Delta Airlines and Other Companies Severe Ties with NRA; 911 Calls Involving Florida School Shooter Released; President Trump Suggests Arming Teachers as Measure to Stop School Shootings
CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: It's 10:00 on a Saturday. So glad to have you with us. I'm Christi Paul.</s>VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Victor Blackwell. CNN Newsroom begins right now. And Delta Airlines is the latest company to cut ties with the NRA. They will no longer offer fare discounts for NRA members.</s>PAUL: They're joining a growing list of companies severing ties with the gun rights groups as the #boycottnra seems to be gaining some traction on Twitter.</s>BLACKWELL: CNN correspondent Polo Sandoval is live in New York with more. Polo?</s>POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Christi and Victor. Well, Delta now certainly the latest major America company to add itself to the list of companies that are choosing to severe ties with the National Rifle Association. The major U.S. airline taking to Twitter just a little while ago to make its announcement public. I want to show you that tweet that was posted by Delta Airlines, an Atlanta based airline, a little while ago here, saying, quote, "Delta is reaching out to the NRA to let them know that we will be ending their contract for discounted rates through our group travel program. We'll be requesting the NRA remove our information from their website." Delta one of several major companies that has offered some of the NRA members certain discounts here. You saw -- you put up that graphic a little while ago. I want to put that up for you once again so you can see that list. It has been growing for the last 24 hours. Rental car companies, Enterprise holdings, Hertz, Avis, and Budget, also First National Bank of Omaha saying that, quote, "Customer feedback prompted them to not renew their contract with the NRA." And they also would no longer be issuing its NRA visa card. What is interesting though is that no details that we've been able to find both online or on social media from these companies that actually specify why they decided to do this. Of course, you really look back at the last several days here and that growing backlash with the list of these companies that was posted on Facebook and Twitter by some of these -- by certain activists that they were pushing for the boycotting of the companies. So that certainly could be a potential factor, and also these companies have not said when they decided to do this. But we also have seen that #boycottnra statement that has been circulating on social media. So this is certainly goes to show you at least in the world of politics and business, Victor and Christi, these companies are certainly going with the business side at least for now as this gun deep continues to rage on.</s>PAUL: No doubt about it. And then just a note here, we have reached out to both Delta and to the NRA, have not yet heard back from them regarding a statement for this. But Polo Sandoval, we appreciate it. Thank you so much.</s>SANDOVAL: Not a problem.</s>BLACKWELL: And just in to CNN, Broward County sheriff's office now confirms they are investigating the claims that three additional deputies waited outside the -- while the students, rather, were gunned down I inside.</s>PAUL: I want to get right over to Kaylee Hartung who is live in Parkland, Florida. What are you hearing there, Kaylee?</s>KAYLEE HARTUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Christi and Victor, first we were hearing that the Broward County sheriff was sick to his stomach when he saw surveillance video that showed one of his deputies, the man, the dedicated school resource officer at Stoneman Douglas stand outside the 1200 building for upwards of four minutes while that gunman was inside attacking students and teachers. But now we know it appears he wasn't the only one. Coral Springs sources now telling us that when their officers arrived on the scene, they saw three additional Broward County deputies outside that school building taking up a defensive position with their guns drawn behind their cars. This means four men were in place that day who could have entered that building had they chosen to do so. This news disturbing to so many here in this community, but it's among the list of items we have of concerning red flags as we learn more about the killer. We've now obtained with the help of our affiliate WPTV 911 calls. Let me take you back to last November. The killer's mother had just died. He moved in with family friends. He got into an altercation one day with the son of this family and he left the home. What followed, two 911 calls, one from the mother of that family, another from the killer himself. Take a listen.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: 911 emergency, how can I help you.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, there was a fight in my house with a kid and my son.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Punching him, and that's when he left the house, but I need somebody here because I'm afraid he comes back and he has a lot of weapons.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What kind of weapons, ma'am?</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Let me ask my son. What kind of weapons did he get? That he's going to get?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A Remington.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A Remington.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK, and who did this?</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Nikolas Cruz. It's not the first time he's pointed a gun at somebody's head.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: 911 emergency.</s>NICOLAS CRUZ: Hi. I was just assaulted now. Someone attacked me. I don't know where I am. I'm new in the area. He said he was going to gut me if I came back. The thing is I lost my mother a couple weeks ago, so like, I'm dealing with a bunch of things right now. A kid came at me and threw me on the ground. And he started attacking me and he kicked me out of the house.</s>HARTUNG: There you hear the instability in the killer's voice. And for the first time we're hearing him describe his mental state after one of those emotional outbursts that we have learned he was prone to having. And Victor and Christi, I should mention our sources say as Broward County investigates the work of their deputies last Wednesday, a report will likely be forthcoming next week.</s>BLACKWELL: All right, Kaylee Hartung for us in Parkland, thank you.</s>PAUL: We want to talk about this with CNN contributor and law enforcement expert Cedric Alexander now. Cedric, good to see you. Thank you for being here. What is your first reaction when you hear this report that a total of four deputies stood outside, guns drawn, three of them at least behind their vehicles instead of going into the school as these children were being shot?</s>CEDRIC ALEXANDER, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Yes, certainly that's very concerning for all of us in the law enforcement community. I think one of the best things that could happen right now for Broward county sheriff's office is that they can have a complete investigation. There's going to be tons of video that's going to show where officers were during the time of this event. Also, who went in, who did not go in. Clearly there's evidence coming from Coral Springs who themselves are reporting that Broward deputies did not follow them in during the time of the shooting. So this is of grave concern for us. But I think in all fairness, as you always hear me say, is I think there has to be a complete 360 degree investigation as to who was where and where were they located during the time of these shots. What's important here is that as communities try to continue to have a sense of confidence about their local police, officers that did go in did a tremendous job when they got there. The issue is here those that stood outside who reportedly have not done anything. The other thing I would suggest to Sheriff Israel is that he conduct an external -- he has an external group come in, whether it's from the Florida department of law enforcement or some other agency that comes in and can do an independent investigation to make some determination as to what happened with his men and women who may have failed to go inside when that shooting was going on, which was tragic.</s>BLACKWELL: Cedric, part of the conversation this weekend about how to move forward to protect students is the proposal from the president of arming some teachers in schools. He says 10 to 20 percent who will be trained. What is your view of that proposal?</s>ALEXANDER: I don't think it's a good idea to train teachers to carry weapons inside a school. I think there's a lot of other things that can be considered. And these knee jerk reactions just does not work in any kind of way. There has -- we all have to sit down. There has to be some assessment. Each school, each community is very different. The size of the school, the construction of the school is going to make a difference. And if we can somehow across this country take a real look as how do we best hearten that target, and considering the fact middle school sits in the middle of schools, they have a lot of entrances and exits. It's going to take a lot of money and a lot of resources to fortify these schools in a way in which we're talking about. But how can we do that in a very practical way? And at the same time what I think is really going to be important, Victor, is that we add school resource officers, post certified police officers who are assigned to these schools and who are there to help protect, not just educate and regain relationship with those kids in the school but really protect those children because we live in a very different time. And I hate to say this but this is not going to be the last of shootings in this country, because we've seen them in movie theaters and malls, the west side of highway of New York City, and we see them in our schools unfortunately. As long as we have guns, that threat is always going to be there. But we have to protect our children, and what happened on February 14th we got to make sure never happens again in the history of this nation. We just can't do it any longer.</s>PAUL: I want to get back real quickly to the four officers that did not rush into that building, because in all fairness, we have not heard from them. There's been no explanation as to why they didn't go in there. Based on your law enforcement expertise, is there any instance that you can think of in a situation like that where it would be protocol to not rush into the building?</s>ALEXANDER: Look, you know, ever since the shooting back in 1999 at Columbine, and you heard it a number of times here on your show, is that one thing that we've learned, first officers to respond were to enter into the building if there are shots being fired if we know that someone is inside armed. There is no exception to it. Whether I get there first by myself or if I get there with two or three other officers at the same time, we're not waiting on anyone because what we have to do is get inside, attempt to locate that threat, take their attention of those that who are innocent and unarmed and focus their attention to us. Is it going to be a nasty gun battle if we have service weapons that might be nine millimeters or 45 handguns going up against assault rifles, it very well may be. But that's what we signed up for. Certainly we want to be safe. But there are some times in your career, and this is one of them, where you're going to have to go in and confront that threat and you're going to have to do whatever it takes to protect those who can't protect themselves. And there is some indication that that did not happen and that certainly needs to be investigated.</s>PAUL: OK. I just have a yes or no for you here. Based on everything that you just said, do you believe that there could be charges brought against or some sort of consequence for these officers or these deputies if they did in fact fracture their protocol?</s>ALEXANDER: Well, that's going to certainly be left entirely up to that local sheriff's office there. And that's going to be based on their policy. That's going to be based on what is determined by the state attorney's office there if any criminal charges could be brought. I think that's a stretch, quite frankly. But I think within the policy of the agency there may be some things that they may be able to reprimand those officers.</s>PAUL: All right, Cedric Alexander, appreciate your perspective as always, sir. Thank you.</s>ALEXANDER: Thank you for having me.</s>BLACKWELL: While Stoneman Douglas students are prepared to head back to school next week, lawmakers will return to Capitol Hill.</s>PAUL: And Democratic Congressman John Garamendi told me what he is hoping happens from this point forward.</s>REP. JOHN GARAMENDI, (D) CALIFORNIA: And we also need to appropriate the money to get things done. In the president's budget he proposes to eliminate a program in the Department of Justice that would create safe schools. We're not going to let that happen. We actually should increase that. We also should be able to provide money for those programs that actually work in the schools to identify potential problems amongst the students and to work with those students making a safe school. I don't like the idea of arming teachers. It seems to me that is not going to be particularly helpful and creates a whole other series of problems.</s>BLACKWELL: And we'll get more on that gun conversation throughout the morning. But also the other big story we're following this weekend, the third Trump campaign official now has flipped in the Russia probe. The latest is Rick Gates, deputy chairman of the Trump campaign. What does this mean for Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort? We'll talk about that.</s>PAUL: Also, we have new reporting that the White House knew a couple weeks ago that the president's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, was facing major issues regarding his ability to get a White House security clearance.