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CNN RIGHT NOW
Video Shows Ohio Shooter at Bar an Hour Before His Attack; FOX News' Carlson Falsely Claims White Supremacist Threat "A Hoax"; Ohio Officials Speak as Trump Visits after Mass Shooting. Aired 1:30-2p ET
Aired August 07, 2019 - 13:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[13:33:47] BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN HOST: Welcome back. You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin. We are here in Dayton.
Now a CNN exclusive. Security camera footage attained by CNN shows the gunman's movements in the hours leading up to the rampage.
The video shows the 24-year-old shooter walking into a bar, called Blind Bob's, just to my right, right here Saturday night with a woman who appears to be his sister, and this third person, who police are referring to as his friend wearing a T-shirt, shorts, sneakers.
No sign of the shooter. No sign of the mask and body armor that he later put on before murdering nine people.
With me now, CNN producer, Noah Gray.
It's so nice to have you on because I've seen you all week long with your laptop looking for these cameras up and down this stretch of town trying to get pictures and get your own timeline of the shooter.
How did you find this --
(CROSSTALK)
NOAH GRAY, CNN POLITICS PRODUCER: We're doing exactly what the police are doing right now. They're trying to re-create that night. They're trying to look at all the surveillance in the area. That's what we started doing as well.
A law enforcement source tells me that they're looking at about 100 different camera angles from neighboring businesses here. Most of these are small business owners. So we --
BALDWIN: And you went door-to-door?
[13:35:05] GRAY: Yes. I've been going door-to-door Sunday, trying to figure out where police say he parked his car. And we know where he ended up at the end of the night. We know the shooting, the first 911 call came in at around 1:06.
So I tried to backtrack that night and go down the alley and find different camera angles. Found a couple of different angles, spoke to law enforcement sources, spoke to people in the bars who told me that people in the bars, employees, believe that they saw the shooter in one of the bars on Friday night and on Saturday night. A law enforcement source also confirmed that to me.
So I went back to find that surveillance video.
BALDWIN: OK.
GRAY: And we find them in there.
BALDWIN: You see them?
GRAY: We see them, yes.
BALDWIN: The shot from Blind Bob's just over there, of the shooter, the sister and this third person.
GRAY: Yes.
BALDWIN: About an hour before --
GRAY: Yes.
BALDWIN: -- he murdered nine people?
GRAY: Exactly. We have some of that video.
OK. So we have a few different pieces of video. We see around 11:09 p.m., we see the three of them enter Blind Bob's bar. This is after law enforcement source tells me he parked around 11:00 at a neighboring lot.
Now this law enforcement source tells me that he paid for parking --
(CROSSTALK)
GRAY: -- they believe. We're still trying to obtain the receipts. We believe he paid for parking -- it's a $3 parking lot -- before he went into this bar with this companion in question.
By the way, we have shown all of this video to friends of acquaintances. Our teams have found friends and acquaintances of these people and they've confirmed, yes, this is the companion. This is the sister. This is the shooter.
So, law enforcement said they were in the bar that night and they started drinking, a law enforcement source tells me. And then we see them in there.
And then we also see the shooter, around 12:20-ish, leave the bar after he talks to the bouncer. You're looking at it right now. He kind of goes and speaks to the bouncer for a couple of seconds, just very casually. Then he walks outside. We don't know where he went at that point.
BALDWIN: That's the mystery, 40 minutes or so? GRAY: Forty minutes or so, we don't know where he went. Clearly, he
went somewhere and got his --
(CROSSTALK)
BALDWIN: Police don't know if it's the car or he had put the body armor somewhere and turns around?
GRAY: That's correct. That's correct.
I talked to the chief as he got off air with you. He told me that they're still trying to figure out that 40 minutes. They're trying to do what we're doing.
They're still collecting video evidence. They're going around, still trying to figure that out. That 40 minutes is a mystery.
Now, the sister and the companion, we see in video --
BALDWIN: We don't know whether he was in touch with either of them in that --
GRAY: Yes. Police say he was in touch with the companion. We don't know if he's in touch with the sister. We see the two of them walk out of the bar just minutes before the shooting.
BALDWIN: Before he murdered his own sister.
Noah Gray, thank you so much for finding that video.
GRAY: You bet.
BALDWIN: I appreciate it very much.
So, John Berman, let's send it to you in El Paso.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN HOST: Thanks so much, Brooke.
I want to tell you what's happening behind me right now. It's been a little bit of a scene.
First, let me tell you where I am. This is the memorial outside the Walmart that has crosses for each of the 22 victims here, candles and pictures of the victims here.
This scene that started five minutes ago, a couple of people, one of them wearing a MAGA hat, and another who was talking about immigration enforcement, they came in and they started talking and they were surrounded by people who didn't like what they had to say.
I don't know who started what. But there was a pretty loud confrontation. Cameras surrounded them. There was a lot of shouting. And then there was a chant, I think, by people who realized that this is not the place for that, not near those crosses. People chanting, "No more hate." Now we have someone with a loudspeaker reading Bible verses and it has
begun to disperse, as I said, in front of these crosses, in front of these memorials.
This is not the place where we've seen things like this, political demonstrations over last few days. Hopefully, it won't continue. But for a moment it got quite tense there, Brooke. We're going to keep our eye on that very closely.
Moments from now, hospital officials in Dayton, they'll speak live about the president's visit.
[13:39:16] Plus, more on our breaking news. The headquarters of "USA Today" has been evacuated over reports of a man with a weapon.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BERMAN: Welcome back to CNN's special live coverage. I'm John Berman, in El Paso.
The man suspected of gunning down nearly two dozen people behind me is believed to have written an online rant, worried about a, quote, "Hispanic invasion". That detail along makes this next clip all the more outrageous. Watch what FOX TV host and Trump whisperer, Tucker Carlson, says about the problem of white supremacy in America.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TUCKER CARLSON, FOX HOST, TUCKER CARLSON TONIGHT: The whole thing is a lie. If you were to assemble a list, a hierarchy of concerns, of problems this country faces, where would white supremacy be on this list? Right up there with Russia probably. It's actually not a real problem in America.
The combined membership of every white supremacist organization in this country would be able to fit inside a college football stadium.
White supremacy, that's the problem. This is a hoax. Just like the Russia hoax. It's a conspiracy theory, used to divide the country and keep a hold on power. That's exactly what's going on.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[13:45:05] BERMAN: Joining me now is CNN's resident fact-checker, Daniel Dale.
Daniel, there's a lot wrong with what Tucker Carlson just said, a litany of things. Offensive, for one thing. Beyond that, it's just not true. It's a lie.
You've dug through this. What have you found?
DANIEL DALE, CNN REPORTER: It's utter nonsense. White supremacist violence has been a problem in the United States since the founding of the United States and it's certainly a problem today. You would think this would be obvious in the wake of a massacre of 22 people in El Paso. But since it isn't, let look at what experts and law enforcement officers say.
Here is a clip from FBI director, Christopher Wray, a few weeks ago testifying in front of Congress.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHRISTOPHER WRAY, FBI DIRECTOR: Through the third quarter of this fiscal year, had about, give or take, 100 arrests in the international terrorism side.
But we've also had just about the same number -- again, don't quote me to the exact digit -- on the domestic terrorism side. A majority of the domestic terrorism cases that we've investigated are motivated by some version of what you might call white supremacist violence.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DALE: So Director Wray isn't saying that white supremacist violence is the only extremism problem but it certainly is an extremism problem.
I'll give you some other data. According to the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism, Cal State, San Bernardino, 17 of 22 extreme extremist homicides last year were committed by white supremacist.
According to the Anti-Defamation League, 18 of 34 homicides by domestic extremists in 2017.
According to the Government Accountability Office, 73 percent of all domestic extremist homicides between 9/11 and the end of 2016 were committed by far-right people. Not all of those far-right people were white supremacists but many of them were.
I printed out a brief list. White supremacist teens murdered an Ecuadorian immigrant. White supremacists killed two immigrations. Neo-Nazis murdered a Jewish college student. White supremacists murdered two immigrants in a home invasion. There are dozens of these.
The claim that white supremacy is not a problem at all -- you could argue there are bigger problems, but to say this is a hoax is utter, abject nonsense.
BERMAN: It's a lie and it dishonors the victims who were killed behind me and their families. Remember, Daniel, there's a company paying him to say that, advertisers paying to allow him to say that, guests who go on to be with him to hear him say that.
Daniel Dale, thanks very much.
I want to go straight to Dayton, Ohio, right now because there's a presser, a press conference at the hospital. These are the officials that just met with the president.
NAN WHALEY, (D), MAYOR OF DAYTON, OHIO: -- legislation that Lindsey Graham and Blumenthal are moving to make sure we can have a national red flag law.
And there's a piece in that legislation that would actually make Ohio and Texas be a pilot for cities to be able to go right to the federal courts. I reiterated that. And then the Senator was very eloquent about some of the things he had to say about that.
SEN. SHERROD BROWN (D-OH): Thank you.
The mayor has shown unbelievably good leadership. I was here Sunday, much of the afternoon with the mayor and the police chief and people from some of the first responders that saved lives. We saw some of them today, too. We met all the police officers who unquestionably saved the lives of dozens and dozens and dozens of people in the Oregon District.
Both of us spoke with the president right when he got off Air Force One. Both the mayor and I asked the president to call on Senator McConnell to bring the Senate back in session this week, to tell the Senate that he wants the background checks bill that has already passed the House and wants it on the floor.
I asked the president to promise to me and the American people he will sign that bill after he has spoken out in support of it with Senator McConnell. He has only said that we will get things done.
I later then asked the president to, I said, if you care about mental health, and many people who support the gun lobby consistently say, well, it's not guns, it's mental health. Well, it isn't mostly that, but too many guns in the street.
Then I said to him how important it is if he cares about mental health the important thing is not to repeal the Affordable Care Act and not to cut Medicaid. That is essential because Medicaid matters so much for people who struggle with mental health issues.
The last thing I said to the president before he left, we had just met with police officers in the hospital, in the conference room. And the president said we want to give honors and awards to these police officers.
I said, respectfully, Mr. President, in a group of 20, 30, 40 people, respectfully, the most important thing you can do for these police officers is take these assault weapons off the streets so they don't have to go up against those assault weapons when they need to take down a shooter, when they need to make an arrest.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE QUESTION)
[13:50:21] WHALEY: I think he heard me. I don't know if he will take action. I am hoping for the people of Dayton that he does. But, you know, both the Senator and I spoke very directly what we've been saying the whole time about the need for common-sense gun legislation.
(CROSSTALK) UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: -- Democrats and Republicans point the finger at each other. Don't both parties take blame in the inability to find a solution to the --
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: -- (INAUDIBLE) Republican and Democratic administrations.
BROWN: (INAUDIBLE). The NRA, the National Rifle Association, the gun lobby, gives millions of dollars to Republican candidates and spends millions and millions against Democrats like me that get an "F" from the NRA and stood up to the NRA. We can't get anything done in the Senate because Mitch McConnell and the president of the United States are in bed with the gun lobby.
There's a lot of things we could work on to make this work better. Guns are a big, big part of this. Certainly, mental health services matter. But the same people that say it's mental health, it's not too many guns on the street are the same people that try to cut Medicaid and the same people that try to repeal the Affordable Care Act.
So be honest about this. Guns is a big, big part of this and we have a whole political party in this country now -- with the exception of Congressman Turner, I would add now, who has been on the right side -- that's in bed with the gun lobby. You can call it gridlock but it's because of that special interest group.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Senator, both --
(CROSSTALK)
BROWN: (INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER Senator, both of you and the mayor have been critical of the president before. In fact, Senator, initially, you were not going to meet with the president. You changed your mind.
I'm wondering, a lot of the American people feel we've been here before. We've heard all this before. We have been in this situation in the past. Did either of you hear anything at all that would lead you to believe that this time something might be different?
BROWN: I changed my mind about coming. I didn't want in any way to encourage the president's racist talk and divisive talk. I came because Mayor Whaley asked me to come.
I came because I thought I would have a chance to talk to the president about mental health issues, not cutting Medicaid, and I'd get a chance to talk to the president about pushing, pressure on Senator McConnell to ban assault weapons, which Congress did for a 10- year period once, bipartisan.
And to get the president - because if the president tells the Congress, pass an assault weapon ban, if the president says, pass legislation for universal background checks, the Republican Congress and the Senate will move on it and the House will undoubtedly move on it.
(CROSSTALK)
BROWN: We can do that.
WHALEY: This, for us, in Dayton, we hope so. I'm not holding my breath. You know, too often we see complete inaction because we are waiting for time for people to forget nine people died in Dayton because of a gun that was -- that shouldn't be legal, frankly.
You know, we pointed out, I pointed out to the president that now governor, former Senator Mike DeWine, voted for the assault weapons ban. There was a time when this was bipartisan. ]
So we are looking for people in Congress to come together, because the majority of Americans agree, so this should be an action.
Do I think that we are going to see another mass shooting tomorrow or Friday? Probably, because Washington will not move.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: It seemed like somebody ready to take action or someone who said let it die down?
WHALEY: This is the first time I met the president, so I don't think my ability to look in his eyes is going to give you any insight on what he is thinking. Sorry?
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE QUESTION)
WHALEY: I'm sorry?
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE QUESTION)
WHALEY: No, no. I mean, the conversation at the airport was pretty brief. He was moving quickly towards us and it was like, you know, Mr. President, the city of Dayton and people of Dayton are looking forward to some action. That's that you can do to help us, is get some action on common-sense gun laws.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER Did you specifically talk about tone, his tone?
WHALEY: No.
BROWN: I'm very concerned about a president that divides in his rhetoric and places race in his rhetoric and is racist.
I remember President Bush, who I agreed with very little, wanted to privatize Social Security, he lied about the Iraq war. But after September 11th, President Bush went to a mosque and said Muslims didn't attack the United States, terrorists did.
[13:55:03] President Obama, after the two most awful shootings of all the shootings, Sandy Hook and Charleston, went to comfort them and talked healing, talked in sane healing language. I wish this president would do that.
We did not talk about that. We talked about Medicaid and getting Congress to move. I don't know the president intimately, but I will continue to call publicly on him on all of those.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE QUESTION)
BROWN: He was received well by the patients.
(CROSSTALK
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER What did he say?
BROWN: Oh, he was comforting. He did the right things. Melania did the right things. It's his job, in part, to comfort people. I'm glad he did it in those hospital rooms.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE QUESTION)
WHALEY: I think it was a good decision for him not to stop in the Oregon District.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Why is that?
WHALEY: Look, I mean, how many of you were here for the vigil? Any of you? OK. You saw some of the anger and agitation in our community about it. I think a lot of people that own businesses in that district aren't interested in the president being there.
A lot of the time his talk can be very divisive, and that's the last thing we need in Dayton.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE QUESTION)
WHALEY: I have been proud of it. I haven't paid a lot of attention to the response today. You might know something I don't know. If the Senator and I literally just got back from a hospital, we didn't have cellphone service and then came right here, so.
BROWN: I would say, as someone who doesn't live in Dayton and admires the mayor so much, I would say this community has been extraordinary, from the night it happened with the police to the rescue people that showed up from all of the suburbs, five from the city and another 15 from the suburbs that got there within 20 minutes. The people at the hospital were terrific.
People showed -- when the president of the United States came, they showed respect for the office. A number of them said they are not great admirers of him privately, but they clearly showed respect for the office because the president of the United States is in town.
That's one of the reasons I am here in addition to the mayor's request. I think this town has been extraordinary from the KKK rallies to the rally to what happened in the tornado in Trotwood and here and in Beaver Creek.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: What were you calling the Senator about what you did today and whether you work together on trying to --
(CROSSTALK)
BROWN: Yes, Rob and I didn't talk substance today about these issues. We talked for a moment about the work on pensions. It wasn't a time to spend a lot of time talking to each other. We have a good relationship. We differ on the issue of guns. We hope we can find some common ground on this, but so far we haven't. I'll leave it at that.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Mayor, what can you tell us about what you would tell people about the Oregon District in terms of suburbs, people being willing to go there after this, you know, the next few days of coverage dies down?
WHALEY: We want people to come. This is the local spot. These are local business owners with local restaurants. So, you know, we want people to come and really support the district. We will be having some activities over the coming months for people to come down in larger forums. You will hear more about that later.
The best thing you can do, number one, you can donate to the Dayton fund, the Dayton Foundation for those victims that have been hurt.
Number two, call the president and Senator Portman and thank Congressman Turner for action around guns. And also your state legislature, because the DeWine stuff is coming. So there will be movement there. So, you know, calling, calling, calling about I'm from Dayton and I want action on this will be very important.
Then, number three, you can support our local businesses in the Oregon District. Those are three things people can do easily.
BROWN: The Oregon District, as you all know, far and wide is known for maybe almost any place in the state a bunch of individual locally- owned businesses. Not big chains and all that.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Do you have plans to meet with the family?
WHALEY: No. You know, they are a victim family, too, because of Megan. We have victim advocates for every single family. They know very well if they want to reach out to us, we are there in a heartbeat. We know how tough it is for families, so we are giving them the space. I plan on going to the visitations in the coming weeks.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE QUESTION)
WHALEY: I can't comment on it because I haven't seen it.
One more question?
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Senator, you were calling on Mitch McConnell to -- since Sunday. Any progress on that front? With Corbin saying there's consensus on the issue of expanded background checks, are you confident there --
(CROSSTALK)
[13:59:57] BROWN: I have said repeatedly soon after I called Nan and decided to come to Dayton right away and went on a national show and called McConnell to do that. I talked to Senator Schumer since then.
