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Kushner Speech at White House; Kushner on Political Campaign; Kushner Statement; Kushner Talks about Russia. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired July 24, 2017 - 13:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


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WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, I'm Wolf Blitzer. It's 1:00 p.m. here in Washington, 8:00 p.m. in Moscow, 9:30 p.m. in Kabul, Afghanistan. Wherever you're watching from around the world, thanks very much for joining us.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

BLITZER: We're following breaking news. We're waiting to hear directly from Jared Kushner from the White House. You're looking at the microphone there outside the west wing. The president's son-in- law and trusted adviser spent much of the day so far up on Capitol Hill, answering questions from Senate Intelligence Committee staffers.

At any moment now, we're told we expect to hear directly from Kushner. He'll be making a public statement. We'll have live coverage of that as soon as it happens. We expect that to begin momentarily.

In the meantime, let's bring in our Senior White House Correspondent Jeff Zeleny. He's over at the White House. Our National Correspondent Suzanne Malveaux is up on Capitol Hill.

Suzanne, first of all, take us through what happened so far over the course of these past few hours during Kushner's meeting up on Capitol Hill. Other than Jared Kushner's account, will we be hearing any of his statements so far to these congressional staffers?

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, it was true to form, about two hours ago or so, as it was promised, going before the staffers, the Senate staffers of the Senate Intelligence Committee. It was Jared Kushner, his attorney Abbe Lowell and a notetaker.

Also present there, about a half dozen Senate staffers and a transcript that was taken of that interview. A transcript that the legal team says that they certainly do not object to being made public. That is something that we don't know when it will be made public but certainly it will be available.

Also, we were told before this meeting that, according to a source, that Jared Kushner would take all questions. Our Ted Barrett, Producer, asked him on his way out whether or not he, in fact, did do that. He said, yes, he had. All the questions they had, he said that it went very well. He is on his way to the White House and we do know this was not sworn testimony. But tomorrow, he's going to go before the House Intelligence Committee. That will be sworn testimony also expected to be interviewed before members of that committee, not just staffers. And that a transcript would be made available.

As you know, Wolf, this is all a part of a very concerted effort and orchestrated effort, if you will, to show some transparency from Jared Kushner and his team going to the White House to make a statement very shortly -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Even though, Suzanne, not sworn testimony, you can't lie to congressional --

MALVEAUX: Right.

BLITZER: -- staffers or congressional members. If you do, that's a crime.

So, where do we stand right now, Suzanne, on Donald Trump Jr., Paul Manafort, the former campaign chairman, and their appearance before these various committees?

MALVEAUX: Well, Wednesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee is going to be taking a look at some notes, some records that were provided by Donald Trump Jr. as well as Paul Manafort. They have been behind the scenes, negotiating with this committee.

A lot of people quite frustrated that Donald Trump Jr. is not going to be testifying publicly, as he initially had offered. But rather behind the scenes working out these negotiations for these records. Also, interviews to follow later with the staffers and potentially with those committee members before any kind of public testimony.

Senator Chuck Grassley was the Chair of that committee. Kind of defensive, if you will, you know, in these tweets. A series of tweets that he's been sending out, he and Senator Dianne Feinstein.

The latest one saying, here, I'm going to read it, Wolf. That on- record interview with mine and Senator Feinstein's staff for hours is no walk in the park. Can be tougher than a few minutes with members in hearing.

So, a little of pushback from Grassley today, saying, look, you might not necessarily publicly hear their testimony anytime soon. But, bottom line, that Dianne Feinstein said is they will get some answers or at least they are determined to -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Very interesting. Suzanne, stand by.

Jeff, the son-in-law, the president's senior adviser, while he was facing some of those tough questions, the president was tweeting this, among other things. Let me put it up on the screen. So, why aren't the committees and investigators and, of course, our beleaguered A.G., Attorney General, looking into crooked Hillary's crimes and Russia relations? Talk to us about this very, very controversial tweet. The apparent message, the attorney general of the United States, the former senator, Jeff Sessions, calling him beleaguered?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, certainly very interesting if you dissect that. I mean, one, the president obviously trying to redirect attention to some other things.

I mean, as his son-in-law is, you know, before the committee behind closed doors, this is pretty extraordinary, Wolf. This marks a new chapter in this ongoing investigation here. Someone in the president's family, certainly his inner circle as well, on Capitol Hill.

So, the president certainly trying to divert attention, if you will. But if you look at that carefully, Wolf, I was most struck by the attorney general's comments. He called beleaguered. This is the attorney general of the United States, Jeff Sessions. One of the, you know, earliest supporters of this president.

[13:05:07] It is the latest attempt from this president to try and, you know, draw attention to Jeff Sessions. He's very displeased with him, as we know, because he recused himself from this Russia investigation.

But, Wolf, it continues to beg the question, does the president want his attorney general to stay on? I am told that they have still not had a face-to-face meeting since that interview last week with "The New York Times," when the president just exploded and unloaded on his attorney general.

So, Wolf, that was very interesting there in those words.

But I think as Suzanne was saying, I believe what we're going to hear from Jared Kushner, as he stands outside the White House momentarily, is talking a bit more about his answers to the questions this morning.

He put out a fairly extraordinary 11-page document this morning that talked about the four specific meetings he had with the Russian officials.

And let's break those down for just a second. I think we have this. The first is a handshake that he had with the Russian ambassador. That was during the speech at the Mayflower Hotel.

The second, of course, this meeting we've talked about so long in June 2016. The meeting with the Russian lawyer that he says he was trying to extract himself out early.

This -- the second two are after the election, of course. He had a meeting with the ambassador, the Russian ambassador to the U.S. on December 1, 2016.

And then, again, on December 13, Wolf. This could be the most important one of all. A meeting with a Russian banker who is very close to Vladimir Putin. So, those are the four specific elements that Jared Kushner went into the meeting talking about. Now, we did not know about all of these meetings. So, that, of course, is something that the Senate staff was certainly burrowing in on.

But we do not believe that Jared Kushner will take questions when he speaks this afternoon, in just a short period of time here -- Wolf.

BLITZER: He will be making a rare public statement. We'll have live coverage. That's coming up fairly soon.

ZELENY: Right.

BLITZER: All right, Jeff Zeleny, Suzanne Malveaux, guys, thanks very much.

As we await Jared Kushner and his statement, let's talk about what the latest developments are all about. With us here, our Chief Political Analyst Gloria Borger; our Chief Political Correspondent Dana Bash; our CNN Legal Analyst Laura Coates; and Ryan Lizza, CNN Political Analyst, Washington Correspondent for "The New Yorker Magazine."

Like all of us, Gloria, you've gone through the 11-page document. Pretty extraordinary that in advance of this interview he had with these congressional staffers, he publicly released what he was about to say and then he stood around for about two and half hours or so, answering their questions. All of this is very dramatic.

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, it is very dramatic and he, kind of, took a page from Comey's book by putting his testimony out there. Although he isn't testifying publicly, as the former FBI director did.

And I think he felt that he needed to answer all the questions about those four particular meetings which, by the way, the media has written about and knew about.

I think there are still questions that need to be answered, and I think that this is probably what they're talking about behind closed doors. I think they're going to know -- want to know more about Russia -- his ties to Russians as a result of his business.

He was very careful today to say, I have not relied on Russian funds to finance my business activities in the private sector. That's a very, you know, carefully written statement.

And I think they're going to want to know more about the analytics that he head -- that he headed up during the campaign. Because there have been some stories about whether the Russians had tried to hack into a lot of analytics.

And so, I think these are going to be areas that they're going to pursue. But as for these four meetings, he made it very clear there was nothing nefarious there.

BLITZER: Yes, Dana, we've covered Congress, all of us, for a long time. Usually, somebody who is a witness releases an advance statement before an open hearing. This is what I'm about to say in my opening prepared remarks.

Rarely -- I don't remember a time when I've seen someone release a statement like this before a closed door, private session, not with senators or congressmen, but with staffers.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: It's absolutely unusual. But it is in keeping with what is clearly the Kushner strategy, his legal team strategy. Which is not to say much about the individual news stories that have come out about pretty much every -- definitely everything that he mentions in this 11-page document, testimony, whatever you'd like to call it.

Everything from his meeting with the Russian ambassador to the meeting that was during the transition. Back to June of 2016, when he attended the meeting that Donald Trump Jr. set up with the -- with the Russian lawyer.

[13:10:01] So, it is unusual, but -- and my point in saying, it's in keeping with their strategy. They wanted to control it. They wanted to get it out all at once.

And the narrative that we're hearing from Kushner world, and I know Gloria has heard this, too, today, is, you know, they might have taken a hit and they clearly did take a hit in public relations, for the past several months, by keeping this all to themselves and waiting until they got it all together in one -- in one big document.

But that they wanted to show that they are, kind of, playing within the confines of the investigations, and that they wanted to preserve this information for the Senate investigators to make it clear, at least to appear to be cooperating as much as they can.

BLITZER: You know, he was joined, Laura, in this session. Abbe Lowell, who is a well-known lawyer here in Washington, his new lawyer. He was right there. He's had enormous experience in dealing with these kinds of issues.

What's the difference between testifying or answering questions before staffers as opposed to a formal session where you're sworn in before members of Congress?

LAURA COATES, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, the consequence is when a falsehood would be the (INAUDUIBLE) here. But in reality, in public relations or in terms of legally speaking, if you present misinformation and you intentionally try to mislead congressional staffers, Congress, the public, you do have a public relation (ph), you also have a legal consequence as well.

What they're trying to do, and you're right, by getting ahead of the story and craft the narrative. That 11-page document said to me that lawyers had their hand in ensuring whatever Jared Kushner said was not about having malicious intent. That he was trying to show that he did not have ill-will or intent to satisfy a legal doctrine. That he was, perhaps, the unwitting, overwhelmed person who was asked to multitask in too many ways.

And in doing so, I think he had shielded himself from a lot of legal ridicule. He has not exonerated his fellow campaigners, so I would not mention much of them.

But what you're seeing here is a -- is a very carefully crafted narrative to try to avoid having any legal consequences on whatever testimony he does ultimately gives.

BLITZER: And even though he wasn't sworn in, if he lied, that's a crime.

COATES: Yes. And you -- the idea that you would just be able to say, well, I'm lying to the media. We're out of that, at this point in time. We're talking to congressional staffers who will then turn over information that their Congress will rely upon to then to be able to investigate further.

And you are now seeing somebody who is aware of the consequences. We're out of the political realm. You're in the legal realm right now. And, remember, Jeff Sessions fell into this, you know, trap in a way of giving a statement, you know, before a congressman, Al Franken, by giving information that was not comprehensive enough to allow people to say, I understand you're not trying to mislead the public and Congress.

BLITZER: I want to, Ryan, get through this very controversial tweet from the president today. And I'll put it up on the screen. So, why aren't the committees and investigators and, of course, our beleaguered A.G., Attorney General, looking into crooked Hillary's crimes and Russia relations? It's a pretty extraordinary tweet, going after the attorney general of the United States.

Hold on a second. Here comes Jared Kushner walking out of the west wing of the White House, down the driveway to the microphone. A rare public statement. Let's listen in.

JARED KUSHNER, SENIOR ADVISOR, DONALD TRUMP (live): My name is Jared Kushner. I am senior adviser to President Donald J. Trump. When my father-in-law decided to run for president, I served his campaign the best I could, because I believe in him and his ability to improve the lives of all Americans.

And now, serving the president and the people of the United States has been the honor and privilege of a lifetime. I am so grateful for the opportunity to work on important matters such as Middle East peace and reinvigorating America's innovative spirit.

Every day, I come to work with enthusiasm and excitement for what can be. I have not sought the spotlight. First in business and now in public service, I have always focused on setting and achieving goals and have left it to others to work on media and public perception.

Since the first questions were raised in March, I have been consistent in saying that I was eager to share any information I have with the investigating bodies, and I have done so today. The record and documents I have voluntarily provided, will show that all of my actions were proper and occurred in the normal course of events of a very unique campaign.

Let me be very clear, I did not collude with Russia nor do I know of anyone else in the campaign who did so. I had no improper contacts. I have not relied on Russian funds for my businesses.

[13:15:05] And I have been fully transparent in providing all requested information.

Donald Trump had a better message and ran a smarter campaign, and that is why he won. Suggesting otherwise ridicules those who voted for him.

It is an honor to work with President Trump and his administration as we take on the challenges that he was elected to face, creating jobs for American people, keeping America safe, and eliminating barriers to achieving the American dream.

Thank you very much, and I look forward to taking questions from the House committee tomorrow.

Thank you.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, not sticking around and answering reporters' questions, and there are a lot of reporters' questions. He did answer questions for more than two hours earlier up on Capitol Hill from this closed-door meeting with congressional investigators. Repeating now publicly what he said in his opening statement, a statement that he released before he went up to Capitol Hill today. He said, I did not collude nor know of anyone else in the campaign who colluded with any foreign government. I had no improper contacts. I have not relied on Russian funds to finance my business activities in the private sector.

Basically, Gloria, reiterating, publically now, hearing his voice, which we haven't heard all that often --

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Right.

BLITZER: Reiterating what he said in this written statement.

BORGER: You know, reiterating, but also taking it into the political realm where he made it very clear, look, Donald Trump had a better message. He ran a better campaign. And suggesting otherwise ridicules those who voted for him. Meaning, that this whole Russia controversy, you know, the implication is, the whole Russia controversy is being perpetrated by Democrats who can't stand the result of the election. And it was -- you know it was a political statement coming from Jared Kushner.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. And I think to even sort of take that another step. We often talk about when people go out and speak for this president they are speaking for an audience of one. That line was for that audience.

BORGER: Right. BASH: This is for you, you know, father-in-law, Mr. President. You know, I believe that anybody who questions the legitimacy of your election is belittling your voters.

I did think that, you know, because this was legalese -- and I want to know what you think of this since you're the lawyer here -- I did not rely on Russian money for my businesses.

BORGER: (INAUDIBLE).

BASH: OK. So, yes. And he mentioned it also in the statement. But I think just even hearing him say it out loud, it doesn't say, I didn't ask them for any money to help with --

BORGER: Or didn't get any.

BASH: Or didn't get any. I didn't rely on. So I thought that was interesting.

And then just kind of big picture. The notion of him saying, back in March, that when this all started to go out in the press, that he started saying then, I look forward to answering questions. He's trying to answer to the public relations question. You know, he's -- this whole thing is about his legal future and his legal culpability or potential culpability.

But the reality is that by not saying the things he said in this statement, or whatever he said behind closed doors, and letting it stay out there in the public realm for months without a real public answer, has really contributed to the -- his father-in-law and the president he's working for, his agenda, being sidelines.

BLITZER: Laura, what did you hear in the statement?

LAURA COATES, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, his statement essentially is why most people hate lawyers because we talk in --

BASH: Not you, Laura.

COATES: Well, not me, of course, but every other lawyer besides myself -- in a very nuanced way that's based on trying to clearly define terms that you cannot then hook to a criminal statute. The reliance question. What I actually knew.

One thing you always tell your client is thing like, do not try to remember. If you can remember it instantly, fine. But if you don't -- don't try. Don't go out of your way to be pro-actively coherent or remember things that happened. What you saw was that. The repetitive nature of what he already released to the public today.

But, again, you have somebody who a few weeks ago was saying that he's more than willing and forthcoming to volunteer to come up and talk about all that he knows until a lawyer gets involved and says, listen, craft your response with the eye towards litigation because anything you say can, should and will be used against you in the court of public opinion and certainly before Congress. And so he was very, very nuanced in his language and nothing that he said -- you can look at it closely -- nothing he said is an element of intent or a crime you can actually hook to it. It's all about him saying, excuse me, I didn't know about this. I didn't ultimately rely on any information. And, by the way, this is a political issue, not a legal one.

BORGER: Right.

BLITZER: And Abbe Lowell, his attorney, who's well-regarded here in Washington, I'm sure vetted and went through every single word in this 11-page documents.

[13:20:00] COATES: Absolutely, and he should have because, again, there is a lot of questions. So you've got these two different criminal -- you have the congressional probe and the criminal probe led by Mueller. And you better believe that one in -- both of them will go hand-in-hand to try to prosecute or perhaps in their minds persecute them in the political world. And so it's essential it's vetted. It's not really a cowardly move to have it vetted by a lawyer. But what it tells you is that he is very, very conscious of the fact that the ramifications are steep and varied.

BLITZER: He got political, as Gloria points out, in his statement that we just heard over -- outside the West Wing of the White House, Ryan, and defending the president. But even in his written statement he got some political points in there. At one point he said, it's also important to note that a campaign success starts with its message and its messenger. Donald Trump had the right vision for America, delivered his message perfectly. The results speak for themselves. Not only did President Trump defeat 16 skilled and experienced primary opponents, and win the presidency, he did so spending a fraction of what his opponents spent in the general election.

RYAN LIZZA, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes. I think maybe he was thinking that we would get bored after that first or second page and not read into the more juicy details that are contained in the rest of this document.

His statement at the White House was mostly public relations, right? It is sort of remarkable even the president's son-in-law feels necessary to do this, you know, Donald Trump is the greatest president ever routine that all of Trump's aides often do when they're before the cameras. We saw Scaramucci do that again this weekend.

I think once you dig into this document, three meetings -- the three meetings that -- what is interesting about three of the meetings, the one famous meeting in June of 2016 and Trump Tower and then the two transition meetings, what's interesting is how aggressive and assertive the Russians are in getting to the Trump people and, frankly, how easy it was for them to open the doors into the Trump campaign. They got that meeting at -- or at least representatives of the people -- the affiliations of the Russian government got that meeting during the June meeting.

Then during the transition, the Russian ambassador got a sit-down with Kushner. He said something that's, you know, newsworthy. He says that the Russian ambassador wanted Russian generals to get information to Trump about what's going on in Syria, and that that's what the discussion about the secret channel at the Russian embassy was.

BORGER: And -- and there --

LIZZA: That is the Russian government saying -- being very effective about getting into this new campaign. Most campaigns wouldn't have taken that meeting.

And then the final meeting with Sergey Gorkov (ph), this Russian banker, who actually brought Kushner presents from his -- from Kushner's own ancestral homeland of Belarus, got in to see him, said he's a friend with Putin and wanted to discuss, you know, x, y, and z. So what I -- my takeaway is, at least one version of events could be very naive campaign officials that the Russian government had great access to and ease in terms of getting meetings with them. That's at least --

BLITZER: There were points he made in this document is, he was inexperienced. He didn't have a lot of political -- he got a lot of real estate experience, business experience. Not a whole lot of political experience.

LIZZA: Yes.

BASH: And it definitely contradicts -- it definitely contradicts the notion of the Russians trying to influence American elections.

LIZZA: Absolutely.

BLITZER: Right.

BASH: That is the whole investigation.

BLITZER: Sara Murray -- Sara Murray is over at the White House.

Sara, you listened very closely, carefully, to what we heard from Jared Kushner. What are you hearing from officials over there?

SARA MURRAY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think it's interesting that it was Jared Kushner who came out and spoke on his own behalf. Now, he did it in front of the White House. That's going to cause a little bit of turmoil for some White House officials who would like the Russia investigation to be handled far apart from the West Wing. But it's telling that it was not someone else who was forced to come out and answer for what Jared Kushner said behind closed doors today.

There was no spokesman speaking on his behalf. This is not something Sarah Huckabee Sanders was answering for today. They put Jared Kushner out here front and center to make his statement.

Now, he did not field questions from the press. He did not answer whether he would be willing to make the comments he made privately and publicly in front of the Senate Intelligence Committee. But he did indicate that he's staying. He talked about the work that he's still doing here at the White House and he did make it overtly political, saying that if you do question why Donald Trump is president, you're really undermine the people who voted for him, which I think is a telling message considering President Trump is heading back on the campaign trail in Ohio tomorrow.

It's a safe bet, though, the questions are not going to end right here for Jared Kushner. We know he's going to speak with House Intelligence. And there are certainly a number of questions he left unanswered. I heard your panel parsing the very intricate statement he put out, and it was very carefully worded. Certainly we know that there are senators on The Hill who have already said that they have more questions for Kushner. This is a drum beat, Wolf. It's not going to end here.

BLITZER: Yes, there's going to be a briefing, but it's only going to be what they call a gaggle later today on Air Force One as the president gets ready to head out of Washington to West Virginia to address Boy Scouts later tonight, right?

MURRAY: Yes, that's right, it is going to be a gaggle. And we're told that is because President Trump will be speaking on his own behalf when he talks in West Virginia tonight. Again, look for where the president's headed. Does he stay on message as he's addressing a Boy Scouts group? Does he feel the need to weigh in on the news of the day? To weigh in on the fact that his son-in-law was on Capitol Hill talking about Russia today?

[13:25:07] This is -- this gives us a good clue of where the president's head's at. We saw this morning on Twitter. We'll see if he carries it to West Virginia tonight, Wolf.

BLITZER: We certainly will.

All right, Sara, stand by over there. We'll get back to you.

Let's take a quick break. We're going to get reaction to what we just heard from Jared Kushner. There you see Senate Ben Cardin of Maryland. He's the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Lots of questions for him when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: The presidential adviser, the president's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, strongly defending his actions regarding Russia. Just moments ago, Kushner repeated what he said in a written statement prior to meeting with Senate Intelligence Committee staffers. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JARED KUSHNER, SENIOR ADVISER TO PRESIDENT TRUMP: Let me be very clear. I did not collude with Russia, nor do I know of anyone else in the campaign who did so. I had no improper contacts. I have not relied on Russian funds for my businesses. And I have been fully transparent in providing all requested information.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: All right, let's get some reaction from Democratic Senator Ben Cardin of Maryland. He's joining us from Baltimore. [13:30:02] Senator, so what do you think of Jared Kushner's public

declaration, he did not collude with Russia, nor does he know of anyone among the Trump associates who colluded with Russia. Everything he says he did was proper.