Return to Transcripts main page

The Lead with Jake Tapper

Vaccine Progress?; Florida Sees Record Number of Coronavirus Cases; Interview With Former U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired July 02, 2020 - 15:00   ET

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

[15:00:00]

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN HOST: Thanks for being with me.

Our coverage continues now on "THE LEAD WITH JAKE TAPPER."

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Welcome to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper.

We begin with breaking news in our world lead today.

Top Republican and Democratic leaders in the House, Senate and Intelligence committees known as the Gang of Eight are just wrapping up a classified briefing with top intelligence officials regarding information about the Russian bounty plot, a scheme that allegedly paid Taliban terrorists hundreds of thousands of dollars to target American and other coalition forces in Afghanistan.

Moments ago, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer accused President Trump of failing as commander in chief -- quote -- "Our armed forces would be better served if President Trump spent more time reading his daily briefing and less time planning military parades and defending relics of the Confederacy" -- unquote.

This comes as "The New York Times" reports you U.S. intelligence has identified an Afghan contractor believed to be a key middleman in handling those cash payments from the Russian GRU to the terrorists targeting U.S. service members.

CNN's Jeremy Diamond joins us now from the White House.

And, Jeremy, clarify when this Russian bounty scheme, or allegations of it, came to the White House's attention, and what did they do about it?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jake, one source familiar with the matter tells CNN that the intelligence about this scheme came to the White House as early as the first months of 2019.

Now, this source says that the details at that time about this intelligence were fuzzy, they weren't as fleshed out as they are today. But, nonetheless, Jake, this shows that the White House has been monitoring this intelligence for at least a year.

And one source also saying that then National Security Adviser John Bolton was aware of these reports at the time when the White House received those first reports in early 2019.

A U.S. official is also telling CNN that the president was informed about this scheme in a document, his -- the president's daily brief. That's the highly classified document of intelligence that's compiled every day for the president and top officials.

And officials are telling us that that information was indeed included there sometime earlier this year. But what we do know, Jake, is that the president is not known to actually read those briefings, instead relying on an oral briefing a few times a week from officials.

And, so far, the White House is defending the fact that the president was not actually orally briefed on this, the national security adviser, Robert O'Brien, insisting that the president wasn't briefed on this because the information wasn't yet fully corroborated.

But what we know, Jake, is that former national security officials have said that something of this seriousness should have been briefed to the president.

As for the president himself, Jake, he is really focusing on calling this a hoax, and he's focusing on undermining the underlying intelligence here, rather than addressing concerns that this intelligence could be real and that Russians tried to kill American troops by using Taliban.

TAPPER: All right, Jeremy Diamond at the White House for us, thank you so much.

Joining us now is Ambassador John Bolton. You just heard him referenced by Jeremy. He served as President Trump's national security adviser from March 2018 through September 2019.

And he's the author of the new book, a bestseller, "The Room Where It Happened."

Mr. Ambassador, thanks so much for joining us.

Now, I know that you will not talk about classified information to which you had access or briefings that you were present for, but I do want to get your reaction to what President Trump said regarding this Russian bounty plot and the intelligence about it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This didn't rise to the occasion. And from what I hear -- and I hear it pretty good -- the intelligence people didn't even -- many of them didn't believe it happened at all.

I think it's a hoax. I think it's a hoax by the newspapers and the Democrats.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Obviously, it's not a hoax.

But let me ask you, sir. You told CBS News that you would have briefed President Trump on this intelligence if you had it. So, what do you make of the president's response?

JOHN BOLTON, FORMER U.S. NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: Well, I think he's trying to avoid responsibility.

I think one of the things -- I certainly talk about this in my book -- it's been commented on by many former senior Trump advisers. The president has trouble owning decisions.

So, when a decision gets made that doesn't go quite the way people hoped, suddenly, it wasn't his decision. If the Afghanistan negotiations with the Taliban are not working out, well, you know, that must be somebody else's problem.

So, when this information about Russia arises, it's hard for me to believe that somebody didn't tell him about it. And the fact that there might have been disagreement in the intelligence agencies, that happens all the time.

So, I'm confused by the White House's confusion over this. I don't think they have a grip on what actually is going on.

[15:05:00]

TAPPER: It seems that the information, at the very least, was in the president's daily brief, maybe even on February 27, according to one source, if not before, although the White House seems to be focusing on whether or not it was recently verbally conveyed to the president.

Your successor, Robert O'Brien, said that it was the decision of Mr. Trump's CIA briefer. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERT O'BRIEN, U.S. NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: The intelligence community did not have a consensus.

And, as a result, the president's career CIA briefer decided not to brief him, because it was unverified intelligence. Knowing all the facts I know, I certainly support her decision.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: What do you make of that?

BOLTON: Well, I don't know how it works at the White House today, but I followed the same system as my predecessor, H.R. McMaster.

Before each briefing of the president, the director of the CIA, the director of national intelligence and the briefer would meet in my office. We'd talk about what the briefer would say to the president. We talked from time to time about what would be said in future briefings.

Both briefers who I worked with, I thought were outstanding career officers. It's not entirely their decision, nor should it be.

Honestly, the biggest problem is not what is said in or not said in the oral briefs. It's that I didn't see, in 17 months, any evidence the president read the PDB itself.

So, that's why I felt that, listening to all of the confusion over the past week or so, even if there were uncertainty about the information, to at least give the president a heads-up that the Russians might be paying bounties to kill Americans, was something he ought to hear about and maybe get a reaction to.

Maybe he'd say: I'm very concerned about that. Make verification of that the highest priority.

That would be an important instruction.

TAPPER: And you're not willing to say whether or not, as has been reported, you told President Trump that the Russians were paying bounties when you were the national security adviser.

Are you able to say whether or not you had heard this report before it appeared in "The New York Times"?

BOLTON: Yes, look, I'm -- I'm very, very clear that I'm not going to talk about classified information.

I didn't in my book. I have been accused of it. I think it's because the president didn't want the book out -- to come out before the election. That's a separate issue.

But I do think that, analytically, people need to understand there aren't just two categories of intelligence information: Over here, you have your verified information, and, over here, you have everything else.

TAPPER: Right.

BOLTON: This is all along a spectrum of uncertainty.

And you don't wait until the last possible minute, if there's something as serious as a nuclear power purportedly paying terrorists to kill Americans.

TAPPER: Jim Sciutto has reported -- and it's been reported before -- that multiple former Trump administration officials say that President Trump had a resistance to being told anything negative about Russia, which had led his national security team in the past to brief him verbally on Russia-related threats less frequently than they would have. I'm quoting here from Sciutto's story -- quote -- "According to one

former senior intelligence official, the president's briefers had one simple rule with Trump: Never lead with Russia" -- unquote.

Was it your observation as well that he was unwilling, he did not want to hear negative things about Putin?

BOLTON: Yes, I think I have enough scars from bringing up things about Russia that he probably didn't want to hear, that I can say I agree with that.

I do think that everybody understood the nature of Russia's activities, with the possible exception of the president. And so a lot of activity went on as you might expect it would. And we just -- we tried to inform the president, tried to get his reaction.

Steps were taken, I think importantly, to deal with Russian threats, but usually as the president grumbled and complained along the way.

TAPPER: If Russia, the GRU, was responsible for paying bounties for the heads of dead American and British service members, how would you want President Trump to respond?

BOLTON: Very strongly.

Look, let's take the case of the Brits. And the White House has said that, whatever the level of verification of the information, allies with forces in Afghanistan were warned about -- were warned about it.

That's one reason you also have to tell the president. What if the prime minister of Great Britain that, in 2018, suffered a chemical weapons attack by the Russians against two Russian defectors in Salisbury, England, what if the prime minister of Britain said, you know, this -- what do you think of this intelligence threatening our troops in Afghanistan?

[15:10:01]

If the president didn't know about it, I can imagine, because I would have been listening to the call, perhaps in the Oval Office, he would have turned to me and said: Well, gosh darn, John, what -- what intelligence is he talking about?

You can't have foreign governments informed on something like this, again, without at least giving the president a heads-up: Mr. President, we don't know everything. We're still looking into it. But you need to know X.

I'm just mystified why that didn't happen.

TAPPER: Well, and we do know that, according to sources talking to our own Nick Paton Walsh, the British have been briefed by the United States about this earlier this year.

I want to ask you about something else in the news. Senator Tammy Duckworth, who's a veteran, she announced that she plans to freeze all military raises, confirmations, promotions until the secretary of defense, Mark Esper, confirms that a promotion for Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman, who worked under you on the National Security Council and obviously testified in the impeachment inquiry, is guaranteed that he will get the promotion he deserves.

Should he get a promotion? And, if he doesn't, what signal does that send to officers in the U.S. military?

BOLTON: Yes, look, based on not just his service, but his twin brother's service at the NSC, both of whom were pushed out of their assignments early, I think they certainly deserve promotion, based on what I saw. They shouldn't be discriminated against.

I hope there's nobody in the White House who's holding this up or putting bureaucratic obstacles in the way. I think it would be a terrible signal.

I think this is something, this kind of corruption of this promotion process, unfortunately, typical of a number of things that have happened in the administration, I think it's a bad signal to all of our military.

TAPPER: Ambassador John Bolton, thank you so much for your time.

The book, again, is "The Room Where It Happened," about his time in the Trump White House.

Ambassador John Bolton, thank you so much for your time.

BOLTON: Thank you very much.

TAPPER: More than 10,000 -- yes, you heard me -- 10,000 new coronavirus cases reported in one state in a single day, and it's far from alone. The surges going into the holiday weekend, that's next.

Then: a police officer punching a woman in the face at an airport. But the officers union says the woman is the aggressor.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:16:50]

TAPPER: We're back now with our health lead.

A new study out today shows that there is a new mutation of coronavirus spreading in the United States, and it's even more infectious, though researchers say it is not more deadly.

This comes as we arrive at another new grim record, 50,000 new cases of coronavirus recorded in just one day, 50,000. It took more than two months for the U.S. to first reach 50,000 cases total. Now it has happened in just 24 hours; 37 states are seeing infections soar as we head into this holiday weekend, with a fear the July Fourth celebrations could cause the pandemic to spiral further out of control.

One ICU nurse manager at an overwhelmed Houston hospital telling CNN -- quote -- "If you want to see August 1, than maybe you should stay indoors and isolate on July 4."

One sad and cautionary tale we're learning this afternoon, businessman and former Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain is now hospitalized with COVID-19. This comes after Cain attended an indoor event without a mask, Trump's rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on June 20, though, of course, we do not know how Cain contracted the virus.

We wish Mr. Cain a speedy recovery, a reminder to everyone watching, please be safe this weekend.

Florida is among the states seeing a record high number of cases since the pandemic began, with more than 10,000 new infections just yesterday.

CNN's Randi Kaye is in Palm Beach County for us right now.

And, Randi, the surge is forcing some local officials to implement even more safety measures.

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, they're taking it into their own hands, because the governor isn't mandating much statewide.

So, in Miami-Dade County, they're mandating masks indoors and outdoors, Jake. They're also closing the restaurants at midnight until 6:00 a.m., because they don't want them turning into nightclubs. They think that they're breeding grounds for the virus.

In Broward County, just north of Miami, same thing, mandated masks and also closing the restaurants at midnight. And here in Palm Beach County, they also mandate masks, and they're taking into consideration possibly closing the restaurants at midnight. They could decide today.

In all three of those counties, the hardest-hit counties, they have closed the beaches in case -- for the holiday weekend. You can probably see here the barriers behind me. They just put those up and moved us back, actually, from the area.

Also, one other note, Jake. In Miami, Jackson Health, the largest health system in Miami, is now reporting double the number of COVID patients in the last two weeks. They have now cut off all elective surgeries, and they're experiencing a shortage of remdesivir.

So that's why they have cut off the elective surgeries. They need to beds and they need the drug, Jake.

TAPPER: And, Randi, not all of these restrictions are going over particularly well. And we hear that there's now a lawsuit over a mask mandate? KAYE: Yes, just four Palm Beach County residents bringing a lawsuit here in Palm Beach County against the county, saying that -- they're suing the county for requiring Florida residents to -- quote -- "wear harmful medical devices" like masks.

The lawsuit says that it interferes with their personal liberty and constitutional rights. And they call it absurd. They say there's overwhelming scientific evidence, Jake, that masks do not help spread -- do not help stop this spread of COVID-19.

[15:20:03]

TAPPER: OK, that's not accurate, but I guess they have every right to file a lawsuit based on falsehoods.

Randi Kaye, thank you so much.

California also just hit another new record number of cases, and the governor there, Gavin Newsom, is now shutting down businesses again in counties where 28 million Californians live.

CNN's Dan Simon is in Los Angeles for us.

And, Dan, USC, the University of Southern California, announced last month that they would hold in-person classes in the fall again, but now they're reversing course?

DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Jake.

The decision by USC reflects how colleges both in California and across the country are now limiting in-person classes. It follows a similar move of what UCLA did, as well as Cal State University.

And I think now, Jake, it follows this broad theme of now reimposing restrictions throughout the state of California. Governor Newsom held a news conference yesterday where he announced that a whole host of industries would now be outdoor only, or they're restricting indoor access.

And I just want to tell you about some of them. We're talking about 19 counties, so no indoor operations for things like restaurants, bars, wineries, museums, zoos, movie theaters, and family entertainment.

This is an order, Jake, that is going to last for three weeks. And, again, we're talking about 19 counties. This affects roughly 72 percent of the population. So we're talking about a whole lot of people that would be affected by this.

This is going to have huge economic ramifications once again, but the governor says, we absolutely need to do this amid all of the coronavirus cases, the surge that we're seeing and the record number of hospitalizations -- Jake.

TAPPER: All right, Dan Simon in Los Angeles, thank you so much.

New reports that a coronavirus vaccine may be ready earlier than expected, that's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:26:45]

TAPPER: Welcome back.

In our health lead: Operation Warp Speed, the Trump administration's effort to find a vaccine, is proceeding full steam ahead. Health officials this morning testifying on Capitol Hill, suggesting there could be more than one coronavirus vaccine by early 2021.

CNN's senior medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen, joins us now.

And, Elizabeth, the World Health Organization says that there are 18 candidate vaccines currently in clinical evaluation around the world right now. How likely is it that we will have more than one available, one that works, by 2021, by early next year?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, certainly, Jake, we have been told by Tony Fauci, by others that they hope, they think that we will have a vaccine by the end of this year or early next year.

But you never quite know. I mean, it is important to state here that nobody has a crystal ball. Nobody knows for sure. They're certainly hoping that that's the case. But we haven't even started phase three clinical trials in this country.

And so how do we know that that's going to happen? It's very difficult.

Now, I did talk to Dr. Fauci last week. And I said, China may be ahead of us here. They are moving into phase three trials, and how would you feel if China got it first? And he said, I would say, God bless. He said, I don't care who gets it first. I just want us to have a vaccine.

So there are several countries working on vaccines. The hope is that someone will get it soon and share it with the rest of the world -- Jake.

TAPPER: And, Elizabeth, the first U.S. clinical trial for coronavirus vaccine, Moderna, was supposed to start phase three to test to make sure that it works next week. Today, they announced that that's delayed.

Do we know what happened?

COHEN: You know what? I think these are just tough things to do.

I spoke with one of the investigators involved in the trial. And he said, look, we're doing this so quickly. There was some talk -- in fact, it was on the Internet -- one of the centers said, we're starting July 9. Now the investigator I talked to said July 27. But he said, look, it is amazing that we are in phase three at the end

of July. He said it might be the beginning of August. Just -- there are just things you have to do. It is tough to put together a clinical trial of 30,000 people. This investigator and others said to me, look, we never expected this to start in early July. We think late July will be fabulous. We will be happy if it's late July or even early August.

You have to get approvals from the FDA. You have to get approvals from individual universities. You have to get the drug together. You have to get the placebo together. This is a very, very difficult and detail-oriented thing to do.

So, I personally am not surprised that it was supposed to be July 9, and now it's going to be July 27. If they really do start July 27, that still will be amazing. And, hopefully, they can move quickly, but safely.

TAPPER: Yes, usually, it takes years. That's why they're calling this Operation Warp Speed.

COHEN: Right.

TAPPER: Elizabeth Cohen, thank you so much for that.

Joining us now, Dr. Seema Yasmin, CNN medical analyst and a former CDC disease detective.

Dr. Yasmin, always good to see you.

So, there are 18 vaccines in human trials around the world and more than 100 in the pre-clinical phase. This morning, FDA Commissioner Hahn said that the U.S. is on target to reach a vaccine by the end of the year or early 2021.

This is consistent what -- with what Dr. Fauci is saying. What are your thoughts on the timeline?

DR. SEEMA YASMIN, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: This is unprecedented, Jake.