tv Andrea Mitchell Reports MSNBC April 17, 2019 9:00am-10:00am PDT
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scale for the president. mpb colorado man hunt. report for an 18-year-old girl forcing more than half a million students to stay home as a massive search continues. >> i know this opens a wound especially on an anniversary week for those families who were most deeply impacted by this. burn notice. president trump predicting he will face bernie or biden. a tickets some democrats are reeling from 2016 are plotting how to thwart a second sanders run. >> he should be worried.
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the countdown nears the release of the william barr report. the president's lawyers are meeting daily to plan their rebuttal depending on how damaging the report is. barr in the spotlight after a major immigration crackdown over night issuing an order denying bail to thousands of migrants while they await asylum decisions. joining me now justice reporter julia ainsley, jeff mason, robert costa and msnbc national security analyst and former fbi special agent clint watts. julia, i want to ask you first, both on the immigration and most immediately on the redacted mueller report. any way to gain what we'll see, how much we'll see and we'll talk to jeff about how the white
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house responds. >> reporter: you have the same questions i do. we know this report is coming tomorrow and it will be fewer than 400 pages. we don't know how much will be redacted. we know there are four categories that allow the attorney general to redact information. he is able to do that by doj policy. it's a matter of how widely he interprets those categories. those ongoing investigations, grand jury material and anything that could endanger the reputation of someone not charged by robert mueller. they will want to redact all of thoeds thi those things. top of line will be how much information we get on obstruction. a lot of people have said that obstruction shouldn't be redacted as much because there
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are ongoing investigations and don't thip nk it relies as heavy on grand jury material. how much bar exposes could go into his reputation going forward about whether or not he's working to preserve the reputation of this president over transparency that the american people think they deserve. >> the white house responds, they've been working on rebuttal report. we have heard from rudy giuliani. jeff mason, do they really expect -- do people believe they have no hint at all from the justice department from william barr, as to what to expect. how can they rebut something if they don't know what's in it? >> reporter: that's a good question. they are preparing. we'll see a statement, a written statement probably to the white house pool from perhaps sarah sanders or her spokesperson responding to what comes out in
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the report. the president is scheduled to fly to florida for the long easter weekend. there's always a chance he will speak to reporters coming outside on the way to the marine one helicopters as well. they have been preparing and your question about what they have been briefed on ahead of time is a good up with. >> precisely because william barr, clint watts, william raisn how he answered. refusing to answer as to whether he shared information with the white house. what do we know from his background, from his first tour as attorney general. some questions are being raised about whether or not his summary, if you will, match reports that came out. >> that's right. it's one of the more interesting sorts of historical analysis. it gives you a window into what his early career was like.
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he wrote a summary of an opinion about how we deal with people in foreign countries. this was in the lead up to the panama invasion in 1989. he put out a summary and wasn't challenged on it. it came out in 1991. it really surfaced that summary left out a lot of key details. it wasn't much transparency around that. there's been a lot of debate about that going forward. did that same mode of redaction and summarizing he did back in 1989, does that really tell us about now? i kind of tend to believe no. he knows this report that he's going to be releasing tomorrow will be scrutinized afternoon the world. not just in this country and it will be political hot button issue this time with this congress. i think he's probably in anticipation looking toward to what the summer will be like. what the hearings will be like. what subpoenas he'll have to
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fight from the department of justice. it will be really interesting to see tomorrow in terms of the big question is how much is redacted and how much do we know or is this just continue a very long two plus year slug of trying to understand what happened in 2016 and beyond. >> is there a sense among the people surrounding the president they have dodged a bullet here. they can tough this one out and push back and tie congress up in knots for months, if not years over the taxes and over subpoenas? >> white house officials and others tell me they feel like they are in a better position after the attorney general issued that letter. there's still an element of uncertainty as they look ahead to this report. they know house democrats may say this does rise to the threshold of impeachment and could face a major political
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headache. they will argue it's time to move on. democrats are over stepping if they decide to push forward in any way. they know there could be new information. even information that's not redacted. they don't have a war room set up because they don't know what's coming. >> ann, there does seem to be a sense they could have the democrats on the run because nancy pelosi said wait for mueller report. now she will get a lot of pressure within her caucus to do something on impeachment. the mueller report is a done deal after tomorrow. democrats will be talking about issues that the voters don't care about. >> that's right. >> as my colleague, robert costa said, the white house does feel like they are on much better footing than they were a month ago. yet there's a question of what else is in, whatever will be
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made public tomorrow that will cause them to have to answer questions. there's a certain amount of uncertainty there. the general feeling though is that the country is already moved on. that despite polls that show a fairly strong level of skepticism and dissatisfaction with what attorney general barr has so far said publicly about the mueller robert, that the kun tr -- country made the decision that the president's top line of no collusion is all that's penetrated and the white house feels this is not the giant political problem that would be hanging over them for the nec eight or ten months or so of serious ramp up toward the 2020 election that they had feared. >> this could all change tomorrow. uni understa one indicator is the 2020 hopefuls are not talking about this as much as they are trying
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to talk about medicare for all and the kitchen table problems. >> they have to show value to primary voters that they are going to get something. however enticing the shiny object of the mueller report might be will be old news. it's also playing on the president's ground. >> maybe he's taking so long on releasing there report because he's doing immigration. julia you were the first to report he's taking a significant step that will be challenged against the single men on asylum because they are not those affected by the flores opinion on what to do with children. >> it's single adults so women and children included.
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they are put into expedited removal before they pass this kredsable fear interview. once they pass that, they are put sbo a tyinto a type of dete they get out on bond. now the attorney general is over turning that policy in a decision that says they cannot get out on bond unless there's a special condition for their parole like safety or lehealth. the biggest question is how does dhs accommodate this. they are already so limited on detention and i.c.e. facilities. the attorney general is giving dhs in order to enforce this policy but still a lot of questions remain because we know they are having to release some immigrants because they don't have space. the attorney general is within his right to do this.
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>> these appeal tsa are being suggested by the aclu and others, do they not have standing to try to litigate this? >> they do have place to litigate this. they will sue over this policy and federal court. we understand the aclu and other immigration groups are preparing the lawsuits already. this is something that started under attorney general sessions. he want he wanted to review this policy and it was barr that put this final decision on it yesterday. put in place by sessions and barr sealed the deal. we'll see what happens as this goes to court.
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>> they know voters may not like the president's conduct or new information that come to light. they saw the mueller investigation was happening in the 2018 election and was not a political help to the republican party as they lost the house of representatives. they need a foil. they are looking for the democrats to provide that to them heading into 2020. that's why speaker pelosi has to be someone we're paying attention. she's been very savvy so far. she's going to have a lot of pressure to move forward with impeachment or a harder line. >> jeff, we know the president is heading to his resort for easter weekend. then he is pretty much down for the weekend. is that the expectation?
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>> reporter: that is the expectation. you nef know wiver know with th president. his schedule is to leave for florida tomorrow afternoon and spend the weekend. he has plenty of opportunities to speak whether it's on his way outside or to the press pool in florida. i'd like to add one thing on the issue of immigration with regard to william barr. i think this is another example of the white house being very pleased with its attorney general. there was some dissatisfaction in the white house starting with stephen miller that not enough is being done to implement a hard line policy. the fact that barr is weighing in it's one more feather in his cap in terms of the people who support him.
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>> i try to hold out hope. he's an oelzer hand that's much more disciplined. when he made the comment about spying in front of congress last week, it sent a ripple effect that maybe there's an agenda behind there that he is just part of the team, not necessarily the one we can count on, over the long run. we'll see how this redaction goes tomorrow. that comment about spying last week does nothing more than set a political divide in motion. it is a match to a powder keg for those that have tried to say that the white house is being spied on or trump tower was wiretapped. a lot of these conspiracies we have seen in the social media hashtag storms over the past two years. i was very disappointed in that. we'll see how it comes out over the next week or so and i
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imagine the attorney general will be showing back up on capitol hill and testifying in some way or another. i think it will be time to see does he move more agretszively in the direction he was last week or does he recognize that statement really became a political fire bomb that he threw into the social media storm last week. >> i think we can all agree they have timed this one. congress is on recess and every one is heading into the easter holiday weekend, spring break and the like. it's been time to bury the mueller report as best as they can in these news cycle. thank you so much. coming up, colorado on alert. just days before the 20th anniversary of the columbine massacre. schools are closed in denver and the area around it as police hunt for a woman they say is armed and dangerous. we'll have an update next. stay with us. plap
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: just days ahead of the 20th anniversary of the 1999 columbine high school massacre, more than a dozen school districts in denver, colorado and surrounding communities are closed today amid a massive search officials say are armed and expressed what they call an infatuation with the columbine mass shooting. officials say 18-year-old sole made a incredible but unspecified threat after traveling from miami to denver
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on monday night. joe, this is so troubling. i know you've been talking to official, school leaders there. what do they know and how close are they to closing in on her? >> reporter: we're watsing for more updates soon. we can tell you authorities are calling this a massive man hunt throughout the denver area. a large swath of colorado trying desperately to try and find this woman. she was last seen monday somewhere in the foothills of jefferson county which is the same county that columbine high school is. she is from florida. she's a high school student there. authorities say earlier this week she flew from florida to colorado and that she was able to purchase a shotgun and some ammuniti ammunition. police say she made a credible threat. the threat was not targeted at a specific school. they are very concerned. they say she is infatuated with what happened columbine 20 years
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ago. we found online writings. a attorney and posting in an online gun forum that says florida resident here. i'm planning a trip to colorado in the next month or so and want to buy a shotgun while i'm there. i'm wondering what restrictions apply for me. i found a few private sellers i might want to purchase from. is it legal for me as a florida resident to purchase a gun in colorado. i'm 18 years old, if it's important. law enforcement have not confirmed if the posts belong to her. under colorado law, if you're 18, you can buy a shotgun. most school districts decided to cancel classes. that means more than half a million students are out of school. as school officials learn about this threat yesterday, they did what's called lock outs. those are different from lock downs. there's a threat on the outside of the school. the expeer your doors are locked but it's business as usual
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inside the school. school districts decided out of an abundance of caution to cancel today. how long that will last is unclear. all of this comes three days now before the 20th anniversary of the columbine shooting. it was already a tense feeling. people want to focus on remembering the victims and paying tribute to them. >> thank you so much. colorado also become a focal foi point for democrats looking to challenge cory gardener. it marked a political shift in what was a conservative state.
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i want to you about this school situation in littleton, colorado in sdrern adenver and the surro area. you wrote about columbine back in 1999. i want to share this with our viewers. you wrote a piece for the christian science a harvard student. you wrote if my generation were to march, campaign, shout, sing, letter write and mass e-mail for gun control, the fruits of it ts eft efforts will go beyond whatever results. columbine, gun laws been on your mind for a long time. >> they have. thanks for having me. i grew up in littleton about i was in college when it happened. the anniversary is coming up this weekend. i will never nor get the
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feeling. i had to ciglings in publ lisib. i rushed to my dorm room and rushed to call home. the phone lines were jammed for hours. i think about parents across the denver area trying to explain to their kids why they can't go to school today. i think about the survivors of columbine. many of whom are parent themselves and what it must be like as they approach there anniversary. it's painful because it's been 20 years. we have done nothing to fix this. this is a choice that we're making. as you mentioned, this person who we're serarching for is 18. she is buy a gun but can't buy a
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beer. the legislature can fix that. thst been too long and people who have gone through too much pain in is a choice we're making to not deal with the epidemic of gun violence. we can do that in a reasonable issue.ponsible way. they want to see progress. they want people in washington who care more. there's no law of physics that says pit's impossible. people like cory gardener who took money from the nra is part of the problem and not part of the solution. >> why do you think that you got a shot at it given colorado is changed over the years but why do you think it can now be open to your candidacy. >> whenvertised himself as a
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moderate. someone an independent voice and he's fwoen gone to washington ae whatever donald trump tells him to. i don't think he's a dumb guy which makes it even worse because it's so cynical he's folding for trump over and over again because of his own ambitions. i think across the country in 2018 we saw a number of people like myself who have a record in public service but not in politics especially people with a foreign policy or national security background step forward to run. i think one of the things tleag who have done this before me is that when you represented the united states around the w values, when you've seen the importance of institutions around the worl and see what's happening here at home, you feel like you can't stay out of the fight. we know a strong america starts at home. it starts with strong institutions. it starts with a fair system in both our policy and economy.
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this is a difficult time i'm eak to the manager around here in is not the america i recognize. we have to recognize the manager is up. it's up to us to make the change we want to see. we can seize the silver linings of this moment. >> another difference is you're openly gay. you would be the first openly gay man in the senate. there are already women. there's a woman in the senate. tammy balds wwin. are you encouraged by the response to pete buttigieg. his can ddidacy has been accept by large sectors of the public. >> i think it's really amazing. it seems like the promise of a
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more perfect union, the expansion of treating more people with dignity seems to move for a particular group. when i was 15, amendment two passed in colorado. i thought i don't know if i would be happy. now i've been able to represent our country around the world. i've had my husband by my side. i think mayor pete is testament to how far we have come. anybody that's lived the life that mayor pete has lived or the life i've led and standing on the shoulders of those who came before us and fought for progress, we can't afford to be cynical. we're the beneficials of progress. we know it's hard fought but we also know it makes a difference in people's lives. that empathy i feel for -- that was developed when i was young, i hope that's something i bring to the campaign trail as i
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listen to people around colorado and try to bring their voices to washington. >> great to meet you. hope to meet you in person. thank you so much. still ahead, cuba crackdown. trump's new policy targeting companies that do business with havana. do business with havana if you have moderate to severe psoriasis, little things can be a big deal. that's why there's otezla. otezla is not a cream. it's a pill that treats plaque psoriasis differently. with otezla, 75% clearer skin is achievable. don't use if you're allergic to otezla. it may cause severe diarrhea, nausea, or vomiting. 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.
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but only 11% of its executives are women, and the quit rate is twice as high for them. here's a hack: make sure there's bandwidth for everyone. the more you know. cuban regime has for years exported its tactics of intimidation, repression and violence. they've exported this to venezuela in direct support of the former maduro regime. cuban military intelligence and state security services today keep maduro in power. sadly, cuba's most prominent export is not cigars or rum, it's oppression. >> mike pompeo announcing a big crackdown permitting cuban americans to sue to recover
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properties their families lost when it was nationalized in the 1959 revolution. the administration is justifying its move as punishment for cuba's continuing support propping up the madura regime. ban on such lawsuits have been in place for 20 years to avoid an all out trade war with foreign companies based in canada, france, spain and great brita britain. it could open the door to lawsuits involving tens of billions of dollars. joining me is ben rhoades. it's a real practical effect. >> it's a big deal. the practical effect is the united states will be totally isolated from our allies in europe and canada. including the allies that the administration says it wants to.
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you'll have these lawsuits not against the cuban government. lawsuits against companies from allied countries of the united states. it's a bad move and a pointless move that's more to do with domestic politics than any foreign sane policy. >> what would you do to try to get maduro out of venezuela differently than what this administration is doing? >> first of all, what they are doing is failing. let's be very clear here. they tried to recognize the opposition. that didn't work. they tried to force foreign assistance. that didn't work. they tried to go to the oil sanctions. all that did was deepen the humanitarian crisis if venezuela. i would try to negotiate a transition in venezuela. i would be talking to all the countries in the region instead
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of picking trade wars with them. i would be talking to cubans instead of pushing them into the corner. what the trump administration is doing is not working. >> there's a division between thoes who suppo those who support this oil crackdown and those who believe it will hurt the economy because it's a global commodity by raiding oil -- raising oil prices and gasoline prices and could hurt the president politically. >> the oil sanctions are hurting the venezuelan people. if our policy is about trying to help them, moving to this extreme version of sanctions has not dislodged maduro and could end up hurting the american people.
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one again, they have a policy that is not achieving the objectives they have set for themselves in venezuela or cuba and will isolate the united states and hurt americans at the pump. >> another recent change was them invalidated the major league baseball contract involving players and their ability to earn money and play here without defecting. pompeo said today your administration was playing footsie with the castro regime which has now been succeeded. >> well, we were ending an approach that had failed for 60 years. this is the definition of insanity. was the embargo working in promoting any kind of change in cuba? no. the american people and cuban people overwhelmingly supported what we were trying to do.
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how punitive is this administration? are what does that do to promote human rights? cut against americans who want to travel to cuba and see baseball players ply. i think it's a losing policy. >> thank you. break news on that massive man hunt in colorado. an 18-year-old woman who made a credible threat. the fbi tweeted we can confirm there's investigatingive activity around the base of mt. evans. the investigation is active and
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ongoing. more information will follow soon. coming up, burn, baby burn. why is president trump so focused on bernie sanders? we have some answers, coming up. stay with us on andrea mitchell reports on msnbc. n andrea mitch reports on msnbc ♪ ♪ ♪ liberty mutual customizes your car insurance, hmm. exactly. so you only pay for what you need. nice. but, uh... what's up with your... partner? not again. limu that's your reflection. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty, liberty, liberty, liberty ♪
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and mud slinging begin the president trump is taking aim. i believe it will be crazy bernie sanders versus sleepy joe biden to run against maybe the best economy in the history of our country and whatever else it may be. may god bless their soul. you're hardly a trump whisperer to understand. i guess he means he's concerned about these two challengers unless he's trying to build them up. >> he's been all over bernie sanders in the last week. the president seemed, to me, a bit rattled by that town hall that sanders did on fox. >> taking on fox and criticizing them for putting him on. >> my colleague in the post
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wrote an interesting piece. looking at the numbers of obama, trump voters in the key states that delivered the presidency to donald trump. it was michigan, pennsylvania. those states. those voters, you could argue, made donald trump president. these are people who voted for bernie sanders in primary and voted for donald trump in the general. if bernie sanders can get those voters back then donald trump could be in trouble. >> a lot of them still resent hillary clinton. there's that core. we see this argument going on now. that is raising big questions about the journalism. >> bernie soonanders, joe biden isn't in the race yet. >> stay tuned till next week. i think that's when you see
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something for from joe biden. i want to you about pete buttigieg. he was heckled. he was in iowa for the first time. one of the hecklers was randall terry. one of the anti-abortion hecklers. it's not related to pete buttigieg and gettings attention. mobile more than he deserves to get. here is pete buttigieg talking to other reporters today in response. >> when you're in politics, especially at this level. you'll see the good, bad, ugly and the peculiar. that's just mart part of how it works. the next president will have to confront things of being interrupted or having to talk over a little noise at an event.
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>> pete buttigieg brushing that off. handling it. >> he did. in the moment he came out with a perfect line that seem to have been scripted for the west wing. saying that his moral soul is in the hands of his creator but the iowa caucuses are up to you. talking to the audience. this will be a face nating moment not just for him and his campaign but for the country to see how, reacting to the first openly gay major candidate who right now, look at the numbers now, has a shot.speaking of the. michelle obama is in london on book tour. becoming the most popular memoir ever written so far.
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talking to colbert and she's being very critical of the trump factor and shows how angry she was at donald trump. this was her talking about donald trump with colbert. >> america is like a teenager. >> we are a teenager. we talked about this. >> and we're confused because our body is changing. >> we're changing all over the place. we come from a broken family. we're a teenager. we're a little unsettled and having good parents is tough. sometimes you spend weekend with divorce dad and that feels fun and then you get sick. that's what america is going through. we're kind of living with divorced dad. >> divorced dad. >> i thought it was a funny line. there's some group of divorced dads that's taken something with
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that line. i thought it perfectly funny in context of talking to stephen colbert, which give me a break. >> it's always a pleasure to talk to you. thank you very much. we have another update for you on that manhunt in colorado. the fbi tweeting there's no longer a threat to the community. seems as though they is an arrest. joe fryer rejoins us on the phone. what do we know? >> reporter: the fbi tweeted out what you said. there's no longer a threat to the community or information to follow. at this point we don't know what that means. there's a lot of questions. our affiliate, our nbc affiliate in denver is also saying that quote the serge for sol is over. we don't know has she been arrested, has she been taken into custody or something else happened. these developments have been moving fast. fbi did say a few minutes before
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they said there was no longer a threat to the community, they confirmed there wads investigative activity around the base of mt. evans. that's about an hour west of where i've been reporting from in littleton, colorado. there's been reports of a lot of police activity going on but no confirmation on exactly what happened. that is a mountainous foothill area. we have been talking about the fact that she was last seen on monday in the foothills of jefferson county. that's the last place she was seen. after she landed in denver she was able to purchase a shotgun and ammunition. the last time she was seen was in the foothills area on monday. this is a broad area they have
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been searching. more than half a million kids are not in school today in denver and several surrounding communities. that's because of this threat posed. they say she threat. they say she had an infatuation with column bien. and the 20th anniversary of that is approaching. >> thanks for that. and a former fbi special agent joins us as well. >> her fascination, she's 18 years old. what do we know about her and the psychological that went onto these concerns that she was a danger to the community? >> from what i understand, she was known as a blogger who would talk about this topic and suddenly decided to move. in terms of the fbi's perspective on this, there are a lot of conspiracy online on
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columbine. if there are extremist groups, they tend to focus on anniversaries, what you start doing is you look out there for are there any credible threats around that anniversary. and for some reason, this woman, sol pais, triggered that. she immediately after they identified it, it seems as if she traveled and the second big indicator of something to be worried about is an acquisition of a firearm and a weapon. when you put that together, i'm sure the fbi saw a probable cause to move aggressively on this, when you see somebody flying from florida to colorado. >> it seems from the tweets from the fbi, we don't know the circumstances of why they suggest this, but you can presume from it or infer from it that there's been an arrest, that they have -- they found her because they say there's no longer a threat to the community
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and i'm just now hearing from the control room, joe, that pete williams is reporting that a law enforcement official is telling pete williams that she has been confirmed found dead. we don't know from her own hand or from sort of interaction from authorities. that is the confirmation from our colleague, pete williams. and all along, she was viewed as a lone actor? >> yes. based on everything i've seen, she was viewed on an a loan actor. i've seen no evidence so far to emerge that she was connected to any wider conspiracy or broader threat. the other thing that i read this morning is that the family was involved, they were trying to essentially help out with the situation and were concerned about mental health issues. so i'm sure looking at just the events over the last two days, this happened very quickly, that's always a cause for great concern if you're the fbi or state and local law enforcement
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around one of these anniversaries and it was last week, we saw reports of law enforcement and how they've struggled over the last two decades dealing with people that are either curious, entered or c -- interested in the events. it's never died down from that initial assault that happened at that high school. >> and this will raise questions about how someone with obviously family concerns about mental health, how someone without a background check or any other investigation gets a shotgun on arrival in denver, colorado. >> i can't tell you over the last three, four years how many times i've been on air here because we've never dealt with the severity of these attacks. on the severity, that comes down to access to weapons. we've seen individuals quickly acquire weapons, they either do
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harm to themselves or others or both on a mass scale. this has happened repeatedly. our weapons laws are so loose and easy to get access to those weapons and do damage that allows anybody to make a snap judgment. the other part is the frequency. law enforcement has no ability to do anything preemptyively based on our tips and leads. it has to be a move to violence. you saw somebody who posted a threat that got law enforcement's attention and then traveled and then acquired a weapon. but there are people who pop up routinely, you could go back to the boston bombing, you could look at many mass shooterers, they were reported to law enforcement, they were seen as somebody who could be maybe doing harm to themselves or others and there's no mechanism to try to deal with them or try to prevent them from getting
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weapons. that is a huge loophole, a giant gap in our system in this country that makes the frequencies of these attacks continue over and over again. we've seen no movement by congress to solve that. and we've seen no ability for a law enforcement to take additional steps to prevent that. >> and jim kavanaugh joins us as well. formerly head of the bureau of alcohol, tobacco and firearms. the looseness of gun laws and failure of any kind of enforcement on background checks as we've seen this develop, and here is a woman, 18 years old, who lands in denver, colorado, and is immediately able to buy a shotgun. >> you both made great points on that as well. let me take you back. from 1968 until 1986 under the gun control act of 1968, this woman would not have been able
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to buy that shotgun in colorado because the federal law prohibited it. it only allowed the sale of a long gun from a dealer to a person who lived in a contiguous state, a state that bordered a state. she was from florida, so she could have bought the gun in georgia or alabama, but she would be prohibited to buy it in colorado. the same is true for the navy killer. but in 1986, the gun lobby pushed through a law and it watered down the '68 law. and what it watered down, it allowed these sales to take place in any state that would allow it. and there's -- there's a large number of states that allow long gun sales as long as it's legal in both states. we did have a law that would
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have prevented this person from buying a gun, but its gotten watered down. it's bad to see the death, but the law enforcement response, andrea, is critical here, they put it out there publicly, they put the pressure on. we don't know how the death transpired yesterday, whether it was suicide or officers have been to take action, but we know the threat is over and that is a relief because we have april 20th of hitler's birthday and the anniversary of columbine all coming up. it's a day that we always pay close attention to, clint will tell you that. it's a day when these maniacs go to it and they get all worked up. so i'm sorry to see the death, but i'm glad to see that the threat is over for colorado. >> well, when we think of the people of littleton who survived this, who have lost children,
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who have gone through the trauma of this, and, clint, what is it about columbine, refresh everyone's memories, this was the first mass shooting in a school? >> that's right. it was the first mass shooting to really catch fire in a very public way. if you remember, that mass shooting went on for a very long time. there was cable news coverage immediately of it and it really reached the entire population. in fact i can tell you, i was in the army and i remember seeing the televisions come onto cover this attack on that day 20 years ago. and us watching it in near realtime exactly what was unfolding. it was also at a time when law enforcement was not used to responding both to mass causality incidents and to mass shooters in buildings. that was not very common. this really set up what has become a two-decade trend. the thing we need to look about this incident today is the copy cat situation.
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this person undertook this, they had seen it on social media. she talked about columbine and then look at what has escalated over the last six hours since it came to the public's attention. now we need to be worrying about, okay, this is a huge time for the white hate movement, this is a huge time for those that are sort of entranced around these media spectacles like columbine. if you're looking at this, this sets of a con they gent. there are people who are copycats. they want to duplicate it or do something themselves. it's going to be a very tense time over the next couple of days as we have to depend on our law enforcement to detect these and we have to say they did an amazing job of quickly responding to this. >> we have to credit law enforcement at least so far with
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containing it. >> they had a great response, andrea. i watched it unfolded. all the agents, everybody, was all over this, they were protecting the schools, looking them down, looking them out. it was a great response. they flooded the area with the pictures. it was all over national media, her photograph. that's the way you go after it because you've got a leverage. the public is on your side. they did a good job on that. and she might have been located and law enforcement was closing in, those details will come to us. but we got to be vigilant this week. the 20th is hit tler's birthday and it stirs it up. >> here's ali velshi and stephanie ruhle. >> we're going to continue covering the same story. good afternoon. i'm ali velshi. >> and i'm stephanie ruhle.
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