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Wolf

Sources: Trump Asked Intel Heads to Deny Collusion; Trump Budget Proposal Cuts Social Programs; Trump Tries to Revive Israel/Palestinian Peace Process. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired May 23, 2017 - 13:30   ET

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

[13:30:00] WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Chris Cillizza, you just posted a piece at CNNPolitics.com, getting back to what the former CIA director testified today about, how concerned he was about Russia's interference. You had one quote from John Brennan you thought was very significant.

CHRIS CILLIZZA, CNN POLITICS REPORTER & CNN EDITOR-AT-LARGE: Dana was mentioning this earlier. Essentially, John -- but I'll paraphrase, but John Brennan essentially said, from what I knew at the time when I was CIA director, it gave me pause and I had concerns that the possibility of Russian -- I don't know that he used the word collusion -- but that Russians were influencing people, U.S. citizens. He didn't say within the Trump campaign, but we all assume that's what he's talking about. Dana mentioned this, and I think it's so important, this is another brick on the foundation of the case that some Democrats, political case that many Democrats are trying to bring, which is you now have sally yates, the acting attorney general at the time, going to the White House counsel and saying we think that Michael Flynn is, you know, subject to blackmail. You have the CIA or former CIA head saying I had a lot of concerns. You have Jim Comey concerned enough that an investigation was opened into this. So what's hard in that, Wolf, is you have these bricks piling up. On the other side, you have Donald Trump simply saying, these are his words, "It's a witch hunt. It's a total hoax. This is fakes news." To believe those things, you have to believe that all of these people over here are partisans who are lying. The more bricks you stack on top, the harder that becomes I think for Donald Trump to maintain sort of a viable and defensible position, politically speaking.

BLITZER: An important article you just posted.

CILLIZZA: Thanks.

BLITZER: Thanks very much.

Chris Cillizza, Paul Callan, Dana Bash, thanks.

If President Trump gets his way, billions of dollars will be cut from various social programs, from food stamps to student loans. We're going to breakdown his new budget proposals. That's coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:36:13] BLITZER: The U.S. is facing some of the steepest budget cuts in history. If approved by Congress, billions of dollars, mostly from social programs, are on the chopping block. Everything from Medicaid to student loans could see very dramatic changes.

And, just a little while ago the White House budget director laid out President Trump's first full budget proposal.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICK MULVANEY, WHITE HOUSE BUDGET DIRECTOR: We're no longer going to measure compassion by the number of programs or the number of people on those programs, but by the numbers of people we help get off of those programs.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Tami Luhby is joining us from "CNN Money" right now.

Tami, some are calling this the tanks and tax cuts. Tell us about some of the bigger proposed cuts put forward by the Trump administration.

TAMI LUHBY, CNN MONEY CORRESPONDENT: He is really taking an axe to a lot of social programs. They have a whole section about reforming the welfare system where they would cut $274 billion out of it. A lot of it would hit food stamps. It would hit disability. These are programs Trump supporters rely on. But the big cuts come from Medicaid. $610 billion listed in the budget and that may or may not be on top of cuts in the GOP health care repeal bill.

BLITZER: We see Medicaid, $610 billion. Food stamps, $193 billion. Disability benefits, $72 billion. But there's a big increase in defense spending.

LUHBY: Yes. He wants to add $54 billion to defense spending. But this is about shifting resources from the social safety net and stressing that people go back to work. He wants to put in infrastructure project, border security. These are supposed to create jobs. And this is a budget all about work.

BLITZER: In defense, he wants an increase of $54 billion, border security $2.6 billion, of which $1.6 billion would be to start the construction of the wall along the border with Mexico. $200 billion in infrastructure expenditures. A lot of Democrats will go along with that. Roads, bridges, airports and stuff like that.

He did promise during the campaign, and he tweeted this and he said it on many occasions, there would be no cuts to Social Security, no cuts to Medicare, no cuts to Medicaid.

Let me show the tweet that he put up during the campaign, "I was the first and only potential GOP candidate to state there will be no cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Huckabee copied me."

Let's talk about those three promises. Social Security, any proposed cuts from the administration? LUHBY: No. He is saving Social Security or not touching Social

Security. He's not touching Medicare. Mulvaney said that he brought Trump a list of entitlement programs and Trump said I'm not going to touch Social Security, I'm not going to touch Medicare, that's what I promised. But when it comes to Medicaid, that was not as strong a promise on the trail. He kind of stopped promising that later in the campaign. And it's clear both from the GOP bills that's now in the Senate and from this budget that there are going to be big cuts to Medicaid.

BLITZER: Hundreds of billions of dollars in Medicaid. Although, that tweet said no cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

LUHBY: That's true.

BLITZER: Clearly, things change from time to time.

Tami, thanks very much.

LUHBY: Thank you.

[13:39:31] BLITZER: Good work.

Take a look at these live pictures coming from in Capitol Hill. Later this afternoon, the National Security Agency director, Admiral Mike Rogers, will appear before the Senate Armed Services Committee. He's e4xpected to be asked about reports that President Trump asked him to deny evidence of Russia collusion during the campaign. We'll have details on that and more when we come back.

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BLITZER: A request by President Trump to intelligence chefs regarding the intelligence probe is raising more concerns, this time, from a U.S. military perspective. According to sources, the president asked the head of the National Security Agency and the director of National Intelligence to deny any collusion between Trump's campaign team and the Russians.

Our Pentagon correspondent, Barbara Starr, is joining us now.

Barbara, what kind of implication could this have specifically for Director Mike Rogers, the director of the National Security Agency?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, you covered the Pentagon for a long time, you know how this works. Admiral Rogers serves as an active-duty four-star admiral in the U.S. Navy. He is assigned to the National Security Agency, but he's a military officer. The U.S. military, by tradition and regulation, does not get involved in politics. The president of the United States apparently calling him up and asking him to deny this collusion. This, after it comes to light that there's an FBI investigation.

[13:45:13] Admiral Rogers, by all accounts, doing the correct thing, saying no, no, thank you, inappropriate, I'm not going to get involved in any of this. But it is an extraordinary thing for a four-star military officer to be asked by a president to do something like this, to get involved in commenting on what are classified matters, comment on them, perhaps publicly, something that is very inappropriate.

It gets back to that fundamental question that has really been a problem for so many years now, making intelligence a political matter. You know, it's one thing to ask the director of National Intelligence perhaps awkward enough, there's been criticism over the years about intelligence becoming too politicized, but to ask a military officer to participate in that, very difficult, and not something that the Pentagon wants to see.

When I've asked about it around the hallways of the Pentagon this morning, you get a lot of slumped shoulders, a lot of, "We don't really want to deal with this." This is not something the military wants to be involved with -- Wolf?

BLITZER: He's going to be testifying later today up on Capitol Hill. I assume he will say, in public session, Barbara, what Dan Coats, the director of National Intelligence, said earlier in the day in separate testimony, that he's not going to get into private conversations with the commander-in-chief, the president of the United States. But what are you hearing?

STARR: My sense is that's a pretty safe bet. Admiral Rogers is a very by-the-book kind of person. He's in an awkward position. Remember, several months ago, he interviewed with Donald Trump to potentially have the job that Dan Coats now has, his director of National Intelligence. Admiral Rogers had a bit of a tough time with the Obama administration towards the very end. They were thinking about reorganizing the job he was in. But no indication that Admiral Rogers is going to come out in public and talk in detail about his private conversations with the president -- Wolf?

BLITZER: I would be pretty surprised if he did.

Barbara, thank you. Barbara Starr, over at the Pentagon.

Before leaving the Middle East today, President Trump tried to announce a revival of sorts of the Israeli/Palestinian peace process. We'll tell you why he says he's now, quote, "truly hopeful" about a potential peace deal.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:51:34] BLITZER: President Trump is now in Rome where he will meet with the pope tomorrow. But before leaving the Middle East, he met with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Bethlehem in the West Bank in an effort to try to revive the Israeli/Palestinian peace process. He spoke about it in Jerusalem.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I am personally committed to helping Israelis and Palestinians achieve a peace agreement. And I had a meeting this morning with President Abbas and can tell you that the Palestinians are ready to reach for peace. I know you have heard it before. I am telling you that's what I do. They are ready to reach for peace.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Our global affairs correspondent, Elise Labott, is joining us now.

Elise, what more can you tell us? Did the president, for example, provide any specific details on the next step?

ELISE LABOTT, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: He didn't, Wolf. He spoke in generalities about how he sees a new momentum and revival for energy and peace. Both sides finished the visit feeling a little bit shorthanded. President Trump did not make good on his long-standing pledge to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem. He didn't make any announcement about that. He didn't talk about Jerusalem as a unified capital of Israel, which Israelis were looking for. On the Palestinian side, he didn't talk about a two-state solution with a Palestinian state. He just talked in these generalities for peace. I think he got a real education from President Mahmoud Abbas, who congratulated the president's new energy and spirit, but laid out these long-standing demands of the Palestinians. You know about them, the '67 borders, a two-state solution, east Jerusalem as a Palestinian capital. I think while everybody feels that there's a new energy, I don't think there is really a road ahead. They are both looking for President Trump to lay out more specifics about how a peace process would go.

BLITZER: He was well received, at least publicly, by the Israelis and the Palestinians, right?

LABOTT: Well, you saw that very, very warm welcome by Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu. I have never seen a prime minister welcome a U.S. president like that. And, yes, President Abbas did welcome him warmly. But he did face some protesters at the checkpoints along that wall in Bethlehem. The Palestinians still feel their demands are not being met. It is going to be up to President Trump to deliver that process for them so they can believe in that.

[13:54:15] BLITZER: Let's see if he can.

Elise Labott reporting for us. Thanks very much.

Still ahead, standing strong in the face of evil. The people of Manchester in England take to the streets to remember their brothers, sisters, sons and daughters lost to terror. Their vigil, that's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Hundreds of people gathered in the square around the town hall in Manchester, England, to pay tribute to the victims of last night's terror attack.

Listen to part of a poem that was read to the crowd, which sums up how the people of Manchester are dealing with this tragedy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) TONY WALSH, POET: There are hard times again in the streets of our city. We won't take defeat. We don't want your pity. This is the place where we stand strong together with a smile on our face. Mancunians forever. Because this is the place in our heart and homes. Because this is a place that is a part of our bones. Because Manchester gives us such strength from the facts that this is the place.

(CHEERING)

WALSH: We should give something back. Always remember, never forget. Forever Manchester. Choose love, Manchester. Thank you.

(CHEERING)

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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