hello, i'm wolf blitzer in washington. we want to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. we're getting new details on the breaking news, moment-by-moment developments in what will go down as the worst mass shooting in american history. at least 50 people are dead. at least 53 people are injured after a gunman opened fire at the pulse nightclub in orlando, florida, at approximately 2:00 a.m. eastern. police and the fbi are investigating this massacre as a possible act of terrorism. the gunman has been identified as omar seddique mateen. he's 29 years old. just into cnn, the shooter who committed this horrific act was, in fact, on the fbi's radar. he was suspected of being an

isis sympathizer but officials say they had no indication he was plotting to carry out an attack. we are told president obama has been fuelly briefed on the shooting. he will address the nation in about a half hour from now. we will, of course, go to the white house for live coverage of that. meanwhile, the gunman was killed in a shootout with police and as atf agents continue to sweep the nightclub even right now for any possible explosive devices, officials just confirmed his body was found with a handgun and an automatic rifle. >> all the killing that was done was with an assault rifle, with a single weapon. there's an enormous amount of havoc right now. there's blood everywhere. i spoke to somebody on the site and there's an enormous amount of evidence to be collected systematically over the course of many hours. >> officials will have another

news conference in the next hour. we'll get an update on the death toll and hopefully get more information about the gunman, this terrorist and how the shooting unfolded. here's what we know so far. this began when an officer was working security at the pulse nightclub, was engaged at a shootout outside of the club. we have witness video of that horrific moment. i have to warn the viewers, this is disturbing. you will hear the shots but it's a crucial part of understanding that story. >> look at that, they're shooting back and forth. >> let's go! let's go! >> look at this. [ speaking spanish ] [ gunshots ] >> oh, my god, they're all shooting back and forth. >> the gunman then ran inside the building and began taking hostages. here's how officials have pieced together the timeline from

there. >> this developed into a hostage situation so right a little after 5:00 this morning we made a decision to go in and rescue. we were being contacted by people in the bathroom, nearby, at least 15 people in a separate area. our biggest concern was future loss of life. we wanted to save those people so we did an entry and exchanged gunfire with the suspect after explosive devices were used as well as our bear cat was used to get through the wall and from there we exchanged gunfire with the suspect and he was dead at the scene but officers did a great job, swat team did a great job. there were at least 30 people saved during that rescue. >> it's with great sadness that i share we have not 20 but 50 casualties. in addition to the shooter, there are another 53 that are

hospitalized. because of the scale of the crime, i've asked the governor to declare a state of emergency, we are also issuing a state of emergency for the city of orlando so we can bring additional resources to bear to deal with the aftermath. >> a little after 2:00 we were notified of many gunshot victims as central florida's only level one trauma center we immediately activated our mass casualty incident plan. we immediately brought in six trauma surgeons to respond including one pediatric trauma surgeon. we have spent the morning operating on a number of victims. we continue to operate on them. we have found many of them are critically ill as a result of their injuries and we are in the process of trying to reunite families as we identify the names of these victims.

as has been mentioned this will take time and we ask for your patience but we will reunite the families and victims as quick as we can. >> let's bring in victor blackwell in orlando. what's the latest you're getting specific details from the hospital on the victims? >> well, wolf, i can tell you that we're still waiting to get those specific details, as are the relatives who have been waiting since 2:00 a.m. after the first call in about this shooting. i'm here on south orange at grant which is about three blocks away from pulse nightclub. you can see this massive response here, local, state, federal authorities here as well. we'll talk about that in a moment but if my photographer can zoom in to what we're seeing here on the corner of grant and orange. two men here taking a moment of prayer. they've been here for just a couple of minutes. we've seen people place flowers

here as a start for what now has the tragic distinction of being the deadliest terror attack on u.s. soil since 9/11 and the deadliest mass shooting in u.s. history. let's broaden out the shot and i'll tell you what's happening here. you mentioned a few moments ago that atf agents are still on scene. that's about three blocks down in this direction where they are still inside the pulse nightclub making sure there aren't any devices, any improvised explosive device s there. they will be searching his vehicle. inside that club, as you said, is the body of the shooter but also the bodies of many of the victims. our nick valencia a few moments ago in passing here told me a lot of the families are still working to find the cell phones through technology to find out where their loved ones are. just a few moments ago we heard

in florida governor rick scott. i want to play what he said and talk more about what's happening here in just a moment. let's listen to governor scott. >> this is clearly an act of terror. you can't imagine this would happen to our community, our state, or anywhere in our country but for somebody who go in there and be an active shooter and take any life but that number of lives and injury that many people is clearly an act of terror. >> governor scott said this is an attack on america and he might have meant it in the sense of a terror attack on this country but take into consideration that this was a nightclub in a tourist city. 50 people killed, more than 50 injured. they were very likely people from other states, other communities and this will be a tragedy not just for orlando, not just for the state of florida but there will be intimate connections and relations to people across the country for people who came to

this city on vacation and spent the night at this cloub it would be no surprise we start hearing reports of connections to other state, possibly other countries as we wait for the names of those victims, more importantly instead of our waiting for the names of the victims, those families still waiting to get the names of the people killed or injured in this shooting last night. >> victor, stand by. evan perez, our justice correspondents is getting more information now. about this omar seddique mateen, 29 years old from ft. pierce, not far from orlando. >> well, we know the fbi looked into mateen, the shooter, in the past. we know they've looked at him in connection to possible ties to islamic extremists. whether or not he was a sympathizer of either isis or one of the islamic extremist groups. we know that that occurred at

least a couple years ago. more recently he's been working as a private security guard. a major company that does contracting for the federal government. it provides security services to federal buildings so the question that will be asked in the coming hours and in the coming days is how someone who with that kind of connection, that kind of past was able to qualify for a job like that. we know because of the fact that he had a security guard's license, he was licensed to carry firearms that when he went to purchase firearms recently, he bought one glock pistol that was found at the scene of the shooting, we know he budget that in the last two weeks from a gun store legally in the st. lucie county area. again, because it's the fact that he had the security guard's license he was able to buy the firearm with little questions

asked simply because he's trained to use these weapons. these are all parts of the investigation. we don't know what evidence the fbi uncovered when they looked into him. we know he wasn't the main focus of the investigation. he came up in the investigation and they looked into his background and didn't find anything sufficient to bring charges. >> well, you say he was on the fbi's radar. was he formally, officially on the fbi's terror watch list? the federal terror watch list? >> we don't know that, we don't know whether or not he was placed on any watch list, again, simply because of the fact that his name came up in an investigation and they apparently didn't find enough information or enough evidence i suspect he was not on any kind of list and he was able to keep his job as a private security guard working far major company that provides services to the

federal government, my suspicion is he didn't make it to that level, wolf. >> he was not charged with anything but he was being watched, is that fair? >> he was on their radar but there are hubs of people who come up in these investigations and the fbi just doesn't have the manpower once they determine that there isn't enough there, they don't keep an eye on them after that. they -- they're on there -- they have a file that says this person was looked into in the past but frankly there's just hundreds and hundreds of people in this country who come up as possible sympathizers of isis or other groups, wolf, and the fbi puts higher priority on the ones they believe are more dangerous. this one did not rise to that level at the time. >> and i take it you've also been reporting that the fbi has already -- just officials have been speaking with his family, with mateen's family, is that right? >> that's right, wolf, they were able to get to his house.

they got to his family's home in st. lucie county and the family has provided by interviews in which they said he expressed anti-gay feelings, that he was essentially hostile to gay people but they did not indicate any isis ties that he had or any suspicion that he had that. essentially that he was motivated by hatred for gay people. >> and this was a nightclub, an lgbt -- a gay nightclub where this horrendous slaughter took place. stand by for a moment, evan. i want to bring in cnn's boris sanchez in orlando. boris, what else can you tell us about what happened inside that club? >> well, wolf, witnesses tell us it was supposed to be a fun night. it was latin night at the pulse nightclub. a packed house, more than 350 people inside enjoying themselves, drinking and dancing. at 2:00 a.m. everything changed.

now just a few hours later we're realizing this is the worst mass shooting in american history. again, it started at 2:00 a.m. officials tell us there was an encounter between aboff duty police officer working security at the door of a nightclub. he had some kind of exchange with the gunman. they exchanged fire and the gunman ran inside and it became a hostage situation. one witness earlier told us it was so loud and disoriented between the music and gunshots he couldn't tell what was going on until he started to notice people around him were dropping to the ground. here's more of what he describe described. >> i know i was trying to enjoy my night and all you hear was banging -- not banging, just boom, boom of bullets, you think it's part of a song sand i looked behind me and i noticed that it wasn't just a song that there was bodies falling down.

the guy next to me was shot and that's when i dropped and i made sure i had to crawl my way out because it's either fight or flight and i had to flee. i felt the cement on my elbows and i knew i was okay and i crouched and my dad taught me to zigzag so i zigzagged my way in case there was anything flying because you could still hear the bullets going off inside the club as we were out and then i noticed there was a gentleman on the ground who had a pull let wound in the book so i helped assist with him and we had to move further down towards the hospital and all you saw was people running and screaming and there was bodies in the parking lot where they were tagging them and it was just a scene from a horror movie. it was absolutely tragic. >> a san from a horror movie. and that was before 5:00 a.m. when we were standing outside here a couple blocks down the

street we heard a huge explosion, later found out orlando police set off explosions to distract the suspect inside. that's when they went inside and exchanged gunfire. that's when he was taken out. we're told officials were able to rescue 30 people but so many casualties, 50 people were found inside and officials are just asking for patience. as you heard victor mention earlier, crews are inside the club right now not only looking at any other potential ieds that may be inside but also trying to recover remains and process remains to process things. all of this unfolding at 2:00 a.m. we're close to almost 2:00 p.m. and these families are still fighting for answers so officials are asking for patience. we've heard the call go out for

o positive and o negative. we heard a donation center is packed with people. >> that's so critically important, life-saving indeed. boris, thanks very much. boris sanchez, we'll get back to you. he's in orlando. we'll get an update on the specifics of this investigation. a reminder, we're also about to hear from president obama in a few moments. he's about -- he's getting ready to address the nation from the white house. chris frates is at the white house. i take it the president has been briefed by his homeland security advisor, counterterror advisors and he has decided he wants to speak to the american people. >> we'll hear from the president in about 15 minutes.

so we'll see what the president has to say if he has any new information for the american people when he steps up to that podium about 1:30. but i think it's also important to put this into context. this is not the president has spoken to the nation after a mass shooting. he's done it a dozen times during his presidency, after the san bernardino shootings in california he talked about the fact that not all muslims, the majority of muslims find this kind of violence and terrorism abhorrent. this is the kind of event that scrambles schedules. remember, president obama was scheduled on wednesday to start the presidential campaign. he was going to go to green bay, wisconsin, with hillary clinton to kick off in earnest his involvement in the general

election. there's a question about whether he'll do that. he also was supposed to take a family vacation at yosemite national park. we'll see if that continues. everything is in flux here. even the vice president, he has also been briefed, he was supposed to come down to miami to take a flight from miami from wilmington to raise money for debbie wasserman schultz, there was going to be a miami fund-raiser for her reelection but the vice president's office he'll stay in wilmington and be back in d.c. on monday. so we're already seeing things moving around because this is such a horrific, historic event. we're waiting to hear what the president has to say in just a few minutes. he'll address the nation, wolf. >> we know he'll be in the press briefing room, sheing our viewers a life picture. after his statement, do we know if the president will take questions from reporters who will be sitting in front of him. >> we haven't received any official guidance and we'll have to see if he does come out and

give a statement or whether or not he'll answer questions that reporters on behalf of the american people. at this point we don't know and it might be a game time decision there, wolf. >> he'll see what happens. obviously a very, very sad day in american history right now. the worst mass shooting, a massacre in orlando. the president -- i take it was briefed early on. do know what was going on? >> we know early this morning that the president was briefed by lisa monaco, one of his top terrorism advisors briefed the president. those remarks just coming together as we see what the president knows if he knows more than what has been out there and

that's big question that we as reporters have and the american people have. what happened? when did the president know what he knew and what could have been done to prevent this are big questions that we all have, wolf. >> chris frates, stand by over at the white house. we, of course, will have live coverage of the president's address to the nation from the white house. the president will be speaking in about 10 minutes or so. he's scheduled to speak 1:30 p.m. eastern. we will have live coverage of that. we're also standing by for a news conference from local police in orlando. we'll have coverage of that coming up. let's take a quick break. much more right after this. nnec. with centurylink as your trusted technology partner, you get an industry leading broadband network and cloud and hosting services. centurylink. your link to what's next.

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we're following breaking news on the mass shooting in orlando, florida, that's left 50 people dead and more than 50 people injured. the shooter apparently pledged allegiance to isis and mentioned the boston bombers according to a u.s. official. evan is joining us on the phone. evan, specifically update our viewers what you've just learned. >> well, wolf, we know that one reason why the fbi immediately believed this was an islamic attack was simply because of that phone call that the shooter made where he pledged allegiance to isis. the investigation is still ongoing, there's investigation that is not known because the shooter is dead.

we do know he was investigated at least in the past by the fbi. and he wasn't the focus of these investigations but he was suspected of having ties to islamic extremists and sympathy with islamic extremist ideology. we're told those investigations concluded without any action on him. without any charges brought against him and he wasn't the focus of those investigations. his name came up as part of an ongoing investigation of other people. he will continue to work as a private -- some will ask as he continued to work as a private security guard. they have contracts to protect federal buildings. down there in ft. pierce florida.

the fact that he had this job, he was able to firearms with no questions asked. he was able to buy that glock pistol legally in a couple weeks from a firearms dealer in the st. lucie county area. >> the 911 call that you've now learned, evan, do we know specifically what he said? i assume they haven't released the audio. they will at some point but they have not released it yet. >> they have not released it and it's part of the investigation and i suspect it will be some time before we hear that. i don't know what the content of that conversation was and why it went specifically it took place, we just know that it happened around the time these attacks were going on and he was holed up in that nightclub for several

hour hours. >> we have not heard any statements i take it from isis claim i claiming responsibility. was this an isis-inspired lone wolf attack or a coordinated attack? i think it's to early to make that determination. is that what you're hearing from your sources? >> it is too early to make that determination but i think you talk to officials now days wolf and they see very little difference between the two things simply because a lot of these people who are acting on behalf of isis, they don't necessarily have specific links to nib in syria. isis is under great pressure so some of their best and most active recruiters online

instigators have been killed in air strikes by the united states. so a lot of these attacks are brought on by people who have no direct links. they're simply acting because isis is encouraging its sympathizer to do this. this is the holy month of ramadan and isis and other groups have been out there urging their supporters to carry out attack during this time, wolf. >> during this month of ramadan family members telling federal authorities in their initial conversations that omar seddique mateen had anti-gay feelings. what can you tell us about that? this was a pulse club which was frequented by lgbt community. >> that's right, wolf. this is the first indication from the family in their

interviews with fbi, with investigators, their suggestion is he was acting out of hatred for gay people. that's what his motivation was. obviously this is only part of the investigation, the fbi is looking at possible isis ties with regard to isis and islamic extremism. but they can be related. isis has carried out killing of people it expects being gay, they're very anti-gay in their propaganda. >> evan perez doing important reporting for us. i want to bring in security analyst juliette kayyem, security analyst peter bergen and security analyst bob baer. this notion of a copycat attack or isis-inspired attack, you've

studied this for a long time, what's your initial reaction? >> wolf, every single lethal terrorist attack in the united states since 9/11. we've seen that the attacks that have taken place in this country have been lone wolf attacks. sometimes a foreign terrorist organization may try and direct but there's no training, no formal connection in these attacks. >> so your suspicion is this is a lone wolf attack inspired by isis ideology. >> yes, since 9/11 every attack has been carried out by a lone wolf or a pair of brothers. we're not seeing large groups of people as we saw in paris or brussels trained by isis or some other foreign terrorist organization carrying out these attacks. >> juliet, the fact, as evan perez just reported, that this individual, omar seddique

mateen, would place a 911 call and pledge his allegiance to isis on that call, what does that say to you? >> it. >> it basically says this is a guy that peter said is a man who was inspired by isis, and basically wanted to make himself known. so this is very different in that regard. someone who wanted his radicalization to be known in a very direct way. calling into 911 is unique for these kinds of cases. >> it is pretty -- bob baer, it is pretty unusual for a terrorist engaged in a massacre along these lines to actually go out and make a 911 call and announce "i am with isis." >> well, wolf, i think what we're seeing here is that he

didn't want to get caught in advance by getting on a web site. and this guy is a disciplined shooter as well but the fact that it was against a gay club fits right in with the islamic state's ideology. >> because of the hatred of homosexuals, of gays, of the lgbt community because we've seen all these reports over the years of what isis terrorists have done to those suspected of being homosexuals. they've thrown them off the top of buildings, burned them and killed them. this is sort of common over there if someone is suspected of being gay, right? >> exactly. in fact, in all of islam any

sort of gay -- lgbt is not permitted but particularly with the islamic state and they've gone out and executed people they suspect of being gay. >> peter bergen, you want to add something? >> we saw in the san bernardino case the female in the couple she pledged her allegiance to baghdadi moments after they completed the execution of 14 beam in san bernardino. so we've seen something analogous to this 9/11 call but not a 911 call in the case of san bernardino but something somewhere the perpetrator announces in a public fashion they're taking responsibility for isis. >> and we had also heard reports, paul cruickshank, our cnn terrorism analyst is joining us as well, paul, that in the course of this massacre he apparently was screaming some words in a foreign language, unclear what language that was during the course of the

massac massacre. what if anything are you learing about that. >> well, we're not hearing a great amount of detail what language it might have been in. we understand he may have been of afghan descent or whether it was perhaps in arabic but we've seen in past attacks often the attacker shouting the phrase allahu akbar, we saw that during the paris the paris attacks. and that they will be rewarded in paradise for what they do. he wanted the world to feel this was an isis attack but no evidence he had any connection to isis himself but it would appear he was inspired by the isis call for attacks and just a couple of weeks ago one of their senior leaders, abu mohammed called for a surge in terrorism

there the united states during ramadan, ramadan started just a few days ago. isis told their supporters if you launch attacks during ramadan you'll be work for a p contractor that had contracts protecting federal buildings and was able to purchase weapons. >> that's exactly right. so the pieces that i'm asking myself or the questions are did this particular company that he worked for have government contracts in florida? these companies are huge, hiring thousands of people. the second issue is he's being viewed by jttf. he didn't do anything that would have gotten him on a terror

watch list nor if he were on that list would that have precluded him from buying weapons. we know there is a gap between the terror watch list and getting weapons. the third thing is we talk about inspired by isis. there's two types of inspiration, one is passive and one is active. this investigation is determining is this a guy who was just absorbing a lot of stuff, a lot of information online but never had direct contact with isis in back channels or might we find out that there was direct contact? it still -- these things make a difference for law enforcement purposes in determining future threats and also just to have answers for all of the victims and their families. >> stand by. we're getting more developments, more breaking news right now. we're learning a suspect with arsenal has been taken into custody at a los angeles pride festival. this according to our affiliate kabc. authorities took a suspect into custody in west hollywood after

discovering an arsenal in his car that included what is being described as explosive powder, assault weapons and a camouflage outfit. the suspect told authorities that he was there for the los angeles pride festival which is under way this weekend. los angeles, fbi, police, others, they are telling cnn "we're assisting our local partners" but would not provide additional details. a police news conference is expected shortly. kyung lah is joining us on the phone right now. you're out on the scene. update our viewers, kyung, on what you're learning here. >> thank you for being here, i'm the president of l.a. pride. on behalf of our board of directors i want to send out our thoughts -- >> that should tell us more about the suspect that they have taken into custody. our affiliate kabc saying this suspect was taken into custody in west hollywood. what was discovered in his vehicle, according to kabc was

explosive powder, assault weapon, and a camouflage outfit, all of this kabc siting unnamed authorities and the suspect telling authorities that -- where he was heading was the los angeles pride festival. it is under way this weekend. what we have heard from pride authorities, we know the response here has been incredible. this has been something that is very searing for this community. there was a planned moment of silence and just to give you some of the aesthetics of what you normally see -- >> kyung, hold on for one moment because they're speaking out in los angeles right now. this is. let's hear what she's saying. >> pride will go on. [ cheers and applause ] >> as we march in the streets today under gray skies and as we take a moment of silence to grieve together before the parade begins, our hearts will be heavy but our resolve will be

strong. public safety is our number one priority and the city of west hollywood is on heightened alert and is working very closely with the los angeles county sheriff's department, the l.a. county fire department, the los angeles police department, and the federal bureau of investigation to ensure a safe l.a. pride in west hollywood. thank you. [ cheers and applause ] >> thank you, and now i'd like to introduce the mayor of los angeles, eric garcetti. >> thank you. >> we all wanted to be here this morning but we did not want to be here under these circumstances. but we are here as angelinos, as lgbt q community and allies here in west hollywood who i want to thank as always for hosting us. to say as americans we will not

shrink away, we will not be stuck in our homes, we will not go back into closets, we are out here to march, to celebrate, and to mourn. this is a society we love broadly and openly because we have jews and christians and muslims and atheists and buddhists marching together. because we are white, black, brown, asian, native american. the whole spectrum of every hue and culture is here. and our arts are with orlando. we are pulse, we are orlando, we are americans. we are all lgbtq members today. we are all part of a country that won't be beaten down. we won't go away.

we just heard that there was a man who said he was coming to pride and who was heavily armed and apprehended by santa monica police department officials last night. [ cheers and applause ] i want to thank santa monica police department for their good work and for the tip of a neighborhood person who led to that arrest. but i want everybody here today to know we are safe, we are protected, our law enforcement officials are here. i want to especially thank our federal officials from the fbi and others who are amongst us today and working hard to make sure we are safe in los angeles and in this area. i've been in touch with the sheriff and i want to thank mayor meister and the entire leadership of west hollywood. this march goes on. we go on. we continue to love and in the face of hate hold somebody today. thank you very much. [ applause ] >> let's go back to kyung lah.

we just heard from the mayor of los angeles. kyung, to our viewers just tuning in right now and once again we're waiting to hear from the president of the united states, president obama, about to address the nation on what happened overnight in orlando, florida. update our viewers on the second incident now that they're learning about in los angeles in west hollywood. >> this is very alarming news. what we're hearing from mayor garcetti is the santa monica police department arrested someone last night. it was a neighborhood person that led to the arrest. authorities believe this is "completely unrelated." those are the two key words we're hearing from mayor garcetti. so we're still waiting to learn a little bit more about exactly the circumstances of this to right now what we're hearing from mayor garcetti, santa monica police department arresting someone last night, a

neighborhood person leading to that arrest that this appears to be unrelated to the incident in orlando. wolf? >> accord dog these reports they found explosive powder, assault weapons and a camouflage outfit in the vehicle. is that right? >> these are reports for our affiliate kabc. the suspect was taken into custody in west hollywood, that there was a significant arsenal in the vehicle saying this was explosive powder, assault weapons and a camouflage outfit found in the vehicle and that the place that the suspect was heading to was the los angeles pride festival but you could hear in that news conference the defiance in the voice of the mayor, of the people who are hosting the preed festival, that the festival will go on, that there will be a march in the streets, there will be a moment of silence in memory of what happened in orlando and we need to stress at this point what the mayor is saying, the mayor of los angeles is that what has happened here in los angeles appears to be completely

unrelated to what happened in orlando. but, again, a developing investigation, we're still trying to learn much more about what happened here. >> kyung, i want you to stand by as well. we received a statement from the mayor of washington, d.c., muriel bowser, who also pointed out that authorities -- local authorities were stepping up is security in washington. she said ahead of today's capital pride festival in washington, d.c. i have been briefed by the local police chief about increased security measures in washington, d.c. today we will not be deterred by hate as we gather to celebrate love. there's a gay pride festival under way in washington, d.c. right now so security is being beefed up out of an abundance of caution in washington, d.c. peter bergen, what do you make of these disturbing developments? the pulse nightclub in orlando which is a gay nightclub, lgbt,

services the lgbt community in orlando attacked brutally, the worst mass shooting in american history. another incident involving gay pride in west hollywood in los angeles, the mayor of washington, d.c. announcing they're stepping up security here. >> the fact that the los angeles mayor is saying the events in los angeles are unrelated to the events in orlando is a good thing because what one is particularly concerned about is a campaign of attacks similar to what we saw in paris where there are rolling attacks or similar to what we saw in brussels where there were attacks over different time periods and so far that doesn't seem to be the case u. there's a big question about who is this person in los angeles, what is their motivation? were they there to attack the pride festival there for some ideological motive? we don't know that person's motive. >> i'm sure we'll get more information on the incident in west hollywood. juliet, what's your reaction

when you get these indications of -- clearly there's an anti-gay element in los angeles and there are concerns in washington, d.c. as people celebrate a gay pride festival. >> i think what you just heard from the mayor of washington, d.c. is what you'll hear from a lot of people in the next couple hours. they will lean forward on public safety, have a very large police presence at these events not simply to protect them but to show the participants that law enforcement stands behind them and wants them to rally and marge freely. so that's very important. i think you'll see this across the board over the next 24 hours with a lot of these events. like peter i take the mayor of los angeles's word that there's no relation. we have no idea who that suspect is at this stage but it is just part of an overall atmosphere that we all woke up to this is

these are very stressful times and very dangerous times and so i think you're going to see a lot of this public presence of police and law enforcement at various events, where they're mar marches or sporting events. >> stand by, there are multiple developments, the breaking news continuing. president obama is getting ready to address the naugs on the worst shooting attack, the massacre, that occurred at this nightclub in orlando, florida. we'll hear from the president and update you on the breaking news right after this.

we're standing by to hear from president obama. there's live pictures coming in from the briefing room at the white house. the west wing of the white house. president obama about to address the american people. walk into that room and make a statement. we'll, of course, have live coverage once the president is there. stand by for that. in the meantime, the breaking news we're following that in orlando, florida, the suspect

omar saddiqui mateen, apparently made a 9-1-1 call pledging his appell allegiance to isis and referencing the boston marathon massacre. there's a picture of him. the reference to the boston massacre in this 9-1-1 call that was made around the time he went into this pulse nightclub and started slaughtering people, what does that say to you? >> well, that he, obviously, was inspired by what two other americans were able to do. so he's not looking at paris or belgium. but at a domestic terrorism incident as a model, another soft target, another place where people go to convene. it is different than boston as we've been noting. the call in itself is unique. the boston marathon bombers wanted to get away, not get caught and probably plan more

attacks in new york city. this seems like someone who wanted it to be known that he was inspired at least by isis and also knew that he would not survive. >> what do we know about, peter bergen, you've been doing checking about mateen. what do we know about him? he was born in the united states. his apartments were from afghanistan? >> that's correct. in that sense he's typical of all terrorists we've seen in the united states since 9-1-1. 9/11 was what it was, people think of it from being outside. but the others have been those who were american citizens or american legal permanent residents. we saw it in san bernardino and fort hood. that makes them difficult to stop. they're american citizens or here legally, and the fact that

this guy was under the fbi -- >> so was the killer at fort hood. >> yeah. he was an army major. >> he was on the fbi's radar at the same time even though he was allowed to keep working at fort hood. >> and tamerlan tsarnaev was investigated by the fbi because of potential links to people in russia. the only case i can think of where people weren't linked to the fbi were the san bernardino case. they were not known to law enforcement. paul, can you think of another example where let's say an islamist extremist terrorist went ahead and made an attack against not only the united states but specifically targeting a gay club? >> no. i think this is the first attack, i believe, that we've seen targeting the gay community

in the west. we have not seen those kind of attacks before. there's been plenty of invective, of course, from groups like isis against the gay community. they've thrown people they suspect of being gay off buildings and stoned them, but we haven't seen any attacks so far in the west, specifically targeting the gay community. we have, of course, seen attacks on nuightclubs. we saw it in bali in the wake of 9/11. this is a new phenomenon we're now seeing. >> and juliet, i assume you agree, this intersection now of terror but specifically targeting a gay club? >> right. i mean, this is -- this is as paul was saying, we haven't seen

this before, but obviously it's consistent in particular with isis of their hate rred toward lgbt community, period. there's no other thing to say that this makes sense if he's isis inspired to have targeted a gay club, and the horror that you're seeing is reflective of his intensity of killing this many people. i think it's shocking me to kill 50 people that quickly in such a short period is quite shocking and shows his intent going into that bar. >> yeah. could have been even worse, peter bergen. there were about 350 or 400 people in that club at 2 a.m. it was packed. they were celebrating and having a good time and all of a sudden a terrorist goes in with an assault rifle, a handgun and

starts killing people. we're standing by. the president of the united states is about to address the american people. he's about to walk into the briefing room right now and make a statement. we don't know if he'll stand by and answer reporter's questions at the same time. but peter bergen, as we await the president, he's unfortunately had to do this too often? >> yes. and also for mass casualty shootings. he's said it's depressing. he has to come out and give these kinds of statements and mass casualty shootings with firearms are unfortunately common in the states in a way that is not true for other western industrialized country. >> julia, you used to work in the department of homeland security. the president has to walk a fine line right now. >> he does. there's an fbi investigation that's ongoing. we have to make sure nothing more is going to happen and that we find out any others who might have been involved with this. there's an investigation.

he needs to protect it. he's not going to disclose anything that might undermine that. the other thing is he has to reassure the american public that is on edge for obvious reasons because of the threatened environment that we do need to go on. and that has been a challenge for president bush and president obama -- >> old on, julia. here's the president. >> we as americans, we grieve the brutal murder, horrific massacre, of dozens of innocent people. we pray for their families who are grasping for answers with broken hearts. we stand with the people of orlando who have endured a terrible attack on their city. although it's still early in the investigation, we know enough to say that this was an act of terror and an act of hate. and as americans, we are united

in grief, in outrage, and in resolve to defend our people. i just finished a meeting with the fbi director and my homeland and national security advisors. the fbi is on the scene and leading the investigation in partner with local law enforcement. i've directed that the full resources of the federal government be made available for this investigation. we are still learning all the facts. this is an open investigation. we've reached no definitive judgment on the precise motivations of the killer. the fbi is appropriately investigating this as an act of terrorism. and i've directed that we must spare no effort to determine what, if any, inspiration or association this killer may have had with terrorist groups. what is clear is that he was a person filled with hatred. over the coming days w