Interview With Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy; Florida Mass Shooting Investigation; President Obama Visits Orlando; McCain: Obama "Directly Responsible" for Orlando Massacre; Man Detained in Shooting Death of British Lawmaker
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking news: the killer's words. We are hearing the Orlando attacker's voice for the first time and learning more about his final messages, including texts with his wife and threatening Facebook posts during the massacre. President Obama grieves. The president visits Orlando to honor shooting victims and comfort their families. Tonight, he is venting his frustration with America's gun politics and Donald Trump's proposals. ISIS intensifying. The CIA director is warning that the terror group is stepping up its efforts to attack the West. Is that grim assessment at odds with the president's claim of significant progress against ISIS? And political panic. Some Republicans are privately talking about ways they might be able to stop Donald Trump from officially claiming the nomination, this as Trump tells critics of his party to be quiet or he will dump them. We want to welcome our viewers in the United States and around the world. I am Wolf Blitzer. You're in</s>THE SITUATION ROOM. ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.</s>BLITZER: The breaking news this hour, we're learning about the Orlando gunman's final communications with his wife during the hours he was holed up in that night club where he committed a massacre, a U.S. official telling CNN that over Omar Mateen exchanged texts with his wife asking if she knew about the attack. We're told she texted back that she loved him and tried to call him, but he didn't answer his cell phone. In Orlando tonight, President Obama says victims' relatives pleaded with him to do more to prevent further carnage from gun violence. Speaking a short while ago, the president said America's politics have made it easy for terrorists or mentally ill people to buy powerful weapons legally. The president says he is pleased that a Democratic filibuster in the Senate has set the stage for new gun control votes. Senator Chris Murphy says he has got assurances Republican leaders would work toward making those votes happen. Senator Murphy, he is standing by live. We will talk about if anything will actually get passed. And our correspondents, analysts, and guests, they will have full coverage of all the breaking stories. Let's begin with our justice correspondent, Pamela Brown. She's on the scene for us in Orlando. Pamela, what are you learning?</s>PAMELA BROWN, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: We have learned, Wolf, from our law enforcement sources that the wife of this gunman, Omar Mateen, was frantically calling her husband during the shooting after news broke and she suspected that her husband may be responsible for it. She claims that she tried to dissuade him from going to launch an attack, unsuccessfully, as we know. She did not call police. And during the three-hour attack, Wolf, we have also learned the couple exchanged text messages.</s>BROWN (voice-over): Tonight, chilling new video captured inside Pulse nightclub, clubgoers hiding in the bathroom, trying to keep quiet as the shooting was taking place. In the middle of the chaos inside Pulse nightclub, CNN has learned the gunman and his wife communicated. According to law enforcement sources, she was frantically calling him after news broke of the shooting. At around 4:00 a.m., he texted asking if she saw the news. She responded, "I love you." She has told investigators she had a suspicion when he left the house on Saturday he was going to launch an attack, even though he told her he was going to visit a friend.</s>OMAR MATEEN, GUNMAN: Everybody is just out to get paid.</s>BROWN: And we're now hearing from Omar Mateen for the first time. This documentary from Big Picture Ranch about the BP oil spill shows Mateen working as a security guard.</s>MATEEN: Once people get laid off here, it's going to suck for them. They want more disaster to happen, because where their moneymaking is.</s>BROWN: Sources tell CNN in the weeks leading up to the attack, Mateen began spending a significant amount of money, including to buy weapons used for the attack. A letter from Senator Ron Johnson to Facebook says Mateen searched the site during the rampage for news on the shooting and even allegedly posted: "In the next few days, you will see attacks from the Islamic State in the USA." While the gunman was holed up in the bathroom, officers were pulling victims out as fast as they could. Hostage negotiators were able to make contact with him.</s>CPT. MARK CANTY, ORLANDO SWAT COMMANDER: There was kind of some speculation that he did have explosives and that he was eventually going to come out of the bathroom with explosives.</s>BROWN (on camera): And so what was running through your mind during that?</s>CANTY: Is the breach going to work? Are we are going to be able to get anybody out? What is he going to start doing? That kind of -- so, but our main concern is always trying to get those people out.</s>BROWN (voice-over): A first-responder telling CNN about the harrowing experience.</s>OMAR DELGADO, EATONVILLE POLICE OFFICER: It was kind of dark. Had those disco lights still on. And I just began yelling, hey, guys, come on out, come on out, come on out, we got you, we got you. And just unfortunately it took a minute to realize that they weren't faking. It was just they couldn't get up.</s>BROWN: Investigators are still trying to determine motive for the nightclub attack and if anyone, including his wife, could have done anything to stop it.</s>BROWN: And, Wolf, we know a few weeks before the attack, the gunman attempted to buy body armor. We have learned from the store owner that an employee from that store, she called the local FBI office, because he was asking suspiciously when he went in there. At the time, they didn't know it was Omar Mateen. They learned that later after the shooting. But that's something of course that the FBI wants to look into, the fact that the FBI was alerted. Also, we have learned, Wolf, from our law enforcement sources that the gunman went on a spending spree in the weeks leading up to the shooting. As we know, he bought the guns he used in the shooting and other items, so all of this is under investigation. The question remains why didn't anyone speak up and why wasn't the gunman prevented from doing the rampage, Wolf?</s>BLITZER: Those are important questions, indeed. Pamela Brown in Orlando, thank you. Now to the president's very emotional trip to Orlando and his renewed call for action against gun violence here in the United States. He said the idea that lives could have been saved if people in the nightclub were armed defies common sense. That's something Donald Trump, by the way, has suggested. Let's get some more on the trip to Orlando. Our White House correspondent, Michelle Kosinski, is joining us. Michelle, the president says he held and hugged those grieving family members. Update our viewers.</s>MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Wolf. He spoke of indescribable grief and pain. He met with the survivors, first-responders, families of victims, and then he took their plea to the American public, saying that not doing more to prevent certain people from getting access to high-powered weapons is the same as choosing to let it happen again.</s>BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Today, once again, as has been true too many times before, I held and hugged grieving family members and parents, and they asked, why does this keep happening? And they pleaded that we do more to stop the carnage. They don't care about the politics. Neither do I. Neither does Joe. And neither should any parent out there who's thinking about their kids being not in the wrong place, but in places where kids are supposed to be. This debate needs to change. It's outgrown the old political stalemates. The notion that the answer to this tragedy would be to make sure that more people in a nightclub are similarly armed to the killer defies common sense. Those who defend the easy accessibility of assault weapons should meet these families and explain why that makes sense. They should meet with the Newtown families -- some of whom Joe saw yesterday -- whose children would now be finishing fifth grade -- on why it is that we think our liberty requires these repeated tragedies. That's not the meaning of liberty. I'm pleased to hear that the Senate will hold votes on preventing individuals with possible terrorist ties from buying guns, including assault weapons. I truly hope that senators rise to the moment and do the right thing. I hope that senators who voted no on background checks after Newtown have a change of heart. And then I hope the House does the right thing, and helps end the plague of violence that these weapons of war inflict on so many young lives.</s>KOSINSKI: We have seen the president make similar trips to this after mass shootings nine times before today. We have heard him angrier. We have heard more emotional. I think what came across today was his tiredness and disgust that, yes, this has happened again. He used very direct language to lay out a broad argument for why this is about more than fighting ISIS. When you look at this shooting and others, these are lone wolves, and he made the point that that requires some different approach -- Wolf.</s>BLITZER: Michelle Kosinski joining us from the White House. Michelle, thanks very much. President Obama is urging Congress, in his words, to do the right thing, as the Senate now appears on track to hold new gun control votes after a dramatic Democratic-led filibuster. Senator Chris Murphy ended his nearly 15-hour marathon once he got promises from Republican leaders that they would move toward votes on two measures. But there are right now no guarantees anything will actually get passed. Senator Murphy of Connecticut is joining us here in THE SITUATION ROOM. And, Senator, thanks very much for coming in.</s>SEN. CHRIS MURPHY (D), CONNECTICUT: Sure. Thanks for having me.</s>BLITZER: Will there be two votes early next week?</s>MURPHY: There will be two votes. It looks like Monday night or Tuesday morning, we will have two votes, one on closing the terrorist loophole, so that individuals who are on the terrorist watch list cannot buy guns, and the second one expanding the reach of background checks so that they penetrate not just sales at bricks and mortar stores, but also these online sales and these gun shows, where today about 40 percent of all gun sales are happening. The reality is, if you want to stop a terrorist from getting a gun, you have to first make sure that those that we know have terrorist connections are on the list of those that are prohibited. But then you have to make sure that those lists are sitting not just in gun stores, but in all the other forums where there would-be potential terrorists are trying to buy a dangerous assault weapon.</s>BLITZER: So, there are 54 Republicans, 44 Democrats, two independents who caucus with the Democrats. How many votes will be necessary? A simple majority of 51 to pass this legislation or 60?</s>MURPHY: Well, it is a deep frustration to many of us who want rules reform in the Senate that this is going to be another 60-vote requirement.</s>BLITZER: Do you have the 60 votes to pass either of these two measures?</s>MURPHY: I am skeptical that we have 60 votes to pass...</s>BLITZER: So, all this has been for naught?</s>MURPHY: No, I am skeptical that we have 50 votes to pass the background checks measure.</s>BLITZER: Sixty votes.</s>MURPHY: Sixty votes. But we may have 60 to pass the measure that makes sure that people who are on the terrorist watch list cannot buy guns. That is a non-controversial issue in the American public; 90 percent of Americans believe that if you are so dangerous that you're not allowed to fly on a plane in this country, that you probably also shouldn't be able to walk into a gun store and buy a gun.</s>BLITZER: You think you have the 60 votes for that?</s>MURPHY: I don't know. But I know that in the wake of Orlando, there are a lot of members of Congress, Republicans and Democrats, that are reassessing our laws relative to the ability of would-be terrorists to get expensive and dangerous weapons.</s>BLITZER: I spoke last hour with Republican Senator Lankford of Oklahoma, who said, I want to work with Democrats and come up with a bipartisan piece of legislation. Have you been speaking with him?</s>MURPHY: There are discussions right now happening relative to a compromise. And that would not have happened if we hadn't gone to the floor and forced this filibuster. Let's be honest. When we came to the Senate this week, the Senate leadership, Republican leadership, had no plans to debate any legislation that would have addressed the shooting in Orlando or made shootings in the future less likely. We forced a debate this week into next week on these measures. Maybe we will end up with a compromise. And that only happened because there were 40 United States senators that went down to the floor for 15 hours yesterday to demand that this debate happen.</s>BLITZER: You know what your critics are saying, that even if what you're proposing now, this legislation, had been the law of the land, this terrorist in Orlando would still have been able to purchase that weapon, that semi-assault weapon that he got and the pistol.</s>MURPHY: Well, first, we can't get into this trap in which we have to design a piece of legislation that is an exact answer to the latest mass shooting. There's no doubt that if you expand background checks, there will be less carnage on the streets of America. That's what data shows us. But let me say this. If Senator Feinstein's amendment, and she -- it is her amendment that is relative to this issue of stopping terrorists from getting guns -- it would give broad jurisdiction to the attorney general to put on the list of those prohibited from buying weapons anyone that they think is a threat to the nation. Now, Omar Mateen might not have been on a specific list today, but the totality of his contacts may have led the attorney general to put him on the list of prohibited buyers. And so I actually think that the amendment we will consider on Monday may have, if it was in effect prior to this weekend, stopped Omar Mateen from getting that weapon.</s>BLITZER: Even if your legislation passes the Senate, it's still got to be passed in the House of Representatives, where there's a significant Republican majority. I want you to listen to what the speaker of the House, Paul Ryan, said today, because he has got concerns.</s>REP. PAUL RYAN (R-WI), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: As the FBI director just told us the other day, and I think he said this publicly, if we do this wrong, like the president is proposing, we could actually blow our ongoing terrorist investigations.</s>BLITZER: You want to respond to the speaker of the House? Because he says that you could tip off a potential terrorist out there. If he wants to go buy a weapon, he is not going to be allowed to buy a weapon. He will then know he is under investigation and there could be some serious problems as part of the -- as the FBI is investigating that individual.</s>MURPHY: So there's two responses to that. First, the Department of Justice supports the amendment that we are going to be voting on next week. And Senator Feinstein has worked with them to address...</s>BLITZER: But you heard FBI Director Comey's reservations.</s>MURPHY: Yes, he had reservations. They have been worked out. They support the bill that is coming before the Senate next week. But, second, I have never heard those reservations by Speaker Ryan raised with respect to the no-fly list. So, if you are trying to get on a plane and you are a known terrorist, well, if you're denied that ticket, maybe that might be a tipoff to you that you're on one of these lists. But the alternative is for that individual to get on the plane. The alternative to not prohibited to buy the gun is to get the gun. And so, yes, there maybe is some danger that if you got prohibited from buying the assault weapon, you might think to yourself, why am I being denied this purchase, but the alternative is perhaps more slaughter like we saw in Orlando.</s>BLITZER: There are, what, about 300 million guns out there already around the United States. The argument is, you know what? There are so many guns out there, there's still going to be a problem no matter what you do up on Capitol Hill.</s>MURPHY: Well, that can't ultimately be the answer. The data shows us city after city that when you have less illegal guns in communities, you have less gun homicide. And there's a small number of purchases every year that are attempted by individuals who are on the no-fly list. We're talking about 200 or so of these purchases. That's not an infringement on anyone's right.</s>BLITZER: Senator Murphy, stand by. We have more to discuss. There are other developments happening right now. We will take a quick break. We will be right back.