Return to Transcripts main page

WOLF

Democrats on Health Care; Gorsuch Vote Delayed; Military Investigating Iraqi Airstrikes; Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired March 27, 2017 - 13:00   ET

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


WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: -- thanks very much for joining us.

Up first, new developments in the Russia investigation. The aftermath of the stunning health care defeat and where the Trump administration goes from here. Those are just some of the likely topics at today's White House press briefing set to begin this hour.

You're looking at the live pictures coming in from inside the White House briefing room. The White House press secretary, Sean Spicer, he'll be taking questions from reporters shortly. We'll have live coverage for you. That's coming up this hour.

We're also following a new development stemming from Russia's meddling in the U.S. presidential election. President Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, will meet with the Senate Intelligence Committee as part of its Russia investigation.

Sources now say the committee chaired by Republican Senator Richard Burr of North Carolina sought the meeting. A White House spokesman tells CNN, and I'm quoting now, "throughout the campaign and transition, Jared Kushner served as the official primary point of contact with foreign government and officials.

Given this role, he has volunteered to speak with chairman Burr's committee but has not yet received confirmation.

Let's bring in our Senior White House Correspondent Jim Acosta. Jim, what does the panel want to know from Jared Kushner?

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, I think they want to, obviously, ask Jared Kushner who is yet another name to surface in all of this investigation going on into potential links between the president, his associates and the Russians during the 2016 campaign.

So, obviously, that Senate Intelligence Committee would like to hear from Jared Kushner, the president's son-in-law, about some of these meetings that he's had with Russian officials, according to the White House.

Of course, he did meet with the Russian ambassador, Kislyak, during the transition period. But it also appears that Jared Kushner met with Sergei Lavrov who is a head of a Russian bank that was under sanctions that the U.S. had imposed after the Russian intervention in Crimea and Ukraine. And so, obviously, as a new name surfaces, Wolf, those Intelligence Committee members are going to want to get to the bottom of it, because, obviously, if you -- if you take Jared Kushner's name and add it to the foreign national security advisor Michael Flynn, the attorney general Jeff Sessions and other officials who had have meetings with some of these Russian officials. Then, obviously, questions are going to be raised -- Wolf.

BLITZER: So, we don't know when this hearing will take place. And just correct me if I'm wrong, we don't even know if it's going to be an open session or behind closed doors, right?

ACOSTA: That's right. We don't know when it's going to take place, if it's going to be behind closed doors. But it is sort of another one of those drips that just seems to be happening with the Russia story over here at the White House. It's almost every day, or at least every week, that there's a new development.

And so, obviously, the president's son-in-law, by the way, is going to be -- it's going to announced over here at the White House today as taking on a key role and trying to provide innovation to government bureaucracy here in Washington. So, the president tapping his son-in- law for a pretty important critical government role.

And so, that, obviously, raises the level of interest among congressional investigators who want to get to the bottom of what did Jared Kushner do during this transition when he was meeting with some of these officials.

BLITZER: Yes, there's no doubt the 36-year-old Jared Kushner is a top, top advisor to the president.

And speaking of drips, the chair --

ACOSTA: Yes.

BLITZER: -- chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Congressman Devin Nunes, now facing more questions about a visit to the White House grounds and if that's connected to --

ACOSTA: That's right.

BLITZER: -- his sources. Tell us a little bit about this late --

ACOSTA: Right.

BLITZER: -- breaking development.

ACOSTA: Right. And our Jake Tapper had this story earlier this morning, Wolf. That the day before he revealed to reporters and then the White House and then, by the way, the Democratic members of the Intelligence Committee last week, that some of the president's and his aides' conversations may have been swept up, incidentally, by the Intelligence Community over at Trump Tower in New York. That the day before he presented that information to the public, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Devin Nunes, for some reason, was over here on the grounds of the White House, according to an aide to Devin Nunes, meeting with the source of that information.

Now, we should point out, the White House, Wolf, has just put out a statement to reporters about all of this, saying we have been made aware through public that chair Nunes confirmed he was on the White House grounds on Tuesday, and any questions, concerning his meeting, should be directed to the chairman. That is, obviously, a bit of a dodge coming from the White House just not wanting to address the issue, Wolf.

And so, you know, I think it's pretty clear that when Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, comes out in a few minutes here, in the next half hour or so, to talk to reporters at the daily briefing, he is going to be peppered with questions about this. Because, as you know, Wolf, from being a White House correspondent, the grounds here are -- they're quite large.

And so, what does that mean? Was he inside the White House? Was he inside the west wing? Was he over at the EEOB which is considered part of the White House grounds? Who was he meeting with?

And how were they able to put together a secure communication area where the chairman could receive this information, so, obviously, that kind of information isn't somehow intercepted by other foreign intelligence operatives that, potentially, could be trying to listen in here in Washington?

[13:05:07] These are the kinds of precautions that they take when they have these sort of conversations. But the White House, at this point, just really not trying to talk about this and putting those questions over to the chairman's office.

BLITZER: Jim Acosta at the White House.

And important note to our viewers, I'll be speaking live with the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Devin Nunes. He'll be my guest later today in "THE SITUATON ROOM" at 5:00 p.m. Eastern.

Let's get some perspective on Russia and health care reform from Republican Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana. He's a physician, a gastroenterologist. He's a key member of the Senate Finance Committee. Senator, thanks for joining us.

SEN. BILL CASSIDY (R), LOUISIANA, SENATE FINANCE COMMITTEE: Hey, Wolf, thank you for having me.

BLITZER: I want to talk about health care, the future of health care. I want to talk a bunch -- a bunch of things. But I first want to get your reaction to the latest news, involving the Russia meddling in the U.S. election investigation, specifically that President Trump's son-in-law, key advisor, Jared Kushner, will meet with your colleagues on the Senate Intelligence Committee to discuss this.

What do you make of that development?

CASSIDY: Clearly, there's concern about what Russia did. And, again, it may just be, as your reporter just said -- excuse me. It may just be a drip, drip, drip, drip of nothing that is significant. But there is a drip, drip, drip, drip.

I think Senator Burr in the -- in the Senate Intelligence Committee and the ranking Democratic leader, Jack Reed, will do a good job coming to a head of this.

The American people need to know it is an important issue. I'd like to think it's nothing but a drip, drip that will amount to nothing but, nonetheless, it will, obviously, have to be explored.

BLITZER: Yes. Senator Mark Warner is the ranking Democrat on that committee. Jack Reed, obviously, an important player as well.

But do you see greater cooperation in the Senate Intelligence Committee between the Democratic chairman -- excuse me, the Republican chairman and the Democratic ranking member than we're seeing in the House of Representatives and the Intelligence Committee there?

CASSIDY: I won't comment on the House but I do see cooperation on the Senate side. And Jack Reed came to mind because I was presiding last week, he gave a good, well-reasoned speech regarding what is taking place. And there does seem to be a mutual goal to find out what happened.

Again, I would like to think it turns out merely to be a drip, drip, but it's more important for the American people that we get to the bottom of it.

BLITZER: All right, let's talk about health care, the future of health care. Republicans have been promising, as you well know, for seven years to repeal and replace Obamacare. They finally got a big chance on Friday. They couldn't even get to a vote.

What -- in short, what went so horribly wrong from the Republicans' perspective.

CASSIDY: My perspective is that President Trump ran, saying he wanted everyone covered, caring for those with pre-existing conditions, without mandates and lower premiums. And that bill did not achieve what President Trump pledged.

So, I think we need to fulfill President Trump's pledge in a fiscally responsible way and lower premiums. Again, that bill did not do so. Because it didn't, it had no constituency.

The only folks that were for it were probably Republican leadership on the House side. I'm not saying there weren't things there having to operate with. They did.

But still, I think President Trump's original pledge is where we need to be. That way he'll be full throated behind it, and I think the American people will buy it. They bought it in the last election. It's clearly what they want.

BLITZER: Do you think there is a possibility, and you're a physician, that Republicans and Democrats, moderate Democrats, moderate Republicans led by the president, if he wants to do it, and his team can actually get together and find some bipartisan cooperation to improve health care in the United States?

CASSIDY: I will say that Susan Collins and I, the Cassidy- Collins Patient Freedom Act, have put forward a bill to do that. And you don't have to be a moderate. You can be a conservative or a liberal.

Because what we do is we return power to states. If you're a blue state, you can do a blue thing. God bless you. If you're a red state, do the red thing.

But we allow the state to have control and not the federal government. We think it's a way -- a path forward. And I think we -- we think it can also attract folks from across the political spectrum.

So, the Cassidy-Collins bill, we continue to push as a way to achieve the president's goals.

BLITZER: So, your answer is yes, you think there can be cooperation between Republicans and Democrats.

I want you to listen to what the White House budget director, Mick Mulvaney, himself (ph) a former Republican member of the House, talked about -- when he was asked about lessons learned from the health care defeat. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICK MULVANEY, WHITE HOUSE BUDGET DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET: We haven't been able to change Washington in the first 65 days. And I think if there's anything that's disappointing and sort of an educational process to the Trump administration was that this place was a lot more rotten than we thought it was. And thought that -- I thought it was.

Because I've been here for six years. I know the freedom caucus. I helped found it. I never thought it would come to this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Do you agree that Washington is rotten?

CASSIDY: Well, there's certainly rottenness in Washington, but I won't blame the failure based upon on rottenness in Washington.

Justin Amash sent out a great tweet. He said that we need to come to consensus, not have it dictated towards us. I agree with that.

[13:10:06] If you have committee hearings that are actually open, take place over time, allow different members and different stakeholders to have input into a product, you come up with a product that works for all Americans.

One thing we know, anything that is a major sweeping social change needs to be bipartisan in origin. That's why the Cassidy-Collins Patient Freedom Act achieve -- seeks for that bipartisanship. And so, I'm not sure the failure was due to rottenness. I personally think the failure was due to the lack of inclusiveness of those that would be necessary to pass the bill.

BLITZER: Senator Bill Cassidy, thank you so much for joining us.

CASSIDY: Thank you, Wolf.

BLITZER: Coming up, take a look at this, we've got some live pictures, once again, coming in from the White House briefing room. Reporters haven't been told to go in there yet but they will be fairly soon. The press secretary, Sean Spicer, expected to take to the lectern very, very soon. We'll have live coverage coming up.

Plus, a raging battle in Iraq. Gunshots on the ground, bombs falling from the sky. How the operation to push ISIS out of Mosul is taking a devastating toll on civilians.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:15:40] WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: We're looking the live pictures from inside the White House press briefing room. The press secretary, Sean Spicer, expected to come to the lectern fairly soon, start answering reporters' questions. Lots of news happening today. We're going to bring you live coverage. Stand by for that.

After suffering a stinging defeat to health care last week, President Trump lashed out at Democrats, blaming them for the loss. But now the White House chief of staff, Reince Priebus, is appearing a big more conciliatory and open to pursuing a bipartisan deal.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REINCE PRIEBUS, WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: At the end of the day, I believe that it's time for the party to start governing. And I think that's important. I also think, though, that Democrats can come to the table as well.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: All right, let me bring in Senator Mazie Hirono of Hawaii. She's a Democrat. A member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, as well as the Armed Services Committee.

Senator, thanks for joining us.

SEN. MAZIE HIRONO (D), JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: Aloha, Wolf.

BLITZER: Aloha, to you as well.

Is this a welcome signal from the Trump administration, what you just heard from Reince Priebus?

HIRONO: Well, first of all, it was a triumph for the people of our country who showed up at town hall meetings by the thousands expressing their displeasure with Trumpcare. And so if the president wants to come forward and talk about improving the Affordable Care Act, then that's a good sign. But if it's just to redo Trumpcare, which kept getting worse, by the way, by the minute as they tried to corral Republican votes, that's not going to be much of an overture.

BLITZER: Well, do you think there's a group of bipartisan representatives and senators, Democrats and Republicans, who can work with the president in improving health care in America? Is that wishful thinking or is that realistic?

HIRONO: Well, as I said, that if there are efforts to improve the Affordable Care Act, which all of the Democrats have said it's not perfect, then I'm there. But that's the place I would like to go. Let's improve the Affordable Care Act.

BLITZER: Has any - has any Republican - senator, has any Republican from the White House or from the Senate reached out to you and say, on health care, let's work together?

HIRONO: So far not.

BLITZER: But you're waiting. All right, let me talk -

HIRONO: But the day is young.

BLITZER: Let me talk about another important issue. You're a member of the Judiciary Committee. In the last hour, the committee delayed its vote for a week on Neil Gorsuch, the judge to be a United States Supreme Court associate justice. As you know, the Senate minority leader, the Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer, he's vowed a filibuster to get this nomination though, meaning 60 affirmative votes. Do you support a filibuster?

HIRONO: Wolf, I want you to know that after four hours of hearings, I have concluded that I will not be supporting Neil Gorsuch for this opening. And so I very much support a 60 vote threshold for someone who's going to be on the highest court in the land where they will make decisions that will impact all of us for decades to come. And Neil Gorsuch is not the justice that I would seek to represent all of Americans, not just the conservative forces that have spent millions of dollars on his behalf.

BLITZER: Have you taken a look at your Democratic colleagues? There are 48 Democrats, 52 Republicans. To get to 60, eight Democrats would need to join all 52 Republicans. Is that realistic from the head county presumably you've done?

HIRONO: Chuck Schumer - and I join Chuck in encouraging my colleagues to not support Neil Gorsuch for this opening. So we shall see. I don't think that the Republicans have 60 votes and I definitely think that someone who's going to go to the highest court of the land should have a higher threshold requirement so that we can be assured that this person is representing all Americans and not just some Americans.

BLITZER: Well, you know that what Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, he can do what Harry Reid did years ago, he can change the rules, do that so-called nuclear option so only 51 votes are needed to confirm a United States nominee for the Supreme Court. That is potentially very likely.

HIRONO: I hope not. I hope that Mitch McConnell will think twice before doing something as short cited as that. I think we should all keep in mind that the Supreme Court is the highest court in the land and that person should have a 60 vote minimum requirement. As I said, as opposed to a bare minimum of senators who will be voting, that is not representative of what we should be doing for the Supreme Court nominee.

[13:20:12] BLITZER: Senator Hirono, thank for joining us.

HIRONO: Thank you.

BLITZER: We're also following critically important developments in the investigation into civilian deaths in Iraq. Both U.S. and Iraqi officials are looking into allegations that more than 100 civilians have been killed in recent air strikes and in Mosul by the U.S.-led coalition. A senior Iraq military officer says one of the air strikes targeted an ISIS truck packed with explosives killing dozens of civilians.

Arwa Damon is in Erbil in Iraq, not very far away from Mosul. Barbara Starr is over at the Pentagon.

Barbara, let me start with you. The investigation now being conducted by the U.S. military. What's the latest?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, they are looking, they say, at every piece of data they can. In fact, a short time ago, they briefed reporters and said they are looking at 700 videos from aircraft overhead during this whole period of several days, but especially on March 17th in this area of west Mosul to try and help them determine what happened. Seven hundred videos to go through.

The Iraqis are saying that one of the targets was a suicide truck bomber. The U.S. saying that also that some houses were struck in this neighborhood. There is a lot of effort by the Pentagon to make clear that the rules of the road have not changed, that they will continue to do everything they can to protect civilians, something they say ISIS does not so. Defense Secretary James Mattis spoke about this a short time ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAMES MATTIS, DEFENSE SECRETARY: There is no military force in the world that has proven more sensitive to civilian casualties. We are keenly aware that every battlefield where an enemy hides behind women and children is also a humanitarian field and we go out of our way to always do everything humanly possible to reduce the loss of life or injury among innocent people. The same cannot be said for our adversaries and that's up you to sort out.

(END VIDEO CLIP) STARR: Speaking to reporters standing at the side of the room there. But it should be taken quite seriously that Mattis decided to speak about this on camera because he rarely speaks on camera at this point so early into being secretary of defense. It underscores how seriously the Pentagon is taking this, how much it knows that it owes the world answers about what happened in west Mosul.

Wolf.

BLITZER: Let me go to Arwa.

And, Arwa, you're not very far away from Mosul, the second largest city in Iraq. Hundreds of thousands of people are trapped there right now. What's been the reaction: ISIS has been in control of Mosul now for, what, more than two years. What's been the reaction to this latest incident?

ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: There's a lot of anger, Wolf, because even though people did, yes, want to be liberated from ISIS, many of them hardly thought that they were going to be paying this kind of a price, especially when it comes to those who manage to survive these strikes or those who lost loved ones and relatives in the attacks themselves. We spoke to a man who lives a few houses down from where this strike took place and he said that as he and his family were running away, they could hear the screams of people underneath the rubble crying out, please, save us, we are - we're still alive.

Rescue workers, it took them days to actually get to the scene because of the security situation. And according to a senior health ministry official, so far from this one sight alone, they've managed to extract 112 bodies, but many more are still believed to be buried underneath the rubble. There is a sense that amongst the population at least that we've been talking to as we were standing on the outskirts overlooking the battle in western Mosul earlier today that these airstrikes perhaps should not be employed so frequently. There is a sense that perhaps there are other alternatives.

And to that effect, yes, the Iraqis are saying that they're going to be attempting to and have begun to change their tactics, using less air strikes, trying to move in more on foot, use their own sniper teams, drones, precision artillery. But at the end of the day, this is a very densely populated area and almost every single house, Wolf, has a family in it. In fact, in some cases these homes have more than one family in them because people tend to gather together in buildings that they believe are going to be the sturdiest. But as we have seen, whether it's because of air strikes or whether it's because of suicide car bombs that go off or homes that are booby-trapped, the civilians, they really have no way to ensure their or their loved ones safety.

BLITZER: Arwa Damon, not far away from Mosul, she's in Erbil. Barbara Starr at the Pentagon. Thanks to both of you. We'll stay on top of this investigation.

[13:24:58} Coming up, the White House press briefing about to begin. The press secretary, Sean Spicer, likely facing lots of questions about the Russia investigation, new information about contacts between Russians and a top aide of President Trump. We're going to have live coverage. That's coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Wall Street may be getting jittery about the future of President Trump's agenda following the major defeat on health care. The Dow fell more than 125 point in early trading today. Right now the Dow is down, what, about 50 points, 48 points to be specific. If the losses do hold today, it would be, what, an eighth straight down day. That hasn't happened, by the way, since 2011. Investigators are beginning to worry, apparently, that the president's plans for major tax reform, massive infrastructure spending may be in jeopardy. We're going to keep an eye on the markets here on CNN throughout the day.

Take a look at this. We've got some live pictures coming in from inside the White House Briefing Room. The press secretary, Sean Spicer, expected to come out momentarily, take reporters' questions. He'll likely be asked about new information we're learning concern the House and Senate Intelligence Committees Russia meddling in the U.S. election investigation. And we're going to bring that to you live. Stand by.

[13:29:58] I also want to bring in our panel, "Washington Post' White House reporter David Nakamura, CNN political analyst and "USA Today" columnist Kirsten Powers, CNN chief political analyst Gloria Borger, and our political director David Chalian. Up on Capitol Hill, our senior congressional reporter, Manu Raju