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Police: Eight Dead in Munich Shooting Rampage; Trump in Fresh Tirade Against Ted Cruz; Clinton Responds to Donald Trump's Convention Speech. Aired 5-6p ET

Aired July 22, 2016 - 17:00   ET

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

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now, a terror rampage. Eight people are shot dead, and police say up to three gunmen are still at large after an attack in Munich, Germany. Who's behind the shootings?

A major city comes to a halt as people are warned to stay indoors and take shelter. President Obama has been briefed. Efforts are now underway to account for Americans.

Same old tricks? Just hours after a carefully crafted speech accepting the Republican presidential nomination, Donald Trump goes off message again. In an extended attack on Ted Cruz, he revives a conspiracy theory linking Cruz's father to the Kennedy assassination.

And is Hillary Clinton ready? We're waiting for her to announce her choice of a running mate at any time now. Will she go with a safe, experienced pick for VP or someone that who can go on the attack?

We want to welcome our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer. You're in THE SITUATION ROOM.

ANNOUNCER: This is someone breaking news.

BLITZER: Breaking news, gunfire erupts at a shopping center right in the middle of a major city. Eight people are dead. Police say up to three gunman may be on the loose in what they're calling a terrorist situation.

Munich, Germany, is on lockdown right now as police carry out a massive search. Residents are being told to stay home or take shelter. A witness says the first targets were children. Police say witnesses report three people with firearms, and they confess they do not know where the shooters are.

President Obama has been briefed. The U.S. military and the State Department, they're trying to account for Americans right now.

The violence comes only hours after Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump warned darkly of a tide of violence sweeping the world and described America as beset by crime and chaos.

Hillary Clinton is due to announce her pick for vice-presidential running mate at any time, with a first joint appearance expected tomorrow. But the attack in Germany may have altered her time table. I'll speak with a ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, Congressman Adam Schiff, and our correspondents, analysts, and guests, they will have full coverage of the day's top stories.

But let's begin with that mass shooting in Munich. CNN's Brian Todd is joining us. Brian, what are you learning?

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Moments ago, police said on their official Twitter account, they are looking into the possibility that one of the dead bodies belongs to one of the shooters. The tweet says police currently are trying to verify if one of the bodies is that of a shooter.

And tonight, Wolf, police treating this as a terror attack.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TODD (voice-over): Frightening video of a man appearing outside a McDonald's. He fires at people just a few feet away. They run. Panic ensues.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): He shot at two people near the stairs. I saw one dead body and one injured body. It really was a catastrophe.

TODD: Tonight, place a searching for this man, who reportedly shouted, "Allahu Akbar," "God is great" in Arabic. Police say there could be other shooters and are treating this as a terror attack.

It all began shortly before 6 in the evening on a bustling Friday at this crowded mall in Munich, one of Germany's largest cities, popular with American tourists.

Tonight the death toll is unclear. Police say at least eight are dead, and they're searching for up to three men believed to be armed and dangerous. Investigators are combing different parts of the city. One witness told CNN her son saw a gunman load his weapon in the bathroom upstairs at McDonald's.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was a pistol. Boom, boom, boom.

TODD: Then she saw him come out and start shooting at people, including children.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And he is still killing the children. They make nothing, the children were sitting to eat. They can't run.

TODD: She said the gunman was young, with long hair and dark clothes, carrying an orange backpack. And she says she was just inches from him.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I heard this "Allahu Akbar. Allahu Akbar." This I know because I am Muslim, too.

TODD: Then, the witness says, he ran outside and shot at people in cars outside.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And then comes panic and all run. All persons from all around, run, run, run. Screaming and all. Everywhere blood. Everywhere.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TODD: Tonight, police conducting a city wide manhunt has stopped all train and subway service, and they have asked drivers to clear the highways. Police say they assume the attackers are still in Munich, but they say they have had alerts in other areas, Wolf. A very fluid situation tonight.

BLITZER: And we're just learning the police now saying there are nine dead, though one of those nine, Brian, may be the shooter. They're investigating that right now. There's a police operation in another part of Munich underway right now, as well.

[17:05:06] TODD: At one point, Wolf, there was. Unclear if that's still going on. There was a massive police operation at a second site in the center of the city, authorities say. At the moment, we do not know the outcome of that. On Facebook, police said gunfire was reported in several locations.

BLITZER: Brian Todd reporting for us. Thank you.

I want to go live to the Pentagon right now. CNN's Barbara Starr is learning new information. What are you hearing over there, Barbara?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, tonight, Wolf, intelligence and security services across Europe and here in Washington tonight are trying to gather all the information they can to try and determine what they may know about this.

Of course, at this hour, it is not known that there is a credible claim of responsibility for this attack. There does not appear to be one.

So a couple of scenarios are being raised. Could it be right-wing extremists in Germany, in Europe behind all of this? This is the anniversary of an attack several years ago in Norway, a masked killing by a perpetrator said to be a right-wing extremist. Could this have inspired someone, in a sick fashion, to carry out another attack with that motivation?

Could it be ISIS? We do not know the answer to that. But intelligence services have been watching the scenario for some time now that ISIS is trying to end send operatives back into Europe and inspire people in Europe and send them on what they call short-fuse attacks. People that are ready to go at a moment's notice and simply decide to carry out their attacks.

We have seen this, potentially, time and time again. It was only a few days ago in Germany a young Afghan refugee carried out an attack on a German train.

Tonight, the U.S. embassy in Germany still warning American citizens in Munich to take cover, to stay home, not to go out, and the U.S. military is trying to track down tonight all 62,000 U.S. military members assigned to Europe across Europe. They want to make sure that there are none tonight in Munich in any kind of danger -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Barbara Starr, thank you very much.

Joining us now, Congressman Adam Schiff from California. He's the senior Democrat on the intelligence committee. Congressman, thank you very much for joining us. I know you're being briefed on this. What's the latest you're hearing?

REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D), CALIFORNIA: Well, the latest we're hearing is still from open sources, and either possibility could be the case. It could be ISIS inspired directed attacks. It could be a right-wing group.

Clearly, I think it's a terror attack of one variety or the other. They weren't going there to rob people in the mall. But we don't know yet either how many attackers there were or the motivation.

We do know that there has been a great deal of intelligence over the last year or two about the threat posed to Germany. I think Germany, Belgium, France, these among the top targets in Europe for ISIS. So it certainly wouldn't be a surprise, particularly in the wake of that -- that awful hatchet attack by the young Afghan in Germany just a few days ago. If this inspired or triggered other attacks by ISIS, at this point we don't know the motivation.

BLITZER: It could be Islamic terrorists, if you will, or it could be right-wing terrorists. We do know from that one eyewitness that Brian Todd interviewed, and she herself is Muslim, saying she heard the shooter scream out "Allahu Akbar," "God is great" in Arabic. So that would either be misleading, or it would be maybe not ISIS-related, al Qaeda-related, something along those lines.

SCHIFF: Well, you would certainly think so if that witness is accurate, her recollection. At the same time there are conflicting public reports that people heard things suggestive that this was a right-wing attack by native Germans.

So I think the short answer is, at this point, we're still desperate to find out, but we don't have the answers.

BLITZER: Germany has been on a heightened state of alert since the other day when an Afghan refugee, a young man, 17 years old, went on a rampage with an axe and started hacking individuals, and he was screaming out at the time, "Allahu Akbar," as well.

Is there an ISIS plot under way right now, even as it's losing some ground in Syria and Iraq, to step up its activities, its terror elsewhere?

SCHIFF: Absolutely. I think that's the case, and you know, they would be attacking the west, regardless of what the battlefield situation was. But I do think that that the fact that losing so much ground in Iraq, they lost ground in Syria, they're losing ground in Libya, if they want to continue to attack new followers, to inspire people to commit these acts of terrorism at home, they need to do things to grab the public attention. And this is what they -- they're doing.

Now in a place like Germany, it has a multiple set of motivations. Not only does it obviously attract followers for ISIS, but if this is an ISIS attack, it also puts enormous pressure on the German government, given all of the migration flow into Germany. It further destabilizes Europe, and this is also, I think, part of ISIS's playbook.

[17:10:13] BLITZER: The shooting took place at a McDonald's at this huge shopping mall in Munich. And immediately, when I heard "McDonald's," I began to suspect maybe these individuals, for whatever reason, were targeting something associated with the United States. What can you tell us about that?

SCHIFF: Wolf, that was exactly my thought, as well. In some of the attacks that we have seen, sometimes at airports, they may target an American carrier, the ticket line there, in hopes of killing Americans or killing westerners. And my thought was the same as yours. That if this attack took place at McDonalds, maybe they picked that because it was a symbol of the west, or maybe because they thought more westerners might be at that location. That certainly could be suggestive of that. But again, very early to draw any conclusions.

BLITZER: How worried are U.S. officials that what's going on in Europe right now, whether in Nice, in France, or in Belgium, maybe in this particular case in Germany, could spread here to the United States in a more robust way?

SCHIFF: There's a lot of concern about this. And the concern is really two-fold. The first, of course, is ISIS. We had a lot of homegrown radical attacks in the United States, but they would desperately like to get people to infiltrate into the United States to commit more directed attacks.

But the second part of our concern is really over Jamaat al-Nusra, al Qaeda, the Khorasan Group. You know, with all the attention on ISIS, we can't lose focus on the fact that al Qaeda also desperately wants to attack us in the homeland. And I think we're seeing a greater priority by al Qaeda to start mounting attacks in the United States, if they can.

BLITZER: Yes. They want to do something, AQAP, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, as well. They have some sophisticated techniques.

Congressman, there's more to discuss, more information coming in. I need a quick break. Much more. We're following the breaking news. The shooting spree, the murders, in Munich, Germany, at a shopping mall. Much more right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:16:34] BLITZER: Breaking news we're following: Police now saying nine people are dead after gunfire broke out at a shopping center at a McDonald's, of all places, in Munich, Germany. One of the dead may be the gunman, but they're not sure. Others may still be on the loose. There's a massive manhunt. Police are calling it a terrorist situation. The city has basically been shut down. It's a huge city. A massive search is being carried out right now.

We're back with the senior Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, Congressman Adam Schiff of California.

This is a massive search under way. You can only imagine what's going on at the U.S. consulate in Munich. Put out a statement saying, "U.S. citizens" -- and there are a lot of them in Germany right now -- "are advised to shelter in place pending police announcements that the situation is under review, review your personal security plans, remain aware of your surroundings and monitor local news stations for updates. Maintain a high level of vigilance and take appropriate steps to enhance your personal security."

BLITZER: That's pretty ominous words that they're telling all U.S. citizens in Munich right now.

SCHIFF: They are, and it's a sensible precaution. It's a big job for German law enforcement and the intelligence committees to try to track down, particularly when they don't know how many people are involved.

And it could -- it could go in a number of directions. If they have some insight, if they have, for example, some suspects that they were looking for or aware of, and they can go and find out the location of those people, that may short-circuit the hunt.

On the other hand, if this turns out to be a right-wing attack, and they have no idea who's responsible, it's a big city to be looking for people.

BLITZER: And we just learned, also, Congressman, that Munich police have brought in Special Operations forces from the German military to help them in this manhunt right now. They're looking for terrorists out there who may have killed eight or nine people, and their search is in a big city. That's not an easy thing to do.

SCHIFF: It isn't. But they have very capable police forces, very capable intelligence agencies. And I think, in many respects, we're far ahead of where Belgium was, and remember how long it took to track down some of the plotters and those providing logistical support in the Paris attacks. It took months to apprehend or kill some of those suspects.

So it can be hard, even when you know the right place to look, and there, they were looking mall deck. They knew the neighborhood they needed to look in, and nonetheless didn't find the perpetrators for quite some time. But I think the German authorities are really quite advanced. We were very close to them on intelligence sharing. They're very careful.

BLITZER: The Germans have taken in hundreds of thousands, if not a million or two million refugees from Syria, Iraq, Libya, elsewhere. They've taken in a lot. And there's concern in Germany right now that maybe their open accommodation of these refugees is causing them a huge problem.

You know the discussion that's going on here in the United States on that.

SCHIFF: Oh, absolutely. And imagine the United States, if we had taken in a million refugees. We've taken in a couple thousand refugees from Syria, and even then, it's been a tremendous political issue. Angela Merkel has been under tremendous pressure from these massive inflows of migrants. Germany has been enormously generous in providing sanctuary to people, but this is enormously destabilizing, not just to Germany but to all of Europe.

I think it, in part, led to Brexit and led to other countries thinking the same thing.

[07:20:06] BLITZER: Because ISIS itself -- and you're in the intelligence community, you're the ranking member -- ISIS itself has issued advisories to their supporters: infiltrate the refugee population, get into these countries, and then kill the infidels.

SCHIFF: Absolutely. And one thing I think is very important for people to understand: people came into Europe in the thousands, tens of thousands, often with no vetting at all. We have a much different process for the relative small number of refugees that have come here. It often takes two years to vet them before they get there. So it's nothing like the lack of vetting that's taking place in Europe.

BLITZER: Congressman Adam Schiff in California, thank you very much for coming in.

We're going to have much more on the breaking news. Nine people are dead in a shooting rampage in Munich, Germany. Police say one -- one of those nine may be the gunman. Others on the loose, they believe, right now. More coming up here right here on THE SITUATION ROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:25:26] BLITZER: We're following the breaking news. Police say nine people are dead after gunfire broke out at a shopping center in Munich Germany. One of the dead may be the gunman, but others may be on the loose right now.

Joining us now, CNN terrorism analyst Paul Cruickshank; CNN global affairs correspondent Elise Labott; our senior law enforcement analyst, Tom Fuentes -- he's a former FBI assistant director; and CNN contributor Michael Weiss. He's the coauthor of the book "ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror," and he's the senior editor of "The Daily Beast."

First to you, Paul. I understand you have some new information.

PAUL CRUICKSHANK, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST: That's right. Well, CNN has been analyzing a video which has come out of the attacker on a rooftop in Munich, shouting in German. And during this tirade, he says words to the effect of "I'm in medical treatment. I'm in medical treatment." Those phrases open to different translations and interpretations, but it could be suggestive this person had some mental health challenges.

Another factor here is that the German police are looking into the possibility that one of the people who were killed, one of the dead bodies, is, in fact, the attacker themselves.

And when it comes to jihadi terrorism, we do not see murder-suicides. They have very strong strictures against killing themselves in these attacks. Although there are suicide bombers and suicide attackers, they have to be killed, according to their theology, as they launch the attack themselves.

So if, indeed, this attacker took their own life, we've got no reports of German commandos taking out the attacker, that may start to point away against an Islamist motivation.

But, of course, in recent weeks, in fact, in Nice, France, we've seen attacks where there's this blend between mental health factors and also radicalization.

BLITZER: They found nine bodies. One of those bodies may have been one of the shooters, but they're looking for others right now. There's a massive manhunt under way in Munich right now. The police have brought in special forces. They're moving -- they're moving all over the city. There's a lock down throughout the city. So we don't know, at least as far as the U.S. is concerned, there's a strong warning to all Americans in Munich: shelter in place.

ELISE LABOTT, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Shelter in place, do not go out. Be aware of where you are right now. Make sure that you're in a safe place.

And you know, in recent months, they've had all these terror attacks in Europe. The State Department has been warning Americans not to go to places where tourists are congregating. Be very aware of your security.

So tonight, they're asking Americans to shelter in place, be very careful, issuing a security warning to Americans.

Now, you'll see the White House came out with a pretty early statement, saying this looks like an apparent terrorist attack as some of this information comes to light that Paul's talking about. We know the State Department has not come out with something, perhaps because they're looking for more clarity from the Germans.

BLITZER: Yes, if somebody goes out and kills eight people and wounds a lot of others -- we saw that one video. There was a lot of gunshots that were fired. So whether it's right-wing terror or Islamist terror, it's terror when somebody goes out there and do that, or if there are a group of people who do it.

Tom, police haven't said the shooter or the shooters have been apprehended. In fact, there's a massive manhunt underway right now. Explain what's likely happening?

TOM FUENTES, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: I think, Wolf, they'll be getting information from all of the witnesses they can gather, security cameras from the mall and from other businesses in the area, trying to monitor social media if there's been any postings before, during, or since the attack. So they'll be trying to analyze it that way.

And I think they really, really want to get their hands on at least one of the people, if that person that's dead turns out to be one of the terrorists. It will be very important for them to find out and try to determine whether it's Islamic terrorism or whether it's right- wing terrorism designed to cause a backlash against Islamic people in Germany. And that's a possibility, as well.

Germany has had a rise recently of extreme right-wing groups, as well. So an attack like this happens, it's not readily apparent to the police who could be starting it and why.

BLITZER: Michael, the shooting did occur at that McDonald's outside that shopping mall in Munich. Obviously, McDonald's a prominent American brand. Do you believe Americans were being targeted?

MICHAEL WEISS, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: It could be. I mean, McDonald's is also a popular German brand and a French brand.

[17:30:01] It's all over the world now. I just wanted to follow up on a point that Paul made . That same video, the alleged shooter describes himself as being a German. There's another guy standing on a balcony screaming at him calling him racial epithets, using a very derogatory term, German Jews, to describe foreigners from Turkey and the Middle East. And the guy replies and says no, no, I'm a German, and then proceeds to say that he was in some kind of medical treatment.

So, look, there's another point to this. If this guy was somebody who was just deranged, then this calls into question if there are indeed multiple shooters, right? The idea that there are three gunman comes from eyewitnesses. The police have not been able to confirm that. As you say there is still an active manhunt under way. What if this was the only guy? You know? And he just go to multiple locations and it seemed as though there were multiple attackers.

But, you know, look at this point, it's way too soon to tell. There's just such a kind of, you know, miasma of contradictory information being floated out there. And I'll be honest with you, I mean, I am tending a little bit more away from ISIS at this point. It could well be -- and I've said before, ISIS has painted an enormous bull's eye on countries such as Germany. And a defector I interviewed several months ago told me watch out for Germany. And we saw what happened on Monday aboard that train.

But there is something not right about this and I'm not getting the same sense that I got after Paris and Brussels in the intermediate aftermath.

BLITZER: Because we've recently seen terrorism, Paul, in France, in Belgium, and certainly if in fact -- and saw in Poland the other day, an Afghan refugee screaming out "Allahu Akbar" and then going out with an ax and slashing at people. If -- what is your assessment based on all we know? ISIS related or al Qaeda related or right-wing terror?

CRUICKSHANK: Well, I've got to say, we don't actually even know it's terrorism in the sense of an attack or the political motive at this point because the German investigators have just not said that they found any motive politically for this attack to this point. It could be Islamist, it could be right-wing, but it also could be one mentally disturbed person who carried this out and that there aren't other attackers out there.

But I can tell you that in the past few days, German intelligence have received indications that ISIS operatives in Syria and Iraq have been reaching out to people inside Germany urging them to try to launch attacks. They're really ramping this up. They don't want to get attacks through because they're losing ground in Syria, Iraq, and Libya.

BLITZER: Yes. I suspect we're going to know a lot more in the next few hours if not sooner.

Guys, stand by. Much more on the breaking news coming up. Nine dead in this shooting rampage in Munich, Germany. A massive search still under way, so who is responsible? We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:37:18] BLITZER: We're going to have much more on the breaking news we're following. The shooting rampage in Munich, Germany, where nine people are dead, the gunman or gunmen may still be on the loose. A massive search is underway. The city is on lockdown right now.

The attack comes just hours after Donald Trump accepted the Republican presidential nomination, warning about violence sweeping the world and crime and chaos at home. But today after that carefully crafted speech, Trump is going off message once again. He's lashing out at his main former rival, the non-endorser, shall we call him, Ted Cruz.

CNN's Sunlen Serfaty is following this as part of the story for us. Quite a bit of turnabout by Donald Trump today -- Sunlen.

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right, Wolf. It certainly was. And keep in mind, for Donald Trump today is his first full day being the official GOP nominee. He was supposed to be having just a simple campaign event, thanking campaign staff and volunteers. But he certainly did go way off script, ended up targeting Ted Cruz and really threatening any potential post- convention momentum that Republicans were hoping for.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: We had an amazing convention, that was one of the best.

SERFATY (voice-over): The newly minted nominee, his running mate and freshly branded plane are trying to move forward.

TRUMP: The party has just come together. SERFATY: But 12 hours after delivering the most consequential and

carefully tailored speech of his life, Donald Trump is looking backward.

TRUMP: I don't want his endorsement. Just, Ted, stay home, relax, enjoy yourself.

SERFATY: Renewing an old fight.

TRUMP: Someone got booed the hell out of a place by thousands and thousands of people.

SERFATY: Resurrecting not only his feud with Senator Ted Cruz but again raising a baseless attack on Cruz's father.

TRUMP: All I did is point out that on the cover of the "National Enquirer" there is a picture of him and crazy Lee Harvey Oswald having breakfast. Now Ted never denied that it was his father.

SERFATY: Trump's tirade is threatening to overshadow his triumphant momentum and blunt the momentum coming off his convention.

IVANKA TRUMP, DONALD TRUMP'S DAUGHTER: Our next president, Donald J. Trump.

The nominee capped off the week delivering a more serious address.

TRUMP: I alone can fix it.

SERFATY: As he accepted the GOP nomination Thursday night in Cleveland.

TRUMP: Our convention occurs at a moment of crisis for our nation. The attacks on our police and the terrorism of our cities, threaten our very way of life.

SERFATY: Painting a dark and ominous picture of a nation in chaos.

[17:40:02] TRUMP: Homicides last year increased by 17 percent in America's 50 largest cities. That's the largest increase in 25 years.

SERFATY: That view drawing a quick rebuke from President Obama today.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This idea that America is somehow on the verge of collapse, this vision of violence and chaos everywhere, it doesn't really jive with the experience of most people.

SERFATY: Countering the GOP nominee's claims about rising crime rates.

OBAMA: The fact of the matter is, is that the murder rate today, the violence rate today, is far lower than it was when Ronald Reagan was president. And lower than when I took office.

(END VIDEOTAPE) SERFATY: And as is typical, the newly formed ticket of Donald Trump and Mike Pence will hit the campaign trail together next week. They're expected to hold some joint events at least on Monday. Of course that is day one of the Democratic convention here in Philadelphia -- Wolf.

BLITZER: All right, Sunlen. Thank you.

I want to bring in our experts, our chief political correspondent Dana Bash, our chief political analyst Gloria Borger, and once again joining us from Philadelphia, our CNN political director David Chalian, who's with us as well.

Gloria, first of all, what do you think of the return today, the day after the Republican convention of the Donald Trump we've known all these many months of the primaries?

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Right. Look, I think that the Donald Trump that we saw during his convention speech was restrained. It was Donald Trump trying to audition for the American public as commander-in-chief. And I think that the Donald Trump we saw today was Donald Trump. And you know he couldn't resist taking another whack at Ted Cruz and John Kasich.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: And John Kasich.

BORGER: And that's the Donald Trump we know and that's the Donald Trump that people voted for and you're going to continue to see him during the rest of the campaign, Wolf.

BLITZER: But does that -- bringing up the old issue of the "National Enquirer," and Ted Cruz, the allegation that he's somehow may have been involved in a plot to kill JFK, does that help him on the campaign trail right now?

BASH: I can't imagine it does. I mean, one of the most priceless parts of that event this morning was having Mike Pence, who's now a running mate who endorsed Ted Cruz before the primary in his home state of Indiana, trying to figure out what to do with his face. I mean, you almost felt bad because he didn't really know how to handle that because he was standing there listening to Donald Trump's rant.

I think, look, Donald Trump, by all accounts, our sources have said, one of the -- the main reason came out and upstaged Ted Cruz during the boos and at the end of the speech when he failed to endorse Trump was because he was furious. It was because he was furious. And that clearly -- that's what we saw today. He couldn't do it on the big stage at the big moment, but it was sort of bottled up and you saw the cork come off this morning.

BLITZER: And what we heard, David, from Trump today saying you know what, I don't want Ted Cruz's endorsement. He can endorse me next week, I'm not going to accept his endorsement. Is that a smart move?

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Well, it's not smart in the sense that this is a distraction from what Donald Trump really wants to be talking about. But I think we got to look at the larger picture. It's not just that Donald Trump reverted to form today, as Gloria and Dana were just saying. It's that what didn't he do? He canceled an event in Ohio that they had planned initially. This was an event they put together more quickly.

But here's the mother of all battleground states. Where was the amplification out of the convention today, where you have this very strong, stern message last night to the American people about everything that's wrong, and that he's the guy to fix it, and that should have been amplified this morning.

Surrogates on all of the morning shows, big battleground state rally, and instead he heads out of his convention, you know, just in this small petty stuff with Cruz which just doesn't serve him well at all. So I'm sure he doesn't want Ted Cruz's endorsement at point, I'm sure he -- that's an honest statement. I just think that by doing that you perpetuate this side show and he doesn't want to do that.

BORGER: You know, my favorite part, Wolf, was when Donald Trump said of Ted Cruz that, quote, "He never denied it was his father." That -- going back to the assassination conspiracy theory. It's crazy for him to do that right now. I mean, why continue this argument against Cruz whom he defeated. And John Kasich who is the governor of Ohio.

BASH: It's personal. He can't help himself. He's furious.

BORGER: Right. He can't help himself but it doesn't help him as a presidential candidate.

BLITZER: You were going to say?

BASH: No, I was saying that he can't help it. It's personal and he's furious. And so I think David, as always, makes the exact great point.

[17:45:00] They want to go out, they want to, you know, make him the law and order candidate say I'm -- you know, as Hillary Clinton is preparing for her rollout of her nominee and her "I'm with her slogan," he should have been, for anybody who was a traditional candidate, we all know, we've said a thousand time he's not, would have continued with his slogan "I'm with you" to try to counter what we're going to hear from Hillary Clinton all week after the convention.

BLITZER: But, David, why re-litigate something -- he won those primaries, why go back like that instead of looking ahead?

CHALIAN: You know, because I don't think he can help himself in certain situations. I think this is -- as Gloria said this is Donald Trump. This is just who he is, Wolf. And listen, we should also caution. Every time I look, and I'm like, wow, they -- once again they're not doing something that every other presidential campaign I have ever covered would do on -- the day after a convention, that has been his course all along. So when we try to apply traditional presidential campaign tactics and strategy to Donald Trump, we run into this brick wall all the time because they just don't play by that playbook.

BORGER: And you know, we don't know who Hillary Clinton's vice presidential nominee is going to be, but there's one thing I can guarantee you for certain, which is that her rollout of her nominee will be very different from the one we saw with Donald Trump, who came out after 20 minutes, finally got around to introducing Mike Pence. Today, as David was pointing out, earlier he had a great opportunity to have a joint event with Pence and in a very important state, and it didn't really happen. It didn't gel.

BASH: Absolutely. And you already heard from Clinton land. That they were watching the speech last night, watching of course this morning, even more so, saying that this plays right into Hillary Clinton's main message, which is, she is the stable one, she is the one who's got, you know, the experience, and that presumably, if she does pick the person we think she will, Tim Kaine or even Tom Vilsack, the former governor of Iowa, those picks will be a way to amplify that message to say look, I'm solid, and I've got my solid running mate.

BLITZER: Guys, I just want to let our viewers know Donald Trump has just weighed in on the terror attack we're following in Munich right now. He just put out a statement -- let me read it to our viewers.

"Our prayers are with all those affected by the horrible attacks in Munich. This cannot continue, the rise of terrorism threatens the way of life. We're all civilized people. And we must do everything in our power to keep it from our shores."

We're also continuing to follow the latest developments on that terror attack and how it's affecting potentially Hillary Clinton's plans to announce her vice presidential running mate. Stand by. We'll take a quick break. More on all of the breaking news right after this.

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[17:52:22] BLITZER: Hillary Clinton is speaking in Florida right now. She's really going after Donald Trump, his convention. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: We Americans are kind of helpless. We need to be rescued. I can't -- I can't really imagine him on a white horse, but that seems -- that seems to be what he's telling us. I alone can fix it. Well, he doesn't understand that Americans, we Americans, we are strong, big hearted, result oriented, generous people in America.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

CLINTON: I've spent a lot of time, a lot of wonderful times traveling across our country. I've seen people fixing all kinds of things. I've met educators like Delia, working with teachers and parents to turn around schools and give kids a better chance.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE) CLINTON: I've met small businesses and entrepreneurs who get up every day and work really hard. And you know when they make a contract for their goods or their services, they expect to be paid. I've met so many wonderful --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Let's go to Brianna Keilar. She's on the scene for us. We'll continue to monitor Hillary Clinton.

Brianna, what do we know about Hillary Clinton's process of announcing a vice presidential running mate?

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, as we understand because of what is happening in Munich, it is influx. Now I will tell you the campaign is very sensitive to this. They say nothing has changed about this. We have been reporting that the first joint event between Hillary Clinton and whoever she picks to be her running mate is going to be tomorrow in Miami.

But there was also an expectation that perhaps news could come out in a tweet as early as today. And certainly there has been no tweet yet revealing who her running mate is. But today this speech that she's giving here in Tampa is about responding to Donald Trump. You heard that. About responding to his speech last night at the Republican convention in Cleveland. He said -- Hillary Clinton said she was listening. She said it was a speech of fear, anger and resentment.

Basically accused him of not having solutions for things like jobs, said that he is describing America in decline and obviously she disagrees with that.

[17:55:08] But this is all happening, Wolf. So many things sort of coinciding at once. The end of the Republican convention, Hillary Clinton gearing up for hers and her vice presidential pick and also this situation in Munich where we're still learning details about it. And she and her campaign are trying to figure out how to negotiate that with this announcement we're expecting.

BLITZER: Yes. We're expecting and let's see if she makes that announcement to her -- in an e-mail to her supporters after this event where she's appearing for this joint appearance with her vice presidential running mate tomorrow.

Stand by. Much more on the breaking news. The mass shooting, the terror operation in Munich, Germany right after this.

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