MSNBC journalists on Monday responded with a shrug to the announcement that the FBI would release the uncensored transcripts the Orlando killer’s 911 calls (after initially redacting parts). NBC justice correspondent Pete Williams could not figure out what the big deal was and responded to the breaking news with puzzlement: “Not much of the information was omitted. I must say, I don't get the excitement about all of this because we already knew what was in the redactions.”
Williams blithely explained, “[Omar Mateen] said twice that wanted to pledge allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi of the Islamic State, both times that he said that, that was left out. That's it.”
The journalist minimized, “Two people in Congress said that they thought this was a mistake not to put it in there and so, now, the FBI has put it in there.”
Earlier in the day, ABC and NBC didn’t seem to find anything controversial about the Justice Department’s decision. ABC’s Good Morning America minimized it to a one sentence explanation. On NBC’s Today, correspondent Gab Gutierrez breezily noted, “Later today, the FBI is expected to release partial transcripts of the three 911 calls between the gunman, Omar Mateen.”
A transcript of the exchange:
MSNBC Live
6/20/16
3:25pm ETKRISTEN WELKER: The FBI re-released the call transcripts from the shooting without any redactions. Partial transcripts were released earlier but much of the information, including the name of the person to whom the shooter claims allegiance was omitted. Let’s get right to NBC Justice correspondent Pete Williams. So, Pete, what can you tell us about this and what’s the significance?
PETE WILLIAMS: Not much of the information was omitted. I must say, I don't get the excitement about all of this because we already knew what was in the redactions, I don't know if we have the words up here, but in the original release by the FBI, where he said twice that wanted to pledge allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi of the Islamic State, both times that he said that, that was left out. That's it. That was left out of here and the reason the FBI did it, they said, is they did not want to, basically, re-amplify his propaganda. But there was concern expressed by at least two people in Congress that they thought this was a mistake not to put it in there and so, now, the FBI has put it in there.
But the news here, Kristen, is the time line of events. This is really an extraordinary amount of detail about what police were doing from the time the first shots were fired until Omar Mateen was killed about three hours later and gives us detail minute by minute of what was happening. It’s detail that the police has only hinted at and it gives us more of the minute by minute of what was happening.
