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"Morning Joe" Hosts Hit Back After Trump's Vicious Tweet; Trump to GOP Senate: OK to Ditch Replace, Just Repeal Obamacare; Susan Rice to Testify Before Senate Intel Committee; Iraqi Forces Make Final Push to Recapture Mosul. Aired 1:30-2p ET
Aired June 30, 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] CHRIS CILLIZZA, CNN POLITICS REPORTER & CNN EDITOR-AT- LARGE: He did this -- not this exact thing as related to Mika Brzezinski. He has said inappropriate things about women, about Carly Fiorina, about Megyn Kelly.
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Megyn Kelly.
CILLIZZA: I mean, there's lots of them.
KEILAR: Blood coming out of her eyes. You know?
CILLIZZA: We didn't think that Donald Trump was something other than what he is now acting like as president. And that's, to Brianna's point, I think that's what gets a lot of Republicans thinking, well, they're with him essentially -- they're locked in with him, whether they distance themselves or not, they're still with him through the 2018 midterms and through 2020. They're will him as long as he's the head of their party. And they can't really say, in good conscious, we didn't know he would be like this. Paul Ryan basically said, I'm not going to work to elect him, during the election. People like Barbara Comstock, in northern Virginia, he should drop out of the race due to the "Access Hollywood." So you knew what you were getting. This shouldn't be a surprise. And that is a huge problem for Republicans to explain.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: We have a lot more on this throughout the day.
Guys, thanks very much, Brianna Keilar, Chris Cillizza, Laura Coates and David Chalian.
After the break, President Trump changing his message in regards to Obamacare. What he's now telling Republican Senators. That's coming up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[13:35:36] BLITZER: President Trump is telling Republicans it's OK to ditch their plan to replace Obamacare. Instead, simply worry about a repeal, at least for now. The president tweeting this, quote, "If Republican Senators are unable to pass what they are working on now, they should immediately repeal and then replace at a later date."
CNN's Ryan Nobles joining us from Capitol Hill.
Ryan, what are you hearing from Republican lawmakers? Do they think this latest move by the president really is a feasible option?
RYAN NOBLES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Not really, Wolf. Especially when you keep in mind this was something that was on the table for Republicans after taking office in January. They thoroughly debated the idea of whether or not to do a separate repeal bill and work on some sort of replacement, and they outright rejected it. Listen to what one GOP aide told our Phil Mattingly. He says, quote, "We did this dance six months ago. We litigated, repealed, delayed, replaced, thoroughly. The president spoke against it. This all might be more helpful if we weren't in the late stages of the negotiation."
That's an important point, Wolf. This is something the president himself has been opposed to. Listen to what he told "60 Minutes" back in November.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're going to do it simultaneously. It will be just fine. We're not going to have like a two-day period or a two-year period where there's nothing. It will be repealed and replaced.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NOBLES: And the president reiterated this point in an interview in "The New York Times" in January. He has consistently has been in the camp of those who believe that repeal and replacement need to happen simultaneously. And now at this late stage, Wolf, where Republican Senators may be having difficulty but feel they're making progress on a bill, where they can achieve it, this could make the process even more difficult.
BLITZER: Certainly would.
Ryan Nobles, on the Hill, thanks very much.
Up next, a star witness is on tap in the Russia investigation. I'll speak with Congressman Eric Swalwell, a key member of the House Intelligence Committee. You see him. He's standing there live. We'll talk about those witnesses. What they are hearing from the White House on demands of the Comey tapes, if there are Comey tapes.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[13:42:06] BLITZER: Former Obama national security adviser, Susan Rice, has agreed to testify next month as part of the House Intelligence Committee's Russia investigation. The Trump administration claims Rice mishandled intelligence tied to possible Trump campaign ties to Russia. She has denied she did anything wrong.
Joining us, Democrat Congressman Eric Swalwell, from California. He's a member of the House Intelligence Committee.
Congressman, thanks for joining us.
SEN. ERIC SWALWELL, (D), CALIFORNIA: Thanks for having me back, woman.
What do you want to hear from Susan Rice?
SWALWELL: Wolf, frankly, it's very relevant to our Russia investigation. There's no evidence she did anything wrong. The White House has the power of declassification. If there was something she did wrong, they could show that. They have not. I think it's a distraction. And we want to find out what we can do to make sure this doesn't happen again. I don't see how she's relevant to that. But it's a joint investigation. Compromises have to be made. So we'll hear from her but hopefully get on to more relevant witnesses.
BLITZER: The accusations from Republican, and you've heard it Congressman, is she somehow allowed names of U.S. citizens to be disclosed having conversations with Russian officials, and that would be inappropriate.
SWALWELL: There's no evidence she did anything inappropriate. It was her role to review intelligence reports. And if she need more information because a U.S. name was blacked out, then she could request it, if it was for the duties she was performing. If she did that, so that she could better protect the national security of our country, then I think that's just fine. Again, Wolf, the White House could have declassified this months ago. They have not. So I think this is just their efforts to distract from the real situation here, which is a foreign adversary attacked us, and the American people want to go to the polls next election and make sure it doesn't happen again.
BLITZER: Near the end of July, you'll hear testimony from Roger Stone, part of Donald Trump's circle, if you will. He's been accused of being involved somehow with hacked e-mails of the Clinton campaign chair, John Podesta. Stone denied this saying. He says he wants to testify in open session, but the testimony, as you know, will be closed. Why is that?
SWALWELL: You know, Wolf, I'd like to have as many witnesses as possible testify in open session. Whether they do or do not is an agreement between the chairman and the ranking member. But sometimes classified information is conveyed to individuals, which means we have to be in a closed session. But I do know that this report, as to what he says and what we believe his role was, will be public. That is very important.
BLITZER: Your Intelligence Committee has also demanded that tapes, if they exist, of President Trump, his conversations with the fired FBI Director James Comey, they want those tapes. As you know, the president tweeted more than 40 days after he originally spoke of some tapes that there are no -- he doesn't know of any tapes. He doesn't have any tapes. He didn't tape anybody. Where does that stand right now for the committee? Do you guys still believe there are tapes? [13:45:08] SWALWELL: The only reason that we are asking for tapes is
because he hinted that they may exist. So we sent a letter to him asking for the tapes. He sent us back his tweet. We don't think that is very responsible or professional, frankly, for such a serious investigation. And I wish we could just take the word of the president but, because of his record, and obstruction in this investigation, from the claims about President Obama and wiretapping to other claims about James Comey, I think we need to corroborate whether or not there were recordings in the White House.
BLITZER: Yeah. The White House, in their letter responding to your request, just basically sent over what the president had earlier tweeted. Let me ask you about this story --
(CROSSTALK)
SWALWELL: Copy and paste.
BLITZER: Yes - in the "Wall Street Journal," the claims a former Republican operative, Peter Smith, was trying to find e-mails that may have been stolen from Hillary Clinton's e-mail server. Smith suggested the effort was connected somehow to the fired national security adviser, Michael Flynn. Flynn hasn't responded to the "Wall Street Journal" story. Smith has passed away since that interview with the "Wall Street Journal." Is this something your committee is looking into now?
SWALWELL: It certainly must be a part of our investigation, Wolf, for a couple of reasons. One, everyone remembers President Trump as a candidate inviting Russia to hack into Hillary Clinton's e-mails. And we all know now that Michael Flynn did have a relationship with the Russians, traveling there, being paid by R.T., which is connected to their intelligence services, and then served and played a role in the campaign. So what Mr. Smith alleged does not -- it's not something that seems unbelievable. It's something that should be probed further, and I hope it now gets folded into what we're doing.
BLITZER: Congressman Swalwell, thanks for joining us.
SWALWELL: My pleasure, Wolf.
BLITZER: Up next, we'll take you to a key Iraqi city, the city of Mosul. It used to be the second-largest city in Iraq, where a near victory over ISIS fighters has left so many parts of that city demolished. We'll go there when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[13:51:10] BLITZER: The road to victory has been long but the road to recovery will be longer. Iraqi forces are close to recapturing the rest of the key city of Mosul but ISIS is not giving up without a final bloody fight.
Our senior international correspondent, Nick Paton Walsh, and his crew traveled with the Iraqi army as they battled block by block to eliminate ISIS and to liberate civilians. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIOANL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Winning here comes only with dust and ruin. This was a day Iraqi special forces were meant to take back the symbolic al Nuri Mosque of Mosul's old city. But it ended up the day their leaders declared victory while they were still bitterly fighting.
(on camera): Just literally to the side of the mosque is where ISIS have been.
(voice-over): The aim was to encircle the sacred minaret ISIS themselves destroyed.
(GUNFIRE)
PATON WASLH: Yet, they've lost so many to ISIS. They move carefully against an enemy even with high-tech help they rarely see.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
PATON WALSH: When an ISIS fighter is spotted, the artillery rains down.
(EXPLOSIONS)
PATON WALSH: Throughout the day.
(EXPLOSIONS)
PATON WALSH: There's political impatience for this fight to be over. In the afternoon --
(GUNFIRE)
PATON WALSH: -- news reports cited Iraqi officials elsewhere as saying the mosque had been retaken.
(GUNFIRE)
PATON WALSH: A bizarre scene, given how lethally, painstakingly, they were advancing. Huge political stakes here for Iraq. Yet, this fight is spear headed by a few dozen men, two bulldozers.
(EXPLOSIONS)
PATON WALSH: They borrow a drone. Theirs have been shot down.
(EXPLOSION)
PATON WALSH (on camera): ISIS have been relatively quiet during the day. But it seems a drone put up in the sky to work out more about their defensive position sent some incoming rounds towards us here.
(GUNFIRE)
PATON WALSH (voice-over): More gunfire exchanges.
(GUNFIRE)
PATON WALSH: And as they grind slowly towards the edge of the mosque, more Iraqi officials announce they have retaken it.
(SCREAMING)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
PATON WALSH: But that's just politics. And here is the ghastly reality.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
PATON WALSH: Civilians, held as human shields by ISIS, risking death to flee from its certainty.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
PATON WALSH: They're held back, feared as possible suicide bombers.
(CROSSTALK)
PATON WALSH: But the agony becomes too much. There is nothing really to say when hell is behind you and just dust before you.
UNIDENTIIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
PATON WALSH: "We've been shelled in the rubble," he says.
The injured piggy-backed out.
Fear so strong, it led this woman to walk out with pins in her leg to get her family out. A mortar landed on their home. It's the only word little Tuca (ph) can say.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
PATON WALSH: "There's been no liquids for days. My little ones were dying of hunger. We didn't see anybody, no ISIS, only the military."
(EXPLOSION)
PATON WALSH: This day, perhaps, prematurely, Iraq declared ISIS vanquished, yet their three years have likely consumed all of hers. And the ruins from which she fled and in which ISIS lie will take more than declarations of victory to rebuild.
(EXPLOSION)
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: And Nick is joining us now live from nearby Irbil.
Nick, amazing report. Thanks so much for doing it. So, what is the bottom line, based on your eye-witness account? Has
Mosul finally fallen?
PATON WALSH: No, not all of Mosul. They are still clearing the remaining hundreds or so meters between the ISIS-held territory and the river that marks the end of, really, what they control in the cities of Iraq. And since we filed that report, reality has caught up with the political statements we were hearing. And they have taken the mosque entirely. But we are into some bloody final days here. You saw civilians escaping from the rubble. We were near. Well, there's still yet more. And the ISIS fighters there die hard. We've heard of suicide bombers being involved with attacking the troops there. This could be a bloody final close. But politically, the message has been given out by Iraq that the job is basically done in Mosul and, ostensibly, across the country -- Wolf?
[13:55:36] BLITZER: I want you to listen to what the vice president of Iraq had to say about the U.S. and global leadership in all of this. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AYAD ALLAWI, IRAQ VICE PRESIDENT: Let me tell you why I think there is a vacuum in the overall leadership in the world. And the American -- the Americans need to speed up their -- to get back to their role as an international power, important international power.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: All right, what's your reaction to that? You're there. You're on the ground.
PATON WALSH: Well, in terms of the fight against ISIS, what we're seeing in Mosul is really the Obama administration's plan being followed through. So credit to the Trump White House for not disturbing that, and perhaps possibly allowing it to move swiftly forward. It's worked here, really. But it's not going to deal with the aftermath. And I think what we're hearing may be an appeal for the subsequent political reality in Iraq to be addressed by the Trump White House. Remember, ISIS came from the fact that Iraq was a split society between the ethnicities of Sunni and Shia. The Sunni used to be in control under Saddam. They fell. The Shia took control. The Sunni felt left out and they ended up some extremists getting closer toward ISIS. That rift isn't going to get fixed. And the Kurds in the north, where I'm standing, too, they also want a say in the future. So Iraq will still have a lot of mess in its future. And also, Iranian-back militia will have come into play, too. So it's going to be messy here. Perhaps they're looking for the Trump White House to somehow shore up one side's control. Across the border, in Syria, too, the fight continues. But more broadly in the Middle East, people are asking, what does Donald Trump want. And he perhaps doesn't necessarily know at this point -- Wolf?
BLITZER: Nick Paton Walsh and his team over there doing amazing reporting for us. Nick, thanks so much. Be careful over there.
That's it for me. Thanks very much for watching. I'll be back 5:00 p.m. Eastern in "THE SITUATION ROOM."
For our international viewers, "AMANPOUR" is coming up next.
For our viewers here in North America, "NEWSROOM" with Brooke Baldwin starts right after this quick break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[14:00:12] BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, there. Thanks for being with me. I'm Brooke Baldwin.
