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Orlando Police Defend Their Tactics In Club Attack; Orlando Terrorist Pledged Allegiance To ISIS; FBI & DOJ Reverse Decision To Delete ISIS Reference; Michelle Fields Responds To Trump Manager Firing; Danger In The Skies?; How Much Damage Can A Drone Do? Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired June 21, 2016 - 07:30   ET

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

(COMMECIAL BREAK)

[07:32:40] CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Orlando police answering critics who questioned the police tactics during the three-hour standoff with the nightclub attacker. CNN's Boris Sanchez is live in Orlando with more. These questions have been out there from the beginning, but now deeper and provoking response.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And questions that need to be asked, Chris. Now, the street right outside the Pulse nightclub is slowly reopening. Investigators, as you can tell, behind me are still on the scene.

Later today we're expecting attorney general Loretta Lynch to visit Orlando. She's not only going to be meeting with the families of victims and those affected by the shooting but also with prosecutors to go over evidence in the case. Evidence that, yesterday, sparked a huge controversy over details that the FBI redacted.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ: About a half hour into his shooting spree inside Pulse nightclub the killer calls 911. In a 50-second phone call, he says "I'm in Orlando and I did the shootings."

RON HOPPER, FBI ASSISTANT SPECIAL AGENT IN CHARGE: He did so in a chilling, calm, and deliberate manner.

SANCHEZ: When asked his name he replies "My name is I pledge allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi of the Islamic State." Baghdadi and ISIS both omitted by the FBI in its initial release of the transcript.

HOPPER: Part of the redacting is meant to not give credence to individuals who have done terrorist acts in the past. We're not going to propagate their rhetoric -- their violent rhetoric.

SANCHEZ: But Republican leaders, like House Speaker Paul Ryan, accused the Obama administration of minimizing the threat and the FBI later released an unredacted version. By 2:48, the first hostage negotiations begin. Over a span of three

phone calls lasting 28 minutes, the killer calls himself an Islamic soldier and demands that America stop bombing Syria and Iraq. He claims a vehicle outside has some bombs, telling negotiators "I'm going to ignite it if they try to do anything stupid".

After questions about tactics, Orlando police continue to defend their actions during the three-hour standoff.

CHIEF JOHN MINA, ORLANDO POLICE DEPARTMENT: Our officers were within the club within minutes, exchanged gunfire with the suspect, forcing him to stop shooting and retreat into the bathroom.

SANCHEZ: Two hours into the standoff police pull an air conditioner out of a dressing room window, rescuing eight hostages. Shortly after, rescued survivors say the killer had threatened to put suicide vests on four hostages. And just after 5:00 a.m., SWAT teams breached the building. Shots are fired and a minute later the killer is dead.It remains unclear if any of the hostages were hit by friendly fire.

[07:35:00] MINA: Those killings are on the suspect, and on the suspect alone, in my mind. All that will be investigated.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Boris Sanchez, thank you very much.

In Orlando for us this morning, joining us now, CNN justice correspondent Evan Perez, and Art Roderick, former assistant director of the U.S. Marshal's office.

Evan, let me just begin with you. You've had so much great reporting here. Before we get back to the transcripts, what else have you learned about the shooter?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brooke, we learned that a couple of weeks before the shooting he actually practiced with the Sig Sauer rifle. This is the rifle that he used to carry out the killings there at the Orlando nightclub.

He was seen using the Sig Sauer, shooting it from his hip, which is improper. A lot of gun ranges will stop you when they see that. It's unsafe and they directed him that he had to use it aiming from his shoulder. Now, this is something that has stuck in the minds of the employees and so after the shooting they went back and found video of this and turned it over to the FBI, so the FBI now has that.

We've also learned that -- at least an explanation from the company, G4S, that employed him, as to why he still had a firearm. They had moved him from an armed security guard position to an unarmed position, but the say at any time they could ask an unarmed employee guard to have to do armed duty. So that's the reason why they allowed him to keep the Smith & Wesson 38 revolver that was found in the car, not one of the two firearms that he used in this mass killing. BALDWIN: All right, let me just quickly follow up on that. You know, the fact that he -- this was one of the guns they found in his car. He was not -- because of this dispute at work he was not then an armed security guard yet in the state of Florida. He still had license to carry. Do you think that that's a problem?

ART RODERICK, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, it's up to the company whether they wanted to take the weapon back or not. I mean, if -- supposedly, they could have moved him on to another job that would have required him to carry the weapon, so that's up to the company themselves. I don't see that as a big deal. The minute I heard it was a revolver and it was in the van, I figured that was his work weapon.

BALDWIN: Yes. The transcripts go back and forth between the shooter calling 911, and we throw the transcript up on the screen for you so you just can understand how, you know -- he calls, as we know, when he was holed up in the bathroom, dialed 911 himself.

I'll read you just a piece of what the dispatcher says. "Emergency 911, this is being recorded." He says, speaking in Arabic, "In the name of God the Merciful, the beneficial." Dispatcher, "What?" His response, "Praise be to God, and prayers as well as peace be upon the prophet of God. I want to let you know I'm in Orlando and I did the shootings."

And he goes on, you know, pledges his allegiance to the head of ISIS. Says he's doing this for the -- you know, as an Islamic soldier. And the FBI, when they came out yesterday, initially they had redacted the word "ISIS" --

RODERICK: Right.

BALDWIN: They had redacted the name Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, even though that was out there last week from the head of the FBI. So why did they call such attention to this?

RODERICK: It's, obviously, a mistake on their part because they corrected it --

BALDWIN: You do think it was a mistake?

RODERICK: -- very quickly.

BALDWIN: Hours later they corrected it.

RODERICK: I mean, it was -- they did. They corrected it afterwards but I think they realized that was a mistake. This information had already been outed a week ago by the head of FBI, so I think they tried to fix it as quick as they could because I don't think they saw the uproar that this caused. I mean, we spoke more yesterday about the redaction than we did about the actual information that was in the transcript.

BALDWIN: Back to the substance, Evan, it sounds to me, and you know are far as the back and forth with this negotiator, that much of this was about terrorism and no mention of the LGBT community. And on the why, I mean, it is very possible we will never truly know why he did this.

PEREZ: That's right. The FBI is still working on this and they're still looking. There's still a lot of focus on the wife. They've done a bunch of interviews. Right now, they're not talking to her. She now has an attorney but they expect that they're going to come back to her because they still want to know more about the signs that she saw before --

BALDWIN: Yes.

PEREZ: -- this all happened. And, going back real quick to the transcripts, and I think the unfortunate thing about yesterday is this faux controversy really drew attention away from what was happening on Capitol Hill. Important votes on gun legislation --

BALDWIN: Yes.

PEREZ: -- which really never got any attention whatsoever.

BALDWIN: And none of it flew, although there is a fifth potential from Sen. Collins of Maine. We'll see. Gentlemen, thank you so much -- Chris.

CUOMO: All right, so before Trump's campaign manager was out of a job the biggest controversy with Corey Lewandowski involved a reporter named Michelle Fields. Fields accused Lewandowski of assaulting here at a campaign rally. Remember this -- all about the video, what happened, what didn't?

[07:40:00] Well, Fields has been covering the campaign. She has good insight into this situation well beyond what happened with her and Lewandowski, and she has a book that goes to the heart of what this campaign could be about. We'll talk to her about it all, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:44:30] CUOMO: OK, Donald Trump's now-fired campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski -- he was no stranger to controversy. He was a guy who liked to mix it up. He was out there in the crowd with Donald, and then there was this, in March, where he is seen grabbing reporter Michelle Fields at a campaign rally. Despite pictures showing Fields bruised arm, Lewandowski always maintained he did nothing wrong. He went after Fields.

Fields then wound up leaving Brietbart where she had been working at the time. She now is working at the Huffington Post and she's a political reporter. She wrote a book that is a very interesting insight into the dynamic in the beltway that this election is such a referendum on for so many people, called the "Barons of the Beltway".

[07:45:00] So, with all that, we've got Fields here this morning. Michelle, there's so much stuff to talk to you about. Even though you had to suffer through that, you left Brietbart, you went to Huffington Post. You can't be upset about that. What do you see in these changes of the Trump campaign -- Lewandowski being out? Do you believe that Lewandowski is why Trump has had the stumbles that he has had?

MICHELLE FIELDS, POLITICAL REPORTER, "HUFFINGTON POST": Look, I don't think Corey Lewandowski was probably very good at his job. He was simply a body man who organized these amazing events for Trump. Yes, he's out, but that doesn't change the fact that Trump is still Trump.

No one can make Trump say the things that he's been saying. He has said some very racist things, especially about the judge, not too long ago. It's not his staffers that made him say it, it's him. So he can get rid of all of the staff that he has and bring on new staff, but it doesn't change the fact that he is Trump and that is his character.

CUOMO: Now, you're a hybrid, right? I keep calling you a reporter but you're part of the Republican #NeverTrump organization. Like, that's your mindset on this. So you're covering him but you're doing it through a lens. Do you believe that this change might give you a little bit of hope, as a Republican, that he could become the kind of candidate you need him to be?

FIELDS: No, because like I said, I don't think that changes the character. He has shown us what he's like, who he is. Just because you get rid of staffers doesn't change who you are as a person. This is someone who is a bully. Who is, like I say in my book, a Washington insider. I profile tons of Washington insiders. That is Trump.

He has done a very good job at positioning himself as this outsider, yet he is someone who has built this amazing real estate empire through deals that he's gotten with politicians. He's paid off politicians in New York, who then gave him favorable treatment when it comes to many of his deals. This isn't someone who is an outsider. He's building a hotel a few blocks away from the White House.

This is someone who is very cozy with the media, especially many people in cable news. This is not someone who is an outsider. He is, in fact, the ultimate insider. He is the baron of the beltway if he were to get elected.

CUOMO: He started -- one of his introductory remarks was look, I know how the game works. I was one of the ones paying the money for favors, and people actually kind of dismissed that as his having insight into the system.

Let's put up an excerpt from the book that makes this point for you about barons of the beltway and Trump being one of them. You say here, "Trump was supposed to be different. He tricked many, many good people into believing that he was authentic, that he would tell it like it is. But while Trump may not have been a politician himself, he was still very much a part of the elite system that's been running Washington for far too long." So, is he the problem or is he the solution, Fields?

FIELDS: He is absolutely the problem. I think what we need is someone who is an actual outsider, not someone who is masquerading as an insider. This is someone who was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. This is someone who has been involved in nepotism, helping his sister become a judge and get into a high position.

The idea that he's going to just go into Washington and, you know, disrupt it is incorrect. In fact, many lobbyists are very excited about Trump because they think that he is a dealmaker. He is not someone who is ideological. He's not motivated by ideology. In fact, he's motivated about keeping power, getting more money himself, and this is not someone who's going to care about the American people and his constituents.

He went and said that if he were to go on Fifth Avenue and kill someone that his supporters are, essentially, stupid enough to continue to support him. So, the idea that he's going to go in there and keep to his promises when he clearly thinks his supporters are not very bright and will stick with him through anything, I think, says a lot.

CUOMO: So, one side note which is, as you probably know, Trump's sister has very good reputation as a judge --

FIELDS: Oh, very good, yes.

CUOMO: But, you know, so --

FIELDS: But she has admitted that he did lobby to help her get the position that she's in.

CUOMO: Right. Well, you know --

FIELDS: It was according to a "New York Times" report.

CUOMO: I know, but you want to a "New York Times" -- whatever. But, what I'm saying is let's give her her due. She's got a big reputation as a judge.

FIELDS: Oh, yes, of course.

CUOMO: But, let me ask you something else.

FIELDS: But it still shows nepotism.

CUOMO: Be that as it may, let's end it on this idea, though. So, you're a Republican, you're a #NeverTrump-er. What is your alternative, though? He is your party's presumptive nominee. At this point it seems, emphatically, he's going to be your nominee. Would you consider -- do you believe there is a slice of your party that would consider Clinton?

FIELDS: I do. I think that --

CUOMO: Are you one of them, by the way, Fields? I'm putting you on the record.

FIELDS: I'm not a huge fan of Hillary, as you know. I've been a conservative my whole life, pretty libertarian, but I do think that Hillary would not be as detrimental to this country as Donald Trump would, especially when it comes to foreign policy. I think Trump can cause a lot more damage than Hillary would if Hillary were elected. So, I would.

[07:50:00] CUOMO: Michelle Fields, good luck with the book. I would suggest that you were employing an artificial standard -- the "not a huge fan". This election is the "who's less worse"? You'll have to change your lens of looking at it --

FIELDS: Yes.

CUOMO: -- based on what we're hearing from all the voters. Michelle Fields, thank you very much and good luck with the book, "Barons of the Beltway" -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: All right, shall we talk drones this morning? Drones can be good fun, but what happens when they start falling out of the sky or getting in the way of planes? An exclusive look at new research on drone dangers straight ahead.

[07:50:45]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:54:35] BALDWIN: It will not be long until it is commonplace in this country to look up and see one of these things flying overhead, all right -- a drone. What happens if that drone crashes into you, your home, or potentially -- you're creeping me out, Cuomo -- or your plane?

CNN got an exclusive access to researchers commissioned by the FAA studying those potential scenarios and CNN aviation correspondent, Rene Marsh, joins us now to walk through -- I mean, how worried are they?

RENE MARSH, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: You know, they're concerned. They've been doing research for months and months. He's really into this drone thing.

BALDWIN: He's really into the drone.

[07:55:00] MARSH: Drone pilot may be in his future here. But no, on a serious note, they're really concerned about what could happen if one of these things crashes into a person or even a plane. We know that the federal government -- they'll be announcing these new rules. It could happen as early as today.

But this is a huge moment in aviation. We're talking about integrating a whole nother type of aircraft into the U.S. airspace, and once they announce those new rules it could be just a matter of months before we see thousands of drones above.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ready, three, two, one. MARSH: This lab is usually used for airliner crash tests, but on this day researchers at Wichita State University are studying what happens when a drone falls from the sky onto someone below.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, it just hit a dude in the face.

MAJ. GEN. JAMES O. POSS (RET.), EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, ASSURE FAA CENTER OF EXCELLENCE FOR UAS: What happens if we really do have a drone running into an airliner, colliding with people on the ground? We also have to answer that worst-case scenario for the FAA.

MARSH: The federal government is about to unveil new rules that will open America's air space to widespread commercial drone use. In a matter of months it's projected thousands could take flight. Companies, like Amazon, have already launched ambitious marketing campaigns for how they'll use drones to deliver packages directly to your front door.

POSS: It's a really massive moment in aviation history.

MARSH: Retired Air Force general, James Poss, leads a team of universities and private companies studying the dangers of drones, to people and planes, for the FAA.

POSS: This is a full-scale drone that's hitting the vertical stabilizer on a wide-body transport.

MARSH: This lab uses 3-D scans to simulate mid-air collisions between drones and planes. Manufacturers already test the dangers of birds to airplanes. There are about 14,000 bird strikes a year.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And it went boom.

MARSH: A flock of geese famously took down a U.S. Airways flight dubbed the Miracle on the Hudson in 2009. The fear is drones could do much more damage. Which is more dangerous, the drone or the bird?

POSS: Drones are made of some very, very hard components, engines, cameras, batteries that could do significant damage to the aircraft. What our research is trying to prove or disprove is just how much damage they would do.

MARSH: To get that proof researchers try to duplicate a drone hitting a plane at full speed. This is a battery of drone and researchers shoot components like this through this cannon at a rate of 200 miles per hour. It's meant to mimic what could happen if a drone and a plane collided mid-air.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Three, two, one.

MARSH: So far, tests like this have shown a drone can do significant damage but conclusive data is still months away.

POSS: We need to figure out what's safe to do with these drones and what's the probability of these accidents happening.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CUOMO: Silence.

BALDWIN: And, silence. We're silenced by the notion of the drone.

CUOMO: Listen, I'm not a researcher scientist --

BALDWIN: You're not?

CUOMO: -- but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last week, and I don't think it takes a lot of study to know if this thing falls out of the sky and hits you in the melon, you're going to know what time it is.

BALDWIN: It's going to hurt.

MARSH: Right.

CUOMO: So, that part is the easy analysis.

MARSH: They know -- I don't think there's any doubt that -- look, if someone does the wrong thing with one of these things and it does fall on someone's head or crashes into an aircraft, I don't think there's any doubt that that could be problematic. What they want to understand is the extent of how bad it could be so that they can continuously tweak these rules to make sure when they do open up the skies --- we're talking about thousands. One estimate, 7,500 of these things hovering in the sky.

BALDWIN: It's hard to appreciate that now, but I remember back in the day when they were like let's put cameras in phones, and we all thought that's preposterous. And now we're all walking around like this. So the notion that you'd have all this (buzzing sound) above us is a reality.

MARSH: It is a reality, and the key for the FAA is making sure that it's done safely and these collisions never happen. That's what they're trying to make sure of in all of that research.

CUOMO: Cell phone camera is way less of a threat to safety than these things whipping around your head --

BALDWIN: I'm just saying that one of those things --

CUOMO: -- when you're running in the park.

MARSH: Leave her alone.

BALDWIN: Drop the drone, Cuomo.

CUOMO: I'm going to test this on you in the commercial break.

BALDWIN: Great.

CUOMO: We'll see how it feels.

BALDWIN: Great, OK. We have a lot of news. Shall we?

CUOMO: Yes.

BALDWIN: Let's.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Why were you fired?

COREY LEWANDOSKI, FORMER TRUMP CAMPAIGN MANAGER: I don't know the answer to that.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: His children were very forceful in saying it's time for Corey Lewandowski to leave.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's the right and appropriate decision to make.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESUMPTIVE REPUBLICAN NOMINEE: It's time now for a different kind of a campaign.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Trump is being massively outdone by Clinton.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're talking about 700 staffers for Hillary versus 70.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He does need to put a ground game in place.