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Dem Senator: Agreement to Hold Votes on Gun Control; Trump to Meet with NRA on Gun Control; Orlando Killer Made Posts, Calls During Attack. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired June 16, 2016 - 06:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We need more than another moment of silence.

[05:58:24] UNIDENTIFIED MALE" Refusing to enact "no-fly, no buy," is political malpractice.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If Conman Don can convince the NRA to move forward on this, God bless him.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: This is tough to do it alone. But you know what? I think I'm going to be forced to.

SEN. CHRIS MURPHY (D), CONNECTICUT: We will be getting these votes.

I yield the floor.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He cut me off, and he said, "I'm the shooter."

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: What went on during that massacre?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The gunman posted several very disturbing messages.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Will the Orlando club gunman's wife face charges?

RON HOPPER, FBI SPECIAL AGENT IN CHARGE: We will leave no stone unturned.

SHERIFF JERRY DEMINGS, ORANGE COUNTY, FLORIDA: We recovered the remains of the 2-year-old from the water.

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Horror at the Happiest Place on Earth.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're going to make certain that we have the alligator that was involved.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS CUOMO, ANN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome to your NEW DAY. We're here in Orlando. Alisyn in New York. We begin with breaking news. Now Chris Murphy's marathon filibuster on the Senate floor came to an end after 15 hours in somewhat of a qualified declaration of victory by the Democratic senator who started it, Chris Murphy from Connecticut. He says he has a deal to have an up and down vote on two different measures that will make a difference after what happened over our shoulder here in Orlando. Forty-nine people lost their lives, dozens others injured after this attack, Alisyn.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: And Chris, we're also, as you know, learning new details about what the terrorist did during the attack as well as the conflicting stories his wife is telling.

So in just hours President Obama and Vice President Biden will travel to Orlando to meet with victims' families and the first responders.

We have this covered the way only CNN can, so let's begin with CNN's senior political reporter, Manu Raju. He is live in Washington with the breaking news out of Congress. Tell us all about what happened last night, Manu.

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: Hey, good morning, Alisyn.

Now, Chris Murphy's nearly 15-hour filibuster marks the longest in the history of the Senate. A really dramatic moment that was aimed at putting political pressure on the GOP. At issue is legislation that would deny suspected terrorists the right to obtain firearms.

But Republicans and Democrats have squabbled for months on how to structure such a bill, and whether Murphy's move actually changed anything is an open question.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TRUMP: Our leaders have to get tougher. This is too tough to do it alone, but you know? I think I'm going to be forced to.

RAJU (voice-over): Donald Trump ready to turn his back on GOP leaders, threatening to go it alone if they fail to fall in line.

MURPHY: I've had enough. I'm going to remain on this floor until we can get a path forward on addressing this epidemic.

And there's a fundamental disconnect with the American people when these tragedies continue to occur, and we just move forward with business as usual.

RAJU: Democratic Senator Chris Murphy ending his nearly 15-hour filibuster on the Senate floor early this morning, after saying he has a commitment from Republican leaders to take on two proposed gun control measure.

Quote, "I am proud to announce that after 14 plus hours on the floor, we will have a vote on closing the terror gap and universal background checks."

The dramatic scene comes just four days after the Orlando terrorist attack at a gay nightclub that killed 49 people and injured 53 others, the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history.

Dozens of Democrats joining Murphy on the Senate floor.

SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D), MASSACHUSETTS: Through all of the shouting, we miss what should be obvious. It was a terrorist with a gun that killed all those people.

SEN. CORY BOOKER (D), NEW JERSEY: Enough. Enough. Enough. What we're seeking is common sense.

RAJU: And even some Republican senators.

SEN. PAT TOOMEY (R), PENNSYLVANIA: There's an obvious opportunity here, guys, to work together and find a solution.

RAJU: Murphy's voice amplified into the night as the hashtag #filibuster was trending on Twitter during his marathon session. The Connecticut senator had just been elected when a gunman shot and killed 20 first graders and six educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School in his home state, evoking this heartfelt plea.

MURPHY: I can't tell you how hard it is to look into the eyes of the families of those little boys and girls who were killed in Sandy Hook and tell them that, almost four years later, we've done nothing. Nothing at all.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

RAJU: Now, yesterday there were negotiations happening behind the scenes, led by Republican Senator John Cornyn of Texas and Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein of California, to find a deal on how to prevent those suspected terrorists from buying firearms, while addressing Republicans' concerns that the Democratic bill was much too broad.

But actually, those talks yesterday seemed to have stalled. And despite Murphy's comments, the Senate has actually not officially announced any deal on votes at this point. And even if there are votes, it's very unlikely there will be any significant change to gun laws this year, something we have not seen in nearly a decade -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: All right, Manu. We will be speaking with Senator Chris Murphy in our 8 a.m. hour and asking him all of those questions you've raised.

Well, Donald Trump breaking ranks with the GOP in the gun control fight. Trump says that he plans to meet with the NRA to talk about banning people on terror watch lists from buying firearms.

CNN's Phil Mattingly is live at CNN Center in Atlanta with more. What have you learned, Phil?

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning, Alisyn.

This is the moment the party is supposed to unify. This is the time when Republicans are expected to coalesce behind their presumptive nominee.

Yet, as we've seen over the course of this week, whether it's on Donald Trump's proposal to ban Muslims from immigrating into the United States, whether it's insinuations that President Obama and his administration are in cahoots with ISIS or, now, splitting with the Republican Party on their views on where the NRA should be, it seems like the fissures are only widening.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TRUMP: Our leaders have to get tougher. This is too tough to do it alone, but you know what? I think I'm going to be forced to.

MATTINGLY (voice-over): Donald Trump ready to turn his back on GOP leaders, threatening to go it alone if they fail to fall in line.

TRUMP: We have to have our Republicans either stick together or let me just do it by myself. I'll do very well.

MATTINGLY: The biting response coming after days of backlash from Republicans, refusing to back Trump's proposed Muslim ban in the wake of the terror attack.

TRUMP: Don't talk. Please, be quiet. Just be quiet to the leaders, because they have to be tougher. They have to get sharper; they have to get smarter.

[06:05:06] MATTINGLY: House Speaker Paul Ryan continuing to rebuke Trump's views.

REP. PAUL RYAN (R-WI), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: I actually think a Muslim ban based on religion is counterproductive to our efforts to fight terrorism. We believe in the First Amendment, which is freedom of religion.

MATTINGLY: Trump touting that he can move the NRA on restricting terror suspects from buying guns after this week's terror attack.

TRUMP: I'm going to be talking to the NRA about that and starting a real dialogue. I want to really hear what they have to say. They've endorsed me. They're terrific people.

MATTINGLY: The NRA says it welcomes the meeting but maintains its opposition to an outright ban.

Trump going as far to say that, if more people were armed inside the Orlando nightclub, fewer people would have died.

TRUMP: You would have had a situation, folks, which would have been always horrible but nothing like the carnage that we all, as a people, suffered.

MATTINGLY: Hillary Clinton firing back, questioning Trump's legitimacy as a candidate.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Not one of Donald Trump's reckless ideas would have saved a single life in Orlando. It's just more evidence that he is temperamentally unfit and totally unqualified to be commander in chief.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MATTINGLY: And despite Republican leaders asking Donald Trump to ratchet back the rhetoric, both in public, and also aides tell me in private conversations, don't expect it to happen any too soon, according to Trump advisors.

Trump has a big rally in Dallas tonight. At the same time, President Obama and Vice President Biden will be traveling to and from Orlando for memorial services. He's only expected to ramp up his attacks related to national security and terrorism. The reason why? Trump says it himself: he believes his numbers only go up when he's talking about those issues, particular in the wake as -- of something as terrible as what happened in Orlando -- Chris.

CUOMO: All right, Phil. Thank you very much for taking us up to speed.

Let's put the politics of who's worse to decide for a second. And let's get a legitimate take on what might happen and what probably won't happen with guns in our Congress.

Let's bring in David Gregory, CNN political analyst, host, of course, of "The David Show" -- David Gregory -- should be just called "The David Show." Let's change it. "David Gregory Show" podcast. Also, we have CNN political commentator and anchor for Time Warner Cable News, Errol Louis. Gentlemen, thank you for joining us about this.

Let's just deal with the straight political reality. Errol, Chris Murphy is trying to play to advantage here, trying to suggest it worked, the filibuster worked. Manu Raju is a damn good reporter, as you know, and he is echoing what we're hearing otherwise, which is there is no deal. What do you think the political reality of what might happen is?

ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, what might happen, what might very well happen is that they'll go into summer break without this resolved and then find out that there was no deal or that they'll sort of make it a procedural vote that will be very hard to sort of follow, how it gets to where Chris Murphy thinks he wants to go.

You've got a million different ways that this can be either delayed, watered down or, frankly, quietly killed. So we're going to hope, I guess, that what he says was a deal is a real deal and will, in fact, be honored. But then, at the end of all of that, Chris, you have to keep in mind that he can get an up and down vote, perhaps in a narrow procedural way, and then he could lose that vote.

So I mean, you know, he was looking for the very lowest hanging fruit that you can imagine, meaning just an up or down vote on the question of whether people on a terrorist watch list should be able to buy weapons, and he may not even get that. CUOMO: Right. And here's the frustration on that level, David

Gregory. You would think that whatever they're going to do would be tailored to what this community, this country just suffered through here in Orlando. However, the idea of "no-fly, no buy" or what they're saying now, which is even more simplistic, terrorists shouldn't have guns, as if somebody were advocating that terrorists should have guns.

Is that this murderer would not have been on any list, was not on any list. The FBI and their sources, our sources with them are saying, "We need something else, which is some of the thousands of people that we have in our databases that we've had contact with that then go to buy guns, we should be able to flag those applications." That's even more remote. You know, that's even, you know, more distant from the current reality. How realistic that a change anything like that happens?

DAVID GREGORY, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: I think it's very difficult, because exactly that point is what's at the core of the debate, which is even if you're off the California was Senator Feinstein of California suggesting is for five years from the time you've been on a terror watch list, you should be flagged or not able to buy a gun.

The NRA has said in the past they would support not just barring gun sales from somebody who was on the list, but you'd have to be a federal prosecutor who goes in within three days of that sale and make a case for probable cause to deny such a sale.

So there's a blanket coverage that's being suggested that I think is going to be very difficult to pull off. The "X" factor here is Donald Trump. Is he going to buck -- as the head of the Republican Party, even though it's not very divided, is he going to buck the NRA and try to ram something through? And what impact might that have?

CUOMO: Yes. You know, also, that's exactly the right term. Thank you very much, David.

So Errol, Trump says, "Look, I know how to do deals. I know how to negotiate. I'll talk to the NRA. They love me."

They don't even wait for the meeting. They put out a tweet immediately, in Trump-esque fashion, and then a statement saying, "Yes, we'll meet with anybody you want. Our position will never change. We believe terrorists shouldn't have weapons." Again, I find that to be such an insulting supposition, like anybody thinks that that's a strong position. Like, "Well, I don't know. I might be in favor of terrorists having weapons." That's how silly our dialog is on this issue.

And they say, "We are where we are." So forget them. What does this mean for Trump in terms of his dynamic and the state of play within the GOP? He reaches out to the NRA. They say, "We're not going to change." He's got the leaders coming at him. He says, "Be quiet." What does this indicate to you?

LOUIS: Well, what it indicates is that he's running a campaign that's going to mostly help him, that -- to the extent that what we've seen in the past, again tearing up the playbook, what we see in 2012, what we see in 2008, what we see almost every four years is a president trying to become both the president and the head of the government, head of state but also the head of his party and lead the party in a particular direction.

Trump is having a really hard time fulfilling that last part of the job. And what he is signaling is that, if his interests diverge of, say, Speaker Ryan or those of the Republican leadership in Washington otherwise, he'd like to go it alone.

And that makes a certain amount of sense from the point of view of his own campaign, but he guarantees that there won't be the unity that everybody keeps talking about. It guarantees that there's going to be some problem in some swing states. It guarantees that there's going to be a lot of message confusion that I think is going to really hurt him with independents. It really sort of sets the stage for a big confusing fight between now and, what are we, 145 days out.

CUOMO: Right. Now, David, in terms of the politics of who's worse, let's look at the other side of the ball for a second. Hillary Clinton is saying amen to the filibuster. That's great. But we know what works. We know what changes the realities of weapons and violence in societies. You just have to look at Germany, what happened to them in the early 2000s after a school shooting, the changes they made.

The kind of things they did are almost laughable in the political state of play in the United States right now. A gun registry, one year waiting period, psychological testing before you can get one, having to have a good reason to have a gun that's vetted by a panel.

And yet, Hillary Clinton, do you hear her suggesting those types of things, at least to show principle on it?

GREGORY: Yes, not at the moment. I mean, she's obviously supportive of this effort. And I've talked to over the years, over the past five years or so, talking to Democrats who want meaningful gun restrictions, who make the argument they've got to do it in smaller fashion. They can't do wholesale changes. They've got to do opportunities to get smaller legislation like this. And there's been other measures, too, that have had some -- some level of success. So perhaps that will be her approach.

And again, I think if you're -- Donald Trump is taking on the NRA, this is what people may have looked at to say this is what could -- he could do to surprise some people by coming out for a measure like this. But it's impossible to know what moves the needle on a political dialog that's totally kind of stopped dead in its tracks on this, regardless of the kind of carnage we see playing out in events like this.

CUOMO: And, you know, as always, it's easy to dismiss what's being done with Trump being ham-handed. But on the other side of the ball, what is Clinton offering, and how is she going to help get it done? Those are the real questions, as well. David, Errol, thank you so much.

Coming up in the 8 a.m. hour, we're going to have the man in the middle, Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy. He started this filibuster. What does he think he achieved? What does he think is even possible?

Also, we're looking at new details that are emerging about this deranged killer here in Orlando: what he was doing, how he was preparing, and who might have known. That last piece of most importance to the authorities at this time.

So let's bring in CNN's chief national security correspondent, Jim Sciutto, with the latest.

Now, Jim, we're getting more and more meat on the bones of why we were being told in the hours and early days after this, slow down. This guy is a complicated picture. There's a lot going on with him that speaks to lots of different problems, not just his terroristic tendency.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: No question, I mean, just enormous self-absorption. We're learning, in addition to the phone calls he's making, in the midst of the attack, after he's killed dozens of people, he was posting on Facebook. He was searching on Facebook to see if people were talking about the shooting that he just committed here. That's one thing that we're just learning overnight.

We're also learning new details about the wife's involvement in this -- in this incredible shooting in the hours and the days leading up to it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

[07:15:06] SCIUTTO (voice-over): Disturbing new evidence revealing the killer paused several times during his rampage to make a number of phone calls and post chilling messages on the Internet. Investigators say the killer searched for "Pulse Orlando" and "Shooting" on Facebook, posted before and during the attack, "Now taste the Islamic State vengeance."

In a final post, obtained by the Senate homeland security chairman, the killer threatening, "In the next few days, you will see attacks from the Islamic State in the USA."

The killer also calling a friend to say good-bye.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He said, "I'm the shooter."

SCIUTTO: And a local news station about 45 minutes into the massacre. He started saying, "I did it for ISIS. I did it for the Islamic State" again, and I didn't know what to say to him. I was just blown away.

SCIUTTO: One of the survivors barricaded in the nightclub bathroom says he heard some of the gunman's conversations. ORLANDO TORRES, PULSE NIGHTCLUB SHOOTING SURVIVOR: In the beginning

he said, "Well, I'm here at the club, and it should be already all over the media, news media" and also that he was wearing a bomb vest and also that there was supposedly three snipers out there ready for the cops if they came.

SCIUTTO: The killer's wife, Noor Salman, remains a focus of the investigation. Two law enforcement sources tell CNN that she has given authorities conflicting authorities about what she knew about her husband's plans of attack. She now says she suspected he was planning an attack and even mentioned the Pulse nightclub as a potential target.

Officials say he was talking about carrying at a jihadi attack for months and, on the day of the massacre, she tried to stop him. She'd initially denied knowing he would do something like this.

JEFF ASHTON, ORANGE COUNTY STATE ATTORNEY: If there's evidence out there that somebody out there, you know, helped him get this done and knew what was going to happen, that person could be guilty of 49 counts of first-degree murder.

SCIUTTO: This as the first known video of the killer surfaces from a 2012 documentary about the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

OMAR MATEEN, ORLANDO NIGHTCLUB SHOOTER: No one gives a (EXPLETIVE DELETED). No one gives a (EXPLETIVE DELETED) here.

SCIUTTO: The killer, captured on a hidden camera, insulting the people working to clean up the mess.

MATEEN: They want more disaster to happen, because that's where their money making is.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SCIUTTO: And we're learning new details now about the wife's involvement, what she knew before. She now tells investigators that she visited the Pulse nightclub with him before the shooting. She tells also accompanied him for at least one trip, Chris, to buy ammunition.

She tells investigators she didn't know he was buying ammunition to kill people, but really, her story has changed a bit in terms of how much she knew before. And a lot of these answers, how satisfying are they to investigators? I think there are real questions here. That's why they're going before a grand jury for possible charges.

SCIUTTO: And that is an interesting point. They don't need one. They could bring their own felony warrant against them, but they are getting her to continue to talk. And that's always a plus for investigators. Thank you very much. We'll check back with you in a little bit.

And the big question, of course, swirling around the wife is, got the grand jury now; will they charge her? If so, with what? And if so, to what end?

Investigators say she's still cooperating. That's the key. As long as she wants to talk, I'm sure they'll keep probing. but what about the possibilities going forward and how soon might we see some action? Next.

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[06:22:18] CUOMO: All right. We're going to shed some light on something that we're hearing a lot from you, the viewers. Why are they talking so much, these investigators, with the wife? Why aren't they charging? What are they trying to do that's taking so much time?

Let's bring back our Jim Sciutto, and let's bring in Art Roderick. Now, he's CNN law enforcement analyst, former assistant director of the U.S. Marshals Office, understands these negotiations very well.

The big answer to that question, Art, is this just isn't about what she knew, this little piece. This is reconstructing this man's life to figure out all the different tentacles that may have reached out to madness and the derangement that led him into that nightclub. Is that the accurate answer?

ART RODERICK, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: That is the accurate answer. We heard the FBI come out yesterday at the press conference and ask for that type of assistance.

So they're trying to piece together this guy's life from his -- probably his whole adult life at this point and figure out who he was in contact with, talk to everybody that they can, so they can close those gaps they have in that time line.

CUOMO: And you know, sources have been telling you and me the same thing. What's the rush? If she wants to talk, I want to probe this as much as I can. People change over time. You've been reporting very frequently that her answers have changed. That's why they keep talking.

SCIUTTO: Well, there you go. It's a threat that you're hanging over their head. It's almost picture the cops, you know, in the interrogation room. They want to good cop, bad cop to some degree. You want to make it clear that there could be legal consequences here, but on the flip side say, if you keep talking, you provide this, you know, you don't say we're not going to charge her, but you want to keep that spigot open, spigot of information open.

BLITZER: What do you make of these -- reports that Disney reached out to authorities, saying, these people are showing up here? Confirmed, not confirmed by the government here? Reports he went to another gun shop, wanted body armor, wanted a ton of ammo, was acting oddly according to the store owner. They didn't sell it to him.

Those types of incidents, do they frustrate you in terms of people misunderstanding their relevance? Is it hindsight? How do you -- what do you make of those reports? RODERICK: This whole thing frustrates me. I mean, we've got -- we

can go back. How far do we want to go back to 2013, 2014, back when he was taking the training courses in '07 and '08. The whole process is just like a red flag pops up at least half a dozen times through this whole thing.

Now, I'm assuming that probably with the reports coming from Disney, they must have some video. The gun store probably has some video. I mean, they're all videoed up nowadays. So that's going to be key to filling in a lot of these gaps.

CUOMO: But it takes you to the question. People are so quick to blame, full stop. But here it's specific to the FBI.

Now they hear this new piece of information. The gun shop owner came to you and said this guy -- and they had some information about him, who he was, and he wanted body armor and he was talking crazy and making weird, outlandish statements, so we didn't sell him anything. What's the truth about what the FBI could have done, if they gave them the name there?

[06:25:16] SCIUTTO: You have a numbers problem here, right? They have about a thousand investigations of potential jihadis underway at any time in all 50 states. So they have to make judgment calls.

What the FBI tends to do, they focus less on the path to the ideology, because there are lots of people out there who say angry stuff or stuff that supports jihad and focus on the path to violence. They're looking for the sign that this person's going to turn this ideology into a violent act. Things like buying ammunition, et cetera.

But then again, there are a lot of people in this country who buy guns and ammunition, so how do you make -- these are difficult judgment calls. But I will also say -- and we know this -- FBI is looking at the calls that it made in previous months and years to see so they can learn from this, to see what they do next.

CUOMO: The irony is, Art, this gun shop owner had more power than the FBI to stop this guy from getting a gun. Right? He can make the decision. It's his store.

RODERICK: That's right.

CUOMO: "I'm not selling to you and I'm not selling you for any reason that I want, or I'm going to give you no reason." That made him more powerful than the FBI. They weren't able to have that authority because of the existing gun laws.

So what do you think is going to happen with the wife? Do you think they're going to bang her and put her on charges or no?

RODERICK: I think that when you're talking about the type of charges they're talking about, you know, misprision of a felony, conspiracy, aiding and abetting, those are all types of charges you sort of dangle over somebody's head to make sure they continue to cooperate.

CUOMO: Grand jury, though. They don't have to do that. They could just go with a felony warrant.

RODERICK: I agree with you.

CUOMO: What does that mean?

RODERICK: Well, the grand jury, as you know, once you take someone before a grand jury, I'm sure this U.S. attorney has all the evidence he needs to get an indictment. Very rarely does the U.S. attorney come out of a grand jury without an indictment.

SCIUTTO: That's true.

CUOMO: A ham sandwich. All right. Art, Jim, thank you very much. Appreciate it.

And of course, one of the reasons that there's so much attention here in Orlando today is the president is coming, and he's coming to do the right thing, obviously, which is to meet with the families of those who were lost here.

And the other big story that popped up out of Orlando this week was about this alligator snatching a kid right in front of his parents on vacation at Disney World. The news, small measure of solace, look at that face on your screen. They found Lane. They found Lane Graves, the two-year-old. They found him intact. They believe he was drowned by the alligator.

What does this mean? Was the warning right? Was the action by the family right? Is this just an ugly and tragic reality? We'll give you a closer look ahead.

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