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FBI Releases Orlando Club 911 Dispatch With Shooter; Trump Fires Campaign Manager Lewandowski; Trump Children Played Role In Lewandowski's Ouster; Redaction Of Shooter Transcript Sparks Controversy. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired June 20, 2016 - 13:00   ET

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


[13:00:00] WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, I'm Wolf Blitzer. It's 1:00 p.m. here in Washington. Thanks very much for joining us.

We're following two breaking stories today in politics and in terror. First, authorities have released the chilling transcript of the phone calls between police and the Orlando nightclub shooter. One excerpt has the gunman saying, and I'm quoting now, "Praise be to god and prayers as well as peace be upon the prophet of god." That's in Arabic. He goes on to say, "I let you know I'm in Orlando and I did the shootings." We're going to have much more on this breaking development in just a few minutes.

But first, let's get to the other breaking political news we're following. One of Donald Trump's closest and longest serving advisors, Corey Lewandowski, forced out by the campaign. Forced out by Donald Trump as his campaign manager, including by Donald Trump's own children. Lewandowski just released a very terse statement. "I stand by the fact that Mr. Trump is a great candidate and is better than Hillary Clinton ever will be." That's a direct quote from Corey Lewandowski.

All this just as the latest turmoil that has plagued the Trump campaign in his inner circle continues. Our Chief Political Analyst Gloria Borger is with me and our CNN Political Analyst David Gregory, the host of "The David Gregory Show" podcast, is with me as well.

First of all, Gloria, what are you hearing? I know you're well sourced on this. What exactly happened?

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF FPOLITICAL ANALYST: Well, I think there has been chatter in the campaign for weeks that something had to happen. But, finally, I think it came to a head when both Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, felt that enough was enough. And that Jared has been very helpful on the fund raising side, I was told. He's also been very involved --

BLITZER: He's the son-in-law and Ivanka's the daughter.

(CROSSTALK)

BORGER: -- Jared's husband involved in the campaign and that more and more people were complaining, including then about the fact that Corey was not managing this campaign well. I was told that, quote, "It became an issue of performance for him." But getting the simplest things done or executed had become a problem in this campaign.

I think, along with Ivanka and her husband, Jared, were the other siblings, the two boys. And I think there was a sense that Paul Manafort ought to take the reins of the campaign because, as one person said to me, another source said to me, it has been an insane few weeks.

Trump is dropping in the polls. The latest Monmouth survey, we have him behind seven points to Hillary. And the bleeding had to stop and they decided this was one way to do it.

BLITZER: David, what does it say to you about the state of the Trump campaign right now?

DAVID GREGORY, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: That it's in free fall and that we're entering a fourth week of free fall. And let's remember where it started. He had just consolidated the Republican Party behind him. He was in a position to define Hillary Clinton negatively. He had ammunition, lots of material to work with and he decided to take this down.

I would say this is a big moment in a conventional campaign. You have shake-ups. I think this is a different campaign. I think the problem is with Donald Trump. Donald Trump trusts himself. He manages himself. He has no governing philosophy. He has no campaign infrastructure. He hasn't wanted one.

So, the fact Lewandowski is out here maybe is a sign of something or maybe it's just a sign of continued turmoil. I don't have a way of looking at this in the conventional sense of how we assess campaigns because he is so unconventional.

BLITZER: It's pretty stark when you consider what was a month or two ago when Corey Lewandowski was in the news because he supposedly touched a reporter out there at one event. And Donald Trump came to a strong defense showing incredible loyalty to Corey Lewandowski saying he's been with me. I'm not going to ruin this guy's life because of something like that. He strongly defended him. But now, all of the sudden, you're fired.

BORGER: You're fired. And, look, I think this shows you that Donald Trump understands the free fall that his -- that his campaign is in. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure that out.

And when you have enough people going to you, particularly Ivanka and her husband, Jared, who were very involved in this. When you have them going to you and say, look, we're out there. I mean, Jared has been spending more time with Trump, I'm told. And when they're saying to you -- and they are, after all, your family, that something is wrong, he is listening to them.

You know, in my experience, to David's point, it's never a great sign when the family starts running the campaign. But in this case, it might actually be a good thing. You know?

BLITZER: He -- BORGER: Because it's a different kind of campaign, right?

BLITZER: -- clearly trusts his daughter, Ivanka, --

BORGER: Yes, absolutely.

BLITZER: -- and son-in-law, Jared.

GREGORY: Well, there's no question that to say, at the very least, that Trump is a gut player here on the political scene. He is not a politician in any normal sense, any conventional sense. That's where he's been very successful.

I do think he has a feeling now, a realization that everything that was authentic about him and that was resonating with his core supporters is being overwhelmed by self-inflicted wounds.

[13:05:00] And so, perhaps now, it's evident that he's listening to outside voices, even outside the original structure of the campaign, to try to retool and to find his footing again.

Look, these things are -- you know, they go up and down. There's twists and turns in a campaign so nothing is fatal. But seeing this kind of instability in a campaign at this juncture is surprising because it just shows you how disorganized and unprepared he is for the rest of the campaign.

BLITZER: Because he wrapped up, that Republican nomination, weeks ago.

GREGORY: Right.

BLITZER: He should have been able to use that moment, that opportunity long before Hillary Clinton wrapped up the Democratic --

BORGER: Sure.

BLITZER: -- nomination. He should have been using it to generate the kind of support that he would need if he's going to be elected president.

BORGER: Well, right. And that's what got Republicans crazy. And don't underestimate Reince Priebus' role in kind of letting the campaign know --

BLITZER: The chairman of the RNC.

BORGER: The chairman of the RNC. And letting the campaign know that things are not going well. Priebus has been spending some time with Trump. He was given a heads up on this today. I wouldn't be surprised if he was aware of it.

And, you know, they need to get a lot of machinery in place in the starts. And there was a real sense that Corey Lewandowski had become a human speed bump, to a degree, and that lots of things were sitting in his inbox that needed to go to the outbox in order to get the organization (INAUDIBLE.)

GREGORY: He also said, you've got to let Trump be Trump.

BORGER: Yes.

GREGORY: Clearly, there's voices around Trump who said, yes, not so fast. You need some work here. And if you're going to be president, you better start listening to some people who can help you direct your energies, like any candidate would need. I think that's telling (INAUDIBLE.)

BLITZER: This strategy that let Trump be Trump clearly worked to win the Republican nomination.

GREGORY: Yes.

BLITZER: But winning a general election, there may be a different strategy that may be necessary. You mentioned this Monmouth --

BORGER: Right.

BLITZER: -- University poll, Gloria. Clinton, right now, holds a seven-point lead in a direct match-up, --

BORGER: Right.

BLITZER: -- 47 percent to 40 percent among registered voters. But among the likely voters, her lead expands to 49-41. And, importantly, this is the Monmouth poll, she holds a 47-39 percent lead in the all- important swing states. Those are the 10 states, the battleground states that could make a huge difference who becomes president.

BORGER: Right. These are the numbers that have -- that are worrying Republicans because you've got so many Republicans in the Senate up and in blue states. And the other number that really struck me here is the gender issue. Clinton leads among women by 27 points and while Trump leads among men by 13 points. So, he's not doing as well among men as he needs to do if he's going -- if he's going to offset that gender gap.

BLITZER: These polls are important going into a -- this convention. Tell me if this is wishful thinking on the never Trump movement that you hear so much about. If he's down by 10 or 15 or maybe 20 points going into the convention in Cleveland in July, that never Trump movement, and the rules committee and on the floor, they'll get some momentum because they don't want to lose.

GREGORY: They don't want to lose. I don't know what their vehicle is. I don't know what their process ultimately could be. But it just says something, Wolf. I was on Capitol Hill, a couple of days ago. talking to various Republicans. The wincing. The physical wincing that goes on around Trump and what this election season is about, is such about time for Republican unity, obviously.

Meanwhile, what is Hillary Clinton doing? She's going to hammer him on the economy. She's hammered him on foreign policy. Day after day, she's jabbing to that cut eye on his recklessness, on his temperament.

BORGER: Yes.

GREGORY: She's got the president and the vice president of the United States who are out there stumping. She's got Elizabeth Warren. She is really -- she is operating on all cylinders here. He has to still go to Texas to raise money for the party instead of being in the battleground states.

BLITZER: And apparently not raising that much money.

GREGORY: Right.

BLITZER: We're standing by to here live this hour from the vice president, Joe Biden.

BORGER: Right.

BLITZER: He says he's supposed to be delivering a blistering attack on Donald Trump's foreign policy. There you see the microphone. He's going to be speaking shortly.

You know the vice president well. He, presumably, is itching to get into this --

BORGER: Oh, yes.

BLITZER: -- fray as well.

BORGER: If the president was itching, I think Biden was double itching to get into this. And he will. And on the issues, not only foreign policy but on the economy, because Joe Biden considers himself a populist.

If you look at this new poll we were talking about, for the first time, really, I see that voters see Clinton slightly better able to handle the economy than Donald Trump. Now, that has always been his calling card, the economy, because he's a successful businessman, particularly among Republican voters.

But they've thought, OK, if they don't give Hillary Clinton credit on foreign policy because some don't think she was a good secretary of state. Here, this was his calling card, you know, economics, and it doesn't seem to be -- it doesn't seem to be working.

GREGORY: I also think it's worth pointing out how many liabilities Hillary Clinton has as a candidate. We discussed them --

BORGER: Yes.

GREGORY: -- but it's very important --

BORGER: Yes.

GREGORY: -- to put that into this context, extremely high negatives, vulnerabilities around e-mail, vulnerabilities around her approach to Libya as secretary of state. There are all kinds of ways where she is vulnerable as a candidate. We know this.

My point about analyzing the politics right now is that he is not in a position to make that case against her because his campaign is in shambles. This is relevant to not just where he is in the polls and elsewhere right now, it's relevant to how much time he has left to define him.

[13:10:08] BLITZER: All right, guys, stand by. We're going to have much more. Once again, we're standing by to hear from the vice president of the United States, Joe Biden. He's getting ready to deliver a blistering attack on Donald Trump's foreign policy.

Also coming up, another breaking story we're following. New controversy over the 911 calls between the Orlando terrorist and authorities, why some key excerpts were not released.

And we're waiting for Joe Biden to take the stage. Take a look at this live picture coming in. There, you see the microphone. He's expected to really go after the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. We'll have live coverage. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: It's haunting, a killer's conversation with the police. A transcript of the Orlando shooter's call with a 911 operator has just been released.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RON HOPPER, ASSISTANT SPECIAL AGENT IN CHARGE, FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION: While we are not releasing the audio, what I can tell you is that while the killer made these murderous statements, he did so in a chilling, calm and deliberate manner.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Officials have also redacted some of the transcript and that is causing some controversy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[13:15:00] LEE BENTLEY, U.S. ATTORNEY: I'd like to tell you all that we consulted with our state partners. The release of the transcript complies with state law. In fact, the city of Orlando, led by Mayor Buddy Dyer, and the Orlando Police Department, led by Chief Mina, wanted to release as much as possible with respect to these early morning hours. All of this is subject to a federal investigation. The attorney general decided, upon this limited release, they are not in any way trying to hide anything. They're trying to be as forthcoming as possible.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Let's go to our justice correspondent, Evan Perez, who's been doing some serious reporting on this. Evan, what struck you about these transcripts - the limited

transcripts that were just released, what officials are saying about it?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, we know that the Pulse Nightclub is a gay nightclub - a nightclub catering to the LGBT community. But what struck me about the transcripts that were released is that they - the utter lack of any mention about homosexuality, about being motivated by hatred of gays. In fact, the transcript, and we'll post real quick the 911 - the initial 911 conversations, it lasted about 50 seconds, you'll see him describing himself again as being - as acting on behalf of the Islamic state. He says that he is calling on - and he's quoting normal words that you hear from jihadis and calling for God's name and also, you know, citing ISIS. The name of ISIS is redacted from the transcript, of course, as is the name of al Baghdadi, the leader of ISIS, which is part of what is driving this controversy over what - over what the Justice Department is trying to do. There's some political critics who think that this is in line with what the administration is doing to sort of minimize the role of radical Islam in some of these terrorist acts and so that's - the Justice Department says that's not what they're trying to do, they're simply trying not to feed the propaganda machine.

The rest of the transcript also talks about the negotiation in which they address why it took three hours for this situation to be resolved. He talked about having a bomb in his car outside, as well putting suicide vests on some of the victims, Wolf.

BLITZER: Why - where does the investigation stand right now based on everything you know, especially regarding the wife?

PEREZ: The wife is still very much a focus of this investigation. What she knew, how much she knew. She's given contradictory accounts to investigators, Wolf. And so they - we expected that that investigation is going to be - keep moving very slowly. They're still gathering a lot of evidence. They said that they've interviewed 500 interviews already - 500 witnesses they've already interviewed. They've gathered a mountain of evidence. It may take weeks before we see a final answer on what motivated the shooter, Wolf.

BLITZER: All right, Evan, thanks very much.

Let's get some analysis right now. We'll bring in two experts. Our senior law enforcement analyst Tom Fuentes is with us, and our CNN national security analyst Juliette Kayyem.

Guys, thanks very much for joining us.

A lot of criticism already, Tom, that they didn't release the whole transcript. They didn't have to edit it. That they didn't release the audio, if you will. The speaker of the House, Paul Ryan, issued a statement, "selectively editing this transcript as preposterous. We know the shooter was a radical Islamist extremist inspired by ISIS. We also know he intentionally targeted the LGBT community. The administration should release the full unredacted transcript so the public is clear-eyed about who did this and why." Did they make the right decision in selectively editing that transcript?

TOM FUENTES, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: I think so, Wolf. I was told by senior officials by FBI and Department of Justice involved in this decision that the decision was not made by the White House. It was not made by the attorney general to do the redaction. It was strictly made by the FBI Director James Comey deciding that to have his words go out, supporting ISIS, supporting al Baghdadi, supporting the Boston Marathon bombers, was going to be used directly in future ISIS postings around the world about this terrorist act and they just wanted to deny that. And the thinking was, everybody knows why he did it. Everybody knows he pledged allegiance to them. They just didn't want it, in his words, going out to where it could be incorporated in future videos and social media postings by ISIS.

BLITZER: Since everybody knows, Juliette, those were his goals to promote ISIS, the Islamic State, the ISIS leader, al Baghdadi, why not include all of that since it's public knowledge?

JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, I think just exactly what Tom said, that the purpose to this release is not to give ISIS a lot of material for propaganda. The purpose of this release was actually to provide to the public and to those who have been questioning, why did it take so long for them to enter bar? And so what's remarkable about this transcript is really, you get a sense of the police officer's situational awareness, you get a sense of the magnitude or - of what he was saying in terms of other bombs or weaponry he may have had. And, remember, they are getting phone calls from victims that there's multiple attackers. So if you view it just from the perspective of, this is going to give some clarity as to why the first responders responded the way they did, they did absolutely the right thing. The politics, I understand may be untenable, but substantively, legally and I think morally redacting it was the right thing.

[13:20:34] BLITZER: The whole notion of spurring additional copycats, if you will, is what we saw in Orlando going to result in more of this kind of stuff by copycats out there, whether or not they release the full transcript, the actual audio? People know what he did.

FUENTES: Well, they know, but they just don't want to add to the fervor of the ISIS messaging. Yes, there's going to be copycats. Yes, we're going to have continued attacks like this all over the world for the foreseeable future. But why add to ISIS having a verbatim in the voice of the killer message go out over their social media? So that's why.

The people that are - that are assuming conspiracy, and I'm hearing politicians on here saying the attorney general made the decision, I'm told that the director of the FBI made the decision for the reasons specific to ISIS message being denied in this case.

BLITZER: ISIS seems to be taking, Juliette, a relatively low key. They're praising this guy. They're talking about him, but I don't hear a lot of commotion coming from ISIS itself, the leadership in Iraq or Syria, for example. Have you?

KAYYEM: No, Wolf. I don't know if I just lost you on the Skype, but, no. I mean part of this is basically, you know, as I like to say, he was buying hate and ISIS was selling it. They will use this, there's no doubt, as a recruiting tool, at least for the west. But I don't think - they're not going to embrace him, mostly because they don't know if he has a history, and in particular if he is in fact gay, that they will then have to walk away from.

BLITZER: All right, Juliette, thanks very much. Tom, thanks to you as well.

Coming up, take a look at this, we've got some live pictures of where the vice president will be speaking. He'll be taking to the lecture there shortly. He's expected to attack Donald Trump's foreign policy. We'll have live coverage. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:26:45] BLITZER: We're just getting word - there's the picture of the vice president - the location where the vice president, Joe Biden, is expected to speak momentarily. He's expected to deliver a blistering attack on Donald Trump's foreign policy. We'll have live coverage of that. Stand by.

We've also just received word that Corey Lewandowski, who was just fired by Donald Trump and his campaign, will be sitting down for an exclusive interview with our own Dana Bash in New York momentarily. We're going to have that for you live. Corey Lewandowski's first public comments on what happened, why he is now out - out from the Donald Trump campaign. Corey Lewandowski's exclusive interview with Dana Bash, that's coming up momentarily. We'll have live pictures of that as well. Stand by.

The vice president, meanwhile, we're told by aides, expected to slam Trump's foreign policy, including Trump's praise of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and his call to build a border wall between the U.S. and Mexico.

Let's bring in our panel to assess as we await the vice president. Our chief political analyst Gloria Borger is still with us, our CNN political analyst David Gregory, the host of "The David Gregory Show" podcast still with us. Also joining us, our senior political reporter Nia Malika Henderson and our senior political analyst Ron Brownstein.

All right, guys, stand by.

So we're going to be hearing now momentarily from Corey Lewandowski. This is significant. Presumably when Dana interviews him, we'll have live coverage of that, we'll get his explanation for what happened. A lot of - a lot of people are really interested.

BORGER: Right. And I guarantee you, he's still going to - he's going to defend Donald Trump and he's going to continue to be a Donald Trump booster. But I think it's very clear that what occurred - and I'll be interesting to see how he addresses this with Dana - is that he did not have the family with him, Wolf, and I think the family, particularly Ivanka and Jared Kushner, who's close to Paul Manafort, were not with him. And I think they made it very clear that they thought that this campaign had not been well run. And that if they were going to win, they took a look at the last few weeks and how Trump had been plummeting in the polls and they felt that somebody needed to get a handle, not only on the campaign, but also on the candidate himself.

BLITZER: Because the assumption out there, true or not true, was there was a rivalry between Corey Lewandowski and Paul Manafort, the other top advisor who was brought in a few months ago to help the - help Donald Trump get that nomination.

GREGORY: Right. And Lewandowski was also known as letting Trump be Trump, which, unfortunately, has allowed Trump to inflict damage on his own campaign and on himself now going on for a month. And as a further sign of the level of chaos within this campaign is that Corey Lewandowski thinks it's actually helping Donald Trump to sit down and do an interview on CNN. That is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. He got fired. He should go away and be quiet. It's a rough business. This is only going to add more attention on the turmoil within the campaign. Look, we're journalists, we love it and this will be very interesting to hear because we want to chance down this story. From the campaign point of view, it's just more turmoil.

[13:29:49] BLITZER: The statement that the Trump campaign initially put out, Nia, a statement by Hope Hicks, the press secretary, quote, "the Donald J. Trump campaign for president, which has set a historic record in the Republican primary having received almost 14 million votes, has today announced that Corey Lewandowski will no longer be working with the campaign. The campaign is grateful to Corey for his hard work and dedication and we wish him the best in the future.