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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Terror in Orlando; Trump Renews Call for Ban on Muslims. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired June 14, 2016 - 04:00   ET

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

[04:00:21] CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: New investigation into the Orlando gay club massacre, 49 people killed, 53 injured. New stories of survival as we learn new information this morning about the killer, from his online radicalization, to why -- why he targeted that particular club. Patrons telling CNN they have seen him there many times before. Was he secretly gay?

Welcome to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans in New York.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: I'm John Berman, live in Orlando. It is Tuesday, June 14th.

We want to welcome our viewers here in the United States and all around the world. Behind me, still very much a crime scene in Orlando. You can see officers still manning a very, very large area in front as they continue to go through that building, searching for clues, trying to piece together this investigation.

And there is new information, breaking news on how the gunman planned to carry out his attack that killed 49 people, injured 53. Regular patrons of Pulse tell CNN and "The Orlando Sentinel", that they had seen the gunman there several times before, many times, even regularly. It's still unclear whether he was maybe casing a target or if he was there for a personal reasons.

The people here in the city, in Orlando, deep mourning right now. Also a deep sense of solidarity. Everywhere you go, there are signs on every store, every restaurant, expressing solidarity. There was this vigil overnight. Just huge vigil with people turning out to pay their respects and just be together, which I think is what everyone wanted to do in the city, have a sense of community, which is in some ways is closer than ever. And all around the country, you saw vigils like this.

Again, as we said, the investigation is exposing new details of the attack, including information about what the attacker was doing in the days and weeks before the event. Perhaps again how he planned it.

I'm joined now by CNN's Boris Sanchez here in Orlando, who's been following this aspect of the story.

Boris, what are we learning? BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: What we're learning as we hear more

details about this, that this was clearly premeditated. The type of weapons that he had, what he was planning to do and the training that he had beforehand. It's obvious that he had some kind of training with these weapons.

He had Sig Sauer AR-15 assault style rifle. He also had .38 caliber in the van that was discovered. And he also used a Glock .9 millimeter. These are fairly common weapons. He bought them about two weeks before the attack.

We also know that he tried to buy body armor beforehand, and he was denied being able to buy that. It would have been potentially much worse if he had been able to survive some of the bullets that police shot towards him as he tried to get out of that hole at the club. We also heard from survivors describing his actions inside.

I want to play that for you now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)

ORLANDO NIGHTCLUB SURVIVOR: I know friends that actually, their bodies were dead as well. It's just a senseless act of violence. A true face of evil.

ORLANDO NIGHTCLUB SURVIVOR: We were in a stall. I was in a stall, the handicap part. So you have the first part of the bathroom, which is the entrance, and the urinals, the sink, and then you have the big handicap, and that's where I was at. Then we started hearing pop, pop, pop, pop. And me and my best friend went inside the stall.

ORLANDO NIGHTCLUB SURVIVOR: Once he shot him, he laughed.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: The gunman laughed?

ORLANDO NIGHTCLUB SURVIVOR: Yes. And that's something that's imprinted in my head for the rest of my life. I've literally been in the hospital for two days trying to sleep. And one of the first things I hear when I close my eyes, guns, bullets hitting the floor and just that laugh. It's like a villain in a movie.

(END VIDEO CLIPS)

SANCHEZ: Terrifying moments, but you can get the sense that whether he was there for personal reasons or he was there to stake the place out, he obviously was very familiar with the layout. He knew where to hide when those additional officers went in to try to stop him. So, he knew where to go.

He had been training with these firearms. He had been looking at the layout of the club. He'd also tried to buy body armor. So, you know that he obviously was planning this out for some time.

BERMAN: And, Boris, we're getting new information about where he was during the day or days leading up to this attack.

SANCHEZ: Right. It's an area known as Disney Springs. It used to be called Downtown Disney.

On family vacations, I went there a bunch of times as a kid. It's an area with businesses and restaurants designed for families.

[04:05:03] And using a cellphone tower data, officials were able to figure out that he was there Saturday, just a few hours before the shooting, by himself. Obviously, they're going to want to interview anyone who was there to figure out if they saw him and what his demeanor was like --

BERMAN: Sure.

SANCHEZ: -- as they try to flush out these timelines.

BERMAN: All right, Boris. New information. Great reporting. Thanks for being with us this morning.

Killer's family members, they are cooperating with the investigation. They are offering information about his action in the days and weeks before the attack. Also, we're learning more about claims that he had visited as Boris said Pulse many times before, patrons tell CNN that he'd been coming for as long as three years before the massacre.

There are also new details about the gunman's radicalization. Some information came from the Oval Office Monday as president confirmed the attack was homegrown terrorism. The president stated he believed the attack was homegrown terrorism. He said there is no evidence that any foreign group had directed his actions.

Let's get more on the investigation now from CNN's Pamela Brown.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAMELA BROWN, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning, John and Christine.

We've learned that investigators have been talking with the wife of the gunman, and she has been giving helpful insight into where the gunman visited. The places he went to prior to the attack, and investigators are using that information to piece together a timeline of his movements, leading up to that mass shooting.

According to "The Orlando Sentinel", four patrons who were regular at this club said that they had recognized him and that he had gone multiple times prior to that shooting. So investigators are trying to figure out whether he was doing operational, preoperational surveillance or if there was another reason why he was at that club.

According to the FBI director, James Comey, he had been consuming propaganda online from terrorist groups, and that is in part why he was radicalized. In fact, my sources tell me that he was taking in a lot of ISIS propaganda, including propaganda from other terrorist groups.

Back in 2013, the FBI looked into him based on some comments he made to co-workers that he had associations with Hezbollah, and his family was associated with al Qaeda. At the time, the FBI looked into it and interviewed him twice, and he said he did make those comments but he did it because he was being taunted by his co-workers for being Muslim.

Ultimately, the FBI closed that investigation. He was taken off a watch list at that time the FBI interviewed him again the next year. But he was not the subject of that investigation and found that he didn't have any terrorist ties then. Still a lot to learn, more than 100 leads have been looked so far, and the investigation still very active -- John and Christine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN: All right. Our thanks to Pamela Brown.

Again, one of things they're doing right now is poring over the electronic devices that this killer used. Sources tell CNN there were searches for jihadist propaganda, searches for ISIS beheading videos, searches for videos for Anwar al Awlaki. He is the Yemeni cleric that the United States killed with a drone operation, someone who's been connected to a lot of terrorist operations.

And one U.S. official tells CNN he consumed a hell of a lot of jihadist propaganda online. So, that gives you a sense of what they're looking at in that part of the investigation.

Back here in Orlando, not only have Pulse regulars told CNN and other media that the killer visited Pulse several times before, some witnesses also say they chatted with the man on gay dating apps, like Grindr and Jack.

So, an obvious question for those who know him and knew him was, was he gay? Was he leading a secret gay life?

CNN's Erin Burnett put that question to his ex-wife.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SITORA YUSUFIY, EX-WIFE OF ORLANDO SHOOTER: He very much enjoyed going to clubs and the nightlife, and there were a lot of pictures of him. So, you know, I feel like it's a side of him or a part of him that he lived, but probably didn't want everybody to know about.

ERIN BURNETT, CNN ANCHOR: Do you think he was gay?

YUSUFIY: I don't know. He never personally, or, you know, physically made any indication while we were together.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: All right. The killer's father is condemning what he calls his son's act of terror.

Seddique Mateen told CNN's Don Lemon that he never saw any signs that his son was radicalized or a terrorist or that he had any mental health problems. The father says his religion does not approved of homosexuality but he himself does not condone discrimination. He says he believes it is for god to judge gay people.

The father told Don Lemon he will never forgive his son.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEDDIQUE MATEEN, ORLANDO GUNMAN'S FATHER: I was sad and I was upset. And I am, I am really speechless what he did.

[04:10:02] And I don't forgive him as a father.

Those -- 50 people are my family, the 52 people got injured, they are my family. And I care for them. I am very sad for them. They lost their loved ones, beside I lost him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: All right. Joining me in Orlando to assess the investigations' progress, Cedric Alexander, CNN law enforcement analyst and public safety director for DeKalb County in Georgia.

Thanks so much for being here, Cedric. I really appreciate it.

CEDRIC ALEXANDER, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Thank you for having me.

BERMAN: Consumed a hell of a lot of terrorist propaganda online. That's the latest information we're seeing right now. Also had been in this gay nightclub right down the street from us, as many as two times a month for three years. These are fascinating threads in this investigation. You know, two dual tracks, but they can be very much connected.

ALEXANDER: Very much connected, and I think it's going to be interesting going forward in terms of his behavior, his patterns of behavior, that they're going to be able to determine over time how frequent did he really come to the club? Is there going to be video to show him being there before? Who did he associate with? Was he just there plotting and planning for the murderous plot that he conducted the other night?

Or is there something about him, John, that maybe he was trying to suppress a part of his own sexuality, he could have been struggling with? And if that is the case, it creates anxiety, fear and anger, and that anger can get projected out onto others. Now, those may or may not have been the case, but it is something to think about.

But it's still very early in this investigation, but once this investigation is over, I think we're going to know a lot more about who Mr. Mateen was and who he tried to demonstrate himself as being. So, this is a very interesting piece of information that's being disclosed.

BERMAN: It's very interesting.

We're also learning, again, that he had issues where people were concerned about his behavior over the years. Not only had the FBI investigated him in 2013, not only had he been part of an investigation in 2014, but there were people who went to school with him who said there were incidents. You know, his ex-wife says there were violent incidents. We learn way back when he was in school after September 11th, he said things which were very upsetting to people.

There's this pattern that goes back, you know, a long, long time, and yet, but, he was able to work in a security firm, you know, able to be perfectly licensed to own and buy the weapons that he had whenever he wanted to buy them.

ALEXANDER: Well, you know, being a trained psychologist, one thing I know, some people have a tendency to hide a particular part of themselves. They can project themselves being one type of way. But they can be around others and in other situations where they are in a larger environment, and they can appear to be just as normal as anyone else.

When you hear his wife say, well, there was really nothing very strange about him, other than the fact he became very angry, became problematic, they ended up separating. But you hear his father say there was nothing about his behavior that I noted different about my son. So, there's clearly some, some, some contrast between what they experienced and what he has also been demonstrated in other places.

BERMAN: You've been on this business a long, long time. Would it be possible for someone to carry out the attacks that he carried out and kill the people were the planning that it obviously took him and to have no one see any signs that he was going to do something like that in the weeks and months ahead?

ALEXANDER: Well, it's, it's, it's -- well, let me put it their way to you. It is probable, but I have unlikely. He was somewhere along the way. He was telegraphing some behavior that was erratic, that was full of anger or something.

It is hard to believe that any of us can carry out the type of act that he carried out two nights ago and where 49 people lose their life, 52 people injured and had the police not gotten there and was able to take the focus off those innocent people and put the focus on themselves until they neutralized that subject, it could have been far greater. I think what we're going to see, and it's going to be interesting to see, John, going forward, as they learn more about Mr. Mateen, I think it's going to crystallize to us all that there are some people that may have known something that we're not aware of. So, we'll see over time. Yes.

BERMAN: All right. Cedric, thanks so much for being with us. We'll talk with you again in a little bit.

The massacre here dominating the conversation right now in the race for president. Hillary Clinton, she called for better gun control. Donald Trump renewing his ban, renewing his push to ban Muslims from coming to the U.S. We're going to talk about some of that rhetoric, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [04:19:03] ROMANS: Donald Trump is renewing his call or a ban on all Muslim immigrants in the wake of the Orlando terror attack. He claims the politically correct responses from President Obama and Hillary Clinton are, quote, "crippling the nation's ability to think and act clearly."

In a fiery and sometimes factually flawed speech, the GOP's presumptive nominee warned there will be nothing left of America if we don't get smart fast.

More now from CNN's Sara Murray in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: Good morning, John and Christine.

Well, yesterday, Hillary Clinton said it was not a day for politics, but Donald Trump had something different in mind as he showed up here in Manchester, New Hampshire to deliver a foreign policy address, he laid into not only President Obama but also Hillary Clinton.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: She's in total denial. Hillary supports policies that bring the threat of radical Islam into America and allow it to grow overseas.

MURRAY: Now, Donald Trump said that an influx of immigrants under Hillary Clinton would present a danger to the U.S.

[04:20:03] he renewed his call to ban Muslims from coming here to U.S.

Now, it's an interesting policy proposal for Trump to be seizing. It's one he carried over from the primaries. But it's coming at a time when the shooter in the Orlando massacre is actually an American citizen. He was born in New York, however, he was born to parents who are from Afghanistan.

Donald Trump at one point seems to try to point that out, stumbling over his words and suggesting that the shooter was, in fact, from Afghanistan as well, something that is not the case. But all trying to build into the Trump narrative if you let immigrants in the U.S., they only become radicalize, but they also radicalize their children.

Back to you, guys.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: All right. Sara, thank you for that.

Now, Hillary Clinton slamming Donald Trump for his anti-Muslim rhetoric. And she wants to know how someone being tracked by the FBI can walk into a store and buy a gun.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I believe weapons of war have no place on our streets. (APPLAUSE)

And we may have our disagreements about gun safety regulations, but we should all be able to agree on a few essential things. If the FBI is watching you for suspected terrorist links, you shouldn't be able to just go buy a gun with no questions asked.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Now, Donald Trump says she wants to abolish the Second Amendment. She would like someone investigated by the FBI not be allowed to buy a weapon.

Clinton is also promising to put together a team to track lone wolf terrorists if she wins the White House.

CNN's -- all right. CNN is continuing to cover the touching emotional displays of support for the victims of the Orlando massacre. We'll bring that to you, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:26:24] BERMAN: Thousands of mourners gathered here in downtown Orlando last night. They were paying tribute to the victims of the terror attacks here. A lot of people in the crowd said they felt compelled to be there because the Pulse nightclub played such a huge role in their lives. Others just need a hug or a shoulder to cry on.

Here is Jessica Schneider.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, this park filled up with mourners tonight. It also filled up with raw emotions. And the emotions ranged from everything from people sobbing on people's shoulders to also people pledging to stay strong and to keep the love in the city despite that act of terrorism.

In fact, dozens of employees at the Pulse nightclub went up on stage. And one of them even said this, he said, "We love you. We are here for you and we are 100 percent behind you. We are not leaving. We are here to stay. We will not be defeated."

So, just an outpouring of grief as the city comes to grips with that death toll of 49, 53 injured. And this morning, there will be a press conference at the hospital. We will hear from surgeons. We'll also hear survivor stories. But overall, people in this city, pledging to stay strong.

Back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN: They're staying strong and they are staying together.

All right. New stories of survival and also new clues about why the killer may have chosen this club for that horrifying attack. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)