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Opposition Critical of "Leave" Campaign Tactics; Kerry Pledges U.S. Assistance to U.K. during Transition; Crime, Zika Has Athletes Bowing Out of Rio Olympics; Russian Intelligence Officers Intimidate U.S. Diplomats; House Democrats Release Their Version of Benghazi Probe. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired June 27, 2016 - 13:30   ET

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


[13:30:02] BECKY ANDERSON, CNN ANCHOR: On the issue of immigration, the suggestion that the borders would be closed, backing away from that idea. It has become abundantly clear, whether the U.K. likes it or not, if they want to play a part in the market of the European Union, going forward, that means the free movement of goods, services and people. It is becoming abundantly clear to those on the Leave side it will be very difficult to negotiate a deal that doesn't allow for the free movement of people as well as goods and services.

And the suggestion the economy will take a wobble in the short-term but, going forward, things will be OK. And the Leave campaign, very much accusing those who wanted to stay of what they call called Project Fear, when the chancellor, the finance minister, George Osborne, some 10 or 15 days ago, suggested there would be a $42 billion hole in public finances which would possibly necessitate an emergency budget, upping taxes and reducing spending. They called it Project Fear. Now, it is clear there will be problems in public finances going forward.

The big issue now is what sort of deal can the U.S. negotiate with Europe. What you heard from the prime minister when he addressed British lawmakers today about an hour and a half ago was this idea that he was not going to be rushed. This, of course, is all going to happen under the stewardship of a new prime minister. David Cameron has re-signed pending new leadership. Nothing will happen until September 2nd when we've learned there will be new leadership in place.

And then at that point, nothing will happening until this Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, which starts the proceedings, a two-year process of exiting the U.K., nothing will happen until that is triggered. That's the issue at the moment. There are a lot of grumblings in the background as the political chaos continues about just what it was that Leave voters were sold and whether, to use a British phrase, they were sold down the Suwannee.

BRIANNE KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: We're going to see how people respond to that in Britain.

But I want to ask you about something Secretary of State John Kerry said. He was in Brussels and then London and pledged U.S. assistance during this transition. Here is what he said. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN KERRY, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: There is some uncertainty in the air inevitably. Leaders have the ability, individual people have the ability and the responsibility to restore certainty by making wise choices in the days ahead. That means choices that to every degree possible are not aimed at confusion not aimed at anger but rather are thought through in a way that brings people together.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: What is the U.S. role in all of that?

CLARISSA WARD, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I think what John Kerry is trying to project here is an image of steadying the ship essentially. We know we are entering into uncharted waters. They are murky waters. This is a really crucial relationship, perhaps the most important bilateral relationship the U.S. has. The U.K. is working so closely with the U.S. on the fight against ISIS in Syria, Iraq and Libya, and they are a key members with NATO, which, of course, there's efforts to invigorate NATO, a big meeting planned next month.

We are dealing with an increasingly assertive Russia. All of these issues are issues the U.K. and the U.S. work really closely on. When the U.S. is dealing with Europe, the U.K. is the first port of call. It is the most important relationship.

The concern is Secretary Kerry wants to say to people, don't panic, this isn't going to affect the relationship. He is talking to all the European allies. He says, don't worry, we will navigate the ship through these choppy waters. But there are still a lot of questions about how the U.S. and U.K. relationship will be impacted if, indeed, Britain's image does suffer and its position on the world stage does suffer. You heard Becky there, there is a political vacuum and an economic crisis looming. There are a lot, a lot of questions as to how this will play out -- Brianna?

KEILAR: And how the U.S. relationship with Europe is going to suffer perhaps now that the U.K. is not going to be in the E.U.

Clarissa Ward, thank you so much.

Becky Anderson, thank you so much for being with us as well.

Coming up, the Olympic Games are right around the corner. But with the threat of Zika as well as civil unrest that's looming large, some of the world's most famous athletes continue to bow out of Rio. We'll have details.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:38:59] KEILAR: The Olympic trials are underway and opening ceremony in Rio less than six weeks. Brazil has been plagued with a series of issues that could threaten the games.

CNN senior international correspondent, Nick Paton Walsh, is live in Rio.

Nick, we have heard some major ones, Zika and security, that are dominating the conversations surrounding the Olympics. What can you tell us about this?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It is remarkable, Brianna, at this stage to have so many issues mounting and questions unanswered.

Let me try and pick through some of them for you. First of all, the most recent shock we have had that one of the key elements behind ensuring a clean game, free of doping, the Brazil Anti-Doping Board will be testing the athletes throughout. They had their certification taken away by the World Anti-Doping Agency just before this weekend. So real doubt they may be ready to function in the Olympics. What does that mean for doping? That's one detail.

But there's a broader as well. Concern over the pace of which infrastructure is being completed. One key subway extension that's supposed to go from the beaches behind me to the Olympic Park to cut the visitors through the traffic, get to the games quicker. That will only be ready four days ahead. A tight schedule there.

[13:40:18] There is the broader backdrop of security. Athletes here who are training having been mugged in some of the most busy tourist areas, one at gunpoint. The board of security for visitors, they promised a lot of security officers on the street, maybe 100,000. But there is another issue that may impact the government's ability to deliver on that. That's the financing of Rio state itself.

They suddenly, 10 days ago, had to declare a state of emergency because of what they called a financial calamity. They got an emergency bailout, nearly $1 billion from the federal level here. But there are concerns about what that is doing. The ability for Rio, which should be providing a sort of relaxed, wonderful atmosphere it is famous for, for those athletes coming to the game, it is going to be the back drop. The games are going to happen. Is everything going to be in place in the way that everybody had hoped -- Brianna?

KEILAR: Nick Paton Walsh, thank you so much for that overview in Rio.

For more on the games and the controversies surrounding them, I'm joined by Sidney Levy. He is the chief executive officer of the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio.

There has been a series, Sidney, of problems. Nick Paton Walsh said an athlete was mugged in broad daylight in a very touristy area. You would expect that may not happen. Perhaps a sign that security is very much a challenge. One of the hospitals, which is one of the five where athletes could be treated, was actually stormed by armed gunmen about a week ago. That's a big challenge. How do you make sure that athletes and spectators are safe?

SIDNEY LEVY, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, 2016 OLYMPIC GAMES, RIO: It's our job to protect the athletes and the people. That's what we have to do. We bring 85,000 people, from the federal police, from the army, to take over Rio and protect everybody. We did that for the world cup with hundreds of thousands of people. We did that when the pope visited. There were two million people in Rio in the streets and nobody got mugged. We are going to do it again. It is our job to protect everybody.

KEILAR: Do you think people are making too much of these concerns? Do you think that they should not be as concerned as they are, or are you really taking these concerns at face value?

LEVY: Of course, we do extreme measures for games. It is not normal measures. The games are an extraordinary event and because of that we do extraordinary measures. That's what you do.

KEILAR: I want to ask you, were some pictures we were showing there of polluted water. I know there are some areas where there is even sewage. That was supposed to be taken care of. Now, there is investigations into whether money was sort of siphoned off, wasn't used to clean up the areas where there will be sailing events. What can you tell us about that?

LEVY: We ran two tests in '14 and '15, same dates exactly, and it was very good. There was not a single athlete sick or anything. We will do that again. We have five competitions and we're tracking them every day. It is our job to protect the health of the athletes. We are pretty comfortable we can do that.

KEILAR: Speaking of the health of athletes, Zika is a major concern. You have some athletes, like golfer, Rory McIlroy, and this is significant because it now going to be part of the games. But he has pulled out of competing because he worries about Zika. What measures do you take to make sure athletes and spectators are aware of this problem and what they can do to try to avoid the risks?

LEVY: Mosquitoes die in the winter. We are now going into the winter. It is proved that the number of attacks by mosquitoes during those months drop dramatically. The chance to get Zika during the games is one to one million. We are pretty sure it is not going to be a threat.

KEILAR: Some of these problems I've described have detoured people from saying I am going to Rio. It is a beautiful place, a huge tourist destination. Some people have said, I don't think I am going to these Olympic Games. You see ticket sales depressed. Is there a strategy to try to boost that before the games get going?

LEVY: The Olympics is just a wonderful movement, a peace movement where Israelis and Palestinians have breakfast at the same table. Rio is a wonderful city where everybody should come. You have to come. We all do things together, just like last time. You have to come. You cannot wait.

KEILAR: Once in a life time. You do have a tough job, sir.

Sidney Levy with the Rio Olympics 2016. Thank you so much for being with us.

LEVY: Thank you.

[13:44:59] KEILAR: Coming up, Russian agents reportedly intimidating U.S. diplomats by entering their homes and rearranging their furniture. Bizarre, scary claims from secret State Department memos, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: Russian intelligence officers are breaking into homes of U.S. diplomats, harassing their children and, in one case, even killing a family pet. These are the bizarre and scary claims outlined by the "Washington Post."

We have CNN political analyst and "Washington Post" columnist, Josh Rogin. He broke this story.

This is a list of things you detail in this very interesting column. What else are staff members reporting?

JOSH ROGIN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Sure. Over the last two years, Russian intelligence and security services have been harassing U.S. diplomats not just in Moscow but in Europe. Some of the things are silly, like going into your house in the middle of the night and rearranging all your furniture and turn on all the lights and then go away.

KEILAR: Like a fraternity prank. But a lot is serious.

[11:49:51] ROGIN: Exactly. Some is much more serious. They followed Ambassador Michael McFaul's children to school, and so closely that the children were aware of it. In the first term of the Obama administration, they went into the House of the U.S. defense attache and killed his dog. These incidents have been going on for a while, but since the 2014 invasion of Ukraine and the U.S. sanctions that followed, the Russian FSB has been increasing its harassment and intimidation of U.S. diplomats to unprecedented levels.

KEILAR: And it's not like the Russian government is trying to keep this a secret. They're out there about this. They're defending it.

ROGIN: It's kind of crazy. John Kerry raised it with Vladimir Putin directly in his trip to Moscow in March. I asked the Russian embassy about it. They didn't deny it. They said the U.S. caused the downturn in relations and that these sanctions have consequences. They call it reciprocity. But U.S. intelligence and diplomatic officials assure me what they're doing to us is more serious and more dangerous than what we're doing to them.

KEILAR: What is their aim with this?

ROGIN: It's twofold. One, they want to disrupt U.S. officials doing their jobs in all these countries. If you go out and you're reporting on what the Russians are doing in Europe, they want to stop you from doing that. And they'll do that by scaring you. Two, they want to register their displeasure with U.S. policy. They want to make it clear, if we hit them with sanctions, they'll hit us by harassing our diplomats. It's a tit-for-tat game that reminds everybody of the Cold War.

KEILAR: And it comes from the top, right?

ROGIN: Well --

KEILAR: Is that the expectation? Is that what you think?

ROGIN: It's not a coincidence that we sanctioned Putin's friends and the businesses that are close to him and, right after that, then the harassment of U.S. diplomats all over Europe increases significantly. There is a relationship between what we're doing to Putin and his friends and what his intelligence services are doing to our diplomats in the field.

KEILAR: I know the U.S. government is tracking what's going on. What are they doing to make sure these staff members are safer?

ROGIN: It's interesting. The State Department has done a lot. They set up meetings to train all diplomats who are headed to Europe that this is going to happen to them, how to report it, how to respond. But in the end, they've made a decision, they had a debate about it, not to do these same things back to the Russians. That leads some in Congress to say that we're not doing enough. That there have been no consequences for Russia. And I can tell you the U.S. ambassadors to these countries are still complaining, especially to the Obama administration, that they want them to do more.

KEILAR: A fascinating column. I urge our viewers to take a look at it in the "Washington Post."

Josh Rogin, thanks so much.

ROGIN: Thank you.

KEILAR: And just in to CNN, House Democrats releasing their own version of a probe into the 2012 Benghazi terror attack that killed four Americans, and blasting Republicans for embracing, quote, "conspiracy theories." We'll have the details next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:56:32] KEILAR: Democrats launch a preemptive strike against Republicans in the 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya. The Democrats today releasing their report on the Benghazi attack before Republicans release theirs.

CNN's chief political correspondent, Dana Bash, is here with details.

This is no coincident. They beat Republican to the punch.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right. And just the fact that there is a Democratic report gives a full indicator of something that we already knew, but now it's in black and white of 350 pages, which is that this was a highly bipartisan process, this Benghazi commission, special committee to look at Benghazi. Now the Republicans, when the Democrats were being partisan, that they

didn't engage in the way they wanted, and Democrats say, give me a break, Republicans iced us out from everything we wanted to do. So that's the backdrop on why the Democrats' findings in this select committee, releasing this report today.

KEILAR: What are the findings here?

BASH: Well, one of the things that they are critical of, the Democrats, is something that is universally understood, that the security conditions leading up to these deadly attacks, four Americans killed, including the ambassador, in Benghazi in September of 2012, that the security conditions were, quote, "woefully inadequate." Everybody agrees on that pretty much.

But then following is where they conclude something that's quite different than what they expect Republicans to conclude, which is they say that the Pentagon could not have done anything at all to prevent these attacks, at least to get in there and help the Americans in distress. It concludes that the secretary herself, Hillary Clinton, never personally denied any request for additional security, and it goes on to at the end of the report make recommendations, including please, Congress, don't appoint special committees that they believe are truly political.

But let me say this as I'm talking to you. We got a statement from the chairman of this committee, Trey Gowdy, and his spokesman going through the fact that they don't believe that the Democrats get it or they understand what's going to happen, and it specifically says, "As Chairman Gowdy has said, this is not about one person, the investigation is about four brave Americans who lost their lives in Libya."

So trying to at least signal that when we do see the Republican majority report that it won't be as partisan as the Democrats fear.

KEILAR: It's been a big issue for Hillary Clinton. Obviously, Republicans will continue to try to make it a big issue. But how is it going to affect her? Is it already baked in? Is it already done?

BASH: It seems to be. It seems to be. You know, unless we have some real blockbuster piece of information that's specifically about her, it's hard to see that happening, given the way that the now sort of famous or infamous, depending on which side of aisle you sit one, the 11-hour testimony happened. Not a lot new came out in that. It seems to be baked in. If you think she's not somebody that should be president because of her actions in Benghazi, then you aren't going to vote for her anyway.

KEILAR: All right, Dana Bash, chief political correspondent. Thank you so much.

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

"NEWSROOM Today" with Pamela Brown starts right now. PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, I'm Pamela Brown, in for Brooke

Baldwin.