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New Day Saturday
Russian Election Meddling and Indictments Continue; Melania Trump's Kindness Campaign Questioned; Crisis Text Line is Established to Support Those Struggling with Mental Illness in an Effort to Eliminate Suicide. Aired 8-9a ET
Aired July 14, 2018 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[08:00:00]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I think that we're being hurt very badly by I would call it the witch hunt.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have been concerned for some time the president's ad hoc style.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All of that is of major concern that the president may very well give Mr. Putin certain assurances, and that would be extremely dangerous to our national security interest.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: I think that we would have a chance to have a very good chance to have a very good relationship with Russia and a very good chance, a very good relationship with President Putin.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Happy Saturday to you. This morning, President Trump is not speaking out against the 12 Russian officials charged with meddling in the 2016 election. He is also not canceling a private meeting with the leader of that country, despite growing calls for him to do both. Instead, the president is touting his summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin. He is also attacking former President Obama and he is going golfing today.
CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: The big picture here for you now, we now have indictments against Russian agents after U.S. intel officials confirmed our democracy was attacked and President Trump's response so far, I'm still innocent. I'm still the victim of a, quote, "rigged witch hunt," and I'm still hoping for a, quote, "good relationship with Putin."
Jeremy Diamond is in Glasgow near where the president is staying. Jeremy, what is the president saying this morning?
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, the president is indeed taking to Twitter already from the confines of his golf retreat here at Turnberry in Scotland. The president has already said that he is going to be golfing. He has now tweeted about this indictment against 12 Russian agents. The president tweeting, "The stories you heard about the 12 Russians yesterday took place against the Obama administration, not the Trump administration. Why didn't they do something about it? Especially when it was reported that President Obama was informed by the FBI in September before the election."
So, there you have it. The president of the United States not coming out to criticize the actions of these Russian agents to commend the Justice Department for these indictments. Instead pointing the finger at the Obama administration seems to be the president's go-to move at least for today.
The president is still set to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday. That's despite a series of calls from Democratic leaders urging the president to cancel his meeting with Putin until Putin offers some kind of deliverables that they are changing their behavior.
The director of National Intelligence, Dan Coates, last night warning the Russian government, actors are still continuing their efforts to divide the United States politically and socially, the efforts that they carried out during the 2016 election.
But the president still moving forward with that meeting. He has said that he will bring up this Russian meddling. It does raise the question as how far he will prems and what he will say to him about ongoing Russian behavior.
We know that yesterday the president was putting that blame on improved U.S.-Russia relations not on Russian actions, but instead on divisive politics in the United States and the special counsel's investigation.
BLACKWELL: All right. Jeremy Diamond there for us in Glasgow, thanks so much. Meantime, anti-Trump protests are happening right now in Scotland. Phil Black is in the city of Edinborough. Phil, we know there are growing protests around you. What are you seeing?
PHIL BLACK, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Victor, where I am standing now, these are some of the thousands of people who have begun marching through the Scottish capital here telling Donald Trump that he is not welcome.
The atmosphere is pretty happy. It's mostly smiles, families, quite festival like. Just like we saw in London and Glasgow yesterday, but the messages, they are carrying and chanting and sometimes singing are blunt. Sometimes a little rude, sometimes very colorful.
But these are all people who do not want Donald Trump in Scotland, they say. This is one of the focal points today. Another one will be the Turnrerry Golf Resort, the Trump resort where the president is staying.
We are expecting to see protests around the security perimeter there. We have already seen one pretty daring protest action taken by a Green Peace activist piloting a paraglider streaming an anti-Trump message behind him.
He got very close to the Trump hotel, invading what police say is restricted airspace at this time to protect the president. They say he has breached the law by doing. So, police are trying to find that pilot.
You can see, the feelings here today are pretty strong. These are people that disagree with Donald Trump's policies and statements. There are also people here who think it's unfair Scotland is being hit with a pretty big security bill on what is essentially a private visit to the president where they say he will simply be playing golf and checking in on business interest. Back to you.
PAUL: Phil, do they have any questions? Have you talked to any of them who have thoughts on what is next to come for the president with the Russian president sit down and Russian President Putin?
BLACK: Yes, there are a lot of the messages, banners, placards here, a lot of them make references to Russia, Putin and jokes and comments along that line there. It's fair to say I think that Donald Trump is a fairly divisive and often ridiculed figure here in Scotland.
This is a status that Mr. Trump has held since long before he became a political candidate. It's because he does have business interest here. These two golf resorts and hotels, one at Turnberry and another at Aberdeen Sheer in the north of Scotland.
It is through the development of these sights that he's often come up against angry locals, people who didn't want to sell their property, for example, environmental activists, these sorts of things.
So, he has long been criticized. Most recently in recent years, we've seen a lot of real passionate criticism about the president and his politics. This is a part of the United Kingdom that is very progressive I think in its politics.
So, on issues like the environment, women's rights, gay rights, immigration, these sorts of things. These people are largely marching here today because they feel diametrically opposed to the president on these issues.
PAUL: All right. Phil Black, thank you so much. Appreciate it.
And just two days before President Trump is having that sit down with Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, many lawmakers are demanding that the president cancel it.
BLACKWELL: Yes, this is, of course, after the Mueller team indicted 12 Russians for hacking Democrats computers during the presidential campaigns.
CNN senior international correspondent, Mathew Chance is in Helsinki live this morning. Matthew, we are already hearing a response from the Russians, from the kremlin to these indictments. What is it?
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Victor, as expected when they have been confronted with the allegations of messing with the meddling in the U.S. elections, they've always met that with a categorical denial. As expected that's exactly what they've met these latest indictments with as well.
The statement came this time not from the Kremlin but from the Russian Foreign Ministry. They said that Washington is struggling to reanimate old fake news when it comes to these allegations of election meddling.
So, they have gone back to that idea of using exactly the same kind of language that Donald Trump himself uses when he describes the investigation into alleged collusion between his campaign and Russians.
They called this the Russian Foreign Ministry a heap of conspiracy schemes. The statement goes on to say the purpose of this story is to spoil the atmosphere before the Russian-American summit. That summit, of course, taking place here in Helsinki.
We got a picture of the presidential palace in the middle of the Finish capital where security preparations are under way for that meeting, which is going to be held in a couple days from now on Monday, in fact, local time.
President Trump arrives here, of course, on Sunday night locally with the first lady. He'll be meeting with the finished presidents in the morning and Monday and he'll have that one-on-one meeting with President Trump, which will be followed by a working lunch and probably a joint press conference to finish and the Kremlin say there will be a joint press conference.
The White House have yet to confirm that, but it's going to be really interesting to see what the nature of those conversations are. We don't know what they are going to discuss specifically and what the tone of those conversations are going to be like as well.
Because as you said, there have been calls for this summit to be called off because of the latest indictments. There are other calls for the confident tone of the way in which Trump addresses President Putin to be much more confrontational.
Given that he has all this evidence at his fingertips now about Russian officials meddling in the U.S. election, but we shall see. At the moment, it seems that the Russians and the White House are speaking about this issue in the same way calling it politically motivated.
BLACKWELL: Matthew Chance for us in Helsinki. Thank you so much.
Joining me now, Democratic congressman from Connecticut, Jim Himes. He's also on the House Intelligence Committee. Congressman, good morning to you.
REPRESENTATIVE JIM HIMES (D), CONNECTICUT: Good morning.
BLACKWELL: Should the president meet with Vladimir Putin on Monday? HIMES: I think he should do it under one circumstance and one circumstance only, which is to deliver a very clear message that we know what you did. We can watch what you do. Much of that indictment was a real testimony to our remarkable ability of our law enforcement and intelligence agencies to actually trace the activities of specific people in Russia.
So, he would say we know what you did. We know exactly how you do it. I am not leaving this room until you make a commitment not to do this again, to us or to our allies. If you don't make that commitment, you will be in a world of pain.
[08:10:06] Now, is the president going to say any of that? Of course, the president is not going to say any of that. We say from his Twitter feed how he thinks about this. It's about protecting himself.
So, given that the president is not going to get within a country mile of any of those statements, no, I don't think he should be meeting with Vladimir Putin.
BLACKWELL: Let's talk more about this indictment. I want you to first listen to your House colleague, Frances Rooney of Florida's 19th, and he is talking about what he gleans from what he read on Friday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REPRESENTATIVE FRANCIS ROONEY (R), FLORIDA: In the sense that we haven't found any direct collusion between the campaign and the Russian efforts to destabilize our country, I guess that probably you could say there is no evidence. They haven't found anything on that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLACKWELL: The president's attorney, Rudy Giuliani, says that the president is incident. It's time for Mueller to end this pursuit and say so. The logic here, because there were no Americans and the president, himself, were not mentioned in his latest indictments that Americans must not be involved. What's your take?
HIMES: Well, I mean, it is mind boggling to me, right? I mean, here we have specific evidence, how, where and why of an attack on the American people. On the core of our democracy and the Republican Party is saying something which is not true, which shows there was no collusion.
Where are the statements of condemnation on that attack? What is illustrated here, of course, is that the president, Rudy Giuliani and my Republican colleagues are completely uninterested in the nature of the attack that was perpetrated on our democracy.
All they are interested in is defending the president. Now, you know, as a technical matter the indictments yesterday are silent on the question of whether there was collusion.
But that does not mean that Mueller is not pursuing leads, evidence, other things. He quite likely is following up on the question of collusion and obstruction, neither of which he has disposed of either way.
So, to say that just because he hasn't brought it up yet, there is no evidence, is what I think the technical term is a lie. When an investigation turns up as much information as this investigation has turned up, indictments, guilty pleas, further action.
You say we should stop this investigation now, that is a deeply unpatriotic -- I said it on Twitter, when a foreign attack on our country is being revealed, you say, let's stop this investigation, that points in the direction of treason and it should stop.
BLACKWELL: Congressman, let me put something to you that the president tweeted. You mentioned Twitter this morning, "The stories you heard about the 12 Russians yesterday took place during the Obama administration, not the Trump administration. Why didn't they do something about it? Especially when it was reported that President Obama was informed by the FBI in September before the election?
Authorities were informed before the election. There were sanctions handed down a month and a half, more than a month and half after the election, December 29th, I believe that executive order came down. Are you satisfied with the reaction, the response? What the Obama administration did in response to what they learned?
HIMES: Yes, that's a really good question. Let's start with the obvious point. This isn't an attack on our country. The first thing we do is think about that. We don't say, gosh, it didn't happen on my watch the way the president did.
But technically speaking, the president is correct. This happened under the Obama administration. I'll say two things about that. Number one, the story has been well told and needs to be told again that the Obama administration went to the leadership of Congress, to Nancy Pelosi, to Mitch McConnell, to the speaker of the House and the leadership, and said we have a very serious attack about occurring and about to occur.
We need to talk to the American people about it, to warn them about it and the Senate leader, Mitch McConnell said, no, this is a partisan attempt to do x, y, z, I will not permit it. So, Mitch McConnell stopped, and this is well documented and well known.
here were a lot of people in the room, stopped the effort to inform the American public about what was happening. And the second thing I will say is, yes, I do believe that the Obama administration should have responded more strongly.
You know, we saw the shipping out of a number of Russian diplomats, the closure of two facilities. That was a slap on the wrist of Vladimir Putin. There should have been a lot more pain extracted from him.
BLACKWELL: All right. Congressman Jim Himes of Connecticut, thank you so much for being with us this morning. HIMES: Thank you.
PAUL: Still to come, 12 boys and their soccer coach that were rescued from that Thailand cave are expected to be released soon. Their conditions and their message to the rescue team still ahead.
BLACKWELL: Plus, First Lady Melania Trump back on the world stage promoting kindness while her husband bashes world leaders. A juxtaposition in a moment.
[08:15:11] PAUL: Also, a dramatic rescue caught on video after a chinook helicopter rescued a climber from summit of Oregon's Mount Hood. We'll tell you what happened.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PAUL: All right. Take a look at what's happening in Edinborough, Scotland there. That's where the president is visiting today, and the balloon has followed him.
BLACKWELL: The big baby is up.
PAUL: The big baby is up and it's attracting quite a crowd. A lot of people as we understand it. We are seeing there. People are protesting President Trump, his visit there, and his policies, and the baby balloon is following him throughout this tour.
BLACKWELL: Yes. We saw this in London, the London mayor, Sadiq Khan, allowed it to fly over London protest on Friday, up for only two hours there. We don't know the restrictions here in Edinborough.
[08:20:04] But we are seeing the crowd growing here. We know there are also crowds in Glasgow as well as protests are happening across Scotland. This is the weekend the president says he will be making calls and having meetings at his golf resort there in Turnberry, and probably getting golf in today.
And then heads on Monday to Helsinki to meet with President Putin and we are covering all of it this weekend. Also this --
PAUL: The 12 boys and their coach that were rescued from that Thailand cave are recovering in a hospital. They are expected to be released next week, but health officials say they are all healthy, both physically and psychologically. These boys sitting up in their beds. They sent messages to their rescuers.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ADUN: RESCUED FROM THAI CAVE: Hello. I am Adun. Now I am very fine. Thank you so much.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLACKWELL: Doctors are telling the parents that they should not allow the media to interview the boys for at least a month as they get acclimated back to their normal lives. Because those doctors are still worried about the impact that all that has happened over the last three weeks that may have on them after they are discharged.
PAUL: Listen, the government had outlined how it's going to reunite the 2,500 children taken from their parents at the southern border.
BLACKWELL: So, over the next two weeks, those families who are eligible to be reunited will be brought together. This will happen at half dozen government facilities across the country.
Officials with the Department of Health and Human Services say they will use a streamline vetting process to try to speed up those reunions. But what does a streamline vetting process look like?
Does this mean that all the children in government custody will be reunited with their parents?
CNN's Rosa Flores joins us now from McAllen, Texas. Rosa, good morning to you. Tell us about this streamline system and the steps that the government will be skipping now to speed up the process.
ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, about what the government will be skipping, that includes DNA testing. They will not do that, and they are also not going to check the backgrounds of every adult in the family, where the child will be reunited with the family.
But you know the government making it very clear during these proceedings saying that they don't agree with the process. They will definitely comply with the order because it's ordered by a judge.
But they don't agree that it's for the safety and the security of the child. About the streamline process that you were talking about, here is a breakdown, according to the government, they have six-to-eight facilities where they will be re-uniting children and their parents.
They will be moving the parent that is eligible to 21 of those locations. The streamline process includes a 15-minute interview where the government will try to confirm that the individual is indeed the parent and that the parent is willing to be reunited with that child.
And the child will be transferred into ICE custody then sent to one of those locations and that's where the reunification will happen. Now, Victor, you mentioned, so how many of these children will actually be reunited with their parents?
If we learned one thing about the reunification of the toddlers because this is for children ages 5 to 17. We learned anything about the reunification of the toddlers is that not every child that was separated from their parents will be reunited.
For the toddlers we are talking about 103 children who were separated and under 60 were reunited. So, the number of children who were separated between the ages of 5 and 17 is 2,551. It is unclear how many of those will actually be reunited with their parents.
BLACKWELL: Even with those details, so much ambiguity from the government. We need more clear numbers, specific numbers about the children, who still need to be reunited. Rosa Flores for us there in the McAllen. Thank you so much.
PAUL: Take a look at this, there is this dramatic rescue by Oregon's National Guard from the summit of Mount Hood. According to authorities, a man climbed the mountain Thursday in a suicide attempt.
Apparently, he then changed his mind, called 911 in the afternoon. Weather conditions had worsened overnight. So, officials weren't able reach him until yesterday. You see chinook helicopter and six rescuers were eventually able to get him down to safety. That man is recovering in the hospital now.
BLACKWELL: President Trump says that he will ask Vladimir Putin about Russian meddling, but will he push Moscow to stay out of the midterm elections this year and what should change here in the U.S. to prepare for that defense against Russia. Former CIA operative, Bob Baer, joins us next.
PAUL: Also, First Lady Melania Trump back on the world stage promoting kindness as part of her "Be Best" campaign. How successful will it be some are asking when her husband disrespects world leaders?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[08:29:52]
PAUL: Good morning, so glad to have you with us. I'm Christi Paul.
BLACKWELL: I'm Victor Blackwell. Good to be with you.
President Trump plans to keep his date with Vladimir Putin in Helsinki and he says he, yes, will ask the Russian president about election meddling. The Mueller investigation's new indictment brings 112 new charges against 12 Russian operatives, but President Trump is not categorically saying Russia meddled in the election. Let's see what he has said time.
(BEGIN VIDE0)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Will we be talking about meddling. I will absolutely bring that up.
It won't be a Perry Mason here, I don't think but you never know what happens right, but I will absolutely firmly ask the question.
(END VIDEO)
BLACKWELL: That was President Trump in the U.K. on Friday talking about his meeting Monday with Vladimir Putin and Russia's meddling in the 2016 election. They talked about this before, during both the G7 meeting and again in November at the Apex Summit in Vietnam. After each meeting, President Trump said Putin sincerely denied the claims. Mr. Trump told reporters, every time he sees me, he says I didn't do that and I believe -- I really believe that when he tells me that, he means it.
Well Putin may mean it but here's what the intelligence community determined. Two key findings in their January 2017 assessment, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an influence campaign in 2016 aimed at the U.S. Presidential election and that Putin and the government aspired to help President-Elect Trump's election chances when possible by discrediting Secretary Clinton. In May, the top Democrat and Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, agreed with that finding.
There is no ambiguity there. President Trump, however, has been all over the place on Putin and Russia meddling. (BEGIN VIDEO)
CHRIS WALLACE, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: The CIA concluded that Russia intervened in the election to help you win the presidency. Your reaction?
TRUMP: I think it's ridiculous. I think it's just another excuse. I don't believe it.
TRUMP: President Putin and Russia put out a statement today that this fake news was indeed fake news.
TRUMP: The United States is hacked by everybody that includes Russia and China and everybody.
TRUMP: If Russia did anything having to do with our election, I want to know about it.
TRUMP: I think it was Russia, but I think we also get hacked by other countries and other people.
(END VIDEO)
BLACKWELL: No they didn't, yes they did, if they did, all over the place. While his own people, his advisors and cabinet members, current and former, say there is no question.
(BEGIN VIDEO)
MIKE POMPEO, CIA DIRECTOR: I am confident that the Russian meddled in this election as is the entire intelligence community.
JAMES MATTIS, DEFENSE SECRETARY: There is very little doubt that they have either interfered or that they have attempted to interfere in a number of elections in the democracies.
NIKKI HALEY: U.S. AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED NATIONS: Everybody knows that Russia meddled in our elections.
REX TILLERSON, SECRETARY OF STATE: I think as to the question of the interference with the election, that is fairly well established.
JOHN HUNTSMAN, U. S. AMBASSADOR TO RUSSIA NOMINEE: There is no question, underline no question, that the Russian government interfered in the U.S. election last year.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you believe there was a comprehensive Russian program and do you believe the Russians are going to come back here and elsewhere in the world to try to influence future elections?
TOM BOSSERT, HOMELAND SECURITY ADVISOR: Yeah, there is a pretty clear and easy answer to this, that's yes.
H. R. MCMASTER, NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR: The evidence is now really incontrovertible and available in the public domain.
(END VIDEO)
BLACKWELL: That evidence in the public domain is included in the indictments handed down by Special Counsel Robert Mueller. First, of thirteen Russians and three Russian entities for their alleged interference and a dozen more Friday were accused of hacking the Democratic National Committee. And the President begrudgedly signed and implemented sanction in retaliation but apparently they've not worked as a deterrent. Listen to the testimony from intelligence heads earlier this year.
(BEGIN VIDEO)
POMPEO: We have seen Russian activity and intentions to have an impact on the next election cycle here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I agree with Director Pompeo's about the likelihood of the 2018 occurrence as well.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is not going to change or stop.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, it is not going to change nor is it going to stop.
(END VIDEO)
BLACKWELL: Every one of them when asked if Russia would meddle in the 2018 election, the answer was yes. The President was asked the same question.
(BEGIN VIDEO)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you worried about Russia trying to meddle in the mid-term?
TRUMP: No, because we'll counteract whatever they do.
(END VIDE0)
BLACKWELL: That was in March, Senate members say that states are still vulnerable. Former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff co-authored an op ed titled, "The West Still Isn't Prepared to Stop Russia Meddling in Our Elections." The President isn't prepared to accept his own government's findings as truth. On June 28, 538 days after the assessment by the U.S. intelligence community that Russia interfered in 2016, President Trump tweeted, Russia continues to say they had nothing to do with meddling in our election.
CHRISTI PAUL, CNN HOST: CNN Intelligence and Security Analyst and former CIA Operative, Bob Baer is with us now as well as for U. S. Attorney for the middle district of Georgia, Michael Moore. Gentlemen, thank you so much. After all of that, let's listen to what Roger Stone said yesterday.
(BEGIN VIDE0)
ROGER STONE, FORMER TRUMP CAMPAIGN ADVISOR: I think it is still unproven. There is an enormous am of forensic evidence that points to a conclusion based on the download times that there was no hack.
(END VIDE0)
PAUL: Michael, why is it so hard after all of what we just saw for anyone to acknowledge that Russia interfered?
MICHAEL MOORE, FORMER U.S. ATTORNEY: Well, I think they take it as just a purely political attack as opposed to looking at it from proof and from a legal sense. Let me tell you, Bob Mueller handled this case like master storyteller. He told us the prologue with the first set of indictments with the Russian (inaudible). We've gone through sort of the character development stage; we've had these plea agreements and cooperations and things with many people high up in the Trump campaign and now I think you will see indictments further down that explain how those characters played into the grand scheme and sort of it ties all together.
And I think people like Roger Stone, people like Papadopoulos, we'll start finding out where they were in this. So I don't know that it's - I think it's fake news really to use it - to coin a phrase there to say that there was nothing here or that this is some kind of a witch hunt or to continue to deny there was Russian involvement in the election.
PAUL: Okay. Bob, I'm going to come to you in a minute but I want to ask you about something you just said. Ex-CIA Director actually, Michael Hayden when you talk about further indictments, he said the indictments - the one yesterday clearly says we take no view on whether Americans were involved; it doesn't say there were no Americans involved. When you say indictments are coming, do you believe there will be indictments on Americans?
MOORE: I - l think there will and I think you wouldn't have Bob Mueller the consummate federal prosecutor. You would not have him entering into agreements with people associated with the Trump campaign unless he was going to get some information and that information would tend to be things that they knew about what happened from the American side of this meddling campaign. So my guess is we will see things down the road and other indictments come that will tie in sort of the American branch of this tree.
PAUL: Okay. Bob, we saw the President there say that America doesn't have to worry. They would counter actions by Russia to interfere further. Do you see any indication that the U.S. is less vulnerable in the mid-terms coming up in 2020 than they were in 2016?
BOB BAER, CNN INTELLIGENCE AND SECURITY ANALYST AND FORMER CIA OPERATIVE: Well, I frankly think we're more vulnerable because there has been no punishment put on the Russians at this point. Yes, diplomats have been expelled, compounds, that's it. The Russians are indifferent to that. The DNI Coates, the Director of National Intelligence has said it's blinking red, the system the Russians will come after us. I assume this congressional election this year and in 2020 and why wouldn't they because they're being reward by a summit in Helsinki.
An attack like this has to be responded to in kind, whether it's a finding, whether it's more sanctions, it doesn't matter, but right now the Russians have not paid a price and they've gotten what they've wanted because they've disrupted the American political system. Clearly this evidence, you look at it, it's absolutely damming. I mean it's better than we got on Pearl Harbor and 9/11. When they come out and name Russian military officers, under cover, find out the bitcoin payment and the rest of it, intelligence is fantastic.
PAUL: Michael, who do you think might be an American indicted?
MOORE: Well, we will probably type out more about this congressman on congressional candidate asking for information. I think you will see perhaps people in the campaign, associated in the campaign with the campaign and I think Roger Stone is not out of the woods and he goes back and forth on whether or not he's the source.
PAUL: He admitted he thought it could be him.
MOORE: That's right and he's been back and forth on that and my guess is we might see him brought into it at some point. He clearly had Trump's ear. Let me say this, what Bob said, I agree totally with him and what is interesting is, you know, we've had the negotiations now, we've given meetings to our worst enemies, I guess, or adversaries out there between the North Koreans and now we're going to go ask Putin and I guess somehow Trump expects Putin will be more candid than Kim Jong-un was when he said he wasn't going to do nuclear equipment. It's a fallacy but it's being spun in a political way and that's why I say they're looking at politics and not the law and proof.
PAUL: So Bob with that said, when we look ahead to this meeting between President Putin and President Trump, what does President Trump have to secure from Putin in order for this meeting to be a success and if it has nothing to do if he doesn't go boldly and press President Putin on interference, is it considered a failure of the meeting then?
[08:40:00]
BAER: Yes, it's a failure. He's going to walk out of that meeting saying look, they continue to deny it. Putin will not offer up an explanation why 12 of his intelligence officers were involved in hacking American elections. He's just not going - it's not going to happen. He's going to walk away from this hoping that in time people will forget. We shouldn't because a treasonous act happened. People cooperated with the Russians. They continue to deny it and say we didn't know we were dealing with Russian intelligence; we just thought they were criminal hackers. That in itself, I think Michael would agree is a crime. I mean, we've got to get to the basics of the law of this or it's going to happen over and over again and it's going to wreck our democracy.
PAUL: All right, Bob Baer, Michael Moore, I'm sorry we've run out of time but thank you both so much for sharing your perspective.
MOORE: Thank you.
BLACKWELL: Still to come, First Lady Melania Trump back on the world stage promoting kindness but her husband's remarks, well they that put her in an awkward position, more on that ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[08:45:00] BLACKWELL: Thirteen minutes till the top of the hour now. President Trump's visit with Queen Elizabeth is getting mixed reviews here in the U.S. and in Britain. The President and First Lady greeted the Queen with handshakes before inspecting the Queen's Guard of Honor. Queen Elizabeth II has met every President since 1952, with the exception of Lyndon Johnson. Well some in Britain criticize the President for appearing to walk ahead of the Queen, which is a major faux pas in Britain.
PAUL: So First Lady Melania Trump was on the world stage obviously along with her husband at the NATO Summit, she had her own schedule which included promoting kindness as a part of her be best campaign. Her husband puts her in an awkward position, after he criticized the British Prime Minister and other world leaders. I'm going to listen with you to what the fashion editor of "The Washington Post" said about the First Lady's credibility.
(BEGIN VIDEO) ROBIN GIVHAN, FASHION EDITOR FOR "THE WASHINGTON POST": I think after wearing a jacket like that, which we were told to take at face value and not to read anything into it. I think then you have to constantly say, well, if she doesn't really care, then why should we take to heart anything that she does publicly? I mean, a part of that certainly has to do with the way that she uses clothes and symbolism.
(END VIDEO)
PAUL: So did wearing that jacket really taint anything else that she does? A senator politics for the "Huffington Post," Laura Basset with us now. Laura, thank you for being with us. What is your take on that? I know people keep going back to the jacket. It was something that was just perplexing for people to try to understand at the time but does it, as she said, does it really cloud out her credibility and taint what she does from this point on?
LAURA BASSETT, REPORTER WITH THE "HUFFINGTON POST": I do have to agree with Robin. I think the jacket hangs like a cloud over everything she does now. I mean she's trying to roll out a campaign called Be Best which is about anti-bullying, teaching children to be nice to each other. But it was such an unkind message she was wearing on that jacket as she went to visit migrant children who were being detained, or being separated from their families; such a serious day and such an odd and almost mean jacket choice.
So now I think she's on a world stage and people, any time you want to read into what she's wearing, of course she likes to nod to various countries when she goes with her fashion choices. I think if you're going to read into what she's wearing, it's hard not to think back to that jacket and think did she already tell us she doesn't care and is that an overarching message that we should read into everything she does now?
PAUL: OK, so what do you read into what she wore in this latest journey, this latest trip with the President?
BASSETT: I think there was a huge backlash about the jacket and so now she's on her best behavior. She's wearing a sort of a buttoned up pea coats as a nod to England. She wore Calvin Klein, obviously it's a brand that's currently be led by a Belgian and she wore that in Brussels. And so I think she's trying to - I think she's trying to be posed. I think she's trying to nod to these countries. I think she's trying to create relationships there. It just kind of - it feels odd to talk about it in the wake of that jacket.
PAUL: I understand what you're saying, but you know, the whole bit that she can overcome with her Be Best campaign, even with some of the things that her husband does, that she can bring sensibility to all of it. Laura Basset, we appreciate it so much, thank you.
BASSETT: Thank you for having me.
PAUL: Absolutely.
BLACKWELL: More than a week after her car plunged off a cliff, an Oregon woman is found alive and alert. How she was found, how she was rescued, the details are remarkable. Stay with us.
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[08:50:00]
PAUL: I don't know if you heard this from the National Institutes of Health say suicide rates rise following the death of celebrities, such as Anthony Bourdain or Kate Spade. Well this week's Impact Your World tells us how anyone who is struggling can get help.
(BEGIN VIDEO)
ANNA AKANA, YOUTUBE PERSONALITY: I mean at the end of your day, there is somebody who is supposed to be in my life right now and they're not.
I'm Anna Akana, I'm an actor and director and content creator on YouTube. I lost my little sister to suicide when I was 17. When I first started talking about it, I was very afraid of how it was going to be received, but at the same time I knew my main demographic was young girls and that no one had ever talked to me about mental illness. I'm a huge advocate for crisis text line because suicide is the second leading cause of death in young teens. The texting aspect is much more familiar, comfortable. I believe they have the capability to really connect with kids who want that help.
NANCY LUBIN, FOUNDER CRISIS TEXT LINE: You text us when you're pain, and we are there for you, so we can help you right in the heat of the moment. You text 741-741, you can also reach us inside Facebook messenger and kick. We handling about 100,000 conversations a month and we expect that to double by the end of this year.
We need more crisis counselors, America, this is needed, your empathy skills are needed. As long as you have a laptop and a good wifi connection, this is a great way to volunteer and have an immediate impact on someone else's life.
(END VIDEO)
BLACKWELL: A missing Oregon woman has been found alive. This was after her car went off a cliff more than a week ago.
PAUL: Yes, the Monterey, California, sheriffs office says two people on a walk spotted Angela Hernandez last night nearly 2,000 feet down this cliff. Now her crashed Jeep was partially in the water. Angela was taken to the hospital with a hurt shoulder but she was alert as she was walking. Police started searching for her last week when she suddenly stopped responding to text messages from family and friends. So glad that they were able to find her, glad for her family.
BLACKWELL: Her family, we heard from her sister in the last hour and she was understandably in shock that after a car goes off a cliff, your sister is found alive.
PAUL: And so emotional, yes.
BLACKWELL: And with a minor injury?
PAUL: And very thankful to everybody who paid such good attention an got the word out that they were looking for her.
BLACKWELL: All right, more news straight ahead with Smerconish.
PAUL: We're going to see you again in one hour right here for CNN Newsroom.
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