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Iraq PM: Ruins of Mosul Mosque Recaptured from ISIS; Kremlin: Trump & Putin to Meet on Sideline of G-20; Tillerson Angry at White House Staffers; Trump Promises "Big Surprise" on Heath Care; Trump's Travel Ban Goes into Effect Within 6 Hours; Awaiting Live On-Camera White House Daily Briefing. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired June 29, 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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[13:33:43] WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Iraq's prime minister is declaring an end to ISIS in Mosul after his forces recaptured a hugely symbolic site, the ruins of the al Nuri Mosque. Three years ago, today, in this very city, ISIS Leader Abu Bakr al Baghdadi declared his caliphate.

Our senior international correspondent, Nick Paton Walsh, joins us from nearby, Irbil, Iraq, a short distance away.

You were near that mosque, Nick, earlier today. What can you tell us about this final, final stage of fighting?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Bizarre to hear those Iraq military officials declare the mosque in their hands when we've spent much of the last two days, up to 3:00 this afternoon, watching Iraqi special forces valiantly and exhaustingly try to fight and to actually surround there. When we left at 3:00 this afternoon, they were not in control, despite eastern the Pentagon suggesting it was in their hands. Explaining the political statements, perhaps the idea that ISIS has been kicked off, the mosque is uninhabitable because it's been destroyed. Maybe they can say it's in their hands.

We're into political territory here, Wolf? Baghdad -- Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al Abadi under great pressure to declare success in this and appears to have said openly the fall of Mosul has happened. The mosque, they say, in in their hands. And that now means ISIS is defeated in Iraq.

This is a historic moment potentially politically for Iraq here after years of fighting. The problem really is, this victory isn't actually much of a victory, because they are still fighting around the mosque. They will still have to fight to clear out ISIS from the old city in Mosul. 700 meters to go to hit the river and the end of the ISIS territory in Iraq. The low level insurgency will continue in other towns they have a presence in. And there's a broad reconciliation in Iraq that still has to happen. The Shia are mostly in charge of government, get to grips with dealing properly with the Sunni, many of whom have some level of support for the extremism of ISIS. It's been a bloody road here. We saw bloodshed continue today near the mosque.

The broader problem, how fast can this fighting end and quickly deal with the remnants of ISIS everywhere -- Wolf?

[13:35:52] BLITZER: It's taken three years for Iraqi forces and other coalition partners to deal with this ISIS occupation of the second-largest city in Iraq, Mosul.

Nick Paton Walsh, doing amazing reporting for us as always. Thanks very much.

Meanwhile, President Trump spent much of his 2016 presidential campaign talking about Russian President Vladimir Putin and what their potential relationship would look like. He will soon find out. The Kremlin announced today the two leaders will finally meet on the sidelines of the G-20 summit at the end of next week.

Let's discuss with retired Rear Admiral John Kirby, CNN's military and diplomatic analyst, who served at the State Department and the Pentagon as press secretary; also our CNN global affairs correspondent, Elise Labott.

These meeting at the G-20 summit on the sidelines if the meetings takes place between President Trump and Putin, could be significant?

REAR ADM. JOHN KIRBY, CNN MILITARY & DIPLOMATIC ANALYST: It could be. I hope the White House sees it as an opportunity to shape the relationship with Russia going forward. And to be bullish, frankly, on all the areas of tension that we have with Russia. This is an opportunity for the president to lay markers down with Putin in ways he has not been able or willing to do.

BLITZER: Will the president do in this meeting, do you believe, Elise, what he did do when meeting with Sergei Lavrov, the Russian ambassador, a few weeks ago in the Oval Office, raise Russian interference, meddling, in the U.S. presidential election, and tell the Russians to stop it?

ELISE LABOTT, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: I don't see that happening. President Trump himself really hasn't acknowledged that he believes -- he's kind of danced around the topic. Certainly, never come out with a clear statement he believes Russia was involved in the hacking. And I think he's made clear he wants to move the relationship forward and not look back. He has really kind of distanced himself from these charges of hacking in the election and trying to influence the allegation. Even as these investigations about possible collusion between his aides and the Russians continue to move ahead. And so I think they're going to keep it on Syria, North Korea, Ukraine, other type of issues that are important.

BLITZER: He has complained, in recent days, that President Obama didn't do enough in telling the Russians to stop it when he knew what was going on as far as last summer is concerned. It he doesn't do it this time, he'll be bitterly criticized.

KIRBY: I agree. Elise, I think, is right. They probably are not going to bring this particular issue. But this --

(CROSSTALK) BLITZER: Why wouldn't he bring up --

(CROSSTALK)

LABOTT: It's the elephant in the room. But --

KIRBY: But this issue is about the future, Wolf. We have a midterm election coming up in 2018. You can expect the Russians want to get involved in that again in some sort of cyber fashion. This is about the future. And the president should raise it. But, sadly, I think Elise is right.

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: Why can't he just say what a lot of people would like him to say, President Putin, with all due respect, you continue this, we have better capabilities to destroy your infrastructure than you have to meddle in U.S. presidential politics, and deliver a threat like that?

KIRBY: I think -- I don't know how well a threat's going to go over in a sideline meeting like that. But I do think he does need -- this is an opportunity for him to deliver a big, strong message about where the relationship with Russia is and where it needs to go in the future. And I don't think -- I just don't think, with respect to cyber hacking, he'll be willing to bring himself to that. Because, Wolf, he continues to see this as striking a legitimacy of the election. He can't get past it.

BLITZER: You've covered these sideline meeting. You said they're meeting on the sidelines at the G-20. This is a one-on-one meeting with translator, usually, only the two of them. Why not bring it up?

LABOTT: He might bring it up, Wolf. He might bring it up and say something like, yes, these investigations are total nonsense. You and I keep our eye on the ball, on the relationship going forward. There's this issue of whether or not Congress will pass sanctions against Russia. The administration has said -- because of the hacking and the interference. The administration, Secretary of State Tillerson has said he thinks that would put a chill on the relationship between the U.S. and Russia and cooperation on Syria. And so he's urged the Congress not to do that. I don't see the president getting tough on Putin. I think he's going to ask the president to move forward on the relationship, particularly in what you see in going on in Syria. I think they really need the Russians help in not only going after ISIS but trying to avoid any chemical weapons attacks in Syria by the regime. I think that's what he wants to keep his eye on.

[13:40:23] KIRBY: It'll be interesting to see whatever tension there is in staff as they approach this meeting.

BLITZER: And speaking of intentions and staff, you have some reporting on Secretary of State Tillerson getting really angry at some White House staffers. What have you learned?

LABOTT: This was a story originally reported in "Politico," about a meeting that Secretary Tillerson had at the White House with Reince Priebus, the chief of staff, Jared Kushner, also the head of presidential personnel, Johnny DeStefano. Look, there's been a lot of frustration on both sides. Secretary Tillerson has been taking a long time to fill some of the many vacancies at the White House. The White House is frustrated with the slow pace. But Secretary Tillerson is also frustrated that the White House keeps pushing its candidates, either political appointees -- of course, the White House is entitled to make political appointees -- Secretary Tillerson doesn't always think these are the best qualified people for the job. And this is part of the natural push and pull of any administration. But it is taking a long time for the State Department to stand up. And I think this is what you had, this frustration. But some of Tillerson's aides told me everybody got a clear sense at this meeting where each other stands. There are concerns. And now they're committed to moving forward on making some of these appointments.

BLITZER: Elise, John, thanks very, very much.

These questions will likely come up in the press briefing. It' supposed to begin fairly soon. The Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders getting ready to answer reporters' questions. Today it will be live and on-camera. We will have our coverage.

After the break, the clock is ticking for Republican Senators to come up with a new draft of their health care proposal with only a day before the July 4th recess begins. What is the next move for Republicans and the president who promised a, quote, "big health care surprise?"

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[13:46:29] BLITZER: All right. Right now, moments away from the White House press briefing. The Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders has a lot to answer today. There will be many questions today. Unlike in recent days, this briefing will be live. It will be on camera. We will certainly have live coverage of that. Stand by.

Remember, we're only just one day away from now the self-imposed deadline for Senate Republican leaders to rewrite their health care plan. Originally, they wanted to vote on the bill today, but a cascade of Republican opposition put that plan on hold.

As the process moves ahead, President Trump weighed in with his own health care guarantee saying, and I'm quoting now, "We're going to have a big surprise. Going to have a great, great surprise."

Our national politics reporter, M.J. Lee, joins us from Capitol Hill.

M.J., what is he talking about? What is this big surprise?

M.J. LEE, CNN NATIONAL POLITICS REPORTER: Wolf, I can tell you that no lawmaker I've spoken to today has wanted to make predictions about what this big surprise is that President Trump is talking about.

What I can tell you is that negotiations with Mitch McConnell continued. He has continuing to have conversations with various Senate Republicans who have problems with the health care bill.

I want to emphasize there is no deal yet. We do not yet know what this revised bill will look like. But we are learning about key details that are likely to be included in this final bill. Two things I would point out. The first one is, $45 billion that would go towards opioid treatment funding. That issue is very important to Senators like Rob Portman and Shelley Moore Capito. And the second issue is more flexibility for health savings accounts for health care. That issue is important to a lot of conservatives.

Just to give you a sense of the mood in the Senate now, a lot of key Senators engaged in these negotiations have not been willing to really show their cards.

I had a chance to catch up with Senator Dean Heller, of Nevada, earlier today and he wouldn't really say much about the negotiations.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LEE: What needs to happen by Friday to get to a "yes?"

SEN. DEAN HELLER, (R), NEVADA: It's not about me getting to a "yes." I'm going to negotiate with the press here on what it's going to take to get to something favorable for the state of Nevada. But bottom line, if this bill is not good for the state of Nevada, I'm simply not going to support it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEE: The reason leadership has been pushing on the deadline of tomorrow, they want a get a new bill sent to the CBO. We should have a better sense later today whether that timeline is actually realistic -- Wolf?

BLITZER: M.J., thanks very much. We'll see what happens. M.J. Lee up on Capitol Hill.

Tonight, 8:00 p.m. Eastern, here on the east coast, and in just over six hours from now, President Trump's revised travel ban goes into effect across the United States. The ban is a watered-down version of his original plan. Like the earlier version, it still blocks citizens from these six majority Muslim countries from entering the United States for 90 days. But a U.S. Supreme Court ruling allows for exceptions. Those who have a, quote, "credible claim of a bona fide relationship with individuals or entities here in the United States will be allowed to enter." This includes green card holders, those with preapproved visas, immigrants with job or school obligations, or a close family members living in the United States."

Our justice reporter, Laura Jarrett is with us right now.

You've been going through, Laura, these details, who can come in, who can't come in. Give our viewers a little synopsis.

[13:50:07] LAURA JARRETT, CNN JUSTICE REPORTER: So, the basic idea here is that you need to have a, quote, "bona fide connection" to somebody in the U.S., and often that would be a family member, for instance, a spouse or maybe a sibling, perhaps. But here, we have found out today that grandparents do not count for this. Even a fiance doesn't count for this. And some have asked, how are you supposed to show proof of this bona fide relationship. And I think it's going to come down to the circumstance. For instance, if you've been hired by a university to do a lecture, that would count. And you could provide evidence of your employment contract or some sort of documentation.

But senior administration officials that we have talked to have said it needs to be formal. It needs to be documented. And it can't be for the purposes of evading this executive order.

BLITZER: Why are grandparents, for example, off the list? If you have a grandchild, you're a grandparent, you're living here in the United States, but you have a grandchild in, let's say, Sudan or Libya, why can't they come.

JARRETT: Many have raised that point, especially what if you've been raised by your grandparents. What if that is your only system of support? And what it appears to be doing here, the senior administration officials that we've spoken with, is that they're drawing on the rules for green cards. And they're using that as the template here. So it's nothing that the Supreme Court set forth in their decision on Monday. But they're drawing on other immigration- related procedures for visas, for how to figure out how to parse and narrow the scope of who can come in and who stays out.

BLITZER: All right, Laura, thanks very much. I know you'll stay on top of this story for us.

Just ahead, once again, take a look at the live pictures coming in from the White House right now. Many big questions for the deputy press secretary to answer today. You see reporters are gathering. Sarah Huckabee Sanders will try answer those questions. Let's see how many she can actually answer. Various questions coming up, including military options as far as North Korea is concerned. The president's latest very, very controversial tweets this morning. We'll have a preview when we come back.

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[11:56:06] BLITZER: Once again, any moment now, we expect the White House Deputy Press Secretary to start taking questions from reporters. The White House likely will have to answer for several of the very outrageous tweets the president sent out earlier this morning. Including this one, quote, "I heard poorly rated 'Morning Joe' speaks badly of me. Don't watch anymore." Then, "How come low I.Q. Crazy Mika along with Psycho Joe came to Mar-a-Lago three nights in a row around New Year's Eve and insisted on joining me. She was bleeding badly from a facelift. I said no."

Let's discuss with our politics reporter and editor-at-large at CNN.com, and the editor of CNN.com's "THE POINT," Chris Cillizza.

Congratulations on "THE POINT." CHRIS CILLIZZA, CNN POLITICS REPORTER & CNN EDITOR-AT LARGE & CNN

HOST, THE POINT: Thanks, Wolf.

BLITZER: What was your reaction when you saw that tweet this morning? And you're not surprised by a lot.

CILLIZA: No. I mean, I feel like I've been doing this for 20 years. I've been following Donald Trump's political career for the last two. This -- his tendency to make personal attacks is not terribly new. The lead quote on my Twitter handle is about how I am one of the dumbest political pundits from Donald Trump.

But it is -- I think there's a tendency, Wolf, to say, well, that's just Donald Trump. You know, he says and does stuff like that, which he does, but that should not make it normal in any way. This is the president of the United States. This is not and should not be a partisan issue. This should be a -- how do you want -- what kind of community do you want to live in? Do you want to live in a community in which this is acceptable behavior, in which you can just attack people willy-nilly, the president of the United States, the leader of our country? Or do you want to live in a place where you say, you know what, I don't agree with this. This is wrong. This is not that the president is a Republican or a Democrat or a Green Party. This is about these are things that when we teach our kids how you talk to and about other people, we don't teach them this.

And I feel like you know, his tendency to just wash away every line and insist that the lines being drawn are ridiculous and that's how we got into this trouble. It's what got him elected. And he's right, there are a lot of arcane things in politics that should be shaken up. This is not one of them. We should be able to be civil to one another. We should be able to disagree without being disagreeable. This is even beyond disagreeing without being disagreeable. Disagreeing without personally savaging someone. When you're the president of the United States, you have, however many, 20-plus million followers on Twitter. It's ridiculous.

"Stunning" is a word that I bring up a lot with him. Not surprising, but stunning that he would do this. That someone who has been elected to be the leader of the United States and, in many ways, the most powerful person in the world, would spend time and lack the judgment to understand that you don't do this.

BLITZER: And the White House is defending it.

CILLIZZA: Which is -- and they will. They will. Sarah Huckabee Sanders was on FOX News earlier and said, when he gets punched, he punches back.

BLITZER: You can punch back. There's nothing wrong with punching back. But you don't have to start talking about she was bleeding badly from a facelift.

CILLIZZA: Yes. That is exactly it.

The other thing I would say, is, you and I and many other people get punched every single day on Twitter and many other places. And I almost always don't punch back. Because guess what? You got to try to set some sort of example of what the dialogue should be that we can -- again, disagree without being disagreeable. Sarah Huckabee Sanders is going to do the exact same thing that she did in that FOX News interview. No apology, no walk back, insisting that this is being blown up somehow by the media. And it's just not accurate.

BLITZER: The new newsletter comes out weeknights. Go to CNN.com/thepoint --

CILLIZZA: Yes, sir.

BLITZER: -- to subscribe. There we see it.

Very good job.

That's it for me. Thanks very much for watching.

The news continues right now, right here on CNN.

[14:00:12] BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, there. I'm Brooke Baldwin. You're watching CNN. Thank you for being --