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Florida Braces for Another Election Recount Battle; Massive Wildfires Destroy Homes, Force Evacuations in California; Officials Probe What Prompted Deadly CA Mass Shooting. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired November 09, 2018 - 06:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RICK SCOTT (R), FLORIDA SENATORIAL CANDIDATE: I will not sit by while unethical liberals try to steal this election.

[05:59:31] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: His primary evidence seems to be that his voter margin is going down. That's not an indication that there's fraud.

SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R), FLORIDA: This is a pattern of incompetence, and it's embarrassing to the state.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I ran for my life. By the grace of God I got out through the front entrance.

JASON COFFMAN, FATHER OF CODY COFFMAN: Last thing I said was, "Son, I love you."

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are a hurting city, but the dawn will break. We are Thousand Oaks strong.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Alisyn Camerota and John Berman.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world.

This is NEW DAY. It's Friday, November 9. This week has been 26 days.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Oh, my gosh. This has been the longest, really, week that I can remember.

BERMAN: It's 6 a.m. here in New York. And this morning, Florida is Florida except more. This is the headline in the "Miami Herald." The state that brought you the 2000 presidential recount will try to outdo itself in '18.

Three huge statewide races here headed to a recount, including the incredibly high-profile Senate and governor's races. So forget election day. This could be election month there and make the memory of hanging chads seem quaint. The bitterness and partisan accusations, they are off the charts

already. In the Senate race, Republican Rick Scott is clinging to a tiny and shrinking lead that is well within the margin of triggering an automatic machine recount, about 15,000 vote.

But Scott, who is the current governor, alleges rampant fraud in Broward and Palm Beach counties. Without any proof, he's saying the Democrats are trying to steal both races.

Now, these are the same two counties that become somewhat legendary for their vote-counting issues back in the 2000 presidential election. The Scott campaign is suing the election supervisors in both counties, and his Democratic rival, the incumbent, Bill Nelson, is calling those lawsuits politically motivated.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CO-HOST: So the Florida governor's race could also be heading for a recount. Republican Ron DeSantis is holding onto a .4 percent lead over Andrew Gillum.

Gilliam had conceded the race but now says that he wants to make sure every vote is counted. Part of the problem appears to be the ballot in Broward County. Some believe the design of that ballot was confusing and caused thousands who voted in the governor's race to accidentally skip voting in the Senate contest. I don't know if you can see your screen right now, but it does look confusing.

There were 23,000 fewer votes casts in the Senate race than the governor's race.

President Trump is resorting to one of his standard claims again, accusing Democrats of corruption and election fraud with no evidence of either.

Also this morning, we have breaking news in Southern California. Sprawling wildfires are burning homes. They're spreading quickly. One fire is in Ventura County just miles from the location of that mass shooting that killed 12 people yesterday. So we will have a live report in just moments.

But let's begin with Rosa Flores. She is in Lauderdale, Florida, on the recount battle that looms. What's happening at this hour, Rosa?

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Alisyn, good morning.

You mentioned deja vu to Florida 2000. That is exactly where we are. Governor Scott alleging rampant fraud in Broward and Palm Beach County, pointing the finger, alleging that the Democrats are trying to steal the race but providing no proof, instead saying this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCOTT: We've all seen the incompetence and irregularities in vote tabulations in Broward and Palm Beach for years. Well, here we go again. I will not sit idly by while unethical liberals try to steal this election from the great people of Florida.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FLORES: Now, as the margins narrow, Scott has filed two lawsuits, one against each of those counties that I mentioned, alleging that there are irregularities. There are difficulties with transparency. And also, calling for an FDLE investigation. And that's the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

Now, that could raise questions about conflict of interest, because he, of course, is the chief executive of this state who appoints the leader of the FDLE.

Now, Gillum and Nelson, they are fighting back. Nelson calling this politically motivated and out of desperation as those margins narrow. And those margins are razor-thin in the governor's race. It's a 04 percent, or about 36,000 votes. In the Senate race, it's 0.18 percent, or about 15,000 votes. Now, that makes it within the margin that automatically triggers a recount.

Now, as you guys mentioned, there are a few factors fueling the flames here. The ballots, these razor-thin margins, and here we are, deja vu Florida, 2000 -- Alisyn, John.

CAMEROTA: Thank you, Rosa.

BERMAN: All right. Joining us now, CNN Politics senior writer and analyst Harry Enten; senior editor at "The Atlantic" and CNN senior political analyst, Ron Brownstein; and CNN senior political analyst John Avlon.

There are some differences with 2000. Let me just get this out there. We're talking about thousands of votes now, not dozens and hundreds like we were for the presidential race in 2000.

No. 2, there's no chad this time. No hanging chad.

CAMEROTA: I think that's progress.

BERMAN: Which the plural for chad is "chad." It's not chads. So let's get that out there also. But there's none of them, because it's now all with a pen that you do these things.

Harry, I want to know where these votes are and what the issue with them is.

[06:05:00] HARRY ENTEN, CNN POLITICS SENIOR WRITER AND ANALYST: Yes, so in -- you have -- Broward County, you have about, I believe, it's 25 to 30,000 votes where essentially, as you were saying, there were votes for governor but there weren't votes for senator.

We think it's a poor ballot design. However, Mark Elias, who is the lawyer for Bill Nelson believes it could be something entirely different.

In Palm Beach County you essentially have these ballots where they fill them in with a Sharpie, and they think it might have leaked through to the other side, and it might have caused over votes. That is, you know, votes in two different races. And those might not be counted.

But one thing that I think is very important to point out is if you go back to 2000, the -- that final result, when it came in on election night, was within 0.3 percent points. This is 0.18 in the Senate race, and that's the closer of the two.

So it's a six times the margin. So it is very, very difficult to come back from that unless they find more votes.

BERMAN: But we don't know how many votes are out there.

ENTEN: We don't -- we don't necessarily know. But for sure, if Nelson wants to come back, it would need to be much thinner. And the other thing I'll point out, if there's a manual recount if it's within 0.25, versus a machine recount when it's within 0.5.

CAMEROTA: But one is within 0.25.

ENTEN: Right. Right.

CAMEROTA: Is this going to happen? Is there going to be a manual recount in the Senate race?

ENTEN: I would think -- I would think so, based upon everything that I'm seeing.

CAMEROTA: Let's just look at this ballot, John, for a second, because I'm confused by it. And so here's the ballot. What you see on the left-hand side of your screen is that all that gobbledygook there in the top left, that's -- those are all instructions, I think, before you get to your choice for, I guess, Senate. And so that does seem confusing.

JOHN AVLON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: This is an epic face palm. I mean, the last place on earth there should be a ballot design problem is Broward County. We've done this. They have the scar tissue to prove it. And if that's at all a factor in this, it's just idiotic and inexcusable.

BERMAN: The thing it -- the thing is, if that is one of the issues, I think the technical term for it is tough tushies for the Democrats, and it stinks. It stinks to high heaven, but it won't change a thing. The design is the design. It's the butterfly ballot with Pat Buchanan in Palm Beach County in 2000. That won't change. There has to be votes out there that are countable for the actual outcome to change.

CAMEROTA: And you're saying that the "tough tushies" part is because everybody signed off on this ballot. Right? Democrats and Republicans.

BERMAN: Everybody signed off on it, and the reason that there are no votes for the Senate race there is because people didn't mark the ballot for it. You can't go back and find out what those people voted for. So their votes will never exist in this.

Ron, politically speaking, I also think one of the things that's fascinating here, and Republicans seemed to have learned this lesson in 2000 so very well, you need to declare victory early. You need to set the stage that it is your vote that is being taken away. This isn't about counting the votes that are all out there. This is being robbed of something. And you could see Governor Scott do that yesterday on state property, when he went out there and he sicced his own state law enforcement on a count that isn't done yet.

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Which, you know, talking about scar tissue, I mean, I have five weeks of my life in Tallahassee in 2000 that I will never get back, and memories of butterfly ballots coming -- coming, you know, to the fore.

Look, I think it is reasonable for Rick Scott to know what is the universe of votes that are out there. I think him ordering his own law enforcement agency to get involved and investigate and the tweet from the president immediately alleging fraud is kind of an ominous flash forward to what we might be looking at in 2000.

Counting ballots after election day are -- is part of elections. You know, this is a lot of votes to make up. There are other places in the country where, for example, in Arizona, where there are hundreds of thousands of votes being counted; and Kyrsten Sinema has now moved ahead in that Senate race.

Now, in California, there are millions of votes still being counted, and there's a possibility the Democrats are going to win as many as three more House seats that Republicans were leading on election day.

Again, you know, the thought of kind of using executive power to try to interfere with the post-election counting, again, I think this is a clear and present warning sign about what we may be looking at two years down the road. So separate from the issue of whether there are enough votes, I agree with Harry. These are enough votes -- in 2000 we went from about 950 votes on election night to 537 in the end. So this is a lot of terrain to cover, but let the process unfold.

AVLON: That's right. Look, the basic principle is clear and shouldn't be controversial. Count every vote. And for those votes who still claim occasionally in their apathy the idea that every vote doesn't count, every year there are races that prove that fact that it does matter. You've got to show up. And the fact that, you know, Arizona's out there. The state GOP is trying to sue to stop certain mail-in ballots from being counted.

CAMEROTA: why? What's the -- what would be the rationale to not allow mail-in votes?

AVLON: I will shock you and say it's situational ethics. It's Maricopa County, and they're afraid that those write-in ballots will not benefit their team. This is what's rampant, and this is what people rightfully hate about politics. But it should increase engagement, not decrease it. Count every vote, folks.

CAMEROTA: The Kyrsten Sinema race is really interesting, because again, it looked so different than it did, Harry, on election night. I mean, so but what's happening? Just for people who -- catch us up here. These are -- look at how tight it is. So this is all mail-in ballots that weren't counted on election night? Or something else happened.

ENTEN: Yes, that's essentially what it is. And so basically, you have people voting at different points during the process to Maricopa County. And these were the ballots that were dropped off between, I believe, Friday and Monday before the election, and those leaned overwhelmingly Democratic compared to the other ballots that may still be outstanding, potentially.

So you also have ballots that were dropped off on election day. Those, we believe, are more favorable for McSally. But you still have these ballots from the Friday to Monday group, plenty of those for Sinema. And those are just in Maricopa.

Then, in Pima County, which went heavily for Sinema, there's still a bunch of votes to still be counted there.

BROWNSTEIN: Eighty-thousand.

ENTEN: So you have a lot of votes that are still to be counted, but I think -- I think, based upon the votes that are still out there, if Florida leans a little bit more towards the Republican side, Arizona leans more a little bit towards the Democratic side.

BERMAN: Can we also must take a moment, Ron, to note how a flip in Arizona would change the overall narrative of this entire election. Yes, Republicans would still pick up a few House -- seats in the Senate, but there would have been two seats, in Nevada and Arizona --

BROWNSTEIN: Yes.

BERMAN: -- that flipped to the Democrats. More seats going to the Democrats in the House than we knew when we woke up Wednesday morning.

BROWNSTEIN: Yes.

CAMEROTA: That doesn't change the narrative.

BERMAN: Well, it's a lot bluer. It's a lot bluer than we -- than was being said on TV Tuesday night.

CAMEROTA: The president still says, "I held the Senate," in the headline.

BERMAN: Go ahead, Ron.

BROWNSTEIN: Democrats won the most seats in the House that they've won in any midterm election since 1974, and the third most they've won in any election -- midterm election since World War II.

I mean, it was -- it was clear -- I think once Virginia 7 went, it was clear we were -- we were seeing something important happening in the suburbs. And along with that gain in the House, you know, what drove that gain in the House was the fact that they flipped suburban seats, not only in the traditionally blue places, but extended that dominance into Houston, Dallas, Atlanta, Kansas City, Charleston, Oklahoma City, places where -- that have resisted the white-collar movement toward the Democrats in the past.

And in the Senate, of course, you did see the potential for these two breakthroughs in the Southwest.

The flip side is still real. I mean, the election also showed the Republican strength among blue -- you know, working-class white voters, rural voters. That power there gains in the Midwest. But what the real message is big Democratic gains in the House amid a real continued sorting of the electorate as these suburban white-collar areas move further towards the Democrats and the rural parts of the country, even with some erosion for the Republicans not really enough to make a difference in the overall outcome.

And thus, Republicans strong there. That is the message. It was, I think, it should have been a little more clear than it was on election night. It was somewhat obscured. But now, as Democrats continue to gain seats in the House, in particular -- and they might get up to 37 or 38, depending on some of these districts in California.

CAMEROTA: Let's quickly look at Georgia before we let everybody go.

AVLON: Sure.

CAMEROTA: So it is also quite close, but now the secretary of state, Brian Kemp, who won, I mean, or at least declared victory --

BERMAN: Is leading.

CAMEROTA: But didn't he declare victory that night?

BERMAN: He did, but that's part of the issue. Is that -- is that what you need to do is declare victory, so it looks like something in --

(CROSSTALK)

CAMEROTA: But now he recuses himself from being secretary of state.

AVLON: Right.

CAMEROTA: Shouldn't that, perhaps, have happened to avoid the conflict of interest during the race?

AVLON: That is certainly at the heart of the contention around this race, that you shouldn't participate and act as referee in the same game. And this is why one of the real pressures about the lawsuits that are being filed and making sure that every vote is counted is because he was presiding over this And he also, you know, for the election official presiding over it, he also got involved in some very ugly last-minute tweets having to, you know, really deepen divides.

CAMEROTA: But now does this go to a recount?

AVLON: Well, it could trigger an automatic recount. Right now they're doing a suit. That's unclear. But again, the fact that you have these high-profile races in the South that are still being fought, that shows how deep the divides are.

ENTEN: I would just say maybe it's time that we stop declaring which side has had the better night on election night and maybe wait a few days before declaring what the actual narrative should be.

BERMAN: I will tell you, because there was a time on election night where Jon Tester was still losing, or Nevada hadn't happened yet, where you know, Florida had already been declared for Rick Scott, or at least in a lot of places had been. The night looked a lot different than it does now.

CAMEROTA: You're so right. And a lot of this did feel premature. Ron, we're out of time.

BROWNSTEIN: Just real quick. The -- metro America, even on election night, sent as emphatic a signal as is possible that it kind of wanted to get off of this train. And the question was how far Democrats could -- could avoid losses on the other side, but that was real all the way through; and it is pretty emphatic today.

CAMEROTA: Thank you.

BROWNSTEIN: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: Thank you all very much.

BROWNSTEIN: Now to some breaking news. Several wildfires are raging out of control in Southern California. Hundreds of homes have burned down. Thousands of people are being told to evacuate to safety.

CNN's Scott McLean is live in Agora Hills, California, with all of the breaking details. What's happening, Scott?

SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Alisyn, well, we are not, certainly, in a remote area. We are in suburban Los Angeles where there are neighborhoods here and people who have had to evacuate.

And consider this. This fire, the Woolsey Fire that we're looking at, it has been burning for barely more than 12 hours from a single spark to really what is now a raging 8,000-acre wildfire in what seems like the blink of an eye.

You can see there are flames here on the side of this hill, that you can see the embers that go, really, all the way up this hillside. The flames sort of -- the wind is sort of whipping up, which is fueling these flames.

And every so often, you'll see these big flare-ups, because we're talking wind gusts of 50 to 70 miles per hour. There, you can see one right there. You can see just how intense this -- these flames get.

There are other parts of this fire that are currently burning homes as we speak. The problem here is not the flames for people. Obviously, this big road here in this neighborhood is going to serve as a pretty reliable fire break for these folks. They're more worried about the embers. A lot of people in this neighborhood, some have gone -- there are 30,000 people that are under evacuation orders.

Some people are heeding the warnings. Others are not. They're simply spraying down their homes, trying to make sure that those embers don't ignite them if they -- if they land on their roof. But they are packed up, and they are ready to go -- John.

BERMAN: Scott McLean out there. Please stay safe, my friend, because those aerials we are looking at with those fires raging and moving so fast is very dangerous.

CAMEROTA: What a challenge for everyone out there. Oh, my goodness. Look at this. BERMAN: And you know, one more thing. The fires are happening just miles away from another tragedy. We're learning more about the 12 people murdered by a gunman inside a bar. The heroic actions that may have saved lives. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:20:33] BERMAN: This morning we are mourning the victims of the victims in the shootings in Thousand Oaks, California. Twelve people murdered for no reason, for nothing. Gunned down. Twelve lives lost.

And this morning, there is new information about the shooter as investigators look at his past.

Our Nick Watt live in Ventura County with the very latest -- Nick.

NICK WATT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, we are also learning the names of some of those 12 victims, among them a Marine Corps veteran, also a sheriff's deputy who spent 29 years with the department, was planning to retire in the next year or two. And of course, a number of young students just in their early 20s.

And as you mentioned, we are learning more about those terrible few minutes when this country music evening turned so quickly to carnage.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WATT (voice-over): Chilling video capturing the horror inside the Borderline Bar and Grill. A cacophony of gunshots.

(GUNFIRE)

WATT: Then silence. Those who could, quickly escaping.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Guys, run! He's coming out of this door.

WATT: Chaos and confusion unfolding at a college country night at the bar.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've got multiple people down. We need a lot of ambulances.

WATT: Police say 12 people killed at the hands of a lone gunman, former U.S. Marine Ian David Long.

GEOFF DEAN, SHERIFF, VENTURA COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE: We have no idea what the motive was at this point.

WATT: A law enforcement source tells CNN the 28-year-old gunman is believed to have written this Facebook post around the time of the shooting: "I hope people call me insane. Wouldn't that just be a big ball of irony? Yes, I'm insane, but the only thing you people do after these shootings is 'hopes and prayers' or 'keep you in my thoughts' -- every time -- and wonder why these keep happening."

Authorities say Long used a legally-purchased .45-caliber Glock handgun with an illegal high-capacity magazine.

(MUSIC: "AMAZING GRACE")

WATT: Overnight hundreds coming together in the Thousand Oaks community, honoring the 12 lives lost. Among the victims, Ventura County Sergeant Ron Helus, the first officer to rush into the bar with the gunman on a killing spree.

GARO KUREDJIAN, CAPTAIN, VENTURA COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE: Sergeant Helus saved people's lives. He went in. He diverted the suspect's attention. He engaged and -- and that saved others.

WATT: Residents lining the streets Thursday as a hearse took the slain officer to a funeral home. Alaina Housley was also killed in the attack. She was a student at Pepperdine University, described by her family as an incredible young woman with so much life ahead of her.

Twenty-one-year-old Noel Sparks was an active volunteer at her church. A friend says, "She was genuinely caring and loved serving people.

Dan Manrique was a Marine Corps veteran who deployed to the Middle East in 2007.

Recent college graduate Justin Meek was planning to join the U.S. Coast Guard. Friends say he died protecting others.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He used his body as a shield, and he gave his life so others could live.

WATT: Twenty-two-year-old Cody Coffman also credited with helping to save lives.

SARAH ROSE DESEON, CODY COFFMAN'S FRIEND: I fell to the floor and I hid behind him, and I just, like, tucked myself in his -- in his back. Honestly, he's such a hero.

WATT: Cody's father, Jason Coffman, spoke with NEW DAY yesterday morning as he waited in anguish to hear from his missing son, tracking his phone.

JASON COFFMAN, FATHER OF CODY COFFMAN: His phone is at the club. It's not moving. That's the problem. WATT: After that interview, he learned that Cody was among the victims.

COFFMAN: Only him -- I know -- how much I love, how much I miss him. Oh, God -- oh, son, I love you so much. Oh, heavenly father, just please --

(END VIDEOTAPE)

watt: Now, FBI agents have been searching the alleged shooter's vehicle and his car and his home, but still no motive. And we showed that chilling Facebook post to one of the shooter's friends, and that friend told us, "That does not sound like Ian to me at all. I don't know what was going through his head when he wrote this."

[06:25:11] Bottom line, John, as you said, 12 people dead for no reason.

John and Alisyn, back to you.

BERMAN: Nick, thank you so much for your reporting out there. You've been there nonstop since it broke.

And Alisyn, you had a chance to talk to Jason Coffman, the father of Cody Coffman. It was just before he found out that his son was killed.

CAMEROTA: And I mean, obviously, we were hoping against hope that Cody was in the hospital and injured and couldn't get a hold of his family somehow. But the fact pattern when he said that the phone, that he had tracked his son's phone and it was still in the club and it wasn't moving, that sounded like very grim fact. And then just moments -- we understood minutes later he was told that Cody was among the dead. It was really, really heartbreaking.

BERMAN: I just want Jason to know we're sending you our love, and we feel for you. We know how hard -- no, we can't know how hard this last 24 hours has been. But --

CAMEROTA: For all of the parents, all -- he wasn't alone at that teen center. They had gathered with the parents who didn't know where their kids were at that hour into a center, and he told us the numbers were kind of chilling yesterday when he told us there were 20 parents there. We knew there were ten victims still missing, and they all found out shortly after that.

BERMAN: Right, joining us now, James Gagliano and Phil Mudd. Want to talk about the investigation for a moment, gentlemen.

Phil, first to you, because it has turned out, we have learned there were points of contact between law enforcement and this killer beforehand. People called to his house, concerned about his mental well-being. He had a mental health check. He was cleared, more or less. He was allowed to carry his gun.

But there will be questions, Phil, about whether someone should have stepped in, something should have been done to keep this man from whether it being near a gun or being out in society.

PHIL MUDD, CNN COUNTERTERRORISM ANALYST: I think everybody who asked those questions needs to flip the scenario. Whenever we deal with one of these, and this is not dissimilar to what we saw in Broward County, John. Instead of looking at the individual case, you have to go down and say there are 300 million plus Americans. There are thousands of police departments in this country. There are hundreds of thousands or more engagements on domestic disturbances.

So let's lay out a scenario. Those hundreds of thousands of engagements. How much time, how much effort, how much capability can police and mental health officials put into assessing every single person who says, you know, "I have some mental health problems."

I think there were obviously signals. But to anticipate that, in hundreds of thousands of domestic engagements or more every year, that you can be perfect in assessing who's going to go off, I don't think that's possible.

CAMEROTA: Well, I'm not asking for perfection. But I think that we can do a little bit better, Phil. And here's why.

When they were called to his house in the last time, he was described as irate and irrational. OK, I'm sure that that happens all the time police are called there.

But his mother is described as living in fear. OK? And there is in California, which has very strict gun laws, a red flag law where a relative can, I guess, alert authorities; and they can lose their access to possess -- they can keep somebody from possessing a gun. OK? That's what a red flag law does. Those are red flags.

Irate, irrational. Your mother living in fear of what you're going to do. What -- what else is a red flag law for, Phil?

MUDD: Well, time out. Hold on a second here, Alisyn. Let's go through a couple of pieces of this. No. 1, let's assume the parent decides that they're going to refer a child, not just somebody who's a neighbor, but a child to law enforcement in a way that's going to change that child's life. Even if this person is 28 years old, that's still the mom's child.

Let's step forward another few steps. Let's say that happens and a year later, six months later or three months later, that individual moves back into the parents' house. How long are you going to -- how long are you going to restrain that individual?

CAMEROTA: I'm saying just take the gun away. That's all I'm saying, Phil. Take the gun away. Take the gun possession away from that person with the red flag law.

MUDD: OK, as long as you accept that every time somebody says somebody who's in my household has some mental health issues, I'm going to take a weapon away, the pendulum's going to swing -- I'm not saying that's wrong. I would approve that, Alisyn. I'm just going to say a bunch of people are going to say, so for hundreds of thousands of people across America, your litmus test is somebody the family says they've got a problem.

CAMEROTA: Listen, I mean, I hear you but this is what keeps us in this vicious cycle of feeling so intractable. Here we are yet again. We have these same conversations. I mean, it's the gunman's Facebook post that has the chilling clarity of people will -- once again, "The only think you people ever do after these shootings is 'hopes and prayers' or 'keep you in my thoughts' every time and wonder why these keep happening."

JAMES GAGLIANO, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: There's absolutely a mental health component here, Alisyn. And to your point, in April, police did visit the house to determine he was acting irate and irrational. But they brought in a crisis intervention team, the mental health professional, and they established that he was not a threat to himself or to others. Here's a staggering fact. This guy was a combat veteran. Seventeen veterans a day take their own life. Now, in most instances, it doesn't involve gunning down 12 innocent people.