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Authorities Set To Release Orlando Shooter's Words; Wife Of Orlando Shooter Under Intense Scrutiny; Hollywood Mourns Death Of 27- year-old Actor Anton Yelchin. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired June 20, 2016 - 06:00   ET

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

[06:00:00] POLO SANDOVAL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This morning, authorities -- and the shooting however, as you mentioned, the FBI will be sharing more live on the investigation as they tell us more about those tense moments between the gunman and police, the night at the shooting.

This morning, authorities set to release the killer's words. The FBI and local law enforcement will put out limited transcripts and a timeline of the Orlando killer's conversations with negotiators during the three-hour standoff.

LORETTA LYNCH, ATTORNEY GENERAL OF UNITED STATES: The reason why we're going to limit these transcripts is to avoid revictimizing those who went through this more horror.

SANDOVAL: Attorney general Loretta Lynch tell Cnn, the transcripts reveal details of three phone calls with the killer before he was shot dead by police.

LYNCH: He talked about his pleasures of allegiance to a terrorist group. He talked about his motivation for why he was claiming at that time, he was committing this horrific act. He talked about American policy in some ways. We are still exploring why he chose this particular place to attack.

SANDOVAL: This, as police defend their tactics that morning as the killer carried out his rampage inside the popular gay nightclub in Orlando.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There was never a time when we were just sitting there doing nothing.

SANDOVAL: 45 minutes after the first shots were fired, more than 100 officers and SWAT members were on the scene. But they waited to engage the shooter as the calls for help grew louder inside.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was forcing for them to enter the building.

SANDOVAL: Orlando SWAT commander insisting police mounted strategic efforts to surround the killer and rescue hostages before making the call at 5:00 a.m. to blow to the club's wall.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everything ask, the misconception is that officers did not go inside until, you know, 5:00 or whatever time the last preach was. Officers were going inside from the beginning of this incident.

SANDOVAL: Over the weekend, several funerals and memorial services for the victims of the attack, more than 50,000 gathering in the city of Orlando to pay their respects at a candlelight vigil. Mourners in awe as a giant p rainbow appeared over the memorial to remember the 49 lives senselessly taken one week ago.

And the days ahead, we could see new information regarding Noor Salman, the wife of the shooter. Several sources saying that a grand jury is taking a closer look at all the evidence that's been collected over the last several days. Did she have any knowledge that this attack could be in the works and remain silent. That is a question Jim that remains unanswered. These are eight days after the sound of gunfire echoed to these streets.

JIM SCIUTTO, CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Polo, they're in Orlando, on that street, we remember so well where all the people lost their lives. Well, in the wake of the Orlando attack, hope for real change to America's gun laws on the line yet again today. The senate set to vote on four new gun measures but chances for a breakthrough that they seemed to be a long shot at best. CNN Senior Political reporter Manu Raju, he is live in Washington with more. So Manu, after all this, one more shooting, you are saying this is just not going to happen?

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: Yeah, that's right Jim. I mean the immediate aftermath of last week deadly massacre in Orlando, senior senators from both parties began discussing whether there was a compromise that could be struck on preventing suspected terrorists from getting guns. Democrats want to ban gun sales on anyone on a terror watch list but Republicans want greater involvement by the FBI and the courts before banning the sale of a firearm. So we ended up with this something that's been quite common on Capitol Hill, stay on me.

The senate set a vote today on four gun control measures.

JOHN HICKENLOOPER (D) GOVERNOR OF COLORADO: I am frustrated bewildered at the inability to come to terms. I was figuring out some of the restraints.

RAJU: One week after the worst mass shooting in U.S. history. The amendments all expected to fail.

CHRIS MURPHY (D) UNITED STATES SENATOR FROM CONNECTICUT: I admit that the background checks bills are going to be tough to get 60 votes on. But we still have hope that we can get Republican support that they'll stopping terrorists from getting weapons.

RAJU: These amendments include requiring tougher background checks on gun show and online sales. And barring terrorist suspects are watch list from purchasing of firearm. Many Republican say that democratic plans violate the rights of Americans mistakenly placed on terror watch lists. JEFF SESSIONS (R) UNITED STATES SENATOR FROM ALABAMA: If Republicans are voted consistently on to ban people from -- on that list from having a gun but to give them an opportunity to prove they shouldn't be on the list.

RAJU: The NRA calling the democrat's gun measures political poise diverting attention away from the failure of the government to fight terror.

WAYNE LAPIERRE, NRA EXECUTIVR VICE PRESIDENT: Because they are coming and they're going to try to kill us. And they need to be prepared. And this president by diverting the president to gun control movement, that's not going to solve the problem.

RAJU: The NRAs choice for President Donald Trump is renewing his call to recently profile Muslims to prevent terror attacks.

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Bloody profiling this sampling (ph) bet, we're going to have to start thinking what betters the country. It's not the worst thing to do. I hate the concept of profiling but we have to use common sense.

RAJU: Trump also reiterating his belief that fewer would have died inside the gay night club had club goers been armed.

[06:05:05] TRUMP: One of the people in that room happened to have it and goes, boom, boom, you know what, that would have been a beautiful, beautiful sight, folks.

RAJU: But even the NRA takes issue with that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't think you should have firearms where people are drinking.

RAJU: Now later today, Senator Susan Collins of Maine, a moderate Republican plans to avail what she has billing a compromise bill with the support of five of her colleagues from both parties. That bill would ban the sale of anyone of a gun to anyone on a no-fly list and allow for an appeals process for anyone denied the right to buy a gun. But the prospects of such a bill on this polarizing issue, gun control in the midst of this election year seem grim at best. Jim and Allison.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Manu, it would be very interesting to see what happens or doesn't happen on that (inaudible) today. Thank you for that. Joining us now, CNN Counterterrorism Analyst and former CIA Official Counterterrorism Official, Phil Mudd along with CNN Justice Reporter Evan Perez (inaudible). Thanks for being here Evan, what is the point of releasing these transcripts? What does law enforcement hope to accomplish?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE REPORTER: Well, first, it's the law down in Florida. They -- there's something called the sunshine law there that requires a dollar that requires the government down there to release transcripts, at least transcripts of this 911s conversations. And the news media has requested them. And so this is also part of what the FBI and the justice department think will help bring some transparency, as you know, and as Polo mentioned in his piece, there has been some criticism about the FBIs previous contacts with this killer.

CAMEROTA: Yeah.

PEREZ: And as well as the police response the initial hours there in Orlando.

CAMEROTA: I see.

SCIUTTO: So, Phil, the thing about this shooting, right, is that it seemed to have multiple motivations, right.

PHILIP MUDD, CNN COUNTERRORISM ANALYST: Yes.

SCIUTTO: I mean, yeah, he made this claim to ISIS. But we don't want to aggrandize that right with him. Because, you know, he was a wife bear (ph). He had this anger issues. He was the angry, he got rejected from the police academy. He might have had some, you know, some gay hate crime motivation here. Did you expect to get some information, some sort of data as to why from these transcripts?

MUDD: I think quite yeah, so I think we're going to walk away either frustrated over interpreting this. Look, we've been at this for eight, nine days or hundreds, thousands of investigators gathering everything from what happened at school when he was a child to what his relationship was with his wife, whether he had gay dating apps. And now, we're trying to anticipate that a few minutes of tapes in this conflict between, was he a terrorist? Did he have mental issues? Was he a suppressed homosexual? What was going in his family? We think these are going to offer us solution. I think not. I think they're going to take us in the other direction opening more questions.

CAMEROTA: Phil, I want to stick with you for one second because what is the investigative point of releasing these? Are they think -- thinking that somehow this will help people in the public, pick up the phone and call and give more information about this guy who is dead? So what are they chasing at this point?

MUDD: I don't think there is an investigative point. The kinds of information you are looking at to resolve these now, interviews, looking over his old google searches, looking at his laptop to determine who he was communicating with, trying to reconstruct his cell phone. Huge amounts of data, they're not only to look at pattern of life, what was he up to, but to make sure you understands who he was talking to. I think this is more about the public value of ensuring that the public knows. If there's something we know, we'll try to tell you but again if the publics think this will resolve their questions about what happened here, I would say step back, frustrating day ahead.

SCIUTTO: Evan, so here you got a guy who he called 911. He clearly wanted to talk to the police, talk about his motivations. He called a television station, you know, imagine that. So clearly, he wanted the attention, is the FBI concerned by releasing these that they give him even more attention because of course you don't want as part of the next guy that carry out a similar?

PEREZ: Well, yeah, I mean that's one reason why they're trying to excise some parts of it Jim where they're going to let him do his pledge to ISIS and to Al-Mahdi (ph) as well as perhaps even the reference to the Boston bombers, Boston marathon bombers. But the thing is -- I mean this is already out there. ISIS was already used this for its propaganda validate, just released the video over the weekend extolling it and then carrying for more of this attacks during the holy month of Ramadan. So the damages already done. The FBI I think is just simply trying to limit the amount of value this has to ISIS. But it might be that it's already done.

CAMEROTA: Phil, I'm back, the attorney general was on all the Sunday shows yesterday. She said, they're redacting parts of this transcript to keep from revictimizing the victims.

MUDD: Yeah.

CAMEROTA: I mean I don't know if the victims want to hear anything from this gunman.

MUDD: Yeah, but you have the counter piece where were we gain to it. And people are saying, "The biggest mass murder in American history." And we don't have a clue about what happening. Conspiracy Seniors (ph) will say that they're having been a federal official, the federal trying to protect something that will give us real clues. So I think you're caught between the rock and a hard place. You don't want to do anything to the family and assume they're excising material that doesn't relate to the investigation but it is brutal in how it portrays the fight. And telling americans, if we know something, we'll try to tell you. There is no secret story here. I think that was going on here Alisyn.

[06:10:09] SCIUTTO: Evan, I have to ask you, what the latest with the wife is because we knew a lot before this? She may have known the attack was coming on that night against this target. But she knew something was brewing. Are they closer to charging her?

PEREZ: Well, I think there are still a lot of work they have to do on that account. There's some legal hurdles just to be able to get to that, Jim. And -- but I think you are right. I mean she has given contradicting accounts. And that's one reason why there is still so much work to be done, not only interviewing those around her, looking at her computers, looking at the computers of the gunman and try to better understand whether or not this was, as you mentioned, a mix of some kind of Jihadi view of the gunman versus mental health issues or perhaps other issues as well. There is still so much evidence they still have to get -- go over.

CAMEROTA: Phil, we've also learned a few things about the wife. One of her teachers from my grade school has come forward and said, she had cognitive processing issues. Back in school, she was in special education. She couldn't understand cause and effect. For law enforcement, does that mean they don't charge her if something like that comes to light?

MUDD: I don't think so. But I think you have to wait to watch this roll because we are looking at the initial stage and investigation. Nine days in isn't that long despite the number of people we're looking at this. You are looking at initial interviews as well. Those might come back again. You go through an interview process. You talk to people. Three weeks later, you learn, she told you something, one of her neighbors, friends, family members told you something else. So you have a contradictions, you've got to go back and reinterview her. You find out about her mental stage you're suggesting. You decide to reinterview her, so don't think of this as a snapshot that takes a week or two where you go through one stage and then you can come to final decision. It's a process that iterates that repeats over time. And we might not learn things for months.

SCIUTTO: And as far as the value here, right. They are looking for patterns from this case even though that these happens so that they could be better at spotting the next one before it happens right.

(CROSSTALK)

CAMEROTA: That's right. And I think as somebody who looked at this, if you're sitting in a chair, you're saying what pattern do we determine here? Someone who showed signs of mental distress, three to four years ago talked to co-workers. When you talked to federal investigators obviously not much came up. I'm not sure you can discern something including the tapes today. They will give a clue about how to stop the next one, that's the problem here.

CAMEROTA: All right, well see when they come out. Evan, Phil, thank you very much for all of that.

(OFF-MIC)

So the Taliban, meanwhile, claiming responsibility for a deadly suicide bombing in Afghanistan. Officials say at least 14 people were killed and eight wounded in this early morning attack on a minibus in Kabul. The vehicle was carrying Nepalese security contractors who work with the Canadian embassy. This is the first attack on the Afghan Capital since the start of the holy month of Ramadan.

SCIUTTO: And here in the U.S. Hollywood mourning the death of 27- year-old actor Anton Yelchin in a freak accident this weekend. He's tops best known for his role in the star trek movies. Police say he was pinned by his own car when it rolled back in his driveway. Star Trek director J.J. Abrams reacted on twitter saying, "Anton, you were brilliant. You were kind. You were funny as hell, and supremely talented. And you weren't here nearly long enough."

CAMEROTA: Oh so tragic.

SCIUTTO: That is a freak accident.

CAMEROTA: Oh my gosh. All right, let's talk about something much lighter and celebratory taking 52 years of the city of Cleveland finally end the heartbreak this morning. They are celebrating their first NBA championship. And Andy Scholes is all smiles this morning. He has more on LeBron James' big night in the bleacher report. Hi Andy.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: All right, good morning Alisyn. What a night for the City of Cleveland after 52 years of sports misery. Their fans here can finally call themselves champions. We watched the game last night with all of the fans. Throughout the night, they were hoping, praying that this would finally be their year. And they finally got a close game in the NBA final after six straight blowouts, time winding down in the game. LeBron James comes through with one of the most epic blocks you will ever see to keep the game tied. And that set the stage for his running mate, Kyrie Irving to hit one of the most incredible shots we have ever seen in the NBA finals, the Cavs, the first team ever to come back from a 3-1 deficit in the NBA finals. LeBron James, the unanimous finals MVP as he delivered Cleveland their first championship in 52 years.

LEBRON JAMES, CLEVELAND CAVALLIERS: Our fans, they are right there no matter what's been going on. No matter, you know, the browns, the Indians, the Cavs are souring, all others sport teams, they continue to support us. And for us to be able to end this drought, our fans deserve it. They deserve it. And that was for them.

SCHOLES: As I said, I watched the game with all the fans here in Downtown Cleveland. They put them on loans arena sold out for the watch party, thousands of more fans lining the streets of Downtown. And I don't think I have ever seen a fan base want a championship as much as these fans wanted it last night.

[06:15:03] And when that final buzzer sounded, everyone erupted with pure joy. And the common theme I got from talking all to fans that this was one of the happiest moments of their lives.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 52 years of frustration. I have been there, I have been there now. They're driving and all the whole stuff, this is confirmation. This is wonderful.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Finally, we did it. My City Cleveland Is finally champions.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you look around at this city right now, this is what we have been longing for. This is what we wanted. We deserve it. We got the greatest fans. We got the greatest player on the planet.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh my god, I can't even describe like Cleveland deserves this. We have been waiting so long like Cleveland needs nice things.

SCHOLES: Of course, the celebration winded down here late last night. Kind of quiet here right now. And guys, the Cavs, they celebrated of course at the arena in Oakland. They may hopped on a plane and went to Las Vegas to continue partying. They are going to be back here in Cleveland later today and the whole city is going to shut down on Wednesday as they are going to have the championship parade.

(CROSSTALK)

SCIUTTO: Where is it? They won the championship for Cleveland. They went to Vegas.

CAMEROTA: Because they may high countered out of there.

SCHOLES: No, no. Yeah, there are no glance and they made a speed (ph) stop in Vegas.

(CROSSTALK)

SCIUTTO: I'm saying. I'm saying. I thought it was all about the fans, right.

CAMEROTA: Those fans look like they might have pulled some muscles celebrating. Andy thanks so much. That is a great moment.

SCIUTTO: Yeah, they look like from -- the fans looked mildly happy. I think it was all the game.

Female: They did.

SCIUTTO: Yeah, a pretty good nice for that. All right, well gun control facing a major test today after a series of mass shootings. Democrats hoping to get at least something meaningful passed in the senate today, but do any measures stand a chance? We're going to discuss right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCIUTTO: Welcome back, the senate sets a vote today on four separate gun control proposals, this of course in response to the biggest mass shooting in modern U.S. history. Do any of these measures stand a chance of passing? Joining us now, CNN Political Commentator, Political Anchor of Time Warner Cable News, Errol Louis, Washington Bureau Chief for the Daily Beast, Jackie Kucinich and CNN Political Analyst and host of "The David Gregory Show Podcast", David Gregory?

So guys, you have these four measures here from both sides of the aisle, republican proposals, democratic proposals. David, I got to ask you, it sounds like none of them incredibly seven days after the shooting have them most attacks (ph)?

DAVID GREGORY, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well it does look pretty narrow and I think the view in the house is even more difficult for these measures. All right, there are a couple of movements I think around some legislation that Senator Collins is proposing that would effectively bar from people who are on a watch list, on a government watch list from buying a weapon but as long as there is enough due process that took place so that they could appeal the ban on buying the weapon.

And they might have to do it under one proposal by senator Cornyn. They have 72 hours for the government to prove that they shouldn't be able to get the gun, that there is probable cause. And the level of how much due process you get is what I think will determine whether this can go anywhere or not. It doesn't look like democrats want to vote for these. They have their own ideas. So it's still something of a mud hole. And I think the path is pretty doubtful for any of these measures.

CAMEROTA: Jackie, it is so disheartening to hear that. These are all things that everyone has said they want. Expanded background checks, 90 percent of Americans want that. A mental health component, that's something that all of the republicans after Newtown said, that's where we should start. We should start focusing on mental health.

GREGORY: Yeah. Yes.

CAMEROTA: These are common sense measures that, again had bipartisan support at one point, why today will nothing happen?

JACKIE KUCINICH, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, THE DAILY BEAST: The problem is the details. David mentioned Senator Cornyn's for a proposal that would require a 72 hour wait for someone who might have been pinged by one of these lists. Well, if Senator Feinstein yesterday said that's not enough time. There is no way they can go through that process in that amount of time. You talk about some of the mental health issues. There were questions during that debate on whether that would prohibits soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. There were PTSD from buying weapons. So, there are all these pieces and provisions in each of these bills that allowed them to be picked apart. So, it's a very complicated issue but the other problem is, there is a lack of political will on, you know, with some of these members who are very much tired to the NRA.

SCHUITTO: Errol, so this is the tactic you often hear and that's a political tactic which is to, you know, you say well, you know, this measure by itself would not have prevented this attack. And what you could say about sort of any measure with any exact is they're multiple as supposed motivations but you also have this line saying that by talking about gun control, democrats are turning the debate away from terrorism. Let's have a listen to what Wayne LaPierre, of course he's the President of the NRA had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: If you had guns in that room, maybe you had, even if you had a number of people having them distracted their rank and distracted their waist, where bullets could have flown in the other direction right at them. You wouldn't have the same kind of a tragedy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHUITTO: I don't think you should have firearms for people who are drinking.

ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: That's actually a different Wayne LaPierre abide for that. It does get to an issue we want to talk about but first Wayne LaPierre said, "Don't look at the terrorist, look over there and divert your attention." That's what the anti-gun movement is doing here but in this case, it was about guns and terrorists. Well, I mean it is up for this bill. Look, you can read this as a question about immigration. Donald Trump sort of talked about it in that regard. You could look at it as a hate crime against the lesbian and gay communities. I mean so, you've got a lot of different ways to frame this.

[06:25:01] And that's in some ways what the political debate has been about. There were other wrinkles there when you try and reduce this to legislation in such a short period of time I mean one of the other issues that comes up is if you're going to delay somebody, because they are on terrorist watch list, does that compromise in the investigation?

Maybe the FBI, maybe the National Security Forces are looking at somebody who -- they may have some questions about. And now, this alerts them that they are under the microscope. So there are a lot of different things that are going on here. The reality is, because of there's such a high hurdle that they being at 60 votes, it's tack on to an appropriations bill. It's not really sort of a queen debate about the merits of these and that include what you're talking about which is, is this a foreign influence terrorist outside attack or is this something else? Are there mental health issues? Are there sort of hate crime issues? Are there immigration issues all walking through this? And it's -- and in all of those things are present.

CAMEROTA: David, let's talk about what that sound by that we just heard from Donald Trump and then we'll end up here from air way because once again Donald Trump sort of goes off message. Not only had he strayed from the republican orthodoxy when he was suggesting don't let terrorists or people on the watch list get their hands on a gun. Then, he said, if only somebody in that club had a gun, well, with first of all there was an armed security guard in that club.

SCIUTTO: Who exchanged fire?

CAMEROTA: Who exchanged fire on off-duty police officer and the police -- the on-duty police showed up within minutes and exchanged gunfire. But then, Wayne LaPierre says, I don't think I like the idea of people drinking having firearms.

GREGORY: Wow and then, Wayne LaPierre clarified later, it's fine to carry a gun in that circumstance but you just shouldn't drink. I mean I think what Donald Trump is supporting has a lot of people worried, you know. Members of the military, General McChrystal who commanded our forces in Afghanistan had made the observation that without the proper training, the notion of just arming up citizens should be ready for a situation like that is even more dangerous.

I think the larger point that you were just discussing too is that there is certainly the potential to have an all of the above kind of approach to dealing with both the accessibility of guns, terrorism, mental health aspects and a hate crime aspect. All of which appears to be present in this particular case, which you have here in congress in our political system and certainly on the part of the National Rifle Association is such disdain and suspicion of government and government compiling lists of people who shouldn't be able to exercise their second amendment rights.

And it's almost impossible to clear that hurdle right now even for something that is more common sense which is to keep somebody who is being looked at by the government as a potential terrorist from buying a weapon.

SCIUTTO: So Jackie you have in this the suspicion of government compiling list and that you have Donald Trump now talking about a giant list of all Muslims right? I mean, in fact profiling here. I mean, is there inconsistency there?

KUCINICH: Absolutely, but I don't think consistency has ever been Donald Trump's forte. It does seem like he just sort of says thing. If he doesn't really think about the real world application of having people, I don't know. Carry loaded guns in a bar when you're drinking or what it means to have someone have a card that has -- I'm carrying on a cards that says they're Muslim. So the fact that, yeah, what Donald Trump says he's not a fan of profiling, he could have fooled me. He talks about it all the time. It just doesn't seem like there's a real thinking through what exactly he is proposing. He sort of just says it.

SCIUTTO: We'll listen. We know that this is a controversial issue. It's an emotional issue. What's your take? Please tweet us at New Day or post your comment on facebook.com/NewDay, we want to hear what you have to say, well, you have to say.

CAMEROTA: Well, thank you very much. Well, summer arrives with Arizona and Southern California in the grips of a deadly heat wave. Five major wildfires are burning triple digit temperatures in the forecast. Is there any relief insight? We'll get to that shortly.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)