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Russia Talks Planes in Syria; Syria Plant Show Down by U.S.; Trump's Lawyer Denies Investigation. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired June 19, 2017 - 13:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, I'm Wolf Blitzer. It's 1:00 p.m. here in Washington, 6:00 p.m. in London, 8:00 p.m. in Moscow. Wherever you're watching from around the world, thanks very much for joining us.

We're following three major stories right now. First, President Trump trying to get back to business as usual over at the White House, as his legal team fights back against allegations in the Russia investigation.

The White House press secretary, Sean Spicer, will likely face lots of questions on that investigation later this hour in an off-camera briefing.

Earlier, President Trump welcomed the president of Panama over to the White House. And during their Oval Office meeting, a reporter tried to get some clarity from the president on the status of the Russia investigation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President, are you under investigation by the special counsel? Mr. President, are you under investigation by the special counsel?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: No answer from the president.

We're also keeping an eye on attacks in Europe and London. Police are investigating what the prime minister is calling a sickening attack on a crowd outside a mosque, while a man in Paris rammed a police van with a car full of weapons and explosives.

We're going to have much more in just a few moments on both of those developments.

Also, there is now the potential for catastrophe in the skies over Syria, as Russia expresses deep anger over the United States' downing of a Syrian military jet. We're going to talk about what Russia says they'll do now when confronting U.S. and coalition planes.

But, first, let's get back to the Russia investigation and denials from the president's expanding legal team that says the president is not under investigation by the special counsel, Robert Mueller.

Let's go to our White House Correspondent Jeff Zeleny. He's joining us from the White House. And our Laura Jarrett, she's with me here in the studio.

Jeff, what are you hearing now from the White House on the status of the investigation?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, you could see the president there as he was meeting with the leader of Panama that he is not answering the question whether he is under investigation. Of course, he is the one who started all of this, when he said last Friday that he is being investigated, as part of this widening investigation here.

But his lawyer, over the weekend and again this morning on "A NEW DAY" said that the president is not under investigation. Let's watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAY SEKULOW, ATTORNEY, DONALD TRUMP: Have you been notified by the president, by the special counsel that the president was under investigation?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right.

SEKULOW: The answer to that was no.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But if you're going to spend so much time on this, why don't you pick up the phone and get the answer? And then, you could actually say, I asked Mueller. He said no. I'm not. We're not looking at this.

SEKULOW: We have a lot of lawyers in this case. I'm just -- look, you're asking me to pick up the phone on an investigation that, right now, we don't exists.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZELENY: So, the president, again, Wolf, on Friday, said in a message online on social media that he was being investigated. Later, White House aides said he was simply responded to news reports that he was being investigated.

And then, his lawyer, of course, out on the Sunday shows as well as this morning, saying that he is not the subject of the investigation.

But, Wolf, the reality here is when you talk to officials at the White House, they do believe that the president is not yet under investigation. He likely will be under investigation because of the firing of the FBI director. That is one of the focuses here of the special counsel's investigation -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Let me bring Laura into this because, Laura, as you know, the deputy attorney general, Rod Rosenstein, he was -- he was under attack from the president last week. What is his status right now? Will he recuse himself? Will he be fired by the president? Lots of questions.

LAURA JARRETT, CNN JUSTICE REPORTER: Right and I think those tweets from last Friday, they raised the red flag. Like, what actually is going on here?

And it's hard to tell what the president's mindset is on this. You hear from various administration officials that he's angry, he's upset about this probe.

But, over the weekend, we were told there are no plans to fire the deputy attorney general, Rod Rosenstein. I think that issue of recusal is definitely still lingering out there because some say he essentially became a witness in the case because he was involved in the firing of James Comey.

Of course, he wrote that letter that was relied on, in part, for the firing, where he discussed James Comey flouting DOJ protocols. But, at least from the Justice Department perspective, we're not there yet.

On Friday, they say, look, he has said many times if he needs to recuse, he will. But so far, nothing has changed, Wolf.

BLITZER: Yes. So, we'll see if he's called as a witness, then. Presumably, he'd have no choice, right?

JARRETT: That's a different ball game.

BLITZER: That's a very different ball game.

Very quickly, Jeff Zeleny, the press secretary, Sean Spicer, is going to be having a briefing later this hour. But the White House not allowing cameras to roll on that, no audio. What's going on? Why is this off camera?

ZELENY: Wolf, this is something that's becoming something of a pattern here at the White House. We saw it last week. We've seen it before. We're seeing it today as well.

Sean Spicer will be having a briefing but the White House simply does not want to -- the world and America to see the questions about the Russia investigation. They are trying to change the subject. They are trying to move on and focus on substance and policy.

[13:05:02] So, they believe, by having the press briefing, essentially a private briefing, we can attend but we can't broadcast it, that is something that they are hoping to stay on focus.

But, Wolf, the challenge here is it's the president, himself, who sends out his own messages who is getting this White House off focus. But we will not hear or see Sean Spicer today. But we will be there covering it and we'll report it back the old-fashioned way, in printed quotations -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Yes, the briefing room -- inside the White House briefing room, where there are plenty of cameras, lots of microphones. But, unfortunately, the White House has decided they're not going to allow us to show the world the nature of that briefing, certainly not live.

All right, thanks very much, Jeff Zeleny, Laura Jarrett, for that.

Now to the breaking news out of Europe. We're following two terror attacks there in the past 24 hours. A van plowing into a crowd of worshippers nearing a mosque in London last night.

And now, an armed suspect, dead after ramming into a police van in Paris.

CNN's Melissa Bell is joining us now with the latest on the incident in Paris along the Champs-Elysees. Melissa, what have you learned?

MELISSA BELL, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Another terror investigation open here in France. The fifth in as many months, Wolf. And what happened today, just a few hours ago now, is a white car drove down the Champs-Elysees, overtook a police convoy, rammed into one of those police trucks.

It was then discovered that his car contained large quantities of weapons and explosives. I'm just going to will show you. You can still see the parked car down there on the Champs-Elysees. It is still being picked through by explosive experts.

The man driving it has now been killed. That's been confirmed by authorities. But no one else this time (INAUDIBLE.)

You'll remember that back in April, when another attacker took on police forces. This time with a Kalashnikov. He parked alongside a police van that -- in that incident. Sadly, one policeman has lost his life. Not this time but this is becoming something of a regular feature here in France.

Just a reminder to your viewers, Wolf. We are, of course, still in the state of emergency here in France. It was due to last until July. We've now learned that that's going to be extended still further, given that the threat remains so high.

But this is the particularly of what we've seen here in France these last few months. And it's quite different from what you've seen in London these last few weeks, including overnight.

It is not civilians targeted. You have to go back to last July to see an attack against civilians. It is security forces.

The last five attacks, again in the last five months, have targeted both security forces and the kinds of places where large numbers of tourists happen to be.

These are very targeted attacks, therefore, against security personnel, often by a single man, often at the wheel of a car.

BLITZER: Very disturbing developments in Paris. Melissa Bell on the scene for us. Thanks very much.

And now, to the attack in London. Here's what we know. A man drove a van into a crowd of people near a mosque. One person is dead, although police say it's unclear, at this point, if that person died as a direct result of the attack.

Ten people are wounded. Police have arrested a 47-year-old man on terror charges.

CNN has obtained exclusive video from a witness. It is said to show the alleged driver and the van used to ram into the crowd.

Both the British prime minister and the London mayor, they visited the scene. Mayor Khan says the city has zero tolerance for hate crimes.

He also spoke about the harrowing events over the past few weeks and what the impact has been for his city.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SADIQ KHAN, MAYOR, LONDON, ENGLAND: This attack behind me at Seven Sisters, the attack in Manchester, the attack on London Bridge, the attack on Westminster Bridge are all an attack on our shared values. Our shared values of tolerance and freedom and respect. And we will not allow these terrorists to succeed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Let's go to our CNN International Diplomatic Editor Nic Robertson. He's in front of the prime minister's residence.

Nic, was this man on police radar?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Wolf, it's not clear if he was on the police radar. They certainly haven't indicated that he was.

We do know that he was 47 years old. The prime minister said that he was a white male taken into custody. We understand he was taken to the hospital, given some, sort of, psychiatric analysis in the early hours, now being questioned by the police on terrorism charges.

What the prime minister has also said here is that she is determined to root out extremism in British society, extremism she says that includes islamophobia, an indication of what she believes motivated this particular attack.

She has said that she will form a new commission to counter extremism in the same way that the British government countered racism in recent years. That's the way she wants to tackle it.

She said that the police will put more officers on the streets around mosques. That they will be in conversation with the leaders of mosques, with community leaders who feel under threat, particularly during Ramadan when people want to come out and pray without the fear of attack.

[13:10:05] So, at the moment, the indications are, from the police and the prime minister, that this man was acting alone. Not entirely clear yet if he was on their radar in any capacity. I think we have yet to get the full details on that -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Yes, this investigation clearly just beginning. Nic Robertson in London for us. Nic, thanks very much.

Coming up, why Russia has reportedly stopped military cooperation with the United States in Syria and says they will treat all coalition aircraft, including U.S. aircraft, as targets.

Plus, up on Capitol Hill here in Washington, Senate Democrats give their Republican counterparts an ultimatum over what they call the secret Republican health care bill we have details. That's coming up.

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BLITZER: Once again, we want to welcome our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer in Washington.

There are rising tensions right now between Washington and Moscow. Russia now says it will treat all U.S.-backed jets or drones flying over parts of Syria as potential targets. This after a U.S. fighter jet shot down a Syrian war plane that allegedly bombed U.S.-backed rebels.

[13:15:05] Our Pentagon Correspondent Barbara Starr is monitoring this very dangerous situation. Barbara, what's the latest you're hearing about how the U.S. and the coalition partners are responding to these latest Russian threats?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, within hours of the Kremlin issuing that threat, and it was a threat, verbal but a threat, actually the coalition came back and said - and issued a statement saying it would, in fact, reposition aircraft over Syria, and those are mainly U.S. aircraft flying over Syria. They wouldn't be specific about what they're doing. But it was clearly an answer back to the Kremlin, we will take care of business, we will continue to bomb ISIS targets, but we are warning you, stay out of our way. That was the message back in this statement about we will reposition.

It's all very curious, because a short time after that, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff was appearing here in Washington. He was asked if he was confident that a U.S. aircraft would not be shot down by the Russians, and he didn't really go there. He said that he was confident that U.S. pilots could take care of themselves, essentially.

So we're seeing a lot of verbal jockeying, a lot of verbal language here, very threatening on some points, very cautiously worded, trying to tone it down perhaps, from the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. But make no mistake, since the U.S. shot down that Syrian warplane, it says in self-defense over the weekend, the rhetoric is stepping up, Wolf.

BLITZER: Yes. And amidst all of this, on Sunday, Barbara, Iran fired missiles on various ISIS targets, they said, inside Syria. What can you tell us about that?

STARR: They did do that, by all accounts firing a number of missiles into eastern Syria at what they said were ISIS targets near the city of Darazor (ph) in the east where ISIS is known to operate. The Iranians saying that was in response to an ISIS-claimed attack in Tehran earlier this month, that they were engaging in their attack because ISIS attacked them on their homeland.

Wolf, what this is really going to is this entire battle space by the day is becoming more complicated. The Iranians now entering it in a very assertive fashion. The Russians making threats. The Syrians flying where they know the U.S. is going to see them. The U.S. having to say, come on, you know, everybody, push back, we're not going to have this. But by the day, this is a battlespace that is growing more complicated and you have so many factions on the ground, supporting the U.S., supporting the regime, supporting Russia, fighting ISIS, and now an awful lot of players in the skies above Syria.

Wolf.

BLITZER: Yes, very, very complicated and a very dangerous situation unfolding.

Barbara Starr at the Pentagon, thanks very much.

Let's get some more analysis on this. Joining us now are CNN military and diplomatic analyst, retired Rear Admiral John Kirby.

You served at the State Department and the Pentagon as press secretary.

Sounds like a pretty dangerous situation where you have the Russians issuing this warning to U.S. and coalition planes and drones, stay out of the way.

REAR ADM. JOHN KIRBY (RET.), CNN MILITARY AND DIPLOMATIC ANALYST: Yes, well, look, it was a very weirdly worded warning and it was a warning, I agree with Barbara. But it also talked about escorting as well. So it's not quite clear just how overt the threat was. But, obviously, the Pentagon is taking it seriously, as they should, and repositioning as they need to.

And I think what the chairman said today is, we need to pay attention to that. He talked about that communication between the militaries is still ongoing. They're going to do what they can to restore this de- confliction arrangement and he also said it's not helpful for anybody for the rhetoric to get hyperbolic or to get shrill here. Let's work on communicating and trying to ratchet down the temperature.

BLITZER: Is this an escalation from the U.S. perspective now in the Trump administration that there was - the Syrian Sukhoi, this jet fighter, going into a target, and the U.S. decides to knock it out of the sky, because it's been years since I remember an air-to-air combat situation between a U.S. war plane and a war plane of another nation.

KIRBY: So certainly significant in that regard. It is rather historic. It hasn't happened in a long, long time. But I don't think there's any reason why this has to become escalatory. And if there was escalatory action, it was by the Syrian regime who chose after being warned off not once but twice to drop bombs using one of their tactical aircraft on targets in and around Raqqa. So what the United States did, what this F-18 pilot did, was act in defense of forces on the ground that we have said for months, before President Trump was elected, when we knew we were going to have to work with Syrian democratic forces on the ground, we said, we're going to come to their aid. We're going to come to their defense primarily from the air. And this is not something new. It's not something that we've shied away from talking about publicly. So there's no reason this needs to become escalatory.

[13:20:12] Now, Barb raises a good point in her piece in this, you know, gets to the Iranian missiles. This is a complicated battle space. And every day we continue to see it become more convoluted. It's not just simply anti-ISIS to other partners on the ground - other - I'm sorry, other people on the ground, other nations on the ground and other parties on the ground. The fight against ISIS is mixed very much in with the civil war. We look at the military effort purely as anti-ISIS, as does the coalition. But the rest of the people on the ground don't necessarily. So it's getting very complicated.

BLITZER: Yes, these are - these two developments, air-to-air combat, U.S. planes, Syrian planes and Iran now launching missiles at various targets, ISIS targets in Syria.

KIRBY: Yes.

BLITZER: It's getting very dangerous, even more dangerous, much more complicated.

KIRBY: Which is why I think the chairman was right today to talk about, let's find a way through this. Let's calm it down. Let's keep the communication going.

BLITZER: John Kirby, thanks very much for that.

We're - want to take a quick moment right now to remember the seven U.S. sailors killed aboard the USS Fitzgerald after a collision with a merchant ship off the coast of Japan. The ship was badly damaged when it crashed into a massive container ship three times its size. Officers now say only the skill of the crew kept the Fitzgerald from sinking. On Sunday, the U.S. Navy released the names of these seven sailors. The youngest, just 19 years old. The oldest, 37. Rescue divers managed to recover the bodies in a flooded part of the U.S. destroyer. Our hearts, our deepest condolences go out to the families and friends of these seven U.S. sailors.

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[13:26:14] BLITZER: President Trump and his legal team sending rather conflicting messages concerning the Russia investigation. The president's personal attorney, Jay Sekulow, made the rounds on TV yesterday, as well as this morning, repeatedly insisting the president is not under investigation, despite the president's tweeting on Friday that he is under investigation. Listen to this exchange between Jay Sekulow and our own Chris Cuomo earlier this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR, "NEW DAY": You know Mueller's looking at this. Why didn't you just pick up the phone and find out if it matters so much to the president whether or not he's being looked at.

JAY SEKULOW, PRESIDENT TRUMP'S LAWYER: Well, you - you know, but you - you know the difference between - you know this because you practiced law.

CUOMO: Find out.

SEKULOW: You know there's a difference between investigations, inquiries. I mean there's a whole series of matters you look at.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: The White House press secretary, Sean Spicer, certainly will be asked plenty of questions about this topic in an off-camera briefing that is about to begin at the White House. Our reporters are there. Unfortunately, the White House has decided that we can't broadcast that briefing from the White House Press Briefing Room live. They won't even let us use the audio. We'll discuss that and more.

But in the meantime, let me bring in our panel. Our CNN legal analyst, former federal prosecutor, Laura Coates is with us, our senior political analyst, Mark Preston, our CNN chief political correspondent Dana Bash, and our chief political analyst, Gloria Borger.

Gloria, is it semantics because it's very confusing.

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: It is.

BLITZER: Sekulow says the president is not under investigation, but the president himself tweeted on Friday that he is under investigation.

BORGER: Well, let's - let's try and put the semantics aside for one moment and, you know, the difference between an inquiry and an investigation. What we do know, and Evan Perez has done a lot of reporting on this, what we do know is that law enforcement sources are telling CNN that the special counsel is gathering information right now. Maybe that's the best way to do it. And he's trying to consider whether there is enough evidence, Wolf, to launch some kind of investigation, potentially into the issue of obstruction. So he is at the fact-finding part of this right now, gathering information, as one - as one would expect, before reaching a conclusion about whether it is obstruction that he needs to really hone down on.

BLITZER: From a legal perspective, Laura, there are differences between fact-finding, between just gathering of information and inquiry as opposed to a formal investigation?

LAURA COATES, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: There - not really. I mean we are talking about how it comes to the FBI and Department of Justice. Their overall game is to make it secret so you don't actually have to answer questions or ask questions about what stage they are presently in. The whole purpose of the Justice Department having these kind of covert investigations is two-fold. Number one, it helps them to advance an investigation by not having people alerted to what they're going to try to find out. And, number two, it does not dissuade people from being forthcoming in the long run with their investigation.

So the semantic argument does come into play, but realistically under investigation, under inquiry means the same thing. The FBI, the Department of Justice, is trying to ascertain what facts they have to support any, if any, allegation or criminal statute violation.

BLITZER: You know, it's interesting, because in that tweet on Friday, the president tweeted, "I am being investigated for firing the FBI director by the man who told me to fire the FBI director. Witch hunt." Sekulow says, well, he was referring to "The Washington Post" story, but he didn't say I'm referring to "The Washington Post" story. He didn't say "The Washington Post" reports that I am being investigated. He said, I am being investigated by the FBI director.

[13:29:53] DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Look, and Jay Sekulow could be right, but this is one of the many, many, many dangers of the president of the United States using Twitter to communicate. There are a lot of pluses to it, but there are also a lot of minuses, and this is one. And the fact of the matter is, the fact that Jay Sekulow, the president's legal adviser, was out not just yesterday