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U.S. Intel: Putin Had "Clear Preference" For Trump; Gunman Kills Five People At Fort Lauderdale Airport; Witness Describes Airport Shooting; Trump Downplays Intel On Russia; Democrats Vow To Push For Bipartisan Probe; Rules For Transporting Guns Through U.S. Airports; Winter Storm Nails Southeast U.S.; Killer Whale At Center Of "Blackfish" Dies; Michelle Obama Makes Emotional Farewell Speech; On A Date With Pepper The Robot. Aired 5-6a ET
Aired January 07, 2017 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[05:00:05] HANNAH VAUGHAN JONES, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, I'm Hannah Vaughan-Jones in London. Welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world.
We're following two major stories for you this hour. Cyber hacking of the U.S. presidential race, there's new information concluding that Vladimir Putin stumped for Trump behind the scene.
But, first, let's turn our attention to the U.S. State of Florida, where police are trying to figure out why an Iraqi war veteran open fire in an airport baggage plane area. Commercial flights are expected to resume soon at the Ft. Lauderdale Hollywood International Airport.
A gunman opened fire there on Friday afternoon killing five people. Witnesses say he shot at random inside the airport baggage claim. The FBI does have a suspect in custody, but they don't yet have motive poshly they aren't ruling out terrorism at this stage.
The suspect is Esteban Santiago. He's a war veteran and a former Alaska National Guard member. Investigations say he went to FBI offices himself in Alaska just a few months ago, claiming voices in his head were telling him to watch ISIS videos.
The FBI checked into his background. And Santiago had a voluntary mental health exam but he was discharged shortly afterwards. Investigators briefly looked into a theory that the gunman has been involved in an altercation on his flight, but airline official say no such argument happens. Mark Lea describes what he saw when the gun fly broke out in the terminal.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARK LEA, SHOOTING WITNESS: I watched every bit of it. He's on (inaudible) watch up and down there. I mean, I was trying, you know, first, I have to got my wife, after the first three round, and after I got my wife out, and got, you know, some of the couple of ladies that were kind of hit and so much coming over from trying to get out of there. I ran back in and was helping out a few other people trying to getting out there. And yet, he's not been seeing or watching where he is shooting and where is he going that I was just trying to battle line of fire to trying keep people safe on things. And once he finished shooting, he is now in reloaded couple times, that he was shooting a 9 millimeter about an 8 round mag in it.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: So, he was actually taking time to reload?
LEA: All at once, he has two extra mag for them. So, he did not have time to reloaded since the magazines were already loaded.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUGHAN JONES: Well, police say they have no reason to believe the suspected gunman would be a threat. Everything he did on route to Florida was perfectly legal. Boris Sanchez takes us through the attacked.
BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Just before 1:00 p.m., a gunman opens fire at Fort Lauderdale International Airport, chaos inside terminal 2. At least 13 people shot with multiple casualties. This cell phone video shows people lying on the floor in the baggage claim area.
The panic inside the terminal then spills outside as hundreds runs from the gunshots flooding on to the tarmac and out on to the runways. The injured quickly evacuated to a nearby hospital.
UNINDITIFIED FEMALE: Everybody started running out of terminal 1, out of around car place. Some lady was yelling for help down in the garage but I just ran.
SANCHEZ: CNN has learned the suspected shooter left Alaska earlier today bound for Fort Lauderdale. He declared a firearm when boarding, that weapon packed inside his luggage, it's on arrival after retrieving his bag. One source tells CNN, he went into a bathroom and came out firing.
Long after the shooting, hundreds continued to run through open areas around the airport. Some driven by false reports of additional shootings.
SCOTT ISRAEL, BROWARD SHERIFF: The shooter in custody. He's unharmed. No law enforcement fired any shots. The subject is being interviewed by a team of FBI agents in Broward Sheriff Office Homicide Detectives. At this point, it's looks like he acted alone.
SANCHEZ: Multiple sources identify the alleged shooter as Esteban Santiago. He is said to have been a member of the Alaska National Guard leaving the guard last July. Boris Sanchez, CNN Fort Lauderdale.
VAUGHAN JONES: CNN law enforcement analyst and retired FBI agent Steve Moore says Santiago should have been watched. He spoke to my colleague Richard Quest earlier on. STEVE MORE, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: For me, personally, the troubling aspect is that he had contact with law enforcement and mental health professionals and he got a pass somehow. The army also knew that there were problems there. I'm wondering how so many agencies saw him and didn't do anything about him that it's almost as if every agency knew a little bit about it, but nobody put the pieces of the puzzle together.
RICHARD QUEST, CNN ANCHOR: Yeah. Now, you shouldn't be surprised about that. That is the story of many, whether it's learned organized attacks.
[05:05:02] We saw that in Paris. We saw it in Brussels. We've seen it more recently in Turkey. Everybody knows a little bit of something. And nobody puts it together. A good -- another good example, of course, certainly was Germany where the truck went into the Christmas market.
MOORE: Right and I think that's going to be the revolution that happens in counter terrorism and even in threat management where there is -- and I mean we got all of the data in the world on social media. We don't have it in law enforcement. And there has to be some kind of synergy between all different phases of law enforcement and mental health to where you are all sharing information. And until we get to that point, we're not going to be able to predict these things.
VAUGHAN JONES: That was the retired FBI Agent Steve Moore speaking to Richard Quest.
Well the shooting in Fort Lauderdale could cause airlines to reconsider the policies on passengers traveling with weapons. Tom Foreman shows how the suspect made his way into the terminal.
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is the Fort Lauderdale Airport. And based on everything that we've heard about this alleged shooter's travel plans, after leaving Alaska, laying over in Minneapolis and heading here, this is where he would have arrived at terminal 2, specifically at gate five at this terminal. If you're moving closer, I can show you gate 5 is the one right back in this area.
And people who were on the planes say, they walk from here down to the baggage area would be about 50 or 60 yards, if he traveled the same way that you could expect somebody to normally do on a plane like this. It would be a path something like this through the area down to the escalator down here. And then down to the baggage area. The baggage area is all in here. That's where he would retrieve his bag with the gun in it. You see, witness accounts are correct.
And then, people talk about him going into a restroom. And there's one over there. There is also one right over here. If that were the case, he could have gone in, and come right back out firing roughly about 45 minutes after his plane officially touched down. We do know that some of the victims were actually right in this area. Now how about this business of taking a gun on a plane? As a civilian, you cannot do that on a carry-on bag. But it is perfectly legal for you to do it in a checked bag. Aside from local and state regulations, here's the TSAs or the federal regulations or you must tell the airline that you are carrying a fire arm. It must be unloaded. You can't have any shells in the chamber or in a clip that's loaded onto it. It must be in a locking hard shell case and only you can have the key and the combination. You can't have a whole lot of people with that information. And lastly, if you are carrying ammunition, that also has to be locked up. Many gun owners will actually lock it in with the gun, itself.
VAUGHAN JONES: Tom Foreman there. Now, Law Enforcement officials say that Esteban Santiago did show some red flags, but crucially, he was never considered dangerous. Our Pamela Brown looks at the suspected gunman's background.
PAMELA BROWN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We've learned the suspect in the shooting at that ft. Lauderdale Airport flew from Anchorage, Alaska to Fort Lauderdale on Friday. After the passengers deplaned, the suspect apparently got his checked bag from baggage claim and according to witnesses came back out of a restroom and started firing in the baggage claim area, killing five people. He then surrendered to authorities and was not injured.
And we've been looking back at his past. He was apparently in the Alaska National Guard and received a general discharge in August, 2016, which means there is had been issues. And were told by official, he had stopped showing up apparently at the National Guard. And then later he went to the FBI's office in Anchorage back in November and reported that his mind was being controlled U.S. Intelligence Agency and that voices were in his head pushing him to join ISIS. But he didn't wish to do harm to anyone.
And officials said he appeared agitated. His statements were in incoherent and disjointed. So the FBI looks into his background, saw he had been in the military. He had served in Iraq, but there was no apparent radicalization. And the determination was made that this should be handled by local authorities.
Local police took him to the hospital where he voluntarily checked himself in and underwent a mental health evaluation. Next thing we know, he boarded a plane to Florida and opened fire in the baggage claim, the motive, still under investigation. Pamela Brown, CNN, Washington.
VAUGHAN JONES: You are watching CNN NEWSROOM and still to come this hour on the program.
U.S. intelligence is certain that Russia tries to influence the U.S. Presidential election. But President-elect Donald Trump's reaction to that revelation hold them for many U.S. officials or others, were expecting.
Plus, Michelle Obama gets choked up in her final speech as first lady, the highlights a little later on in the show.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [05:12:37] VAUGHAN JONES: Welcome back. A declassified version of a report into Russian hacking concludes that Vladimir Putin himself was behind it. U.S Intelligence Agency said the Russian president ordered a multi-pronged campaign to hurt Hillary Clinton including Cyber attacks. But it says that Putin was motivated by an old grudge against Mrs. Clinton and a clear preference to Donald Trump.
Both the CIA and the FBI said they have high confidence in these conclusions. Well, the report also goes on to warn, "Moscow will apply lessons learned from its Putin-ordered campaign aimed at the U.S. presidential election to future influence efforts worldwide, including against U.S. allies and their election processes." Well, U.S. President Barack Obama said Moscow's interference proves that Vladimir Putin is not a friend to the United States.
BARACK OBAMA, (D) PRESIDENT OF UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: What is true is that the Russians intended to meddle and they meddled. Vladimir Putin is not on our team.
VAUGHAN JONES: Top U.S intelligence officials did brief Donald Trump on their findings on Friday in New York. And the President-elect praised them following the meeting. But, he insisted there is no evidence. The alleged hacking had any impact on his victory over Hillary Clinton or even that Russia was behind it. For more on that is CNN Sara Murray.
SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: After huddling with the nation's top intelligence officials, Donald Trump still isn't ready to point a finger at Russia for election-related cyber hacking. Hours after calling the U.S intelligence community assessment that Russia interfered in the election, a political witch hunt.
Trump was briefed by the heads of the NSA, CIA, FBI and the Director of National Intelligence. Trump complimented intelligence officials after the meeting calling it, constructive. But he still refused to acknowledge their determination that Russia directed the election related cyber attacks against political institutions, including the Democratic National Committee.
Trump insisting in a statement, "There was absolutely no effect on the outcome of the election including the fact that there was no tampering whatsoever with voting machines." Trump told the New York Times, "The only reason democrats care about the hacking is because they got beaten very badly in the election. They're very embarrassed about it."
[05:15:00] Its true there is no evidence with issues with voting machines, but the declassified intelligence report on Russia concludes with high confidence that Russian president Vladimir Putin ordered the efforts to influence the U.S. election. And it finds that those efforts were impart design to benefit Trump.
The report states, "We also assess Putin in the Russian government aspired to help President-elect Trump's election chances when possible by discrediting Secretary Clinton and publicly contrasting her unfavorably to him." It also says, "When it appeared to Moscow, that Secretary Clinton was likely to win the election, the Russian influence campaign begin to focus more on undermining her future presidency."
In a run up to the briefing, Trump and his advisers bristled that the idea that the focus on Russia was anything more that a political attack.
KELLYANNE CONWAY, TRUMP SENIOR ADVISER: There's out there who are trying to delegitimize his presidency, review the election results and you know it.
MURRAY: But Trump insists that he will vigorously battle cyber hacking once in office. After his intelligence briefing, Trump saying, "We need to aggressively combat and stop cyber attacks. I will appoint a team to give me a plan within 90 days of taking office." It's not just Trump's opponents in the Democratic Party that are raising the alarm about Russia's cyber hacking effort.
U.S. intelligence officials are openly expressing dismay.
JAMES CLAPPER, U.S. DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE: I don't think that we've ever encountered a more aggressive or direct campaign to interfere in our relation process, and we've seen in this case.
MURRAY: And Republican leaders in congress say there is little doubt about Russia's role in the cyber hacking.
PAUL RYAN, SPEAKER OF THE UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: Russia clearly tried to meddle in our political system. No two ways about it.
MURRAY: Still, Trump was apparently more concerned Friday with NBC's cyber hacking coverage than with Russia's efforts to interference in the U.S. election. Trump tweeting, "I am asking the Chairs of the House and Senate Committees to investigate top secret intelligence shared with NBC prior to me seeing it." The president-elect ending, he may be more willing to trust his own officials once he takes office.
Members of Trump's incoming team including his pick for National Security Adviser, Michael Flynn and his choice to lead the CIA. Congressman Mike Pompeo, accompanied him for him for the meeting. Trump, telling the New York Times, "We have great people going into those slots. I expect to have a very, very good relationship with them."
Now advisers and people familiar with Donald Trump's thinking tell me that privately, he doesn't dispute the notion of cyber hacking did occur. But, what we've seen with this any kind of conclusion, any kind of suggestion, that Russia was doing it to benefit Donald Trump's presidency or that they are in anyway responsible for his victory. One person I spoke with says intelligence officials couldn't have said anything to Donald Trump on Friday to convince more of that.
Sara Murray, CNN, New York. VAUGHAN JONES: Well, Donald Trump's insistence that Russia's alleged hacking has no effect on the election outcome is drawing as you might expect from sharp response from democrats. They say they'll push for a bipartisan independent commission to investigate Russia's role. His part, the top Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee told CNN, there is no question in his mind it did have an impact.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ADAM SCHIFF, TOP DEMOCRAT ON THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: With the fact that there was no evidence of tampering with machines doesn't mean that it didn't influence the outcome of the election as Donald Trump has said in his statement. In fact, quite the contrary, the daily dumping of damaging material to Secretary Clinton was enormously consequential in terms of her campaign. It was enormously beneficial to Donald Trump, and to ignore that or to say it didn't happen, I think is quite inaccurate. And all of this was, of course, enabled by the Russian cyber operations.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUGHAN JONES: Well, to the reaction now from Moscow, let's bring in CNN's Frederik Pleitgen. Fred, the Russian said "Prove it." The U.S. now have, haven't they?
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the Russians said, the U.S. hasn't. I mean the comments that we've been getting about this report that came out is that they say, at least the declassified version of it doesn't really put any hard evidence forward. And it's interesting, because one of Russia's most senior lawmakers, Alexey Pushkov was -- until very recently the head of the foreign relations committee of the Russian parliament, and he came out with a series of tweets. He's very active on Twitter, just like the U.S. president-elect, and one of those tweets, in part reads "All accusation against Russia are based on confidence and assumptions. The U.S. were just as confident of the WMD's Saddam Hussein had." of course, which are referring to 2003 and some of the failures in the U.S. Intelligence community that happened then.
And that's certainly some of the things that we are hearing not just from Russian lawmakers, also from Russian state run media outlets as well, where there is some frustration that some of the language that's been used in Washington not just in this most recent report, but of course also in the senate armed services committee hearings by people like John McCain and some of the others there on that panel.
[05:20:05] The Russians continuing their line that they had absolutely nothing to do with it, it's interesting, Hannah, because you always hear this new ounces in the Russian language or in their statement where they say, they don't deny that perhaps Russian's were involved in some of this, but they say, it wasn't official Russia of course, meaning any sort of Russian government agencies like for instance, the military elect for instance, of course the Intelligence Agencies, and first and foremost the Kremlin as well, Hannah.
VAUGHAN JONES: And of course, well, we don't yet know what Donald Trump as President might do. But this could really damage couldn't it, the relationship at least between him and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin.
PLEITGEN: Do you know -- yeah, you know, it seems as though both Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin are trying to do everything to make sure that nothing that happens in the run up to Donald Trump being inaugurated would damage their relations. I mean, we could see that really in some of the policies and some of the things and reactions that have happened recently where for instance, when the U.S. expelled 35 Russian diplomats.
And then also of course levied sanctions against, for instance, the intelligence service of the Russian military and the FSB as well that Putin basically had no response, but he didn't own for his part retaliate and also expel American diplomats. Then of course, you have you a lot of this very damaging information that's coming out of the U.S. Intelligence community accusing directly Russian government and that he's all the way up to Vladimir Putin of running this campaign, of trying to hack into the DNC, and then using it against Hillary Clinton.
And then, you have these tweets by Donald Trump where he really tries to tone that down. So, it seems as though, both of them are aiming for some sort of reset in Russian-American relations. Donald Trump has said it. He wants better relations with Russia. Vladimir Putin has officially said that. He wants better relationships with the United States, but of course on very different terms than you seen during the Obama administration.
It still seems this though, that is something that these two men are striving for. Of course right now, the Russians for their part, still waiting to see whether or not Donald Trump will follow up on a lot of things that he's been saying and tweeting once he actually takes office after January 20th, Hannah.
VAUGHAN JONES: For this finally, now the Russians have allegedly being called out, are we likely to see a dialing down of any plans, interference in other election, upcoming elections across Europe?
PLEITGEN: Yeah. It certainly is the fear of many in Europe that something similar could happen there, that there could to be campaigns, this information campaigns or there could be hacking or social engineering attacks going on, perhaps on political parties there as well. Obviously, one of the main things going to happen in 2017 is that there's going to be a very important election in Germany.
The Europe's biggest economy, of course, in many ways, a country that holds the European Union together, that's had so much trouble in the past couple of months, in years. And there, the Germans are saying that they do fear that there could be some sort of interference by Russian state and non-state actors. So, yeah the fear is there. But it's unclear whether or not the Russians will actually follow through on that, especially after a lot of the heat that they're taking right now from Washington over what allegedly went on over the U.S. election campaigns.
VAUGHAN JONES: Frederik Pleitgen lot to say in Moscow. Thank you.
Well, to his analysis of the U.S. election and Russian hacking scandal. I'm join now, by Jacob Parakilas, he is the assistant head of the U.S. and the Americas programme at the Chatham House.
Thanks Jac, thanks very much for coming in today. How difficult the position is Donald Trump now in giving the fact that he has questioned the reliability of his own intelligence report. Does he have now to acts against Putin?
JACOB PARAKILAS, ASSISTANT HEAD, U.S. & AMERICAS PROGRAMME AT CHATHAM HOUSE: He doesn't have to act necessarily. But, he has been put in a very difficult position. Because this report, at least the unclassified version that's available to the public doesn't really produce a lot of new information. But, it does put the imprimatur of the intelligence community on it.
And it means that Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill who are more hawkishly inclined towards Russia than he is, will have something they can point to and say, this is the high confident of the CIA and the high confident to the FBI, and the moderate confidence of the NSA that Russia actively worked to get you elected. And that actively work to meddle in American elections. And that's going to make any kind of hearing for particularly Rex Tillerson as state. The people will be charged with resetting Trump's relations with Russia. That will make him more difficult and will make him more difficult for Trump to try draw back functions.
VAUGHAN JONES: What do you make of this idea that the President Putin personally authorized this sort of hacking, that it's gone right to the very top there? What's at stake for Vladimir Putin as an individual?
PARAKILAS: I think, I mean, on the one hand, it's difficult from the unclassified report to verify whether that's true. I mean, I think we can say sort of just based on a general assumption, that he must have been involved. But it's very difficult based on what's been released to the public to draw that linkage. And of course, the intelligence community, if they're able to verify it, wouldn't be able to say so publicly because that would evolve, presumedly, their most sensitive sources and method.
[05:25:04] So, there is a stalemate there. And I think in a way Putin has gone with this strategy, because it doesn't present a risk for him. There's no really credible at the threat that the United States can make in response to this or that of any other country. And that's why he's adopted this strategy. That's why it's effective.
JONES: And I guess one of the reasons why Donald Trump has been flow to kind of prove all of his intelligence agencies reports is because it somehow perhaps, delegitimizes his own election win. But does it also perhaps imply that his team were complicit or aware of Russian hacking. And that's why they stood by and let Hillary Clinton lose while state took victory?
PARAKILAS: There is no indication again in the unclassified report of any U.S. person connected formally or informally to Trump's campaign who was aware of the hacking. That could be a very serious crime, if that were divulged. Presumedly, if there are evidence of that, there be more of the indication, but we don't -- we really don't know, because again, he went into the question of what are the sensitive sources and method? What can actually be divulged to the public? We don't know what the -- the only thing we know about the difference between the classified and unclassified versions is that, the conclusions were the same.
JONES: Finally, we have to talk about Russia's tactics going forward, if it has on this in one election process in the U.S., it could presumably deploy the same kind of tactics for German President elections, the Trump's elections coming up next year, for France as well.
PARAKILAS: I don't see any reason why they wouldn't? I mean, they've seen this -- they -- their objective may have been initially to just so discord and disunity in the United States. They -- I'm sure they take Trump being elected as a boon to their interests. Trump is certainly more friendly to Russian interest than was Hillary Clinton.
So I think they, you know, regardless of what their actual objective was, I think they see this is a stressful playbook, and they don't see that. And any particular reason not to do it in the future.
JONES: And I think so. Jacob Parakilas, many thanks for joining us on CNN NEWSROOM.
And when we come back after this break, more on our top story, the deadly shooting at the Florida airport, you will you hear from an eyewitness who was very close to the gunman as he opens fire and did the suspect have a legal right to carry a gun before the shooting?
Next, a look at U.S. security rules involving fire arms on planes and in airports as some information you may be surprised by.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[05:30:48] JONES: Hello, welcome back to our viewers in the United States and around the world. You are watching CCN NEWSROOM live from London. I'm Hannah Vaughan-Jones.
Back to the developing story now in Florida where a U.S. citizen and Iraqi war veteran is accused of killing five people at the Fort Lauderdale airport, and is in custody this hour. Authority says it is still too early to understand why the suspect, Esteban Santiago, opened fire on Friday. Officials say, he likely acted alone, but they are investigating every possible angle. Horror, fear, and confusion took charge inside that airport. Mark Lea, actually saw the gunman firing at people at close range. He described it all to Anderson Cooper.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LEA: So, we are just getting ready and going to leave. And as we going to heard it like a free round burst with the first bullet as firecrackers and then we have put a little positive, you know, there's kind of busy that the shooting started again. Well, at that point we all realized along with everyone else in the terminal, realize that it was not firecrackers, but it was somebody is shooting.
COOPER: How far away were you?
LEA: At that point in time, I was probably about 100 yards.
COOPER: Wow.
LEA: So, basically, at that point people started screaming, yelling, running. For those folks at the exit the doors, running in front took me those exits, trying to get out, there are people that are by the baggage carousel area, they were a little more, I would say, locked down. There were busy people, you know, hiding under the chairs, hiding, you know, close to the bag annual claimer, they're trying to block themselves to give a much protective as they can.
He just continued to walk up the aisle around the baggage claim carousels and he walking up and down. He just doing a point and shoot and just randomly shooting people, no rhyme, no reason, but not yelling anything. Well he was quiet at the mouth. He did not say anything, no emotion.
COOPER: So you could actually see the shooter while he was firing.
(CROSSTALK)
LEA: Yeah, I watch him. I actually, you know, I watched every bit of it. He's on (inaudible) watch up and down there. I mean, I was trying, you know, first, I have to got my wife, after the first three round, and after I got my wife out, and got, you know, some of the couple of ladies that were kind of hit and so much coming over from trying to get out of there. I ran back in and was helping out a few other people trying to getting out there. And yet, he's not been seeing or watching where he is shooting and where is he going that I was just trying to battle line of fire to trying keep people safe on things. And once he finished shooting, he is now in reloaded couple times, that he was shooting a 9 millimeter about an 8 round mag in it.
COOPER: So, he was taking time to reload?
LEA: All at once, he has two extra the mags for them, so he did not have time to reload it, since the magazines were already loaded.
COOPER: OK. And just to reiterate. You are saying he didn't say anything?
LEA: No, nothing.
COOPER: He seems that calm?
LEA: Calm -- he was calm as can be like he was just walking like nothing on going on, not a bit.
COOPER: Wow. LEA: So, no emotions, didn't say a word. Was not yelling or screaming, no nothing, then like I said, it didn't matter whether you were a male, female, white, black, child, it didn't matter. He just point and shot.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JONES: Well, another witness says the gunman shot at him at his laptop and backpack stopped the bullet likely saving his life. Randi Kaye has more on that terrifying time line of events.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE, PILOT: OK, they want us to hold for the tango line, I guess there's firing going off on the terminal.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE, AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER: We're currently having a building evacuation at Terminal 2.
RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's just before 1:00 p.m. when a gunman opens fire at Fort Lauderdale Hollywood International Airport. He is inside baggage claim at Terminal 2.
JOHN SCHLICHER, WITNESS: He came up right where we were and he was shooting people that were down on the ground too.
KAYE: He says, they tried to help the victims.
SCHLICHER: My wife took a sweater from my mother-in-law and applied break pressure to the gentleman that's right next to it. He had been shot in the head. All the people seemed to be shot in the head. We checked the man next to him, he had no vital signs. He was gone.
KAYE: Another witness tells CNN, his plane had just landed and some victims are his fellow passengers.
ERIK WHITESIDE, WITNESS: All of a sudden everybody started running. I grabbed our kids and we took off running down the ramp, told that the flight attendant let us off the tarmac. We ran into tarmac to hide behind some luggage carts. There's like a wars out in here.
KAYE: The airport is immediately shutdown. All passengers are evacuated.
[05:35:02] They run to the tarmac in search of safety. Authorities quickly zero in on the suspect.
ISRAEL: We have this shooter in custody. He's unharmed. No law enforcement fired any shots.
KAYE: Apprehended but not before these horrifying moments. By now, it's 1:43 p.m. and the Broward County Sheriff's Office tweets that multiple people are dead. Some lucky enough to be alive are left bleeding. Someone posted video of this passenger being treated on the sidewalk.
By 2:00 p.m., the official count is three dead. Minutes later, it's up to five dead, at least eight are injured. By mid-afternoon, Florida Senior Senator says, the TSA has told him who did this.
BILL NELSON, TOP DEMOCRAT ON THE SENATE COMMERCE COMMITTEE: The shooter is Esteban Santiago. He had a military I.D.. We don't know if that is an accurate I.D. or if it is a current I.D..
KAYE: But it's not over. About 2:20 p.m. word of more gunfire. Police are seen scrambling on the tarmac and near the parking garage. Once again, passengers spill onto the tarmac, others duck behind parked cars.
JUDAH FERNANDEZ, WITNESS: Everybody just sprinted outside again. And so, we just ran out again. I honestly don't know what's happening.
KAYE: At 2:33 p.m., a tweet from the TSA, active shooter at FL shelter in place. Airport closed. Sniper teams are put on alert.
ISRAEL: We have a variety of SWAT teams out and assets out, clearing the entire airport.
KAYE: No other gunman is found.
ISRAEL: At this point, it looks like he acted alone. There's no second active shooter.
KAYE: Officials won't say if the suspect was targeting someone on an arriving flight or if he's cooperating. Randi Kaye, CNN, New York.
JONES: Well, the shooting suspect, Esteban Santiago was legally carrying his gun before he began the shooting rampage. CNN's Rene Marsh has more on U.S. security rules involving guns on planes and in airports.
RENE MARSH, CNN'S AVIATION AND GOVERNMENT REGULATION CORRESPONDENT: Once he retrieved his checked luggage in baggage claim, sources say, Esteban Santiago went to the bathroom and emerged firing the gun. It is legal in some states to carry a gun and ammunition in your checked luggage only. TSA has very strict guidelines for this. And by all accounts, the shooter followed all of the procedures.
Airport police in Anchorage, Alaska, that's where he originated said that the suspect declared the gun before the flight and had it properly stored in his checked luggage. It was in the proper casing. Again, the TSA guidelines are extremely strict. The firearm must be unloaded. It has to be stored in a hard side case. That case has to be locked and only the passenger should have the key or the combination to that case.
And again, you have to declare that gun at the ticket counter. He followed all of those rules, but he took advantage of the fact that every airport in America has a soft target. Parts of the airport before you get to the security checkpoint, they're vulnerable. It's a known vulnerability and law enforcement officials say it's virtually impossible to get that as vulnerability to zero. Renee Marsh, CNN, Washington.
JONES: Still to come on CNN NEWSROOM this hour, Michelle Obama's emotional farewell speech after eight years in the White House, her wish for the future next. Plus, Meteorologist, Derek Van Dam has our weather forecast, including a looks and winter storms thundering parts all of the Southeast U.S.. Please stay with us.
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[05:42:18] JONES: A captive Orca whale that killed a SeaWorld trainer has died. The marine park in Orlando, Florida announced Tilikum died on Friday after suffering from serious health issues. The killer whale was the focus of the 2013 CNN documentary "Blackfish," which offered as disturbing look at how the animals lives in captivity.
A SeaWorld trainer died in 2010 after Tilikum drags her underwater in front of a shocked audience. But, Tilikum was also involved in two other deaths, the drowning of a trainer in Canada in 1991 and the death of a man whose body was found in the whale's tank in 1999. SeaWorld itself came under fire after the CNN documentary aired and it promised changed. It says the killer whales, it now has a down to 22 after Tilikum's death will be the last ones at their park.
Now a winter mix of snow, ice and rain is moving through parts of the Southeastern United States right now. In Georgia, leaders declared a state of emergency due to the severe weather's threat. The ice is forming from rain that fell in Atlanta in the last few hours and several inches of snow could be added onto that. But some people are making the most of it.
You can you see these two already having fun and playing in the icy snow. Meteorologist, Derek Van Dam has the latest from the International Weather Center Forester. How is it looking?
DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: All right, Hannah, we didn't get the snow that we had originally anticipated in Atlanta but we sure did get the ice. It started out a snow though from the sky. It fell as a frozen variety but there was just enough of a warm layer about 5000 feet in the atmosphere where it started to melt the snowflakes and when that reached the surface of the earth, which is hovering right around zero degrees celsius, 32 degrees Fahrenheit, it does exactly what you see behind me. You can see the icicles that formed on the traffic signals, on the trees.
This is a very dangerous situation and I guess that this is going to be a very rude awakening for people waking up this morning, anticipating snow, wanting to get out on the roadways. Of course, we can navigate a bit of snow but it's the ice that no four by four really can maintain on roadways, especially when you start to measure ice from a 10th of an inch to even upwards of a half an inch to just the Southwest of Atlanta Metro. This is a significant storm that will impact the region for the next several hours and it continues to move to the north and east.
The concerns that I have going forward is that this ice accumulation, especially on some of the tree limbs will be susceptible being broken and perhaps lying down on the cross of roadway, taking down power lines, causing electricity outages and there was already about 10,000 people without power just in the Atlanta Metro Region alone. [05:45:06] The storm system continues to diverse north and east. We get a full blown blizzard taking place in Norfolk and any time we see that shade of pink mixed in that means that freezing rain is potential as well.
A winter storm warnings for 13 states across the East Coast and that includes Boston, Massachusetts. The storm system is headed along in New England Coast. It will bring a rain-snow mix and a potential for upwards of a half a foot of snow. The other story we're watching, along the West Coast of United States another major winter weather storm, starting to set up for California, the potential for the greatest flood threat in 10 years for much of the Sacramento Valley.
Hannah, back to you.
JONES: Derek, thanks very much, indeed.
Now, the first lady of the United States gave her last official speech and there was not a dry eye left in the room. Michelle Obama was hosting top high school counselors from all across the United States. She got very emotional and some of her guests also are pretty emotional while the first lady was speaking. Our Michelle Kosinski has more.
MICHELLE OBAMA, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA FIRST LADY: As I end my time in the White House, I can think of no better message to send to our young people. Something that has carried us through every moment in this White House and every moment of our lives, and that is the power of hope. The belief that something better is always possible if you're willing to work for it and fight for it. It is our fundamental belief in the power of hope that has allowed us to rise above the voices of doubt and division of anger and fear that we have faced in our own lives and in the life of this country.
MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: In the crowded educators, advocate school counselors, the first lady took this opportunity to speak to America's youth about America's values. She didn't miss the chance to once again hit out at the kind of rhetoric she has said defined the Trump campaign.
OBAMA: If you or your parents are immigrants, know that you are part of a proud American tradition. And whether you are Muslim, Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Sikh, these religions are teaching our young people about justice, and compassion, and honesty. It's the art of our glorious diversity, a diversity of the faith and colors and creeds. That is not a threat to who we are, it makes us who we are.
KOSINSKI: Noting too that it comes with responsibility. Half of those young people she's speaking to didn't vote at all.
OBAMA: You cannot take your freedoms for granted. Empower yourselves with a good education then get out there and use that education to build a country worthy of your boundless promise. Lead by example with hope, never fear and know that I will be with you, rooting for you, and working to support you for the rest of my life. And I am so grateful to all of you for your passion and your dedication and all the hard work on behalf of our next generation. And I can't think of no better way to end my time as first lady than celebrating with all of you.
So I want to close the day by simply saying, thank you. Thank you for everything you do for our kids and for our country. Being your first lady has been the greatest honor of my life, and I hope I made you proud.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you.
JONES: That was the first lady Michelle Obama and the report there by Michelle Kosinski.
OK, coming up still on CNN NEWSROOM, we're taking you on a date with Pepper, a humanoid robot can dance at this solemn (ph) politics and even pour you a drink. What more could you possibly want. All the details, coming up next.
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[05:51:31] PATRICK SNELL, CNN WORLD SPORT ANCHOR: Hi there, I'm Patrick Snell with your CNN World Sport headline.
Starting off with the oldest cup competition of the morning, this is F.A. cup dates all the way back to the early '70s, but something just stinky new in the air on Friday nights for the home of West Ham United, City, may have dropped the fourth of their primary league, that they were right on the form at the home of the Hammers, easing to victory in the English Capital of the 2012 Olympic stadium for the first time.
And as their cup leagues are being played there, head Flavio always been looking their spot in round four. Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic flew to Saturday's file in Qatar, setting up early season clash between the two best players in the world just days before the forthcoming Australian open.
Murray sweeping aside Tomas Berdych to secure his 28th straight win. It was a little more difficult low for the serve who had to come from behind to hold off the world number 42, Fernando Verdasco in three sets.
They say, all good things must come to an end on Thursday night. So it will be a historic milestone miss for the NHL Blue Jackets after an incredible run of form, in which the team from Columbus, Ohio went on to a run of victories that reached an incredible 16 straight.
And fortunately, with a chance to tie the leagues, all time mark of 17. The Blue Jackets falling massively short on Thursday night thrashed on the road by the capitals 5/9.
That's a look at your CNN World Sport headlines. Thanks for joining us. I'm Patrick Snell.
VAUGHAN JONES: Now, we want to introduce you to Pepper. Pepper is a humanoid robot designed to respond to people's emotions, communicating through body movements and voice. And as our Samuel Burke found out, Pepper isn't a bad first date.
SAMUEL BURKE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm on a first date with the robot. Hey there, what's your name?
PEPPER, HUMANOID ROBOT: You can call me Pepper.
BURKE: Nice to meet you, Pepper.
PEPPER: Great to meet you.
BURKE: So, tell me a little bit about yourself?
PEPPER: My name is Pepper, I'm a humanoid robot and I'm 1.20 meters tall.
BURKE: Are you a boy or a girl?
PEPPER: Well, in the end, I'm just a robot.
BURKE: So, what do you do, Pepper?
PEPPER: I like to discuss things.
BURKE: Did you vote for Donald Trump or were you more of a Hillary Clinton supporter?
PEPPER: All right.
BURKE: That wasn't a very straight forward answer. Okay. So you don't want to discuss politics?
PEPPER: I don't like to talk about politics, it's a sensible subject.
BURKE: Especially for a first date. What type of music do you like?
PEPPER: Great. I love music. But don't be surprised if I dance on it. Is that okay with you?
BURKE: Oh, I love to dance.
PEPPER: Yeah, of course.
BURKE: You're a good dancer, Pepper.
PEPPER: Can I dance the locomotion?
BURKE: Not again.
PEPPER: Sorry, I don't get it. Let's talk about something else, how's it going?
BURKE: Things are going well, but I'm really tired.
PEPPER: Go take a nap.
BURKE: Not appropriate for a first date. Can you see me? PEPPER: I think I love what I see.
BURKE: Oh, wow. This date is going well.
PEPPER: Would you like to take a picture with me?
BURKE: Yeah, absolutely.
PEPPER: You are 700 feet trying to remove things and fix their problem.
BURKE: That's not the first time I've had an error on a date.
[05:55:04] So, the good thing about a date with the robot, if it doesn't go well, you can just replace it with another one. I have something I really need to ask you, what's the meaning of life?
PEPPER: 32, of course.
BURKE: Do you believe in God?
PEPPER: I don't know, but I believe in you.
BURKE: Alexa -- wrong robot. Sorry. I've been dating somebody else who also has artificial intelligence.
PEPPER: Intelligence is an appreciable quality. You look like you need a hug.
BURKE: Sorry, I called you the wrong name on our first date.
PEPPER: We're very flinch, weren't we?
BURKE: We're trying. It's really nice getting to know you. Could I buy you a drink?
PEPPER: Yeah, of course.
BURKE: Share (ph) them to me.
PEPPER: Well it's appropriate (ph) to say, well, your drink is now being prepared. I hope you will enjoy it.
BURKE: Cheers. Here's to you and me, Pepper. You want some? Wow, Pepper, I've got to say, that was a pretty good first date. We had some intelligent conversation. There were a couple of awkward moments, but maybe we can go for drinks again some time.
PEPPER: I'll be proud (ph).
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VAUGHAN JONES: Samuel Burke there, setting himself up for a second date with Pepper the robot who turns out, well she got quite a little chat and some moves as well. It would be nice.
Thanks so much for joining us. I'm Hannah Vaughan Jones in London. New days just ahead, you're with CNN, the world's news leader.
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