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Trump: Obama "Did Nothing" About Russia Election Meddling; Will Supreme Court Rule On Travel Ban Today?; Retirement Rumors Swirl About Justice Anthony Kennedy; Senate Health Care Bill Faces Growing Opposition. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired June 26, 2017 - 06:30   ET

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

[06:30:05] DAVE BRIGGS, CNN ANCHOR, "EARLY START": This is the second significant incident this month on a plane with these Rolls Royce Trent 700 engines and the third since May. Sunday's incident appears to have been unrelated, though.

A spokesman for Rolls Royce said, "We are aware of the incident and will be working closely with relevant partners to understand the cause of the issue. Guys, look, in the age of outrage, everyone applauded. They were happy when they landed. We get mad over seat assignments and flight delays. You don't like the praying part, do you, Chris?

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: I'm all for prayer.

BRIGGS: You'd lose it there?

CUOMO: Yes, the second time. I think the first time -- come on, I've never heard of anything like that before.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: You'd really think you were doomed, but what about calling it a technical incident?

CUOMO: This is what we were talking about when we first saw this video. Look, being asked to pray, the pilot is going to do whatever he or she thinks they need to do in the moment to calm the passengers, but where is the review. I want an urgency from this carrier after something like this, not just a, we're going to check into it.

KEILAR: This technical incident.

BRIGGS: That engine did not look good, but kudos to the pilot as well for bringing them down.

CUOMO: Got them on the ground safe.

KEILAR: All right, Dave, thank you so much.

President Trump now seems to be admitting that Russia meddled in the 2016 election, blaming President Obama for it.

CUOMO: There is the but.

KEILAR: There he is for not doing anything about it. That's what his claim is. So what has he done since taking office? The Russia blame game next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:35:48]

CUOMO: We have new official statements from the president on Russian interference. Of course, it took place on Twitter and he is saying, yes, Russia interfered with the election. No more it could have been China, could have been a fat guy on his bed. He owns that it is Russia, but why is he saying this? Because he's blaming the Obama administration for doing nothing about it.

Let's discuss what this means, what the implications are and whether or not the president is right to criticize? We have CNN political commentators, Symone Sanders and Ben Ferguson. Symone, you on the left were complaining that the president wouldn't own the reality, he was living in a version of the facts. Now he's says, you're right, Russia interfered, but let's be honest of the, Obama knew it and did nothing. Fair point?

SYMONE SANDERS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I don't think it's an all the way fair point, Chris. Look, I am happy that the president has acknowledge that yes, the Russians did interfere in our election, but I'm more concerned with what steps the president and his administration are now taking to make sure this doesn't happen again.

Because as we know, the Russians are going to come back, and next time it could be the Republicans, the independents. We don't know who it could be. So that is what I think is more concerning that the president, instead of owning this and saying, look, we're going to make sure this does not happen again, he's blaming the Obama administration and deflecting instead of taking ownership within his administration.

CUOMO: Ben Ferguson, is that leadership?

BEN FERGUSON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Look, I think real leadership here is -- obviously there's two ways you can go if you're the president. One, you can come out and score political points by saying everything America is going to do against Russia. That's a good headline for you, that actually would help you and your White House right now, or you shut up and do the same exact thing and not let the Russians know what you're doing or how you're doing it.

If you want to be effective in protecting this country against cyberattacks from Russia, you don't want to tell them what you're doing or when you started it or how you're doing it. I think politically it would be really good for the president to come out for him personally, and the White House, and say we're doing x, y and z against Russia and we're never going to allow this to happen again.

I think it's pretty clear two things, ,the president has obviously seen and gotten information since he's been in the White House that Russia is actively trying to come after us in a way that maybe he even underestimated and others did when they were running for the White House. And two, it's very clear, I think that they take it seriously, but they are not going to sit here and tell them what they are going to do so they can get ready for it or even try to work around it. That's smart leadership. So I applaud the president for not actually going out there and overstepping on this.

CUOMO: Symone?

SANDERS: Chris, he only said anything about Russia due to a story what we think in "The Washington Post" and frankly, I don't even think Donald Trump actually read the "Washington Post" story. He saw the coverage on the story about "The Washington Post." So the only reason Donald Trump is saying anything because it was a chance for him to take a shot at President Obama. So this is not leadership. Let's just be clear about that.

CUOMO: Ben?

FERGUSON: But Symone, here is the thing about Obama, it's very obvious from what Jeh Johnson said last week that, one, the Democrats did not take this threat seriously, the Obama administration didn't take it seriously and the DNC basically told those in Congress to go away and not be involved in this. They were actively trying to --

SANDERS: That is not true. That is not true. Again, that is not true.

FERGUSON: Jeh said that the Democratic National Committee would not let them in to help them secure their servers. That's a fact.

(CROSSTALK)

CUOMO: Hold on. The allegations, Symone, just to make it clear, that Jeh Johnson did address this. He gave reasons for why the administration decided to pause. They didn't want to compromise sources and methods. They didn't want to compromise and show bias during the election. They didn't want to substantiate Trump's allegations that the whole thing was going to be rigged. That's what he said. On the DNC, side he said he found out late in the game that they weren't cooperating. That the FBI have been in contact with him and he didn't like it. Your response, Symone.

SANDERS: My response is look, former Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz has been on this network responding to those exact allegations and she has come out and said that is not true, that is not what happened, that the DNC was actively combating this and other issues.

[06:40:05]That they actively had contracted with crowd strike to make sure that they were taking all the precautions that they could take. Could the DNC have done more? Absolutely. To say the DNC sat back and did nothing, to assert the Obama administration did nothing is absolutely not true. What we should be concerned about, though, is the Trump administration and the fact that Russia --

CUOMO: All right, so to that point, Symone, Ben, this is in the new. The president didn't just learn that the Obama administration knew about this, and if he did, that's the most frightening thing I've heard in quite some time. This was reported at the time, even Jeh Johnson, the thing that -- shame on all of us comment that he made during his testimony is, we came out with a statement about it, but it was the same time that the "Access Hollywood" tape came out and it wound up not getting any attention.

So it was out there. Certainly the president has been getting briefings for months where he knows exactly what happened here. So it's not new. He is playing a little bit in this situation.

FERGUSON: Certainly you have to talk about the context of this. But Jeh Johnson, I think the scariest part about his comment was he basically said that the U.S. government didn't do enough to stop Russia because there was a headline that was in the newspaper --

CUOMO: But the president has known about it, he decided to pretend it didn't happen and he still hasn't done anything about it.

FERGUSON: We don't know that.

CUOMO: You don't know that he has, and the idea that he would do something and not say anything defies his entire record as president.

FERGUSON: Chris, the president of the United States of America has come out -- I think it's very clear this White House has an understanding now in a real sense of what Russia has been doing. You're saying they're not doing enough --

CUOMO: No, no, I'm saying I don't know what they're doing. There's no indication he's done anything.

CUOMO: Final word, we got to go.

FERGUSON: Hold on, time out for one second. You're saying that the president doesn't come out and tell you what he's doing against Russia which make what you're doing against Russia completely ineffective because you're telling them what you're doing. That somehow he's letting us down --

CUOMO: No, I'm not saying that.

SANDERS: This spin is glorious, absolutely glorious. Kudos. The facts of the matter of this --

FERGUSON: It's not spin. You want the president to telegraph what you're doing against Russia.

CUOMO: Final word. We've got to go.

SANDERS: The president of the United States is not being serious about this cyberthreat, OK. That is what this is about. He is coming out attacking the Obama administration, and again, we just want President Trump to lead.

CUOMO: All right, let's leave it there, Ben Ferguson, well argued. Symone Sanders, also, as always, appreciate it -- Brianna. KEILAR: All right, Chris, this story amazing, from dead to alive. The mystery of how a California man was buried only to be discovered alive two weeks later. We have the unbelievable story next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:46:44] CUOMO: News of a major rescue effort under way right now in Colombia after a packed tourist boat capsizes and sinks in a reservoir. Six people confirmed dead. Dozens missing. Video -- take a look at your screen, it shows the vessel rapidly taking on water, tossing from side to side. A survivor tells CNN there were no life vests on board. Still no word on what caused that boat to capsize.

KEILAR: The first 60 high-rise buildings being inspected in London in the wake of that deadly inferno have all failed fire safety tests. Residents in five apartment towers were evacuated when safety tests began over the weekend. For now, no other residents are being displaced. Insulation in the Grenfell Tower is suspected of causing the fire that killed nearly 80 people.

CUOMO: A California family is demanding answers after one heck of a bizarre story. A loved one that they thought they had buried turned up alive. A funeral was held last month for Frank Kerrigan. Take a look at this picture. He's the man on the left.

Weeks later, the 57-year-old turned up at the home of one of the pole bearers, then called his father. Kerrigan's stunned family says the Orange County coroner misidentified a body that was found outside a store. They are planning to sue for $2 million in damages. Obviously, there's a whole backstory here about what might be going on with Mr. Kerrigan that his family didn't know who he was and believed these stories. We'll check on that.

KEILAR: Unbelievable. All right, well, the drama building on the very last day of the Supreme Court session, are they going to rule on President Trump's travel ban and could one justice be saying goodbye? We'll talk to Jeffrey Toobin next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:52:07]

KEILAR: The Supreme Court usually saves its most important decisions for the final day. Today is a wrap for the high court's current terms. Could we see a ruling on President Trump's travel ban today?

Joining us now is CNN senior legal analyst, Jeffrey Toobin. So they meet for the last scheduled conference on Thursday, which is important to note because I think some people wonder is this is an indicator that they're going to rule on the travel ban case?

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Well, it's -- they have a lot of options with the travel ban case. They have not even accepted to review it. They may hear it. They may put a stay on it. They may just leave the validation in place. There are a lot of moving parts when it comes to this case. It's a little different from the usual case that goes up.

KEILAR: Can you imagine them passing on it, on the chance --

TOOBIN: You know, I don't know because what's so peculiar about the travel ban case is that in many respects it's not even final yet. It's a 90-day review that the president ordered which has or has not expired depending on how you look at it. It's procedurally in a very difficult place and the Supreme Court often looks for ways to duck difficult questions, and there are some ways they could do that in this case.

CUOMO: As Jeffrey often explains, the Supreme Court wants to be the final word. They like to rule on things that are in its final incarnation. You could argue the travel ban isn't. All right. Here is something that's very final, gerrymandering. It exists, whether it's right or wrong, how it's done. What do you think about the case before the court, how big could the implications be?

TOOBIN: It is my pet obsession, gerrymandering, and it is enormously important in its own terms, but what it says about the larger politics is the Supreme Court has said for years racial gerrymandering is unconstitutional. You can't --

CUOMO: Design an area to rule out minorities.

TOOBIN: Correct. That violates the constitution, the Voting Rights Act, but political gerrymandering to help Democrats or Republicans or to hurt the opposition party has by and large been legal although Anthony Kennedy, the swing vote has said there could be a way where partisan gerrymandering is unconstitutional, although, he's never specified how.

There is now a big case from Wisconsin that will come up and that case could prompt Anthony Kennedy to say it has gone too far. We need to have more neutral drawing of legislative districts which could change the way Congress is composed because now we have ways where congressmen fear primaries from their own party more than general elections.

[06:55:00]KEILAR: And you mentioned Justice Kennedy who is so pivotal so often. Is he potentially going to retire here soon?

TOOBIN: Well, the last day of the term is traditionally the day when Supreme Court justices announce their resignation. I remember when Sandra Day O'Connor did it in 2003 -- 2005 actually, not 2003. My role on Supreme Court retirements is those who tell don't know. Those no know don't tell. So I don't know.

My guess would be he's not retiring. I think these justices, they have tremendous respect for the court as an institution. They feel one change this year with the addition of Judge Gorsuch is enough change. He can wait another year. Justice Kennedy enjoys being at the center of the court. He's in good health as far as I know. So I think he'll probably stay one more year.

CUOMO: Some good cases up there for Gorsuch, too, now that he's on the court. It will be interesting to watch him.

TOOBIN: Well, you know, he's had a handful of decisions, and I think all the predictions that say he will be a very conservative justice appear to be coming true so far.

CUOMO: Some big ones before the court. We'll have to watch. Appreciate it.

TOOBIN: Good to see you.

CUOMO: Thanks to you, our international viewers. Thank you for watching us. For you next CNN "NEWSROOM." For our U.S. viewers, how about this growing opposition from Senate Republicans to the health care bill? What's fueling it, what could it mean. Let's get after it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't think the bill is adequate now. Unless it gets fixed, I'm against it.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Health care is a very, very tough thing to get, but I think we're going to get it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's time for me to see the bill passing this week.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I see this bill as a first important step in the direction of repealing those portions of Obamacare that we can't.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you stop doing this repeal which is Trumpcare, we'll sit down with you and make it better.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Russians need to be made to pay a price. I will say we thought we were playing it the right way.

TRUMP: Obama knew about Russia a long time before the election and he did nothing about it. Nobody wants to talk about that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What is clear is that we have a president who is questionably cozy with Vladimir Putin.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: Good morning. Welcome to your NEW DAY. Alisyn is off. Brianna Keilar is here and thank you for that.

KEILAR: Of course, good to be here.

CUOMO: We begin with growing opposition to the Senate health care bill. Party leaders are pushing for a vote this week, but forget about the Democrats who are certainly resisting. You have five GOP senators who are against it. Now you also have the Trump administration vowing that there won't be cuts to Medicaid. That's just not true. KEILAR: Meantime, President Trump is blasting his predecessor, President Obama, for, quote, "doing nothing about Russia's election interference." So what is Mr. Trump doing about the issue since taking office? We have it all covered.

Let's begin with CNN's Suzanne Malveaux live on Capitol Hill -- Suzanne.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Brianna. President Trump is pushing this forward. He is throwing his support behind the Senate health care bill despite the uncertain future of the Congressional Budget Office score that would determine how many people potentially could lose their health care, what happens with premiums.

A big question is how it compares to the House bill CBO score which showed 23 million Americans losing coverage potentially over ten years. That score could come as early as today.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TRUMP: I don't think they're that far off. Famous last words, right? I think we're going to get there.

MALVEAUX (voice-over): President Trump expressing confidence as Senate GOP leaders scramble to secure the 50 votes needed to pass their health care bill.

TRUMP: Health care is a very complicated subject from the standpoint that you move it this way, and this group doesn't like it. You move it a little bit over here -- you have a very narrow path, and honestly nobody can be totally happy.

MALVEAUX: With all Democrats opposed to the legislation, Republicans can only afford to lose two votes, but there are currently five GOP senators who say they can't support the bill as drafted.

SEN. RAND PAUL (R), KENTRUCKY: There's no way the Republican bill brings down premiums. I've been in medicine 20 years. I'm 54 years old, premiums have never gone down. They are not going to go down after the Republican bill.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The plan in its entirety will absolutely bring premiums down.

MALVEAUX: Trump senior adviser, Kellyanne Conway, says the president is working the phones to try to drum up support. Although Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn told reporters this weekend, "We are trying to hold him back a little bit." Complicating the president's effort, his acknowledgment that he called the House health care bill mean.

TRUMP: That was my term because I want to see -- I speak from the heart. That's what I want to see, I want to see a bill with heart.

MALVEAUX: The president contradicting his own Press Secretary Sean Spicer and House Speaker Paul Ryan.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think that was some kind of a misinterpretation of a private meeting.