hello, everyone. we are following the unspeakable horror which unfolded inside of an orlando nightclub early this morning. dramatic video shows the moment the gun fire erupted. >> oh, my god, people are getting shot. oh my god god, dude. >> 50 people are confirmed dead in what is now the worst mass shooting in u.s. history. that number could continue to rise as doctors are fighting to save the lives of the dozens more who were rushed to the

hospital. florida governor scott spoke moments ago condemning the attack. >> you can't imagine this would happen to our community, our state or anywhere in our country. for somebody to go in there and be an active shooter and take those -- that number of lives -- any life but that number of live is an act of terror. >> sara is on the scene for us. i know you have been there through the wee hours. this is video of hearing the gunshots. it was terrifying to listen to the power and speed with which those shots were ricochetting. talk about the carnage done and reaction from those that survived. >> just stunned and shocked right now the folks who survived. there were 320 people inside that club. it was nearing the end of the evening when this suspect who's been identified as omar mateen

entered the nightclub. he exchanged gun fire with a police officer who was there working off duty before authorities say he retreated back in the nightclub taking hostages with him. this is around 2:00 in the morning. it took a few moments before eyewitnesses realized what was going on and the danger that everybody was in. meanwhile, we're told as people began to clear out of that nightclub mateen took hostages in that nightclub, about 15 other people, at least 15 other people were trapped in a nearby bathroom. they were reaching out to authorities. as part of the reason they made the decision they needed to send s.w.a.t. team inside. they did an explosive entrance, a controlled explosion. we have heard that on the scene. a few minutes later, these bursts sounded like gun fire. although authorities haven't confirmed that yet. they say mateen died in a gun battle with police. they say one of their officers was hit but they are crediting

his kevlar lel met for saving his life. when they were finally able to clear the scene and get inside, it was pure a carnage and horror. 50 people dead. florida's governor spoke about the incident a few moments ago and became emotional doing so. >> it is devastating when you see -- you know, you see how many people lost their life and theism pact on their families. i have kids and grand kids, can't imagine. there was the governor expressing his condolences and hitting home this understand den. you have families of 50 people looking for information about their loved ones. besides the 50 killed, at least 50 injure. families trying to reyou know with their loved ones, finding out how badly they were injured.

>> we know the mayor of orlando has done his best to help facilitate people get information from the loved ones at the hospital because of the rules of hippa, which are privacy oriented and allow people to keep their personal information quiet, he is asking in this case, he has gone to the white house, and say can you release relative to these people, victims of the shooting release the information to their families so the families can get comfort in knowledge of what is going on. thank you so much for that. >> joining me right now is congressman peter king of new york. the chairman of the subcommittee on counterterrorism and intelligence and a member of the former chairman of the house homeland security committee. representative king, thank you for joining us on this horrific day. i'm curious what you have been able to learn from law enforcement officials as it pertains to the types of weapons the shooter had. >> he had the ar 50 and pistol and it is important to find out

where he got them, who he purchased them from. that will be part of the fbi investigation trying to find out what he has been doing, who he has been in contact with, when he purchased them. that can give you an indication as to when this plan began, whether he was by himself or in concert with others. obviously he showed some skill, even though it doesn't take a great degree of ability to kill people when you have an automatic weapon. still he was able to kill quite a few people. hold off the police for a while. all of this will be part of the fbi investigation. >> representative king, we have been able to confirm he was a security guard, his form of employment and he had a license to carry a firearm. during training to obtain that license, sir, he would have to go through 144 hours of shooting range, that type of thing, training. and that he was able to use whatever weapons he had, whether he was able to have them

concealed. does anything about that bother you? >> i'm one of the republicans that believe there should be background check and ways. that will part of the gun regulation debate. i'm one that believes in background checks. whether that would have mattered i don't know. >> representative king, i will ask you to stand by. let's listen to nbc's pete williams. he is joining us with late-breaking details. what do you got? our friend congressman king may have been told this and is careful not to reveal classified information but we have been told by law enforcement officials that just before the shooting happened mateen, the man that the police say was the

gunman called 911 phone number in florida and once the operator answered swore his allegiance to al al baghdadi, the head of isis. that obviously puts a sort of slightly different light on this investigation. although authorities say they are still trying to figure out whether this was a hate crime, whether it was an act of terrorism or two things put together. what we're told is we have been hearing all morning that he had initially come to the attention of the fbi in 2013. now we're told the reason they were looking at it initially is put of some statements he had made, some spouting off statements he had made about radical islamic propaganda. but of course, people say these things all the time on social media. the fbi looked at him, determined this was nothing to be done, no followup to be done

and dropped him but kept his name on the list. that's why in the initial news conference this morning at 7:00, the fbi was able too say there was potentially some islamic terror connection. officials have said they don't see any connection with terrorists overseas. in other words, no -- they found no evidence so far of communications from overseas terrorists with him. in other words, they don't believe this was directed from overseas. also adding to this is his ex-wife has given an interview to the "washington post." we have been reporting all along that his father has said that he believes that his son was motivated to do this by anti-gay hatred. but his ex-wife is given an interrue to the "washington post." we knew that mateen was divorced. she said that he was violent and mentally instable and beat her

repeatedly when they were married. she said she met him on-line eight years ago, moved to florida to marry them but their marriage was normal at first but he then became abusive and he said he is not a stable person. law enforcement officials we talked to paint a similar picture of him. that he was a person who had this habit of spouting off about things, but still what caused him to do this shooting at this place, at this time is a question they are trying to answer. >> i will ask you to stay with us as we bring representative king back to the conversation. we will do a three-way conversation here, pete. i'm not going to ask you whether to divulge whether you are familiar with this situation, but your reaction now it is out there that this 911 call and that the shooter omar mateen allegedly swore allegiance to al al baghdadi, the head of isis?

>> obviously, if that is true, it gives it a terrorist connection. follow up on something pete williams said about his wife who i believe originated from kazakhstan. when she said he had violent outburst and appears emotionally unstable, if that is true, isis has almost perfected the art by use of social media being able to reach out to those who are unstable. those on the edge. a number of incidents where these are not sworn advocates or followers of isis or trained by isis but isis is able to send messages they understand. we have had a number of cases like that in new york where police officers were attacked by a mad man with a hatchet, inspired by isis. we have spoke to psych kolss on this, and they can appeal to the people on the edges of society. the other thing, there was an investigation several years ago, i heard it is because he could have been involved with someone

who was subject of an investigation. when the fbi investigated him and if they didn't find anything, i can understand that but i would hope that they gave the information to the local police. i know at the time of the boston marathon bombing they founded the tsarnaev brothers and found nothing but never told police. and cops on the ground are able to follow them more readily because they have the contacts the fbi wouldn't have. i would hope that we find the fbi did give that lead to the local police so they could continue to monitor him. >> is this your greatest fear, sir, these isis-inspired attacks? it can take so little, as you are suggesting, it can be via social media, it can reach any single individual anywhere who may feel disaffected. >> yeah, on 9/11 we had bin laden in caves passing out handwritten messages and now we

have the use of social media. this is probably the greatest day-to-day threat we have. this isn't the type of threat that will kill many thousands of people, not going to bring down the country but the type of attack that is the hardest to defend against. it is so hard, unless you have intelligence or monitoring, unless you really update the coordination between the federal, state and local officials. find out what is going on in the different communities that you are going to find these people. again, in many cases it is the needle until the hay stack. the more spell jens you get up front -- the only way to stop it, if someone shows up a bar with an automatic weapon he will kill somebody. that's the reality. if you can stop him before he gets there that's the prize. >> to whom does responsible fall, particularly in this case, there's a man who works in security, he has a legal license and presumably licensed to carry a gun of some form every day

when he was at work. so, where would you suspect the breakdown came? is that information always passed along three years ago when cleared from an fbi investigation, is it passed along to police and if they are not able to follow these people day in and out, what will it take to do that and should that be done given the liberties of this country? >> i believe it is essential. the fbi pass on to law enforcement the name of anyone who comes up. that doesn't make you a criminal or make you guilty but allows police to follow up to see if there is anything more. you shouldn't give it to the public or private people because that would be a civil liberties violation. but in law enforcement i plooef it has to be shared and cops on the ground and detectives, those that work the neighborhoods and get undercover and those that have sources. they can do better than the fbi. the fbi is great. they have tremendous capability

but as far as getting neighborhood, community information, nobody is better than the local police. i would hope the fbi shared that information with the local police. >> representative king, what do you expect to hear from the president in the about 15, 17 minutes from now when he addresses the country from the white house briefing room? >> depending on what information in the president has, i would certainly hope he would show this is the constant danger of islamic terrorism that it is there. we can't make believe it isn't there and we have to be on guard, whether overseas or here. especially during ramadan season. where in europe they are on high alert because of the soccer going on. isis is known to carry out attacks during ramadan. last year they were attempting to attack new york during the 4th of july ceremonies. again, the president would let the american people know this war is not over. we have to be on guard and lead normal live and support police, law enforcement and intelligence

community. >> lastly, while this information about swearing allegiance, via 911 call to al baghdadi, this head of isis complicate and adds another layer to the situation, there was suspicion this man omar mateen acted without with this violent manner as a result of seeing home sexuals kissing. do you know of any intelligence that threatens the lgbt community here in the united states? >> not from isis but having said that we know that isis and islamic terrorists literally sate the gay communities. by attacking a gay bar, they are killing innocent american and gays and they think that is part of the deck dance of american society. i'm not surprised that they went after gays but i'm not aware of any briefings i have gotten where they are specifically targeting gays, lesbians or

transgender. i'm not surprised. that is among the groups they hate and despise. >> thank you for your insight, sir. >> thank you very much. i'd like to bring in sean henry, the former executive assistant of the fbi and currently the chief security officer with crowd strike. the latest information we are hearing about the 911 call, pete williams reporting that call was made by the shooter omall mateen swearing allegiance to al al baghdadi, the head of isis. how much does that change the equation for you? >> there's a lot coming out. as the investigation continues you will hear from witnesses there. we have heard of the 911 call, and now the wife or ex-wife who's providing information about his violent behavior. i think what you may see here is

confluence of information that comes together where he may be mentally unstable as the ex-wife purports. he may have this allegiance to isis. he may have seen these two men kissing. we have seen reporting out of europe an the middle east that isis condemns homosexuality. it is against sharia law and that maybe a component of this. again, this will take days and weeks going forward to really put together a full picture of who this guy was, what his motivation was, what inspired him. how long he has been planning this, et cetera. this will continue. but this newest information from the wife and then the 911 call starts to change the complexion of this. >> from this now to msnbc analyst jim cavanaugh. welcome to you. your reaction to the new information, as well? >> it is direct evidence.

you have the shooter calling the police 911 and say he pledged allegiance to al baghdadi. it is direct evidence. now we can say that this is internationally inspired aing of terrorism. the fact his father reported to nbc news that he got angry when he saw some gay men in the park in miami, and he acted viscerally to this, that could have been something that spawned him on, encouraged him to attack the gay club, but there's two things working here, alex and you have a mixed motive, a guy swearing allegiance, sbablly inspired terrorist, no question about it. he just killed 50 people and wounded 53. so there's no analysis that can make this anything other than it is internationally inspired terrorism, but it has a layer of hate against the gay community and like sean said, isis has

been devastating to killing gay men in the war theater over there. throwing them off buildings, stoning them to death. it is part of their talk, as well. this guy has put some things together in his mind and he's acted in absolutely vulgar manner against american citizens who are just living their lives. >> i will ask our director to point to the photo we received here at nbc news, this courtesy of the "washington post." this is a look at this man accused of the most horrific crime, omar mateen, 29 years old, born in new york and hailed most recently from port st. lucie, florida, 125 miles from orlando. he drove to orlando and the pulse nightclub with the intent to kill as he was armed with an ar-15 assault rifle and handguns and said to have some sort of device on him. as we take a look at this guy, one thing i want to ask you about, jim, given your experience there with profilers

and the rest and seeing the types of people committing this crime, we did hear from his father earlier. spoke to nbc news and said he believed, as you mentioned, this was a crime as a result of his hatred toward the gay community. he had witnessed two men kissing in miami in front of his wife and 3-year-old son and he reacted to that. indeed, if this is another level here and it is isis inspired -- and the fact the father went on to describe his son omar as the perfect son. that he was an exemplary young man. he worked in security, had his associates degree in criminology. where is that disconnect? is it easy for someone to hide their true feelings like that? >> clearly they can hide being radicalized from their closest associates if they want to and disengage from their families. with saw in the join terrorism task force this happened.

people would disengage. the fbi looks at and collective law enforcement work on, turn out to be innocent associates that don't have anything to do with terrorism. what is important here is what came first, did his radicalization come first? clearly, it ended with his radicalization. his 911 call that says he pledges allegiance to the leader of isis, al baghdadi. that is direct evidence that he is inspired and acting because of isis. so, when did that begin? was that first or was this reaction to him seeing gay men in miami and having sort of this unusual visceral reaction that sort of makes him explode as his father described, so angry because it happened in front of his son and so forth and so on. so that's a really abnormal reaction. did that inspire him to go on the web and connect with isis

and justify the hatred he had to want to go and kill? i'm so reminded of dylan roof who was a loan actor, who killed pastor pinckney at the charleston church and not directly connected to a terrorist group. not a member of the ku klux klan or christian identity but he was a hater and he reached out and read all of the website stuff that would denigrate african-american leader and he centered on that church. he drove to that church and he killed them. he was act aing alone out of hate but made the connection with the domestic terrorism side who fosters that hatred among african-americans. this is so similar. you have a guy fostering hate against the gay community by his actions, his father described to an nbc reporter and pledging allegiance to al baghdadi. so many similarities in those two cases. >> part of the description of

the events that unfolded include omar mateen exiting the nightclub, in some form, whether a patio or in front, and then retreating back inside. a lot of times those that pledge allegiance to isis, believe in a sense of martyrdom. do you think if this is the case he went in with the intent to die? >> yeah, i think it's likely he did. we will probably know from his writings or what he left. but it looks like a homicide-suicide mission. he's going to kill everybody and then he's going to die out just like he did. with a gun battle with the police. he had a plan to massacre everybody. he would certainly know the police will respond to that. he may not have thought they would get there as quick as orlando pd had an officer on the scene. he may not have thought it would happen that fast but nevertheless probably prepared to engage them and had some kind of a bulletproof or load-bearing

vest, a lot of ammunition and just pouring rounds in to the innocent crowd there p. >> does it offer a sense of second guessing the fact he exited the building he may have been trying to leave? >> well, that's hard to say. i mean, i always go back to eisenhower's old quote, plans are great until you engage the enemy and the same is true with terrorists. once they engage authorities or military team things change for them, too. they might have a plan but now they are opposed in their plan and they have to change, run around and go berserk. this mass murder plan is just one guy acting on a mass murder plan. he has a rifle and pistol and something that looks like a bomb. that plan is not really, really really well thought out. he knows he wants to kill a lot of people and is successful, mostly because he has a rifle

that can deliver that many rounds in that enclosed space and to the people there, it is just an ambush. he has a whole magazine emptied before people realized they are being massacred and then he takes a second or two to swap the magazine again and he's shooting another 30 people. so those guns are extremely loud. when a those guns go off even in an outdoor setting or range or field they are really loud. in a nightclub like that, they are extremely loud. it is going to cause all kinds of discome boblation by the people there. they would be in shock, noise, music, lights. hard to get your bearings when that is going on. it happens in a mere of seconds if not split seconds. we are awaiting the president. he should be taking the white house briefing room nominee five minutes. right now to the white house jim

miklaszewski standing by there. have you been given verbage of what the president will say yet or do we know? >> not yet. we have been told the president received multiple briefings on what happened as far as federal authorities know, fbi director comey was seen entering the west wing a short time ago. it is often that everything we know and have been reporting about this and that the president knows and in deeper detail. the question is how does he address this? i go back to december of 2012 when two dozen young children were massacred at sandy hook elementary in newtown. shortly after he gave a speech that ignored politics of the day. he talked only about the compassion, the power, the madness, the sour, the sorrow and quite frankly he reached out to those people there in new

town. the only -- the closest he got in the that speech to any kind of political statement was he said, we're going to have to come together and take meaningful action to prevent more tragedies like this, regardless of the politics, and i will do everything in my power, as president, to help." that was more than three years ago. he's been frustrated in his efforts to gain any kind of substantive gun control through legislation out of congress. one has to wonder if that has built up some kind of anger within the president to make him strike out more strongly. in fact, the magnitude of this disaster, 550 dead at least maybe gnawing at the president as he prepares to give his remarks. i would anticipate that in this case he would show the same compassion and sorrow but he may reach out more strongly again to

re-emphasize his efforts to mass some meaningful gun control. >> your description of the president and his description, his darkest day in the white house. talking about sandy hook that was preceding his best efforts. and really the country's anticipation of some sort of legislation because of the heinous crime. children, first graders, 6-year-olds gunned down. and the bill was defeated in april. i will tell you, mixing pleasure with business, i was at the white house correspondents dinner not long after and approached the senator and asked if it would be put forward again and redesign it and get it put forward. that was a bipartisan effort. they said we'd like to do that. we don't know if there is an appetite for it. if there is the temperature in congress to do it again. this president's frustration at the lack of any substantive

legislation has to be something he will focus on for the duration of his presidency. >> this interim in other venues he expressed frustration and anger. it's only during or immediately after these kind of episodes, these deadly episodes that the president has pulled back a little on the politic an it's been all about the come pax. with the magnitude of this massacre and the growing frustration he must be feeling over more than three years of his inability to get anybody up on the hill to pass any kind of meaningful gun legislation. one has to wonder if he's going to let that loose today. >> uh-huh. >> i'm going to ask you to stand by for us. we are expecting the president at 1:30, which would be 30 seconds but we are yet to get the two-minute warning.

i'd like to bring in director of the fbi and chief security officer with crowd strike. your expectations for the president. i know you have been watching him throughout all of these years and the description of what he will be saying to comfort and appeal to the emotions of this country and so many offering in the wake of the tragedy. is it the time and place, do you think, to ramp things up, given the six, seven months of remaining in his presidency? >> i think the president will come on and try to calm the american people. obviously this is a tragic event, impacting so many lives on sunday a afternoon. we sit here watching this unfold. i think the issue of terrorism is critically important to address. this is, again, we're not clear this is terrorist. the fbi hasn't mad that determination specifically but everything we are hearing coming out appears to be cleleaning th way.

it's something that needs to be addressed. the president is working to fe cuss resources in this area. but this is something regardless of the time of the year that absolutely needs to be first and foremost on people's minds. >> this has to be disturbing for you because this man omar mateen accused of this crime is related to law enforcement, he was in security. he had a legal right to carry those firearm and did so as part of his employment and yet this happens. how much does that disturb you? >> well, you know, if in fact this is terrorism, isis inspired or aq inspired, i think it demonstrates there's nobody immune from this. one thing we have seen is the ability for these organizations to reach out across the oceans in to bedrooms and living rooms to touch them and to convert them to radicalize them.

if that is in fact the case, i think that demonstrates to the american people that the -- being aware and alert is critically important because it can touch anybody. in the course of this investigation, as the fbi and law enforcement continues to uncover additional facts, they are going to be looking for that? what caused it to happen? were there problems along the way and administrative process that may have been identified to circumvent or disrupt this activity. that will come out in the coming days and weeks, but those are key issues that these investigators will be looking for. >> as we bring jim miklaszewski at the white house back to the conversation. i want to remind everyone, the really earth shattering news we got thanks to pete williams 30 minutes ago, that being the reports of a 911 call made by omar mateen just as he was about to go in to the pulse nightclub

in orlando an he swore his allegiance to al baghdadi, the head of isis. given your position at the white house and the pentagon for so many years, talk about al baghdadi, who he is and his ability to influence social media and any other way. >> he's the functional and spiritual head of isis and disciple of bin lad aladen. he has a stranglehold on many of his followers. given the fact -- i think what we will have to do is wade and see what investigators come up with in terms of any association he may have had with isis or al baghdadi. the fact we haven't heard of any kind of connection earlier from any federal sources and suddenly we get this call at the last minute just before he carries

out this heinous act, you know, one has to wonder if -- according to his wife's description, he was mentally unstable. one has to wonder if he didn't just conjure this up at the last minute. so i think what we will have to do is wait and see if in fact there was any direct contact or even indirect contact between him and isis well before the shooting occurred. could he have been inspired? obviously. anyone in that mental state could easily be inspired by just about anything and anybody. but the question is did he actually have any connections or aspirations regarding isis. >> i'm going to pose this question to you, mik and then you, sean and ask you the same thing. with your perspective at the pentagon, is in the kind of discussion going on all the time in those conference rooms about how you deal with those that are isis inspired and what are the

challenges? >> well, it is a challenge. the united states has been very fortunate, so far. i knock on wood when i say that in terms of isis capability to recruit terrorists that would actually launch attacks against americans here in the homeland. the security, fbi, cia, have kept careful track of all of the connections and communications and made a number of arrests are, scores of arrests of potential isis followers or those who were isis wannabes. they have made scores of arrests in regard to that. a couple have slipped through the cracks but i think what we have to do in this case is wait and see how deeply involved he may or may not have been regarding isis. >> sean henry, to you the same question and the challenges

posed when trying to deal with people who maybe just inspired them, tracking, monitoring them, understanding who they are and what the potential for acts of terrorism maybe. >> i con cure with what mik said. from the law enforcement perspective in terms of the challenges there's a flip from what we call inspirational to operational. where you have somebody who might be chatting online, maybe asserting themselves, making some type of violent type of statements but when they look to go out and acquire weapons, law enforcement is going to move in. there's an a issue about free speech. a lot of discussion about what is free speech? it is a fine line. from a law enforcement perspective, people are constantly concerned, understandably, about privacy and security and where should the government be? where should they be listening and monitoring? that's a fine line.

you have to wait unfortunately sometimes until you have a clear specific information about something. the fbi is overwhelmed. law enforcement, as well, with the number of people who are on-line, engaged in this type of rhetoric. the associate immedia the social media kicked the door open on that and provided an avalanche of intelligence for law enforcement. unfortunately they don't have the resources to track down every single one and the inability to discern with 100% likelihood that something will occur doesn't exist. they have to know when to prioritize these issues. >> sean, again, as we remind everyone, we are waiting for the president to take the podium in the white house briefing room r. it is 1:37 p.m. eastern time. he was scheduled to speak seven minutes ago. we have not gotten the two-minute warning yet and so we will stay with us.

and as soon as the president hits the podium we will go to that. as far as walking the fine line of operating under the rules, regular lalgss and believes in this country of privacy and civil rights, is it a line that moves when you are dealing with people suspected of being able to carry out terrorism attacks. >> the constitution is rooted but the interpretation of what tools are available for law enforcemt is going to change. there's case law that changes the way laws are implemented, judicial decisions, et cetera, supreme court decisions, those sorts of things. i can tell you in my time in the fbi it was one of the most difficult things for us to do was focusing on what were the highest priorities. who's most likely? the resources to do these surveillances and cover somebody in a way you would expect they wouldn't be able too take some

type of action, the number of people and technical resources is quite large and they don't have in the ability to focus on everybody they would like to, even where they are legally permissible. so they have to focus resources. the fbi needs more resources in this space. this happens all the time. department of justice, fbi, legal counsel decision and executives within the organization constantly trying to balance priefs sif and civil liberties with the ability to keep the american public safe. something they take seriously and will continue going forward. >> we will ask you to stand by. jim miklaszewski at the white house as well. we are joined in washington by pete williams. you broke the news and brought it to us that omar mateen called 911 and pledged his allegiance to al baghdadi before going to the pulse nightclub and injurin 50 people and injured 53 more. >> or did it from the nightclub.

it's not clear where he was when he made the call but it was just before the shooting. >> do we know what time? >>. >> no. i don't have a time on the call. we were talking about the fine line between following the rules of the constitution and those that cross the line and commit acts of terrorism. how much is that a discussion within the justice department, as well? >> well, it is constant. it has become a big challenge for the fbi. ever since the days of when they began to be concerned by domestic terrorism in the u.s. you can say anything you want. you can say you support the goals of terrorist groups, whether they are domestic or international and that may bring you to the attention of the authorities, but in terms of opening a formal investigation,

trying to decide to make an arrest they won't do that based won whatever hot headhood comments someone maybe make. one individual said these initial remarks were of that nature. spouting off was the way it druz described to me. unlikely he was talking about isis in 2013 or 2w0i68, thee, four years ago because isis wasn't much of a factor then. his wife has also said he was a violent person. this fits in to a pattern of somebody who was prone to violent acts an she said he beat her and that's why she divorced him and making hot headed comments. domestic disbus is one thing but for the fbi to pursue an investigation to keep him under

surveillance there has to be something more than words. when you cross the line it would be something like you say, you know, i'm just now not making this up, i'm just thinking of past cases that as a resulted in arrests and convictions, but if someone says we ought to attack something, they come to the fbi's attention. and then the person starts to make preparations for it. they go out and buy a knife or go out and buy a gun or they get money or prepare to travel, those are the kind of things that will flip it over from expressing hatred to something that would open an investigation. it never got to that point, we're told, with mateen, three or four years ago. now you hard his father say he thinks what putt him over the edge is seeing gay men kissing in miami a couple of months ago and it seemed to really send him in to orbit and he thinks that is what this is all about. what effect isis propaganda or

islamic propaganda, anti-gay prop prop gan /* -- propaganda is something we don't know at this point. >> the father said this incident in miami seeing the two men kissing was done in front of his wife and 3-year-old son. is the ex-wife the person that the father would have been referring to? was he married twice? >> i don't know that. i know he was married and divorced. whether he remarried i don't know. we have not found that in the court records. what we have found in the court records so far, he had a security guard license. significant thing about that is he would have to show proficiency in firearms.

that would indicate he was familiar with firearms. we are checking to see if he had a military record. apparently he was a security guard. he was comfortable with and familiar with weapons. the second thing, this is curious, ten years ago he successfully petitioned to have his name changed. he was born in new york in 1986 born as omar mir seddique. but ten years ago he added something at the end. he became omar mir seddique mateen. i don't know why that is but he did that ten years ago. he successfully changed his name. >> this investigation is underway certainly in orlando, in that area, the port st. lucie area which is where he lived and traveled 125 miles to get to the pulse nightclub there and extended overseas in to london. there are extended family members there. what are the kinds of question they will pose to family members

and how extensive do you believe the investigation will be? >> this is a standard thing they will do. they will reach out to his relatives wherever they maybe in the united states and elsewhere to try to see if they have been in touch with him. if they detected this was going to happen. if he told them anything. what the influences in his life may have been. if he had expressed these views to them. they will ask relatives, friends, anyone in contact with them him those sorts of questions. sdplf jim miklaszewski joining the conversation at the white house. we are awaiting the president who is scheduled to make the statement from the white house briefing room 15 minutes ago. we are certain it is something he wants to do very carefully with the exact emotion to the american public. the president and the usual course of the day on a sunday. it is often a down day, but this

has become anything but for the president. talk about the time line of the day within the white house and briefings from the residents of the oval office. when was the president first notified. >> not clear what time but it would have been between the hours of 2:00 and 5:00. while we were all reporting that there were perhaps up to 20 killed, it would have been clear to the president and his staff by that time that there were 50 involved, 50 dead, 53 wounded. the big question here -- an you having worked around this white house occasionally, you know that on weekends, presidents sometimes really cherish their private time. early this morning there was that travel pool, all geared and ready to go and load up in to the motorcade and go off to golf. but as soon as it became evident the feeling here within the

building became very somber actually. and there was a recognition that there would be no golf today. given the fact that as many as 50 have been killed in this attack. he was not only briefed by his staff but also as we learned by the fbi, homeland security, and all of those agencies that would be directly involved. you can imagine that the cia would be contributing somehow in terms of intelligence. and even though it has been this many hours later, i'm still surprised this president is willing to go out this early after this event of given all of the uncertainty that remains about what happened here as we heard from pete williams. there are a lot of questions that remain to be answered. they are being answered in rather a quick fashion but to

have the president come out now indicates he's fairly confident in the information he has to speak to the american people, not only as president but as one of us, an american. >> yes. >> i think that is what we will hear. >> and the father who is experiencing a range of emotions, having just celebrated his daughter's graduation on friday. that was a high point for he and the first lady and awaken to this tragic news as demonstrated by the governor scott. he choked up when describing himself as a father and grandfather and really the emotions being sympathetic to those who lost their loved ones in this remarkable unthinkable crime. as we stand by for the president, i will speak to my control booth and ask him to get that video which demonstrates in the dark what it sounded like when shots were fired. we will get that ready to play.

i want to bring in sean henry, once again, and talk about the kind of assault rifle used this ar-15 and how quickly it can cause this kind of devastation. what we will hear in the tape when we play it momentarily, it is absolutely shocking. it is loud, fast and if you think of anyone standing in in the way of one of those bullets how could they possibly survive? talk about this, sean. >> the sound is deafening, as you mentioned. the ability for that weapon to cycle through dozens of rounds in a few seconds. and the rounds in terms of their stopping capacity, those are military-style rounds that are meant to kill people. that's why they have been designed. they travel at high velocity and great distance. often times those rounds will travel through people. unlike law enforcement rounds which are built to enter the body and stop and not to transfer through somebody.

these rounds because of the velocity would go through people and potentially hit multiple people. being inside when that weapon was going off would be devastating. >> to demonstrate what you are describing, let's play the video. watch and listen. watch and listen. >> oh, my gosh. people are getting shot, dude. >> we need to get out of here. >> oh, my god, dude. >> it is shocking to think of what those people inside were witnessing and the people that were many of them killed at that moment, listening to this kind of gunfire. these kinds of rifles, how easy are they forget? >> they are relatively easy if you go through a background check, you can buy them at different gun shops. there are shows where you're able to purchase those weapons, long guns, these assault rifles. so they're not very, very difficult. they're not outlawed at this

points. and those who have a clean record have the opportunity to walk in and purchase these records. >> and when we talk about the weapons and the kind of crime and damage that can be done, it's often not the weapons themselves that are the problem, it's the magazines. talk about the kinds of magazines that are used obviously in an incident like last night. >> well, in a situation like this, those magazines are often the capacity about 30 rounds. and you can carry multiple magazines. they don't way a lot. probably a pound or less. and you can carry multiple magazines. >> are they hard to swap out? >> no, they're not hard at all. you hit a lever, you drop the magazine, put another one in. literally in just a second or two, you can change an empty magazine to a full magazine or you can change a full magazine that you've shot just a few rounds through into a full magazine. so that is not difficult.

those weapons are built for military use. and the ease in changing the magazines, the capacity of that magazine, the gun is designed for that type of an attack. >> and tell me about using them. i mean i will admit to years and years ago i was out at a skeet shooting range and i used a .20 gauge shotgun. i managed that okay. i then went to aa 12 gauge and t knocked me. just the management of it, is it a challenge? >> this type of a magazine compared to a 12 gauge won't give you that much of a kick. it's built for the battlefield, for combat and built for accuracy. and somebody carrying that

weapon, it won't provide a large kick ba kickback. somebody who is trained in this type of weapon can shoot 30 rounds in probably ten seconds on a semiautomatic setting. >> we have been given word that the president will take to the podium in some two minutes from now, so i want to go back to jim miklaszewski at the white house. it's probably a very solemn walk to wherever the president is taking to the white house briefing room, but talk t how many people are with the president? is it a speech writer, the president writing these thoughts himself? who weighs in? >> he would be surrounded by almost everybody on his staff i think particularly those who could provide him information about what went down, specifically what went down here and why before he put it

together with the rep of hhelp speech writers before he put together his thoughts. unfortunately, he has given so many that he knows the right tone to strike but i wonder if this one will push him over the edge. >> and pete williams, if you want to add to the conversation there -- sorry, i guess pete williams is elsewhere. okay, mik, my executive producer is watching and he says that we not seeing the actual preparations even though we were given 1:55 p.m. but the president will be taking to the podium anytime now. the type of security that is required to get a license to be able to fire -- to use a firearm to get a security detail and be hired officially by an organization as security officer as this man omar mateen was able

do, is that the kind of thing you think that will be looked at now in congress yet again the kind of scrutiny what is required to clear people to own fire arms and use them in operation in their workplace? >> i think deep down this hin h heart, he just wants to ban the sale of these kind of automatic weapons orertainly limit the clips in every state in the united states so that even a law-abiding citizen quite frankly, whether they shoot for hunting sport or whatever, would not be able to possess these weapons publicly. and i think that's his ultimate goal. >> and sean henry, when will be the first moves in the fbi to try to put a button up on this

investigation investigation? what will they try to attack first to remain all the numerous questions that remain unanswered? >> this is a wide ranging investigation. it's here in orlando. it's through the washington headquarters at the national level and then internationally. when you hear about the phone call to 911 where the allegiance that was sworn to the isis leader, that put as different tone on this. if that call was made and he clearly demonstrated why he was leaning towards this on yr abouo engage in this type of activity, that changes the dynamic of the investigation. the fbi and others, law enforcement on the ground there, have their work cut out for him. it's a huge crime scene. if you can think about the devastation inside with more than 50 people murdered, the another 50 seriously injured, law enforcement will be looking at the trajectory of rounds, they will be collecting forensic evidence on the ground there.

and it's a tremendously large complex crime scene that will take days to go through. the fbi working with the lol ca law enforcement have a tremendous hurdle to overcome. and this other investigation with the interviews, we hear people talking about the social network and looking at all those who may have been connected. former co-workers,e ex-wife, family members, neighbors, people who went to school with him. a wide complex investigation that will take many weeks and likely more than that. >> and we have been given an official two-minute warning for the president. sean, how much does it comly indicate things or i get aid in things with the investigation when you bring in international law enforcement? london looking at the extended family of mateen. >> that is a strong relationship

between the united states and the uk. i was at an event this past week and ambassador talked about them being the stronstrongest partne. fbi has agents on ground. this is a threat to the global community. certainly we've seen what has happened in europe and the middle east and elsewhere. south america and elsewhere with these types of attacks. the foreign partnerships are critically important. nobody has a monopoly on the intelligence. so many pieces span the globe. and when you think about electronic media and the way some of these people communicate, it really requires cooperation. and it will be an ability to fill in the missing pieces. >> sean henry, thank you so much. the president will be speaking momentarily, but i toss it now to tamron hall.

>> alex, thank you very much. we're waiting for hear from president obama, his first on camera remarks regarding the massacre in orlando, florida. you see the number that is hard to digest. 50 people killed as a result of the act of one individual. 53 others injured. here is president obama. let's listen in. >> today as americans, we grieve the brutal murder and horrific massacre of dozens of innocent people. we pray for their families who are grasping for answers with broken hearts, we standing 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.

as americans, we are united in grief, in outrage and in resolve to defend our people. is i just finished a meting with director comey. the fbi is on the scene and leading the investigation in partnership 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 definite sif judgme definitive judgment on the motivations of the killer. the fbi is appropriately investigating this ans as an act of terrorism and i've direct that had we must not spare anything to find out what association this killer may have had with terrorist groups. what is clear that he was a person filled with hatred. over the com