Transcripts For CNNW CNN Newsroom With Brooke Baldwin 20170622

Obamacare, thats a disaster. Its a disaster politically, its a disaster substantively, it would be a failure of the mandate weve been given by the voters. Senator, what has the majority would you be willing to make changes on the medicaid legislation as it currently stands . Because even if you guys turn to yes, theres still a potential that the moderates could be nos. Everyone expects this current draft, for there to be significant changes to it and indeed the majority leader and the staff in rolling it out said this is a discussion draft, this is a first draft, there are going to be significant changes. Of course were going to continue having to have a negotiation. Everyones going to have to give. Thats the only way you can get at least 50 out of 52 republicans. We have a very narrow majority. The only way to get to yes is if everyone is willing to give some and i think the keys to it are focusing on issues, on principles that bring us together and two principles that bring us together that i think are the keys to getting agreement and getting the job accomplished are, number one, lowering premiums. If premiums go down, thats a win for everyone. Its a win for conservatives, its a win for moderates, its a win for the men and women we represent. But number two, another principle that unifies everyone is state flexibility. Letting states have far more flexibility. So for example, with medicaid individual state designed creative and Innovative New plans to care for the most vulnerable, letting a more moderate governor, like a john kasich in ohio, do what the state of ohio wants and letting a more conservative governor like a greg abbott in texas do what the state of texas does. The beauty of a principle like more state flexibility is that it unifies our conference. It gives a win for everyone, and if we come out of this with premiums going down, with consumers having more choices, more options, lower prices, and states have been more flexibility for creative, Innovative Solutions for caring for the most vulnerable, that is a big win. On medicaid all right, and hes off. Senator ted cruz, that is one of four republican senators here who are hes basically at no for now on this latest senate the Republican Senate Health Care Bill that was finally unveiled this morning. We heard from senator paul a moment ago and now add senator cruz to that four. All of this on this bill, fascinating to see, he was at least saying, i think we can get there. His issue with the Senate Version is that it doesnt go far enough. Cnn political commentator and host of smerconish, Michael Smerconish is with me. Michael smerconish, the interesting piece and the backlash of this whole story this morning has been that this bill goes too far, but senator cruz is saying, no, no, no, this is obamacare lite, essentially, hes saying its not going far enough. What it underscores to me, brooke, is the fact that all of the action with regard to the health care is on the republican side of the aisle and the democrats are almost an irrelevancy. You remember when the house bill was first introduced, they couldnt get it done, not for lack of democratic support but because they couldnt keep the Freedom Caucus and the more moderate wing of the party in the same tent. Ultimately, they got it down in the house but now you see similar issues like that playing themselves out in the senate. So whether the gop can keep its own disparate interests together on this is key. To the trump tape admission today, because everyone had been wondering, really, since for 41 days, since that initial tweet back on may 12, which i think is key here, and i think you agree with me when he was saying that original tweet, james comey better hope that there are no tapes of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press. Turns out there are no tapes, there never were any tapes, according to the president s twitter today but you say a lot hinges on that original tweet, why . Can i give you an interpretation that is from area 51 on this . Whoa, whoa. Hit me. Conventional wisdom conventional wisdom is that this was President Trump saying, hey, comey, you better hope i dont have tape as to our conversation. And so for 41 days, weve been wondering, does he have tape, wheres the tape, whats on the tape. Is it possible that its one of these eats, shoots, and leaves conundrums where what he was really saying is, hey, comey, you better not have taped me. And for the last 41 days, hes been waiting to see whether any leak would percolate suggestive of there having been audio, not recorded by the white house, but recorded by the fbi director. Think about that. So like a trial balloon tweet. Correct. Message to comey. Look at the words of it. Right . Comey better hope there are no tapes. Hey, you better hope you didnt tape me is a different way of looking at it. Hadnt thought about that. Thats a fresh idea. Maybe for good reason. We dont know. But you know, the color were getting, though, out of the white house on, you know, we heard from czSarah Huckabee sanders, she said the president wasnt trying to play any game but another piece of color was from this republican associate of the president saying that the president has been amused by the publics obsession over the tapes. Amused, Michael Smerconish. Well, i think hes probably sitting in the oval office or in that adjacent room where hes got the 60inch flat screen, playing with the clicker and just laughing his fanny off at the way he can throw a ball of yarn to we kittens and weve chased it for a month and a half. I mean, this is ridiculous. And theres no but it matters as far as the investigation is concerned, because now it really is a he said, he said thing with regard to flynn and am i under investigation and all of that. There are no tapes. Yeah, right, i mean, its he said he said but theres a lot of ancillary evidence out there. For example, he asked comey to for a one on one in the white house on february 14. We can ask the Vice President. We can ask, and they have asked the attorney general, is it true you were excused so that he could have a oneonone so as a trial lawyer, believe me, even though its a he said he said, theres a lot of other evidence out there thats going to support or belie what each of these two is saying. Okay. Thank you for your hypothesis on the notion of the tweet. That was a new one for me. Thats why im here. We watch you on saturday mornings right here on cnn at 9 00 a. M. And then again at 6 00 p. M. Thank you so much, sir. Lets move on. All right. Hour two, youre watching cnn, im brooke baldwin. In case you are just joining us, let me reset the big headline of the day. President trump coming clean that there are no tapes, there never were any tapes, and the president apparently doesnt regret a thing. Here was his tweet from just a little while ago that set all of this off. With all the recently reported electronic vsurveillance, i hav no idea whether there are tapes or recordings of my conversations with james comey, but i did not make, and i do not have, any such recordings. Now, keep in mind, 41 days ago, President Trump was the one who floated this idea of the tapes in the first place. Thats what we were just discussing, that may 12 tweet. Deputy White House Press secretary Sarah Huckabee sanders reacting to the news. I think the president s statement via twitter today is extremely clear. I dont have anything to add beyond the statement itself. Im curious why it took so long, 41 days, for this to be laid to rest and whether the president is recording any oval office conversation. You guys asked for an answer. He gave you one. He said he would have it to you by the end of this week, which he did. And beyond timing of that, i cant really speak anything further. And on the oval office recordings. Im not aware of anything. I think his statement here is pretty clear. Did the president intend to threaten james comey with that tweet . Not that im aware of. I dont think so. So within minutes of the president s admission today, one of the president s associates told our White House Correspondent, if he doesnt regret this, he should. Adding that the president has been amused at all of the obsessing over the tapes. Lets go to our White House Correspondent kate lynn collins who is joining me with more. How did this all come about . Reporter well, the president has tweeted this like a game show for the last six weeks. His spoeksmen have refused to elaborate on this tweet or give us a straight yes or no answer on whether there are tapes or his conversations with james comey. But he chose to answer that question today because, by tomorrow, the House Intelligence Committee had requested that the white house produce any evidence of tapes with the former fbi director. But like you said, sarah sand ersz w ers said she was answering our questions about the tape but the only reasonabwithin we had quess because the president implied that there were recordings of the oval office conversation. Just more color from this trump associate. In hindsight, this republican close to the president calling this whole episode one of the worst things the president has done with fallout that led to the hiring of bop mueller, the special counsel. Thank you so much. Lets broaden this out and have a big old conversation. I have shannon with me, a White House Reporter who broke the news that there are, in fact, no tapes. David is back with us, former cia officer and author of the preside president s book of secrets. Jeff kramer and richard. So, welcome, welcome to all of you. And shannon, you know, you broke the news. Whats the explanation behind all of this . Well, what one colleague one white house official told my colleague, jennifer jacobs, is that the idea behind the initial tweet was the president trying to tell comey that, hey, if youre going to start leakin things, you better be honest, because there may be tapes. And this strategy of tapes is something that the president has used before to sort of, you know, as a threat, you know, by some people. Another one of my colleagues, tim obryan was threatened by the president , but when it came to a legal case, he wasnt able to produce those. He was bluffing. Right. A bluff. You know, a posturing. So thats the theory going around right now around the white house and around those, that it was a bluff and it was a way to either some may say intimidate, some may say threaten but to send a message directly to james comey. David, just with your intelligence background, whats your reaction to all of this . With todays tweets, hes actually send ago different message because he did not just tweet out, i did not make and i do not have the tapes. He had that whole first tweet, which was a disclaimer, a caveat, saying, well, theres all this surveillance going on and all this leaking going on and i really dont know if somethings out there. I just know that i dont have them now. Thats hard to read as anything other than another ball of yarn thrown out for people to chase, or some kind of an attack on the Intelligence Community or the secret service who surely would not let any kind of Surveillance System be inside the oval office and the other rooms of the white house for these meetings. So hes still trying to be the master puppeteer to pretend like hes coming everythi controllin and perhaps sitting back and watching this and enjoying every second of it. So, right. So, on the legal piece of this, lets really drill down on this. Richard, and alan, throw up that tweet from may 12, please, from the president. Just to set my question up. James comey better hope that there are no tapes of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press. You know, a lot of people talked about that initially as maybe like a veiled threat. Might that be witness sb intimidation, anything further than that. No. And i dont think the president could look any more foolish. I dont know what he would be laughing about, because he put this out there, the possibility there might be tapes. Comey immediately called his bluff, as it now appears to be, and said, bring it on. Bring the tapes on. Ive testified under oath as to what happened in those conversations. And lets hear from you. And so, the president said, maybe there are tapes, be careful, and there are no tapes, according to the president now. Of course, he leaves open the possibility that someone else made tapes, that the russians have permission to tape in the oval office, i mean, this is nutty at this point. The president gratuitously continues to undermine his own credibility. I heard a guest say, i think i heard him say, just recently, president anyway. Eved the so, this is no big deal. If thats the standard that were going to have, god help us. Well, there are real theres a real credibility issue here. I think when you drill into all of this, and if youre saying nutty, but not witness intimidation, jeff, im just curious, do you agree . Well, certainly, it does seem odd. You can go with nutty. I dont think it was witness intimidation, however. I think it was really just shooting from the hip. Its things hes done before in his prior life as a real estate developer, and you can do that when youre building a casino in Atlantic City and you want to try to intimidate the person across from you, you can threaten there might be tapes. The problem is now that hes in the oval office, there are ramifications when he says this. Specifically, as was just mentioned, james comey, then, went to his friend who went to the press. The second thing is, as we have seen play out in the last 41 days, is congress in its responsibility of investigating this is going to ask for those tapes. So there are consequences for what the president said. Well, the deadline for him to release the tapes was tomorrow. The deadline was actually tomorrow. He cut it kind of close. Right. Right. Or he was coming clean, according to a trump associate. He was coming clean to the public. Obviously he has nothing to hand over to house intel. And then just folding this all together, shannon, back over to you at the white house, the white house responding to all of this by banning the press briefing from being leave so we could hear the audio of Sarah Huckabee sanders, but we could not watch her. Why . What i have been told by outside strategists working with the white house is its an attempt to sort of cool the temperature around the press briefings. They turned into this mustsee reality tv, you know, spicer was performing, he was getting too combative, the reporters were also performing, there was this live reality tv performing by asking tough questions of the white house . Yes, combat. This live combat, it seemed like every day, going on. And i guess performing maybe performing is an exaggeration but this intense combat going on every day between the press and the white house and they wanted to try and sort of cool that off. It was becoming a distraction, you know, spicers profile was getting too high. And it was taking away you know, sort of taking away from issues. So thats what i was told the stra strategy was behind it to lower the temperature in the room around these press briefings a little bit and they were hoping taking them off camera could do that and now its created its own drama and people rightfully so asking questions about that. Lets not lose the bigger political point here, which is what this is what got trump to this point. Wear all talking about how odd it is. This is the man who said in the campaign that he could shoot someone in the streets to have new york and get someone elected. This is the man who alluded to ted cruzs father being involved in the Jfk Assassination and in his mind, this has worked. This is the kind of thing we should see as the new norm unless and until someone who has a very different sense of humor about these things, like bob mueller, decides that he can take action. You bring up bob mueller, which brings me to my point. A lot of really smart people have come on the show and said, you can draw this line between the coming firing, two or three days later, that tweet from the president , this sort of veiled threat, comey sees that, i better get one of my memos out, leaks the memo to his friend, leaks it out to the press which ultimately brings about the special could beliensel, bob mu. This whole episode of the tapes led to bob mueller. I think you can draw that conclusion. Theres certainly a thread that goes through the different data point that you just laid out. But for the president making that tweet, would coming have leaked it . Maybe, maybe not. Thats certainly facilitated bob mueller being appointed. It may have been done naanyways but this certainly hastened it because it brought everything to the forefront, especially when you talk about tapes being made and if i can, one prior point, a prior guest had as to whether or not, you know, he thought comey might have taped it himself, i think thats absurd. I dont think the director of the fbi was walking in there, taping this with his iphone. I think this was all on the president. He didnt know what the reaction would be and it came heavy. That was that was completely ridiculous as an explanation, that comey would do such a thing. But you know, theres an theres an apology owed to congress, you know, the president , we hear, is enjoying all of this chaos around his misleading tweet, but what about putting congress through the business of subpoenaing tapes and so forth . There ought to be something a bit more than this partial explanation coming from the president. Really. This is not a game show. This is not whackamole or goldilocks revisited. This is government, and were made a laughingstock in the eyes of the world to see these kinds of goingson. David and jeff and shannon and richard, thank you all for all of your voices here on something that is so, so important. Coming up, more breaking news. It is already short on votes, but would this Republican Senate Health Care Bill bring down costs . Well talk to two economic analysts about whats actually in this new bill and what it means for you, americans. Now you drive 300to be fmiles to watch this. Dont get me wrong. You love flag dancing as much as the next guy. All eight hours of it. But what you really love is your little girl. Yes, nice pop toss flag dancing . Weve been there. And with free hot breakfast and a warm welcome, well be there for you. Book direct for a guaranteed discount on your next weekend stay. Hampton by hilton. [vo] what made secretariat the grwho ever lived . E of course he was strong. Intelligent. Explosive. But the true secret to his perfection. Was a heart, twice the size of an average horse. Ready or not, here i come. Ek. anyone can dream. Making it a reality is the hard part. Northrop grumman command and control systems always let you see the complete picture. And were looking for a few dreamers to join us. Livestreat the airport. E sport, binge dvrd shows, while painting your toes. On demand laughs, during long bubble baths. Tv on every screen is awesome. The allnew Xfinity Stream app. All your tv at home. The most on demand, your entire dvr, top networks, and live sports on the go. Included with xfinity tv. Xfinity the future of awesome. Welcome back, youre watching cnn. Im brooke baldwin. Just went public just a few hours ago. The Senate Republican plan to replace obamacare appears to be dead on arrival, but we still have time yet. These four republican senators say they will vote against the plan drafted behind closed doors by their leadership. Republicans can only afford to lose two votes, and so with four holdouts, that is obviously two more than they can lose. Here is kentucky senator and republican rand paul on why he says he will not support it as of now. The intentions not to take down the bill. The intention is to make the bill better. The choice could be this or obamacare. Are you willing to let the country be under obamacare and let this bill fail if thats the choice . I dont think theres anybody in america thats more against obamacare than myself. As a physician, ive seen the rachks of it. Ive traveled to 42 States Running on repeal of obamacare. I just didnt run on obamacare lite. I didnt run on replacing it with more government programs. Lets go straight to capitol hill. Ryan nobles is standing by. You know, so far, we have four and again just reminding everyone, the big picture, they can only lose two and have the Vice President be the tie breaker. Whats the issue with these four republicans saying no for now . Well, these four republicans that were talking about, brooke, this is rand paul, ted cruz, mike lee, and ron johnson. These are all conservative, to a certain exdenttent, Tea Party Republicans so their concern about the bill in its current form is it doesnt allow the free market to do its job, that theres too much government regulation tied up in this bill and as you heard rand paul describe it, it is just obamacare lite. But we also should point out, brooke, that while these four conservatives feel theres room for negotiation here, we havent even begun to talk about the moderates and their concern about this bill, lisa from alaska and Susan Collins from maine. They were not fans of the house bill at all and many of them are expressing reservations with what the senate has produced and this right here is the exact problem that Mitch Mcconnell is dealing with. Hes got to satisfy this conservative, hard line wing of his party while at the same time mollifying the concerns of the moderates. Its the same thing that paul ryan was dealing with in the house. The question is, can Mitch Mcconnell find a way to solve all of these problems and do it before the fourth of july, which is when he promised this bill would be passed by. Ryan, thank you. Lets have a bigger conversation here with two ladies to my right. I have former wall street executive alexis glik and cnn global analyst, whos also a Global Business columnist and associate editor of the times. Ladies, lets talk health care. First is now seeing this bill. Each of you, your quick reactions to what weve seen. The bill doesnt do what we need to do, which is Fix Health Care at a grassroots level. Obamacare didnt do this either. I come at it from a liberal angle. I think we need a single payer option. Its fun noony that rand paul w saying that this wouldnt let the free market do its job. When we shop for health care, we dont shop the way we would for cereal or a pair of jeans, its very different and i think thats what people are responding to. We still have a system thats just way too complex. Its not only the complexity. I think the Biggest Issue when we look at the house bill from just a month ago was the cbo analysis. Right . And the analysis is not going to come out, probably until monday on this. But the real question is, how many are going to remain uninsured, are costs going to rise and pretty much across the board, with the exception of repealing taxes, which is really favorable to the wealthy, fafrable to the insurers, the medical device companies, most americans are going to get hit, whether its on subsidies, there had been subsidies in place to help them pay for insurance. They will decrease. Whether its on deductibles and copays, that he has are going to be phased out over two years so i think across the board if you look at the traditional american in this country, particularly those who parititicipated in medicaid, many of them are going to get hurt by this. I was trying to ask a democratic senator about this because i know its a big issue on the left. The medicaid stays intact until 2021, so thats some years from now and then its phased out over the course of three years so people wont be impacted until postmidterm, postnext president ial election so theres that and the bit about preexisting condition remains. Theres the headline issue, though, which is that, you know, these folks in congress have to go home during summer recess and tell idea that, hey, 23 Million People are going to lose their health care. Thats what people are going to remember and we also should remember that about a third of americans that cycle in and out of poverty every year do so because of a health care emergency. They do so because they dont have health care. Its a major problem in our country, particularly when that same group of people are the ones that havent gotten a raise in a number of decades, you know, this is all part of the slow growth economy that were in. It all plays into the same problem. And i think the other thing i would factor in, when you think about the phasing out, right, as you said, 2021 through 2024. Feels like down the road. It feels like, so, theyre addressing the political nature of elections. Totally. We know how this works. But lets do a reality check on this. I mean, you know, lets be real about it. The fact of the matter is, youre going to face this cliff, right, and what are you going to do if you are in fact facing this cliff and oh, by the way, if you look underneath the underbelly of this, once again, its slightly not slightly its truthfully more favorable to a younger audience, a lot less favorable to an elderly person, in fact, it could be up to 16 of their income could be connected to how they pay for their health insurance. So, theres a lot of political maneuvering going on around election and election cycle, but ultimately, the question is, if you completely shut this down by 23 or 24, theres 70 million americans that rely on the services that medicaid provides. Right. You know, medicaid and medicare are some of the most popular programs. Theyre programs that work. Theyre pro theyre programs that voters say they want. We should be looking for ways to get more people insured. I think that making medicare simply go up year by year to insure more people is the way forward. Its simple. Its easy. Its something that we already know works. This matters. It affects tens of millions of people. We should get the cbo score maybe by monday. And no mandate for employers. Correct. Thats correct. Big deal. Some americans really like, but listen, well see if this gets passed. That was four republicans just even on one side. There could be others saying no. Were all paying close attention to that. Thank you so much. Loved the lets get real piece from you. Lets back to our other breaking news and this misfrooe surrounding President Trump and these whole are there, arent there tapes questions might have finally been put to rest here with todays tweets from the president. Cnns tom foreman takes a look back at how this all started and where we go next. Reporter the mystery began with a tweet from President Trump, a warning shortly after he fired his fbi director in early may. James comey better hope that there are no tapes of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press. Were there tapes . The president would not answer. That, i cant talk about. I wont talk about that. All i want is for comey to be honest and i hope he will be. And im sure he will be. I hope. Reporter but reporters kept asking. Thank you very much. Are there tapes of you and james comey thank you. Do tapes exist of your conversations with him . Ill tell you about that in the near future. Youre going to be very disappointed when you hear the answer. A lot of people are interested as you might imagine. Ill try to look under the couches. Reporter those nonanswers have not been taken lightly by those investigating the president. If there are tapes, the president should turn them over destroy them would be a to violation of law. Reporter and now comes the latest news. The president tweeting, with all the recently reporting electronic surveillance, intercepted, unmasking and illegal leaking of information, i have no idea whether there are tapes or recordings of my conversations with james comey. But i did not make, and do not have, any such recordings. In the dispute between the president and his former fbi boss over what was said in their private talks i didnt say that. So he lied about that . Well, i didnt say that. I mean, i will tell you, i didnt say that. Reporter comey had suggested tapes would confirm his version. Lordy, i hope there are tapes. Reporter now, with that hope apparently dashed, its back to one mans word against the others. All right, lets talk all of this over with republican jeffery lord, cnn political commentator and American Spectator contributing editor and former missouri secretary of state and former u. S. Senate candidate. Gentlemen, good to see both of you. Jeffery lord, jeffery lord, how how how do you explain this . And no historic references in previous president s are allowed in your response. Go. All right. Number one, i think to some degree, the president is very sensitive about having been taped. I mean, all of this business about unmasking and surveillance of trump associates, et cetera, i think certainly has left him with the impression that there was a possibility that people were taping him or electronically surveilling him in some fashion. Number two, i think he had a lot of distrust for director comey, and wanted to sort of flush this out and see what was really going on. And actually, theres a third possibility here. Sometimes i think that he likes to troll the media. If you notice, last night, our friend maggie from the new york times, i believe she was in cedar rapids when the president tweeted out that everybody that she talked to was deeply enthusiastic act him. Theyd lined up for hours to get there and were very skeptical of the press. And then she also added, not a soul has mentioned russia. I do think that theres a deep divide out there. The president knows which side hes on, which side the people are on, and i think sometimes he plays to it and i think this might have could have been one of those instances. Okay. Can i just jason, before i get to you, let me follow up on point number two, which is i think maybe along the lines of this idea that Michael Smerconish was floating. Maybe he was floating this to see if comey or there would be some sort of leak to see if the president was recorded . In other words, i think that he had a lot of distrust for director comey and as we now well know, well founded. I mean, because the comey so hes worried that maybe comey was recording. That what . Im sorry. Hes worried that comey was recording him. Correct. Got you. Just wanted to were on the same page. Jason, what do you think . Yeah, i think that the president did a little bit of lying. Thats what i think happened. And i think that as my dad would say, the president has a tendency to lie when the truth would help and thats really unfortunate. I dont think you need a one, two, or three. I think its one or two things here. Either the president had some tapes and now theyre gone, or there were never tapes. Either way, the president lied, and the reason thats a big deal where did the president lie . When he insinuated that he had tapes. I mean, that that question that original tweet when he said that james comey better hope there are no tapes. What is happening here is the president of the United States has no credibility, and that whether you voted for him or not, that is a scary thing for the country when the president of the United States, who needs to be able to tell the country things that are important, whether it is about National Security or whether its about something like, im not going to cut medicaid, right, but then hes going to celebrate a bill passed in the house that does and i assume push for a bill passed in the senate that cuts it as wuell. Whether its the big things or little things, all the things he lies about, its not good for the country when the president cant be trusted. Listening to jason, a chunk of the country thinks that the president was playing games with this country and with a very important investigation. How would you respond to that . No, i dont think hes playing games. Look, i think he why wait 41 days . Well, i do think he wanted to find out what was going on with director comey and as i say, i think with reason, he has a lot of reason to think that somebody could have been taping him, that i mean, clearly this whole issue of surveillance and unmasking, et cetera, implies and, you know, that all kinds of people in the Obama Administration were, in fact, surveilling his associates at a minimum. So i think he has thats not true. Jeffrey, im reasoning to you and that may be certainly what the president was thinking but were also hearing from this white house source close to the president saying that this person believes this is one of the worst things, if not the worst thing that the president has done since being in office. Yeah, i heard that. Im sort of astonished at that. I really do think that that tends to be sort of an establishment view of just about anything the president does and i cant figure out why that person would be there. So you dont think the president should apologize as has been suggested . Oh, no. Are you kidding me . Absolutely not. Jason . Well, i mean, if the president said that jeffreys name was bill, hed say, lets hear him out. I dont know what to take from that. The president of the United States told the American People one thing and then waited however many days its been before he said, thats not true. It seems to happen all the time. Thats really bad for the country. Its really bad when the president except thats not true. I mean, he didnt tell them this. He said, i hope he doesnt have tapes. Thats a whole different ball of wax than saying, i know he has tapes. Right . Yeah, i i dont know which ball of wax youre working with but im pretty sure that everybody looks at this and says, okay, the president of the United States wanted everybody to believe that he had evidence of what really happened. And by the way, the insinuation that the president of the United States needed to worry about whether or not there were tapes or however wherever this experience theory from the folks who are trying to defend this ridiculous action by the president has gone, kind of says that the president of the United States thought that the fbi director had reason to wear a wire in the oval office. I mean, look, i dont think thats the case. I dont think thats what director comey did. I dont think anybody thinks that. But if your theory is that the director of the fbi from the very beginning thought that he would need to record the president because the president wouldnt tell the truth, i dont think thats a very successful defense of the president of the United States, and i think its a sad state of affairs that you have to introduce a crazy conspiracy like that in order to defend his ridiculous actions. Its not a crazy conspiracy to say that associates of the president clearly have been followed by people in the Obama Administration. I mean, its one story after another. Its a lie. Gentlemen, forgive me. I have to cut this conversation off. Jason, jeffrey, i appreciate your perspective. Lets go to flint, michigan, in the wake of this airport officer stabbing, which theyre investigating. And a lieutenant with the Flint Bishop International Airport Police authority by the name of jeffery neville, was stabbed in the neck by a nman b the name of amor ftouhi. Hes a citizen of canada who was originally from tunisia. After the stabbing, which happened early yesterday morning, lieutenant neville was sited by other citizens, other Police Officers, workers in the airport that came to his atd and the lieutenant himself fought back against his attacker. We are told that the lieutenant is in stable condition and he is improving. And our thoughts are with him and his family. Yesterday, at approximately 5 00 p. M. , this office charged mr. Ftouhi with violating 18 United States code section 37 a 1, which is called committing violence at an international airport. That crime, makes it illegal for any person to unlawfully and intentionally use a weapon to perform acts of violence against a person at an airport serving International Civil aviation. The acts of violence must cause or be likely to cause serious Bodily Injury or death. This crime is punishable by up to 20 years in prison. However, if death results, the offense is pun ibabishable but life in prison or potentially the death penalty. On june 21, yesterday evening, the defendant made his initial appearance before a magistrate judge Stephanie Davis at the United States district courthouse in flint. The defendant was ordered temporarily detained without bond and his next hearing will be on june 28, 2017. At 2 30 in the afternoon at which time the court will decide whether to give him bond or not. The federal Defenders Office is currently representing mr. Ftouhi. The Investigation Continues to determine the full extent of his planning and his actions and whether he committed other crimes, including a federal terrorism offense. The canadian authorities have been assisting the United States in this investigation, and we want to extend our thanks to them for all of their cooperation. Yesterday, our attorney general, jeffery sessions, issued a statement about this case and about the priority that his administration and the president have for any crimes committed against a uniformed officer or any federal agent in this country, and id like to read that to you if i may. Ive just spoken with officials at the fbi about the attack on a Police Officer in flint, michigan, that is being investigated as an act of terrorism. President trump has prioritized the safety of all Law Enforcement officers, and this department of justice is committed to that goal. I want to assure all of our Law Enforcement across the nation, any attack on someone who serves and protects our citizens will be investigated and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. I am proud of the Swift Response from the fbi and our federal prosecutors and their partnership with local police and the canadian authorities. Our prayers are with the officer and his family for a full recovery. Thank you. Good afternoon. My name is dave, the special agent in charge of the fbi in the state of michigan. I appreciate you being out here again today. I just would qualify my brief update here today with the fact that this is still a pending investigation so im not going to be able to get into a great deal of detail with respect to the investigation since the attack yesterday morning at about 9 45 a. M. At the Bishop International airport in flint. As you all know, i wont recount exactly, but as you all know, we know that subject ftouhi traveled into the United States legally at lake champlain, new york, on june 16. Preliminarily, based on the information we have this far, we show him in michigan as early as june 18. I cant say definitely he wasnt here sooner, but we show activity in michigan on june 18. As a result of the attack yesterday, weve now conducted over 20 interviews of witnesses and we expect to do additional interviews as we continue to go through the information that we have obtained through a variety of investigative means. Weve also executed several search warrants, and those search warrants could lead to other search warrants, and i wont get into the details. Ill get into one specific search we conducted we just wanted to dip in and listen to the fbi there in the wake of that stabbing that is now being investigated as a terrorist act led by the fbi here. It was this 49yearold man who apparently intentionally targeted this Airport Police officer at the flint, michigan, airport, and so hes now been hes been in court. Hes charged with violence at an international airport. Were going to watch that and see where that goes with the fbi. But now, to the cnn exclusive, facebook founder and Ceo Mark Zuckerberg laying out this new mission for the worlds most popular social media network, that mission, bringing the world even closer together. Its been a couple of years since hes actually sat down with a journalist for an extensive interview. Here is some of his conversation with our colleague here at cnn, our senior tech correspondent, laurie segal. So our new mission is to bring the world closer together. And for the last decade, our mission has been to make the world more open and connected. And weve been really focused on these ideas, but now, i just feel like we have a responsibility to do more in the world. I mean, when you look at the world today, you know, giving people a voice and helping people connect are good, and theyve made the world better in a lot of ways, but our society is still very divided and that means that its not just enough to help us simply connect. We need to work to bring the world closer together. We keep hearing weve never been more divided, never been more polarized. Was it the Political Climate that led to this kind of awakening . I think its really this feeling that simply connecting the world is not enough by itself, but you want to help people stay connected with the people they already know and care about, but you also want to make it so people get access to new people and new perspectives too. So let me ask you how you do that, because technology, to a degree, is always promised to help us discover and to help us learn. Theres also the question of, like, does it make us more insular and is us information being hijacked and spread, so as you make the future of facebook, these communities, how do you make sure they remain a place where authenticity and for real discourse. People are connects over something that they have in common and theres a lot of research that shows that if you want to engage on issues that you disagree on, things that society is divided on, the first thing that you need to do is connect over your common humanity. So that can be something as simple as, we both have families or we both like a tv show together or we both like the chicago cubs or whatever it is. So, bringing people together and creating these communities is, i think, a lot of what we can do to help create more civil and productive debate on some of the bigger issues as well. Laurie with the big get. There she is in chicago where Mark Zuckerberg addressed that Community Summit today. Laurie, its good to see you but you know, on facebook, theyre been confronted with a lot of challenging issues, how to police hate speech without curbing free speech. How does his new mission include some sort of strategy for that . Reporter yeah, i think this is a part of it. I actually think this mission is almost a culmination of what hes been talking about. You saw mark write almost a 6,000word manifesto talking about the difficulties between hate speech and free speech. We had a blog post last week that came out talking about it was called a hard questions and putting this out there to the community and asking, and mark said in the interview, an important part of free speech is you need to be able to get pretty close to offensive so these are some real challenges and some hard challenges facebook is facing. Thats part of why, today, im surrounded by administrators of some of the largest groups on facebook. Mark personally invited them all here and one thing he talked about was really trying to build tools to make these a safe place online and everybody got up and started clapping when he talked about tools to help curb bad actors and make these communities safe and a place where people can have a safe place for this type of discussion. I know its just a piece of this massive conversation. Well go to cnnmoney. Com to watch the whole thing. Laurie segall, thank you, my friend. He was just 12 years old when tragedy hit his family. Nearly 20 years later, prince harry is opening up about this devastating loss of his mother, how hes keeping princess dianas causes alive and why he thinks the world still needs the royal family. In this revealing new interview, prince harry tells nenewsweek, we are involved in modernizing the british monarchy. We are not doing this for ourselves but for the greater good of the people. Is there any one of the royal family who wants to be king or queen . I dont think so. But we will carry our duties at the right time. Let me bring in cnn royal commenter Kate Williams in london. Kate, you know, the whole king or queen, i dont think so, how has that landed where you are . Well, its been an extraordinary interview. Its incredibly frank. Were used to harry being the most outspoken member of the royal family. Hes criticized the press. Hes talked about their invasion of the life of his girlfriend. Hes opened up about how heartbroken he was over his mother and he felt he had to seek counseling. He was very devastated over her death. But this is a new step. This isnt talking about the press. This isnt talking about himself. Hes now talking about the monarchy and he basically says, no one would want to be king or queen. None of us want to do it. We have to do it out of duty and what hes implicitly saying is, this a bomb shell i have to say. Its huge. You know, we all saw it this morning. Hes talking about the monarchy, but hes talking about his mom. He talks about his mom, and her very public funeral. Let me just read part of what he said. My mother had just died and i had to walk a long way behind her coffin surrounded by thousands of people watching me while millions more did on television. I dont think any child should be asked to do that under any circumstances. I dont think it would happen today. I mean, to hear that. We all remember where we were and when we watched the funeral of his mother, so it haunts him. Yes. Thats a big, big statement. We all remember it it. We were watching the coffin of diana progress through the streets of london and accompanied by her brother, charles, prince phillip, and by william and harry. And i really remember very touching little wreath of flowers on the coffin with the cards mommy on it in handwriting. Absolutely heart breaking. And to us, the princes were the epitome of bravery, walking behind their mother that they lost in such tragic circumstances. And we know that william had struggled a bit with this and begged for charles support. This is the first time harry spoke. He felt it was too much. Too much to ask a young boy to do that. Recently believed in front of the cameras and so what we have here is an implicit criticism of the courtiers and also the royal family. Its a criticism of his father, prince charles, and the queen. And by saying, its not going it wouldnt happen now, hes saying, that wouldnt happen on my watch. Theres no way id let my child do that. This is criticizing the queen. This is very, very daring. Reverberating all the way over here as well. Kate williams, thank you, live in london. Appreciate it. Just in, former president barack obama weighing in on the Senate Republican Health Care Bill. His message for lawmakers, thats next. And after six weeks of dancing around this, President Trump today finally reveals that he has no tapes of his conversations with the fired fbi director james comey. His deputy White House Press secretary saying she doesnt think he has regrets, suggesting that. But a Senior Administration official tells cnn he should. Well be right back. Hi. And i know that we have phonaccident forgiveness. Gent, so the incredibly minor accident that i had tonight four weeks without the car. Okay, yup. Good night. With accident forgiveness your rates wont go up just because of an accident. Switching to allstate is worth it. Thats why this control enthusiast rents from national. Where i can skip the counter. And choose any car in the aisle. On average, four out of every five rentals at national is a free upgrade. Getting a fullsize and paying for a midsize . Whoa, oh, whoa, whoa, lovin every minute of it. As the boys from loverboy so eloquently noted. Im lovin every minute of it. Go national. Go like a pro. Why not fly to a destination where you can learn about that plane you might have just flown in on . This is the boeing factory, 30 minutes outside of seattle where almost every boeing airplane is made. And, its open to the public. Why almost 60 years ago did you allow the public to see what you were doing here . Well, they started coming on their own. Where were standing right now was actually woods and we needed to build our planes right next to the runway, and theres rumors that the biggest planes in the world were being built inside and people got curious. Maybe we could guide these people around. Today they produce one airplane a day. And you can see 50 of them being built in every stage at one time. Before they get sent to airlines all over the world. Right now, if you wanted a 787, i couldnt give it to you until the year 2021, over 1,000 planes are on backlog. They can cost more than 300 million, but the most expensive is yet to be built here. We see the president land in air force one, that plane came out of here. And i know that you guys are in the process of building a new air force one, is that happening here . Were not currently building, we are still working on designs, once those are finalized, that will happen in this factory. Im brooke baldwin, the lead with jake tapper starts now. Thanks brooke. From stealthcare bill to Health Care Bill. The lead starts now. The secrets out, Mitch Mcconnell finally giving the world a plan to repeal and replace obamacare. Their own party may already be putting the bill in jeopardy. The tapes were a tale, President Trump today finally admitting that he might have just made up the suggestion that he recorded his conversations with then fbi director james comey, after 41 days of refusing to clarify the matter. Was this witness intimidation . What was the reason for this bizarre claim . Plus, a cnn exclusive on the russia investigation. What the nations top intelligence chiefs told investigators about President Trump suggesting they should publicly clear his campaign. Good afternoon, everyone, welcome to the lead, im jake tapper. Were going to begin with breaking news in the politics lead today, 41 days after that stunning claim by President Trump and a bizarre refusal to clarify what he meant when he tweeted on the morning of may 12th, that firing fbi director james comey better hope there are no, quote, tapes of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press, unquote. President trump finally tweeted that he personally did not make and does not possess any such tapes. Though, we should point out, his denial does leave open the possibility that some tapes exist, just not ones made by him or owned by him. The admission, such as it is, coming one day before the congressional deadline to produce whatever tapes might exist. Now it is unclear why the president made that initial tweet. Was it bluster, witness intimidation, desire to pressure comey to be as truthful as possible . Either way, the plan seems to have backfired. Comey later testified that that tweet prompted him to have an associate share with a reporter some details from a memo that comey wrote describing President Trump asking him to let the investigation into Michael Flynn go, but the notion of tapes for comey, that tweet, that made him excited. And he says he wanted to get that conversation out there. I woke up in the middle of the night on monday night, because it didnt dawn on me originally there might be corroboration of our conversation. I needed to get that out into the public square. So i asked a friend of mine to share the c