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Interview with Rep. Eliot Engel on Iran Nuclear Deal; Obama Wraps Up Africa Tour; Clinton in NH Facing Questions on Keystone Pipeline. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired July 28, 2015 - 13:30   ET

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


[13:30:00] WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Well you outlined at least four or five concerns in your statement about access to various sensitive sites in Iran, whether military sites, suspected nuclear sites. You talk about the billions, the tens of billions of dollars that would be freed up for Iran to use not necessarily to have infrastructure development or housing or education but to use to support international terrorism.

Those are concerns that I guess a lot of people are going to have. And I wonder if you believe there will be enough democrats throughout who have a vote against this agreement. Almost all the republicans will vote against it, that will undermine the president's deal.

REP. ELIOT ENGEL (D-NY), FOREIGN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE: Well, I don't know how it will turn out. I mean obviously everyone expects the deal initially to be rejected by congress and then when the president vetoes it the question is can there be a two-thirds vote in both the house and the senate to override. That's very difficult, I think, thing to accomplish. I don't think it's impossible but I think it's a very difficult thing to accomplish.

Look, there are things in the deal and you mentioned some of my concerns, the fact that undeclared sites, the Iranians could have up to 24 days to keep inspectors out of it. That's a very, very troublesome. Iran has been the leading supporter of terrorism in the Middle East and around the world for many, many years now. It's one of the reasons why Israel is so opposed to the plan because Iran has been supporting with cash Hezbollah and Hamas.

And Iran is going to be awash in cash when these sanctions are ended. Iran is going to have more money than it knows what to do with. That's a concern. It's also a concern when just barely a week after the agreement was signed the United States the Ayatollah is back leading chants of "Death to America, death to Israel." You would think that just having signed a nuclear agreement he would at least temper the rhetoric.

So there are concerns and I think it's important for those concerns to be raised. I think the administration, though, when it talks about you have to consider the alternatives is right. It's not a matter of the deal or nothing it's a matter of what are the alternatives if the deal is rejected and I think that's something we have to look at as well.

BLITZER: Congressman, the Secretary of State was asked about those four American citizens currently being held in Iran. I'm going to play for you what he said. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN KERRY, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: My last conversation with Foreign Minister Zarif and with the brother of the president was regarding the four people being held, the four American citizens and we have followed up on that conversation since then. We are in direct conversations. That's all I'm going to say here today that I hope that they will be returned to be with their families.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Your colleague and Representative Dan Kildee, is a democrat from Michigan, who is working very hard to get one of those Americans Amir Hekmati released. He said in a statement, he said that Iran were to do so, released four Americans soon that would show Iran is serious about rejoining the global community, it might have an impact on how these various undecided members would vote. Would the release of these Americans have an impact on your final decision?

ENGEL: Well, it would be one factor. I don't know how much of an impact it would have but it would be one factor. Look, I think it's outrageous that Iran continues to keep our citizens in jail at a time when we're signing a nuclear agreement with them.

I understand we didn't want our people to be used as bargaing chips so we didn't want to make them part of the deal but the fact of the matter is, if they weren't released beforehand they should certainly be release now. And if they're not released, I think it shows incredibly bad faith on Iran's part which would give me and others pause to think about whether Iran could be counted on to keep its commitments.

We know they're bad actors. They are bad actors for many years, they again, they're the leading sponsor of terrorism around the world. So we all look at Iran -- or at least I do with a bit of skepticism. If they release the Americans, that would factor in, but whether it would be the decisive factor, I really don't know.

BLITZER: Elliot Engel is the ranking democrat on the house foreign affairs committee. Congressman, thanks very much.

ENGEL: Thanks Wolf, always a pleasure.

BLITZER: Still to come, republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee is standing by his words about the Iran nuclear deal but has he taken it too far? Our political reporters are standing behind.

[13:35:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: President Obama finished up his historic visit of Africa today, after visiting his father's homeland in Kenya and the seat of the African Union, Ethiopia. He addressed the African Union earlier today. He became the first sitting U.S. President to do so. In his speech, he stressed the importance of African nations taking their place in the global economy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I believe Africa's success is not just important to Africa but the entire world. We will not be able to meet the challenges of our time for maturing a strong global economy to facing down violent extremism to combatting climate change to ending hunger and extreme poverty without the voices and contributions of one billion Africans.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: President Obama also says "I wouldn't mind serving a third term as president of the United States" during his speech before the African Union. He said, and I'm quoting him now, I think if I ran again I could win but I can't. He's limited by the U.S. constitution.

A new CNN/ORC poll shows the president's job approval rating holding steady, that positive territory. 49 percent of Americans approve of the way he's handling his job. That's about the same as back in June when it was 50 percent. In the latest poll 47 percent disapprove odd the president's job performance. The president's approval rating by the way is higher than George W. Bush's was during the same point at his presidency but lower than Bill Clinton's. About the same as Ronald Reagan.

[13:40:00] Speaking of polls, republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has a sizable lead over rival Jeb Bush in the first primary state of New Hampshire. The Monmouth University poll has Trump leading with 24 percent while Jeb Bush placed second with 12 percent. The first debate, by the way, right around the corner. They'd still only a set number of slots with a prime time debate performance as you can see, everyone from newly announced candidate John Kasich to Ted Cruz, they are all in single digits right now.

Candidates with some of the lowest polling are scrambling for more support. They'd like to appear on that stage in that prime time debate. Only 10 republican presidential candidates will get that opportunity. Let's discuss what's going on with our political director David Chalian and our senior political reporter Nia-Malika Henderson.

David, the GOP candidates all want to compete with Donald Trump right now but in New Hampshire, which is a critical state, he's got a double-digit lead. Twice as much as Jeb Bush.

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Right. The live free or die state. He's a good fit for New Hampshire because he has the ability to speak to the activist republicans but also some independence there who may want to play in the republican primary can chose to play in the ballot may be attracted to his brash style, his not sounding like a typical politician, that's something that people respond to in New Hampshire. He's clearly formidable front-runner there. We saw a NBC poll on

Sunday that showed similar numbers and he has been there a lot. He's been campaigning and visiting New Hampshire both before his formal announcement and since.

BLITZER: And this New Hampshire poll, I take it, was completely done after the controversial comments he made about John McCain and his P.O.W. history and Vietnam?

CHALIAN: Right. So it doesn't seem to be having an impact. Now, remember those comments were made in Iowa, they got national attention everywhere but in New Hampshire that didn't hurt him at all and as we've seen in our national poll.

BLITZER: Almost everything controversial he says doesn't seem to have the impact, as you know, Nia. And I don't know if the impact of this latest Daily Beast story and Michael Cohen his advisor apologizing for the words he said. I don't know if that will have much of an impact, you think it will?

NIA MALIKA-HENSERSON, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: If history is any guide, no. We talked about this yesterday, the idea of him as the Teflon Donald, able to withstand all onslaught from his own gaffes and people around him. I think the Michael Cohen thing with the harsher comments, he's since walked them back. It suggests he might want to get political folks around him but the question is if he does that, does that water down his brand which is him as this anti-politician.

BLITZER: If you believe the polls, I think it's fair to say he is the republican presidential front-runner right now.

CHALIAN: There's no doubt about it. That is what the polls show right now. Obviously, every poll is a snapshot but he has been rising, the trajectory is all in his favor right now.

BLITZER: It's pretty amazing when you think about it. Here is the latest comments from Mike Huckabee, the republican candidate and former governor of Arkansas. He said that President Obama with h this Iran nuclear deal is marching Israelis, in his words, to the door of the oven. A reference to the holocaust. Here's the latest, what he said earlier today on the "Today Show."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As president of the United States, would you use the words march the Israelis to the door of the oven?

MIKE HUCKABEE (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Yes, I would and let me tell you why. Because I have been to Auschwitz three times. I have stood at that very place. I've been to Israel dozens of times. My first trip there was 42 years ago. The one thing I am absolutely assured of is that for 6000 years Jews have been hunted down. We need to use strong words when people make strong threats against an entire group of people as the Iranians have made against the Jews.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BLITZER: He's being criticized by a lot of folks, including the Israeli ambassador to the United States who's fiercely opposed to this Iran deal as well but he's not backing down at all.

HENDERSEN: And this is vintage Mike Huckabee in a lot of ways. We talked about sort of Trump effect and there is some of that going on but this has kind of been Mike Huckabee's M.O. for a while. He's a former Fox news host, he's preacher as well, he understands the power of language and we've seen him do this before, he suggested nullification after the Supreme Court decision on same-sex marriage.