night and he texted this showing support of those affected. >> i want to send my thoughts, prayers, wishes to anyone who was affected by this terrible parkland massacre. we're all thinking about you over here in south korea. and just know that we are one big team usa. >> we have more olympians speaking out here. we will bring those to you as the morning goes on. rene? >> thanks for joining us, for dave briggs in florida, i'm republic rene marsh. "new day" starts now. >> it would be hard put for another case flashing more signs than this young man right here. >> it seems the dots should have been connected here. >> for parents, we are here for you to ease your pain. >> president trump, you need to help us now. we need security now for all of these children. >> if now is not the right time, when is the right time? >> it is one of those moments

where we need to step back and count our blessings. >> we are children. you guys are the adults. you can say thoughts and prayers. what we need more than that is action. >> what is unfathomable is jamie took a bullet and is dead. i don't know what to do next. >> we want to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. this is "new day". silt friday, february 16th. john berman is in new york. chris is off. i'm here in florida. thousands of people gathered last night by candlelight vigil to remember the 17 students and teachers who were killed on wednesday behind me at the structure that you can see there in the darkness. that's marjory stoneman douglas high school.

we know their identities and so much more about them. we will give you a glimpse into their lives and those lost. among those killed, 14-year-old alaina petty. she volunteered to clean up after the hurricane. she was part of helping hands at her church. nicholas dworet would have attended the university of indianapolis in the fall. and football coach aaron feis is being remembered as a hero as he shielded students from the hail of bullets from this gunman. throughout the morning we will share their stories. we will pay tribute to them. we want you to know all about them because some of them are so remarkable. coming up, i will speak with the mother of a 14-year-old victim alyssa alhadeff.

she made a heartbreaking plea to president trump. this morning that mother will have to bury her daughter. we spoke to this mom. wait until you hear her words. we spoke to her right after she had identified her daughter and seeing her daughter's injuries. this is what 17 families are dealing with here. it is seering pain. today we will talk to some of them. >> her words are chilling, her words are haunting, her words are inspiring. the question is, will they be heard? so many are turning grief and anger in calls to action, calling on on the president and congress to do something. so far lawmakers have abdicated. no real debate at all after each of these mass shootings.

president trump won't even say the word gun in his address to the nation. all of this as they reveal how the killer carried out this massacre. rosa flores live in parkland, florida this morning. rosa? >> reporter: john, good morning. the mood in parkland, somber. this is a small town where everybody knows everybody of else. as the first victim is being laid to rest, this community asks for prayers. >> i want you to know you're not alone in your grief. we're all grieving with you. the entire country is grieving with you. >> reporter: a sea of candlelight flooding an outdoor park as thousands gather to remember the 17 lives lost in wednesday's massacre. >> i sent her to school yesterday. she was supposed to be safe. my job is to protect my children. don't tell me there's no such

thing as gun violence. it happened in parkland! >> reporter: parents holding their children close as students and friends reunited. in the wake of the tragedy, many are turning their grief into calls to action. >> this shouldn't be a fight between two different parties. this should be a coming together where we all realize something is wrong. >> this happens over and over again. people are dying. it seems look it doesn't matter approximate. because, like, what are thoughts and prayers going to do on when people are already dead? >> reporter: as this community looks to move forward, authorities are digging deeper into the killer's past. new documents obtained by cnn show police visited the family home 39 times since 2010, for domestic disturb an and mentally ill person. >> we knew he moved because police stopped showing up there. >> really? >> yeah. he was always getting in trouble. he was an evil kid. >> reporter: investigate issors are piecing together a

disturbing portrait of the curl's fascination with gun. a former neighbor took this video showing the killer in his backyard brandishing a gun. authorities also discovering these disturbing images on a second instagram account showing the killer wearing a mask and a make measuring great again hat. in one picture, an arsenal of firearms displayed on his bed. another taken through the scope of a gun. the killer espoused extremist views and violent desires online, writing on a video from antifa. f antifa. i'm going to kill them in the future. but this post prompted a mississippi youtube viewer to alert the fbi. i'm going to be a professional school shooter. >> i found it startling enough i thought somebody needed to know about it. >> reporter: the fbi says they followed up on the lead but did not have enough information to

confirm the user's identity. the killer was charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder. he has since confessed to karg out the attack and is now on suicide watch. his public defender telling the press that he has suffered from mental illness for years. >> he's sad. he's mournment. he's reforceful. he is fully aware at what is going on. and he's just a broken human being. >> reporter: as the investigation continues, we are learning more from police about the timeline of events, how this gunman carried out this attack. we learned that he arrived on this campus on an uber. two minutes later he started firing his weapons. ten minutes after that, he sat down with the ar-15 style rifle and started blending in with students. that's how he was able to escape the scene. he stopped at a few stores, bought a sand wufp and a drink.

and then later police were patrolling an area and he recognized the description of the suspect. he said his training kicked in and that's when the suspect was arrested. alisyn, you can see the flashing lights behind me. this is still an active scene. >> rosa, thank you very much for all of that reporting. we want to tell you about a special family, a grieving family. alyssa will be buried this morning. her mother made an emotional appeal to donald trump on hln yesterday. >> i just spent the last two hours putting together things for my daughter's funeral who is 14.

president trump, please do something. do something. action! we need it now. these kids need safety now. >> so i spoke with lori after that and her husband. last night there was this beautiful village of alyssa's soccer team. they had a smaller vigil. teammates were all wearing their red uniforms. even kids who weren't on the team came in her honor. they were being comforted. here's what her parents told us about her and about what they want now. >> we were here. we saw the vigil for alyssa. she obviously has tons and tons of friends. can you just tell us about your daughter? >> alyssa is a very loving, passionate, kind person. she's athletic.

plays soccer since she was 3 years old. and now she's dead at age 14 from a shooter at a school. >> as you've said, it wasn't supposed to go this way. she was a good student. she loved soccer. she was supposed to have a long and bright future. how can you ever got your head around what happened? >> i just saw my daughter cold as can be, shot in the heart, shot in the head, shot in the hand, dead, cold as can be. she is gone. i don't think i can wrap my head around that or no other person around the world could either. >> i know you say you're fighting for all of these kids.

everybody's kid. even with a 15-year-old girl who goes to school who should never have this happen for them. what do you feel you're fighting for? >> my child is dead. i can't help her. but i can help all the other kids at stoneman douglas high school and around the world. we have to protect our children. we have to fight for them. it is our job as parents. we have to recognize that if something is wrong with our own child, if they are ill, you need to get them help. if you have guns in the house and the child has access to the guns, that needs to stop. >> what could have changed this? >> there needs to be levels of security. we need to get the semiautomatic weapons off the streets where kids are able to buy them. >> and you can buy them on the internet. >> and when the fbi gets a tip

that we have a youtuber that is mentally ill, well, do something about it. don't just sit there and watch. >> what do you want to say to the politicians in florida for what you want to see change? >> stop fighting amongst yourself. get stuff done. >> lori, what do you want to say to president trump? >> president trump, barren goes to school. let's protect barren. and let's also protect all these other kids here in parkland in florida and everywhere else in the united states of america. because we earned it just like how you earned the right to protect barren. you need to help us now. we need security now for all these children that have to go to school. we need action. action. action. >> when does it stop? these are our kids. how do we get some controls? who is in charge?

i'll tell you, it starts at the top. it always starts at the top. we need some reform. we need it now for our kids. for every one of these kids here today for this vigil. >> what do you do next? what happens next? how do you harness all of this anger? >> listen, my alyssa is gone. right now i'm fighting for the other children who still have to go to school. >> what do you want to say, lori, to politicians who say now is not the time to talk about this -- >> what i would say to you -- >> get out of office. >> one. and, two, what if that was your child that was shot three times in the heart and the head and the hand. think about it and then speak. >> is now the time to talk about this? >> it is the time to talk about it now, and tomorrow and the next day and the next day after that and every day after until

all of this is resolved. we cannot continue in a civil society like this. we've got to do something different that hasn't been done before. we need some radical change. >> what do you want to say to alyssa's friends who are struggling? >> to alyssa's friends, breathe for alyssa. find your passion, achieve your goals. do it for alyssa. when you think you can't do something, think, no, i can. alyssa would want me to. be great. achieve all that you can do. and please keep alyssa in your heart and mind always. >> so, john, obviously that's their message to alyss a's friends to all of us. live life to the fullest.

everybody obviously processes grief differently. but that family has raw emotiaes and they are willing to show it because they are so enraged about what happened to alyssa. they want to keep it from happening again to anybody else's child. she said i forgot something very important. i want the death penalty. he doesn't deserve to live. >> one of then ndurring images, and that was a remarkable interview and it was remarkable to hear from the mother, but one of the things that you see there is the friends of alyssa comforting the mother. it is the children trying to

guide the adults here. the high school kids are trying to show the country a way, a way to talk about this, a way to address it, a way not to avoid it. and i just hope, i hope that people listen to those kids so we do not have to hear more from the mothers of children month die in things like this. that was -- shot in the head, shot in the hand, shot in the heart. i can't imagine. >> and, john, we have two more of those students and kids trying to get people's attention and grab us by the shoulders. david is a senior and nick joseph, a junior who lost one of his close friends. guys, thank you very much for being here. david, we wanted to have you back. your interview yesterday got a lot of attention with us because you made this personal appeal. you just looked at the camera and you said to everybody listening, we're children. you're adults. furring this out. children are dying. did you hear from any leaders? did you hear from anybody in power after that yesterday?

>> as far as i know, from what i've heard, i haven't heard anything specific from leaders. but i was busy doing interviews all day yesterday. i'm glad people are starting to notice that this is something we need to fix. when politicians say now is not the time. i want to ask them? when is? how many more children need to die? think about that. >> and what about when people say -- politicians say, you know, this isn't connected to guns. this is connected to -- fill in the blank. mental illness or -- i don't know what else they say. but you heard -- let me play this. senator marco rubio said this yesterday where he was not blaming guns. perhaps you have heard this. >> someone decided i'm going to commit this crime. they'll find a way to get the gun to do it. that doesn't mean you shouldn't have a law to make it harder. it means understand to be honest it isn't going to stop this from happening. you can still pass the law, per

se, but you're still going to have these horrible attacks. >> what do you say to that? gun laws wouldn't stop this, he's saying. >> i absolutely disagree. what i say to state parties and state legislatures across the country, implement whatever programs we can. it doesn't matter. we are not taking steps to prevent the deaths of thousands of children every year. and as a result of that, more are going to continue dying unless we take action. honestly, any step, if we want better mental health care, let's do that. you are the politicians. you guys can compromise. get some stuff done and save some lives. >> we have examples of other countries that have done more and have passed national gun control laws. and guess what, gun violence went down. >> shocking. >> nick, i want to bring you in. you lost your friend joakim.

>> yes. >> i feel like i know him. you went to one of the vigils yesterday and there were 700 kids there. and i happened to be in a little pock he the of joakim's friends. everybody was coming up and hugging each other and supporting each other and crying. can you tell us what was so spoer special about joakim? >> joakim was loving. he was a good, loyal friend. any time you wanted to talk, he was there for you. 6th time he walked into a room, he always had a smile on his face. he was someone i loved and cared about. it is sad to see that he was gone. >> i played basketball with some of his friends. that's how i met him. we have just been extremely close. >> but was he a football player or a wrestler or basketball player or did just all the athletes just love joaquin. >> everybody just loved hum. >> everybody said he was

charismatic. was he a friend to everybody. >> they personally loved him. you personally loved him. >> what happened when you heard he was one of the victims? >> well, i was in bed. some of our friends were at the marriott with his family and their family wait to go hear what happened. and i got a texas from one of our friends that he was gone. it felt so surreal. i couldn't even cry. i didn't want to believe it happened. >> i understand. that's what we kept seeing. your high school just seems very special. it's so diverse. we watched kids of all different races, different sews iseo economic groups. everybody was there together. how is everybody doing? what's happening today among all of you kids? >> we're all still in shock. we realize it is important to mourn, and we respect that. but we have done that for every single shooting and nothing has

changed. we're calling on the country to take action. we're really trying to prevent another atrocity like this from happening again. if we don't start working toward that now, there will be another one. >> you said thoughts and prayers only go so far. they're cold comfort. what do you want president trump to do? >> what i want president trump to do and congress to do is you guys are in control of both the house and the senate. you have the ability to pass as much legislation as you want. get-together, get some stuff done. don't repeal gun laws like you have already done this year. and keep working towards saving thousands of children's lives. if it's through mental health care, do that. and if you want to work with democrats to get a little bit more strictive gun safety laws, do that as well. you guys are politicians. make a compromise. who knows, maybe you will save some lives. >> it's not just one thing.

they can do it all. >> exactly. >> president trump made some statements about this yesterday he spoke bit. he didn't mention guns. >> i think it's ironic. he pointed out how the obama administration wouldn't say it was radical islamic terrorism. but he is not pointing out this was a gun-related issue. if guns did not exist, 17 people would be alive and 17 families would still have their children. >> so you see it the same way, you have to call it out. >> you have to point it out using his same rhetoric. we have to point out exactly what's going on so we can confront this issue. thoughts and prayers are great but they only two so far. what we need is action. we need to hold our public leaders accountable to what they're doing. midterms are coming up. look at what each of our congressman are doing. hold them accountable.

because this is unacceptable. our children are dying. with that, so is on our future. >> nithank you. president trump addressed the attack, srupb, but he did not mentioned word gun. so why are republican lawmakers so unwilling to talk about guns. when is the time? see a bear. woah. reach the top. dave says dark magic is a bold blend of coffee with rich flavors of uganda, sumatra, colombia and other parts of south america. like these mountains, each amazing on their own. but together? magical. all, for a smoother tasting cup of coffee. green mountain coffee roasters packed with goodness.

(snap) achoo! (snap) achoo! achoo! (snap) (snap) achoo! achoo! feel a cold coming on? zicam cold remedy nasal swabs shorten colds with a snap, and reduce symptom severity by 45%. shorten your cold with a snap, with zicam. the roasted core wrap.belly fat. 3, 2, 1... not cool. freezing away fat cells with coolsculpting? now that's cool! coolsculpting safely freezes and removes fat cells with little or no downtime. and no surgery. results and patient experience may vary. some rare side effects include temporary numbness, discomfort and swelling. ask your doctor if coolsculpting is right for you and visit coolsculpting.com today... for your chance to win a free treatment.

intrtechnology withnema. incredible color, sound and streaming. just as the creators intended. ♪ up to 40% off at dell.com ♪ if you spit blood you may have gum problems,s and could be on the journey to much worse. try parodontax toothpaste. it's clinically proven to remove plaque, the main cause of bleeding gums. for healthy gums and strong teeth. leave bleeding gums behind with parodontax toothpaste. on the only bed that adjusts on both sides to your ideal comfort, your sleep number setting. does your bed do that? save 50% on the ultimate limited edition bed. plus 24-month financing ends monday visit sleepnumber.com for a store near you. almost $800 when we switched our auto and home insurance. with liberty, we could afford a real babysitter instead of your brother. hey! oh, that's my robe. is it? when you switch to liberty mutual, you could save $782 on auto and home insurance.

and still get great coverage for you and your family. call for a free quote today. you could save $782 when liberty stands with you. liberty mutual insurance.

not a single word about guns in president trump's address to the nation. later today the president will be briefed on the massacre before heading to florida where he will spend the weekend miles from the marjory stoneman douglas high school. abby phillip live in washington with the very latest this morning. abby, what are the plans from the white house today? >> reporter: good morning, john. well, as parkland wakes up to another tragedy, they're asking what now? and they're looking to folks in washington, including president trump, for guidance on that. president trump did speak yesterday from the white house but offered very little in the way of details and more in the way of comfort and guidance to a community in grief.

take a listen. >> i want you to know that you are never alone and you never will be. you have people who care about you, who love you and who will do anything at all to protect you. we are committed to working with state and local leaders to help secure our schools and tackle the difficult issue of mental health. >> reporter: but one word the president did not mention at all in that address is guns. the one commonality of all of these tragedies that have shaken this nation over the last year and more. and the white house is not talking about it aoerbg. we know, however, that despite the talk of mental health, they rolled back an obama era regulation that required the social security administration to provide information about people with mental health issues into the national background

check system. now, there is an issue of gun violence in schools and the issue of mental health, it will be awe testament whether he is willing to do more, go further and revisit some of the decisions that were controversial at the time. so far there has been no talk of anything concrete coming out of this white house. on the other hand, the president is headed to florida today where he will go to mar-a-lago to husband florida resort. he plans to stop by the scene at parkland at some point. he canceled a trip to orlando that was a rally. the timing of parkland is not yet set, alisyn. >> thank you for the reporting, abby. the massacre at stone man douglas high school, this is just the deadliest school shooting in the u.s. since sandy hook more than five years ago when of course we all remember that a killer opened fire there

and took 26 incredibly young lives, including 20 little kids. 6-year-old dylan was one of those children. and dylan's mom joins us now. she is one of the founders of the national nonprofit sandy hook promise. nicole, thanks so much for being here. i'm sorry you have to be here. >> i'm sorry as well. >> everyone thought after sandy hook that was the final straw. our national psyche, our national heart could never handle another school shooting. that was the final straw we thought and of course things would happen because that was too big -- that was too much pain for all of us. but of course there have been so many more school shootings since then. what happens in your house when you hear the news of something like this this week? >> this absolutely takes me back to the day dylan was killed. and even being here with you now, i'm being triggered in so many ways.

and my heart is just here with the community and having a semblance of knowing the journey they're about to embark on and the heartbreak that is part of that. >> when you hear politicians say no more gun laws would do anything. if a bad guy wants to kill lots of people, that's what he will do. nothing can stop him, as marco rubio seemed to suggest. >> to be honest, i kind of want politicians to stop talking and focus on why are we here? what do we need to do to look off the community and with compassion and kindness for them. what can we do, be not talking just about guns or mental health or illness. what can we do to protect our kids and stop fighting and instead focus on solutions. >> as we have discussed, not much happened nationally after sandy hook, though everybody thought that it would. in connecticut, in your state where it happened, things did happen. >> yeah. there was a lot of policies put in place, including what was

called gun violence restraining order. in other states extreme risk protection order. >> e.r.p.o. >> it gives a process if you're recognizing signs and signals in someone who might be at risk of harming themselves, there is due process for temporarily removing them in their access to their firearms or to purchase firearms until that crisis is averted. so it's really helping people from a suicide perspective, from a homicide perspective. and it works. >> it works. i mean, that's the message to tell to politicians and to anybody who thinks, well, there's nothing we can do. do you get a accepts of hopelessness? >> oh, yes. people think the only thing i can do is on the policy side. the only thing i can do is call my senator, call my congressman.

the protection laws are important. 19 others are looking at it. florida needs to look at it. but there is a lot we can do to teach each other when we see signs and signals in someone, how do we take action and intervene. >> just to be clear, this erpo could have actually changed the situation here. >> possibly, yeah. >> this 19-year-old showed up at a surrogate family's house with his ar-15 style rifle and, guess what, he was depressed. he was, you know, behaving in some sort of fashion that got him, pelleded from this school. that is exactly the personality type that the erpo would have helped. >> based on what i have seen so far and his social media feeds as well, there were many signs and signals and therefore many opportunities for intervention. >> how is it possible that only four states have this?

>> i think because people don't know about them. this is important legislation. it's proven to save lives. and it's something that you can bring in as a ballot initiative or ask state policyholders to make this happen. it is not the only solution. the issue of gun violence is very complex. there are many solution around the guns, around the people, around the communities. but this is something that works and should be embraced. >> and you promised after dylan's death that you would do something, that you would take action. that this wouldn't be in vane and you did it. so many people will look to you as a model. today they want to be able to do something so their children's deaths are not in vain. nicole, thank you. so 17 people were killed. up next, we'll tell you the stories of the students and the teachers taken from their loved ones so soon. that's next. e glc? all depends on your point of view. lease the glc300 for just $449 a month

at your local mercedes-benz dealer. mercedes-benz. the best or nothing. than♪ you. imagine if the things you bought every day... earned you miles to get to the places you really want to go. with the united mileageplus explorer card, you'll get a free checked bag. two united club passes. priority boarding. and earn fifty thousand bonus miles after you spend three thousand dollars on purchases in the first three months from account opening plus, zero-dollar intro annual fee for the first year, then ninety-five dollars. learn more at theexplorercard.com

♪ show me the olympic winter games ♪ ♪ like i've never seen before. ♪ ♪ xfinity x1, yeah, i always know the scor♪. ♪ triple corks in 4k... lookin' so sick. ♪

♪ stream live on every screen, every win, every trick. ♪ ♪ 2000 hours of coverage, get your mind blown. ♪ 50 olympic channels, yup, you're in the zone. ♪ ♪ and if there's something that you want to see, ♪ pick up that voice remote and just say "show me..." ♪ experience nbcuniversal's coverage of the olympic winter games like never before with xfinity. proud partner of team usa. ♪ (buzzer) ♪ olly. toro .

17 students and teachers were killed at the massacre behind me in marjory stoneman douglas high school. their names and stories of course are important to remember. their families want them memorialized. they don't want them to have died in vain. here are just some. >> jamie was such a special kid. all the kids here are. >> 14-year-old jamie was a student at marjory stoneman douglas high school. she was a dancer. her mentor memorialized her on facebook dance in heaven, beautiful girl. and his coach said he was a young man full of life who had bug dreams for the future. ? he was passionate about swimming. he dreamed of making the olympic

swum team and going to the 2020 olympics in tokyo. 17-year-old joaquin oliver born in venezuela and became an american citizen last year. he wrote that he has never been more proud. alaina was a member of the junior rotc and loved to serve others. she was part of helping hands program at her children and volunteered after hurricane irma hit last year. 1-year-old alyssa alhadeff was a talented soccer player and an incredible writer with a passion and zest for life. >> she was meant for so much more in this world. she would have given this world so much more. i would have taken the bullets for you. you would have protected you. i'm sorry i wasn't there. gina montalto brightened any

room she walked in. she had a nurturing heart. luke hoyer had a contagious laugh. was always happy, always smiling. his grandmother said he loved basketball and planned to try out for the football team. martin duque anguiano. words cannot describe new pain. i love you brother martin. you'll be missed. instead of running away from the violence, 15-year-old peter wang held the door open for his classmates to help them escape. peter's cousin told the "washington post" he was a national leader and someone who could be relied on. athletic director chris hixon was an urbg war receipt ran. he thought of each student at his own. when the shooting started, assistant football coach aaron feis ran toward the gunshots. he was when he threw help in

front of students to protect them. a student said aaron helped him through his cancer treatments. he was a loyal friend. >> it is going to be painful when i don't see my buddy at the gate. >> a camp counselor. he will be remembered as a hero. >> if his family is watching this, please know that your son or your brother was an amazing person and i'm alive today because of him. >> so unfortunately we do not have all the pictures and details from all the victims yet. that's why they weren't included in that piece. we are working to learn more about them. we know their names now and their ages. i would like to read those. 18-year-old meadow pollack. she was to attend lynn university in the fall.

we remember 14-year-old cara loughran. helena ramsay, alexander schachter. there are 17 young lives here who all had bright futures and in the matter of minutes, moments, they were mowed down and lost. that is when you're here, so hard to get your mind around. >> so many plans cut short. not just 17 lives lost but thousands of lives affected. so many heroes. the kids. the teachers. aaron feis. i was down there yesterday. everyone r everyone who spoke about aaron feis did so with a smile and said he changed their

life. not just football players but people he would meet with in the morning. people he would bump into. he would mow lawns for extra money. people just adored him. 17 people adored and who will be terribly missed. i'm going to bring in cnn counterterrorism expert phil mudd. thank you so much for being with us. i know you have been watching this also. one of the people we heard from earlier is lori alhadeff her daughter was shot in the head, shot in the heart, shot in the hand. she is asking how could this have happened. the name of the killer was on a post anything september. so many 911 calls to the house. there were all of these signs. how could it have happened this mother asked. what do you say to her? >> i think in these situations instead of broad germ alitys, we

ought to lay a couple on the table. where does state's budge the money to put someone in an intervention program before they acquire a gun before the age of 18. there's a specific state budgetary question and insurance question. what do you do with a kid like that, question one. what do you do with the social media company. i'm not blaming them. i'm not blaming youtube. but we talk about free speech and social media that allow postings from bots in our election cycles. what about postings like this. let me give you one final comment and be very specific. a judge has to look at somebody and let me a adjudicate whether someone should be allowed to have a wefpl i think that standard is too high. we should violate people's privacy. let he me be blunt. if you seek treatment for a significant mental disorder, i

believe people in health provisions should have the authority to say this pepper has this disorder and that should be matched with national gun registries the. a kid is too valuable. i think we ought to violate privacy. >> phil, that youtube posting, instagram postings that seem to be predictive of some sort of violence, what if he had been talking islamic terror. what if his name was muhammad. would the fbi have treated this the same way? >> maybe. but remember we're going backwards. i would take you into a hospital. and say we have 1,000 cases to triage and one case dies. you say how did you miss that one case. as a former practitioner, ask me how they dealt with the other 1,000 cases. i look at this as triage operation when you deal with tens of thousands of threats a year. before i close, john, hold on a second. the neighbors knew. the family knew.

he was expelled. the school knew. his friends knew. social media knew. the school knew. this is a societal issue. it's not one case from jackson, mississippi fbi. >> one of the things you're hearing from the far right, i want to read a tweet which was liked but donald trump jr. the fbi was too busy trying to undermine the president to bother with doing its freaking job. your reaction, phil? >> how many times in the past 17 years have i stepped back and said if you look at everything fairly mundane in comparison, white collar crime to significant issues, ms-13, drug trafficking, opioid, counterterrorism in this country, thank god we have the fbi, state and local police who have, especially in my world after 9/11, kept us relatively safe. we anticipated a catastrophe after 9/11. it didn't happen.

i would ask don jr. next time you go on the streets and you see nypd's finest and tell me who protected you in that city. it is people who give their lives in law enforcement. think about it, brother. >> the fbi had that tip about the youtube posting. >> yeah. >> police were called to the house with 911 tapes. the school knew. in this case people saw something, and they did say something again and again and again. >> yeah. >> so how do you get to that incomes step? because saying something here wasn't enough. >> when you look at bureaucracies, they can't deal with one. the specific question i would be asking is to look at major cities who have, for example, gang intervention programs. los angeles would be a good example. the question in that case is do we have equivalent programs for youth who appear to be at risk for violence that does not

relate to gangs? is there a policy and procedure for a kid before he interacts with law enforcement. where is the money from the is state because these are typically state issues, where we can have an intervention. >> phil mudd, always great to speak to you. you ask so many important questions. thanks for being with us. is survivors and families in florida demanding action. why more isn't being done to address gun violence. will this be a tipping point for action? we'll discuss next. ♪ if you have moderate to severe plaque psoriasis, little things can be a big deal. that's why there's otezla. otezla is not an injection or a cream.

it's a pill that treats psoriasis differently. with otezla, 75% clearer skin is achievable after just 4 months, ... with reduced redness, thickness, and scaliness of plaques. and the otezla prescribing information has no requirement for routine lab monitoring. don't use if you're allergic to otezla. otezla may cause severe diarrhea, nausea, or vomiting. tell your doctor if these occur. otezla is associated with an increased risk of depression. tell your doctor if you have a history of depression or suicidal thoughts, or if these feelings develop. some people taking otezla reported weight loss. your doctor should monitor your weight and may stop treatment. other side effects include upper respiratory tract infection and headache. tell your doctor about all the medicines you take and if you're pregnant or planning to be. ♪ otezla. show more of you. at holiday inn express, we can't guarantee that you'll be able to contain yourself at our breakfast bar. morning, egg white omelet. sup lady bacon! fruit, there it is! but we can guarantee that you'll get the best price

when you book with us. holiday inn express. be the readiest.

democrats calling for new gun laws and gun control while republicans focus on mental illness. >> i'd rather pass gun safety legislation than win the election because people die from this. >> as you know, mental health is often a big problem underlying these tragedies. that may be the case here. >> let's discuss now. joining me chris solcillizza an ron brownstein. before you tell me why nothing will change and why nothing will happen, let me pause. this time what's different is we have these kids. we have these heroic kids speaking out. it's not just the parents of the kids in sandy hook. with now have these high school students, these young people, the future of the country who are telling us that things need

to change. is that enough to make a difference in washington? >> no. i mean, i hate to be that guy because i think there are lots of things -- if you look at polling, it suggests that there are a number of things as it relates to gun laws that could pass, should pass. if you believe that congress represents the public. the public has majority views on some of these things. the problem here is that you have that dynamic you just showed between nancy pelosi and paul ryan. democrats believe that stricter gun laws are necessary. republicans believe this is still largely a mental health issue and the base of their party continues to believe, did spite all evidence to the contrary, i'll add, that there is a slippery slope argument to be made about guns that at a some point once you allow some more restrictions on gun rights, someone will eventually show up

at your door and demand your gun. i say that with all -- there is no evidence that will ever happen. but that drives the debate. and it's so caricatured at this point. there is some common ground. >> they are not mutually exclusive, right? you can talk about them in concert. ron brownstein, take this even bigger for us now. chris cillizza told us nothing is going to happen, in no unis certain words. yesterday on immigration in washington nothing happened. there is a connection here to this. >> right. absolutely. >> on big issues, congress can't do anything. >> look, there is. i think it is a very very large connection. after that heartbreaking account, that segment with alisyn, it really underscores something we already know, which

is there is literally no conceivable provocation that will cause a republican majority congress to consider any meaningful further restrictions on guns even though the polling -- we're up to two-thirds of the country before this supporting an assault weapon ban. and i think it was coincidental but extremely revealing that this debate, this tragedy, you know, thrust itself into our consciousness on the same day that the senate was voting down immigration reform. because it reflects the same underlying reality which is what i call the trench between a democratic party that is now overwhelmingly urban based in places with lots of immigrants and fewer guns. and a republican party that represents largely now nonurban america where there are fewer immigrants and many guns. gun ownership is twice as large in rural areas as in domestic areas -- urban areas.

the core of the republican party is simply living a very different reality than the core of the democratic party at this point. there is, though, one point of overlap. republicans who are still left in the big blue metro areas in orange county, four republicans and five in the l.a. media market. three outside philadelphia, new jersey, new york, northern virginia, all of them voted with the repeal of the obama era, all of them voted for nationwide conceal carry to override concealed carry laws. that is where the point of vulnerability will be in this election this fall. you have the republicans hanging on in the red pockets of the blue metro areas who lined with the nra on these issues. it may leave them somewhat exposed. >> guys, there is zero segue

other than breaking this morning in the new yorker. an article about the president and a woman named karen mcdougall, who we have heard about before who said she had an affair with the president. this happened several years ago. what's interesting about this article is ronan details how the "national enquirer", run but a good friend of the president's, paid the woman to stay silent just days before the election. it is a fascinating article. i'm not sure you had a chance to read it fully yet. but your reaction? >> i read it in the studio before i came on. fascinating. number one, i think you're right, john. paying to keep this story out of the news i think is very noteworthy. the other thing that i was struck by is the similarities between the story karen mcdougall tells and the story that stormy daniels, for

example, tells. beverly hills private bungalows. there's a lot of similarities. again, i continue to be amazed that the stormy daniels story is not a bigger deal. michael cohen, donald trump's personal lawyer, out of the goodness of his heart paid $130,000 to a porn star alleging an affair, which everyone on the trump side denies. it seems odd to me. this seems a pattern of behavior with the similarities. i urge people to read the story. how she talks about the courtship and their alleged relationship. a lot of similarities there. i don't think they are just coincidence. >> you have two cases now of alleged payoffs, different kinds, for silence, ron. >> look, we had this overriding issue. we're debating about whether people who have temporary secure clearances and problems in their backgrounds are subject to leverage, blackmail. these stories create a series of

individuals who have -- who are essentially alleging they have something on the president. it is just one after another faces what people are allegedly being paid to be quiet. yet that is a form of leverage, a form of pressure, coercion, and b to concerned about when you have someone like a rob porter with those kinds of al allegations in his background. >> ron brownstein, chris cillizza, thank you. no doubt more to come. back to alisyn in florida. john, you will remember yesterday we introduced you to a freshman, kelsey, who told us the story of her heroic geography teacher who saved her life. we will check back in with kelsey and her classmates next.

to every parent we are here for you, whatever we can do to ease your pain. >> president trump you need to help us now. we need security now for all these children. >> if now is not the right time, when is the right time. >> it's one of those moments where we need to step back and count our blessings. >> we're children. you guys are, like, the adults. you can say, yes, we are going to do all of the