House Launches Probe; Handling Of Porter.
JOHN KING, CNN ANCHOR: We'll see you back here this time tomorrow. Wolf Blitzer starts right now.</s>WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, I'm Wolf Blitzer. It's 1:00 p.m. here in Washington. Wherever you're watching from around the world, thanks very much for joining us. Up first, the Trump administration under new scrutiny over the Rob Porter scandal. The White House faces more questions about the handling of domestic abuse allegations against Porter, and the vice president saying he stands by the White House chief of staff, John Kelly.</s>MIKE ALLEN, EXECUTIVE EDITOR, AXIOS: Are you 100 percent confident that General Kelly has been fully honest and transparent in his explanation of Rob Porter departure?</s>MIKE PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There are very few Americans or American families that have served this nation more honorably or sacrificed more for this country than the family of General John Kelly. And John Kelly's service in uniform and his distinguished service at our Department of Homeland Security, where we saw a dramatic reduction of illegal crossings at our southern border, and his distinguished service as chief of staff, gives me and the president great confidence in this good man. And I want the American people to know, not just John Kelly, but family members in uniform, here and gone, have served this nation with a love and a patriotism and a passion that should inspire us all.</s>BLITZER: On top of this, the House Oversight Committee is now investigating. Here's what Congressman Trey Gowdy, the committee Chairman, told our Alisyn Camerota on CNN's "NEW DAY."</s>ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Just so that I'm clear, will the Oversight Committee be launching an investigation into this?</s>REP. TREY GOWDY (R), SOUTH CAROLINA CHAIRMAN, HOUSE OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE: We did last night.</s>CAMEROTA: So, it's official?</s>GOWDY: We are directing inquiries to people that we think have access to information we don't have. I'm going to direct questions to the FBI that I expect them to answer.</s>BLITZER: This comes a day after the FBI director, Christopher Wray, contradicted the White House timeline, explaining what officials knew and when they knew it. Let's go to our Chief White House Correspondent Jim Acosta. He's over at the White House right now. Jim, what more can you tell us about the focus of this House Oversight Committee's investigation? This is important news.</s>JIM ACOSTA, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: I think it's very important news that the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, Trey Gowdy, a Republican, volunteered on CNN that his committee has launched an investigation into all of this. There are some key points that they are looking at in the context of their investigation. But, Wolf, I just want to make sure that we focus pretty closely on what we just heard a few moments ago from the vice president, Mike Pence, talking to Mike Allen over at Axios just a few moments ago. It was interesting what the vice president said to Mike Allen. He said, at one point, I think the White House could have handled this better, in reference to the Rob Porter saga. That's a pretty stunning admission from the vice president. I think earlier, when he was at the Olympics, he told NBC's Lester Holt that while the White House says they could have handled it better, this was the vice president essentially saying, no, I think the White House could have handled this better. And it's in contrast with what the chief of staff, John Kelly, said to "The Wall Street Journal" that everything was done right. And so, once again, Wolf, we have, sort of, this gang that can't shoot straight. Everybody's talking in different directions about this Rob Porter saga. And the vice president, you know, saying, at this event just a few moments ago, that the White House could have handled it better is another indication of that. It's an indication that not only does he believe that they could have handled it better, but he's also, I think, perhaps, putting a little separation between himself and what's happening over here at the White House, in terms of the vice president. The other thing, as you were just mentioning. Yes, Trey Gowdy opening up his own investigation into all of this is just going to prolong the agony for people inside the White House. Because, obviously, the committee is going to be asking questions. They're going to be seeking documents. They're going to be seeking answers. Here's a letter on screen to the chief of staff, John Kelly, from Trey Gowdy. And I believe we have a tear-out of that letter which focuses on some of the key issues that they're looking at. You can see it up on screen. This is what they're going to be looking at, policies, practices, and procedures relating to the investigation and issuance of interim security clearances, including interim security clearances for White House personnel. Whether the adjudications of Porter's interim and final clearance were consistent with the policies, practices and procedures identified. The date on which any White House employee, Wolf, this is very, very important, became aware of potential derogatory or disqualifying information on Porter from the date of his appointment, February 12, 2018 -- to February 12, 2018, when he was, I guess you could say pushed out, but he says he resigned. And then, Wolf, the security clearance adjudication dates for Porter, including both interim and final clearance. Those questions go to the heart of the questions we've been asking in the briefing room over the last week or so. Wolf, this is a textbook example of how a White House should not handle a matter like this. They've given us four or five different answers over a series of briefings, in terms of what happened. Who did what to who. Who punched John and so on. And just yesterday, the White House was talking about this office of personnel security, that's where the FBI background check went to. We still don't have the answers as to what was done with that information, once it got to the office of personnel security. I suspect that'll be one of the key questions at the briefing this afternoon which, not surprisingly, has been pushed to 2:30 this afternoon -- Wolf.</s>BLITZER: And Sarah Sanders is scheduled to do that briefing. They're not going to send out John Kelly, let him answer the questions. Lots of questions for him. Why not simply send out the White House chief of staff instead of sending lesser officials?</s>ACOSTA: Wolf, I think that is right on point. He has been, sort of, ducking in and out of press areas of the White House. And so, reporters have had the opportunity to shoot some questions at him from time to time. But he has not really answered any questions about this. The other point we should also make, Wolf, is that the president has repeatedly been asked questions about this since Friday, when he went ahead and said that, well, Porter is maintaining his innocence and did not say anything about Porter's alleged victims. And so, the president has also shied away from these questions. And, again, it's just a textbook example of how a White House should not handle a matter like this. They keep changing their story and avoiding the questions, Wolf.</s>BLITZER: All right, Jim Acosta at the White House. We'll stand by for that briefing later. That's coming up fairly soon. Let's talk a little bit more about all of this. I want to bring in our White House Correspondent Abby Phillip, CNN Political Analyst David Gregory and our Chief Political Analyst Gloria Borger. How safe is Kelly right now?</s>GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, you heard the vice president there. I think that, last night, there was a lot of scurrying around and a lot of activity around the fact that the president had been calling people. One of whom he, sort of, remotely said, well, if I were thinking about changing chief of staff, would you be interested? And that was Tom Barrack. And he said, no. That was last Friday however. And so, there's all this, kind of, activity about replacements and people in the White House wondering what is going on here. And I think now we're seeing an effort, from the vice president and others, to say, stop. We're done.</s>DAVID GREGORY, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Right.</s>BORGER: It's over. There's not going to be a replacement for General Kelly. He is remaining where he is. And I think, obviously, that comes from the president.</s>GREGORY: I think that's the important point. Mike Pence, the Vice President, and not speaking out of turn here. He may be all the way over there in the Olympics. But when he comes out and vouches for Kelly in this way, that means they're closing ranks. This is a president who doesn't mind letting someone he's upset with know, because they leaked a fact that he's talking to other people about potentially replacing him. And maybe that was him firing a shot across the bow. But I thought Jim said something that's important. And, Abby, you know this covering the White House day in and day out. You have to ask yourself, what's worse than chipping away at this story through multiple versions of the story? Somebody's got to come out and clean up and say, look, this was a great guy. We loved him. We didn't realize this was going on. We screwed this up. And it was out of an abundance of giving him a fair shake and our belief in him. But we've got to focus on these women. And this was just horribly done. Somebody's got to own that. The president has only made things worse and continues to do that by just staying away from it.</s>ABBY PHILLIP, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, in a lot of ways, what we're seeing from John Kelly is something that we often see from the president himself. Which is you don't back down. You don't admit you did anything wrong. As recently as earlier this week, he told "The Wall Street Journal" that he thought everything had been handled perfectly. So, it's a pattern of behavior that, I think, is trickling down to -- in the ranks at the White House. And also, to Gloria's point about Kelly's future, there are -- there have been so many times, over the last several months, in which President Trump has talked about wanting a change in his top aides. He's been doing it, virtually, since day one with Reince Priebus. So, that's why a lot of people, even within the White House, are just not sure how this is going to shake out. But the fact they're talking publicly about Kelly having the confidence of the president is important. There's a reflection in the White House that more upheaval and chaos would be detrimental to what they're trying to do. They had some progress with tax reform. They're moving forward with immigration and with infrastructure. Getting rid of a chief of staff would be like turning the cart -- you know, upturning the cart at a really critical time for them.</s>GREGORY: And a guy, by the way, who would be very important on final negotiations on immigration.</s>PHILLIP: That's right.</s>GREGORY: And I think he'll play a key role in that.</s>INAUDIBLE.) GREGORY: He's actually acting a lot more like the president, when he's criticized, right?</s>BORGER: Right, exactly.</s>GREGORY: He's been acting a lot more like him.</s>BORGER: Exactly. But, you know, when you hear Sarah Sanders, all day yesterday and we'll hear today, say, to the best of my knowledge, as far as I know, you know, these kind of qualifiers, you have to assume that she's not being -- she's not being read in on a lot of this stuff. That this is something that Kelly held very closely. He's known for that. And then, when people are asking for explanations, they may not be getting the whole story from the very top.</s>BLITZER: And, as you know, David, a lot of Republicans, you know, think that Kelly has got to have, and this is what they've said to me, the guts to go into that briefing room and answer reporters' questions from A to Z. And not leave until all of the questions are answered, if he wants to stay on the job and have credibility.</s>GREGORY: Well, 100 percent, I agree. But I'm not sure that is what is required for him to stay on the job. I mean, I think it's very clear that the president --</s>BLITZER: His credibility.</s>GREGORY: Well, his credibility, right. And, you know, especially given who he comes from. I mean, what we've been told, over the past six months, is, you know, lauding his military experience and, of course, his sacrifices to the country which are immense. And, of course, to be admired but are not relevant here. This is about his credibility as chief of staff doing a very difficult job and who did what, when and what did they know when? And you're right. This is a guy who comes from a tradition of accountability. Let's see it. You know, we're tired of these questions.</s>BLITZER: He's a retired four-star Marine Corps general.</s>GREGORY: Yes.</s>BLITZER: You know, and it's not going away. You heard on CNN's "NEW DAY" earlier today. Trey Gowdy, the Chairman of the House Oversight Committee, they want to have hearings. They want to investigate who knew what and when. They want specifics.</s>PHLLIPS: Right. There is, in fact, a broken system here. You know, CNN has reported, recently, that 30 to 40 White House staffers don't have full security clearances. That's a huge problem. And the Porter scandal is one element of that. I think Republicans need to inoculate themselves from this on several fronts. One, on the national security front about putting someone like Porter in a position where he's often dealing with classified information but may not have ever been able to get a full security clearance. And, secondly, this -- the idea that the White House is indifferent to domestic violence is incredibly damaging to Republicans. I think they recognize that. I think that's why you've heard people like Paul Ryan start to come out and say, this is -- you know, it's not acceptable to us. But the one person you haven't heard that from is the president. And that's a problem that the White House doesn't seem particularly eager to resolve. He could have walked from the Oval Office to the briefing room, at any point over the last week, and he hasn't done it.</s>BORGER: Yes, but everything in this story is context. If the president were to come out and say this, then, of course, we know what occurred during the campaign and these 17 women who were accusing him. And then, that raises -- that raises that specter all over again. And Donald Trump understands that. And I don't think he wants -- I don't think he wants to go there.</s>PHILLIPS: And it's also worth noting that it's not clear that more information is going to help them here. Every time we've learned more about how this has gone down, it's looked worse for them.</s>BLITZER: Right. All right, everybody stand by. There's more news unfolding right now. Up next, porn star pay off. The president's lawyer now claiming he paid Stormy Daniels six figures out of his own pocket. We'll discuss. And U.S. intelligence chiefs unanimously are saying that Russia is taking direct aim at this year's midterm elections here in the United States. But the president of the United States is still not convinced. Is the U.S. in danger? And just in, the vice president talking about that infamous scene over at the Olympics, sitting right near Kim Jong-Un's sister. We'll hear what he just had to say when we come back.