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Changes Being Discussed after Orlando Shooting; Shooting Survivors Describe Horror. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired June 15, 2016 - 08:30   ET

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

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[08:31:08] ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: It is very hard to get your mind around the enormity of the attack here at the Pulse Nightclub. Forty-nine separate lives lost. And while we've been down here, we've learned a little about each one of those. Next, you will meet 10 friends who are mourning the loss of their best friend, Christopher Drew Leinonen, known as Drew, and Juan ramon Guerrero. The friends say it has been an emotional roller coaster as their personal loss has taken center stage in presidential politics. The friends also told us exclusively about the couple's love and how it continues to inspire them.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: People are trying to process it. There's also some different interpretations. Was it Islamic radical terrorism? Was it homophobia? Was it mental illness?

BRANDON WOLF, SURVIVED ORLANDO MASSACRE: To be quite honest with you, and I - I don't want to sound rude to anybody else, I really don't care. To me, it doesn't matter whether this person was praising ISIS, whether he was, you know, disgusted by seeing two people kiss, whether he was a closet homosexual, it doesn't matter to me what his issues were. All I care about is that I lost my best friends and I don't want to see that happen to anyone else. It is so easy for people somewhere else, right, maybe they're sitting in New York City, maybe they're sitting in Washington, D.C., to have this running conversation about what's happening. But until somebody is standing there on Orange Avenue feeling the presence of those 49 people, they won't understand what it feels like.

CHRISTOPHER GRUBE, BEST FRIEND DIED IN SHOOTING: Right now, when you're in the moment and you are part of something like what just happened this past weekend, to - people don't even understand how your thoughts can't even be there. Like you are just so distraught I guess is the best word. You - you just have genuine love and compassion for everyone around you, and you just pray and hope that everybody is OK, whoever you know. And - and it is difficult to go and see people already wanting to politicize or talk about topics, which I get, but at the same time it's like I think we should focus more on loving, and I think that's what it is.

WOLF: Yesterday, we went to the vigil, and we were - well, we were not doing OK.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.

WOLF: But we made it to the spot that they set aside for Drew and Juan and we just - the two of us just collapsed because, I mean, we were there with them. And it's so hard to see that. And as we were sitting there on the sidewalk, couldn't even get to our feet, a Muslim woman came over and just put her hands on our backs and prayed for us. She was there forever. And she wouldn't leave until we could get up. And I think that was powerful for me, that pitting two groups against each other who have no hatred for each other, but able to feel in that moment that it doesn't matter who we are, we're still connected. It doesn't matter what group we come from, we're still one big family.

CAMEROTA: So if this catastrophe were to be a catalyst for something, what do you hope change is?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A serious, serious conversation about gun law - control (ph). It's just - it's too much now.

JP CORTES, BEST FRIEND DEAD IN SHOOTING: No one needs to own an assault rifle. It's -

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.

CORTES: Ridiculous. I - what do you need that for? You need to protect yourself with an assault rifle? You don't. You don't need one.

WOLF: I think we also need to have a serious, serious conversation about bigotry and hate because so often we allow ourselves to go there, and how often have we seen people rationalizing and embracing hatred and bigotry as if it's just everyday life in America. The common thread that binds us is love and compassion for the people around us, not this self-centered hatred toward other people. So if I want to see anything change, it's that people get over themselves and get to loving each other.

[08:35:01] CAMEROTA: You guys are a tight-knit bunch of friends.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

CAMEROTA: How do you explain it?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Family.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Family. Love. I think that's the - I think that's the point, right?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They brought us together.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That -

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) -

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Drew was our glue and -

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They just made friends wherever they went.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And so we - we try to emulate that. That's all we do. We just try to live the same way that they lived in drawing people into them, and being the social glue, and now we try to do the same thing for each other.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right.

CAMEROTA: Tell me about Drew and Juan together. Tell me about their relationship.

WOLF: It was love.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So passionate.

WOLF: It was just love. There was no other word you could use to describe it. I mean we were talking earlier, and when they were together, no matter how many people were in the room, it was like one person was there. They were in their own space at all times. They never - they never hesitated to just look each other in the eyes and express love. No words needed to be shared. Nothing. They just looked at each other and you knew that they loved each other. I think that's the comforting thing is knowing that not one of them has to live without the other one.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And seeing them the few minutes before everything happened, you could see that they were at eternal happiness with each other.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: You know, these friends who are in so much pain just think that the answer to hate is love. And you can say it's idealistic, or you can say it's naive, but that is their first response. They're in pain, and they believe that the answer is love. I mean forget all the politics, forget everything that everybody else is debating, reach out and, you know, love each other. And it's hard to argue with that.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: And, you know, when you talk about all the difficulties that we've seen with the evolution of gay rights, no matter what faith you belong to, that that is also what you are taught to believe, that love is the ultimate power. And it's important for people to remember their pain because when we talk about gay rights, you have to remember the victimization that this guy did. This was a hate crime. When we talk about - well, what do you do coming out of this, whether it's the FBI or other laws, it's because of the people who were lost there. That's why you care.

CAMEROTA: Absolutely. And, in fact, his mother, Drew's mother, told me yesterday that she is so happy that though Drew was only 32 years old, that he lived to see gay marriage be the law of the land.

Friends, we should tell you, have put together this Go Fund Me page to help Drew and Juan's families with funeral expenses and counseling. You can go there to donate. CUOMO: The massacre in Orlando has so many different reverberations

that are hitting this country's heart and its head. What does this mean in terms of what we do and what we don't do when it comes to fighting against terror. We have President Obama's top counterterrorism advisor joining us next.

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[08:41:41] CUOMO: The Orlando mass murder, the terrorist attack, the hate crime, no matter how you want to label it, is a reflection of what is going on in the war against terror. What do we do? What are the policies? How do we deal with guns? What do we allow the FBI to do? There are big questions and now concerns.

Let's discuss with Lisa Monaco. She's assistant to the president for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism as well.

Lisa, sorry to have to talk to you under these circumstances, but it does matter even more coming out of Orlando.

Let's start at the top. The big theme that we see playing out in the presidential election is, President Obama's reluctance to say "radical Islam" is seen as a reflection of a lack of resolve, a lack of desire to get his hands around the problem and attack it. Do you agree with that assessment?

LISA MONACO, ASST. TO PRESIDENT FOR HOMELAND SECURITY & COUNTERTERRORISM: No, I don't, Chris. And thanks for having me this morning. It's good to be with you.

I don't do politics, as you noted. I'm the president's counterterrorism and homeland security advisor. And I know first-hand because I meet with him every morning to discuss the threats facing this country that he is focused - he's focused on the threat that is posed from ISIL, he's threat on the - he's focused on the threat posed from home-grown violent extremists, and he is determined to destroy ISIL, which is why he talked yesterday about the progress in our campaign against that brutal terrorist group.

CUOMO: When you guys are doing your policy briefings and discussing this, what do you call the threat?

MONACO: I call it a brutal terrorist threat from ISIL. I call ISIL basically a hybrid threat that we're facing. It is at once operating at an insurgency, operating with military tactics, and we're seeing that, but we're rolling them back from the territory they once occupied. They are, of course, a brutal terrorist a group undertaking directed attacks like we saw in Paris and Brussels, but also inspiring individuals to commit acts of violence wherever they are. And that's the threat that, frankly, we are concerned very, very much about. We're concerned about their ability to spew their hatred, their violent and brutal message through the Internet and to recruit, radicalize and mobilize individuals to violence wherever they are.

CUOMO: The FBI, our sources are telling us, that there is a concern that's reflected in what happened here in Orlando. They had two bites at this guy. It's not about them dropping the ball. It's not about them not being able to make the case. But it's about their ability, when they have people in their database who they've come across for bad reason, to flag a gun purchase transaction. The FBI is not empowered to do that right now is my understanding under current law. Should they be able to?

MONACO: Well, Chris, you've hit upon the challenge, right? We face a challenge in law enforcement has an incredible challenge with understanding and intervening and identifying an individual who is self-radicalized, somebody who isn't in contact with a broader network. How do you find out when they go from inspiration, to action and to murder? The FBI director has talked about what happened in this case, and the times that this killer emerged on their radar screen and the significant investigative steps they undertook. They operate on something called predication. They have information or an allegation that somebody may pose a threat or may be engaged in criminal activity and they run that to ground. They use all of their tools to understand what that threat may or may not be. And as the FBI director said, he doesn't want his agents investigating people indefinitely. They have thousands of cases open. Things that they have to focus on. And they have to triage this threat. So they ran this thing to ground. That -

[08:45:27] CUOMO: But it's not about - it's not about extending indefinitely, though, Lisa. It's about, you've got the guy. His name's in the database. He's come up more than once. And when you find out that he's trying to buy a weapon, you contact him.

MONACO: So that's right, Chris. This is the challenge, right? And these are important questions. And as the FBI director said, they're going to look at this going forward, everything they can understand about this killer's motivation and what inspired him to commit this brutal - this brutal and horrific act and they're also going to look backward. And if there are things that we can learn about how we should do things better, then we should do that. But I think we also need to understand, we've got thousands of cases open. We've got a system wherein if the FBI has provided that information on a closed case, the question in this case, the question in this case is, what could they have done with that information. This individual, this killer, could still go in and buy that assault rifle regardless of whether the FBI had been flagged.

CUOMO: True, but at least they would have had some contact with him. But these are certainly the questions as you put them to challenge is, what we need is to get answers from leadership.

Lisa Monaco, thank you for joining us.

MONACO: Thanks very much, Chris.

CUOMO: All right, now part of dealing with the aftermath of Orlando will be most acutely felt by those who survived the carnage. Imagine what life is like after you make it through something like that. You're at once lucky and so unlucky. The way forward, ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [08:50:39] CAMEROTA: Forty-nine lives lost in the terror attack at the gay nightclub that you can see over my shoulder. Every day we hear more dramatic stories of survival and, of course, the horror that unfolded inside.

We're joined now by Giovanni Nieves, as well as Jeannette McCoy and Yvens Carrenard. They were inside the club during the attack.

Thanks so much for being here.

Giovanni, let me start with you, because you lost a shocking amount of friends. You were there with five people that were killed?

GIOVANNI NIEVES, LOST FIVE FRIENDS IN TERROR ATTACK: I lost five really good friends that were inside the club. I was supposed to go to the club that night. I was - went to a birthday dinner. It ended early. And, as normal, everybody on Saturday says, let's go to Pulse on a Saturday. I mean it's - it was like church on Sundays, that's where we went. I was supposed to be there, and I didn't go. And my friends did.

CAMEROTA: That's right. And you lost those five friends. How are you coping with that?

NIEVES: You know, it's - right now it's like being a walking dead. You know, you don't know - you don't know if you can be sad any more. You don't know if you can cry any more. You don't know if - to be angry any more. You just - it's really just - you're programmed to just continue walking. And there's times when you break down, and then there's times where you just - you're in shock because you just can't believe this is happening.

CAMEROTA: I've heard that from other - other survivors. You don't know what day it is. You wake up and you don't know if you dreamt it. You don't know if you're just living this nightmare. It just continues.

NIEVES: It's - it's a terrible feeling. You know, every day, you know, you try to get some sleep. You try to maybe rest and hope that the next morning when you wake up it's like it was a nightmare, that you'll hear a voice saying, hey, I'm OK, and - and it hurts because it doesn't happen.

CAMEROTA: Jeanette, you were in the club, as I understand it, with your friends. And we have video, I believe, of you, because you, at one point, took your shirt off when you realized that a friend had been hit and used it as a tourniquet to stop the bleeding.

JEANNETTE MCCOY, ORLANDO TERROR ATTACK SURVIVOR: Yes.

CAMEROTA: Can you tell us about that moment?

MCCOY: It was right after I - I was able to exit the club. I was first there with my buddy, Angel Colon (ph), who was standing next to me. My buddy. I bring my straight friend to the gay club because I was feeling down and just wanted to have a drink. And, you know, I wanted to just salsa dance. I love salsa dancing. But when I came out and finally made it through, I did see Juan, who's the bartender. And after I realized that I hadn't been shot, I mean it was just a natural instinct to start helping everyone around. And he had a gunshot wound to his right quad, and automatically I took my shirt off and just tied it as tight as I can and then started to help another young lady who was shot in the arm. She was going into shock. And I was just communicating with her, letting her know where she was shot and letting her know that she was going to be OK and just trying to help as many people as I can out there. I just didn't want to leave and leave anyone there.

CAMEROTA: I'm sure that was so comforting to people.

YVENS CARRENARD, ORLANDO TERROR ATTACK SURVIVOR: Yes.

CAMEROTA: Yvens, you, as I understand it, did you catch a glimpse of the gunman?

CARRENARD: Yes, I caught a little glimpse. When the shots went off, I automatically knew they were gunshots. There was no confusion in my mind. So I turned around and I ran into a little storage room that I found. And some people came in behind me and I put my body against the door to block anybody else from coming in, whether they were multiple gunmens or just one gunman. And I did crack the door open just to see like the distance, to make sure he wasn't by the door, because there were people with me. There was a young woman with me and I kind of got into protective mode. And when I seen him, he was just standing by the VIP couches and he was just shooting towards the bar. Like, I could see the flair from the barrel.

CAMEROTA: And you used a ladder to get out of that room.

CARRENARD: Yes, there - yes. So when my body was against the door, I looked up, I looked to the corner, and then we all looked up and we seen the ladder. And we just started climbing up the ladder and went into that office that was up there in the attic, locked the door, and went under the desk. So there was about like four or five people with me.

CAMEROTA: How long did you stay in there?

CARRENARD: It felt like forever, but probably like 25 minutes, in- between, you know, almost 30.

CAMEROTA: Jeannette, I know that you think your friend Angel, who you were there with, saved your life.

MCCOY: Yes.

CAMEROTA: How?

MCCOY: He was standing right next to me. You know, I don't want to get emotional. I've been so emotional. He was right next to me, on my left-hand side. And I went to turn to my brother and I was facing the bar where Juan was at. And once the shot fired, there was another young lady who was right next to us, and shots are going all over the place. You start feeling - you can tell at that moment, it felt like a - like a - like a war room.

[08:55:06] There was a lady who was shot next to me and I started to duck and I'm turning around. As I'm turning around, I see the gun. I don't see the guy, but I see the gun because of all the flair, the fire that's coming out. So Angel pushes me and we start exiting. I start going towards the patio. And we're falling. We're trying to get up. And in my mind I was - I was bracing myself to get hit. I felt that I was going to get hit, but I just wanted to get out. If I was to get hit and - when I finally exited out, I mean the fence and the patio, it was gone. It was - it was just knocked down. So by the time I came out, I came all the way around and that's when I realized that I didn't have any gunshot wounds, but my brother, I couldn't find my brother Jeff, Jillian, Yvens wasn't there, Angel wasn't there. Now I was alone. And I came all the way across the front because, naturally, I wanted to see who this guy was.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

MCCOY: I wanted to see who he was. So I saw the whole fire and the -

CAMEROTA: And you saw him?

MCCOY: Oh, I didn't get to see him, but I was on the outside.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

MCCOY: So I saw when the police officers got into a little gun battle with him.

CAMEROTA: You know, you have been in a war. I mean all of the psychological experts say that you do have PTSD. You did live through a war. So, please, take care of yourselves. The president is coming down tomorrow I know to try to offer some sort of comfort. We are thinking of you. Thank you so much for sharing your story with us and we will check back with all of you. Thank you so much for being here on NEW DAY.

NEWSROOM with Carol Costello will pick up after this very short break, and we'll see you tomorrow.

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