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Erin Burnett Outfront
Tom Brady's Live Comments Just Moments Away, Police Chief: Welcome Investigation of Department with Open Arms. Aired 7-8:00p ET
Aired May 07, 2015 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[19:00:09] ERIN BURNETT, CNN ANCHOR: OUTFRONT tonight, breaking news, Tom Brady fights back. The star quarterback speaking out live this hour. It is his first appearance since the blistering NFL report suggests he cheated his way to a Super Bowl victory. We're going to have all that live right here OUTFRONT.
Plus, was Freddie Gray's death a murder? New questions tonight about the case of the six Baltimore police officers charged in his death.
And breaking news, shocking results from the election in England. It's the most unpredictable race in decades. Let's go OUTFRONT.
Good evening, I'm Erin Burnett and we begin OUTFRONT tonight with the breaking news. Tom Brady is firing back. The New England Patriots superstar quarterback will speak live just moments from now. This is where he's going to be speaking, a live picture of Salem State University in Massachusetts. It's his first public appearance since a damning NFL report concluded that Brady likely knew game balls were deliberately deflated to his advantage. The NFL report says, this happened in multiple games. As we await Brady's live remarks, here he is just moments ago. He arrived at the university via helicopter.
With his legacy on the line, Brady is speaking tonight at this Massachusetts College. It is just 15 miles north of Boston. These are pictures just in from Salem University. This gives Brady the home field advantage to answer the charges that he was quote, "generally aware the footballs were deflated." His agent today released a statement slamming the NFL report, the charges first surfaced in January. This was right after Brady's New England Patriots won the game that got them into the Super Bowl and ever since Brady had repeated and repeated and repeated that he's innocent.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TOM BRADY, NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS QUARTERBACK: I mean I feel like I've always played within the rules. I would never do anything to break the rules.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Brady scheduled to speak in just a few moments. We're standing by to bring you that live as it happens.
Deborah Feyerick is OUTFRONT tonight. She's there in Salem, Massachusetts. And Deb, what can we expect?
DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, here's what we can expect. We expect a lot of very happy fans who are eager to see Tom Brady. We can see they're wearing to get in, they're wearing Brady t-shirts. I spoke to a couple of them. One of them says, you know, look, the report was waited towards the NFL but they still have a lot of faith in Tom Brady. This event was sold out the day the tickets went on sale. So, these people are all expected to be here. Tom Brady is going to get several questions. Some of them may relate to deflate gate but the majority may not. We have that 10 minutes, we're going to be able to hear what he has to say and whether he decides to sort of take the bull by the horns and address all the questions that so many people have about this report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FEYERICK (voice-over): New England Patriots star quarterback Tom Brady firing a bullet back at cheating allegations. His agent charging that the deflate gate report has significant and tragic flaws that suggests investigators reached a conclusion first and then determined so-called facts later. Brady first responded to charges that footballs were deflated to his benefit a few days after winning the AFC championship game back in January.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Is Tom Brady a cheater?
BRADY: I don't believe so.
I didn't alter the ball in any way.
FEYERICK: But the NFL's 243 page report lays out a string of circumstantial evidence against Brady concluding that he was at least generally aware that the game balls were deliberately deflated. Much of the evidence centers on two Patriots employees, an equipment man John Jastremski and locker room attendant Jim McNally who referred to himself as the deflator. Damning text messages between the two started months earlier, including the jokes about the expected pay back for handling the footballs. Quote, "I have a big needle for you this week," Jastremski wrote before one 2014 game. McNally responded, "better be surrounded by cash and new kicks or it's a Rugby Sunday. F, Tom."
The two texted frequently about needles and Tom's preference for a softer fastball. Then there's this text exchange between the two. Brady, "you good Johnny boy?" The equipment man answering, "still nervous, so far so good though. I'll be alright." Brady, "you didn't do anything wrong, bud." Surveillance video showed McNally just before the play-off game against the coach going to a rest room near the field entrance with game balls, gone for just one minute 40 seconds, enough time to let the air out, investigators say. And while Brady denied knowing McNally's names or duties, the report states that McNally told NFL security he had been personally told by Brady of Brady's inflation level preference.
Then there's this, despite not having spoken by phone in sixth months, investigators found in the three days after the play-off game the star quarterback and his team's assistant equipment manager suddenly exchanged six phone calls, speaking to each other for a total of almost an hour.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
[19:05:26] FEYERICK: And Tom Brady never handed over any of his texts, any of his electronic communications. So people are wondering why. But keep in mind, all these people you showed up here, they're showing up to celebrate Tom Brady. They were intended oncoming. The deflate gate report total coincidence that it happens to be now, the day that he's scheduled to speak. Whether he answers any questions about that, well, one man said, where's your spirit, where's your spirit Brady, Brady, Brady? The fans here loved him -- Erin.
BURNETT: All right. Deb Feyerick, thank you very much. Something though very important. I mean, you're talking about the most well-known player in the sport, you're talking about a Super Bowl, something watched around the world.
OUTFRONT now, nine-year NFL veteran Coy Wire and "USA Today" NFL columnist Jarrett Bell. Also with me is Providence Journal Reporter Mark Daniels, he covers the Patriots. He's on the phone because he's actually inside that event tonight, going to be, you know, sitting there Mark, you're going to be listening as Tom Brady goes up to that podium and we all hope, we all expect, we'll probably address this issue. It's a sold-out crowd. It's 15 miles from Boston. Obviously, you're in the midst to Patriots country, what's the mood there where you are?
MARK DANIELS, REPORTERS ON PATRIOTS FOR PROVIDENCE JOURNAL (on the phone): I would say right now we've got about 4,000 anxious fans. People would be excited either way to sea Tom Brady. But with the recent deflate gate allegations and everything that's been going on, I think people are a little nervous right now. It will certainly be interesting to see what Tom Brady has to say. I think it helps that he'll be talking with Jim Gray, someone who he's very familiar with and someone who meets with Tom every week.
BURNETT: And how do you expect this will go down, Mark? Do you think he will, I mean, obviously these questions he's getting are vetted, but they may choose to address this right off the top, right? This is his first opportunity to weigh in on an issue that everybody is watching.
DANIELS: Exactly. And you know, I think it makes sense to get out in front of this now. And this is kind of the perfect opportunity. The media here, we won't be allowed to ask Tom Brady any questions. So, you know, whatever comment he wants to say, no one will have anything to ask him back. It's kind of a relaxing atmosphere. Where, you know, what, however he wants do this, he can do it. And I think that's kind of a perfect situation for him.
BURNETT: Yes. Certainly he'll be lulled into a sense of security. Those pictures of his arrival, you can see the officials there from that university even looking up at him with sort of a sense of adulation. Coy, you played for the NFL for nine years. What do you expect Tom Brady will say?
COY WIRE, NINE-YEAR NFL VETERAN: Well we only get ten minutes, Erin, as we know and then they're going to cut off that live stream. So, will he say something within those first ten minutes? And what I want to know, is he going to simply regurgitate the statement from his agent Don Yee which doesn't really say all that much different from what Robert Kraft, the owner came out and said earlier or is he going to say something out standing, commanding and offer an intriguing interpretation of what actually happened so he can tell us what he saw, when he saw it. Because the thing that stood out to me most from the statement in Don Yee, his agent Erin was that he said he was physically present for Tom Brady's interview and verbatim he has notes of the interview and he said, for reasons unknown the Wells report omitted nearly all of Tom's testimony, most of which was critical." Well, if you have those notes, why haven't we seen them yet? If you have them verbatim work for work, and they can possibly get your quarterback and Tom Brady off the hook, why not we have seen those notes. There was a reason they were omitted -- Erin.
BURNETT: That's a really good point. I mean, and Jarrett, you know, he's going to be speaking in just a few minutes again. This is the live picture of the room. As you see the crowds lining up to get inside. You just heard Deb Feyerick say, look, he hasn't talked to his equipment manager in a long time in years and all of the sudden six phone calls in the days after this game with an hour of talk time. They then went through, you know, some people said, oh, because it got cold and it was raining, that would explain the issue with the balls. They had some 63 or 68 pages in which they, in the report, say that is almost certainly not the case. That doesn't explain this. I mean, they went through it pretty exhaustively. What can Tom Brady say that will make people believe his side of the story? Obviously the fans in the room believe him. But the NFL, the rest of the country.
JARRETT BELL, NFL COLUMNIST, USA TODAY: No question. I think Coy hit on a point. If there are gaps in what came out in the Wells report versus what Tom Brady wanted to be out there in terms of representing what he saw and what he felt the situation was that needs to be clarify. But beyond that, you think back Erin to the press conference that Tom Brady had as this issue surfaced right after the championship game. And he had that press conference where he pretty much said he knew nothing about it.
BURNETT: Right.
BELL: And, you know, this is the real interesting thing that needs to be squared away now. If you knew nothing about it and you declared that at the press conference, then what did you talk to these guys about, what did you talk to the equipment manager about for an hour? And you had all of these text message exchanges and these phone calls. What was that all about? You know, it could have been a case where Tom Brady was just trying to get to the bottom of it. If you remember Erin, Bill Belichick's conference around that same day actually where he said he learned more than he ever knew in like 40- something years about the deflation and the inflation of footballs.
BURNETT: Yes. BELL: Well we didn't get that from Tom Brady. So at that point
he basically said that all hands were off, he knew nothing about it. Well we know that he definitely knew more about it than he let on. So, there has to be some kind of clarification of that situation.
[19:10:52] BURNETT: Yes. And of course. I mean, the reality that we've talked about him like a surgeon of footballs. He would have felt something was wrong. So, even if he didn't direct someone to create that outcome, he knew that that outcome was there when he touched those balls.
Jarrett, the NFL stowed out tough punishments for smaller infractions as you point out in "USA Today" suspending the general manager of the Cleveland Browns without pay. Four games, he texted his coaching staff during games. But that was his punishment. That the team paid a quarter million dollars. The NFL suspended the president of the Atlanta Falcons, they pumped in loud noise during home games to try to disrupt the competition, $350,000 fine, they lost a draft pick. In this context, what would be a fair punishment for the Super Bowl MVP, by the way, was named the MVP in the game that followed the game in which all of this happened. The most well-known football player in America, you know, with the evidence that they have, which they say generally, you know, proves that he knew but not specifically.
BELL: Well, it's definitely a challenge for the NFL to back up the rhetoric that we've heard from the league about the importance of competitive balance. And so if you're going to talk about having a level playing field and you have a situation where there was an un- level playing field, then you have to address that. I think the recent penalties for Ray Farmer, the Browns general manager you mentioned, and Rich McKay, the Atlanta Falcons president, really kind of set a template for what the NFL must do now. It must punish Tom Brady and the Patriots to some level, now there could be a lot of debate, about how much you disciplined this team, either for draft picks or fine or suspension.
BURNETT: Right.
BELL: I think it's not out of the question that Tom Brady will be sat down for a game maybe two for this type of violation. But obviously right now we're talking about not having that hard core evidence. Because, you know, Brady could contend that basically the equipment managers deflated the balls below the level and that he basically wanted to communicate to them, kind of how the balls felt without knowing the specifics. So, we don't know that. We need to hear that from Tom Brady.
BURNETT: All right. Well, I appreciate both of you for taking the time. And we're going to talk about more about this coming up. Of course we're going to be taking this live. We also will talk about some of the other punishments, losing that MVP title, the Patriots losing the Super Bowl title all together as one Hall of Famer told Coy Wire he thought was the right punishment last night.
Next, we're also learning new details about the investigation into Freddie Gray's death. Was he murdered or not.
And the FBI sent out a warning that gunmen were targeting the Prophet Muhammad cartoon contest in Texas. They told them just hours before. So, why were the Garland police taken by surprise?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:17:18] BURNETT: OUTFRONT tonight, bring it on. That's what Baltimore Police Commissioner says tonight. Commissioner Anthony Batts says he is not afraid of the Department of Justice investigation into police brutally in Baltimore. The mayor is demanding the investigation. Batts says so what, do it. This, as there are growing questions about whether the driver of that police van should ever have been charged with murdering Freddie Gray. Sara Sidner is OUTFRONT in Baltimore.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SARA SIDNER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The charges came "Fast and Furious," six Baltimore officers charged, one with second degree murder in the death of Freddie Gray. The chief prosecutor's decision surprised some, praised was by others and is now being scrutinized. Sources familiar with both the police and prosecutors investigation say, the police case does not support several of the charges filed against the officers, including murder.
(on camera): According to officials, police investigators contemplated a manslaughter charge at most after being briefed by the medical examiner's office. Those same investigators thought the autopsy would fall short of calling Gray's death a homicide. But Chief Prosecutor Marilyn Mosby when she made her announcement, it turned out the medical examiner had decided differently.
MARILYN MOSBY, PROSECUTOR IN FREDDIE GRAY CASE: Mr. Gray's death was a homicide.
SIDNER (voice-over): Another discrepancy, whether the knife found on Gray was legal or not which plays into whether the officers had probable cause to arrest him.
MOSBY: The knife was not a switchblade and is lawful under Maryland law.
SIDNER: But the police investigation found it was illegal under Baltimore City code. Mosby has not commented on the discrepancies but put out a statement saying, while the evidence we have obtained through our independent investigation does substantiate the elements of the charges filed, I refuse to litigate this through the media. No one disputes that Gray died in police custody, but proving is how he died amounts to murder is the hard part.
SIDNER (on camera): Is this case going to be difficult for the prosecution? These charges?
NICK PANTELEAKIS, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: I think it will be difficult, specifically the second degree murder and the voluntary Minneapolis. And the reason being is well the depraved heart only requires reckless or willful disregard and that conduct caused in the death of another. It doesn't require the intention of that person actually harmed or killed.
SIDNER (voice-over): The discrepancies in the investigation have raised a red flag for U.S. Congressman Elijah Cummings.
REP. ELIJAH CUMMINGS (D), MARYLAND: I think it should concern all of us. But I can't judge that. But one thing I do know is that when I hear about things like that, it reminds me that it is a good idea to do a pattern and practice type investigation.
SIDNER (on camera): So you want --
CUMMINGS: Oh yes, yes.
SIDNER (on camera): -- the DOJ in here?
CUMMINGS: Oh, I asked the DOJ, I asked the Attorney General last week.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SIDNER: And we know that the mayor has also said that she'd be happy to have the DOJ come in and investigate and that the city has been working with the Department of Justice long before this case ever came to the floor. We should also mention that we did sit down this week with the Mosbys and we spoke to the state's attorney and tried to ask her some questions but she is very adamant that she will not discuss a single bit of evidence from this case until this case is tried and the public can see it in front of them -- Erin.
BURNETT: All right. Sara, thank you very much. As discrepancies though very important.
And OUTFRONT now, Andrew Alperstein, a defense attorney, former Baltimore criminal prosecutor. Along with Van Jones, a CNN political commentator.
Andrew, let me start with you. The prosecutor, I mean, this comes down to the charges, right? And you have the police investigation saying they were not going to end up where the prosecutor ended up. They say the second degree murder charge, that doesn't make sense. That of course is what the prosecutor charged Officer Goodson with. Is it murder or not?
ANDREW ALPERSTEIN, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, so murder is a different charge than homicide which is a different charge than manslaughter and they're all sort of getting thrown around in the public in different ways. We've got to be careful with this. So, the second degree murder is none intentional type of murder, it's a reckless disregard for human life. So, the prosecutor is alleging that it was so reckless, it was so incredibly wanting and depraved of any heart for another person that the officers did that and they should have known. This is Goodson they're talking about who is the driver. And you know, really it's fascinating to me that that charge is in the case. I could tell you the statutes in Maryland which are the laws are interpreted by the cases. And there's a case in Maryland interpreting second degree depraved heart murder, this is this non- intentional murder that stands for the principle that when you have an auto manslaughter situation, that doesn't even apply. So I don't know if they don't know that. It's shocking to me that this depraved heart murder charge is in play.
BURNETT: So, you wouldn't have gone for second degree murder, bottom-line?
ALPERSTEIN: Absolutely not. Absolutely not.
BURNETT: All right. Absolutely not. Van, what's your view on this. Because obviously to prove second degree murder, you know, you have to -- this reckless and depraved, you have to prove that. This is a guy who had been driving a police van for years. No one else had ever died in the back of that van. You know, it would seem that if he had this reckless depraved, not caring about human life, his record wouldn't be that. Right?
[19:22:26] VAN JONES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I mean, every situation has to be taken on its own merits. Just because somebody did a good job yesterday doesn't mean they'll do a good job today or tomorrow. Here's the situation we're looking at. When you have somebody who is taken into police custody under this circumstances, and they wind up dead, we actually should be glad that the prosecutor is taking this seriously. What's new is that you have a prosecutor actually willing to bring charges at all, the situation that we have in Ferguson, we had a DA who refused to bring charges and then came out. And gave one of the most inflammatory speeches, one of the most political and unprofessional speeches, the night that he refused to bring the charges and you saw Ferguson catch on fire within hours. Now you've got a prosecutor who's willing to actually do what represents her constituency and do what prosecutors are supposed to do. Prosecutors often go very hard early on, sometimes they've been back up. She's being put on trial in the media because she's acting like most prosecutors do, if they see a bad guy, they throw the book at him, they tried to get him. She says it's a bad situation --
(CROSSTALK)
BURNETT: -- and that's part of strategy. Because it's very important here, I mean, these charges. This isn't just a matter of semantics or legal distinction. I mean as Andrew points out, those are important things. But second degree murder is a 30-year sentence in this case. Involuntary manslaughter is a ten-year sentence. I mean, those are two dramatically different situations, Van.
JONES: Well, they are different. But what I'm saying is simply this. Usually, I'll let my colleague get in here but I just want to say usually when you see a prosecutor who says, I see wrongdoing, I see a bad guy, I'm going to go get them. People stand up and cheer. In this situation you have a prosecutor saying I see a bad guy, I'm going to get him. And people are now second-guessing or they're going back and forth. But I just want to say, what's new and what's different and what's interesting is you have a prosecutor who is actually willing to do her job when it comes to the police.
BURNETT: Andrew, when you look at the video though and you're looking at Officer Goodson again, the only one charged with murder, the driver of the van, you actually see he's not the arresting officer, he's not the one who put Gray into the van, he's not the one who made sure he was properly buckled. So, I guess, the question I'm asking here is okay, fine, you don't think he should have been charged with second degree murder. But if you're going to charge him with second degree murder, wouldn't you have to charge the other guys too, the ones who didn't buckle him in, right? I mean, the ones who were actually responsible for putting him in in a prone position?
ALPERSTEIN: Well, so I think the first point in response to that is, you know, the community kind of went, you know, the thing that got us all going was we saw the arrest video where his legs were dragging. And we should point out that those officers are not the ones charged with murder which we can reasonably infer from the charges what they're saying is that whatever happened to him didn't happen before he got in the van. That sort of, shouldn't be lost on us. What happened and what Marilyn Mosby outlined was that it was something to do with the failure to seat belt him. Which, you know, what are we going to do, every time there's an accident and somebody is not seat- belted, we're going to charge him with murder if the person dies?
I mean, that would put a lot of people that have a duty of like a parent or something, in a ridiculous position. That's number one. Number two, the other part of what we saw here is that they're talking about the lack of medical care. And we're going to need to see the autopsy and the medical records to know what that's about. But it's got to be foreseeable to these officers. They're not doctors, they don't know if the guys in distrust that he's going to die. And they've got to appreciate that harm for this to be at the level of a second degree murder.
BURNETT: All right. Van, final word.
JONES: Well, listen, I think what we're reacting to is the fact that the other person who was in the van said he was banging around, he was asking for help, there were multiple stops. There's this one mystery stop. You have a lot more going on in just, those some kind of oops and the guy wound up dead. You have somebody who was apparently asking for help, begging for help. Not getting help, multiple stops including some mystery phantom stop that all his options lied about. You know, let's not pretend like this is just some ordinary situation. She's right to go after these guys hard and figure out what's going on here.
BURNETT: All right. Thanks very much. Van, Andrew, we appreciate it.
And next, just minutes away, quarterback Tom Brady going to be speaking live. His first comments since a report put him at the center of deflate gate.
And breaking news, just hours before the attack on that cartoon contest in Texas, the one with pictures of Muhammad, the FBI warned Texas police. They warned them. Was it too little too late?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:30:45] BURNETT: Breaking news, Tom Brady to speak out moments from now. We're standing by for his first public appearance since damning NFL report charged that Brady likely knew those game balls were deliberately deflated to his advantage during the AFC championship game.
These are live pictures right now of Salem State University. It's about 15 miles north of Boston. Brady is going to be speaking there momentarily in the room you see on your right. We're going to bring that to you live the minute he does begin speaking.
We anticipate that he's going to directly address this. He obviously has denied these charges again and again, but that report incredibly damning. We're going to have much more on that live. We've got our panelists standing by.
In the meantime, I want to squeeze in one other breaking news story that we're learning from the FBI, because we are now learning that the local authorities were warned by the FBI three hours before two gunmen attacked an event near Dallas, Texas. That is the event where there were cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.
The revelation came from the FBI Director James Comey who also ominously today said there are many others in the United States just like those two gunmen, just like those two men who tried to murder people in Texas. And he says those people are waiting to carry out attacks.
Pamela Brown is out front in Phoenix.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PAMELA BROWN, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The FBI was so concerned about Elton Simpson seen here in a new video obtained by CNN, that in the hours before he launched his attack in Texas, Sunday, the bureau shared his photo and license plate information with local police.
Today, the FBI director told reporters about that warning but said his agents did not know Simpson and his accomplice had already traveled from Arizona to Texas in a car loaded with body armor and guns.
In this fundraising video for an Arizona mosque, he talked about his faith in terms of weapons.
ELTON SIMPSON, GUNMAN: When you come together and you pray five times a day, it provides you a form of weaponry to go out into the real world.
BROWN: Simpson's online presence showed a more extremist view. CNN has learned he not only communicated publicly on Twitter with known terrorists but also messaged privately with Mohammad Hassan, an American born member of al Shabaab, the al Qaeda affiliate in Somalia, and Junaid Hussain, a British born ISIS recruiter and hacker. U.S. investigators believe Hussain and Hassan each helped radicalize Simpson, encouraging him to carry out an attack. But it's believed Simpson chose the target.
An evangelical pastor close to Simpson says he was not surprised to hear Simpson's name connected to the Texas attack.
PASTOR VOCAB MALONE, ROOSEVELT COMMUNITY CHURCH: He expressed to me admiration for Osama bin Laden. He used the word hero, which surprised me at that time. But now that I understand his thinking better, it's actually not surprising.
BROWN: We are also learned more about Simpson's accomplice Nadir Soofi. According to "The Wall Street Journal", he bought an AK-47 on Craigslist. Soofi's mother said her son had DVDs of the preachings of Anwar al-Awlaki, the former leader of al Qaeda and Yemen.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: And we learned today from FBI Director James Comey that the FBI alerted local authorities in Texas with a bulletin a few hours before the event about Simpson, based on his tweets, his social media activity about the event. But we are told that the FBI had no idea that Simpson left his home here in Phoenix, Arizona, and drove to Texas to launch that attack -- Erin.
BURNETT: Pamela Brown, thank you very much, live in phoenix.
And OUTFRONT now, military analyst and retired lieutenant general, Mark Hertling.
General, good to have you with us.
Let me ask you this question -- I mean, the FBI director saying there are hundreds of possible U.S. extremists right now that are, you know, linked to ISIS, influenced by ISIS. This is the fist time they've come out with specific numbers like that.
How concerning is this to you?
LT. GEN. MARK HERTLING (RET), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: It's very concerning, Erin. But here's the thing: I mean, I'm not an intelligence analyst or official, but I use them a lot as an operator and as a commander. And when you have massive amounts of intelligence, I used to tell me team, hey, here's what I'm looking for -- it's got to be valid, it's got to be timely, it's got to be relevant and it's going to be precise.
[19:35:01] Once you give me those four things, I'm going to take action against it. It's actionable intelligence.
What they have is elements of those things and in talking to hundreds of jihadists or people who are interested in jihad across the United States. But all of those things have to come together in order to take action. That's where they faltered a little bit. The passing of information is a whole other story.
The FBI is scanning the entire country with other intelligence agencies. When they get information and they pass it to a local source like it was in this case, various police agencies, you want to get that on the line real quick. But then is it precise enough to take action and it wasn't in this case.
BURNETT: But my question to you is whether it should have been? Obviously, this could have been something where a lot of people were killed, right?
HERTLING: It could have.
BURNETT: It's incredible that they were able -- the traffic cop, he stepped up and stopped some kind of carnage from happening. But this -- one of the guys has been known to the FBI since 2006. Three hours before the attack, to your point about specificity, right, the FBI warned local police, they gave them a photo, possible license plate number, all of that information they knew and gave local authorities. But yet they didn't say that he had actually left Arizona to go to Texas.
HERTLING: Correct, because --
BURNETT: There is a perception -- if something awful happened here, we would be looking at these things saying, where did the ball get dropped?
HERTLING: True, that's very true. And looking back on something like that is a whole lot easier than looking forward.
BURNETT: Yes.
HERTLING: But you've got to remember, this guy's name and his picture was on a list of dozen of others that had this kind of Internet contact. So, which one do you choose? Which one do you go after? And certainly, any one of those could have caused these actions but they didn't. And, you know, unfortunately, sometimes there's a luck involvement in this as well.
BURNETT: All right. General, I appreciate your time tonight. Thank you, on that breaking news.
And next, the breaking news as we stand by for Tom Brady's first appearance since the NFL report threw him for -- well, calling him essentially could be a major cheater. How will Brady answer those charges of cheating? As everyone gets seated in that room we're going to bring tight you live as soon as he begins speaking.
And the most unpredictable election in decades. This is an incredibly important story. The polls are now closed in the United Kingdom. Richard Quest is OUTFRONT live from London.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:41:10] BURNETT: And breaking news. We're just getting the first results from what is called now the most unpredictable election in decades, the crucial election with millions and millions of voters across Britain voting. Exit polls suggesting that there could be a massive upset.
That's pretty incredible. Prime Minister David Cameron has been fighting for his political life.
Richard Quest is in London with the latest, reporting from a big red double decker bus. He's going to be up all night because they just don't know what's going to happen.
But, I mean, Richard, this is not only unpredictable but now -- I mean, it's possible there's an upset? What's happening?
RICHARD QUEST, CNN INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Oh, #bigredbus, by the way, as we went our way to the streets of London. Yes, the exit poll suggests that David Cameron will be reelected as the prime minister. Here you have Mr. Cameron, the prime minister, current prime minister.
On the other side, Ed Milliband for Labour, looks like he has not managed to do it. And Nick Clegg, the coalition partner for the Liberal Democrats, his support has just about evaporated.
If, Erin, if the exit poll is right, we're starting to hear the first gurgling and rumblings that maybe, Erin, that exit poll is not as accurate as people had first thought. So, we really just don't know.
BURNETT: I mean, it's incredible to just not know. I mean, you're talking about Britain, this is the United States closest ally. This is the country that has gone to war with the United States in Afghanistan and Iraq. The closest ally no matter who is in the White House. What does this mean for the United States?
QUEST: It certainly creates an element of uncertainty, whichever way it goes. If Milliband looks like he's going to be able to do it, it's the question of the special relationship, the transatlantic relationship.
If David Cameron does get back in to number 10, then the real issue is Cameron's referendum on Europe. He's promised a referendum on Europe. Will Britain vote to leave the European Union?
So, whichever way you look at it, tonight, I'm guessing in Washington, they may be more relaxed about a Cameron victory but certainly they will not be totally happy at the future prospect. But we just don't know.
And, by the way, #bigredbus. We're now heading towards the Piccadilly Circus, the bright lights of London.
BURNETT: All right. Well, thank you very much, Richard Quest. It's 12:43 a.m. in London. He will be still be up, everyone, at 5:43 a.m. in London, as they try to get these results.
I mean, it is stunning to not know the answer. Just imagine that happening here in the United States.
All right. OUTFRONT next, moments away from Tom Brady's live comments, his first since the NFL's scathing report on his role on deflate gate.
And when all 7 feet, 300-plus pounds of Shaquille O'Neal took a tumble on live television. His epic fall went viral and the floor broke. Jeanne Moos will have the story.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:48:05] BURNETT: And the breaking news: Tom Brady will be speaking any moment now. The Patriots star quarterback going to make his first appearance since the blistering NFL report charged he knew game balls were deliberately deflated. That would play very much to his advantage. That's how he likes those balls. That this happened at multiple games but specifically of course at the game the Patriots won that brought them into the Super Bowl.
This is a live picture right now of Salem State University. It's just north of Boston. Brady arrived there by helicopter about an hour ago, doing some meetings and now, he's going to be coming in this room. Someone in the room, a reporter there telling us about 4,000 people now are seated ready to hear him. Most of them of course, he is preaching to the choir here. These are his fans. This is his home turf.
We're monitoring this event. The minute he begins speaking, we're going there live.
Now, though, I want to bring in our sports anchor Rachel Nichols, along with sports columnist for "The Dallas Morning News", Rick Gosselin, who has been writing about the allegations against Brady.
Rachel, let me start with you. Brady's agent came out swinging today, right? There was a statement basically. You know, they interviewed him, I have all of the notes, they didn't put it in the report. You know, the context is missing.
This is his argument. They said the NFL is trying to make Brady the fall guy for this.
Do you buy the argument that he's an innocent fall guy?
RACHEL NICHOLS, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Well, I certainly don't think the NFL is out to get Tom Brady or at least if they have been out to get Tom Brady for the last 15 years, they have been doing a miserable job because this guy has won four Super Bowls and is a future Hall of Famer.
Were they in this investigation as his agent claims, did they start with the conclusion and try to work their way backward to prove that conclusion? We don't know. We're not going to be able to dive into that methodology right now.
BURNETT: Right. NICHOLS: One thing that I thought was curious about the
statement though, is it didn't lead with Tom Brady as innocent. It led with here are the problems with the investigation. And I think there are a lot of people out there in the greater nationality who want to hear him get up there today and say, wait, I'm innocent, not the investigation was flawed, because those are two different things.
[19:50:02] Now, in that room tonight, I have to say, you said there are 4,000 people there. I think 3,999 are flag-waving Tom Brady fans. They don't care what he says. He's going to be met with thunderous applause. But there are a lot of people around the country tonight looking closely to see if he says anything in relation to deflategate and don't forget, Jim Gray is the emcee of the event, of course, an Emmy winning reporter. We'll see if he decides to press him or not.
BURNETT: Right, what he decides to say.
I mean, Rick, you know, when you hear Tom Brady, you know, he said, again and again and again, that he's innocent.
Let me just play a quick little montage of a few of the times and ways in which he has denied any involvement with this scandal.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TOM BRADY, PATRIOTS QUARTERBACK: I didn't alter the ball in any way. When I picked those balls out, at that point, to me they are perfect. I don't want anyone touching the balls after that, I don't want anyone touching them, taking any air out. I would never do anything outside of the rules of the play.
I'm not a conspiracy theorist. I don't -- you know, I don't know what happened. I mean, I -- I have no explanation for it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: I mean, Rick, you know, some people when they hear that, you know, they think of Lance Armstrong, right, who for years denied any kind of involvement, right? And then, suddenly, it just turned out it was a complete and utter lie. People do completely and utterly lie.
Did he?
Rick, can you hear me?
RICK GOSSELIN, DALLAS MORNING NEWS: Yes, he's going to say, that he didn't put the needle in the football. The two underlings Jastremski and McNally did. So, he is correct. He did not let the air out of the ball. But did he have knowledge of it?
They knew and you saw the text. You know, Ted Wells investigated this for four months. It's all circumstantial, but he said connect the dots, people. If you look at the text messages, it is pretty damning for Brady. If Brady brings up anything today, show up on the stage with your
text messages and say, here, here's my text messages. Look, I'm clean. That's the only thing I think only way I think he clears his name.
BURNETT: And, Rachel, let's look at one of these text messages between one of the equipment managers here and Tom Brady after the game.
Brady goes, "Are you good day, Johnny boy?" The equipment manager responds, "Still nervous, so far so good though. I'll be alright." Brady, "You didn't do anything wrong, bud."
The report also goes on to say that he had an hour total talk- time with six calls with one of these equipment managers when he didn't talk to him, I don't know, whether it was nearly a year or longer.
I mean, the circumstantial evidence is pretty damning. And then there's this -- Tom Brady is the surgeon of footballs.
NICHOLS: Yes.
BURNETT: Tom Brady takes great pride in saying, oh, when of his guys scores a touchdown and he spikes it, I can feel that the ball has been deflated. He would have known and felt that the balls were deflated. So, yes, maybe he didn't put the needle in or out, but you knew something was wrong.
NICHOLS: Yes. I mean, before this report came out, there was a lot of people who sat there and said, gee, it is hard to believe that if footballs were altered in the Patriots locker room and some way Tom Brady didn't know about it, because no equipment guy who wanted to keep his job, the theory goes, would do that without the quarterback's consent. And don't forget -- Tom Brady is one of the quarterbacks who along with Peyton Manning went to the NFL to specifically lobby to have special footballs used on road games because quarterbacks are so sensitive to how they like their footballs.
So, he has shown in the past he has demonstrated that he's very careful about this stuff. That being said, when you look at the evidence in the Wells report, it is circumstantial evidence. Now, circumstantial evidence is evidence. It's not as if that just doesn't count. It's not fake or anything. It's actual evidence.
BURNETT: Right.
NICHOLS: The question is, Brady's agent said they left a bunch out that might have changed your opinion, did they or not, and if they did -- well, let's hear it.
BURNETT: Right. Let's hear it, and to your point -- the NFL doesn't have anything to gain from Tom Brady looking like a cheater. So, it's hard to add -- to figure out why that would make sense. He makes a lot of money for the NFL.
All right. Thanks very much to Rachel and Rick.
As we're standing by for Tom Brady to speak, we're going to squeeze in one more commercial break. And we'll be right back with that, after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:57:45] BURNETT: Moments away from Tom Brady's first NFL report. Since the NFL report said he knew about those deflated footballs and that was the likely situation.
As you can see, they are asking people to at this moment turn off their phones and get quiet. He's going to be approaching the podium at any moment. The second he does, you're going to see it here at CNN.
But now, here's Jeanne Moos with Shaquille O'Neal.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: When most of us fall --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, good lord. (EXPLETIVE DELETED)
MOOS: We're embarrassed. We try to laugh it off.
But when it comes to Shaquille O'Neal's on set sprawl --
CHARLES BARKLEY, FORMER NBA PLAYER: Get him, Kenny.
(LAUGHTER)
MOOS: -- what is specially rewarding is the reward Shaq is offering to those who make fun of his fall. "Whoever makes the best meme busting my (AUDIO DELETED) wins $500 cash."
And up went the tweets. Shaq knocked down by Floyd Mayweather and Muhammad Ali. Shaq's sprinting and swimming, playing twister, in a ball pit.
Shaq himself was picking favorites saying this guy is winning so far -- a guy who added a Kevin Hart joke to the cliff of Shaq's fall.
KEVIN HART, COMEDIAN: Shaq, when you fall during the game, it is the funniest thing in my life. And how you fall (INAUDIBLE) please --
MOOS: This isn't the first time that Shaq has taken a spill on set.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, oh!
(LAUGHTER)
MOOS: But this time it seems genuine.
Though, who knows? With his 7'1" frame, some joke about the impact of his fall.
BARKLEY: Get him, Kenny.
MOOS: Shaq was shown dancing with John Travolta. Joining Michael Jackson in "Smooth Criminal".
But our favorite so far was called Liliputian takedown. It took Robin Montoni about 35 minutes to do, and it was her first ever tweet.
Why Liliputians?
ROBIN MONTONI, SHAQ FAN: He is so big and they are so little. You know, opposites attract.
MOOS: Half of those Liliputians could fit in one Shaq size 23 shoes.
Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BURNETT: I had one of Shaq's shoes once and I couldn't believe it.
Thanks for joining us. Anderson starts now.
