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State Department Press Briefing on U.S. Ambassador Threats; New Information on Man Who Flew, Crashed Drone at White House; Benjamin Netanyahu Wins Re-election as Israeli Prime Minister; Hillary Clinton's E-mail Scandal Could Hurt Her in Presidential Race. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired March 18, 2015 - 13:30   ET

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


JEN PSAKI, SPOKESWOMAN, U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT: All employees have been accounted for, informed of the situation and urged to avoid the museum and surrounding vicinity.

[13:30:13] UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: To the best of your knowledge, none of the victims of this attack in the museum or connected to the museum attack were American citizens?

PSAKI: Correct. We're not aware of any U.S. citizens being among those killed or injured in today's attack. The prime minister said during a press conference earlier today that German, Italian, Spanish and Polish tourists were among those killed.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: More broadly, Tunisia has been considered for some time a success story, one of the few to arise from the Arab Spring. It was the birthplace of the whole -- of the Arab Spring. And I'm just wondering if this attack gives you pause in holding up Tunisia as a success story.

PSAKI: Well, this horrific attack happened just this morning. There haven't been any claims of responsibility at this point. Obviously while we mourn those who were lost, I don't think we're at the point of drawing conclusions about what it means. Certainly we also would commend, as I did -- or the secretary did in his statement, the rapid response of the authorities in this case as well. Certainly we'll be continuing to engage with authorities there and our counterparts there to discuss what this means moving forward.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: It has been pointed out that Tunisia is the source of quite a few recruits to ISIS or ISIL. And I'm just wondering if you don't suspect or see any link between that fact and this attack.

PSAKI: Well, we just don't want to draw any conclusions at this point. Tunisian authorities and the government have the lead. Certainly we'll be in touch with them and hear more about what their findings are.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Is this being treated as an isolated incident or as part of a pattern that is likely to grow?

PSAKI: Again, this just happened this morning. There have been no claims of possibility. So we're not going to draw any conclusions at this point in time.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: But up to this point, Tunis, Tunisia, was considered a high-risk area for U.S. diplomats, a medium security risk -- how do you do it now? How do you treat it now?

PSAKI: I think, again, Sayyid, we put information out publicly, we make it available. We haven't changed or re-categorized or anything along those lines in response to the attacks. We obviously do provide emergency messages or put up emergency messages whenever incidents like this occur.

Any more on this before we continue?

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Second thing --

PSAKI: OK.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: -- having to do with security is this news coming out of Tokyo about alleged threats against Ambassador Kennedy. Can you say any more than what you said in your earlier comments, written comments?

PSAKI: I don't have more to convey. I'm happy to repeat or reiterate those. We take any threats to U.S. diplomats seriously. We take every step possible to protect our personnel. We are working with the Japanese government to ensure that necessary security measures are in place, which is something we would do and continue to do around the world. We're not going to comment on the specific details of any threats or steps we take to address them.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Can you not at least say, confirm what the Japanese reports are that whatever threat this was or whatever it was happened last month and is not something that is recent, like within the last day or two and more specifically after the attack on Ambassador Lippert in Seoul?

PSAKI: I certainly understand your question. I would have to check with our team and see what we can confirm from this end. Obviously we often defer to host governments. But we also are very careful about what information we provide in order to protect our diplomats. But I can check on that and get back to you.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Given that the first lady arrived today in Tokyo and these reports emerge today, although I believe the threats were made previously last month, as matt said, has it changed in any way the security posture surrounding the first lady?

PSAKI: I would point you to the White House. I think it's unlikely they discussed the first lady's security posture.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: The embassy, though?

PSAKI: The embassy, no there has not been changes to our embassy --

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Has there been any change in the security posture at the embassy post, the attack in Seoul on Ambassador Lippert, any sort of review of these low-threat posts?

PSAKI: Well, we evaluate day by day, week by week, separate from the awful attack against Ambassador Lippert. We don't discuss that publicly because that would defeat the purpose of doing a security review or making any changes as would be necessary. If there are changes that are necessary, we will work with host governments to put them in place.

[13:35:01] UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Can you put this maybe in perspective to us? From what we take from the reports, it was basically a caller who made threats. Does this happen a lot at U.S. embassies? Is this just one we happen to be hearing about, in other words, where you get these types of threats? Is this an unusual threat in any way?

PSAKI: I'm not going to confirm what the threats are or are not, just as a matter of policy. I certainly understand why you're asking the question. Obviously we deal with threats around the world every day. That's something that we are prepared to do and our diplomats serving overseas are prepared to do. But I'm not going to analyze it more further.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: For example, similar phone calls aren't being received in Abuja?

PSAKI: It's clear there are parts of the world that pose a higher threat where diplomats are living and working and certainly they're aware of that when they go take those positions. That's something we talk about frequently here.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Does she have security when she leaves the embassy?

PSAKI: I don't have more details. I can share about the ambassador's security --

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: One of the criticisms about Lippert was that he had one unarmed guard, local guard. So you couldn't characterize --

(CROSSTALK)

PSAKI: I can check. There's more to discuss about the ambassador's security.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: It is correct that neither Seoul nor Tokyo is considered particularly high risk?

PSAKI: Correct. Yes, that's correct.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: I understand there was news just happening as we were coming in that the embassy in Djibouti has been closed --

(CROSSTALK) UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: -- or shuttered. I'm not sure --

(CROSSTALK)

PSAKI: I don't have anything on that at this moment. Joe, I'm sure we can get you something on this.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: It's tomorrow. They say they're going to close to the public to review their security posture. So the question that I think that we would like answered is, was there a specific threat to the embassy or is this just a -- embassies do this relatively often, just routinely close down.

PSAKI: Sure. Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: But they also sometimes do this when there is a threat.

PSAKI: Understood. I will check.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Following up on that, we also heard the last few days, the embassy in Saudi Arabia has been closed.

PSAKI: In Saudi Arabia, uh, uh.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Has there been any change in that position --

(CROSSTALK)

PSAKI: They put out a new security message I believe it was two days ago on the 16th. Making clear that it will continue to be closed. They will put out a new one when they reopen. I don't have any prediction for you in terms of when that will be.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Let's go to the Israeli election. So --

(CROSSTALK)

PSAKI: I bet that's what you want to ask about, Sayyid.

(LAUGHTER)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: The secretary's phone call to Prime Minister Netanyahu --

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, we're going to continue to monitor Jen Psaki and her State Department briefing. She's getting some reaction to the Israeli elections. We have much more on that story elections coming up.

I want to quickly go back to the former U.S. ambassador to Japan, Tom Schieffer.

Get your reaction, Mr. Ambassador, from what we just heard from the State Department spokeswoman about the threats that are out there right now to U.S. ambassadors around the world. This latest phone threat to the U.S. ambassador in Tokyo, Caroline Kennedy. What's your reaction to what you just heard?

THOMAS SCHIEFFER, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO JAPAN: I think she, the spokesman described it just as it is. There is a lot of security around virtually every American ambassador, particularly in open societies. Curiously enough, in totalitarian regimes you have less protection than you do in open societies. But there is protection in Japan, it is good, it is sophisticated. And it is heavy. So this is not something that is new to the Japanese. But it is something that will concern them greatly and that they will follow up on and they will work with our intelligence agencies in addressing the threat as to whether it's credible or not. But I can guarantee you that they will not relax what they are doing and that security is there. In most countries, certainly in Japan and in Australia where I served, the security that I received was the same as what the prime minister of the country had. I had much more security in both places than people like the foreign ministers or the defense ministers. I would also add that the Israeli ambassador receives the same kind of security protection that the American ambassador does. It's just what you do. And Ambassador Kennedy is well aware of that. She has worked well with everybody. And I don't think it's in anybody's interest to give a whole lot of detail about what the security profile is for an American ambassador. But it's heavy. And people are concerned about this because it has happened. And I think the American people sometimes don't realize how dangerous it is to sometimes be an American official anywhere in the world.

[13:40:05] BLITZER: Good point. I think you're absolutely right, Ambassador.

Ambassador Tom Schieffer was the U.S. ambassador to Japan and Australia.

Thanks so much for joining us. Appreciate it very much.

Just ahead, we're following breaking news here in Washington on the man accused of flying a drone over the White House. New information coming in. Our justice correspondent, Pamela Brown, is standing by.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

BLITZER: We've got breaking news coming in to CNN right now in the case of the drone that crashed on the White House lawn in January.

Our justice correspondent, Pamela Brown, is here with me.

I understand you've got some news, learning new information about the individual responsible for that drone flying over the White House and then crashing onto the grounds of the White House?

[13:44:23] PAMELA BROWN, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: That's right. It caused a huge national security scare. We have learned the U.S. Attorney's office for D.C. Will not pursue charges against the man who flew that drone onto the White House grounds in January. This is according to a government official. The man who flew the drone was actually a government employee with the Geospatial Intelligence Agency and his story checked out.

On the night of January 25th, he was flying a borrowed drone from a friend and then he watched the drone go about 100 feet up at about 3:00 a.m. And 100 feet high over Tenth Street in D.C. and fly west. The man says after that, he lost control of the drone and was unable to recover. He then went to sleep not knowing where the drone ended up. And according to the investigation and to a law enforcement official I've been speaking with, he woke up the next morning, saw reports of the drone on the White House lawn and self-reported, as we know. Through the investigation, a forensic analysis showed the drone was actually not under the man's control of when it went down.

However, important to note here, the FAA is still conducting a separate review of the incident. But you remember, this really shined a spotlight on national security issues and the whole issue of drones and airspace. How do you regulate this? Why didn't the Secret Service catch the drone? What if it presented a bigger security threat than it did? We know, according to officials, it was harmless. But what if it wasn't? It shined a spotlight on that issue. We know the Department of Justice and the FAA are collaborating right now trying to figure out how to better protect our airspace when it comes to drones. But we are learning that this man, the man, the drone operator who crashed the drone into the White House, caused a big national security scare, will not face any charges.

BLITZER: Will he continue to have his job. He works in a sensitive intelligence gathering organization, the Geospatial Spatial operations here in Washington. Does he continue to have security clearance and stay on the job?

BROWN: Absolutely. He was off duty when this happened. He still has his job, has the same job he had before the incident. He's a scientist at the agency. This incident has not impacted his status at the agency.

BLITZER: Thanks very much, Pamela Brown, breaking news here on CNN. Thanks very much.

Let's get to the Israeli elections. The Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud Party scored a victory in Tuesday's vote. Now they're looking ahead to form a coalition government. The Secretary of State John Kerry called today to congratulate the prime minister. The White House says President Obama will be calling the prime minister in the coming days.

Joining us now, New York Democratic Congressman Eliot Engel.

Congressman, are you happy Netanyahu won?

REP. ELIOT ENGEL, (D), NEW YORK: Well, I'm happy that Israel's a democracy and that the Israeli people decided who their leader is going to be. I'm happy about that. I never take positions in other countries' elections. But I think it shows that in contrast to every other nation in the Middle East, Israelis go to the polls just like we do and vote for their leaders just like we do.

BLITZER: How concerned are you in the days leading up -- the day before the election -- the prime minister reversed his position since 2009. He supported what's called a two-state solution, a new state of Palestine emerging alongside Israel. Then on the day before the election, he said on his watch, no Palestine, no two-state solution, which has caused enormous concern not only in the U.S. but around the world. Are you concerned about that?

ENGEL: I think that in the rhetoric and in the heat of campaigns, there are lots of things that are said and I think when they get shaken out, I think we'll find pretty much to not much has changed. There are many people who support a two-state solution. I personally do. And I think that hopefully we can have negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians in the not-too-distant future, seems remote now. But I think the goal would be to have Israelis and Palestinians living side by side in peace. I'm not worried about what may or may not have been said in campaign rhetoric in the closing days of the campaign. There are lots of issues to be tackled. Israel and the United States have always been close allies. And I think we will continue to be close allies.

BLITZER: What you're saying is Netanyahu really didn't mean it when he said it 24 hours before the election. It was only campaign rhetoric? And now that presumably if, in fact, he does succeed in the coming weeks to form this new coalition government, he's going to go back to his earlier position?

ENGEL: Well, I don't know what was in his head. I can't really speak of it. I assume he says what he believes. But I think that there are always nuanced positions. And I suppose as the days go on, that position might well be nuanced. But it's impossible for me to get into his head. I just think that Israel is a democracy and I'm happy that the people of Israel expressed their desire for their leader and who they want to lead them into the coming years. And I think we in the United States have to respect that. There are not many democracies in the world. And Israel's one of them. That's why the U.S. And Israel have always had a strong relationship, two democracies, shared values. That's why we back Israel.

[13:49:41] BLITZER: What do you make of all the concern in Israel certainly by his critics, there's concern expressed here in Washington as well that some of his statements seemingly belittling Israeli Arab citizens of Israel, warning the Arabs are voting in big numbers, coming out in big numbers. He's really getting criticized for that for going against 20 percent of the Israeli population, Israeli Arab were you upset when you heard that kind of commentary?

ENGEL: Well, I think that, you know, it's hard, again, to get into somebody's head and see why they said it. I think he assumes that the Arab parties, which have unified for the election, were running on one slate and that the Arabs of Israel were not going to vote for him. So I assume he was saying to his supporters that the others who are not going to be voting, you better come out to vote to counterbalance that. Perhaps it wasn't the right choice of words. Perhaps it wasn't, but I think it was, again, campaign rhetoric, and I wouldn't read too much into it.

BLITZER: Eliot Engel is the ranking Democratic on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Congressman, thanks very much for joining us.

ENGEL: Thank you, Wolf. It's always a pleasure.

BLITZER: New polls show Hillary Clinton is way, way ahead among her fellow Democrats when it comes to the race for the White House, but is the e-mail scandal taking a bit of a toll on her popularity among Democrats? We're taking a closer look at numbers. What that could mean for the GOP race. Gloria Borger is standing by.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:54:53] BLITZER: A new CNN/ORC poll shows Hillary Clinton still a dominant force as the country heads towards the 2016 presidential election season with no potential candidate on either side coming within ten points of her. In a poll of little more than 1,000 adult Americans, Mrs. Clinton has a nearly 50-point advantage, 50-point advantage, over her potential Democratic challenges from others, the closest being the vice president, Joe Biden. He comes in with just 15 percent support. Right now she also holds a sizable lead over potential Republican challengers more than a year and a half before the 2016 elections. Her closest potential Republican challenger is Senator Rand Paul, and at this point she holds an 11-point advantage over him.

With me to discuss the poll's finding is our chief political analyst, Gloria Borger.

Gloria, still obviously very early, but these poll numbers, pretty good numbers for the former secretary of state.

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: You know, if Hillary Clinton were the Democratic incumbent she would love to have these numbers. I mean, these numbers are in the stratosphere. It shows you why no Democrats have really stepped forward in a huge way to challenge her, including the sitting vice president of the United States, who only polls 15 percent in this poll, and so, you know, the waters have parted, and the Democrats are waiting for Hillary Clinton to officially declare so they can get 100 percent behind her, because when you also look at the numbers up against the Republicans, nobody is within ten points of her at this point, so, again, as you point out, it's early. She's been the inevitable candidate, inevitable nominee before, early, but if I were in the Hillary camp right now I'd take a look at this and say wow, great.

BLITZER: She's had some controversy in recent weeks but she still has 53 percent favorable. That's down from November.

BORGER: Yes.

BLITZER: Unfavorable, about 44 percent. 53 percent still pretty good.

BORGER: Again, most incumbents would take that number and run with it. I know President Obama would probably take that number.

BLITZER: He's sort of in the mid to high 40s right now.

BORGER: And love to have it. You and I talked about this, when you look back at her when she was secretary of state, her approval rating was at 69 percent, Wolf, so what this means is that she's gone down from that because she is in the realm of the political again. When she was secretary of state, people were like she was above politics. Now her unfavorables are at 44 percent. That's not zero, Wolf, and her poll numbers have taken a dip since the e-mail controversy.

It remains to be seen how Hillary Clinton wears as a presidential candidate. We've seen her as a candidate before, Wolf. She wasn't the best. She obviously got beaten by Barack Obama. It remains to be seen how she wears on the campaign trail.

BLITZER: Right. On the Democratic side in the race for the nomination, at least now it doesn't look like much of a fight. On Republican side, on the other hand, a clear fight, about 10, 11 months away from the first caucuses and primaries. Right now, take a look at our poll. Jeb Bush 16 percent. Scott Walker, the governor of Wisconsin, 13 percent. Senator Rand Paul 12 percent. Mike Huckabee, 10. And then down to Dr. Carson, Chris Christie and Rubio, 9 percent and 7 percent. Still pretty tight right now and still 10, 11 months to go before the actual balloting takes place.

BORGER: Exactly. And what polls this early are about is really name recognition. Jeb Bush, obviously the Bush name very well known.

The person that I would think who would look at these polls and have a little bit of worry right now is Chris Christie. Chris Christie has had some problems. He's got to try and get donors together. He's in single digits in the polls. And if you look at the internals of our poll, Wolf, you'll see that he's under water on his favorable and unfavorable ratings. He's got a 25 percent favorable rating and a 44 percent unfavorable rating, and he's only at 7 percent in the polls. This was somebody who everybody assumed would be in the top tier of Republican candidates, and if you look at Chris Christie right now he is not.

BLITZER: Yeah. A lot of these candidates, most Americans haven't even heard of them. Take a look. We asked, are you unsure about, heard about possible GOP candidates, Dr. Carson, 64 percent don't know much about them.

BORGER: Why would they?

BLITZER: Scott Walker doing well, 58 percent. You see what's going on in these numbers. Jeb Bush, only 23 percent say they haven't heard or don't know much about him.

BORGER: And they don't know much about him. What's going on right now is the Washington primary. Each of these folks, I guarantee you, will get their 15 minutes of fame, Wolf, until people start focusing on the campaign.

BLITZER: So there's still plenty of time --

BORGER: Oh, yeah.

BLITZER: -- for all of these men and maybe there's a woman on that Republican side, Carly Fiorina.

BORGER: Carly Fiorina.

BLITZER: She was on "New Day" this morning. And obviously, Hillary Clinton as well.

Guys, thanks very much --

BORGER: Sure.

BLITZER: -- Gloria Borger.

That's it from me. I'll be back at 5:00 p.m. eastern in "The Situation Room."

For our international viewers, CNN "News Center" with Isha Sesay, that's coming up next.

And for our viewers in North American, "Newsroom" with Brooke Baldwin starts right now.

[14:00:12] BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, there. I'm Brooke Baldwin.