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Trump Doubles Down on Moore in Alabama Senate Race; Flynn Attorneys Stop Sharing Information with White House; CBO: GOP Tax Reform Bill Hurts People Making Less than $30,000; Prince Harry and Meghan Markle Announce Engagement; Trump Launches Assault on Press. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired November 27, 2017 - 13:30   ET

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


[13:30:00] GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: And what I did is not what Roy Moore is accused of having done. Yet, they are all together. Even not what Conyers is accused of having done. Women or a woman was receiving a settlement as a result of that although he did not admit any guilt. I think that his head is probably exploding here. Because what he probably believes was more of an indiscretion and not a crime he's put in a same situation as somebody who may well have committed a crime.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Everybody stand by.

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: Everybody stand by.

There is a lot more going on, another scandal. Republicans finding themselves between a rock and a hard place with Roy Moore, the controversial Alabama Senate candidate accused of sexual assault. And one accuser said she was just 14 years old at the time. And President Trump standing by Moore by attacking his opponent, Democrat Doug Jones. On Twitter, the president says, quote, "The last thing we need in Alabama and the U.S. Senate is a Schumer-Pelosi puppet. Jones would be I disaster," he said in his tweets. He reminded voters that he backed Moore's Republican primary opponent, Luther Strange.

Here's how Lindsey Graham summed it up on CNN's "State of the Union."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM, (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: From a Republican point of view, I don't see what winning -- I don't know what winning looks like with Roy Moore. If he wins, we get the baggage of him winning and it becomes a story every day about whether or not you believe the women or Roy Moore, should he stay in the Senate? If you lose you get the seat to a Democrat at a time when we need all the votes you can get. The moral of the story is, don't nominate somebody like Roy Moore who can lose the seat. Any other Republican could win and from a party perspective, we have to look long-term and not short-term. I would tell President Trump, if you think winning with Roy Moore will be easy for the Republican Party, you are mistaken.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BLITZER: Here with us right now, Oklahoma Republican Senator James Lankford.

Senator, thanks so much for joining us.

SEN. JAMES LANKFORD, (R), OKLAHOMA: Glad to be with you.

BLITZER: I want to talk about Roy Moore and the Republicans, but what we heard from Senator Al Franken.

LANKFORD: The greatest benefit is that we have something that should be talked about, frankly. This ongoing conversation that we have 20 or 25 years ago that your behavior doesn't matter. It is relevant. I believe the congressional leaders and individuals should be role models in Hollywood or sports or the media. You should act like you are a role model and be held to a higher account. Holding people to that standard is important. It is the challenge of the people here. They have a difficult decision to make. Something that doesn't represent their moral or political value. Everyone should be held to that high account.

BLITZER: Do you think Franken should remain in the Senate or resign?

LANKFORD: I think he should go through the ethics process and get everything out there and try to resign it through a normal ethics process.

BLITZER: Two weeks ago, Senator, you called on Roy Moore to step aside as the candidate if the allegations were true. Right now, do you believe Moore should step aside? Do you believe Roy Moore or his alleged victims?

LANKFORD: I'm in the same spot as Jeff Sessions. He came out publicly and said, I don't have any reason to doubt any of these women's statements. I'm not in Alabama and not in that setting, but there is no reason to doubt these ladies as they have gone through the statements. I have no reason to doubt them as well. The easiest thing is to be able to have someone else running in that spot. Roy Moore even in elected, this will continue to dog him the entire time he is in the Senate. It never goes away and never gets better.

BLITZER: Even at this late moment, the election is December 12th, you would like to see him step aside and have a write in Republican candidate on the ballot?

LANKFORD: I couldn't tell you how that works in Alabama politics to see if they are able to appoint someone. I don't know that part. It would be much easier for the people in Alabama and their votes as well as how this Senate will function as if we have someone able to get the seat.

BLITZER: Let's get to other important issues. You are a key member of the Intelligence Committee. Talk about the former national security adviser, General Michael Flynn, working for the president for about a month in office. He served in the transition. His attorneys are no longer sharing information with the Trump legal team. Do you know if he is working with the Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller?

[13:34:57] LANKFORD: I don't know what that status is. He is not doing a joint defense with the White House. They separated out and they are not communicating more. That's reasonable, but I don't know what the charges are and what the discussion is with the special counsel.

BLITZER: Based on what you know, and you know a lot more than most of us, do you know if Flynn should be worried about what the investigators have found?

LANKFORD: The challenge for Flynn will not be something that is election-relate and how he handled his business practices and all of those things. When the special counsel is out there, he has the ability to look much broader than just the work on the election time period. He is able to look at everything else. Paul Manafort was not anything related to the campaign.

BLITZER: You think the same thing with Michael Flynn and the business he dealt with Turkey and he dealt with Russia before the campaign?

LANKFORD: I will allow the special counsel to discover what he wants to follow-through on. That's most likely what it would be related to, things outside the campaign.

BLITZER: Let's talk about the tax reform bill and the cuts before the U.S. Senate expecting a vote later this week. You are a strong supporter of the legislation. Let me get your reaction to the new report from the Congressional Budget Office saying the bill will hurt people making less than $30,000 a year. What's your reaction to that?

LANKFORD: I saw that, and I was astounded because those pay federal income tax to figure out where they are coming up with the math. If they say the individuals would have the subsidies to have the Affordable Care Act if they chose not to take the Affordable Care Act, not as much would be paid to offset them. For whatever strange reason, CBO sees that as a tax increase for them. If they removed that issue about money paid to the insurance companies, if you remove that, those individuals would have a decrease in their actual taxes, either not paying anything at all if you are $24,000 and below, or for all the brackets below that, they would pay less. CBO and their strange scores and takes the money that would have gone to insurance companies and counts against them. That's not their actual income at all.

BLITZER: The CBO report said if you eliminate the mandate, you remove the subsidies, the individuals who make $30,000 a year, they would have less subsidies to purchase insurance and cost more money out of their pocket.

Let me get to another sensitive issue, especially for you. You are worried about the nation's debt. The CBO says over the next 10 years, the nation's debt would increase by $1.4 trillion. That's a serious problem, isn't it?

LANKFORD: That's a very serious problem. I want to make one more comment to close that out. The issue about the subsidies, they are still in place. This is not removing the subsidies. They are available to get them. It's removing the mandates. That's the only thing that changes. The debt deficit issue has been a big deal for me for a long time. We have to be able to get good math and get best economists and we should have a backstop to say what if the economists were wrong and how do we protect the future taxpayers as well as the current taxpayers in the system. It's something that can't be worked out. We have a reasonable back stop in the tax policy. And that's a major part of the conversation still today.

BLITZER: If the Democrats came out with a tax plan over the next 10 years that would increase the nation's debt by $1.4 trillion, you would be opposed to that?

LANKFORD: I'd be adamantly opposed to it based on scoring issues. It's not really a $1.4 trillion. This is classic Washington math. The first part everyone agrees is not real. That's a math issue. The other trillion is if you decrease taxes and people are table to keep more money and businesses pay less, can they buy more machinery and pay more people? Can they hire more people and can individuals that make more and pay less taxes, will they save or spend more? All those things are yes. If more people make more money, people that are unemployed now and able to get a job because companies are able to hire more, that helps the economy. More income back to the federal revenue. The hard part is guessing what that amount is. You can't cut taxes so much that you can't make it up. You have to get a real economic health. We had a decade of 2 percent of growth. We haven't had that since the Great depression. We have to find a way to bump this economy is get the health back up.

[13:39:53] BLITZER: When the CBO, the Joint Committee on Taxation, both bipartisan, they come up with the same scoring, $1.5 trillion increase in debt.

Let me get to the annual report, which I have gone through. You say this now. The federal fumbles. That's what you call it. The money wasted, and you are concerned about the deficit. You go through this report and eliminate the programs. You can save nearly $500 million. Are you comfortable with the Senate tax plan that increases the nation's debt even as you are making strong recommendations of waste where the government can save money?

LANKFORD: I am and here's the reason why. The joint tax that you mentioned, both of those are basing in their scoring what is called a static scoring. and if you cut taxes, nothing happens to the economy and no one believes that. It's a clean simple straight forward way to do it. If you cut taxes, then nothing happens. Everyone is trying to figure out what economically does happen. They have a well-educated guess and our estimates are a .4 percent increase in the GDP. It's a conservative estimate. My statement is if that doesn't happen and you don't get a .4 percent, how do we create a back stop to create it? You are correct. That is a very big issue for me. When I put out the fumbles, I am trying to push my colleagues and the agencies to answer the question, you can't say there is nowhere else that can be done. You can identify almost a half-trillion in the wasteful spending or inefficiencies. One of those is IRS and the tax cap, not enforcing current law, and that's an enormous part of the problem.

BLITZER: I know you have to run. Quickly, what's the biggest federal fumble? The one you just mentioned or something else that is a waste of taxpayer money?

LANKFORD: Sever are a total waste. The National Science Foundation to study in Iceland over how they were handling refugees. I'm not sure why we were using taxpayer dollars for a study on Icelandic refugees in Iceland. That's not relevant to us. On the other end of the spectrum is the IRS where it's over $400 billion in lack of compliance. They will be doing their own study and not even implementing the results of their own study. They need to implement what they've determined is part of the problem. There's 15,000 areas that the inspectors general have identified as the problem areas where they made recommendations that have not been implemented. Over 3,000 from the Government Accountability Office that have not been implemented. We will push the agencies and get them implemented. We can find savings and we should.

BLITZER: Senator Lankford, thanks very much for joining us.

LANKFORD: Thank you.

BLITZER: A showdown erupting over who is in charge of the watch dog agency tasked with protecting consumers, dueling e-mails, lawsuits and lots of blood leaving the president in an awkward situation.

Plus, the president launching an assault on the free press, including CNN, and this time using a conspiracy theory Web site to do it.

And a royal surprise. Prince Harry announcing his engagement to an American actress. And they gave their first interview together. You will hear what they had to say, coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:47:05] BLITZER: A royal wedding is in the works. Price Harry announcing his engagement to American Actress Meghan Markle. They were all smiles as they made their first public appearance since the big announcement. Then the newly engaged couple sat down for their first interview and shared a little bit about how they met and the proposal.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MEGHAN MARKLE, AMERICAN ACTRESS ENGAGED TO PRINCE HARRY: A cozy night. We are roasting chicken.

(CROSSTAKL)

MARKLE: And it just was an amazing surprise. It was so sweet and natural and very romantic. He got on one knee.

PRINCE HARRY: Of course.

(CROSSTALK) MARKLE: It was an instant yes. I could barely let you finish proposing.

PRINCE HARRY: She didn't even let me finish. It was can I give you the ring. She was like, oh, yes, the ring!

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: And this is how long after you first met?

MARKLE: It would be a year and a half? A little more than that?

PRINCE HARRY: A little more than that.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: For most people, would be quite a whirlwind. Is that how it felt?

MARKLE: I don't think I would call it a whirlwind in terms of our relationship. There have been layers attached to how public it has become. After we had a good five or six months with just privacy which was amazing, but I think we were able to really have so much time just to connect and we never went longer than two weeks without seeing each other even though we were doing a long-distance relationship. We made it work.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: How did you first meet?

PRINCE HARRY: Yes, we first met through a mutual friend.

MARKLE: We shall protect her privacy.

PRINCE HARRY: But it was literally through her. And then we met once or twice back to back, two dates in London last July. And then it was I think about three or four weeks later that I persuaded her to join me in Botswana. And we camped out under the stars and enjoyed five days like that, which was fantastic, and we were really by ourselves, which was crucial to me, to make sure we had a chance to get to know each other.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: CNN royal commentator and historian, Kate Williams, joins us from outside Buckingham Palace.

Kate, what's the reaction there to this engagement?

KATE WILLIAMS, CNN HISTORIAN & ROYAL EXPERT: Well, Wolf, London has been really excited. We have been waiting for this, so the newspapers were saying come on, Harry, get on with it. We are all waiting. There is a lot of media attention and speculation. The booking and the betting shops suspended this.

It's absolutely a really exciting announcement and a thrilling day. The queen said she is delighted. The duke and duchess of Cambridge said they are excited. There has been a real avalanche of congratulations on Twitter, from the prime minister. And this reflects how delighted people are and how much the idea of a royal wedding in spring will start as a giant royal extravaganza and fandango.

[13:50:32] BLITZER: Congratulations to the newly engaged couple.

Kate Williams, thanks very much. Kate Williams, for us from Buckingham Palace.

WILLIAMS: Thank you.

BLITZER: Coming up, he admitted saying the words and even apologized for saying the words, yet a new report suggests the president is now questioning the validity of the infamous "Access Hollywood" videotape.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: For nearly four decades, CNN has been a constant here in the United States and around the world. Our journalists, in front of and behind the camera, risk their lives in the most dangerous of places every day so you know the truth. Where disaster hits, where war erupts, we're there. Where dictators fall, where citizens rise, we're there. Where fists are raised, blood is shed, and where heroes are made, we are there. Because the relentless pursuit of the truth and the outright rejection of any attack against it is something we still hold sacred. Always will. So no matter how many insults or blatant assaults on the press and its freedom, this pursuit is something for which we will never bend nor break, and even the loudest critics can't silence the facts.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm less than a kilometer away.

(GUNFIRE)

UNIDENTIFIED CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is a constant day in and day out.

(GUNFIRE)

UNIDENTIFIED CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wait! Wait! Wait!

There is fire all around us.

WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We've never been this far inside North Korea.

UNIDENTIFIED CNN CORRESPONDENT: We have to wrap it up right now. Our escorts are understandably quite anxious about spending too much time on the scene.

UNIDENTIFIED CNN CORRESPONDENT: A panicked family now trapped in their room smashed a window and screamed for help. We managed to get the mother across to safety using measures and it immediately became clear the cause of the pain. Their daughter was severely disabled.

(GUNFIRE)

UNIDENTIFIED CNN CORRESPONDENT: They and we are caught in the open.

(GUNFIRE)

UNIDENTIFIED CNN CORRESPONDENT: There's something in the distance.

(GUNFIRE)

UNIDENTIFIED CNN CORRESPONDENT: The fighting has opened up and there was big return fire.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Minutes into our flight now, Sabina stops breathing. This young woman is going into cardiac arrest. It is aggressive, but I just delivered a cardiac thump, a quick, strong hit to the chest. Whether it worked or not, I can't say for sure, but she came back.

CLARISSA WARD, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This is basically what is left of rebel-held Aleppo, the streets are largely deserted. The buildings have been destroyed and the people who once lived here have been pushed out.

(GUNFIRE)

UNIDENTIFIED CNN CORRESPONDENT: We do know there is a Taliban stronghold about a kilometer from here at the base of these mountains.

(GUNFIRE)

[13:55:09] UNIDENTIFIED CNN CORRESPONDENT: Across the world, people watching this broadcast are celebrating.

How do you feel?

(CHEERING)

(GUNFIRE)

UNIDENTIFIED CNN CORRESPONDENT: The insurgents have finally amassed there are attacks inside.

(GUNFIRE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Fire!

UNIDENTIFIED CNN CORRESPONDENT: Come on, hustle up! Grab it and get ready! Ooh!

(EXPLOSION)

(CHEERING)

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED CNN CORRESPONDENT: These are locals here who are handing out whatever they have, and you can see the children of families running to collect. International aid organizations are trying to take a more organized approach.

RIPLEY: It's really want a matter of if, but probably when it comes to North Korea.

UNIDENTIFIED CNN CORRESPONDENT: We have little Aziza. She's not happy because she says her father got left behind.

(GUNFIRE)

UNIDENTIFIED CNN CORRESPONDENT: They're opening fire on targets below.

(GUNFIRE)

UNIDENTIFIED CNN CORRESPONDENT: They're protecting the helicopter, but it's terrifyingly intense.

(GUNFIRE)

UNIDENTIFIED CNN CORRESPONDENT: They are traumatized after a week trapped on the mountain.

The problem is we're flying over is front lines. This is the only protection we have right now, the aircraft and its precious cargo.

GUPTA: All of a sudden, this area filled with smoke. There is concern there may be another bomb or another attack bombing. They've asked the lights to be turned off. They don't want to be a target themselves.

UNIDENTIFIED CNN CORRESPONDENT: They're not welcome onshore. The Coast Guard waves them further on.

How many hours have you been on the boat?

Since early in the morning?

Do you know how to swim?

No one does.

NIMA ELBAGIR, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We've been waiting the last few hours just to receive word as to whether the auction has started.

I'm speechless. I don't know how to put this into words. There were human beings auctioning off other human beings.

AWRA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNTIONIAL CORRESPONDENT: Trapped. Vehicle wreckage everywhere.

UNIDENTIFIED CNN CORRESPONDENT: Even to think of having set foot in some parts of Puerto Rico, this woman doesn't know who the first person is she's seen since Hurricane Maria hit the island.

(END VIDEOTAPE) BLITZER: CNN and CNN International are not sponsored by any state, nor any autocrat, nor any political organization. And despite the constant criticism from the president, we are unwavering in our mission. Free and independent, as the press should be.

Let's bring in our CNN military and diplomatic analyst, John Kirby, retired U.S. Navy rear admiral.

What's your reaction when you hear the criticism leveled by the president of the United States?

REAR ADM. JOHN KIRBY, CNN MILITARY & DIPLOMATIC ANALYST: It angers me. I stood at podium in the Pentagon and I was in the Navy for 30 years. I can tell you is not only is CNN's reporting and CNNI's reporting is incredibly courageous and accurate, and brings to life issues as we saw in that compilation and that coverage helps to drive, as it should, policy decisions. For instance, when CNN was reporting on the Kobani (ph) fighting in September 2014, your cameras were right up close, and you can see the shots being fired back and forth. That helped the military make different decisions about how to defend rebel groups there. They helped drive policy decisions and helped drive more impetus to the negotiations we were engaged in with Secretary Kerry and Foreign Minister Lavrov. It has an impact on policy, as it should.

BLITZER: When the president of the United States brands the American news media, CNN and other TV networks, as fake news, what's the impact of that around the world especially in countries where there is no press?

KIRBY: Look at the tweet out of Egypt and they parroted the language of CNN and fake news. When autocrats, like Erdogan and al Sisi, it just makes it that much easier for them to crack down on international free press reporting in their own country. He's encouraging this. And he's, in my view, putting these reporters' lives literally in danger by doing it.

BLITZER: Yes. It's a serious, serious problem.

KIRBY: It is.

BLITZER: John Kirby, thanks for what you have done, and continuing to do for our viewers.

KIRBY: Thanks.

BLITZER: Appreciate it very much.

That's it for me. Thanks very much for watching. And I'll be back 5:00 p.m. eastern in "THE SITUATION ROOM."

NEWSROOM with Brooke Baldwin starts right now.

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