Return to Transcripts main page

WOLF

Senate GOP Want Puzder Nomination Withdrawn; Russian Contacts During Campaign; Trump Talks about Flynn's Treatment. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired February 15, 2017 - 13:00   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: The Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's historic visit to the White House. Historic because it's the prime minister's first visit with the new American president.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This will be the first of many productive meetings.

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, PRIME MINISTER, ISRAEL: I deeply value your friendship.

TRUMP: But Bibi and I have known each other a long time. A smart man. Great negotiator.

NETANYAHU: Our alliance has been remarkably strong. But under your leadership, I'm confident it will get even stronger.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The Palestinians have to get rid of some of that hate that they're taught from a very young age. I'd like to see you hold back on settlements for a little bit.

NETANYAHU: It's the art of the deal.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

BLITZER: Hello, I'm Wolf Blitzer. It's 1:00 p.m. here in Washington, 6:00 p.m. in London and 8:00 p.m. in Jerusalem. Wherever you're watching from around the world, thanks very much for joining us.

We begin with what is supposed to be the start of a warmer relationship between the White House and Israel.

Just in the last hour, the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, arrived at the White House. It's a different welcome from what we've seen for other world leaders, with the first lady there and the president to greet Netanyahu and his wife.

Moments after arriving, the two leaders appeared for a joint news conference. They spoke about Israeli settlements, the Iran nuclear deal and hopes of a peace deal with the Palestinians.

Our Senior White House Correspondent Jim Acosta was at the news conference. He's joining us from the White House. Our Senior International Correspondent Fred Pleitgen is in Tehran. He's joining us live. And Aaron David Miller, CNN Global Affairs Analyst, is here in Washington, D.C.

Jim, this news conference happened even before the two men had a chance to sit down and have some quiet discussions in the Oval Office or elsewhere in the White House. It was as if we're watching live negotiations, at least on some points, going on.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right. And that is president Trump playing the disrupter on the -- on the world stage.

Typically, what we would see is a president welcoming a foreign leader here at the White House. They would go behind closed doors. They would have lunch. Their officials would meet with each other. They would try to broker some kind of statement, joint statement, that would be put out later on in the day by the -- both press offices.

And then, you would have a news conference where both of these leaders would come out and explain perhaps what they had talked about. Talk about some of the agreements they had. Talk about some of the disagreements they had.

That didn't happen today. We saw the prime minister show up here at the White House. And then, within just a few minutes, they both came into the east room and then started taking questions and making statements at this joint news conference.

Wolf, I thought it was -- it was fascinating to hear President Trump try to nudge the Israeli prime minister in the direction of limiting the amount of settlements that are taking place there in the Palestinian territory. That is obviously something that is a great irritant in the region and is something that even this White House has said that perhaps the Israeli prime minister could get a handle on.

And you heard the president there say that to Prime Minister Netanyahu during this news conference to which Prime Minister Netanyahu not really jabbed back but responded by saying, the art of the deal.

And so, you could, sort of, see that the negotiations were beginning right there. Why don't we play a moment of that, that we just saw a few moments ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: As far as settlements, I'd like to see you hold back on settlements for a little bit. We'll work something out. But I would like to see a deal be made. I think a deal will be made.

Bibi and I have known each other for a long time. A smart man, great negotiator. And I think we're going to make a deal. It might be a better deal than people in this room even understand. That's a possibility. So, let's see what we do.

NETANYAHU: That's right.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: That doesn't sound too optimistic. But that's a good negotiator.

NETANYAHU: That's the art of the deal.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: So, a pretty candid moment there between those two leaders. And I think, Wolf, one other interesting thing that we could take note of from this news conference, with respect to the Israeli issue, is that you heard the president there describe the Iran nuclear deal as something that he just does not like. One of the worst agreements, I believe is how he described it.

But, at the same time, it should be pointed out, this administration has not abandoned the Iran nuclear deal that was brokered by the previous administration. And you heard Prime Minister Netanyahu, once again, state his belief that Iran is a danger to the region, a danger to the world.

[13:05:12] He talked about how Tehran is trying to develop ICBMs and so forth that may eventually one day may be able to reach the U.S.

And so, Prime Minister Netanyahu brought some of that tough rhetoric that we're accustomed to hearing, him bringing with him to Washington. But this time, he was doing it in a room with a president that he's very much on the same page with -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Talk a little bit about the questions that were asked. There's always two American journalists who get to ask a question, two journalists from the foreign countries represented, in this particular case, Israeli journalists. The American journalists, we're seeing a pattern emerge at all of these joint news conferences the president has with foreign leaders.

ACOSTA: That's right, Wolf, and going back several administrations, not just the Obama administration but the Bush administration, Clinton administration and so on.

Typically, what you have on these two-plus-two news conferences, two for the American press, two questions for the foreign press, who are with that foreign leader who are visiting the president.

And what you would normally see take place, Wolf, is perhaps a wire service, like "The Associated Press" or "Reuters," along with a major television network or newspaper called upon, to ask a question of the president and that foreign leader who is there for the joint news conference.

What we've seen happen over the course of the last three news conferences, and half, really, of the -- of the fourth news conference that we've had so far, is the president calling on conservative news media. Today, he called on the Christian Broadcasting Network which is owned by the televangelist, Pat Robinson, down in Virginia. And David Brody who works for CNN, we should point out, he did ask about the resignation of national security adviser Michael Flynn. It was in the context of a larger question about Israel and so on.

But the other question went to a very conservative Web site called Townhall.com. I imagine that's a Web site that, perhaps, some conservative Republicans are familiar with. But, by and large, the American people has no idea or have no idea what that is all about.

But anyway, that is what the president has been doing. And so, he got no questions, during this news conference, about this major news that we've seen breaking in the last 24 hours. And that is coming from "The New York Times," CNN, other news outlets. That associates of the president, aides of the president, during the course of the 2016 presidential campaign, were in contact with Russians, who were known to the Russian intelligence community, known to the U.S. intelligence community, to the point that that -- those contacts prompted red flags in the U.S. intelligence community.

I tried to shout a question at the president at the very end there, very politely, not too loudly. And the president heard that question and he elected not to answer it. We heard some applause in the east room of the White House there after I asked the question, presumably to try to drown out any other questions.

But this president, this White House, has sort of come up with their own solution for basically questions they don't want to answer, at this point.

And as you know, Wolf, having been in Washington for a long time, covering administrations from both parties, it's just not a tactic that works in the long run -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Yes, I totally agree. All right, thanks very much. Jim Acosta at the White House.

I want to go to Tehran right now. Fred Pleitgen is on the scene for us in Iran. Fred, I want you to listen to what the president said on a very, very sensitive issue. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Security challenges faced by Israel are enormous, including the threat of Iran's nuclear ambitions which I've talked a lot about. One of the worst deals I've ever seen is the Iran deal.

My administration has already imposed new sanctions on Iran, and I will do more to prevent Iran from ever developing, I mean ever, a nuclear weapon.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: All right, you're there for us in Tehran, Fred. What's the Iranian reaction? What are you hearing from Iranian officials about the new American president and what he says about the Iran nuclear deal and other issues related to Iran?

FRED PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Wolf. You know, there's not been any reaction so far at this specific press conference. But you could see this building up throughout the day and throughout the week that I've actually been here.

It was interesting because the adviser to Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, he came out, today actually, with a statement warning Donald Trump. And claiming that Donald Trump, President Trump's administration, was too weak to dissuade Iran from any of its positions.

And then, you have other officials here in Iran as well, including the head of Iran's atomic enter agency -- energy agency who came out and said, look, the nuclear agreement is a great deal for Iran. And you can see that because the Trump administration is against it.

So, they're talking up the nuclear agreement. And they're also saying, in the form of the foreign minister, that their ballistic missile program is not something that is up for debate.

[13:10:03] So, the Iranians, publicly, are saying that they are going to stick by all of their positions and they're also still warning the United States.

But I can also feel, Wolf, from having been here, that the rhetoric is somewhat changing. They still have those strong positions. But, at the same time, you can also feel that the leadership is very, very careful not to try and further antagonize the situation with the United States.

It was a big day last Friday, revolutionary day, which is a big day of anti-Americanism. And you could feel that the rhetoric was somewhat toned down. Normally, the Iranians would have ballistic missiles on display there. We couldn't see that on that day.

So, at this point in time, the Iranians say they're going to stick by their position. But you can also feel that they realize, right now, that they have a president in the White House who is very, very critical of Iran.

It was interesting to see before, some of the officials before Donald Trump took office, they were saying, look, maybe this is someone we can deal with. He's an unconventional politician. Maybe he can cut deals with Iran.

It certainly seems to be a change in position right now where it's dawning on the leadership here that Donald Trump is someone who's going to be very, very tough on the Iranians, certainly after that press conference that we saw right now -- Wolf.

BLITZER: All right, Fred Pleitgen in Tehran. We're going to get back to you as well. I want to get the latest on the controversy surrounding the White House, right now, over Russia and the fallout that continues from the forced resignation of Michael Flynn as the president's national security adviser.

We're now learning that high-level advisers to then candidate of Donald Trump were in what is being described as constant contact with the Russians who were on the radar of the U.S. intelligence community.

Our Pentagon Correspondent Barbara Starr is joining us now. What do we know about who was involved, the frequency of the conversations, and all of this, because it's causing a huge stir? Unfortunately, the president did not directly answer questions. There were no questions asked of him specifically about all these conversations between his advisers during the campaign and Russian intelligence officials.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, what we know is that these levels of conversations and contacts between Trump aides, Trump officials and Russian officials and Russian persons, Russian entities, was so severe, so serious over the summer. As Mr. Trump was the nominee at that time, that it got the attention of the U.S. intelligence community which picked it up on routine monitoring. And they became so concerned, so many red flags raised, that they briefed both then President Obama and Mr. Trump about all of this.

A lot of concern. Nobody really knows, at this point, what these conversations were about, what -- or at least publicly knows what was said. Is any of it a violation of the law? We don't know.

But President Trump, at this press conference now, for the first time, actually addressing the controversy of the departure of Michael Flynn as his national security adviser.

Now, you will remember, and it's only a day or so ago so it's not hard to remember, that the White House said Flynn was essentially fired because of the president's eroding trust in him as national security adviser. But Mr. Trump today had quite a different picture of the situation. Have a listen to what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Michael Flynn, General Flynn, is a wonderful man. I think he's been treated very, very unfairly by the media. As I call it, the fake media, in many cases. And I think it's really a sad thing that he was treated so badly.

I think, in addition to that, from intelligence, papers are being leaked, things are being leaked. It's criminal action, a criminal act, and it's been going on for a long time before me. But now it's really going on.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STARR: OK. Information leaked to the news media. Mr. Flynn treated unfairly. What the president did not address, of course, is that he was the one that asked and got Michael Flynn's resignation because of that so-called eroding confidence in him -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Yes, it was a stark difference from what we heard yesterday and what we heard from the president today. Yesterday, from the White House press secretary.

Barbara, thanks very much. Barbara Starr at the Pentagon.

Donald -- President Trump has been holding a private meeting with the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, now in the White House. There, you see the president and the prime minister with their wives in the Oval Office. They had a little photo opportunity. This after the news conference that ended just a little while ago.

Now, they're going to have, presumably, some substantive private conversations. And then, they're going to have a working lunch at the White House as well.

You know what? Let's just listen in and see if we can hear any questions.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE.)

NETANYAHU: (INAUDIBLE.)

[13:15:02] DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It certainly is.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you.

TRUMP: Thank you. Thank you very much.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you, guys, so much. Thank you (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you.

(CROSS TALK)

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, so you can hear there were no questions there. The press pool, the news media pool, being escorted out of the Oval Office.

We're going to have much more on all the breaking news.

But there's some new developments happening right now on Capitol Hill where we're learning that Andrew Puzder confirmation as the U.S. labor secretary may be in very serious jeopardy right now. Some top Senate Republicans calling on the president to withdraw Puzder's nomination.

Our senior congressional reporter, Manu Raju, has some brand new reporting for us.

Manu, how many Republicans are now behind this push to get rid of him?

MANU RAJU, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, I am told by senior Republicans that there is - a message has been sent to the White House, and the message is this, withdraw Andrew Puzder's nomination as labor secretary. That's because Republicans have done their whip counting, they're looking at the votes, and they do not have the votes to confirm him. I all told by a senior Republican source that there are four Republican who will definitely vote "no" on Puzder and there needs to - there can be no more than two defections in order for Puzder to get confirmed. In addition, I'm hearing that there is as many as 12 Republicans who could vote "no." That means that they're in serious, serious danger of Puzder ever getting the job.

Now, this comes a day before he was supposed to go forward for his confirmation hearings tomorrow before the Senate Help (ph) Committee to discuss whether or not he should get that job. But a number of issues have emerged, not just his ideological views that some on the right do not like because of some more moderate views on immigration, but also some liabilities in his past, as well as hiring an undocumented immigrant in the household, a worker for years, and not paying taxes until much later. In addition to that, there was a messy divorce that he went through three decades ago in which his ex-wife at the time accused him of domestic abuse. Now, she later withdrew those allegations, but she has since - and during that time she appeared on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" in disguise to discuss her allegations of domestic abuse. Some senators have actually reviewed that tape and are alarmed at what they saw, even as the ex-wife has recanted and has regretted appearing on Oprah Winfrey's show.

But take all this together, Wolf, and Republicans are just not there yet. They're not willing to support him. And that's why top Republicans have sent this message to the White House saying they should drop the Puzder nomination, find someone new, nominate them and worry about this new nominee. But no word back from the White House yet on whether they will listen to the top Senate Republican advice. But possibly the first casualty of any Donald Trump nominee, Wolf.

BLITZER: Yes, there are 52 Republicans, 48 Democrats. So if you lose two or three - if you lose two they could - assuming no Democrat will vote for Puzder's confirmation, if you lose two, then the vice president breaks the tie and he's confirmed. That's happened before. But if you lose three or four Republicans, it's over.

That committee hearing tomorrow morning, it's supposed to go forward. Have you heard any word whether they're going to postpone it, reschedule it?

RAJU: I have not heard that yet. It really depends on what the White House decides to do. If they decide to withdraw the nomination, then, of course, it will not go through. But if Donald Trump still wants Puzder as his choice, there will still be a confirmation hearing tomorrow, but Republicans believe that's going to be a fruitless effort because there is just enough - there's too much resistance within Republican ranks and this is already going to be a very, very contentious hearing with Democrats lining up against him and Republicans just do not want to take this political hit, to go through this whole confirmation process only to see him not get confirmed.

So a big shift in the Republican thinking. Just a few days ago, Mitch McConnell was planning a very aggressive push to get him through the Senate, strongly supported his nomination, but they just don't - looking at the numbers, and they're not there, Wolf, and they want Donald Trump to change course.

Wolf.

BLITZER: Yes. Well, maybe Puzder will see the handwriting on the wall from his fellow Republicans and decide to spare the president of that grief of being rejected in a confirmation vote and not necessarily put all those Republicans in an awkward position right now. But we'll see what happens. I know you're following it, Manu, very, very closely. Manu Raju with the breaking news up on Capitol Hill.

There's more news we're following here, Capitol Hill reacting as more details also emerge about the president's inner circle, the ties to Russia. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse is doing a preliminary investigation into the matter. He's standing by to join us live.

Lots more coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:23:44] BLITZER: We're continuing our breaking news coverage. We're learning top Senate Republicans are now calling for the president's labor secretary pick, Andrew Puzder, to withdraw his nomination.

Let's discuss that and a whole lot more. Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island is joining us.

So, senator, we're hearing that at least four, but maybe as many as a dozen Republicans, now have serious concerns about the labor secretary nominee and they are urging either him to withdraw - the president to withdraw the nomination. What, if anything, are you hearing from your Republican colleagues? I assume you're against this confirmation?

SEN. SHELDON WHITEHOUSE (D), RANKING MEMBER, JUDICIARY SUBCMTE. ON CRIME AND TERRORISM: The number that I have heard is that there are six Republican senators who are gravely concerned about this nomination and are considering voting against it. I think that if Puzder were to withdraw, it would save a lot of people a lot of heartache, particularly his own family given some of the allegations that have been made and that I think we have some level of responsibility to inquire into at a committee hearing. So I hope that these reports are true and I hope that President Trump decides to go with a labor nominee who was less of an enemy to the working person and less of a voice for big corporate interests.

[13:25:10] BLITZER: And I know you're opposed to his confirmation. Are there any Democrats at all who think - who you think might vote to confirm him? Because if he loses three Republicans, three Republicans, he's not going to be confirmed.

WHITEHOUSE: I don't think there's a single Democrat who is contemplating voting to approve Puzder.

BLITZER: All right, so we'll see what the president decides. We'll see what Puzder decides as well. He's scheduled to have his confirmation hearing tomorrow before a Senate committee. So we'll see if that actually takes place. Let's move on to the other huge issue that we're following right now.

I want to get your reaction to this revelation that several of then candidate Donald Trump's aides were in constant touch with senior Russia intelligence officials. What - I assume you've been briefed on this. Tell us what you can because this is a pretty potentially shocking development.

WHITEHOUSE: Well, the piece of information that I think is riveting prosecutors around the country and people who were prosecutors is the question whether Mike Flynn lied to the FBI agents when he was interviewed about his conversation with the Russian ambassador. If he did, that is an easily established 18 USC 1001 false statement violation. It's a felony. And in these circumstances, I think most prosecutors believe that it's a felony that would meet with a term of incarceration and a federal prison. So when you see somebody looking at that, their only alternative is to cooperate fully and truthfully with law enforcement. So that's kind of the big news I think that's lurking behind what we see, did Flynn lie to the FBI? And if so, in a proper investigation by the FBI, that would lead to an enormous door opening into other behavior throughout the Trump administration, including those potential other contacts with the Russians that you referred to.

BLITZER: Well, these conversations that occurred during the campaign, allegedly, between some aides and advisers to then candidate Donald Trump and people who are described as Russian intelligence officials, do you have any idea what they talked about? Because this was happening at a time when the Russians, according to the U.S. government, were clearly engaged in cyber warfare against the DNC and others in the American political process.

WHITEHOUSE: At this point, we don't have transcripts or texts or anything like that from those conversations. I think that, though, we are going to be able to build a timeline that correlates, at least the timing of some of these contacts, with things like the Russian countermeasures that were taken against the Democratic National Committee. For instance, how quickly did they respond after that infamous Trump tape broke with countermeasures involving DNC tapes? So there, I think, will be some early information that you could draw reasonable conclusions from just timing alone. At this point, just circumstantial evidence, but circumstantial evidence can lead to convictions.

BLITZER: And just to be precise, do you know if there's a formal Justice Department or FBI investigation underway into these allegations.

WHITEHOUSE: I think that is safe to say, yes.

BLITZER: And what about a Senate investigation? We heard from Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, that some sort of investigation is likely. What are you hearing?

WHITEHOUSE: Well, the intelligence committee is already looking at this through its classified lens and through the intelligence community's information. On the Judiciary Committee, Senator Graham and have announced an investigation going forward. We're scheduling hearings and starting to rally witnesses to look at this from a federal criminal point of view. What is the toolbox that the Russians used to manipulate elections, which of those tools in the toolbox violate which United States criminal laws, and kind of lay the foundation, I guess you'd say, for pursing more specifically what they did, when they did it and why they did it.

[13:29:50] BLITZER: At his news conference just now, very quickly, Senator Whitehouse, I want to get your reaction, the president was discussing Michael Flynn, his former national security adviser's forced resignation. He said Flynn was treated very unfairly by what he called the fake news media. Treated so badly. Papers were leaked. This is a criminal act. Very, very unfair. Illegally leaked material that