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President Trump Has Made Surprise Trip To Visit Our Men And Women In Uniform In Afghanistan; Justice Department's I.G. Expected To Announce Finding Which Debunks Falsehood About The Russia Investigation Thriving Among Trump Supporters. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired November 28, 2019 - 14:00   ET

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

[14:00:34]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN HOST: Hi there. I'm Brooke Baldwin. You are watching a Special Edition of CNN NEWSROOM. Happy Thanksgiving to you.

We begin with some breaking news. We have just found out that President Trump, of course, the Commander-in-Chief has now made this surprise trip to visit our men and women in uniform in Afghanistan. So let's go straight to our White House reporter, Jeremy Diamond who just got this piece of news; and Jeremy, so he is overseas.

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: That's right, Brooke. We are just getting this in right now that President Trump is indeed in Afghanistan, where he is visiting with troops stationed abroad there, and he also apparently had a bilateral meeting with the President of Afghanistan. This is the early information we're getting, and I'm getting more on my phone right now.

BALDWIN: I'm going to interrupt you, Jeremy, here he is. Here is the President.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: ... and have that totally taken care of in a very short period of time. And we'll see what happens.

The Taliban wants to make a deal. We'll see if they want to make a deal. It has got to be a real deal, but we'll see. But they want to make a deal. And they only want to make a deal because you're doing a great job.

That's the only reason they want to make a deal, so I want to thank you. And I want to thank the Afghan soldiers who are really -- I've spoken to a lot of you today, and you say they're really fighting hard. I was very impressed with that, actually. So I want to thank you.

And General Milley again, to be at Bagram Airfield. I've heard so much about it. It's an incredible place. This is some -- some airfield, some fortress. I want to thank all of the Afghanistan troops. We have a lot of them here actually. We have a number of them standing around saying hello and waving and we appreciate it.

And I also say to you, just at ease, let's just enjoy ourselves for a couple of minutes, I'm going to introduce a few people. But there's nowhere I'd rather to celebrate this Thanksgiving than right here with the toughest, strongest, best and bravest warriors on the face of the Earth. You are indeed that.

You know, when I took office, if you can believe it, almost three years ago, we were very depleted. Our military was depleted in terms of equipment, you see, right? They're all shaking their heads. That's right.

We have all those brand new planes and brand new helicopters and brand new ships being built now -- brand new, incredible submarines. Probably the most powerful submarines, probably the most powerful weapon in the world is what we're building. The foremost submarines -- nobody is -- nothing is even close. But we have things that nobody has seen, nobody has heard about and we'll keep it that way.

But we've spent two and a half trillion dollars -- very close to that number -- and very shortly, it'll be a two and a half trillion dollars. And while I don't love that, you know what that does to my budget because I'm a budget person, we don't have a strong military budget. I'm still mad. How much do they have?

I care enough to worry about budgets? So with what's going on in the world today, very important. Two and a half trillion dollars, and nobody beats our great Army, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard, Marines.

And we think soon, we're going to be adding a thing called -- space -- you know about that, right? Space.

[CHEERING]

TRUMP: We're going to have space covered very well. We're covering it now, but we have to cover it to a much greater extent, and you'll be hearing about that in the coming days and weeks.

I've just come from serving Thanksgiving dinner to some of you. I recognize already some of you in the audience and with General Milley and the folks and we had a good time. ' I then got down, I sat down and had that gorgeous piece of turkey and I was all set to go and I had some of the mashed potatoes that I had a bite of mashed potatoes. And I never got to the turkey because General Milley said, come on over, sir. Let's take some pictures. I never got to my turkey. It's the first time in Thanksgiving that I've never had anything called turkey, but that's okay.

But it looked awfully good, I have to tell you that. I should have started with that instead of the mashed potatoes. I made a mistake. But I hope everyone enjoyed the fantastic meal. It certainly did look good and hopefully everyone can get some well-deserved rest this holiday. Your family at home and they love you so much.

We flew 8,331 miles to be here tonight for one simple reason, to tell you in person, that this Thanksgiving is a special Thanksgiving. We're doing so well.

[14:05:09]

TRUMP: Our country is the strongest economically it's ever been, we have never done so well. We have the greatest economy anywhere in the world. So it's nice to know that you're fighting for something that is doing well as opposed to something that was not doing well just a number of years ago.

Our stock markets reached the highest level ever in the history of the exchanges -- all three. If you look, all three. It's incredible. It's incredible what's happening. It just broke a record. I think it's close to 130 days so we're less than three years and 130 times, we've broken the all-time record and to me that doesn't mean an all- time record, it means something different. It means jobs. It means 401(k).

People come up to me with their 401(k) and say, sir, you've made me look like a genius. Thank you very much. You know, they're up 78 percent. They feel good.

So I would just want to say that we thank God for your health and all of the things that you've done. You are a very special people, and you don't even know how much the people of our country love and respect you, and they do. That's why I'm here. I'm just bringing the message.

The courageous American warriors in Afghanistan and across the region are leading the fight to vanquish America's enemies and defeat forces of radical Islamic terrorism.

I would say it so often during the campaign, that's what we're doing. Together, we're making tremendous progress. Just a few weeks ago, as you know, and as President Ghani mentioned, U.S. Special Forces brought the world's number one most wanted terrorist to justice.

When the President said more important than Osama bin Laden, I would say that look, you know, different than -- he was an organizer. Al Baghdadi was an organizer. He was the founder of ISIS. He was the father if you want to call him that of ISIS. I think he wasn't so happy three weeks ago when he saw those incredible 67 men in that case just come pouring down onto where he was staying and that didn't work out too good.

And we have a new national hero. You know who that is, right? Conan. Conan is a new -- is our new grade hero and Conan was at the White House the other day, you might have seen it. And it was something, but the animal known as al Baghdadi, the founder, the leader of ISIS, the man who was trying to reinstitute ISIS because we've defeated -- we have a hundred percent of the ISIS Caliphate and Syria is now ours.

He is dead. His second is dead. His third -- we have the sights on the third. I think the third doesn't want the job.

[LAUGHTER]

TRUMP: Instead he said, you know what? Maybe I'll go work at a store or something.

But Baghdadi was a savage and soulless monster who raped, tortured and slaughtered the innocent, including many, many Americans.

When you saw those folks, those great people in the orange jumpsuits, oftentimes standing on a beach with a thug behind him and a big knife. That was all al Baghdadi, but he is gone.

BALDWIN: All right, so surprise. Here you have it. The President of the United States, the Commander-in-Chief there at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, visiting our men and women in uniform, sharing some turkey breaking some bread on this special Thanksgiving holiday.

And you know, it is tradition oftentimes with a Commander-in-Chief during the holiday to make a surprise visit to a war zone. This is the second time in a U.S. military combat zone that President Trump has found himself -- and remember last Christmas, he surprised everyone by flying over to Iraq.

But we'll have a conversation out of this. But let's just remember the backdrop. It has been quite a week with regard to you know, this White House and the Commander-in-Chief, most notably the Navy Secretary, Richard Spencer, abruptly resigned and also at a rally earlier this week, the President referred to the Pentagon as Deep State.

So just the backdrop as we have this conversation, both with Jeremy Diamond and Barbara Starr. Barbara, first to you. Let's start with just what we know about this trip. And do we know if he's still in country?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: I suspect at this point, either he has just left or is about to leave, because security for these trips for any President of the United States is always very tight. The trips are not announced, and anyone who is traveling with him certainly is sworn to secrecy. It is very dicey business to get a President in and out of a war zone.

They come in on aircraft. They have to be protected in the skies at all time. Usually, there are helicopters and radars and other assets up for a full -- what you would call an air defense picture -- to protect against any possibility of the aircraft being shot at or the President and his party being attacked on the ground.

[14:10:19]

STARR: Bagram Air Base, north of the capital of Kabul, many of us have been there many times. It is a very interesting place. They have a long runway. It is heavily protected. There are not significant populations on several sides of that very large base.

So it's not surprising that he would go there. It's a place where he can be much more readily protected. And if they need to move him quickly in and out of the area with that large airfield, it's much more logical for him to be there. So far from the video we've seen, he seems a bit subdued. We're not

at least so far seeing the big influx of or any so far of those red caps, Make America Great Again that we saw last year in Iraq that were very controversial for the troops engaging in that kind of political statement.

It's been a very tough week for the highest levels of the U.S. military and General Milley, the chairman who is standing just next to the Afghan President, Ashraf Ghani, well aware of it.

Milley as Chairman is there to try and get the peace negotiations going again with the Taliban and the Afghan government and try and find a way to make some forward progress on getting this 18-year war to draw to a conclusion, but it is still very rough going, 13,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: I want to come back to you and all of your reporting, just looking at military relations and this White House in just a second, Barbara, but Jeremy, just over to you. Can you just remind us, I mean, this week between Richard Spencer's resignation, what the President said at the rally, and then here you have him, you know appropriately so thanking our men and women for everything they do for our country. It's just -- it's quite the juxtaposition.

DIAMOND: Yes, it certainly is. And I think it's notable that the President is not bringing those issues up while he is in Afghanistan with the troops. He has not so far, from what we can tell from the tape that we just viewed, you know, referenced any of the pardons that he issued for the three service members who were accused of war crimes or his interference in the case of Eddie Gallagher, which ultimately resulted in the ouster of his Navy Secretary Richard Spencer.

And he also hasn't referenced the criticism that he has faced from Richard Spencer and privately from military officials who have been talking to Barbara in particular, expressing their concerns about the President's politicization of the military and those actions.

Brooke, I do want to just kind of underscore the incredible secrecy that kind of took place in order to get the President to Afghanistan.

The President we're told, left Florida secretly last night at 7:20 p.m. He then flew on a secret trip to Joint Base Andrews, which was just outside of Washington, where he then boarded Air Force One in order to fly to Bagram Air Base.

Reporters who were on the trip actually were not told where the President was going, where they were going alongside him until they were actually in the air on their way to Afghanistan. That is actually even more secretive than what happened when Vice President Mike Pence went to Afghanistan two years ago, I was on that trip, and we had been told ahead of time, sworn to secrecy, of course, but told ahead of time that the Vice President's destination would be to Afghanistan.

So clearly here, far more security precautions were taken. We are told that the plane was dark when they landed at Bagram Air Base in order to avoid any kind of detection and reporters were only just now given access back to their phones in order to report this news that the President is indeed in Afghanistan, his first visit there, his second visit to a combat zone after he was in Iraq last Christmas.

BALDWIN: No, it is extraordinary. Just to think of the choreography that goes into a POTUS visit somewhere like this, like a middle of a combat zone.

Let me come back to you and bring in actually two more voices. I have retired Lieutenant Colonel Rachel VanLandingham. She is a former U.S. Air Force Judge Advocate; also with me, CNN Military Analyst and Retired Air Force Colonel, Cedric Leighton.

And Colonel Leighton, let me let me start with you, because, you know, today, of course, like -- and you see the men and women in uniform, I just instantly think of so many of them who are, you know, eating their turkey miles and miles away from their loved ones, and they have to be paying attention, right, to of course, this surprise visit from the President, but also the tensions as I mentioned a moment ago between the President and the Pentagon.

And I'm wondering, just from people you're talking to in the military, do they feel like this country has their backs?

CEDRIC LEIGHTON, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Oh, I think Brooke they really do feel that the country has their back. What they're worried about is that the juxtaposition that you so accurately described here. On the one hand, you have the President doing something really good by going into a combat zone, like Afghanistan.

[14:15:06]

LEIGHTON: On the other hand, you have the question of, you know, does the President really support the military chain of command and the ability of the military to take care of its own and to mete out justice when it is required in a case like we dealt with this past week?

So you have a very different view in some places. I think some people are conflicted about it. But in the broad run, they're happy that he is at least in the war zone right now.

BALDWIN: Colonel VanLandingham, one piece of reporting from Barbara Starr, she has, you know, all of this great stuff today from her military sources, and she said that at least two senior military officers were reluctant to appear alongside this President at events in recent months because of, you know, any unease that he may make partisan political remarks while they were present.

And we had similar reporting during the President's Fourth of July military parade. You see several officials flanking him today there at Bagram Air Base. What's your reaction to that?

COL. RACHEL VANLANDINGHAM (RET), FORMER U.S. AIR FORCE JUDGE ADVOCATE: Well, I think those senior military commanders were justifiably concerned and remain justifiably concerned that President Trump is so in chaos and dissent within the military, and that he is politicizing the military in order to further his craven political desires. And we've seen that time and time again.

It was really interesting, Brooke, to see the President rightly in Afghanistan. During his speech, he talked about the millions and millions of dollars he is throwing to the military industrial complex, and purchasing submarines and planes.

But he didn't talk about the damage he is doing to the greatest resource of the U.S. military and that is its people and the trust of the rank and file in its leadership, not just senior level military commanders, but senior leaders, leaders, such as Chief Gallagher, leaders that need to be held accountable when they set terrible examples and cross the line into illegality by condoning war crimes, by pardoning those have been convicted by their fellow military members and whose convictions beyond a reasonable doubt have been upheld in courts of law -- in appellate courts of law.

President Trump is sending a message that he doesn't trust his commanders to ensure justice. He doesn't trust his commanders to ensure that the American troops will be fighting according to American values. What kind of subversion and what kind of corrosion does that plant within individuals that have to trust their commanders, when they say, take that hill, go on that fight? Right?

It's really, really troubling, and he skirted that whole issue today.

BALDWIN: I hear you. One, him standing up there and talking about all the fancy military toys and of course also boasting about the U.S. economy, but at the same time, back to you, do you give the man credit for showing up? He is there.

VANLANDINGHAM: A hundred percent. The Commander-in-Chief has to do his duty and his duty includes going out to the war zones to see the troops and thanking them in person, but he can thank them in person to a much greater degree and a much important way by sending a message that he trusts his commanders. He trusts the chain of command he trusts them.

It was uniformed military members that convicted Lieutenant Lorance of murder, of slaughter. President Trump just mentioned al Baghdadi and al Baghdadi engaged in slaughter. Guess what? Some of our troops -- very, very few -- some of our troops lose the moral restraint and commit slaughter on the battlefield as well and their fellow troops sit in judgment and convict them.

President Trump says he doesn't trust them on that regard.

BALDWIN: Colonel Leighton, what do you think?

LEIGHTON: I would agree with Lieutenant Colonel VanLandingham that there are so many aspects of this that she so rightly points out are very troubling.

The chain of command is a very, very important aspect of the effectiveness of the American military. President Trump, you know, made some really grave mistakes by inserting himself, using bad advice to get into the whole Gallagher case and the other two cases that dealt with basically people who had been convicted of war crimes.

And in many ways, their sentences had already been mitigated because of extenuating circumstances that justice system was working. And now from an operational perspective, it also has the corrosive effect of really limiting the ability of the chain of command to do the things that it needs to do in order to effectively prosecute a war fight. And that is why this becomes so important.

So in essence, what the President is trying to do is have things both ways. You know, on the one hand, he wants to go with his base and, you know, do the things that his base wants him to do, like in the Eddie Gallagher case.

But on the other hand, he also wants to exercise his authority as Commander-in-Chief. And what he is doing here in Afghanistan, absolutely the right thing to do for a Commander-in-Chief, but it shows that there is no coherent strategy.

BALDWIN: Your insight, both of you, is absolutely invaluable. Thank you for, of course, also all your sacrifices for this great country, Lieutenant Colonel VanLandingham, Colonel Leighton, I appreciate both of you very, very much.

And we'll come back to Barbara Starr and all of her reporting at the top of the next hour.

We've also now learned that the Department of Justice's review of the Russian inquiry did not find proof of Trump's claim that the F.B.I. spied on his campaign. So how can the President's defenders continue to push this lie?

[14:20:08]

BALDWIN: Plus, as prosecutors look into Rudy Giuliani, where is the President's lawyer most exposed legally?

You're watching CNN. Happy Thanksgiving. I'm Brooke Baldwin. We will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:25:06]

BALDWIN: We are back. You are watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin. Remember investigating the investigators? Well, the Justice Department's Inspector General Michael Horowitz is expected to announce a finding which further debunks this falsehood about the Russia investigation thriving among Trump supporters that it began after the F.B.I. spied on the 2016 Trump campaign.

So "The New York Times" is reporting that Horowitz, the I.G. quote, " ... found no evidence that the F.B.I. attempted to place undercover agents or informants inside Donald J. Trump's campaign ..." discrediting much of what has been heard over and over on Fox News. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS CHANNEL HOST: Major developments again tonight on the Deep State spying on the Trump campaign.

REP. JIM JORDAN (R-OH): To spy on the Trump campaign.

LAURA INGRAHAM, FOX NEWS CHANNEL HOST: Spy on the Trump campaign.

RUDY GIULIANI, PRESIDENT TRUMP'S ATTORNEY: I'm shocked to hear that they put a spy in the campaign.

HANNITY: Deep State spying scheme.

HOGAN GIDLEY, WHITE HOUSE DEPUTY PRESS SECRETARY: Spy inside the Trump campaign, back to the F.B.I.

HANNITY: F.B.I. spies or maybe two spies.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It looks as if there could have been a second spy.

HANNITY: These spy revelations.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Spies in this campaign --

REP. DEVIN NUNES (R-CA): ... ran a spy ring.

GREGG JARRETT, FOX NEWS CHANNEL LEGAL ANALYST: A spy to infiltrate his campaign.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: All right, you will also remember Attorney General Bill Barr even edpush this conspiracy theory last spring.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WILLIAM BARR, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: I think spying on a political campaign is a big deal. I think that spying that did occur. Yes, I think spying did occur.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: With me now, our CNN Legal Analyst, Michael Zeldin and Jennifer Rodgers. They are both former Federal prosecutor. So happy, Happy Thanksgiving and thanks for hanging out with me on the holiday, you two.

Jen Rodgers, you first with this -- with this I.G. report, how can the President's defenders continue to push this lie?

JENNIFER RODGERS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, I don't know whether they will or won't continue to push it, but they will have some nuggets, I think out of the I.G. report that they'll kind of spin to those to continue this narrative at least a little bit. We know from reporting that the report will find some wrongdoing by an

F.B.I. lawyer, for example, who is no longer with the agency. So they may try to kind of pick and choose little tiny portions that they can continue it with.

But the broad narrative for anyone paying attention really has to stop that the investigation was improperly predicated. And I hope that, you know, not only the Trump supporters will start saying it on cable news and that Trump himself will stop, but the Attorney General will actually come out, support his Inspector General's report and take back what he said about the spying last year. We'll see.

BALDWIN: We'll see. We'll see. Because you're right, the I.G. report is also going to show that the F.B.I. didn't entirely act above board either, Michael. So what do you think? Does this go away?

MICHAEL ZELDIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: No, it doesn't go away. They always cling to a false narrative, and they'll find, as Jennifer says, some parts to cling to here.

What we have to wait for though is the other shoe to drop which is that John Durham and Bill Barr are conducting a parallel investigation, parallel to Inspector General Horowitz, and if they come up with a different conclusion, and you have the dueling narratives, then this thing will last.

If Durham and Barr come up with the same conclusion, the two particular points are whether or not there was proper basis to get a court ordered FISA warrant against Carter Page, which the court had said there was and/or whether this guy, Professor Mifsud was a F.B.I. agent when he spoke to Papadopoulos about the Russians having Hillary Clinton's e-mails. Horowitz debunks that.

So if those two things are debunked by Barr and Durham, then the overarching narrative here has to go away for anyone who is really being serious about paying attention to the facts.

BALDWIN: Let's turn the page and talk Rudy Giuliani, the President's personal attorney and Jen, you know, we're continuing to learn more about the President's attorney, his dealings in Ukraine.

As you and I were chatting, you know, yesterday the news coming out that he was reportedly pursuing this $200,000.00 business contract with Ukraine's top prosecutor at the time. How serious are these allegations against Rudy Giuliani?

RODGERS: Well, how much time do we have? Because a lot of allegations swirling the reported subpoena that was issued to someone about Rudy Giuliani and his company, had a lot of different crimes listed there.

You know, the problem is we just don't know enough yet. We don't know the basis of the business that he was doing, trying to do in Ukraine. So it's really hard to say what liability he may have there.

I think he has liability on the extortion and bribery scheme that he was undertaking in Ukraine on behalf of the President.

Other than that, we're just going to have to wait, but the big question mark for me is what was going on with the removal of Marie Yovanovitch? Because if part of the reason for his pushing to remove Yovanovitch was because of business dealings that he had there, perhaps with Parnas and Fruman, perhaps with other people, then that could expose him to various criminal liability including for the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act which bars American citizens from bribing officials overseas in business matters.

[14:30:10]