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Comey to Testify Thursday; Russia Planted Fake News; Iran Terror Attack; Job Openings Hit High; Wonder Woman Number One Hit. Aired 8:30-9:00a ET

Aired June 07, 2017 - 08:30   ET

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

[08:30:00] SEN. MARK WARNER (D), VIRGINIA: Allow the American public to make that judgment.

The one thing about our intelligence leaders are, they're supposed to be non-political. They're supposed to speak truth to power. And they're supposed to be responsive no matter whether they work for Republicans and Democrats. And whether it's Dan Coats, Admiral Rogers or Jim Comey, I have great respect for all of them. But if we have evidence that the president of the United States intervened in an investigation and asked Coats and Rogers to back off, and then we have Director Comey tomorrow describing the series of conversations he had with the president and the fact that he felt uncomfortable. Why did he feel uncomfortable? Why did he have to produce memos? We know that he was fired partially because the president wanted to take the pressure off the Russia investigation. He acknowledged that to the Russians and then he basically slurred Jim Comey's name in front of the Russians. That's just unacceptable.

But if we see this pattern of constant intervention, it raises to me a huge amount of questions because, Chris, this is even before we get to the details of the number of contacts and types of contacts that took place during the campaign between Trump officials and the Russians. Then we had the president saying after the election there was no ties, no contacts with the Russians. That's just not true because we've had General Flynn resign because he didn't talk about his contacts with the Russians. We've had the Attorney General Sessions recuse himself because he didn't disclose contacts with the Russians. We've had one of the president closest advisers, Mr. Kushner, not acknowledge he had a series of contacts with the Russians during the transition.

Why so many contacts with the Russians when we know, and there's 100 percent certainty from all of the intelligence community, not elected officials, the intelligence community, that the Russians massively tried to intervene in our elections to throw the election, not just to sew chaos, but to throw the election towards Mr. Trump, and what we've seen more recently, evidence that they tried to interfere in a number of states in terms of our electoral process.

This is serious - extraordinarily serious business and I think I'll leave it to the judgment of the American people if we see the president in an unprecedented way not intervene once or twice but at least three times and how many - how many more times with intelligence officials to say, back off and back off on an active investigation of people that are close to this president.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Well, let's hear what's said today and tomorrow and, obviously, that will put meat on the bones for the American people surely.

Two other quick questions.

WARNER: Sure.

CUOMO: First, we had two Republicans on today, both in the House. One of them said, I'll tell you what the real story is for Comey is what happened on that tarmac with Clinton. And we had another one say, well, that's nonsense. That was during the campaign. But I'll tell you what the real story is, is this wrongful unmasking we know about done for political reasons. What do you make of those two assertions?

WARNER: Well, I make of those assertions that I'm sure those kind of questions are going to get asked. I think what you are seeing from some of my Republican colleagues, and not from the committee, you know, our Senate Intelligence Committee, Democrat and Republican alike, we're committed to getting to the truth, following the facts.

But I think you're seeing some other Republicans, particularly House members, where there's maybe not been as organized an effort, try to throw up other stories. I think it's more than a little bit curious that the president chose this morning as the time to announce his new FBI head, who, by the way, I understand has got a pretty good reputation. There will be a time and place to review him. But it seems to me that this is an effort to try to take people's attention off what is going to be the main event, at least for the next two days.

CUOMO: So what do you -

WARNER: The leaders of our intelligence community and the former FBI director - think about this for a minute, Chris.

CUOMO: Yes, sir.

WARNER: The president fired the guy that was in charge of the investigation into individuals that were close to this president and their possible collaboration with the Russians. I mean you can't make this stuff up.

CUOMO: Right. But that was a political judgment and there were plenty on your side of the aisle that were calling for Comey's head for a long time. So what do you want to hear from him tomorrow that you believe is of the greatest import?

WARNER: Well, I think you have to take these two days actually in series. If we have today Coats and Rogers not denying that these conversations took place, and particularly with Rogers I believe we will have additional evidence to point out that there was a conversation, that he felt pressured, there was a need to memorialize it. If you have those two contacts in what I would call inappropriate at the least and then you have Jim Comey finally telling his side of the story. Jim Comey, whether you liked him or didn't like him, this is a guy of high integrity that was well respected by all his colleagues at the FBI, who even the president has already acknowledged that he fired him because of the FBI investigation. Then he went in front of the Russians and smeared Jim Comey's name and basically said he was firing him to try to take the pressure off from the Russia investigation.

[08:35:22] I want Jim Comey to tell his side of the story of what happened. And if you take these facts in total, I think the American public is going to start, maybe not reaching a full conclusion, because we haven't even gotten to the meat of this investigation -

CUOMO: Right.

WARNER: Which is, what happened before the election.

CUOMO: Right, right.

WARNER: And why so many contacts during the transition when the president said there were no contacts at all.

CUOMO: Understood. Senator, let's see what is said and, please, do me a favor. Once we've heard the testimony, come back on the show can we - so we can test what it means to you and what it could mean to the American people. Thank you for joining us, sir.

WARNER: You got it, Chris. Thank you.

CUOMO: Alisyn.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: OK, Chris.

Russian hackers reportedly behind a fake news story that has sparked new tension in the Middle East with nine countries cutting diplomatic ties to Qatar as a result. What will President Trump do?

CUOMO: And, history, or actually her-story, at the box office. "Wonder Woman," number one movie in the country. Biggest debut for a woman director ever. The director joins us live, next, and we will discuss why I always wanted to be Wonder Woman.

CAMEROTA: Wonder Woman. That is an insight right there.

CUOMO: Wait until you see my golden -

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: A CNN exclusive for you. U.S. officials believe that Russian hackers breached Qatar's state news agency and planted a fake news report that has fueled a growing crisis among Gulf nations.

[08:40:05] Joining us now is Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger of Illinois. He is a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee and veteran of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

Good morning, congressman.

: Good morning. How are you?

CAMEROTA: What is Russia's play here? Why would they want to sow chaos in the Middle East? How does that help Russia?

REP. ADAM KINZINGER (R), FOREIGN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE: Well, Russia doesn't care about chaos in the Middle East. They look at every opportunity as what can benefit them. And what they see in the Gulf States is a coalition of people against Iran, a coalition of nations that really are friendly to the United States, you know, after President Trump's, I think, good visit to the Saudi area and good address to the 50 Arab leaders and they want to sow dissension in that because, in Russia, whenever there's chaos, there's opportunity. So they see an opportunity among chaos to either hurt the United States, to give Russia a play in the Middle East and so that's exactly their play here. They just want to sow chaos.

CAMEROTA: OK. OK. So they're creating now - this fake news story appears to have created division between Qatar and these other Gulf nations. Of course the U.S. was allied with Qatar and Saudi Arabia. So what should President Trump do about this?

KINZINGER: I personally think he probably needs to stay out of it and try to mitigate if, in fact, this was led by a fake news story. Let's bring all the parties together, explain that this is what the Russians want, the comments that were attributed to the leader of Qatar are not real and let's all take a deep breath and move forward. That's actually really an amazing role that the United States plays, is the ability to quarterback sometimes very different countries with very different focuses.

But there is a reality. There is some funding of terrorists from the Middle East, from nations like Qatar, that needs to be addressed. Same with Saudi Arabia. You know, there's some - Qatar actually gives a lot of people safe zones, so you can have - there were Taliban offices there. Sometimes Iranian influence. So I think these are issues that need to be addressed. But when Russia plants fake news stories, this is where the whole world needs to be aware. It didn't just happen in the United States. It's not just happening in Europe. Russia is running the old KGB playbook but they're using 21st century technology to do it.

CAMEROTA: OK. Last night you tweeted directly to President Vladimir Putin, and I've not seen a tweet like this before. This is Cyrillic. Can you interpret - can you translate to us what you tweeted to him?

KINZINGER: Well, basically what it says is, Mr. Putin, please stay away from our democracy and, in essence, shove off, right? So, I don't know the exact translation, but that's the gist of it.

I thought it was kind of a funny way of saying, look, just bringing people the awareness of the fact that Russia is trying to intervene, whether it's in elections in democracies and fake news. And, look, this is an economy - the Russian economy is the size of Italy. This isn't the old Soviet Union. We're not dealing with the old Russian bear. It is basically Italy. And so this idea, you have to take them seriously. You have to respect them. But this idea that we're going to let the Russians push us around or somehow we're back in a bipolar world is ludicrous. And so I hope it was a funny way of making that statement, like, see you later, Vlad.

CAMEROTA: Yes, it was.

And Italy might take issue with that analogy, but - that you just made. But in any event, I know that you also want to talk about the fight against ISIS. And, case in point, this morning there is breaking news. There was what appears to be a terrorist attack in Iran of all places at the parliament building. There was what appears to be a suicide bomber. There was an explosion. At last count there were seven people dead, 35 injured. What - ISIS is trying to take responsibility. No confirmation if it's them. What's the solution here?

Well, that's unique. I mean if - if it's an attack in Iran, obviously Iran is Shia. ISIS is primarily Sunni, so that would make sense to an extent, but that would be kind of an opening of a new front.

Look, this is a very desperate organization that is desperate to convince people on the edge of jihadism to join this kind of next caliphate. And what's happening is, ISIS is losing territory. They're, frankly, getting their butts kicked right now. And - so when you try to recruit somebody and tell them that this is the foretold caliphate in the Koran, it's hard to convince them of that when you're losing. And so they're trying to lash out to show that we're still here, we're back. And - so I do expect there's going to be more attacks in different places, but this makes it even all the more important to keep prosecuting the fight against them and liberate Raqqa and get rid of ISIS as an organization.

But just really quickly, we have to win the next generational war on terror, which is the seven or eight year olds that need to learn to read and write, need to have hope, need to have opportunity because having people with opportunity denies ISIS or the next generation of ISIS the opportunity to recruit its next terrorists.

CAMEROTA: OK. Congressman Adam Kinzinger, thank you very much. Always great to have you on NEW DAY.

KINZINGER: Any time. Take care.

CAMEROTA: Chris.

CUOMO: All right, winning the peace, always so important.

[08:44:53] All right, we have big news for you, and it's not tragic. The top movie in the country shattering records. "Wonder Woman" making her-story as opposed to history in more ways than one. Director Patty Jenkins, no woman has ever done what she has done at the box office before. What does this movie mean beyond the screen? Next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: Time for "CNN Money Now." Looking for work? We have good news. Job openings have hit a new high. Chief business correspondent Christine Romans is in our Money Center with details. What are the jobs?

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's a goldilocks report really from the Labor Department. There are six million job openings in the month of April, 6 million, a record. But hiring slowed. It's a sign that employers are struggling to find qualified workers for those jobs.

First, the good news. The record number of jobs means businesses want to hire. They would even hire more if they could and they'll likely pay more. Wage growth has been sluggish, even as the joblessness rate falls to a 16-year low. But 6.8 million Americans are still unemployed. And if there are 6 million job openings, why aren't they getting hired? Well, the U.S. struggles with something called the skills gap, a result of the aging workforce, automation and a lack of effective job training programs. That has led to a hiring slowdown.

Jobs growth last month, in fact, growth from February to May was the slowest in the past three years. This doesn't help with President Trump's promise of 25 million jobs over the next ten years. The U.S. has not added the average 208,000 a month he will need to meet that lofty goal, Chris.

CUOMO: All right, thank you very much, Christine.

"Wonder Woman" making history, last showing big bucks, big buzz. We're going to talk with the real wonder woman behind the block buster film. Director Patty Jenkins made history with this. She'll tell us why it matters to her, and it ain't just about the box office. There she is.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:51:59] (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Stay here, I'll go ahead.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: There she is, the Wonder Woman that the world is watching. The number one movie in the country is "Wonder Woman." The film shattering box office records and a glass ceiling because it is the biggest opening ever for a female director. Who's that? "Wonder Woman" director Patty Jenkins, who joins us right now.

You made a movie, and you made history. Can you believe it?

PATTY JENKINS, DIRECTOR, "WONDER WOMAN": I can believe I made a movie. It's shocking to me that I made history. I wasn't even thinking about that. But it's been, you know, amazing and touching ever since.

CUOMO: What does it mean to you, Patty, that this movie is being received the way it is, that Gal Gadot, a name that's going to be new to a lot of people, that she is being received the way she is?

JENKINS: I mean that is - it's incredible. I mean the funny thing about making a movie like this is you're slightly in a vacuum of your own highest ambitions. And I'm every day blown away with Gal Gadot. She's incredible. She moves me. She - you know, she's my wonder woman. But then to see the world not only embrace and like be so excited about her, but be so excited about the whole movie, it's just - it's - you know, it's incredible. You're taking something very personal and you're - and you're seeing people, you know, embrace it back. It's awesome.

CUOMO: Now we're watching, while you're talking, we were playing a little bit of coverage of you behind the scenes during the making of this. The intensity is obvious. This wasn't just another movie for you. This was you getting to live out a dream that you've had ever since you were a kid. Tell us about it.

JENKINS: Yes. Well, so when I was seven years old, "Superman" one came out and it just - I mean it rocked my world. I sat in that theater. I was transported. I thought I was Superman. I thought that I, you know, could be Superman one day. And so all of my life - and I - I love filmmaking of all kinds, but I've always hoped and wished that one day I could make a movie that made people feel that same way it had made me feel. And so, you know, when I came to Hollywood and people ever asked me what I wanted to do, and I saw that no one had made Wonder Woman, I was like, oh, my God, I couldn't believe just that that was still sitting there. So ever since that time I've been saying, I would love a crack at making Wonder Woman and get a chance to try to bring that kind of experience to other people.

CUOMO: But you wanted to do it your way. Interesting context for people. Patty was behind the movie as director and really author of the story of "Monster." Obviously Charlize Theron won the Oscar for that. So you know what it takes to make an impact. But this was special for you and your notion of what Linda Carter represented as Wonder Woman and what you wanted this movie to be about and not be about. Tell us that.

[08:55:13] JENKINS: Yes. I wanted - so I love Wonder Woman. I love what Wonder Woman in the form of Linda Carter made me feel as a kid when I would go on that playground at, you know, not only be a badass who was fighting the bully, but looked like Linda Carter while I was doing it. So what I cared about the most was really preserving like the spirit of the true Wonder Woman. Not only is she strong, not only is she the strongest and an incredible fighter, but she's also warm, loving, stands for something very good, very clean and very honorable, and that's something that I - there are plenty of other heroes in the world and they stand for all kinds of things, but she stands for something so pure and so good and there's a special ability to do something beautiful with that in the world right now.

CUOMO: I'll tell you, the timing couldn't be better. So many of these movies have a message of just more - you know, more violence, more action, you know, more of that kind of stuff. You wanted to talk about love in here. You wanted it to be a love story. And you wanted Wonder Woman to not just be for the girls or even women. What's your case for Wonder Woman to be a figure that is embraced by men?

JENKINS: Well, since the beginning of time, we've told stories through universal characters. Recently we've, for some reason, only chosen men to be those universal characters so often. What I cared about, about Wonder Woman, is the same way that I was Superman as a kid in my mind. Wonder Woman's for everybody, and she stands for something. I mean a very special kind of being a hero. She stands for not only having all of those abilities, but thinking for yourself and choosing love and choosing justice and choosing kindness whenever she can. She doesn't want to bring, you know, any darkness to the world. So that's for everybody. You know, she's a hero for everything. I love what it's meaning to women. But I'm so excited to inspire all kinds of people the way that hero - that all kinds of heroes have inspired me.

CUOMO: Well, it's a message for everybody, but there can only be one number one, and that is you and this movie. Congratulations to you.

JENKINS: Thank you.

CUOMO: And if it's any sign that the message is resonating with men, I was trying to get a Wonder Woman shirt and they're all sold out in my size. So, good indication, Patty, good indication. Congratulations.

JENKINS: I'm going to find you one, Chris. I'll find you one. Thank you.

CUOMO: Take care.

Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: And I'm going to find you the gold bracelets.

CUOMO: I have those.

CAMEROTA: Of course you do, and a lasso.

CNN "Newsroom" with Poppy Harlow and John Berman picks up after this very quick break. We'll see you early tomorrow morning.

CUOMO: (INAUDIBLE).

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