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Ethics Concerns Over Conway Comments on Ivanka's Brand; New Attorney General Jeff Sessions Arrives at Justice Department; Trump Meets Senators for Working Lunch; White House Press Briefing. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired February 09, 2017 - 13:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:31:20] WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: We've got some live pictures from the White House briefing room. The press secretary, Sean Spicer, any moment now, he'll go into the briefing room and open with a statement, then answer reporters' questions. We'll have live coverage.

We also have some live pictures coming in from the Department of Justice here in Washington. You see it right there. The newly sworn in attorney general of the United States, Jeff Sessions. He's now arrived over at the Justice Department. We're going to bring you that. We'll hear what he has to say, if anything, as well.

In the meantime, new ethics concerns being raised after a top White House adviser used a national TV interview to plug the Trump brand, even touting it as free publicity.

Here's Kellyanne Conway earlier this morning on FOX.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KELLYANNE CONWAY, SENIOR TRUMP ADVISOR: Go buy Ivanka's stuff, is what I would say.

(CROSSTALK)

CONWAY: I'm going to get -- I hate shopping. I'm going to get some myself today. It's a wonderful line. I own some of it. I'm going to give a free commercial here. Go buy it today, everybody. You can find it online.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: A top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee now calling for disciplinary actions saying Conway's remarks are a textbook violation of government ethics rules.

Our "CNN Money" correspondent, Cristina Alesci, is joining us right now.

So, are ethics rules or laws for that matter being violated? CRISTINA ALESCI, CNN MONEY CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, the law is very clear

on this. It's call the Use of Public Office for Private Gain. It's a section of the U.S. Code. And it essentially says, there's a lot of legalese, but the essential part of it is, it says public employees cannot endorse brands to benefit or help their friends and family. That is the takeaway. It's very clear.

But the experts that I've spoken to all morning long say two things. One, this White House doesn't seem to care whether it is violating these conflict-of-interest rules. And, two, enforcement officials will most likely not pursue this.

But one thing is very clear, Wolf. This will add fuel to the argument that there is no separation between the Trump White House and Trump Org. For months, I've been reporting on whether or not there would be this wall, this separation. Now it's not even a question of whether there is a separation between the president and his business. It's a question of whether or not the entire -- there could be an entire separation between the entire White House and his business. Is it essentially an arm -- is the White House essentially an arm of the Trump Organization? And I think that's what critics will argue.

In fact, the ethics lawyers and experts that I've spoken to on both sides of the aisle seem to be pressing that notion today.

BLITZER: How is this different than when President Trump tweeted for people to go out and buy L.L. Bean back in early January? He wasn't president yet. He had not yet been sworn in, the inauguration had not taken place. So, I assume that represents a difference? He was president-elect as opposed to being president?

ALESCI: That's one difference. The other difference is here, Kellyanne Conway is making the endorsement, and she is not -- she is subject to conflicts-of-interest laws, whereas the president is not subject to some of them. He is still subject to some conflicts clause, but the one in question, the one we're talking about right now, he is not subject to. And Kellyanne is.

And the Democrats are now saying, hey, she should be punished for this. The air time that she gets as a public employee should be spent on exactly that, public matters, not private matters that could potentially benefit the Trump Organization, which, by the way, still doesn't have a very clear separation between the Trump Org and the presidency.

And it's going to be -- it's going to continue to come up because the trust that was set up to separate Donald Trump from his business is still very questionable as to whether or not that is an effective way to separate the presidency from his business and avoid conflicts.

[13:35:20] BLITZER: I was looking at the rules, too, the laws out there, and what is clearly stated, as you correctly point out, a couple things, using public office for their own private gain, for the private gain of friends, relatives or persons with whom they affiliated in a nongovernment capacity. And then it goes on to say, endorsing any product, service or company. Those are pretty specific rules, if you will.

When you say Democrats already calling on her to be punished, what kind of punishment are we talking about?

ALESCI: Well, you know, we don't know what that's going to look like, but at the end of the day, they want to draw more attention to this, Wolf. And you know, as well as I do, that the Democrats that sit on House Oversight Committee right now don't have that much power. They need their --

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: Cristina, I'm going to interrupt you.

ALESCI: Sure.

BLITZER: I'm going to interrupt you.

We're just getting the tape of the attorney general, Jeff Sessions, arriving at his new office at the Justice Department. Let me show it to our viewers.

(APPLAUSE)

(CHEERING)

(APPLAUSE)

(CROSSTALK)

JEFF SESSIONS, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: Thank you. It's good to be back at the DOJ.

BLITZER: There you see Jeff Sessions, the new attorney general of the United States, arriving at the Justice Department. Employees there, officials greeting him. A nice round of applause for the new attorney general, the former Senator from Alabama. He was very, very narrowly confirmed in the U.S. Senate, 51-50. The vice president, who serves as the president of the Senate, had to break a 50-50 tie. He is now -- just sworn in a little while ago over at the White House. And he is now, of course, the attorney general of the United States.

Evan Perez is our justice correspondent.

Evan, are we going to be hearing from the new attorney general?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, we don't expect to hear from him. There were several dozen employees there to greet him warmly, as you heard from that applause. There was really a low-key, much more low-key entrance than the one Eric Holder had back in 2009. At risk of igniting a crowd-size controversy with President Trump, I will say I was there in 2009 when Eric Holder arrived and it was hundreds of people gathered. And Eric Holder ended up addressing the crowd in the law library there at the Justice Department.

In this case, we expect that Jeff Sessions is going to go into his office on the fifth floor. At this hour, he's going to have a briefing, a national security briefing from some members of his team. And then later today, he's going to welcome the heads of the agencies that make up the Justice Department, including the FBI, the ATF and DEA and U.S. Marshals. And the reason for that meeting, Wolf, is to get some ideas of what contributions they can make for the Justice Department to tackle what Jeff Sessions and what President Trump says is a crime problem around the country. We know there has been a spike in violent crime in some cities around the country. And we know Jeff Sessions is one of the top orders of business for him. He wants to make sure the Justice Department can send some resources to those cities.

There's 115,000 employees here at the Justice Department, Wolf, and, you know, it's fair to say that there's some perhaps -- a little skeptical of his arrival. But now he is the boss. And he is going to have different points view of on some of the things the Justice Department has been doing, including on immigration in sanctuary cities.

We'll see what he does in the coming weeks and months. He'll have a tremendous amount of influence, given the fact he was one of the early supporters of President Trump -- Wolf?

BLITZER: All right. Hold on for a moment, Evan.

I just want to hear if we can hear what he has to say to these Justice Department officials.

[13:40:59] UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You said how much you appreciate -- we're so welcome to have you here.

SESSIONS: Well, good. You're a great crew, no doubt about it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You'll be a great attorney general. Thank you.

SESSIONS: Thank you. Thanks. Honor to be with you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Welcome aboard.

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: All right. So, he's being received there at the Justice Department. He was sworn in at the White House just a little while ago. Made some comments.

And it's interesting, even, when he spoke at the White House, he made it clear that he's going to be one that will enforce all U.S. laws passed by Congress, signed by a president. One of the first items on his agenda is going to be the president's proposed travel ban from those six Muslim -- seven Muslim-majority countries. That's going to be a big issue presumably. We're waiting for the 9th circuit court of appeals' decision. That could happen today. It's certainly going to be high on the agenda.

PEREZ: Right, absolutely. He is a strong supporter of this executive order, Wolf. And we know that members of -- people who used to be on his staff, who are now at the White House, were behind writing that order, behind the executive order that temporarily halted travel from those seven Muslim-majority countries. So, we know he is on board with that. His lawyer, his legal team's going to be representing the president and trying to defend those orders. They have already tried -- started to do that.

And we know he's going to play a big role in some of the other executive orders that the president has in mind, including the ones that, as you mentioned, are focused on law and order. This is something big on Jeff Sessions' mind. He was a very big critic of some of the things that the Obama Justice Department was doing, including not enforcing some of the marijuana laws, obviously, the legalization of marijuana in some of the states, and other issues that the Justice Department has been doing. We expect a sharp right turn when he takes office here this afternoon.

BLITZER: The philosophy, the judicial philosophy, legal law enforcement philosophy of now the attorney general Sessions compared to Loretta Lynch, Eric Holder, his two immediate predecessors, very, very different.

Evan, thanks very much.

Evan is over at the Justice Department.

And coming up, the White House daily briefing now only moments away. We'll go to the White House and hear from Sean Spicer right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:46:55] BLITZER: We're standing by for the White House press briefing. Live pictures coming in. Set to begin any minute now. The press secretary, Sean Spicer, expected to face questions about a growing feud, among other issues, between the White House and Republican Senator John McCain over last month's U.S. Special Operations force raid in Yemen. The White House says it was a success, but Senator McCain says the death of Navy SEAL Ryan Owens makes it hard to say that. And now Spicer, the White House press secretary, is demanding an apology, even though he seemed to echo McCain's sentiments just last week.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SPICER: Absolutely, a success. I think anyone who would suggest it's not a success does disservice to the life of Chief Ryan Owens.

You never want to call anything a success 100 percent when someone is hurt or killed, and that was the case here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Let's bring in our chief political correspondent, Dana Bash; along with CNN senior political reporter, Nia-Malika Henderson; and our senior media correspondent, Brian Stelter, the host of "Reliable Sources." So, Dana, it's an awkward position for Spicer because he seems to be

sending these mixed messages, and now his boss, the president of the United States, is really, really going after Senator McCain in that tweet.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORESPONDENT: That's right. The initial White House statement was that it was a success, and then, of course, we learned that a Navy SEAL was killed. The president went to Dover to be there when the Navy SEAL's remains came back, and that prompted the question, how could it be a success? It's not just that because civilians were killed in the raid. Obviously, that was not part of the plan.

So, the answer to your question, it's how is he going to explain it? I don't know. I don't know. I think Sean Spicer is probably sitting in his office right now, as he does every day, trying to answer that question. How am I going to walk that line, that very, very thin line, which is not always easy to do, and he doesn't always do it -- doesn't always stay on that line because it's not always possible to, you know, say what your boss wants you to say, while still having credibility with the people who are sitting in that room, and credibility and a relationship with what is the truth.

BLITZER: He's also going to have to explain another awkward moment when the two official spokespeople for the Supreme Court nominee, Neil Gorsuch, say he did, in fact, describe the president's comments about the judiciary as "demoralizing and disheartening." But the president is disputing that. And I assume Sean Spicer is going to be asked, how do you -- who is telling the truth, the president or the official representatives, the official spokespeople for the Supreme Court nominee selected by the president?

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: Yeah, from reporting, we know that Donald Trump watches these briefings. We know that Donald Trump often offers critiques to Sean Spicer in terms of his performance. In many ways, he has an audience of one, his boss. And I think Dana is right. He has to tow a line. I think the main line he's thinking is that line to the president. I am certain that he goes out there wanting to carry a very specific message from the president. We've seen that from his first appearance, talking about the crowds. All of this led to the "SNL" spoof of him just last week. So, we'll see what he does today. But I think we've seen a pattern where he carries the message of the White House, even though that message seems to be made up of alternative facts and on alternative reality that Trump embraces.

[13:50:39] BLITZER: Brian, you have been following the media reaction to all of this so closely, probably closer than anyone. Sean Spicer, you know, getting a lot of mixed reviews. I'm trying to be nice.

But "Vanity Fair" dubbing him Trump's very own Baghdad Bob, which is a really -- I remember covering that word, Baghdad Bob. Would make stuff up. He was the official spokesperson for Saddam Hussein. And the Iraqi military was winning, winning, winning, and, of course, they weren't. So, explain what's going on over here.

BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT & CNN HOST, RELIABLE SOURCES: That's a scathing statement by "Vanity Fair," but the magazine is not the first outlet to make the comparison to Baghdad Bob. It's hard to imagine having a worse week than the press secretary, the one Sean Spicer has had. Starting on Saturday night, on "SNL," waking up on Sunday morning to that Melissa McCarthy impersonation, and all week long, he's been placed in almost impossible positions by his boss, the president, having to explain illogical statements or confounding statements. You guys were describing some of them involving Yemen. Earlier, there was also a report about how three different times on two different days, Spicer referenced a terror attack in Atlanta that never happened. He now says he was referring to Orlando.

These are very, very difficult jobs and we've got to have sympathy for whoever is up at that podium. But at the same time, he's working for the American people. And when you add it up right now, Sean Spicer is being treated like a punch line.

BLITZER: Standby for moment, because, as we saw a little bit earlier, President Trump welcomed a group of U.S. Senators to the White House for a working lunch. Among them were Democrats, including Jon Tester of Montana, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Joe Donnelly of Indiana. All of them up for re-election in 2018. All of them from states that went for President Trump in the 2016 election.

BLITZER: Joining us now from the White House, Senator Jon Tester.

Thanks for joining us.

SEN. JON TESTER, (D), MONTANA: Thanks for having me, Wolf.

BLITZER: I know the meeting just wrapped up. You just walked out to the West Lawn. Thanks so much for joining us.

Tell us how it went. What was it like inside? We all would have loved to have watched.

TESTER: We had a very, very good conversation on a number of issues, including Neil Gorsuch, and just a wide variety of issues. Every Senator got a chance to talk and to talk about issues important to them. I actually took a message back from Montana. There were some difficulty that Montana have had with Medicare and getting communication out of Medicare. He assured me he'd go to work on that and make sure the problem was solved. I also talked about the hiring freeze as it applied to veterans' benefits. Also, congratulating him on his presidential order of the lobbyist ban. I thought that was heading in the right direction, and told him I would be more than happy to work with him in Congress. And there was just a number of issues, too -- Wolf?

BLITZER: Senator, I want to continue this conversation, but Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, just walked up to the lectern. I want to listen in. We'll continue our conversation.

SEAN SPICER, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Good afternoon, everyone. Appreciate that. As you just saw, the president was honored to host the swearing in of Attorney General Sessions in the Oval Office just a short time ago. Under Attorney General Sessions, the Justice Department will return to its original core mission, to uphold the rule of law, to ensure that justice is administered and enforced fairly and impartially for all Americans. Attorney General Sessions -- come on in.

(UNKNOWN): A little crowded (ph).

SPICER: I'm sorry. Well, you know, it's a Trump briefing.

Attorney General Sessions is a world class legal mind and an experience prosecutor, and the President is pleased to have him finally in place as our nation's top law enforcement officer. After the Attorney General's swearing in, the President signed three executive orders dedicated to standing behind the police officers who risk their lives every day to protect us in our communities, reducing crime, and stopping cartel violence.

The first executive order directs the newly installed Attorney General to develop a strategy for more effectively prosecuting people who commit violence against member of law enforcement. We must better protect those who protect us. Our men and women in blue need to now that we're with them 100 percent as they patrol our streets. Unfortunately, this has not always been the case. Law enforcement officials have been vocal about the lack of support they received under the past administration. This lack of support demoralized many officers and in some case led to their discouraging, their engagement with local communities, only causing further harm and deterioration.

[13:55:08]

It's imperative that federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies better coordinate and share information across jurisdictions to better serve and protect our communities. This order will start the important work of doing just that, instituting a holistic approach that involves the whole of government.

It also directs the Department of Justice to work with other federal agencies to come up with ways to further reduce violence against law enforcement and orders a hard look at how the Department of Justice and other agencies use their law enforcement grants.

The second order establishes a task force led by the new attorney general to reduce crime and restore public safety in communities across America. Together, the members of this task force are going to come up with specific recommendations on how we can change existing federal law to better prevent crime and improve public safety, and develop stronger working relationships with our state and local partners.

The president is confident this task force will develop a systematic strategy to help further protect the American people. Communities across our nation have been devastated by a surge in violent crime rates, particularly our major cities. Over the last eight years, we've experienced declining focus on law and order. Crime reduction will clearly be a priority for this White House.

The last executive order refocuses the energy and resources of the federal government to dismantle transnational criminal organizations such as drug cartels. It's important to emphasize that we cannot reduce crime in the United States without additionally addressing illegal immigration and illegal drugs. Through this executive order, the president instructs the attorney general to form a comprehensive and decisive approach to destroying transnational crime organizations and drug cartels.

These cartels represent a clear and present danger to our nation. They bring dangerous criminals, drugs and violence to once-peaceful neighbors, both here at home and in other parts of the world. They fuel addition and overdose deaths and they can no longer be allowed to operate with impunity in our country or our hemisphere.

This order pulls together the experience and resources of federal agencies to work towards emphasizing specific goals in this regard. Number one, to upgrade our information gathering about these transnational organizations and cartels. Without accurate information about these threats and the ability and willingness to share this information, we're not going to be able to tackle this problem.

It's important to note that prior to this administration, if you had called the Department of Justice to ask for these statistics, they never kept them. So knowing what we're facing is a big part of addressing the problem.

Number two, improving the speed and efficiency of removing criminal aliens, cartel members and people who help cartels from our nation. Unlike during the last eight years, these criminals are finally going to go home.

Shift -- three -- shift whatever resources we can to tackling these organizations and prevent them from disrupting our society any further.

Now, on to the president's schedule. This morning, the president held a breakfast and listening session with key stakeholders in the airline industry. We've got a participation -- participant list if you're interested. The president thanked the attendees for the 10 million jobs and $1 trillion in annual economic income activity they contribute to our economy, and praised them for moving approximately 2 million passengers per day in spite of the outdated infrastructure and equipment that they have, in terms of air traffic control and other infrastructure measures.

The president asked aviation leaders what the government can do to help their industry grow and create more well-paying jobs for Americans. The leaders commented that they'd never been given the opportunity to work truly alongside the president in such an open and constructive way, and they were unanimous and asked for the president to offer relief from the duplicative and burdensome regulations that are stifling job creation, which he assured them he'd do.

The president also reaffirmed his commitment foregoing -- to forging, rather, public-private partnerships that will rebuild America's crumbling infrastructure. He pledged to work closely with the airline industry to modernize the technology systems that keep our nation's airports running, and to expedite the approval process for future airline infrastructure projects.

It's the president's goal to make sure the United States has the most advanced airline system in the world, and this meeting was an important first step in achieving that.

After the executive order signing, the president spoke with the president of Afghanistan and the emir of Qatar. My understanding is we should have readouts shortly on both of those calls.

Just concluding a few moments ago, the president held a Supreme Court and legislative listening session and lunch with Democrat and Republican senators. In attendance were chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa, Senator Heitkamp from North Dakota, Senator Tester of Montana, Senator Donnelly of Indiana, Senator Manchin of West Virginia, Senator Moore Capito also of West Virginia, Senator Cornyn of Texas, Senator Alexander of Tennessee, Senator Coons of Delaware, and Senator Bennet of Colorado.

[14:00:00]

The president expects his hope -- expressed his hope that these senators and their colleagues will give Judge Gorsuch a fair consideration and vote based on his qualifications to seve on the Supreme Court.