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Putin Praises Trump, Bashes Russia Probe; Washington Post: Trump Still Rejects Russia Meddling Evidence; White House Pushes Back on Tillerson No Preconditions Dialogue with North Korea; Speaker Ryan Considers Leaving Congress at End of Term; McCain Hospitalized for Cancer Treatment Side Effects; White House Daily Briefing Begins. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired December 14, 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] PHIL BLACK, INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And Vladimir Putin talked about a sense of hysteria and mania on this issue. But beyond that, he had largely warm words regarding President Trump. He was talking about some significant achievements. He had been asked to give a one-year report card on Trump's first year in office. He referred specifically to the performance of America's markets. He said that's a vote of confidence in the economy and, therefore, it shows confidence in the man who is guiding that economy, Donald Trump. He went on to say he hopes Donald Trump still makes good on one of his election promises, and that is to improve relations with Russia. Because Putin believes that would be good for Russia and good for the U.S. and good for the world as it would allow them to work on the sorts of complex issues that require their cooperation, things like the fight against terrorism and climate change -- Wolf?

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: He spent a lot of time flattering the president.

Did Putin address the nuclear threat from North Korea, Phil?

BLACK: He did. And he reiterated the fact that Russia is against North Korea having nuclear weapons. But he went on to blame the U.S. for driving North Korea into developing this capability out of a sense of insecurity. He did have some positive things to say about U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson's suggestion, his desire to meet with North Korean officials without any preconditions, and Putin said it's a good idea, it's common sense. And he says it has Russia's full support -- Wolf?

BLITZER: Phil Black, in Moscow for us. Thanks very much.

Meanwhile, there's new reporting from "The Washington Post" that is raising serious questions about President Trump and Russia's interference in the 2016 U.S. elections. Despite evidence that included an extraordinary CIA stream of intelligence that captured Putin's specific instructions on the operation, the president refused to publicly acknowledge the information given to him before he assumed office. Quote, "Rather than search for ways to deter Kremlin attacks or safeguard U.S. election, Trump has waged his own campaign to discredit the case that Russia poses any threat. He has resisted or attempted to roll back efforts to hold Moscow to account." All that from "The Washington Post."

Let's discuss this and more. I'm joined by CNN's chief national security correspondent, Jim Sciutto, and our senior diplomatic correspondent, Michelle Kosinski.

The president, you believe this article, and everything else we know about the president's reluctance to blame Russia for interfering in the U.S. elections, it has been a consistent pattern ever since he took office, including before.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: This has been playing out in plain sight because the president, before and after the election, has had a million opportunities to say definitely that Russia did this, it's a serious problem and I will do something about it. The president has deflected and deferred and undermined and called it a hoax repeatedly. And this is despite the evidence we know he has seen, right, the classified evidence that backs up the intelligence community's assessment that Russia did this.

(CROSSTALK)

MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN SENIOR DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENT: A lot of alignments. And what we just heard Putin say and what we heard --

(CROSSTALK)

SCIUTTO: You're exactly right. When Putin said, this is something drummed up by the president's political opponents, it did catch my ear because that's something that President Trump has said as well.

BLITZER: Even though the president gets the briefings -- and he doesn't want to hear it -- but he gets these briefings from the CIA, from the National Security Agency, from the National Security Council and the Defense Department, that, yes, Russia interfered, he doesn't want to hear it.

KOSINSKI: Yes. In that reporting "The "Washington Post" talked about there being some lower-level meetings that, at the higher level, it's not getting in and not registering. In some peoples' views, it's out- right rejected. That's a pollicization that is so concerning.

SCIUTTO: Along with an active undermining of his own intelligence services, right, because the president, in publicly questioning that judgment, is, at the same time, publicly questioning the capabilities, in effect, of the --

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: Because he thinks that any time they raise this issue, he calls it a hoax --

KOSINSKI: Yes.

BLITZER: -- a witch hunt, it undermines his election.

KOSINSKI: If you're going to question that, how many other things do you have to question, including the fight against terrorism?

SCIUTTO: And what we know is happening right now. And I've heard this from both, to be clear, Democratic and Republican members of the committees on the Hill, who see this intelligence, that Russia and other countries are probing U.S. election systems as 2018 and 2020. This is not a past problem. It is a current and future problem.

BLITZER: The sanctions, in August, the House and the Senate overwhelmingly passed new sanctions against Russia because of the interference in the U.S. presidential election. Now that we are in December, and I understand the sanctions really -- the president signed it into law, reluctantly -- he opposed it bitterly -- but he had no choice. A veto would have been overridden, if he would have vetoed the legislation. But what's the delay? What are you hearing?

KOSINSKI: The State Department has faced questions multiple times about this, what is going on. What they have said has been consistent over the last couple of months, that it's a complicated process because there are U.S. companies involve and they need to get the guidance out legally to everyone, that caused delay, and they are aiming for the end of January. That's the last we heard.

[13:35:20] SCIUTTO: The trouble is that there are questions about the whole of government response. What I hear consistently from folks in the cyber security world and, again, the Republicans and Democrats who look at the threat from Russia and other countries, including the election system, is to truly deter and prevent and protect, you need a whole of government response. They see, without the president's leadership, that is extremely difficult and arguably impossible to have that whole of government response.

BLITZER: While I have you -- you covered the State Department. The Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said one thing about North Korea, yes, the U.S. is ready for a dialogue without preconditions, but then the White House pushes him back a little. But even the State Department sort of pushes him back.

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: What's the latest?

KOSINSKI: I love this. At the end, you're left with a sort of "use your best judgment" for what everyone is talking about. Tillerson went out there and clearly stated he was willing to talk to North Korea without preconditions. He used the words. He even said, let's just talk about the weather if you want. Just come on down, basically. Your decision, it's on you. The White House and others are saying, well, he didn't mean it that way. Nothing changed in policy. That North Korea is not ready for this. Now is not the time. There's a disconnect here. Although, you have to go back to what Tillerson said. Even after he said he would welcome it, there were preconditions. He said, first of all, they would have to come with a view to change something in their behavior, that they would have to be a period of silence on their missile tests while talks were going on. And that containment is not an option. He still sees denuclearization as the goal and he sees it being possible. But how is this all going to working out and bring North Korea to the table, that is another big --

SCIUTTO: It's confusing not only for North Korea, the adversary. It's confusing for U.S. allies as well. What is the U.S. approach on North Korea?

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: Some breaking news. I want to go back to Phil Mattingly back on Capitol Hill.

Phil, I take it you're there.

Well, we will get to Phil in a moment.

Everyone stand by.

Phil has some important news.

But very quickly on this North Korea thing, before we go back to Phil Mattingly, on the dialogue with North Korea, there is a dialogue under way with the North Korean leadership. The deputy secretary general of the United Nations, an American, a career U.S. diplomats and retired U.S. ambassador, he was just there last week at the invitation of the North Koreans. He went without any preconditions and had a dialogue with them, not with Kim Jong-Un, but with the foreign minister and others. Clearly, Jeffrey Feltman, Ambassador Jeffrey Feltman, who is the U.S. deputy secretary general of the U.N., would not go unless he had a dialogue with Washington.

SCIUTTO: True. This falls under what you would call track two. Not official and not government to government, but someone who might be American, but not officially representing the U.S. government.

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: It wasn't secretive or a diplomatic secret back channel. There's video and everyone saw him meeting with North Korean officials in Pyongyang.

SCIUTTO: And you've had others who served the role as emissary, outside of official capacity, like a Bill Clinton going to help negotiate the freedom of U.S. hostages there. And others I wouldn't put in a category. A big umbrella. It would be a difference certainly if the two sides would get down under the description talked about, preconditions, that would be quite a major development.

KOSINSKI: And the back-channel talk was going on, too. Even the people involved in this have been talking publicly about them, which is unusual. They are worried that the window of time is closing because of the rhetoric.

[13:40:11] BLITZER: We will take a quick break. Phil Mattingly is up on Capitol Hill. Has important news he will share with us. We will have that after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BLITZER: We have breaking news on the future of the House Speaker Paul Ryan.

We want to go to Phil Mattingly, our congressional correspondent.

What are you and our team learning?

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Wolf, this is coming from our colleague, John King, and Dierdra Walsh, and myself. The speaker made clear over the last couple of months, and since before he was speaker of the House when named to replace John Boehner, that this was not the job he wanted. He did take the job. And he has been having discussions with his close confidants about the possibility of leaving Congress at the end of this term.

It's worth noting the speaker, earlier today, walking out of the capitol, said this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. PAUL RYAN, (R-WI), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: Thank you very much.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: You are not quitting any time soon?

RYAN: No.

(LAUGHTER)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: Pretty declarative there. The speaker's office putting out a statement saying he doesn't plan on leaving.

But for the context here -- this part is important -- the speaker made clear repeatedly that his dream job is the House Ways and Means chairman. He was a policy guy and that's where he wanted to focus. The idea of leading and wrangling the House was not something he wanted to do. He was willing to do it when he was asked to do it.

The big question is, if Republicans complete the tax overhaul, something that has long been a goal of the speaker's, will he be willing to end his time in office after that point. I want to note this is coming or our reporting is coming in the wake of a "Politico" reporter that made clear these considerations were a possibility, something that might happen. I must say the speaker said he is not going anywhere at this point, but these are conversations that have occurred. The realities are that the job takes quite a toll on his family. The speaker noted that publicly and the job itself is a complex and difficult at that.

As of now, no final decision has been made. But as we reported, those conversations have occurred, Wolf. And I will note that they have also, in the rumors about the conversations and stories about the conversations, have percolated throughout the House Republican conference and people figuring out what might come next or who might come next. There are no hard answers to the questions right now, but they are out there, and the conversations are happening -- Wolf?

BLITZER: Lots of talk and discussion about this.

Phil, thank you very much.

Let's bring in our panel. Chris Cillizza is our CNN politics reporter and editor-at-large. Our congressional reporter, Lauren FOX, is with us. And our chief political analyst, Gloria Borger, is with us as well.

Gloria, I want to read, Ashley Strong, press secretary for the speaker, "This is pure speculation. As the speaker himself said today, he is not going anywhere any time soon."

GLORA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANAYST: That's a non-denial denial. Any time soon. Pure speculation right now. The speaker is somebody -- and it has been no secret -- who was a reluctant speaker, as Phil was saying. He was nervous about the job and impact on his family. He was also quite nervous about dealing with the right in the party, the same conservatives that gave him trouble on the Affordable Care Act and the repealing of that. I don't think the job has gotten easier with Donald Trump. Let me say that. He was reluctant to endorse Donald Trump, you'll recall. It was an uneasy relationship. He doesn't like to explain the president's tweets. He found it quite difficult to work hand in glove with the president.

Put all that together, and he is a young man and cares about tax reform. He would like entitlement reform, but the president says no to that, and the president said he wouldn't do that. You put all that together, and it makes a lot of sense.

BLITZER: Entitlement reform, Social Security benefits.

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: Medicaid.

(CROSSTALK)

BORGER: The president campaigned and said he wouldn't touch that.

[13:45:07] BLITZER: But there's a lot of Republican who is would like to touch it.

BORGER: Including Ryan.

BLITZER: Lauren, how do you see this?

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER: I think the Speaker Ryan, as Gloria said, was a reluctant speaker and not someone who wanted the job. He wrote so many pieces up on Capitol Hill about how concerned he was about getting back and forth to his family. He is a young man with a young family. And this is a difficult job. You have to be out there campaigning and fund-raising for other members of the conference. It's not just him. And tax reform is what Paul Ryan loves. He was the Ways and Means chairman and he was reluctant to leave the job. The fact that they are close, right at the end here on tax reform, means that maybe he is more willing to answer that he has done a lot as a speaker and has a legacy.

CHRIS CILLIZZA, CNN POLITICS REPORTER & CNN EDITOR-AT-LARGE: Inside George Costanza -- Jason Alexander's character, has a habit of telling a funny joke and said, that's it, I'm out. You have to go out on top. Tax reform, given what Gloria and Lauren have outlined, Wolf, tax reform may be as good as it gets for the head of the congressional wing of the Republican Party with two more years of Donald Trump in the White House.

I will remind people, after 2018, it's a 50-50 shot that Paul Ryan has a speakership to lead. In some ways it's saying, I thought about retiring before we lost Congress. After Alabama and the 2017 elections in Virginia, after you have polling that suggests a random Democrat and 15 points ahead of a random Republican that suggests which way the wind is blowing, there may not be that job for him to lead. I think there's a sense on his part that it's a job that never really wanted because his kids are getting older, but not college age yet.

One other thing, if he wants to run for president, being the speaker of the House is not necessarily your best bet to do that. I wrote at the top, I didn't think it was the smartest move for him to take the speakership in the first place. It's a hard and fractured job for the party.

(CROSSTALK)

BORGER: Also, he is tied to Donald Trump in more ways than I think he would like.

CILLIZZA: Yes. He has no choice.

BORGER: He has no choice. He is the leader of the Republicans and that has caused problems for people who supported him before and would like to see him run for president. So I think establishing the distance that you talk about may be to his benefit.

CILLIZZA: One other thing I think with him is that the Paul Ryan and -- Lauren and Gloria would know this because they see him all the time. The Paul Ryan Republican Party is entitlement reform, deficit hawkishness. The Donald Trump Republican Party has nothing to do with either. It's the opposite of those two things. The Paul Ryan Republican Party is not where this -- it's not Roy Moore. It's certainly not where the party seems to be moving. That may be another reason to pull the cord.

FOX: Tax reform was the middle ground for Trump and Paul Ryan, and moving beyond that, entitlement reform is likely not going to be that marriage again.

BLITZER: I listened carefully to his news conference today, and he was asked about the fact -- and it's hard to believe he is the speaker of the House. He sleeps when he is in Washington in his office. He has a cot in there. (CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: Yes. He's got a cot in there. He doesn't have an apartment.

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: But he does. He would much rather be in Wisconsin with his wife and kids, instead of in Washington doing what he is doing.

BORGER: Who are knows what he would do next. Whether it involves campaigning for political office. Paul Ryan describes himself as policy wonk. He is. And he cares about policy. He is working with the president, who cares about winning. Paul Ryan cares about other stuff. He disagrees with the president on a bunch of stuff. And he disagrees with a lot of Republicans in his own caucus. He may, as you point out, they need to lose 24 seats.

CILLIZZA: Yes. I mean, it's certainly not --

BORGER: And tax reform could hurt them in the next election.

CILLIZZA: One other thing to add, Gloria used the word "reluctant speaker." A lot of politicians have that. I am getting so many calls from supporters. Having covered that, the post-John Boehner, post- Kevin McCarthy, OK, and Paul Ryan is our only choice. He very much did not want to do this. Did not want to do the fundraising and the travel. He has young children and he understood what it took. We shouldn't be terribly surprised that it's course, whether in 2018 or 2020. This is not someone

(CROSSTALK)

CILLIZZA: -- that is not going to be the speaker for 40 years.

[13:50:03] BLITZER: Speaking of Kevin McCarthy, the House majority leader, he was asked by reporters when the news started to spread what he knows about it. He said, I know nothing of what you're talking about. Then someone explained what they were talking about. And he said he didn't think it was true, the speaker is not retiring, where did you get that from.

(CROSSTALK)

CILLIZZA: Again, nobody is saying that. Phil's reporting didn't say that. The "Politico" report said, he is having serious conversations with people close to him about his future and the possibility of --

(CROSSTALK)

BORGER: If they lose a lot of seats, it would make him more likely, although, you don't want to go out that way.

BLITZER: We'll continue to stay on top of this story. Important story, indeed. We have live pictures coming in from the White House briefing room. The press secretary, Sarah Sanders, getting ready to come to the lectern any moment. She will have a statement and answer reporters' questions. We'll have that and a lot more right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Republican Senator John McCain he's in the hospital for side effect from his extensive cancer treatment. The Senator was diagnosed with an aggressive brain tumor over the past few months. The Senator's office says what he's experiencing right now is normal. Sources in the Senate say they've been deeply worried about Senator McCain lately, saying he's appeared frail, not speaking up at meetings the way he certainly used to.

Let's go to our chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

Sanjay, you're a neurosurgeon, you still practice, you treat patients with this type of brain cancer. You're the only reporter given permission to speak with Senator McCain's doctors at the time of his diagnosis. So what do you make of this late development?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRRESPONDENT: Well, you know, five months now since his diagnosis. And when someone is having difficulties, we don't know what they are, if he's having headaches, weakness, what the side effects are, there's a few things you think about. Has the tumor, in this case, the brain tumor started to regrow? Is this just side effects from his treatment as the statement from his office said? Or is it some combination of both? What the statement said was these are normal side effects from his therapy. What that typically means is, for example, if someone is getting radiation therapy, that's designed to basically kill whatever remaining cancer cells may be there in the brain. That's a good thing. But the problem is, it can also cause swelling of the brain, particularly in that area. And that can make someone feel really unwell, cause these sorts of side effects. That's typically what the hospitalization is for, to try and treat the side effects from the medication that's being give given for the tumor.

BLITZER: How long does that continue, the treatment, whether chemotherapy or radiation? I think he had some surgery as well. How long does that go on?

[13:54:55] GUPTA: It can go on for months. You are right, the operation was the first thing. It was done back in July. They didn't know it was a tumor, Wolf. You may remember, before they operated, they just saw blood collection, then found the tumor underneath that. But the combination of chemotherapy and radiation can go on for months. And as tough as it is to talk about, the average survival, this is when you look at everybody, is around 14 months survival. Even with therapy. So those are -- it's tough to even talk about that. But that is the reality that he's sort of facing.

BLITZER: So with all the side effects he's going through, and he's over at the Walter Reed Military Medical Center outside of Washington, will that effect his ability to work, and more specifically, next week, maybe even vote on the tax bills?

GUPTA: If this is side effects due to his therapy, as again his statement from his office said, what you could see is you could actually see a significant improvement. Because there are medications such as steroids to really bring down that swelling in the brain. You can't give those steroids long-term or in the high doses he may need, but what you could see is an up-and-down course. He may improve significantly, in fact, with those types of medications, because it just shrinks the swelling of the brain down. It's not solving the problem, but it could make him feel much better, at least for a period of time.

BLITZER: Some people do survive these kinds of brain tumors, right?

GUPTA: Well, there have been some, what I would call, case reports, meaning, out of thousands and thousands of patients who have had these, those patients are all followed, there are have been a few cases here and there. We are not sure if they had the right diagnosis, perhaps, but it can happen. And certainly, I'll say one thing, after his operation, I talked to his doctors and they were saying, look, Senator McCain should stay put for a couple of weeks, not travel. You'll remember a few days later, he was in Washington. So he does recover quickly and fights hard.

BLITZER: We wish Senator McCain only the best. He is a true American hero. And we hope he gets through this struggle right now and comes back to the U.S. Senate early and often.

Sanjay, thank you very much.

GUPTA: Thanks, Wolf.

BLITZER: We'll stand by for the White House press briefing. Live coverage of that.

Also, Omarosa now speaking out. The "Celebrity Apprentice"-turned White House staffer, goes on the record and on the defense over her sudden exit from the White House.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The president will be speaking at 2:30 on the administration's efforts to reduce red tape and federal regulations. Within 10 days of taking office, President Trump issued Executive Order 13771 instructing the Office of Management and Budget to remove two regulations for every new one created. Washington scoffed, but the administration acted. And in under a year, we have unleashed the American economy, businesses and job creations. These efforts and the rest of the president's agenda have fueled economic growth, including all-time highs in the stock market, a 17-year low in unemployment, new highs in manufacturing and consumer confidence, and much more.

As the president said yesterday, we are at the final stages of historic tax cuts and reforms that will provide massive relief to middle class families, lower tax rates on American businesses to make us more competitive, and make our tax code simpler and fairer for the first time in decades. We want to begin lowering the tax bills in Americans paychecks starting next year where Americans who faced economic head winds for eight years will have the wind at their backs as they seek the American dream.

And with that, we'll get started because we are on a short timeframe and I will take your questions.