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Cat-5 Hurricane Irma Barrels Towards Florida; Fight Over Tying Harvey Funding to Raising Debt Ceiling; Trump Jr to Be Questioned by Senate Judiciary Tomorrow; Trump Blocks GOP, Sides with Democrats on Debt Limit Increase; Trump Talks DACA, Dreamers & Debt Ceiling. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired September 06, 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] SEN. MARCO RUBIO, (R), FLORIDA (via telephone): I would say the same thing about Florida, and that is any funding should be directly tied to the event that happened and should not be used as a vehicle for other funding. I would be supportive of that as I have been in the pass. You can't really hold that up. Although, I'd prefer there be a paid-for, I won't insist on it. But it does have to be specifically targeted at the events that have happened. And I think that's the direction they seem to be moving.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: FEMA is set to run out of money by Friday if this legislation isn't passed, and it's expected to pass overwhelmingly in the House of Representatives. It will go to the Senate where they're probably going to add the raising of the nation's debt ceiling to the legislation, and go back to the House. But if necessary, you would support that, right?

RUBIO: I would support funding for FEMA. On the notion of tying it to the debt ceiling, I would have to give that a little more thought. I would hate that to be the reason for this not moving forward. I would hope they reconsider it because there will be those that object to it on those ground. But I do believe that the FEMA funding has to happen. I don't just have to figure out -- I happen to represent the state, I happen to live in the community that's in the eye of the storm, so getting to D.C. and back, and it may be a challenge in the next few days. I'm working on that now.

BLITZER: There's very few flights if any that have any seats between Miami and Ft. Lauderdale or Palm Beach or Washington or any of the other major cities. Up north, people are trying to get out.

We have a lot more to talk about but I know you got to run. Senator, thanks so much for joining us.

RUBIO: Thank you. Thanks for having me on.

BLITZER: Good luck to you. And good luck to all the folks down in Florida.

Coming up, Congress ramps up it's Russia probe with the president's oldest son set to take the hot seat. He's not the only one facing questions. And new subpoenas are going to be served. What happened they have to do with that infamous Trump/Russia dossier. We'll update you on that and more.

Plus, the latest on Irma.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:36:05] BLITZER: We're standing by for a new forecast on Hurricane Irma. It's a monster category 5. It's going through the Caribbean right now but it's heading towards Florida. We'll update you on the very latest. Stand by for that.

Meantime, there's other news we're following here in Washington, with Congress back from recess. The Russia investigation is heating up once again today. The president's oldest son, Donald Trump Jr, tomorrow, he will field questions from staffers from the Senate Judiciary Committee about that now infamous meeting with a Russian lawyer peddling dirt on Hillary Clinton.

CNN's Jessica Schneider's following all of this for us.

Jessica, first of all, walk us through the very latest.

JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, this Russia investigation is moving full steam ahead on all fronts. And for now, it seems House intelligence chairman, Devin Nunes, is trying to steer it in a different direction. He's now threatening to hold Attorney General Jeff Sessions and FBI Director Christopher Ray in contempt of Congress, a jailable offense, if they don't turn over documents related to their use of the so-called Trump dossier. That was a report compiled by a former British spy, Christopher Steel, that contained some salacious details, some unproven, about Donald Trump's dealings with the Russians. Nunes wants the attorney general and the FBI to disclose whatever information they used from the dossier and he's demanding they do it by December 14, or Nunes says he'll haul Sessions and Christopher Ray in front of his committee.

Meanwhile, Special Counsel Robert Mueller is running into some resistance from the three congressional committees also investigating, and that's resulting in very little cooperation. Mueller's team wanted a transcript of the interview the Senate Intelligence Committee did with campaign chair, Paul Manafort. Mueller's team was blocked because Manafort's lawyer said they wouldn't give the special council access, even those Mueller's attorneys, meanwhile, said they had been given permission. Now they're in the midst of still trying to hammer it out.

It really highlights the difficulties, as we move into the fall. of all these simultaneous inquiries from different committees and the special counsel.

But one person who is cooperating with Mueller, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman. Schneiderman has been delving into Paul Manafort's financial transactions throughout the summer and now the fall. Since the president cannot pardon state crimes, any threat of prosecution from the New York attorney general, well, it could prompt Manafort to cooperate with Mueller's wider Russia probe. So Schneiderman and Mueller's teams now comparing notes.

Now all of this as we know that President Trump's legal team is making the case to Mueller in meetings and memos that the president did not obstruct justice when he fired FBI Director James Comey in May. A source familiar says the memos lay out the president's constitutional right to fire for any reason, and they argue that Comey's questionable credibility actually prompted the firing.

But of course, it was the president himself who admitted in an interview with NBC back in May that he did fire Comey, in part, because of the Russia investigation. And we know that Mueller now has a letter the president drafted but never sent to Comey laying out his real reasons for firing ousting the former FBI director.

But, Wolf, all eyes on Capitol Hill tomorrow as Donald Trump Jr goes before the Senate Judiciary Committee, albeit, behind closed doors -- Wolf?

BLITZER: Will be a major development. This investigation clearly intensifying.

Jessica Schneider, thank you.

So where does the Russia investigation now stand?

Joining us now to help us answer that question is Representative Jackie Speier. She's a California Democrat who sits on the House Intelligence Committee.

Congresswoman, thanks so much for joining us.

Let me quickly get your reaction to what the House Intelligence Committee chairman, Devin Nunes, is threatening to do, to hold Attorney General Jeff Sessions and the FBI Director Christopher Ray, in contempt of court if those of documents related to that Trump dossier are not turned over. Would you support that move?

[13:40:14] REP. JACKIE SPEIER, (D), CALIFORNIA: First of all, Wolf, it's important to appreciate that's tangential to our investigation, whether or not the dossier is true or false is irrelevant in that we have 17 intelligence agencies with high confidence that established that the Russians intervened in our election. And what we need to do is find out highway how they did it, and why they did it, and how to protect ourselves moving forward.

The extent to which was cooperation between the Trump campaign and Russia is something we are delving into as well. But truly, this dossier is separate. And I regret that the chairman that is acting in a manner that's not consistent with the committee's historical perspective of working in tandem. And he has been self-recused from the Russian investigation. So this looks like he's trying to distract our attention from what our job is to do here. BLITZER: Because it is a little confusing. He removed himself from

the overall Russia investigation. He's the chairman of your committee. But he delegated those responsibilities to another Republican. And now all of a sudden, he's clearly getting involved in the Russia investigation. What does that say to you?

SPEIER: What it says to me is that we, as members of the committee, need to act in a bipartisan fashion and be clear about what our job is. Our job is to find out with great certainty the extent to which Russia intervened and take steps necessary to protect ourselves. Russia wants nothing more -- Putin wants nothing more than to see Western liberalism, democracies discredited. He wants to show that being in a dictatorship is a much more viable form of government. We have got to push back on that.

And I would say to our president, it's important for him to be joining with us in making sure that the Russia connection, the Russian involvement is stopped cold.

BLITZER: I want to move on and get to some other critically important issues. What's your understanding about what Nunes is all about right now? What is he trying to do?

SPEIER: He wants to be relevant. And I don't blame him for wanting to be relevant, but let's do it together. He's focusing on the dossier but meanwhile we have requested information from the White House that is relevant to our investigation, and have either received inadequate or no information in some respects. So on the one hand, if you're pushing forward to try and get the information you need, that's where we need to be looking.

BLITZER: Let me get your quick thoughts on another issue. The president now seems to be siding with you, with your fellow Democrats, on the debt limit increase, saying there should be a clean debt limit increase tied to some of the emergency funding for the hurricane disaster in Texas, presumably, a lot more in Florida that could be developing. What's your reaction to that because a lot of Republicans are not happy with the president now siding with Democrats.

SPEIER: Well, we have to keep the government open. And when we did have those 16 days when the government shut down, it was a nightmare. It was a black eye for every one of us in Congress. We have got to find ways to work together. I'm delighted the president recognizes the importance of doing this, that we cannot have the full faith and credit of the United States questioned. And I look forward to supporting his request, supporting it tied to the funding for Hurricane Harvey. We need to start working together.

BLITZER: Congresswoman Jackie Speier, of California, thank you for joining us.

SPEIER: Thank you, Wolf.

BLITZER: We have some more breaking news just coming in to CNN. We're getting the audio of President Trump speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One speaking of DACA, the Dreamers, the debt ceiling. Listen to this.

(BEGIN AUDIO FEED)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Is everybody dry? Is everybody dry?

(LAUGHTER)

He's he OK?

UNIDENTIIFIED MALE: Yes, off camera.

TRUMP: We had a very good conversation with President Xi, of China. It lasted about 45 minutes. He's very much in favor of the de-nuke of North Korea. And we were talking about different things. We have some things. We're going to be talking again soon. We'll see how that works out.

We had a very good meeting with Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer. We agreed to a three-month extension on debt ceiling, which they consider to be sacred, very important. We'll always agree on debt ceiling automatically because of the importance of it.

Also on the CRS, and also on Harvey, which now we're going to be adding something, because of what's going on in Florida.

We had a very good meeting. We essentially came to a deal. And I think the deal will be very good. Very, very cordial and professional meeting.

So we have an extension, which will go out to December 15. That will include debt ceiling, that will include the CRS, and it will include Harvey, the amount of money that could be included, but they don't include. And everybody is in favor of taking care of that situation. So we all very much agree.

[13:45:44] UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Mr. President, what do you say to people who say there are mixed signals coming from the White House over DACA?

TRUMP: No, not at all. Congress, I really believe, wants to take care of the situation. I really believe it. Even very conservative members of Congress. I have seen it firsthand. If they don't, we'll see what we're going to do. But I will tell you, I really believe Congress wants to take care of it. We discussed that also today. And Chuck and Nancy would like to see something happen, and so do I. And I said, if we can get something to happen, we're going to sign it, and we're going to make a lot of happy people.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE QUESTION)

TRUMP: That will be discussed later, but we want to talk about legal right now. We haven't discussed that.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: You said you wanted to revisit the issue in six months?

TRUMP: Well, I want to see what happens. I want to see what happens in Congress. I have a feeling that's not going to be necessary. I think they're going to make a deal. I think Congress really wants to do this.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: What would you like to see, Mr. President, in legislation?

TRUMP: I'd like to see something where we have good border security. And we have a great DACA transaction, where everybody is happy and where they don't have to worry about it anymore. Because, as you know, before, it was a legal deal. It was a deal that wouldn't have held up and didn't hold up. And even President Obama, when he did it, when he signed it, he called it short-term. I'd like to see a permanent deal. And I think it's going to happen. I think we're going to have great support from both sides of the Congress. And I really believe that Congress is going to work very hard on the DACA agreement and come up with something.

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: OK, sit down and don't get hurt, anybody. OK?

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: Thank you, everybody.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

BLITZER: Strong words from the president of the United States.

Let's bring in our political analysts. White House reporter for "The New York Times," Julia Hirschfeld Davis, and CNN politics reporter, Chris Cillizza.

Guys, thanks

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: Thanks for both of you for joining us.

Looks like the president is siding now with the Democrats when it comes to a three-month continuing funding for the U.S. government, a continuing resolution, as it's called, as well as extending the nation's debt ceiling. Also tying that to raising the money to pay for Hurricane Harvey, and presumably the damage that's going to be caused by Hurricane Irma. He's siding with the Democrats. He's going to anger Republicans.

JULIA HIRSCHFELD DAVIS, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, THE NEW YORK TIMES: He might. It sounds like that. He's talking to Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer, the Democratic leaders, not Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan --

(CROSSTALK) HIRSCHFELD DAVIS: -- the Republicans leaders. There are going to be a lot of Republicans that won't be happy about this. But I don't know how much push back you're going to get from the Republicans given the dire needs from Harvey. There's a need to do something about that. But the big thing that's driving the president here is he knows he has a huge legislative plate of things to get done. He just wants to get these things done. And if tying them up into one of these package that is historically Republicans have really hated is the only way to do it, he would rather do that, than lose, like he's lost on some of these other issues.

BLITZER: He'll please the Democrats, the continuing resolution to keep the government operating, to keep the government funded, no government shutdown. That's going to be important. And also raising the nation's debt ceiling, tying it to that emergency aid. Democrats are going to like it, but a lot of Republicans won't.

CHRIS CILLIZZA, CNN POLITICS REPORTER & CNN EDITOR-AT-LARGE: Paul Ryan this morning said, in his weekly press conference, said that Republicans were playing politics with the three-month delay in the debt ceiling, well, that's what we have.

I think Julie is right, and makes an important point, though, Wolf. I think before Harvey, and what we expect in terms of damage from Irma, there was a chance that the government might shut down, that Trump, whether it was on the border wall or conservative Republicans or liberal Democrats, that something might come together and the government might shut down. Once Harvey happened, no politician is dumb enough to shut the government down when urgent aid needed in a place where peoples' homes and lives have been ripped apart and flooded away. That took that off the table.

The debt ceiling, Republicans won't be happy. Conservative Republicans don't want to ever raise the debt ceiling. It used to be a non-issue. The last five years, it's become a real issue. McConnell and Ryan would have liked it to let's raise it for 18 months so we don't have this fight again and get negotiated over a barrel again in three months. Trump acquiesced to what Schumer and Pelosi laid out. He likes to win, sign things. He likes to be able to declare victory. We know that about him. I think that, much more than whether he's allied with Democrats or Republicans. That's what motivates him.

[13:50:42] HIRSCHFIELD DAVIS: Also, I think he realizes in order to get some of these things done, particularly on the debt ceiling, he'll need Democrats. You might as well accede to some of their demands up front if you're trying to ge4t their votes. That is the way things are headed on this.

BLITZER: Yes. Now he calls Nancy Pelosi, Nancy, Chuck Schumer, Chuck. He's sounds as if they're best friends.

Stand by for a moment.

I want to bring in our senior congressional reporter, Manu Raju, joining us from Capitol Hill. Extraordinary move by the president. What's the reaction there, Manu?

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR CONGRESIONAL REPORTER: Republicans are grappling - they're actually at a lunch on the Senate side where Mick Mulvaney, the budget director, is meeting with all the Republicans Senators to talk about the way forward on a lot of these critical issues.

I can tell you, Wolf, even though Republicans are not going to be happy about this, a lot are going to swallow this and vote for it, along with a lot of Democrats, too. Because this is emergency spending, they feel they have to vote for this, to raise the debt ceiling to avoid a government shutdown. But they're not thrilled there's going to be another cliff in December, which could be a bigger fight. And there's going to be even more money that's going to be spent to help with Texas, potentially, on an emergency relief package that comes out after the damage that we may see from Hurricane Irma. So there's a lot of consternation about all the spending that's going to happen. Because, remember, it was Republicans who, for years, had railed against raising the debt ceiling without any cuts at all, wanting some reforms. But right now, they're going along with not just passing a debt ceiling increase without any spending cuts but also agreeing to a short-term increase on the Democrats' terms. So people may not be happy about it but, at the end of the day, it almost certainly will pass.

But for the White House, perhaps, they look at this in a positive light and this will be another vehicle in which they can move legislation in December, because it's going to be another must-pass piece of legislation in December. Perhaps, they can attach other items to it that wouldn't ordinarily stand a chance of passing. So in some ways, it could help their legislative strategy that has been stall. But not everyone likes doing business this way because it reads to a lot of uncertainty in the economy.

BLITZER: And, Julie, let me get you and Chris to weigh in as well.

It seems to me that the president fully appreciates that if there were a government shutdown, the Republicans would be blamed. They're the majority in the White House. They have the White House, the House and the Senate. And if there was a default on the nation's debt, that would be a disaster for the U.S. economy. It could cause the markets to collapse, all sorts of related issues. The president clearly understands that, and he says, you know what, three months is better than nothing.

HIRSCHFELD DAVIS: Well, I think he's definitely coming around to that. There was a period of time when it wasn't clear that he did understand that. He was flirting very openly with a government shutdown. And at this point he's now tweeted about it twice. They've talked a about the fact that he's willing to shut down the government over a border wall. So if there were to be a shutdown, there's almost no scenario, and he knows this, where he wouldn't be blamed personally, and where Republicans wouldn't be on the hook for that. And particularly, at a moment where there are storms battering the south and Florida and, you know, there's all of these needs that they know they're going have to address. This is not the time they want to have that --

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: Clearly, his economic advisers, Steve Mnuchin, the treasury secretary, Gary Cohn, his economic adviser, they told him, don't even start thinking about not raising the debt ceiling or allowing the government to shut down.

CILLIZZA: That's right. Now, his advisers have told him to do things that he has not done. Just because his advisers told him to do X, doesn't mean that's why he did X.

But two things. One, remember that he backed off on we're going to shut down the government over the wall soon after that rally in Phoenix. That was sort of a campaign Donald Trump boast that President Trump didn't make good on.

Two, when Manu was talking about it, it reminded me how much politics is influenced by unforeseen events. Without Hurricane Harvey, without Irma, what we expect the damage from Irma, we're having a totally different conversation, I think, about the debt ceiling and keeping the government open. It becomes untenable, because of the images that were on our televisions all last week, and the images, unfortunately, we expect to be on our televisions all next week from natural disasters. It becomes something that any politician -- that conversation is relevant.

[13:55:07] BLITZER: A lot of Republicans are going to have to hold their nose and vote for it because they want the billions of dollars to help the folks in Texas and Florida as well.

Manu, you're getting more information. What are you learning?

RAJU: In this meeting that just happened with the president and congressional leaders, we're told by a congressional source who was briefed on the meeting, that towards the end of the meeting, the president's daughter, Ivanka Trump, and adviser, she appeared in the meeting. And the meeting, according to this source, careened off topic. And then, you know, Republican leaders, according to a source, telling our colleague were visibly annoyed by the fact that this appeared to careen off topic after this meeting that was supposed to discuss the range of major issues that were -- that our Congress has to deal with here. So, Republicans probably not very happy about this three-month deal that the president has cut with Democratic leaders, and not happy, apparently, about the fact that Ivanka Trump did appear towards the end of this meeting. And perhaps the meeting, for whatever reason, did not go as intended once she did appear, according to this source -- Wolf?

BLITZER: Very interesting.

Julie, what do you think?

HIRSCHFELD DAVIS: Well, it's never been very clear what exactly Ivanka Trump's role is in the White House. Republicans leaders are concerned about the influence she may have on the president's agenda on things they might not agree on. It's not clear whether she has weighed in on the DACA issue, or she may be having influence on his thinking on the spending matters, and, you know, cutting a deal with Democrats because we know that she's positioned herself as much more in the center and wanting to court that kind of bipartisan deal. So, I could see how, if you're Paul Ryan or Mitch McConnell, wanting to get down to brass tacks on how are we going to do these spending bills, also talk about tax reform that having her appear there might not be the most welcome thing.

CILLIZZA: There's always the danger -- Julie's exactly right. But just to add, this is always the danger. We haven't seen it all this much. This is a danger of having a family member also be a member of your official White House staff. Where Ivanka Trump's job begins and where it ends has never been well defined. He clearly, we know from all his past comments, values her input, seeks her input on these things. But if you're a Republican leader in Congress, you're really, from Donald Trump, trying to get some level of predictability. OK, here are the seven things that we need to talk about today. If you only get through one, who knows what he does with the other six.

BLITZER: Dramatic development involving the president, Democratic leaders, Republican leaders. We're certainly going to stay on top of all of this.

Guys, thank you very much.

We're also staying on top of Hurricane Irma, now on a collision course with Florida. Millions and millions of people are in its path right now. Mandatory evacuations, at least in parts of Florida, already under way. We'll have a live report as soon as we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:00:08] BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Hi, there. I'm Brianna Keilar.

We begin with Hurricane Irma, a massive storm roaring through the Caribbean right now. The current forecast --