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LEGAL VIEW WITH ASHLEIGH BANFIELD

Airport Security Issues; Pentagon Issues Report on Ships Seized by Iran; Bill Clinton Meets with Attorney General. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired June 30, 2016 - 12:30   ET

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


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[12:33:25] ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: We are hyper focused on airport security today. And rightly so, not just overseas either but right here in this country too, because you'll know that next week is July 4th. Airports are going to be jammed all over the country. Chicago has two major airports open to the public. Always full of innocent people and it is horrific to imagine an Istanbul terrorist attack at a place like this.

Drew Griffin and his investigative team has found something that is stunning to say the least through and it involves hundreds of Chicago airport police officers. I can't believe I'm asking this question but I have to ask this question. They honestly are dictated policy where they are to, "Run away if there's a terror attack?"

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: That is true. Now, I don't Ashleigh want to give the impression there are no arm police at Chicago's airport, there are, they're the Chicago Police Department has assigned as of December 231 officers to both these airports. But there's a separate police department at O'Hare and Midway, they're called the Chicago Aviation Police, they're sworn officers, they are trained in firearms, many of them have jobs at suburban Chicago Police Departments where they carry guns. But when on duty in Chicago at the airports walking around, they are completely unarmed.

We broke the story last December and we talked in silhouette to two of those officers who say not only can they not protect the public but they, themselves feel very vulnerable.

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GRIFFIN: In the event of let's say it's a terrorist attack, let's say it's a shooter, what are you supposed to do?

[12:35:01] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Run.

GRIFFIN: Run.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hide.

GRIFFIN: Hide.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And seek shelter. GRIFFIN: This internal Chicago Aviation Department document obtained from aviation department sources outlines the policy. "If evacuation is not possible, hide."

Hi Chief Edgeworth, Drew Griffin with CNN.

RICHARD EDGEWORTH, CHICAGO AVIATION POLICE CHIEF: Oh, how are you?

GRIFFIN: Good to see you, we wanted to ask you why your officers aren't armed. Why that the only aviation of police officers in the United States that apparently are not armed.

Wouldn't the public be better protected if they were armed and we're able to engage a threat, instead of, sir? Instead of having to run and hide?

Ashleigh, that was chief of the Aviation Police Department in Chicago. It wasn't long after that confrontation he actually resigned. But the situation remains the same, despite calls from the police officers' union and then ultimately even to get these officers armed, the aviation police officers, some 300 strong at this airport, are unarmed.

And in light of what happened in Istanbul where we actually saw inaction of a police officer, a security official, go after and shoot and get rid of the threat of that suicide bomber ...

BANFIELD: Right, to come out.

GRIFFIN: It really makes no sense at all to the aviation police officers.

BANFIELD: Here's the video. We're looking at it again, Drew, right here. This is where a cop shoots him down before he can shoot that A.K. any further. You see the A.K. sliding away, he detonates himself and hopefully hard to see in this for view, there weren't that many people around him. This officer running out of the way when he recognizes he has a suicide vest, he detonates.

Here's the issue. It's perplexing, Drew. They are trained, it's not like the aviation cops don't have the pristine elite training that makes them actually capable of managing a firearm. They're fully up to speed. It's just a glitch in the paperwork? I don't get it.

GRIFFIN: It's a confusing political situation in Chicago. There is an alderman who has a ordinance that is trying to get through city council. But despite having a lot of support it hasn't gone anywhere. But let's be real, Ashleigh you talked with John Pistole just in this last segment about soft targets.

In many cases now these police officers, armed military, whatever, when you have suicide attackers hell bent on blowing themselves up and first killing people, it is a race to kill them first in many cases. And you may not like guns in our society, but in the hands of the right people, these guns are saving lives.

I can only imagine how many lives were saved in Istanbul by that security officer who took that guy out.

BANFIELD: Yeah, guns in the hands of police who are actually on security detail actually makes a lot of sense.

Drew Griffin, thanks for that. We're going to keep watching that. And in the meantime, great work from your investigative team as always, Drew.

The union that represents those aviation police officers, they're frustrated, understandably. They want weapons in the hands of uniformed men and women. And watching what happened at the airport overseas makes that call even more clarion.

Matt Brandon is with the union, the Service Employees International Union in Chicago.

I can understand the frustration but what I can't understand is the rationale. What's the down side of putting weapons into the hands of those trained officers and having even more security and, you know, I get it, they say layered. Why not have layers all strong.

MATT BRANDON, SERVICE EMPLOYEES INTERNATIONAL UNION: I agree, Ashleigh. I don't understand it either. We've argued for the past seven years to try to get these officers armed, understanding that there's a security issue with having unarmed uniformed presence in the airport that can't respond to a threat.

BANFIELD: What's odd to me, is that I thought immediately well, perhaps it is a budget issue or liability issue or maybe even union restriction or maybe a combination of all these things.

But the answers that we're getting is that it is not. So what is it? What is possibly the push back you and members are getting?

BRANDON: Well, I think Drew touched on it. I think it's more of a political issue here than anything else. There are no legitimate reasons why the officers aren't armed. They're trained at the Chicago Police Academy by the Chicago Police Department.

They have to qualify every year to maintain their state certification. They also receive additional training from Department of Aviation once on board before they even go out into the airfield.

[12:39:52] So there is no excuse. What happens is, I talked to all the member, Ariel Reboyras who is the head of the Public Safety Committee and the commissioner here and the Chicago Police Department commander at the O'Hare unit are giving false information on the qualifications of these officers. This is a matter of public safety and officer safety and we don't need political games. This needs to be fixed.

BANFIELD: Well let me tell you how politics can get ugly real fast if there is anything likely happened overseas that happens at O'Hare, god forbid.

Matt Brandon, thanks very much. And we'll continue to check in with you to see if any of these policies changed. I know you sent a letter today. So we'll check in with you on that. Thank you so much for your time.

BRANDON: Thank you, Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: Coming up next hour, on Wolf, Brianna Keilar is going to sit in for Wolf and she's going to interview state department spokesman, John Kirby, I'm going to ask him about the terror attacks in Istanbul, lessons learned here changes that might happen here.

Back right after this.

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[12:45:10] BANFIELD: The Pentagon has just released its report on those 10 U.S. sailors who were captured by Iran back in January and finding pretty devastating.

Officials found that that incident which saw these images emerged sailors force to their knees, at their hands behind their heads pretty humiliating internationally speaking.

And this whole thing apparently could have been entirely prevented. The report blames not only the captured sailors themselves but "Multiple failures at every level of leadership." Ouch.

Joining me now for more on this report is Suzanne Malveaux. I know you've been combing to the report. I got to say with all those big bateranians (ph) I did not see this coming. I really didn't see this scathing stuff coming.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It really was quite stunning, Ashleigh, when we read this report because you'll recall this January 12th, the president was about to give his final State of the Union Address when this video emerged on Iranian television broadcasting, these 10 American sailors with their arms behind their back, behind their heads here. And what we have learned here is that this is something that could have been avoided, that they were given this mission, they didn't take it very seriously, but only given about 24 hours before this mission to sail from Kuwait to Bahrain, that they were woefully unprepared for this that they essentially, did not even realize where they were. They have no idea that they were crossing into Iranian waters, when one f the engines gave way and that is when the Iranian revolutionary guard came in with their vessels and essentially started to seizing the ship, started searching the ship, asking the sailors various questions.

The report says that the sailors gave information that they were not suppose to give, that they also during the filming were eating, which was something that for propaganda purposes was seen as totally unprofessional, and that they had never prepared for the mission and essentially there was no follow-up from the report. It says, "The culture was characterized by informality. They conducted no patrol briefing, and missions were supported by no formal mission analysis, standard planning factors, risk assessment, or overwatch."

So finally Ashleigh, there were two officers who were fired because of this, six others may actually face punishment as well. Ashleigh? BANFIELD: Unaware that it was Iranian waters they were in. Maybe those young sailors didn't live through the Iranian hostage crisis like the rest of us did in the '70s but is just outstanding.

Suzanne Malveaux, doing the work for us at the White House, thank you for that.

Still ahead this hour, a former president and sitting attorney general crossing pads at an airport. And suddenly a presidential candidate may have a new political headache.

We'll explain.

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[12:51:53] BANFIELD: And this just in from the presidential race. CNN has confirmed that Donald Trump's campaign is vetting New Jersey Governor Chris Christie as a potential Trump running mate. You will most likely recall that Governor Christie ran against Trump, for the GOP nomination. But then endorse him barely two weeks after dropping out of the race.

We're going to bring you a whole lot more details as they filter in to us. There you go. Possible running mate right there on the screen.

A private and by all accounts unplanned meeting between Attorney General Loretta Lynch and former President of the United States Bill Clinton, happening this week and raising a whole bunch of questions about the FBI investigation into his wife Hillary Clinton's State Department e-mails. She's having it, he of course would be interested in it.

The meeting between these two happened at Phoenix Airport on Monday. The former president was on the tarmac in a plane, waiting to fly out, when Loretta Lynch and her husband flew in and touched down on the same tarmac. Lynch says the two chatted about family and golf, grandkids, and absolutely not about the on-going investigation into his wife's e-mails. Democratic leaders are defend Lynch while admitting, yeah, the optics are probably not so good.

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SEN. CHRIS COONS, (D) DELAWARE: And I don think it sends the right signal. I think she should have steered clear, even of a brief, casual social meeting with the former president.

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BANFIELD: She should have steered clear. OK, Evan Perez, CNN Justice Correspondent joining us live. It wasn't that simple. It literally was, oh, I see Loretta's plane, I think I'll step off mine, walk across the tarmac and step onto hers to say hi, which apparently isn't unusual for the former president. Take me from there.

EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: That's right. This all happens on Monday in Phoenix. Loretta Lynch's plane has just landed, the president about to leave, apparently he was there golfing in Phoenix. And he sees that she's there. So he bounds up the steps of the plane, the FBI security detail that protects the attorney general didn't stop him, obviously he is the former president, and he gets onto the plane, starts having a conversation with the attorney general who by all accounts, you know, her aids are off the plane, their down stairs on a tarmac sort of freaking out at the fact that the former president made his way onto the plane.

And they start having a conversation, according to Loretta Lynch, I'll give you a snippet of what she said describe the conversation. She said "Our conversation was a great deal about grandchildren. It was primarily social, about our travels and he mentioned golf that he played in Phoenix."

I'm told part of the conversation was a bit of a ramble. It was -- he talked about West Virginia where he had been apparently and talked about the coal industry there.

The optics as you mention, Ashleigh, are not great. Loretta Lynch is going to make the final decision as to whether or not there are any charges filed in this FBI investigation into the Clinton e-mail server. That decision is obviously pending. We're still waiting for the FBI to interview Secretary Clinton.

And so, you would think this is a former president, this is somebody who is a former Attorney General of Arkansas, Bill Clinton. That you would know better than to do something like this.

[12:55:09] BANFIELD: You are right. But we should also make mention that he had an unplanned meeting with Senator Ted Cruz at an Alabama Airport in May as well, which sort lend to the collaboration of the fact that he meets cabinet secretaries, members of Congress and other dignitaries, all the time if he sees them, he goes to approach them.

PEREZ: Yeah. But this is different, right? This is different. This is the person who's overseeing an on-going investigation. And, you know, it just that everyone knows that this doesn't look very good. And so that's the issue here.

BANFIELD: Yeah. You know, you're not the only one. There are whole bunch of Democrats who are weighing in as well. Senator Chris Coons saying as well, Peter King of New York is saying, you know, I like Loretta Lynch's work here but it is not a good optic.

PEREZ: Right.

BANFIELD: Evan, continue to report and let us know what else comes out of that, if anything. I do appreciate it. Evan Perez joining us from Washington.

Thank you so much everyone for watching Legal View. Brianna Keilar is stepping in for Wolf Blitzer today, she starts right after this break.

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