Transcripts For CNNW CNN Newsroom With Victor Blackwell And

Transcripts For CNNW CNN Newsroom With Victor Blackwell And Christi Paul 20170617

Investigators from afghanistans ministry of defense are looking into the attack at this hour. This is the latest in a socalled green on blue insider attacks where Afghan Soldiers ambushed International Service members. Just last week, three american soldiers were killed when an afghan soldier opened fire on them in eastern afghanistan. Another was injured. Again, several u. S. Servicemen have been injured in this latest attack we are bringing you the breaking news about today. No deaths have been confirmed. Joining us now, cnn military analyst Lieutenant Colonel rick francona. Good morning to you first. Your reaction to what we are hearing . This is not the first green on blue attack. No, its not. Following what happened last week, i wonder if we are seeing a pattern here. The timing is very suspect. Following last weeks attack, this comes at the same time that the United States is discussing upping the troop levels significantly by as many as 4,000 troops. So if this is inspired or directed by the taliban, they may be trying to create some sort of psychological event that would cause americans to say hey, no more of this. We cant trust the afghans. It also points to a difficulty in the afghan system of vetting their own troops. Very very difficult situation. When these things happen, it undermines the trust and the bond between the americans and the afghans and the americans and nato and the afghan troops. Very very problematic. You brought up the pentagons pending decision on increasing troop levels in afghanistan. Now we are hearing this latest report here. Do you think this attack will have any sort of impact on mattis decision or the pentagons decision on troop levels in afghanistan and if so, what would that impact be . Well, general mattis, secretary mattis, is committed to winning the war in afghanistan and hes willing to send the troops there to do that. Im not sure this will change that calculus but hes going to have to deal probably with some people in congress and american popular opinion thats going to say wait, why are we doing this, we are just sending more troops over there to a 16yearold war that many believe is not winnable. Whats this investigation look like . Well, of course, the afghans will have to do the investigation of whats going on there and you know, these things happen and we hear that somebody was turned by the taliban or infiltrated. We dont know what happened yet but it will be interesting to see if it was a talibandirected attack. That would make a lot of sense. We do want to also get your take on one other story we have been following this morning. Thats that incident that happened just hours ago, the u. S. Navy ship, the warship that collided with that merchant vessel. You are looking at some images there. This happened off the coast of japan. At this point there is an ongoing search for some seven missing sailors. The ship is back at port. They are inspecting it. But your take on how this even happened in the first place . Well, thats going to be the big question. How does a 30,000 ton, 700 foot long ship get that close to a u. S. Navy destroyer . The Navy Destroyer has all sorts of electronics and state of the art detection equipment so this doesnt happen. We have to look at what happened out there. Theres an investigation going to find out what track was the ship on, what track was the warship on and why did they collide. Theres a lot of speculation and nobody really knows what happened out there. We have seen some tracking of the commercial vessel making maybe an odd maneuver that may have led to something happening out there. But we just done know yet. I think the key, the principal focus is trying find the seven missing u. S. Sailors. Right. Absolutely. That is certainly the priority at this hour. Lieutenant colonel rick francona, thanks so much for joining us. Happening now, we are on verdict watch in the bill cosby trial. Day six of jury deliberations resumed just about an hour ago. The panel of seven men and five women did not reach a verdict last night. Cosby arrived this morning, but for the first time last night, cosby addressed both the jurors and his supporters. Take a listen. I want to thank the jury for their long days, their honest work individually. I also want to thank the supporters who have been here and please, to the supporters, stay calm, do not argue with people. Just keep up the great support. Thank you. Lets go to cnns Brynn Gingrass. We understand theres an update . Reporter we are learning the reporters and everybody outside the courthouse is being called back into the courtroom. I will say in the past just from covering this for the past five days or so, when this has happened we heard the deadlocked incident two days ago. Another time this has happened we heard the jury had some questions. Its really unclear just to determine exactly whats going on inside that courtroom. We know the doors just closed at this point and everybody is inside. So certainly we are going to learn more in just a little bit. But heres the issue. Two days ago is when they said they were deadlocked. They could not come to a unanimous decision on any of the three counts that they have been deliberating for the past five days. At this point, they are now or have been deliberating longer than it took the prosecution and the defense to give its cases so they are really trying to come to some sort of consensus on these charges at this point. But certainly we are waiting just as you guys are to figure out what is happening inside that courtroom. Do they have another question. They have asked 12 already, various questions, clarifications of the law, or is there a verdict. We hope to find out very soon. Its pretty peculiar that just an hour into deliberations this morning they would be called back into the courtroom for maybe a verdict, maybe to say they are still deadlocked, considering most our legal analysts expected they would not take this into the weekend. And to come back into saturday and just an hour in, to be back in the courtroom, some serious questions there. Reporter right. Heres the thing. This jury has been sequestered so they havent been able to go home as it is. They have been putting in 12hour days. They are really trying to come to some sort of determination here. I will say, though, yesterday they called everyone back in at 9 30, only a half an hour into the time they started deliberations and they had a question. So maybe they go into the day and kind of reassess what they sort of went through the day prior and then have another question and they ask it. Really, it is hard to determine at this point where their heads are at. We really dont even know a breakdown, is it ten jurors versus two, 11 jurors versus one. We have no idea. We just know basically they were deadlocked on thursday around 11 30 and they were deadlocked on all counts that they are considering. We dont know what sort of progress they have made since then. I know you are watching that. Keep us posted. As soon as the verdict is down, brynn. Thank you so much for that. Coming up, should Deputy Attorney general Rod Rosenstein recuse himself, considering his role in the firing of the fbi director, the former fbi director comey. That question is lingering as the probe into russias meddling in the 2016 election accelerates. We will have details on the friction thats happening right inside the Justice Department. Thats coming up. Plus an update on House Majority whip Steve Scalises condition and new details surrounding a list of names found with the shooter. This is a story about mail and packages. 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Side effects can lead to dehydration, which may cause kidney problems. Nows the time for a better moment of proof. Ask your doctor about victoza®. This just in. President trump tweeting his thoughts and prayers with the sailors of the uss fitzgerald and their family, thanking them for their service and their japanese allies for their assistance. Again, hes referring to that u. S. Navy vessel right now at this hour, as you know, they are still searching for seven u. S. Sailors as a result of that incident. We will continue to watch as that search goes on. Its now nightfall and that may hamper search efforts. Moving on now, President Trump adding a veteran washington lawyer to his defense team amid the expanding russia investigation. His name is john dowd. He once led the investigation into the pete rose betting scandal for major league baseball. This as cnn learns tensions are rising at the Justice Department over the russia probe. The man who named a special counsel to run the investigation after attorney general Jeff Sessions recused himself now may be forced to do the same thing. Cnns Jeremy Diamond is live at the white house. Jeremy, are you hearing anything from the white house, any reaction whatsoever on this cnn reporting about this tension at doj . Reporter we are not yet hearing anything from the white house, commenting on that, but certainly tensions are rising at the Justice Department as the probe led by special Counsel Robert Mueller is widening. That probe now looking into whether or not the president may have interfered with the Justice Departments investigation into ties between Trump Campaign associates and the russian government during the 2016 election. All of this has led to questions about whether the Deputy Attorney general Rod Rosenstein should potentially recuse himself from this investigation. You will remember, of course, that rosenstein recommended that the president fire james comey from the fbi and that firing may very well be a key focus of this widening investigation. Rosenstein has said in the past he would recuse himself if necessary. Thats not the only instance where we have seen rosenstein have a role here. He recommended that Jeff Sessions, the attorney general, recuse himself from the russia investigation and of course, rosenstein also appointed special Counsel Robert Mueller to lead this investigation following the firing of fbi director james comey. All of that over the last several weeks has led to rising tensions not just at the Justice Department, but also at the white house, where we have seen a president increasingly frustrated with this widening probe, lashing out not just privately but also publicly. The latest instance of that came yesterday as the president on twitter confirms that he was under investigation but also lashed out, it seems, at the Deputy Attorney general, Rod Rosenstein, accusing him of leading this quote unquote, witch hunt. So whats the sense . Hes lashing out at his own Deputy Attorney general. Does rosenstein at this point seem like hes safe . Theres talk that perhaps trump is considering even firing him, too. Reporter well, its not clear. But certainly the president has in private expressed his frustrations not just with mueller but with rosenstein as well. Lets remember, Rod Rosenstein was previously at the Justice Department, he was u. S. Attorney for maryland under both george w. Bush and president barack obama but he was only appointed to this position of Deputy Attorney general by the president , by President Trump. So the fact we are now seeing the president lashing out signaling perhaps that hes regretting this decision is certainly something very much out of the ordinary. Thank you, Jeremy Diamond, live at the white house. Lets continue the discussion with ron brownstein, senior political analyst, laura coates, cnn legal analyst and timothy neftali. Heres the standard Rod Rosenstein set for himself when it comes to recusal, this from an interview earlier this month. This is a quote, i will recuse if anything i did winds up being relevant to muellers investigation. Mueller, the post is reporting is looking into potential obstruction of justice. Is this a question of when and not if, and if so, why not now . I think it would be premature for him to recuse himself at this point but it may in fact ultimately end up being imminent because when he wrote the memo to the president about why to fire or why he should fire james comey, i think he unwittingly inserted himself into the deliberative process that was already under way and undergoing about the decision to terminate comey. In doing so, i think he thrust himself into the land of recusal. However, the president s own statement that he independently had come to the conclusion that he would, in fact, fire comey ir respective of whatever anyone else said puts the urgency a bit on hold in this context. If he hadnt made those statements, i think the recusal would be imminent. Because of those statements, i think Rod Rosenstein already has in effect established himself as a recused person by giving the reins over to robert mueller, who will autonomously lead the investigation regardless. Lets talk about this tweet that really stunned a lot of people when it came from the president. He says im being investigated for firing the fbi director by the man who told me to fire the fbi director. Witch hunt. Appearing to talk about Rod Rosenstein here. Is there an impact on this investigation from the president s tweets . Well, one would hope not. I think the president would hope not because if there is an impact on the investigation, then the case for obstruction of justice just gets deeper and deeper. The question i have is whether the president would like to see Rod Rosenstein recuse himself, because what he has done by this tweet is to actually pull rosenstein deeper into the chronology and the history of the firing of comey and now that the president knows hes being investigated for the firing of comey as a possible obstruction of justice, by tweeting that way, hes saying by the way, look at Rod Rosenstein, too. So if the president had a strategy, it might be in trying to get Rod Rosenstein out of the way. Ron, do you see a strategy here . Are these just the comments from a frustrated president . I agree with tim. Look, we have seen the precedent before. The president fired sally yates when she was investigating michael flynn, he fired preet bharara. He has shown himself willing in attacks on socalled judges and the fake news media, willing to really do by any means necessary to resist any Institutional Force he believes can threaten his presidency. I think these tweets of the last few days reinforced by the accounts of his prior behavior send a very clear signal it is not inconceivable at some point down the road he will

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