Return to Transcripts main page
New Day
New Audio Inside Mandalay Bay During Massacre; Trump To Sign Executive Order Today on Health Care; WashPost: Pro Sports Teams Stop Staying at Trump Hotels. Aired 6:30-7a ET
Aired October 12, 2017 - 06:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:33:25] CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Now to the latest in Las Vegas massacre investigation. We have new audio from inside Mandalay Bay. It's from a worker who made it to the 32nd floor, that's where the shooter was, right after the first shots were fired.
There are questions about the timeline. What was done to take out this murder and when?
Scott McLean is live in Vegas with more -- Scott.
SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning, Chris.
It is still the central question of this investigation. Why did a 64- year-old man carry out the worst mass shooting in U.S. modern history? That question why is still very much unanswered.
But this morning, we are learning more about how it happened thanks to newly released audio tape from hotel employees on the night of the shooting and also a newly revised timeline that is raising all kinds of new questions.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SCHUCK: Call the police. Someone has fired a gun up here. Someone's firing a rifle on the 32nd floor down the hallway.
DISPATCH: Copy. Hey, it's on 32!
MCLEAN (voice-over): Newly released police dispatch audio adding clarity to an evolving timeline of the Las Vegas massacre.
Sheriff Joe Lombardo on defense for a significant revision to the official timeline. Police originally believed Mandalay Bay security guard Jesus Campos was shot in the leg after the suspect Stephen Paddock had fired on the concert. The sheriff now says Campos was shot six minutes before the shooting at the concert venue even began.
Lombardo told CNN affiliate KLAS.
SHERIFF JOE LOMBARDO, LAS VEGAS METROPOLITAN POLICE DEPARTMENT: Nobody is trying to be nefarious, nobody is trying to hide anything and what we want to do is draw the most accurate picture we can. [06:35:04] And I'm telling you right now, today, that that timeline
might change again because it's human factor involved. The individual that put the time stamp associated with the radio call they received, maybe their watch was different, maybe they looked at a different time when they put it down.
MCLEAN: The revision leaves open the question of why Paddock stopped firing when he did, since police didn't arrive on the 32nd floor until two minutes after he fired his last shot and didn't enter his suite until an hour after that.
The company that owns Mandalay Bay, MGM, is skeptical of the new timeline. In a statement, a spokesperson wrote in part: We cannot be certain about the most recent timeline that has been communicated publicly. And we believe what is currently being expressed may not be accurate.
The timing of the shots is not all that's changed. Sheriff Lombardo says Paddock checked in three nights earlier than originally thought, traveling back and forth between the hotel and his home in Mesquite, Nevada.
MGM says on two occasions, a bellman helped Paddock bring bags up to his room through the service elevator. Investigators have spotted Paddock on security cameras around Las Vegas more than 200 times, alone on every occasion.
But none of the sightings have helped explain why he carried out the attack in the first place.
LOMBARDO: All those things that you would expect to find, we have not found.
MCLEAN: Campos, the security guard who first spotted trouble, wasn't the only employee who walked into chaos. When engineer Steven Schuck arrived on the 32nd floor, he was quickly told to take cover.
STEPHEN SCHUCK, HOTEL EMPLOYEE: My whole family and I, we all appreciate him. At first when the first shooting started, I was kind of frozen for a second. And he, he yelled at me, take cover, take cover. If he yelled a second too late, I would have been shot. So I owe him my life.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MCLEAN: And according to the revised timeline eighteen minutes past between the time that Jesus Campos was shot and police arrived on the 32nd floor. But the local sheriff here, Joe Lombardo, has told local media that police did everything right. Everyone at Mandalay Bay and MGM did a fantastic job and that you will never get him to say someone dropped the ball, Alisyn.
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Scott, so many different puzzle pieces he yet so hard to see the full picture of this. Thank you very much for that reporting. So, President Trump is set to use his pen instead of Congress to
change your health care. Our panel discusses the president's plan, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:41:32] CUOMO: Congress couldn't do it. So, the president is taking the Obamacare repeal effort into this own hands. In just hours, he's going to sign an executive order on health care.
Here's what the president told FOX News about it last night.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're going to have great health care across state lines. People can buy it. It will cost the government nothing. They will go out.
Private insurers are going to give you incredible health care. And I'll tell you what, this will take -- and I can sign it myself. I don't need anybody. I would have done it earlier except I was hoping that they were going to put this through and I'll have it in the bill.
But we're signing tomorrow a health care package that will cover, I don't know, people say 30 percent, people say 25 percent, and some people say could be 50 percent. It's going to cover a large percentage of the people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CUOMO: We're back with David Gregory. And joining us is Washington bureau chief of "The Toronto Star", Daniel Dale.
Daniel, welcome to the show. It's good to have you.
DANIEL DALE, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, TORONTO STAR: Thank you. Thank you very much.
CUOMO: So, David Gregory, we have a political consideration and policy one. Political is executive order is exactly what Trump criticized Obama for, doing it unilaterally. Clearly, health care is something Congress has to deal with. And then you have the policy one, which is, it is known well going across state lines is irrelevant in terms of pricing. The company's price is based on where you are, not where they are.
So how does this play?
DAVID GREGORY, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, it shows a president who is defying his own party, which couldn't get the health care repeal done, who's trying to stay true to a campaign process to repeal and replace Obamacare, that wades into a policy area that is fraught at the very least. Not only the consideration about how insurance companies will ultimately charge, but who gets into the pool? It's fundamental question of, do you have enough young, healthy people who are buying into a national program that will ultimately keep prices down.
And more uncertainty, the one thing we have seen with all the difficulties of implementation of Obamacare is that the health insurance market began to absorb the change. There were a lot of good stories with Obamacare as well as a lot of things that are not working as well. But it takes time to be felt within the entire health care system.
And what Trump is introducing now is just another level of uncertainty that promises to throw the markets off kilter, raise rates, and create more uncertainty for people who are out looking for insurance.
CAMEROTA: But, Daniel, to the political question Chris was alluding to, I mean, it was President Trump's own attorney general, Jeff Sessions, who, when President Obama used executive order, called him an emperor and who -- when President Obama did it, Speaker Paul Ryan said this was executive overreach of the highest order. So, now, why are they quiet when President Trump --
CUOMO: You hear that? That is the sound of Paul Ryan saying nothing about this, Daniel.
DANIEL DALE, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, TORONTO STAR: Yes. Well, we have seen time and again on issue after issue that Republicans in Congress in particular but also voters are not troubled by Trump doing things that they had excoriated Obama for for years, on foreign policy, on domestic policy. There's a different standard among partisans for this man.
I think what's interesting is that Trump is turning to this tactic that Obama used because he was stymied but a Congress controlled by the other party.
[06:45:01] Trump in his first year of -- you know, he should be just exiting his honeymoon period. He has total control of Congress and yet, he is turning to a tactic that Obama had to use dealing with Republicans as a Democrat. So, I think it's a sign of legislative failure above all else.
CAMEROTA: Yes. I mean, look, if they like what he is doing, which is making less comprehensive plans cheaper, OK? So, they'll be able to buy something -- I mean, this is what he is selling. It will be cheaper plans that are less comprehensive. You won't have to pay for maternity care. If they like it, they will overlook the hypocrisy of the executive action.
CUOMO: Right. The problem is, is that it winds up provoking an uninformed position on this. If you have people who go out and get these catastrophic policies, it's going to raise rates.
And the illusion, Daniel, correct me if I'm wrong, that going across states, is new. One, it isn't. A lot of states allow going across state lines now. It's not federally authorized as a system. But it's also not a true reveal of how pricing works.
DALE: No. And, honestly, Chris, the state lines things has been a fixation of Trump for years. It seems to be the one thing about health policy that he thinks he knows. That is not the centerpiece of this executive order from what we know. What this order would do is allow insurers to sell short-term plans and small businesses to sell pans that don't cover all the things that Obamacare mandated they cover. So, it would make it cheaper for some healthy people, but it will likely raise premiums even further for sick people.
So, the actual reality bears little resemblance from what we heard from Trump on FOX, you know, promising to cover people with low cost. All the stuff we have been hearing over and over. There is just no connection between Trump's rhetoric and what he is actually putting forward.
CAMEROTA: OK, David, let's talk about what's happening tomorrow, Iran. The president is going to be giving a speech on Iran and two top White House senior aides have told CNN that the president plans to decertify the Iran deal. What does this mean? What are the repercussions of all of this?
GREGORY: Then it throws the accord into a situation where it's broken that Iran could then resume its nuclear program. It would certainly pit the United States against European allies who were interested in entering this agreement to the very least push Iran's nuclear program back by some years.
And the president thinks that perhaps there is a better deal to be gained, to be negotiated. Iran made it clear they don't want to negotiate any further. So the tension within the administration has been, yes, criticize it, call Iran out, but don't decertify. Don't take that step because you will trigger all the other steps.
CUOMO: A little bit of a hidden virtue is that decertifying doesn't end a deal. It just pushes it to Congress to take a look --
GREGORY: Right. It may not necessarily end it, exactly.
CUOMO: Right, but at least Congress will have to do something. They will have to stand up and be accountable for what they think about this deal.
CAMEROTA: OK, Daniel Dale, David Gregory, thank you very much.
So professional sports teams are boycotting Trump-branded hotels. "Washington Post" reporter Dave Fahrenthold just posted this story this morning. He joins us with the breaking details.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:52:15] CUOMO: Interesting headlines. Some professional sports teams are taking a swipe at President Trump's bottom line. A new "Washington Post" report says several teams that used to stay at Trump Hotels are now no longer doing so.
Joining us now is CNN contributor and reporter for "The Washington Post", Dave Fahrenthold, who wrote this story.
I feel I just stole your headline. But give us some context for this about why this matters to the president and what was this about?
DAVE FAHRENTHOLD, REPORTER, THE WASHINGTON POST: Well, we looked, we called all 123 pro sports teams to figure out which ones of them used to stay at the Trump Hotels. And what figured out that he actually had a pretty substantial business with, especially NBA teams and especially his hotel, in SoHo, in New York City. It was close to where the Knicks played and where the Nets played.
More than a third of the NBA came through there. So, that was money. Obviously, it's $20,000 a night for one of these NBA teams, but also, it was free advertising.
He's trying to sell sort of luxury cool with this hotel, and what better advertising could you have, that these cool, luxury, rich NBA players living there, being photographed there, they are talking about the life there. So, he's had that, it was a really important of the image of this hotel. Now, it's supposedly gone.
CUOMO: And in terms of why they are doing this, what do you know?
FAHRENTHOLD: So, some of the teams talked about sort of logistical factors. They talked about, we couldn't get the buses in or we couldn't, you know, there was price difference, things like that.
Some teams though were explicit and said, look, we left because of politics. We left because Donald Trump -- we just got a quote a story from the Golden State Warriors coach, Steve Kerr, that team left a couple of years, and he said, look, Trump is trying to divide us. We don't like what he is doing. So, we don't stay at his hotels. It's simple. There's a lot fof other options.
CUOMO: The Golden State Warriors have distinguished themselves on this political regard.
(CROSSTALK)
CUOMO: Right, I mean, you know, the Golden State Warriors are saying, Dave, they have distinguished themselves in terms of taking on the politics, somewhat of unique passion. How much is a business decision versus something else for these teams?
FAHRENTHOLD: It's hard to tell. You have to take them at their word.
But as I said, you have seen examples where the Cleveland Cavaliers. They stayed there until LeBron James wouldn't go. LeBron James ands some of his teammates wouldn't stay with the team one time. Then the rest of the team left.
The one major league baseball client, we could find, Los Angeles Dodgers, used to stay at Trump's Hotel in Chicago when they played the Cubs. But last year, in the middle of the season, Adrian Gonzalez, who's the first base man, a Mexican-American, wouldn't stay with the team. And then when the team came back to Chicago for the playoffs last year, they stayed elsewhere.
So, in some case, players making a political statement drive the rest of the team's decision.
CUOMO: While I have you, how is the reporting going in terms of tracking down the president's donations to the military? Remember, we were trying to track down that money. Were you able to account for every dollar?
FAHRENTHOLD: Well, the biggest were the president's promise to give $1 million to the victims of Hurricane Harvey, or to charities after Hurricane Harvey in Texas, three hurricanes ago.
[06:55:02] The president promised to give a million dollars. The best I can tell and I called the 12 charities that he said he would give to, some of them won't comment because of donor privacy rules.
The ones that would talk to me about the donations said indeed they got their donations from President Trump. I can confirm at least some donations were given out by him.
CUOMO: Good, because he deserves credit for giving the money. That's the big reason why you want to do the vetting.
Dave Fahrenthold, thank you very much for the reporting. Appreciate it, as always.
FAHRENTHOLD: Thank you.
CUOMO: Alisyn?
CAMEROTA: OK, Chris.
President Trump is escalating his threats against the press. Will he try to shut down media outlets he doesn't like? We discuss a lot of it, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TRUMP: The media is bad. They're really dishonest people.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He is suggesting that networks should have their licenses revoked.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Clearly, he's frustrated about some things in the media.
CUOO: A new report that Bannon told Trump he should fear dismissal by his cabinet more than impeachment from Congress.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People are sending out a signal that something is wrong.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We hear down the rhetoric North Korea, he ratchets it up.
TRUMP: Ultimately, my attitude is going to matter, isn't? That's the way it works.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Who was I going to say something to? He was the most powerful man in Hollywood.
RONAN FARROW, REPORTER: Every single woman in this story talked again and again about a vast machine really designed to shut down these allegations.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These stories keep coming and coming and coming, and the question is, will he face charges?
ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Chris Cuomo and Alisyn Camerota.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CAMEROTA: Good morning, everyone. Welcome to your NEW DAY.
