Transcripts For CNNW CNN Tonight With Don Lemon 20180216

grunting today is your day. Crush it. Angies boom chicka pop whole grain popcorn. Boom this is cnn tonight. Im don lemon. A little past 11 on the east coast. New developments tonight. A 19yearold exstudent kefzed to the Florida High School shooting rampage. Nikolas cruz is charged with premeditated murder. Amid questions about Mental Health and warning signs he left on social media. That as President Trump addressed the nation a day after the deadly rampage. You know, the president said something today that hit me. You might have missed it in the remarks. The remarks where he didnt mention the word gun once and said he wanted quota plan that works. What a great idea. What is the plan . Anyway, what he said was this. And so always, but especially today, let us hold our loved ones close. Let us pray for healing and for peace. And let us come together as one nation to wipe away the tears and strive for a much better tomorrow. I want everyone in this country to hold their loved ones close. And tonight on this show our job is to hold our president and lawmakers accountable. Because thats really where the difference is going to be made. Lets start with the president. He has done nothing in his presidency to stop gun violence. He talks about Mental Health as he did today. We are committed to working with state and local leaders to help secure our schools and tackle the difficult issue of Mental Health. That would be much morp kwon convincing if his budget and policies didnt cut funding for Substance Abuse and Mental Health services by over a billion dollars. Why does he talk about Mental Health and not guns . Could it be because the nra spent some 30 million to get trump elected . More than anyone in history. This they unflinchingly sported him last april he returned the favor. I will never, ever infringe on the right of the people to keep and bear arms. Never be ever. So trump signed one gun measure since taking office. It cancelled president obamas plan to have potential gun buyers to provide Social Security numbers for a background check. It was intended to block mentally ill people from buying guns. So the one thing the president who talks about Mental Health has done is potentially make it easier for mentally ill people to buy guns. After the las vegas massacre, he said this. Well be talk about gun laws as time goes by. Time and lives keep going by. Vice president pence offered this tweet. Our hearts break for all the victims and families affected by the terrible School Shooting in Broward County, florida. The students teachers administrators and families all remain in our prayers. The nra endorsed his vp bid and called him a freedom fighter, saying pro gun candidates dont come any better than mike pence. They praised him for repeatedly voting to pass legislation to protect firearm manufacturers and dealers from being held liable for the criminal actions of third parties. While serving in grez pence had an a rating and collected nearly 33,000 from the gun lobby. As indianas governor, pends gave gun manufacturers greater immunity from liability. House Speaker Paul Ryan doesnt think this is a good time to talk about politics either. He said this today on a radio interview. Just a horrific, horrific, horrible, horrible shooting. I mean, i think we need to pray and then our hearts go out to the victims. And you know, i think what as Public Policy makers we dont just knee jerk before we have all the facts and the data. Here are some more facts. Paul ryan has of an a rating from the nra. As speaker he rchzed to allow votes on banning assault style weapons. Here is data. He collect add whopping 342,564 in gun lobby contributions. With 172,000 of that coming just in 2016. Jeff sessionsways a long serving senator from alabama before he became attorney general under President Trump. But florida was once his home. As a native floridian, i know this is a painful day to you, a tragedy we have seen there, really all americans feel the loss that we have seen in that school and the young people we lost. Its certainly a tragic event. And were going to work on it in many ways to do something about it. When presented with an option to do something about it, as senator, Jeff Sessions passed. Keeping his a rating by the nra must explain why he voted against background checks and Assault Rifle ban and to ban high capacity magazines. He collected 22,800 in nra money for his elections to the senate. The shooting happened in the home state of senator marko rubio who says laws will not stop horrible attacks. Someone decided im going to commit this crime, theyll find a way to get the gun to do it. That doesnt mean you shouldnt have a law that makes it harder. It just means understand to be honest it isnt going to stop this from happening. You can still pass the law per se, but youre still going to have the horrible attacks. Senator rubio as nra rate something a b plus. But the nra spent an eye popping ready for this, 3. 2 million to support him in his last three elections. When he was running for president , senator rubio said that new gun laws were ineffective and infringe on the rights of lawabiding people. Senator rubio, are you okay with not even trying . Another senator, bill nelson had to this to see in the murderous aftermath. At some point we as a society have got to come together and put a stop to this. This senator grew up on a ranch. I have hunted all my life. I have had guns all my life. I still hunt with my son. But an ar15 is not for hunting. Its for killing. Senator nelson has a flat out f rating from the nra. He has taken in over 11,000 from the gun control lobby. He voted in favor of background checks. And Assault Rifle ban and to ban high capacity magazines. Principals the vast majority of americans agree with. Floridas attorney general spoke at a press conference yesterday. We will pay for the funeral expenses of these poor victims and do everything we can to help their families. So everything we can. In 2013 the attorney general pam bond y he supported the proposed to prevent young people from buying handguns. Crime stsks in state show thats the most frequent age for a murder arrest. Add to that, a fourth of gun homicides in florida are committed by people between 18 and 20. The nra gives her a rating and gave the the nra gave her 75,000 to support her election. They also called bondy a a true Second Amendment supporter say she has been a friend of our organizations. After the orlando pulse massacre, this is at least the second mass smooth for her. Today Florida Governor rick scott seemed to express more willingness to change whats not working. We love our children. Im going to do whatever i can do to keep the kid safe. Im im going to talk about every issue to keep the kid safe. So lets hope that is true. Lets hold him to that. As it stands in florida now no permit is required to purchase a handgun or firearm. The governor another a plus winner for the nra laws drafted by the irgts and not congressman and signed by the governor. Rick scott has the final say of what can or wont change. Facts first. When you hear these lawmakers speak think about the money behind the statements. The numbers we have used come from the center for responsive politics, a nonprofit, nonpartisan group, that logs campaign donations. So you can see where your elected officials get contributions. If you agree with them and what theyve done or not done, well this is america. And if you dont, well this is america. And you can vote. But here is my question. And i want everyone to really think about this. Why are we allowing pliken beholden to lobbyists to get in the way of what the majority of americans want. 68 of americans want a ban on assault style weapons according to a recent pew poll. According to quinnipiac 95 of americans want universal background checks. We talk about americans and guns being sacred. But most of the population doesnt even own a gun. Pew found that only 37 of households report someone owning a gun. A study by harvard and northeastern universities found 3 of americans own half of all guns in this country. 3 of americans own half of all guns in this country. That is 7. 7 Million People who own an ample of 17 guns each. So a majority of the population actually own guns and a smaller a smaller percentage of them own half of that. Actually dont own guns i should say. And that is who is deciding the fate of people like the ones who lost lives just yesterday at a Florida High School. Now you tell me if that makes any sense at all. Lets discuss now, rich lawyery the editor of national review. Cnn political commentator joan walsh. I think youre looking at this totally from the wrong perspective. Lets take paul ryan for instance. Im sure almost certain he was pro gun rights even before he taut about running for congress. So the idea all the republicans are secret gun controllers and just have been bought off to go out and lie and pretend theyre in favor of gun rights is not true. This is sincere. Where the evidence i never said. Well youre suggesting that paul ryan. Im not suggesting anything. Because of the money. Just reading the facts. So the contributions have nothing to do with the conviction on guns we agree on that. We dont agree with that. Thats the point im making. Youre saying theyre secret gun controller. Youre saying theyre bought off. What are they being bought off to a position they dont agree with it . Is that what you suggest. Do you think theyre not influenced by the money. No. Are you influenced by money. Do you know where your bread is butter. Paul ryan you think he is a secret gun controller. No he wasnt saying that why creating the straw person thats what. How it the money relevant. Its relevant. Gets them elected. The nra supports him because he is pro gun. They have come around. I am looking at it that way. Whats wrong. No it doesnt. Because he is influenced by the money. No, no, no. So you think you think when he was 16 years old out hunting deer he was in favor of gun control then he ran for office and all this lobbyist money came to him and he changed his view on guns. You are create ago straw person. Why opposition common sense restrictions vast number. Do you think he was out with an ar15 hunt sfloog with a rifle. The ar15 is the most popular rifle in the country at the moment. Millions own them and they dont shoot up schools. Every one of the gun control measures you mentioned universal background checks, cosmetic ban on certain stylistic weapons would do nothing to stops these sort of killings. How do you know that unless you try it, rich . How do you know. Virginia tech one of the worst School Shootings. Hold on let me let me just tell you this. Other country haves done the same thing. They have banned, done background checks. They have done sensible Gun Legislation. And guess what . They arent nearly where we are when it comes to guns. Lets talk about background checks. Everyone brings up background checks. Wise. Almost every case they passed a background check because they hadnt been adjudicated and werent guilt of crimes. There is no background check you can devise. You could devise it. So how are you going to jude kate someone who hasnt. Joan wait a minute. You can do a background check have the length be longer. If youre talking. Also where it doesnt have to be jude indicated. It could be a doctor. Send people to be checked. Checked records when it comes to psychology. People who are troubled and mentally ill have more interventions i agree with you. I agree with you but youre criticizing donald trump for saying that. Im criticizing all politicians. Its a constitutional right. Regardless republican or democrat who wont broach the subject of how we get sensible Gun Legislation to stop this from happening. We talk about it all the time. The solutions the solutions you offer have no interaction with the horrific crimes. If you can give me. Propose that people who. We can have a conversation. Diane feinstein proposed people on the terror watch list were not able to buy guns. Republicans couldnt even come to consensus on that. Because the terror watch list is a mess. Everyone acknowledges that. If you clean it up. Clean it up. Fine lets clean it up and then we can have the conversation. Do that as well. The fundamental fact, don is the Second Amendment that this country. Youre saying people on the terror watch list in the interim while you clean it up they should be allowed to have guns. Mentally ill people gun. Again youre talking about something that has no interaction with the crimes. We care more about guns than we do children. And its disgusting. And we need to change the culture that that ensh rierns guns a a kind of manhood. We are not entitled to ar15ever. We are entitled to own guns, not entitled to own weapons of mass destruction. You brought the receipts all these guys, yes theyve been bought and paid for. They may now have come around to agree. Near not secret gun controllers. They have. Youre saying they have been bought off they must not agree with the position. They are now kept. I i dont know how they started but they are kept. Do you know the definition of conflict of interest. No, look. No you dont. No, no, no you believe none of these people are sincere some of them think the Second Amendment. I never said they werent sincere. Here is what im saying. I put the information out there. Did you hear what i said facts first. Right. But what what okay ill if you think that getting. But what are you suggesting. Getting thousands of dollars millions of dollars doesnt influence someone nonyoure sadly mistaken come on. So youre saying they sincerely believed there are all sorts of gun control measures that will make these go away. I think youre doing the same thing now with me in the conversation as people who oppose sensible gun laws do. Gou to extremes. And you say things that people are not saying dont want to look at the facts because they dont line up with your ideology. Young man couldnt buy a beer couldnt buy a handgun. Paul ryan has gotten 340 some odd thousand dollars. What do you think the consequences. You tell me. You brought this up. What do you think the consequences. I thinks he sincerely believes one in gun rights. And two, that the kind of measures you have talked about in the program would have nothing to do with stopping the shootings. Thats not true. How does the universal background check stop the shooting. Thats not true. There is a new poll from harvard printed in the New York Times yesterday. The only factor that separates us from other countries is the amount of guns and access to guns in this country. Well, look we had an assault weapons ban and the best research in the 90s says it did nothing. Its a cosmetic its a cosmetic definition. Semiautomatic. There is debate on that. Thats not true the facts dont show. Most guns are semiautomatic weapons thats basic Technology Process you want to ban all semiautomatic weapon thats enormous prohibition. You have to go and confiscate them. Youll have Second Amendment problems. The critics thats not most americans want a ban on semiautomatic weapons. Most want a ban on. There is no magic solution, don. You can either. That doesnt mean theyre going to be a good. S in the problem with gun controllers. You says in minor things were suggesting useful background checks. They make no difference. Or you can actually advocate something on large scale that might make a difference but youre but most gun controllers are afraid. How do you know it doesnt make a difference. What shooting would a universal background check what mass shooting what mass shoot shooting. This young man was known to the police. The police came to his house multiple times. And he got a gun. There should be more intervention. There should be more easier. And matching up with Police Records with guns. Compel treatment for treatment who are seriously mentally ill and need for intervention for them. Smud they be able to get guns. If they havent been adjudicated gun ownership is an individual right. If i said to you the media is part of the problem we need to ban the media from talking about the shootings you would say, rich, there is a First Amendment right you cant do that. Thats the way this country works. There is a bill of rights. Yes, there is a bill of rights. But then if congress or someone decided to do something about that, then we could talk about that. To do something about the bill of rights. Yeah. Or what rights. Talking about the availability of guns. There is nothing that stops there is nothing that stops people from having conversations about it. How much does the president. Okay were having a conversation. Dont overtalk me. The president talks about all the time the media. He hates the media. He is upset about the media has a conversation about the media. The sheriff today says please media dont put. En the camera on anybodys face. Please dont do it we are free to talk about it. Propose a law a lot of people right will i say there is a First Amendment. If you want to change the Second Amendment lets have the debate. Doesnt mean its going to happen. You want to change the Second Amendment. He didnt say that. Okay what are you saying. You never said i wanted to change the Second Amendment. That is your extreme argument because you dont want to take you dont want to take the small steps to try to figure out how to stop what happened. Thats what youre saying. Youre saying that i want ill say it again and then ill stop and let you say it. Island let me say it again. Okay. What we said was we give the facts on how much money gun lobby ifrts are offering these people who are in congress who are lawmakers and who refuse to do anything at all about gun violence in this. I get that. Okay. We agree you took it to an extreme saying i want to get rid of the Second Amendment people wanting gun laws want to get rid of the Second Amendment thats extreme. What immediate you threw out the numbers. And i think most. I didnt throe nut the numbers im not throwing them out. Knows are real numbers. Whatever verb you want to use. You told people about the numbers. But im saying. Facts are nouns not verbs go on. Well throwing is a verb. But lets not get grammatical here. Im saying people like paul ryan are sincere in their convictions and im quite certain he believed the same things about guns even before he ran for congress. Doesnt mean he is right. Thats true. Thats true thats a different discussion. He wont bring up bump stock legislation and wont bring up sensible things that there there are bipartisan consensus on. He blocks everything. He has totals control. And he is beholden to the nra people use it. You bring up these things that wouldnt stop the shootings. They would stop some. They might have. Poll. This is a circular argument. Do you think the young man in florida should have had this gun . No but you cant but of course not i dont want murders to have guns. My gosh. But what law what law would you pass under these circumstances. So lets have a conversation next. What law can you pass that would prevent him from having a gun . Okay then this is the conversation. What is it tell me. Im not a lawmaker. Whats the this is the conversation. Much more stringent. Answer my question. There is more stringent background checks. There is an answer to the question. Its not necessarily passing laws or what have you. But there is an answer to the question. If the you want to say people around him should have been more concerned, i mean obviously they were concerned to some degree already calling the police. And they shouldnt havent allowed him to have the gun. And take it away. Rich, you concern to have any conversation about sensible conversations. Were having a debate its feisty. Im enjoy going. You refuse to even have our lawmakers take on possible legislation for sensible Gun Legislation. Im in favor of debate. But not the legislation. Right so there is nothing we can do that ends there. Were done. We should try to do things. We should try to do measures to stop this from happening. What im saying. I dont think you know what youre saying. Sure i do. No you dont i dont think you know what youre saying. What you call common sense Gun Legislation are minor matters that do not no most cases interact with the shootings. What you could propose is something much more wide ranging. Would you say that to the face of the mom on here earlier with her 17yearold. These students are going out and will be active afts vote against guns. These students are going to change the world. They were chanting no more guns. This debate is opening, hch urine not saying it. Were not going to have a situation where you have no more guns. Sorry. No one says we should have more guns. They meant no more guns in schools. Well that i support keeping guns out of schools. And if there are ways to do it lets do it. The point is politics are changing. And these kids will change it. Yeah. Thank you. That was lively fun. Well discuss grammer more next time. Facts are nouns. When we come back the 19yearold exstudent who bent on a shooting rampage at a Florida High School has confessed but tonight we learn more about what investigators are uncovering. Well be right back. For the best deals on travel, just go to priceline. Now you can save even more when you bundle your flight and hotel together, up to 625 dollars off your trip. Wonder if i could also save money by bundling my personal trainer and pet sitter . Nice kaley, 5 more minutes come on trixie, burn off those treats dont you quit on me frank come on frank goldie, this isnt even on bundling doesnt work everywhere, but it does on priceline. An exstudent has been charged with 17 counts of premed indicated murder and were learning more about the investigation. Drew griffin has more on that part of this investigation. So, drew, you have some new information tonight about the 911 calls made to the shooters home. What have you learned. Weve been hearing during the day, don, from neighbors and friends about this house where in guy lived and how police came almost every weekend, quite frankly we didnt believe it. But tonight we were actually got our hands on the documents. And take a look. These are the police calls, the Broward County sheriffs calls that took place at the home of this shooters family from 2010 until they moved out in january of 2017. There are 39 of them, 39 times the police were called to this home. We dope know the specifics, who called, why they were called, and who the target was. But we can tell you that the calls according to the police range from everything from a a mentally ill person to a domestic disturbance. Several 911 hangup calls, don. Child and elderly abuse and even several missing person calls, all related to this one home, where the shooter lived which seemed to have just call after call, Police Intervention police after intervention at that shooters home. Whats next, drew, in this investigation . What are Law Enforcement officials saying now. Well, they still have a huge task to go through, both fornsically. Where the bullets were shot and landed. Thats the forensic work. And already 2,000 interviews or so conducted in this trying to gather all the information they can. The Sheriffs Department released a ticktock ab, a time line of how the shooter came to the school, 2 19 he arrived in an uber. Went inside the school with the black case. That had the gun inside. Removed the gun and at 2 21, two minutes after arriving he began shooting in classrooms. There is a couple of interesting things that took place during that time line. The sheriff actually says he shot up two different classroom went to a third, and then came back and shot some more in the first two classrooms. He drops the gun eventually runs out blends with students. Goes to a walmart, buys a drink and a sand wi67 only apprehended an hour later, don. Drew, thank you very much for your reporting. I want to bring in cnn senior media reporter darcy and greg mccareerry a criminalologist and fbi behavioral scientist. Thank you for coming on. Wes ill start with you at a brief hearing the shooters attorney described him as a deeply disturbed emotionally broken young man who struggled with significant mental disease and trauma his whole life. What do you know about the type of childhood and life this young man had . Of course. Well our reporting and cnn reporting as well seems to paint a picture of a child a young man who clearly has had both Mental Illness and a disturbed upbringing. This was someone who was living in foster homes after the death of parents and who recently had lost those foster parents to their own death to their own deaths. We have seen now reports about his behavioral issue, potentially at school, now as cnn is reporting the questions about police calls and police contacts, the reporting weve had both the post and cnn and others have reported talking to his classmates talked about him with odd behavior dating back to middle school and beyond that. So this is clearly there has been a lot of conversation about whether or not someone should have said something sooner. What seems to be the case is that many people were saying things very early on often, whether the fbi contact regarding the Youtube Comments, but even the behavioral discipline at school and classmates seeing him as someone who was perhaps a threat. It does raise questions about what do we do, being disturbed, being upset, being strange is not crime. Its not necessarily you can call the police on someone for. What do you do in a case where someone seems like they are a risk but what are the police doing in those situations. That was the whole point . We touched on in the last segment. Everyone was speaking up about him, especially students. You heard drew griffin reporting about it. But yet, wes, he was allowed to get a gun. Of course because, again, he did not tournl and obviously there are things we dont know. We dont have the Police Reports from all of the police contacts. To your knowledge, so far, the first crime committed was when he walked in the school with a gun. Short of that we are to your knowledge he had own the guns and purchased them legally. What was Law Enforcement to do . Right. Its again, not illegal to have Mental Health issues. In fact we operate within a system where there are real deficiencies in terms of availability of treatment and we see this time and time again. If people have Mental Health issues should people be allowed to get their hands on a gun . What can we do in the interim to dpig it out as before it has been a adjudicated pl oliver, i want there is a new picture of the shooter instagram pages, showing him wearing a manga hat. What have you learned about political views and leanings tonight . Right there is that make America Great hat which is interesting to say the least. But from looking at his online profile, he certainly posted a lot of things that i would characterize as all right. He has a make America Great hat. He posts comments about gun control. He wrote that f all of you stop trying to take away our rights. You fing, n word. He would post about about antifa. Making fun of muslims and allahu akbar. And but that assist sympathizer. They read it to the say offense an isis supporter when he was making racial slurs against muslims and minorities. I want to bring you in, greg. As you know the shooter posted a Youtube Comment that he would like to be a professional scoot shooter. The fbi admits that it was alerted to the post but was unable to fully identify the person who posted it. How is that possible . Well, its very easy. Very difficult to get the get someone like that identified. Its a name. Now, we are constrained by attorney general guidelines and laws. We just cant start cant get warrants and start drilling down and pulling up all sorts of websites and social media. In other words how many people in the United States are named nikolas cruz . I dont know. Plenty. We had no real identifying data. Couldnt get a warrant i say we, the fbi the fbi couldnt do much other than what they did, which is do the database search which isnt just a database. Its a cross platform, hook with many agencies and indepth. But they didnt stop there either. And thats why i think the bureau is getting kind of a bad rap. I saw the crawl against the cnn earlier today saying, you know the fbi ignored the warning signs. No i dont think so. They did the database search. The very next day an agent was sent out there. Drop Everything Else he was doing. It was a priority go out and interview the guy who made the call. And what they found out apparently is this is a guy who just happened to see it took a screen shot of it and called in right thing to do. Didnt know who he was and this was in mississippi. I have seen the bureau criticized for not calling the Broward County sheriffs office. Well how would you know . How would we know . We didnt call the pima or the king county or Genesee County or eric county. We dont know the guy. Is that a real imname or assumed identity. We have to be careful we dont fall into hindsight bias where we know all this which is a wellknown psychological phenomena of beginning to think once we know the outcome of an event that its more predictable than it was before it happened. There is a lot of that going on as well. Yeah, i understand what youre saying. But there is certainly a lot of evidence there. And well put it up before i let you guys go. This is one video showing the shooter engaged in target practice oud his barkyard. Hue knew that. Im just showing it to you. So im saying i agree with you. Im sure that is happening. But there was. Yes. Someone had to shoot this and had to see it must have been one of his neighbors. Thank you greg, oliver, wes i appreciate your time. 17 students and teachers died in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. This is luke hoyer, 15. His cousin said his smile was contagious and so was his laugh. He loved his mother and father with all his power. 14yearold petty was a member of the Army Reserve Training corps and a volunteer of the Training Program for the church of latter day saints. She was one of hundreds who helped victims of mushing irma last year np Jamie Guttenberg was 14. Her father said im broken as i write this trying to figure out how many families get through this. How my family gets through this. Well be right back. Hey. Pass please. Im here to fix the elevator. Nothings wrong with the elevator. Right. But you want to fix it. Right. So who sent you . New guy. What new guy . Watson. My analysis of sensor and Maintenance Data indicates elevator 3 will malfunction in 2 days. There you go. You still need a pass. And lose weight with contrave. There you go. Its fdaapproved to help adults who are overweight or struggle with obesity lose weight and keep it off. Contrave is believed to work on two areas of the brain your hunger center. Im so hungry. avo and your reward system. Ice cream. French fries. avo to help control cravings. One ingredient in contrave may increase suicidal thoughts or actions in some children, teens, and young adults in the first few months. Serious side effects are mood changes like depression and mania, seizures, increased Blood Pressure or heart rate, liver damage, glaucoma, allergic reactions, and hypoglycemia. Not for patients with uncontrolled Blood Pressure, seizure history, anorexia, bulimia, drug or alcohol withdrawal, on bupropion, opioids, maois, allergy to the ingredients, or pregnant. May cause nausea, constipation, headache, and vomiting. Reduce hunger, help control cravings with contrave. Now you an talk to a doctor online and get Free Shipping at getcontravenow. Com. Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school will be closed tomorrow as the people of parkland mourn the 17 innocent victims murdered in the mass shooting. One man who knows firsthand the grief the community is going through is frank dangle he is. He was the principle when two students opened fire. And i wish we could have observing spoken under better circumstances. Thanks for joining us. When you see the images of the High School Students running out what goes through your mind . It takes me back to april 20th, 1999, the same feelings when i saw pictures yesterday i just got chills. And immediately i thought back to that day and everything we went through. And my heart just started aching for the people in florida and parkland, knowing what lies ahead for them. And i had a chance to go back to columbine to visit with the teachers there. And they said the same thing. It has been 19 years. Almost 20 years 20 years soon since columbine not counting the yesterdays shooting, since then there have been 21 Mass Shootings that killed look at that map sun believable. We have a map up here. That killed eight or more people. We have them all up on the screen right now. Again its a shooting where eight or more people were killed. What do you think about where we are now as a country compared to that horrible day at your school . Well, in this and this is the thing i have to look at. The senseless shootings need to stop. Because our most precious commodity is our children. I know last night every parent, grand parent went home and hugged their child. It just brings that emotion out. But, you know, one of the things that i would like to know is we continue to hear about the shootings, whether it be in florida, kentucky, los angeles, dallas just to mention a few within the past six weeks, but how many have been stopped because of programs we do have in place . But we got to continue to figure out what we can do that we dont have to keep doing these interviews, dont have to keep sending news crews to look at the communities in mourning. I dont know if were learning the lessons. Right now its disheartening to me. Well, having said that, do you think its a lack of political courage from the people we elect and send to washington thats thats got to be frustrating to you. Well its frustrating from the standpoint that i really believe its just not one thing thats going to fix it, you know. There is people out there saying we need tougher gun laws. Thats part of it but i think there is a Mental Health component. There is programs. I think we have to figure out ways to get parents more involved in their childrens life. Something that is much more prevailant now than it was 19 years is the social networking and some of the things we get from the initial reports coming out now is was this killer broadcasting time and time again . And how many times that our kids are on social media, whether instagram or some of the other sites they go to and seeing this and are they reporting it . I mean parents, if any see behavior by kids orchids in their community are they report going or just sitting back saying this is just kids being kids . We can no longer say that. Listen you know from experience because youve been where the people of parkland florida are tonight. You have a chance now to tell lawmakers something they could do to make a difference. What do you want them to do . You said its a multipronged approach, more than just, you know, guns. Its more than just Mental Health. There are a number of things that can be done. What do you want . Well, and i want to see us put all the pieces to the puzzle together. That we reach out and politically i wish if i could tell the politicians anything and its one young man reached out to the politicians today, the students in parkland we need to cross aisles. Because as this arguing is going on kids are dying. We cant allow that to happen. Whether it be egos or philosophies we need to cross the paths to come together to decide what do we have to do to stop this from happening . And thats my plea out to them. Because i i cannot tell you the number of Memorial Services that i went to not only at columbine but the aftermath of up columbine of kids who took their lives because they were impacted by columbine. And we see some of the things going on with social cyberbullying and these are senseless deaths. We need to come up with programs that reach out to kids. We need to to tell parents these are things you need to look for with kids because the kids are so smart with the social media. And do they know where their kids are going and the trouble they can get into . And its not its not to look to penalize tor discipline its to help. And i think we need to send a strong message. What worries me is injury there has to be a strong message sent because i can assure you there are people out there just like in killer that took 17 lives and injured that are saying look at the recognition that this person is getting. And i want this type of recognition. And i cant tell you the number of killers that were involved, whether it be the person from sandy hook or the person from Virginia Tech that mentioned columbine as motivation. And the last thing we need right now is for this killer to serve as a motivator for other potential people out there planning something similar. Copy cats. Thank you. Dancing list. Thank you. I appreciate your time. Thank you. Thank you. 17 people students and teachers died in the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School yesterday. We are learning more about them font. Marten duque was a 14yearold freshman. His brother miguel writing on instagram words cant describe my pain. I love you brother martin youll be missed. Carmen schentrup was a semi finalities for the National Merit program. Cara loughran was 14. Attended the drake school of irish dance in south florida. They called her a beautiful soul who always had a smile on her face. And there are more young peoples whose families grieve tonight. We learn their stories in the coming days. Every one of them was lost far too young. Gina montalto was 14 as was alex schachter. Meadow polak 18, peter wang, 15, helena ransay. Well be right we have some breaking political news tonight on two big stories. First, the rob porter scandal. Were learning that the fbi obtained photos of the bruised face of Colbie Holderness seven days after President Trumps inauguration last year. Thats according to emails obtained by cnn. Its unclear if the fbi sent the photos themselves to the white house. Although, a Law Enforcement official source says the bureau would have at least described what they saw in the photos. The white house has claimed the full extent of the Domestic Violence allegations against porter werent known by senior officials until last week. And a cnn exclusive in the russian investigation. A former top adviser is close to a plea deal with robert mueller. I want to talk with that with former counsel john dean. Thank you for joining us on cnn. Cnn is exclusively reporting that former Trump Campaign adviser rick gates is in the process of finalizing a plea deal with the special counsel robert mueller. How significant is this development . It could be very significant. He was very close to manafort who was very close to trump. And the rules change if you have a conspiracy, don. Everything that manafort told him is admissible and in play because its an exception to the hearsay rule. In a conspiracy, a witness can be very important. The white house is brushing this off. They might be careless or just trying to play it down. Im not sure which one. Weve been talking about the terms that are used in Law Enforcement and prosecutions. But sources told cnn that gates was in a queen for a day interview with muellers prosecutors. Tell us about that and what questions muellers team was likely asking him about. That is a term that isnt used as much today. When a witness goes in for a proffer, to offer what they could give the government in exchange for a plea deal. And in those circumstances, the witness, or the target, is granted immunity, thats where the queen for the day term comes from, that was an Old Television or radio show, im not sure which one, where women would get on the air and tell their woes. And the worst woes of the day was the queen for the day. Thats where the term comes from. We dont know what is happening here. This is behind closed doors. Its clearly the shifting of lawyers, was the first indication that something was happening. Shes got a very good lawyer, tom green, that goes back to watergate. He got his client off, by the way. John, can i ask you, if this is all a hoax, fake news, as the president says, why have three people with ties to trump pled guilty so far . Its not a hoax. Its not a witchhunt. This is very real. While theyre trying to discount it, we have very smart prosecutors, very experienced prosecutors. Theyre holding their cards very close to their vest. Theyre not letting us all theyre not telegafraphing what theyre doing. Theyre building their case. In time, we will know what its all about. But the white house, trying to discount it and discredit it, is really playing a risky game. Weve learned that the former white house chief strategist, steve bannon, was questioned by Robert Muellers team over the period of two days. How big of a piece of the puzzle do you think that steve bannon is . Again, he has a lot of knowledge once he comes into the campaign. He comes in the last 90 days. He knows what is happening then. And he knows what was happening as they got the white house off the ground. Those were the times when the decision was made to fire comey. Thats when flynn was in jeopardy and doing some back channel kedealings with the russians. Might have been okay if he had done them openly. John dean, thank you. Thats it for us tonight. Ill see you right back here tomorrow. Good evening. We are in parkland, florida, where yesterdays terror has faded into horror and anger and loss. This is now a community of forensic teams and grief counsellors, mourners and trauma surgeons and funeral directors. It is a town of vigils. This one drawing thousands tonight. This is parkland tonight, points of light shining in the darkness. We have seen far too many vigils like this one, in ayaurora, colorado, we remember listening as the names of the dead were read aloud. After every name mourners chanted three simple sorrowful words, we will remember they said. Parkland is now a name among names like aurora. It is the newest point on a tearstained map. Parkland is las vegas tonight, it is sutherland springs, texas, oak creek and new