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Trump Inner Circle Meeting; 911 Calls in Gator Attack; Lawsuit Against Remington Arms; Profiling Muslims; Trump Parts Ways with Lewandowski. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired June 20, 2016 - 09:30   ET

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

[09:30:00] BEN FERGUSON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: You should have listened to us. And I've 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. This is not going to happen in any real terms that's going to affect Donald Trump at the convention. This is about media. This is about people trying to get a name for themselves and get on TV. This is going to go nowhere. This is chaos that will never take place. He's going to be the nominee. He's going to be in charge at the convention.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: But there is a possibility, Scottie, because you -- but you can change the rules before the convention in Cleveland or at the convention in Cleveland. You can do that.

SCOTTIE NELL HUGHES, POLITICAL EDITOR, RIGHTALERTS.COM: Technically, you can. How this is going to work is they're going to go a few days before and they're going to use the same set of rules that were agreed upon in 2012 and they'll either vote those up or down. But it will have to pass a majority. Any changes have to pass the majority of the rules. Then it has to go to the floor of the convention, where as our -- as these reports are saying, there's overwhelming delegates in the Trump camp. The likely happening of that is very slim to none. And the only divide that is existing is among Steve Lonegan, which, by the way, if you open up a dictionary and look at the word "bitter," it has his picture right now because everything he is saying is not following reality. Anything that would happen that would change the picture at this point would guarantee a loss of the Republicans in the White House, as well as the disenfranchised Republican voter all the way down.

COSTELLO: Well, here --

HUGHES: We saw last week in the fourth district of Virginia --

FERGUSON: Well, you --

HUGHES: The Trump supporter beat the establishment candidate. The people are engaged behind Mr. Trump, the politicians behind a Lonegan or a Ryan.

COSTELLO: Go ahead, Ben. FERGUSON: Here's the other thing. What Steve was saying this morning

on "New Day," he couldn't even tell you who the candidate would be they would put up. It would be political suicide for anybody that ran against Donald Trump to somehow re-emerge at the convention in a failed attempt to kind of overthrow him. You would also have the most massive Republican revolt of people that supported Donald Trump if this happened. The only way that you would even have a chance of doing this, if you had some sort of fringe GOP hack who decided to throw his name in there. No one with a -- in their right mind I -- would be able to say, I'm going to stand up. Rubio's not going to do that. Cruz isn't going to do that. Huckabee's not going to do that. Santorum's not going to do that. The -- you would have a nobody or I would say a crazy that would be the only person you could give as a -- another name. And he couldn't even do it this morning. He was saying, well, there's lots of great candidates out there. No one's having a serious conversation with a serious political career with Steve or anyone else in this, quote/ unquote, "revolt." This is about them getting their media attention. I think they're a little bit crazy. They're big sore losers here and Donald Trump's going to be the nominee.

COSTELLO: All right, I have to -- I have to leave it there. And I think we can all agree, it will be one interesting convention in Cleveland in July.

FERGUSON: Very interesting.

HUGHES: No sleep till Cleveland, Carol.

COSTELLO: Yes, that's right. Exactly. Scottie Nell Hughes, Ben Ferguson, thanks so much.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, families of the victims of the Sandy Hook tragedy head to federal court today hoping to sue the maker of the military-style gun used to kill 20 small children and six adults.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:37:10] COSTELLO: For the first time we're hearing a 911 call from that horrific alligator attack at Disneyworld last week. You know the one that claimed the life of two-year-old Lane Graves. CNN's Martin Savidge is tracking this story.

Martin, what can you tell us?

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Good morning, Carol.

Yes, as I've been told, there are actually two 911 calls. The first one is kind of an automatic. In other words, the lifeguard who is at the lake where this attack occurred hits a button and runs to go help. In the meantime, there's an automatic dial that's done. This call that you're about to hear is coming from the swimming pool. It's a little bit of a distance away from the lake and it appears to be another Disney employee. Here is what was said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) CALLER: Someone drowned in the Seven Seas lagoon lake.

POLICE: They're in the back pool?

CALLER: No, lake.

POLICE: In the lake?

CALLER: Yes.

POLICE: And you said they drowned there?

CALLER: Umm, someone is drowning. I just played in the pool, please come to the Grand Floridian.

POLICE: Do you see the person right now?

CALLER: No, I didn't. (INAUDIBLE) a lot of people -- the other life guards are at the beach but I'm at the pool and talking with you. So I didn't see anything. But --

POLICE: But they're out pulling someone out of the lake, is that correct?

CALLER: Yes.

POLICE: OK. All right. We have no information -- can you see them right now?

CALLER: No, I can't see them.

POLICE: Do you have a cell phone that you can call from and go -- and go by where they're at and get me more information?

CALLER: OK, just give me a second, OK.

POLICE: OK.

CALLER: I will call you -- call you back right now.

POLICE: Yes. Go over where they're at, call 911, ask for Reedy Creek, OK?

CALLER: Oh, yes. OK.

POLICE: All right.

CALLER: OK.

POLICE: We're on our way.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAVIDGE: Reedy Creek, by the way, is the fire and emergency dispatch for Disneyworld. It is not part of the Orange County system directly. But it's also a very capable emergency response system. And so what happened was that the person who was by the pool

apparently called on a landline. That automatically goes to the Disney 911. And Orange County says that they were actually notified by Disney of the tragedy that occurred about six minutes later. So that's how the 911 call goes. And, remember, Carol, this was -- it was dark at night and the person is at the pool. So there's some distance away from the lakefront which could explain why this woman, it sounds like, was unable to give the kind of information and detail that the dispatcher wanted to hear. So that's the initial breakdown of that particular call, Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, Martin Savidge reporting live for us this morning. Thank you.

A question soon to be answered this morning, at least we think so, can a gun maker be sued if one of its weapons is used at a mass killing or other crime? That's the issue before a federal judge today in Connecticut. Families of the victims of the Sandy Hook massacre are suing Remington Arms, the manufacturer of the assault style weapon that was used to kill those children and teachers. Their argument is the gun maker knew its product was too dangerous for civilian use and should not have been sold. Some of the family members spoke outside the courthouse minutes ago.

[09:40:22] (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MATTHEW SOTO, SISTER KILLED AT SANDY HOOK: I was present at the firehouse on 12/14/12 when 25 other families learned that our loved ones were killed after hours of sitting, hoping and praying that they were alive. That day forever changed my family, the 25 other families, and families across the world.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Gun makers typically are not held liable for how their guns are used, and there's a reason for that. Joey Jackson is here, CNN's legal analyst.

What is the reason?

JOEY JACKSON, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, here's the issue. The issue is that there's a federal statute, Carol -- and good morning to you -- and the federal statute essentially immunizes the community of people that sells guns. And so when you have manufacturers that are immunized from selling a weapon, you have this statute which affords them protection. And so the issue was, every time a crime is committed, the gun people who sold guns and manufactured guns said this would be ruinous liability. If we're going to be held accountable every time there's a crime that occurs, we're not going to be able to sell guns. You're going to take down and bankrupt our industry. And based upon that, there was a statute passed that said, OK, you're right, but there are loopholes in that statute and I think that's what's at play here.

COSTELLO: Ok, so let's -- let's just talk about this federal exemption for gun manufacturers, right? JACKSON: Yes.

COSTELLO: You can sue car manufacturers for whatever you want. Why don't they have a federal exemption?

JACKSON: Well, I guess we'd have to ask that question to Congress. When you have a very powerful gun lobby and you have a very powerful Second Amendment that says people have a right to bear arms, the gun industry says, well, why should we be held accountable? Guns don't kill people, people kill people. And so that's been the argument. And based upon that, Congress has acted.

COSTELLO: You could argue the same with cars.

JACKSON: You certainly could.

COSTELLO: Cars don't kill people, people --

JACKSON: You know, and that's the point. And that's why I think you're seeing a real pushback. And if you look at this historically, you might remember in 1994, under Clinton, there was this ten-year ban on assault weapons that wouldn't get into the hands of civilians. Unfortunately, Carol, you saw a lapse in that. And because of the lapse in it, after ten years, guess what, 2004, there is no such thing. 2005, you have this statute that says, you know what, if people get their hands on weapons, we're going to immunize you because you're not the issue, you know, the gun manufacturer is not the issue, the people killing people are the issue.

However, in that statute it says that if people who you know or might reasonably expect get their hands on weapons and they commit crimes, you may very well be liable. And that's what's that -- at the heart of this very litigation.

COSTELLO: OK. So, what are the chances of success?

JACKSON: It may be very good. I -- what I think you're seeing is a major pushback and people are saying, look, enough is enough. When you manufacturer a gun -- and there are two sides to the argument clearly. But I think what the families are saying is this. You have an AR-15. It discharges 30 rounds in ten seconds. You have people in the military who use that weapon. They're trained for 100 hours before they get to use it and they undergo a mental health evaluation. But you're going to market this weapon to civilians without that mental health evaluation and without any such training. Really? And that's the argument that the families are making. It has no use in practical life other than to kill people. And, of course, the manufacturers say, again, guns don't kill people, people do, we're simply manufacturing a product that's out there for the public. If they use it in an inappropriate way, it's on them, it's certainly not on us.

COSTELLO: OK. We'll see what happens. Joey Jackson, thank you so much.

JACKSON: A pleasure.

COSTELLO: Still to come in the NEWSROOM, first he said to ban Muslims. Now Donald Trump says the U.S. should look into profiling Muslims. But will that make us safer?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:48:23] COSTELLO: All right, the U.S. Supreme Court is in session today and it's expected to hand down a number of decisions. And one just came down and it is a victory of sorts for gun control advocates. The U.S. Supreme Court today declined to take up a constitutional challenge to a Connecticut gun law passed in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. The law bans certain semi- automatic assault weapons and large capacity magazines. That means the ban will stay in effect in the state of Connecticut. So, again, the Supreme Court declined to take up that issue, so the semi-automatic assault ban weapon will stay in effect in the state of Connecticut.

In other news this morning, an alarming report today that hackers working for ISIS have obtained key data on at least 77 U.S. and NATO military facilities around the world and is calling on its supporters to attack them. The list includes the U.S. air base in Osan, South Korea. South Korea's intelligence agency says ISIS hackers have gathered satellite maps, addresses and other sensitive information about the bases. The U.S. military in South Korea says it is prepared to respond to any threat at any time.

Vice President Joe Biden takes on Donald Trump today in a speech criticizing Trump's foreign policy proposals as detrimental to U.S. national security. Biden's prepared remarks read, in part, quote, "wielding the politics of fear and intolerance, like proposals to ban Muslims from entering the United States, or slandering entire religious communities as complicit in terrorism calls into question America's status as the greatest democracy in the history of the world," end quote.

But Mr. Trump himself has now gone even farther in the aftermath of the Orlando nightclub massacre. Yesterday, he suggested the U.S. should racially profile Muslims in America. But U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch took issue with that.

[09:50:15] (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LORETTA LYNCH, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: It is very important for us to maintain our contacts within the Muslim community because often individuals, if they're from that community and they're being radicalized, their friends and family members will see it first. They will see activity first and we want that information to come to us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: So let's bring in CNN national security analyst Peter Bergen, who's done extensive studies on extremism in America and outside this country.

Peter, would profiling work?

PETER BERGEN, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, like a lot of Trump proposals, this proposal is vague, unconstitutional and would be infective. What does profiling mean? I mean there are the people carrying out these attacks are, generally speaking, (INAUDIBLE) lethal terrorist attacks are American citizens, so, you know, the First Amendment is the First Amendment. The Fourth Amendment, the right to not have -- you know, not have unreasonable searches and warrants, I think it would run into a lot of constitutional challenges. And then, in practice, what would it look like? Every police department should just sort of search Muslims randomly when the number of Muslims involved in these attacks is, you know, a tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny percentage of the population? And we've seen court cases in New York, Carol, where essentially the New York Police Department had to settle cases where there was policemen going into mosques and the like. They didn't admit fault, but they settled these cases and paid the plaintiffs' costs, suggesting that the courts would take a pretty dim view of other efforts that are similar.

COSTELLO: Here's the other thing. George Washington University did an extensive study on extremism in America. It determined there is no one profile of an ISIS sympathizer. It also points out that 38 percent of those charged were converts to Islam. So how would profiling stop them?

BERGEN: I don't think it would. I mean, you know, it would be a tremendous waste of resources. I mean the thing is not to profile people. The thing is to act on intelligence about people who may be doing bad things. And the FBI doesn't get too hung up on your motivations. What they're looking are -- for is your actions. So, for instance, it seems to be a no-brainer that if you've been the subject of some kind of FBI terrorist inquiry, if you're suddenly buying automatic weapons or semi-automatic weapons, that that should be flagged to law enforcement at a minimum and perhaps even be barred. And as we see on The Hill today, those kinds of ideas are being voted on. But, you know, it's quite possible they'll fail, unfortunately.

COSTELLO: I think that, you know, people want easy answers to this problem. They want someone to give them the solution. Tell us why that's kind of not possible in this situation.

BERGEN: Well, you know, and they want an easy answer to why people do these things. And if you look at Omar Mateen in Orlando, you know, clearly he was a very troubled individual and, yes, Islamist militant ideology had some role to play, but there were a lot of other things in play. So you can't wave a magic wand over these -- these kinds of problems. But I do think that you can bring some common sense to bear, which is in several of the cases we've seen in the United States of lethal terrorist attacks, the perpetrator had been investigated in some shape or form by the FBI and then perfectly legally went out and bought semi-automatic weapons before the attack. It seems sensible that that -- that we should end that.

COSTELLO: All right, Peter Bergen, thanks so much for your insight, as always.

We have a bit of breaking news to pass along in the world of politics. We always do, it seems, right? But this is pretty big news and it concerns the Donald Trump campaign. We understand, according to Hope Hicks, who is Trump's spokesperson, that Corey Lewandowski is out as Trump's campaign manager. Do you just want to bring in our panel now? That would be good. Larry -- oh, actually, let's go out to Jason Carroll because he's at Trump Tower.

What can you tell us about this, Jason?

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, this speaks to what we were talking about a little earlier, Carol, when I told you about that meeting that's taking place today here at Trump Tower with Trump and his senior advisers, members of his family. There's been a lot of concern, as you know, concern not just from donors but members of the GOP not happy with Trump's rhetoric, not happy with the direction of the campaign. So this is one of the changes that we're seeing, Corey Lewandowski, Trump's now former campaign manager, will no longer be in position here.

Let me just read you part of the statement coming from Hope Hicks, who is Trump's spokeswoman. She says that Donald Trump -- the Donald J. Trump campaign for president, which has set an historic record in the Republican primary having received almost 14 million votes, has today announced that Corey Lewandowski will no longer be working with the campaign.

As you know, Carol, Lewandowski, for some time there's been talk about his ability to get along with other members of the campaign, his ability to get along with people like the campaign chairman, Paul Manafort. There have been questions about his temperament, questions about his leadership ability. As you know, back in March, he had that situation with that Breitbart reporter where he allegedly manhandled her. So there's been lots of concerns about his ability to go from primary to a general election. And this now seems to be the result of his inability to work within the campaign, the inability to get the message on track.

[09:55:32] Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, Jason Carroll reporting live. Big news, Corey Lewandowski out as Mr. Trump's campaign manager.

The next hour of CNN NEWSROOM after a break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

COSTELLO: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.

Breaking news in the race for the White House. A big shake-up for the Donald Trump campaign just weeks before the Republican Convention is set to begin. Trump's campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, is out. CNN's Jason Carroll outside of Trump Tower to tell us more.

[10:00:13] Hi, Jason.