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Gunman Searched Previous Mass Shooter Before Attack; Source: Trump Team Wasn't Told About Suspicious Person Reports; U.N.'s Top Court: Israel's Occupation Of West Bank & East Jerusalem Is Illegal; Blinken: "We're Inside The 10-Yard Line" On Hostage & Ceasefire Deal; "Political Violence: America's Bloody History" Airs Sunday At 10PM. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired July 19, 2024 - 14:30   ET

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

[14:30:00]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Flying around on these airplanes, like what kinds of ramifications are they having here? It's going to be an incredible domino effect.

Miles, great to have you. Thank you so much.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: You're welcome.

KEILAR: So next, former President Trump's team says they we're not told that law enforcement officials we're looking for a suspicious person in the minutes before Trump took the stage at his rally Saturday. We'll have more on this lapse ahead.

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BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Lawmakers briefed on the investigation into the assassination attempt against Donald Trump, say the FBI is using the shooters Internet trail to piece together a potential motive.

[14:35:00]

Sources say leading up to the attack, the gunman researched the 2021 high school mass shooting, info about President Trump's rally, the date and location of the Democratic National Convention, as well as information about President Biden and other notable political figures.

KEILAR: And this has led to emerging theory among investigators that the gunman was really looking just to carry out, more generally, a mass shooting and that the proximity and timing of Trump's rally offered the most ready opportunity for him.

Joining us now, we have CNN senior law enforcement analyst and former FBI deputy director, Andrew McCabe.

What do you think about this theory that's coming about?

ANDREW MCCABE, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: I think it's looking more and more reasonable and plausible. Some of the factors that are most significant to me or the lack of evidence of any sort of strong political belief or ideology.

And then paired with the fact that he's online investigating both former President Trump and the rally and also current President Biden.

So you have this what seems to be a persistent interest in these political locations and the presence of high -- high-profile protectees. But not one that aligns with one political ideology or the other.

Which gets you away from this idea that this was an act of political influence, influence and more, one of an aspirational mass shooter.

SANCHEZ: Yes, opportunism versus ideology, right?

MCCABE: That's right.

SANCHEZ: So when you also hear that the shooter was researching major depressive disorder and depressive crisis treatment, how does that fit into the picture?

MCCABE: So contrary to common belief, there isn't a great correlation between diagnosed mental health issues and problems and mass shooters.

There is a fairly strong correlation between mass shooters and the fact that they are -- they all seem to go through some sort of discernible crisis, personal crisis before the mass shooting.

And that can be exhibited in different ways. And this is one of the reasons why we've told people to look out for those folks in your community who may be like exceedingly angry, major changes of mood, and engaging what they call leakage, which is like actually talking about acts of violence before you do them.

So the research on depressive disorder and depressive crisis treatment could be exactly that. He may have been going through, very recently, a period of crisis and spiraling down this hole that ultimately led him to the rally on Saturday.

KEILAR: We're learning now about times perhaps that the Secret Service or law enforcement maybe should have engaged the would-be assassin before he was shooting.

And Trump's team says they we're never alerted that law enforcement was looking for a suspicious person in the minutes -- I think it was almost 20 minutes between when they lost track of him and when the shooting began.

They weren't told about this before Trump got on the stage. They clearly had about 10 minutes where they could have been. How big of a lapse is that?

MCCABE: Well, it's potentially a big lapse. But it's another one of these facts that we have to look at in context.

I mean, ideally, they should have let the Trump team know what was going on. But if they we're handling a whole panoply of calls from people on the ground who are saying, hey, I saw person do this, I saw another person in this place do something else, if they're working through a lot of that intel at once, you might not tell the team of every single call that you received.

So that's one that I think we need a little bit more information on.

SANCHEZ: Andrew McCabe, always great to get your expertise. Thanks so much.

MCCABE: Sure.

SANCHEZ: So this just into CNN from our colleague, Dana Bash. The Democratic Housemaker -- Democratic lawmaker, says that House Democratic leader, Hakeem Jeffries, and his team are not discouraging members from continuing to speak out against President Joe Biden's candidacy.

The source said it was their impression that's such statements have privately been encouraged.

KEILAR: The source also said that there's a fear the public piling on today -- we've seen Democratic lawmakers publicly -- that that could be making Biden mad, that it could potentially make him dig in even more.

[14:39:05]

Stay with us for all the updates on this. We'll be right back with more.

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[14:43:30]

KEILAR: In a landmark opinion, the U.N.'s top court says Israeli settlements in the occupied in the occupied West Bank and in East Jerusalem are illegal.

The International Court of Justice said that Israel's policies and practices, quote, "Amount to the annexation of large parts of the Palestinian territory."

SANCHEZ: Israel has built and steadily expanded settlements in the West Bank since 1967 after the Six-Day War.

And while the court's advisory opinion isn't legally binding, it does carry moral authority, and it helps to shape international law and support.

Joining us now live from Jerusalem is CNN's Jeremy Diamond.

Jeremy, how is Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responding to this?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, there's no question that there's a lot of outrage in the Israeli government and Israeli politics in reaction to this ruling by the International Court of Justice.

The Israeli prime minister saying that the Jewish people are, quote, "not conquerors in their own land, neither in Jerusalem nor in the West Bank."

And that's because this ruling by the International Court of Justice says that the Israeli's presence in both East Jerusalem as well as in the West Bank territories that we're captured by Israel during the 1967 war, that Israeli presence in those areas, Israeli settlements in those areas are illegal, according to this advisory ruling by the ICJ.

Now this is a non-binding ruling, but it is nonetheless the first time that the ICJ has issued a ruling on this situation.

And it is quite significant. It comes after the U.N. General Assembly, back in 2022, asked for the ICJ to deliver this ruling on the consequences of Israel's occupation of the West Bank.

[14:45:10]

This of course, has been the consensus in the international law community. But to have the ICJ now saying this officially does give quite a lot of credence, a lot of authority to those claims.

They're also calling on the Israeli government to, as soon as possible, effectively withdrawal from the West Bank and East Jerusalem, as well as remove Israeli settlers and Israeli settlements from that area.

KEILAR: And we're getting reaction now, new reaction from Secretary of State Blinken on ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas.

What are we learning here, Jeremy?

DIAMOND: Yes, some very optimistic comments from the secretary of state on the status of negotiations between Israel and Hamas for a ceasefire and hostage deal.

He says that they are now at the 10-yard line -- within, I should say, the 10-yard line and headed for the goal line. So you can follow that sports analogy there to get a sense that he believes that these two sides are, indeed, very close.

Now, we know that over the course of the last two weeks, Israel and Hamas basically have a framework agreement to try and build a final deal out of that framework agreement.

We've seen officials shuttling between Doha, Qatar, and Cairo, Egypt, but, so far, very little indication of exactly how close these two sides are.

And even with these statements by the secretary of state -- and we should note that American officials have been far more optimistic about the status of these talks than other parties that are involved.

But even with this statement by the secretary of state, we don't know exactly how close they are because even he knows that -- he doesn't want to be naive about this, that those last 10 yards are often the toughest to overcome.

We also know that the Israeli prime minister privately has been pulling back on some major Israeli concessions, notably of, for example, he -- he's been pulling back on the notion of a few different things in these negotiations that Israel had previously conceded.

And so now the question is, is the Israeli prime minister actually committed to this deal when he is heading to Washington this weekend, will be there next week?

And certainly this will be an opportunity for Secretary Blinken and President Biden to try and convince him to stick with this proposal and to try and get this ball across the goal line -- Brianna?

KEILAR: Jeremy Diamond, thank you for that report.

SANCHEZ: We have some breaking news. The number of congressional Democrats now calling on President Biden to step aside and end his reelection bid has grown to 31.

Congresswoman Betty McCollum, a veteran Democrat from Minnesota, is now calling on Joe Biden to step aside and for Kamala Harris to become the new Democratic standard bearer.

Stay with CNN. We'll discuss this and more in a moment.

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[14:52:04]

KEILAR: This Sunday, CNN's "THE WHOLE STORY" is returning with a powerful new episode that examines the history of political violence in America and, of course, in the wake of the recent assassination attempt against former President Trump.

We have CNN's Sara Sidner investigating our nations violent past, from the American Revolution to the unrest of the '60s to the politically motivated attack seen today.

SANCHEZ: Sara Sidner joins us now with more.

Sara, obviously, a timely look at political violence in U.S. history. What can we expect?

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Look, we all saw on Saturday what happened to former President Trump, the latest victim of political violence. If he had moved his head just slightly, he could have been killed.

Another man was killed at that rally. He was a father and a firefighter trying to protect his family. He died doing so. And then two others we're gravely injured.

When Americans say, this is -- this is not who we are as a nation, they may need to re-examine that when you look back at our history. Political assassination attempts have been part of American politics for about as long as the country has existed.

Four U.S. presidents have been killed as they we're doing the job of president. And many more dealt with countless attacks. And some of them we're almost killed in assassination attempts.

We took a look inward at our country and at ourselves and examined the history and motivations behind those it's political attacks. We delved into questions being asked by many Americans who have themselves experienced violence, is America a violent nation?

I had heartfelt conversations with the -- John F. Kennedy's family, with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s family, with President Ronald Reagan's family.

His daughter talked a lot about how she got through it, as did the Kennedys and the Kings. And also how the country responded differently after the assassination attempts or assassinations on their loved ones.

Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PATTI DAVIS, DAUGHTER OF FORMER PRESIDENT RONALD REAGAN: My most lasting memory was the shift of mood in this country and the people who, who came up to me, who, I'm sure we're not all supporters of my father, where politics was set aside and they we're simply coming to me with compassion and with humanity and with you know, awareness that I had almost lost my father.

SIDNER: What was your gut reaction when you saw that yet another assassin tried to take out, in this case, a former president?

DAVIS: Well, I mean, I did think of his -- about his family. And no matter what one thinks of Donald Trump and all of them, I mean, again, it's a human being, you know, and other human beings we're shot who we're attending that rally.

There was some of the attendees after Donald Trump was taken off the stage, turning around to the media and giving them the finger and you could read their lips and the words that we're coming out went right along with that middle finger.

[14:55:10]

I thought, really? Like this is your response? Someone just died in the stands behind you, two other people are critically wounded, the candidate, who you have come to listen to, who you obviously support, was just taken out with blood on the side of his head, and that's your reaction?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: We spoke to each of these families, the Kennedys, the Kings as well, and they're very concerned about where our country is now. They're very concerned about the rhetoric being used, not just by political leaders, but also by people, especially those on social media.

They are concerned that this is an inflection point, that we, as Americans, need to choose how we want our country to be, a violent one or a peaceful one -- Boris and Brianna?

KEILAR: Very important look, Sara, that you're taking. Thank you so much.

And be sure to tune in, an all-new episode of "THE WHOLE STORY" with Anderson Cooper, one whole hour, one whole topic. That will air Sunday at 10:00 p.m. Eastern and Pacific, only on CNN.

And we will be right back.

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