Transcripts For CNNW Situation Room With Wolf Blitzer 201808

CNNW Situation Room With Wolf Blitzer August 2, 2018 21:00:00

Understand it. Still it is an explosive way of looking at it for many people. You can fall mie on twitter and facebook. Our coverage continues with mr. Wolf blitzer in the Situation Room. Thanks for watching. Happening now, still under attack. Top u. S. Intelligence and National Security officials warn russia is still targeting u. S. Elections with an eye towards dividing the country before the upcoming mid terms. Does the president still think russias interference is a hoax . Cnn learns that special Counsel Robert Mueller is pushing to interview a Russian Oligarch and his pop star son. Flat broke. Prosecutors reveal former Trump Campaign chairman Paul Manafortwith congressman of the armed  Services Committee and our correspondents and specialists are also standing by with full coverage. First, lets go straight to our chief White House Correspondent jim acosta. Given the dismissive rhetoric about russias election attacks what is behind the latest white house display . Reporter the white house tried to show the world today it is serious. The Top Administration officials who insisted they are on the case had to grapple with one key question that kept coming up over and over again, whether the president takes the threat to American Democracy seriously. The president has made it clear reporter it was a show of force as the white house and now Top Administration officials from the director of National Intelligence to the National Security adviser to the fbi director to ensure they are ready to combat russian interference. We continue to see a pervasive messaging campaign by be successful. We may not get that answer until well after the november elections are over. Jim acosta at the white house. Thank you very much. Lets bring in our crime and justice reporter. What are you learning about how the fbi is now trying to investigate this russian threat . I think the fbi director took a much more serious, went further today than he has before in talking about this threat. I think it is also important to understand for him to go before the white house to stand on that podium and to answer questions is certainly significant, as well. For the fbi this is a top priority. The concern is that there are russians in this country that they are tracking that are in our institutions, are in our banks, are working at different companies, think tanks all working to gather intelligence and gather information much like we saw with the woman who was recently arrested here in washington, d. C. For working for the russians. This is a major concern that has been ongoing for the fbi for quite sometime. Certainly people inside the fbi feel given what happened in 2016 there is certain escalation that is almost touching or perhaps Touching Every fbi office in this country. The fbi director explaining how each of these offices is handling these investigations. You know there is a whole school of thought that says the only thing the russians will understand if they are doing this to the United States the United States has to do something to russia. A lot of emails, russian emails involving putins money, that is something they might understand. Of course. You talk to people, there is concern they are in our grid systems and some people say we are in their systems. We heard the president s hint that we do this to other people, as well. That is an action that the Intelligence Community for all we know may have taken. It is not something that they will ever talk about publically. A look at Breaking News, politics and reports from around the world. On the ms. Universe pageant and his son is a pop star who recently released a new video which some have taken to be mocking the special counsels investigation by poking fun at the elements of the investigation of potential Russian Meddling in the election. What this tells us now that mueller is still trying to set up this interview and they are still having negotiations is that the special counsels team is very much interested in the con tours of the trump tower meeting and perhaps other relationships between donald trump and Russian Oligarchs. There are a lot of questions about whether then candidate donald trump knew about that meeting with the russians at trump tower in new york. What are you hearing . Last week we reported that sources told us that Michael Cohen was saying that he had knowledge or information that trump may have known about the meeting with the russians before it occurred. We asked the attorney about that and he told us that they were not aware and had no reason to believe that president knew the meeting was happened or that it happened before it was publically disclosed. Cohen is claiming that he had knowledge of that according to our sources but at least the agalarovs are saying they had no information to shed. We are showing the viewers this video. It is interesting that the president , agalarovs, Michael Cohen all featured in the video. Its all so intriguing. Thanks very much for that report. Joining us now democratic congressman of arizona, a member of the house arm Services Committee. Lets get right to your reaction to the news that the fbi director christopher wray, the fbis Foreign Influence Task force is now working across all 56 fbi field offices around the United States. How significant is this development in the overall russia probe . Its a Great Development. First of all, it is a Great Development for democracy. We need to make sure the American Public understands their vote is sacred and will be counted. I think it needs to be backed up by actions by the Republican House and senate by putting money in Election Integrity bills and funding actual programs which we have not seen happen. Is it possible, congressman, for the National Security apparatus in the federal government to counter the threat while the president continues to undermine that effort with his own rhetoric . Well, the best way to counter any type of threat is to create a deterrent. The problem we have right now is we have a president who is not a part of our deterrent package. We have our apparatus pushing hard against russia and russian interference. The president comes out all the time and basically under mines that. That is where we find ourselves in trouble. I believe russia will take in calculations to start figure out we can probably get away with it because they will have President Trump there at least for two more years to make sure that the blowback is not as harsh. Its interesting the National Security Agency Director seems to suggest today that he has been authorized to strike back against foreign influenceers. Is it possible that the president is taking the threat more seriously behind the scenes even if his public rhetoric clearly doesnt match . If it is possible, yes, it is possible. I hope that is what is occurring. I would love nothing more than donald trump to start standing up to russia, to putin and the interference here. I think that would be a great thing for this country. He needs to match his actions publically, too. The russians have always been they only understand power. Power projected by the person at the head of Government Trump needs to follow up with actual words and rhetoric and try not to undermine congress especially when trying to pass sanctions against them. Offensive cyber operations, what does that say to you . What does that mean . Well, i dont want to go into details. From the briefings we have had on the armed Services Committee there are tons of ways we can create deterrents for them to actually stop them. Nothing i will say is a secret. There has been conversations about where we release how much the oligarchs and putin have stolen from the russian people which is upwards of a billion dollars. That kind of threat usually is a good deterrent for many of these nefarrious actors. And you think the u. S. Government should specifically tell the russians if you continue to interfere in the u. S. Democratic process this is what will happen to you . Yes. I have always been extremely foreright about that. The only way to stop russians is to say you are willing to go to the mat and fight. We need to show that there is going to be an offensive capability that will strike at them if they strike at our Critical Infrastructure and our democracy. Today at the briefing the director of National Intelligence dan coats said he is not in a position in his words to either understand fully or talk about President Trumps meeting about 2 1 2 weeks ago with Vladimir Putin in helsinki. Do you think the president is deliberate lly leaving his director of National Intelligence in the dark . What we have seen so far, yes. We have then this not just with dni coats but with others of National Security apparatus whether james mattis or Secretary Of State making announcements and policies without talking to the Relevant Department heads. He runs wild. He thinks he is a 42yearold ceo of a company that builds buildings when instead he is running this country. He needs to do it in an appropriate and mature manner. Cnn has learned that the special Counsel Robert Mueller wants to interview agalarovs, the russian pop star who encouraged the 2016 meeting with the russian lawyer promising dirt on Hillary Clinton. Could they be key witnesses in the overall probe . It can be. It is hard to tell where the probe is going right now. I think i respect mueller. I respect what he is doing. I cant peer into what he is trying to build out. But clearly there is something that happened here. The fact is the story around that meeting has changed multiple times. First the meeting didnt occur and then the meeting did occur. And now we know that there were eight people there. One was a former kgb spy. And then there was a phone call after the meeting. We dont know who donald trump jr. Called because the republican parties had stopped us from getting the records from the phone company. So there is something that is there. We do need to follow it through. Whether the pop star is relevant i dont know. The fact that there were so many lies created tells me there is something relevant that is important. Thanks for joining us. We have urgent Breaking News coming into the Situation Room right now. A Senior Administration official is confirming that a russian spy worked at the u. S. Embassy in moscow for a decade. We have details. Well share those details with you right after this quick break. With an Ingredientr Brain originally discovered. In jellyfish. In clinical trials, prevagen has been shown to improve shortterm memory. Prevagen. Healthier brain. Better life. Its a hightech revolution in sleep. The new sleep number 360 smart bed. It intelligently senses your movement and automatically adjusts on each side to keep you both comfortable. And snoring . How smart is that . Smarter sleep. To help you lose your dad bod, train for that marathon, and wake up with the patience of a saint. The new sleep number 360 smart bed, from 999. Smarter sleep will change your life. Heres a trip tip when you Search Hotels on tripadvisor. Enter your destination and the dates of your stay. Tripadvisor searches over 200 booking sites. To find the best deal on the right hotel for you. Tripadvisor. What are you learning . This is a russian woman who has been working at the u. S. Embassy for almost a decade. She is hired by the State Department as these socalled foreign nationals are. She worked for Secret Service and had access to a lot of information going on at the embassy. And officials at the embassy, Regional Security officers started to realize that all of these Foreign Service nationals have some relationships with russian government agencies. They seemed to find that a lot of information was going to the main Russian Security apparatus. And they realized they were getting a lot more information than they should have. The Regional Security officer found this about 2016, reported it up the chain and seven months plat later she was dismissed. She was a russian citizen working at the u. S. Embassy, not a u. S. Foreign Service Officer. A russian citizen. How exactly was she caught . She was caught basically they did a sting on her. They started giving her information and she ended up giving it to the fsb. Once they caught her red handed she was quietly dismissed. They werent able to arrest her because she was a russian citizen. Certainly the russian government wasnt very happy about it. When she was suspected of being a spy presumably they gave her information to see if she would distribute it to the russian Intelligence Community. Originally it wasnt a lot of information here and there. It was just in drips and drabs. They realized the fsb was getting a lot more information. She had access to the intranet of u. S. Secret service, the email system. We asked the Secret Service whether any National Security information was compromised. One official told me that this woman didnt have access to classified information. The Secret Service laid out a statement that said the duties are limited to translation, interpretation, cultural guidance, liaison and administrative support. At no time did any secret Service Office had foreign nationals provided or placed in a position to obtain National Security information. She had access to the intranet, the information that all secret Service Employees that arent on a specific detail have access to as well as the email system. She has worked at the u. S. Embassy in moscow for nearly a decade. We will continue to monitor this story and see the latest information. Thanks very much for that reporting. Coming up, there is more Breaking News. The white house brings top intelligence and National Security officials in a dramatic show of force warning of russian attacks on u. S. Democracy continue right now posing a direct threat to the upcoming mid term elections. Is the president on board . She was aggressively flirtatious and sources say boasted of ties to russian intelligence when she drank too much. Now there is new information on the alleged russian agent arrested in washington. Stay with us. You are in the Situation Room. Timeit should be Measuredsured Byby how long steak lobster is back at outback. Back by popular demand, steak lobster starting at 15. 99 and time. Is limited, so hurry in today. And if you want outback at home, order now we are following multiple breaking stories including officials in the Briefing Room earlier this Afternoon Warning about russias continued attempts to weaken and divide the United States ahead of the upcoming mid term elections. Our political and legal experts are here to discuss. What do you make of the show of force at the white house . It was most noticeable by who wasnt there which is the president of the United States who doesnt seem to believe this is a problem at all. The senate republicans, too, just voted down 250 million for security for the election. So there does seem to be a very substantial divide within the Republican Party about whether this is a problem at all. Certainly, those of us who care about the integrity of our elections were encouraged by the show of force, but there is something about it that rings pretty hollow when the president who is the boss of all of these people has said repeatedly especially in helsinki that he doesnt think this is a problem. Dan coats was asked why the president s rhetoric on this very sensitive issue doesnt necessarily match their own rhetoric, the rhetoric we heard from coats and the others today. Listen to coats. How do you explain the disconnect between what you are saying, his advi

© 2025 Vimarsana