tv Wolf CNN June 1, 2017 10:00am-11:01am PDT
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hello, i'm wolf blitzer. from wherever you're watching from around the world, thanks very much for joining us. we're following two major stories right now on the russia investigation. we now know the date that the fired fbi director james comey will testify publicly in front of congress. that will be next thursday, june 8th. and investigators are also looking to another possible meeting between the attorney general jeff sessions and the russian ambassador to the united states during the presidential campaign. cnn has obtained copies of letter from two u.s. senators calling for an investigation of
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sessions. plus president trump will announce today whether the united states will put out -- pull out of the landmark paris climate deal. two senior u.s. officials say he's expected to withdraw from the agreement. we're going to have the latest on the potential impact both here in the united states and on the global stage. we'll also have live coverage of the announcement. that's set for 3:00 p.m. eastern. about two hours from now. but we begin with the very latest developments in the russia investigation. our chief national security correspondent jim sciutto is with us and phil mattingly is with us as well. jim, two senators, they're asking for an investigation of the attorney general. the current attorney general about his russia contacts during the presidential campaign. tell us about the letters cnn has obtained from these senators. >> wolf, i have the letters here. they come from senators patrick leahy and al franken. three letters in march, april and may all asking first
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director comey and then the final letter in may after comey was fired asking the fbi, the bureau itself, to investigate whether sessions had been completely forthcoming even after he had to correct his initial testimony. you'll remember in january during his confirmation hearing he said he had no meetings with the russians. a month and a half later when "the washington post" corrected there were two meetings he had to correct his sworn testimony, admit to those two meetings and recuse himself from the russia investigation. senators leahy and franken went to the fbi again after that admission to say wait a second, in effect, has he been completely forthcoming about all the meetings? are there more meetings to investigate? that is their essential question. i'm going to read from the letter. we are concerned by attorney general sessions lack of candor and his failure to accept responsibility for testimony that could be con tried as perjury. they go to see if there was a third indisclosed ip assistanns
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which he may have had contact with the russian ambassador. they released these letters following our reporting last night on an ongoing hill investigation. >> let's talk a little bit about that, jim. investigators as you've been reporting, they've been trying to determine whether then senator jeff sessions had an additional private meeting with the russian ambassador, sergey kislyak, during the campaign. what is the latest information you're getting? >> myself and my colleagues, we've been told by both democratic and republican congressional sources as well as intelligence sources that the hill has asked for more information from attorney general sessions because they're investigating whether at an event in april last year here in washington, d.c. at the may flower hotel when the president or i should say the then candidate donald trump was giving his first major foreign policy speech, there was a larger gathering there that
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includes attorney general sessions, then senator sessions and the russian ambassador. they're investigating whether separate from that larger meeting there was a smaller private undisclosed meeting between sessions and the russian ambassador. this of course would pose problem problems because he didn't admit the first two meetings until after it was reported. the open question which hasn't been established is whether there was an additional private meeting there. it was after our story came outlast night and then this morning that both senators leahy and franken then released their letter in effect acknowledging that they've been looking into this for some time and asked the fbi to look into this. >> i want you to stand by, phil, on the house side of the intelligence committee has issued its first formal subpoena. fill us in on the details. >> seven subpoenas in total and there's a split in those subpoenas that really underscore some of the problems we've seen in the house intelligence committee and its rush investigation up to this point. there are four subpoenas that are bipartisan. they were released by the republican leading the
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investigation, the top democrat on the committee as well. these four subpoenas target michael cohen, the personal lawyer of donald trump, the former national security adviser michael flynn plus business entities tied to the two ever them. the rationalal follows what they were trying to do in their subpoenas. if you target business records that gets around the ability of any individual to invoke the fifth amendment. now there are also three other subpoenas. these subpoenas were not approved or even consulted with when it came to the minority staff on the committee. these subpoenas are relled ated unmasking. the redacted names were unredacted and circulated. this is something that devin nunez, the chairman of the committee, made a very big deal. stated basically that he had a number of concerns about what he had seen, even traveled over to the white house in secret to look at some of these issues. it has always become a big deal
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for a number of republicans on the committee. devin nunes is no longer overseeing the russia investigation. however, as chairman of the committee, he has unilateral pow tore issue the subpoenas. he has made very clear these are issues he still cares very deeply about. while he is not overseeing the russia investigation, he is still working on these issues. he's still delving into these issues. these subpoenas go to three agents, the nsa, cia and fbi. what they're targeting are unmask requests related to john brennan, samantha power, and susan rice. again, this is a very political issue. this is an issue that republicans are facing a lot of concerns about. the white house has raised a lot of concerns about. i can't undercore enough, there is a split here between what the chairman is doing on the unmasking issue that is separate
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from what that investigation is supposed to be directed at. >> phil, thanks very much. jim sciutto, thanks to you as well. let's get the latest on the russia investigation. from the ranking democrat of the house intelligence committee, california congressman adam schiff is joining us now live from los angeles. congressman, thanks very much for joining us. >> thanks, wolf. good to be with you. >> we have a lot to discuss. first let me get your reaction. we've been reporting investigators are looking into whether the attorney general jeff sessions had a private meeting with the russian ambassador during the campaign that had not been disclosed. two u.s. senators have written letters asking for an investigation of sessions and a possible perjury probe. what's your reaction? >> we have allegations this time involving the attorney general that there were undisclosed meetings with the russians. if these allegations prove to be correct they would be very serious. after all he failed to disclose his meetings with the russian
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ambassador when he testified. he then when he was called on it supplemented his testimony. if that supplemental testimony wasn't accurate and there was an additional meeting, that would be very serious business because that would indicate a very knowing desire to conceal information from the senate and potentially provide false testimony. so that is an enormously serious charge that if accurate will need to be investigated. >> is your committee look sbing into that as well? >> i can't comment on what our committee is looking into. i can't go into that level of specifics. all i can tell you is that if this allegation were to be accurate, it would be something that would be of profound concern to our committee. >> what can you tell us, congressman, about the subpoenas issued by your committee in the russia probe? first of all, have you had any
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direct response yet? >> no, we have not had a direct response yet. excuse me. >> go ahead. i don't if you have water there, but you can have water. tell us about the subpoenas. i know you're issuing them. have they actually been delivered? >> you know, we sent out the subpoenas yesterday. i assume that they have already been received, but we haven't gotten any response yet. and i expect it will be a bit of time before we do. particularly from michael cohen. mr. flynn had already received like process from the senate so i expect we're likely to hear back from him in shorter order than we will from mr. cohen. >> you've got four subpoenas that you and your -- the republican congressmen who are in charge of this russia investigation, one for michael cohen, one for michael flynn. who are the other two for?
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>> we sent out subpoenas to the persons as well as their businesses, so that constituted the four subpoenas pertinent to the russia investigation. as your reporters have covered, the chairman acting on his own initiative and without consultation with the minority sent out subpoenas apparently to three of the intelligence agencies seeking documents. that is obviously a concern that that's being done without consultation with the minority. apparently the white house wishes to push away from the russia investigation and direct attention in other places and unmask suggest apparently where the white house wants that attention directed. but i think mr. con oway will nt be distracted by this. >> let's talk about the still chairman of the committee devin nunes has done. the subpoenas focus on what's called the unmasking of identification of u.s. citizens
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picked up during the surveillance of foreign nationals. as you know, president obama's national security adviser suzyn rice, the former cia director john brennan, former u.s. ambassador to the u.n., samantha power, they apparently are the focus of those three subpoenas that have been issued or are about to be issued by devin nunes. were they appropriate? >> i don't know what the chairman has in mind because we weren't consulted or why he's picking these three people. susan rice has been a tar fet for the gop for whatever reason. we have very little insight into what the chairman is doing here. i think the only guidance we can get is that we hear coming out of the white house. this is what the white house wants to see happen. they'd rather be talking about these issues. again, the intelligence agencies have been cooperating with us. we do oversight all the time of issues of unmasking, so i'm not
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sure why there was a necessity to issue a subpoena for agencies that are already working with us unless the goal was simply to get publicity or perhaps obskcue the subpoenas. >> you may have seen the president's tweet earlier this morning. he tweeted the big story is the unmasking and surveillance of people that took place during the obama administration. clearly he and devin nunez are on the same page right now. i thought devin nunes had removed himself from the rush vchg investigation. >> clearly the president thinks it relates to the russia investigation. there are a couple issues here. one is that the chairman is still insisting on having the final say in subpoenas that go out in the rush investigation. that to me i think is a violation of his commitment to
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recuse or step aside from this probe. the committee rules allow that authority to be delegated to mr. con no way in consultation with myself. that will help here. but then there's a separate question about the whole unmasking issue and if this is being used as a way of distracting from the russia probe. again, if there's a problem getting information from the agencies i'm not aware of it. that problem hasn't been shared with us. the necessity of subpoenas hasn't been shared with us. i have to conclude this is part of the white house effort to direct attention in another direction. >> have you spoken to the speaker paul ryan about this? >> i've spoken to the speaker about the investigation. i certainly tried to make the case for why an independent commission would be desirable. obviously i haven't been successful in that. i know there are top level conversations going on between the democratic leadership and the speaker about this.
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he's certainly aware of the problem. but this is now becoming a pattern within the russia investigation. you have the same issue now with the attorney general and not referring to this potential additional meeting, but rather the attorney general also committed to recuse himself from involvement in decisions affecting the russia probe only to write a recommendation that the head cop jim comey be fired and replaced when he was conducting that investigation. so i think we're seeing a pattern here of people saying they're going to recuse themselves but not fully recuse themselves. we're seeing a pattern of meetings potentially taking place that are not disclosed. a lot of allegations in that category that really bear investigation. >> a spokes person for the chairman says he never formally recused himself. they're not using the word recuse. do you buy that? >> you know, i don't buy that.
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here's the thing. whether you call it recusal or step aside, and i don't really understand what the difference is, the public was given the assurance he wouldn't be making decisions in the russia investigation. the question is, is he making decisions in that investigation. plainly if he is insisting on being the last word in whether a subpoena can be issued to compel documents or testimony on the russia investigation, then he hasn't either fully stepped aside or recused himself. so i care less about what the committee republicans want to call it, what the chairman wants to call it. i care more about does it have a practical impact on the conduct of the investigation. so the subpoenas that we want to go out have gone out. that needs to continue. but there shouldn't be any check that we need, any box checked or any signature from someone who has stepped aside or recused themself from making decisions when we need to send out subpoenas in this investigation. >> i know you've got to run.
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one final question. what do you hope to hear a week from today when the fired fbi director james comey appears in public before the senate intelligence committee? >> well, i'm glad that he's testifying. i think it's very important and it's very important that this be done publicly. of course we want to know did the president attempt to curtail the russia investigation in any way, shape, or form with respect to his own conduct of it, with respect to the investigation involving michael flynn. did he demand loyalty from the director which would be completely inappropriate. did he interfere or obstruct in any way. that's really what we need to know from the director of the fbi. i think there is no legitimate claim of executive privilege here. if there ever was one. the president has waived it by talking about the reasons that he fired director comey. when there are allegations of potential wrongdoing, that's a privilege that is waived. so i fully expect that he'll be able to testify to all of these
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issues. and i think the fact that mr. mueller doesn't object to that testimony really doesn't say as much necessarily about the contents of that testimony as it says about confidence that director comey will be able to testify accurately, whether it's in this proceeding or subsequent proceedings. there won't be inconsistencies and i think that confidence is well placed here. >> congressman adam schiff. thanks so much for joining us. >> thanks, wolf. >> coming up, the russian president vladimir putin commenting today on his relationship with president trump. and cnn's team in moscow tracked down that russian banker who met with president trump's son-in-law jared kushner last year, what they said. we'll have details when we come back.
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before the break i sproek -- spoke with congressman adam schiff. -- to investigate whether the attorney general jeff sessions committ committed perjury by failing to disclose a possible meeting with the russian ambassador to the united states. >> if these allegations prove to be correct they would be very serious because after all, he failed to disclose his meetings with the russian ambassador when he testified. he then when he was called on it supplemented his testimony. if that supplemental testimony still wasn't accurate and there were additional meetings or an additional meeting and again, this is just an allegation, that would be a very serious business because that would indicate a very knowing desire to conceal information from the senate and up over there for them. and that he believes that nunes is overstepping. >> he basically said if nunes was going to recuse himself he should not be involved at all in this investigation. also if the attorney general jeff sessions recused himself from the russia probe, why was he writing recommendations that the man leading that this line of questioning in terms of obama's behavior, in terms of suzsan rice. at one point he accused susan rice of a crime in unmasking people. and alleged that obama wire tapped donald trump which of course none of this has been proven to be true. there's no evidence that any of those things happened. but on this line of argument, that the real story is the unmasking, is the -- is surveillance as well, you have heard other republicans pick up on this. it's almost like their talking point to get away from this other issue of russia, of possible collusion between people in trump's circle and russians. so i think this is something we'll continue to hear. it's not making the
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investigation itself go away. it's not making, you know, the big story, the surveillance, even though that's something that trump clearly wants to do. it also i think allows him to be the victim, right? instead of talking about what might have happened in any sort of culpability in his circle might have. and have a bad guy that he can blame. >> dana, you've covered capitol hill for a long time. it's pretty extraordinary to see this disagreement between the chairman, the ranking democrat and the republican who's been named to be in charge of this russia probe. congress can onaway. >> it is. in congress it's extraordinary to have part an shisan ship. intelligence committees on both sides of the capitol, they tend to work more -- in a moore
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bipartisan way. that has not been the case since -- really since devin nunes had that extraordinary press conference where he talked about unmasking, went to the white house, told the white house that he had to tell the president about this extraordinary thing that he had seen only to -- for us to fine out later whatever he saw was initiated by somebody in the white house in the first place. it was because of that completely bizarre situation that he stepped aside to begin with. and at the end of the day, clearly what adam schiff is trying to do is to return the public pressure -- return pressure to the public. on the house leadership, on the speaker himself. to say come on, you know, this is not what we're supposed to be doing here. nunes stepped aside and stepping aside should mean that he should grant subpoena power to congressman conaway who is sort of taking control of this. that's what the hope is i know
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among democrats, but now that this is public and nunes is still involved, the republican leadership will say this is not an okay thing. one of the big reasons why he stepped aside, nunes s because we learned of a house ethics investigation into his conduct here. so again, this is not just oh, i made a mistake. this is a real situation within the house process. >> it certainly is. shimon, you've done a lot of reporting. what's the reaction that we heard the possibility might have been yet another updisclosed meeting between jeff sessions and ambassador kislyak of russia? >> wolf, so i think it's interesting that they -- thaet h everyone we've sort of talked to the hill, they keep stressing these are just allegations. sessions people have denied this occurred. i think everyone is sort of waiting for the fbi to ultimately answer the question. it seems like they haven't done
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that yet. i don't know if it's that they're still working through whatever information may exist about this meeting or maybe some of it is still classified and they can't really share with some folks what that information is. i think consistently what we keep hearing is that really no one understands what this was about. but something -- some information exists out there that something happened at the may flower, there was a meeting, but we just don't know exactly, you know, what transpired. with sessions people continue to deny it. >> gloria, sources tell us that the fired fbi director comey when he testifies a week from today, he will testify that the president actually pushed him to end the entire fbi investigation into trump campaign aides, their ties with russia, if there are ties with russia. if that happen -- if that happens, what position does that put republicans in if that's what we hear in open sworn
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testimony from the former fbi director? >> look, it puts republicans in a very difficult position because they have to take comey's word versus the president's word on this. i mean, i talked to a source familiar with comey's thinking on this. he told me to think about it this way. that these were an aggregate of conversations. there were multiple conversations between the fbi, the former fbi director and the president. each one in and of itself might not have constituted something that was a greegous. but they were all troubling. and taken in aggregate, taken in aggregate and including the fact that comey actually got fired, they may come to something much more ominous and a more ominous conclusion here. i think we have to hear what comey says about these
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conversations which he memorialized to himself because he was so concerned about them. what he says about each conversation and what conclusion perhaps that he draws on the aggregate here. and what he believes really occurred in hindsight. but republicans are going to have a tough time, because they're going to listen to james comey and then they're going to have to try and figure out what the president of the united states would say about that. and maybe he'll tweet and tell us. who knows. >> let's see if comey brings those contemporary notes he's known to have taken on his meetings with the president. gloria, thanks very much. dana, nia, shimon, everyone, thanks to all of you. coming up, anticipation building for the president's decision on the paris climate deal. world leaders, the secretary of state, even his own daughter urging him to stay in, not break away from nearly every nation on earth.
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we have breaking news coming out of the philippines where there are now reports of gunfire and explosions at a casino in the city. police and s.w.a.t. teams have been deployed. it's a multi level malls t. has casinos and high end shopping. details of the attack just coming in. there you see it's not that far away from the international airport in manilla. we're going to monitor and bring you all the late breaking dwems as they unfold. very disturbing information coming in from the philippines. stand by for more on that. other important news we're
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following. just under 90 minutes or so from now president trump will address the american people and indeed will address the world from the rose garden of the white house and announce whether the united states will stay in the paris climate accord. the president is expected to withdraw from that agreement, but white house officials caution nothing is final until the president speaks. 3:00 p.m. eastern later this afternoon. we do know he had a conversation with house speaker paul ryan in the last 24 hours. pulling out would be a very significant break from other every nation on earth. 95 countries are part of that agreement. only two, syria and nicaragua, have refused to sign on the deal which aims to reduce green house gas emissions. each nation can set its own goals. in the case of the u.s. president obama looked to reduce emissions by 23%. i want to bring in senior white
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house correspondent jim acosta. we're hearing in this announcement the president may add some language to try to satisfy his critics. what are you hearing? >> that's right, wolf. as you know, this has been hotly debated inside the house. a bit of a tug of war between the president's top advisers but we are hearing the president may try to satisfy some of those inside the white house and obviously he's been hearing from ceos, from political leaders, from scientists from all over the world who have been appealing to this president to not pull out of this climate agreement. some of them is coming from inside his own family. as you know, his daughter and senior adviser ivanka trump has been appealing to the president to not pull out of this climate deal. what we're hearing from a source is that the president may in this rose garden event coming up at 3:00 this afternoon try to appease that side of the discussion we did hear from the president yesterday. the president said he is hearing
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from all sides of the this issue. the question of course is how far is the president willing to go. every indication we're getting is that the president is determined to pull out of this climate agreement. i talked to a source close to the white house who said this is one of those situations where the president can fulfill a campaign promise without a whole lot of blow back here in the united states. as a matter of fact, he was telling the french president last week we heard from one french official that he felt he was under heavy pressure back at home and that a lot of people here in the u.s. weren't in favor of this agreement. obviously that is not what the poll numbers tell us, but the president is at least at this point appearing to listen to some of those voices inside the white house. we can put a graphic on screen and show what we're talking about here. usually this administration is fairly in lock step on a lot of these issues, but you're seeing here ivanka trump, secretary of state rex tillerson, energy secretary rick paerry saying no stay in the climate agreement. steve bannon and scott pruitt
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are both advocating that he leave the climate agreement. rex tillerson, the former ceo of global oil giant, one of the voices telling the president don't get out of paris. we hear from the president in the next couple of hours. >> the new ceo of exxonmobil in the exact same position. they want the u.s. to stay in the position. once again the president expected to make the announcement regarding the paris agreement later this afternoon. jake tapper will anchor our special coverage at 3:00. the climate deal not the only big decision for the president. coming up, the president has decided against moving the u.s. embassy from tel aviv to jerusalem, but the white house insists he's not breaking this promise. >> we will move the american embassy to the eternal capital of the jewish people jerusalem.
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today president trump went back on one of his key campaign promises. he signed a waiver that keeps the united states embassy in tel aviv isreal instead of moving it to jerusalem. in a statement the white house said and i'm quoting now from that statement, president trump made this decision to maximize the chances of successfully negotiating a deal between isreal and the palestinians, but as he has repeatedly stating his intention to move the embassy -- his intention to move the embassy is not if that move happens but when. congress passed the law ordering the move back in 1995, but every president since then, every u.s. president every six months has signed the same waiver that president trump signed today delaying that move.
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president trump clearly has followed suit from his predecessors. joining us now is michael, the former israeli ambassador to the united states. deputy minister of diplomacy. heads also the author of "ally, my journey across the american/isreal divide." are you zpoidisappointed in president trump? >> i am. we're disappointed in the decision not to move the embassy. we think all embassies that have relations with isreal should be in our capital. we have one capital and have never had another for 3,000 years. >> do you no longer trust this president? >> we trust him. we hope that in the future he will as he says move the embassy. he said it's not a question if. it's a question when. our major concern is that the palestinians will continue to fantasize that somehow there's no connection between the jewish
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people and jerusalem. that is their official position and will get bogged down again. we preeappreciate the president warm words. there were warm words attached to the decision to sign the waiver. we appreciated his trip here. his first foreign journey abroad was to isreal, the first sitting president to visit the western wall and look forward to the time the united states will recognize jerusalem as our capital. we have this allied countries where one member doesn't recognize the capital of another. i'll make a headline and say isreal does recognize washington, d.c. as america's capital. >> unfortunately, we've got to cut it short. we've got some very disturbing breaking news coming out of the philippines where there are reports of major gunfire and explosions at a casino resort in the city. it's a multi level mall that has
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casinos high and shopping. joining us on the phone is maria, executive editor of an online news sight. what are you hearing? what's the latest? >> what we heard were gunshots from inside resorts world and fire, smoke coming out of the building. people have been asked to evacuate. outside there are fire trucks, s.w.a.t. teams, people are out in robes. there's a hotel, a casino in that area. it's unclear exactly what's happening yet. we have yet to hear from authorities. >> tell us about resorts world manila. what kind of facility is it? >> it's a large modern facility. it is a casino hotel complex about 15 minutes away from the airport. it's 1:45 in the morning here, so it's still alive casino.
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it's 24 hours. it's nerve wracking to many people in the philippines because this is the 10th day of martial law in that large island off the philippines where the military has been fighting to regain control from a group linked to isis. >> is that what the suspicion is, that the gunfire, the explosions could be isis related? is that what you're hearing, maria? >> you know, nothing yet. again, from authorities, but what we've -- people who have come out of the building have been saying that and it certainly is something that part of what could be alarming. we know that last sunday the u.s. embassy gave a warning to those in manila that there wouldn't check points. president duterte when he declared a state of martial law
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stated that he would extend it as needed. >> has law enforcement given any numbers as far as casualties? >> nothing yet. nothing yet from the resorts world area. >> and i assume a lot of ambulances and emergency personnel have rushed to the scene. is that right? >> i'm looking at what's happening there now and we're seeing ambulances, fire trucks, people just standing outside waiting to hear word and smoke coming out of parts of the building. >> is the incident over as far as you know, or is there still a standoff? are the shots still being fired, explosions still going on? >> there are no more shots at this point in time. people just don't know exactly what has happened yet, wolf. >> maria, i want you to stand
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we're continuing to follow the breaking news out of the philippines where there are reports of major gunfire and an explosion at a resort right in the city. police and s.w.a.t. teams, they have been deployed. it's a multilevel mall that has casinos, high-end shopping, among other resort activities. it's called resorts world manila. cnn's ivan watson is joining us right now. you're in syingapore but you're familiar with this area. >> reporter: right now what we have is an unfolding situation right now taking place in the area known as resort world and we're getting accounts of gunfire taking place there, of
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hotel employee who is have fled the scene and are describing to our sister network, at least one gunman wearing a mask somewhere on the second floor of the resorts world in manila. now, i've been to this area before, wolf. i've stayed in this area. there is essentially a compound of hotels here. it's close to the international airport in the enormous capital of the philippines. there's a marriott hotel there, for example, a number of other hotels, four-star hotels. there's also a shopping mall and some kind of a casino complex as well. again, this is very much an unfolding situation right now but what we're getting right now are reports via our sister network philippines of some kind of a shooting situation with police being rushed to the area, with philippine s.w.a.t.
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services being rushed to the area and we're still trying to get our heads around exactly what is taking place around these reports of gunfire at the resorts world complex in the philippines capital right now. wolf? >> reports of gunfire, ivan, and also explosions inside as well. that also raises alarm bells. give us a perspective. unfortunately, there's been a tremendous amount of deadly violence in the philippines recently. tell our viewers about that. >> reporter: well, and we have no information about any connection here. we don't have any claims of responsibility at this point. but, yes, you have had just last week the philippines government having to declare martial law on a southern island of the philippines after an isis-affiliated group took over a town known as marawi and essentially set fire to a prison there, took control of central streets there and killed a
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number of philippine security forces there and there's been ongoing violence there and, of course, the philippines government having to declare martial law. but that is on a southern island of the philippines. quite some distance from the philippines capital. we don't have a connections per se between these two very different locations. in addition to that, you have the ongoing violence, wolf, of the government's war on drugs. it's claimed the lives of more than 1,000 people and that's a separate issue of violence that's been taking place. >> hold on a moment, ivan. one of our cnn philippines reporters is joining us. what are you learning, camille? >> reporter: tlm really a series of gunfire of what seems to be explosions coming from resorts world manila. we saw ten heavily armed members
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of the s.w.a.t. team entering the area. right now i believe they are engaging with a gunman inside right now and i'm huddled with police and other members of the media a block away from where the incident happened. there was a reported shooting incident on the second floor of the resort and casino past midnight. an employee says guests suddenly rushed out of the building. some of them jumped from the second floor just to escape and some of them said that there was a gunman wearing a mask. and that he opened fire. now, i talked to a security guard who also we talked to off camera and he said there was more than one attacker but we have yet to confirm that. the regional police spokesperson just spoke to us and said that they can't divulge the information that they have right now for the safety of the police and the people still inside. i also talked to a man who came running from the building and he told us he was on the third
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floor when he heard loud gunshots and he had to hide inside the bathroom with other guests. he really was very disoriented and scared and he was just lucky because he saw a security guard who helped him escape. he also said there was smoke inside the building. so it's unclear if there's an ongoing fire but we're seeing fire trucks here around the area. there are also a lot of police and more s.w.a.t. teams coming and earlier there were already injured guests rushed to the hospital. >> very disturbing incident in manila at this resort, called resorts world manila. you heard camille abadicio, our reporter there, who described the police and firefighters and s.w.a.t. who have engaged in
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apparently more than one gunman there, not only gunshots were heard but explosions at the same time. we're going to stay on top of the breaking news, all of the news. an ana cabrera picks up our special coverage. hello, i'm ana cabrera. we begin with breaking news. right now we are following reports of an attack unfolding at a tourist report in the capital of the philippines. gunfire and explosions have been heard at the resorts world manila, a casino and hotel, a complex near international airport and police, fire trucks, s.w.a.t. teams are on the scene right now. this information is coming to us from cnn philippines. it happened just after midnight local time there. this is a casino that operates 24 hours a day. we don't have any reports of deaths or injuries. it's a developing situation. let me give you the backdrop he
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