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Is Brexit A Done Deal?; U.K. In Damage Control After Brexit Vote; Supreme Court Strikes Down Texas Abortion Law; Supreme Court Vacates Former Governor's Conviction; Benghazi Report: Clinton Should Have Realized Risks; Clinton And Warren Appearance Fuels VP Speculation. Aired 6:30-7a ET.
Aired June 28, 2016 - 06:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[06:30:02] CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: They want to remain. But are they going to counter people's vote? We also know and this is very real that there are two major leadership challenges happening in the two main parties. Obviously the Tory Party since David Cameron lost his side and has now said he will resign and crucially also in the Labor Party which is looking like it's a meltdown right now with dozens and dozen of what they called their shadow cabinet resigning and even more members saying that Corbyn, the leader Jeremy Corbyn has to step down and he's saying, no I'm going to stay.
Anyway there's so much political confusion in house. And into this the prime minister now a lame duck prime minister will be going to Brussels to meet for the first time his fellow 27 other EU heads of government. You know and they say "Well, you know what? We're not going to do any negotiating with you until you fully and formally trigger the official clause," as known as article 50 to begin extracting yourself from Europe.
So it's a little bit we're in unknown territory right now and we're going to wait to see how it progresses really.
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: A catch 22 it sounds like. Christiane thanks so much for explaining all of these and sharing your interviews with us this morning. We will talk to you soon. Let's get over to Chris.
CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Sad news to report this morning. A legendary basketball coach has passed away. We're going to tell you who and what to expect next.
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[06:35:21] VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ACHOIR: Welcome back to "New Day". 25 minutes to the top of the hour now. And supporters of abortion rights are celebrating another Supreme Court ruling this morning. This one overturning a strict Texas law that could have forced dozens of clinics to close.
Now the law required clinics providing abortions to meet the same standards as surgical centers but in a 5-3 decision the court ruled shuttering clinics amounted to burden for women debunking the argument that the law was necessary to protect women's health.
CAMEROTA: OK, a big Supreme Court ruling to tell you about presenting a big setback in efforts to prosecute politicians for corruption. The court tossing out the bribery conviction of former Virginia Governor Robert McDonnell. The justices unanimously found his actions did not constitute a criminal act under the federal bribery law. McDonnell was found guilty in 2014 of accepting thousands of dollars in cash and gift from a CEO in order to promote a dietary supplement.
CUOMO: All right, here's the sad news we were telling you about. It comes out of Tennessee this morning. Legendary women's basketball coach Pat Summitt has died according to a statement from her son. Her health was certainly deteriorating in recent weeks. We just reported on that world coming out of family yesterday. And of course the Lady Vols, I mean Pat Summitt made them. Eight title, 38 years as a head coach. She's the winningest coach in women's basketball history.
Summitt announce her diagnosis of early on set Alzheimer's in 2011. She was only 64-year-old. But what an impact she had in her life. And not just X's and O's, not just wins and losses, the confidence of women's excellence in sport the level they could play at, how they could compete, what it meant for them will never be taken.
BLACKWELL: And to discuss the diagnosis back in 2011 that took a different type of strength and I know a lot of people appreciated that as well.
Well, let's talk about the political blame game which really never ends and now it's heightening over the Benghazi report coming today. Is there a smoking gun implicating Hillary Clinton? We're talking to a congressman on the committee. That's next.
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[06:41:22] HILLARY CLINTON, (D) PRESUMPTIVE NOMINEE: If you look at the statement that I made, I clearly said that it was an attack, and I also said there were some who tried to justify on the basis of the video, congressman and I think --
REP. JIM JORDAN, (R) OHIO: But real quick. It's calling it an attack is like saying the sky is blue. Of course it was an attack. You know what? We want know the truth.
CLINTON: Shortly.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CUOMO: So do we know the truth now after all the hearings and 800 page reports. Some of those 11 hours of testimony. You heard the frustration of Congressman Jim Jordan. That was last October asking then -- about Secretary Clinton's time and the early narrative around the attack on the U.S. outpost in Benghazi.
Now the Republican report coming today does say Clinton should have realized the risks facing personnel in Benghazi but that's too low a bar. This was about accountability. This is about showing that there was some kind of set up that the system had been hiding the truth from us.
So let's talk with Congressman Jordan. He wrote his own addendum to the report and he joins us now. Congressman, tell me if I'm wrong but I read in to your writing of an addendum of frustration with the overall report. No real conclusions by design and it doesn't seem any smoking gun that tells us the truth. Your take.
JORDAN: Now that the overall report I think, it's about the facts what happened. But Mr. Pompey and I felt it was also important to ask the why questions. You know why were we still in Benghazi when almost every other country had left. Why did we stay in Benghazi when the security situation was so terrible, so dangerous? And then why did the administration mislead us? Why did secretary Clinton as your clip described? Why did she try to blame it publicly and mislead the American people and blame it on a video inspired protest that lead to the attack and not just tell the truth which was that it was a terrorist attack from the get go and they knew it from the get go.
CUOMO: But at the end of the day because, look a lot of this is being dismissed as partisan playing that you guys want to put something on Hillary Clinton, you tried every way that you could and now you have an 800 page report --
JORDAN: Not at all --
CUOMO: -- that by design doesn't draw conclusions. Do you believe that Hillary Clinton did things wrong on purpose to set up what happened in Benghazi and then to cover up wt happened at Benghazi?
JORDAN: Here's what I believe, Chris. They were so invested -- and Libya was to be there shining foreign policy success story. They were so invested in this and so committed to this that they didn't look at the facts. When Gaddafi was thrown out in august of 2011 the next 13 months there are 200 security incidents. There's an assassination attempt on the British ambassador.
One D.S. agent who went and came back describe that Benghazi like this, he said it's a suicide mission. Everyone is going to die. So that was the security posture. They were so invested in this they had to say. And then 9/11, 2012 happens and there's a terrorist attack and there are 56 days before an election.
And so the evidence shows rather strongly that they misled the American people and said we can't tell the truth, we can't talk about how bad the security situation was. We can't talk about the fact that this was a terrorist attack. We have to mislead the American people because we're eight weeks before an election. This was supposed to be our legacy.
So let's say it was caused by the video. And they stuck with that message publicly even though privately they were conveying the truth to everyone and saying it was a terrorist attack. Like the e-mail that Secretary Clinton sent to her daughter the night of the attack where she said we know terrorists killed two of our people. That's what she said privately.
But publicly that same night, while Tyrone Woods is still on the roof of the annex, she's telling the American someone sought to justify this viscous behavior as to response to inflammatory material on the internet. That was the problem. And no administration to do that. You can't --
[06:45:03] CUOMO: But as you know and as we've discussed before Secretary Clinton says that she was getting different reports on the intelligence and that was the reflection of the different statements and nothing that, you know, you guys didn't give us the whole report. You only gave us 200 pages. We'll get some later, which is odd. But we can discuss that at another time. But do you have anything to prove that she knew one thing but said something else, that it wasn't about changing intelligence?
JORDAN: Yes, we have her statements because while the intelligence --
CUOMO: But she said your statements changed because the Intel changed.
JORDAN: But the point is Chris, the Intel did change but her statements didn't. They were consistently publicly they blamed the video and consistently privately they said it was a terrorist attack because the people in Libya knew right from the start there was no protest.
Greg Hicks was asked about that. He said "If there had been a protest would Ambassador Stevens reported it. And Greg Hicks his testimony was absolutely. For there to have been a protest and for this ambassador as good as was, one of the best we had not to report it is unbelievable. Of course he would have reported it.
CUOMO: All right.
JORDAN: No one reported it. So her story didn't change even though the intelligence did. And that's what we point out in what Mike and I wrote.
CUOMO: OK, so that's one issue. Another issue is and I know you take up several, people going to have to read the reports and your addendum for themselves obviously. Was about the role of the military.
Now, the idea that the military didn't do all it could or was held back from doing what it should have done, Lieutenant General Dana Chipman as you know said multiple times in interviews that's not true. The military did what it was supposed to do. You don't buy that why?
JORDAN: Well, what we know is this. No assets were put in motion before the attack was even over. No assets ever got to Libya until 23 hours after the attack had started. And they didn't get to Benghazi they got to Tripoli.
So, with the one thing we concluded in our report is, we didn't seem to have the urgency that was needed, we didn't move heaven and earth to get help to people who were fighting for their lives. And that's a problem. Why that happened? We tried to get, you know, ask those questions to get answers. We're continuing to look.
In fact the military Department of Defense just delivered some documents to us yesterday, the day before our report goes out.
CUOMO: Right.
JORDAN: So we continue to try to get information. But what we do know is that they didn't move heaven and earth there to get people there in a timely fashion to help our folks who were fighting for their lives.
CUOMO: We also know that retired army Lieutenant General David Chipman who worked as the chief lawyer for the Republicans on this came to a different conclusion. But people have to read the report, take it for themselves. Congressman, appreciated for making the case on "New Day".
JORDAN: Thank you.
CUOMO: All right. Alisyn?
CAMEROTA: All right. Elizabeth Warren playing Democratic pit bull against Donald Trump on the campaign trail with Hillary Clinton. Is there a new alliance. A preview of what Clinton is looking for in a running mate.
That's next.
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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[06:50:46] SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN, (D) MASSACHUSETTS: What kind of a man roots for people to lose their jobs, to lose their homes, to lose their life savings. I'll tell you what kind of a man. A small, insecure, money grubber who fights for nobody but himself.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CAMEROTA: All right, that was Senator Elizabeth Warren joining forces with Hillary Clinton on the campaign trail to take on Donald Trump. Their joint appearance fueling V.P. speculation.
Let's discuss this with Margaret Hoover CNN Political Commentator, Republican Consultant and former White House staffer for President George W. Bush. And CNN Political Analyst and Editor-and-Chief of the "Daily Beast", John Avlon. Great to have you guys.
JOHN AVLON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Good morning.
MARGARET HOOVER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Good Morning.
CAMEROTA: OK, so Elizabeth Warren has certainly proven her willingness to go after Donald Trump, Margaret is that good enough for a V.P. slot?
HOOVER: For Hillary Clinton having Elizabeth Warren standing there endorsing her is exactly what she needs. I mean, what we've seen in the frankly increasing dissatisfaction, 45 percent of Republicans are still unsatisfied with Donald Trump, and what's happened is it's really create this avenue for the Democratic Party to pull further left. I mean, we have known that Hillary Clinton needs to shore up the Bernie Sanders folks and Elizabeth Warren is the one ticket to do that.
But the contents of what has come out of her mouth yesterday is just material that is policy wise so far left and pulling the Democratic Party even further.
CAMEROTA: So not if he said.
AVLON: I mean, no.
HOOVER: She benefits now from saying that she's betting her. I mean, this is what Hillary Clinton gets a strategic benefit from saying Elizabeth Warren and the posture and the theatrics and kabuki theater of making everybody saying, look maybe they could --
AVLON: It's a little early for Kabuki Theater. Look, I think that, you know --
HOOVER: Never too early.
AVLON: Elizabeth Warren was on fire yesterday in Cincinnati. Really was a very strong speech. Look she delights in taking the wood to Donald Trump. She had great lines in favor of Hillary some of the best I've seen and heard in a while. You know a great line about having, you know, thick skin, steady hand and a tough and a good heart.
You know, so she's a great advocate. The problem is that, you know, Hillary Clinton's main concern right now should not be shoring up her left. That's going to happen by transit of property simply because she's going to be running at Donald Trump. She should be nominating somebody who can help reach out and win over the reasonable edge of the opposition, dissatisfied Republicans in swing voters in swing states.
So, Elizabeth Warren that ticket doesn't really seem to do that. And that's a fundamental problem ,but --
HOOVER: Which is why this is putzy. I mean this is why it's not a sincere effort. It is theatrics and what it does -- it's serves the purpose of solidifying the Sanders camp. Sanders not out yet.
CUOMO: Look, whatever pageantry is going on, whether it's a test, whether it isn't, whether it just for her to have that left help here. What I'm saying is that when you listen to the speech doesn't it kind of just bring home what the state of play is right now? If it's good for Elizabeth Warren's chances to be V.P., to basically call out Donald Trump the way it happened at my schoolyard when I was in fifth grade and we're saying that shores up her left, saying that he's a greedy little orange, whatever you called it. That is what she just said.
HOOVER: No, but it doesn't matter what she says. CUOMO: The state of play. I know it doesn't matter what she says and that's what I'm saying should matter. Isn't it depressing you at all as especially you such a purist of political dogma that this is what it's about? That she might be V.P. because she can insult Donald Trump really well?
AVLON: Elizabeth --
HOOVER: We don't look at that.
CUOMO: And that he's formidable against her because he calls her Pocahontas. And when he doesn't we say he made a smart pivot. He's getting more professional.
AVLON: Chris, this is and for all going to boil in pot of water. We've been defying political debate down aggressively since last year, right? And yeah well --
CUOMO: What the frog in that (inaudible) by the way.
HOOVER: We're American people.
(CROSSTALK)
AVLON: But I mean, you know, so sure. But look politics been bad (ph) and they're going to need someone who has more than your typical degree of attack dog in the V.P.
CUOMO: But you think you going to out angry Trump.
AVLON: No, no, no.
CUOMO: She didn't -- they don't offer any reason that your lives will be better. There is no policy idea. There is no metaphor effect of a message. There's no reason to believe in anything other than the fact than wow you really like to take it at Donald Trump. Maybe you should be V.P. That's the standard?
[06:55:01] AVLON: That's not going to be sufficient. Look, ultimately a V.P. always plays attack dog, you know, that. And that's part of the role. So the presidential nominee can be a little bit above.
But this is going to get one ultimately on people who appeal to people sense of hope with a sense of policy not simply anger and a void.
CUOMO: Do you see that?
HOOVER: Yeah, you know what --
CUOMO: You see, where's the hope?
HOOVER: Those with policy --
AVLON: Look, that was like there not has been in policy.
CUOMO: To hope that maybe they're getting to fist fight on the debate stage? Like, you know, what's hope? What the hope that were selling here?
HOOVER: So you and I all know what Elizabeth Warren stand for. Its break up the big banks. It's a big money guys. It's the Wall Street.
CUOMO: They say that, and say why, and say how.
HOOVER: And you know what though? She took a lot of grief for her far left yesterday for showing up for Hillary Clinton, who's taking a huge amount of donation from Wall Street, who is not in favor of breaking up the big banks.
CUOMO: And you know how you deal with your supporters and the people you try to win over. You make the case. And just making the case that he's a bum should not be enough.
AVLON: Hey look, it's not enough.
HOOVER: A Donald Trump is a great unifier.
AVLON: Where in that veep speculation stage right now and people are effectively auditioning in public. That the point is, it's not simply a binary choice. You know that Hillary, Warren ticket may feel good in the left but probably (inaudible). I'm a frog in a pot of water.
AVLON: Yes, you are.
CAMEROTA: We're been wrap eight times that we're having so much fun that we're continuing. But we got to go.
AVLON: A frog in pot of water.
CUOMO: All right, one of the big issues that does deserve discussion you should be asking for more about it in exact detail is Donald Trump's ban on Muslims. Is it a ban? Is it complete? Is he shifting.? Is he scared? What he is saying now. There's a big memo coming out. This matters.
We have the latest when we come back.
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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[07:00:05] CLINTON: I've made mistakes. I know trust has to be earned.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The House report on Benghazi to become public.
There doesn't seem to be a smoking gun.