Why would Omar Mateen's wife stay silent about attack plot?

close

Video

Why would Omar Mateen's wife stay silent about attack plot?

Orlando terrorist's wife could soon be charged; insight on 'The Kelly File'

This is a rush transcript from "The Kelly File," June 14, 2016. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

MEGYN KELLY, HOST: Breaking tonight. A new arrest in the Orlando terror attack may come at any time now. As we get reports from Reuters News service that Omar Mateen's wife could face serious charges as soon as tomorrow morning.

Welcome to "The Kelly File" live from Orlando everyone. I'm Megyn Kelly.  FoxNews.com is now reporting that federal prosecutors have convened a grand jury against Mateen's wife, Noor Salman, and are seeking to charge her as an accessory to 49 counts of murder and 53 counts of attempted murder.  Salman made her first public appearance today, retrieving some belongings from the apartment she and Mateen shared along with their three-year-old son. She had the son with her in the company of police today.

That happened as we learned Miss Salman not only knew, she knew about her husband's plans, but that she drove him to this very Pulse nightclub in an effort to case the scene, though not on the night of the attack necessarily. We only had that happening prior. When reporters caught up with Salman today, who was sitting in the car next to her young son with her hood pulled over her face, we heard some of the questions that Miss Salman could soon be forced to answer before a grand jury.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Miss Mateen? Miss Mateen, can we just talk to you for a second? Miss Mateen? Just for a moment? Miss Salman? Did you know your husband was going to do this? Miss Salman, did you know your husband is a terrorist?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KELLY: The grand jury story broke in just the last couple of hours. And in moments, Lieutenant Colonel Tony Shaffer and Brad Thor will be here to weigh in on what else we are learning about the wife of the gunman tonight.  Before Mark Eiglarsh tells us exactly what kind of legal trouble she could be in and what to expect from this grand jury.

But first, Trace Gallagher is at the breaking news desk for us tonight with all the new details coming out. Trace?

TRACE GALLAGHER, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: And Megyn, now a federal law enforcement source has confirmed to FOX News senior correspondent Rick Leventhal that that the shooter's wife Noor Salman did have advance knowledge of the attack and did nothing to stop him. The wife reportedly told investigators she tried to stop him but there is no record of her calling authorities. During an interview with the FBI as you look at new pictures from the Daily Mail, the wife also gave details of his gun purchasers and how he apparently told her about his plan to carry out an attack and specifically it appears the Feds believe that she knew the Pulse nightclub was a potential target because on at least one occasion she drove there with her husband to case the place.

Keep in mind the club is two hours from where they live. She did not drive him the night of the shooting. In fact, sources say the wife told authorities that before he left with his weapons on the night of the attack, he told her good-bye and that he loved her. Investigators say, Noor Salman is cooperating and she shared information about her husband's violent aspiration but her involvement gets even deeper. Numerous reports now say she was with her husband two days before the shooting when he bought ammunition and a holster.

The wife has also informed the FBI that her husband had become radicalized in the last year. Last night, we showed you pictures inside the killer's home. Now we have video shot by Univision. First, the bedroom of the three-year-old son filled with animated characters, books and a poster that says, quote, "be someone you would be proud to know." Elsewhere in the home is a copy of the Koran, books on Islam and family photos. The wife is not staying at the home but she is free, she is free for now -- Megyn.

KELLY: Trace, thank you.

Joining me now, retired Lieutenant Colonel Tony Shaffer who is a CIA trained intelligence operative now with the London Center for Policy Research. And Brad Thor, who is a family member, a former member of the Homeland Security's Analytic Red Cell Unit and author of the new novel "Foreign Agent" released just this month. Thank you both so much for being here.

Colonel Shaffer, let me start with you. The reports now on this wife, that she knew, she knew what he intended to do, that she was there when he purchased the guns, when he purchased the ammo and that she even drove him to case the Pulse nightclub at some point prior to the night that this all happened.

LT. COL. TONY SHAFFER (RET), CIA TRAINED INTEL OPERATIVE: Right.

KELLY: So, what does it tell you about him and her?

SHAFFER: Well, two things. First, we recognize that Orlando and the community there is an enclave of Muslim radicalism. This is something we've identified. Most importantly, Megyn, she has a duty to report.  She's a U.S. person. Either she's here by green card or citizen. She is required to report. So what we see here across the board is a cascade of failure. Policy failure and individual failure. There is absolutely no excuse for her not reporting the fact that her husband was about to engage.  The other thing I understand that she was beaten by him. Report of that to law enforcement --

KELLY: That was the first wife --

SHAFFER: I'm sorry --

KELLY: Just to clarify, that was the report of the first who was now the ex-wife.

SHAFFER: The point is --

KELLY: And I also want to ask you about what you mean when you say she has a duty to report. A legal duty? A duty in combating terrorism? Where does that duty emerge from? Because normally just not speaking up about something you know is about to happen even if it's a crime is not actually illegal.

SHAFFER: No, I was talking to a federal lawsuit about this yesterday. If a citizen sees what is essentially a catastrophic felony about to occur, you can be held accountable. And I think that's why you see Megyn, this grand jury now being formed. She's going to be charged, I predict, as accessory either before or after the fact relating to this, probably before the fact, by the fact she actually helped him case it. So, that's what I was told by a federal officer. She had a duty to report it.

KELLY: All right. We'll going to get -- we'll get into that. We're going to get into the legalities with Eiglarsh in a moment. But I want to ask you Brad because it is not unusual to see the wives of these radical jihadists also either become radicalized or go right along with it. We've seen it repeatedly. Even the Tamerlan Tsarnaev in the Boston bombing, he had an American wife Katherine Russell who had been Googling benefits to the wife after one martyrs himself and so on.

BRAD THOR, FORMER MEMBER, DHS RED CELL UNIT: Right. And she was Muslim as well. The wife of the Tsarnaev.

KELLY: She converted.

THOR: Yes. She converted. And Tony is right here about being an accessory. I mean, she was part of the pre-attack surveillance which is a big deal. Now, with the Tsarnaevs, you saw the defense of the surviving Dzhokhar Tsarnaev that his defense being that the brother made him do it, all this kind of stuff. Tony is correct and you were correct, it is the ex-wife that claimed that Omar beat wife all the time.

This wife may claim domestic violence in this instance or she maybe such an adherence to Islam that she respects one of the greatest commandments in the Hadith which is, you may not tell your husband's secret because you will be judged the harshest by Allah on judgment day. That is a very big proclamation or commandment in Islam. But it does not absolver her, Megyn, doesn't absolve her. This is horrible.

SHAFFER: Right.

KELLY: I don't know. I mean, it certainly taking acts towards the ultimate event, that's a different story.

SHAFFER: Right.

KELLY: You know, the thing that I want to talk to Eiglarsh about is, if you just know it and you don't do anything, normally that's not a crime.  If it's terror, there may be a difference I'm going to talk to him about it. But I want to ask you --

SHAFFER: Let me say it, Megyn, she participate --

KELLY: Yes. I know. I know, we're going to get into that. But I want to ask you this. Because they say in at least 50 percent, 70 percent of these cases, the killer, like Mateen, does talk about it prior to actually doing it. And they say in at three quarters of the case, he doesn't act alone.  In fact it would be the exception, not the rule, Tony, for him to have acted by himself.

SHAFFER: Right. Well, this was a well-planned event. He thought this through. This was very meticulous. He cased it. I don't know what the circumstance that have casing and he was there multiple times. He picked the right weapons. He knew the ingress, egress. He planned this in great detail as Brad was talking about. This woman probably felt some loyalty to him to go through with it. And maybe she was more radicalized than people recognize. And if she was that radicalized, she would do anything she was told to do. So, this is very severe. And again, Megyn, the fact that this community --

KELLY: Yes. Go ahead.

SHAFFER: I'm sorry, go ahead.

THOR: Well, Megyn, the other thing is here is that we're seeing an operator that apparently was able to pick his own targets, okay and plan the operation because he went to Disney and Beslan, the siege in Beslan is the gold standard for these guys. We're incredibly lucky that this did not happen at Disney. Because the body count could have been much higher. But I would be shocked if there are not other people that he was in communication with. Because this level of satisfaction, of all of the pre- attacks surveillance, it's just like San Bernardino. The way those guys were carried out, the way they're handled it. I think there's much more going on here than we are finding out through the news right now.

SHAFFER: Right. I believe there's overseas links --

(CROSSTALK)

KELLY: We believe at this hour that she's from California. That her parents are from Pakistan, it's also been reported Afghanistan. But we're told reportedly was living in Jordan up until 2006 when she came here. All of this will be flashed out in the coming days.

Gentlemen, thank you.

SHAFFER: Right. Thank you, Megyn.

KELLY: Also with us tonight on the breaking news is Mike Eiglarsh. He's a criminal defense attorney and a former prosecutor who practices law in South Florida.

Mark, thank you so much for being here. So, let's start with that.

MIKE EIGLARSH, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: My pleasure, Megyn.

KELLY: Acts towards the crime. Driving him to case the Pulse nightclub when she knows he's looking for a target. Going with him to buy the ammo.  With him as he buys holster. Maybe she's there under protest. Maybe she doesn't want to be doing it. Does this amount to a crime?

EIGLARSH: Yes. Those are the facts and it obviously hinges upon what the evidence is, what words flowed from her lips to investigators. She can protest all day long and use that at sentencing. But in terms of charging her, absolutely, it's a crime all day long in federal court and state court.

KELLY: What if she knew that he was planning to commit mass murder and she didn't say anything about it? Because normally if I know you're going to go rob a bank and I don't say anything about it, you can't charge me.

EIGLARSH: That's correct. In Florida and most states under state law, it's not a crime. Under federal law, however, it's called misprision a felony. If you know someone is going to commit any felony and you failed to disclose it, you're looking it up to three years in prison on that count alone.

KELLY: So there, but what we're being told is that they're getting ready to charge her with all of the murders, with accessory, I guess, to all of the murders and the attempted murders themselves. I mean, I guess they can't get her on felony murder, right, because they can't place her -- they can't sort of show her helping him with it. But how do they get her for the murders and the attempted murders?

EIGLARSH: Okay. Here's how it works. It doesn't matter if you play even a minor role. If you play a tiny role, knowing that someone is going to commit this abhorrent offense, you are just as guilty legally as if you pulled the trigger.

KELLY: What do you make of the fact that she is free tonight, Mark, that she is not in police or federal custody?

EIGLARSH: They're watching her very closely. They know where she is.  They expect to indict her. I've never met law enforcement officers and prosecutors who convene a grand jury to let someone go. I expect charges to come forward. And they know where she is.

KELLY: Uh-huh, and do you expect we're going to hear a battered woman syndrome defense, given what we know about what he did to the first wife and what are the odds of that, Mark?

EIGLARSH: Almost 100 percent. She will say and don't kill the messenger that he threatened her. That maybe she did say don't do it, don't do it, that when she continued to drive -- she can raise whatever argument she wants in front of that jury. They're going to say she had a legal and moral obligation to disclose that to law enforcement and if she had, this tragedy could have been avoided.

KELLY: It's incredible. We saw the wife out in San Bernardino. She was the one who radicalized the male jihadi. And then again we have this Catherine Russell who knew it was going to happen according to reports, at least there was evidence from the Googling she did prior to the Boston marathon bombing and now here we are in Orlando.

Mike Eiglarsh, thank you.

EIGLARSH: Thanks, Megyn.

KELLY: Well, there's also big breaking news tonight from Disneyworld on reports that security at Disney told the FBI that they believed that this Orlando gunman was casing the park two months ago. Disney has unbelievable security. We're going to get into that report.

Plus, analysts have found a common connection between the man who shot up Fort Hood, the terror killers in San Bernardino, this gunman in Orlando, Florida and we'll show you what it is.

And then President Obama today seemed to suggest that Donald Trump is a danger to America. And tonight Trump is letting the world know his response to that. Stay with us.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, R-PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And I watched President Obama today and he was more angry at me than he was at the shooter and many people said that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KELLY: Breaking tonight, disturbing new questions for the FBI in the wake of the Orlando terror attack. As we first reported on the show last night, authorities have been looking for direct evidence that the terrorist actually scoped out other locations for his rampage including Disney Springs near the Walt Disney World Resort. But tonight, there is much, much more. Reports are now suggesting the folks at Disney World actually notified the FBI that Omar Mateen and his wife may have been casing the Disney World property back in April. In April.

Leaving critics to wonder whether the Feds seriously dropped the ball here.  In moments, we will be joined by former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik who has been following this case closely. And former FBI Deputy Assistant Director Danny Coulson.

We begin with our chief intelligence correspondent Catherine Herridge.  Catherine.

CATHERINE HERRIDGE, FOX NEWS CHIEF INTELLIGENCE CORRESPONDENT: Megyn, Fox News has independently confirmed that the shooter Omar Mateen was checking out his Facebook page during the massacre. The Florida station WFTV reporting that he wrote about tasting the vengeance of the Islamic State.  Two sources confirmed there is evidence of significant premeditation and then Mateen did surveillance of at least two targets prior to buying the guns about a week before Sunday's massacre.

We understand the surveillance included the Pulse nightclub as well as downtown Disney. A member of the House Intelligence Committee who was briefed late today by the FBI, Homeland Security and the National Counterterrorism Center said, Mateen was unbalanced, prone to fits of rage, where he mouthed off about al Qaeda, possibly conflicted about his own  sexuality, and then layered on top was the kind of slow burn radicalization.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. PETER KING, R-N.Y., HOMELAND SECURITY COMMITTEE: Getting an automatic rifle, obviously he tried to take down and kill as many as he could in a shorter period of time. So this certainly was a mass casualty thing. He had to know what he was doing. And had to know that using an AR-15 in such a small confined area, he was bound to have massive casualties.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HERRIDGE: "Unfortunately, we've all been living in a world of uncertainty," Disney said in a statement, "And we've been increasing our security measures across our properties for some time adding such visible safeguards as magnetometers, additional canine units and law enforcement officers on site as well as less visible systems." What's not clear to us tonight is how seriously Mateen considered that Disney property -- Megyn.

KELLY: Catherine, thank you.

Joining us now with more, Bernard Kerik who is the former New York City police commissioner and oversaw the response to 9/11. And Danny Coulson, he is a former deputy assistant director of the FBI, he ran terrorism investigations worldwide. Thank you, both, so much for being here.

So, let me start with you on this, Bernie, the report -- I just want to make clear, the report that Disney saw, that Disney World saw the guy come through with his wife in April and reported it to the FBI and that even that report may have taken place in April is a little ambiguous. It's sourced to WFTV, which is the ABC affiliate here in Orlando. That's their reporting today. If that is the case, if Disney contacted the FBI in April to say we saw this man, we believe he was casing Disney World, that plus the prior to contacts with the FBI pose a real problem here.

BERNARD KERIK, FORMER NEW YORK POLICE COMMISSIONER: Well, I think it would be. You know, you had a contact made by the FBI in '13, in '14, April of this year. It's over a three, four year period. If the report is accurate, if, it's accurate, you have to ask yourself why didn't the FBI go back and make an inquiry? Why was he able to purchase the firearms? You know, what did they do about this report? If it's accurate?

KELLY: The thing is, Disney's got spectacular security, spectacular security, and there's -- I mean, you tell me, Mr. Coulson, for a long time, Danny that Disney has been a target.

DANNY COULSON, FORMER FBI DEPUTY ASSISTANT DIRECTOR: It has been, for decades. Back in the time of al Qaeda, we all know that Disney was a target. I'd like to know more information before I make that comment about whether or not the FBI dropped the ball here. How did they know this guy's name? Some of these locations have really good facial identification cameras. And through their programs, they can tell if an individual comes more than one time.

Now, if that's what they reported and they subsequently identified him by name, and I think the FBI should pick up on that. But I think before we make a big jump here, we need to know exactly what did they tell the FBI?  Did they come back later after the facts and said, by the way, we have a picture of this guy from, you know, months ago, and it's the same guy that you guys had just identified as the shooter --

KELLY: The latter would make much more sense.

COULSON: Yes.

KELLY: It would make much more sense although the local reporter when asked to specify whether she was saying her law enforcement source was telling her that the report from Disney was made in April or whether just the event came in April, she said her understanding was the report was made in April. Again, this is not FOX News, so we will wait to see how that plays out.

COULSON: Yes, we need another --

KELLY: In the meantime, the guy was -- but listen, in the meantime, the guy was online, we know that from our own reporting.

COULSON: Oh, yes.

KELLY: He wrote, taste the ISIS vengeance, the day of the attack. He had surveiled the place, he had Googled Pulse. He had Googled the law enforcement here in Orlando. And had made several posts all day about ISIS. Now, you tell me Bernie whether we should, you know, people aren't online just waiting for any such post. There's not much law enforcement can do about a day or post like that.

KERIK: You know what? And that's one of the reasons, Megyn, we've talked about for the last two years now why we should be looking, why the federal authorities, local authorities, they should be monitoring these sites.  Facebook should have flagging mechanisms. Twitter. Twitter took down hundreds, thousands of accounts belonging to ISIS and al Qaeda and all these radical Islamic groups. These things have to be monitored.

We have to create flagging mechanisms so that we could see this stuff in advance. Especially when you have a situation, you know, Disney is a target-rich environment for these guys. When you look at what they do in Iraq and Syria, what they did in Beslan, Russia --

KELLY: Yes.

KERIK: You know, that's what we're looking at. We've got to be on top of the technology.

KELLY: Danny, last question, you know, you used to do this work for a living. We have to worry about civil liberties as you know. Are we striking the right balance?

COULSON: No, we're not. We have to understand, Megyn, the difference here is we're at war. They've declared war upon us. And the rules changed a little bit. We're not investigating the mafia here where we have to worry about civil liberties or whatever. We're investigating our enemy who's determined to destroy us. So, the rules need to be lessened a little bit or loosened up so the FBI and local law enforcement conduct a logical investigation and not have their hands tied behind their back when they're trying to save our lives.

KELLY: Uh-hm. They're worried they're going to get fired.

COULSON: Exactly.

KELLY: That they're going to get fired, you know, the Attorney General's made very clear, you even say anything bad about somebody who's Muslim, and she's going to come after you. Which she had to walk back because her threat was actually unlawful.

Gentlemen, thank you both so much for being here.

COULSON: Thank you.

KERIK: Thank you.

KELLY: Still ahead. New details on the common link that has now turned up between this Orlando gunman, the terrorist in San Bernardino and the man who shot up Fort Hood.

Plus, we have new stories tonight from survivors about what happened. We are starting to piece together the details during those three hours of hell inside that nightclub. When they didn't know whether they would live or die. Don't go away.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh my God! They are all shooting back and forth.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KELLY: Breaking tonight. New warnings about what has become a common thread in some of the deadliest terror attacks across this country. We learned quickly on Sunday that the terrorist behind this weekend's massacre here in Orlando was born in New York to parents who emigrated from Afghanistan. But that is not a first, in 2015, Syed Farouk was one of the two terrorists who killed 14 people in San Bernardino, California. He was born in the United States as well to parents who emigrated from Pakistan.

That same year, Nadir Soofi, the son a Pakistani father, took part in a shooting in his hometown of Garland, Texas where he was raised. And in 2009, Nidal Hasan, the son of Palestinian immigrants, killed 13 people at Fort Hood. Now, there are questions about what can be done to stop the so- called second generation terrorists, all of whom have American passports and lived here.

For more on that, I'm joined by Mubin Shaikh, he is a former extremist turned undercover operative. Mubin, thank you very much for being here.

So, first, we'll start with you. You say actually you were radicalized and you got married and when you got married, because I'm just curious given the first two segments, did your wife know that you were radicalized?

MUBIN SHAIKH, FORMER JIHADIST TURNED OPERATIVE: No, actually, I hid it from her.

KELLY: And so, you know, do you believe there's any chance that in this case here in Orlando, she didn't know the full extent of what he was or what he was planning, notwithstanding these reports we've heard tonight?

SHAIKH: You can't say notwithstanding the reports because given the reports, she knew exactly what was going on.

KELLY: Well, these are, you know -- we're going to learn more in the days and weeks to come about what she knew and then her lawyers will weigh in. I want to ask you about the second generation issue because this has been studied now that the immigrants from other countries may not have as much trouble in the United States as their children do and so many winds up, of these terrorists, are second generation. Why do you think that is?

SHAIKH: Yeah, very often there are identity conflicts that are at play and this is exactly what happened with me. My parents are from Indian background and you know, it's hard to decide who are you supposed to be. For some people in the U.S. who feel people are saying to them, look, you're not American. We don't consider you American enough.

So then they begin to look at other identities they can latch onto to then, you know, have something, some kind of identity. But we hear from this guy's case, I mean, he was gay. He couldn't deal with the fact he was gay and he took it out on the gay -- on the LGBT community to basically destroy his former self.

KELLY: It certainly sounds like he was gay. He was frequenting gay websites and gay dating sites and there have been testimonials coming out now from people who knew him in high school suggesting he was hitting on young boys and men when he was a young man, so and so. It certainly seems like this was no accident, that he was at the Pulse Club and that he felt such hatred for himself and for other gays. Either you look at it, its homophobia.

So what should be done about that? Will be it somebody, you know, with your expertise -- we can't be running around suspecting everybody whose parents are from Afghanistan or from Pakistan. It's the last thing we want and that's actually one of the reasons these people find themselves in the position they're in.

SHAIKH: You know it's very important that we do look at, like for example, the Disney security. They did a really good job of identifying these two, the couple, as casing the place. You don't want to create false positives. You don't want to say, you know, I'm going to report on that Muslim but, you know, I don't want to be politically correct and not report it. Look, you're going to overwhelm police with false positives.

There are certain things which you can see, which security guards saw this couple doing -- very strange observable behavior. It's not enough that a person is Muslim or there are couple there at your job or whatever. They must show some kind of behavior. The problem is when you have a husband and wife team or brothers, you see this a lot in IRA terrorism, where people are very tight-knit.

They won't tell people, their own family members. They'll deceive others as to what they're doing so as to foil surveillance attempts and attempts to interdict even by undercovers.

KELLY: And you see it, you know, this guy started to go to mosque more often. He had outbursts at work which were not, you know, nothing was done about them according to our guest last night. So, you could see the hostility coming out even with the beating of his first wife and so on, yet no one -- no one continued to watch him at least. They spotted him but they didn't continue. Mubin, thank you for being here.

SHAIKH: Thanks Megyn.

KELLY: While in the aftermath of the worst terror attack since 9/11, just a few feet behind us -- you see the yellow line, like right there. I'm trying to get it for you on the screen, you see the yellow line right there, right above that truck, you can see the sign "P" for the Pulse nightclub. Steps away from here, just a couple of days ago, more than 100 people were shot. More than 100 people went out to have a good time and were shot, 49 of them killed and many more still recovering in the hospital today.

President Obama today decided to discuss the threat of domestic terror and in doing so, he also decided to unleash on Donald Trump. Brit Hume is next with what really went on with President Obama's remarks today. Don't go away.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: One of the folks on television said, "boy has Trump gotten under his skin, but he was more angry and a lot of people have said this. The level of anger, that's the kind of anger he should have for the shooter and these killers that shouldn't be here."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KELLY: Breaking tonight, less than 72 hours after the worst terror attack since 9/11 on U.S. soil and President Obama today unleashed in anger and disgust not on the gunman but on Donald Trump and his approach to terror. Since that attack, Trump has slammed America's leaders as weak. He has called for President Obama's resignation and then he hit the president for his refusal to use the term "radical Islam" as many Republicans have. President Obama, in Donald Trump's own parlance, counterpunched, hard. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: We now have proposals from the presumptive Republican nominee for president of the United States to bar all Muslims from immigrating to America. We hear language that singles out immigrants and suggests entire religious communities are complicit in violence. Where does this stop? We've heard these suggestions during the course of this campaign. Do Republican officials actually agree with this? Because that's not the America we want.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KELLY: The press took immediate note with The New York Times writing, "Obama denounces Donald Trump for his dangerous mind-set." USA Today declaring, "Obama rips Trump over proposed Muslim ban, "radical Islam" rhetoric." And Politico proclaimed, "Obama goes to war with Trump."

The presumptive Republican then responded. Right near at the very top of a campaign event just a couple of hours ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I watched President Obama today and he was more angry at me than he was at the shooter. He was more angry and a lot of people have said this. The level of anger, that's the kind of anger he should have for the shooter and these killers that shouldn't be here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KELLY: Joining me now, Fox News senior political analyst Brit Hume. Brit, good to see you. What do you make of it?

BRIT HUME, FOX NEWS SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, on purely political terms, the president was playing to his base and Donald Trump was playing to his. The question is, though, who gets the better of the argument. Seems to me the president at the moment at least is in a weak position on this issue. He's vulnerable on this issue and by extension, so is his former Secretary of State, who of course is the candidate to succeed him.

So, the president seems to me was doing a little bit of political work there by attacking Donald Trump for the things that he's been saying, and Donald Trump obviously responding in kind, and, you know, I think at the moment of course Trump is the one who's saying we need a more aggressive approach to fighting radical Islam and attacking the president for not using that term. The president scoffed at that today, ridiculed that.

And to many of his supporters, I'm sure that sounded pretty good, but to a lot of Americans, the president's choice of words here, and this has been going on for years and not just in this administration, has seemed a little odd. It seems to deny that there is a religious component to the fight we're having against terrorism. And there is a religious component to it and there's no getting around it, but the president will never say that.

And it makes people wonder I think whether, you know, he talks about what good would it do to name it. Well, it might help clarify the thinking and I think there are a lot of people who think the president isn't thinking and hasn't been thinking clearly about this. He after all is the one who said not so many months ago on the eve of the Paris terror attacks, that Isis had been contained. Now, his supporters say that he was referring to territory held and the rest of it. But nevertheless there it was.

KELLY: But not only that, Donald Trump's response really taps into something, does it not, Brit? Because we've seen the president, I mean, after the journalist were beheaded, come out there and make this sort of off-handed remark and then he went off back to his vacation in Martha's Vineyard. Remember that? And even during, you know, the last...

HUME: Well, that was when he went -- you know, that was when he went and played golf in the aftermath of this hideous atrocity.

KELLY: Right, and then he went and he fund-raised the day of the Benghazi terror attacks. And Donald Trump's point, that he seems angrier at Trump, who said some things that offended president Obama -- he does seem angrier at Trump than he does -- than he seems or at least geared up when he talks about Isis.

HUME: Well, that contemptuous tone that you saw in his remarks aimed at Republicans and more specifically at Donald Trump is not something that we have heard him express with regard to Isis, except in a sense to minimize it back in the day when he was referring, you may recall, as a JV team and the rest of it. But these comments were dripping with content.

We haven't heard that from him about that. We haven't heard it from him about what many people may consider weak-kneed leaders in Muslim countries who have not sufficiently, in people's minds, stood up to the radicals who have so heavily populated their countries and their national life.

KELLY: Yeah, you hear it from him on guns.

HUME: Yes we do.

KELLY: You hear it from him on Trump. And it's not that he needs to go out there and be emotional all the time, but the American people are feeling angry. And you know, you would expect the commander in chief who's also the comforter in chief to tap into that. People want to understand that he gets it. I'll give you the last word, Brit.

HUME: There is a role that is part of the presidency to be a person who reflects American sentiments and mood, and there are times when it is appropriate for a president to resist that. One thinks, for example, of President George H.W. Bush when the Berlin Wall was falling down and he refused to rejoice and carry on and be triumphant about it because he was worried about the relationship with Mikael Gorbachev, which he managed, and I think most people would now agree, very effectively.

And I'm sure the president when he's thinking about what to say about these Islamic terrorists is trying to avoid a situation which he fears that, you know, you could inflame the Muslim world against America if you keep talking about that. Hillary Clinton herself has said, you know, just not too long ago that, "well, you know you say radical Islam, it sounds like you're condemning an entire faith." But for all that, the president certainly has not fulfilled the role of someone who reflects the nation's anger and anxieties about radical Islam and terrorism.

KELLY: We just had a terrible terror attack, 50 people are dead.

HUME: Right.

KELLY: I mean, you know, that's what makes them upset. Anyway, Brit, it's great to see you.

HUME: Thank you, Megyn.

KELLY: President Obama is hitting Donald Trump for his tough talk. Political columnist Chris Cillizza of "The Washington Post" had a different take today, asking, "What if Donald Trump is exactly what people want after the Orlando shooting?" Joining me now, Boris Epstein, Trump surrogate and Republican strategist, and Richard Fowler, nationally syndicated radio host and senior fellow at the New Leaders Council. Great to see you both.

RICHARD FOWLER, NATIONALLY SYNDICATED RADIO HOST: Good evening Megyn.

BORIS EPSTEIN,REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Good to see you Megyn.

KELLY: Let me start with you on that, Richard, as somebody who doesn't like Trump. Do you think he is -- he's capturing the mood of a nation now, better than president Obama or Hillary.

FOWLER: I don't think so at all, right, and I the American people are definitely hurting. I think the LGBTQ community across this country is hurting from the hate crime that took place at the Pulse nightclub and I don't think being angry, spewing hatred, is the way to solve it. And that's what Donald Trump has done. I think his supporters love it. The American people, the LGBTQ community, they don't like it, and that's part of the problem, they're the victims here tonight.

KELLY: Boris, I don't know, you know, all along Trump has been able to find a seam in the society that nobody else has found.

EPSTEIN: Of course, all of America is hurting. No one community hurts more than another. All of America is hurting and Donald Trump's been out there saying he wants to protect all of America -- radical Islamists, anti-woman, anti-gay, anti-freedom, anti-freedom of religion, anti-Christian, anti- Jews. Radical Islam is the scourge that's causing these attacks and it's vital to go out there and run (ph) your enemy. In World War II...

FOWLER: In what way?

EPSTEIN: Richard, let me finish now, let me finish. In World War II, what would it be like if America were fighting the Nazis and say, well, we're not going to name our enemy? Well, you have to know who your enemy is in the journey (ph). And that is why Donald Trump leads Hillary Clinton in polling on national security by ten points and I will tell you that it'd be higher now because he is the one that's leading this country right now not Barrack Obama or should I say.

KELLY: He's ahead of her by eight points in the latest poll.

FOWLER: Well, I hear that Megyn, but I'm glad that Boris bought up World War II because what Donald Trump is calling for by banning all Muslim travelling to the United States is the same as Japanese internment camps right here in America in World War II.

EPSTEIN: Which are legally...

(Crosstalk)

FOWLER: Are you going to let me finish?

KELLY: He's not talking about American citizens. But Richard, just to for the record, he's not talking about American citizens.

FOWLER: But he hasn't specified if he's talking about American citizens...

(Crosstalk)

KELLY: He just clarified, you know, he just clarified. Originally, it was unclear but he clarified it and he said now we're talking about foreign Muslims trying to come into the United States and it would temporary and there would be exceptions.

FOWLER: Fair enough -- fair enough Megyn but that's still -- that type of language, the idea that you're going to punish a whole religion for one crazy hateful individual or a couple of crazy individuals...

EPSTEIN: One individual...

(Crosstalk)

FOWLER: Can I finish Boris? It's one, un-American and it's two, not part of our populous. Not who we are as a country. Look at what's happening down in Orlando. You look at LGBTQ Center, they have open arms saying come, we welcome you. The opposite of what Donald Trump is spewing, the absolute opposite.

EPSTEIN: You're incorrect historically, as it just became obvious. You're incorrect that it's not the same as the Japanese...

FOWLER: It is the same.

EPSTEIN: And secondly, it's completely...

FOWLER: It's the same rhetoric.

EPSTEIN: It's not. It's one thing that completely caused the shooting

FOWLER: It's the same rhetoric of hate that caused the shooting at the Pulse nightclub...

(Crosstalk)

KELLY: Thank you both for being here. I'm coming up on a break. There's been a lot of mystery about what went down -- the three hours Omar Mateen held hostages at Pulse nightclub. Tonight, we'll tell you what happened.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KELLY: Breaking tonight, there is new information about what unfolded inside of Pulse nightclub as club goers awaited their fate during a three hour hostage situation. The details come from survivors of that standoff who are now speaking out and offering gripping firsthand accounts of what it was like to live through terror. Trace Gallagher is in our West Coast newsroom tonight with more, Trace.

TRACE GALLAGHER, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Megyn, the initial attack lasted minutes, the standoff lasted hours. The killer holed up in a bathroom with the dead, the living and those playing dead to stay alive. Watch and read closely.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, I had to. And my friend was with me in the stall just as well she followed my lead and I'm glad I was able to guide her playing the role.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GALLAGHER: That man is Orlando. He says his female friend and he kept their legs above the toilet, out of sight and braced against the door. He said the killer got closer. The gunfire got louder. And finally, he was upon them. First opening the stall next door then opening fire. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Every time I heard a shot, I was hoping he wasn't taking away a friend of mine.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GALLAGHER: As the hours passed, those inside the bathroom say the killer called 911 pledging allegiance to Isis and warned those still alive not to text anyone. Tiara Parker says she was in a stall laying in blood and body parts and the killer knew she was alive. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TIARA PARKER, HOSTAGE SURVIVOR: I've seen him peek under the stall and look me in my face and from then on, I thought my life was over because not so long after that, he said something about him having a bomb to take out a city block.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GALLAGHER: When the gunfire first erupted inside the club, Patience Carter ran outside and escaped. But she went back inside to save a friend and ended up among the bathroom hostages. She says even when police finally stormed in, the killing was not over. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PATIENCE CARTER, HOSTAGE SURVIVOR: He said, "Hey, you." to someone on the floor inside the bathroom and shot them. He shot another person and then shot another person who happened to be directly behind me who I'm told through the eyes of Tiara that shielded me with their own body to make sure that I wasn't hit. So, and I don't know who that person is and I don't know the name of that person, but if I could -- if they're somewhere watching from -- thank you. Thank you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GALLAGHER: Yeah. A heartfelt thank you because for three hours, they all thought their time was up. Megyn?

KELLY: God good gracious. Trace, thank you. When we come back, a powerful story of the doctors who saved so many.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KELLY: Over these last three days we have heard inspiring stories of resilience and strength emerging from the horror in Orlando. Tonight, this photo going viral showing the blood soaked shoes of an Orlando surgeon who worked alongside colleagues to save lives. Dr. Joshua Corsa writing, "I will continue to wear these shoes and when the last patient leaves our hospital, I will keep them in my office. I want to see them in front of me every time I go to work. For on June 12th after the worst of humanity reared its evil head, I saw the best of humanity fighting right back."

It was an incredible scene today at the hospital as those doctors walked us through the hell they went through and the gifts they gave those patients. Thank you for watching. I'm Megyn Kelly.

Content and Programming Copyright 2016 Fox News Network, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Copyright 2016 CQ-Roll Call, Inc. All materials herein are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of CQ-Roll Call. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content.