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Attorney General Loretta Lynch Meets Informally with Former President Bill Clinton; Interview with David Axelrod; Security Increased at U.S. Airports; Will Turkey Strike Back Against ISIS? Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired July 01, 2016 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00] JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: -- meeting with the attorney general. So will Loretta Lynch recuse herself from the Clinton e-mail probe that is still underway. Let's begin our coverage with CNN's Jason Carroll. Lots of news in both parties.

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, absolutely. Good morning to you, Jim. Donald Trump certainly has strong opinions about what Lynch should do. He is also making movement on who his vice president should be. All this as Trump continues to take aim at some members of his own part for not supporting him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It was rough primary. They got beat up. But they went after me too. And, you know, we beat them up, and now they don't want to endorse. And, you know, it's almost in some ways like I'm running against two parties.

CARROLL: Donald Trump at war with his own party and defending his protectionist trade agenda.

TRUMP: Why are people upset that we're free trade that I like, that I want to make better deals? I said I want to make better deals with Mexico, I want to make better deals with China. They say Trump is messing with free trade. No. I'm messing with bad deals that I can make good. I can make good deals. Why would somebody fight that?

CARROLL: Trump calling out the U.S. Chamber of Commerce for the second day in a row.

TRUMP: The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, they said, oh, Trump wants to stop free trade. I don't want to stop free trade. I love free trade. But I want to make great deals.

CARROLL: At his rally in New Hampshire, Trump criticized for his latest off-the-cuff comments, making an awkward joke at the expense of Mexico while discussing NAFTA, which he says takes manufacturing jobs away from the U.S.

TRUMP: Their leaders are so much sharper, so much sharper. And it's incredible. In fact that could be a Mexican plane up there, they're getting ready to attack.

CARROLL: Trump drawing more criticism for this exchange with a woman who asked him about using veterans to replace Muslim TSA workers wearing head scarves or hijabs.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Get rid of all these hijabs they wear at TSA. We need the veterans back in there. They fought for this country and defended it. They'll still do it. Thank you.

TRUMP: You know, and we are looking at that.

CARROLL: Trump did not miss an opportunity to slam Hillary Clinton on jobs. Highlighting Clinton's vulnerability among white, blue collar voters, Trump referring to a statement Clinton made at a CNN town hall while talking about her clean energy bill.

HILLARY CLINTON, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We're going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business.

TRUMP: She said I want to put the miners and the mines out of business. Who would vote for her? We want to put our people back to work.

CARROLL: Clinton later apologizing to coal workers for what she called a misstatement.

TRUMP: Our people should have more pride in buying "Made in the USA." Remember the old days?

CARROLL: Clinton quick to point out that Trump benefits from the foreign labor he now scorns.

CLINTON: Trump ties are made in China, Trump suits in Mexico.

CARROLL: All this, as sources tell CNN that New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich are being vetted to be Trump's running mate. Trump intends to announce his pick at the Republican National Convention just weeks away.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARROLL: And the timing of the convention could be key for some in the GOP who are still on the fence about getting behind Trump. Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine said she is waiting to see who Trump will pick as a running mate before she will endorse him. Alisyn, Jim?

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Thank you.

SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: Well, a Justice Department officials say Attorney General Loretta Lynch will not overrule the findings of the FBI and prosecutors if they decide to bring charge against Hillary Clinton over her use of a private e-mail server as secretary of state. Lynch facing a firestorm of criticism after a private meeting with former president Bill Clinton at an airport tarmac in Phoenix this week. Let's discuss with CNN senior political commentator, former

senior advisor to President Obama, David Axelrod. He joins us now. David, thanks so much for joining us this morning. I want to play now for you and our viewers how Loretta Lynch characterized that meeting with Bill Clinton. Let's have a quick listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LORETTA LYNCH, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: He did come over and say hello and speak to my husband and myself, and talk about his grandchildren and his travels, and things like that. So that was the extent of that. And no discussions were held in any cases or anything of that. And he didn't raise anything about that, either.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: So David, she says he didn't raise anything, but Bill Clinton is a seasoned politician with a lot of experience. He knows this investigation is going on. What was he thinking knowing the potential optics in the middle of a difficult presidential race?

DAVID AXELROD, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: That sounds like a rhetorical question.

(LAUGHTER)

AXELROD: I think that -- I don't think he was thinking. And I think that the attorney general made a mistake as well. I absolutely take her at her word. I'm sure they weren't talking about the case. But each of them are sophisticated enough to know that such a meeting would raise eyebrows, and in this hotbed, you know, the hothouse of a presidential campaign, you knew it was going to be an issue. So they should have avoided that situation. The optics were bad.

[08:05:06] CAMEROTA: But David, just to dive deeper there, was former president Clinton not thinking, or was this part of sort of a charm offensive of some kind, that if he goes over and makes nice and they talk about their grandchildren, then it is certainly harder to indict his wife?

AXELROD: You know, I would feel -- I would feel maybe a little more that way if not for decades of experience with Bill Clinton who does that with everybody. I mean, he is the most ebullient character you can find. And he's on a permanent charm campaign with everybody he meets, from the baggage handler at the airport to world leaders. That's who Bill Clinton is. It's just that in this case, he should have exercised some restraint, or someone traveling with him should have said, you know, Mr. President, maybe we should say hello and move on.

And the attorney general -- apparently, it was 108 degrees, and so she said, why don't we step on my plane? The fact that a quick hello turned into a 30 minute conversation is also characteristic of Bill Clinton, who is a garrulous character. So I don't put too much to it, but I do think that it was bad judgment on both their parts. SCIUTTO: OK, so now we've had a fairly quick reaction where you

have just the next day, perhaps realizing the political sensitivity of this, you have Loretta Lynch saying she is going to accept the determinations and findings of FBI prosecutors. The precedent here was Eric Holder overruled his own prosecutors in the case of David Petraeus. She said she is not going to do that. But it's not quite actually a recusal. Do you think that politically, that step is enough?

AXELROD: Well, first of all, I think that the press reports are this was in the works for some time. Obviously the timing of this announcement was probably prompted by the furor over this meeting. And I don't think it will stop those who want to make the point from making it. You know, we're in the middle of a very hotly contested presidential race. There is hardly anything that she could do that would probably satisfy people on the other side.

CAMEROTA: Well, I mean what, about a special prosecutor. That's what the Republican, some Republicans are calling for.

AXELROD: Yes. You know, I think that would be an extraordinary step at this point. You know, what you're saying is basically we don't trust the FBI director, we don't trust the career prosecutors to handle this case. And you know, I think that would be an indictment of them. I don't think that would be the right thing to do.

And at this point, I don't know what the -- I'm not a lawyer. I don't know what the timing would be if you appointed a special prosecutor and whether that would lengthen this process beyond the election, which would create another set of circumstances.

SCIUTTO: Let me ask you, David, because another headline from Donald Trump yesterday talking about how he is running against two parties now, basically saying that openly, I'm not just running against the Democrats, I'm running against the Republicans. We already know the tensions between him and many in the Republican Party. Is this a smart strategy? Because fact is, there are a lot of members of both parties that are not satisfied with the leadership or direction of their parties.

AXELROD: Right. Yes, I mean, it's awkward in the senses about to go something called the Republican National Convention.

(LAUGHTER)

AXELROD: And so that makes it an awkward thing to say. But as a political strategy, look, Donald Trump's calling card is that he is challenging the establishment in Washington, that he is challenging politics as usual, that he is challenging businesses as usual. And I'm sure with particularly independent voters and some disaffected voters in the Republican Party, maybe a few in the Democratic Party, that is what they want to hear. They don't want someone who is a conventional politician. So his willingness to say, you know what, I'm challenging both parties, probably is a smart thing to do.

CAMEROTA: Very quickly, David, What about Tim Kaine, former Virginia governor, who is now in some trouble of some kind that he accepted over the course of eight years $160,000 in gifts, not illegal, most of these were gifts of travel, being able to fly on somebody's plane, he disclosed them, but still, does this sort of color the question of whether or not he would be a suitable VP pick for Hillary Clinton?

AXELROD: Well, I think what it really reflects is that he is high on the list for Hillary Clinton, and I think there are people in both parties who have done a little oppo research in order to do that. As you point out, all of that stuff was disclosed on his form. You know, the reason it becomes relevant is largely because of the case of his successor, Governor McDonnell, whose case was just thrown out by the Supreme Court, but who was convicted for taking gifts from a particular friend/donor for whom he then arranged meetings.

[08:10:14] There is no allegation here that Kaine did anything for anybody. Everything that is being written about he disclosed probably to a fault. There are some things that were probably on the line as to whether he should disclose it or not. But I think you're going to see these things about him, about Elizabeth Warren. That's the nature of politics. There are people who have other preferences.

And on the Republican side, if they believe Tim Kaine is going to be the nominee, they're going to start taking shots at him. Do I think it is disqualifying? No. Do I think it was aimed at slowing him down as a potential running mate? Yes.

CAMEROTA: OK, David Axelrod, thanks so much. Great to see you. Have a great holiday weekend.

AXELROD: OK, good to see you guys. Have a great holiday.

CAMEROTA: Thank you.

All right, back to our top story. Turkish officials tell CNN that they have strong evidence that ISIS leadership was involved in planning the Istanbul airport attack. So this morning, we have new details about the alleged planner and how the attackers got into Turkey. CNN's anchor Brooke Baldwin is live at the Istanbul airport with the latest. We know you have lot of news for us, Brooke.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Alisyn, let's get to it. We now have an I.D. on this guy who authorities believe he was the so called mastermind, the organizer, high, high up in ISIS leadership, a guy by the name of Akhmed Chatayev, actually goes by the nickname Akhmed "One-Arm" because he's missing a hand and he's also apparently missing a leg.

But here's the thing. No one knows where he is. His whereabouts are unknown, and he is believe to be part of this ISIS cell, specifically wanting to target those Turkish facility and also U.S. facility.

And we're also hearing that the attack here at the Istanbul airport a couple of nights ago was purposely orchestrated in that final 10 days of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. So that's number one as far as who they think was in charge of this, orchestrating this.

Number two, we're getting all this detail now as far as where these three suicide bombers were living here in Istanbul in the month leading up to this attack. So we've heard from the senior Turkish official that they had initially come from the ISIS stronghold of Raqqa down in Syria, traveled here, holed themselves up apparently in this apartment, middle class neighborhood, and our correspondent and our crew, Nima Elbagir, they actually, you know, knocked on some doors in that apartment area, talked to the landlord, confirmed with the landlord that in fact these three guys were living there. The landlord has talked to police.

And she talked also to some people who lived in the building. One woman said that in the last few days that there was an odd smell, smelled like chemicals, perhaps she thought maybe it was some sort of gas leak. She also talked to someone else who thought oftentimes these curtains were closed. No one came out of the apartment except to hang their heads out the window and smoke some cigarettes.

My question to Nima was, well, all right, if they had maybe some questions, did they tell authorities? She said one of the women she spoke with did speak up to sort of the elders in the community. But so many foreigners, Jim, you know, live in this particular part or have been moving into this particular part of Istanbul that it wasn't that out of the ordinary, and you just don't go around and question who these people were, Jim.

SCIUTTO: All these things can look shady in retrospect. Hard to say so at the time. Brooke Baldwin, thank you so much.

Back here in the U.S., millions of Americans are ready to hit the roads, rails, airports on this July 4th weekend just days after the attacks in Turkey. There will be heightened security at these transit hubs as well as fireworks gatherings across the country. CNN's Chris Frates is live at D.C.'s Reagan national airport with more. Chris, are you seeing a lot of security there this morning?

CHRIS FRATES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, you see a lot of the security here, Jim. In fact, the July 4th weekend clearly underway as you can see behind me, lots of people arriving, kicking off that long holiday weekend. Here at Reagan national, just walking around the airport you can see that increased security, you can see law enforcement with long guns out. The dogs are out sniffing the queue.

But it is not just here in D.C. It is across the country. In Atlanta, for instance, they have more undercover police officers doing work. And they're particularly focused on those soft targets, places like this where you arrive to the airport before you go to security, where we've seen attacks both in Turkey and in Brussels. The police in Atlanta also looking at local roads. I talked to former TSA administrator John Pistol, and I asked him what to do if there were an active shooter situation. Here is what he told me.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN PISTOLE, FORMER FBI DEPUTY DIRECTOR: The three basic tenants are ride, hide, fight. So if you hear shots, run away from those shots. If you can't run for whatever reason, there are multiple shooters or something, then hide. Do the best job of that. And only as a last resort then do you fight. You try to defend yourself.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[08:15:02] FRATES: Now, officials are always worried about a terror attack, it is important to point out here that homeland security telling CNN there is no specific or credible attacks right now, and that that squares with what I heard from airline executives and officials as well. They don't have any heighten concerns. In fact, they're hoping TSA can move people through the airport security lines quickly. They've spent millions of dollars to help expedite the process.

But looking at the airport lines this morning, guys, I've got it tell you, they're very long. I advise people to get to the airport as early as they can. These are some pretty long lines, Alisyn.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: OK, Chris, good advice. Thank you for that, from Reagan National.

Well, new this morning, a federal judge blocks Mississippi's new religious objections law, which was set to take effect today. The district judge saying that the opt-out would violate the Constitution's equal protection guarantee, while also enabling the state to favor some religions over others.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: The Pentagon releasing a report finding ten U.S. Navy sailors captured by Iran in January suffered from failed leadership at all levels. The report found the sailors veered off course, had no idea they were in Iranian waters when of their boats engines died. Officials say up to six more sailors could be disciplined. The report concluding the Americans did not violate international law, but the Iranians did by seizing the boats, as well as taking these photographs of the crew.

CAMEROTA: Here is some disturbing video out of Denver. In it, a homeless man, with a plastic pipe in his hand. He runs toward people and attempts to beat them. One guy falls down, as you see one man getting up and running away.

The suspect then lunged at another group of people. He hit them. Only one person, we're happy to report, suffered just minor injuries.

The suspect was arrested. A motive is unclear. You know, often, Jim, there's a mental health component with these assaults, as well as homelessness. So --

SCIUTTO: How would you react to that moment? Particularly in this terror environment, you don't know what you would do.

CAMEROTA: I know. I mean, you and I have been talking about this. It's so hard to know. But you have to keep your wits about you on this holiday weekend and everywhere else. And I don't know, self- defense course in my future.

SCIUTTO: I will say, I'll repeat. Counterterror officials all the time, nothing credible or specific. Enjoy the holidays, but we're at new level of awareness now, all of us.

CAMEROTA: OK. That's the balance.

SCIUTTO: The terror attack in Istanbul had all the hallmarks of ISIS. So, what is Turkey's next move? Our Fareed Zakaria will weigh in on the possibilities, right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:21:14] CAMEROTA: Turkey, of course, still reeling from the terror attack this week at Istanbul's airport. Turkey's president is vowing swift action, but how will they strike back against ISIS?

Joining us is CNN's Fareed Zakaria, host of "FAREED ZAKARIA GPS".

Fareed, great to have you on studio.

So, what will Turkey's response be to this?

FAREED ZAKARIA, CNN HOST, "FAREED ZAKARIA GPS": Well, they've been very tough in recent months, and mostly, what that has meant has been allowing the United States to operate in Turkish areas, Turkish bases. In many ways, Turkey is being hit now because it has cooperated with American efforts in Syria.

A year ago, Turkey was quite peaceful. There was none of this was going on. What has changed? What changed is Turkey joined in the American war against ISIS. So --

CAMEROTA: And since then, since October, they've had eight or nine terror attacks, including the largest one ever, 100 people killed. So, a lot has changed in Turkey this month.

ZAKARIA: And ISIS refers to them now as an apostate regime that is allied with the crusaders. So, you know, we need to remember when we talk about this world of, you know, Muslims and West, we want to keep them out, this is a case where a Muslim country is helping us battling ISIS and facing enormous blow back and hundreds of citizens are dying because they have ally with the United States.

SCIUTTO: Mostly Muslim victims of that attack, children, women, it's just crazy.

But until a year ago, I would hear from U.S. officials usually in private this criticism of Turkey as kind of an ambivalent player here, they weren't policing their border, part of them really wanted the fighter, the sort of jihadists to go in, fight there, so they're not our problem.

Now that they're turning this around, had they acted earlier, I suppose, is the question, had they acted earlier, would ISIS be less of a threat now to them and in Syria, frankly?

ZAKARIA: There is no question. I heard the same things you do, Jim. Turkey had an open-door policy. But let's remember why. Again, it is not as crazy as it sounds.

The Turkish government believed that the Assad regime was the problem. You have to destroy it quickly as you can, you had to undermine it. So, their view was anyone who wants to fight the Assad regime is okay with us. Bad policy, stupid policy, because it allowed in a lot of the crazy jihadists, but this is the problem with Syria.

This is why it is complex. And you know, no matter how you try to simplify it, there is the Assad regime on the one hand, which is very bad, but there is principled military opponent, ISIS, which is also very bad. We're against both.

And so, what the Turks did foolishly, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. And what you really have to do a much more nuance complicated policy. They have not achieved that. Turkish foreign policy has been self-defeating in many ways.

I think we should cut them slack and recognize this is a difficult problem. No one quite knows how do it right. The one guy who does is Vladimir Putin, because he has a simple policy. My friend Assad, my ally Assad is all I care about, I'm going to support him -- which is why Russian policy in Syria has been largely successful.

CAMEROTA: So, let's talk about that. I know you sat down with Vladimir Putin, you had an interview. Is it possible that the U.S. and Russia will now partner together to fight ISIS in Syria?

ZAKARIA: Well, on the Middle East and on Syria, his answer was actually I thought both very sensible and also quite pro-American, in the sense. He said look, we agree with the American position that there needs to be a coalition government that comes together that allows for kind of political transition in Syria.

[08:25:03] Our problem is, step one is defeating ISIS both Assad regime, because there has to be a government. The worst thing in Syria would be no government, the collapse of order.

Remember, there are 12 million people living in the area that Assad governs. I tend to agree with him. That you know, Assad is terrible, but the collapse of the Assad regime, and by the way, Assad's regime is where all the minorities are living. This is the area people are flying from ISIS.

So his point is step one, let's kill the jihadi threat and then step two, you have brokered compromise. A lot of people feel if you got step one, step two would never happen, because the Assad regime is not likely, and that's possibly right.

SCIUTTO: The West has mad, a lot of agreements in Russia. Think about agreements on Ukraine, et cetera. So, say you make an agreement, you make some terms here. How do you trust Russia to follow-through?

ZAKARIA: You can trust Russia to follow its national interests. The thing I got out of the meeting with Putin, he is a smart guy, and he is not some guy of megalomaniac trying to take over the world. He follows Russian interests. We have to figure out where can we find an intersection between Russian national interest and American national interests? If we can find that there will be places we can cooperate and they will keep their word.

If you're trying to hope that he is going to somehow become a western liberal Democratic who wants to, you know, join the European Union -- well, yes, that's not going to happen.

SCIUTTO: Fareed Zakaria, always great to have you on.

CAMEROTA: Thanks so much, Fareed.

SCIUTTO: Well, Donald Trump's short list for vice-president is now narrowing. Up next, Michael Smerconish takes us through it and who's got the best shot.

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