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New Day

Alligator Snatches Boy at Disney Resort; Killer Scouted Disney World & Gay Nightclub Before Attack; Obama, Clinton Blast Trump's 'Dangerous Rhetoric'. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired June 15, 2016 - 06:00   ET

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

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. Welcome to your NEW DAY. We are live again from Orlando for you, and we do have the latest on the terror attack investigation at the gay nightclub behind us. Also, whether the killer was targeting Disney World at one point.

[05:58:40] We also want to talk about what the killer's wife knew about his plans, but we begin with another tragedy that is unfolding here in this city at this hour.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: This is just a horrible story. There was a family on vacation at Disney World resort. Their toddler's playing in a lagoon, and the baby gets attacked by an alligator. The father winds up having to go into the water, taking on the alligator. All of these people looking on, and now a search for this toddler. Just unimaginable grief in Orlando to begin with. Now this.

Let's get right to Boris Sanchez, live near the Disney resort with details.

Boris, what do we know about the search?

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Chris.

Right now, officials are just really hoping for a miracle. They tell us that every moment that passes it's less and less likely that they'll find the 2-year-old alive. It's been so many hours now that the search has been ongoing.

And really, this is just horrifying for this family. They're on vacation in the Happiest Place on Earth, and now they're dealing with this brutal, brutal tragedy.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ (voice-over): A desperate search underway as a luxury Disney resort near Orlando by air, and in the water, for a 2-year-old boy snatched and dragged away by an alligator at Disney's Grand Floridian resort. The toddler was wading near the shore of a man-made lake with his family nearby.

CHAD WEBER, OFFICER, FLORIDA FISH AND WILDLIFE: We're putting every effort into locating the child and trapping this alligator. SANCHEZ: The toddler's father jumping into the water to try to pull

his son from the grips of the gator, to no avail. The tragic incident occurring shortly after 9 p.m., according to law enforcement officials. Social media lighting up with horrified Disney goers, watching the frantic search unfold: "Police putting up yellow tape outside of the Grand Floridian directly across from the Magic Kingdom in Orlando." And "Praying for this family. Ground and air crews continue the search."

The young boy was on vacation with his family from Nebraska, and had been staying at the resort since Sunday. Disney is fully cooperating with the investigation.

JACQUEE WAHLER, VICE PRESIDENT OF COMMUNICATIONS, WALT DISNEY WORLD RESORT: Everyone here at the Walt Disney World Resort is devastated by this tragic accident. Our thoughts are with the family. We are helping the family and doing everything we can to assist law enforcement.

SANCHEZ: With each passing hour, a harsh reality is setting in for rescuers desperately trying to find this young boy.

SHERIFF JERRY DEMINGS, ORANGE COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE: We're not leaving until we recover the child.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ: It has just been a rough couple of days here for the city of Orlando. Our crew arrived here Saturday morning to cover the tragic shooting of Christina Grimmie. She was that "Voice" singer that was murdered at a concert. Then Sunday morning, we woke up, and it was the Pulse nightclub shooting, the deadliest shooting -- mass shooting in history. And now, we're facing this, just another tragedy. Very, very difficult times for this community, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Boris, I mean, you said it. You can't -- you cannot underscore just how, in rapid succession, they've had the worst things happen in this city. So thank you for that reporting.

We will bring you live coverage when police provide an update on the search for this missing boy. We hope to get information from police in just minutes.

CUOMO: All right. And obviously, we've been talking about Disney World because of the shooting at the nightclub over our shoulder, and sure enough, the investigation is looking at that location. They believe that the gunman, the murderer, from this gay nightclub was there on several occasions, maybe doing surveillance trips. And the question becomes, why? And more importantly, who knew?

The focus is the deranged gunman's wife. What did she know? And as a result, investigators are threatening to charge the wife with a crime most of you have probably never heard of.

Let's bring in CNN national security correspondent Jim Sciutto, joining us with more. I mean, this has really been evolving, this investigation, and now we're getting more energy around the wife.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: No question. She is an active focus for the investigation. And two things they're focusing on. She has said she knew that her husband was interested in carrying out a jihadist attack. She tried to stop him.

She's also said she's been, she went with him to some of the sites, including the Pulse nightclub. At the time she says she didn't know that he was targeting them out for an attack. Are those two answers satisfying to investigators? At this point, they are not satisfied. They are looking into her. They have made no decision. The investigation into her is still ongoing, but we know that she is a new focus.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you know your husband was going to do this?

SCIUTTO (voice-over): This morning, authorities are zeroing in on the killer's wife, 30-year-old Noor Salman. A law enforcement official says she admits she knew about her husband's interest in carrying out a jihadist attack.

DEMINGS: She has been very cooperative with the authorities.

SCIUTTO: Salman claiming she tried to dissuade him from doing anything violent, according to the FBI. She denies knowing anything about the Pulse nightclub as a target for the massacre.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you think that your daughter-in-law here helped your son commit this crime?

SADDIQUE MATEEN, FATHER OF OMAR MATEEN: I don't think so.

SCIUTTO: Authorities are now looking into whether she should face charges for knowing about his intentions but not telling police.

This as we're getting our first look inside the couple's apartment. Clothes and children's toys scattered on the floor. Investigators seizing electronic devices from the home as new evidence is emerging that suggests the gunman may have considered other targets.

DEMINGS: Suffice it to say that he had probed multiple locations before he chose that -- that spot.

SCIUTTO: CNN has learned he visited this Disney shopping complex, as well as the Pulse nightclub, all at the beginning of June. Investigators say his wife traveled with him, the dates coinciding with Gay Days, an annual event that attracts thousands of LGBT people to Disney parks. Disney security officials told the FBI they believe the shooter was scouting the Disney World park when he visited there with his wife in April, as well.

DEMINGS: We are trying to understand all of his travels in the recent past. SCIUTTO: The June scouting missions occurring around the same time as

when the killer purchased the weapons he used to carry out the attack. This as we are now hearing from first responders at the nightclub.

LT. DAVIS ODELL, ORLANDO FIRE DEPARTMENT: I won't forget the steady pow, pow, pow.

[06:05:06] SCIUTTO: A lieutenant at the fire station just 300 feet away from the club describing the hundreds of club goers frantically trying to escape the barrage of bullets.

ODELL: There was groups of people in front of the fire station, hiding behind the wall over there, crying and screaming. Kind of sick to think about it, but each time he's shooting, he's shooting somebody in there, and what's more, you know, going about his business as methodically as he was at a gun range.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SCIUTTO: And we're learning new information about what the killer did in the days leading up to the attack. On May 29, the killer went and donated blood in Fort Pierce, Florida, not far from here, just days before he carried out an attack that killed 49 people.

In this expanding but also increasingly confusing profile of this killer, why in God's name would he do that, donate blood just before. This is part of this confusing picture. They're trying to answer so many questions right now.

CAMEROTA: All right, Jim. Stay with us. We do want to talk more about the investigation. We want to bring in Arthur Roderick. He's our CNN law analyst and a former assistant director of the U.S. Marshals Office.

Art, thanks so much for being here.

If the wife knew that her husband was interested in carrying out some sort of terror attack, what can she be charged with?

ARTHUR RODERICK, CNN LAW ANALYST: Well, there's misprision of a felony. There's also conspiracy. So I think at this point, we're into day four. The case is well under control by the FBI and the U.S. attorney's office. All of these charges will be federal.

She's looking at some serious time here, obviously, because of the crime that was committed. But I think they're very suspicious of the information that she's putting forward, where she's trying to minimize her involvement in this whole case.

CUOMO: They're trying to squeeze her. We've had early indications that they're talking to her. They want to figure out who it is, who knew? The family. This is somewhat routine.

Misprision of a felony is not just of interest to lawyers. That law, I've never heard of it being applied in any of these cases. It's off the books in just about every state. It's you have a legal responsibility to tell authorities if you know a felony is going to be committed.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

CUOMO: Most states don't have that anymore. For them to use that crime, is that an indication that they're putting the squeeze on her and any counsel she's had around her to let their -- let them know they're serious?

RODERICK: That's exactly what they're doing. Pressuring her to make sure she's telling the truth, coming forward with as much information as she can. And this is a usual tactic they used at this point four days into the investigation.

SCIUTTO: You know why this is important beyond this particular investigation. You'll hear from law enforcement all the time. They need the help of Muslim communities, which of course includes the families.

If you see something, say something. If you hear something odd, if you're concerned, you've got to get out there. And they want that.

Now, so on the one hand, they want to encourage people to do that. If they come down too hard, you have to imagine you don't want to antagonize the communities either. So it's a tough balance. The implications of this go far beyond this one case.

CAMEROTA: That brings us to his father. His father has been talking, a lot, to the media. His father says that he saw the killer at 3 p.m. the day of the attack. What do you think that they're doing, investigators, with the father?

RODERICK: Well, they're doing the same thing they're doing with the wife. I mean, the father seems to be talking quite a bit, which is unusual. I mean, I've seen some of the conversations that he's had. I'm not sure how much information he can supply.

CAMEROTA: He says he knew nothing.

RODERICK: Right.

CAMEROTA: He knew nothing. His son was a good kid. If he'd have known any of this, he would have done something. I mean, he was in a lot of contact with his son.

RODERICK: This is a very tight family, from what we've seen. He knows something. You know, whether he's going to admit to it or not, you know, he could be facing charges also.

CUOMO: The suggestion would be he may have known something about his son's state of mind.

RODERICK: Right.

CUOMO: Nobody's saying he knew anything about any of the incidental of the attacks. One of the reasons he talks a lot is he talks a lot. He goes on the media. He does tapes on line about the internal politics of Afghanistan. You know, he is a talker on -- in the media in general.

But with this investigation, to Jim's point, this is a tough balancing act for them. Because they're still concerned: who might have helped him?

One of the reasons they're looking at the wife is that, if you're going on these trips with him, they don't live here. OK, they live in Port St. Lucie. You know, it's equidistant between here and Miami. If you were going with him on his these trips and you had suspicions, what else was there? Who else may have had suspicions and may have given him some material support. You know, helped him with the guns or helped him with that, and that's what they're doing.

SCIUTTO: How did he pay for -- this is a big focus. How did he pay for these two trips to Saudi Arabia, these pilgrimages? They're looking at that. And they have his laptop computer, and from that, they're already discovering details about some of the financial transactions. They're going to see who's on the other end of this transaction, as well.

RODERICK: An AF-15 is not cheap. I mean, somebody...

SCIUTTO: What's it cost?

RODERICK: Fifteen hundred bucks, based on what kind of additions you put on it.

CUOMO: And he got the Glock, too. It's not an expensive gun, but almost the most expensive.

CAMEROTA: Another development, of course, is that he might have been casing Disney World?

SCIUTTO: Yes.

[06:10:04] CAMEROTA: So they now think that he visited there in April. Is that right?

SCIUTTO: More than once, frankly. The Disney Springs resort, which is -- which is a downtown Disney property here. It's actually interesting about it. It does not have the same security precautions the Disney World resort has today. Recently, they installed metal detectors, et cetera. Disney Springs does not. And he went there, just in the days before the attack, so early June. But he went to the resort itself with his family in April.

CUOMO: Do you think that they can get her for conspiracy? Misprision of felony, they'd have to show knowledge. It's not an easy crime to prove. That's one of the reasons you never hear it. What's your instincts?

RODERICK: Conspiracy is relatively easy to prove in the federal system. It doesn't take a lot. And I think the mere fact that he had said that he told her that he wanted to do this jihadist act and, possibly, if they can show that she had driven somewhere to pick up something, did an overt act, as they say, then that's enough for conspiracy.

CUOMO: Another aspect of the investigation we'll touch on later in the show, is all those pictures of the beautiful kid's room and all the nice toys. That kid is going to be in play, also now, as we saw in San Bernardino. What happens to the child from a family like this?

CAMEROTA: Jim, Art, thank you very much for all the information.

President Obama, meanwhile, and Hillary Clinton, they are teaming up against Donald Trump, they say, over his rhetoric around the terror attack. But Trump is fighting back. So what can we expect today?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:15:29] CAMEROTA: Hillary Clinton and President Obama coming out swinging in a joint attack on Donald Trump. They call Trump's rhetoric dangerous, and Donald Trump, as you might expect, is fighting back.

CNN's Joe Johns joins us live in Washington with more. Good morning, Joe.

JOE JOHNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Alisyn.

Just goes to show the massacre in Orlando is now front and center in the race for the White House. And what's so remarkable about this is that President Obama himself has now stepped into the back and forth. His angry response to Donald Trump's attacks, in concert with a speech by Hillary Clinton. And now we have Trump's rebuttal last night, just the latest signs that there's a bitter period ahead in U.S. politics between now and November.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHNS (voice-over): Donald Trump going after President Obama.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I watched President Obama today. And he was more angry at me than he was at the shooter.

JOHNS: Accusing the president of being angrier at him than the man who carried out the terror attack at a gay nightclub in Orlando.

TRUMP: The level of anger, that's the kind of anger he should have for the shooter and these killers that shouldn't be here.

JOHNS: Trump lashing out just hours after President Obama's fiery speech, defending his strategy against ISIS and his refusal to use the term "radical Islam."

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: That's the key, they tell us. We can't beat ISIL unless we call them radical Islamists. What exactly would using this label accomplish? What exactly would it change? There's no magic to the phrase "radical Islam." It's a political talking point. It's not a strategy.

JOHNS: The president's speech, his sharpest rebuke against the presumptive presidential nominee, slamming his rhetoric as dangerous and un-American.

OBAMA: That's not the America we want. It doesn't reflect our democratic ideals. It won't make us more safe. It will make us less safe.

JOHNS: Flanked by his National Security Council, including the nonpartisan chairman of the joint chiefs of staffs, the president lambasting Trump's renewed push to ban Muslims entering the U.S. and calling out Republican leadership left squirming by Trump's views.

OBAMA: If we fall into the trap of painting all Muslims with a broad brush and imply that we are at war with an entire religion, then we are doing the terrorists' work for them.

JOHNS: Trump appearing unimpressed.

TRUMP: Nobody at that speech understand anything other than, boy, does he hate Donald Trump.

JOHNS: Democrats mounting a calculated one-two punch.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: What Donald Trump is saying is shameful.

JOHNS: With Hillary Clinton simultaneously unleashing her rebuke of Trump in Pittsburgh.

CLINTON: When Donald suggests I won't call this threat what it is, he hasn't been listening. But I will not demonize and declare war on an entire religion.

JOHNS: Clinton also denouncing Trump's conspiracy theories about President Obama after the terror attack as shameful.

CLINTON: Even in a time of divided politics, this is way beyond anything that should be said by someone running for president.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JOHNS: Almost lost in all of this is the fact that the Democratic primary season quietly came to a close last night, with Hillary Clinton winning the last contest in the District of Columbia. She and her Democratic opponent, Bernie Sanders, met and talked last night in Washington, flanked by campaign aides on both sides. Bernie Sanders has not conceded the race -- Chris.

CUOMO: Joe, as you know, there had been talk that Bernie might have done very well there, Senator Sanders. Obviously, the momentum has shifted.

All right. Let's get to the main story and what the political implications are today. CNN political commentators Ben Ferguson and Bakari Sellers join us. Ben, of course, the host of "The Ben Ferguson Show." Bakari is a Hillary Clinton supporter.

Now, this general election, as it shapes up, will become about moments, and tests of these two and how they respond. We saw it with Judge Curiel. We now have polls coming out of that incident. They do not reflect what's happened here in Orlando. Put up the Bloomberg numbers, because there's been a change in the race, according to this poll. Clinton popping up a little bit. We see the numbers, 49-37. Nine, Gary Johnson, the third party Libertarian, obviously.

So the state of play after Orlando. Ben, do you believe that this is a situation that should be playing well for Donald Trump? And do you believe that it is playing well?

[06:20:08] BEN FERGUSON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I think most Americans, as you see in these polls have come out, trust Donald Trump more on national security than they do Hillary Clinton. And I think, to prove that point, just look at the rhetoric yesterday.

You have a president that comes out on a simultaneous attack on Donald Trump with Hillary Clinton. And they have no problem being very clear on their thoughts on Donald Trump, that he is dangerous; he's unfit to be president. They have a very simple time making it clear their disdain for Donald Trump.

I wish they would use that exact same focus when talking about ISIS and terrorists, whether it be homegrown or foreign; and I think the American people see this. You have a president that literally said, "I'm not calling them Islamic extremists or Islamic terrorists, because it's just rhetoric."

Yet, then he uses the same, tough language when talking about Donald Trump, as if it's somehow different. Why can't it be the same focus on both issues?

CUOMO: All right.

FERGUSON: I just wish Hillary Clinton yesterday would have been as focused on ISIS as she is on Donald Trump.

BAKARI SELLERS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I mean, that...

CUOMO: OK. So Bakari, what's your response to that?

SELLERS: I mean, that argument was ludicrous. The reason that you can't use that same language when referring to Islam, you can't bastardize an entire religion with the largest religion in the world.

FERGUSON: I said radical Islam.

SELLERS: And -- I understand. You can't bastardize an entire religion when you know that you need them in this fight against terror.

If you get back to this poll, what you see is that Americans, ever since Hillary Clinton has began to frame Donald Trump with that speech in San Diego, showing that he was temperamentally unfit, showing that you -- he's a loose cannon. You just don't know what he's going to say, and you're seeing that again over and over and over again.

I feel bad for Paul Ryan, who's now in a proverbial pretzel every time that Donald Trump has something to say. And the key statistic in that poll, Chris, is that there is a very, very high number of women in this country who say that they could never vote for Donald Trump. And I think what we're seeing...

FERGUSON: Right, but Bakari -- Chris -- Chris, what we're seeing right now is Donald Trump...

CUOMO: Yes, I'm going to bring you in, Ben. OK. I got you, Bakari.

But also remember, this is just one moment in time. And that's why we look at polls for that. You know, they don't really tell us where we're going to be going forward.

But Ben, to your point, I've heard you make the case that Bakari is making right now about Donald Trump against Donald Trump in the primaries. What is giving you newfound confidence in his competence?

FERGUSON: Because I think he understands what the threat is to this country, and he's willing to call that threat what it actually is. The same way that Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are so focused on, they say, the threat of Donald Trump.

Donald Trump has clarity here, and he's honest with us. We have a problem with Islamic extremism in this country. He's willing to talk about the mosque that helped, I think, probably radicalize this individual and the only other American suicide bomber that went overseas and blew himself up.

That you can't be politically correct when you're dealing with people that are willing to blow themselves up and go on rampages in this way.

And yet yesterday, the only focus point we saw from Hillary Clinton was an attack on Donald Trump. Not on the extremists, not on the terrorists.

And let me be clear. Bakari tried to make it sound like I was saying earlier that all Muslims are bad? No. I made it very clear. And so is Donald Trump on this one. There is a radical Islamic extremist problem, and when the president asks about that, he basically mocks at his talking points. This is real terrorism, and people died because of these people's actions.

CUOMO: Mike, I'm cutting you guys off, because I want to make more points. You guys are taking too long to make simple points. We've heard these points before.

Let's try to advance the conversation. Bakari, that's what the president said he was setting out to do yesterday, was to explain why he didn't want to blame an entire faith. He wanted to stick with the threat, and he obviously knows what the threat is, because he's been fighting it so intensely.

There are a lot of people who came away from it the way Ben Ferguson is coming away from it. It didn't quite get them where they need to be in terms of feeling that he was all over this threat and angry about it. I don't think there's any doubt that our president of the United

States is angry. I don't think there's any doubt that our president of the United States' heart is broken over the 49 people who were massacred in Orlando.

What the president also understands, though, is Donald Trump no longer speaks as just some billionaire from Queens who's running for president of the United States. He actually is a standard bearer for one of the largest political parties in our country.

He also views Donald Trump for what he is, which is an existential threat to this -- to this country who's not helping this discussion out.

Further, I mean, if we're going to have this discussion, Chris, about how do we move this -- how do we move the ball forward when addressing terrorism? It's not about the verbiage. I mean, you don't see people going back and calling Dylann Roof a radical Christian, or radical Christianity. That doesn't address the problem.

The problem that we have in this country is, one, of gun control but one that's even more specific that we have to deal with, which is ISIL and ISIS being able to radicalize over the airwaves.

CUOMO: All right. Ben, Bakari, I appreciate it. We'll have to see what the polls show since Orlando has happened, but important conversation to have. Appreciate it, as always.

[06:25:11] We have a lot of breaking news this morning. Not just in terms of the investigation here in Orlando, but this other horrible story coming out of this area. This family from Nebraska was on vacation at Disney World, the Happiest Place on Earth, and their 2- year-old is playing around by a lagoon. An alligator comes out of nowhere and takes the kid. Now they're searching for the child. The parents got involved, trying to fight. We have animal expert Jeff Corwin, helping us understand how this could happen, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: There's a situation going on right now here in Orlando. We've been telling you about it. This family from Nebraska, their toddler was taken by an alligator at Disney World.

CAMEROTA: The toddler was wading along just the very edge of a lagoon, and there were signs up that said, "No swimming," but as we understand it, there were not signs that said, "Alligator infested."

Here is the sheriff of Orange County holding a press conference. Let's listen. I don't know if we can hear him yet.

CUOMO: Well, we're trying to get the latest. They're searching for the child. I mean, there's bit a little bit of confusion early on about what they think they're going to find. Let's find out.

CAMEROTA: OK. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... public information Officer Nick Wiley,

executive director of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

NICK WILEY, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, FLORIDA FISH AND WILDLIFE CONSERVATION COMMISSION: N-I-C-K W-I-L-E-Y.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. Is everyone ready? Is anyone not ready?

All right. Go ahead.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Last night multiple boats from the Orange County Sheriff's Office and from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission searched the lake; however, to no avail. The 2-year-old male child has not been located.

We still have kept multiple deputies on scene here overnight. More are coming in this morning, some fresh eyes to give another fresh look at the water. We will have deputies in the air, as well. We will continue this still as a search and rescue operation. It's still a search and rescue operation. We are very hopeful; we are hoping for the best. Sometimes you get the worst, but we're certainly hoping for the best.

Counselors and victim advocates remain with the family through the night and are still there with him today. And I'm sure that will take place over the next several days.

We will continue the search with the cooperation of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission, and right now we're going to bring in some fresh eyes, some additional personnel to continue with the search.

As you know, it took place at about -- last night at about 9 p.m. We received this call. The Fish and Wildlife Commission showed up, as did Reedy (ph) Creek. We determined that this 2-year-old child was playing at the edge of the water, probably about a foot or so into the water, when this alligator came up and attacked the child. The father did his best, tried to rescue the child; however, to no avail.

There was a lifeguard that was on duty, as well. The lifeguard, however, was not able to render much aid. It's too far away, apparently, and the gator swam away with the child, unfortunately.

And as I said, we have not been able to locate that child. We will continue the search throughout the course of the evening. I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Wiley from fish and wildlife to give you more details for more perspective.

WILEY: Thank you, and we appreciate Orange County Sheriff's Department and how you responded in our partnership.