[Jake Tapper, Cnn Anchor:] Terror strikes again, a deadly attack in the heart of London.
[Theresa May, British Prime Minister:] It's time to say enough is enough.
[Tapper:] As President Trump renews calls for his travel
[Bacon:] , the very latest live from the U.K. And America first? President Trump withdraws from the U.S. from the Paris climate accord.
[Donald Trump, President Of The United States:] I was I elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris.
[Tapper:] And Al Gore is speaking out.
[Al Gore, Former Vice President Of The United States:] We're going to solve the climate crisis, no matter what President Trump does.
[Tapper:] Why Ivanka thought he could change Trump's mind about the planet a rare interview with the former vice president next. Plus, what really happened? Fired FBI Director James Comey finally speaks out in front of Congress and cameras.
[Trump:] All I want is for Comey to be honest. And I hope he will be.
[Tapper:] What bombshells might he reveal? And how could this influence the Russia investigation? We will preview the hotly anticipated testimony. And the best political minds will be here on what happens next. Hello. I'm Jake Tapper in Washington, where the state of our union is sending our sympathies across the pond. Terror has struck the heart of Europe again, this time in London, where a deadly attack has left seven innocent people dead and 48 people wounded. The attack began late last night, when a van rammed into the crowds of pedestrians on London Bridge, sending people flying into the air. Police believe three terrorists then fled on foot from the van to Borough Market, a popular spot for food and drink, busy on Saturday nights. There, they burst into restaurants, swinging huge knives and slashing people indiscriminately, sending diners into hiding in bathrooms and under tables. Police arrived on scene just eight minutes after the first call, killing three suspects. In this photo we're about to show you, you can see one of the dead terrorists wearing what appears to be a suicide vest, though police now those vests were fake, designed to stoke yet more year. U.K. police say they have already arrested 12 others in connection to the attacks so far this morning, with searches still ongoing. This is the third attack in the U.K. this year, coming on the heels of that bombing outside a concert in Manchester that killed 22 innocent people just two weeks ago and, of course, another vehicle attack on a bridge in Westminster, England, that killed five people. Prime Minister Theresa May addressed the world this morning.
[May:] We believe we are experiencing a new trend in the threat we face, as terrorism breeds terrorism.
[Tapper:] CNN's Clarissa Ward was there on Downing Street when the prime minister spoke. Clarissa, alarming news from the prime minister this morning about other plots there, some of them foiled by authorities, thankfully.
[Clarissa Ward, Cnn Senior International Correspondent:] That's right, Jake. I mean, three terrorist attacks in just three months here in the U.K., and British Prime Minister May saying that five plots had actually been foiled, five significant terrorist plots have been foiled. Now, she did not announce that the terror level would be elevated to critical. It was after Manchester. Now it remains on severe. That is likely because they don't believe that there's any larger network than the three assailants who of course were killed within eight minutes, the prime minister said, after they began their attack. They were shot dead by police within eight minutes. So, the terror threat hasn't been elevated. But we did hear the prime minister not mincing words. She said, listen, the thing that all these attacks have in common, while they're not connected by any sort of network, they're connected been an ideological threat. She talked about the problem of radical Islamist or extremist Islamist ideology. She said that Britain has been too tolerant for too long and needs to review its counterterrorism procedures, Jake.
[Tapper:] And, Clarissa, as all of this is unfolding, organizers north of you say tonight's benefit concert with Ariana Grande will go ahead. Obviously, security remains a big concern. How are authorities addressing that?
[Ward:] That's right. The show will go on. But, obviously, with 50,000 people, a huge amount of stars, they're not taking they're taking a lot of precautions. There will be added security presence on the streets, added security checks at the venue. They have asked people not to bring any bags with them, if possible. They have said that every single person will be searched manually. So, they're doing whatever they can to prevent any kind of an attack or a catastrophe from taking place. But all the artists who are participating have come out and said, you know what, this is not about fear. This is about solidarity. We will come out. We will sing. We will perform for the people of Manchester, and, indeed, for the people of London, too Jake.
[Tapper:] All right, Clarissa Ward in London, thank you so much. Here with me is the vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Democratic Virginia Senator Mark Warner. Thanks so much for coming in this morning. We appreciate it. So, this is the third terrorist attack in the U.K. in the last 10 weeks. They have claimed the lives of 34 innocent victims. What can you tell us? What do we know about the perpetrators of last night's attacks? And is there any risk to Americans right now, beyond the normal risk?
[Sen. Mark Warner , Virginia:] I received a brief this morning from our National Center Counterterrorism Center. And, basically, they have pretty much the same information you have gotten, open source. They still don't know for sure whether this was terrorist-inspired or terrorist-directed, so, whether this was homegrown or actually directed by ISIS or al Qaeda. I think that will take a little while longer in terms of investigation. There's no specific threat against the United States, but, obviously, we have seen our strongest ally, Britain, now hit three times. Our hearts and thoughts and prayers go out to them. But I think what you're seeing in Britain is a resoluteness, but also a recognition that, as the British went through three decades of IRA- related terrorism, they will carry on. And I think, in many ways, that's what we need to do here in our country as well.
[Tapper:] The British prime minister, Theresa May, said there's far too much tolerance for extremism in the U.K. Do you think we have that problem here in the United States?
[Warner:] I think we don't have it the same way as the U.K., but it's obviously a challenge in modern society to maintain free societies and freedom of speech, but still recognize that we have to be on guard against some the hateful venom that is oftentimes spewed over the Internet.
[Tapper:] Why do you think it is that we see these attacks in London, but we haven't, knock on wood, seen such a thing happen here in the United States?
[Warner:] I believe, in many ways, the Muslim-American community is better integrated into our society. They I think that's always been our secret sauce in America, that you can come here, first generation, and if you accept our laws and rules, become American. That's not always been the case in so many of the European countries. And I think we're seeing, again, the benefits of that. And that's why it troubles me so much to see the kind of the type of tweets that the president has put out in the last 12 hours or so.
[Tapper:] Prime Minister May also said that she thinks Internet-based technology firms are giving extremism the safe space it needs to breed. She wants new regulations of cyberspace. Take a listen.
[May:] We need to work with allied democratic governments to reach international agreements that regulate cyberspace to prevent the spread of extremist and terrorism planning.
[Tapper:] Facebook, Twitter, Google, do you think that these tech firms are doing enough?
[Warner:] Jake, I think and my background, as you know, was in technology business before I came in went into politics. I think we do have to reexamine these platform companies that, for years, have said they have no responsibility to curate the information that flows across their platforms. They have started to change. Originally, they changed their policies as related to child pornography. Now they're changing their policies as related to terrorism. I was just out on the West Coast last week talking with folks at Facebook. They're now recognizing the weaponization of false information, even around elections. They shut down 30,000 fake accounts right before the French elections. But this is going to require, I think, a much broader conversation than we've had to date.
[Tapper:] You have a lot of big hearings coming up. On Wednesday, you will have the director of national intelligence, the head of the NSA, the acting director of the FBI, and the deputy attorney general, and then, Thursday, of course, the big one, James Comey, the former FBI director. Do so you have any indication whether President Trump will try to exert executive privilege to block Comey from testifying about their conversations?
[Warner:] I would hope that he would not. I think he would be on shaky legal ground, to say the least. Director Comey was fired by the president. And you have the president himself making derogatory comments, in effect, at least reported to the press, calling Comey a nutjob in front of the Republicans. Totally inappropriate. The question I have...
[Tapper:] In front of the Russians, I think you mean.
[Warner:] In front of the Russians...
[Tapper:] Yes.
[Warner:] ... which is, again, just regardless of what you feel about Comey, that's not how he should be treated. And the question we have, and I think most Americans, have is, you know, going back to Watergate, there's a series of rules that have kind of emerged out of Washington, one, that a president shouldn't ask about an ongoing investigation, particularly shouldn't ask if that investigation is connected to affiliates of the president. And it would be absolutely unthinkable if the president of the United States asked the FBI director to basically back off an investigation that was directed at some of the affiliates of Mr. Trump.
[Tapper:] Hillary Clinton said something very interesting this week that reminded me of something that you said in a hearing not long ago. She said that she believes that the Russians, in their interference in the U.S. election, must have been guided by Americans. Take a listen.
[Hillary Rodham Clinton , Former U.s. Secretary Of State:] The Russians, in my opinion, and based on the intel and counterintel people I talk to, could not have known how to best weaponize that information unless they had been guided. And here's...
[Unidentified Male:] Guided by Americans?
[Clinton:] Guided by Americans and guided by people who had polling and data information.
[Tapper:] Is that true? Do you agree?
[Warner:] This is one of the questions we have to sort through, again, one of the questions I was asking when I was out on the West Coast. It does seem strange, it appears, that Russian-paid Internet trolls who created bots were then able to put forward fake news, selective stories in a way that seemed targeted. Now, we don't...
[Tapper:] Targeted at certain states?
[Warner:] Targeted it at certain states, at certain demographics. We don't have fool proof of that. So, I'm not where Secretary Clinton is in terms of jumping to a conclusion. But this is one of the many questions that we need to investigate.
[Tapper:] One of the big questions, of course, is, is there any evidence of collusion that you have seen yet? Is there?
[Warner:] Listen, there's a lot of smoke. We have no smoking gun at this point. But there is a lot of smoke. And, again, one of the questions we will have, not only for Director Comey on Thursday, but on Wednesday for Director of National Intelligence Coats and NSA, National Security NSA Director Admiral Rogers, I'm going to want to ask them, because there have been reports that the president also talked to both of them in terms of asking them to downplay the Russian investigation. That would be very concerning to me.
[Tapper:] Have you heard any accusation yet that you think, if it is proven, in terms of what the president has said to either Coats or Admiral Rogers or James Comey, that, if it's proven, it is obstruction of justice?
[Warner:] Jake, I went to law school, but I'm not a practicing attorney. I will leave that for much better attorneys than I. But, clearly, it would be very, very troubling if the president of the United States is interfering in investigations that affect potentially the president and his closest associates. We have seen already the NSA director, the NSA adviser General Flynn get fired because he didn't fully disclose his contacts with Russians. We've had the attorney general, Sessions, have to recuse himself because he didn't fully disclose his connections with Russians. We see other reports of Mr. Kushner having a series of contacts with Russians and others. And the American people deserve to get to the bottom of this. And what I hope our committee is able to do, and we've I'm very proud of the fact that it's maintained its bipartisan approach is, we're going to just follow the facts. We're not going to be taken out by some of these one-off stories. We're going to continue to follow the facts.
[Tapper:] The FBI's probe of the meddling is also looking at the Trump campaign's data analytics operation, which was overseen by Jared Kushner. Are you focusing on that?
[Warner:] Listen, we're going to follow all of the facts in terms of what kind of contacts and whether the contacts were inappropriate between individuals affiliated with the Trump campaign and the Russians. They are contacts that were made before the election. There have been a series of stories about contacts between the election and the inauguration. And then we have got these very troubling reports about the president intervening and, in the case of Director Comey, fire him because potentially because of his activities with the Russia investigation.
[Tapper:] Senator Mark Warner, thank you so much for being here. We really appreciate it, as always.
[Warner:] Thank you.
[Tapper:] Coming up after the break, Al Gore will be here. He's speaking out after President Trump's decision to withdraw the United States from the Paris climate accord.
[Al Gore, Former Vice President Of The United States:] What were you thinking? Couldn't you hear what the scientists were saying? Couldn't you hear what Mother Nature was screaming at you?