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FBI Not Recommending Charges Against Clinton; Clinton, Obama Board Air Force One to Hit Campaign Trail; Terror Attacks Spike During Final Days of Ramadan; New Details on EgyptAir Crash. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired July 5, 2016 - 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 HOST: And for Hillary Clinton, Jackie, to be elected president of the United States -- there's the president boarding Air Force One right now with a traditional wave -- she really needs to recreate as much of that Obama coalition as possible and get that enthusiasm out there in order to beat Donald Trump.

JACKIE KUCINICH, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, THE DAILEY BEAST: Absolutely. The president hasn't been able to transfer that to really anyone else as of yet. So he's going to make a big push for that. Again, as I said earlier, it's not only about him or her or his legacy but keeping things that he's done in tact because the Republican Congress, if that doesn't flip, very much could be undone under a Republican president.

BLITZER: Because he won decisively in 2008 and 2012. If she's going to win in 2016, she needs that Obama base on board.

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: African-Americans, Latinos, single women, there's no doubt about that. Part of this trip also is very much focused at college educated whites where she's really trying to -- she won't win the white vote. We haven't seen Democrat do that.

But the notion of the difference between working class, non educated college whites, we've seen this election going to a place like North Carolina to rally the college educated whites as well, we know that pieces of those coalition, their turnout numbers do go up. Barack Obama's mission is to ensure for his own legacy, for Hillary Clinton's victory, is to ensure to get those groups to turn out in larger numbers than they do -- than they have in the past. Guys, stand by. The president is now on board Air Force One. Hillary Clinton is on board Air Force One. They are getting ready to fly down to Charlotte, North Carolina, for their first joint appearance out there on the campaign trail.

BLITZER: We're going to continue to watch all of this unfold.

There's other breaking news we're watching right now. U.S. officials now say is, they insist, is losing ground in Iraq and Syria but they clearly -- ISIS we're talking about, the ISIS terrorists, they have stepped up their attacks around the Middle East. Is this a change in strategy? We'll assess that. And continue to watch the race for the White House. Much more, right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:36:36] BLITZER: Welcome back. Air Force One is getting ready to take off outside from Joint Base Andrews in Washington, D.C. The president of the United States is on board. The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, Hillary Clinton, is on board as well. They will have their first campaign appearance in an hour and a half, two hours from now in Charlotte, North Carolina. The president just boarded moments ago. Air Force One is getting ready to take off. We'll have extensive coverage on that.

James Comey recommended that no criminal charges be filed against Hillary Clinton for her use of private e-mail servers during her four years as secretary of state, even though he offered very damning criticisms of her using her personal e-mail server. Air Force One taking off right now. Stand by. Much more on the race for the White House coming up.

But there's other important news that we're following right now. The holiest month of the year for Muslims is coming to an end, and while this is normally a very festive month, the final days of Ramadan were marred by a stunning state of terror attacks. The most recent targeted one of the holiest sites of Islam, the Prophet's mosque in Medina

Let's talk about this and more with Ben Wedeman, joining us live from Baghdad. It's worth noting that CNN is the only American network that is live in Baghdad right now. Also joining us, our international diplomatic editor, Nic Robertson, joining us from London.

Ben, the weekend bombing in Baghdad that killed at least 215 people, the single deadliest attack in Iraq since 2003, the political fallout must be enormous right now. What's the latest?

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The defense -- the interior minister, Wolf, submitted his resignation today saying that he's doing so because of shortcomings in coordination between Iraq's various security services.

We don't know if the Prime Minister al Abadi has accepted that resignation but the interior minister is being widely blamed for the bomb that went off Saturday night killing people. The government is scrambling to create the impression that it's trying to improve security in the capitol. Overnight, they executed five ISIS members and said that there are 3,000 others on death row that they would like to execute as quickly as possible as soon as the proper legislation is passed.

In the meantime, the government has also imposed much stricter security in and around the capitol there. They are studying ways to improve it further. The prime minister has banned the use of these bogus bomb detection devices that have been used throughout Baghdad for years now by private and government security, even though two years ago the man who ran the company in the U.K. that produced them was sentenced to 10 years for fraud because it was found that these things did not work. Nonetheless, the Iraqi government departments have continued to use them until just the other day. So many people are wondering why it took the government so long to do that, how it was that the government led its guard down, allowing this car bomb, this truck bomb into the city? So it appears that there's a lot of pressure mounting on the government of al Abadi -- Wolf?

[13:40:17] BLITZER: Enormous right now. Take a look over the last few weeks and months, the number of suicide attacks in Baghdad, elsewhere in Iraq, have killed if not hundreds but thousands of people. It's an awful situation right now.

In Saudi Arabia, that's a bad situation right now as well, Nic. You've been covering this for us for a long time, three suicide attacks in 24 hours yesterday. The deadliest occurred in Medina where four people were killed. This is also the city where the Prophet Muhammad is buried. Why target one of the holiest places in Islam in the name, supposedly, of Islam?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Wolf, there's a very simple reason for this. There is no claim of responsibility yet. Everyone I'm talking to in Saudi says this points to ISIS and certainly looks like ISIS to me. ISIS has a stated goal. Overthrow the Saudi royal family. To target Medina is a massive embarrassment on the international stage for the Saudi king. The Saudi king is known as the protector of Islam's two holiest sites. Medina is one of them.

Millions of Muslims every year come to a pilgrimage and Saudi Arabia's king will be essentially embarrassed about this. The target there turned out to be Saudi security officers there. You could target them anywhere in Saudi Arabia. So it's clear that this city was picked to send a message. The message is to the royal family, we're trying to undermine you. That's a narrative that ISIS has been pushing for a year or so in Saudi -- Wolf?

BLITZER: Let me go back to Ben in Baghdad for us.

Ben, you know that situation very well. You've been to Iraq many times, going back to overall of these years. Most of the U.S. troops left by the end of 2011, although there's been a build-up since then approaching 5,000 U.S. As we speak. Here's the question. Does the Iraqi military, which has proven to be inept, do they have the ability to get the job done by themselves?

WEDEMAN: By themselves, it would be difficult, but I think what we have seen is over the last two years. Remember, in June 2014, when ISIS took over Mosul with a relatively small force of a few hundred men compared to well over 10,000 that the Iraqi army had there and they were basically on the verge of collapse, since then, they have come back. The United States has spent and its coalition partners has spent a lot of money and time in reequipping and organizing the Iraqi army and what I have seen in Tikrit and Ramadi is that in the last two years there has been a very palpable improvement and they've gotten a lot more training and retook Fallujah in just five weeks. It was expected to take much longer than that. It wasn't always a clean job. It was messy and there's been a lot of destruction in the jobs that they have retaken. But they have retaken Fallujah, Ramadi and Tikrit. They are preparing to go after the city of Mosul, which is, of course, the second largest city in Iraq. They are doing so in coordination with the Peshmerga, the Kurdish forces and what we saw at the so- called liberation operations room outside of Mosul. There are American advisers, British advisers, American and British trainers as well. So there has been an improvement and they are regaining ground.

It's important, as we focus so much on these recent attacks by ISIS, that, in a sense, this is what happens when an organization like ISIS is cornered like a wild beast and it's striking back. But it is losing ground and this is their way, ISIS' way of showing its supporters that it is still a relevant organization -- Wolf?

BLITZER: And briefly, Ben, I want to show our viewers, when I saw the images of the buildings blown up, you can see on the left the destruction in Baghdad over the weekend. Take a look on the right. It reminded me of the federal building in Oklahoma City, the federal office building blown up back in 1995. You can see the destruction in both of those buildings.

I take it, Ben, you've been there, you saw this destruction. Is it as enormous, more than 200 people killed, but whole buildings were simply blown apart?

[13:45:17] WEDEMAN: It's more the damage from the fire than the blast itself, which was large. But if you saw the initial pictures that were taken, cell phone video right after the explosion, the place looked like a vision of hell. Flames, 360 degrees, and certainly that is what caused the most destruction and the most death. We talked through those shopping malls on both sides of the road and there are just charred body parts everywhere. They are still being collected. But as we know from the Iraqi police, they have well over 80 bodies that are burned beyond recognition -- Wolf?

BLITZER: Ben Wedeman, on the ground for us in Baghdad.

Nic Robertson, thanks to you as well.

Covering the horrendous situation unfolding throughout the region in the Middle East, North Africa. Much more coming up.

Also coming up, we'll have more on the major announcement by the FBI that it will not recommend criminal charges be filed against Hillary Clinton for her handling of the e-mails, her private e-mail servers while she was secretary of state. Much more on this after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:50:46] BLITZER: Let's get back to our top story this hour. Very dramatic decision by the FBI in the investigation of Hillary Clinton and her use of private e-mail servers. The FBI director said there were multiple servers that she used during her four years as secretary of state, all private.

Here's what Comey said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JAMES COMEY, FBI DIRECTOR: Although there is evidence of potential violations of the statutes regarding the handling of classified information, our judgment is that no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Let's get some more analysis. Joining us now, our justice correspondent, we have Evan Perez, doing excellent reporting on this. And our senior legal analyst, Jeffrey Toobin, joining us from New York.

The FBI director basically made the case that someone should have told secretary of state, Madam Secretary, this is crazy. Don't do this. At one point he said in his statement that there were seven e-mail chains that concerned matters that were classified at the top secret Special Access Program at the time they were sent and received. That Special Access Program is higher form of top secret.

EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Right. Programs like the drone program which we obviously discuss all the time but which are still at the highest level of classification which you just are not supposed to --

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: Where was her staff?

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: Why didn't they tell her, Madam Secretary, don't do this? You need to go to .gov where there is greater security.

PEREZ: I think that is exactly the story here, Wolf. The question obviously of her judgment, but someone at this level should surround herself with staff that tell her whenever you have a terrible idea, don't do that, Madam Secretary. It is clear nobody on her staff serves that purpose to check her to say, no, this is not a good idea. At least nobody did at the time this e-mail setup was made. The director's saying essentially that, look, there's plenty of evidence here of violating the law. The question is whether it was willful and intentional to violate the law. That's where there is not enough proof for prosecution.

BLITZER: He said they couldn't find that it was deliberate, although it was clearly a major blunder.

Jeffrey, when you take a look at all of this -- you are a former -- you worked in the Justice Department. You know this. When he says that there was not enough hard evidence to go with criminal charges, there still was a lot of damning information that if she were like still serving in the U.S. government, they would have at least disciplined her, taken away her security clearances, for example, if she were just a regular government employee.

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: You know, that's true, Wolf. There's all sorts of bad behavior, of misconduct that is not criminal. I think that's a good thing for our country. We want criminal charges to be reserved for the most egregious wrongdoing.

But it is also true that this whole operation, this whole idea that she could have, as secretary of state, this separate e-mail system, was just a terrible idea. And you suggest that someone on her staff should have alerted her. Well, that's true. But I think, in a way, that takes away the responsibility from Hillary Clinton. She's a veteran government employee. She was the first lady. She was a United States Senator. She had to know that so much of what she discussed as secretary of state was arguably classified. And she should have known that she should never have been discussing it on this system that she set up outside the State Department. I mean, it is just so inexplicable, and so unnecessary.

BLITZER: Right.

TOOBIN: Just the idea that she created this problem for herself by presumably trying to be too clever, whether it was getting around the Freedom of Information Act or getting around later subpoenas. I mean, she obviously -- all she has done is made the situation much, much worse. Fortunately, for her, not criminal.

[13:54:46] BLITZER: Not criminal, but clearly a very, very serious set of complaints issued today by the FBI director.

All right, guys. Stand by. We'll have much more on this.

Other breaking news we're following right now. That EgyptAir crash that killed 66 people, we have new information about a fire on board. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: We have breaking news now on the crash of EgyptAir flight 804. The cockpit voice recorder was a fire on board.

Richard Quest joins us live from London.

What do we know? Update our viewers.

RICHARD QUEST, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT & CNN HOST, QUEST MEANS BUSINESS: What we know is that the cockpit voice recorder is now confirming the same data scene on the flight data recorder which has already confirmed what the satellite warnings, the radio warnings, the ACARS, there was smoke in the avionics, there was smoke in the lavatory and that there were a variety of other warnings.

So, Wolf, we now know, though we haven't seen a transcript, but the authorities and Egypt are saying that the cockpit crew were dealing with some sort of fire on board the aircraft. Of course, they are not saying, and they are not telling us or discussing, what might have caused that fire. And that remains, of course, the absolute top question.

BLITZER: So the question is whether that fire started as a result of some mechanical failure on the plane or was the result of an individual starting that fire. We don't know the answer to that.

QUEST: We do not know the answer to that. But I think what we can now say is, when we got those first early warnings, there were questions of whether they were condensation, were they accurate, was it a malfunction of the technology. We now know that there was smoke and I assume -- pardon the obvious -- there's no smoke without fire. We now know there was smoke and there was fire on board at the front of the aircraft, Wolf.

So not necessarily near the fuel sections. Not necessarily a fuel related fire. But we don't know what caused it and we don't know whether it was avionics related, mechanical or, since it was by the toilet, had somebody. That is -- and also there is one other point, Wolf. We know from some of the wreckage that has been pulled out of the water that there is sooting and smoke damage. So, yes, there was a fire on EgyptAir 804.

BLITZER: Richard Quest reporting the very latest. We'll stay on top of it.

Thanks very much.

That's it for me.

The news continues right now, right here on CNN.