'This Week' Transcript 10-8-17: Aftermath of the Las Vegas Mass Shooting

— -- ANNOUNCER: This Week with George Stephanopoulos starts right now.

MARTHA RADDATZ, HOST: One week of tragedy in Las Vegas.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everybody, go.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: America is truly a nation in mourning.

RADDATZ: Still so many unanswered questions.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are looking at every aspect from birth to death of this suspect.

RADDATZ: What was the gunman's motive? This morning, our team with the latest details as we learn more about the attacker.

TRUMP: This was a sick person, but probably smart.

RADDATZ: And as the gun control debate reignites.

REP. JOHN LEWIS, (D) GEORGIA: After Newtown and Aurora, after Charleston and Orlando, now Las Vegas, how many more must die?

RADDATZ: Is the White House open to new regulations, and will congress take action? I talk to representatives from both sides of the aisle in a rare conversation together.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why are we so afraid to have a conversation?

UNIDENIFIED MALE: So I'm not afraid to have a conversation. I'm here having a conversation.

RADDATZ: Can they bridge the divide?

Plus, Trump's cryptic comments.

TRUMP: You guys know what this represents? Maybe it's the calm before the storm.

RADDATZ: What does that really mean? And faced with tensions at home and abroad, what's the president's next move? Our Powerhouse Roundtable takes that on and the latest on the Gulf Coast taking a direct hit from Tropical Storm Nate.

From the White House to your house, we take on the moments that mattered this week.

ANNOUNCER: From ABC News, it's This Week. Here now, co-anchor Martha Raddatz.

RADDATZ: Good morning.

What a week. A devastating national tragedy in Las Vegas claiming 58 lives and leaving hundreds injured. An epic natural disaster in Puerto Rico. Millions of American citizens still struggling to recover. An alarming nuclear showdown with North Korea, both sides doubling down.

Over the next hour, we'll explore the president's response to crises both at home and abroad. And in just a moment, a rare conversation with two lawmakers, both Iraq War veterans, from opposite sides of the aisle on whether a new generation of lawmakers has what it takes to break through the stalemate over guns.

But we begin with yet another challenge, a dangerous tropical storm now making its way through the south. It hit land overnight as a category 1 hurricane, the fourth hurricane to hit the U.S. this season.

Let's go to ABC's Steve Osunsami in Biloxi, Mississippi, where Hurricane Nate made landfall last night. Good morning, Steve. A long night there for you.

STEVE OSUNSAMI, ABC NEWS: Yes, it was.

Martha, one of the things we noticed when we went out looking this morning is directly behind me, this sailboat shouldn't be here. The winds, which we know reached up to 85 miles an hour were strong enough to push it from wherever it was onto the beach. Another thing that they're dealing with this morning is cleaning up after the storm surge. The water that came into the casinos, their basements was so high, it flooded cars that were in their barking garages. We're talking about several feet of water. It has since receded.

City officials here, though, say that they are fortunate and thankful that no one was hurt. There doesn't appear to be any homes that were destroyed, but the cleanup will certainly begin here this morning -- Martha.

RADDATZ: Thanks very much, Steve. Let's look at the forecast for Nate with ABC News senior meteorologist Rob Marciano.

Rob, where does this storm head now?

ROB MARCIANO, ABC NEWS SENIOR METEOROLOGIST: Well, good morning, Martha. It is racing off towards the north and east. And saving grace with Nate the whole time has been its forward speed allow it not to really strengthen to a major hurricane. And now it's weakening rapidly as it races across Alabama. Heavy rain with this. And the track is going to bring it across Tennessee and up through Kentucky over the Appalachians and into the northeast over the next two days.

So everybody in the eastern quarter of the country really going to get a piece of what Nate has to offer. And that include some wind. Most of the wing, pretty much all of the heavy wind is east ofthe center. And we could see some more power outages in northern Alabama and Georgia today as winds gust well over 30 miles an our, even winds gusting over 30 miles an hour across the east coast during the day tomorrow.

Rainfall, of course, with this.

Now some folks need the rain, but as with all tropical systems any time you get tropical downpours, it can come down fast and furious and create some flooding here and we expect some of that in pockets over the next 36 to 48 hours.

This is the -- including Maria -- this is the fourth hurricane to make landfall in the U.S. in the last 45 days, and the ninth storm, Martha, to reach hurricane status, an incredibly busy season for sure.

RADDATZ: It certainly has been. Thanks very much, Rob.

MARCIANO: You bet.

RADDATZ: So let's bring in FEMA Administrator Brock Long.

Mr. Long, thanks for joining us this morning. Tell us what FEMA is doing right now.

BROCK LONG, FEMA ADMINISTRATOR: Good morning. So right now the focus is on supporting all of the governors from Louisiana to Florida with their life-saving missions. Over the past 48 to 72 hours we've been working with them around the clock to pre-stage commodities and embed our incident management teams with the emergency management directors in their EOCs.

The most important thing about this storm is this is one of the fastest-moving storms in the Gulf Coast since they've started to record tropical history. And so that's very dangerous for many reasons. One, while it's a 45-mile-per-hour tropical storm right now, you have to add to it the forward speed of 23 miles an hour.

So basically hurricane-force winds or just right at hurricane-force winds are going to pass through many portions of Alabama into Tennessee. And then also when it interacts with the mountains within western North Carolina, a lot of rainfall is going to occur from this as well.

RADDATZ: And we know it's the fourth hurricane so far this year. We have about two months left in hurricane season. What are your concerns going forward? Do you have enough people? Do you have enough money?

LONG: Money is not the issue. Congress has been on top of that working with us. Back on October1, we had another 6.7 billion added to the disaster relief fund. And we continue to update them on a regular basis and will ask for supplementals as needed.

In regards to resources, of course we're strained. You know, bottom line is, is that over nearly 85 percent of my entire agency is deployed right now. We're still working massive issues in Harvey, Irma, as well as the issues in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, and now this one.

But the bottom line is, is that we're positioned to support Nate, you know, very well. The next thing is, is that, you know, some of the fail-safes that we have are through mutual aid agreements with states to be able to call upon emergency managers from other states and around the states if we continueto have more disasters.

RADDATZ: And, Mr. Long, let's turn to Puerto Rico. The mayor of San Juan tweeting again this morning, saying power collapses in San Juan hospital with two patients being transferred out, have requested support from FEMA, Brock, nothing.

And she also says: "Increasingly painful to understand the American people want to help and U.S. government does not want to help. We need water." What's your reaction to that?

LONG: We filtered out the mayor a long time ago. We don't have time for the political noise. The bottom line is, is that we are making progress every day in conjunction with the governor. And in regards to the power failure, we're restringing a very fragile system every day. As we make progress, simple thunder storms pass through, knocked the progress out.

Rebuilding, rebuilding Puerto Rico is going to be a greater conversation for the Congress in conjunction with the governor on how they're -- you know, what the way forward is in the future of Puerto Rico.

But in regards to the power outages and the hospitals, we built an entire 911 system. We monitor the hospital system daily. And so if there is a power failure at a hospital, which we've seen two of, you know, over this past week, we're actually life-flighting (ph) the ICU patients out of those hospitals, onto the USS Comfort.

And we continue to stabilize that situation with hospitals. But as far as the political noise, we filter that out, keeps our heads down, and continue to make progress, and push forward restoring essential functions for Puerto Rico.

RADDATZ: OK, thanks very much for joining us, Mr. Long.

LONG: Thank you.

So basically hurricane-force winds or just right at hurricane-force winds are going to pass through many portions of Alabama into Tennessee. And then also when it interacts with the mountains within western North Carolina, a lot of rainfall is going to occur from this as well.

RADDATZ: And we know it's the fourth hurricane so far this year. We have about two months left in hurricane season. What are your concerns going forward? Do you have enough people? Do you have enough money?

LONG: Money is not the issue. Congress has been on top of that working with us. Back on October1, we had another 6.7 billion added to the disaster relief fund. And we continue to update them on a regular basis and will ask for supplementals as needed.

In regards to resources, of course we're strained. You know, bottom line is, is that over nearly 85 percent of my entire agency is deployed right now. We're still working massive issues in Harvey, Irma, as well as the issues in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, and now this one.

But the bottom line is, is that we're positioned to support Nate, you know, very well. The next thing is, is that, you know, some of the fail-safes that we have are through mutual aid agreements with states to be able to call upon emergency managers from other states and around the states if we continueto have more disasters.

RADDATZ: And, Mr. Long, let's turn to Puerto Rico. The mayor of San Juan tweeting again this morning, saying power collapses in San Juan hospital with two patients being transferred out, have requested support from FEMA, Brock, nothing.

And she also says: "Increasingly painful to understand the American people want to help and U.S. government does not want to help. We need water." What's your reaction to that?

LONG: We filtered out the mayor a long time ago. We don't have time for the political noise. The bottom line is, is that we are making progress every day in conjunction with the governor. And in regards to the power failure, we're restringing a very fragile system every day. As we make progress, simple thunder storms pass through, knocked the progress out.

Rebuilding, rebuilding Puerto Rico is going to be a greater conversation for the Congress in conjunction with the governor on how they're -- you know, what the way forward is in the future of Puerto Rico.

But in regards to the power outages and the hospitals, we built an entire 911 system. We monitor the hospital system daily. And so if there is a power failure at a hospital, which we've seen two of, you know, over this past week, we're actually life-flighting (ph) the ICU patients out of those hospitals, onto the USS Comfort.

And we continue to stabilize that situation with hospitals. But as far as the political noise, we filter that out, keeps our heads down, and continue to make progress, and push forward restoring essential functions for Puerto Rico.

RADDATZ: OK, thanks very much for joining us, Mr. Long.

LONG: Thank you.

RADDATZ: Now to new revelations overnight about the state of mind of the Las Vegas killer, about the meaning of those numbers left behind on a note and new insight into what may have driven him to mass murder. Last night the president praised the police response to the shooting, saying their swift action saved lives.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: You know, they got to that room very quickly. Now, they didn't get in because they were playing all sorts of things, they didn't know, are there bombs in there? What -- but they kept his attention. He stopped shooting. In other words, he was focused because you had cameras out there. This was a sick person. But probably smart and he had cameras. But they got there so quickly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RADDATZ: A sick person, but probably smart. Joining me now with the very latest on the mind-set of the shooter, ABC News senior justice correspondent Pierre Thomas and former FBI special agent and ABC News contributor Brad Garrett.

Good morning, gentlemen. Here we are talking about these things once again. But, Pierre, I know you have some reporting overnight about the state of the shooter's mind.

PIERRE THOMAS, ABC SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, the portrait that's emerging is of a man who had probably severe undiagnosed mental health issues. And they are stunned that nearly a week out they still have no clear motive after hundreds of interviews spanning this country and overseas, no manifesto, no suicide note, no social media footprint, nothing to indicate a clear motive, Martha, and they're quite frustrated.

RADDATZ: And what led them to believe there was undiagnosed mental illness? Obviously anybody who carries out something like this, something is wrong with them. But give us a little more detail, if you can.

THOMAS: Well, the profilers at the FBI and behavioral scientists are looking at some of the witness interviews that have been done. And the portrait that emerges is of a man who had difficulty connecting with people, anti-social behavior. It's a lot of the patterns that they've seen in past mass shooters. And they think that's what's unfolding here.

RADDATZ: And, Brad, you and I have sat in my office for hours this week trying to take a look at this. It has been fascinating hearing what you have to say as you look at this, because this seems so unlike mass shootings before.

BRAD GARRETT, ABC CONTRIBUTOR: Well, think about it this way, Martha. You have a guy who is wealthy, What does that buy you? Isolation and independence. You don't need the rest of us to get through your day. Well, the rest of us, that's what gives you feedback and it also would give law enforcement or mental health people feedback.

This is a guy that totally lived on his own, gambled 10, 12, 14 hours a day. And so as...

RADDATZ: Was in a relationship, though.

GARRETT: Well, yes, but I think not in a relationship that most of us would define as far as super closeness, I know what you're doing all the time, particularly what was going on inside his head. And so what happens is you get older, all of that stuff starts to distort even bigger.

And I think, you know, anxiety and depression are super high in gamblers. And I think the combination of that and the isolation, the rage continued to build up. What's fascinating with him, he chose to pick a venue where his total identity was hooked.

RADDATZ: I was at a gun shop this week. And I want to run something with the owner of that gun shop, whichI asked him about who he'd sell a weapon to.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you say something that I don't like because it made me feel uncomfortable, then you're not getting a gun.

RADDATZ: What kind of things would make you feel uncomfortable?

UNINDENTIFIED MALE: Questions like, you know, what's the effective range on human targets? Does one round or another make things blow up?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RADDATZ: So what do you do about a person like that, Pierre? He could report that person. What could the police do? And back to that mental health issue, you don't want to stigmatize people with mental health issues.

THOMAS: Martha, this is truly the nightmare scenario. You have a man with no criminal background, no real ties to terror, nothing that would indicate that he would be a person that would do this outwardly. So one of the things that they are doing right now is they're going back and they're talking to all these different people that know him and they're looking at what was going on, particularly August...

RADDATZ: Birth to death, right?

THOMAS: Birth to death, but there's a time frame of September to October of last year when he began buying the guns in a much more sustained pattern. And also some of the gambling amounts went up significantly, sources are telling me.

RADDATZ: And, Brad, just quickly, really what can be done about this? I mean, in a way it sort of lowers the bar for what you're looking at in a mass murder?

GARRETT: That's exactly right. We're looking for things that are obvious, people talking to other people, people know that you're buying the guns. But when you have somebody like him that leads -- basically lives his life in total isolation, you're not unfortunately going to stop him, because he didn't talk to anybody. That's the scary thing about this shooter.

RADDATZ: OK, thanks very much, Brad and Pierre, we love to hear your insights onthis.

After horrific events like what happened in Las Vegas, you get the gun debate. One side yelling at the other, not enough talking. If you find that frustrating, you have to stick around for this, Is this the generation that can crack the impasse over guns? Two members of Congress, both veterans, at my kitchen table on opposite sides working it out. That's next. Please stay tuned.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

RADDATZ: That is a bump stock, the device used by the Las Vegas shooter to fire off almost 10 rounds a second, close to the rate of fire from an automatic weapon.

There's a lot of talk in congress this week that bump stocks should be regulated just like machine guns. The NRA even willing to consider that.

It's a rare moment where both sides on the gun debate seem like they may be able to agree, rare, because as we all know, mass shootings almost always send the opposing camps deep into their bunkers.

So, what will it take to break the logjam on the big issues that divide the country on guns? Will it take a new generation? Maybe combat veterans who know all about guns and the damage they cause to get past the politics.

So we got two members of congress, both 38 years old, who have very different views on thegun control debate, to sit together at my kitchen table.

Virginia Republican Scott Taylor, a former Navy SEAL sniper who saw combat in Iraq and recovered from severe injuries sustained there; and Massachusetts Democrat Seth Moulton, a former Marine Corps captain and combat platoon leader who had four tours in Iraq.

And I began by asking Congressman Moulton to make the case for why he thinks gun restriction would decrease gun violence.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

REP. SETH MOULTON, (D) MASSACHUSETTS: Well, it's shown -- they're shown to affect gun violence. I mean, there are plenty of studies that show that states that have tighter gun laws have less gun violence. And this is an American epidemic. It's really a public health crisis.

I've seen the effects of gun violence firsthand in Iraq. And I know that it has no place in our schools, on our streets, at our concerts. And there are things that we can do to reduce it that within the second amendment.

You know, Scott and I swore an oath to protect and defend the constitution of the United States, both as members of congress, and the same oath as a Navy SEAL and a United States Marine, so I don't want to do anything that violates the constitution. But there are common sense things that we can do if democrats and Republicans come together to reduce this violence in our communities.

RADDATZ: You feel entirely differently.

REP. SCOTT TAYLOR, (R) VIRGINIA: Sure.

And let me say it's great to be with you, it's great to be with Seth as well, too. And, look, he like most other folks in congress, both Dems and Republicans, care very deeply about this country. They want to protect the constitution. They want to protect their people. I understand that for sure.

But at the same time, you know when you have a situation that happened, which was tragic, traumatic, and everyone feels the same emotion, they do. But it's up to leaders like us to have -- to see clarity through the emotional chaos and understand that it is a high, very high bar, to be able to take some folks' rights away to try to enact policies that may take their rights away, but not really do anything.

So, when you look at gun violence in America, and when you look at deaths, when you look at like 30,000 some thousand gun -- the overwhelming majority of them are suicides. The overwhelming majority of them use handguns, right. When you look at some of the populations that are more predisposed, I guess, if you will, to gun violence -- there's domestic disputes, there's young men in certain areas, when you do look at some of the cities. When you look at the numbers of them, the vast majority of gun violence are in a few cities. And all have tight restrictions on guns.

You can't have a gun in D.C., but there's still gun violence.

MOULTON: As Justice Scalia has said, you can have restrictions under the Second Amendment, as we do with any amendment to the United States Constitution.

TAYLOR: It is up to us...

MOULTON: And we already restrict -- I mean, you want to protect your family's home.

TAYLOR: Sure.

MOULTON: And a great way to protect your family's home, as you know as a Navy SEAL, would be have some to land mines out in front and have some grenades stockpiled, but we don't allow that in our community, we don't allow those weapons of war here. We don't allow families to own tanks.

So we have reasonable restrictions that are perfectly respectful of the Second Amendment, and we know from experience that restrictions like this, that common sense reforms will help.

TAYLOR: I would love to comment, because you hear reasonable, you hear common sense. Those are all wonderful words that everybody can agree are great, that sounds well. The reality is, though, reasonable common sense, what does that actually mean?

MOULTON: And I would also say...

TAYLOR: Let me just finish that point, though, because I think again I want to say it, we have to see, you and I, have to see clarity in all this emotion and to say it is a high burden for these constitutional rights that we have, whether it's speech, whether it's freedom of the press, whether it's, you know, gun rights, as well, it's a very high burden that shouldn't be swayed just by political emotion.

RADDATZ: Let me talk about that.

MOULTON: Let me stay for a second, though, because I think a lot of times opponents of making these reforms talk about political emotion.

I mean, I'm sitting here. I'm just trying to do something as a leader, as a representative in congress, of communities that want these reforms. Nine out of ten Americans want background checks on guns. In fact, 69 percent of NRA...

RADDATZ: You agree with that.

TAYLOR: There already are background checks.

RADDATZ: Universal background checks at gun shows.

TAYLOR: When you're a federally licensed...

MOULTON: Without loopholes you can get around.

TAYLOR: When you're a federally licensed arm dealer. If you had universal backgrounds, somebody, if they really wanted to, and you very well know this, would be able to get around -- if they want to do harm, they can do that.

MOULTON: Scott, you can always find an exception, but like we don't say that...

TAYLOR: Yeah, but these are the exceptions. These mass shootings.

MOULTON: We don't say, there are exceptions that are unique to America...

TAYLOR: They're not unique to America.

MOULTON: Oh, yes they're are.

TAYLOR: There are more of them America, that's true.

MOULTON: There are far more of them. Far more.

RADDATZ: Why do you think that is? Let's stop there for a second. Why do you think that is? Why do you think there are far more mass shootings in America.

TAYLOR: Let's talk about that. Some guy just -- in France killed 84 people with a car.

MOULTON: How many mass shootings does France have?

TAYLOR: But that's not the point, Seth. The point is, it is not...

MOULTON: That is the point.

TAYLOR: The point is, it's not unique to America. It's not unique to America. Yes, there are more. There's no question about that. I understand that. But the reality is, like I said, I'm not willing to impede on someone's rights, because just because of emotional rhetoric.

And other thing is, when you look at evidence-based studies. You mentioned studies. The things that are proposed, like the background checks, like the assault ban. You know, I know you were supporting in that, they don't necessarily help reduce gun violence.

MOULTON: Actually backgrounds have been unequivocally shown to reduce gun violence.

RADDATZ: Let's talk about mass shootings for a second.

TAYLOR: You're a federally licensed arm dealer, you have to have a background check anyway. I get a background check, you get a background check.

MOULTON: Almost 50 percent of gun sales do not happen through federally licensed dealers.

So I mean look...

TAYLOR: How many of those were used in mass shootings? How many of those were used in mass shootings? Because this guy went through a background check. In Vegas, you went through a background check.

MOULTON: You can always find an example of what certain mass shooting...

TAYLOR: But I'm looking for -- you mentioned one thing, you said...

MOULTON: Nine out of 10...

(CROSSTALK)

TAYLOR: I want to get things done, too.

MOULTON: So, let's look at Virginians. Nine out of 10 people...

TAYLOR: That's not true. That is not true.

MOULTON: Nine out of 10 Americans want us to do this. Why are we so afraid to have a conversation?

TAYLOR: So, I'm not afraid to have a conversation. I'm here having a conversation. I am not going -- I'm not willing to impede on people's rights based upon your political desires. I'm just not.

RADDATZ: I want to go back, and you watched this horrible event this week, just horrible, horrible.

TAYLOR: Sure.

RADDATZ: Is there anything you thought that we should do differently as a nation?

TAYLOR: That's a great question.

When you look at -- let's look at this instance, you know, because like I said there's a lot of rhetoric out there. You got to do background checks and all these things. Well, this guy went through checks. And there was nothing -- his brother didn't know anything wrong with him. We didn't.

Look, I'm still struggling with that profile as well too. I don't understand. I think there's probably some other information that is going to come out.

But the reality is when you look at some of the things that have been proposed on the other side are people who want gun control, none of them would have done anything about this issue.

Now, I'm not saying we shouldn't do something, I'm saying when you look at gun violence in America, and when you look at the populations that are more affected by it than other ones, I think there are some things that we can work together on doing.

But simple just saying we're -- gun control without confiscating them, because if you want to confiscate them, yeah, maybe we could do it then, but then you probably have civil war.

RADDATZ: How about fully automatic weapons? Should those be legal without these restriction.

TAYLOR: That's a great question. I watched the video, and I listened to that rate of fire, and I'm sure that you did as well, too, and you probably heard the same thing that I did.

It was faster than semiautomatic. It was not as fast as fully automatic. It wasn't a sustained and fully automatic. But it was fast. The rate of fire was fast.

And I hadn't even heard of bump stocks, and then I did some research on it. I think that that should be re-evaluated. I think they should look at that again and figure out if, in fact, it should meet the same burden of a fully automatic, because, of course, it is faster than semiautomatic.

RADDATZ: How do you draw the line? I mean, semiautomatic, you can fire pretty quickly and do a lot of damage, too. Why do people nose those weapons?

TAYLOR: I don't feel like a semiautomatic weapon rises to that level of an automatic weapon.

I said, I do believe when you look at this bump stock and I think that ATF should re-evaluate them.

MOULTON: Martha, first of all, let me just say that, you know, Scott and I don't agree on all the details here. We both support the Second Amendment. We obviously disagree on exactly how gun reform should be carried out. But I respect the fact that you're willing to have the conversation. And this is the kind of conversation that we should be having; democrats and Republicans across the aisle doing our job as representatives of congress, representing the people in America.

And when the American people are saying we need to do some thing about these mass shootings, we should be having conversations like this.

And I'm actually working on a bipartisan bill that will eliminate this bump stock exception, and will try to address the other ways that you can get around this law.

Look, the gun manufacturers are smart. They figured out a way to get around the law. It's the job of congress to then step in and say that was not our intent. We did not want to provide this loophole in the law, so we should fix it.

RADDATZ: We've had conversations about Fort Hood shooting. We've had conversations about Newtown. We've had conversations about the Navy Yard shooting over the years. Nothing has really changed. So why do you think this will resonate now?

MOULTON: You know, I don't know how many innocent Americans need to die in mass shootings like this before we're willing to simply have these discussions. I'm sitting down with Republicans in the House of Representatives working on legislation because of this mass shooting.

The sad thing is that if we don't get anything done this time, we all know there will be another one. And someday, we'll have the courage to do something that's respectful of the Second Amendment, that respects the fact that we're a society that people like to hunt and people have the right to own guns, but not weapons of war. We have ways that we can reduce this violence. We're not going to elminate it. You're right, Scott. There's no silver bullet that is going to eliminate all of these things.

I mean, look, you live in Virginia. Virginia outlaws homicides and rapes, right? That doesn't mean that people don't get around the law and still figure out how to kill people.

But you're also not going to repeal that law, right, and say we're not going to have any restrictions. I mean, there are common sense reforms, there are common sense laws that we can pass that are respectful of gun rights, that still will reduce this public health crisis in America.

TAYLOR: I hear reasonable. I hear common sense, that sounds great, sounds great. But at the same time, when -- like what are they? What are they that actually, backed by evidence, do something? And I have not seen that. And I know that you support the Second Amendment. We disagree on how much we both support it, or where it is. That's fine. Reasonable people can disagree, of course.

But the Second Amendment is not just for hunting. And you know you hear that a lot, oh, it's for hunting. It's not for hunting. And I get how weapons have changed over time, but the Second Amendment was put in place to be able to overthrow tyranny, and with weapons of war at the time.

Now, look, I don't disagree that people shouldn't have tanks and stuff like that, but let's not misunderstand history. I mean that's why it's there.

So I think there are people who feel very, very strongly about that, very strongly. And same on your side as well too.

And, look, I applaud you for reaching across the aisle and trying to figure out ways that that are reasonable, you know, that aren't what I've heard in some of the emotional, not you, but emotional other folks with your party that have come out and said things that I don't final reasonable. I find they take people's rights away.

MOULTON: But do you think restricting these modifications like bump stocks and other things that turn semiautomatic weapons into automatic weapons that we've outlawed before. I mean, do you think that's reasonable?

TAYLOR: I think that you -- I think, yes, so you could create a law that says, OK, you can't modify your semiautomatic to automatic, which is already illegal, right, but you know as well as I do that it's not that hard to figure out -- if you want to figure it out, and you're a little bit crafty, you can do it, you know that.

And so if you just create a law, you're already outside of the law if you're doing it.

MOULTON: I do. But the reality is that these bump stocks are available for sale. I mean we don't know if the shooter had the skills to modify his...

RADDATZ: Had you ever heard of them before?

MOULTON: I had not heard of them before, either.

TAYLOR: I hadn't either.

MOULTON: But you know there's a difference between being able to machine a part to make a weapon into an automatic weapon versus just buying something off the shelf.

RADDATZ: So where do we go from here? Where do you think we'll be a year from now?

MOULTON: I hope that this conversation will continue. You know, it took some courage for Scott to show up here, especially as a Republican, because a lot of Republicans are not willing to have this conversation.

And I'm willing to sit down as a Democrat and be reasonable. But these are the conversations that we should be having in congress to protect the American people. And let's not say that just because people are emotional. I mean, my gosh, I'm kind of emotional. I mean, to see that many innocent Americans killed senselessly, of course that's emotional, but we've got to take action. We've got to do something.

TAYLOR: And I'm more than willing to sit down and have a conversation to figure out how we can help out, but the action that we take should be reasonable and common sense, of course, and it shouldn't unnecessarily infringe on people's constitutional rights.

So I enjoyed the conversation and I look forward to having a lot more.

MOULTON: All right.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

RADDATZ: And I enjoyed it, as well. Our thanks to both congressmen for having that conversation.

When we come back, the powerhouse "Roundtable" is here, ready to take on a busy week in politics and the latest war of words with North Korea. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you.

QUESTION: Mr. President, what did you mean by "calm before the storm" yesterday? What did you mean by that?

TRUMP: Thank you very much. You'll find out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RADDATZ: ABC's Cecilia Vega asking President Trump about that cryptic comment this weekend. That wink as well. The powerhouse "Roundtable" joins me now. ABC News political analyst Matthew Dowd; Jeanne Cummings, The Wall Street Journal's deputy bureau chief; NPR White House reporter Geoff Bennett; and Susan Glasser, Politico's chief international affairscolumnist.

Welcome to all of you. So much to talk about this week. And I want to start with those comments. Susan, what did you make of that? I don't think anybody expected that.

SUSAN GLASSER, CHIEF INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS COLUMNIST, POLITICO: No, nobody expected that. We're still waiting to find out. The storm, is it the next hurricane in the wave of Atlantic hurricanes that seems to be extending on forever? Is it some international crisis? Is it North Korea? Is it a follow-up to the "fire and fury" comment of President Trump back in August?

We don't know, but I think we all feel like maybe it's just this week's cliffhanger in the episode of the Trump show.

RADDATZ: And, Geoff, his aides did not know about that. And, you know, the military standing behind him were probably cringing.

BENNETT: That's right. And the fact that no senior Trump administration official, including the vice president, wants to engage on questions about what the president actually meant I think suggests that the president was just speaking entirely off the cuff here. He was in a mood to make mischief and to be messed with the press a little bit.

RADDATZ: Whether he's talking off the cuff or not, the world watches. What do you think the reaction is around the world there, Matt Dowd, not that you're, you know, our world affairs correspondent but I think you got a little...

DOWD: Tales of the cryptic comments.

I was thinking about this as I was watching him and oviously this has been going on off and on since January 20. This is the Halloween presidency. And I say it in that he says all these kind of things that bring horror to many people that he says these things and people are scared out of their minds and that everybody else is asking trick-or-treat. What is about to happen in this?

This is a presidency that is all visceral, that's all visceral action. I don't think there's any strategic part of this presidency at all, let alone North Korea, Iran, whatever it happens to be, I don't think he fundamentally has a strategy. The only strategy is leave them wanting, leave them wanting.

RADDATZ: And leave them guessing.

Jeanne Cummings, everybody's mind, as Susan said, I think, went to North Korea. That is without question the biggest crisis that we're facing now.

He tweeted this week, presidents and their administrations have been talking to North Korea for 25 years, agreements made and massive amounts of money paid hasn't worked. Agreements violated before the ink was dry making fools of U.S. negotiators. Sorry but only one thing will work.

And is he calling his secretary there a fool?

So where are we on North Korea? To me it's coercive diplomacy. It's part of that.

CUMMINGS: It is.

I mean, there is an argument to be made that we have tried the same thing over and over again with North Korea and it hasn't worked. I mean, we at the journal have a video about -- with these experts who have been tracking North Korea who believe they already have nuclear weapons and that we already are there and we have to learn to live in a world with that.

So I mean if you look at Obama and Cuba, he said, look, we've done that are to 50 years. It didn't work. If there is an argument to be made -- what's I think disorienting right now is that we have a good cop/bad cop scenario going on as we approach North Korea. And the bad cop is the president, that's what -- that's really disorienting. Usually the president is the good cop and the secretary of state or defense secretary would be the bad cop.

DOWD: We've often the rational actor in this. Well, it seems to be the head of North Korea is the rational actor in all of this.

I actually think there's one thing we haven't tried which is letting North Korea and South Korea manage the part of this and figure out what they want to do. It's always been a policy of ours and Russia and China is we're somehow going to impose it on the Korean peninsula. We're going to impose it on them.

RADDATZ: And yet, if he perfects a missile that can reach the United States, I'm not sure we're going to like them more.

DOWD: Well, and I don't think -- whatever we're doing or have done isn't going to do anything to stop that. We ought to get to a place where our policy should be containment or deterrence, just like it is with every other country that has nuclear weapons. We are not going to do anything to stop him from getting a nuclear weapon.

RADDATZ: And Geoff, we know what happened with Rex Tillerson this week. He actually came out and said I never wanted to resign and he didn't quite say he didn't call the president a moron, but his spokesperson came out and later said that.

Does he stay? Does he pretty much have to stay now?

BENNETT: I think he stays at least until the scheduled trip to Asia, which is happening in early November. It doesn't seem that there's any situation in which he could step down before that. But it does beg the question can he be effective in this role, because secretary of state is effective -- you know, his relationship really rests in the kind of relationship that he has with the president, his perception overseas.

And yet you have all these world leaders who believe that he thinks that the president of theUnited States is a moron, as was reported, and that Trump doesn't have, you know, faith in his top diplomat.

RADDATZ: And Susan, I want to turn to Iran. The president is expected to announce next week that he will decertify the Iran nuclear agreement. So what happens with that? And then it ends up with congress.

GLASSER: Well, that's right. It is going to be a lot of fancy footwork, because basically sincethe campaign trail, since his speech at the UN, remember, President Trump came out, he said it's an embarrassment. It's the worst deal ever. So he's left his advisers scrambling. And now they're actually going to put out it appears this week almost an awkward split the baby proposal where Trump is going to with great fanfare say I'm not certifying the deal. It's no longer in the national interest of the United States, but the policy is going to be basically we're going to you, congress, but we don't want you to do anything just yet. And now we'll see if we've created leverage in order to negotiate a better deal.

Of course, the Iranians...

DOWD: The discomfort -- I mean, everybody was going to get comfort in the idea that Donald Trump was surrounding himself with people that knew what they were doing -- General Mattis, Rex Tillerson, all that. But now in two instances it looks like he is going to do exactly exactly the opposite of what they want. In one, he's disregarding diplomacy in North Korea, which Rex Tillerson seems to want to do, and the other, Jim Mattis, seems to be saying, no, we need to not do that in Iran. It's actually working -- and if we move forward in the same way it'll continue to work.

He seems to be going the opposite of those things that people give us comfort.

RADDATZ: OK, we're just getting started here. We'll be right back with more.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

RADDATZ: So will congress actually get something done about gun violence? The roundtable takes on that debate when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, 43RD PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Good afternoon. On my orders, the United States military has begun strikes against al Qaeda terrorist training camps and military installations of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RADDATZ: President George W. Bush 16 years ago this weekend, the start of America's longest war. It's just extraordinary, Susan, to think back at how long we've been there and that we're now putting in about 3,500 more U.S. troops beginning the 17th year. We'll have about 14,000 here. Will it make a difference?

GLASSER: You know, it's amazing, I went back recently and read a story I wrote in September of 2001 quoting Soviet generals who knew it all too well. They said, it's easy to go to war in Afghanistan and it's really hard to leave.

RADDATZ: You know, and I think of the soldiers and marines who are headed over there who were toddlers when 9/11 happened.

DOWD: Yes, it's -- there are soldiers now that are having children older than the war -- I mean, older than the war.

RADDATZ: And do you think it will make a difference, those troops?

DOWD: None. It's not going to make any difference at all. And I think at that point in time, we need to (INAUDIBLE), which is every other empire, the British Empire, the Soviet empire, even Alexander the Great, at some point you just have to pull out because you realize it's not going to work.

RADDATZ: OK. And I want to turn back to more domestic issues here, Jeanne, and I want to start with you. And you heard the very civil gun debate we had between the two members of Congress, but do you think there will be any legislation, especially about those bump -- actually the NRA said they believe the device is designed to allow semiautomatic rifles to function like fully automatic rifles, should be subject to additional regulations.

So is that a sign they'll do something?

CUMMINGS: It is a sign that they want to do something. The trouble is if you look at the regulations, they have -- the ATF cannot do it by itself. And they're going to have to move a bill if they want to do it properly. And once you put a piece of gun legislation on the Senate floor, strange things can happen.

So, I mean, I think the NRA wants it to be regulation because that's a piece of paper. They can help write the sentence. They can keep it really, really narrow. But if you talk to the ATF, they told us that this is not an area in which they have the authority to regulate. They need Congress to give them that authority, that means legislation.

RADDATZ: And, Geoff, if there is something that happens, if there is a change, is it really that much different because the fully automatic -- it's the same regulations as you would have on fully automatic weapons?

BENNETT: That's right, yes.

RADDATZ: I think most people just didn't even know these existed.

BENNETT: Yes, before a week ago most people didn't know that these bump stocks existed. And gun enthusiasts didn't really know that they existed. I mean, it's considered to be a novelty item. The NRA would rather have this be a conversation about this very specific thing than have a very large argument about the gun control debate.

And the GOP is really caught in this position of, you know, sort of instinctively trying to defend gun rights and then being seen as doing nothing in the wake of what was the most...

(CROSSTALK)

RADDTAZ: In many ways, is it harder story get gun restrictions after this shooting because he bought all those guns legally for those who want to have restrictions.

DOWD: I don't know what it's going to take for us to finally do something after all of these thing -- Sandy Hook, this, what happened in Orlando, all of these things. I own three rifles and two shotgun. I live this Texas. I'm a reasonable -- hopefully reasonably responsible gun owner. And most reasonable responsible gun owners think something should be done.

Here are two facts that I think people ought to realize. In the last 50 years, more people have died from guns than died in all the wars in all the battles that the United States has been in since the revolution. More Americans have been killed in the last 50 years by guns than died in all those battles.

And second, more Americans were killed in Las Vegas in that shooting than have died from radical Islamic terrorism in the United States in the last ten years.

RADDATZ: Saw that statistic.

DOWD: The talking is done. The problem is we have to at least start to do something because if we do nothing this is going to continue.

RADDATZ: And, of course, we had Pierre reporting earlier about mental health issues.

I want to move on to the birth control issue. And the Trump administration announced Friday it's rolling back the mandate for health insurance to cover birth control, allowing employers to opt out based on their religious belief. Where does this go, Susan?

GLASSER: Well, you know, look, I think what you see is this is a way of once again focusing like a laser on what Trump perceives to be the political base that brought him to power. And, you know, they are not taking a let's make a deal whether it's on gun control or birth control.

RADDATZ: Or transgender people.

GLASSER: Absolutely.

The strategy is very clear, it's to focus on 2020 in a way, even more than 2018, to focus on the president and who brung him. And I think that you also see they have appointed a very conservative executive branch government, so Trump might not have his own sort of cadre of Trumpians to come into power, which is why we see these fights inside the White House, right, but there is a very clear group of people who have come and to different executive agencies of the Trump administration and they are systemically, you know, rolling back policies they disagreed with fervently of eight years of President Obama.

I think it's not going to change the minds of almost anybody, right, but it might be somethingthat earns Trump a little bit more goodwill with his voters that he's going to need.

BENNETT: That's absolutely right. And it's one of the reasons why, though, Democrats don't view as credible President Trump's overtures to Chuck Schumer to find some sort of bipartisan approach to fixing health care because of the way they view the Trump administration as, you know, vandalizing and sabotaging the Affordable Care Act. And this is one of the things they point to.

DOWD: It's ludicrous. We are not going to decrease access to guns, but we're going to decrease access to birth control in our country? And to me, the argument is if you want to lessen abortion in the country, which many of the religious community does, increasing -- decreasing the ability of women to get birth control is only going to make that worse.

RADDATZ: And, Jeanne, I want to go back to the Hill and the Russia investigation. It was a year ago that the intelligence community said that Russia interfered with the elections. We're learning more and more about this, the Facebook ads. Where are we with this?

CUMMINGS: Well, we're starting to get -- at least on the Hill we're starting to get into the thick of it, where they're bringing in primary players now to do some public hearings as well as behind the scenes. And, of course, Mueller is hard at work.

The focus now is on what happened on social media and how did they try to influence votes. And we're learning so much about the Russian ads that were bought that echoed some of the Trump campaign themes. And they were in the same neighborhoods and precincts that the Trump campaign needed to win.

RADDATZ: OK. I'm sorry we have got to leave it here. Great talking to all of you.

When we come back, our tribute to the 58 lives lost in Las Vegas.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

RADDATZ: This morning, we pause to remember the 58 lives lost this week in Las Vegas. The special education teacher from California, the husband who died while shielding his wife, the mother of four leaving behind a 1-month-old baby. 58 lives cut short. 58 families devastated and a nation once again remembering.

(MUSIC)

RADDATZ: Shattering.

That's all for us today. Thanks for sharing part of your Sunday with us. For the latest politics any time, download the ABC News app and sign up for breaking news alerts. Check out World News Tonight. And have a good day.