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New Footage of Orlando Shooting Released; John McCain Makes Controversial Statement on Orlando Shooting; Obama Consoles Survivors And Families Of Orlando Attack; LGBT Community In Spotlight After Orlando Attack. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired June 17, 2016 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:05:00] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- talking the talk, but he ain't walking the walk.

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: President Obama keeps blaming guns.

BARACK OBAMA, (D) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We don't act, we will keep seeing more massacres like this.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It began in the voice of Donald Trump, then Bernie Sanders --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What we need is a cinnamon roll revolution.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is NEW DAY with Chris Cuomo and Alisyn Camerota.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Did he say a "cinnamon roll revolution"? I hope so. He gets my vote. We will be talking about that young man coming up. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to your NEW DAY. It is Friday, June 17th, 8:00 in the east. Chris is off today and David Gregory joins me. It's great to have you here.

DAVID GREGORY, CNN ANCHOR: He is renewing his hunting license, no, his fishing license. That's what it is.

CAMEROTA: Is that right?

GREGORY: It's good to be here, though.

CAMEROTA: All right, we do have a lot of news to cover. First up, we are learning more about the final communications from the terrorist who attacked the gay club in Orlando. The deranged killer and his wife were texting during the rampage, and new information is also emerging about the killer's past behavioral issues.

GREGORY: Also, Alisyn, president Obama ripping gun control opponents after meeting with survivors and families of Sunday's massacre. With Congress set to vote on several gun measures next week, the big question is, will anything change in our gun politics? We're going to begin our coverage with CNN's Polo Sandoval. He's live in Orlando with the very latest on the investigation this morning. Polo, good morning.

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: David, good morning. Investigators are picking up where they left off yesterday. In fact not far from where I'm standing several dozen investigators are coming together as they get ready to begin day six of this investigation.

Meanwhile, family members are continuing to lay their loved ones to rest and they learn that the gunman not only used his phone to browse Facebook during the shooting, but he texted his wife as well.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SANDOVAL: Two hours into the three hour Orlando shooting, terror attack while holed up in a bathroom in a standoff with police, investigators say the killer exchanged text messages with his wife, Noor Salman, asking if she had seen the news. Authorities say she also tried calling him several times during the rampage, but he didn't answer.

This as chilling new video from inside the gay nightclub surfaces. It was taken by a survivor as the killer passed inside one of the club's bathrooms, frightened club goers huddling together, hoping they won't be next. Miguel recorded the grainy video. He was shot in the foot and in the leg.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There was about 17 of us in there. Only like five or six of us made it out.

SANDOVAL: Captain Mark Canty describes the moment the SWAT breached the wall to rescue the victims inside.

CAPTAIN MARK CANTY, ORLANDO SWAT COMMANDER: While gunfire is still going on, just as our officer are engaging them, other police officers are running in there, you know, with no disregard, no regard for their safety and they pulled some of the victims out.

SANDOVAL: President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden spent the day in Orlando meeting with victims and their families.

BARACK OBAMA, (D) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I held and hugged grieving family members and parents, and they asked why does this keep happening? And they pleaded that we do more to stop the carnage.

SANDOVAL: Obama's presidency challenged by dozens of mass shooting, forcing him to be consoler in chief. Many asking could this massacre have been avoided. Investigators are now piecing together the killer's past. CNN has obtained documents showing that the killer had behavioral issues dating back to elementary school. Records show he was disciplined 31 times between 1992 and 1999 for rude and aggressive behavior. A former elementary school classmate tells CNN the shooter once threatened to bring a gun to school and kill everyone.

ROBERT ZIRKLE, ORLANDO SHOOTER'S SCHOOLMATE: He was always a little out there, and didn't really have too many friends.

SANDOVAL: Other classmates also told CNN that in the days following 9/11, the killer claimed Usama bin Laden was his uncle and joked about the attacks.

ZIRKLE: He was acting like a plane, like he had his arms out. He was making a plane noise, and he made like a boom sound, like an explosion type of sound, fell in his seat. He was like laughing about it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANDOVAL: There is that lingering question, while we continue to hear from people who had at least one encounter or another with the gun man, did anybody see this coming? I should mention a gun shop owner did come forward to the FBI in the days before the shooting, saying that somebody had showed up at his store trying to purchase several rounds of ammunition and also some body armor. FBI agents say they actually responded and spoke to this gun shop owner, but could not provide license plate information or suspect description, Alisyn.

But looking back today, the individuals who owned the store saying that the person that showed up at the counter that day was likely the man that was behind so much pain here at the Pulse nightclub.

[08:05:00] CAMEROTA: If only, if only something had been flagged beforehand effectively. Polo, thank you for that.

President Obama's anti-terror strategy coming up attack from Donald Trump and Senator John McCain while the gun control battle rages on Capitol Hill. CNN's Manu Raju is live in Washington with more. Good morning, Manu.

MANU RAJU, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Alisyn. Talks between a Senate Democrat and a top Senate Republican to see if there could be a deal to prevent suspected terrorists from buying guns, but those talks have collapsed. Some moderate senators from both parties are discussing a way forward, but still it is very unlikely to get anything enacted this year. And yet even after Democratic Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut led a nearly 15 hour filibuster this week to demand action on gun control, nothing has really changed on Capitol Hill other than intensifying tensions on this very, very controversial issue.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It's almost like they gave up on ISIS.

RAJU: Donald Trump taking on President Obama, joining fellow Republicans in framing the Orlando shooting as an issue of terrorism rather than guns.

TRUMP: To a large extent, he is blaming guns.

(BOOS)

TRUMP: And I'm going to save your Second Amendment, folks.

RAJU: Top Republican John McCain, striking a similar tone, laying blame for the massacre squarely at the president's feet. SEN. JOHN MCCAIN, (R) ARIZONA: Barack Obama is directly responsible

for it. When he pulled everybody out of Iraq, Al Qaeda went to Syria, became ISIS, and ISIS is what it is today thanks to Barack Obama's failures.

RAJU: The 2008 Republican nominee clarifying within minutes that he, quote, "misspoke," saying in a statement, "I did not mean to imply that the president was personally responsible. I was referring to President Obama's national security decision, not the president himself." Democrats quick to pounce with Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid's spokesman telling CNN, "Senator McCain's unhinged comments are just the latest proof that Senate Republicans are puppets of Donald Trump." This blame game happening as the gun debate continues to rage on Capitol Hill.

REP. PAUL RYAN, (R) SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: Is going after the Second Amendment how you stop terrorism? No, that's not how you stop terrorism.

NANCY PELOSI, (D-CA) HOUSE MINORITY LEADER: The Republicans are going to have to explain to the American people why they are just plain handmaidens of the National Rifle Association.

RAJU: Both sides of the aisle competing legislation aimed at keeping suspected terrorists from acquiring guns, with Democrats calling for an outright ban of sales to those in a terror watch list, something Republicans say could unfairly target innocent Americans. And Republicans proposing to delay gun sales for three-days to allow the FBI to investigate, an idea many Democrats call meaningless.

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER, (D) NEW YORK: It is a fake. It is a way for them to say they're doing something when they're doing nothing.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

RAJU: Now, John McCain, who we mentioned earlier is in a very difficult reelection battle. Last month in Arizona he told me this could be one of the toughest of his political career. Not only does he have to contend with concerns from Latino voters over Donald Trump but also antipathy from the right wing of his party over the issue over immigration. So what McCain is selling rather aggressively are his foreign policy and national security credentials, which is one reason why he took that very sharp jab at President Obama yesterday. So McCain's fate, part of a group of vulnerable senators whose fate will determine the next Senate majority. And expect this fight over gun issue to become a major wedge issue in the fall campaign in key Senate races.

CAMEROTA: Absolutely. Manu, thank you for all of that reporting.

Let's talk more about all of this with CNN political commentator and host of "SMERCONISH," Michael Smerconish. Michael, great to see you.

MICHAEL SMERCONISH, CNN HOST, "SMERCONISH": Thank you.

CAMEROTA: Let's talk about what can we expect this coming week in Congress? Are you as pessimistic as some of our previous guests that despite all of this hue and cry about something has to happen with gun violence, that nothing will happen?

SMERCONISH: I am pessimistic. The reason I am pessimistic is I'm mindful of the fact that if you go back to 1992, 102 congressional of the districts were competitive, competitive defined as the presidential race would be decided within five percentage points. Today, that number is 35. So 35 of the 435 congressional districts will be in play, and all the rest are predetermined. We could sit here right now with a marker and color in the map. What does that mean? It means that no matter what the clamoring might be for change on the gun front, when these legislators go home, they are representing the likeminded, largely because of gerrymandering.

GREGORY: How about Paul Ryan signaling, the way he frames this as an attack on the Second Amendment? It doesn't give a lot of more moderate voices in his own party much room to maneuver.

I want to ask you about McCain, who really issues an unfortunate statement that he tried to walk back by saying the president was directly responsible for Orlando because of his policies of not being more aggressive in Syria.

[08:10:12] What struck me about it is not just an unfortunate comment, but also there's not a fuller context for -- there's plenty of blame to go around with the Iraq war and the aftermath. It's not just about Obama but about the Bush administration as well.

SMERCONISH: When I heard it, I'm appalled by it. My own opinion is I thought it was an appalling comment to say. You know, the walk back really wasn't much of a walk back. I was talking about his policies, not his personally. He was laying blame on the president of the United States for the death of 49 civilians in that Orlando club.

And as I watched I thought two things, David. Number one, it puts him in a category with Donald Trump, the very person who said I don't respect John McCain. I respect those who don't get captured. And secondly, I said to myself, how many would have died had we done what John McCain was advocating, which was to remain full force in Iraq? What would that body count be today?

I guess a third point would be this is what drives ISIS. The idea that we are activists in what they regard as the so called Arabian Peninsula. So I thought it was wrong, wrong and wrong.

CAMEROTA: Michael, you have your finger on the pulse of how Americans feel. You talk to them every day on your radio show. With gun violence, have we just all sort of surrendered, Congress will do nothing, we expect them to do nothing, and this is the new normal?

SMERCONISH: For me the fatiguing moment came post Newtown because after the death of 20 school children, if nothing could be done then, I don't hold out hope that nothing would be done now. Alisyn, you find it interesting to join me in the radio studio in 40 minutes, and you see that every phone line illuminated, and it is like a Rorschach test. It's almost evenly divided between those who want to say it's the gun issue and those who want to say firearms have nothing to do with it. it's a terror issue.

CAMEROTA: Why can't it be both?

SMERCONISH: I think it probably is. I think frankly the truth probably lies somewhere in the middle, particular with regard to what just took place.

GREGORY: Can we look at a couple of other political images? Here is the president going down to Florida as consoler in chief. It is a very difficult part of any presidency. George W. Bush did it after 9/11, here the president and vice president laying flowers, and meeting with the members of those who were lost in Orlando privately, hugging them tightly, listening to them. The other image I wanted to mention, here is Marco Rubio, former senator with President Obama.

CAMEROTA: Former presidential candidate.

GREGORY: Former presidential candidate. He could have been, right, the nominee and we would have been kind of in a different place. Just trike striking to see that political imagine here.

SMERCONISH: Yes. And I guess, this is going to sound awkward, but he is awfully good at it. It is a shame to say that about the president. He has had too much practice is I guess what I really want to say. But he strikes the appropriate tone when he gets behind closed doors. He doesn't need to do this. We've come to expect it as if it's a prerequisite for his job. He really doesn't need to be there, but he is there. I don't like it when people say he is politicizing it by being a grieving individual.

CAMEROTA: I don't understand the whole politicizing argument. Aren't we allowed to talk about it? When something affects the nation this deeply and breaks all of our hearts, aren't we allowed to talk about it?

SMERCONISH: I've been talking about it all weekend. I'm not finished.

GREGORY: I think it's very important for anybody who goes through loss to be able to try to elevate the loss of a loved one after something this horrific, to try to elevate it in some way. When you have an opportunity to be with the president of the United States I think it can do that.

What about Marco Rubio, what do you make of that image of him and the president together in Florida. Does it get your mind thinking about what could have been?

SMERCONISH: It gets my mind thinking about what's to come because, David, how many times did he tell us, I am out of here. Whenever he was held accountable on the campaign trail for all those missed votes, he said I'm running for president, I'm not staying in the Senate. It looks like there is a change in the works. I think Marco Rubio will stand for reelection.

CAMEROTA: Back to Congress for a second. Their approval ratings are abysmal, I think 16 percent. And it's interesting what you say about gerrymandering, everybody is in their own echo chamber and voting how they think their own little slice of constituents feel. But then why does everyone think they hate Congress. Why do they think this is the do nothing Congress?

SMERCONISH: But you know we all hate congress, but our member of congress, hey, she's not so bad, he's not so bad. I lost track of what the reelection rate is. I think it's still in access of 90. So it's everyone else's member of Congress we don't like. Ours is fine.

GREGORY: Here's another problem. I was on Capitol Hill yesterday and I was talking to some folks up there. One of the things you have are very serious-minded policy people who do want to make the institution work well, but what controls the political debate is very much the fringes of both parties. They're calling into your program, they're on social media, they're often on cable news. It makes it very hard to find a more moderate, reasonable middle that actually does want to legislate.

SMERCONISH: David, this is my point. We have ceded, those who are not on the polar fringes, unfortunately have ceded the debate to the loudest voices. They say something incendiary, it becomes a fundraising magnet. They become a superstar in either of the parties. It used to be you got to Capitol Hill where you paid your dues, and you got ahead through legislative achievement. Now say something crazy, you become a superstar.

CAMEROTA: The world has gone mad. Michael Smerconish, thank you.

SMERCONISH: Nice to see you both.

GREGORY: We should mention check out "SMERCONISH" Saturdays at 9 a.m. Eastern on CNN. You can catch him weekdays on Sirius XM also 9 a.m. Eastern.

CAMEROTA: All right, so how those affected by Orlando attack feel about President Obama's visit. Did it help? We asked a gay community leader who met with the president, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I held and hugged grieving family members and parents, and they asked, why does this keep happening? They pleaded that we do more to stop the carnage.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: President Obama addressing the nation after meeting with survivors and families of the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history.

Joining us now, someone would met with the president, Orlando City Commissioner, Patty Sheehan. Commissioner, thank you so much for being on NEW DAY with us. Tell us about your meeting with the president.

PATTY SHEEHAN, ORLANDO CITY COMMISSIONER, MET WITH PRESIDENT OBAMA: Thank you, Alisyn. Well, actually, I didn't get to meet with the president yesterday. They were concerned that all the local elected officials would want to meet with the president. I'm like wait, I'm the gay one. But I actually didn't get to meet him yesterday.

What I did do yesterday, though, was very meaningful for me. I actually got to see the president across the lawn when he was placing the flowers with Vice President Biden.

[08:20:06]It was very moving. There was a bunch of us in the rotunda at city hall. And then right after that happened, there was a delivery from a gentleman, Joe Copan in New Orleans, and he actually delivered 49 wreaths with all the survivors, and they had their pictures.

We placed them around the rotunda city hall and it was very, very meaningful. And then Rodolfo Ayala (ph), Ayala's family was at the memorial last night, where the president placed the flowers, and he and their friends all came in, and they knew everybody that was affected, that had been killed.

And they said OK, these two were friends, these two were a couple, and we placed the wreaths where everybody was together. It was just, you know, very meaningful. The family was very touched and thankful.

CAMEROTA: We have pictures of that, and it does look beautiful and powerful. Commissioner, I know that you had told us that the community is angry, understandably, and that they want answers. What are those answers? Have you been able to now, days later, get any of those?

SHEEHAN: Yes, you know, I mean, I think that the one thing I really feel a shift, and I truly mean this because I've been an LGBT activist for over 30 years, and I've dealt with a lot of people whose hearts and minds were really set in any way that was not in favor of my community, but what I've seen is really a shift in the faith community.

They have been very upset about some of the protests that have been talked about happening here. They said this is not reflective of our religion, and they've reached out to the Christian ministers, they've reached out to the imams and Muslim community, and they've all been together.

That's the first time I've ever seen that. We've had interfaith groups, but I hate to say it, it has been a lefty churches, you know, it's been the Unitarians and folks like that. But now I'm talking about the Baptist church folks locally talking to our Muslim community, which I think is great.

I mean, they're saying this is about love, and we need to embrace our LGBT community, and I've never heard that before. So I really do feel there is a change and a shift because of this tragedy. CAMEROTA: That is a really nice silver lining, Commissioner. Because we had heard that there might be these sick protests from that odious fringe group --

SHEEHAN: I'm not going to mention their name.

CAMEROTA: I'm not either.

SHEEHAN: I find them so disgusting. I've been dealing with them as a gay rights activist, I've been very involved with our local pride parades, as an activist into my role as a city commissioner, and I have had to deal with these people. And the thing is, we've dealt with them in creative ways, we've put dancing boys in front of them in a line, and we've done the human chain --

CAMEROTA: Yes.

SHEEHAN: -- at funerals. And we're just hoping that we won't have to do that. They've promised they won't do that, but I have to tell you, there were 25,000 people on a Facebook to do human chains at funerals, which is basically, they have a first amendment right to protest and they say horrible things.

I mean, the vial things that they say -- it is like a business plan. They try to get people upset, and they hit them, you know, and then they sue them. This is not -- this is the whole business plan that they have.

CAMEROTA: Oh, my gosh.

SHEEHAN: But we -- this is -- I say this is not actually a religious anything. They're using a church as a way to run a business plan to sue government that don't allow them to spread their filth.

CAMEROTA: Yes. We've seen lots of extremists who bastardize and we pray that does not happen during the funerals down there, but it is very heartening and inspiring to hear that the Muslim world and the Christian world and the Baptist world are all coming together and you all have an action plan if that were to happen.

And Commissioner, one last thing. What is the action plan beyond the funerals? What will the gay community there, and entire community of Orlando do now?

SHEEHAN: Well, I'm really like, like I say, I'm very encouraged by this interfaith group that really brings in faith leaders in I would say more conservative parts of my community. I'm very encouraged by that.

We've got benefits happening all over the city to raise money for the victims. We've got people coming from all over to assist the families. I think once that initial dealing with the funerals, getting people visas to come from other countries, getting the bodies delivered, I mean, there is just a lot going on right now.

[08:25:01]Because people are, you know, we've got a lot of -- a lot of bodies going to Puerto Rico and other countries. We've got people coming in to make sure they can attend their grandchildren's funerals, and making sure they can get the paperwork through that.

Once we get through the crisis situation, I'm really encouraged, that even politicians, even politicians who have never been supportive of my community, are going to services with LGBT community members. Never seen that before.

And a lot of people are cynical and saying is this going to last, and I think it will. I've seen hearts change. I'm just as cynical as a lot of people. I've been a gay rights activist for a long time. I see change.

CAMEROTA: Commissioner, we appreciate your words, your optimism, and our hearts are with you today. Thank you for sharing all of that with NEW DAY.

SHEEHAN: Thank you, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: David.

GREGORY: Alisyn, thanks. So the terror attack in Orlando expected to lead in a spike in gun sales. It often happens after these events. Why is it the case and by how much? The numbers are in. CNN money now is next.

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