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Trump Accusers Speak Out, Demand Action; Alabama Senate Election Tomorrow; Key Members of Trump Campaign Back in Court; Judge Declines Administration's Request to Put Transgenders in the Military on Hold; U.S. Diplomat Resigns, Sends Scathing Letter to Trump/Tillerson; Former U.S. Ambassador Returns from North Korea During Tensions. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired December 11, 2017 - 13:30   ET

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


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[13:32:03] WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: The U.S. ambassador of the United Nations, Nikki Haley, weighing in on the top of sexual harassment, breaking from the White House when asked about President Trump's accusers. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NIKKI HALEY, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO THE U.N.: Women who accuse anyone should be heard. They should be heard and dealt with. We heard from them prior to the election. And I think any woman who felt violated or mistreated in any way have every right to speak up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Joining us now to discuss that and more, Amber Philipps, political reporter for the "Washington Post" political blog, "The Fix." Mark Preston, our senior political analyst, and Dana Bash, our chief political correspondent.

What's your reaction to Nikki Haley. She's pretty bold to take a different stance than heard from White House officials, including Sarah Sanders?

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: I don't think as a female, never mind a female politician and someone who clearly has a form of ambition following her stint at the U.N. can in this climate and atmosphere, say anything other than that. Can you image if she said, I believe the president, that they are all lying? This is not feasible for her to say that. Having said that, she doesn't say, I believe the women. She tried very hard and walking that line. Regardless, you are right, Wolf, there's no way the president saw that and was happy.

BLITZER: The press secretary, we have a press briefing coming up, Mark. When she was asked about it the other day, she said she's with the president. The president during the campaign said all the women are liars. He also was going to sue them and it's now more than a year after the election and he hasn't sued anyone.

MARK PRESTON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes. He hasn't. No indication that he actually will move forward with it.

What's interesting on Nikki Haley, Dana is right, is she has political ambitions. She is very young, but she has a steel spine. She had Indian heritage and won the governorship in a network of old boys. She broke down the network. She was also accused of infidelity during the campaign. Very public and nasty fight. She stood up to that and won. The Confederate flag, which is a symbol in the south for many people, something they stick strong by, she came out against it. I'm not so surprised that she came out and did it, but she walked a fine line.

BLITZER: Amber, how do you see it?

AMBER PHILIPPS, POLITICAL REPORTER & THE FIX BLOGGER, WASHINGTON POST: This might have been a politically advantageous thing for Haley to do. She framed on neon lights. You can't seize the moral high ground on the conversation unless you address the president's accusers. This could be a tough situation for Senate Republicans to even back away from Roy Moore now that Ambassador Haley has said this. The argument for why this is, he got elected when voters knew about the allegations. In 24 hours, we could see the same thing and Senate Republicans are wanting to launch an ethics investigation into Roy Moore. I think this creates a line in the Republican Party. They are going have to choose which.

[13:35:26] BLITZER: Let's talk about the contest, the polls getting ready to open tomorrow. The election is tomorrow. Robocalls from President Trump in support of Roy Moore. Robocalls from former President Obama in support of the Democrat, Doug Jones.

BASH: Look, everybody is pulling out the stops with regard to President Obama and in particular it's really interesting because she the latest and the most prominent African-American leader to really try hard to get the vote out for the Democrat, Doug Jones. In 2012, it was about the African-American vote that was 23 percent of the electorate in a big election year. This is not only not an election year, but the pool of voters is likely going to be much smaller that makes the notion of getting the African-American vote out in a bigger way for Doug Jones and more important. That's why you saw that and on the Republican side, there hasn't been any question about President Trump's going all in since late last week. This is the latest that he may not be actually campaigning for him, but he is campaigning for him by doing this.

BLITZER: Roy Moore is laying low and sort of invisible, but he will have a big campaign rally with Steve Bannon, the former chief strategist.

PRESTON: This is the last push to get the voter who he thinks will come out and vote absolutely to come out and vote. Very smart of him politically for him to stay low. It's not as if he goes out campaigning he is going to be able to convince newer voters to support him. It's more of keeping that core social conservative Christian voter in his corner. Tonight, we will see Steve Bannon rally to get the people out early tomorrow morning to the polls. BLITZER: The assumption is that President Trump is getting involved.

He didn't visit the state, but he did the Pensacola rally, and did the robocalls. Making it clear he fully supports Roy Moore. With that base that was helpful.

PHILLIPS: Right. President Trump won the state by nearly 30 points a year ago. That's a smart assumption for the president. The president didn't leave himself a lot of deniability. He's all in for Roy Moore. He made that very clear.

When you look at President Obama and Democrats going campaigning for Doug Jones, they are doing exactly what Dana said and trying to get African-American voters out. That, plus disaffected Republicans may be staying at home, a narrow path to how a Democrat wins a narrow race.

BLITZER: He has been tweeting a lot as well. He is all in at this point.

Amber, Mark and Dana, thanks very much.

More on the breaking news. A terror attack near Times Square in New York City. We are now learning they suspect is telling investigators why he carried out the bombing inside the port authority. Stand by.

And a top American diplomat abruptly resigning and blasting the president and the secretary of state on the way out. Her fiery words and a lot more when we come back.

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[13:42:55] BLITZER: The lawyer for Donald Trump's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, says he believes Robert Mueller's case won't stand. He gave a hint at a possible defense strategy, saying this, quote, "When you look at this case, we look at it as a failure to file some forms."

The comments were made in court today. And Manafort was back before a federal judge along with his deputy, Rick Gates, after Mueller accused Manafort of violating the terms of his bail by contributing to an op- ed article defending his efforts in Ukraine. The judge made no decision on changing the bail conditions, but warned Manafort about communicating in ways that could affect the outcome of his case.

Let's bring in Laura Coates, former federal prosecutor, CNN legal analyst.

And you see a signal of a strategy emerging. It was just a clerical error.

LAURA COATES, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: They hoped not to have this play out and what you are seeing with the op et and the ghost writer, he was the attorney trying to say let me plant seeds. We are talking about a national form. Wolf, most of the claims against Manafort and gates are about financial matters and not to sneeze at. He was trying to be more dismissive or lay the ground work for public opinion. BLITZER: Another legal case I want to go through with you, because

it's newsy today. A federal judge declined the Trump administration's request to put on hold on allowing transgender individuals to serve in the military. Last July, the president tweeted, after consultation with new general, "Please be advised that the government will not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. military." But since then, that hasn't happened. The courts said transgender individuals can be allowed to serve.

COATES: Right. They have an injunction in place. The premises of an injunction is to preserve the status quo so they can show if they will be harmed, Wolf. Meaning, if I allow this to go forward, tell me how you would never be able to recovery in any way. That's what the government is saying. Saying, if you allow transgender military persons to be recruited as of January 1, they will be harmed. The court is saying there is no proof of that and you have transgenders in the military right now, and you had over a year to get it right.

Remember, this emergency motion to try to get this injunction was filed six weeks after the first one. The court says, everyone wants to go to July or August when the president had his official memo, but go back in time under the Obama administration when the first studies were reported, and they said you have a year to figure it out and they haven't done it.

[13:45:45] BLITZER: The federal judge said, "Having carefully considered all the evidence, the court is not persuaded the defendants will be injured by allowing transgender individuals into the military beginning on January 1, 2018." The Trump Justice Department is appealing that decision right now.

COATES: Of course.

BLITZER: Thanks so much, Laura, for that.

A top U.S. diplomat abruptly resigning, issuing a scathing resignation letter against the Trump administration. You will hear what she is accusing Secretary of State Rex Tillerson of doing.

Plus, in a rare move, the United Nations official, who is an American, goes to North Korea as tensions escalate over their nuclear program. You will hear what happened. Stay with us.

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[13:50:52] BLITZER: resigned her post and sent a scathing resignation letter deeply critical of the Trump administration and Rex Tillerson. Elizabeth Shackelford, who was serving in the U.S. mission to Somalia out of Kenya, sent a letter, quote, "The department's position within the inner agency has also diminished as we have ceded to the Pentagon our authority to drive U.S. foreign policy at the behest of the White House but to our detriment as a nation. The trend in this direction will accelerate further with the budget and staffing cuts. Your champion top career leadership in the department gutted leaving it hard to make foreign policy decisions."

Joining us now, retired Rear Admiral John Kirby, a former State Department spokesman during the Obama administration.

Pretty harsh rebuke and she by no means is isolated.

REAR ADM. JOHN KIRBY, CNN MILITARY & DIPLOMATIC ANALYST: No, she's speaking for many foreign service officers right now and --

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: These are career diplomats.

KIRBY: She's speaking for many of them who are frustrated by how the State Department is being led and managed, and the chaotic nature with way the foreign policy is being implemented. That said, these are all individual decisions. And I've spoken to many of my former colleagues at the State Department, professional diplomats, who are going to stick it out. They believe they can still do some good and it's important for them, even if they don't agree with all of the policies, to continue to be out there and to implement and execute as best they can. So many of them are deciding that they'll get this out and stay with the hopes of trying to make a difference.

BLITZER: A bunch have already left.

KIRBY: Some of left, obviously. She cites the decimation at the senior levels. And there is real concern there for sure, but it's a mixed bag. Many of them, they take an oath. Like the military, they believe they serve no matter who is in the White House, and many are deciding to keep doing just that.

BLITZER: Let's talk about a retired U.S. diplomat, a former U.S. Diplomat Ambassador Jeffrey Feltman. He served in the State Department and was a career diplomat. And I knew him when he was the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. And he left and became one of the top diplomats at the United Nations and we are learning he's just returned from a very rare visit to Pyongyang, North Korea. He was invited by the North Koreans and it comes at a critical moment given the program that the North Koreans have.

KIRBY: That's right, Wolf. He talked about a sense of urgency. On one hand, it's encouraging that he got invited to go. You can quibble about the timing. He was invited after their most recent ICBM test, so that could convey a sense of certainty the North's part that they got some sort of advantage. But I think it's encouraging that he went, and they met with him and talked with him, and that's a good thing. And you have a ministerial meeting and Secretary Tillerson will give a speech tomorrow about North Korea, so all of this, we're driving here, I think, to some outcomes, I hope. But clearly, yes, the sense of urgency is there because the North has advanced the programs to the degree that they have.

BLITZER: Ambassador Feltman said there is a real sense of urgency to get things resolved diplomatically, because if they don't resolve it diplomatically, you know what that means.

KIRBY: Exactly. That's again, while it's encouraging, and we don't know exactly what was discussed, we can't read too much into it. But encouraging that he had this meeting and a diplomatic path forward is being pursued, even by the administration.

BLITZER: Would he be considered as a diplomatic back channel between the U.S. -- he is an American, even though he's a top U.N. diploma -- a diplomat being back channel to North Koreans?

KIRBY: I don't know. He works for the U.N. and not the U.S. He was not representing U.S. interests there clearly. U.S. interests will be, want to know what he learned. And he got invited by Pyongyang to represent the U.N. But we have to hope that Secretary Tillerson are exploring non-governmental avenues to have conversations with Pyongyang.

[13:55:46] BLITZER: Because it's one thing when the North Koreans invite the NBA legend Dennis Rodman to go over there, that's one thing, but when they invite Ambassador Jeffrey Feltman to come over and have serious talks with high-level North Korean officials, that is very different.

KIRBY: It is very different. It could connote that they are ready to begin some sort of discussion about direct bilateral talks. I don't think they're ready for that right now. And also I don't think this administration is ready for that right now. But it is encouraging that this invitation was proffered and that he went and had these discussions.

BLITZER: I assume he would brief U.S. officials on what happened there.

KIRBY: I assume, he will, too. He'll probably brief not just U.S., but other Security Council members on what he learned and what he heard. And there is an administerial meeting on Friday to talk about where things are going, and his input into that meeting will be very important.

BLITZER: Let's hope he can achieve something diplomatically because that will be better than another option.

KIRBY: Absolutely.

BLITZER: John Kirby, thanks so much.

KIRBY: Thanks.

BLITZER: More on the breaking news coming up. A terror attack near Times Square in New York City. Witnesses are coming forward about seeing a man detonating a bomb inside the port authority, the bus station there. You will hear the very latest.

And the White House briefing, by the way, only moments away as calls grow for the president, at least from some Democrats, to resign over sexual assault allegations. We'll hear how the White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders responds.

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