[Anderson Cooper, Cnn:] The news continues on this very busy Labor Day. Let's turn things over to Don Lemon and "CNN TONIGHT." And I know, Don, you're going to be covering what it looks like a slow rolling disaster in the Bahamas. That's incredible how long it's been just sitting there.
[Don Lemon, Cnn:] And you know slow rolling is that worse than something that comes through very quickly. Because it just sits there and there's more water and more wind and the longer it stays there's more damage
[Cooper:] Yes.
[Lemon:] and the likelihood of lives being lost.
[Cooper:] Yes. It's, yes, it's unbelievable. And President Trump didn't know it there's a
[Lemon:] Category five.
[Cooper:] category five.
[Lemon:] Maybe he should watch some of the footage from Katrina.
[Cooper:] Or read the briefing.
[Lemon:] Read a briefing. I can't put my finger on it, there's something different about you but I don't know. You look different.
[Cooper:] I haven't shaved. It will be gone by tomorrow. Trust me. Late flight.
[Lemon:] I didn't want to say anything.
[Cooper:] Yes, I know.
[Lemon:] It looks
[Cooper:] Brian [Ph] said I looked like I dipped my chin in sugar or something.
[Lemon:] Yes. I just thought listen, you were the razor broke. Maybe you had a power outage, you know, as you just came through the storm.
[Cooper:] I do. You know, have you ever been on vacation? It's nice not to shave on vacation.
[Lemon:] Yes, I know.
[Cooper:] There's nothing better. And you think maybe I can rock this. And then you realize, no. You can't do it.
[Lemon:] I looked up when I got in the building. I said, what is OK, I'll ask him when I see him. Thanks, Anderson. I'll see you soon.
[Cooper:] All right.
[Lemon:] It is busy, as you said. It looks good. Keep it. Rock it. This is CNN TONIGHT. I'm Don Lemon. And here's our breaking news right now. There are at least five people who are confirmed dead as Hurricane Dorian, a massive category five storm, now it was a five. It slammed the Bahamas and threatens the U.S. with its deadly fury. Prime minister of the Bahamas speaking tonight calling the storm a historic tragedy. And saying this.
[Hubert Minnis, Bahamian Prime Minister:] The initial reports from Abaco is devastation, is unprecedented and extensive. They are deeply worrying. The images and videos we are seeing are heartbreaking.
[Lemon:] They are heartbreaking as Dorian pounds the Bahamas. People are stranded across the islands. That as millions of people across three states in our southeast they are under mandatory evacuation orders right now with watches and warnings from Florida all the way to South Carolina. The hurricane center warning of what could be life threatening storm surges, dangerous hurricane force winds. It's still not clear if, you know, where Dorian might make landfall in the United States. But even if the center of that storm does not hit land, it still threatens to be extremely destructive. As we have been saying all along here, this is a dangerously unpredictable storm. And if you're anywhere in the storm zone or anywhere near it, you got to take this hurricane very, very seriously. No one is out of the woods yet. So, pay close attention to the forecast. Your life could depend on it. We're going to have the very latest throughout the next two hours and all night long here on CNN for you with our correspondents. They're all across the storm zone and they are covering this. And we have every single second for you. You're not going to miss anything. And with Hurricane Dorian threatening, the president who said, you know, he cancelled his trip to Poland to concentrate on the storm. Well, he went golfing on Saturday and then again today at his own Trump national golf course in Virginia, of course. Today's visit the 227th day that he spent at one of his golf clubs since taking the oath of office. Now to be fair, though, he also attended a FEMA briefing on the hurricane yesterday while the storm was still a category five. Saying this.
[Donald Trump, President Of The United States Of America:] I'm not sure I have ever heard of a category five. I knew it existed and I've seen some category four. As you know you don't see them that much. But a category five is something that I don't know that I have even heard the term. Other than I know it's there.
[Lemon:] Never heard of the category five, huh? Well, that is not exactly true. There have been four such storms since this president took office. And he sure heard about those.
[Trump:] It actually hit the Keys with a, it was a category five. I never even knew a category five existed. So, we've never seen it actually touch down as a category five. People have never seen anything like that. But then they got hit dead center. If you look at those maps by a category five, nobody has ever heard of a five hitting land. I've just come from a stop at Tyndall Air Force Base where I saw the devastating effects of that category five hurricane, category five. I've never heard about category five before. Category five is big stuff.
[Lemon:] Come on, people. Never heard of a category five? The president as you might expect also spent a lot of time tweeting this weekend, a lot. Today was an especially busy Twitter day. The president re- tweeting the National Hurricane Center which is fair enough. But also touting the economy, and attacking his political enemies including former FBI director James Comey and the four congresswomen of color known as the squad. That, as Texas and the nation mourn the latest victims of gun violence in this country. Seven people dead. Shot by a stranger with what police describe as an assault weapon. The gunman, Seth Ator, shooting at Texas troopers who pulled him over at a traffic stop Saturday afternoon then randomly gunning down residents and drivers from Midland, Texas to Odessa about 20 miles away. There's no indication that he knew anything at all about any of the people he killed, his targets. But we're learning more about them tonight, the dead, a 15-year-old girl whose identity has not been released; also 40-year-old Joe Griffith; 29-year-old Mary Granados, a postal worker who was on the phone with her sister when she was shot; 25-year-old Edwin Peregrino; 57-year-old Rodolfo Rudy Arco, a grandfather; Kameron Brown, a 30-year-old army veteran; and 35-year- old Raul Garcia. Twenty-three people wounded including a 17-month-old girl, Anderson Davis whose parents say she's expected to make a full recovery. Police say the shooter was fired Saturday morning and made multiple calls to law enforcement. They describe as, quote, "rambling statements" about some of the atrocities that he felt he had gone through, the FBI special agent in charge saying this.
[Christopher Combs, Special Agent In Charge, Fbi:] I want to clear. He showed up to work in a very distressed mental state. So, it's not because he got fired. Right? This did not happen because he was fired which other active shooters have occurred. When he showed up to work, he was already enraged.
[Lemon:] Police confronting the gunman in a movie theater parking lot and killing him in a shootout. So, here we are again, where we have been far, far too many times before in this country, an enraged shooter mowing down strangers, mowing them down at random, at will. And able to do it just because he's got a gun. A gun he was somehow able to get even though he failed a background check. Yet the president said this just yesterday on the White House lawn.
[Trump:] Always you say as bad as it was it could have been worse.
[Lemon:] And this.
[Trump:] This really hasn't changed anything. We're doing a package. And we'll see what it all how it comes about. It's coming about right now. And a lot of people are talking about it. And that's irrespective of what happened yesterday in Texas.
[Lemon:] Well, this president seems to be more interested in telling us what won't work rather than doing something to protect innocent people from the next shooter.
[Trump:] I will say that for the most part sadly, if you look at the last four or five going back even five or six or seven years. For the most part, as strong as you make the background checks, they wouldn't have stopped any of it. So, it's a big problem. It's a mental problem.
[Lemon:] There was a brief ray of hope in the days after the shootings in El Paso and Dayton. Shootings that killed 31 people just last month. At first, the president said he was for background checks.
[Trump:] Well, I'm looking to do background checks. I think background checks are important.
[Lemon:] But it didn't take long to resort to spouting NRA talking points.
[Trump:] We have very, very strong background checks right now. And I have to tell you that it is a mental problem. And I have said it 100 times, it's not the gun that pulls the trigger. It's the person that pulls the trigger. A lot of the people that put me where I am, are strong believers in the Second Amendment. And I am also. And we have to be very careful about that. You know, they call it the slippery slope. And all of a sudden everything gets taken away. We're not going to let that happen.
[Lemon:] So, what is the White House looking to do? The administration putting together a package that would include legislation to expedite the death penalty for people found guilty of mass killings. Which wouldn't have changed a thing in this case since the gunman was killed by police. And that legislation is unlikely to include expanding background checks, where we've been far, far too many times before in this country. The question is do we have the will to do something about it? When will we? A lot to get to tonight including Hurricane Dorian expected to move dangerously close to Florida. Our meteorologist Tom Sater is tracking the storm in a CNN weather center for us. Tom, good evening to you. What is the latest forecast?
[Tom Sater, Cnn Meteorologist:] Well, it looks like it's going to stall for maybe another 12 hours. Don, this thing has moved 1,700 miles getting to a category five, of course, and now, in the last 24 hours, it's only moved half way across Grand Bahama Island. That's 105 miles just to the east of West Palm. I think at its closest destination should be near Cape Canaveral, maybe 40 miles off the coast. But the hurricane-force winds extend outward 45. So that will put it on the coastline. Tropical storm-force winds extend 140. So, we'll definitely going to see that into the peninsula. And then there could still be a landfall in the U.S. That could be into the Carolinas but that's several days away. four to seven-foot surge. Rainfall. We're getting the bands; we may even see a tornado watch by morning for half of Florida. But this little orange line is starting to kind of thin now. Instead of being inland with hurricane winds maybe 20 miles, maybe only 10. But still that's enough that we could see some scattered power outages in the day ahead. We're still waiting for this thing to move northward. But this is what we have been waiting for, Don, as we broaden out. High pressure to the north has been sending this toward Florida. That area of high pressure is now weakening. So, it's not moving at all. But take a look at this little light color here, this little kind of a yellow green. That is a trough that's coming across the Southeastern U.S. And when it gets closer to the storm, that should help lift the storm system
[Lemon:] And push it up.
[Sater:] up to the north.
[Lemon:] Yes.
[Sater:] I mean, we're waiting on that.
[Lemon:] Well, that was my question to you that I've been all weekend I've been watching this. I've been glued to the coverage here. And I've been watching saying, what happens if it doesn't turn north?
[Sater:] Right.
[Lemon:] So, is there a possibility that it doesn't turn north? Because if it doesn't, man, man, Florida is in for it.
[Sater:] Yes. Don, think about this. I mean, 15, 20 years ago if you said we had a category five or four, just 100 miles off the coast of Florida. Everyone would evacuate. But we're relying everything now on numbers and mathematical equations and algorithms. I mean, the National Hurricane Center is busy. They're monitoring five other systems right now. I do believe though these models are correct because it's all about the steering currents right now.
[Lemon:] Got it.
[Sater:] But again, it's been wobbling. It's bad enough to have a category five. But like you said at the beginning of the show with Anderson when they sit like this, utter destruction. I can't believe what we're probably going to see in the days ahead with this just pounding on this curve, the coastline, probably changing the entire coast, mass casualties.
[Lemon:] Yes. My goodness.
[Sater:] Unfortunately. But we're not out of this just yet.
[Lemon:] Tom, I need you to standby. Thank you for that. We'll be getting back to you and the rest of our experts who are out there tracking this hurricane. Millions of people under mandatory evacuation orders from Florida to South Carolina as this deadly monster storm continues to pound the Bahamas. We're going to go there live. That's next.