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Wolf

Soon: Trump to Speak on "USS Gerald R. Ford" on Military Spending; Democrats Calls for A.G. Jeff Sessions' Resignation; McCaskill Backtracks on Meeting Russian Ambassador; Trump Defense Spending to Include New Naval Ships. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired March 02, 2017 - 13:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:33:36] WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Showing live pictures right now from the aircraft carrier, "USS Gerald R. Ford," in Newport News, Virginia. The president will be speaking next hour to about 5,000 sailors, Marines, ship builders there about his goal to rebuild the U.S. Military and increase dramatically defense spending. We'll have live coverage of the president once he arrives at that event.

Meanwhile, there's a chorus from both sides of the aisle for the attorney general, Jeff Sessions, to recuse himself from the Justice Department's Russia investigation, while others, like the minority leaders in the House and Senate, Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer, are formally, publicly, aggressively, calling for his resignation as attorney general.

Joining us is Congressman Brendan Boyle, Democrat from Pennsylvania, member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Congressman, thanks for joining us.

REP. BRENDAN BOYLE, (R), PENNSYLVANIA: Thank you.

BLITZER: You meet with ambassadors here in Washington, I assume, all the time.

BOYLE: I do. It's quite common and I have never met with the Russian ambassador.

BLITZER: But it wouldn't be anything wrong if you met with the Russian ambassador?

BOYLE: No, there would be nothing wrong. What would be wrong is if I was asked if I'd met with the Russian ambassador and then lied about it under oath. That would be a violation.

BLITZER: From his standpoint, what he was saying, the question seemed to suggest if there were conversations about the campaign with the Russians, and he insists he did meet with the Russian ambassador but they only spoke about Senate Armed Services-related business. He's a member of the Armed Services Committee, and met with him in that capacity. [13:35:08] BOYLE: Two things on that. First, according to Senator

McCaskill, who has been on the Armed Services Committee for about a decade, the Russian ambassador has never met with her or any other members of the Armed Services Committee. You would expect that with the Foreign Affairs Committee. That's number one.

Two, if it was innocuous, why didn't he just say that?

I don't want to lose -- I think Sessions lied or either committed perjury or came dangerously close. Either way he shouldn't be attorney general of the United States.

But let's not lose focus on what really matters. And that is that we need a special prosecutor now. You even have Adam Schiff, the ranking member on the Intelligence Committee, one of the most responsible members of Congress, now calling for an independent special prosecutor. Senator Schumer calling for that earlier this morning. I'm calling for that.

We have right now, Wolf, what is the most serious scandal since Watergate. I don't say that as any form of exaggeration. We need to make sure we have an independent prosecutor. That is not Jeff Sessions.

BLITZER: So I assume you simply don't want him to recuse himself. You want him to resign?

BOYLE: I would want him to resign but again, I wouldn't want any sort of implication that this story is just about Jeff Sessions. That is one part of what is overall, again, the biggest scandal since Watergate.

BLITZER: You think he should be charged with perjury?

BOYLE: I'm not a lawyer. Even though I always get confused for one. I'll leave that to the legal experts. It's pretty clear he at the very least misled Senator Franken and the rest of the committee.

Again, if the explanation was innocuous that he was just meet with the ambassador during the course of work as a Senator, why he didn't simply state that is very odd.

BLITZER: Adam Schiff complained today at a briefing with the FBI that the FBI is not being forthcoming to the Intelligence Committee. He said that's a serious problem.

BOYLE: That is a serious problem. Now, finally, you have a bipartisan investigation. I notice that you had both chairman, the Republican chair and ranking member having a joint press conference. That's a good sign. But the fact that FBI Director Comey is not being straightforward with that committee is all the more reason why we need an independent -- need a special prosecutor, and then if a special prosecutor isn't appointed, it's up to Congress to resuscitate the Office of Independent Counsel.

BLITZER: The argument the FBI makes is -- I've heard it -- that this is an ongoing investigation and you don't share information during an ongoing investigation. That's the argument they're making why they aren't being completely forthcoming with members of the Intelligence Committee.

BOYLE: If that's the case, then a congressional investigation cannot do the work that it should be doing. I would point out in Watergate you had the House committee, the Senate committee and a special prosecutor all happening in parallel. No reason why -- these are not either/or situations.

BLITZER: Brendan Boyle, thanks for joining us.

BOYLE: Thank you.

BLITZER: The Congressman from Pennsylvania.

Later this hour, Republican Senator James Risch, who sits on the Intelligence and Foreign Relations Committees, will join us live as well and I'll ask him if he thinks the attorney general, Jeff Sessions, should recuse himself from a Russia probe, and what he thinks of bringing in a special prosecutor.

While calling out the attorney general, Jeff Sessions, over the meetings he had with the Russian ambassador, Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill made her own mistake that she's now trying to clean up. About Sessions, she tweeted, "I've been on the Armed Services Committee for 10 years. No call or meeting with Russian ambassador ever. Ambassadors call members of the Foreign Relations Committee."

But then evidence actually surfaced that the statement wasn't exactly true. Here's a tweet from the Senator back in 2013, "Off to meeting with Russian ambassador. Upset about arbitrary, cruel decision to end all U.S. adoptions, even those in process."

Senator McCaskill explained it this way.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. CLAIRE MCCASKILL, (D), MISSOURI: You know, 140 characters are tough. The word "from" should have been in there. But I didn't have room. I was thinking of a one-on-one meeting like he had. I was talking about international adoption. It wasn't anything about Armed Services. It wasn't one-on-one.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[13:39:20] BLITZER: McCaskill has called for Jeff Sessions to resign over his failure to disclose one-on-one meetings with the Russian ambassador.

Coming up, the president will soon arrive at the "USS Gerald R. Ford." He'll be speaking in the next hour. Will he provide details on his proposed defense budget? Will he even address the controversy surrounding his attorney general? We'll look ahead. And discuss when we come back.

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BLITZER: Some more live pictures coming in. The president of the United States getting ready to address about 5,000 sailors, Marines, ship builders, others, on the "USS Gerald R. Ford," an aircraft carrier, a brand new one. Not yet ready, way beyond schedule. We'll have live coverage of the president's remarks coming up.

In the meantime, the White House press secretary, Sean Spicer, just tweeted this picture of the president meeting with some of those sailors. The president sporting a red USA hat. It's fitting that the president is visiting the shipyards in Newport News, Virginia. They'll be very busy if the president gets his wish to increase military spending by $54 billion in this current year and next year alone. On the president's wish list are dozens of new naval ships.

Here with me, retired Admiral William Fallon, former commander of the U.S. military's Central Command.

Thanks for joining us.

ADM. WILLIAM FALLON, FORMER COMMANDER, U.S. CENTRAL COMMAND: Sure, Wolf.

[13:45:00] BLITZER: What do you think about the president's request for billions more in defense spending right now? As you know, the U.S. already spends more on defense than the next six, seven or eight countries combined, including China and Russia.

FALLON: It's true. We also have a responsibility that we've assumed worldwide that nobody else has. But the reality is that the services has been spending a lot of money in recent years on these wars in the Middle East and there's been a recapitalization that's long overdue --

(CROSSTALK)

FALLON: -- particularly for the Navy, which has not been able to keep up with readiness. So right now, the readiness of the forces, the head of the Navy is not anywhere near where it needs to be. It needs to be fixed.

BLITZER: This new aircraft carrier -- you served in the Navy for a long time. You were the head of the military's Central Command. And I love aircraft carriers, don't get me wrong. The U.S. now has 10 of them. Used to have more. This one -- they started building it in 2008. Supposed to be ready in 2014. It's now 2017. It's not yet ready. It's billions and billions and billions of dollars overbudget. It's going to wind up costing U.S. taxpayers $13 billion.

Here's the question: Why do they always get it -- not always, but most of the time these defense contractors, they get it so wrong. They make promises. It's going to be delivered on time, but it's way, way delayed and way over budget.

FALLON: I think the problem is it goes way beyond the defense contractor in question here. And that is that the process in my opinion is broken. The acquisition process is badly broken. Has been for some time. So it's a rarity that you can find any program of whatever size that seems to be on time and on budget. It's one of my laments in service, trying to deal with this.

But this particular piece of hardware is unique in that it's --

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: This new aircraft carrier, new generation.

FALLON: The first one in 50 years. The Nimitz class carriers which, as you correctly pointed out, 10 in the Navy now, really designed back in the late '60s. The first Nimitz went to sea in the mid '70s. This technology, first time in 50 years but it's a lot more than just a new ship. We've -- there's certainly enduring value in these carriers. The average lifespan is about 50 years. And this particular ship has an entirely new reactor design, first time in 50 years.

BLITZER: And the president is being briefed on this, I'm sure, right now. But I know that he is very frustrated with these costs.

FALLON: Oh, sure.

BLITZER: He wants to work hard to make sure that the costs go down. I assume we might hear that?

FALLON: A great idea. There are all kinds of factors. One of them is building one at a time, which is what's going on of any ship is really a challenge. The other thing is the new technology that's being incorporated in this one is -- there's no more complex ship in the world than an aircraft carrier. This incorporates very novel features, such as the electric catapult. We've never done this before. Very interesting.

BLITZER: When he speaks, we'll be hearing a lot more. Let's see if he gets into the cost overruns and delays, as he has with a new Air Force One and new F-35, all these other programs.

(CROSSTALK)

FALLON: Show me a program that's on time and on budget --

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: Admiral Fallon, thanks for being here. Thanks. And thanks for all the great work you've done.

FALLON: Thanks, Wolf.

BLITZER: Coming up, President Trump once again will be speaking very soon about the new aircraft carrier. Not yet ready, but will be ready, we're told, soon, the "USS Gerald R. Ford." Let's see if he addresses the issue of the attorney general controversy that's now erupted, contacts with the Russian ambassador to the United States, calls within his own Republican Party for Sessions to recuse himself from any investigations involving Russia. Republican Senator James Risch, a key member of the Foreign Relations

Committee -- there you see him up on Capitol Hill -- he's standing by to join us live when we come back.

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[13:53:38] BLITZER: Welcome back. Once again, looking at live pictures of the president aboard "USS Gerald R. Ford," the $13 billion new aircraft carrier. It will serve as a backdrop for the president's speech -- that's coming up shortly - on rebuilding the U.S. military. We're standing by for that. We'll bring you his comments live.

The calls for the attorney general of the United States, Jeff Sessions, to at least recuse himself from an FBI probe between ties and the Trump campaign and Russia, those calls are growing louder and louder, Sessions is under fire for failing to disclose under oath his two pre-election meetings with a top Russian diplomat last year.

Let's bring in Republican Senator James Risch, of Idaho. He's a key member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, as well as the Senate Committee on Intelligence.

Senator, thanks for joining us.

SEN. JAMES RISCH, (R), IDAHO: Sure.

BLITZER: Your Republican colleague, Congressman Jason Chaffetz, said Jeff Sessions should recuse himself from this investigation. Do you agree?

RISCH: Certainly, Jason has the absolute right to express himself in that. I don't really consider it my place to advice Jeff on that. Jeff has said he would recuse himself if necessary. I take him at his word. He's a smart guy, been around a long time, very ethical, and I have every confidence he will handle it properly.

[13:55:07] BLITZER: But how upset are you that on two occasions process, before the Senate, he was not completely forthright when he was asked about communications with the Russians, and he said no, but we now know, thanks to the "Washington Post" report, that he did. Is that not perjury?

RISCH: Absolutely not, Wolf. I would ask you to go back and review those and put the dialogue up on your screen and let the viewers decide that. They were in dialogue about contacts between the Trump people and ranking officials in Russia regarding the election, and he has categorically denied he knew anything about that. And there are no facts to know about that at this point, other than what has been published in the newspaper, and he was not part of any of that. So I would really disagree with your characterization that it was a misrepresentation. Having read that I would conclude --

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: Senator, let me read the written exchange he had with Senator Leahy. Senator Leahy, quote, "Several of the president- elect's nominees or senior advisors have Russian ties, have you been in contact with anyone connect with any part of the Russian government about the 2016 election either before or after? Sessions: No."

(CROSSTAKL)

BLITZER: So at one of those meetings was right during the Republican National Convention that going on in Cleveland at the time. So when he speaks to the Russian ambassador at a convention, don't you think he was having conversations about the 2016election?

RISCH: I do not. We that serve on these committees that involve other countries meet readily with officials, high-ranking officials from every country on the globe. Politics is always the last thing on the agenda. We talk about ways we can cooperate on defense, on terrorism, and other things. Jeff Sessions said he had no contacts with Russian officials regarding the campaign. I believe him.

BLITZER: In the exchange he had with Senator Al Franken, he said he was asked by Al Franken if there was any evidence that anyone affiliated with the Trump campaign communicated with the Russian government in the course of the 2016 campaign, what would you do? He wasn't asked if he had any meetings, personally involving the Russians. His response, "I'm not aware of any of those activities. I have been called a surrogate for the campaign a time or two, and I did not have communications with the Russians, and I'm not able to comment on it".

He did with the Russian ambassador on two occasion, including a one- on-one meeting here in Washington.

RISCH: Wolf, with all due respect, when you read the question, as you just did, that question was levied against him in the context of campaign communication.

BLITZER: Senator, why couldn't he have said, I had no communications about the elections with the Russians, but to be honest, I did have a couple of meetings with them in my capacity as a Senator of the Armed Services Committee. I did meet with the ambassador, but there was no discussion of the campaign. Shouldn't he have said that.

RISCH: Your answer would have been better. He did not give that answer, but I think he gave clearly an honest answer as he was sitting there.

BLITZER: If he would have given that answer, I suspect, and I think you agree with me, Senator, it probably would have caused a little commotion but probably still been confirmed. Now because he avoided sharing that information with the Senators, you see what's going on.

RISCH: Well, clearly, these things happen from time to time. And it's unfortunate he didn't have you sitting next to him knowing what the situation would be today and being able to advise him, because I suspect his answer would have been much closer to what you said. But where he was being asked the question, in the context he was, he gave an honest answer, and it was certainly accepted.

BLITZER: Senator Risch, thank you so much for joining us.

RISCH: Thank you, Wolf. Appreciate it.

BLITZER: Thank you.

That's it for me. Thanks very much for watching. I'll be back 5:00 p.m. Eastern in "The Situation Room." We're following all of the breaking news. Stand by to hear from the president aboard the new aircraft carrier.

In the meantime, the news continues right here, right now, on CNN.

[14:00:09] ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Brianna Keilar, in for Brooke Baldwin.