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Dems Asking FBI to Review Ivanka Trump's Security Clearance; Confidence in Trump Policies Down Overseas; OJ Simpson Seeks Parole at Thursday Hearing; Tropical Storm Don Lighting Up Twitter; Aired 10:30- 11a ET

Aired July 19, 2017 - 10:30   ET

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


[10:30:00] SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Now why was that shot fired? Well, Mohamed Noor's lawyer says -- or hasn't given any indication as to whether his client will ever say that publicly or will ever do an interview with investigators. And the mayor of Minneapolis says that there is simply nothing in the law that may force Noor to talk. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR BETSY HODGES, MINNEAPOLIS: We do have more information now, though it's frustrating to have some of the picture but not all of it. We cannot compel Officer Noor to make a statement. We can't compel him by law but I wish that he would make that statement.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCLEAN: Now Matthew Harrity told investigators there may be a second witness or a third witness to this incident, a younger man who just happened to be passing by on his bicycle. And investigators obviously want to talk to him.

And as for that sexual assault, John and Poppy, that Justine Ruszczyk was reporting, police said that they canvassed this neighborhood but ultimately didn't find anything.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: OK. Scott McLean there in Minneapolis, thank you for the update.

Ahead for us, he spent nearly a decade behind bars but if things go his way, O.J. Simpson could be a free man come October. What are his chances of getting paroled? That hearing is straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:35:45] HARLOW: This morning a new member of President Trump's inner circle is facing scrutiny over security clearance. It's his daughter Ivanka. She obtained that clearance when she accepted her unpaid job as a top presidential adviser and is now the target of some House Democrats in the wake of her husband Jared Kushner and brother Donald Jr.'s failure to disclose those meetings with Russian officials.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: CNN's Jeremy Diamond at the White House for us this morning with all the details on this.

Jeremy, what are you learning?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, Congressman Don Beyer is leading a group of 22 House Democrats who are calling on the FBI to review Ivanka Trump's security clearance application. They're looking -- they're asking the FBI to essentially review whether they are admissions, particularly with regards to the section that asks to disclose foreign contacts, not only Ivanka's foreign contacts but also any of her immediate family members' foreign contacts.

Of course this comes in the wake of Democrats raising questions about Jared Kushner's security clearance after it was revealed that he attended this June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower with a Russian lawyer, somebody who Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump's brother, believed to be a Russian government attorney, of course.

And the letter now is really calling on the FBI to ask more questions and to look into this matter. Here's part of the letter, let me just read it for you, quote, "We are concerned that Ivanka Trump may have engaged in similar deception. The high standard to which we hold public servants, particularly senior advisers to the president of the United States, requires that these questions be raised and promptly answered."

The White House and Ivanka Trump's attorney so far have not returned CNN's request for comment.

BERMAN: All right. Jeremy Diamond for us at the White House. Jeremy, thanks so much.

So as President Trump approaches his six-month mark in office, facing some bleak poll numbers here at home but also overseas.

HARLOW: A new study shows confidence in some of the president's policies like climate change, like the travel ban, like immigration has fallen overseas and that could be hurting the United States' image abroad.

Our CNN international diplomatic editor Nic Robertson takes a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR (voice-over): Wherever President Trump goes, controversy seems to follow. These are some of the protesters at a recent world leaders meeting in Hamburg. New research explains why.

(On camera): The headline in the Pew Center Study is that around the world, and in Europe in particular, Trump's policies are unpopular.

(Voice-over): In 35 of 37 countries surveyed, confidence in the U.S. president to do the right thing is down, and that's dragging America's overseas image down, too.

Take Germany, host of the G20 and the protests. Confidence fell a massive 75 points compared to the final years of President Obama. Other shockers include South Korea, another ally, down 71 points. France, a close friend, down 70 points. Canada, a neighbor, down 61 points. And so, the list goes on.

The only countries to buck the downward trend are Israel, up seven points, and Russia, a statistical outlier, up 42 points.

Issues of concern include a border wall with Mexico, withdrawing from international trade agreements and the global climate agreement, as well as Trump's Muslim travel ban.

The majority of the 40,448 respondents said Trump was arrogant, intolerant, dangerous, with just over half saying he is a strong leader. The White House has yet to respond.

(On camera): Despite Trump tanking in the global rating, America's popularity as a nation is buoyed by its culture, its democracy, its citizens. But in another blow to Trump, both the presidents of Russia and China were judged more likely to do the right thing on global affairs than him.

Nic Robertson, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN: You know, no doubt the president and his supporters would note, though, that he didn't run to be president of Germany or France.

[10:40:04] HARLOW: There you go, America first.

BERMAN: You know, granted his poll numbers in the United States not so great either but, you know, he's pursuing a different policy, perhaps on purpose, than would be of the interest of some of those countries overseas.

All right. 20 minutes until the hour right now. After nine years behind bars, O.J. Simpson could learn his fate this week. Will a parole board free the former football star?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: O.J. Simpson could soon be a free man.

BERMAN: Yes. Simpson faces a Nevada parole board tomorrow. He was sentenced in 2008 for trying to steal pieces of sports memorabilia at gunpoint. Now if the board decides to release Simpson, he could be free as early as October.

Ashleigh Banfield, host of HLN's "Primetime Justice" in Carson City, Nevada, ahead of tomorrow's hearing, you know, and Ashleigh, O.J. was sentenced to nine to 33 years. He served nine already. So what are the chances at this point that he could walk free?

ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, HOST, HLN'S "PRIMETIME JUSTICE": Are you sitting down?

HARLOW: Yes.

BANFIELD: Because if anybody thinks he's going to be locked up for a whole lot longer in the Lovelock prison in -- in Nevada you're going to be sadly disappointed. I would be astounded if the commissioners walked into this building behind me in just a little over 24 hours and made a decision otherwise and there's a lot of reasons for that, guys. He has been the model prisoner. He has not gotten one demerit or write-up and apparently if you're on the inside, that's known as impossible.

Over the course of nine years to do nothing wrong. And you're not even taking extra sugar packet from the commissary or from the cafeteria. The guy has lived so clean inside. He's taking classes. He turned 70 last week. A week ago Sunday. That's another big factor. He's done everything right. He already got paroled on five of the 12 charges when they met, the same four commissioners back in 2013 so what's not to love effectively is what a lot of people say about the hearing tomorrow.

HARLOW: But, Ash, not a sure bet that if he does get paroled he will be able to leave the state of Nevada and go home to Florida, right? That's going to be up to one person and one person alone.

BANFIELD: Leave it to Poppy Harlow to get to the nitty-gritty details. Yes. And that's a great question because one of the things that O.J. Simpson has been saying from the inside is that he never ever wants to step foot in this state again. He wants out of here so fast and the reality is, his parole officer holds all the keys to his future, whether he can go to a halfway house, whether he can apply to have his parole transferred to Florida, where his home is.

It's one guy's decision so if he has an ax to grind with O.J. for what happened in 1994 and 1995, well, poor O.J., he's going to be stuck in Nevada for longer than he was bargaining for. And in fact, I had this opportunity to talk to one of O.J.'s guards. Jeffrey Felix guarded O.J. for seven years inside Lovelock and then became his best friend consequently because the warden commissioned him to keep an eye on O.J. That high-profile inmate who was possibly in danger.

And what was super fascinating about it was that he said when O.J. gets paroled, if, we have plans to golf together, we have plans to get together and, you know, resume our friendship so the natural question was, but, Jeffrey, if you feel as you do that he's a double murderer why would you want to be with someone like that? You've got to hear how he responded to it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEFFREY FELIX, BEFRIENDED OJ SIMPSON IN PRISON: I can forgive people for things. O.J. deep down is a nice guy. He may have two sides to him like I said in the book. He may have the monster side and the nice side but over the seven years he treated me with respect, I never saw anything bad come out of O.J. and you know, he is my friend and if he does get out, let's hope he gets out, we will be playing golf together down in Florida.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Wow. OK, so there's that. The other thing is that tonight at 8:00 on my HLN program "Primetime Justice" we're going to have one of the attorneys for Fred Goldman. There is that nagging issue of $33 million in judgment against O.J. Simpson for the responsibility of those murders back in '94 and the issue of course remains will they continue to go after him as doggedly as they have for the money?

Because you can go to Florida all you want and your home is protected there and your pension is always protected but if O.J. wants to make any money and he has said that he might even consider doing a Web cast, and he's taking computer classes at Lovelock correctional facility, the Goldmans are coming after him. They have not lost their fervor and they -- and the attorneys are going to talk to me a little bit more about some of the things they already got. And I think there's sort of escaped public scrutiny for a lot of us don't know just what the Goldmans have been up to for the last 22 years.

BERMAN: So, Ashleigh, you know, explain to me the process tomorrow and what we the public will see?

BANFIELD: So you the public can see everything, you can't be a part of it. So, John Berman, if you have a feeling one way or the other about O.J. Simpson being locked up or freed, you're not allowed to voice that. The only people who are allowed to voice can show up here, a representative of O.J., and that can be either at Lovelock which is about 100 miles away from here or they can be here.

O.J. himself is going to be front and center so that's going to be sort of a star appearance. The four commissioners out of a board of typically seven, they'll be here and if they're unanimous, well, that's the majority and then there's no need to meet with the rest of the commissioners later.

A family member of O.J. is allowed to testify as well. But the rest of us no, and it's all on the record, while the deliberations of the board of four is in private, their vote will be on the record. And surprisingly, it's going to happen really quickly. They will meet at 10:00 local, 1:00 your time in the East. They will listen for about a half hour, peppered with questions about what's happened inside that facility for the last nine years and then they'll actually just deliberate and pretty much make their decision right away.

So, folks, pop your popcorn, get ready because in a little over 24 hours, you're probably going to know if O.J. is going to be in your movie theater or if he's going to be on your Webcast or if he's going to be golfing at a course near you. But not until the very earliest October 1st.

[10:50:06] BERMAN: All right. Ashleigh Banfield, you will be covering it all, thank you so much. Fascinating information there.

All right. A foul ball grab, what should have been an amazing catch by Chris Christie, a moment of sheer joy doesn't really impress the fans at the ball game.

The "Bleacher Report" is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: So usually if you catch a foul ball at a game, you get cheered by the home crowd. Well, not New Jersey Governor Chris Christie at Citi Field here in New York.

HARLOW: Andy Scholes has more in this morning's "Bleacher Report."

[10:55:04] Every time I catch a foul ball everyone always, always cheers.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Oh, have you caught many, Poppy?

You know, most of us have been to a baseball game and we know, you know, catching a foul ball is not an easy thing to do. Well, Chris Christie actually made it look easy. Last night at the Mets game making a one-handed grab. It was amazing. Check it out. Happened in the third inning. Bottom left of your screen, Christie just going to lean in right with a rail right next to him and makes the one-handed catch with his left hand. He gets plenty of high fives from all the people around him. But Mets fans were not impressed.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a close pitch. So you're allowed to make that pitch.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: So Christie hearing the boos but he did go find a young fan, he gave him the ball, even signed it for him.

The Cardinals' play-by-play guy, though, having some fun with it all, saying, quote, "Nice to see him get from the beach here to the ballpark." Of course referring to all the flak Christie got on for spending July 4th weekend on a New Jersey beach that was shut down for the public.

All right. The LPGA is cracking down on what their players can wear out on the course and the new dress code is not being received well by many. The new rules that go into effect this weekend call for no plunging necklines, no short skirts and no racer back tank tops without a collar.

Players can be fined $1,000 for breaking the rules and reaction to these new rules have been mixed. This amateur golfer wrote, "How am I supposed to show off my muscles if I can't wear a tank top?" While others like pro Christina Kim agreed with the rules. She said, "I may sound like an old fuddy-duddy, but this is our place of business and I think players should look professional."

All right. Finally the Tour de France continuing yesterday with stage 16. To this point the riders have gone 1760 miles. You ever wonder what that does to someone's leg? Well, Polish rider Pawel Poljanski Instagramming this photo yesterday, saying his legs look a little tired.

Guys, if my legs ever look like that, I hope someone calls an ambulance immediately.

BERMAN: That can't be real.

SCHOLES: It was a real picture.

BERMAN: Oh, man. That's like a horror movie.

SCHOLES: Yes.

BERMAN: All right. That's why you shouldn't exercise.

SCHOLES: Or X-Men.

BERMAN: The lesson there is don't exercise, Andy Scholes. Appreciate that.

HARLOW: Yes. As Berman getting ready to go on a six-mile run.

Andy, thank you very much.

SCHOLES: All right. Have a good one.

HARLOW: A tropical storm brewing in the Caribbean is getting the attention of Americans hundreds of miles away.

BERMAN: Yes. But it is not the heavy winds or rain causing the frenzy, it's the name.

CNN's Jeanne Moos explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Hold on to your hat.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's Tropical Storm Don.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Here's Tropical Storm Don.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And this is Tropical Storm Don. Pretty small.

MOOS: Small? Small and not organized? Forecast to degenerate? Is that any way to talk about Don? People have been reading a lot into the Caribbean storm that shares the president's name.

The actual storm has unleashed a tweet storm. "National Weather Service releases first picture of Tropical Storm Don." "Warning, Tropical Storm Don has just turned into a category one covfefe." "When you're a tropical storm, they let you do whatever you want."

(On camera): Of course Don the storm has no connection to Donald the president. It's all coincidental.

JENNIFER GRAY, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, the World Meteorological Organization comes up with the names. And these are decided years and years before these storms actually happen.

MOOS (voice-over): But when this Don coincided with this Donald, Trump critics flipped their wigs. "Tropical Storm Don is expected to be the first storm in U.S. history to cause widespread damage in every state of the union." "Actually, the storm's prognosis is poor." "Will dissipate within 72 hours, low energy, sad."

But there's an even freakier coincidence in the forecast.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Tropical Storm Hillary. Hillary and Don.

MOOS: We kid you not. While Tropical Storm Don is weakening in the Atlantic.

GRAY: Hillary is actually gaining a little bit of momentum in the Pacific.

MOOS: The name is officially bestowed once the tropical depression becomes a tropical storm. Hillary was simply next on the official list of Pacific storms. Tweeted one critic, "Well, the good news is that Tropical Storm Hillary has no chance of hitting the White House."

Who could have imagined these two would coincide, two forces of nature, and a forecast of cloudy with a chance of collusion.

Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN: Scientists with senses of humor. They say it could happen.

HARLOW: It could.

Thank you for joining us, I'm Poppy Harlow.

BERMAN: I'm John Berman. "AT THIS HOUR" with Kate Bolduan starts right now.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone, I'm Kate Bolduan. The leader of the free world soon to be the leader of the free lunch for Republican senators at least.

A short time from now, President Trump will be hosting Republican senators at the White House to figure out essentially what the heck they're going to do next.