Transcripts For MSNBCW Andrea Mitchell Reports 20171107

Which should have stopped him from buying a gun. This as investigators learn more about a possible motive. And we hear from the neighbor who chased down the killer. Theyre friends of mine, theyre family. And every time i heard a shot, i knew that probably represented a life. I was scared to death. And virginia is for voters. Its election day. A tight race for a governor in virginia seen as the biggest price in todays offyear elections as Political Parties there brace for the outcome. In fact, this race is very, very close. Every vote will count today. I hope my supporters come down and vote because its going to make a huge difference. Hi, everyone. Im Andrea Mitchell in washington. Tracking President Trump, the diplomat. In south korea today expressing optimism about a negotiated solution to the north korea crisis instead of fire and fury, while here at home the spotlight is on the russia connection and attorney general Jeff Sessions as we learn that a trump volunteer, carter page, did mention plans to travel to moscow during the campaign with a Trump Campaign adviser. Ken delaney, reporter here at home. Chris jansing, first to you. A different tone by President Trump striking about the rhetoric. Reporter how different his tone when hes not being bellicose, and as you know, thats what they wanted to hear when he came here. He has been a strong and consistent voice for diplomacy, so the president has not incited kim jongun. He has not called him little rocket man. He has not talked about total destruction in north korea. He broke with protocol and he met the president s plane at Camp Humphreys when the president went to blue house, which is roughly the equivalent of the white house. There was a lot of pomp and ceremony. He talked about how the president is making progress toward making America Great again. The real test, however, and it is going to be a significant one, is going to come around 9 00 p. M. Eastern time, and that is when President Trump makes that major address before the south korean general assembly. Will we hear more of this moderate tone, or will he be someone who sees diplomacy as appeasement . Will he talk more about how much fire power the United States has here just alone in south korea, 28,500 troops. There is a lot of nervousness on the ground. There was a recent poll in south korea. Twothirds felt that donald trump was dangerous. Theres been quite a few protests. But so far this is the donald trump, certainly, that the president here and the south koreans in general had hoped that they would hear, andrea. What a fascinating trip youre on, our friend chris jansing. And ken delanian, this fallout from carter pages testimony. Well have Jeff Sessions prescheduled testimony next week, but hell be asked again, what about your previous testimony that no one discussed going to russia, you never had conversations about going to russia. Carter page has testified for five hours before the house intel committee. Reporter thats right, andrea. Whats clear now is while carter page portrayed this trip to moscow on july 16 as a personal trip unrelated to the campaign, he testified he cleared it with campaign officials. J. D. Gordon, a trump policy adviser, told us that he tried to block this page trip but that page went around to more senior officials, but he said he got approval from corwin lewandowski, who was the campaign manager, and sam clovis was also notified. As you mentioned, page testified that he was going with Jeff Sessions. While there he met with a deputy Prime Minister and he sent an email to gordon to talk about the insight he had gotten from russians. He was clearly advising donald trump and they were cultivating page as they were another policy adviser who now pleaded guilty and is cooperating with robert mueller, andrea. Ken, lets bring everyone up to date on michael flynn. Were waiting for other shoes to drop. Michael flynn, according to other news reporting, is really under the microscope from robert mueller, that mueller has enough to indict both flynn and his son and colleague michael g. Flynn, and this involves turkey and flynns unreported representation of turkey, correct . Reporter right, andrea. What were reporting is actually slightly different. Were saying mueller has enough evidence to bring charges in the flynn case. Were not trying to be cute there. Obviously both these men are in serious legal jeopardy. Charges are possible against both the father and the son. Its also possible theyre negotiating a Cooperation Agreement and thats why we havent seen charges yet. But youre right, whats also new here is that the fbi and mueller are looking into flynns lobbying on behalf of the government of turkey and what he did in the white house as National Security adviser to potentially facilitate the extradition of that turkish leader and the result of that attempted coup. Thats why were interested in that, andrea. Joining me now, ambassador Wendy Sherman for Political Affairs in john kerrys state department. She was also in the clinton state department. And victor cha for george bushs adviser. Welcome, both. Wendy, you worked for Hillary Clintons state department in a previous life from what were seeing now. The diplomacy was really shut down by the president s tweets against his secretary of state. Yes, i think weve all noticed the more moderate language in seoul. I think there are several audiences here. Of course, he wants a decent trip, he wants good press reports as hes getting. Hes also speaking to china which is the next stop on this trip and a fulcrum to this trip to say to the chinese, im going to be open to dialogue but i really want you to tighten the screws on north korea. I want to you join Prime Minister abe of japan and me, and now the president of south korea who actually campaigned on dialogue, not tough talk, but has been drawn into the tough talk to try to get everybody on board. And then hes also speaking to Vladimir Putin who he will meet in vietnam on the margins of apec to say, russia, youve got to get on board. If this is all part of a comprehensive strategy, this is a good thing to do. I was in moscow about two weeks ago at a nonproliferation conference. Madam chay, who often represents North Koreans out of the country often has tough talk, but it sounded like she was setting up a negotiation. Would that be possible, mr. Cha, after the president has called kim jongun rocket man leading to kim jongun going on camera, the first time, his grandfather and father didnt do that to respond to that speech from President Trump. The first thing i would say is the North Koreans are used to bellicosity, so when they hear forceful language, i think thats something they understand. Diplomacy is always an option. Its been set forth by this administration as something theyre willing to do if the North Koreans are willing to talk about denuclearization. The key piece, as wendy said, is the sanctions piece, and hes got japan and korea on board for sanctions, but the harder one is china. That is why the china part of this trip becomes very important. Hes leading with this issue of going into beijing. Its clearly the number one issue for President Trump, going to beijing. Does president xi, now that hes come through his partys congress which is their domestic politics, does he have so much power now that he can afford to take some risks domestically and be more assertive against north korea . He has enormous power. He is very much a strong man in his own country, and china is a country that believes in success and failure, strength and weakness. They really dont much care about good and evil or what is right and wrong. Theyre about seeing whether, in fact, they can get to success. They are really going to challenge, i think, the president for power. They want an equal seat at the table. The days of q2 that we used to talk about may be behind them, but china sees itself as a power equal to the United States. The president is going to have his work cut out for him. And victor, wendy and i were in pyongyang in october of 2000 when we thought there was going to be an opening of diplomatic relations. George w. Bush reversed that policy to south koreas surprise and certainly to the surprise of his own secretary of state at the time, colin powell. What is the possibility you a and i were there in 2006, i believe. Yeah. What is the possibility of china looking for a way out of this escalating crisis . I think its difficult, because if you listen to everything the North Koreans say, it sounds like theyre not willing to give up their Nuclear Weapons for anything. At the same time, though, gas prices have gone up in north korea year on year by 90 . Rice prices are up by 60 . This is all a function of the sanctions that have been put on the north korea regime. Not just by the United States and south korea, but china and all the u. N. Member states now are participating in, what, seven u. N. Security Council Resolutions on north korea. Every time weve negotiated with the North Koreans, theyve said, were not willing to give up x, y and z, but they do come to the table. So well have to see if this pressure will have the effect that it can in terms of setting up a negotiation. Pivoting to another part of the world, and its a world you know so well, wendy, iran. The saudis have now said what happened with a missile that was headed towards rihad was actually an act of war from iran. They claim the parts came from iran. We havent confirmed that with u. S. Intelligence that we know of. This is all a mystery coming out of the saudis. The Saudi Crown Prince has taken control. Hes arrested his cousins, the other princes. Theyre arrested in the ritzcarlton in rihad and this includes the prince who is a huge investor in apple and lyft and citigroup, known as the Warren Buffett of the saudis. It could not get more complicated. Plus the Prime Minister of lebanon resigned on saudi soil. Is he a prisoner of the saudis . This is all against iran, correct . Right, its all about iran. Every piece of it, including the war in yemen. The crown prince, who really is in control, is, yes, taking steps towards corruption in saudi arabia which has a very long and wide and broad history. He is also asserting his power in the region and setting up a monoamono against iran. He has to be careful here. There has been a consensus building in saudi arabia to take power in this way, to shut everybody down. You have to be careful not to go over your skis, and where yemen is concerned, there is a hue man taer crisis in yemen. So although theyve closed down all sea, Land Transport to yemen, i hope he finds where the world is trying to go here, and whether hes trying to draw the United States into a war with iran. We saw nikki haley, the u. N. Ambassador, say this is an iranian missile, although i dont know that we have proof of that. He definitely has support on twitter from the president of the United States and Jared Kushner who was just in rihad a week and a half ago. A lot to chew on. Thank you very much. Wendy sherman, great to see you, and victor cha. Its election day in west virginia. National implications for both parties. We are expecting an update from texas in the investigation on the horrible shooting. Youre watching Andrea Mitchell reports on msnbc. Only invisalign® clear aligners are made with smarttrack® material to precisely move your teeth to your best smile. See how invisalign® treatment can shape your smile up to 50 faster today at invisalign. Com the markets change. At t. Rowe price. Our disciplined approach remains. Global markets may be uncertain. But you can feel confident in our investment experience around the world. Call us or your advisor. T. Rowe price. Invest with confidence. When i became chair when i figured out, why cant i spend money . Why cant i go out and make some other strategic investments, and with this memo, i could not. I told bernie at the convention that i would get to the bottom of it, and i found no instances that the party rigged the process, and i wanted to make sure bernie and his supporters understood. Well, former chair of the Democratic Party, donna brazil, today saying the primaries were not rigged going back to the claims that clinton took over the role of the dnc before clinton clinched the nomination. Joining me now, jeff weaver, Senior Adviser to Bernie Sanders, and i should say, virginia resident. Have you voted, sir . I just did on my way over. Hopefully Ralph Northam will go over in the democratic ticket. You are a democrat . I am a democrat. I know Bernie Sanders has said hes not a democrat, hes an independent or a nationalist or he is a democrat. Donna brazil says it was no longer stacked against Bernie Sanders, as i understand it, but there was a disagreement. And in fact in her book she said clinton took de facto control before the nomination. You covered this race quite closely in 2016 i certainly knew the debate schedule was stacked against Bernie Sanders. No doubt about that. The Fund Agreement worked in a way against us. Youll remember the whole data debate which was so controversial. But look, what we have to figure out now is how to make sure this never happens again, how we put reform in the process so its fair, super fair. Opening up primaries and making reforms for the party to make it stronger. The new chair has told chuck todd on meet the press that he is going to change things and make things known to the press beforehand. There was this committee that i serve that has clinton appointees, dnc appointees. There are going to be votes on this commission and its going to the full dnc, and i hope tom perez and other leaders in the Democratic Party will support that. In terms of the debates, the truth of the matter is, as you know, more debates benefit some candidates, less debates benefits others. Maybe the dnc shouldnt be in the debate business at all. Maybe the media and the candidate should just work out a debate schedule. Something else donna brazil said that was so controversial, toward the end of the election when Hillary Clinton was having medical issues, she was considering joe biden. First of all, she couldnt remove a candidate, other people have to weigh in. But why joe biden . He got 43 of the delegates, 43 of the popular votes in that election. It was obviously a hardfought campaign. Obviously secretary clinton was fine with some dramatic video do you think she should have been removed . Absolutely not. Hillary clinton was fine. Weve seen other people with rigorous schedules, a u. S. President vomiting on a japanese official. These things happen. What she has written in the book has certainly reopened deep divisions in the party. How does the party come together . Donald trump, for all of his presumed failures, for his poll problems, he still has solid support from former democrats who were trump voters, according to a lot of analysis from the road. So theres a couple things here. First of all, i think we have to make these Structural Reforms not only to the nominating process but how the party operates, and i think the democrats have to work on putting out a broader agenda. You have to hold out an alternative thats going to lift up peoples families with a bold progressive, economic message. I dont think theyve been effective up to this point in ar particular lag articulating that. What weve seen is a discord and they havent been able to push forward their agenda, and that has not been positive for the country. Thank you. We will speak to donna brazil about all of this. You wont want to miss it. President trump toning down his rhetoric against north korea, urging the rogue regime to come to the table and make a deal. Joining us now is kay hutchinson. Shes a former leader in texas, of course. Thank you, ambassador, for joining us from nato headquarters in brussels. First, to ask you about north korea thank you. This is a different tone than we saw in the president s United Nations speech. From your perspective, is there a chance at dialogue which is what secretary mattis and secretary tillerson have called for, some other kind of approach before we consider Diplomatic Options . Absolutely there is. I think everyone is united on that point, that we want dialogue, we want all the help we can get from countries that have a relationship with north korea. I think that the whole administration led by the president is heading in the direction of using every avenue we possibly can to avoid a confrontation. How damaging is it when the president of the United States tweets about the secretary of state when hes just coming back from the region. I told rex tillerson, our wonderful secretary of state, hes wasting his time trying to negotiate with little rocket man. Save your energy, rex. Well do what has to be done. Well, andrea, i think that secretary tillerson is in there, hes with the president right now. I think that they are working toward a solution to this that is not a confrontation. And i think that whatever the strategies are and how they are playing this is all part of getting to the goal of denuclearizing north korea without a confrontation that harms any of our country, any of our satellites, and most certainly south korea and japan. Quick question on afghanistan. There is a new report out that the taliban have taken more and more control, a report from the Inspector General for afghanistan. What can nato do to push back against this rise of taliban control . Yes, andrea, i think that the taliban has had a resurgence, and we expected that when we announced our new strategy saying we are not going to followfold, we are going to see this through to the end. And i think the new strategy has a real chance for success. Its not going to be immediate. Its going to be showing the taliban that we are not going to leave and making sure that we continue to help build the afghans so that they can fight for themselves, and they now have around 300,000 in their armed forces. And when i was in afghanistan with secretary mattis just three weeks ago, our soldiers in the field said that the afghan fighters are good and they are fighting for their country. And i think if we stick with regionalizati regionalization, conditionsbased strategy that we will have a chance to succeed if we are patient and determined, which i believe nato and the United States working together definitely are. Well, ambassador, its very good to see you. Kay Bailey Hutchinson from nato headquarters. Thank you for being with us today. Any minute were going to be getting an update on the investigation into sundays shooting at a texas church. Stay with us right here. Youre watching Andrea Mitchell reports on msnbc. Throughout my career, ive been fortunate enough to travel to many interesting places. Ive always wanted to create those experiences for others. With my advisors help along the way, its finally my turn to be the host. When you have the right financial advisor, life can be brilliant. Ameriprise afi sure had a lot on my mind. My 30year marriage. My 3month old business. Plus. What if this happened again . I was given warfarin in the hospital, but wondered, was this the best treatment for me . So i made a point to talk to my doctor. He told me about eliquis. Eliquis treats dvt and pe blood clots and reduces the risk of them happening again. Not only does eliquis treat dvt and pe blood clots. Eliquis also had significantly less major bleeding than the standard treatment. Eliquis had both. And that turned around my thinking. Dont stop eliquis unless your doctor tells you to. Eliquis can cause serious and in rare cases fatal bleeding. Dont take eliquis if you have an artificial heart valve or abnormal bleeding. If you had a spinal injection while on eliquis call your doctor right away if you have tingling, numbness, or muscle weakness. While taking eliquis, you may bruise more easily. And it may take longer than usual for bleeding to stop. Seek immediate medical care for sudden signs of bleeding, like unusual bruising. Eliquis may increase your bleeding risk if you take certain medicines. Tell your doctor about all planned medical or dental procedures. Eliquis treats dvt and pe blood clots. Plus had less major bleeding. Both made eliquis right for me. Ask your doctor if switching to eliquis is right for you. And we have breaking news in texas where there is going to be a briefing. Pete williams joining us now from the bureau and nbcs mary ann atenzio in texas. First is the abase not warning s of his history of domestic violence, which would have kept him from obtaining a gun . Its broader than that, andrea, and thats where the military will have to step up here. I guess the news is about to start . Yes, pete. Well come to you on the other side. The conflict between these two families. Were only 48 hours into this investigation. Interviews are ongoing and things that we release in these press conferences could affect future interviews. In addition to that, we have the suspects cell phone. We have executed a search warrant on that cell phone and that cell phone has been turned over to the fbi for analysis. Fbis special agent in charge, chris combs, is here, and here shortly hes going to discuss that. Another thing were not going to discuss today is the names of the victims inside the church. We believe we have everyone properly identified and we have notified all the next of kin. However, the medical Examiners Office is confirming our findings and they will give us permission to release those names, and we hope to have that later today or tomorrow at the latest. And the last thing were not prepared to discuss is the suspect in his release from the air force. We would refer all those questions back to the air force. With that, first up is going to be special agent in charge of atf, fred malinowsky, and he has an update on the firearms. Good morning, everyone. Two updates from the atf. One is, as far as the rifle goes, atf firearms expert examined that rifle yesterday. All indications are that that is not a fully automatic weapon, that is a semiautomatic weapon. We will not be 100 sure until we actually test fire it, but all indications now are its a semiautomatic weapon. I want to clear that up because thats been reported a couple different ways in the media. The second thing is atf agents have acquired shell casings from the scene. Those shell casings will be admitted into atfs National Integrated ballistic identification network, and that will help us determine if that rifle was used in any other shootings. Thank you very much. Ill answer any questions at the end. Thank you. Good morning, everybody. Im christopher combs, the fbi in texas. They are in the process of looking at the phone. Unfortunately, at this point in time, we are unable to get into that phone. It highlights an issue you all have heard about before. With the advancement of the phones and technology and encryptions, Law Enforcement at the state or federal level is increasingly not able to get into these phones. Im not going to describe what phone it is, because i dont want to tell every bad guy out there what phone to buy to harass our efforts on trying to find justice here. I can assure you that were working very hard to get into the phone, and that will continue until we find an answer. I dont know how long thats going to be, to be quite honest with you. It could be tomorrow, it could be a week, it could be a month. We just dont know yet. Were going to keep working on that phone and the other Digital Media that we have, and we can turn that over to the rangers. Thank you. Obviously this is a massive crime scene, and we have the best of the best processing this crime scene. Its a long process. Like i said, were only 48 hours into this. The Texas Rangers and fbi Evidence Recovery Team have worked day and night, and today the Incident Commander for the Texas Rangers, cory lane, is here to speak. Good morning. Again, my name is cory lane. Im company f commander in charge of this crime scene pr processing. I just want to go over resources we have dedicated now. Namely the work force personnel thats looking into this crime scene. We have 136 officers dedicated into the crime scene or that mission. 136 are the best of the best rangers that we have. Theyre part of our Crime Scene Investigation team. They dont get on that team by accident. They have to show two things, which is talent and drive to be a part of a crime scene and interest in Crime Scene Investigation. The team leads of that Investigative Team have all graduated the National Forensic academy in tennessee, and thats on top of their threeweek basic Crime Scene Investigation training that they receive, that every ranger receives from the department of public safety. These rangers also continually attend advanced Crime Scene Investigation courses to stay ahead of the curve on any updates or advances in Crime Scene Investigation. Like the director said, were 48 hours into this, and these men and women who are dedicated to processing such complex and massive scene have worked tirelessly and is nothing short of inspiring. Thats all i got. Aubrey lewis is the District Attorney for the 81st judicial district. Even though the suspect is deceased in this case, she has been out here every day working with the community and working with our Victim Services from all agencies, including the department of public safety, and shes here to give a brief. Good morning. Weve had an outpouring from around the world of people concerned with the burdens that these families have with funeral expenses. And i want to give you a little bit of peace of mind to understand that the Attorney Generals Office has victim specialists, along with fbi Victim Services, dps and our office that are working with these families one on one, and we have the Attorney Generals Office here because they have Crime Victims Compensation Fund that they are in charge of. That fund releases money for the victims families, including funeral expenses. Those funeral expenses, the amount of funding for each victim is 6,500. We believe thats going to be sufficient funeral costs for the victims families, so they will not be burdened with that financial portion of their loss, and they can concentrate on trying to grieve and process what else is going on in their world at this time. In addition to that, there has been a company that has come forward and agreed to donate the caskets to all of the victims. We are grateful for that person and their service to our community and their heart in being willing to donate that. So the person who is concerned about the initial burden these families have, as we all are, we have a compensation Crime Victims Fund that is being used for that, and we are ensuring the victims are not burdened with that expense. So thank you very much. With that i have a few questions that were submitted by the media that we will answer, and then well open it up to question and answers. The first one was, why was the concealed license denied for the suspect . All i can tell you is he did not have a concealed hanging license. When will the church reopen . As for the church reopening, thats a question for someone else. We hope to finish all the Crime Scene Investigation by tomorrow night, and then that will be turned back over to the local officials. For any other persons involved, we have no information that anybody else was involved in this crime. There was some question about the pregnant female inside the church. Again, shes one of the victims inside the church and were not prepared to release any information regarding the victims inside the church until we get confirmation from the medical Examiners Office. There was a question regarding domestic terrorism. By definition we have no reason to believe that this crime was politically motivated or motivated based on religious beliefs. We have no reason to believe that. There was questions regarding the suspects motherinlaw. She was not in the church. She does attend this church, but we know on sunday when this crime occurred, she was not in church. Beyond that, there was some questions regarding the weapons purchased. I believe those were answered. Some questions regarding search warrants. We are executing search warrants such as the evidentiary search warrant on the cell phone. With that well open it up to questions. [ inaudible question ] do ininvestigaters believe they have a handle on this . We believe we have some idea of the conflict in the family, the timing. As i said, its only 48 hours into this. [ inaudible question ] thats we have databases that we check. Tcnc, icnc but can you explain the rationale between i can tell you what is required. There was nothing in our databases that precluded him from obtaining a firearm. To restruconstruct it, what did the first shot happen . How many shots . I cant tell you that at this time. When the first call came in, the Sheriffs Office arrived in four minutes. Four minutes is a long time during an active shooter situation. What is the status of his exwife, the killers exwife and his stepchild . I dont have that information. Are they okay . Yes. [ inaudible question ] i dont know about the vetting, but we can only speculate. We dont know what he was thinking, what was in his mind and what his future plans were, but, you know, this is a situation where i wouldnt be willing to take that risk. In my opinion, i said the other day that mr. Wilerford, i believe hes a hero. I saw a clip of an interview with him, and how can you not love that guy . That guy did what he had done, and what if there had been more deaths . Its all speculation. Do you believe he prevented the gunman from shooting more by getting his weapon . I dont know. [ inaudible question ] i dont have that information. Was the entire congregation either injured or killed during the shooting . We believe the congregation at this church is roughly just over 50. We know how many were deceased and how many were shot. There were very few that were here that were uninjured. [ inaudible question ] i dont have that information. Is it possible . I would refer that to atf. A couple things. 15 clips, 30 rounds in a clip, its impossible to shoot that many. The first part of the investigation, we will not release that. There is no evidence of a bump stock being used. Is it possible he fired 450 rounds . Part of the investigation, that is not going to get released publicly. Im assuming they were all full. What was talked about yesterday was the magazines at the scene were empty. So i dont believe there was a number put out. Were just not going to put that information out as part of the investigation. Do you have any information. [ inaudible question ] im sorry, i couldnt hear you. Do you have any evidence when he began to plan this shooting . We do not at this time. To answer your questions, we have no information that he was shooting from a rooftop. We dont have any facts to support that. Were the fact finders and weve been collecting the facts over the weekend. [ inaudible question ] he changed position. He walked, he moved. As far as the magazines, theyre 30roundcapacity magazines. How many rounds he actually had in those magazines, a lot of the trajectory work is being answered this morning, so we cant answer that. Do you know if he planned this a week ago . What was the timeline . Well know more when we can explore his phone. [ inaudible question ] the vehicle has already been processed and secured. As far as his home, i believe those have already been conducted. Whether they were consensual searches or search warrants, i cant answer to that. Based on the interviews youve done, has there been any indication that the shooter made a targeted threat toward this church or gun violence in general . Again, that gets to the investigation. We know there was conflict. He was upset with the motherinlaw. Beyond that, i cant comment. I know that you investigate when people give tips, things like that. Was he at any time on the radar for the fbi . He is not in any fbi database. Weve not had any investigations on him previous to this point. [ inaudible question ] so i could tell you at this time, were still working on it. We have partners that we work with on these things. I think it goes to complexity and how hard the problem is and how long its going to take. But we will get into that phone. So everyone knows that an iphone is one of the phones thats hard to get into . Is it an iphone . Im not going to talk about what kind of phone because i dont want to encourage bad people to buy it. Youre concerned about soft targets. The sheriff in Williamson County is making a seminar available for church to see talk about security. Are we at that point . So ive done a lot on active shoor shooters through the years. You look at the numbers, the numbers are on the rise. I think everybody, no matter where you are, needs to think about this. If youre in a school, if you go to college, if youre in the movies, we should all think about what are we going to do if a crisis breaks out right here. There are a lot of programs out there. The fbi supports programs. We teach Law Enforcement. Therefore private Community Programs out there, but i think we ought to think very hard about this and make sure were prepared. Just like schools do fire drills, because we used to kill a lot of children in fires back in the early 1900s. I think we ought to take active shoor shooters very seriously and do everything we can to prepare for that. [ inaudible question ] thats not my discipline, im sorry. [ inaudible question ] were working in partnership with all of the local Funeral Homes to ensure that our victims are not out of pocket and are not burdened by the cost of the funerals. So that is our hope, is that the Funeral Homes will work with the victims to make sure that it does not go above that cost. I cant promise that to them at this point, but we are working in partnership with the Funeral Homes. Theyre aware of the situation, and they dont want to revictimize our victims as well. [ inaudible question ] that same crime Victims Compensation is the same for victims who have medical expenses and things like that. They will work with the Attorney Generals Office, our office, fbi, dps to ensure that they go through the process to have that compensated as well. Does the decease count include the unborn child . It does. Does the death toll include any unborn children . Yes. When does the funeral begin . I do not know. [ inaudible question ] just one. Has this happened before . Is this a problem from the military, air force . Have you had this issue come up from other agencies . Unfortunately, this has happened in the past from a number of agencies. Nothing is perfect. I would refer you to a press release that our headquarters put out from our segis edition that handles the checks. It talks about the process and how its addressed. Do you think if he had an issue with his motherinlaw, he wouldnt have come here and killed so many people. Are there not that im aware of. Do we have a time line as far as when did he start shooting . I mean, did he start shooting from outside of the chapel or it started when he walked into the chapel . Dont have an exact time. He arrived. He was staying at the valero. We know he went to the church. He exited. He fired into the front of the church. He moved to the side of the church. Continued to fire. Then he entered the church and continued to fire. But as far as the exact time, i think, you know, with the 911 calls, we can tell you the first call that came in and with our good samaritan, of course, he was there. We know when the call came in. Within four minutes, the Wilson County Sheriffs Office arrived on scene. As far as the first shot, i cant answer. Is that the one he used to call his father i believe so, yes. One last question. How many victims still in Critical Condition . We have ten that remain in Critical Condition. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for coming out this afternoon. Well keep you updated through the dps twitter as well as through our email please. As you just heard, the officials saying they will not go into motive, that there was a family dispute and they are having difficulty getting into his phone which has been brought to quantico. Lets bring back in justice correspondent pete williams. Pete, the phone, we had that issue with San Bernardino, that is the encryption problem that the Law Enforcement officials have been complaining about. They dont know the password and they try to guess it and if they guess it wrong too many times, they can never get into the phone. There are hundreds of phones like that they cant open that theyve sent to the fbi. This remains a problem even though the fbi did figure out how to get into the San Bernardino phone. Theres no universal answer to this. So it continues to be a big deal. The other thing i thought was interesting is the atf said the gun was not firing fully automatically. It was one round per trigger pull. On the number, they had said there were 15 30 round magazines. If they were all full that means that kelly could have fired as many as 450 shots but of course we dont know how many rounds were in the magazines when he brought them in, but that would be the maximum. And mariana, the victims, obviously, the tragedy is so enormous, but what we heard there is theyre going to get help for funeral expenses. But we dont know anything further about how people are coping. This has left this community, andrea, this town, in a standstill. Well take the case of the holcomb family. A family that had intergenerational gaps after this shooting. Joe and his wife lost children. They lost grandchildren. And they lost greatgrandchildren. Their granddaughter in law crystal holcomb, she was pregnant, she died inside this church behind me. Not only her and her unborn child, but three of her children. And today, during this press conference, we learned that her unborn child is included in that count of 26 dead here at the First Baptist church in southern springs, texas. So news out of that press conference is 25 and an unborn child or a fetus, if you will. So again, if you just take the case of that family, put it into perspective in a town of about 600, it just really brings it home, andrea. Mariana and pete williams, thank you both so much. Turning now back to politics. Its of course the hottest race in the country, virginia. Pitting former Republican National party ed gillespie against the states Lieutenant Governor Ralph Northam. Viewed as a major test of where donald trump stands in a swing state one year into his presidency. Joining me, house senator and political analyst for the cook political report. And michael steel, msnbc political analyst. David, first to you, what are you hearing, turnout, Northern Virginia . We dont know how to read it of course. Democrats have a right to be nervous because this race is tighter than the states democratic trend line would suggest. Gill helps yip does have real support that trump and ken kuch nelly four years ago did not have in Northern Virginia. If you look at the history of offyear elections in the state, polling has tended to underestimate republican support. In 09, mcdonald went into election day with a 13point lead, won by 18. Mcauliffe in 2013 was ahead by 7, wins by 2 1 2. In 14, mark warner for senate wins by one. Today Ralph Northam and the final polling average is ahead by three. I still think trumps unpopularity is enough to get him the finish but not by much. And michael, are you comfortable with the kind of campaign that one of your former colleagues ed gillespie, another former national chair, has run . Hes been criticized by terry mcauliffe, obviously has a dog in this hunt. Lets play a little bit of terry mcauliffe, the governor of virginia and obviously a democrat. Ed, you know, hes run the most hateful divisive bigoted campaign ive ever seen in virginia history. This is a whole attack by ed gillespie to take this campaign into the gutter. Gillespies not been available for interviews. Until today with our msnbcs garrett haake. A lot of that is hype personally. Thats not been the entire campaign. But its been the television ads. Last couple of ads and the last few weeks. But no one seems to be talking about what the democrats are putting out, showing ed and donald trump in a picture at a supposed kkk rally so the crazy on both side is unacceptable, theres no doubt about that. But ive been on the ground in virginia for ed and with ed. And i can tell you to the point just made that there is a lot more energy there for ed, despite all of this ugliness that has appeared in the last few weeks of this campaign. That now is going to translate into turnout and thats the real test. Maybe because of all the ugliness. Garrett haake was with gillespie today and asked him about it. Are you comfortable with the campaign that you have run . You talk about running for all virginians. Are you comfortable with those ads in particular, havent sent signals to certain elements in the party . The statutes became an issue when my opponent came out for taking them all down and removing every civil war statue. The vast majority of virginians dont agree. The vast majority agree with me. We should keep the statues up and add historical context. Ms13 is a concern. The people most vick timized are in the immigrant community themselves. And ive had so many of my latino friends and supporters say thank you, we dont want them here. How much is race, ethnicity, the statutes, charlottesville, a factor . Trump is not popular in virginia but some of his policies are more popular. Ed gillespie win or lose i think has created a blueprint for other senators in swing states because hes probably going to beat the point spread here. Hes done that by embracing trumps issues without embracing trump himself. You saw mcauliffe. Ralph northam has not been nearly that aggressive in calling trump out. Right. If you talk to democrats, thats just not his style. He wants to run as a pragmatist. But that runs the risk of failing to excite a lot of the base. That are looking to feed off of that about trump for example. Michael, have you been involved in trying to suppress the minority vote for northam . Absolutely not, i encourage everyone to vote. What ive been involved with is raising the question about how the Northam Campaign and several of the unions sort of forgot to put the black candidate for Lieutenant Governor on their flyers in some parts of the state while they put his face on other parts of the state. Thats the kind of political crap that happens a lot. And myself and j. C. Watts want to call it out. In terms of suppressing the vote, nope, not at all. Everybody needs to get up, go out and vote today. And of course donald trump is nowhere to be seen on any of the literature. The green and White Campaign ads of ed gillespie, youd never know he was a republican. Youd never know theres a republican president. Yeah, you wouldnt know that Ralph Northams necessarily that partisan and democrat either. Look, the governors race is going to be driven by personality tonight. What im watching is a harbinger of 2018 is actually all seats in the house are up for grabs and i think thats a test of how voters feel about the parties. If democrats pick up ten or more in the house of delegates i think that would be a sign theyre on pace to pick up the house in 18. Theres more democrats running this time. Michael steele, thank you. That does it for this very busy edition of Andrea Mitchell reports. Tomorrow, former secretary of state madeleine albright. Remember, follow us online mitchellreports. Fascinating conversation about virginia. Were going to continue it in this hour. Also in the 2 00 p. M. Hour. Thank you very much, andrea. Good afternoon from msnbc headquarters in new york. Im catty tur in for craig melvin. There are a lot of stories were following at this the hour including deadly mistake. The pentagon is investigating a major error by the air force that allowed the gunman in the Church Shooting to buy a rifle. Were learning new details about the shooters motives. And trump versus obama. All eyes on the virginia governors race that pits a republican candidate who sounds a lot like President Trump against a democrat that former president barack obama hit the campaign trail with to support. Well find out today whose message resonates more. And army of spies. A bombshell new yorker report said disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein hired private investigators to dig up dirt on his accusers and track journalists. The lengths they went to to stop