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Attorney: Trump Not "Under Investigation" Despite Tweet; Kushner, Trump Meet with Tech Industry Executives; Problem-Solver Caucus Coalition Tries to End Partisan Bickering in Congress; Senate GOP Wants Health Care Vote on Mystery Bill as Democrats Plan to Shutdown Chamber; Interview with Rep. Tom Reed & Rep. Josh Gottheimer. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired June 19, 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] DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: And Jay Sekulow could be right but this is one of the many, many, many dangers of the president of the United States using Twitter to communicate. There are a lot of pluses to it but also a lot of minuses and this is one. The fact of the matter is, the fact Jay Sekulow was out not just yesterday on the Sunday talk shows but today on CNN and other networks just punching back Donald Trump-style. It doesn't take a big leap knowing Donald Trump, and we covered him for more than two years and the way he operates in the political arena. He wants the public to see and hear from the guy, from a guy who is representing him. This is not happening because we know from James Comey's testimony, from his memos, this is what irked him more than anything else, the notion that the public thinks he's under investigation.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: I have no doubt the president himself -- I'm sure you agree -- told Jay Sekulow go out there and tell the world I'm not being investigated, because Dana is absolutely right, this irks the president, the thought he's under investigation. He doesn't mind if his so-called satellites may be under investigation. He called them satellites in one of those tweets. Meaning, people who work for him during the campaign or transition. But he wants the American people to believe he is not under investigation.

MARK PRESTON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Which is why he says, "believe me," every time he's trying to reinforce a point he wants you to actually grasp. This is the problem with President Trump and Twitter and the use of social media. He has not mastered how to use social media. He thinks he has but he hasn't. In fact, he's caused more problems for himself. When you look at the Russia investigation, there was never really any talk about President Trump himself colluding with the Russians. It was the so-called satellites, did Trump maybe know about it, maybe he didn't, but there was no real direct connection. The problem for Trump is, though, did he try to obstruct justice, try to end an investigation into his former NSA Director Flynn and did he try to put pressure on Comey, the FBI director, who he subsequently fired, and did he also try to get other high-ranking officials within his administration to do the same to Comey. He really has created his own mess at this point.

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: He heard Rod Rosenstein testify publicly and say I don't see any good cause to fire Mueller and that he was going to let this investigation take its course. I'm sure that that grated on the president, too, because of course, he doesn't like that and he would have to fire him. If he fired him, he knows it would create even more problems than he already has. He would like to fire Mueller, fire Rosenstein, and both those things are things he should not do.

LAURA COATES, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Remember, talk about obstruction of justice, talk about satellites. The obstruction issue is pretty much a tangential issue to the counter intelligence probe where this all began. It may, in fact, be the president is making his bed of tweets and will eventually lie in them for a criminal obstruction charge. He may. But the realistic approach for the FBI and DOJ right now is this has begun as a counter intelligence probe. Whatever the president is doing to try to deflect away from that or in order to figure out whether or not he's trying to undermine that investigation, their focus is singular and autonomous in many respects. His statements, what he's doing on Twitter may deflect attention away from other issues but for the FBI, the DOJ, they are remaining focused on the goal at hand.

BASH: Do you think so? Clearly, the underlying question still ism and everybody wants to know, was there collusion between anybody in Trump world and the Russians, and then, more broadly, just as American citizens, how exactly did the Russians try to impact the election. But you know this better than I. These investigations tend to take on a life of their own.

BLITZER: Mark, Jared Kushner, the president's senior adviser and son- in-law, is among those welcoming tech executives to the White House today. Moments ago, he spoke at the summit meeting that is going on. The president will be meeting with all the tech leaders later in the day. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JARE KUSHNER, TRUMP SERNIOR ADVISOR: This is technology here at the White House and we are proud to be kicking it off with your engagement and assistance as we work to modernize the government's technology infrastructure. We created the White House office of American innovation in an effort to bring business sensibility to a government that for too long has relied on past practices as automatic justification for their continuation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: You don't often hear from Jared Kushner. He's a busy guy. He's got all these tech executives.

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: For a lot of people, that's the first time probably they have heard his voice.

BASH: He just got a speaking role.

(LAUGHTER) BLITZER: He's got this big summit today with all the tech executives that he's organizing. Later in the week, he's heading to Jerusalem, to meet with Israeli and Palestinian leaders, trying to get some sort of peace process under way. He's a busy guy.

[13:35:07] PRESTON: The right-hand man for President Trump. We talk about the chief of staff and Reince Priebus, Steve Bannon, the senior adviser. The fact of the matter is, Trump really, really only trusts those who are really related to him. That's why we see Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner move to Washington, D.C. In some ways, you can say it's admirable they are trying to do something with the peace process, but no disrespect to Jared Kushner, I'm not sure he can be the one to broker a truce and peace for a religious war by all stretches of the imagination. We will see more and more of Jared Kushner in situations like this where he will be out really being the mouthpiece for the president.

BORGER: He's not here testifying before congressional committees, which have asked for his appearance, and they are in the process of negotiating that and working that out. We now understand, I guess, that he can't be in two places at once.

BLITZER: At least they are trying to get some sort of peace process under way. Hopefully, they will get something moving. You never know. Let's see what happens. We have been down that road many times over the years. Hopefully, something positive can emerge.

Gloria, Dana, Mark, Laura Coates, guys, thanks very much.

Coming up, live pictures from Capitol Hill where Senate Democrats say they won't conduct business until they see the Republicans' secret health care bill. A live report on that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:40:50] BLITZER: Welcome back. Normally, we would be airing the White House press briefing right now live. Sean Spicer, by the way, has just started the briefing in the briefing room. Unfortunately, the White House says no cameras are allowed, no airing of it live, not even the audio. So it's Q&A with Sean Spicer, but unfortunately, we are not allowed to show it to you live. We will have more on that coming up.

Meanwhile, the Senate, up on the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue, is back in session today. But by tonight, Democrats plan to bring business on the floor to a halt all because of their frustration over the Republicans' handling of the health care bill and the secrecy around its details.

Let's bring in our congressional correspondent, Phil Mattingly; and "CNN Money" senior writer, Tami Luhby.

Phil, the Senate minority leader, the Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer, said this morning, I'm quoting, "These are merely the first steps we are prepared to take in order to shine a light on the shameful Trumpcare bill." Will this actually give the Democrats in the Senate any leverage?

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CONGRESSSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: To the extent a minority party has leverage in the Senate, this is the way to utilize it. Nothing moves forward unless all Senators agree to allow it to move forward. That's what Senate Democrats are going to object to tonight. What does this mean in practice? It means the Senate floor proceedings will slow to a halt, it means committee hearings can't actually occur. Overall, the business in the chamber will start to slow down. The reason why is really two-fold. First and foremost, there is a sense among the Democrats not only in the Senate but also outside in the activist community that not enough attention has been paid to what Senate Republicans have been doing behind closed doors. They want to try and draw attention to that. The other issue is they recognize they are not part of this process. This is the way to insert themselves if they can. They recognize this is a problematic process, at least on its face. They want to draw attention to that.

One of the most interesting elements here is it's not just Democrats that have problems with this. It's Republicans as well.

Take a listen to what a Democrat and Republican had to say earlier this weekend.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. RON WYDEN, (D), OREGON: I have never seen something like this. This is unprecedented to not have a bill, to not have any sense of the details.

SEN. MARCO RUBIO, (R), FLORIDA: If it is an effort to rush it from a small group of people straight to the floor on an up or down vote, that would be a problem.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: I want to kind of underscore a key point here. What Senate Republicans are doing is also strategic. They understand that they are going to get attacked for this, that it doesn't look good. But the rationale is I'm being told according to Senate leadership, this is the best path forward to get the requisite number of votes, 50 at a minimum, to move this forward. They know shielding this from the public and from Democratic attack attacks will give their members the best opportunity to hash out serious and significant disagreements on very key components of health care policy. They are not there yet. There's no final bill yet. Nothing has even been sent to the CBO in an official capacity. But that's what's happening. That's the strategy. You will see Democrats trying to highlight that as much as they possibly can tonight.

BLITZER: Interesting stuff.

Tami, one of the big challenges for health insurance companies right now is that they don't know what the rules of the road will be for the next year. What kind of impact is that already having? Could there be some markets with no insurers at all? TAMI LUHBY, CNN MONEY SENIOR WRITER: Look, Obamacare was troubled

well before Trump was elected but he and the Republicans are not making things any better for the insurers. They are saying they don't know how to set prices for next year when they don't know if they are going to get a key set of subsidies and don't know if they are going to get -- if Trump will continue to enforce the individual mandate. What are they doing? Raising rates. They are requesting rates to go up. In a lot of places by double digits. One analysis says that two- thirds of this is just the uncertainty because they don't know what to do. Look at North Carolina. They requested a rate increase of 23 percent. But if they knew they were going to get the subsidies they were only going to request an 8.8 percent increase. The bigger problem here is that a lot of insurers just don't want to deal with this anymore and are just pulling out, they are pulling out entirely, pulling out of certain markets. You have Anthem leaving Ohio, Wellmark, Blue Cross/Blue Shield leaving Iowa. They don't want to deal with this anymore. At this point, we have 47 counties in the U.S. that, at this point, have no insurer for next year. That's tens of thousands of people. But on the flipside of all of this, you have some insurers saying hey, we like this market, it's stabilizing. They are sticking with it, raising rates a little bit because rates go up every year but not tremendously. So for next year, what happens with Obamacare? It's really going to depend on where you are.

[13:45:34] BLITZER: Tami Luhby and Phil Mattingly, guys, thanks very much for that update. Critically important issue, health care, here in the United States.

Coming up, will Senate Democrats protest over the Republican health care bill? Will there be a bipartisan atmosphere at all? We will have an update on that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:49:50] BLITZER: In the wake of last week's shooting at a Republican congressional baseball practice here in the D.C. area, there have been new calls for bipartisanship and an end to the divisive political rhetoric.

Joining us now, New York Republican Congressman Tom Reed; New Jersey Democrat Congressman Josh Gottheimer.

Congressmen, thank you for having us on.

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: You guys are the co-chairs of the Problem-Solver Caucus, a 35-member strong coalition trying to end the partisan bickering. It certainly sounds nice, but with such deep divisions right now, the agendas of the respective parties, realistically, is there going to be any significant change in at least tone?

REP. TOM REED, (R), NEW YORK: I completely believe there is going to be, and with the Problem-Solver Caucus, we have been influential. A 40-strong members' bloc on the government funding bill we passed about a month ago. BLITZER: Congressman, I assume you agree, that's why you created this

caucus. You're pushing for bipartisanship on infrastructure, tax reform, so take health care, for example, there was really no outreach to Democrats at all, and it was voted strictly along party lines. How do you change that?

REP. JOSH GOTTHEIMER, (D), NEW JERSEY: Well, I think obviously health care was the wrong approach. I think we're seeing the backlash from that. Tom and I and the 40 of us are working hard to find a good place where we can find together -- that means not insisting on 100 percent, but taking 8 on percent and getting things done. From where I'm from, that's what people want, they want us to do something.

BLITZER: Are you hopeful you'll be able to work together with Democrats?

REED: I absolutely believe that. Working with the Problem-Solvers Caucus and Josh's lead, we're taking a position on debt ceiling, I believe, maybe a budget agreement, but being on the committee of ways and means. I'm reaching out and saying we want you to be a part of this. That's the way we're going to solve America's problems.

BLITZER: Congressman Reed, you voted to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. As you know, the other day the president was meeting with Republicans. He said the bill was strictly along partisan minds, was in his words, "a mean bill." What do you say to a president who is basically throwing a lot of House Republicans under the bus?

REED: Well, i'll let the president speak for himself, but the bottom line is we had to move forward, you're talking about tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands don't have access to health insurance any longer. We need to do something. Then we can focus on areas of common ground, with things like tax reform. We can find common ground if we lead and do the work. That's what Josh and I are all about.

BLITZER: Congressman Gottheimer, any chance that could be bipartisan cooperation in the House of representatives, let's say the Senate passes some health care legislation, you got to then go back to a joint House/Senate committee, then more votes. Is there any chance there should be cooperation between the Democrats and Republicans on health care?

GOTTHEIMER: There's a bunch of us who wanted to fix the aca, and still do. It's hard to know what's in it. It's happening in the dark of night. That's not the way we're going to come around together. I'll tell you this. On issues, where we focus on the caucuses, we're willing to work with anyone on things like tax reform, infrastructure, because we know there's areas where we can get to yes and that's what we're focused on. How do we move forward, not screaming at each other, but sitting down and figuring out where we can make progress?

BLITZER: How do you deal with, Congressman Reed, your fellow Republicans. They don't want to make any deals with the Democrats, because they don't trust the Democrats and really don't want to go forward with such deals. How do you do that? REED: You lead. That's why -- you know, obviously sticking our neck

up and Josh sticking his neck up, we're putting people before politics first. I will tell you that's the change in culture that I believe needs to happen. I believe we need to resolve it doing together. Practically speaking 218 votes, zero votes in the Senate, is generally what you need to get policy enacted. That means we have to work together. That's better policy for the American people.

GOTTHEIMER: I agree. I think, Wolf, what you saw last week after the horrific incident in Washington is people more than ever are saying, sit down, figure this out, look where you can find the common ground. There's plenty of space to find that common ground. That's what the Problem-Solving Caucus is doing. I think that's really what people want, but it takes some courage and sticking your neck out, but that's what we're here for.

[13:55:00]BLITZER: Very quickly Congressman Reed, will the president be on your side?

REED: I think the president is looking to do a deal. When you have that type of attitude, I think you can get a lot done for the American people.

BLITZER: Do you think he'll reach out to Democrats?

REED: I believe, at the end of the day, that's the path forward and I think the president will agree with us.

GOTTHEIMER: And just adding to that, I think if it's good for a lot of our districts, which it is, infrastructure and tax reform, we'll get to yes. We have to be willing, though, on both sides to do that.

BLITZER: Let's see if you can do it.

Congressman Josh Gottheimer and Congressman Tom Reed, thank you. Good luck.

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: That's it for me. I'll be back at 5:00 eastern in "The Situation Room."

For our international viewers, "Amanpour" is coming up next.

For our viewers in North America, NEWSROOM with Brooke Baldwin, with the latest on the attacks in Paris and London, starts after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:00:05] BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Here we go, top of the hour. You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

We begin today with breaking news. Two terror attacks just hours apart from one another in London and Paris.

First, let's talk --