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New Video Shows Inside Of Club During Attack; Gun Store Says Shooter Wanted Bulk Ammo And Hard Armor; Senate To Vote On Gun Control Measures Next Week; FBI Questions Officials At Shooter's Mosque; McCain Claims Misspeaking; Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired June 17, 2016 - 13:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, I'm Wolf Blitzer. Thanks very much for joining us.

We start with new developments in the investigation of the Orlando shooting, including new questions about the FBI and what they may have known weeks before the attack. This newly released cell phone is from inside one of the bathrooms at the nightclub. The man who took this video was shot twice. He says a group of nearly 20 people were huddled in there for several hours, sitting in puddles of blood.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIGUEL LEIVA: And we just kept telling each other, hey, look, we made it this far. He hasn't killed us. There's a purpose for us. We're going to make it. We just have to stay strong and we can't give up. And all of the people who were hurt, we were just trying to stop the bleeding and keep them calm and comfort them as much as we could. We have to stick together as a community and be strong and move on.

And it's hard to even fathom how people are dealing with this and families are dealing with this with the loss of their love -- their loved ones. But, we have to be strong and we have to -- we must remain strong so we can continue to make a recovery. And it's a long road. But slowly, but surely, I believe we can all make it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: We also have new pictures of President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden meeting with the families of the victims during their stop in Orlando yesterday. Today, some of those families are saying their final good-byes to their loved ones, that includes the family of Anthony Luis Disla who was laid to rest this morning. He came to Florida from Puerto Rico three years ago to pursue his dream of being a dancer and a choreographer. He was just 25 years old.

Right now, there are nearly two dozen survivors still in the hospital with six listed as being in critical condition at the Orlando Regional Medical Center.

Let's talk now about the FBI and the investigation. Our Jessica Schneider is on the scene for us in Orlando, our Justice Correspondent Evan Perez is in Washington. Evan, we've from a gun store owner who says he actually told the FBI about the shooter trying to buy body armor and a bulk amount of -- a bulk amount of ammunition. What do we know about that?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, this is something that occurred about five weeks or so ago. And this is a store owner in Jensen Beach which is a town that's right next to Fort Pierce where the shooter lived. This is what he has now said. He says that he had some suspicions about this attempt to -- attempt to buy body armor but he didn't have a name. He didn't have any information about who this person was. It wasn't until after those shootings that he recognized that that was the person who was in his store.

We know that around that same time, the store called the FBI to report some suspicions about another group of men that they thought were Middle Easterners who had come in to buy some police gear. The FBI did come and investigated that. They found that those men were actually visiting law enforcement from a Middle Eastern country. And they were able to find that there was nothing suspicious about that visit. It was in closing that investigation that the FBI was told about this other suspicions.

Again, when they asked for it, there was no video. There was no vehicle descriptions. There was simply a report about a clean-cut man who had come in and sought to buy body armor and large amounts of ammunition. It -- there was really very much -- very not much the FBI could go on.

And, you know, to be clear, the FBI gets a lot of these reports. You know, they try to follow them up because they do want people to -- if they see something, they say something. Because one of these times, you know, it could turn into something. In this case, they just didn't have anything to go on -- Wolf.

BLITZER: There was no closed circuit video inside that store, was there?

PEREZ: There was but by the time the store was able to tell the FBI about this, there had been some days that had passed. So, there was no video that they had saved to show what -- who this person was, what this person looked like. They simply had a description. Again, they didn't have a vehicle or a license plate. There was no purchased record because there was never a transaction. The store, it turns out, does not sell body armor.

BLITZER: Stand by.

Jessica, we also heard about those text messages sent by the shooter's wife during the attack. What else is she now telling investigators?

JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, the FBI has been investigating and interviewing Noor Salman, the gunman's wife, since she left her home with them, with investigators, Monday night into Tuesday. And what we're now learning is that she exchanged several text messages with her husband during the time of the attack between 2:00 a.m. and 5:00 a.m. In fact, we're learning of a text message that came across at 4:00 a.m. where the gunman, Omar Mateen, actually texted her, saying, have you seen the news?

[13:05:06] We understand there were several text messages including several from her telling him that she loved him. She also tried to call him several times but there was no answer.

So, a lot of communication between them as this was all unfolding between 2:00 in the morning and 5:00 a.m. when he was in that bathroom, barricaded himself in. And when there was that standoff with police.

Also, this afternoon, we're learning from the city of Orlando that between 2:00 a.m. and 5:00 a.m., there were more than 600 emergency calls that came into dispatchers, including about 166 911 high- priority calls. So, a lot of volume, obviously, in the call center there -- Wolf.

BLITZER: All right, Jessica, stand by. Evan stand by as well.

To help all of us get a little bit better understanding of the sheer terror and panic during the Orlando nightclub shooting, as Jessica just reported, the exact number of calls that were coming into the police, 603. That is how many calls that Orlando police and fire received during the tragedy. By the way, 166 of those calls went directly to 911. It's unclear, at this time, just how many of those calls were specifically related to the nightclub shooting.

To talk more about what the families and the survivors are experiencing, I want to bring in Florida Senator Bill Nelson. He's a Democrat. Senator, you were with the president and the vice president yesterday in Orlando when they met with the families of the victims, when they met with survivors. What was it like?

SEN. BILL NELSON (D), FLORIDA: It was quite somber and emotional. The president and vice president met with one group with us present but with all the rest of the families, they met separately. We went in with the president and vice president to see all of the law enforcement and the only two in uniform were the sheriff and the police chief. The rest of them were all in business suits.

And, needless to say, these guys looked tough as nails. And I met the guy who his Kevlar helmet saved him because the bullet hit him right there. And the velocity of that bullet was such that it still gashed a one-inch scar in his forehead. But he's alive and well. Hallelujah.

BLITZER: What do you know, Senator, about the Orlando fund for the victims? How and when will those funds be distributed?

NELSON: Watch out for scams. I don't know any details. I'm going to visit a number of them this afternoon, but I don't have any details for you. But just be careful because this is where people come in and rip off folks. BLITZER: Good advice, indeed. Senator, as you know, as early as

Monday, the Senate is expected to start voting on some new gun control measures. One would stop those individuals on the terror watch list from actually being able to purchase firearms. I assume you'll be in Washington. You'll be voting. Tell us how you'll vote.

NELSON: Yes, and part of that measure is my bill as well. Wolf, there is something new here. As a result of that 15-hour filibuster, which I was in the early part, showing the bloody shoes of the trauma surgeon and reading what he posted, which was quite emotional, something has happened here. And I think we're going to get some action on this for the first time.

One thing is that you can't be on the terrorist watch list and go buy a gun. If you are on the terrorist watch list and you can't fly, well, should you be able to buy a gun? The other one is -- that wouldn't have caught Mateen. And that's what I filed and we got that lumped in there. And that is, if you've been on a terrorist watch list, you get to the gunshot -- you can buy the gun, but the FBI has to be notified, in case they want to call the person. That would have caught Mateen.

BLITZER: As you know, and you've been in the Senate for a long time, you will need 60, not 51, but you'll 60 votes to get this legislation passed in the Senate and move over to the House of Representatives. Do you think you will have the 60 votes? There are 43 Democrats, two independents. The Republicans are in the majority. You need 15 Republicans, assuming all the Democrats vote in favor of the legislation. Will the votes be there?

NELSON: It's going to be close. It depends whose bill that we're working off of. But I've already talked to Lindsey Graham. He's hitched up with Susan Collins. Then you add in a bunch of the Republicans that are fighting for their lives in their re-election. You know, we might just get to 60 to cut off the filibuster.

[13:10:12] BLITZER: We'll see what happens. Senator, thanks so much for joining us.

NELSON: Thanks, Wolf.

BLITZER: To find out how you can help the Orlando shooting victims, by the way, visit CNN.com/impact. That's the place to go for good advice.

Earlier this week, the FBI director, James Comey, said he didn't see anything the agency could have done better but that he would be taking an open look at their role. He's in Orlando today. Here with us right now is Mike Rogers. He's our National Security Analyst, former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. He's also a former FBI special agent. Mike, thanks very much for coming in.

MIKE ROGERS, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Thanks, Wolf.

BLITZER: So, the owner of the gun store says, with hind sight, he remembers this terrorist coming in weeks earlier asking about body armor, asking about bulk ammunition. But the video is gone. He never reported the name to the FBI. What, if anything, could have been done differently that maybe could have prevented this assault?

ROGERS: Boy, that one would be very difficult. So, there's an agent assigned in every office to take those kind of calls when they come in. And they'll get calls, everything from, there's a cat in my tree, which is clearly out of the FBI jurisdiction, to serious matters like this. And they're going to have to take down al that information, get it to an agent in a squad that can actually do the work.

If you get a tip that somebody tried to come in, a clean-cut person is the way they were described, try to buy a bullet proof vest and bulk ammunition, and that's all you have, that is a very tough lead. Given that you have -- there's now been reported some 10,000 of active cases on people that they do believe at least a thousand of them are really interested in committing an act of violence.

So, it's all about resources. They'll go through a triage, if you will, of that information, trying to determine, is it worth trying to find -- send five agents out trying to find out who this person is? It may be nothing. So, it's really hard to say that they were at fault. I think the system can be better so we can integrate lists that we have today which aren't done very well electronically. And we can make sure that those -- the gun owners know that if you can get identifying information, that significantly helps the FBI in their investigation.

BLITZER: Because, with hindsight, obviously, everyone is a lot smarter. We could have done this. We could have done that. If you had been the FBI agent receiving that call from the owner of that gun store -- and I don't have a name, he says. But, at the time, they did have video. They had surveillance video inside. Would you have asked that owner, show us the picture of this guy?

ROGERS: Eventually, you would have gotten there. So, even the agent taking the call is not likely the agent that would do the investigation. So, they do their report. They send it to the agent. So, that goes in a stack of a whole bunch of other ones just like it. All these reports coming in. So, that agent, again, has to do a triage. Would it be -- make sense to go out there? I bet they would have. It probably would have taken time to get out there. What they should have done is said, hold the video.

BLITZER: Right.

ROGERS: Just do us a favor, hold the video. Don't erase it. A lot of these things are on (INAUDIBLE.)

BLITZER: Because if they would have seen the picture, somebody might have said, hey, we investigated this guy, not once but twice.

ROGERS: Right.

BLITZER: Once for almost a year, he was repeatedly interrogated and questioned. So, eventually, they didn't have any conclusive evidence he was a terrorist or anything like that. But it could have -- it could have sparked someone's memory and forced a third investigation, if you will.

ROGERS: It could have done. It's -- it would be pretty tough to do even on that case because they would have had to get through all the other ones where I do have an identification. Someone who calls up and says, you know, person A is in their garage late at night and I've seen them loading cases of ammunition. I can identify the place, the location. That's something I can look at. This was so nebulous, really hard for them to get there. I do believe there could have been --

BLITZER: Because if someone would have been investigated for pledging allegiance to terror organizations, whether Hezbollah, whether Al Nusra, or Al Qaeda, or ISIS, had cleared, but then goes into a store and says, I need body armor and bulk ammunition, that could have triggered some sort of serious investigation.

ROGERS: Yes, absolutely. And if they would of had one little more piece of information, if they would have got his drivers or his license plate number and had that along with that report, that would have triggered -- that would have sent a whole bunch of bells and whistles off at the FBI. But, unfortunately, they didn't have that. Even the picture alone, you'd have to have the agent that did the investigation, which might not be the same person, look at that and make that determination. So, there's a lot of almosts in that investigation.

BLITZER: And, obviously, as they said, we're all a lot smarter with hindsight.

We're told that, today, FBI agents are questioning people at this terrorist mosque where he prayed. What kind of questions do you think they're asking?

ROGERS: Well, A, they're going to try to identify is -- was there was someone that radicalized, that helped him along in this process? Normally, these folks are looking for some kind of permission to do this through their mosque, through their imam, through somebody they know, through some religious cleric (ph), ISIS itself. And so, conversations would have happened.

So, they're looking for, was there someone there that was encouraging him along this path to radicalization? They'll look for that.

They're also looking for anyone else that might be in there. And remember, this mosque has had other trouble in the past, including someone who attended that mosque who went to Syria and blew himself up in a suicide bombing.

[13:15:14] That's the - that's pretty - there's not a lot - I don't believe in coincidence to that degree.

BLITZER: Yes.

ROGERS: So that means that there's something happening at that mosque that they need to investigate.

BLITZER: Because they're trying to figure out to make sure there's no one else that may have been radicalized there or online or wherever.

You have an important documentary series, a CNN original series that starts Sunday night, take a look at this, "Declassified," It's called "Untold Stories of American Spies." This is the first of eight one- hour documentaries. I've seen the first one. It is really amazing. Excellent work you and your team have done. I recommend it highly. Thanks very much, Mike, for doing it.

ROGERS: Thank you. Thanks for having us.

BLITZER: Mike Rogers. And, remember, watch the documentary "Unclassified" Sunday night, 10:00 p.m. Eastern, only here on CNN.

Coming up, Senator John McCain now backtracking after saying President Obama was directly responsible for the Orlando terror attack. The fallout, what he's saying now.

Plus, the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, he's renewing his praise for Donald Trump and Trump's foreign policies. The details, that's ahead.

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[13:20:08] BLITZER: Welcome back.

Senator John McCain is walking back some of his comments. Comments he made to reporters where he blamed the president for the Orlando terror attack. Here's exactly what Senator McCain said originally.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: Barack Obama is directly responsible for it, because when he pulled everybody out of Iraq, al Qaeda went to Syria, became ISIS, and ISIS is what it is today thanks to Barack Obama's failures, utter failures.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Within an hour after uttering those words, Senator McCain released this statement saying, in part, and let me quote, "I misspoke. I did not mean to imply that the president was personal responsible. I was referring to President Obama's national security decisions, not the president himself. As I have said, President Obama's decision to completely withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq in 2011 led to the rise of ISIL," end quote.

Let's dig in on all of this and a lot more. Joining us, our CNN political commentator and the Washington correspondent for "The New Yorker" magazine, Ryan Lizza, and national political reporter for Real Clear Politics, Rebecca Burg.

So what's the difference between blaming the president personally and blaming the president's policies?

RYAN LIZZA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I mean I think there's - there is some distinction. It's - you know, on the one - it sounded like he was literally blaming Obama, as if Obama had somehow inspired this person to do that. Look, I think it's a - it's fair to have a policy debate about whether pulling troops out of Iraq led to the rise of ISIS. I think where he - where the argument falls down a little bit is this sort of kind of tenuous connection with whatever vacuum was created by the U.S. pulling out of Iraq and the rise of ISIS in and this specific attack. The links between this terrorist and ISIS are - they're not that clear yet. So McCain has for a long time been making this argument.

BLITZER: Yes.

LIZZA: This is nothing new. I mean he's argued that the president's policies contributed to the rise of ISIS. And that's a legitimate debate to have.

BLITZER: He says that the U.S. should not have withdrawn all U.S. troops at the end of 2011. That was a major blunder and he and Lindsey Graham and others have made that point repeatedly.

He also is in a tough re-election campaign right now, Rebecca. He's facing a Republican challenger in a primary. Then he'll have a - assuming he wins that, he'll have a general election issue as well going forward. He's fighting right now for his political life.

REBECCA BERG, NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER, REAL CLEAR POLITICS: He really is. And that's not even an understatement. I was speaking with a member of Congress, a Republican member of Congress recently, who actually predicted - wouldn't say this on the record - but predicted on backgrounds that McCain could lose that race and Trump could win Arizona. So this is a state that usually is not in play for Republicans. Mitt Romney won Arizona by ten points over Barack Obama. So this is a Republican state. But Trump is putting states in play that usually wouldn't be in a very negative way for Republicans and that's why you see not only McCain fighting for his political life, but senators in play in Ohio, in New Hampshire, in Florida. Lots of completive races out there.

BLITZER: Speaking of Florida, David Jolly, who's a Republican, wanted Marco Rubio's seat. All of a sudden he announces he's dropping out of that contest. That clearly suggests that his good friend, Marco Rubio, might, after all, seek re-election.

LIZZA: Yes. I mean it looks like all the dominos are lining up for the Republican Party getting this guy out of the race and convincing Marco Rubio that he has to change his mind and actually run again, which, you know, Rubio has already lost Florida once, right? He lost Florida to Trump in the Republican primary. That's a pretty, you know, tough thing to have to deal with, losing your home state in a primary. And he's now - looks like he's going to - he's going to run for re- election in what is going to be another - a very, very tough year.

Remember, Marco Rubio won in 2010. Midterm election, big conservative backlash against President Obama. Much, much different electorate. He's now going to have to run in a presidential year, where Democrats have a little bit more of an advantage in a state like Florida. A lot of voters who he did not face in 2010 will be going to the polls for Hillary Clinton. And just like McCain's race, he's got to deal with the Trump factor. He's got to - he's got to deal with relying on those Trump Republicans, who didn't really like Rubio in the primaries. So a tough, tough race.

BLITZER: Bottom line, if he runs, it's going to be a tough re-election campaign, which we'll watch very closely.

What are you hearing - what's the latest about this effort to get some of those pledged Trump delegates at the Republican Convention, that's upcoming in July in Cleveland, unbound, have an open convention, if you will. There are still some Republicans who don't like Trump who are dreaming about that.

BERG: Well, certainly, I mean if you look at this latest polling, Trump nationally is now struggling to break the 40 percent threshold. It's really very low when you're talking about a two-candidate race for president. And so Republicans looking at this polling, thinking about the implications down the ballot, thinking about the fundraising problems that he is having and how that affects campaign coffers all across the country for Republicans, they're morose looking at the state of affairs right now, looking at the state of the Republican race.

[13:25:13] But at the same time, I mean, you still have to think about what the political implications would be if Republicans did go to the convention in Cleveland and unbind these delegates.

BLITZER: Yes.

BERG: They would be essentially voiding the results of their primary, telling Republican voters that they all - the millions of them made a mistake and they would still have Trump to deal with in the general election.

BLITZER: Yes.

BERG: He wouldn't just go away and stop talking. So -

LIZZA: Yes.

BLITZER: And as Donald Trump reminds us all, and happens to be exactly true -

BERG: Right.

BLITZER: He got more votes among Republican primary voters than any other Republican ever.

LIZZA: Yes.

BLITZER: There were millions and millions of Trump supporters out there. So if they came up with some rule to change it, open the convention, there would be a lot of angry Republicans.

LIZZA: I don't think you can do it in this day and age.

BERG: It would be very nasty (ph).

LIZZA: I mean people expect that the primary process is fully democratized now, even though the RNC rules allow for something like this, the expectation of most Republicans -

BLITZER: Yes.

LIZZA: And most voters is you just can't do it.

BLITZER: It would be wild (ph).

LIZZA: Things would have - I think things would have to get a lot worse for Trump if they - if they were - before they actually pull the trigger on this.

BERG: Or he could -

BLITZER: But -

BERG: Or he could be pressured to quit, perhaps, if it gets bad enough.

LIZZA: Yes, well as if - as if he would do that. He's no Jolly.

BERG: I think - I think that would be more likely than Republicans unbinding their delegates.

BLITZER: But there are plenty of Republicans who would like to see that happen, open that convention.

LIZZA: More every day.

BLITZER: We'll see what happens. All right, guys, thanks very much.

LIZZA: Thanks, Wolf.

BLITZER: Coming up, more than 50 U.S. State Department officials are criticizing the president's policy in Syria, urging U.S. military strikes against the regime of the Syrian president, Bashar al Assad. We have details and the fallout from a leaked memo. That's next.

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