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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Alligator Attacks Child At Disney Resort; Orlando Gunman's Wife Investigated: What Did She Know; Obama Unleashes Tirade Against Trump; Trump Lashes Out At Clinton and Obama. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired June 15, 2016 - 04:00   ET

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

[04:00:08] ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Our breaking news right now: a 2-year- old child attacked and dragged in to the water by an alligator at a popular Disney resort, a desperate search happening right now.

What did the wife of the Orlando club gunman know about his plan to attack? New information on what that she told the FBI, as his ex-wife revealed intimate new details about the killer.

Good morning. Welcome to EARLY START. A very busy morning this morning. I'm Christine Romans here in New York.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm John Berman in Orlando. It is Wednesday, June 15th.

Our breaking news at Disneyworld, Walt Disney World not far from here, a 2-year-old boy was attacked by an alligator and dragged into the water. The parents tried to rescue the child but to no avail. The child is still missing. It happened at the Grand Floridian. That's a hotel right on the Walt Disneyworld grounds, right next to the Magic Kingdom.

CNN's Martin Savidge joins us now with the very latest.

Martin, you know, what are you learning?

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John.

Yes, this drama has been unfolding for the last seven hours. And I have to warn you, the details of this are absolutely horrific. Essentially, a family on vacation from Nebraska, a mother and father and two children. They're down by the water's edge of the Seven Seas Lagoon. It's about 9:15 at night. A 2-year-old child very close to the water's edge when according to authorities, an alligator about four to seven feet in length comes out, snatches the child. The father immediately dives into the water and begins struggling with the alligator, so does the mother, so does eventually a lifeguard.

Here is the sheriff picking up the remainder of the story.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SHERIFF JERRY DEMINGS, ORANGE COUNTY: The father entered the water, and he tried to grab the child, was not successful in doing so. At some point, I'm told, that the mother may have also entered the water. So the parents diligently tried to get the child. They alerted a nearby life guard who was there in the area as well, but they were unsuccessful in their efforts.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAVIDGE: Since that time, an all-out effort has been under way. You've got the sheriff's department that is out on the water. You also have officers, at least 50 of them, that are searching along the shore line as well. On top of that, they've brought in a dive team, using sonar to search underneath the water. And for a long time, they were using a helicopter with one of those intense light beams looking down trying to illuminate the area. The boats are still out there.

There is still the hope that this child can be recovered, but I have to tell you, John, as each hour passes by, those hopes have got to grow dimmer and dimmer. The sheriff of 35 years says he's never known anything like this. Alligators are part of the landscape here, but in this kind of Magic Kingdom, something like this has never been seen before -- John.

BERMAN: No, I've never heard of anything like that happening at Disneyworld.

All right. Martin Savidge, thank you so much.

We have more breaking news at this hour. I'm standing right in front of the Orlando Regional Medical Center where 27 patients are still recovering from their wounds. They are among the injured at the largest mass shooting in U.S. history at the gay nightclub right here in Orlando.

We do have breaking news on the investigation. Investigators right now focused on whether anyone was involved in this attack other than the shooter himself. Officials tell CNN that the wife, the wife had some kind of knowledge that the husband wanted to carry out an attack. The wife drove the husband and was with the husband at Disney Springs when she visited that location, also perhaps took him or was with him when he went to the nightclub at least once.

The wife told the FBI she tried to talk her husband out of doing anything violent and did not know about his plan, did not know about his plan to attack the nightclub.

CNN asked the gunman's father whether he thought his son's wife might have been involved.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: Can we just ask one question related to the news that's breaking? It is that Noor Salman is cooperation and that she has told police, the FBI, that she personally went on a trip to Orlando and brought your son to that club? SEDDIQUE MATEEN, ORLANDO GUNMAN'S FATHER: I don't know anything. I

wait until they talk to her.

REPORTER: It appears she could be charged with a crime.

MATEEN: I don't know. I can't say anything.

[04:05:03] REPORTER: Do you think that your daughter-in-law helped your son commit this crime?

MATEEN: I don't think so.

REPORTER: Is she an accomplice?

MATEEN: I -- we'll wait.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Now, the FBI does not believe the wife was a co-conspirator, but investigators are looking into whether she knew about the plans and failed to call police.

There's also new information this morning about the gunman's personal life. Investigators are looking at reports he visited gay chat rooms, used gay hookup apps and patronized the very nightclub he ended up shooting up. We're also getting new details about their relationship.

Joining me now with the latest, CNN's Nick Valencia.

Nick, what are you learning?

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John.

New details this morning that seem to suspect or seem to show, I should say, that Omar Mateen was a lot more familiar with the LGBT community than originally suspected. The FBI talking to people that claim that they ran into him or encountered him online on these gay dating websites, this as his ex-wife tells CNN that she wouldn't be surprised if her ex-husband was leading a double life.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SITORA YUSUFIY, EX-WIFE OF ORLANDO SHOOTER: He did have a different side of him that he could not open up to his father about, the fact that he liked to go to nightclubs, the fact that he liked to drink. These were not things that were welcome in his family's structure at all, and especially any indication of homosexuality.

In the Islam religion, homosexuality is not that tolerated, and especially when somebody's a political figure as prominent as his father was, it is especially, really looked down upon and disgraced and could shame the entire family.

It doesn't surprise me that he might be gay. And it doesn't surprise me that he was leading two totally different lives and was in such deep conflict within himself. (END VIDEO CLIP)

VALENCIA: Investigators continue to glean information from the items that they seized from Mateen, things like a laptop, digital camera and other relative media. This as they focused in on his widow -- they want to know what she knew, and when she knew specifically and if she knew about plans to attack this Pulse nightclub. She tells investigators that she knew that her husband wanted to carry out a jihadist attacks but denies knowing specifics about his target here at the Pulse nightclub.

We're also learning, John, this morning that it could have been weeks in the making, that Mateen was casing out the Pulse nightclub as well, as another location here in Orlando -- John.

BERMAN: All right. Nick Valencia, thanks so much.

Let's talk about the developments here in the investigation. Joining us from Washington, CNN military analyst, Cedric Leighton, former member of the joint chiefs of staff.

Cedric, thanks so much for being with us. Appreciate your time.

The new information overnight, the wife of the killer, how much did she know about this attack going forward? She's apparently telling investigators. CNN learned that she had reason to believe that he wanted to carry out some kind of attack, had violent intentions but had no specific knowledge of the specific plans.

What do you think investigators are focused on now?

CEDRIC LEIGHTON, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, John, I think that the big thing that they're looking for is really seeing how much she knew and when she knew it. Was she in a position to actually do something about it to prevent the attack on the nightclub? Or was she completely unwitting, did he give her excuses as to why he needed to about to the Disney establishment and the nightclub? Did she provide transportation? Was she going to be a getaway car driver?

All of these types of questions will some of the things that the investigators are going to be looking for. Also, if she was involved somehow in the purchase of firearms or ammunition, anything like that that would make her basically an accessory to the crime, that's the kind of stuff that they're going to be looking for. And if they can find it, John, then she is in quite deep legal trouble at this point.

BERMAN: And it is because she in that level of trouble right now, they do have some leverage, right? They can lean on her right now and lean hard as they look for new information in this investigation.

LEIGHTON: That's right. A grand jury is convened as it has been in this case, then they can do all kinds of things and prosecutors and law enforcement officials can lean very hard on somebody who has a degree of knowledge of the case, even if it isn't intimate knowledge, they can still make life very difficult for them because they can ask them my questions. They can force them to retrace their steps, and they can force them also through the questioning techniques that they use to reveal more about their life together.

[04:10:02] And that's also going to be an important thing, because they're going to be able to determine certain patterns of behavior, certain clues that otherwise would perhaps not be immediately evident in a case like this.

BERMAN: You know, it is interesting, one of the things they're looking into right now, they're looking at the electronic communications. Perhaps, these apps that some people say that he used, these gay hookup apps.

And federal investigators tell CNN they are looking into this, in that if they were to find something, that would paint things in a different light. This just goes to show in an investigation, you can't go in with any preconceived notions. You have to follow the leads as they present themselves.

LEIGHTON: Absolutely, because as you know, John, and as the first wife indicated, in Islam, it is very much frowned upon to have a homosexual relationship, and, you know, on the other side of that, though, in Middle Eastern cultures, there is a large, illicit homosexual underground that does exist in many different Islamic cultures. That's part of the issue that you have here. Did he actually act on it? Or was he just in essence the casing the lifestyle if you will, not just casing the particular establishment that he attacked, but also in the way people behaved, where they met, who they were.

Those are the kinds of things that they're going to be looking for. And when they do that, they are going to want to talk to people that he may have encountered, using apps like Grindr and other apps that are a part of the gay social scene today.

BERMAN: Yes, that will give you greater insight into perhaps what he was thinking, but it will have no impact on whether or not he was a terrorist. He in fact clearly was a terrorist who committed a horrible mass murder.

Cedric Leighton, thanks so much for being with us.

LEIGHTON: You bit, John.

BERMAN: The massacre here in Orlando right now is at the center of a fierce political fight. President Obama and Hillary Clinton, they flat out say Donald Trump was out to destroy American values. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:16:07] ROMANS: All right, an intense search under way right now at the Disney, at a Disneyworld hotel, trying to find a 2-year-old boy, dragged into a lagoon by an alligator. This is at the Grand Floridian Resort and Spa, a 2-year-old little boy, two children and parents visiting from Nebraska.

Police now say it is unlikely they will find that child alive. The father jumped into the water, trying to get his child back from the alligator, and, again, no sign of that child right now.

It's also been a rough 48 hours for Disney. We've just learned that Sunday's nightclub shooter scouted out Disney ahead of his attack on the club in Orlando. Police say the shooter visited the Disney entertainment and shopping complex known as Disney Springs at the beginning of June during this year's gay day celebrations. All this is happening just as Disney gets ready to open its highly-anticipated Shanghai location half a world away tomorrow.

President Obama denouncing Donald Trump, making the case that GOP's presumptive nominee is the one who is an un-American. The president clearly angered by Trump's remarks in the wake of the Orlando terror attack, especially his comments about the president's reluctance to use the term "Islamic extremist."

Listen to the president fired back.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We now have proposals from the presumptive Republican nominee for president of the United States to bar all Muslims from immigrating to America. Where does this stop? We don't have religious tests here. Our founders, our Constitution, our Bill of Rights are clear about that. And if we ever abandon those values, we would not only make it a lot easier to radicalize people here and around the world, but we would have betrayed the very things we are trying to protect.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: The president and Hillary Clinton saying Trump is destroying American values. Trump is not letting up on President Obama on Hillary Clinton. And he's repeating his call for a ban on Muslims entering the U.S. The presumptive Republican nominee calling his Democratic rivals weak and infective.

Here's CNN's Sara Murray.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SARA MURRAY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John and Christine.

On a day when Democrats are united on their criticism of Donald Trump, he arrived in Greensboro, North Carolina, ready to hit back, unleashing a fiery speech in which he suggested President Obama's anger was misdirected and that he should be angrier with the shooter in the Orlando massacre rather than direct his anger at Donald Trump.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: And I watched President Obama today, and I was more angry at me than he was at the shooter! And many people said that.

(BOOS)

One of the folks on television said, boy, has Trump gotten under his skin? But he was more angry, and a lot of people have said this. The level of anger, that's the kind of anger he should have for the shooter and these killers that shouldn't be here.

MURRAY: Now, of course, Trump's latest comment comes after he's already been facing criticism for appearing to suggest that President Obama might be sympathetic to Muslim extremists.

Of course, Obama wasn't his only target last night. He also went after Hillary Clinton, suggesting that America would never be the same if she were president, saying if liberals are elected over the next eight years, so many Supreme Court justices will move in that people will lose their gun rights and continue to lay into Clinton as crooked Hillary. Now, he continues on the campaign trail today, this time in Atlanta.

Back to you, guys.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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

The final primary of the season goes to Hillary Clinton. And just moments after the polls closed in Washington, D.C., Clinton met face- to-face with Bernie Sanders.

When they left the Capitol Hilton Hotel nearly two hours later, Sanders was still in the race. His campaign releasing a statement saying the candidates continue to seek common ground on issues like minimum wage and campaign finance reform and on how to defeat Trump.

[04:20:09] Clinton spent most of Tuesday blasting Trump for his response to the Orlando terrorist attack, calling him shameful and unfit to be president.

Twenty minutes past the hour. New stories of survival from those who escaped the Orlando club massacre. Their emotional words, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: New memorials overnight honoring the victims of the attack here in Orlando.

University of Central Florida faculty and staff, they filled every floor at the student union.

[04:25:05] They raised lights as the names of those killed were read, followed by a moment of silence. Beautiful.

This as survivors shared their stories of that night, how they hid in terror as the gunman stopped the night club shooting. Dozens of people reloading, firing again.

Survivor Samuel Maldonado told me about his horrifying experience, crouching under a table, all while separated from his husband, Junior.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SAMUEL MALDONADO, PULSE MASSACRE SURVIVOR: Sometimes you don't think about yourself, the first thing you think about your kids, you're not going to see them no more, Junior, is he OK? Because when I saw him got out, yes, he was -- he had blood on his clothing. So sometimes you go oh, my God, he got hit, but I was finally able to see him, you know, he was OK.

But it's hard. It was hard. The most thing was just seeing all these bodies, just there in the middle, because sometimes I don't know what made me do it, I was still running, but I was still looking toward that door and just see him, the way he was just shooting. On the ground, just literally, these people, they were already on the ground.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Survivor Jeannette McCoy said she watched in horror as the gunman shot her friend five times.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEANNETTE MCCOY, PULSE MASSACRE SURVIVOR: There's so many emotions from anger to frustration to sorrow. For me, it's the people who were in their bleeding to death. The question of why, why am I here? And why they're not. It plays in my head every day.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Fortunately, both McCoy and her friend who was shot, Angel Colon survived. Colon actually is right behind me at the regional health center recovering. He was shot five times. He was shot three times in the leg and then, you know, later after the gunman came back, he was shot again in the hand and the hip. Simply terrifying.

All right. Breaking news this morning not far from here. A 2-year- old pulled from the beach into the water by an alligator. That boy is still missing. The search going on right now. We have new details, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)