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U.K. Slams U.S. Over Intelligence Leaks, Israel Makes Changes to Intel Sharing with U.S; Manchester bomber's Brother Detained in Libya; White House Gears Up for Prolonged Russia Fight; Congressional Budget Office Scores House Health Care Bill. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired May 24, 2017 - 13:30   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:32:08] WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: President Trump and the Belgian prime minister met a little while ago. This video just came in. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Thank you very much. It's an honor to be with you. And my whole group, we've been looking forward to this trip. Meeting the king was wonderful and I had a great discussion. And we will work together on various problems. Number one, right now, is terrorism. And we are fighting very hard, doing very well under our generals, and making tremendous progress. But when you see something like happened two days ago, you realize how important it is to win this fight. And we will win this fight. It's a horrible situation. What took place is horrible. Unthinkable. But we will win. 100 percent.

Thank you. Thank you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Strong words from the president.

And in a radio interview, the U.K. home secretary, though is slamming U.S. officials for leaking information in connection with the Manchester bombing. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AMBER RUDD, BRITISH HOME SECRETARY: It is irritating if it gets released from other sources and have I been very clear with our friends that that -- that should not happen again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: These comments come as the U.S. is scrutinized over reports President Trump shared top secret information from Israel with Russian officials.

For more, let's bring in our senior international correspondent, Fred Pleitgen, joining us from London. Fred, tell us what happened between the U.K. and the U.S., the

irritation U.K. officials are now feeling.

FRED PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Wolf, this was right after the attack took place. In fact, on the very next day when U.S. sources apparently revealed the name of the attacker, Salman Abedi. This was at a time when the U.K. authorities here said they felt they knew the identity of the bomber but they didn't want to give that to the media or to the public just yet, of course, for reasons of the investigation that was going on. Now, as the Home Secretary Amber Rudd said, she was irritated by this. It seems as though U.K. authorities were quite angered this name was out there. They also say they don't believe that the investigation was hampered because of all this. However, experts we've spoken to say, of course, there will have been a reason why they didn't disclose the name in the first place. Some of it, to try and further the investigation because if there are still other accomplices potentially out there, you don't want to tip them off who you have in custody, what that person's name is -- Wolf?

BLITZER: Another sensitive issue, President Trump came under fire last week after it was discovered he told Russian officials sensitive information given to the U.S. by Israeli intelligence. The Israeli defense minister now speaking out about that incident today. Fred, tell us what he said.

[13:35:10] PLEITGEN: Yeah, this was Lieberman, the Israeli defense minister. Apparently, while President Trump was in Israel, there was a meeting between Lieberman and H.R. McMaster, the national security adviser. And afterwards, Lieberman said everything we need to discuss was discussed. We did an inquiry. Everything that should have been done, all the conclusions, everything was done. So clearly, the Israelis felt they needed to talk about this. He also said they made what he calls a pointed correction so it seems as though there was some anger on the Israeli side and irritation on the Israeli side, and certainly, they wanted to talk to the U.S. about how and which information is disclosed, and certainly, most probably to also be more careful with the kind of information that gets disclosed especially to countries that potentially could be an adversary of the United States, like, for instance, some people say Russia is. So this is clearly something that was very important to the Israelis, where there was some irritation where they felt they need to talk to the Americans about it. Lieberman went on to say he believes there is unprecedented intelligence sharing going on. It certainly seemed as though, even after the two incidents that apparently have taken place all sides, want to continue to keep that information sharing going on. Of course, it is so vital in the war against terror. That is so important for this administration, as well -- Wolf?

BLITZER: Fred, we're now hearing that there are more arrests in connection with the Manchester terror attack including the brother of the terrorist who are blew himself up. We have an update. The brother of Salman Abedi, apparently, we're now told was arrested in Tripoli, Libya, on suspicion of links to ISIS as well as Tripoli militia working for the interior ministry industry. What more can you tell us about this expanding series of arrests? PLEITGEN: Well, it certainly is very significant. There were several

arrests made in Britain, as well where five people are in custody now. It plays into another thing we found out today which is very important, apparently, that Salman Abedi was in Libya quite recently and spent about three weeks there in Libya and only came back just a few days ago. Of course, the big question is going to be, what exactly did he do there? Did he have ties potentially to ISIS or some other militias helping him plot this attack and plan this attack?

Of course, one of the things the norths are saying is because of the sophistication of the explosive device he used, all the planning that needed to go into this, they did not believe he was acting alone. And seems to me there's more and more substantiating that in fact he was part of a wider network. And it seems as though some of those links may lead to Libya and the arrest of the brother could be very significant, as well. I'm pretty sure the British authorities will want to get intelligence pm what this person has to say and how it could potentially further their investigation here at home.

BLITZER: Important information, indeed.

Fred Pleitgen, thank you very much.

Coming up, President Trump establishing a crisis team as he gears up for what's expected to be a prolonged fight over the Russia investigations. Who's on it? what will they do?

We'll be right back.

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[13:42:45] BLITZER: He calls it a "witch hunt," but now President Trump is building a legal team in response to the Russia investigation. Sources say the president is expected to hire Attorney Mark Kasowitz. He'll be part of a team of outside lawyers to advise him on matters related to the Russia probe.

Let's bring in our panel. We have "Washington Post" staff writer, Adam Entous, is with us; CNN political director, David Chalian; and CNN Politics editor, Juana Summers.

What's your reaction to the president as they say lawyering up, Adam, right now?

ADAM ENTOUS, STAFF WRITER, THE WASHINGTON POST: It's obviously a sign we've reached a new phase in this investigation. Not only is he facing twin investigations on the Hill but obviously the FBI, now that there's a special counsel, it's going to be moving more quickly. Decision will be made. During that period when after Comey was fired there was a period where I'm sure people were reluctant to make key decisions and now they need to be made. He needs to be ready. We're not sure where this is going to go. Based on comments by Comey and the existence of memos. which now we know not only he kept, but also Mike Rogers, head of the NSA, kept memos related to his conversations with the president. So those could be turned over and this could advance in ways that nobody can predict at this pace. BLITZER: He's a highly respected very experienced Attorney Mark

Kasowitz. Like all attorneys, he will tell his client shut up.

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICS DIRECTOR: You would expect that.

(CROSSTALK)

CHALIAN: It's hard to tell the president of the United States to shut up, any president of the United States, and this one particularly, lay off Twitter, don't get involved in the daily to and fro on this story. You can't have a president of the United States completely stay silent but trying to wall off the investigation from his work is the best advice possible. We're still at the beginning of this team. There is not just going to be Mark Kasowitz. This will be a team of attorneys and how they handle the political communication side of this in addition to the attorneys, who separate from the current White House staff, will they bring in somebody that has a relationship with Trump that is able to manage the daily political communications because this is the story every day for this White House now.

BLITZER: Juana, you wrote a piece on CNN Politics. You were in Pennsylvania speaking to Trump supporters about the Russia investigation. Tell us what you heard.

[13:45:02] JUANA SUMMERS, CNN POLITICS EDITOR: I was, Wolf. To David's point, there seems to be something new bubbling up every day I spent a weekend in Pennsylvania. The people I talked to I asked them about the headlines. Those were aware those who inspired Trump in November said they were indifferent to it. They believe Democrats here are making a mountain out of a mole hill, that investigations keep coming and coming, and they feel that President Trump, their choice for president, has not been allowed to do the things he promised to do on the campaign trail, to bring back jobs to make America great again. They were defending the president. Not any of them willing to entertain there might be more than just smoke to this fire we see, this drip, drip, drip of stories that seemed to have taken up the last week or so.

CHALIAN: Think how interesting that is. These voters and supports of President Trump do not believe he's been allowed to do what he was sent to do. The Republicans have control of the White House, the House, the Senate. Effectively not being able to indicate the agenda he promised shows the reality that this investigation has stalled the agenda and it is hard to place blame elsewhere when have you every lever of power in Washington.

BLITZER: Adam, you've been doing excellent reporting. A lot of us are anticipating the testimony in the next few weeks of the fired FBI director, James Comey.

Listen to what a friend of Comey's told Anderson Cooper last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENJAMIN WITTES, FRIEND OF JAMES COMEY: I thought it was interesting and very telling that he declined an opportunity to tell his story in private. He clearly wants to do it in a public setting, and I interpret --

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST, A.C. 360: He was asked to testify in private and said no. Now it's going to be public.

WITTES: Right. That's a reflection of the fact that this is a guy with a story to tell. I think, if I were Donald Trump, that would scare me a lot.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: What do you think about that? Is he right?

ENTOUS: You know, I don't know. I'm also not convinced he's going to testify. We'll have to see how the general counsel --

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: Tell me why you think he's not going to necessarily testify.

ENTOUS: Is the special counsel going to feel comfortable with that? It could be the special counsel might decide, having him come out there publicly, might be a mistake. I don't know. We'll have to wait and see. If he does cop and testify, Comey is the kind of guy who is really good about taking notes. This is something these FBI guys, they're really good at doing this. They remember it. When he gets to his car, he writes things down on a piece of paper. He has exact quotes. These are almost as if it's been compared to almost as if there's a tape recording. I don't think there's a tape recording. There's been tweets about potential tapes maybe on the other side. I assume those are jokes. But you know, he has meticulous notes. It could obviously be very damaging for hip to reveal. Maybe we know everything he was told by the president, maybe we don't. It's something we have to wait and see.

BLITZER: Robert Mueller, the new special counsel, could have a great influence how far Comey will go in terms of releasing some of the contemporaneous memorandum.

CHALIAN: Not just because of his position as the counsel but his relationship with Jim Comey, as well. They're close and worked together. And so you could imagine Mueller sort of impressing upon Comey the need to preserve him as a witness in this investigation overall so even if Jim Comey ends up testifying after Memorial Day up to the Senate, intelligence committee, I do wonder how sort of circumscribed his remarks would be.

BLITZER: David, Adam, Juana, guys, thanks very much.

Up next, lawmakers on both sides are waiting to learn the financial impact of the latest Republican health care bill. The Congressional Budget Office score, as it's called, is expected to be released momentarily. We'll breakdown why this potentially could be crucial.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [13:53:01] BLITZER: Getting new information about the brother of the terrorist who blew himself up and killed all of those people in Manchester, England. The brother of Salman Abedi, a man by the name of Hashim Abedi, was planning an attack when he was arrested in Libya. He had been under surveillance for about a month and a half. They released a statement saying Hashim Abedi admitted that he and his brother were members of ISIS. They had been aware of the plot. He left Britain, according to the statement, on April 16th. New information coming in there. We're going to, of course, update you on all of the information. Much more coming up shortly.

There's other news we're following in Washington. We're about to find out the financial impact of the House health care bill that recently passed. The much-anticipated Congressional Budget Office score, as it's called, is expected shortly. It will answer big questions, including, how many will the new bill leave uninsured. The version passed by the House that's now being considered in the Senate, how much does it cut deficits?

Tami Luhby is joining us from "CNN Money."

Tami, walk us through what are we expected to hear from the Congressional Budget Office.

TAMI LUHBY, CNN MONEY CORRESPONDENT: Sure, Wolf. This is the final version of the House bill. We haven't seen a score for it yet. We had earlier scores but they changed it since then. So now we're going to find out how much it affects the deficit, how many people will actually be uninsured. The original bill showed that 24 million people would be uninsured under the House plan. And that's a really difficult number for the Republicans to get through. And we're waiting to see what the impact on premiums will be. The House made changes to the bill after the last score and it's very possible that those with pre-existing conditions, people who are sick or have been sick, may see their premiums go up. That's not going to be good news for the Republicans.

[13:55:13] BLITZER: Tami, one quick question on all of this. The Senate version is going to be totally different than the House version, we're told.

LUHBY: That's true. It looks like the Senate is starting from scratch and redoing everything, but it's still going to be very important. They need to have that House score in order to be able to build their bill.

BLITZER: Tami Luhby, reporting for us. Tami, thank you very much.

The news continues here on CNN, including the breaking news we're following on the Manchester terror attack. Much more on all of this right after a quick break.

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[13:59:58] ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, there. I'm Brianna Keilar.

And we are following some major developments out of Manchester, England. The brother of the bomber now under arrest for planning his own terror attack in the Libyan capitol of Tripoli.