[Tapper:] Thanks for watching.
[Wolf Blitzer, Cnn Anchor:] Happening now, breaking news. In the line of fire. President Trump slams the initial response to the Florida high school massacre, saying he would have rushed in, even without a weapon, to protect students from the shooter. And the president tells governors not to worry about the NRA, saying and I'm quoting him now "They're on our side." Investigation red line. CNN learns the GOP leaders of committees involved in the Russia probes are drawing a red line when it comes to Trump family finances while Democrats say, follow the money. Dueling story lines. The House Intelligence Committee meets for the first time since the release of the memo by its Democratic members, responding to Republican claims of FBI abuses. Now President Trump and the panel's top Democrat are in a war of words over that memo. And school deputy responds. The armed resource office who failed to confront the gunman during the Florida high school massacre speaks out for the first time through his lawyer, calling the criticism of his actions unfounded. I'm Wolf Blitzer. You're in
[The Situation Room. Announcer:] This is CNN breaking news.
[Blitzer:] Breaking news, President Trump is sticking with his idea of keeping schools safe by putting guns in the hands of some teachers. And he criticizes deputies who failed to confront the Florida high school shooter. The president says he would have run in to do so without a gun in his hand. And the president is in a war of words with House Intelligence Committee Democrats over their memo defending the FBI against Republican attacks. The committee is meeting tonight. I'll speak with Congressman Joaquin Castro of the Intelligence Committee. And our correspondents and specialists, they are standing by with full coverage. Let's begin with President Trump suggesting he'd be the first responder in chief in a school shooting situation. Let's go live to our chief White House correspondent, Jim Acosta. Jim, the president is still pushing the idea, I take it, of more guns in schools.
[Jim Acosta, Cnn Chief White House Correspondent:] He certainly is, Wolf. And President Trump made the strange claim today that he would have tried to rescue the students at the Parkland school shooting. The White House attempted to clean up those comments today, but there was not much clarity on exactly what kind of gun control measures the president would support beyond banning bump stocks, which weren't even used at Parkland.
[Donald Trump , President Of The United States:] Thank you very much.
[Acosta:] President Trump insists he would have saved the day. If he had been on the scene of the Parkland school shooting, the president says he would have stormed the building.
[Trump:] I really believe I'd have run in there, even if I didn't have a weapon, and I think most of the people in this room would have done that, too.
[Acosta:] Unlike the deputies, the president says, who choked.
[Trump:] They weren't exactly Medal of Honor winners. All right? The way they performed was frankly disgusting.
[Acosta:] When the president said earlier today that he would have run into the school, was he suggesting that he could have saved the day?
[Sarah Huckabee Sanders, White House Press Secretary:] I think he was just stating that, as a leader, he would have stepped in and, hopefully, been able to help.
[Acosta:] Is he trained in using a handgun or a firearm of some sort?
[Sanders:] I don't think that was the point he was making.
[Acosta:] In a candid exchange with the nation's governors at the White House, the president claimed he met with leaders from the National Rifle Association over the weekend. It was no surprise when the president defended the gun lobby's intentions.
[Trump:] Don't worry about the NRA. They're on our side. You guys, half of you are so afraid of the NRA. There's nothing to be afraid of. And you know what? If they're not with you, we have to fight them every once in a while. That's OK.
[Acosta:] The president also continued to push his goal of ending the days of gun-free zones at schools in order to put more firearms in the hands, he says, of skilled shooters.
[Trump:] I don't want teachers to have guns. I want highly trained people that have a natural talent. Like hitting a baseball or hitting a golf ball or putting. How come some people always make the four- footer and some people under pressure can't even take their club back?
[Acosta:] One of the Democratic governors in the room, Jay Inslee, from Washington state took issue with that plan, then offered the president some advice.
[Gov. Jay Inslee , Washington:] I've listened to the first-grade teachers who don't want to be pistol packing first-grade teachers. So I'd just suggest we need a little less tweeting here, a little more listening, and let's just take that off the table and move forward.
[Acosta:] Mr. Trump did vow to ban so-called bump stocks, the attachments that allow semiautomatic rifles to fire like machine guns. That was the weapon of choice in the Las Vegas massacre last October, though not the Parkland school shooting.
[Trump:] Bump stocks, we're writing that out. I'm writing that out myself. I don't care if Congress does it or not. I'm writing it out myself. OK?
[Acosta:] The president need only look at the polls to see the growing support for new gun control laws, now at 70 percent. A huge jump from the days after the mass shooting in Las Vegas. And the students who have been demanding action on gun control now have the first lady's seal of approval.
[Melania Trump, First Lady:] I have been heartened to see children across this country using their voices to speak out and try to create change. They're our future. And they deserve a voice.
[Acosta:] Still, the White House appears to be staying on message. Even daughter Ivanka Trump sounded supportive of the idea of arming teachers in an interview with
[Nbc. Ivanka Trump, Daughter Of Donald Trump:] I think that having a teacher who is armed, who cares deeply about her students, or his students, and who is capable and qualified to bear arms, is not a bad idea. But it's an idea that needs to be discussed.
[Acosta:] And the White House was asked whether the president is backing away from his support for raising the age for people, buying assault rifles to 21 nationwide. The president tweeted his support for that last week, but in fact, today, press secretary Sarah Sanders was asked about this a couple of times at a briefing today, Wolf. She would only say the president supports that concept. It's not exactly the same thing, Wolf.
[Blitzer:] Yes, I looked at the tweet. Raise the age to 21. That's what he said then. But since then there seems to be a little backing away in the face of NRA opposition to that. We'll have more on that. That's coming up. Jim Acosta, thanks very much. The House Intelligence Committee is meeting tonight for the first time since the weekend release of the memo by its Democratic members, responding to Republican claims of FBI abuses. Let's bring in our chief national security correspondent, Jim Sciutto. Jim, the president has sharply attacked that memo, which attempts to smack down Republican claims of wrongdoing one by one.
[Jim Sciutto, Cnn Chief National Security Correspondent:] Right. And though this was buried, seemingly intentionally, by the White House on a Saturday afternoon by the White House and Republicans, it does take aim at the two central claims of what was known as the Nunes memo or the GOP Republican memo. The first one being the aspersion the FBI opened its counter- intelligence investigation into Trump-Russia ties based principally on the so-called Steele dossier. That's the opposition research document on Trump and Russia that was funded by Democratic groups, including the Democratic National Committee. Now, the memo, in countering that allegation, notes that, in fact, that probe, that counterintelligence probe, started in July 2016. That's seven weeks before the FBI team investigating Russia first received that dossier. The memo states and I'm quoting here the FBI's concern about and knowledge of Page's activities this is Carter Page, a campaign adviser to the Trump campaign long predates the FBI's receipt of Steele's information. Now on a second key charge of the GOP memo or the Nunes memo is the GOP claim that the FBI hid that political origin of the dossier. But the Democratic memo says that, in fact, in its first FISA warrant request this is a warrant to observe, to surveil an American the DOJ, in fact, mentioned Steele's political ties and motivations. So going after those two central claims there, of course, you know, each side has its political motivations here. But on the facts, it's a fairly credible rebuttal of those central GOP claims.
[Blitzer:] And beyond that, Jim, there's also some new information about this overall investigation contained in this ten-page memo.
[Sciutto:] That's right. And this this caught the attention of myself and my colleagues as we were reading through this memo when it came out on Saturday afternoon. And this entry caught our eyes. By September 2016, the FBI had opened what are called sub-inquiries into a number of Trump campaign associates. This beyond Carter Page that we knew about, indicating that Page was not the only person that the FBI was looking at. Now, because this was a redacted document, a great amount of this information is classified. Both the number of those associate that were under these inquiries and the names of those people under these inquiries, they were redacted from the documents. We don't know how many. We don't know who they are, but we know that there are a number of them in addition to Carter Page.
[Blitzer:] Very interesting. People are trying to find that, figure out who those people might be. Thanks very much for that. Jim Sciutto reporting. Joining us now, Democratic Congressman Joaquin Castro of Texas. He's a member of the House Intelligence Committee. Congressman, thanks for joining us.
[Rep. Joaquin Castro , Texas:] Thank you for having me, Wolf.
[Blitzer:] So your committee chairman, Devin Nunes, says that this Democratic memo, in it the Democrats are advocating that it's OK for the FBI and the Department of Justice to use political dirt. How do you respond to that?
[Castro:] Well, the first thing is that the Democratic memo was written to really correct the record. Remember, Devin Nunes and the Republicans put out a memo that was wrought with inaccuracies and really a bunch of falsehoods. So we came one a version that corrected the record. And it demonstrated that the FISA process was followed. In fact, that the FISA court was made aware that this was part of opposition research against President Trump. And I'll also point out that the way that this firm, Fusion GPS, got involved in the first place, is because they were hired by a very conservative outlet, "The Free Beacon." That's why they were looking into President Trump, then-candidate Trump, in the first place. So it wasn't just a bunch of Democrats. There were also conservatives involved, as well.
[Blitzer:] But should that FISA application, with hindsight, knowing what you know right now, Congressman, have specifically named the Clinton campaign and the DNC as the financier of the dossier?
[Castro:] Well, as I understand it, all the processes were followed with the FISA court. All the information they are required to know was made available to them. And so, you know, as long as those those processes were followed, then I don't see a problem. And they knew that part of this had to do with political opposition research.
[Blitzer:] Yes. Political opposition. But it's one thing to just say it was political opposition. It's another thing on say the DNC and the Hillary Clinton campaign were funding it. Right?
[Castro:] Well, but as I said, Wolf, remember: Fusion GPS was first involved because of Democrats but the conservative "Free Beacon" publication.
[Blitzer:] Yes. But when they actually hired Christopher Steele, that was only after Hillary Clinton and the DNC took over. Right?
[Castro:] No. You're right about that. That's right.
[Blitzer:] All right. So they could have been a little bit more specific. Was would releasing this memo and I've gone through it now several times, all ten pages. Would releasing this memo, unredacted and there are a lot of redactions in these ten pages unredacted have compromised sources and methods?
[Castro:] Yes, we said all along that we would work with the FBI and the intelligence agencies to make sure that we didn't divulge any classified information, any sources and methods. And that's exactly what we did. We did our very best to make sure that there was no classified information that was that came out in this memo.
[Blitzer:] But are you OK with the redactions that the FBI and the intelligence community, maybe the White House, made, citing sources and methods? You don't want to compromise how the U.S. gathers intelligence?
[Castro:] Look, I mean, ideally of course, you wish that every word would get out. But this was an agreed-upon compromise, and so, you know, we will take it.
[Blitzer:] The Democratic memo also says that by mid-September 2016 and I'm quoting now the FBI had already opened sub inquiries into, and then they redact individuals, the names. Individuals linked to the Trump campaign. More redaction. And former campaign foreign policy adviser Carter Page. That redaction is very long. How many Trump campaign associates were under investigation, and are those redacted names all publicly known?
[Castro:] That as you could imagine, I can't discuss. But I said months back, to you, in fact, Wolf, that I believe, based on everything that I've seen, that there would be several people that I think would be subject to legal liability. I still believe that's the case, and I still think that there are more people that haven't been named, who may be in legal jeopardy.
[Blitzer:] Can you give us an approximate number?
[Castro:] I can't. You know, we're going to wait to see when it all comes out.
[Blitzer:] And in the memo, can you just tell us, is it two or three or four or five? I saw how long the the redaction was, and it's hard to tell specifically how many names were mentioned.
[Castro:] Sure. And I don't have the memo in front of me, but you know, it I believe that there's more people to come.
[Blitzer:] What are these memo feuds doing to protect American elections, looking ahead to the mid-term elections in November, the 2020 presidential elections? What does this do? The release, first of the Republican memo and now the Democratic memo?
[Castro:] I think that it was important for us as Democrats to correct the record, but this entire episode has been a real side show to the main point of this committee's work, which is figuring out who messed with our 2016 elections, why they did it, how they did it, and also as important, whether any part of it was an inside job. Which Americans, if any, cooperated with the Russians who interfered with our elections. That's the main purpose of the work we're doing, and we have to make sure that we get back to focusing on that.
[Blitzer:] Let's get to the issue of the Florida school massacre. President Trump said today that, every once in a while, you have to fight the National Rifle Association. What do you think he'll fight them on when it comes to specific gun-control legislation?
[Castro:] Well, I hope that he'll do what he has talked about. Ban bump stocks, raise the age of purchase to 21, and do other things that the Congress should do. I think that we should either ban assault weapons or at least ban high-capacity magazines so that somebody can't fire off 20 rounds and put ten bullets in somebody before they had a chance to even react.
[Blitzer:] Any...
[Castro:] There's a lot of work to be done.
[Blitzer:] Any chance the House and the Senate will pass that?
[Castro:] Well, sure. I think there's more momentum right now. And you see even among the public that you've got 70 percent in support of more gun reform. And really, Wolf, if the president and Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan were committed to do something more than talk, they could absolutely get something done. They could pass a bill on the House floor and the Senate floor tomorrow, or this week, if they wanted to. And I hope that the president puts as much effort into pushing for sensible gun reform as he did for giving tax breaks to the wealthiest corporations in this country. This Congress can get it done if there's the will of the president and the will of Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell and this body to do it.
[Blitzer:] Congressman Joaquin Castro, thanks for joining us.
[Castro:] Thank you.
[Blitzer:] Up next, the Russia probe's congressional Republicans are steering clear of the Trump family finances while Democrats say, follow the money. And as Florida authorities investigate the response to the high school mass shooting, the deputy criticized for criticized for failing to confront the gunman is now speaking out.