Interview With Senator Edward Markey; White House Chaos
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Mr. Trump is weighing a White House shakeup, possibly replacing multiple senior officials. And in a truly extraordinary move, the first lady, Melania Trump, publicly called for one senior official to be fired. Unconstitutional. Tonight, President Trump is facing multiple lawsuits, including one from CNN over the decision barring our chief White House correspondent, and others challenging the president's controversial appointment of Matthew Whitaker as the acting attorney general. And line of fire. Historic and deadly infernos raging out of control in California fanned by hurricane-force winds. Tonight, the death toll continues to climb in the state's worst fire disaster on record. We want to welcome our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer. You're in</s>THE SITUATION ROOM. ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.</s>BLITZER: We're following multiple breaking stories swirling around the White House tonight, including President Trump and his lawyers reviewing written questions from the special counsel, Robert Mueller, about possible collusion. At the same time, the president is said to be weighing replacing some top officials, and in a stunning move, the first lady, Melania Trump, has publicly called for one of them to be fired. And tonight, the president and five top officials are facing a lawsuit brought by CNN over the decision to suspend the press pass of our chief White House correspondent, Jim Acosta. I will talk about all of that and more with Senator Ed Markey of the Foreign Relations Committee. And our correspondents, analysts and specialists are also standing by. CNN's Brian Stelter has details of the lawsuit. We are going to have much more on that in a moment. But, first, let's go to our senior White House correspondent, Pamela Brown. Pamela, a truly remarkable move by the first lady of the United States.</s>PAMELA BROWN, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right, Wolf. An extraordinary statement from the first lady about a top national security aide, Mira Ricardel, saying that she no longer deserves to serve the White House. And around the same time the statement came out, Ricardel was seen as a ceremony with President Trump.</s>BROWN (voice-over): Late today, Mira Ricardel was seen with the president at his only public event at the White House. Tonight, she was ousted from the West Wing, fired from her role as deputy national security adviser after drawing the ire not of the president, but of the first lady. In a rare rebuke tonight, the first lady demanded Ricardel, John Bolton's deputy, be fired, saying in a statement, "She no longer deserves the honor of serving in this White House." Ricardel recently feuded with the first lady over her trip to Africa, arguing over seating on the plane and National Security Council resources, one source tells CNN. The sources say the president is also considering potential replacements for other senior positions, both inside the Cabinet and the White House.</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We are looking at a lot of different things, including Cabinet.</s>BROWN: The potential shakeup could include Chief of Staff John Kelly and Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen, officials tell CNN. At the White House today, the president ignored questions about staffing changes.</s>TRUMP: Thank you very much, everybody.</s>QUESTION: Are you planning to make staff changes at that level?</s>BROWN: The president is said to be unhappy with Secretary Nielsen's handling of immigration and border security and could ask for her resignation in the coming days, multiple officials familiar with the matter tell CNN. The president's angst today was not just reserved for his own team. Trump trolling one-time close ally French President Emmanuel Macron, launching a barrage of incendiary tweets, saying that the French -- quote -- "were starting to learn German in Paris before the U.S. came along. Pay for NATO or not." And threatening to impose new tariffs on French wine. "France it very hard for the U.S. to sell its wine into France and charges big tariffs, whereas the U.S. makes it easy for French wines and charges very small tariffs. Not fair. Must change." Mr. Trump's frustration with friends and allies come as he continues to be dogged by the special counsel's Russia probe. CNN has learned the president met with his legal team over the Veterans Day holiday to go over a series of written questions from Mueller's team. The questions focus on colluding with Russia, but not obstruction of justice, part of an agreement with Mueller's team to -- quote -- "move forward with the president's participation," according to a source.</s>BROWN: And the president is once again meeting with his legal team today to go over those questions from Robert Mueller's team, and a source familiar says the plan is to give those answers to those questions back to Mueller's team within the coming days. Now, as for Ricardel, CNN has reached out to her for comment and has not heard back, and there's still confusion here at the White House, Wolf, in terms of what her future is, a source telling my colleague Jeff Zeleny that President Trump has made the decision to fire her. Another White House official says there are no personnel changes to announce right now and that she is still in the office. We will have to wait and see how this transpires -- Wolf.</s>BLITZER: Pamela Brown at the White House, thanks very much. Let's get some more on CNN's lawsuit against President Trump and other top White House aides for suspending our chief White House correspondent, Jim Acosta's press pass. A hearing has now been set for tomorrow afternoon before a federal judge. Our chief media correspondent, Brian Stelter is joining us. Brian, what is the latest?</s>BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: Yes. The judge in this case, Timothy J. Kelly, was assigned earlier today. He has given an 11:00 a.m. deadline to all the defendants, including the president, to file any response they might have to CNN's lawsuit. Then there will be this 3:30 p.m. hearing in the U.S. District Court in Washington. So we are seeing this kind of epic battle for press freedom shaping up, because both CNN and Acosta have sued, alleging First and Fifth Amendment violations. The First Amendment violations involve freedom of the press, the idea that according to CNN Acosta is being discriminated against based on his content, based on his reporting, based on his work at the White House. The Fifth Amendment violations that are alleged here involve due process because there are rules and regulations for how the Secret Service hands out and then revokes press passes, and those regulations were not followed in this case. So both a First Amendment and a Fifth Amendment argument, and those arguments will begin in court tomorrow afternoon.</s>BLITZER: Brian, how is the White House preparing to fight this lawsuit?</s>STELTER: We have heard from Sarah Sanders today, one of the six defendants. She says CNN is just grandstanding by suing and she says the White House will vigorously defend this case. Here is a portion of her statement where she talks about how Acosta was asking too many questions and being too aggressive at last week's press conference. She says: "The White House cannot run an orderly and fair press conference when a reporter acts this way, which is neither appropriate nor professional. If there's no check on this type of behavior, it impedes the ability of the president, the White House staff and members of the media to conduct business." That's the new word from Sarah Sanders, but the explanation or the rationale for revoking Acosta's credential has shifted over the past week. Initially, last Wednesday night, the claim was that Acosta had placed his hands on a White House intern. You will remember that intern came over, tried to take the microphone away and Acosta kept asking questions. Well, obviously Acosta did not mistreat the intern. Everybody saw the video. We all know what happened. But Sanders posted a distorted video apparently taken from Infowars in order to argue Acosta had acted inappropriately. But she is not claiming that anymore. You will notice in today's statement she is not saying that Acosta placed his hands on anybody. Instead, she is just saying that he tried to hog the mic and wouldn't let other reporters ask questions. But as you know, Wolf, from your time at the White House, lots of reporters ask lots of follow-ups. It is pretty normal at the White House.</s>BLITZER: That's what reporters do. They ask follow-up questions. All right, Brian, thank you very much, Brian Stelter, working his sources on all of this as well. Let's get some more on the president and his lawyers reviewing Robert Mueller's questions about possible collusion. Our political correspondent, Sara Murray, is here with us. Sara, Mr. Trump's responses to Mueller could be submitted in the coming days. What comes next after that, an actual sit-down Q&A between the president and Mueller and his team?</s>SARA MURRAY, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, certainly, I think Mueller and his team would love to have a sit-down Q&A, but that probably is not in the cards. I think it depends on how soon they hand these questions over and how Mueller's team feels like the answers to those questions compare to the interviews they have already done and the information they have already have. The president has been out there saying he would love to sit down with the special counsel, he would be fine with that. The reality is he and his legal team seem to be doing everything possible to avoid putting President Trump in a room with Robert Mueller or his investigators.</s>BLITZER: We know that the president's longtime fixer and lawyer spent a decade working with then private citizen Donald Trump, Michael Cohen, he spent hours with Mueller's team yesterday, a federal holiday, going over who knows what. But I assume the White House is concerned about this.</s>MURRAY: Well, I mean, who knows what? Like you said, we know Michael Cohen has obviously been cooperating with investigators, not only investigators in New York, but also the special counsel's office. And the big concern I think for the White House has to be what else does he still have to offer information on, is there another shoe to drop? Obviously, what we saw when Michael Cohen was in court in New York about those campaign finance violations was a very big shoe, Wolf.</s>BLITZER: Interesting development today. Jerome Corsi, longtime associate of Roger Stone and a Trump adviser over many years, he said yesterday he expected to be indicted by Mueller. He also said that he would have much more to say today on his Internet radio or YouTube program. He didn't show up to host the show today. What are you learning?</s>MURRAY: Well, this I think the dance you do, I guess, when you are expecting to be indicted. We saw Jerome Corsi go out and say he is expecting an indictment. He said he was going to continue to host his Webcast all week long. He also has been trying to do a number of interviews throughout the day today, but I know that his lawyer is trying to put the kibosh on all of these things. His lawyer really wants his client to be quiet, which I think is what any lawyer would want any client to do in a situation when they're waiting for a pending indictment from the special counsel. So, today, at least, when it comes to the Webcast, it seems his lawyer may have won. We will see what tomorrow brings in the Jerome Corsi saga, Wolf.</s>BLITZER: Every day is dramatic. Sara, thank you very much. Let's get some more on all of this. Democratic Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts is joining us. He is a member of the Foreign Relations Committee. Senator, thanks so much for joining us. So, what do these developments tell you right now about where Robert Mueller's investigation stands?</s>SEN. EDWARD MARKEY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: Well, it is clear that the White House is stonewalling on the one hand. They don't want to answer questions. And in order to make sure that that is successful, they're trying to have Whitaker take over at the Justice Department, and consistent with his promises in the past, his prejudicial comments in the past to defund the investigation, to severely limit the scope of the investigation, all towards the goal of making sure that the American people never get the answers to what happened in 2016 in any potential collusion between the Russian government and the Trump campaign.</s>BLITZER: You're clearly very concerned about the new acting attorney general of the United States, Matthew Whitaker. He has already taken over for Jeff Sessions, who is out of there. What can you do realistically about that?</s>MARKEY: Well, there is going to be a bipartisan effort to attach a bill to must-pass legislation so that Mueller cannot be, in fact, fired without cause, that he would have an ability to have judicial review of whether or not that had happened, and that all of the documents are actually preserved, so that the House and Senate Judiciary Committees would have access to them. So that effort is going to be made over the next couple of weeks on the floor of the United States Senate, and so we intend on doing everything we can to make sure that Whitaker is not brought in as a political hatchet man to destroy the Mueller investigation before the American people get the answers that they have been waiting for.</s>BLITZER: But do you think your Republican colleagues would vote for such legislation protecting the special counsel?</s>MARKEY: Well, over the past year, they have said that they want to maintain the integrity of the Mueller investigation. They have said that they respect Mueller. So this will be the moment, where obviously Trump does not want that, but yet, again, the integrity of the United States Senate is on the line. Will Republicans stand up with Democrats to ensure that this investigation is not short-circuited for political reasons? Because that's why Whitaker has been given this job.</s>BLITZER: Let me get your reaction, Senator, to the very strong and public statement from the first lady calling for the departure of the deputy national security adviser to the president. Have you ever seen anything like this, a public rebuke of such a senior official by a first lady?</s>MARKEY: This is unprecedented, Wolf. This just shows how dysfunctional this White House has become, where the first lady is publicly tweeting that she wants someone on the national security team to be fired. There's a way of handling this, but that's not the way to do it. We have far many more important things that we should be talking about today, the North Korea nuclear crisis, the Russian-American nuclear crisis, what is happening to the Rohingya in Burma and Bangladesh. And ,instead, this is what we're talking about, just another distraction in a dysfunctional White House.</s>BLITZER: Yes, our Jeff Zeleny, our White House correspondent, is reporting that, for all practical purposes, she's been told she is fired, but they're letting her clean out her desk right now before she is escorted out of the White House. We expect the president, by the way, Senator to ask the homeland security secretary, Kirstjen Nielsen, for her resignation soon as well and others could be forced out in the next few weeks. How concerned are you about stability, or lack thereof, inside the Trump administration?</s>MARKEY: Well, again, it is the prerogative of a president to appoint Cabinet members, but we have to just step back and see that it is being done in the context of this dysfunctional atmosphere that has been constructed. And so I'm afraid that what this president is now doing is going in and just taking out people that may have had slight disagreements with him, and doing it in a way which is unpresidential on the one hand, but on the other hand just sending the wrong signal to the rest of the world about the stability of our federal government.</s>BLITZER: Senator Markey, I know you are on the Foreign Relations Committee. I want to ask you about North Korea right now, these reports that it is operating more than a dozen undeclared military bases. The president responded by saying -- and I'm quoting the president now -- "We fully know about the sites being discussed. Nothing new and nothing happening out of the normal." He went on to say, "I will be the first to let you know if things go bad." You say the president is getting played by Kim Jong-un. What do you see happening? What do you want to see happen?</s>MARKEY: Well, "The New York Times"' report is definitive. It is using the CSIS investigation. The North Koreans are still manufacturing new fissile material, nuclear material. They're still manufacturing new nuclear weapons. They're still building new ballistic missiles and the capacity to deliver those weapons potentially to the United States, but for sure to that entire Pacific region. And so the president is just being taken for a ride by the North Korean government. The new normal for North Korea is, they just continue to build nuclear weapons and missiles, they enhance their trade with China and with Russia, which reduces the economic pressure on them, and then they smile as the president of the United States contends that we have won a negotiation, and that there's no reason to be concerned about the North Korean nuclear threat, which is absolutely the opposite of what is happening.</s>BLITZER: Senator Markey, thanks so much for joining us.</s>MARKEY: No, glad to be here. Thank you.</s>BLITZER: All right, the breaking news continues. A high-level White House official being forced out in a truly stunning way. The first lady, Melania Trump, publicly called for her to be fired. So, what is behind this remarkable move?