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Istanbul Terror Attack; Road to Rio; Mechanics of U.K. Exit from E.U.; Terror in Turkey; E.U. Facing Uncertainty Triggered by Brexit; U.S. Politicians React to Istanbul Attacks; Benghazi Panel Doesn't Fault Clinton. Aired 2-3a ET

Aired June 29, 2016 - 02:00   ET

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


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ANNOUNCER (voice-over): This is CNN breaking news.

AMARA WALKER, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. I'm Amara Walker in Los Angeles.

JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: I'm John Vause in London. You're watching CNN's breaking news coverage of the terror attack at the airport in Istanbul.

Turkish officials say 36 people are dead, nearly 150 others have been wounded and they suspect ISIS is to blame. It is 9:00 am in Istanbul right now. Planes are flying in and out of Ataturk Airport once again. But the international terminal at Europe's third busiest airport is now a crime scene.

Witnesses describe pure chaos as three suicide bombers blew themselves up on Tuesday. The video of the attack is graphic.

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WALKER (voice-over): It really is. The surveillance camera at the airport captured the moment one of the three bombs exploded. You can see people just running for their lives just before the blast.

Then debris falls from the ceiling as the area starts to fill with smoke.

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WALKER: And you can get a different perspective from another security camera. It captured what appears to be one of the attackers falling to the ground after he was apparently shot by a security --

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[02:03:13] VAUSE: And, Joe, we've heard a lot about how security at this airport has been stepped up in recent years, that there was a fairly decent security perimeter. I guess many people at that airport would have I guess felt fairly safe with the amount of security around.

But yet somehow these three suicide bombers managed to get past the police and open fire on the passengers inside that terminal.

Is there any idea of how they managed to do that?

And I guess if that security perimeter wasn't in place, the death toll could have been much higher.

JOE: Absolutely right. As you arrive to this entrance to the airport, there are policemen there, well armed with machine guns, and they do random checks. They don't stop every single car coming in. But they do stop many cars and they check for IDs. They check the hoods of the car.

These attackers, these terrorists managed to get past that first phase of security. Once inside the airport itself, they worked themselves into the terminal -- that is the arrival terminal.

The arrival terminal is where passengers go to greet arriving passengers, family; and that -- those doors have one security. And I've traveled this airport many times. I've been here seven years.

And I -- when you leave the airport, when you leave the airport, that part of the airport, there's only one security at that door. And when you have such heavily armed terrorists coming in, it's very difficult to stop them.

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VAUSE: OK, Joe, thank you. Joe's right on the scene there, as he has been for the past few hours. Joe, appreciate the update. Thank you.

And the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has called for a unified international fight against terrorism. He says the attack which took place during the holy month of Ramadan shows that terrorism strikes with no regard for faith and values nor do terrorists distinguish between their victims.

"Make no mistake: for terrorist organizations, there is no difference between Istanbul and London, Ankara and Berlin, Izmir and Chicago or Antalya and Rome. Unless all government and the entire mankind join forces in the fight against terrorism, much worse things than what we fear to imagine today will come true."

WALKER: Now leaders around the world are condemning the airport bombings while vowing to fight terrorism.

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ANGELA MERKEL, CHANCELLOR OF GERMANY (through translator): I offer my deepest sympathies to the relatives of the victims and the injured. And I want to say to all of the Turkish people that we consider ourselves united with them in the fight against terror.

JOHN KERRY, SECRETARY OF STATE: We are still collecting information and trying to ascertain what happened and who did it. And I won't comment further except to say that this is daily fare. And that's why I say the first challenge we need to face is countering non-state violent actors for a host of reasons.

FRANCOIS HOLLANDE, PRESIDENT OF FRANCE (through translator): We fear that these terrorist acts, which come after others, are born to make the situation in Turkey more difficult. But we must act, as what we are also doing in Europe and France, and coordinate further our services and carry out as much as possible the necessary actions against terrorism and trafficking.

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VAUSE: Turkey's war on terrorism has been going on for years and Mustafa Akyol, he's a columnist with the Al-Monitor news site focused on the Middle East. He joins me on the line from Istanbul.

Mustafa, Turkey has been fighting terrorism on a number of fronts. And right now it seems that the terror groups have the upper hand.

MUSTAFA AKYOL, AL-MONITOR: (INAUDIBLE)

VAUSE: Unfortunately, I think we're having some audio problems there with Mustafa Akyol, who's a columnist with the Al-Monitor website. Hopefully we'll get back in touch with him.

In the meantime, we'll take a short break. We'll have more on the Istanbul terror attacks.

Just ahead, witnesses are sharing video from inside the airport, showing the chaotic scene.

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MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN HOST: Hello, everyone, I'm Michael Holmes. This is your "Road to Rio" update.

Rio de Janeiro's acting governor told a Brazilian newspaper that the state has not yet received the federal funds it needs for increased security --

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HOLMES: -- and transportation for the Olympics. He said if some steps are not taken, the games could be a, quote, "big failure."

The Brazilian government said the $850 million in funds will be delivered to Rio by Thursday.

In the Brazilian city of Maracaju, a man was arrested for attempting to throw a bucket of water on the Olympic torch. Luckily, he missed the torch but he did hit the torch bearer and the security guards surrounding it. He was charged with intent to cause material harm and later released on bail.

Australian golfer Jason Day has pulled out of the Olympics because of the Zika virus. The sport's number one player said it was a difficult decision but not a risk he was willing to take since he and his wife plan to have more children. Day is the sixth golfer to say they will not be going to the Olympics because of Zika.

Rio's so-called "new tunnel" is the first location to feature new decorations to mark the Olympic Games. The city's government chose the designs to help spread Olympic spirit among the local population. The main roads, sports facilities and lightposts will also be decorated in the coming days.

That's your "Road to Rio" update. I'm Michael Holmes.

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VAUSE: Welcome back, everybody. I'm John Vause in London. We have more now on that suicide bombing at Istanbul's airport. And terrorism has been a growing problem inside Turkey for years now.

Mustafa Akyol is a columnist with the Al-Monitor, a news site, which is focused on the Middle East. He joins us now from Istanbul.

Mustafa, Turkey's been fighting this war on terrorism for a number of years now, a number of fronts. It would seem that the terror groups are getting the upper hand, at least at the moment.

AKYOL: Well, they're hurting Turkey. That's obvious. And what happened last night was incredibly tragic.

Lately we have had two sources of terrorism. One is the notorious ISIS; the other was the PKK, the militant Kurdish group. And last night, when the first bomb came out and we were discussing which one is it?

And I was guessing it's ISIS and I think it turned out to be the case. Prime Minister just said last night that the evidence points to ISIS because ISIS has been attacking Turkey in the past year.

They have had other suicide bombings. But this time, hitting an airport, I think this is the biggest thing they have accomplished, more than 30 people killed and many injured. And it's really shocked the nation. And it's just showing once again that Turkey is in a dangerous neighborhood. We have to be more --

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VAUSE: Yes, this attack -- Mustafa, this -- sorry to interrupt, but this attack came during the holy month of Ramadan. Most of the victims, it seems, were, in fact, Turkish.

So what sort of message, if this was ISIS, are they trying to send? AKYOL: Well, one thing to get out is that this terrorism problem with ISIS is not a problem with all Islam or all Muslims, obviously. The victims can be Muslims especially, which is predominantly the case here.

So that's I think something everybody should see. The other thing is that ISIS is apparently trying to punish Turkey for something. That is partly related probably to Turkey's Syria-Iraq policy. Turkey is a U.S. ally. Turkey is with the United States on attacks against ISIS.

The U.S. is using Turkish air base in Southern Turkey. So that makes Turkey a target.

Plus, Turkey is, as conservative as it is, is a secular republic. ISIS already has declared Turkey "an apostate regime," quote-unquote, and put it as a target.

Some people pointed out that just yesterday, Turkey made a deal with Israel.

Could it be a reason?

Well, probably they couldn't respond that fast but that was something on the news in at least past week. That's one possibility to think about. But it's clear that ISIS considers all other Muslims that's not fanatic to join them as apostates. So it's a threat for all Muslims and all other people in the world who just stand against this.

Actually, that cult, who apparently -- who allegedly acts in the name of Islam.

VAUSE: It wasn't just the reestablishing diplomatic ties with Israel; the Turkish president said that letter apologizing to the Russian president for Turkey shooting down a Russian jet several months ago, of course, Russian and Israel are on ISIS' hit list.

But one of the criticisms --

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VAUSE: -- which has been made of the Turkish government in the past is that it's focused too much on the PKK, the Kurdistan Workers' Party, another terror group, as opposed to ISIS.

Is that now going to change?

Or have you been seeing a shift in the government priorities?

AKYOL: Well, both are important for Turkey for sure. And PKK just has a longer history of violence. The war with the PKK cost Turkey 1,000 lives in Turkey since 1984.

So in the public consciousness and I think even in the security establishment, when something happens, PKK is the first thing that comes to their minds. But it was dawning onto Turkey that ISIS is a huge problem as well. In the beginning, people pursued them maybe as a group in Syria, which

has nothing to do with Turkey. But ISIS is showing us that it has something direct with Turkey as it has with Brussels, as it has with France and other nations.

So, yes, I think there were more alerts, more vigilantism against ISIS as soon as there should be and maybe even better for the (INAUDIBLE) Turkey and Western allies, which should be the case.

Also Turkey should look into the ideology of this group, which is very, very different, very apart from Turkey's own Islamic tradition. But Turkey's Islamic leaders should also come out with, I think, more details, condemnations and analysis of this ideology as well.

We have seen some of that, obviously. But maybe more should be done.

VAUSE: Right now the government there in Turkey obviously needs all the support it can get but yet recently the president reopened the possibility of the demolition of Getty Park (ph) three years ago. That sparked months of protests and turmoil nationwide.

That would seem to be tone-deaf or out of touch, to say the least, wouldn't it?

AKYOL: Yes, that was not a smart call, if you ask me. I mean, it's unrelated to this issue. But the problem is, in Turkey, the broader problem, if you ask me, is that Turkey has become a very polarized nation politically between the supporters and the opponents of President Erdogan, which can be fanatic in their own ways.

And we need national reconciliation, we need to unite against terrorism and against illegal trends (ph) like this. And reopening the Gezi Park, which would provoke, I think, a lot of the protesters which were out in the streets three years ago, is not a great idea.

So people like me have been taking this to the president and to the government; whether they listen or not is a different thing. But, yet, I would like to reiterate once more that Turkey needs less polarization. Turkey needs a national reconciliation and understanding. And at least we should do that. We should try to do that in the face of horrors like this and, yes, trying to reopen the Gezi Park, the controversial issues in Turkey will not help.

VAUSE: Mustafa Akyol, thank you for being with us, a columnist for Al-Monitor. We appreciate your insight, sir, thank you.

WALKER: Well, witnesses are sharing videos from inside the airport, showing the terrifying moments as the attack unfolded.

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WALKER: Just stunning to watch and to imagine what the people must have been feeling as they had no idea what was going on.

Well, earlier we heard from one of the witnesses who described what happened in detail. Sue Savage (ph) was in the airport to see a friend off when she heard the gunshots.

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SUE SAVAGE (PH), AIRPORT ATTACK WITNESS: I just recognized the gunshots and then heard this huge explosion. And I knew immediately it was a bomb. And I just bolted --

[02:20:00]

SAVAGE (PH): -- as fast as I can -- not very fast -- and went into the first room I could find, which happened to be a men's prayer room. But I left there fairly quickly and ended up actually in a men's toilet, in one of the stalls with this lovely young woman in there, called Yashmat (ph), and a young boy.

And we waited there easily half an hour. Came out of there and went into a secure room, where they x-ray luggage, and the all of a sudden we heard more screams and more gunshots. And I ducked into the place where they x-ray luggage and everybody else bolted out.

But this was closest place for me. And I must have been in there 10 or 15 minutes before I peeked out and was told, no, it's OK; you can come out now.

And a lot of us, about 30 of us, were herded into a women's prayer room, where we sat 45 minutes or so. And then they said, no, it's all clear. They escorted us towards the front of the airport, took us down the escalator because we were on the ground floor at the arrival hall. And there was a lot of blood. It was obviously a place where one of the suicide bombers had blown himself up.

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WALKER: That's terrifying. That was witness Sue Savage (ph), recounting what she went through.

I'm going to hand it over now to my colleague, John Vause, standing by in London. He'll have the latest on the Brexit and the continual fallout.

VAUSE: Yes, absolutely, Amara. And we're getting a clear idea of just how contentious those negotiations will be for the U.K. to get out of the European Union. Prime Minister David Cameron met Tuesday with E.U. leaders in Brussels. Britain wants the framework of its relationship with E.U. settled before legally triggering the exit process.

The E.U. wants just the opposite before negotiations begin.

Meantime, a defiant Brexit leader took aim at the E.U. Parliament.

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NIGEL FARAGE, UKIP: I know that virtually none of you have ever done a proper job in your lives or worked in business or worked in trade or, indeed, ever created a job. But listen, just listen... JEAN-CLAUDE JUNCKER, PRESIDENT, EUROPEAN COMMISSION: I'm really surprised that you are here. You were fighting for the exit. The British people voted in favor of the exit.

Why are you here?

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VAUSE: Meantime, the opposition Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, lost a confidence vote within his party reportedly by a vast majority. He says he'll stay on but the vote paves the way for a leadership challenge.

Although the global markets have been rocked by the vote -- they lost $3 trillion on Friday and Monday they are slowly recovering, it seems. On Wall Street, the Dow gained 1.6 percent on Tuesday and European markets are headed for a higher open for the second straight day.

CNN's political contributor, Robin Oakley, joins me now with more on this.

Robin, one thing which seems pretty clear right now is that the E.U. is playing hardball. We're hearing from leaders like Angela Merkel of Germany, which is basically saying if you want a trade deal, you're going to have the full freedom of movement of people; trade, goods, that kind of stuff.

That is not what the millions who voted for the Leave campaign want to hear. It's not what they were expecting.

ROBIN OAKLEY, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: No. But we're at the start of a negotiation here. Both sides are going to pitch it hard as to where they stand gradually as they get together. Things will move in one direction or another.

But both -- we haven't even got the starting rules for the terms that Britain will get yet. It's like fixing the size of the boxing ring and what kind of gloves the opponents are going to wear.

And --

VAUSE: Do you feel this is good (INAUDIBLE) theater right now, that everyone's sort of going through the motions and eventually it's going to end up with some kind of deal which looks a lot like the deal we have right now?

OAKLEY: Well, the big drawback is immigration because that is -- the free movement of people is so ingrained in the E.U. traditions that leaders like Angela Merkel are going to find it very, very hard to give anything on that particular issue.

But there's no doubt about it that immigration was a massive part of the Leave vote in the British referendum. And that immigration question is not going to go away. It's going to define the stances of the people now seeking to follow David Cameron as leader of the Conservative Party and prime minister. And of course you have got Nigel Farage, who we've seen there --

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VAUSE: At his (INAUDIBLE) best.

OAKLEY: -- yes, stoking it up from the side. Of course, he wasn't part of the official Leave campaign but the Leave campaign were only too glad to have him stoking up the immigration issue during the campaign because it helped them win.

VAUSE: And you mentioned David Cameron there, the British prime minister, who says he will step down.

Did you think he was sort of going through the motions last night?

OAKLEY: Well, we haven't got --

[02:25:00]

OAKLEY: -- his words directly. But it does seem that he was trying to pave the way for his successor to an extent by underlining to the European leaders, look, you have underestimated the degree to which immigration counted in this referendum.

And of course there's plenty of these other countries across Europe, have had problems with immigration, problems with the refugee crisis and so on. Britain is not alone in having -- you know, British voters are not alone in having concerns about these issues.

VAUSE: But it sounds to me like he went into the E.U. and said, well, it's all your fault because you didn't give me a good deal back in February.

OAKLEY: Oh, yes, I mean, there was an element of that, of course, self-justification, namely the politician who don't go in for that.

VAUSE: Well, do you think he thought through the full implications of this referendum?

Because he's been very lucky up until this point, you know, the Scottish independence vote went his way; he had that win, the general election a couple of years ago, against all the polls -- or, a year ago, I should say.

Do you think he had this feeling that he'd be lucky again and it didn't quite pan out?

OAKLEY: Yes, I think he -- we used to call him the essay crisis prime minister and most of his time he was dealing with what was going to happen on the 10 o'clock news, not what was going to happen in two or three years' time.

He was in a eurosceptic party, getting ever more eurosceptic. He kept throwing buns to the right wing and they kept asking for more. But I think he believed that when he gave them the referendum, the thought, well, there's no problem. British people will vote to stay --

(CROSSTALK)

OAKLEY: -- and it's all kind of happened by accident in a sense.

VAUSE: And very quickly, Jeremy Corbyn facing that huge no-confidence vote, it's pretty hard to stay as a leader of a party with the vast majority of people in that party don't want you, at least the elected members of that party.

OAKLEY: Yes, well, the elected parliamentarians of that party don't like him, don't believe he can deliver at an election, fear they will lose their seats and be decimated.

The party and the country, Jeremy Corbyn believes and those around him -- and we saw a demonstration, 5,000 or 6,000 people coming out in his support in Parliament Square the other night -- he believes the party and the country will reelect him, even if we get a challenger today, tomorrow, within the next few days, which it seems very likely. They have got to get 51 MPs behind them but there are a couple of strong candidates to do that.

But what happens then?

If he gets reelected by the activists --

VAUSE: The elected members still don't want him.

OAKLEY: -- yes, so they might pick a leader of their own to lead them in Parliament and he can be the leader in the country.

VAUSE: Interesting (INAUDIBLE). It is, everything about this has been extraordinary.

Robin, it's great to speak with you.

OAKLEY: Thank you.

VAUSE: Thanks for being here.

And we'll take a short break. We'll have more news out of Turkey in just a moment, including new details on how the suicide bombers carried out their attacks. You're watching CNN.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We heard a blast. It was a big blast.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And a few minutes later, another one follow.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE).

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And a few minutes later a slight blast, I think it was further away. And then we heard -- and then we saw a lot of people running around; they were all covered in blood.

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VAUSE: A chilly account of the aftermath of the Istanbul airport attack.

Hello, everybody. I'm John Vause in London.

WALKER: And I'm Amara Walker in Los Angeles. Let's get you the latest information now on what we have at this time: 36 people are dead, nearly 150 others wounded after three suicide bombers blew themselves up at Istanbul's Ataturk Airport.

The prime minister said they arrived by taxi and started shooting before they detonated their explosives. He said the signs point to ISIS, although no one has claimed responsibility.

CNN photojournalist Joe Duran (ph) shot pictures of the damage inside the international terminal just a few hours ago. You can see the damage there. Flights have resumed to and from the airport and authorities are allowing passengers back into the terminal to check in.

VAUSE: A wave of terror attacks has hit Turkey this year. In January, at least 10 Germans were killed in a suicide bombing in Istanbul.

February 17th, 28 people killed in an explosion in Ankara. A Kurdish militant group claimed responsibility.

Less than a month later, a car bomb ripped through a busy square, also in Ankara, leaving 37 dead.

Days later, terrorists bombed a tourist area in Istanbul.

And just a few weeks ago, an attack in Istanbul claimed 11 lives, wounded 36 people. The car bomb targeted a police bus during morning rush hour.

WALKER: To continue our coverage on this, CNN senior international correspondent Clarissa Ward joining us now from Washington.

So, Clarissa, CNN has obtained some very dramatic security video of the events that happened inside Istanbul airport. If you can first start with that, very disturbing, graphic video of a person walking inside the airport -- it looks like with a weapon -- and then detonates himself.

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Amara. And, of course, it is pretty graphic video, so our viewers should be warned.

But essentially what we appear to be looking at is one of the attackers sort of stumbling into this hall. He falls to the ground and drops what appears to be an AK-47 or some kind of semiautomatic weapon. He appears to be injured.

And then you see, coming up near to him, again, what appears to be some form of security personnel from the airport, who appears to possibly shoot him again and then run for his life apparently.

It's not clear, was he able to see that the attacker was reaching to detonate a vest?

There then appears to be one more shot; you see the attacker's body kind of convulse. And then he detonates. Again, not clear if he actually pulled the trigger himself or pushed the button himself, so to speak, or whether, as a result of those shots, that somehow the device went off.

But certainly very dramatic, deeply disturbing video -- Amara.

WALKER: And, Clarissa, if you can just put all of this in perspective for us, because, over the last two years or so, we've seen Turkey be the target of several terror attacks from ISIS and terror attacks by the Kurdish separatist group, the PKK.

Can you talk about when and why Turkey has become such a vulnerable target?

WARD: Well, Turkey has been hit many times in the last six months, particularly, and they have targeted everything from tourists in the Old City, in Istanbul, to peace rallies in the capital, in Ankara. The two main culprits traditionally have been Kurdish separatist groups, such as the PKK and also of course ISIS.

Now ISIS, in recent months, has really --

[02:35:00]

WARD: -- stepped up the number of attacks on Turkey and that's been in direct reaction to the fact that the Turkish have really been cracking down on ISIS. They have really tried to seal that border between Turkey and Syria, a border that was once very porous, that ISIS relied on heavily to move weapons, to move fighters back and forth.

We've seen the Turkish forces shelling ISIS targets, ISIS villages across the border. We've seen the Turkish cooperating with coalition efforts and coalition bombing sorties, which are going from a Turkish air base.

So, for many reasons now, ISIS actually perceives Turkey to be enemy number one or one of their top enemies.

WALKER: Great to get your perspective, Clarissa Ward for us there, thank you. When we come back, E.U. leaders are closing ranks. They work to handle the U.K.'s Brexit vote. We'll tell you about the counterpart they're excluding from the discussions, next on CNN.

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WALKER: Hello, everyone. I'm Amara Walker in Los Angeles.

At least 36 people are dead and 147 people wounded after a terror attack in Istanbul. Three gunman opened fire on passengers there and then detonated suicide vests at the Ataturk Airport Tuesday.

A surveillance camera captured disturbing moments before one of the bombs exploded, people running from the blast, debris falling from the ceiling and the air filling with smoke. Turkish officials believe ISIS is behind the attack though no one has claimed responsibility.

[02:40:00]

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Findings by our security forces indicate that this terror attack was carried out by daish, even though the findings point to daish, the probe is still underway.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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VAUSE: At this hour, European leaders are arriving for the second day of their summit in Brussels. But one leader, British prime minister, David Cameron, will be noticeably absent. The other 27 leaders are excluding him from a discussion about the political and economic fallout triggered by the Brexit vote.

Let's bring in Erin McLaughlin for the very latest from Brussels.

Erin, good morning.

ERIN MCLAUGHLIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John. That's right. The leaders have begun arriving here in Brussels for this informal summit. We've seen German Chancellor Angela Merkel arrive as well as French President Francois Hollande.

Not present today, of course, British prime minister, David Cameron. This is an informal meeting of the remaining 27. British Prime Minister Cameron was there for a last E.U. supper last night, in which he discussed what he felt what went wrong for him in the outcome of that referendum.

He pointed to immigration. He said that people were very concerned about the freedom of movement of people. And that's something that Europe needs to think about.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MCLAUGHLIN (voice-over): Historic and dramatic, Europe's heads of state and government gather in Brussels to reflect on the referendum, certain to alter the course of the European project.

DAVID CAMERON, PRIME MINISTER, GREAT BRITAIN: We mustn't be turning our backs on Europe.

MCLAUGHLIN: The most anticipated leader of this summit has just arrived, British Prime Minister David Cameron, ready to assume his place in history. He has a lot of explaining to do.

MCLAUGHLIN (voice-over): The day began with political theater. Lead campaigner Nigel Farage took one last shot at the institution he vows to break from.

FARAGE: You know, when I came here 17 years ago and I said that I wanted to lead a campaign to get Britain to leave the European Union, you all laughed at me.

Well, I have to say, you're not laughing now, are you?

MCLAUGHLIN (voice-over): Chris Jones, a British citizen who works at the European Parliament, had this to say in response.

CHRIS JONES, BRITISH CITIZEN: Well, all I see is my country being made a laughing stock on the European stage because of the poor quality of its politics and its politicians. And he embodies that entirely.

MCLAUGHLIN (voice-over): Jones said he plans to become a Belgian citizen so that he can retain the right to live and travel in Europe, one of many lives altered by the decision of 17 million.

At Kitty O'Shea's (ph) pub, they're wondering what happens next.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm Belgian and my husband is English. So we feel like separated. We're going to move to France. So we don't know what will be our status in France.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Here I feel really welcome because I'm an ex- pat. But in the U.K., I'm an immigrant, the one stealing jobs.

MCLAUGHLIN (voice-over): At a pub across from the E.U. Commission, Nigel Farage enjoys the end of his day. We're blocked from filming, told it's a private meeting. There will be no more media today.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCLAUGHLIN: And, today, E.U. leaders are expected to discuss the European reform. There seems to be a widespread acknowledgment here in Brussels that there's a disconnect between the E.U. institutions and ordinary people.

And the question is what to do about it, likely to be a topic of discussion for some time to come -- John.

VAUSE: No doubt. Erin, thank you. Erin McLaughlin, live this hour in Brussels.

Meantime here in London, thousands marched on Parliament to protest the leave vote. The rally started in Trafalgar Square, where the crowd shouted pro-E.U. slogans and chants at Leave advocate, Boris Johnson.

And more signs of Brexit regret on the U.K. Parliament website. More than 4 million people have signed a petition calling for a second referendum. Any position that gets more than 100,000 signatures is considered for parliamentary debate.

Adam Lake joins me here in London. He's the director of Out and Proud, a group that campaigned to leave the E.U.

Adam, would you agree with the others out there, which basically -- with the European leaders, rather, who are now saying trigger Article 50; let's do it now, let's get this underway?

Why delay it any further?

This is what you want, right?

ADAM LAKE, DIRECTOR, OUT AND PROUD: Well, I think what the prime minister has set out is very sensible, which is that it should be under the new prime minister, under a new government. That is the right time to trigger Article 50.

If we triggered it now, we're going to have this situation where we're not going to have a prime minister for two or possibly three months.

VAUSE: You've got one now. He's just leaving, that's all.

LAKE: Well, exactly. And he's a bit of a sitting duck, I think. You guys in America know the feeling when you have a bit of a period between the new president-elect and when someone comes in.

And there's certain powers that people don't have.

VAUSE: But after wanting to get out of the E.U. for all of these years, after essentially complaining and protesting and having this referendum, why didn't you want to get out straight away?

I mean I thought that would be a burning desire.

LAKE: Well, we don't want to leave the E.U. because we have some sort of irrational hatred of the E.U. We just think that it's not working for us as a country. And so the sensible thing, because we are mostly sensible people, is that we --

[02:45:00]

LAKE: -- do it in the right way, we have proper negotiations and we look at what solutions there can be. That means not rushing into things.

VAUSE: Is it a fair argument that leaders like Angela Merkel of Germany are making, that you can cherry-pick what you want?

It's sort of all or nothing. You can't have, you know, the trade deal unless you accept the free movement of immigration, like other countries have accepted with the E.U.

LAKE: I think, like any negotiation, you have got to look at the pros and cons on both sides and come to a compromise. I think that there will be some sticking points on things like immigration and things like free trade. But everything is on the table and I think that once we do trigger Article 50, we can start having those discussions.

A lot of people want to be having those informal discussions now, of course. Now Europe has said that they don't really want to have that happen until Article 50 goes in place. It's because they want to have (INAUDIBLE) and it's because they don't want that uncertainty.

That's fair enough. But of course a lot of other countries have started saying let's get talking about these free trade deals. So things might be moving sooner rather than later.

VAUSE: Although apparently the president of the E.U. Commission has banned other countries from having those kind of informal talks with Britain.

LAKE: Well, of course they're trying to push us into a situation because they don't want uncertainty. And that is absolutely fine. It's completely, you know, of course, that's going to happen.

VAUSE: OK. A lot of people who voted for the Leave campaign, they now say they're duped. They didn't expect this kind of outcome. They thought they'd have an end to immigration, they felt they would be out, that that would be it.

Given the fact that so many of the promises that were made are now being walked back, are those people owed an apology?

(CROSSTALK)

LAKE: I don't think any of the promises are being rowed back.

VAUSE: -- 350 million pounds to the NHS, the National Health system, the fact that many people said they were being -- bring an end to the immigration and now they're saying, well, hang on, no so fast . Maybe we can't do that after all.

LAKE: Well, in terms of the 350 million pounds, of course we were not voting for government; we were voting for the framework --

(CROSSTALK)

VAUSE: -- promises, right?

LAKE: Well, it was never a promise that any country -- VAUSE: But you saw it. It was a lot of fuss (ph).

(CROSSTALK)

LAKE: -- said is that 350 million pounds could be spent on other (INAUDIBLE) NHS. But it was never the decision of the campaign, which has no government control.

VAUSE: So you don't think people were misled in any way --

LAKE: Well, I --

VAUSE: -- in the campaign?

LAKE: I think that both sides -- there's a bit of propaganda, let's call it, on both sides of the debate.

But on other things, such as immigration, that's an interesting thing. A lot of people saying, oh, are the Leave campaign rowing back on immigration?

I know, personally, never campaign on immigration. Some people --

(CROSSTALK)

LAKE: -- but the reason why so many people like myself wanted the Vote Leave campaign and not different campaigns to be the official affiliated campaign is because it the one that wasn't focused on just immigration. And so the fact that we're saying the same message that we were saying before, that's consistency on our side.

VAUSE: Very money, though. OK, Adam. Thanks for this coming and good to speak with you. Appreciate it.

We'll take a short break here on CNN. Back in a moment.

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(WEATHER REPORT)

[02:50:00]

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WALKER: Welcome back, everyone.

Turkey's prime minister said he thinks ISIS is behind the suicide attacks at Istanbul's airport: 36 people are dead, nearly 150 others wounded. So far, though, no one has claimed responsibility.

The video from the scene is disturbing. A surveillance camera shows crowds of people running for safety just before one of the explosions. Turkish officials say the three attackers took a taxi to the airport and opened fire before detonating their explosives. Now flights have resumed to and from the airport and authorities are

allowing passengers back inside to check in.

Like other acts of terror, this one is also playing out on the U.S. presidential campaign trail. Republican Donald Trump says the U.S. needs to be tough.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Many, many people killed. Many, many people injured. Folks, there's something going on that's really, really bad.

All right?

It's bad.

And we better get smart and we better get tough or we're not going to have much of a country left, OK?

It's bad.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALKER: Now Democrat Hillary Clinton released a statement saying this, "Today's attack in Istanbul only strengthens our resolve to defeat the forces of terrorism and radical jihadism around the world.

"And it reminds us that the United States cannot retreat."

U.S. lawmakers have finally wrapped up their two-year investigation into the 2012 Benghazi terror attacks, which claimed the lives of four American diplomats. The report written by Republicans contains no new revelations about Hillary Clinton's role. But the damage may already have been done to the Democrat's presidential campaign.

Jeff Zeleny --

(CROSSTALK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Hillary Clinton feeling vindicated tonight.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think it's pretty clear it's time to move on.

ZELENY: The most exhaustive review yet of the Benghazi attack revealing no new evidence of wrongdoing by the former secretary of state.

CLINTON: After more than two years and $7 million spent by the Benghazi Committee out of taxpayer funds, it had found nothing, nothing to contradict the conclusions of the Independent Accountability Board or the conclusions of the prior multiple earlier investigations.

ZELENY: Visiting Colorado today, Clinton embraced the findings, even while calling out the politics behind it.

CLINTON: This unfortunately took on a partisan tinge.

ZELENY: That suspicion was validated last fall when House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy suggested Benghazi could topple her candidacy.

REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY (R), MAJORITY LEADER: Everybody thought Hillary Clinton was unbeatable, right? But we put together a Benghazi special committee. A select committee. What are her numbers today? Her numbers are dropping. Why? Because she's untrustable.

ZELENY: Her 11-hour testimony rallied Democrats behind her.

CLINTON: You know, I would imagine I've thought more about what happened than all of you put together. I've lost more sleep than all of you put together.

ZELENY: And contributed to today's no-fault finding.

CNN's Dana Bash asked Chairman Trey Gowdy why no conclusion was reached.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Does that suggest that you don't have the goods on placing any blame on the administration, specifically the woman who wants to be president of the United States?

REP. TREY GOWDY (R), CHAIRMAN, HOUSE SELECT COMMITTEE ON BENGHAZI: Dana, shockingly --

[02:55:00]

GOWDY: -- that was not what the House asked me to do. Look at the resolution. The resolution doesn't mention Secretary Clinton. Speaker Boehner nor Speaker Ryan have ever asked me to do anything about 2016 presidential politics.

ZELENY: Yet political fallout remains, as Clinton tries rebuilding trust and credibility with voters.

CLINTON: A lot of people tell pollsters they don't trust me and I don't like hearing that. And I thought a lot about what's behind it.

ZELENY: When asked in a CNN/ORC poll who was more honest and trustworthy, only 37 percent said Clinton and 45 percent Donald Trump, 17 percent say neither.

She's tackling it head on in her general election fight with Trump.

CLINTON: And a lot of what people read about me in certain corners of the Internet and a lot of what Donald Trump says about me is just that same nonsense. But I know trust has to be earned.

(END VIDEOTAPE) WALKER: And that was Jeff Zeleny reporting.

Now here's how Donald Trump reacted to the Benghazi report.

He tweeted, "Benghazi is just another Hillary Clinton failure. It just never seems to work the way it's supposed to with Clinton. Now Hillary Clinton's presidency would be catastrophic for the future of our country. She is ill fit with bad judgment."

All right. I'm Amara Walker, everyone. John Vause and Rosemary Church will continue our coverage of the terror attacks at the Istanbul airport, next on CNN. Stick with us.

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