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Donald Trump Receives Intel Briefing on Russian Involvement in U.S. Election; Captured Suspect in Fort Lauderdale Airport Shooting Interviewed by Law Enforcement; Hollywood Prepares for Golden Globes Awards Show. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired January 07, 2017 - 14:00   ET

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

[14:00:00] FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: -- veteran was taken into custody after pulling a gun from his checked luggage and then firing into the baggage claim area. Five people were killed, six others injured, two of them recovering from gunshot wounds to the head. Officials have cleared terminal two where the shots rang out. That area is expected to open later on today. The airport largely resumed operations this morning, but the FBI says this is still very much an ongoing investigation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE PIRO, FBI SPECIAL AGENT IN CHARGE: We have not ruled out anything. We continue to look at all avenues and all motives for this horrific attack, and at this point, we are continuing to look at the terrorism angle in regards to the potential motivation behind this attack.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: We're also learning more about the accused gunman. Narratives from both police and family members indicating that he may have suffered from some sort of mental health issues. Santiago will make his first court appearance on Monday.

Let's go now to CNN's Rachel Crane who was live at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. So Rachel, what more are you learning.

RACHEL CRANE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fred, there's a lot of questions surrounding the role that Santiago's mental health played in this attack. He was an Army veteran, and we know that he went into an FBI office several months ago, saying that he was hearing voices in his head, that an intelligence agency was telling him that he should be watching ISIS videos. His brother also told CNN that he was concerned about Santiago's mental health. He said that his brother had had mental health problems since he returned from a tour in Iraq in 2011 with the National Guard. He said the shooting was a consequence of Santiago not getting the proper mental health treatment needed.

Santiago was hospitalized for a few days for mental health treatment and that they last communicated a month ago. His aunt also spoke to CNN, and this is what she had to say in regards to Santiago's mental health. She said "His mind was not right. He seemed normal at times, but other times he seemed lost. He changed." She also went on to say "Who would have imagined that he could do something like this. I don't say that because we're family. I say that because he wasn't like that.

Now, law enforcement officials have not ruled out anything in regards to determining the motive, including terrorism. Fred?

WHITFIELD: All right, Rachel Crane, thank you so much there in Fort Lauderdale.

All right, according to multiple law enforcement officials Esteban Santiago was armed when he went to the FBI offices in Anchorage. That was just back in November. And at that time he told the feds that he was hearing voice.

CNN's Shimon Prokupecz is joining us now with more on this. So Shimon, once they learned that information and he apparently disclosed that he did have a weapon and he was licensed to have it, then what did the FBI do with that information, and is that in step with what they're supposed to do?

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN PRODUCER: I mean, it certainly is in step. I think that's important to sort of highlight right off the top. There's nothing to indicate that the FBI or the Anchorage police who eventually took custody of him did anything wrong here.

So this all goes to November as we've been reporting when he just showed up at the FBI offices. No one was looking for him. No one was calling for him. He just came on his own and told them that he had been hearing some sort of voices and was concerned that intelligence officials, U.S. intelligence officials were telling him to watch ISIS videos.

During that visit the FBI realized that he was carrying a gun. He had a license for the gun. So they took the gun away from him. They conducted the interview. They found that he really didn't pose any kind of threat. They spoke to his family. So eventually they called the local police, Anchorage police, who took him to the hospital. The police took the gun, they confiscated it. And then when he was released from the hospital they gave him the gun back.

It's also I think interesting, one of the things that came out today from the FBI is that they now believe, at least based on information that they've gathered, that he went to Fort Lauderdale specifically to conduct this attack. If you recall yesterday, the FBI told us that they had been speaking to him, that they spent some time with him. The Broward County Sheriff had spent some time with the alleged shooter. So they're getting more information. And I think that's a pretty significant point that they made today.

WHITFIELD: Yes, and of course his family members, at least what we're learning from the reporting for the family members, no one is able to explain whether they knew he was going to Fort Lauderdale, you know, what his intent might be. This coming as a surprise to so many including his family. Shimon Prokupecz, thank you so much for your reporting, appreciate it. [14:05:04] Meantime, Democratic Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz represents that area where they airport shooting took place and spoke with me earlier today. And here's what she plans to do as a result of this deadly shooting.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. DEBBIE WASSERMAN SCHULTZ, (R) FLORIDA: We go back in discussion on Monday in Washington, and there are two questions here, both dealing with the security of airports. We deal with this kind of security question in balancing the traveling -- the ability of the traveling public to travel freely and as unencumbered as possible, while at the same time trying to make sure that we can keep people safe from those who would wish to do them harm.

And so we address those things each time after there is an incident that exposes a glaring problem like this one. When we had the shoe bomber, if you recall, we had the guy on the plane who was trying to light his shoes, an explosive device, with a cigarette lighter, and we banned cigarette lighters at that point. When we had the individual who was trying to use the small amount of liquid to detonate an explosive device, we subsequently banned larger amounts of liquid so that we could minimize the risks to passengers.

We can see and already were aware, but this obviously exposes it in Technicolor that baggage claim areas all across the country, I travel in and out of this airport several times a week and I've traveled all over the country. I've been all of the major airports in this country, and baggage claim areas are not secure.

The other challenge that we have is that you are able to check a firearm. The procedures here in place were followed, but we most definitely, and I am going to go back to Washington and start work on this, need to review the procedures, not only the question of whether or not you should be allowed to check a firearm when you travel at all rather than ship it or transport it in some other way, but we need to more minutely examine the question of if you are going to continue to allow that, in what way are we going to reunite you with your firearm, because if there is still exposure to the traveling public with someone who wishes to do them harm and like this individual was reunited with their firearm and was able to wreak havoc and kill five people and wound six, it absolutely needs to be addressed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Thanks to Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz there.

Still to come, the intel community blaming Putin for the Russians hacking the U.S. but Trump is calling for a quote, "good relationship" with Russia. What his signals to our international partners plus what former CIA director General Michael Hayden has to say about all of this and the intel report.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEN. MICHAEL HAYDEN, FORMER DIRECTOR, CIA AND NSA: Look, I read the same document last night. I had the same sense of disappointment. I probably had a little more understanding as to why it was a brick short of a load.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:11:40] WHITFIELD: President-elect Donald Trump downplaying Russia's meddling in the election, this despite receiving a full briefing on the classified version of the intelligence report yesterday. That report saying with high confidence those hacking efforts were ordered directly by Russian President Vladimir Putin, and that Putin's goal was to hurt Clinton and help Trump. Trump instead turning the report into a partisan issue, casting blame on the Democratic National Committee for allowing the hacking.

Earlier today General Michael Hayden, the former director of the CIA and NSA, told CNN's Michael Smerconish that Trump and his transition team are missing the point about the significance of yesterday's intel briefing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HAYDEN: The point of that briefing yesterday, Michael, was we got a Russia problem. And the Trump transition team tried to get off the x from that question by simple pushing it over here and saying we've got to do better cyber-security. They're walking away from the core issue, Michael, which is the behavior of the Russian Federation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: All right, let's discuss this with historian Julian Zelizer and CNN political analyst Rebecca Berg. Julian, let me begin with you. Hayden's remarks there talking about the bigger issue of a Russia problem. It's not just cyber-security but cyber warfare. Do you agree?

JULIAN ZELIZER, AUTHOR, "THE FIERCE URGENCY OF NOW": Yes, I think that's what Hayden, that's what a lot of the intelligence community, that's what many Republicans like John McCain are trying to argue and make clear that the Russian intervention is part of a bigger problem with Russia that the United States will need to deal with.

And I think they're somewhat surprised by president-elect Trump dismissing this, not just this particular part of the story but the problem all together.

WHITFIELD: And then another response via twee from Trump is you'd be stupid not to understand the value of really getting to know or have a friendship, and I'm paraphrasing his tweet. So does he have a good argument? Here it is, "Having a good relationship with Russia is a good thing, not a bad thing. Only stupid people or fools would think that it is bad."

ZELIZER: That's of course true and it's of course important, but you can't do that without being cognizant of the problems and dangers that exist in a relationship. It's like Reagan in the 1980s worked to make peace with the Soviet Union but was totally aware of the continued threats that the Soviets still posed.

WHITFIELD: And so Rebecca, how do you see this as setting the stage of what this relationship will be like between a President Trump after inauguration and the intel community which any president has to rely greatly on intel briefings and information in order to make a sound, reasonable decision about just about anything concerning this nation?

REBECCA BERG, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: That's right. Well, it could be a fraught relationship to say the least because even if you ignore the remarks that Donald Trump made sort of diminishing the intelligence community and their recommendations, essentially, bringing up the weapons of mass destruction assessment in the lead up to the Iraq War, even after that, after Trump released his statement yesterday praising the intelligence community, thanking them for their work, the fact of the matter remains that he took their briefing, he took their assessment regarding Russia's hacking and basically disregarded it completely.

[14:15:05] And his statement basically lumped China, Russia, other states who have hacked the United States all together, in statements on Twitter today went back to the politics of the issue, focused on the Democrat National Committee instead of on Russia and still hasn't rebuked Russia publicly for what they did.

And so I think the intelligence community, people within the community certainly might be a little bit discouraged at this point because they give this high confidence recommendation and report to the president- elect and he seems to dismiss it.

WHITFIELD: Earlier I spoke with a former CIA director, James Woolsey, and as you know he resigned this week on Thursday as a Trump adviser. And in my conversation with him today he said part of the reason for his resignation is he wasn't being utilized.

But he also said this about his concerns moving forward.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAMES WOOLSEY, FORMER CIA DIRECTOR: Beginning two weeks from now he is going to have to lead an effort for the U.S. government, the intelligence services, State Department, elsewhere, to get on top of these Russian efforts and thwart them. And I would say we want to take some actions dealing with Russia that are not in the cyber area. One very good one would be to use competition and undercutting OPEC to lower the price of oil. It would be great for American consumers and it would be a serious problem for Putin.

And so there are things we can do that are not within the four corners of the cyber world. We don't have to stay within that world. We can deal with the Russians far more effectively if we range into other areas such as the oil crisis.

(END VIDEO CLIP) WHITFIELD: And Julain, you know, Woolsey is kind of giving advice even though he is no longer really on staff to give advice to Donald Trump. But do you see Donald Trump as taking any of this sage advice from anyone who has ties or had ties to the intel community.

ZELIZER: At this point no. I think president-elect Trump has been pretty hostile clearly to everything that's coming to him from the intelligence community. I think there's many recommendations that have been put on the table from using the oil weapon to some kind of cyber-security treaty to tougher sanctions.

But right now the president-elect isn't listening. We don't know exactly why, but I do think he's going to have a problem on his hands because this is one of the few issues where you've seen growing Republican opposition in the Senate to what the president-elect is saying. And so he will have to contend with this. And he has cabinet hearings and confirmations coming up, so he'll need their support. He doesn't have a huge majority.

WHITFIELD: Right. And we may see some interesting things playing out because already with these hearings taking place next week, the Office of Government Ethics has actually sent a letter to Democratic senators expressing concern that the nominees, some of them have not yet even been properly vetted, talking about Governor John Kelly, Betsy DeVos, Wilbur Ross, Dr. Ben Carson. How big of a problem potentially is this, Rebecca?

BERG: Well, especially I would point out with Rex Tillerson, Trump's pick for secretary of state, here's someone who has a huge history to look into in terms of his relationship with Russia in particular as CEO of Exxon Mobil, and before that he was the head of Russia for Exxon Mobil. So he in particular is one where Republicans and Democrats have raised potential concerns about conflicts of interests about his close relationship with Putin and whether that was a working relationship purely or went beyond that. And I think that's one of the nominations in particular where we will see fireworks come the confirmation process and where vetting in particular is going to be very important.

WHITFIELD: All right, Julian, last word on this, 15 seconds or less?

ZELIZER: Yes, absolutely. He's going to try to rush these through. I think this can affect the Tillerson. And he has to be careful. Congress can get the best of every president, and it can even get the best of president-elect Trump, so he needs to be careful.

WHITFIELD: All right, Julian Zelizer, Rebecca Berg, thanks so much to both of you, appreciate it. Happy New Year.

BERG: Thank you.

ZELIZER: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: All right, coming up tomorrow on CNN top Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway will weigh in on Russia. She'll talk with Jake Tapper on "State of the Union" tomorrow morning at 9:00 a.m. eastern right here on CNN. And we'll be right back.

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[14:23:30] WHITFIELD: It's that time of year, the Hollywood awards season officially beginning with the 74th Golden Globe ceremony hosted by Jimmy Fallon. Here now is CNN's Stephanie Elam.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The glitz, the glamor, the Golden Globes. Hollywood's annual kickoff to awards season looks to honor the best in film and television.

With seven nominations "La La Land" leads the pack on the motion picture front.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It takes a very traditional medium, the Hollywood musical, which has been around for centuries, and it really does reinvent it for a modern audience.

ELAM: The Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling led movie is up for best motion picture musical or comedy alongside "20th Century Women," "Deadpool," "Florence Foster Jenkins," and "Sing Street." "Moonlight," a gritty coming of age film, has six nominations, including one for best motion picture drama along with "Hacksaw Ridge," "Hell or High Water," "Lion," and "Manchester by the Sea."

With five nods, "The People Versus O.J. Simpson, American Crime Story," dominates the TV categories, including a nomination for best miniseries or television movie.

For the fourth year "Game of Thrones" is up for best drama series. The epic fantasy with face off with newcomers "The Crown," "Stranger Things," "This is Us," and "Westworld."

[14:25:08] Taking a stab at the master of ceremonies duties this year, Jimmy Fallon.

JIMMY FALLON, HOST, "THE TONIGHT SHOW": I'm already practicing wearing it every single night and just handing out awards to random people.

ELAM: The late night host follows previous Golden Globe emcees Ricky Gervais and Tina Fey and Amy Poehler.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What makes the Golden Globes fun is this sense that anything can happen, and that goes with the host as well.

ELAM: From first bottle to last trophy, the show should live up to its title as Hollywood's biggest party.

Stephanie Elam, CNN, Hollywood.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: It looks like a lot of fun. Thanks so much for being with me today. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. Much more of the newsroom continues at the top of the hour. But first "Vital Signs" with Dr. Sanjay Gupta right after this.

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