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Wolf

As Puerto Rico Suffers, Trump Says "Can't Stay Forever"; Facebook Executive Speaks Publicly on Russian Meddling; White House Daily Briefing Focuses on Taliban Hostage Release. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired October 12, 2017 - 13:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:32:52] WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: We are standing by for the White House press briefing momentarily. Reporters are gathered. We expect the press secretary to show up with a statement to answer questions.

And there are lots of questions, including why on this day, the president of the United States decided, once again, to bring up the issue of Puerto Rico.

Julie, I will ask you.

The president, in that tweet, he said, "We cannot keep FEMA, the military and the first responders, who have been amazing under the most difficult circumstances, in Puerto Rico forever."

Why, all of a sudden, is he saying that in the midst of -- it's not even three weeks. There is a crisis unfolding. A lot of people don't have power or drinking water or medical attention. There is a serious crisis. And now, he is saying that the U.S. Is not going to stay there forever even though this is part of the United States, 3.5 million U.S. citizens.

JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Absolutely. I think partially this is a level of frustration that President Trump feels that he believes he is not getting the credit he is due for their response to all of these storms, particularly in Puerto Rico. But also he is looking ahead to a very costly federal spending bills that will fund the federal response to this, and he is angry that he feels like this is a bottomless pit of spending. Of course, he is not showing any of the empathy or the emotional reaching out that you would expect in a situation where people are lacking power and lacking water. And 75 to 80 percent of the island don't have those things. He is not talking about that. He is saying the first responders and FEMA are doing a great job. But in terms of the people facing these horrible times, he is not saying anything except harkening back to the earlier tweets that they are ungrateful and can't expect to have the government around forever, which is contrary in the wake of the storms in Florida and Texas.

BLITZER: In San Juan, Layla Santiago, our correspondent in Puerto Rico, David, say the governor of Puerto Rico, who had a close relationship and said nice things about the president, and was friendly when the president was down in Puerto Rico, the governor now has called the White House, asking for clarification. What does the president mean by this?

[13:35:06] DAVID DRUCKER, CNN POLITICAL ANAYST: The president is always brand first. No matter what he is doing and how important the situation is, if he is facing a personal attack, it's like a switch. He cannot let any attack on his performance, criticism of his performance or his actions or his point of view stand. He always fights back.

I think the problem here is that Puerto Rico is facing a very delicate and arduous recovery period. There's so much infrastructure and so much that needs to be rebuilt. Bond holders are about to get the shaft with the debt that is over them. That will scare the private sector and make it harder for Puerto Rico to drum up the funds they will need for investment, especially if the federal government wants to play hands off and is concerned about the debt. And the president's comments about bankruptcy and what the island might do, the government there has been cavalier, and have only acted to sort of inflame the situation and make the recovery more difficult. So I think the administration has to get its hands on what its strategy is, what it intends to do, and let the government of Puerto Rico and the people of Puerto Rico know what's coming and what's not, so they plan and prepare, and they don't feel left out in the cold.

BLITZER: I understand what the president is suggesting, Shannon. But I don't understand the timing. Less than three weeks into this disaster in Puerto Rico, and, all of a sudden, the president gets up in the morning and starts tweeting about the U.S. military and FEMA and personnel can't stay there forever.

SHANNON PETTYPIECE, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, BLOOMBERG NEWS: Right. Why rehash all this? Why go into this again when you had what -- he was arguing that he had a successful visit and his relations were good with the governor. Why go back into it? It doesn't make sense, like a number of things we have talked about over these nine months that we can't figure out.

And on another level where it doesn't make sense, is like let's talk about the politics if are a minute here. There's expectations for a mass migration of Puerto Ricans to the U.S. As U.S. citizens, they can do that. Many have friends and family in Florida. What happens, politically, if you have a mass migration of Puerto Ricans to Florida in 2018 and 2020? It makes no sense politically and empathetically as a human being, and as a president who is trying to show compassion to people in a really unimaginable situation.

BLITZER: Even before the hurricane, there was a significant immigration of Puerto Ricans to Florida, central Florida, Miami, the whole area to begin with.

Everybody stick around. There's much more we are following.

The breaking news, just hours after an American mother and her Canadian husband and three kids were freed from the Taliban, the husband now refusing to board an American plane. This is a dramatic situation. It's playing out right now. We will update you on what's going on. Plus, the White House press briefing moments away. We will have live

coverage. And lots of questions today for the White House. We'll be right back.

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[13:42:20] We're standing by for the White House press briefing. It's scheduled to begin any moment now. We'll have live coverage of that. Lots of serious questions for the White House press secretary today. Stand by.

In the meantime, one of Facebook's top executives is speaking out publicly today about how Russia used the social media platform to interfere in last year's presidential election here in the United States. Chief Operating Officer, Sheryl Sandberg, spoke with House investigators on Wednesday. Today, she said this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHERYL SANDBERG, COO, FACEBOOK: Things happened on our platform in this election that should not have happened, especially, and very troubling, foreign interference in a democratic election. And we know that we have a responsibility to do everything we can to prevent this kind of abuse --

(CROSSTALK)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Our senior investigative correspondent, Drew Griffin, has been following the investigation of Russian interference in the election. Drew is joining us.

What else did we learn from Sheryl Sandberg?

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: I think it's what we didn't learn, Wolf, that's drawing the most attention, especially in Washington today. People cannot believe that Facebook didn't know a lot of what we now know, that these Russian-backed Internet research agencies were buying ads, trying to infiltrate and inflict its way upon the U.S. election. And Facebook, somehow, even though it was getting paid, didn't know. Sheryl Sandberg failed to disclose how Facebook didn't know or when they found that out or the details to that extent.

And the other big question is the collusion issue that Congress has been trying to get to the bottom of, Wolf. Did Facebook find any evidence of collusion, coordination or coincidental coordination between the Trump campaign and what the Russians were doing? She was vague on those answers. She was asked three times.

Here is one of the attempts Mike Allen at Axios had at trying to get to the bottom of that answer.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE ALLEN, AXIOS: But the Trump campaign and Russian accounts, you don't know or won't tell me?

SANDBERG: When the ads get released, we will also be releasing the targeting for the ads.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRIFFIN: So she is not saying. And I know that's not sitting well with investigative reporters and it's not sitting well with congressional investigators. But she is meeting on Capitol Hill with members of Congress. There is a promise now from Congress to release the ads so the people can see what the Russians were up to. And when the ads are released, Sheryl Sandberg says that Facebook will release the coordinating targeted information. In other words, what the Russian ads were being targeted to, based on the purchases being made through Facebook.

[13:45:02] BLITZER: Whether they were targeting Wisconsin or Michigan, some of the battleground states that the president won narrowly, but clearly won. Those ads, we're told, will be released around November 1st when there's another public hearing before the House Intelligence Committee, right?

GRIFFIN: That's right. We understand that not only Facebook, but Twitter and Google will be attending the hearings.

And we have to keep in mind, this was not just Facebook. This was an all-encompassing effort by Kremlin-connected agencies to use all of the U.S. social media in our open system, our democratic system and our free press to infiltrate basically the minds of American voters, try to get us to fight each other. That's what this was all about. And the more we're learning about this, we're learning that Russia was playing both sides, conservatives, Alt-Right versus activists versus LGBT communities, trying to sow discord in the U.S. electoral process, which really, really is what we should be focusing on. And focusing on that for the next elections and what Russia is up to now -- Wolf?

BLITZER: Learning the lessons to make sure it doesn't happen again.

All right, Drew, good reporting.

Drew Griffin reporting for us.

As we await the start of the briefing, Julie, the president keeps saying the whole thing, this Russia investigation is a hoax and a waste of time. You covered the White House. What are they saying behind the scenes?

HIRSCHFELD DAVIS: They understand that, behind the scenes, this is a real investigation, and whether or not they believe, which many do not, that Russia had an influence on the outcome of the election, they tried to interfere. And they understand that the investigations, both congressional investigation and Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation, are serious business. They're trying to figure out right now the degree to which they need to respond, how many documents to produce, whether to have the president sit down with Bob Mueller and talk with him. There are real legal questions they are grappling with. And the president, as he said, keeps it on the level of this is a hoax and this is all fake. But his advisors are very aware that this is something that is a real target for investigators. More information like we are getting on the ads like we're getting on Facebook and social media, are going to continue to feed this investigation.

BLITZER: Serious investigation, not only in the House and the Senate, but the special counsel, Robert Mueller, has a team of experienced prosecutors and lawyers looking at all aspects.

I'm sure, David, that one of the issues that will come up at the White House briefing, which is expected to start momentarily, will be the president's attacks on the news organizations. This morning, he tweeted, "The fake news is going all out in order to demean and denigrate such hatred." This follows his tweet yesterday, "Network news has become so partisan, distorted and fake that licenses must be challenged and, if appropriate, revoked. Not fair to public."

He is getting severely criticized for questioning the First Amendment right it a free press in this country. That will be a subject in the White House briefing.

DRUCKER: Right. I'm sure that Sarah Huckabee Sanders will blow it off as the president making valid points about an unfair media that attacks him unfairly and writing things that are not true.

I think the larger implications are not so much domestic, because the courts and institutions would not allow the president to violate the First Amendment if he tried. He never tried. It's the rhetoric that has been troubling. The implications are foreign policy. And what autocrats around the world take away from this could be troubling. The president has been critical of Maduro in Venezuela for running roughshod over democracy in that country and treating it like his own personal business. The president has said that he might place sanctions on Venezuela or even worse. But Maduro can look at the things Trump said and said, look, I'm doing what the president of the United States has said he's done. I'm dealing with the same problems that he is.

BLITZER: All right Hold on for a moment. Sarah Huckabee Sanders is starting the briefing.

[13:49:03]

SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: -- jump right in. I've got a couple of brief announcements.

Today at 5:45 p.m., the White House will hold a background briefing for reporters regarding the administration's Iran strategy. Then at 12:45 tomorrow, the president will deliver remarks announcing the strategy to the country. Further details on both of those events will be forthcoming.

Until then, I know you guys have lots of questions. And although I really enjoy answering them every single day, especially your more serious policy-focused questions that we tend to ask in here, I thought it would be nice, since we're at the White House and we have the option of calling in the Marines, that today we might call in one of our favorites, General Kelly.

So with that, I'm going to turn it over to the chief of staff and let him make some opening comments and answer your questions today. And after he concludes, of course, our team will be around later this afternoon to answer any further questions.

Thanks, guys.

JOHN KELLY, WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: Good afternoon. Great to be here. A couple of comments, I guess, and then open it up for Q&A.

I would have to tell you that coming into the job as chief of staff, I had decided to not do too much with the press until I got my feet on the ground and figured out what base I was on on any given day. Prior to this, when I was at DHS and certainly as a Marine general officer, I interacted with the press a great deal. But coming into this job, I really needed to get to -- get to know the lay of the land.

I have done, I think, three off-the-records, the first one of which was of course violated. But thank you for all of you that didn't violate the trust from that -- those off-the-record -- off-the- record periods.

I would just offer to you that although I read it all the time pretty consistently, I'm not quitting today.

(LAUGHTER)

I don't believe -- and I just talked to the president, I don't think I'm being fired today.

(LAUGHTER)

And I am not so frustrated in this job that I'm thinking of leaving.

I would tell you, this is the hardest job I've ever had. This is, in my view, the most important job I ever had.

KELLY: I would offer, though, it is not the best job I ever had. The best job I ever had, as I've said many times, is when I was an enlisted Marine sergeant infantryman. That was the best job I ever had.

So unless things change, I'm not quitting. I'm not getting fired, and I don't think I'll fire anyone tomorrow.

(LAUGHTER)

So with that, John (ph).

QUESTION: General Kelly, (inaudible) heard you say, you're not so frustrated that you're thinking of leaving. But are you frustrated?

KELLY: No, I'm not frustrated. This is really, really hard work running the United States of America. I don't run it, but I'm working for someone who is dedicated to serving the country in the way that he's talked about for a number of years. There are incredible challenges: you know, economic challenges, health care challenges, all of that. Obviously, international challenges that have to be dealt with.

I -- I don't mean any criticism to Mr. Trump's predecessors, but there was an awful lot of things that were, in my view, kicked down the road, that came -- that have come home to roost pretty much right now, that have to be dealt with.

This is hard, hard work, John (ph), and my only frustration, with all due respect to everyone in the room, is when I come to work in the morning and read about things I allegedly said, or things that Mr. Trump allegedly said, or people who were going to be fired or whatever other thing (ph), and it's just not true. That's my frustration. And I mean no disrespect to you all.

I don't know all the names, so you.

QUESTION: General Kelly, thank you for coming out here today. We hope to see you more often.

Let's go to one of the hard things that is facing you right now, the situation in Puerto Rico. And since you're here to speak for the president, let's talk about his tweet this morning.

Does President Trump believe that the people of Puerto Rico are American citizens...

KELLY: Yes.

QUESTION: ... who deserve the same access to federal aid as people who live in Texas and Florida?

KELLY: Yes.

QUESTION: What is his tweet about, then?

KELLY: Which tweet?

QUESTION: The tweet where he says that we can't be in Puerto Rico forever?

KELLY: I think he said the U.S. military and FEMA can't be there forever, right?

QUESTION: He did. Yes.

KELLY: OK.

QUESTION: First responders (inaudible).

KELLY: So first responders. The minute you go anywhere as a first responder -- and this would apply, certainly, to the military -- you are trying very hard, working very hard to work yourself out of a job.

There will be a period in which, we hope sooner rather than later, to where the U.S. military and FEMA, generally speaking, can withdraw, because then the government and the people of Puerto Rico are recovering sufficiently to start the process of rebuilding.

I just got off the phone -- I've talked to him many times -- with the governor of Puerto Rico. Great relationship. The president deals with him periodically. We've -- we saw him when we were down there last week.

So, you know, this country, our country will stand with those American citizens in Puerto Rico until the job is done. But the tweet about FEMA and -- and DOD -- read, military -- is exactly accurate: They're not going to be there forever. And the whole point is to start to work yourself out of a job, and then transition to the rebuilding process.

Sir?

QUESTION: (inaudible) Christian Newspaper Association, and in light of the president in support of pulling out of UNESCO, what was the president's response, you know, to (inaudible) funding (ph), which is a U.N. agency that has been in -- in the schools specifically inciting kids to violence against the Jews and our tax dollars going into that? Do you have any statement about -- in light of UNESCO pulling out, about UNRWA (ph)?

KELLY: I'm not as familiar, probably, as I should be (inaudible).

I would just offer that the responsible way to look at any program -- and certainly, when I went to DHS, and I did this in Iraq and other places I've been -- when we're spending U.S. taxpayer money, we should look at every program, and decide whether it is being successful. If it's not being successful, then change it so it can't be successful. Or sometimes you just say it's -- it's not going to work.

Go ahead.

QUESTION: (inaudible) the prime minister just came out today, there's a release from the government press office in Israel. Prime minister welcomed the withdrawal from UNESCO. And I had met with the prime minister of Israel in May about the (inaudible). He's very concerned. He made a statement in Jerusalem Post not too long ago denouncing UNRWA (ph). So I thought it would be...

KELLY: I'd have to get -- I'd have to get more familiar, sorry.

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: General Kelly (inaudible). Thank you very much for coming out and doing this.

You've focused a lot on process and establishing processes (inaudible) at the White House. I'm wondering if you can explain...

KELLY: Is this the iron hand that I brought to the staff?

QUESTION: No, but did you? Is that how you see it? You don't see that you have an iron hand?

KELLY: No. Just put some organization to it.

QUESTION: Well, can you explain...

KELLY: With a smile on my face.

(LAUGHTER)

Although you guys with the cameras always catch me when I'm thinking hard, and it looks like I'm frustrated and mad.

QUESTION: Yeah, what is your frustrated face?

(LAUGHTER)

But back to the question, can you explain what the process was with this Pakistan raid, what the president's involvement was, how you, sort of...

KELLY: The Pakistan raid?

QUESTION: The Pakistan raid, to release these Americans who -- Caitlan Coleman and her family.

KELLY: (inaudible).

QUESTION: The level of the president's involvement and awareness...

KELLY: I think we have -- what? -- roughly 20. In fact, about -- with four of them -- the three children, of course, being U.S. citizens, and the mother. We've now reduced -- and I'm not making a joke here, but we've now reduced the number of hostages by almost a third.

But that's not the takeaway from all the unfortunate people that are still being held hostage.

You know, our -- I'll use the term partners in Pakistan. We've been watching for the family. What can I say? Not making up a lie here, I'm just staying within the classification.

The -- let me just say the Pakistanis, great partners in this regard that they are. And I don't think -- I think there's been a change -- hopefully there'll be a change in the cooperative relationship between the United States and Pakistan.

But the good news is the Pakistani officials got custody of the -- of the American citizens -- four American citizens: three children, one adult female. And then of course the husband was -- is a Canadian citizen. Took them into custody, held them for us -- not for us -- held them. We had arrangements to transport them back to the United States, or to Canada, anywhere they wanted to go. Medical treatment along the way. A lot of this, of course, would be psychological treatment. They've been essentially living in a hole for five years. I mean, that's the kind of people we're dealing with over there.

Luckily, thank God the Pakistani officials have took them into custody, so to speak, from the forces of evil in that part of the world. And -- and they're being cared for now as we speak.

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: Thank you, General.

As a flag rank officer and a gentleman with knowledge of world affairs, certainly you know the quote from Prime Minister Macmillan, "Events, events, events." What are the events that keep you, let's say, concerned, awake at night, in terms of global affairs?

KELLY: Well, yeah, I mean the big ones, actually. We get -- we get nuclear threat from North Korea, a possible nuclear threat in time by the Iranians.

You know, probably the biggest threat -- the biggest concern, and it's not an immediate concern, if this continues in North Korea, if -- if eventually other countries -- I'll let it go at that -- become nuclear powers -- obviously we already have some out there -- there's a real -- there'll be a real impetus for a lot of countries to develop or buy nuclear weapons.

You know, I would tell you this, in spite of what someone reported the other day about the president -- and I don't think he'd mind my sharing this what he said to me many, many, times and to the group oftentimes -- I hear him most say about nuclear weapons that, "Wouldn't it be great if we could get rid of them all?" as opposed to "We need 10 times more."

So, even more than the -- than when he references the maintenance of nuclear weapons and modernization that doesn't mean an increase in numbers, I hear him saying -- talk more about, "Wouldn't it be great? How could we get rid of nuclear weapons?"

[14:00:00]