Wolf Blitzer looks at politics, breaking news and international stories. Interesting. And roger stone says he has no plans to testify against the president. Lets listen to what he said on ac 360 this week. I have not been contacted by the special counsels office. Ive made it abundantly clear that theres no circumstances under which i would testify against the president. I would not rule out cooperating if they think i could be helpful in some area. But beyond that, i have not spoken to them. And laura, what happens if roger stone is subpoenaed . I cant imagine he can flout a subpoena. Hell have to show up and say what he knows. He will, and again, youre seeing this theme play out from Rudy Giuliani and the like, to say that you can just thumb your nose a the a subpoena. Perhaps roger stone is becoming emboldened by this concept, which is actually a fallacy, that you can say, i just dont feel like doing it, im not going to show up. If i do come, here are the ways i will dictate the terms of it. Ill talk about limited aspects of it. The power is not before roger
stone. The power is in the grand jury. The grand jury would like to have questions answered by them through the probe. So he cant thumb his nose. Perhaps hes taking his page out of a Fantasy Playbook from giuliani. And gloria, help me out with this one. This other stone associate, kristen davis, she appeared before a grand jury today. As i watch this, were all sort of wondering, how does she fit into all this . Do we know . We dont know. We may eventually know. What we know is that shes a very close friend of roger stones. She did run for governor, i believe, in new york. He was helping her campaign then. So i think they are colleagues, friends, whatever. We dont know what her relationship was with roger visavis wikileaks, visavis anything else. So sort of a titillating thing. Oh, Manhattan Madam, shes
testifying before the grand jury. I have no idea what shes got. Laura, do all these attempts to bring in these different associates, is this really an attempt b attempt by the mueller team to put the screws to roger stone a little bit, see how much pressure they can put on roger stone and see if they can get him to cooperate . I think thats his assumption, but i think he believes the target remains donald trump. Perhaps Michael Cohen himself made that mistake when he thought that any information or discussion they were having about him was largely to get to somebody like donald trump. Maybe Paul Manafort had that same thing. Theyre all finding themselves at the Receiving End of a v. The United States versus or a grand jury about it. In doing so, it looks more and more every day that perhaps roger stone is not being squeezed in order to speak against donald trump, but perhaps these people being brought in are being brought in because theyre talking about the target now being roger stone. Remember, muellers probe is
about whether or not there were american citizens who were conspireing with a foreign country to try to influence an election. Wikileaks, back channels with american elections, a foreigner doing that, that sounds like roger stone is in the hot water. Dont forget, the Manhattan Madam has the infamous list of people she procured for that could come in handy. Wla laura and gloria, thank you for volunteering to come in. No subpoena necessary. President trump wasted little time slamming nfl players who pknelt during the National Anthem last night. Other players either raised their fists or stayed in the locker room. The president once again jumped into the fray, tweeting, of course, the nfl players are at it again, taking a knee when they should be standing proudly for the National Anthem. Numerous players from different teams wanted to show their
outrage at something theyre unable to define. They make a fortune doing what they love. White house correspondent Kaitlan Collins is live from new jersey right now, where the president is on vacation. Kaitlan, what is going on here . Why is the president once again fixated on this issue . Obviously we saw in these preseason games a small number of players doing this, but the president seizing on this issue again. Reporter well, jim, its a new football season, but the same president and same attacks on those players who do kneel during the National Anthem. Several doing so last night or raising a fist. It didnt take the president long to reply with those tweets this morning, criticizing them for doing so. Once again, that same argument we saw from the president that first started last september during a rally. However, this morning the president said that he believes these players are unable to define what it is theyre protesting. Thats interesting given the president himself did so at the white house just two months ago. We have a great country. You should stand for ourNational Anthem. You shouldnt go in a locker room when our National Anthem is played. Im going to ask all of those people to recommend to me, because thats what theyre protesting, people that they think were unfairly treated by the justice system. I understand that. Im going to ask them to recommend to me people that were unfairly treated, friends of theirs or people they know about, and im going to take a look at those applications and if i find and my Committee Finds that theyre unfairly treated, then we will pardon them or at least let them out. Reporter now, jim, that idea of having nfl players suggest people for the president to pardon is something they largely rejected, but you heard the president right there say it. He believes what theyre protesting is that theyre being treated unfairly by the justice system. So he clearly was able to articulate it. Thats because they clearly articulated it. The president does realize what it is they are protesting when
they kneel during the National Anthem. But instead, the president sees this as a winning issue that he believes can rally his base, and its likely hes going to keep these attacks up until the midterm elections. Part of the culture wars over at the white house. Kaitlan, football was not the only issue the president was tweeting about this morning. He also announced new tariffs against turkey in what was a pretty inflammatory tweet. What can you tell us about that . Reporter yeah, this tweet coming this morning announcing theyre going to double those steel and aluminum tariffs that are on turkey. The white house says that those tariffs are for National Security reasons, but sources who speak with the president tell me that this stems from his frustration over their inability to secure the release of that detained american pastor in turkey. Brunn s brunson has been detained for a year and a half on charges from turkey that he conspired in this coup in 2016, this attempted coup to overthrow the turkish
president. U. S. Officials say those charges are bogus and theyve seen no evidence, no credible evidence that Andrew Brunson had anything to do with that. The Vice President and Secretary Of State have been working for weeks to try to secure his release and bring him back home. Those talks have largely broken down. The back and forth happening on a regular basis over the last few weeks, but not making any progress. Though officials once believed they were close to securing his release, they do not feel that way now, and the president is clearly taking out his frustrations here by doubling those steel and aluminum tariffs. Absolutely. And inflaming tensions with an ally whos very important in that region. Kaitlan collins, thank you very much. The president s inlaws benefitting from the Immigration Program he constantly criticizes. Well talk about the hip ypocri of all that. Plus a judge carrying a plane around carrying Asylum Seekers deported by the Trump Administration. Hear furious words coming from
the judge for Attorney GeneralJeff Sessions. And north korea flat out rejecting u. S. Nuclear proposals. Find out what and what comes next. Now tmobile has unlimited for the rest of us. Unlimited ways to be you. Unlimited ways share with others. Unlimited ways to live for the moment. All for as low as 30 bucks a line. Unlimited for you. For them. For all. Get unlimited for as low at 30 bucks per line for four lines at tmobile. Keep it comin love. If you keep on eating, well keep it comin. All you can eat riblets and tenders at applebees. Now thats eatin good in the neighborhood. Endorsed by aarp and thats because they meet aarps high standards of quality and service. Youre also getting the great features that any Medicare Supplement plan provides. For example, with any Medicare Supplement plan you may choose any doctor or hospital that accepts medicare patients. You can even visit a specialist. With this type of plan, there are no networks or referrals needed. Also, a Medicare Supplement plan goes with you when you travel anywhere in the u. S. A free Decision Guide will provide a breakdown of aarp Medicare Supplement plans, and help you determine the plan that works best for your needs and budget. Call today to request yours. Lets recap. There are 3 key things you should keep in mind. One if youre turning 65, you may be eligible for medicare but it only covers about 80 of your Medicare Part b costs. A Medicare Supplement plan may help pay for some of the rest. Two this type of plan allows you to keep your doctor as long as he or she accepts medicare patients. And three these are the only Medicare Supplement plans endorsed by aarp. Learn more about why you should choose an aarp Medicare Supplement plan. Call today for a free guide. Here over north korea. I was there in singapore when i saw President Trump and kim jongun sign that piece of paper, that document committing the north koreans to some kind of path to denuclearization. Does any of this surprise you . What do you make of this, some of this talk coming out of north korea . You know, i dont think any of this should surprise us, even under the best of circumstances. Negotiating working with north korea has always been difficult. As you recall in 1994, i believe, and 2009, the north koreans made pretty extreme promises about denuclearization, which they later reneged on. I think whats troubling here is we have very little knowledge about the negotiations as they went on, and there were unilateral promises made by the Trump Administration that involved and impacted our allies there. So what exactly was the commitment . How do we follow up . That remains to be seen. And i want to ask you about some of this late breaking news regarding roger stone, the former trump confidant and adviser. One ally of stones is defying a subpoena, as you may have heard in the last several minutes, from Robert Mueller. Another one is getting a subpoena. Another is actually testifying before a grand jury right now. The socalled Manhattan Madam, kristen davis. Congressman, what do you make of all of these people, these contacts, these associates of roger stone coming into the cross hairs of the special counsels investigation . What does this mean about roger stone . What can you tell us about roger stone, why hes so important in all of this. I think roger stone is very important because roger stone made himself important. He talked about being close to Julian Assange during the campaign. He bragged about it. He claimed to know that mr. Podesta was next in the barrel. Lo and behold, surely after
those emails came out. He pulled back on that after the fact, but its hard to do that. This is pretty important stuff if were talking about conspireing with a foreign power to affect our democratic process. He claimed publicly to have that awareness and that knowledge. And devin nunes, as you know, the chairman of the house intelligence committee, told an audience at a republican fundraiser recently why he thinks they have to keep the majority in congress. He said if Robert MuellerWont Clear The President , then, quote, were the only ones. What do you make of those comments . What do they say about devin nunes and how hes been handling his position as the chairman of that very Important Committee that you sit on . Yeah, i think its a public acknowledgment of what anyone should have known all along. Mr. Nunes directed the House Select Committee on intelligence to tank the Russia Investigationand shut it down. They refused to subpoena key witnesses, at least 40. They refused subpoenas on all but one witness and went along with the white house on their gag orders so people didnt have to answer our questions. Perhaps more important than all that, he unilaterally committed to and conducted investigations into our own government. So as dni coats said, the lights are blinking red. Our democratic process is under attack by the russians. But chairman nunes let the russians off the hook and instead went after our own government and frankly continues to do the same. And how about the house speaker, paul ryan . We know hes leaving soon, leaving the scene soon. But do you think as one of his final acts as speaker of the house, does he need to remove devin nunes from leadership of the house intelligence
committee, do you think . I think he should have done that a year ago. The only republicans ive seen really step up and speak honestly about the Russia Investigation and what has to take place are largely those members who are leaving office. If the speaker of the house wants to leave, showing he has that courage, this would be the first step, to take chairman nunes off that position and tell the white house we are an independent, separate branch of government. You are going to cooperate. Were going to call in these key witnesses. Were going to find out what happened. As important as that, were going to secure our democratic process. And congressman, you mentioned the Warning System blinking red with respect to russia. As you know, the democratic senator from florida, bill nelson, claimed earlier this week the russians had penetrated some of the Voting Systems in his state. Now, i know youve looked into russian meddling as part of your role with the house intelligence
committee. Senator nelson up until this point hasnt really provided any evidence of this, but the Florida Governor rick scott, as you know, whos running against nelson for that senate seat, is asking that nelson provide some proof to back up his claim. What do you make of this back and forth between these two guys who are obviously running for a very Critical Senate seat . As you know from your position on the house intelligence committee, is there anything to this . Do we think the russians have penetrated the state of floridas election systems, which obviously the state of florida, as we know, we only have to look back to the year 2000 s 2000, is a very critical state when it comes to national elections. Its hard to imagine the russians Didnt Attempt or successfully hack into the Florida Board Of Elections process. How do we know this . Because we know that illinois was the first state in august two years ago, august of 2016. The russians hacked into the
illinois state board of elections. Weve been told by Homeland Security and others that that number of states is entsomewher between two dozen and 41 or 42. Its hard to imagine a big state like florida wasnt a target. As you know, a unified Intelligence Community has said that the russians hacked our democratic process, and they did it to favor one candidate over another. We tried an amendment i passed for the 2018 funding to secure 380 million to prevent this from happening again. That Decimal Point was in the wrong spot. The last time our democratic process and the electoral process was called into question after bush Gore And Hanging c d chads, we spent 3. 5 billion. My amendment on the house side failed on a partisan vote. We lost every single republican
to try to fund at least another 380 million. Mr. Comey said they will be back. The fact of the matter is they never left. The russians are still attacking all our board of elections. I think individual candidates. Okay. Congressman, mike quigley, obviously something to keep our eye on. Thanks for joming coming in andg us. A federal judge erupts at the Trump Administration after it deports a mom and daughter seeking asylum. Why the judge ordered the plane they were on to turn around and threaten to hold Attorney GeneralJeff Sessions in contempt. Thats coming up. Plus, the president has long railed against whats called Chain Migration, but his wifes