called 172430. this amazing vigil where they sang as you said the bridge over troubled water. >> and don't use this as an excuse to move people to diminish and marginalize other communities. >> stuart milk who lost his uncle to gunfire knows what this grief feels like. thank you very much for joining us tonight stuart. >> thank you lawrence. worst ever, and this is "hardball." good evening, i'm chris matthews in washington.

tonight a stunned country is mourning the 49 victims of the deadiest mass shooting in history. the gunman responsible, a home grown extremest. within hours of the horror, it's become the front line of the american political debate and in the aftermath of the attack, presumptive republican nominee donald trump took credit for proof siding the horrors, appreciate the congrats for being right on radical islamic terrorism. i don't want congrats, i want tough nls. he followed that up with the president himself quote is president obama going to finally mention radical islam pick terrorism or if not he should be immediately resigning in disgrace but trump was reaching for something sinister. listed to what he said about president obama's motives and loyalties. >> he doesn't get it or gets it better than anybody understands,

it's one or the other. we're led by a man that either is not tough, not smart or he's got something else in mind and the something else in mind, you know, people can't believe him. people cannot believe -- they cannot believe that president obama is acting the way he acts and can't even mention the words radical islamic terrorism. there is something going on. it's inconceivable. there is something going on. >> there is something going on. we'll talk about that phrase. anyway, in dueling speeches delivered later today by hillary clinton and donald trump, the contrast between the approaches to fighting terrorism was stark. in clinton's speech she spoke about the killer and propaganda that drove hill to commit yesterday's horrors. >> the orlando terrorist may be dead but the virus that poisoned his mind remains very much alive and we must attack it with clear

eyes, steady hands, unwaivering determination and pride in our country and our values. [ applause ] >> as president, i will make identifying and stopping lone wolves a top priority. >> donald trump blamed the glove for letting dangerous people into the country calling the killer an afghan even though he was born here. >> the killer whose name i will not use or ever say was born an afghan of afghan parents who immigrated to the united states. his father published support for the afghan taliban, a regime which murders those who don't share its radical views. the bottom line is that the only reason the killer was in america in the first place was because we allowed his family to come here. that is a fact, and it's a fact

we need to talk about. >> i'm joined by bob woodward, susan paige and eugene robinson. i want to start with you, bob, and ask you what did -- well, let's just be blunt about it. was he questioning the president's loyalty when trump said there's something going on here? he seems to maybe know more about this than we do. what is he talking about there? >> it's nasty, vague and mean and unnecessary and what people want to hear from the presidential candidates are practical and powerful solutions. how do we deal with this in this kind of talk serves no purpose and certainly did not serve props. >> there is a certain line if you go back. joe smo saying this is one thing but a guy that started with statements like no one knew him at school.

talk about like was it really him? signed up for all those years in school. was that really the guy we're calling president now and the idea he was born overseas, somehow sneak in the country, and now to say there is more to this than meets the eye, you know, what's he up to here? >> at the least -- >> about obama. >> president obama is inattentive and doesn't pay enough attention to the issue of terrorism and at the worst he's saying there is some other thing going on i'm not going to say what he's a part of and goes back to remind us of the birth is he really legitimate president. it is -- is there a more serious charge you can make against a president than that? >> i think there is something deeper and more sinister going on. he makes the implication or asks us to draw the inference that there's something secret or a cult about president obama in

his very nature and, you know, what i think of is all these allegations that he's some sort of secret muslim and not just a secret muslim, right, but a secret muslim who the inference was supposed to draw sympathizes somehow with the radical muslims who would destroy america. that's the -- >> it's an option. i'll take that cupcake. somebody might say yeah, i like the way the president talks. what do you think, bob? >> it's so modelled in the height of what is -- makes no sense in what he has said is because obama won't use the language radical islamic terrorism, he should resign. >> no, he said that today. a lot today. >> if it's -- >> i mean, if -- [ lahter ] >> people have suggested that president's resign for some pretty serious offenses.

>> yes, i know. i know. >> but failing to use certain language is -- >> usually for using language, not not using it. >> well, sometimes it's even for illegal action. >> right -- >> call a certain -- >> choose what you want to hear, right? you can choose he's not doing enough or you can choose the more sinister language. >> this is what trump wants ultimately for his uncle. he forced him to show his birth certificate like calling the guy to the side of the road and say let's see your papers. to go back to watergate lingo, i am not a muslim. i have no other ambitions. anyway, let's go back to earth here now. in her speech hillary clinton warned against the muslim ban. let's watch her. >> millions of peace-loving muslims live, work and raise

their families across america. they are the most likely to recognize the effects of radicalization before it's too late and the best positioned to help us block it. we should be intensifying contacts in those communities, not scapegoating or isolating them. inflammatory, anti muslim rhetoric and threatening to ban the families and friends of muslim americans from entering the country hurts the vast majority of muslim who love freedom and hate terror. [ applause ] >> whether you like what she said or not, clear what she meant. let's not gang up or make generalizations when it's one or two people that do this thing. anyway, in contrast, donald trump doubled down on his proposed muslim ban expanding it to include areas of the world,

not just religions but areas of the world that have a history of terrorism itself. let's watch that. >> when i'm elected, i will suspend immigration from areas of the world where there is a proven history of terrorism against the united states, europe or allies. until we fully understand how to end these threats. many of the principles of radical islam are incompatible with western values and institutions. the bottom line is that hillary supports policies that bring the threat of radical islam into america and allow it to grow overseas. >> in an attempt to say i told you so, which all politicians do, nothing new there, he referred to this killer as an afghan. >> yeah. >> he was born in america, 14th amendment and the things we celebrate here. if you're born here, you're here and one of us. why did he do that? why did he say an afghan? >> because it makes him sound

more foreign and more sinister and more alarming and provides for justification for his idea of an immigration ban which would have done nothing -- >> like the judge is a mexican. >> if he said he was born in queens, he'd have to say like i was also born in queens. born in new york, the same as donald trump. >> so why did he say it? to argue if you have a pretty stiff immigration screen and you manage to fi like the israelis do, you got to do a 45-minute interview. something more than that with maybe, no, i'm sure it wouldn't because the guys would know exactly what to say. they would say i'm a christian or i'm not a muslim or unity. >> it's jumbled and non-specific but it's, you know, immigration from that part of the world bad, right? >> east. >> and so now, in the present

case, the assailant in florida was born in the united states 29 years ago. so what -- does he have a time machine to go back and sort of ban -- >> he did go to saudi arabia a couple times. this guy has a travel record that might put on lights at the fbi. >> it did. it did. >> he didn't just scrub in the united states a hang around the neighborhood. he was in saudi arabia twice, which should ring some bells. >> clearly. we have to deal with the reality there are many people who are trump supporters who agree with this general line of criticism, and i -- you know, i don't know how you deal with it. hillary clinton's proposal of intensifying contacts within the muslim community is quite right and sensible but i mean, imagine fbi. >> it did. it did. >> he didn't just scrub in the united states a hang around the neighborhood. he was in saudi arabia twice, which should ring some bells. >> clearly. we have to deal with the reality there are many people who are trump supporters who agree with this general line of criticism, and i -- you know, i don't know how you deal with it. hillary clinton's proposal of intensifying contacts within the muslim community is quite right and sensible but i mean, imagine if you're the fbi director and you have to deal with this. i mean, it is a problem out

there. >> how do you know if the other person is radicalized, it could be a day or two. >> what is radicalization? >> anyway -- >> and -- >> but you catch people on their way to go fight for isis and catch people who are involved in plots. they don't all get through. we catch some of them. the reason we catch them is because of cooperation from members of the muslim community. >> today secretary clinton called for a stronger regulation on guns including restating, reinstating the assault weapons ban that expired in 2004. here she is. >> we have to make it harder for people who should not have those weapons of war and that may not stop every shooting or every terrorist attack but it will stop some and it will save lives and it will protect our first responders.

>> well, trump for his party accused clinton of wanting to ban all guns. >> her plan is to disarm law-abiding americans, abolishing the second amendment and leaving only the bad guys and terrorists with guns. she wants to take away americans' guns and then admit the very people who want to slaughter us. let them come into the country, we don't have guns. let them come in. let them have all the fun they want. >> that's an interesting conspiracy theory. disarm us on purpose so the foreign evil ones can kill us all. that's a plan. that's her plan according to trump. >> that's the take. you can argue -- i actually think you can argue on both sides of the question of the terror list. how do you get on the list? how do you get off the list? this guy was on the list for awhile, the terror watch list and the fbi investigated him twice and interviewed him three

times and decided he was not a threat. clearly they were wrong on that but the system was followed -- >> we have two men from the post. what do you make of trump saying you guys are shutout from any coverage of him because of this coverage today? >> this makes no sense and won't work -- >> do you like that headline? is that a true headline? >> sometime there is are headlines that don't have all the clarity but the idea that you sort of are going to systematically ban people. i hate to go back 40 years but nixon on tape will say things like the post is going to have problems and then they got people -- >> donald trump seems to connect president obama to orlando shooting. is that fair? >> huh? >> donald trump seems to connect president obama to orlando's shooting. >> yeah, more fair than not. you know, he that implication loop.

>> it doesn't matter. it doesn't matter. >> right. it doesn't matter. >> sometimes you write bad had leans and do stories we have to correct. part of the process if you run for president, you'll get covered by an aggressive press. >> i don't think this will last. i think -- >> he'll get back in. >> last time he said it was fair. i was accurate and i mean, this is just -- this is not going to last. this will not stand, i hope. >> okay. well thank you bob woodward and thank you susan paige. we had the sluggers row here, murderers row from the yankees. the late it's investigation from orlando coming up and we'll talk to the partner of a bouncer killed at the nightclub in orlando over the weekend and the challenge of finding and stopping a lone wolf attacker before they strike. right now you're looking at live pictures of a vigil right there

in orlando itself as the community comes together to mourn 49 victims of sunday morning's attack. "hardball" back after this. i asked my dentist if an electric toothbrush was going to clean better than a manual. he said sure...but don't get just any one. get one inspired by dentists, with a round brush head. go pro with oral-b. oral-b's rounded brush head cups your teeth to break up plaque and rotates to sweep it away. and oral-b delivers a clinically proven superior clean versus sonicare diamondclean. my mouth feels super clean! oral-b. know you're getting a superior clean. i'm never going back to a manual brush.

video emerged from inside the nightclub. this was posted by 25-year-old amanda alvear who would later die in the nightclub. >> i'm at the club. [ gunshots ]. >> you can hear the gunshots. while they escaped, amanda told them she was hiding in the bathroom. they did not hear from her again

after that. we'll be right back.

welcome back to "hardball." the investigation into omar mateen continues this evening. it's the largest mass shooting in american history and while isis claimed the gunman as his own no indication he was directed from overseas. the attacker was radicalized but it is still unclear which terror group he aspired to support. here is comb my. >> there are strong indications and inspiration by foreign terrorist organizations. he said he was doing this for the leader of isil who he named and pledged loyalty to but also appeared to claim solidarity with the boston bombers and the man that died as a suicide

bomber in syria for a group in conflict with the so-called islamic state. >> what a great public servant mr. comey is. president obama talked about the terrorist propaganda and threat it presents this to country. >> one of the biggest challenges we're going to have is this kind of propaganda and proversions of islam that you see generated on the internet in the capacity for that to seep into the minds of troubled individuals or weak individuals and seeing them motivated them to take actions against people here in the united states and elsewhere in the world that are tragic. >> proversion of islam. very interesting phrase there. i'm joined by chris jansing outside tonight's vigil down in

orlando. chris, take it away. >> reporter: well, chris, this is something that the community had really wanted so desperately to do. they were very concerned about having enough manpower to do security but they decided that people so needed to come out and show solidarity. look at the size of this crowd. it is a thick night here in orlando. temperatures in the 90s. but the people are still streaming in. and i just met up with three young men who knew one of the victims eddie, jeff and colin join me now and you knew eddie sotomayor. >> eddie was one of my first gay friends in college and i met him at a bar and we immediately became best friends. i was in the closet and didn't have many gay friends. i no longer live here but we've kept up through facebook and i saw him a few months ago and he's still somebody very, very

special to me and he was a beautiful soul and had an infectious laughter and a leader in the gay community and very active and the message i have, if you don't think we're peel, you're wrong. and if you think there is a mild form of homophobia, you're wrong and if you think -- and if you don't do something about this, it's going to kill me. it's going to kill my friends and it's going to kill my friends' friends. >> reporter: i know this is a very emotional time for you. what made you have to come out here tonight? >> orlando is such a tight knit community. orlando has been attacked but as an lgbt community, we are so close and such one big family. and when you attack one of us, you attack all of us and every single person that i talked to has known someone on that list.

if you didn't know someone there, you're one degree from knowing a person there. this is is such -- it hits so close to home that we have to be here for each other to support and the attorneyout here tonight is unbelievable for an orlando community and the love i've seen on facebook and social media from my company that i work for has been unparallel and i've not seen this before and everyone that's shown support, we hear you. we are listening and we need the continued support not just today, not just tomorrow but for the weeks to come for our community. >> reporter: let me just ask you what it meant to you to come here tonight. >> i think it just meant showing that we're still here. a friend of mine so eloquently posted on facebook, the gay community was forged in the

fire. this unfortunately is no shocker to us. we're used to this sort of persecution and in spite of that, we still choose to love and i think that's the message that you can see here is one of love and of acceptance and this doesn't stop that. we will continue that on no matter how many, you know, outrageous acts of hate are committed against us. we're here to love and we're not going anywhere. >> reporter: colin, jeff and eddie, thank you. there is a strong showing of the lgbt community, i've seen muslims here. we see straight couples here. seen a few families here and as i said, chris, standing up earlier, i could see people are still streaming in. chris? >> i'm so glad we could get that report from you chris jansing, impressive people. joining us from san francisco is star shelton whose former partner kim, k.j. was his

nickname morris was killed in yesterday's shooting. star, my condolences to you. what was she like as a person? was her job like? being a bouncer is sort of a physical aspect. you got to get people out of a place that shouldn't be there and keep order. what do you know? we should know? >> absolutely. what i can tell you is that k.j. is a wonderful, wonderful person. anybody that knows her or anybody that had the chance to meet her has known that about her and has felt her love and her care that she gives to the entire world. i could say nothing bad about her. in terms of her job there in orlando, she did just begin that job at pulse about two weeks ago. and she did tell me that she was very excited to be there because it was going to introduce her into the lgbt community there in orlando and she felt happy and very comfortable in that environment and i know she said that, you know, the people and

the staff there, they were really wonderful people as well and she really enjoyed working with each and every one of them. in terms of that night, you know, i was able to speak to her that evening while she was working. i was able to send a text message to her at around 12:30 a.m. orlando time. and i told her that i missed her. i'm far from her and i always think about her and i wanted her to know i was thinking about her and i hope she would get through her shift okay. around 12:38 a.m. she did respond able to tell me that she missed me back and i'm forever thankful that i did get that opportunity with her. you know, i'm just really hurt and heart broken that this type of violence did occur and that her life was taken in this violent way. >> what did you think of the three men we just heard from down there at the vigil? >> i'm very, you know, very supportive and glad they still came out and being part of the lgbt community, don't be afraid and know there is bad things and

bad people out there but we as a community must stand together and keep our ground and never fear anything. love will win. it will win one day. >> what are your speculations because we're still trying to put a mix of motives that went into this. maybe it had to do with the proversion of islam, the records show isis is claiming responsibility. and then the anti gay part of it, homophobic part of it. how does it fit together in your heart right now? >> honestly, my heart it's just a tragedy. i'm not sure exactly what his motive was. i do not know him or his family to know his intentions but the very fact that something so tragic could occur just breaks my heart. that everybody was just there to love and have a good time and come together as a community and, you know, as part of our lgbt community, we're open to straight people and any other type of people that want to come and be part of us and join us and laugh with us and have a great time and the fact so much

high trade and animosity could come breaks my heart. >> think about somebody that planned to kill like that, just -- anyway, star, thank you for coming on. it's not hard -- not easy to come on. it's a hard situation to face. i can see the golden gate bridge behind you. that's always a nice thing to see. thank you for coming here tonight. >> thank you for having me. >> we'll be right back.

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call this number now. ♪ one time we were in miami, we saw the behavior of one couple and he got a little bit ticked off. >> what did he say? >> nothing just look at this. >> what did you see? >> there were two guys kissing each other in front of the family and kids. >> that was the father, of course, of the shooter telling nbc news his son had a problem seeing two men kissing during a recent trip to miami.

anyway, the shooter's anti gay behavior is a factor being considered for the possible motive of the massacre. joining me is tammy baldwin a democrat from wisconsin which is the first openly gay senator in u.s. history. senator, thank you. >> thank you. >> you're in the spotlight unfortunately now, sadly, and we had these three guys on a moment ago spectacular with emotions and feeling and guts. >> yes, it's so striking to listen to that. you know, i on friday had the chance to be at the opening ceremonies of pride fest in milwaukee, wisconsin. they are celebrating the 30th year. of course, june is gay pride month where there is a celebration of the progress made since the days of stone wall, all of the efforts to fight discrimination and homophobia and hate. >> stone wall was the bar that stood up and said no more police raids. >> absolutely and an end to the violence.

>> that's stone wall we're looking at on the camera, those flags flying. >> yes. so to wake up on sunday morning and hear this devastating news and then i joined a vigil in madison last night, i -- people of all ages sexual orientations, gender identities gathering together and certainly to see the fear and the terror in the expressions of so many of those that gathered. >> put it together, if you can. senator, i'm a bit older than you i think and i'm trying to think of how everything changed and you were in high school and told gay jokes to the idea nobody would admit they were gay. they were there, i can tell you. all the jokes and progress, prok progress, don't ask, don't tell. people don't like it but it was progress and moving forward to the supreme court decisions to a day where polling shows

overwhelming accept tense, if not celebration, acceptance. how do you put this terror attack in the midst of that progress? >> there is a long, long way still to go. there is no question about that. you know, i thought and i actually expressed this to the group at pridefest in milwaukee imagine the first gathering where people would have been afraid to go because maybe somebody might recognize them or take a picture of them. they might be fired. they might lose their housing. or worst yet, they might get beaten up or have physical security threatened and to see all these years later this tragedy. now, i also want to pull it together because what we saw and what you've been covering is a u.s. citizen inspired by terrorists who is able to legally purchase a weapon of war and turned it on an lgbt

community -- >> what good is a three-day waiting period? i'm serious, what in the world does that accomplish? in this case, nothing. >> you know what? i think we need to renew our press to close the terror gap. that would allow the fbi to deny a gun to somebody who they have been interviewing, watching concerned about. it would take on the no-fly list and it would take on the terror watch list. >> so if you couldn't get on a plane, you couldn't get a semi automatic weapon. >> isn't that common sense? isn't that commonsense? this is not rocket science but we see this hate, terrorism and easy access to weapons like this, people who shouldn't have them. >> what do you think of donald

trump's argument we disarmed our country and let in the dangerous people? >> you know, i can't make sense of what he's saying. but this is a time when we have to come together as a country. we're going to run into the same walls and in congress and elsewhere if people don't come together and decide now is the time, how many times do we have to wakeup and hear about an elementary school shooting, theater shooting, a church or temple shooting. we have to come together and donald trump divides us and makes us weaker. >> somebody stopped me at the airport yesterday who was gay and talked about being gay and a little closer to my age and said maybe this horror will help make us more acceptable. imagine how horrible that is. anything that brings us together is good. thank you. >> thank you. >> anything that happens is good but good we're coming together. i'm joined right now by orlando >> thank you senator. orlando city commissioner, the first openly gay first elected

in central florida and also frequently visited that club, the pulse club where the massacre took place. >> absolutely. >> tell us everything you know that we don't know. that's where we're at now. trying to learn motive and situation, the human aspects of the tragedy. >> well, in this situation, you know, now we've really gone from, you know, getting the victims out, getting the bodies out and clearing the crime scene and now we're in a situation where we're taking care of trying to take care of the families and greenwood cemetery is the city cemetery. i never thought i'd ever have to as a city commissioner be taking action to put aside 50 graves for young people in my community. so it's very, very sad but we're going to do what we can to really help this community, to really help those families now and there's been $1.3 million collected through our gay, lesbian transgender community

center and we're coming together to help these families. sorry if i'm not making a lot of sense. i've been up for 21 hours now. >> you're making perfect sense. >> thank you, chris. >> take care, you're doing the job of god. thank you. up next, details on the investigation and possible motive in the massacre. i think we know a lot of motives already. we'll get up to the minute reporting from pete williams who is great and analysis from top security experts. "hardball" back after this.

you will notice i'm not using the killer's name and i will try not to do that. part of what motivates sick people to do this thing is some twisted notion of fame or glory. >> that is james comey talking

about what may have motivated the shooter in the orlando terror this weekend the joining me with the latest on the investigation is justice correspondent pete williams. i really like this guy comey but what do we know? >> explaining that the fbi did pretty thorough investigation of him in 2013 after he claimed to co-workers while a security guard at a local courthouse that he actually was part of the terror group hasballah and had friends that knew the boston marathon bombing suspects, the tsarnaev brothers. it was a thorough investigation. they monitored communications and sent an undercover operative to talk to him and talked a terrorism data base and interviewed him twice and what they concluded is that he was all just full of hot air. he was bragging about this stuff and he eventually admitted it or claimed he made statements

because he was being teased and thought he was a victim of job discrimination because he was muslim. >> why did he want this -- for cashe? who was his motive to be known as a terrorist, sleeper cell sm. >> they concluded what he claimed wasn't true. any of these things were true. here is the thing, during that investigation while it was going on for ten months, he was put on the terror watch list. if he tried to buy a gun during that ten-month period then the fbi would have pound out about it and there would have been alert -- >> a ping. >> hey, your guy is trying to arm himself. once the investigation closed, he was taken off the watch list. from then on if he tried to buy a gun, the fbi didn't know. we asked justice department officials whether they should be and they said well, maybe we should look at that. >> is there a coordination of being ochoen a list that you're not allowed to go on an airport

and buy a gun? is that the same list? >> no, there is no such list. there is no list that blocks you from buying a gun and some members of congress thought there should be. if you're on the no-fly list, how can you not get on a plane but buy a gun? they wanted congress to change that. the only things that disqualify you are a felony conviction, misdemeanor domestic violence conviction, being judged mentally defective and a few other things. >> he was clean. he had a clean record. >> absolutely. he was legally entitled. >> i always wondered about that propels about gun safety, they don't catch somebody who has a clean record. >> right. or someone who may have mental problems who has never actually been judged by a judge -- >> adjudicated. >> thank you for coming on. let's bring in theater ror experts. former fbi criminal profiler and hostage negotiator and msnbc criminal analyst.

corey is co-founder of flash point and msnbc terror analyst and sean henry is assistant director of the fbi. in the order i introduced you, would you tell me what you think this is about? let me start with clint. >> chris, number one i think we see a hybrid. a combination of maybe some mental health issues, his former wife said he was bipolar. he had anger management issues. we're seeing someone who as the director of the fbi suggests may have self-radicalized himself on the internet. this is not two-way conversation. this is perhaps him doing searches himself. we have an angry frustrated individual. he doesn't like blacks, women, he doesn't like jews. he doesn't like gays. and this is someone who perhaps is looking for an identity. someone almost like a cult, chris. he's looking for someone to say you're okay and embrace you and

take ideas and i think we came up with this personality that committed this terrible act. >> so it really appears that this individual had a combination of radical views and some of those views in their own right were contradictory. hasballah is actually one of isis' worst enemies. to support hasballah and isis at the same time sounds like an extreme paradox. on the other hand, self-radicalization doesn't have to take many months or years. he could have held the views and began following isis' videos a few months ago and reignited this kind of radical views more focused on isis' ideology. it's still hard to tell but it is increasingly looks like he was not centrally connected to the group, although, that will be unveiled in the coming days or weeks. >> sean? >> i agree right there.

let me take a different tactic, chris. this is the new normal. there are thousands of people like this and you can see the challenges law enforcement face. the fbi specifically had somebody under investigation for ten months. they used some pretty sensitive investigative techniques. they were not able to find anything that allowed them to take this guy off the streets, certainly nothing that rose to the level of probable cause where they could charge him with something and they, you know, they stopped their investigation and sure enough, something triggers this guy. was it because he was homophobic or mental issues or he had some violent tendencies or radicalized online. whatever it may be, you can see how quickly something happens. ten months of investigation and after this guy takes it and kills 50 people. >> thank you gentlemen for bringing us up to date on the horror going on here. we'll be right back with more from orlando after this.

the chair asks that the house now observe a moment of silence in memory of the victims of the terrorist attack in orlando. without objection, five-minute voting will continue. the unfinished business is on the vote and the gentleman from illinois, suspend the rules and pass hr-5312 unamended. ayes and nays are ordered. the clerk will record the title of the bill. order, order! order!

>> we're back. that was the scene earlier on the floor of the u.s. house of representatives. a moment of silence was disrupted 30 some democratic members, including u.s. congressman jim cleburne of south carolina, who wanted to see action on gun safety legislation. i'm joined by val demmings in orlando, the city's former chief of police and a 27-year veteran of the force. she retired in 2011. this is a combination crime of horror like we haven't seen before. a gay nightclub targeted by someone who says he was something to do with terrorism, something to do with foreign organizations, intent on hurting this country. it's kind of a hybrid, if you will, crime. how do we deal with this kind of crime, how do we prevent it? >> good evening, chris. you can only imagine how sad we are here in orlando to believe that the deadliest mass shooting in america's history happened in a place that is really supposed to be the happiest place on earth.

and, you know, this particular case, when a person appears to be working alone, it is very difficult if they're not tied to a particular organization or tied to a particular group that may be being tracked or followed or surveilled, it's very, very difficult. that's why it's so important that saying, if you see something, say something. it's so important that ordinary people, family members, neighbors, co-workers, in this case co-workers were the ones who actually reached out and made some complaints about activity and behavior with this person. it's so important that we continue to, as i said, if we see something, say something. >> what do you think about guns? i know police officers like yourself have a mixed view. i'm not going to put words in your mouth. what do you think about people on the liberal side of things ask say it's a gun issue. is it a gun issue, this case? >> it is a gun issue.

49 innocent people lost their lives in orlando this weekend. the shooter, as we know, was carrying an ar-15, a military-style weapon with a high-capacity magazine. he could possibly have pulled that trigger 30 times before he needed to reload. and we've got to come to a place, get the political courage and the political will, to pass legislation that really keeps guns out of the hands of terrorists, criminals, and mentally ill people. people who are just determined to kill americans. >> thank you, as always, val demmings, thank you for joining us. when we return, let me finish with donald trump's open suspicions about the president. "hardball" back after this.

let me finish tonight with this. let's go over what donald trump said on fox this morning about the president. in regards to the terrorism in orlando. >> he doesn't get it, or he gets it better than anybody understands. it's one or the other. we're led by a man that either is -- is not tough, not smart, or he's got something else in mind. and the something else in mind, you know -- people can't believe

it. people cannot -- they cannot believe that president obama is acting the way he acts and can't even mention the words radical islamic terrorism. there's something going on. it's inconceivable. there's something going on. >> what is it that mr. trump wants us to think when he says there's something going on? or he gets terrorism better than anybody understands? what's the forbidding prospect, the menace buried somewhere that trump is considering but dare not identify? two interpretations, one that the president knows as well as anyone that the terrorist threat is connected to islam for the simple reason that the terrorists say so i and give reason in their lives to make it appear so. obama knows it but for global political reasons, to avoid inciting more east/west hostility, he refuses to connect the words, radical, islamic, and terrorism in the same phrase. is that what donald trump was saying when he said there's something going on? or was it along the same lines as trump's vintage claim that

the real man in the white house does not match up with the narrative we've come to believe, that he wasn't as recorded born in hawaii that nobody knew him in school that there's something not on the level about who he actually is. in other words, that there's something going on. donald trump's claim to the more benign interpretation, that he was refusing the phrase radical islamic terrorism for global diplomatic reasons, would be stronger if he had not made his first mark on the national stage advancing the line that the president of the united states was a secret foreigner. and that's "hardball" for now. thanks for being with us. "all in with chris hayes" starts right now. in washington.