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Wolf

Vigil Starts In London; Calling On Public To Help; Trump Doubles Down; Trump Decision on Executive Privilege; Trump on Travel Ban; Rift Between Gulf States and Qatar. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired June 05, 2017 - 13:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

Hello, I'm Wolf Blitzer. It's 1:00 p.m. here in Washington, 6:00 p.m. in London, 8:00 p.m. in Moscow. Wherever you're watching from around the world, thanks very much for joining us.

Right now, you're looking at live pictures of Potters Field Park. That's near Tower Bridge in London. A vigil is being held there to remember the victims of the terror attack over the weekend that claimed seven lives.

Police have made several arrests as they look for possible accomplices to the attack. We're going to get the very latest on their reaction, the investigation in just a moment. Stand by for that.

And take a look at this. We're getting some live pictures now from inside the White House briefing room. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the Deputy White House Press Secretary, she will handle the briefing this hour. There surely will be plenty of questions about President Trump's reaction to the London attack.

And his Twitter rant today on the travel ban and on London's mayor. We may also hear more about the possibility of the president's using executive privilege to possibly try to stop the testimony of the former FBI director James Comey who was fired by the president.

Comey is set to testify Thursday morning before the Senate Intelligence Committee. His first public comments since being fired by President Trump.

Let's get back to London now where hundreds of police officers are trying to track down anyone associated with the deadly terror attack, as the mayor of London calls on the public to help police do their jobs.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SADIQ KHAN, MAYOR, LONDON: We recognize that actually terrorists want to destroy our way of life. They want to harm us. They want to attack us. We've got to make sure we don't let them succeed.

But the reality is all of us have to work together to keep our city safe. The police, with the right resources, the right tools, but all of us giving the police the information, making sure we stop youngsters from being radicalized, turning to extremists, giving them the resilience they need to reject these messages of hat, of poison.

CRESSIDA DICK, COMMISSIONER, METROPOLITAN POLICE: And all over London, those officers who are doing everything they can within their power both to find out what was behind this attack but also to continue to keep our public safe.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Our International Diplomatic Editor Nic Robertson is joining us from 10 Downing Street. Nic -- and I should point out, our National Security Analyst Peter Bergen is with me here in Washington.

But Nic first. Police say they know the identity of the three attackers. They have not yet released any details. Why?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLLOMATIC EDITOR: They seem to want to stay ahead in this investigation. They don't want the names getting out and, therefore, spooking people that they might want to interview, perhaps having evidence changed or hidden.

The police, at the moment, say that they -- that they are confident that they know who they are. This is a fast-paced moving investigation, that they have secured and seized significant quantities of evidence in the property raids they've put into place.

They also say they've arrested 12 people. One of them has been released. The ages of the people range from 19 to 60.

But, at the moment, the police are indicating that they will release the names of the attackers, but they're not doing so far, at this time.

When the chief of the metropolitan police here, Cressida Dick, was asked earlier in the day, was there any -- was there any evidence that this had been somehow influenced from outside? The claim, of course, unsubstantiated claim by ISIS that these -- that these attackers were representing ISIS.

She refused to comment precisely on this particular attack. She did say, however, that the threat coming in the U.K., at the moment, from the three recent attacks, the five thwarted attacks all in the last three months, is mostly of a domestic nature. The police look and investigate the possible of an international connection.

But, at the moment, she said broadly speaking and perhaps she's giving us a tip here about this attack, it doesn't appear to be directed from overseas. We've yet to get more details though -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Yes, we know the three terror attackers, themselves, were shot and killed by police.

Nic, the police commissioner also says they're looking, as you know, for possible accomplices. There have been, what, about a dozen arrests, as you point out.

Talk a little bit about the search and the visible security that you're seeing in London.

ROBERTSON: Increased police presence on the streets here just in routine patrols. Increased presence of armed police officers on the streets. Perhaps fewer people on the streets of London than we would normally see, although this is a normal workday.

The -- you know, all the guidance from politicians has been, you know, don't be alarmed if you see additional police on the streets. They're here -- they're here to reassure you.

But for the -- for the investigation at least, there is a lot going on that the public are not aware of. The police say that we can expect more raids and potentially more arrests.

Those people that have been arrested appear to fall into the, sort of, category that we've seen police do in recent -- after recent terror attacks. They go to the premises where the attackers were last known to be -- last known to be living, perhaps relatives, perhaps friends or associates.

[13:05:11] In this case, the age range include three sets of what appear to be adults, three males, three females. We don't know if these are the parents of the attackers, but these are the people that the police have detained, so far.

And the police want to make sure that if there is anyone else -- they say this was an isolated group in this attack. But if there are any others that have been influenced by the same people as them, as any, sort of, indication that there could be a potential quick follow on copycat is because we see that the momentum of attacks here has increased over recent weeks.

They want to make sure they get to anyone who might be associated with these men and thinking of a similar type of attack. The reporting in the British media suggests that these men have been associated with known radicals or radicalizers.

Again, this is -- this is reports in the British media that haven't been substantiated by the police. But that would give rise, in that context, to a police concern that there would be other angry young men out there who might want to have follow on type of attacks. And, of course, this is what the police want to make sure doesn't happen -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Yes, interesting release though.

They have not yet raised, I don't know if they will, the threat level to the highest level in Britain, as they did after the Manchester terror attack.

Stand by for a moment.

Peter Bergen, ISIS, as you know, has claimed responsibility. So, do you believe them? Do you think it was ISIS inspired, ISIS directed, or some other group or just a bunch of lone individuals? PETER BERGEN, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: We don't know yet. But

from ISIS's perspective, if they've inspired an attack, it's a -- you know, it's as good for them as directing an attack. I mean, the Orlando attack which was the most lethal attack in the United States since 911 was inspired by ISIS. 49 people were killed in the gay nightclub in Orlando last year.

So, for ISIS, that was a success. Whether -- you know, for them, it doesn't really matter if it's directed or inspired.

Now, in the case of the London attacks, we don't know. I mean, my guess is it was certainly ISIS inspired.

The Manchester attack seemed to have been, really, directed by ISIS, at least the Libyan arm of ISIS.

BLITZER: And if you read the British press, as you have, Nic has been going through it very closely has well, it seems as if these three individuals, the terrorists who committed these hanous crimes and were, themselves, shot and killed by police, may have been well known to local authorities.

BERGEN: Well, you know, I mean, that's not surprising. The Manchester attacker was known to local authorities. The guy who drove the car into the Westminster Bridge in March and killed four people was known to authorities. Omar Mateen who killed 49 people in Orlando, Florida who had been interviewed by the FBI.

I mean, typically, these people have come up on the radar screen. What's atypical is if they're not known at all to authorities.

BLITZER: Interesting.

All right, everyone stand by. We're going to have much more on this story coming up. Peter Bergen, Nic Robertson, guys, thank you.

President Trump weighed in on the London terror attacks over the weekend, tweeting out support for the victims of the attack. But then, the president went on the offensive, criticizing the London mayor, Sadiq Khan, and unleashing a series of tweets about his travel ban just this morning, saying, among other things, people, the lawyers and the courts can call it whatever they want, but I am calling it what we need and what it is, a travel ban.

The Justice Department should have stayed with the original travel ban, not the watered-down politically correct version they submitted to the Supreme Court. The Justice Department should ask for an expedited hearing of the watered-down travel ban before the Supreme Court and seek much tougher -- seek a much tougher version.

Another tweet. In any event, we are extreme vetting people coming into the United States, in order to help keep our country safe. The courts are slow and political.

The White House, by the way, also has a press briefing scheduled this hour. We'll have live coverage of that. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the Deputy Press Secretary, will be giving the briefing, instead of Sean Spicer, the Press Secretary.

She's expected to face lots of questions about the travel ban and fired FBI director James Comey upcoming testimony.

I want to bring in our Senior White House Correspondent Jim Acosta and our Justice Reporter Laura Jarrett.

Jim, let me start with you. How is the White House, first of all, responding to the president's significant number of tweets this morning, several of them so controversial.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Very controversial, Wolf. And, obviously, contrary to what White House officials have been saying for months.

We've been in briefings. We've talked to officials over the phone who insisted, time and again, that the president's proposed travel ban was not a travel ban. They called it travel restrictions. This executive order that would seek to block people from coming into the country from six Muslim-majority countries.

They insisted, up and down, that this was not a travel ban. And, of course, the president tweeting this morning that it is a travel ban. That he wants the Justice Department to seek review at the Supreme Court and have it reinstated.

[13:10:01] And, obviously, that is -- that is going to cause headaches, here at the White House, in just about half an hour from now, when Sarah Huckabee Sanders briefs reporters. She's, obviously, going to be asked about those tweets.

But the president's top officials have been pressed on this all morning long. Take a look at Sebastian Gorka, one of the president's top national security advisers. He was on CNN's "NEW DAY." Chris Cuomo pressed him on these tweets. Here's how that exchange went.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEBASTIAN GORKA, MEMBER, NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL: It's not policy.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Of course it is.

GORKA: It's social media, Chris. It's social media.

CUOMO: It's not social media. It's his words. His thoughts.

GORKA: It's not policy. It's not an executive order. It's social media. Please understand the difference.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: So, Sebastian Gorka there, trying to make the case that this is not policy that the president is tweeting out. It's just social media.

Kellyanne Conway, another top advisor, counselor to the president, was on the "The Today Show" earlier this morning, accusing the media of being obsessed. She used the word, obsessed, with the president's tweets.

Very interesting to point out, Wolf. Her husband, George Conway, who withdrew his name from consideration for a Justice Department official at the end of the last week, he tweeted criticism of the president's tweets this morning, regarding his proposed travel ban. It says, these tweets may make some people feel better but they certainly won't help. OSG, the Office of Solicitor General, will get five votes at the Supreme Court which is what actually matters. Sad.

George Conway even going as far there as to use some of the president's vernacular on Twitter, using the word, sad.

So, Wolf, this is a headache for the White House. Whenever the -- it seems like whenever the president tweets it's a headache for the White House. And it's going to be one, yet again, in about 20 minutes from now -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Yes, that's a -- that tweet from George Conway pretty surprising, given the fact his wife works for the president, and he was under consideration to become the solicitor general over at the Justice Department. Pretty surprising that he then goes ahead and criticizes the president like that.

Laura, the White House has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to rule on this revised second version of the travel ban. Does the president's tweeting about it this morning jeopardize a White House case?

LAURA JARRETT, CNN JUSTICE REPORTER: Well, litigating this case via Twitter certainly complicates the president's legal defense on two different fronts, Wolf.

First is from a substantive standpoint. Lawyers at the Justice Department have been working over hard, bending over backwards to draw a distinction between Trump statements pre and post presidency. Because the pre-presidency statements talk about Muslims and that was a problem in court.

But these series of tweets, arguably, show that that's a distinction without a difference. Because the president has no apologies for what he said before and he is, essentially, now, throwing his own lawyers under the bus for being, quote, "too politically correct."

But the other issue here is timing. He's tweeting about this case during the exact time that the Supreme Court is deciding whether to even take it up and the other side is crafting their briefs right now.

And so, by calling it a watered-down version, he's now handed the other side, arguably, another piece of evidence to suggest the changes between these two executive orders were not made in good faith -- Wolf.

BLITZER: All right, we're standing by. Sarah Huckabee Sanders is going to have the press briefing coming up shortly.

We're getting some breaking news. I want to quickly go back to London. Nic Robertson is on the scene for us.

I take it, Nic, we're getting some of the names of those involved -- those -- the names of the some of the terrorists, is that right?

ROBERTSON: That's right, Wolf. The police had said they were going to name them. What we're getting here are the names of two of the three attackers. The police have said all three were shot dead.

Let me just read you here what we just heard from the police in the last couple of minutes. The two men, Karim Shahzad Butt (ph) and Rasheed Rudonna (ph), both from east of London from the Barking area.

More details here. Karim Shahzad Butt, 27 years old, born the 20th of April 1990, was a British citizen who was born in Pakistan. Rasheed Rudonna, 30 years old, born the 31st of July, 1986. Had claimed to be Moroccan and Libyan. He also may use the name Rasheed Al Qadar with a different date of birth. This is a man who's given a different date of birth here as the 31st of July, 1991.

So, one of the individuals has two aliases. Has claimed a different nationality, from what the -- from what the police have here. One of them, a Pakistan -- a British national but Pakistani origin.

We can also add into this what we've learned from Irish police that they are helping British counterterrorism police here with connections to one of the attackers to time spent in Ireland by one of the attackers. It's not clear if it's one of the two named or the third person yet to be named -- Wolf.

BLITZER: So, we'll wait for that third name to come up.

Just moments ago, by the way, we heard from the mayor of London speaking out on this. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KHAN: As the mayor of London, I want to send a clear message to the sick and evil extremists who commit these hideous crimes. We will defeat you.

[13:15:10] You will not win.

BLITZER: That is Sadiq Khan of London, the mayor of London, speaking out at a vigil that's underway in London right now. He has been severely criticized by President Trump in a series of tweets. We'll have much more on that coming up as well.

Once again, we're only moments away from a must see White House press briefing. (INAUDIBLE) about the president's terror attack tweet storm and whether he'll use executive privilege to try to block the fired FBI Director James Comey from testifying Thursday in the Russia probe.

Much more coming up right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [13:20:24] BLITZER: You're look at live pictures from inside the White House Briefing Room. Today the deputy White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, instead of Sean Spicer, will be taking questions from reporters. She'll likely be asked about the flurry of tweets the president wrote this morning on his self-described travel ban. We'll bring you that briefing live once it starts. That's coming up later this hour.

The White House also facing serious questions on how they're preparing for the fired FBI Director James Comey's testimony this Thursday morning in front of the Senate Intelligence Committee. Will the president assert executive privilege? White House Counselor Kellyanne Conway was asked that question this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Does the White House consider it a possibility that they would try to prevent the testimony by asserting executive privilege? Is that an open possibility?

KELLYANNE CONWAY, WHITE HOUSE COUNSELOR: Well, the president will make that final decision.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: All right, joining us now to talk about the limited executive privilege is Eric Columbus. He served as a senior council to the deputy attorney general during the Obama administration.

Eric, thanks very much for joining us.

ERIC COLUMBUS, FORMER OBAMA ADMIN., DOJ OFFICIAL: Thanks for having me, Wolf.

BLITZER: You don't believe he will exert executive privilege because you don't believe there would be much of a case, is that right?

COLUMBUS: I think he's got no case. Executive privilege is a shield designed to protect the administration from assaults from Congress and the courts trying to pry information loose. Here we have a private citizen who wants to talk. So it will be completely unprecedented.

BLITZER: So if he - if he tried to exert his - so why do you think the White House is not flatly saying, of course the president's not going to exert executive privilege. They're leaving that hanging. You just heard Kellyanne Conway, Sean Spicer, the other day. It's an open question. They haven't flatly ruled - ruled that contingency out.

COLUMBUS: Have you ever seen Donald Trump give something up for nothing? I think he wants to play this out as long as he can and then try to look magnanimous by letting James Comey speak.

BLITZER: There are other ways, though, potentially he can prevent him from testifying, namely to convince the chairman, Richard Burr, if possible, the Republican chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, to call off the hearing because the president doesn't want that testimony to come up.

COLUMBUS: He certainly could, Wolf. He could try to invoke executive privilege, make a big show of it, and then Chairman Burr could say, oh, I'm shocked that James Comey wants to discuss such private matters and then pull the hearing.

BLITZER: But I know - knowing Richard Burr, I don't think that strategy is going to work. He - another strategy, he could just say to James Comey, don't do it. You were part of the administration. This is executive privilege. And then Comey would have to make that decision.

COLUMBUS: He could. He certainly could. I think if Comey will - will think about answering questions in a way that is respectful of the presidency, such as in 2007 when he delivered his riveting testimony about his bedside visit to John Ashcroft in a hospital, he was very careful not to disclose conversations he had with the president because it wasn't relevant to the matter at hand. Here it very much is the matter at hand.

BLITZER: Let me read to you two tweets from the president this morning on his travel ban, "the revised version, the first one, the Justice Department should ask for an expedited hearing of the watered down travel ban before the Supreme Court and seek much tougher version." Another one, "the Justice Department should have stayed with the original travel ban, not the watered down politically correct version they submitted to the Supreme Court, S.C." Have you ever seen a sitting president criticize his own Justice Department for going to the Supreme Court on this - what he called this watered down politically correct version, which he himself signed off on.

COLUMBUS: I mean he signed off on it not just figuratively but literally. It is - they both were executive orders. He signed the first executive order. And then, thought better of it, signed the second executive order. So he's really criticizing himself.

BLITZER: Have you ever seen anything like that before with a president and a Justice Department?

COLUMBUS: Certainly not.

BLITZER: Yes, I haven't either.

All right, Eric Columbus, thanks for coming in.

COLUMBUS: Thanks for having me, Wolf.

BLITZER: Coming up, Gulf state standoff. Neighboring nations cut off all ties to Qatar from closing borders to shutting down flights. Why at least one country is now pointing the figure at President Trump for creating a major rift in the Arab world. We'll have special coverage when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:28:23] BLITZER: One again we're waiting for the White House deputy press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, to come out and start taking questions from reporters. She's in for Sean Spicer today. We're going to bring you that briefing live once it starts.

But right now I want to get to another major story we're following, accusations of supporting terror now creating a rather deep rift among some powerful Gulf states. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain, they are some of the key nations now cutting ties with Qatar alleging the country has ties to terror groups, specifically ISIS and al Qaeda. An Iran state news agency claims President Trump is fueling the conflict following his trip to Saudi Arabia two weeks ago.

I want to bring in our international correspondent Ian Lee. He's in Istanbul, Turkey, watching this.

Ian, what sparked this fight right now between these Gulf states?

IAN LEE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, this has been brewing for quite some time, but you named a number of the reasons why it has come to head. Another one is the (INAUDIBLE), which is considered a terror organization in Saudi (INAUDIBLE) and the UAE. It's (INAUDIBLE) Egypt.

BLITZER: All right, Ian, I'm going to interrupt - I'm going to interrupt for a second. We'll try to get back you to. Unfortunately, your audio is coming in and out. Hard to understand. Stand by. We'll try to fix that.

But we're going to stay on top of this story, the diplomatic dustup that's unfolding in the Middle East.

Right now, the latest on the terror attack in London. Joining us is Zalmay Khalilzad. He's the former United States ambassador to the United Nations. Also a former ambassador to both Afghanistan and Iraq.

[13:30:01] Mr. Ambassador, thanks very much for joining us.

ZALMAY KHALILZAD, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED NATIONS: Well, Wolf, it's good to be with you.

BLITZER: It's pretty extraordinary that there Arab states are severing ties with Qatar. How do you explain that?