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First 100 Days; U.S. Investigators Corroborate Russia Dossier; France Terror Plot Appears ISIS-Inspired; Hundreds of Volunteers Try to Save Whales; "Game of Thrones" Star Documents Greenland's Changes. Aired 3-3:30a ET
Aired February 11, 2017 - 03:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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CYRIL VANIER, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Mulling his options, President Trump looking at how he might salvage his controversial travel ban.
And a warning from the Mexican government to its citizens in the U.S., know where your consulate is.
Plus Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe heads to the golf course on Saturday after President Trump reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to Japan.
Hi, everyone. Thank you for joining us. I'm Cyril Vanier in Atlanta. CNN NEWSROOM starts right now.
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VANIER: The Trump White House is scrambling this weekend to salvage its controversial travel ban after a stunning defeat in federal appeals court. A source tells CNN the administration has decided not to appeal the case to the U.S. Supreme Court at this time.
But Mr. Trump has several other options. He can pursue the case in the lower courts, he can rewrite the current executive order or start over with a new executive order. In any event, Mr. Trump made clear he had no intention of backing down.
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DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The unfortunate part is it takes time statutorily. So it takes a little time. We'll win that battle. But we also have a lot of other options, including just filing a brand new order on Monday.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE).
TRUMP: Could very well be. But I like to keep you, you know, like to surprise you. We need speed for reasons of security. So it could very well be that we do that.
(END VIDEO CLIP) VANIER: For more on all of this let's bring in Eleanor Clift, Washington correspondent at "The Daily Beast." She joins us from Washington.
Eleanor, good to speak from you. For Donald Trump, clearly, the court ruling was just a setback.
ELEANOR CLIFT, "THE DAILY BEAST": Yes, but he reacted in the brash way that he normally reacts to any kind of a setback.
He said, "See you in court."
But then the White House quickly walked that back and so did the president and I think they will probably try to rewrite an executive order that can pass muster with the courts because I don't think they want to risk going to the Supreme Court and losing.
This is not a man who loses well. And he has now invoked national security as a reason for this ban and has said that, as president, he now knows stuff that he never knew before and that we should all be very frightened.
So he's really playing the national security card here.
VANIER: Yes, which he's been doing from the beginning with this executive order.
Is there a sense that he could achieve substantively the same thing by just tweaking the text?
That's one of the words that's been used about this executive order and about the options that Donald Trump has.
CLIFT: Yes, I'm not sure you even need an executive order. The seven states that were selected for this partial ban basically grew out of more extreme vetting that was done under the previous administration.
And I don't believe there's any specific threat from these seven countries and it does seem more like a symbolic gesture to fulfill a campaign promise.
VANIER: But does the president have to prove in court, though, does he have to prove that in court, that there is a significant threat?
Because he's got a lot of latitude to invoke national security.
CLIFT: He does. But there are other elements of the Constitution, the establishment clause; if you single out one religion over another for apparent special treatment, that would not pass constitutional muster.
And the way he went about this particular travel ban, creating so much, really, unnecessary disruption and initially claiming only 109 people were inconvenienced, when it turned out there were tens of thousands of people who were inconvenienced. VANIER: Couldn't he achieve essentially what he wanted to achieve if he took out the more controversial parts; for instance, prioritizing minority religions which, is one of the parts that is most likely -- could be deemed unconstitutional?
Couldn't he just achieve what he wanted to do if he executes it better and takes that part out of the text?
CLIFT: Except do you understand clearly what he wanted to do?
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CLIFT: If you go back to his campaign rhetoric, he wanted a ban on all Muslims coming into the country. So if he keeps shaving this back, I don't see that he accomplishes much more than the previous administration accomplished with some pretty severe vetting.
People who come into this country have to go through two and three years of interviews and close scrutiny.
And for a country that is founded on the promise of welcoming immigrants --
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CLIFT: America really has not done its part, compared to Europe and other states. And so I think this president is really on shaky ground when it comes to conveying America's values.
And also I was under the impression that we were combating terrorism by indicating that we could go about our lives and we weren't afraid of terrorists. And if we became afraid and hunkered down, that meant the terrorists would win.
He is telling us to be afraid and hunker down and close the gates. It's a total reversal to how two previous presidents handled the threat of terrorism.
VANIER: Oh, again, he's invoking national security.
Eleanor Clift, Washington correspondent for "The Daily Beast," thank you very much.
CLIFT: Thank you.
VANIER: An Iranian baby girl could have died due to Mr. Trump's travel ban. But instead she's finally set to receive heart surgery here in the U.S. Four-month-old Fatime Reshad (ph) was admitted to a hospital in Portland, Oregon, on Tuesday.
Her family says they couldn't afford to treat her life-threatening heart defect. They had been scheduled to meet with doctors in the U.S. last Sunday but they were caught up in the travel ban until the government finally let them in. The hospital says the little girl is undergoing tests to prepare for surgery. Early indications are, thankfully, promising. Now CNN has learned new information about the ongoing investigation into allegations raised in a collection of memos. Those memos, you might remember, were created by a former British intelligence agent for political opponents of then-candidate Donald Trump. Evan Perez and Pamela Brown are working the story and they spoke to Jim Sciutto on "AC360."
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JIM SCIUTTO, CNN HOST: Why is this court corroboration of some details contained in this dossier important?
EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jim, until now, U.S. officials have said none of the content or allegations had been verified. But now multiple current former law enforcement and intelligence specialists tell CNN that intelligence intercepts of foreign nationals confirm some of the conversations described in the dossier took place between the same individuals on the same days and from the same locations as detailed in the dossier.
The corroboration is based on intercepted communications that has given U.S. intelligence and law enforcement officials, quote, "greater confidence" in the credibility of some aspects of the dossier as they continue to actively investigate its contents.
And we should be clear that CNN has not confirmed the content of the calls or whether any of the content actually relates to then-candidate Trump and none of the newly learned information relates to the salacious allegations in the dossier.
Reached for comment on this story this afternoon, White House spokesman Sean Spicer said, quote, "We continue to be disgusted by CNN's 'fake news' reporting."
And I should add that the FBI, Department of Justice, the CIA and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence all had no comment on this story -- Jim.
SCIUTTO: So, Pam, there is a lot of information in the dossier. Help explain what investigators are telling us that they have confirmed and have not yet confirmed.
PAMELA BROWN, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, remember that the goal of this counterintelligence investigation is to figure out whether there was truth to those allegations and that Russians were seeking to compromise President Trump.
To start, investigators looked for information that they could verify easily to give them a sense of the credibility of the author, who was already someone that they were familiar with as having credible sources.
And the memos detail about a dozen conversations between senior Russian officials and other Russian individuals. So that was one of the starting points. And one thing that the U.S. has is a collection of foreign call intercepts, so that they use that information to seek to verify some of the alleged conversations described in the dossier.
And U.S. intelligence officials are emphasizing to us that the conversations they now verified were solely between foreign nationals, including those in or tied to the Russian government, intercepted during routine intelligence gathering.
But some of the individuals involved in the intercepted communications were known to the U.S. intelligence community as heavily involved in collecting information damaging to Hillary Clinton and helpful to Donald Trump.
Now sources would not confirm which specific conversations were intercepted or the content of those discussions due to the classified nature of U.S. intelligence collection programs -- Jim.
SCIUTTO: And, Evan, we have been very careful throughout reporting this story, going back weeks, of specifying exactly what has been confirmed and what has not been confirmed. Help explain to our viewers what investigators still cannot verify at this point.
PEREZ: Well, that's right. As we said, one of the officials stressed to CNN that they have not corroborated the, quote, "more salacious things" alleged in the dossier. And I'll remind our viewers that CNN has not reported any of the salacious allegations.
However, when we first reported this story, U.S. intelligence and law enforcement officials said that they could not verify any parts of the memos. And what they are now saying is that they have corroborated at least some of these communications. Now none of the officials we spoke for this story would --
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PEREZ: -- comment or confirm that they have proof of any alleged conversations or meetings between Russian officials and U.S. citizens, including associates of then-candidate Donald Trump. Officials who spoke to CNN for this story cautioned that they have not reached any judgment on whether the Russian government has any compromising information about the president.
And we should remember President Trump and his staff have repeatedly dismissed this dossier, Jim, as "phony."
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VANIER: All right, Evan Perez, Pamela Brown, speaking to Jim Sciutto there, thank you very much to all three of them. We will, of course, continue to follow this story on CNN.
Meanwhile, another scandal involving Russia is swirling around Mr. Trump's national security adviser. A U.S. official tells CNN that Michael Flynn discussed U.S. sanctions against Russia with the Kremlin's U.S. ambassador.
Adding to the controversy is the fact that the alleged conversation happened in December, this while Barack Obama was still president. Mr. Trump appeared oblivious to the allegations on Friday.
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TRUMP: I don't know about it. I haven't seen it.
What report is that?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There's a number of reports (INAUDIBLE) reporting that he talked to the ambassador of Russia before you were inaugurated about sanctions (INAUDIBLE).
TRUMP: I haven't seen that. I'll look at that.
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VANIER: Vice President Mike Pence has said in the past that Flynn didn't discuss the sanctions. But three administration officials say he only knew what Flynn had hold him.
A source now tells CNN the only reason Flynn hasn't been fired yet is the White House does not want to look bad.
President Trump is hosting Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe at the winter White House. The two leaders and their wives had dinner at Mr. Trump's Florida resort of Mar-a-lago Friday night.
Mr. Trump is expected to play golf with Mr. Abe over the weekend. Earlier on Friday, in Washington, Mr. Trump pledged continued close economic and security ties with Japan. But Mr. Abe, for his part, also emphasized the U.S.-Japanese alliance.
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SHINZO ABE, JAPANESE PRIME MINISTER (through translator): Now with the birth of the Trump administration, the new genesis will be built between Japan and U.S. in economic relations.
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VANIER: Mr. Abe's cordial visit marks something of a turnaround from the U.S. presidential campaign, when Mr. Trump indicated that he would make Tokyo pay more for U.S. defense aid if he were elected. Now the president is underscoring the United States' commitment to Japan's security. He is also changing his tone on China, as Michelle Kosinski reports.
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MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): President Trump with the Japanese prime minister, facing questions about China, seeming to offer a warning over currency manipulation.
TRUMP: We will be all on a level playing field because that's the only way it's fair. That's the only way that you can fairly compete.
KOSINSKI (voice-over): Yet it comes one day after the stunning statement from the White House, summarizing last night's phone call between President Trump and the Chinese president.
President Trump agreed at the request of President Xi to honor our One China policy, a striking about-face for President Trump, who has said plenty to rock that boat.
TRUMP: I don't know why we have to be bound by a One China policy unless we make a deal with China having to do with other things, including trade.
They break the rules in every way imaginable.
China, which has been ripping us off, the greatest abuser in the history of this country.
KOSINSKI (voice-over): President Xi had not spoken to Trump since Trump took a phone call from Taiwan before the inauguration, an unprecedented breach of protocol in this complex and important relationship.
The One China policy, in China's view, is the bedrock on which cooperation rests, ensuring that the U.S. views Taiwan as part of China.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Given its importance to China, it was inevitable that we would have to back down. And that makes us look weak. Now I think our partners and allies in the region are reassured we are not about to go to war and the relationship with China is stabilized. But they are also asking if we are not a paper tiger. We make threats and then we back away from them.
KOSINSKI (voice-over): And now comes word from the European Union after meetings with U.S. officials on the Iran nuclear deal.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was assured by what I heard in my meetings on the intention to stick to the full and strict implementation of the agreement in all its parts.
KOSINSKI (voice-over): Yet again, this was a key issue on which President Trump ran for office.
TRUMP: We can't continue to make deals like that horrible Iran deal.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're going the rip up the Iran deal.
KOSINSKI (voice-over): A major shift away from the rhetoric, reminiscent of President Obama's warning to the new administration.
BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There are things that make for good sound bites that don't always translate into good policy. Reality has a way of asserting itself.
KOSINSKI: It's clear that foreign policy is very much in the shaping stage. There's a new poll out, though, by Gallup that shows that now only --
[03:15:00] KOSINSKI: -- 29 percent of Americans believe President Trump is respected by other world leaders and only 42 percent now feel that the U.S. is viewed favorably in the world -- Michelle Kosinski, CNN, the State Department.
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VANIER: Some say Mr. Trump's promised crackdown on illegal immigrants may have already begun. Why Mexico is warning of a new reality in the U.S. -- coming up.
Plus French police say they have thwarted a terror attack and the suspects may have been inspired once again by ISIS. Stay with us.
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VANIER: Welcome back.
Mexico is warning its citizens in the U.S. of a new reality after a high-profile deportation. Guadelupe Garcia de Reyos (ph) was expelled from the U.S. on Thursday, this after a routine check-in with immigration officials.
The 35-year-old mother had been in the U.S. since she was 14. But she was arrested in 2008 and convicted of using a fake Social Security number. She later signed papers, acknowledging that she would eventually be removed from the United States.
But her attorney says that her deportation now is due to a crackdown on illegal immigrants by President Donald Trump.
Military police in the Brazilian state of Espirito Santo have agreed to end their week-long strikes that sparked violence in the streets and left at least 110 people dead. The police and government officials cut a deal that will promote officers who are eligible and address concerns about the workload.
But they will not receive a salary hike. The officers' wives who initiated the strike did not participate in the negotiations.
And police in France say they have thwarted an imminent terror attack. A source says the four suspects, who are French nationals, appear to have been inspired once again by ISIS. Our Melissa Bell has more details.
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MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It was a dawn raid in the Montpelier area at several addresses that allowed authorities to take in these four suspects, among them, a 16-year-old girl.
Now French authorities say that that 16-year old and the other suspects were preparing to carry out an imminent attack. No word yet specifically on the target that was intended.
But our information and our sources tell us that quantities of TATP were found in one of the flats. That is that explosive favored by terrorists because it is relatively easy to assemble. It is the kind of explosive that was used in the November 13th attacks in 2015 here in Paris also in the Zaventem airport attacks in Brussels.
Now sources say that the 16-year-old girl had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State organization just a couple days of ago in a video posted online. No word yet, though, on the precise coordination that may have taken place between the four suspects here in France and anyone involved on the ground in either Syria or Iraq.
French media though are, this evening, reporting --
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BELL: -- that the 16-year old was due to marry one of the other suspects. It is alleged that he was the one who was going to carry out the attack on French soil. She was planning to head to Syria as the widow of the jihad.
French authorities now have 96 hours in which to question these four suspects before being obliged under French law to release them -- Melissa Bell, CNN, Paris.
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VANIER: And hundreds of volunteers have been busy saving lives on a beach in New Zealand. They are trying to save dozens of pilot whales who beached themselves on the sand. At least 250 whales stranded on the beach have died there. Emily Cooper of TVNZ has more now on the desperate rescue effort
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EMILY COOPER, TVNZ (voice-over): A desperate and heartbreaking rescue mission.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is Echo.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We've named her.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. We've named her. And Echo will survive.
COOPER (voice-over): The hundreds of volunteers digging in at the site of a mass stranding of pilot whales.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) nice and wet, not covering the blowhole, going around the dorsal fins and over the top of the dorsal fins. And then just making nice clean, cool buckets of water over these.
COOPER (voice-over): Battling the cold to try and save the animals still beached in the shallows at Farewell Spit.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're singing to (INAUDIBLE).
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Quite emotional. It's -- for me, it's encouraging to see the number of people who have come out today to help. A lot of them haven't seen a whale before.
COOPER (voice-over): The whales stranding here overnight.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When they said somebody come and see the whales, we just assumed that they were near to the shore but not stranded or beached like this.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thinking they might die.
COOPER (voice-over): Many did die but rescuers successfully refloated about half of the survivors.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've just being sitting out on the edge of the shelf, just observing, making sure that they don't come back in.
COOPER (voice-over): For the remaining whales, a long wait for the next high tide.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's currently a race against time for these guys at the moment. It's a low tide so it's about keeping them comfortable. Any later on this evening, at high tide, it's hoped they will be able to refloat.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When we first came down and saw the dead ones on the side, it was pretty heartbreaking. But it's an amazing thing to come down here and just try and help these animals isn't it?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The adrenaline has been keeping us afloat.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It is very emotional and it's very sad.
COOPER (voice-over): An emotional time for all of those on this beach that will carry on into tomorrow.
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VANIER: TVNZ reporter there, Emily Cooper.
Now let's take a look at the major weather stories across the globe. A bitterly cold weekend across the U.K. and quite the opposite in Australia, where concern over bush fires is growing amid scorching temperatures. Julie Martin from the CNN International Weather Center has more on those stories -- Julie.
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VANIER: We keep hearing about these new highs that temperatures are hitting. There it's in Australia but often it's other parts of the world.
Thank you very much. Julie is going to continue tracking that story and its effects on Australia.
Now a star of the hit TV show, "Game of Thrones," is focusing his off- screen efforts on climate change. Our own Jonathan Mann shows us the actor's mission to document some of the dramatic changes happening now in Greenland.
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NIKOLAJ COSTER-WALDAU, ACTOR AND U.N. GOODWILL AMBASSADOR: Greenland, it's like a whole different world. It's like something out of a movie.
JONATHAN MANN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For Danish actor, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Greenland is his family's second home. His wife grew up there. Now the "Game of Thrones" star and newly appointed U.N. goodwill ambassador is partnering with Google to document the countries' changing landscape.
Waldau is traveling around Greenland, wearing a high-tech backpack, called the Trekker, collecting Street View imagery of the country's amazing sights. From the ancient Viking ruins to these stranded icebergs called "beached whales," to its geothermal hot springs.
WALDAU: What I love about Greenland is you turn a corner and you walk a few hundred yards and you're in the middle of nowhere. And I feel small in the best sense of the word.
MANN (voice-over): Waldau hopes his efforts and images will help people understand the drastic changes taking place in Greenland.
WALDAU: If we go and we film with the Trekker a glacier and come back in five years, we'll be able to see that there is less of this ice in five years' time.
MANN (voice-over): And by documenting Greenland's vanishing beauty help people better understand the impact of climate change before it's too late.
WALDAU: Greenland is all untouched in a way. But if we all work together, we can preserve this beautiful wilderness that we have left.
MANN (voice-over): Jonathan Mann, CNN.
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VANIER: All right. That does it for us. Thank you very much for watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Cyril Vanier. I'm back in the headlines -- with the headlines in just a moment.
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