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Wolf
Trump Widening Search for National Security Advisor; U.K. Parliament Debates Trump's Visit Amid Protests; "Not My President" Protests on Presidents Day. Aired 1:30-2p ET
Aired February 20, 2017 - 13:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[13:32:54] WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: We're keeping a close eye right now on anti-Trump protests across the country. Take a look at the live pictures coming in from Chicago right now. CNN, by the way, has some teams on the ground nationwide. We're going to bring you updates. Stand by for that.
In the meantime, President Trump may be widening his search for a national security advisor. He interviewed at least four candidates over the weekend, and the White House says he may be talking to other candidates today.
Let's discuss that and more with our panel. We have our CNN political analyst, Mark Preston; April Ryan, White House correspondent for American Urban Radio Networks; and our CNN political analyst, Kirsten Powers, columnist for "USA Today."
Kristen, what do you think? He has to come up with a new national security advisor quickly.
KRISTEN POWERS, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: If you look at how Pence is being received in Europe in terms of the reaction that they're having and chaos of President Trump. It's the comments that he has made about NATO, the comments he has made about the European Union and it's the sort of chaos that you see in his White House. Even our allies notice this kind of behavior that national security advisor is a critical position, and it was very chaotic. Took a long time contrary to what the vice president said to get him replaced and so I think they are trying to move quickly to get somebody in there. Up close working. Apparently one of the issues is can this new national security advisor bring in his --
BLITZER: Apparently, they're all men that are being considered right now. His own team right now or will he have to accept who Michael Flynn originally brought in?
APRIL RYAN, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, AMERICAN URBAN RADIO NETWORKS: The president made it clear that the pick that just withdrew that, no, you cannot. Reince Priebus said over the weekend that's not the case. That the person will be able to bring in the person that they want or the people that they want, but the question is how much will that play out? Where will the marrying be of you can bring in who you want or the president will have his team in place that he wants. You know, it has to -- this has to solve itself very soon. The global community, leaders are very upset and concerned because they're hearing one thing, and particularly with NATO, they're hearing one thing from the president, and now you have Pence there to calm the fears. The fact that he doesn't have a national security advisor -- they need to be up to speed right now.
[13:35:24] BLITZER: The national security advisor has to make sure the president is well briefed on all of these really sensitive issues that doesn't go out and say something that could cause some serious problems where.
MARK PRESTON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Yeah, no doubt about that. I think whoever they do decide to get, needs to work well with General Mattis, who is very well regarded. The defense secretary who is actually over in Iraq right now. Not only is Mattis well thought of here within our own government, but thought well of by our allies around the country, and in many ways, has had to go and did a lot of cleanup. I do think there is concern from some of these generals who are being considered for this that they're not going to be able to get anything done because Donald Trump may just wake up some morning and fire off a tweet that could cause their world a major shake-up, and that's problematic.
BLITZER: The new national security advisor could be announced hopefully very soon. There's going to be an announcement, we believe, this week on a new travel ban that will try to deal with some of the issues that the federal courts rejected the first time around. They seem to be getting closer, but apparently not there yet.
POWERS: Well, I don't know if there's any way that they actually can please the judicial branch of the government, because the problem isn't so much what's in the text. It's what President Trump has said. What they look at in the body of the text, even if they as reported are only going to apply it to -- they're not going to apply to green cardholders, and they'll take out the reference to, you know, prioritizing religious minorities. It doesn't change the fact that they still are Muslim majority countries as far as we know and that President Trump has said in in the past that he wanted to ban Muslims from coming to the country. The court does look, in fact, at the intent. I don't know how he ever gets around the fact that they believe his intent is to discriminate against Muslims.
BLITZER: April?
RYAN: During the campaign, he is talking about radical Islam, and they are also looking at changing -- I don't know how you get around the wording, but there is a big concern with the language that this administration has been putting out globally as well as within this country. Those words -- words mean something. And they incite a fear, and it could spark jihadism, whatever the White House wants to call it, but I would prefer to say jihadist behavior, and there are cells still in this nation that could be excited or ignited from this.
BLITZER: A travel ban like this will make national security even worse because it will insight radicals out there to go ahead and join ISIS, for example. PRESTON: Right, because what we've done is that we're handing them a
gift to go out and try to recruit young Muslims to join is or to join other terrorist groups in an effort against the United States and in an effort against the west. We have specifically heard that from military commanders who have been on the ground. These are the guys who are walking the streets in many of these nations right now trying to bring peace to these streets, and there is concern quite frankly that it is going to cause more harm than help.
BLITZER: Mark Preston, thanks very much.
April Ryan, thanks to you and Kirsten Powers.
Always good to have you here on our show.
Still to come, there are new developments on this Presidents Day here in the United States. People are turning out across the country for what they're calling Not My Presidents Day rallies. These are some live images coming in from Chicago where anti-Trump demonstrators are moving on the streets. You see that right there. We'll have a live update. That's next.
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[13:43:18] BLITZER: President Trump's rhetoric has set off a debate in Britain, both inside and outside the halls of parliament. Crowds have gathered to protest the government's invitation for a state visit for President Trump. The British parliament, meanwhile, is taking up the same question.
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UNIDENTIFIED U.K. PARLIAMENT MEMBER: We can't tolerate the denigration of women, religious minorities, the banning of refugees, torture as the new normal. We cannot accept those things as the new normal. It wouldn't be acceptable from any country and certainly not from our greatest ally and one country that has stood up in the world for the values of liberty, equality, democracy, and the rights and equality of all before the law. That is why we have a special responsibility, Mr. Walker, and it's why we have a special responsibility in this House to speak out.
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BLITZER: Our Fred Pleitgen is with some of the protesters over at Parliament Square in London.
Fred, explain to us why they are protesting this state visit by the American president.
FRED PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I think the operative word here is indeed state visit, Wolf. They're not protesting against Donald Trump, President Trump, come here at all, but they say they don't want a full state visit.
I want to, first of all, show you what's going on here. We're right here in the heart of London, the iconic Parliament Square. There's Big Ben. A couple of thousand people have turned out here, and they are saying they don't want a full state visit that entails a lot of the things as a banquet with the queen.
One of the things that's being discussed right now in British parliament is that it would put the queen in a bad position if the president came here and went to that banquet with her. It would entail a gun salute. It would entail the president and the first lady riding in the carriage, the queen as well, and that's something folks say should not happen. They think that it's too early in President Trump's term, and generally they obviously have a problem with some of the rhetoric that they've been hearing out of the White House in the first weeks of the Trump administration, and you hear that here at this protest where what people really are protesting the most is the stance on immigration. The executive order, the travel ban, they say that's something they certainly don't like. Also, of course, the idea to build a wall with Mexico. That's also something that doesn't go down well here at all.
What the folks are saying is that the president can certainly come here over to Britain, but they don't want that full state visit. They think it's too early and obviously they're highly critical of a lot of the things that have come out of the administration in the first couple of weeks -- Wolf?
[13:45:53] BLITZER: The protests in London.
Fred, thanks very much for that report.
Still to come, there are protests here in the United States on this Presidents Day as well. People are turning out across the country for what they're calling Not My Presidents Day rallies. Take a look at the live pictures coming in from Chicago where an anti-Trump demonstration is underway right now. More on that. That's coming up.
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[13:50:39] BLITZER: Welcome back to our viewers here in the United States and around the world.
Today is President Donald Trump's first Presidents Day here in the United States. He is being greeted though with protests from coast to coast, including one right outside Trump Tower in New York City.
Brynn Gingras is joining us live from that protest.
Brynn, what's it like.
BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You can hear behind me it's loud and active right outside Trump International Tower. People are passion add today on a beautiful day to come out and protest. This enormous protest, Not My President. I have got to till, this isn't the main protest. I want to look around and show you the Trump international hotel and tower. NYPD set up barricades and shut down the area right in front of the hotel. We are going to bring camera over here and zoom down the street. That's actually where the protest is happening. We just took a walk down there just a few minutes ago. That crowd of people stretching five or six New York City blocks. That's another enormous protest. The one that is entitled Not My President, which got started on Facebook of it's happening all across the country at this point. At this particular one, 14,000 people said they were coming and NYPD is certainly expecting huge crowds. They are not bloody glove to march anywhere but they are staying put make, their voices heard on a number of issues. Again, right here outside of Trump International Tower -- Wolf?
BLITZER: You are at Trump International Tower near Columbus Circle. You are not on 5th Avenue at Trump Tower. The crowds gathered near you? They did that deliberately.
GINGRAS: They gather one or two places, sometimes outside of Trump Tower, sometimes outside the hotel. For this particular one they wanted to be here. It's gathering on Columbus Circle and past the avenue here -- Wolf?
BLITZER: Brynn Gingras, thanks very much.
Still to come, the new defense secretary of the United States, James Mattis, makes his first visit to Iraq. You are going to hear what he had to say about situation in Iraq, the fight against ISIS and a lot more when we come back.
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[13:57:00] BLITZER: Welcome back. The U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis is making unannounced trip to Iraq and Baghdad. He addressed concerns over President Trump's comments that ISIS might not have happened if the U.S. had taken Iraqi oil after the second gulf war.
Here's what the defense secretary had to say.
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GEN. JAMES MATTIS, DEFENSE SECRETARY: All of us in America continue to pay for our gas and oil all along. I'm sure we will continue the do so in the future. We are not in Iraq to seize anybody's oil.
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BLITZER: Our senior international correspondent, Ben Wedeman, is in Istanbul following all this for us.
Ben, what do we expect the come out this visit by the defense secretary?
BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRSPONDENT: Probably the most important thing so far, Wolf, is reassurance, just as Mike Pence, the vice president is in Brussels reassuring the U.S.'s European allies, the presence, the visit of the secretary of defense to Baghdad is reassuring Iraqis for one thing that those threats so to speak by Donald Trump during the campaign and after the inauguration, that perhaps the U.S. might seize Iraqi oil, shouldn't be taken too seriously. Now, I was in Baghdad two weeks ago. And another point of contention
of course was Iraq's inclusion in the list of seven countries in the travel ban. So there are some ruffled feathers that need to be smoothed there. And it does appear that general -- rather Secretary Mattis, who has a lot of experience in Iraq has been doing exactly that. Also importantly, it comes less than 48 hours after the beginning of the latest phase in the offensive in Mosul to retake the western part of the city. And of course the United States plays an essential role in that operation with more than 5,000 U.S. military personnel on the ground. The United States has provided weaponry, training, and of course the U.S. has airplanes as part of the international coalition that are hitting ISIS targets in and around Mosul as well.
So all of that taken together, of course, this visit is important, and this is an opportunity for the United States to reaffirm its commitment to Iraq in the war against ISIS -- Wolf?
BLITZER: Yeah, but I think it speaks -- it speaks volumes that, what, 14 years after the war in 2003 an American defense secretary still cannot show up in Baghdad with an announcement in advance. It has to be secret. It has to be unannounced because of the security considerations. And that speaks volumes about what's going on in Iraq right now. Same by the way in Afghanistan. They can't make an announcement in advance that a defense secretary or any other senior U.S. official is going because of concerns of security. And once again, that speaks volumes.
Ben Wedeman, thanks very much for all your good work.
That's it is for me. Thanks very much for watching. I will he be back 5:00 p.m. eastern in "The Situation Room."
In the meantime, the news continues right now, right here on CNN.
14:00:13] BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Wolf, thank you.
Hi there. I'm Brooke Baldwin.
