANDOVAL: Attorney General Loretta Lynch tells CNN the transcripts relieved details of three phone calls with the killer before he was shot dead by police.
LYNCH: He talked about his pledges of allegiance to a terrorist group. He talked about his motivations for why he was claiming at that time he committing this horrific act. He talked about American policy in some ways.
We are still exploring why he chose this particular place to attack.
SANDOVAL: This as police defend their tactics that morning as the killer carried out his rampage inside the popular gay club in Orlando.
CAPT. MARK CANTY, ORLANDO SWAT COMMANDER: There was never a time when we were just sitting there doing nothing.
SANDOVAL: Forty-five minutes after the first shots were fired, more than 100 officers and SWAT members were on the scene but they waited to engage the shooter as the calls for help grew louder inside.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was cursing for them to enter the building.
SANDOVAL: Orlando SWAT commander insisting police mounted strategic efforts to surround the killer and rescue hostages before making the call at 5:00 a.m. to blow through the club's wall.
CANTY: I think that's a misconception is that officers did not go inside until, you know, 5:00 or whatever time the last breach was. Officers were going inside from the beginning of this incident.
SANDOVAL: Over the weekend, several funerals and memorial services for the victims of the attack, more than 50,000 gathering in the city of Orlando to pay their respects at a candlelight vigil, mourners in awe as a giant rainbow appeared over the memorial to remember the 49 lives senselessly taken one week ago.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SANDOVAL: Back out live at the crime scene where again day eight of this investigation is under way.
Important to remember, Carol, that there are some details that may not -- that will likely not be released in these partial transcripts today. Attorney General Loretta Lynch, Carol, speaking to CNN yesterday saying they don't want to basically re-victimize some of the people who have already been through so much. And this is also a very fluid investigation. You just have to look behind me to be reminded of that -- Carol.
COSTELLO: All right, Polo Sandoval live in Orlando this morning. Thank you.
After the Orlando shooting, Capitol Hill set for another showdown on gun control. The Senate set to vote on four measures today, one that would make it harder to buy a gun if you're on a federal terror watch list. But the chances of anything passing are slim at best.
CNN's Manu Raju live in Washington with more on that. Good morning.
MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Democrats are no longer making reinstituting the assault weapons ban their legislative priority in Congress. Now they're focused on a much more narrow bill, trying to deny suspected terrorists on watch lists the ability to buy guns.
[09:05:03] Now Republicans have objected to that Democratic proposal which they believe would sweep off innocent Americans. And they've offered their own bill. But Democrats think that would do nothing to solve the problem. So we're essentially back to square one on the gun issue on Capitol Hill.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RAJU (voice over): The Senate set to vote today on four gun control measures. One week after the worst mass shooting in U.S. History.
GOV. JOHN HICKENLOOPER (D), COLORADO: I am frustrated, bewildered at the inability to come to terms with figuring out some of the restraints.
RAJU: The amendments all expected to fail.
MURPHY: I admit that the background checks bill is going to be tough to get 60 votes on. But we still have hope that we can get Republicans to support the bill stopping terrorists from getting weapons.
RAJU: These amendments include requiring tougher background checks on gun show and online sales, and barring terror suspects on watch list from purchasing a firearm. Many Republicans say the Democratic plans violate the rights of Americans mistakenly placed on terror watch lists.
SEN. JEFF SESSIONS (R), ALABAMA: Republicans have voted consistently to ban people from -- on that list from having a gun but to give them an opportunity to prove they shouldn't be on the list. RAJU: The NRA calling the Democrats' gun measures political poise
diverting attention away from the failure of the government to fight terror.
WAYNE LAPIERRE, EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, NRA: They're coming and they are going to try to kill us and we need to be prepared. And this president by diverting the attention to gun control movement, that's not going to solve the problem.
RAJU: The NRA's choice for president, Donald Trump, is renewing his call to racially profile Muslims to prevent terror attacks.
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Well, I think profiling is something that we're going to have to start thinking about as a country. It's not the worst thing to do. I hate the concept of profiling but we have to use common sense.
RAJU: Trump also reiterating his belief that fewer would have died inside the gay nightclub in Orlando had club-goers been armed.
TRUMP: If some of those wonderful people had guns strapped right here, right to their waist, or right to their ankle, and this son of a (EXPLETIVE DELETED) comes out and start shooting, and one of the people in that room happened to have it and goes boom, boom, you know what? That would have been a beautiful, beautiful sight.
RAJU: But even the NRA takes issue with that.
LAPIERRE: I don't think you should have firearms where people are drinking.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
RAJU: Now two developments, Senator Susan Collins of Maine, a moderate Republican, will unveil what she's billing a compromise of sorts with five of her colleagues later tonight. The bill would bar the sale of a gun to anyone on a no-fly list and allow for an appeals process where people where denied purchasing a gun. We'll see how that pans out.
But another development, Donald Trump tweeted earlier this morning, trying to walk back that statement about arming folks at that nightclub, tweeting to say, "When I said that within the Orlando club you had some people with guns, I was obviously talking about additional guards or employees."
But, as we saw, Carol, he was clearly talking about people who attended the nightclub. So a little bit of a walk-back from Donald Trump -- Carol.
COSTELLO: All right. Manu Raju, reporting live from Washington. Thank you.
With me now is Dan Gross, president of the Brady Campaign to End Gun Violence. Welcome.
DAN GROSS, PRESIDENT, THE BRADY CAMPAIGN TO END GUN VIOLENCE: Thanks, Carol.
COSTELLO: It's a big day for you guys.
GROSS: Yes. I mean, we're going to have an historic vote where we have the opportunity -- the Senate has the opportunity to do what the American public wants them to do, which is pass sensible measures to keep guns out of the hands of the people that we all agree shouldn't have them.
COSTELLO: But by all accounts of those measures will fail.
GROSS: We'll see. And we can't subscribe to that mentality. Listen, we've been putting calls into Congress, into the Senate, at a record- breaking pace since Senator Murphy's historic and heroic filibuster. The American public are behind these measures and we're showing it now more than ever.
We put 150,000 calls into the Senate in 24 hours. We're showing what 90 percent support of the American public looks like. We're going to hold our senators accountable and they're going to realize sooner rather than later that they're on the wrong side of history.
COSTELLO: Republicans, you know, they have offered a compromise, right? They want a three-day waiting period so a judge can decide whether or not a person who is on a terror watch list can buy a gun. Is that acceptable?
GROSS: It's a joke. I mean, it's --
COSTELLO: Why?
GROSS: It's a farce. Because it creates such a high standard of proof that it's actually no improvement on the existing law. There's still the opportunity to keep a convicted felon from buying a gun, a domestic abuser, at a -- you know, somebody who has been convicted of some terrible crime. That's the standard that a judge would use to prevent the purchase of that gun. And you know -- and by the way, that only applies to federally licensed firearm dealers. We need to make sure that those same background checks are done at gun shows and online, which is another thing that these people who say that they're against terrorism, they're against keeping guns out of the wrong hands are against.
COSTELLO: Well, here's what some Republicans would argue about people on the terror watch list. They say mistakes are made. According to the National Counterterrorism Center as of August 2014, there were around 1.1 million names on the terror watch list but only 25,000 of those names were American citizens.
[09:10:03] And mistakes do happen. For example, in 2004 Yusuf Islam was on the list. Islam is actually the singer Cat Stevens. That same year, Congressman John Lewis and Ted Kennedy were stopped and interrogated many times. Kennedy held up because the name T. Kennedy had become a popular pseudonym among terror suspects. In 2008 CNN's Drew Griffin was on the list. So doesn't the NRA and some Republicans have a point? GROSS: Listen, they're pretending they're defending people's rights.
The only people's rights that they're defending are the rights of the people that we all agree shouldn't have guns. This bill doesn't -- isn't based on a no-fly list, it's not based or a terror watch list, it gives discretion to the attorney general to make the decision in terms of who should be able to buy guns and shouldn't be able to buy guns, which is the best thing that we can do.
I would ask all those people that are against this bill, are you against having a no-fly list? You know, of course there's always things that we can do to improve our security systems. But right now we all agree that there are way too many people that we all agree shouldn't have guns that get through those security systems.
COSTELLO: So let's say all of these measures go down to defeat. What's next?
GROSS: We're just getting started. I mean, this is something that yes, we're having this discussion in the wake of a terrible tragedy in Orlando. But it's a movement that's been building for years. The American public has had enough, enough of easy access to guns by the people that we all agree shouldn't have them. It took six votes and seven years to pass the original Brady Bill that established these life-saving background checks, 2.6 million of those people that we all agree shouldn't have guns have been stopped. And if it takes another six votes, seven years, it will have been worth it.
I don't think it's going to take that long. I think these congresspeople are going to wake up and realizes they're on the wrong side of history sooner than they think.
COSTELLO: We'll see. Dan Gross, thanks so much for stopping by.
GROSS: Thank you, Carol.
COSTELLO: Still to come in the NEWSROOM, a celebration 52 years in the making. It was incredible, right? An NBA title comes home to Cleveland at last.
Andy Scholes is there.
ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: It was an amazing night, Carol. And the fans here in Cleveland can finally say they are, in fact, champions. And we'll hear what they had to say about ending that long drought, when NEWSROOM continues.
COSTELLO: Finally, finally, a celebration in Cleveland. It's amazing!
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COSTELLO: The last time Cleveland won a sports championship title -- I can't even remember and I'm old. Since then, Cleveland has suffered through decades of disappointing losses for all three major sports teams. We're talking baseball, basketball, and football, but Lebron, thank you. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: It's over! It's over! Cleveland is a city of champions once again!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Yes, it's the very first NBA title for the Cavaliers and it was brought home by a very emotional Lebron James, the prodigal son who abandoned Cleveland for Miami for a time and then he came home because he still felt he had one thing left to do, and that was to win a championship.
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LEBRON JAMES, CLEVELAND CAVALIERS: Got to go two years when I came back. Championship to the city. I gave everything that I had. I poured my heart, my blood, my sweat, my tears into this game and -- Cleveland, this is for you!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: It's just really awesome. In just a few hours, the team will step up a plane in their hometown and they'll hold up that NBA championship trophy and they'll be proud, Andy Scholes, and I'm so jealous that you're there.
SCHOLES: I know you are, Carol, because I know you're from this area and you understand how starved the city of Cleveland was for this championship. You know, 52 years of sports misery and finally the fans here in Cleveland can call themselves champions.
You know, we watched game seven with all the fans here in Cleveland last night. They were hoping, they were praying that this was finally going to be their year. We finally got a good game in the NBA finals.
After all those blowouts, Lebron coming through with that epic block in the closing minutes to keep the game tied, of course, setting the stage for his running mate, Kyrie Irving, to hit one the best shots we've ever seen in the NBA finals.
That put the Cavs ahead for good. They would win after coming back from a 3-1 deficit in the NBA finals. No one had ever done that. Lebron, the unanimous MVP as he finally brought Cleveland a championship.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAMES: Our fans, they ride or die. No matter what's been going on. Browns, Indians, Cavs and all the other sport teams, they continue to support us. For us to be able to end this -- end this drought, our fans deserve it. They catastrophe it. It was for them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHOLES: I've never seen a fan base want a championship more than I saw the Cleveland fans want this last night. When that final buzzer sounded, they just erupted with pure joy, running around. Fans were crying, some were embracing. The common theme among most of them -- or all the ones I talked to, was this was the happiest moment of their lives.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Fifty two years of frustration. I have been to the drive and all the other stuff. This makes it. It's wonderful.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Finally, we did it. My city, Cleveland, is finally champions.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you look around at the city right now, this is what we have been longing for. This is what we wanted. We deserve it. We got the greatest fans. We got the greatest player on the planet.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh my God, I can't even describe like Cleveland deserves this. We have been waiting so long. Cleveland needs nice things.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHOLES: And now they've got a nice big, shiny Larry O'Brien trophy, Carol, and they'll get to see that later today, as you said, the team is expected to arrive here back in Cleveland a couple of hours.
[09:20:12]But they're not coming from Oakland, California. The team went to Las Vegas last night to celebrate their championship. I'm sure there will be a lot of tired eyes on that airplane coming back to the city of Cleveland. Of course, the party will continue throughout the week, Carol. Wednesday, that big championship parade through the streets of downtown Cleveland.
COSTELLO: That is just -- I only wish Lebron could play football because then maybe the Cleveland Browns -- yes.
SCHOLES: Tie in for the Browns. Yes, that would be nice.
COSTELLO: Awesome. Thanks so much for bringing a smile to my face. Andy Scholes, thanks so much.
Still to come in the NEWSROOM, a coup at the Republican convention? That's what one group is hoping for as it tries to stop Donald Trump.
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[09:25:05]
COSTELLO: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me. Four weeks from today, the Republican convention kicks off in Cleveland and if one group of conservatives gets its way, the event will culminate with the crowning of a nominee who is not named Trump. That group which is hoping a delegate revolt will block Trump from the nomination is holding conference calls and raising money to aid the effort.
This morning, one of the group's top leaders, a formor New Jersey Senate and gubernatorial candidate talked to CNN. Jason Carroll is with me to tell us what they said. Good morning.
JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Carol. The person you're talking about, of course, Steve Lonegan. He's head of this group called "Courageous Conservatives" and here's what their goal is.
Their goal is to try to stop Donald Trump from becoming the nominee any way possible. You know, you have to say from the onset of this, this is a long shot at best. They know that. The RNC knows that. Trump knows that as well.
Having said that, last night, they held a call, some 200 delegates were on the call as well as approximately about a dozen members of the Rules Committee on this call again last night.
Once again trying to find any way that they can stop Donald Trump. Again, this is a tall order at best. One of the many obstacles in their way is trying to find another candidate to step forward.
Lonegan tried to do his best to defend that this morning on "NEW DAY."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR, "NEW DAY": Who is your candidate? Who is your other candidate?
STEVE LONEGAN, SPOKESMAN, COURAGEOUS CONSERVATIVES PAC: We have a lot of great candidates.
CAMEROTA: Such as?
LONEGAN: Such as Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz.
CAMEROTA: They lost.
LONEGAN: Not when they go to the convention because if you open up a true robust convention, they can put their platform forward and demonstrate why they are the best candidates. And those delegates can vote and have ballot after ballot after ballot.
I don't care if we go to 5:00, 6:00 in the morning, 36, 37 ballots, we're going to pick the candidate best able to beat Hillary Clinton and advance through the Republican Party.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CARROLL: Now Trump for his part, Carol, as you know, says that any attempt to try to stop him from becoming the nominee would be illegal. He also says what it would do is it would disenfranchise the millions of people who actually casted votes for him during the primary season.
But what this really points to is that it points to the overall problem with Trump and the GOP. The GOP not happy with Trump, not happy with his rhetoric, not happy with the way the Trump campaign is moving forward.
To that end, CNN has learned that the Trump camp will be holding a meeting today here at Trump Tower. Trump will meet with some of his senior advisers, inner circle as well as some of its family members here as well, possibly to discuss ways of changing the campaign, changing the direction moving forward. What is clear, Carol, is something at this point needs to change -- Carol.
COSTELLO: All right, Jason Carroll reporting live from Trump Tower here at New York City. The top RNC official, though, says the idea of a delegate revolt is, quote, "nothing more than a media creation and a series of tweets."
So let's talk about that. Scottie Nell Hughes is a Trump supporter. She is with me and Ben Ferguson is a CNN political commentator and conservative talk radio host. Welcome to both of you.
Good morning. Scottie, House Speaker Paul Ryan raised some eyebrows over the weekend after this comment to NBC.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REPRESENTATIVE PAUL RYAN (R), HOUSE SPEAKER: The last thing I would do is tell anybody to do something that's contrary to their conscience. Of course, I wouldn't do that. Look, believe me, Chuck, I get that this is a very strange situation.
This is a very unique nominee. But I feel as a responsibility institutionally as the speaker of the House that I should not be leading some chasm in the middle of the party. Because you know what that will do, that would definitely knock us out of the White House.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The party is already divided.
RYAN: Like as well, it's divided and I will not tell somebody to go against their conscience.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: OK, so Scottie, it sounds like Speaker Ryan is adding fuel to Lonegan's fire. Is he?
SCOTTIE NELL HUGHES, CHIEF POLITICAL EDITOR FOR RIGHTALERTS.COM: Well, it depends how you look at it. Either way, at this point, we are looking that he is leading somewhat of a chasm amongst the House speakers.
But considering the latest Gallup poll just came out only 13 percent say that Congress is doing a good job in America today. I think Congressman Ryan needs to focus on his own House, the fact that they can't pass bills. That they're Republican controlled and yet we're not seeing any real legislation being passed on to the Senate and the president. He has his own problems in his own House.
How about working on that instead of this passive/aggressive talk that is only adding fuel to the fire that there's a divide in a party that's not really that divided.
COSTELLO: Really, it's not that divided? Ben, isn't it divided? Really?
BEN FERGUSON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: It's not. What you have here is you have unprecedented establishment GOP figures who are so hell bent on defeating Donald Trump because they're sore losers.
Ted Cruz was who I initially supported. He lost. When you lose, you do something and that is you coalesce behind the person who is the nominee. It's very simple. There's been precedent for this.
What you have now are people who want to say, guess what, we told you that Donald Trump was a horrible candidate and he lost and you should have listened to us.
I have never seen anything like this among the establishment who are spending more time going after Donald Trump than they are Hillary Clinton. I also think we should put this in perspective.
