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Police Investigation at Fort Lauderdale Airport; Shots Fired at Fort Lauderdale Airport; At least Nine Wounded in Shooting; One Shooter Arrested in Airport Shooting. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired January 6, 2017 - 13:00   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, I'm Wolf Blitzer. It's 1:00 p.m. here in Washington. Wherever you are watching from around the world, thanks very much for joining us.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

BLITZER: Up first, the last step in the 2016 presidential election. Right now, Congress is convening in joint session of the Senate and the House of Representatives to officially count the electoral college ballots and certify Donald Trump's victory.

Vice President Joe Biden is presiding over the session. We expect the president-elect to get 304 electoral votes to Hillary Clinton's 227. A handful of electors defected during the December 19th electoral votes, two from Trump, five from Hillary Clinton.

We will keep you updated on the latest steps in this peaceful transfer of power. Those boxes that you're seeing right now, those are the electoral votes. They're being brought into the floor of the House of Representatives by the Senate (INAUDIBLE.)

Right now, they're going through a brief ceremonial procedure, and then it will be finally official. The vice president, there you see him in the middle of your screen, Joe Biden, he's presiding over this special session of the House and the Senate.

David Chalian, you're watching this very closely for us right now. It's a done deal. There's no great drama but it's important.

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Well, it is important, Wolf. You remember back on that night, November 8th, and all the vote counting we were looking at.

As you know, the way our Constitutional system works, it's this vote counting and recording today that actually will make Donald Trump the next president of the United States.

BLITZER: It certainly will. And there you see the vice president who also is the president of the U.S. Senate with Paul Ryan, the Speaker of the House.

Phil Mattingly is up on Capitol Hill for us. So, Phil, explain how all of this will play out and the possibility of a challenge by a few House Democrats.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, one does exist. Now, it's important to note, this is a rather formulated process and one that's supposed to go through with limited to no drama.

As you noted, Vice President Joe Biden will be overseeing the process as both of these chambers get together.

And how it all works, like this. The vice president will open alphabetically these certified vote totals from each state. And they'll go one state at a time.

They'll have two representatives standing next to him representing the House and the Senate. They will read the totals and the vice president will ask if there are any objections.

Now there is expected to be a possibility that objections are raised, Wolf, but there's a caveat to that. In order for an objection to actually be considered, there needs to be a representative from the House and a representative from the Senate agreeing to the objection.

Now, there are a handful of House members, Democratic House members, that are considering objections related to what they say is voter suppression. A number of different states that have voter I.D. laws that, obviously, have been very controversial over the last couple of years.

Here's the issue with those potential objections and as we've been told in talking to Democratic leadership, they have not found anybody on the Senate side to co-sponsor those objections.

So, those objections should not go anywhere, Wolf. If you do hear objections called, don't expect them to amount to much.

In terms of historically, how does this actually work? Last time we had major objections, 2001. It was a similar type of situation, obviously after George W. Bush's election. The Congressional Black Caucus tried to file several different objections. Never found a Senate counterpart so those were all pushed away.

The last time that a successful objection actually happened, 1969. That objection was eventually pushed away by the full Senate and House.

So, not a lot of drama here. A very formulaic process that will move state by state. And when you talk to congressional officials who are involved in this process, they don't expect any roadblocks -- Wolf.

BLITZER: David Gregory is with us as well. David, there will be a handful of Democrats who will try to make a political statement. They know a lot of people are watching right now. It's not going to go anywhere, but still it's an opportunity to score some political points.

DAVID GREGORY, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: It is and there are still efforts, I think, among the resistance in the country of Democrats who are trying to lodge a real protest against the presidency of Donald Trump.

But, you know, we have to remember that when this issue of the electoral college came up, initially in the 2000 election, it was really something that opponents of the system let it go by the wayside. They could have taken this up.

But when you had President Bush winning the electoral vote and the popular vote in 2004, and then President Obama doing the same, it seems to have lost its energy before this year.

[13:05:00] BLITZER: You're seeing the senators walking in, members of the House of Representatives as well.

What's interesting -- let's take a look at Paul Ryan, the Speaker, having a little private chat with Joe Biden, the Vice President of the United States. As I pointed out, the vice president is also the president of the U.S. Senate.

They will be gaveling this special session into order. David Chalian, the vice president he was sort of blunt yesterday in that interview with PBS with a message to Donald Trump. It sort of raised eyebrows.

CHALIAN: Yes, he sort of took a Trump tactic and sort of gave back what Trump usually gives out. And just sort of looked at the camera and said that Donald Trump should grow up.

That was the advice from the vice president when he was asked about tweeting about Chuck Schumer calling him a clown. That was the charge from Donald Trump yesterday.

But, you know, Wolf, in looking at that picture of Joe Biden and Paul Ryan up there, you know, we've seen Joe Biden in that seat now for eight State of Union addresses and have come to see that tableau, whether it was Nancy Pelosi or John Boehner, Paul Ryan sitting next to him.

But, of course, that's going to change now, and it'll be Mike Pence occupying that seat when we next expect to see a joint session of Congress.

BLITZER: And there you see Paul Ryan and Joe Biden. They will be in charge of this special session.

Phil Mattingly, you know, it's interesting. Right now, the president- elect of the United States, normally, I'm sure he'd be glued to a T.V. over at Trump Tower wanting to watch this. But he's getting a very sensitive highly-classified briefing right now in the Russian cyber- attacks during the U.S. election.

I assume he's still in that briefing right now, not able to watch this historic moment, where the members of the House and the Senate make it official. He will be the next president of the United States.

MATTINGLY: Yes, that's exactly right, otherwise indisposed. And a pretty important and historic moment in the presidency to be. And you look at kind of how this all came to be. Wolf, you kind of noted it perfectly. As they gavel in right now, this is the moment where the president-elect can actually watch and see --

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: All right, hold on a minute, Phil. I'm going to interrupt you, Phil, because the vice president is beginning the -- beginning the moment.

JOE BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, PRESIDENT, U.S. SENATE (live): -- House of Representatives are meeting in a joint session to verify the certificates and count the votes of the electors of the several states for president and vice president of the United States.

After the ascertainment has been had, that the certificates are authentic and correct in form, the tellers will count and make a list of the votes cast by the electors in the several states.

The tellers on the part of the two Houses will take their places at the clerk's desk.

BLITZER: All right, there you have it. The vice president beginning the process. They're just going through a little handshaking right now but they're going to formally count all those ballots and make it official.

We'll watch the count as it unfolds and get back to the floor of the United States House of Representatives.

In the meantime, President-elect Donald Trump, as I pointed out, he's being briefed, we're told, right now, by the nation's top intelligence officials on the Russian hacking report.

And a declassified version, by the way, of that report could be released any moment now.

For weeks, Trump has expressed deep skepticism over evidence linking Russia to the U.S. election hacking.

Before his briefing, Donald Trump spoke to "The New York Times", a brief phone interview, and called the investigation into Russian hacking, and I'm quoting him now, "a political witch hunt."

But the president-elect also said, again quoting, "I don't want countries to be hacking our country. They've hacked the White House. They've hacked Congress. We're like the hacking capital of the world."

Let's get some more on all of this. With us -- our panel is still with us. David Gregory is back with us. I'm also joined by our Chief National Security Correspondent Jim Sciutto and Jeremy Bash of Beacon Global Strategies. He's a former chief of staff to Leon Panetta with the CIA as well as the Department of Defense.

You know, David, they're not mincing any words. House minority leader, Nancy Pelosi, who was briefed on the classified report, she told reporters afterwards, it was stunning in its conclusions.

But only a few hours before he's going to be briefed, Donald Trump grants a phone interview to "The New York Times" in which he says, this is all just a political witch hunt.

DAVID GREGORY, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes. I mean, we have stepped into the surreal here and into a highly-politicized moment of national intelligence. Because this all has to do with our election and the conclusions are being greeted differently by different sides.

And I do think that Democrats are fueling this a little bit by suggesting not only did this happen, not only is he not taking it seriously, but, in fact, the suggestion is it tipped the election in his favor. There's nothing that backs that up.

[13:10:08] I think what Republicans and Democrats on the Hill are saying is, look, this is a serious attack on our democracy, foreign interference. That has to be taken by any president of any party. This is bigger than Donald Trump.

BLITZER: And they're also -- this report, we're told, Jim Sciutto, will also spell out what are called these go-betweens, individuals who were used by the Russians to give this information, these stolen e- mails, to WikiLeaks.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right. I mean, why is this important? Because it gets at not just that the material was stolen. We know that. After it was stolen, that it was strategically leaked to WikiLeaks, during the days and weeks preceding the election.

And the reason that's important is because that feeds the intelligence community's judgment that the attention here was not just to undermine the election, but to help one candidate. That's their judgment.

You know, listen, the intelligence here, this report, is clearly being politicized, namely by the president-elect of the United States, who still, last night, was calling it so-called election hacking.

The fact is, though, it's Donald Trump really against the world there. It's not Republican versus Democrat on this issue because Republicans, across the board, have accepted that Russia did this hacking and that it's a serious thing. In fact, they're talking about more serious sanctions.

So, it is Donald Trump that is -- that is in a very tiny circle here, contesting that assessment. And the question is, does that change with this briefing today? We don't know.

BLITZER: Jeremy Bash, he keeps suggesting this, supporters keep suggesting the whole purpose of this is simply that the Democrats want to undermine the legitimacy of his winning the election. That's why the intelligence community is doing this. And he's not going to play along with that.

JEREMY BASH, FOUNDER AND MANAGING DIRECTOR, BEACON GLOBAL STRATEGIES: The intelligence community, the CIA, the NSA are nonpartisan professional agencies. These are people who are risking their lives, in some cases losing their lives, in some very dangerous and tricky situations. They're part of the defenses of our country.

In fact, when he is sworn in as the 45th president in two Fridays, Wolf, he is going to rely on those intelligence professionals. He is going to rely on those troops.

And when they come to him and say, Mr. President, Kim Jong Un is stacking a missile on a launch pad in North Korea aimed at us or ISIS has moved operatives into western Europe and they are aimed at us, he's got to believe them. He's got to listen to them.

Because if he doesn't, if he discounts it, he'll let our guard down. And then, if we're hit, then that is a major, major scandal in our country.

GREGORY: We have to also remember, this is not -- as Clapper said yesterday (INAUDIBLE) Clapper said yesterday, this is still going on. It's not just the meddling in the election.

It's the propaganda. It's pushing on the open door of the lack of public trust and our public institutions from the media to government to other things. And that there are a slate of very important elections in Europe this year that Russia may try to interfere with.

So, this is where this is about the presidency. This is about America. It's about our interest. And I just wonder how Trump is going to react, his tenor, his tone his actual statement after he gets this briefing. Is he saying something to them personally that he's -- that is different from how he's conducting himself on twitter?

BLITZER: In that "New York Times" interview, the president-elect also said -- I'll read this line to you, Jim. They've got beaten, in talking about the Democrats, very badly in the election. I won more counties in the election than Ronald Reagan. They are very embarrassed about it. To some extent, it's a witch hunt. They just focused on this.

SCIUTTO: Listen, that gets to what Donald Trump's motivation appears to be here, right? Is that he has this indelible connection between the finding of the intelligence community and questions about the legitimacy of his victory. And how -- and it seems hard for him to set that aside.

And don't take my view for it, because I've asked Republicans and Democrats why they believe he is pushing back. And that really gets at it there. The challenge is going to be, can he separate that?

And then, as the president-elect as he takes over these intelligence agencies, can he accept their assessment and then answer this cyber hacking? Because that's another thing that the parties agree on, Republican and Democrat, that it's serious. That Russia did it and it's a serious attack on our democracy. Not my words. McCain's words, Graham's, Ryan's, McConnell's, et cetera.

BLITZER: All right, guys, I want you to hold on for a moment because I want to show our viewers some breaking news developing in Fort Lauderdale, Florida right now.

We've got some live pictures coming in right now. You see people who have streamed (ph) out of the terminal, out of planes onto the runways there outside. It looks like a lot of police activity at the Fort Lauderdale Airport right now.

I have no idea what is going on but this is clearly a not normal situation at the Fort Lauderdale International Airport. It's the Fort Lauderdale Hollywood, Florida Airport, usually a very busy airport there in South Florida in Broward County.

But you see a lot of police vehicles outside. And you see people who have just streamed outside for whatever reason.

[13:15:04] But we're going to try to find out what's going on. David Susi, a CNN Aviation Analyst, is on the phone with us.

David, do you have any idea of the background, why this is happening at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport?

DAVID SOUCIE, CNN AVIATION ANALYST (via telephone): No, I really don't. It just - the details are just streaming in right now.

But as far as procedurally at the airport, what people can expect is to be segregated into various levels of secure areas. So depending on where this occurred, Wolf, would be how they - how much impact this will have. Certainly the airport will be shut down from any kind of movement if the security area has been breached at all, which I'm pretty certain it has been based on the details we have so far.

BLITZER: Normally if there is a breach inside the terminal, let's say, especially inside the area after TSA, after security screening, what's the procedure there if they suspect someone got through and there could be a problem?

SOUCIE: Literally everyone that's in the airport at that point has to be screened again. So they would clear out the post-screening area, have all those people go back into the prescreening area, and then they'd have to go back through security again at a heightened level. It would be an orange or red level at that point. So at that point you could expect very, very long lines, very - a lot of delays. Everything's going to be delayed.

But the first thing, though, is they have to stabilize the situation, which is going to require that everyone be evacuated. That's why you see those people streaming out of the airport at this point.

BLITZER: They clearly have been evacuated.

And take a look at this. We're getting some tweets from Ari Fleischer, the former Bush White House press secretary. Look at this. He is writing on Twitter, "I'm at fort Lauderdale Airport. Shots have been fired. Everyone is running." A pretty alarming report from Ari Fleischer, the former press secretary in the Bush administration. Shots have been fired.

I assume there's good security there, David, at that airport.

SOUCIE: Yes, very good security, Wolf. And I'd be very surprised if someone got a gun past the security end of the secure area. But that doesn't mean to say - and this has happened twice before - where guns were fired and shots were fired inside the terminal area where you would buy your tickets or pick up your baggage. So those are two incidences that have happened before, and standard protocol for that, again, is to assume that the security area was breached and to evacuate everybody that's out there on a - trying to get onto the airport - airplanes at this point and just get everyone out of there. But that's very disturbing that he - the way that he said that, shots been fired, especially Secretary Fleischer being aware of how to do communications with the public means that this is a very dire situation.

BLITZER: Yes, Ari Fleischer, clearly a very serious guy. He wouldn't have tweeted that unless he knew for sure that he heard shots - that shots have been fired and people have streamed out.

You see some planes moving on the tarmac there. I guess they haven't - they haven't just - they haven't just closed the airport if planes are moving. But you see a lot of people outside.

He's just tweeted again, Ari Fleischer. Let's put that up if we can. We'll put it up on the screen. Another tweet from Ari Fleischer. Oh, well this is good news. "all seems calm now, but the police aren't letting anyone out of the airport. At least not the area where I am."

So he said shots were fired, but all seems calm right now. Let's hope it is calm right now. Let's hope that no one was injured if, in fact, shots were fired.

But it's a confusing situation at a major airport here in the United States, David Soucie, and you see - you see vehicles, emergency vehicles, moving now on the tarmac. You can see that fire truck.

SOUCIE: Yes, it's - with fire trucks on the tarmac it was - I'm wondering now if the shots might have been fired and involved something in the operations area, which is even a higher level of security. So if something happened there or if someone breached those doors, perhaps if someone heard the shots going and then tried to exit through a non - through a high secure area onto the tarmac, that would - that would very much increase how much has to be done by airport security at that point because now the airport - the airplanes themselves on the tarmac might be in danger of some kind of action.

So you mentioned before too that the airplanes are moving and that's typical as well because if your airport - airplane is already secured, people are on board and you've detached from the jetway, then the protocol would be that that airplane needs to get out onto the runway or onto the taxiway immediately to get away from the airport facility itself because it's been breached. So that capsule, the airplane, is the secure area at that point. So that's why any airplanes that are in the area, even if they're coming into the tarmac, in to be unloaded, would probably most likely go back out to the taxi areas and the runways. [13:20:00] BLITZER: We're now told - and, David Soucie, thanks very

much - Art Roderick is joining us right now.

The Fort Lauderdale Airport says there's an ongoing situation right now in baggage claim. There you see the tweet from the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. "There is an ongoing incident in terminal two, baggage claim, media availability is at the staging area."

Art, this sounds pretty disturbing if all of a sudden all of these people rushed out of the terminal onto the tarmac.

ART RODERICK, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST (via telephone): Yes, Wolf, you're right. We've had - we've seen this situation before in some shootings at airports where evacuation routes occur on to the tarmac. This is actually sort of a nightmare scenario for law enforcement because as your previous speaker said, you know, you've got aircraft coming in. Obviously at this point the airport's shut down. You're going to have a massive law enforcement presence, not only of those that were already there working at the airport, TSA, local police, federal police, but you're going to have a lot of people coming in now.

I think the one silver lining here is that this - if this occurred in the baggage area, that sort of exterior to the security lines at the airport. So I think what they're doing out of an abundance of caution is they're pushing everybody on to the tarmac. But this - this airport will be shut down for quite some time at this particular point.

BLITZER: If the shooting incident, Art, is over at baggage claim, as you point out, this is not in the secure area. It's not beyond the TSA security checkpoints. Anyone can just walk into an airport and go to baggage claim here in the United States and, that's - obviously suggest that something happened in baggage claim, but people must have heard shots, and as a result they ran out to the tarmac. The right part of your screen, you see a lot of people on the tarmac right there.

RODERICK: Right. I mean we've seen this before where individuals pick soft targets. And one of those being, you know, we've seen this internationally too, where they pick the soft targets either right outside the entrance to the airport or right inside where there's no security. So you're right, Wolf, this - this is an area that is - is a soft target and is a good location for a bad guy to go in and start shooting. Of course, you've got a lot of people milling around picking their bags up and, you know, it obviously creates a lot of targets for an individual going in there with a rifle or handgun.

BLITZER: Yes, this is a very disturbing development indeed.

Cedric Alexander is with us as well, another one of our CNN law enforcement analysts.

What's your - what's your read on this situation because the reporting is just coming in. Ari Fleisher, the former White House press secretary tweeting that shots were fired, although now suggesting, at least from his vantage point, it seems calm.

The Fort Lauderdale International Airport's spokesperson tweeting that it's an ongoing situation at baggage claim. I think he said terminal two at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. There you see some of the planes still out there.

But I assume the airport is closed, Cedric. What's your understanding?

CEDRIC ALEXANDER, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST (via telephone) Well, at this point, I can only imagine they have probably shut down the airport, Wolf, to a point where there's no one coming in or going out. This is very early in this incident, and certainly going to be very early in the investigation.

You're going to have a number of federal agencies that are going to be responding to this location as we speak. But I think here very shortly, within some reasonable amount of time, we'll be able to gather some intel information as to what occurred, and this is going to be ongoing for some time.

But let me also note, having served at Dallas-Fort Worth Airport as a fellow security director a few years ago, we rehearse and prepare ourselves for these potential type of events that have taken place. So I'm quite sure Fort Lauderdale, and the leadership there, and the fellow security directors working very closely with Washington, D.C., and all the other federal partners and local partners to try to, one, make sure everyone is safe, and, two, make attempts to keep people in a position where we can identify if there's any other potential threats that still may be in and around that airport. It's very early in this investigation.

BLITZER: You once, as you point out, you once worked in airport security. You see these pictures. You see these people still out there on the tarmac. You see a lot of security. You see the entrance to the airports, the roads coming into the airport clearly shut down with a lot of police vehicles. It's clearly a serious situation. When you see this, what's your understanding?

ALEXANDER: Well, when you see it, Wolf, you know, here again, this is very different for us in this country, particularly to see this type of shooting with this number of injuries. What is going to be profoundly important to determine at this point, of course, is, who are - who is the attacker or attackers? Here again, it's very early in this investigation.

[13:25:02] What we got to do right now is to secure that scene, keep as many people as safe as possible. And in addition to that, begin to conduct an investigation. But here again, we're only within moments of the shooting. So I think as information continues to come in, we'll be able to make a much better assessment based on information we are going to get from police on the ground and also from reporters.

BLITZER: We - we are now told, Cedric and Art, that one shooter was involved in this incident at baggage claim. The shooter is now in custody. At least nine people were injured, we're told, in this incident. If the shooter is in custody, and there was only one individual, it

looks like it may be over and these people will be going back inside the terminal. We don't know that for sure. The only thing we know right now, that one shooter apparently was involved at baggage claim, terminal two, Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, and at least nine people were injured in that shooting rampage.

What does that say to you, Cedric?

ALEXANDER: Well, what it says to me here again, Wolf, very early in this investigation, they may have one shooter in custody, but that does not negate the fact there could be other parties involved who brought him there, who was there to take him away, who else could be potentially involved in this investigation? So what we're seeing - the images that we're seeing are very preliminary.

But I know for a fact that the investigators and police and federal authorities on that scene are going to secure that scene and they got to make determinations and clear that entire airport to make sure that it's safe. And we won't determine that until a little bit further along in the afternoon as this continues to unfold. So it's great we got a shooter in custody, but this still does not negate the fact, Wolf, there could be still others involved.

BLITZER: Yes.

ALEXANDER: We don't know as of yet, but determinations will be made as we continue - as they continue with this investigation.

BLITZER: We're getting this information from federal officials who are knowledgeable about the situation at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. When they say one shooter has now been arrested, nine people injured at baggage claim, inside the terminal, and as a result of all of those shots, as a result of all of those shots that were fired, you saw a lot of people streaming out of the airport on to the tarmac and a lot of security there as well.

Tom Fuentes is our senior law enforcement analyst as well.

Tom, I don't know if you've got more information. It may be over, but before they can say it is over, they've got to make sure that this was an individual involved in the shootings and no others remain at large.

TOM FUENTES, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST (via telephone): That's true, Wolf. That's the primary concern here, was this a lone person, maybe deranged or some other motivation to do this. And certainly there's no security to get to the baggage area. That's where people arrive to pick up other passengers and take them home or take them to wherever they're going. So you would not have the security there that you would have, let's say, at gate areas or on the airplanes themselves. But, yes, that's the primary concern. If they can make a determination that it's a person acting alone, then I think they'll probably reopen the airport to normal business, but not before that.

BLITZER: It will take a while to reopen that airport because they want to be 100 percent sure there's no one else that remains at large.

The notion that the shooting incident, Tom, happens at baggage claim, which is right near curb side, not beyond the security perimeter, anyone can just walk into an airport, go to baggage claim, but all these other people inside the terminal who were presumably beyond security, they ran outside. Is that normal?

FUENTES: I don't know. I think - I think for a lot of people if they hear shots fired, they're going to probably try to run for an exit to get out of the building and not be trapped. So depending on the layout of that airport, that might be perfectly normal.

But, you know, one of the key things they'll be doing now is immediately looking at all the security cameras, determine if this person arrived in a taxi or parked a car, came by himself, entered the airport, and began shooting. So they - they should have pretty good video coverage of almost the entire airport, including the outlying parking lot, approach entrances that cars and taxis and buses would take, as well as within the airport itself. Even though baggage claim doesn't require you to go through magnetometers, it would still have all of the video cameras that every other part of the airport would have.

BLITZER: Our aviation correspondent Rene Marsh is reporting that a suspect is in custody after this shooting at the Fort Lauderdale- Hollywood Airport. This according to U.S. federal officials. Law enforcement believes there was just one shooter, Rene is quoting her sources as saying. At least nine people were injured in the shooting. Clearly the TSA is investigating.

[13:30:09] An incident like this, Tom Fuentes, who takes charge of the investigation?