Transcripts For CNNW Situation Room With Wolf Blitzer 201704

National security council. Is bannon now losing influence and power in the white house . And no comment. After north korea fires another missile, a white house source warns that all options are on the table, but the secretary of state says the u. S. , quote, has spoken enough about north korea. So whats the message for kim jongun. Im wolf blitzer. Youre in the situation room. Breaking news. The Trump Administration is voicing outrage over the deadly chemical attack in syria. At the United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley held up gruesome pictures of young victims, and President Trump calls the gassing an affront to humanity, adding, and im kwout quoting now, that attack on children had a big impact on me. After blaming his predecessor for missed opportunities in syria, President Trump says the crisis is now his responsibility, but hes not saying what hell do about it, and today he made no mention of russias aggressive role in the conflict. Citing no evidence President Trump tells the New York Times he thinks Obama National security adviser susan rice committed a crime by seeking the identities of Trump Associates who were caught up in surveillance of foreign officials. Democrats say republicans are slandering rice to distract from the investigation into russias election meddling and ties between Trump Associates and russia. And President Trump has removed his chief strategist steve bannon from the National Security council saying the president made the decision him investment the move strengthens National Security advisers h. R. Mcmaster and republican sources say its the first public diminishing of bannons powerful role inside the white house. Ill talk to congressman jim himes of the House Intelligence Committee and our correspondents, analysts and guests are standing by with full coverage of the days top stories. Lets begin with President Trump. Juggling world crises and voicing horror at the deadly gas attack against civilians, including children in syria, our senior White House Correspondent jeff zeleny is joining us now with the very latest. Jeff, very strong reaction today from the president. Reporter wolf, the strongest words weve heard on syria or the assad regime from this president. He did call it an affront to humanity and saying that the chemical attack affected him personally, but we dont know how it will influence his policy, but all of this is happening as theres a major shakeup on the president s National Security council. One of his top advisers demoted tonight. Ladies and gentlemen, the president of the United States reporter President Trump strongly condemning the deadly Chemical Attacks in syria and the regime of Bashar Al Assad. That attack on children yesterday had a big impact on me, big impact. That was a horrible, horrible thing, and ive been watching it and seeing it, and it doesnt get any worse than that. Reporter but in the rose garden today the president stopping short of saying how he would respond to the Foreign Policy challenges profoundly testing his white house. My white house towards syria and assad has changed very much, and if you look back over the last few weeks there were other attacks using gas. You are now talking about a whole different level. Reporter facing threats from north korea and a wartorn middle east, the trump doctrine is still very much unclear, and for that the president did not apologize. Im not saying im doing anything one way or the other, but im certainly not going to be telling you. Reporter today the president was eager to criticize the Obama Administration for failing to act in syria despite assad crossing a red line using chemical weapons. It crossed a lot of lines for me. When you kill innocent children, innocent babies, babies, little babies, with a chemical gas that is so lethal people were shocked to hear what gas it was, that crosses many, many lines, beyond a red line, many, many lines. Reporter but the president also offered a rare acknowledgement that the burden is now his. I now have responsibility, and i will have that responsibility and carry it very proudly. I will tell you that. It is now my responsibility. It was a great opportunity missed. Reporter yet mr. Trump did not once mention russia and its Critical Role in propping up the syrian regime. He left the tough talk on russia to u. N. Ambassador nikki healy. If russia has the influence in syria that it claims to have, we need to see them use it. Reporter Foreign Policy is taking center stage in the biggest way yet in the young trump presidency. After welcoming King Abdullah of jordan today hell host the chinese president xi jinping at his maralago retreat in florida. President trump also making adjustments to his steam, removing steve bannon from his National Security panel, reversing a controversial decision from the first days in office. General m. R. Mcmaster who stepped in after the firing of Michael Flynn, sem powered by the move, sources tell cnn. Bannon was not front and center in the rose garden today. His diminishing restores a more traditional structure to the National Security council, with dan coates, director of National Security and general joseph dunford, chairman of the joint chiefs back at the table, all this as the president is still finding it easier to criticize his predecessor than charting his own course forward. The world is a mess. I inherited a mess, whether its the middle east, whether its north korea, whether its so many other things, whether its in our country, horrible trade deals, i inherited a mess. Were going to fix it. Reporter now mr. Bannon was appointed to the Principals Committee of the National Security council in the early days, in fact, the first week of this administration. Now this sudden abrupt move, wolf, is meaning that general h. R. Mcmaster is a power center, a new power center inside this white house. Were told that he wanted his own people on the National Security council, so now that that has happened there is a growing number of foreign threats facing this administration. The next one north korea certainly first and foremost will be the topic a of discussion tomorrow when President Trump meets with the chinese president in florida. Yeah. They have got a lot of major National Security threats right now to deal with. Jeff zeleny, thanks very much. As investigators dig deep near russias election meddling here in the United States and links to the Trump Campaign, the president lashes out with an extraordinary new charge. Lets go to our senior congressional reporter manu raju. Update our viewers. Whats the latest . Reporter well, tonight, President Trump leveling an extraordinary charge accusing one of former president obamas top aides of committing a crime without offering any evidence. Now this comes as house and senate Intelligence Committee does want to interview that top aide, susan rice, as part of the broadening investigation into russia, and tonight, wolf, new signs of turmoil in the house investigation thats having a hard time restarting. President trump now leveling a stunning new accusation, that former president obamas National Security adviser may have broken the law. This after susan rice has faced allegations that she tried to learn the names of Trump Associates speaking with foreign officials under surveillance which is not illegal. When asked if he thought rice broke the law trump told the New York Times do i think, yes, i think. He added its such an important story for our country and the world. It is one of the big stories of our time. Rice defended herself yesterday. The allegation is that somehow Obama Administration officials utilized intelligence for political purposes, thats absolutely false. Reporter its unclear which law the president thinks rice broke and offered no new evidence. A rice spokesperson says shes not going to dignify the president s ludicrous charge with a comment. On capitol hill the House Intelligence Committee plans to invite rice to testify as part of its widening probe into russia and the Trump Campaign. With the president just saying that, that she may have broken the law . Well, hopefully he has some evidence and facts to back that up. Reporter democrats say rice did not wrong, and they accuse the gop of slandering rice to distract from revelations of Trump Campaign contacts with russians accused of meddling in the elections. Were watching a movie in 3d, deception, deflection and distraction, and this is just part of a grander strategy of distraction. Dont look over here where were trying to investigation russian interference and the potential coordination and collusion of trump operatives. Reporter and today more squabbling in the House Committee as democrats accuse republican chairman devin nunes of preventing a public hearing from going forward, namely to heart testimony from sally yates, a former top Obama Justice official who had warned the Trump Administration that former National Security adviser Michael Flynn may have been vulnerable to blackmail by the russians. I think that theres a great deal of resistance. Reporter a republican source tells cnn that republicans are working on an agreement to schedule yates testimony but declined to say if it would be in a public session. Other republicans on the committee refuse to comment today. They are saying youre resisting signing and having her testify publicly. Were not going to talk about anything to do with this investigation. Reporter why not . Because the investigation is ongoing. Reporter the full house panel also has yet to see documents that chairman devin nunes and ranking democrat adam schiff reviewed on white house grounds, that nunes said showed some Trump Team Communications were incidentally collected by u. S. Intelligence and some of their identities were revealed in intelligence reports. Schiff telling cnn that the president committed to allowing the full panel to review the information, but the white house staff is now preventing that from happening. The white house clearly only wanted one person to see these document, and that person was our chairman. It reluctantly had to allow myself to view it and the chair and ranking on senate intel. Now i want the full committees to be able to see that and were meeting resistance. Reporter now, wolf, tonight the white house is responding to mr. Schiffs charges but not directly saying they are making some of that Information Available but to the gang of eight, the leaders of the house and senate Intelligence Committees and the leaders of the house and the senate and not responding to the question about whether or not they will provide that information to the full committee which is what mr. Schiff wants. Now, also, were hearing that the senate Intelligence Committee can access those surveillance documents that nunes and schiff saw at f ft. Meade, the home. National Security Agency and the question is whether the senators will go over there yet. No schedule as of yet, but at least they are saying they are making the Information Available at the nsa headquarters. Which is not very far away from the capital in suburban maryland. Thanks, manu. Joining us a member of the House Intelligence Committee, congressman jims himes of connecticut. Thanks for joining us. Good afternoon, wolf. I would like to go through all the headlines starting with the horrific chemical attack carried out against syrian civilians. Weve seen all the pictures. His attitude towards the Bashar Al Assad regime has changed very much as a result of seeing these pictures, yet at the same time the president believes Syrian Refugees should be barred from entering the United States indefinitely. Now that these atrocities are taking place and the whole world is watching, do you believe the president can or will reconsider his position on Syrian Refugees . Well, im not sure about his position on Syrian Refugees. Im tell you that im pleased to see the president come away from the position that he was adopting meardays ago when he was making the point that assad is a fact on the ground sort of validating assads presence and 24 hours later we get this horrific act by his own people by the way using weapons that we thought had been negotiated out of the country with the help of run, so im glad to seat president evolving on this issue, and i hope he comes to see that if hes really serious about working with all of the parties in the region, which is how this has to happen, that saying that were not going to take Syrian Refugees is a huge step in the wrong direction, bolt with respect to appears constructive but also with respect to to making it clear to the islamic terrorists in the region, isis in particular, that we are not were not, you know, off on some antimuslim crusade here. Let me also get your response to the president s latest claim, unfounded as far as we know, that president Barack Obamas National Security adviser susan rice in his words to the New York Times may have committed a crime. Have you seen any evidence at all to suggest that susan rice did anything illegal or improper . Absolutely none, wolf, and it doesnt surprise me one bit that the president would make such an unfounded and unfactual accusation. I mean, remember, it was only a couple of months ago that the president accused the former president of the United States of wiretapping him in trump to you, you know. Obviously a huge and serious accusation which had absolutely no basis in reality. This is also true of the rice accusation. Ive made this point any number of times. Unmasking and an unmasking by senior officials is not an unusual thing, and it is not that does not mean leak. It does not mean broad dissemination, so im on board with the concept of lets take a look at what susan rice did, and as you said she is on a witness list for the House Intelligence Committees investigation. I have every confidence that when she testifies she will explain how this was something that she would do in the normal course of business and that she didnt share it with anybody in the political realm. You told our own Anderson Cooper monday night that you believe your full committee, the full House Intelligence Committee, will be given access to the same documents which prompted chairman devin nunes to brief President Trump over at the white house. What do you expect those documents to show . Well, maybe i can update the Previous Story a little bit. My sense is that this investigation is actually moving forward pretty constructively. Were rescheduling the comey rogers meeting and were actively working to reschedule meeting with sally yates and ive been told that every effort has been made to make the documents available to all of us. Im scheduled to go to one of our agent sis tomorrow to review those documents so im expecting to be able to do that. Well see if that actually happens. Youll go to ft. Meade, the headquarters of the National Security agency, to review the documents. Ill go to wherever they may be resident. Obviously the chairman and the rank member reviewed them at the white house. I will go wherever im told to review those documents. Congressman, thanks very much for joining us. Thank you, wolf. Up next, on the eve of President Trumps crucial meeting with chinas leader, north korea fires off yet another missile, but is the u. S. Sending mixed messages to kim jongun . And ill speak with the former director of the cia and National Security agency, cnns new Trump Administration<\/a> is voicing outrage over the deadly chemical attack in syria. At the United Nations<\/a> Ambassador Nikki Haley<\/a> held up gruesome pictures of young victims, and President Trump<\/a> calls the gassing an affront to humanity, adding, and im kwout quoting now, that attack on children had a big impact on me. After blaming his predecessor for missed opportunities in syria, President Trump<\/a> says the crisis is now his responsibility, but hes not saying what hell do about it, and today he made no mention of russias aggressive role in the conflict. Citing no evidence President Trump<\/a> tells the New York Times<\/a> he thinks Obama National<\/a> security adviser susan rice committed a crime by seeking the identities of Trump Associates<\/a> who were caught up in surveillance of foreign officials. Democrats say republicans are slandering rice to distract from the investigation into russias election meddling and ties between Trump Associates<\/a> and russia. And President Trump<\/a> has removed his chief strategist steve bannon from the National Security<\/a> council saying the president made the decision him investment the move strengthens National Security<\/a> advisers h. R. Mcmaster and republican sources say its the first public diminishing of bannons powerful role inside the white house. Ill talk to congressman jim himes of the House Intelligence Committee<\/a> and our correspondents, analysts and guests are standing by with full coverage of the days top stories. Lets begin with President Trump<\/a>. Juggling world crises and voicing horror at the deadly gas attack against civilians, including children in syria, our senior White House Correspondent<\/a> jeff zeleny is joining us now with the very latest. Jeff, very strong reaction today from the president. Reporter wolf, the strongest words weve heard on syria or the assad regime from this president. He did call it an affront to humanity and saying that the chemical attack affected him personally, but we dont know how it will influence his policy, but all of this is happening as theres a major shakeup on the president s National Security<\/a> council. One of his top advisers demoted tonight. Ladies and gentlemen, the president of the United States<\/a> reporter President Trump<\/a> strongly condemning the deadly Chemical Attacks<\/a> in syria and the regime of Bashar Al Assad<\/a>. That attack on children yesterday had a big impact on me, big impact. That was a horrible, horrible thing, and ive been watching it and seeing it, and it doesnt get any worse than that. Reporter but in the rose garden today the president stopping short of saying how he would respond to the Foreign Policy<\/a> challenges profoundly testing his white house. My white house towards syria and assad has changed very much, and if you look back over the last few weeks there were other attacks using gas. You are now talking about a whole different level. Reporter facing threats from north korea and a wartorn middle east, the trump doctrine is still very much unclear, and for that the president did not apologize. Im not saying im doing anything one way or the other, but im certainly not going to be telling you. Reporter today the president was eager to criticize the Obama Administration<\/a> for failing to act in syria despite assad crossing a red line using chemical weapons. It crossed a lot of lines for me. When you kill innocent children, innocent babies, babies, little babies, with a chemical gas that is so lethal people were shocked to hear what gas it was, that crosses many, many lines, beyond a red line, many, many lines. Reporter but the president also offered a rare acknowledgement that the burden is now his. I now have responsibility, and i will have that responsibility and carry it very proudly. I will tell you that. It is now my responsibility. It was a great opportunity missed. Reporter yet mr. Trump did not once mention russia and its Critical Role<\/a> in propping up the syrian regime. He left the tough talk on russia to u. N. Ambassador nikki healy. If russia has the influence in syria that it claims to have, we need to see them use it. Reporter Foreign Policy<\/a> is taking center stage in the biggest way yet in the young trump presidency. After welcoming King Abdullah<\/a> of jordan today hell host the chinese president xi jinping at his maralago retreat in florida. President trump also making adjustments to his steam, removing steve bannon from his National Security<\/a> panel, reversing a controversial decision from the first days in office. General m. R. Mcmaster who stepped in after the firing of Michael Flynn<\/a>, sem powered by the move, sources tell cnn. Bannon was not front and center in the rose garden today. His diminishing restores a more traditional structure to the National Security<\/a> council, with dan coates, director of National Security<\/a> and general joseph dunford, chairman of the joint chiefs back at the table, all this as the president is still finding it easier to criticize his predecessor than charting his own course forward. The world is a mess. I inherited a mess, whether its the middle east, whether its north korea, whether its so many other things, whether its in our country, horrible trade deals, i inherited a mess. Were going to fix it. Reporter now mr. Bannon was appointed to the Principals Committee<\/a> of the National Security<\/a> council in the early days, in fact, the first week of this administration. Now this sudden abrupt move, wolf, is meaning that general h. R. Mcmaster is a power center, a new power center inside this white house. Were told that he wanted his own people on the National Security<\/a> council, so now that that has happened there is a growing number of foreign threats facing this administration. The next one north korea certainly first and foremost will be the topic a of discussion tomorrow when President Trump<\/a> meets with the chinese president in florida. Yeah. They have got a lot of major National Security<\/a> threats right now to deal with. Jeff zeleny, thanks very much. As investigators dig deep near russias election meddling here in the United States<\/a> and links to the Trump Campaign<\/a>, the president lashes out with an extraordinary new charge. Lets go to our senior congressional reporter manu raju. Update our viewers. Whats the latest . Reporter well, tonight, President Trump<\/a> leveling an extraordinary charge accusing one of former president obamas top aides of committing a crime without offering any evidence. Now this comes as house and senate Intelligence Committee<\/a> does want to interview that top aide, susan rice, as part of the broadening investigation into russia, and tonight, wolf, new signs of turmoil in the house investigation thats having a hard time restarting. President trump now leveling a stunning new accusation, that former president obamas National Security<\/a> adviser may have broken the law. This after susan rice has faced allegations that she tried to learn the names of Trump Associates<\/a> speaking with foreign officials under surveillance which is not illegal. When asked if he thought rice broke the law trump told the New York Times<\/a> do i think, yes, i think. He added its such an important story for our country and the world. It is one of the big stories of our time. Rice defended herself yesterday. The allegation is that somehow Obama Administration<\/a> officials utilized intelligence for political purposes, thats absolutely false. Reporter its unclear which law the president thinks rice broke and offered no new evidence. A rice spokesperson says shes not going to dignify the president s ludicrous charge with a comment. On capitol hill the House Intelligence Committee<\/a> plans to invite rice to testify as part of its widening probe into russia and the Trump Campaign<\/a>. With the president just saying that, that she may have broken the law . Well, hopefully he has some evidence and facts to back that up. Reporter democrats say rice did not wrong, and they accuse the gop of slandering rice to distract from revelations of Trump Campaign<\/a> contacts with russians accused of meddling in the elections. Were watching a movie in 3d, deception, deflection and distraction, and this is just part of a grander strategy of distraction. Dont look over here where were trying to investigation russian interference and the potential coordination and collusion of trump operatives. Reporter and today more squabbling in the House Committee<\/a> as democrats accuse republican chairman devin nunes of preventing a public hearing from going forward, namely to heart testimony from sally yates, a former top Obama Justice<\/a> official who had warned the Trump Administration<\/a> that former National Security<\/a> adviser Michael Flynn<\/a> may have been vulnerable to blackmail by the russians. I think that theres a great deal of resistance. Reporter a republican source tells cnn that republicans are working on an agreement to schedule yates testimony but declined to say if it would be in a public session. Other republicans on the committee refuse to comment today. They are saying youre resisting signing and having her testify publicly. Were not going to talk about anything to do with this investigation. Reporter why not . Because the investigation is ongoing. Reporter the full house panel also has yet to see documents that chairman devin nunes and ranking democrat adam schiff reviewed on white house grounds, that nunes said showed some Trump Team Communications<\/a> were incidentally collected by u. S. Intelligence and some of their identities were revealed in intelligence reports. Schiff telling cnn that the president committed to allowing the full panel to review the information, but the white house staff is now preventing that from happening. The white house clearly only wanted one person to see these document, and that person was our chairman. It reluctantly had to allow myself to view it and the chair and ranking on senate intel. Now i want the full committees to be able to see that and were meeting resistance. Reporter now, wolf, tonight the white house is responding to mr. Schiffs charges but not directly saying they are making some of that Information Available<\/a> but to the gang of eight, the leaders of the house and senate Intelligence Committee<\/a>s and the leaders of the house and the senate and not responding to the question about whether or not they will provide that information to the full committee which is what mr. Schiff wants. Now, also, were hearing that the senate Intelligence Committee<\/a> can access those surveillance documents that nunes and schiff saw at f ft. Meade, the home. National Security Agency<\/a> and the question is whether the senators will go over there yet. No schedule as of yet, but at least they are saying they are making the Information Available<\/a> at the nsa headquarters. Which is not very far away from the capital in suburban maryland. Thanks, manu. Joining us a member of the House Intelligence Committee<\/a>, congressman jims himes of connecticut. Thanks for joining us. Good afternoon, wolf. I would like to go through all the headlines starting with the horrific chemical attack carried out against syrian civilians. Weve seen all the pictures. His attitude towards the Bashar Al Assad<\/a> regime has changed very much as a result of seeing these pictures, yet at the same time the president believes Syrian Refugees<\/a> should be barred from entering the United States<\/a> indefinitely. Now that these atrocities are taking place and the whole world is watching, do you believe the president can or will reconsider his position on Syrian Refugees<\/a> . Well, im not sure about his position on Syrian Refugees<\/a>. Im tell you that im pleased to see the president come away from the position that he was adopting meardays ago when he was making the point that assad is a fact on the ground sort of validating assads presence and 24 hours later we get this horrific act by his own people by the way using weapons that we thought had been negotiated out of the country with the help of run, so im glad to seat president evolving on this issue, and i hope he comes to see that if hes really serious about working with all of the parties in the region, which is how this has to happen, that saying that were not going to take Syrian Refugees<\/a> is a huge step in the wrong direction, bolt with respect to appears constructive but also with respect to to making it clear to the islamic terrorists in the region, isis in particular, that we are not were not, you know, off on some antimuslim crusade here. Let me also get your response to the president s latest claim, unfounded as far as we know, that president Barack Obamas<\/a> National Security<\/a> adviser susan rice in his words to the New York Times<\/a> may have committed a crime. Have you seen any evidence at all to suggest that susan rice did anything illegal or improper . Absolutely none, wolf, and it doesnt surprise me one bit that the president would make such an unfounded and unfactual accusation. I mean, remember, it was only a couple of months ago that the president accused the former president of the United States<\/a> of wiretapping him in trump to you, you know. Obviously a huge and serious accusation which had absolutely no basis in reality. This is also true of the rice accusation. Ive made this point any number of times. Unmasking and an unmasking by senior officials is not an unusual thing, and it is not that does not mean leak. It does not mean broad dissemination, so im on board with the concept of lets take a look at what susan rice did, and as you said she is on a witness list for the House Intelligence Committee<\/a>s investigation. I have every confidence that when she testifies she will explain how this was something that she would do in the normal course of business and that she didnt share it with anybody in the political realm. You told our own Anderson Cooper<\/a> monday night that you believe your full committee, the full House Intelligence Committee<\/a>, will be given access to the same documents which prompted chairman devin nunes to brief President Trump<\/a> over at the white house. What do you expect those documents to show . Well, maybe i can update the Previous Story<\/a> a little bit. My sense is that this investigation is actually moving forward pretty constructively. Were rescheduling the comey rogers meeting and were actively working to reschedule meeting with sally yates and ive been told that every effort has been made to make the documents available to all of us. Im scheduled to go to one of our agent sis tomorrow to review those documents so im expecting to be able to do that. Well see if that actually happens. Youll go to ft. Meade, the headquarters of the National Security<\/a> agency, to review the documents. Ill go to wherever they may be resident. Obviously the chairman and the rank member reviewed them at the white house. I will go wherever im told to review those documents. Congressman, thanks very much for joining us. Thank you, wolf. Up next, on the eve of President Trump<\/a>s crucial meeting with chinas leader, north korea fires off yet another missile, but is the u. S. Sending mixed messages to kim jongun . And ill speak with the former director of the cia and National Security<\/a> agency, cnns new National Security<\/a> analyst, general Michael Hayden<\/a>. You vee him right there standing by live. Wanna get away . Now you can with southwest fares as low as 59 dollars oneway. Yes to low fares with nothing to hide. Thats transfarency. Share the joy of real cream. With reddiwip. Actually making your body feel better. Im heather thomson, and thats exactly what tommie copper does for me and my whole family. They call it wearable wellness. And tommie copper has infused it into everything they do. [ male announcer ] experience the difference wearable wellness can make in your life. Go to tommiecopper. Com, enter your email to become part of the tommie copper community, and get 15 off your entire order, plus free shipping. Life hurts. Feel better. Guests can earn a how cafree night when theypring book direct on choicehotels. Com and stay with us just two times . Spring time. Badda book. 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Theres more to know. Youre breaking news. Facing challenges abroad and investigations at home. President trump fires off a stunning new charge saying he thinks the former president s National Security<\/a> adviser susan rice may have broken the law. Lets bring in the former cia director and former nsa director, our new cnn National Security<\/a> analyst, retired general Michael Hayden<\/a>. Welcome to cnn. Thanks very much for joining us. Thank you. The president provided in this New York Times<\/a> interview no evidence at all to back up his claim that susan rice in his words may have committed a crime. How extraordinary is it for a sitting president to level a charge like this . Its very unusual for a sitting american president to level such a charge. Look, wolf, i cant read into susan rices heart and any legitimate authority can be abused, all right, but on its face what i know about the susan rice unmasking story, what has gone on here was lawful, appropriate and heres the punch line, pretty routine. Not exceptional. And she decided that there were unnamed americans that she wanted to get the names of because there was something going on involved National Security<\/a>. Right, one thing to importantly keep in mind, that report doesnt get to her desk unless someone at ft. Meade, nsa already thinks it has significant foreign intelligence and now shes making a request to understand what weve already established is important foreign intelligence. And the president levels this crime, she may have committed a crime and senator rand paul, hads also making some serious charges. I want you to listen to what he said about what susan rice, what he believes susan rice did in this interview. Watch this. Heres the thing is you can order you can order the specific, you know, listening device or you can say, you know what, we already have it, and its just amazing reverse targeting, and we have millions of people in a database and i can can be susan rice and go down and type donald trump or general flynn into a database. Do you know if that happens. Is that not the same as ordering the surveillance . They know it exists. Look, every business, every International Businessman<\/a> or woman who talks over seas is in that database. Do we want political officials to be able to type in the name of bill gates and find out that they have a deal going on in europe . Those names are supposed to be masked. Thats the point. I believe susan rice abused this system and she did it for political purposes. She needs to be brought in and questioned under oath. Okay, you believe is that a fair characterization . First of all, there are a lot of alternative facts in the description, and what the senator has done, and i hope its just out of ignorance, is that hes conflated two very distinct things. Let me start over here with susan rice with which weve just discussed. Thats a report. Its based if you listen to devin nunes based upon a fifa court warranted surveillance of a foreign target and we get the information to susan rice and she wants to understand it better and unmask the american identity, if you can, please and by the way nsa occasionally says no. Right . Over here what the senator was talking about is something called the 702 program which is a very Productive Program<\/a> for the National Security<\/a> agency. Those do with emails and its targeted against foreigners who are overseas. Now he actually in this case raised an important issue. Nsa by law is allowed to query that lawfully collected intelligence space with u. S. Person selectors. Thats an important issue. Im happy to debate that this coming summer when 702 has to be reauthorized but thats not this. In practice, if a National Security<\/a> adviser at the white house wants to demask someones name and find out who is that person, these foreign officials were discussing, theres a process you have to go through. Its not simple, is it . Oh, no. What you do is youve gotten the report. You say i really need to know who person number one is. You fill out a request, in her case a staff member would fill out the request. It would go to nsa and literally be adjudicated by the analyst, a lawyer and someone who is an expert in unmasking and minimization. If the argument made by the requester, and by the way it doesnt have to be the National Security<\/a> adviser. It could be a gs9 analyst at khai who needs it to perform his or her job. They make an adjudication and make a decision and then, wolf, if its yes that identity is revealed only to the requester, not to everyone else on the original distribution, so this is very careful and very well documented. It should be easy to find out how often she asked, why, who was revealed and under what circumstances. And when you say easy, it shunned take very long at all. Its a well documented trail. A long paper trail. You can go through it within a day or two if you want. Absolutely. You would think the president of the United States<\/a> if he wants specifics, tell me what she did and how long would it take for them to share that information with the president . Frankly i think you put half a dozen nokes whose judgment you trust on a bus and send them up to ft. Meade. I think they could do it in a morning. Wolf, if you want answers, this is easily arrived at. If you want an issue, thats different. The question is did the president seek that information, or is he just making that charge . Steve bannon, the president s chief strategist, he was on that Principals Committee<\/a> of the National Security<\/a> council that caused an uproar and now hes been removed. Your reaction . I think thats a good thing. Weve swung back to normal and added in the director of Central Intelligence<\/a> agency, the dni and chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, thats the traditional structure and frankly if i were in the meeting with mr. Bannon there, i would think thats kind of the political c ho mmisar at the end of the table and there is another struggle going on. I think the president is detached from the government out thereto thats out there to serve of him and is relying on a small group of family and friends for core guidance. I think this step is a step in the right direction to connect the president through h. R. Mcmaster, his National Security<\/a> adviser, to the tens of thousands of nokes who really do want to make him succeed. But some of the people in his National Security<\/a> team you respect, like general mcmaster, general mattis, mike pompeo at the cia. Absolutely, kelly at the department of homeland, coates as the director of national intelligence, but what im wondering is how do these folks out here influence the core decisionmaking, hand my great fear is that mr. Frump is taking the style that worked for him in business, family and friends, tight circle, has maybe isolated himself from all these other functions that are actually pretty good at what they do. Stand by. We have more to discuss. Much more with general hayden. Well take a quick break. New developments coming in as we speak. Im val. The orange money retirement squirrel from voya. I represent the money you save for the future. Whos he . Hes the green money you can spend now. Whats up . 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With the best collection of styles and graphics to choose from, its easy to go online and create custom tshirts and more for all of lifes events. Free shipping and ontime delivery is guaranteed. Go to customink. Com to get started today. In my johnsonville commercial we open up in the forest. Hi. Im jeff. Im eating my breakfast and all of a sudden a raccoon come up and ask me, what are you eating . I told him johnsonville breakfast sausage, fully cooked. Porcupine comes in and he says, does that come in patties . I said yup wolf comes in and says, howd you learn to talk to animals . And i said books and we had a good laugh about that. [laughter] thats a commercial made the johnsonville way. [bullfighting music] [burke] billygoat ruffians. Seen it. Covered it. We know a thing or two because weve seen a thing or two. We are farmers. Bumpadum, bumbumbumbum were talking with the former cia and nsa director, cnns new National Security<\/a> analyst Michael Hayden<\/a>. Back to him in a moment, but first as President Trump<\/a> gets ready for critical talks tomorrow with chinas leader, north korea testfires yet another missile. Brian todd has been looking into this for us. Brian, the white house seems to be exasperated. Reporter they are exasperated, wolf, they are angry and sending strong signals tonight that they are about to get tougher with north korea. Theres a real sense that kim jongun is pushing President Trump<\/a> as far as he can, showing his firepower and testing how the president and his chinese counterpart might respond. Reporter tonight kim jonguns missile prom program is moving at a furious pace. His forces have fired whats believed to be a scum into the sea of japan. A senior u. S. Defense official telling cnn the missile spun out of control and had a fiery descent into the sea, but a top u. S. General warns even when he fails in these testfirings, kim gets more dangerous. Reporter north korea is going fast, test, test, fail, test succeed and they are leng and you can see them learning because thats the way you do the rocket business. Reporter what worries america and its allies most tonight is how close kim is getting to having a nucleartipped missile capable of hitting the continental u. S. Realistically how close are they to having that capability . They could be close. They have tested a lot of constituent parts of an icbm and tested a lot of different technologies. Kim has said that they are going to try to do it this year. The next four years that could be the case. Reporter kims latest testfiring comes on the east of chinese president xi jinping, mr. Trump signaling today that what to do about kim jongun will be a crucial topic. We have a big problem. We have somebody that is not doing the right thing, and thats going to be moy responsibility, but ill tell you that spoernlt could have made been made a lot easier if it was handled years ago. Reporter a senior white house official tells senator the clock has now run out on north cree, a and all options are on the table and another white house officials tells us that doesnt mean the president s team has made up its mind to launch a preemptive military strike and at the same time secretary of state Rex Tillerson<\/a> issued an unusually stark statement saying, quote, the United States<\/a> has spoken enough about north korea. A military strike would be the president s riskiest move because of the potential for north korea to attack seoul or the 28,000 american troops near the dmz. Whats the most realistic option for President Trump<\/a> . What is most likely is a step up in sanctions, attempts to cut north korea off even further from the International Financial<\/a> system. There are ways to provide a tighter stranglehold and they will be looking at china for that. Reporter but analysts say the chinese president may be reluctant to put more pressure on kim jongun feeling that hes already done enough to support the sanctions already in place and fearing the potential for chaos on his border if north korea comes under more pressure and destabilizes. Wolf . All right, brian, thank you very much. Were back with cnns new National Security<\/a> analyst general michael hate yep, the former director of both the cia and the National Security<\/a> agency. So they are pretty terse, the state department statement. The United States<\/a> has spoken enough about north korea. We have no further comment. Is that a fly strategy . Im actually heartened a bit by it. The approach of the Obama Administration<\/a> is what they called strategic patience and frankly at the time i thought that actually showed some wisdom. Kind of the metaphor, wolf, these guys were 3yearolds throwing their porridge on the floor and ignore them for a while and parenting manuals tell you that. Now they are not throwing the pore img on the floor and they are throwing the flat screen and they have gotten a lot more dangerous so strategic patience has outlived its usefulness. That doesnt mean theres a lot of options going forward. Its not because the president s predecessors were lady, stupid or inept. This is a tough one. You said last night pretty ominous words. You were at a forum. Before the end of President Trump<\/a>s current term the North Koreans<\/a> will probably be able to reach indigenously produced Nuclear Weapon<\/a> aboard an indigenously produced intercontinental blimp. Its probably because of a low probability shot because of the problems the report shot you out and then you have to ask you what kind of odds are you comfortable with . They are inexorably moving into this position where they will be able to reach north america with these kinds of weapons. Realistically when the u. S. Says all options are on table, the military option, given whats going on along the demilitarized zone, you have a million north korean troops with thousands of artillery pieces and mimps that could be aimed at 10 million, 15 million South Koreans<\/a> in seoul 30 miles away, 30,000 u. S. Troops. Yeah. Along the dmz. Is the u. S. Willing to take a chance like that to knock out lets say a Nuclear Reactor<\/a> . I dont think so, and the first thing i would ask is your report talked a bit about a strike, and my initial question is against what . Mean, what is it you do that actually disarms them . That actually creates the effect that you really want to have, and your point is well taken. Ive served in korea twice. My last tour in seoul. My desk in downtown seoul, a city of 14 million people, was within artillery range of thousands of north korean artillery pieces. Your report points out i think the best possible option, upping the sanctions, and here its via the chinese, wolf. Its secondary sanctions. Are they going to come through the chinese . What we need to be able to do is frankly punish chinese firms for dealing with the North Koreans<\/a>, the secondary sank approach. Now thats dramatic, and the chinese are going to complain and were probably going to have to give up other things we want to impose on the chinese. I mean, this is a package. Theres a reason that the wicked problem is still around. No easy slicings. And the president will be meeting with the chinese leader tomorrow down in palm beach. General, good to have you here. Thank you. Thanks very much for joining us. Youll be a frequent guest here. Thank you. Thanks very much, general Michael Hayden<\/a> joining us. Coming up, as more sponsors drop fox news Host Bill Oreilly<\/a> in the wake of revelations, millions of dollars that were paid to settle Sexual Harassment<\/a> claims, President Trump<\/a> now goes out of his way to praise bill oreilly saying he shouldnt have settled. I use whats already inside me to reach my goals. So i liked when my doctor told me i may reach my blood sugar and a1c goals by activating whats within me with onceweekly trulicity. Trulicity is not insulin. It helps activate my body to do what its supposed to do release its own insulin. Trulicity responds when my blood sugar rises. I take it once a week, and it works 24 7. It comes in an easytouse pen and i may even lose a little weight. Trulicity is a onceweekly injectable prescription medicine to improve blood sugar in adults with type 2 diabetes when used with diet and exercise. Trulicity is not insulin. It should not be the first medicine to treat diabetes or for people with type 1 diabetes or diabetic ketoacidosis. Do not take trulicity if you or a Family Member<\/a> has had medullary thyroid cancer, if youve had multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2, or if you are allergic to trulicity. Stop trulicity and call your doctor right away if you have symptoms such as itching, rash, or trouble breathing; a lump or swelling in your neck; or severe pain in your stomach area. Serious side effects may include pancreatitis, which can be fatal. Taking trulicity with a sulfonylurea or insulin increases your risk for low blood sugar. Common side effects include nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, decreased appetite and indigestion. Some side effects can lead to dehydration, which may make existing kidney problems worse. With trulicity, i click to activate whats within me. If you want help improving your a1c and blood sugar numbers with a noninsulin option, click to activate your within. Ask your doctor about onceweekly trulicity. With a noninsulin option, click to activate your within. At crowne plaza we know Business Travel<\/a> isnt just business. Theres this. a bit of this. Why not . Your hotel should make it easy to do all the things you do. Which is what we do. Crowne plaza. Were all business, mostly. Were following multiple breaking stories including President Trump<\/a> without offering any proof, telling the New York Times<\/a> he thinks former National Security<\/a> adviser susan rice may have committed a crime by unmasking Trump Associates<\/a>. Just now spokeswoman for susan rice gave cnn this statement, and im quoting. Im not going to dignify the president s ludicrous charge with a comment. Lets bring in our political experts. Gloria, let me start with you. Where does this end . He made the accusations more than a month ago against president obama illegally wiretapping trump tower, and now hes making this very, very stark accusation against his National Security<\/a> adviser. Without saying and specifying exactly what that crime would be, and my suspicion is there isnt any crime, of course, because what she was doing was her job. She was looking at information that was in front of her. She was trying to understand the context of this information, and that is why you ask to see a little bit more of it. This is what National Security<\/a> advisers are supposed to do. They are supposed to consume intelligence, and they are supposed to try and understand intelligence so they can understand how how important it is. And so its very difficult for me to see where this ends because maybe there are going to be some other accusations thrown out there when you try to divert from the main story which is the question of russia hacking and the question of whether there was any collusion between trump transition officials and and the russians. Chris cillizza, what do you think . I dont know where it ends. I think what he continues to troy to do is pick here, pick here, pick here, throw it all in the big bowl and hope that at the end of the day the russia stuff is lost a little bit and that there is a sense among people, well, the government is listening to us and doing all these things. Its bad, right, and they dont Pay Attention<\/a> to the details, but, again, to glorias point. Take this in isolation. The president of the United States<\/a> is saying the former top National Security<\/a> official in his predecessors administration committed a crime of unknown origin and is not providing evidence but is saying, well, i well talk about that. And by the way, thats a gigantic. Just subtuite any other president for president donald trump. If barack obama said that about george w. Bush. Lets remember he also accused barack obama of a felony of wiretapping him during the election. I mean, this is nothing knew for donald trump. Well, are you sending a signal to your Justice Department<\/a> that this hes in charge of all the Law Enforcement<\/a> agencies of the u. S. Government. Its not appropriate to say that somebody ought to be prosecuted because shes committed a crime, without saying what the crime is, without i mean, rebecca, she hasnt been charged with anything, susan rice at all, and for the president of the United States<\/a> to make a claim like this, his credibility is on the line. Right, but, i mean, lets dive into a brief history of donald trump making baseless claims. He has done this many times before and weve seen that before. That doesnt make it good. That doesnt make it all right or something we should condone and has a history of doing this, wolf and not necessarily caring about his credibility and making these allegations because they either mulledy the waters, make a political argument against them, untrue though they may be and if you Say Something<\/a> untrue enough times people believe it. He could end this all he wants. He can declassify any piece of information he wants in order to prove his point. Theres a danger in the idea what when the president of the United States<\/a> speaks, we dont know whether its based on a piece of information that he possesses that no one else or if hes just saying it to say, it and i yes, in this situation its serious, but when we talk about Foreign Policy<\/a>, that is a dangerous thing. Youre absolutely right. Is he reacting to hard intelligence, information that he received, or is he reacting to what he saw on the shows . A story he read on television. Its a question of do we take him literally . Stand by. Everybody stand by. In the same New York Times<\/a> interview the president also had some surprising comments about bill oreilly. Well have that for you when we come back. Before you set out, you plan to capture every moment. But what you really cant plan for is when the moment captures you. Marriott now has 30 brands in over 110 countries. So no matter where you go, you are here. Join or link accounts. Were back with our political experts. Rebecca, in that same New York Times<\/a> interview, the president weighed in on the bill oreilly controversy. He and fox have paid more than 13 million to settle complaints and advertisers have dropped from the show. Heres what the president said. He is a good person. I think he shouldnt have settled. Personally, he shouldnt have settled because you should have taken it all the way. I dont think bill did anything wrong. All of a sudden, the president weighing in. The president has said he doesnt like settling lawsuits in general. Lets remember, he invited roger ailes as an adviser onto his campaign informally after roger ailes was faced with all of the accusations of Sexual Harassment<\/a> at fox news, had to settle a lawsuit as well for millions of dollars and then leave the company. So clearly donald trump does not feel this is a diminishing character for a man. Lets be clear, donald trump has roughly zero percent knowledge the idea that donald trump has any understanding of the cases against bill oreilly, there is no there there. If youre a private citizen, okay. But youre the president of the United States<\/a>. Why is he even weighing in on this . I mean, wolf, you were pointing out in the break that his aides were standing behind him during this interview with the New York Times<\/a>. Do you think they wanted him to weigh in on the cases against bill oreilly . I think not. As you point out, rebecca, he was with roger ailes all the way and hes going to be with bill oreilly all the way and he may feel that in his own way he himself has been wronged with the access Hollywood Tape<\/a> or whatever. Theres no question, he feels as if hes been targeted. So hes been targeted in the same way. And its significant that in the New York Times<\/a> interview, she writes that the interview was held in the oval office. The president was behind his desk. There were half a dozen aides standing around the president , including gary cohen, reince priebus, the Vice President<\/a> mike pence and hes doing an interview, talking about bill oreilly in front of all of these people. Again, its very difficult for even the Vice President<\/a> to say, you know, mr. President , dont say that. Again, one thing ill point out i wish they had thought bubbles. Mike pence probably had more useful ways to spend his time than sort of being the wingman for donald trump in an interview. But this is how he does things. And except the fact he started at 1 in the polls, was given no chance to do the opposite of what Political Convention<\/a> wisdom would do at every turn. Guys, dont go too far away. We have more breaking news. President trump expresses horror at the chemical attack in syria, saying the gassing of children crossed a lot of lines. He says syria is now his responsibility. What will he do about it . On a perfect car, then smash it into a tree. Your Insurance Company<\/a> raises your rates. Maybe you shouldve done more research on them. For drivers with accident forgiveness, Liberty Mutual<\/a> wont raise your rates due to your first accident. And if you do have an accident, our claims centers are available to assist you 24 7. Call for a free quote today. Liberty stands with you\u2122. Liberty mutual insurance. Happening now, President Trump<\/a> suggests he may take un unilateral action. Assads ally Vladimir Putin<\/a> taking sides. Mr. Trump offers stunning judgments from the oval office claiming former obama adviser susan rice may have committed a crime while defending fox news anchor bill oreilly as a good person in the midst of a Sexual Harassment<\/a> scandal. Bannon fodder. The president s chief strategist is removed from a controversial role on the National Security<\/a>","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"archive.org","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","width":"800","height":"600","url":"\/\/ia800609.us.archive.org\/19\/items\/CNNW_20170405_210000_Situation_Room_With_Wolf_Blitzer\/CNNW_20170405_210000_Situation_Room_With_Wolf_Blitzer.thumbs\/CNNW_20170405_210000_Situation_Room_With_Wolf_Blitzer_000001.jpg"}},"autauthor":{"@type":"Organization"},"author":{"sameAs":"archive.org","name":"archive.org"}}],"coverageEndTime":"20240617T12:35:10+00:00"}