Return to Transcripts main page

WOLF

Hillary Clinton E-mails Under Investigation; Heroic School Teachers at Theater Shooting; Turkey Pounds ISIS, Opens Air Bases to Coalition; 2 Former Gitmo Detainees Arrested in Counter-terror Raid; NYC Major Determined to Dump Donald Trump; Clinton Brief Reaction to E-mail Controversy. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired July 24, 2015 - 13:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:30:20] WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back. I'm Wolf Blitzer, reporting from Washington.

We're tracking now developments in the Hillary Clinton e-mail controversy. We've just learned that the inspector general for the U.S. intelligence community informed members of Congress that some material e-mailed by then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton from her private server did in fact contain classified information, information that was classified during her time as the secretary of state. This, as sources tell CNN the Justice Department has been asked to open an investigation into whether the State Department mishandled sensitive secret classified information.

Let's bring in our global affairs correspondent, Elise Labott, who's been working this story.

You've just been on the phone with officials at the State Department. Update our viewers on what you're learning.

ELISE LABOTT, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Officials at the State Department and in the intelligence community, Wolf. A spokesman for the intelligence community, Inspector General's Office that's been working with the State Department on trying to see what's in these e- mails by Secretary Clinton, said in the revue they found at least four e-mails in Secretary Clinton's e-mails that she turned over to the State Department that had classified material in them. The problem was the State Department never marked it as classified, so it's possible that Secretary Clinton was working with classified information and didn't know it. So this is part of a larger issue that the intelligence community is working with the State Department to say you need to spend -- take more care in terms of how you mark classified material.

BLITZER: And these four documents that -- these e-mails that had classified information, was it at a top secret level? What level of classification was it?

LABOTT: We're not sure. We know the spokesman said to me there was classified material. To be clear, the "New York times" reported this morning and we were on a roller coaster all morning long that said that the intelligence community was asking for a criminal investigation. That's not true. What the intelligence community is looking at are possible compromise of classified material and they said that they only found four, there are about 30,000 e-mails that Secretary Clinton had that should be potentially hundreds of e-mails.

BLITZER: They found four classified e-mails and only reviewed 40.

LABOTT: They only reviewed 40.

BLITZER: And if they look at thousands --

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: Yeah, so somebody made a major mistake. But is it a criminal mistake that classified information was going around on a private server or a mistake?

LABOTT: Well, that will be up to the State Department to work with the Justice Department on. The Justice Department will have the final say.

I want to say that we reached out to the Clinton campaign and a spokesman for Secretary Clinton's camp, Nick Merrill, said, "Contrary to the significant story, which has been significantly revised" -- the "New York Times" revised the story as the morning went on, Secretary Clinton -- "followed appropriate practices while dealing with classified materials. Any released e-mails deemed classified by the administration had been done so after the fact and not at the time they were transmitted."

It bolsters Secretary Clinton's argument she never worked with classified material. It's possible she doesn't -- she didn't know. This is what the intelligence community is saying. That material needed to be scrubbed to see if there were more classified information in those e-mails.

BLITZER: Once the inspectors general of the State Department and the U.S. intelligence community refer a matter like this to the Justice Department, you don't know where it's going to go. And there could be grand jury investigations, FBI investigations. You can see a lot of State Department officials, including the former secretary of state herself, being called to testify before grand juries if this thing gets going. I've seen it over my years here in Washington. You start with a referral from an agency of the U.S. government, it goes to the Justice Department, the FBI starts investigating and in the end you don't know where it's going to wind up, especially secret or top secret information was compromised potentially, that's a very serious crime.

LABOTT: Right. And the inspector general is saying right now they did not ask for a criminal inquiry.

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: But they've asked for an investigation. They've asked for an investigation which is significant. LABOTT: What they call this is a counterintelligence referral.

They're basically saying it's possible that classified information was compromised. And that's what they care about right now.

BLITZER: Right.

LABOTT: The intelligence community spokesman is telling me, look, we're not looking to see -- we're not judging whether there was criminal wrongdoing, we want to safeguard the information.

Look, what they're really concerned about is they don't have this server, Wolf. Secretary Clinton held on to the server, she's publicly admit shed wiped the server, so maybe that's not a big problem in terms of classified information that's still lingering out there but what the intelligence community wants to do is scrub this to see how much classified information could have been compromised.

[13:35:13] BLITZER: You don't know where these investigations wind up. They may start relatively simple but they have a tendency to snow ball. We'll see what happens on that front and the political fallout in the midst of this campaign could be devastating.

LABOTT: Not helping.

BLITZER: We'll be all over this story in the days and weeks to come.

Thanks very much.

Just ahead, last night's movie theater shootings could have been far worse. We'll tell you about a pair of school teachers whose actions helped save lives.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Last night's shooting in a Louisiana movie theater might have been worse had it not been for a pair of school teachers.

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal hailed the actions of the two teachers, one of whom leapt into action to save the life of her friends.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[13:40:05] BOBBY JINDAL, (R), LOUISIANA GOVERNOR: There were two teachers there on just a summer break. Their last days of summer going to see a comedy, get ready for school. One teacher jumped in front of her friend, potentially saving her life. The second teacher said that bullet was coming for her head or if her friend hadn't jumped on top of her. Both teachers were injured, the second teacher was injured in the leg. She had the presence of mind despite her injury to pull the fire alarm. Who knows how many lives she saved by doing that. She was released from the hospital. The second teacher was released from the hospital last night.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Let's discuss what's going on. Joining us from New York is Boris Sanchez, our correspondent.

You've been learning more about these two teachers. Tell us a little bit more about them, Boris.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, an incredible act of heroism on the part of these two teachers, before we get to that I want to tell you about what we're learning about the two deceased victims, 21- year-old Mayci Breaux and 33-year-old Jillian Johnson. We're learning Mayci was from Franklin about an hour southeast of Lafayette. She, according to her Facebook page, was a lieutenant at LSU who recently moved to Lafayette. She was at the theater with her boyfriend. Officials tell us they were sitting directly in front of the shooter before he opened fire. Mayci was killed at the scene. Her boyfriend remains in the hospital right now. The other deceased victim, Jillian Johnson died at the hospital. She ran a boutique in Lafayette with her husband, Jason, and her older brother. A friend says she was a lively person, a musician who played the ukulele in a local band.

In all this tragedy, though, heroism, those two teachers, Jenna Mo and Ali Martin. We've learned Ali Martin, by the way, as you heard Bobby Jindal say of the gunman's firearm, diving to save her friend. She was wounded in the leg. Despite that, she ran over to a fire alarm, pulling it to alert officials.

A friend of theirs, Cammi, telling CNN this morning that her actions do not surprise her.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FRIEND OF HEROIC TEACHERS: They actually did exactly what we're trained to do as teachers is protect one another and protect our kids in the classroom and do whatever we can to let others know something's happening. And for Ali to know exactly where that fire alarm was, was a great deal. It's made me more aware when I go out in public to know where your alarms are, your security, the exit doors. It makes you more aware because she did what we are taught, that their teachings went into effect. What they're being taught as a teacher.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Wolf, law enforcement confirming to CNN that pulling that alarm likely saved lives.

BLITZER: And we want to thank those two teachers for doing that.

Boris, thanks very much.

Coming up, more news. Turkey a taking aim at ISIS. Turkish warplanes pounding terror targets in Syria for the first time. Another first, Turkey will now allow the United States, other coalition partners, to use its air bases to launch strikes against ISIS in Syria. Is this potentially a game changer? We'll talk to our security experts. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:47:30] BLITZER: This just coming into CNN, two former detainees from the U.S. Detention Center at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba have now been arrested in Belgium. The authorities say the two were taken into custody during a counterterrorism operation. The raid Wednesday night targeted a recruiting network for al Qaeda in Syria. One of the detainees is identified as a Moroccan national born in Antwerp, Belgium. The other, an Algerian who prosecutors believe spent time in Syria. Police say the two, along with three other individuals, were about to burglarize a house to raise money. More on this story coming in.

Also this coming in, Turkey now has formally approved the use of its domestic air bases by the U.S. and other coalition partners for the fight against ISIS in Syria the news comes as the country ramps up its efforts to battle the terror group.

For the first time, Turkish fighting jets pounded some of those ISIS targets in Syria. This comes a day after a Turkish soldier was killed in a border clash and days after more than 30 people were killed in an ISIS-related suicide terror attack in Turkey. Turkey also conducted a massive raid on suspected ISIS terrorists and rounded up nearly 300 people.

Let's bring in CNN national security analyst, Peter Bergen; and our counterterrorism analyst, Phil Mudd, also a former CIA counterterrorism official.

Phil, this Turkey development, those of us who have covered this story, this is a major, major big deal.

PHIL MUDD, CNN COUNTERTERRORISM ANALYST: It is. If you look around the Arab world, the Islamic world we had a lot of key players involved, the Saudis, Egyptian, Iraqis, Iranians. There was one missing and that one has thrown themselves into the arena. That's the Turks. The Turks had a decision to make -- do we want to get into this game to provoke ISIS on our boarder? When they started to see an increase in border clashes and a major suicide bombing this week there was a major roundup of is players I think the Turks finally said there's a risk to getting engaged but the risk is greater if we stay on the sidelines.

BLITZER: I can't tell how much frustration there was in Washington. Turkey, after all, being a NATO ally, unlike other countries in the Middle East. Turkey is a NATO ally and they refused U.S. permission to use their air base to launch F-16 airstrikes against ISIS targets in Syria, until now.

PETER BERGEN, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, they've -- it's not the first time they balked at something the United States wanted to do. In the war against Iraq Turks wouldn't use their territory for U.S. advances so they have an independent foreign policy as Phil has outlined. And their views have changed because of events. But I'll tell you something interesting, Wolf. If you look at the ISIS magazines for the last several months they have been saying, the Turks are not our friends. Don't assume Turkey intelligence is going to help you. In fact, don't fly through Istanbul. Is has caught on to the fact that the Turks have been tamping on that through their country.

[13:50:32] BLITZER: Phil, I want to get information about two ex detainees at the Guantanamo Bay in Cuba now arrested for supposedly plotting new terrorist operations arrested in Belgium.

MUDD: Periodically, they are required to issue statistics about recidivism, the number of Guantanamo detainees who are released and then get back into the game. The numbers are comparable to what you see in terms of violent crime in the United States. But when we release these two people overseas, 30, 35 percent, somewhere in that range, they are going to get back into the terrorism game. Every time the government takes a step to go towards closing Guantanamo, there's a risk of that, and we're seeing that in Europe today.

BLITZER: And usually there are warnings about these individuals once they're released from Gitmo. But the U.S. is relying on some of these host countries that accept them to get the job done.

BERGEN: I would quibble a little bit with the numbers Phil put out about the recidivist rate. And the two classic examples are they were both Guantanamo Bay and one of the most violent of those. So we certainly have seen it and, you know. We have a recidivism rate in this country of 66 percent for people in the federal system. It's certainly below that.

BLITZER: Let's not forget the leader of ISIS, Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, was once in a prison in Iraq, and he was released as well. How did that work out?

MUDD: Not too well.

(LAUGHTER)

BLITZER: Thanks, guys.

Coming up, Hillary Clinton just addressed the controversy surrounding the classified e-mail investigation. We're turning around what she just said and we'll get that for you. Stand by.

The mayor of New York says he wants to end Donald Trump's long relationship with the city of New York. More details on the mayor's exclusive interview with CNN's Carol Costello. Stand by for that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGINS IN PROGRESS)

[13:55:14] BLITZER: -- whether the State Department mishandled sensitive information. Here's what Hillary Clinton just said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON, (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE & FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE: First, I want to say a word about what is in the news today. And it's because there have been a lot of inaccuracies, as Congressman Cummings made clear this morning. Maybe the heat is getting to everybody.

(LAUGHTER)

We all have a responsibility to get this right. I have released 55,000 pages of e-mails. I have said repeatedly that I will answer questions before the House committee.

We are all accountable to the American people to get the facts right. And I will do my part. But I'm also going to stay focused on the issues, particularly the big issues that really matter to American families.

You know, over the past few months, I have had the pleasure of meeting young people all over our country. Many --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: So there is her brief reaction to these latest developments involving the inspectors general. More of this story coming up.

Other political news we're following, Donald Trump's controversial comments on immigration, Senator John McCain, among other things, keep him at odds with the city he calls home, New York City. Bill De Blasio, the mayor, says he's determined to cut the city's business ties with Donald Trump.

Our own Carol Costello sat down with the mayor yesterday. Here's a little bit of that conversation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL DE BLASIO, (D), NEW YORK CITY MAYOR: I don't think he represents the values of New York City. He's from here but doesn't represent our values, because this is a place that believes in including every part of society.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: He said he loves Hispanics.

DE BLASIO: Obviously, his comments about Mexican-Americans were derogatory and inappropriate. So I would simply say he's gone far from his roots here because this is a city we would never tolerate that kind of language.

COSTELLO: Will you do business with Donald Trump in the future?

DE BLASIO: Not if I can help it. Look, I think he has set a very negative tone and that's even before what he said about Senator McCain, and you don't have to agree with him politically to think it's outrageous and inappropriate. I think Senator McCain is a war hero, period. He should be respected as such.

I think Donald Trump has invalidated himself as a public figure. We will not seek out business with him and his companies. You know, we'll certainly look for other options.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Mayor Bill De Blasio speaking with Carol Costello.

That's it for me. Thank you for watching.

The news continues next on CNN.