Transcripts For CNNW CNN Newsroom With Ana Cabrera 20180428

Republicans on the Intel Committee released a 253page document glossing over the trump tower meeting. Their conclusion, and i quote, while the Committee Found no evidence that the Trump Campaign colluded, coordinated, or conspired with the russian government, the investigation did find poor judgment and illconsidered actions by the trump and clinton campaigns. President trump tweeting hes, quote, honored by this report. Lets get to White House Correspondent Boris Sanchez in michigan, where the president will speak at a rally tonight. Boris . Reporter hey there, ana. Yeah, President Trump set to speak here at 7 00 p. M. Already there are several hundred of his supporters outside the venue. They are gathered, listening to music, anticipating the president s arrival. There are some reports that there will be protests nearby, not uncommon during the president s rallies. Also not uncommon is for him to go off script. So we may see the president break some news tonight as he often does, throwing the script out the window and going with the flow of things. Hes very comfortable around his supporters. We may hear him repeat that often repeated refrain that there was no collusion between the Trump Campaign and russia, calling it a witch hunt, et cetera. We also may see him Say Something about montana senator john tester, who hes had some testy exchanges with following the nomination of Ronny Jackson to be the Veterans Affairs secretary and his dropping of that nomination earlier this week, ana. All right. And boris, we also know today the president has been weighing in on the controversy surrounding dr. Ronny jackson, his former pick for Veterans Affairs secretary. Whats happening there . Whats the latest . Reporter yeah, well, following him leaving that nomination in light of some 20plus sources, telling john tester of inappropriate behavior by Ronny Jackson, the president is going after tester on twitter this morning. Quote, allegations made by senator john tester against admiral dr. Ronn jackson are proving false. The secret service is unable to confirm, in fact deny any of the phoney democrat charges which have absolutely devastated the wonderful jackson family. Tester should resign. Rt gre the great people of montana will not stand for this kind of slander when talking of a great human being. Admiral jackson is the kind of man those in montana respect and admire. And now for no reason whatsoever, his reputation has been shattered. The white house also providing documents to cnn that intend to contradict some of the statements that weve got frighten sources about jacksons behavior. One of the allegations being that he ran a sort of grabandgo operation when it came to prescription drugs as the head of the white houses medical unit. Several sources telling cnn he was known as the candy man, that he loosely passed around prescription painkillers and other drugs to members of the team and their families. The white house pushing back on that notion. They provided us with documents that showed there were six different audits done on the way those prescriptions were stored that still doesnt really indicate, however, jacksons approach to handing these prescriptions along, ana. So there are more questions. Boris sanchez, thank you very much. Joining us now, democratic congressman ted liu of california. Lots to talk about. President trump tweeting this about the republicans russia investigation report. Quote, just out, Intelligence Committee report released, no evidence that the Trump Campaign colluded, coordinated or conspired with russia. Clinton Campaign Paid for Opposition Research obtained from russia. Wow, total witch hunt. Must end now. Must end now. Do you think hell use this report now to fire mueller . I dont think hell do that because hell know that thats another example of obstruction of justice. But let me just say that this republican report from the house Intel Committee really is a fake report. They did not pursue leads they should have. They let witnesses come in and pick and choose which questions they wanted to answer. There was information the democrats wanted to subpoena that they chose not to do. So we cant take this report seriously. One event mentioned in this report was the meeting at trump tower. That involved donald trump jr. , Paul Manafort, Jared Kushner, and that russian lawyer, among others. Republicans call that meeting poor judgment. Now that lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, is admitting she worked with putins kremlin. How significant is this . Well, that revelation already makes this republican report look really stupid because now we have direct evidence that this russian lawyer had deep ties to the kremlin. Not only was she an informant, she had direct contact with russias prosecutor general. This suggests the kremlin new full well about this meeting. If you remember, this meeting was set up so that they could provide dirt on Hillary Clinton to the Trump Campaign. And yet, she previously said she worked in a private capacity. What do you make of the timing of her changing her story now . I dont really know what was going on in her head, but what it does show is that the russians employed a very sophisticated attack in 2016 on our democracy. In addition to using cyberattacks, they used influence campaigns and had a number of people in the United States who were trying to get the Trump Campaign to help them and to deliver these emails they had stolen to the american public. Congressman mike conaway says he wasnt aware of this new information about veselnitskaya, but that it does matter. Let me play his response. Is it troubling that she was a russian informant and had a meeting with seniorlevel Trump Campaign officials in 2016 . No, because theres no evidence she acted on that. Does that require any further investigation from the committee . Not from my perspective. No further investigation needed . Well, there you go. He establishes why this is a fake investigation. You could give all sorts of information to the Republican House Intelligence Committee, and they wouldnt act on it. They had the view that there was no collusion. Of course, theyre going to do a report that shows theres no collusion because they werent looking for it, and they were actually trying to ignore evidence of collusion and really just now pursue the leads they needed to. Everybody is pointing fingers at each other. Republican report is 253 pages. The democrats have a 98page rebuttal. There was this ridiculous number of redaxs as part of that. Heres one of the pages of the gop report. Every single word is blacked out there. What are the american supposed to get out of this . Is this all just a waste of time . I think the American People should trust in special counsel mueller. Hes going to investigate the leads that the republicans on the house Intelligence Committee did not. He will interview the witnesses they did not. He will make them answer the questions that the republicans did not ask. So i have faith in special counsel mueller, and the American People should wait to see what that investigation reveals. But that wasnt my question to you. My question is, the house Intel Committee spent all this time on this investigation. Spent all this time issuing this report, which both sides say doesnt add up to anything. So was it just a waste of time of our Congress Members . Possibly. I think this entire investigation was compromised last year when devin nunes did his infamous midnight run to the white house and misled the American People, saying he had this super secret and classified information he had to share with the white house. It turned out it was the white house that gave him that information. It was already compromised from the beginning. Devin nunes simply was not serious about this investigation. I want to get so some other news as well. The president calling on senator john tester to resign after tester raised concerns about the allegations involving former va secretary nominee Ronny Jackson. Whats your response sm. Im a veteran. I find it disrespectful to veterans that donald trump would nominate someone that had so little relevant experience to lead the second Largest Federal Agency in america. On top of that, there are over 23 current and former u. S. Military members that allege some pretty serious misconduct by dr. Jackson. I think we need to have a Navy Inspector general investigate and get to the bottom of these allegations. So now that his nomination has been withdrawn, you dont think it should end here. Absolutely not. These allegations, if true, show that dr. Jackson probably shouldnt be a doctor anymore and certainly not the doctor for the president of the United States. These allegations that he was drunk while he was on duty, allegations he gave a lot of percocet, which is a highly addictive medication with opioids in it, to a person. We just need to look at these allegations to see if theyre true or not. Again, theyre coming from current and former u. S. Service members. Congressman, as always, thank you for your time. Thank you, ana. Coming up, our panel weighs in on the house intel report and what it might mean for the special counsel investigation. Plus, a cnn exclusive. The nra, a russian banker, and allegations of trying to create a back channel between the Trump Campaign and russia. Youre live in the cnn newsroom. Hello. Lets go for a ride on a peloton. Lets go grab a couple thousand friends and chase each other up a hill. Lets go make a personal best, then beat it with your personal better than best. Lets go bring the worlds best instructors right to you. Better yet, lets go bring the entire new york studio live. Lets go anytime, anywhere, with anyone whos willing. And lets go do it all right here. Ready to go . Peloton. More now on the new revelations this weekend about the now infamous 2016 trump tower meeting, the one donald trump jr. Hosted after being promised dirt on his dads opponent, Hillary Clinton. Youll recall the Trump Campaign claims this meeting amounted to nothing. There was no dirt, they say. Instead, they say the russians were there to lobby against the magnitsky act, a law that sanctions russians accused of human rights abuses. However, were learning that the russians followed up after the election. Heres congressman adam schiff, the Ranking Member on the house Intelligence Committee. Yes, veselnitskaya reaches back to the trump family right after the election, saying we want to follow up now on this request we have on the magnitsky act. So clearly, theres an expectation there on the russian side that they may now have success with the magnitsky act given that the prior meeting in communications dealt with the offer of help and the request on the russian part for appeal of magnitsky. It seems like the russians wier ready for payback. Adam, we know donald trump jr. Sent an email about the supposed dirt on clinton saying if its what you say, i love it. You heard schiff say it looks like the russians were expecting payback after that meeting. Is that what it looks like to you . You know, frankly, i dont know what it really means. Its natural, obviously, for putin who opposed the magnitsky act to seek and to hope that trump, who is trying to improve relations with the russians after he won the election, that he would be more inclined than certainly obama was in rolling back those sanctions. Obviously what we learned later on, of course, is that the National Security adviser to trump spoke to kislyak, the russian ambassador, about the issue not those sanctions, but sanctions the Obama Administration had imposed. So there was a general climate, i think, in moscow. The expectation was is that trump was going to be easier for them to deal with than obama was. So sabrina, this revelation about this followup comes just one day after the president declared total vindication, saying the house Intelligence Committee, the Committee Schiff is on, cleared him of collusion. What are we to make of this . Well, i think that the issue with the house Intelligence Committee is their investigation they were conducting into russian interference in the u. S. Election has been mired by partisanship from the get go. Youll recall that devin nunes, the chairman of the house Intelligence Committee, was forced to recuse himself from the investigation after meeting in secret with the white house during the course of that inquiry, but he has nonetheless stayed very involved in the daytoday of the investigation. And this report was authored by republicans. It certainly did not have the approval of democrats on the committee who claim that republicans in an effort to ab solve the president rushed to conclude the investigation, didnt do critical followup with witnesses, and are overlooking some of the Central Claims about the nature of the contacts and the extent of the contacts between the Trump Campaign and moscow. What it also underscores is if theres going to be any conclusion to this informati investigation, its going to come from special counselor Robert Mueller. Adam, i wonder how voters might judge those republicans on the house Intel Committee if the senate Intel Committee or more consequentially Robert Mueller ends up at a different conclusion than the one the president was boasting about today. Yeah, this was a subject of discussion on the senate side, which has been operating at a much more bipartisan way. They were concerned that if they wrote their report and wlad ola what they knew at the time, that mueller as part of his investigation would uncover information that would conflict what was in that report. So thats why i think youre seeing that on the senate side, which has been working in a bipartisan way, that theres a reluctance to put anything down in writing at this stage. So theres no question. We dont know what mueller is going to find. But if he finds things that contradict what is in this republican report, there will be questions asked about whether indeed this was really designed to basically dismiss thsh ais i and reassure the president or whether there was a thorough investigation and there was more information they could be obtained. Sabrina, the news about Natalia Veselnitskaya saying shes an informant for the russian government, does it change things . Well, it certainly calls into question what the Trump Campaign knew going into that now infamous meeting at trump tower. Based on the emails that donald trump jr. Was forced to make public, he was explicitly told there was an effort by the rv russian government to aid his fathers campaign. So were the highlevel officials that included not just trump jr. But also Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort aware of the extent of the Natalia Veselnitskayas ties to the kremlin . Also, when you played that clip of adam schiff discussing her outreach after the election, what was the nature of that conversation from the trump end of it, and was there, in fact, some sort of quid pro quo that was established . Certainly this is all the more reason why that particular meeting is a central focus of muellers investigation, both as a panel piece of evidence about maybe an intent to collude but also when it comes to obstruction of justice. Youll recall the white house put out a highly misleading statement to explain that meeting. And it does seem to be the cumulation of all of these little contacts. Adam, were now learning that the National Rifle association is setting aside documents related to interactions it had with a kremlinlinked banker. Now, hes one of the 17 Prominent Russian officials recently slapped with sanctions. Your reaction . Well, i think one has to look at the nra and the potential role that the russians might see in having a relationship with that organization. You got to understand that the russians, you know, when they approach the 2016 election and frankly prior to that, their objective was to divideknow, ba intelligence assessments that had been released, we know that at least later in the 2016 campaign, they wanted to help donald trump. The nra is a very divisive organization in american society. It endorsed donald trump and spent a record amount of money supporting his campaign. So its natural that the russians would see in the nra a natural affin