Transcripts For KQED Charlie Rose 20170712 : comparemela.com

Welcome to the program. Im jeff glor of cbs news filling in for charlie rose. We begin tonight with the continuing coverage of the investigation into possible collusion between the Trump Campaign and russia. We talk to do Shannon Pettypiece of Bloomberg News and ed okeefe of the Washington Post. We have not heard much from the president today. His twitter feed has kind of been eeriely quiet. He was a bit quiet yesterday as well. And Sarah Huckabee saunders spokesperson to the Deputy Press Secretary put out a statement from the president , a very short brief statement calling his, complimenting his son and saying i admire his transparency. I typically would expect the president is not one who is shy, obviously to lean into controversy when hes attacked, he fights back. Of all people to be drug over the coals, his own son, his family is very important to him. We continue with charlies conversation with the cast of the new production of George Orwells 1984. It is with reed birney, Tom Sturridge and olivia wilde. This is a play that speaks to our times and thats why its really important we all experience it together. We conclude with the actor and comedian Kumail Nanjiani talked to charlie about the new film cowritten by his wife, the big sick. Why arent you talking about religion and i was like i dont really know what to say bit. Its just like say that, say its complicated and you dont know how you feel about it. So thats what we put in the movie. The russia investigation, 1984 and Kumail Nanjiani when we continue. Rose funding for charlie rose has been provided by the following and by bloomberg, a provider of multimedia news and Information Services worldwide. Captioning sponsored by Rose Communications from our studios in new york city, this is charlie rose. Good evening. Charlie is traveling. Im jeff glor. We continue tonight with politics. Earlier today donald trump, jr. Released an email exchange that suggests he went into a june 26 meeting with a kremlin connected lawyer knowing it was part of a russian government effort to aid his fathers campaign. The president s eldest son agreed to meet with the attorney. Natalia veselnitskaya after being told she had compromising information on Hillary Clinton. Trump, jr. Said nothing came of the meeting and released the emails to be totally transparent. This is a new twist in a month long investigation between a possible collusion between the Trump Campaign and russia. Senator of oregon says these emails there is no longer a question of this foreign par to subvert americans democracy. Joining me now from washington Shannon Pettypiece a correspondent for Bloomberg News and ed okeefe, a reporter for the Washington Post and a contributor to cbs news. Welcome to both of you. Ed, let me start with you. Donald trump, jr. Said he released these emails so he could be totally transparent but its only because the emails were about to be released by the newspaper. Thats right. The New York Times gotten these and told him they had them and so rushed them out. While we can appreciate his transparency putting it out there so we can all look at this what it begins to demonstrate now is the cleaner es links yet between the officials in the russian government trying to talk to the Rule Campaign about potentially damaging information about Hillary Clinton. In the words of mark warner earlier today all of these denials over the past year or so from trump officials, from the president himself from his sons that there was no attempt to talk russia about any of this are now cast aside by the proof that the president s son tweeted out today and shared with the world. Even if nothing came from this or he put it out for everyone to see it seems like he was attempting to coordinate with the russian government or russian officials who are trying to discredit Hillary Clinton. Remember collusion itself is not the legal issue here. Thats a political term. Its the potential for coordination between a foreign power and folks in this country regarding our president ial election that ultimately could become the issue. Some legal experts spoke with the post and other outlets suggesting this is the kind of evidence that might suggest coordination between the trouble campaign and the russian government. Shannon, if these emails are real and the Administration Says they are, there does seem to be quite a bit of interest on donald trump, jr. s part in trying to find out whatever it was they were trying to provide. First it was a phone call and then he said okay lets meet. And that if they have damaging information on Hillary Clinton as the emails implayed, he wrote i love it. So not only actively soliciting it but eager to get information from the russian officials who as these emails lay out this was not just coming from a woman who happened to be a lawyer in russia, the emails actually refer to her as a russian government attorney. The emails lay out that this was on behalf of the russian government efforts to assist president trump. So it knocks the legs out from under this stool where theyve been prawning up an argument that says first of all, we never met with anyone from the russian government or affiliated with the government or acting on behalf of the russian government. And also this cry of a witch hunt that all of this talk about russia trying to assist the president s campaign was a with hunt. Theres nothing there, something made up by the fakes news media. This shows that they actually knew as spelled out in this email that the russian government was trying to help the trouble campaign. The president still says that he personally had nothing to do with any of this. Thats right. And today praised his sons transparency and said otherwise i refer you to my son and to his counsel, his criminal defense lawyer hes hired. The son and others have said, he was not aware of this meeting or not involved in it even though it took place just one floor below his trump tower office. The fact that Paul Manafort, his Campaign Manager and Jared Kushner the soninlaw was involved, he may not have been directly involved but i think there will be a lot of questions whether any of those three ever mentioned to him that they were meeting with this woman or has met with her. And thats the extent of it then fine. But if theres evidence otherwise that he is encouraging it or had been contacted previously, certain then were headed into real serious and new territory. Shannon, what more are we learning about Natalia Veselnitskaya and what shes doing now. Well theres a lot of questions as far as what information she had and what she was actually doing there. I still dont think we have the answer to that and we really only gotten a snapshot i think into whats a Bigger Picture that well get more in an shots into. We dont necessarily know what took place in this meeting, what she said in the meeting. We have a statement from donald trump, jr. About his characterization of the meeting. His statements, though, have been you could say untruthful at worst or half truths at best over the past few days. Being involved from one about an Adoption Program to one on Hillary Clinton and it was about the russian government bringing the Opposition Research on Hillary Clinton. So theres a credibility question around donald trump, jr. s characterization of this meeting. This attorney gave an interview where she said she didnt talk about the 2016 campaign at all. I think theres also credibility questions around her because she has these links and was even described in the email as a russian government attorney. And then the other two people that we know of were in the meeting, Paul Manafort and Jared Kushner have not been saying anything about this. What they will be asked about this by congressional investigators and those meetings, you know, expected that they will be made public so they will have their chance to give their side of this meeting as well then. And then its widely expected too that there will be questions about this by special counsel bob mueller. So another chance to find out more about what went on in this meeting. So ed how would that work then because trump, jr. Says hes willing to fully cooperate. Does that mean talking about mueller, does that mean testifying before the Senate Intelligence committee, what does that mean. It could mean both of those things. Obviously thats why he had to hire a lawyer to help figure this out. You would think if it becomes a central part of the special Council Investigation that he would meet with mueller and his team. And yes, given that we know the Senate Intelligence Committee Investigation especially is looking into russias attempts to meddle with and influence the election, this seems to fall right in the middle of that. You saw members of the committee today suggest youve all been exposed to something we may or may not have been aware of and well obviously want to look into it more. Its important to point out just as quickly as these stories surface, don, jr. Said im happy to talk to congressional investigators about it to help clear the air. So undoubtedly that will has not. Whether it happens in public for all of us to watch or whether it happens behind closed doors, whether it happens here in washington or up in new york, all of that is left to the high priced attorneys that he has now hired and that is what theyre there for is to sort all this out. Shannon, so Jared Kushner has reclarified what meetings hes taken or not taken or participated in . Well, we dont know. Again, we asked, ive asked two of his lawyers, his spokesperson for any sort of statement today. I have gotten nothing from them. One of my colleagues tried to reach out to him directly to get again his side of the story, whether he was involved in this. I think he is the one who has the most at stake here because he is the one in the administration who has a security clearance. He did, prior to this story coming out, his spokesperson did say that initially this meeting was left off of his security clearance application but he has recommitted that application with additional information. The question though is also out there, and members on the hill are asking this, should he still cause they know he met with a Foreign Government, he was meeting with an agent of a Foreign Government to try and interfere in an election process. So that could raise questions there as far as whether hes someone that should receive a security clearance or not. Ed, so what is, at this point, Natalia Veselnitskaya being referred to as . Is she considered an agent of a Foreign Government . I dont think thats been clarified at this point. Ly certainly denied it in this interview. She was working on their behalf or sent on behalf of the russian government so that much is not known or necessarily clarified yet. We know shes been speaking out against this program thats been put in place that basically sanctions russians who violate human rights which is something that the putin regime has not been supportive of and has been fighting and used revoking of adoptions as a way to punish the United States for passing it. But otherwise i think everyones role in this is really still quite unknown. The fact that the credible lynn and this attorney would be denying what many believe may have happened, look, theyve been denying certain things for the better part of a year now and it just was proven. One has to take what a lot of these russian Officials Say with great subsequentism if only because through the trickle of information thats being report out, a lot of it is being discovered. So rob gold stone in these emails is characterizing her as the representative of the russian government. Right. And thats another interesting character that we still dont know the full story on, Rob Goldstone who is a publicist, who knew donald trump and donald trump, jr. Through the miss america, im sorry the Miss Universe pageant in 2013 held in moscow. His client was a singer whose father was a very influential businessman who also had connection with the russian government. So thats how we again get through this weird twisted cast of characters who leads us then to this russian attorney who want to meet with the promise of incriminating information on Hillary Clinton. So we have public sists, pop music and politicians. A lot of this is seen, i dont know, how much of this can be traced back to that pageant in 2013. It seems a lot is headed in that direction. Do you remember earlier this year when it was proven to be false document that james comey had to take to the president elect and say somebodys been circulating this and has some pretty salatiouc arguments against you. A lot of this may have to do with the universe pageant being held in russia and who he met or who he the Family Business was working with at the time and how ll of it now really seems to be coming into clear focus. And thats really why, people at home may be subsequent cull is this really a big deal. So what. The guys son was taking meetings with people. Any son who is working for his dad in this kind of capacity probably would but look this starts to really now fill in some details about this and starts to refute a lot of things that have been denied by trump or trump associates. And makes it much clearer now thain calling his, complimenting his son and saying i admire his transparency. I typically would expect the president is not one who is shy obviously to lean into controversy when hes attacked, he fights back. Of all people to be being drug over the coals his own son, family is very important to him. And i think that this is, ive been trying to talk to people who have been close to him to find out if theyve had a conversation with him about it. I havent talked to anybody yet who has spoken to him directly about how his feelings are in this and knowing how important for family and feeling attacked and being strongly advised not to say anything on twitter about it. This is a very difficult time hes going through right now. And hes had two days with no Public Events scheduled either. So we really havent even seen him. Ed talk to me if you would a little bit about donald trump, jr. s involvement in the campaign of 2016. Sure. He didnt hold a formal role unlike kushner who became a much more active advisor especially in the later stages of the campaign unlike landowski and manafort. He was different, he was employed to meet constituencies and help humanize his fathers just as e vanb and totalitarian regime. 1984 has been adapted into a play by robert eich and mcmillon running on broadway in the hudson theatre. The play was called intense in a way never seen on broadway, its gut churning. Joining me the stars of the play, tunnel sturridge, olivia wilde and reed birney. Is this play relevant to the times we live in in 2017. And how. I remember when i read it in 8th grade it was Science Fiction and now it feels like documentary. The play was done four years ago in london in response to the Edward Snowden situation. That was the inspiration for adapting it. Right after the election this year our producer scott ruby thought this was the perfect time to remind everybody about but the decision to do that was before trump was elected. To adopt it. It was adopted originally in nottingham five years ago. Whats so terrifying for me about his presence is that all of the language or at least 5 of it is taken from orwells book published in 1949. None was change the or scripted in any way to the trump election. We divided it purely into that purpose. Rose does it have more relevance because it was written if it was a play about a dystopian universe we would accuse them of jumping on a band wagon. It was George Orwells words and he saw all of this in 19 49 is what is so terrifying. Rose youve been speaking about coming to theatre. This is something youve want to do. Yes. Portunity to addition. Eeme. M and i immediately pulled out of the movie i was supposed to shoot. Even though i didnt have the part. My agents were horrified. You should try to get the part before you pull out. I said no. Im going to do this. I know im going to do this. It just felt no. I just knew. I knew of the directors and i was excited the idea of working with them and the material is something that i was familiar enough with that i understood the role already. And i loved their adaptation and i said i just know what to do here. Rose at the dinner table when you were growing up. I felt so passionate about it from the beginning and it has felt like a way to manifest my daily rage in a convenience kind of way. Rose manifest your daily rage. Yes, its cathartic. Rose is this what theatre should be at best . Yes. Rose relevant, explanatory. Also in