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Erin Burnett Outfront
Trump "Not Happy" With Border Deal That Includes Fraction Of Wall Money He Demanded; White Official: Trump Likely To Sign It Anyway; White House Official: Trump Is Likely To Sign Border Security Deal; Means Trump Would Accept Less Wall Money Than Previous Deals; Trump Calls On Representative Omar To Resign Over Anti-Semitic Tweets; Trump Accused Of Hypocrisy After Calling On Representative Omar To Resign; 2020 Contender Senator Elizabeth Warren Attends Native American Event Amid Scrutiny Of Her Past Claims Of Native American Ancestry; Soon: CNN Town Hall With Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz. Aired: 7-8p ET
Aired February 12, 2019 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
WILL RIPLEY, INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT, CNN: He might be trying to wait out the clock, Wolf.
WOLF BLITZER, ANCHOR, CNN: Will Ripley reporting for us from Hong Kong. Thanks very much. And you can follow me on Twitter and Instagram @WOLFBLITZER. You can tweet the show @CNNSITROOM. Thanks for watching. Erin Burnett OutFront starts right now.
ERIN BURNETT, ANCHOR, CNN: OutFront next, President Trump signaling he may sign a deal for no shutdown but it's a deal that is far less than what he demanded when he shut the government down for 34 days. What happened to the art of the deal? Plus, President Trump calling on a freshman Congresswoman to resign over an anti-semitic remark. Hypocritical given his own racist and anti-semitic comments? And Senator Elizabeth Warren making an unannounced appearance at a Native American event. Let's go OutFront.
Good evening. I'm Erin Burnett. OutFront tonight, the dealmaker hitting a wall. A source telling CNN that the President who despite vowing to shut the government down again unless he got $5.7 billion for the wall is now likely to sign a deal that gives him $1.375 billion dollars for the wall. So just to summarize, that means we had 34 days of a shutdown and the President is getting 76% less than he said he would except.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm not happy about it. It's not doing the trick, but I'm adding things to it and when you add whatever I have to add, it's all going to happen where we're going to build a beautiful big strong wall.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Time for a quick reminder. Trump's own administration says they need $25 billion for a wall. The President said in this deal he would accept nothing below. Well, let him tell you. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I mean, we set out a number, $5.6 billion. We're very firm on a number.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: $5.6 billion or nothing, so what was that destructive shutdown for if the dealmaker didn't even get a deal?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I wrote the art of the deal. I say not in a braggadocious way, I've made billions and billions of dollars dealing with people all over the world.
I have made deals that should have been disasters into among the best deals ...
I want to put whatever that talent is to work for this country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Look, neither Democrats or Republicans wanted the wall that Trump exactly promised, so this deal may be fine for the country but the point is this deal is worse for Trump than the deal he could have had before the shutdown. Before the shutdown Democrats and Republicans agreed to a deal that would give him $1.6 billion to the wall. Now that's a little bit more than he is going to get now, again, after 34 days of a shutdown.
And then rewind to last spring when Democrats offered the full $25 billion, can you imagine that? He could have had $25 billion for this whole wall. Now, they wanted a path to citizenship for dreamers, sure, that's a deal but it would have gotten him his wall. He could have had it, but he doesn't. And Pamela Brown is OutFront the White House tonight.
Pamela, the President is saying he is not happy but no he's going to get his wall and he's got some other kind of a plan for this big beautiful wall. What is it?
PAMELA BROWN, SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, CNN: That's right. He just tweeted moments ago, Erin, that there will be other sources of funding for the wall. Now, even though as you point out the President is clearly not happy with the current deal from the conference because he doesn't believe it goes far enough for wall funding, the White House has been preparing for this very scenario for weeks by finding alternative funds for the border wall.
Some of the areas of focus are treasury forfeiture funds to divert pentagon funds for counter narcotics, use military construction funds and Army Corps of Engineers funds. Now, the last two options would likely require the President to declare a national emergency to trigger the use of those funds. The White House and DOJ have been working for a while to make the legal justification of why the President can use these funds to build the wall. And I'm told everything is still being weighed at this hour as an option, but the President may be reluctant, Erin, to declare a national emergency because of a potential blowback of why he didn't do it sooner than this.
Now, that sets some conservatives who didn't want the President to declare it or use executive action weeks ago are now urging him to do so as a last resort. But no one is definitively saying what the President will do at this point because they know it could change his mind at the last second as he is been known to do in the past on similar matters.
One thing though the President said today, Erin, is that he does not want another government shutdown but he said if that happens, it's the Democrats fault, Erin.
BURNETT: All right. Thank you very much, Pamela, and I want to go now to freshman Democratic Congresswoman Mikie Sherrill. Congresswoman, thanks for being with me again. So as Pamela just pointed out, we don't know until we know. He's on track now. He's talking like, "I'm not happy about it, but okay." But we don't know until he signs it if he's actually going to sign it. Do you think that he could torpedo it at the last minute?
Mikie Sherrill, Democrat, New Jersey: Well, we don't know but what's really upsetting about all of this and AS you alluded to we could have had a solution in December.
[19:05:01]
We did not need to shut down the government. I'm happy though to see that Congress is doing its job that we're moving forward with bipartisan, bicameral legislation and coming to an agreement and really showing that Congress is a co-equal branch of government.
BURNETT: So the President as you've heard just tweeted that he's going to get $23 billion in various ways and he referenced this also that he's going to get his big beautiful wall. Here's more of what he said today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: The bottom line is on the wall, we're building the wall and we're using other methods other than this and in addition to this we have a lot of things going. We have a lot of money in this country and we're using some of that money, a small percentage of that money to build the wall which we desperately need.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Okay. So he said he's still getting his wall, Congresswoman. I mean, is he still going to get it? He's going to take counter-narcotics money, Treasury funds, the possibilities, the methods that Pam just laid out, is there anything you could do to stop him from doing that? SHERRILL: You know what I think the bottom line of this bill has been
and what everything we've been hearing is that Congress is focusing on the real problems on addressing real border security problems. And so what we're hearing is that it's going to include stuff like our ports of entry. These are the issues that cut - Democrats and Republicans have been talking about.
Certainly in New Jersey we have some of the biggest ports of entry. We know what a threat that can be. So I think that what we're negotiating now is really getting to a harder border security and I think we're going to see that pass, we're going to see some good legislation.
BURNETT: So the President also said today that if this deal doesn't pass, another shutdown will be the Democrat's fault. I just want to play that for you.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I accepted the first one and I'm proud of what we've accomplished because people learned during that shutdown all about the problems coming in from the southern border. I accept, I've always accepted it. But this one I would never accept if it happens, but I don't think it's going to happen. But this would be totally on the Democrats.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: I mean, it sounds like he's right. I mean he's getting less money than he wanted, you guys are getting some other concessions that you wanted. I mean you're not going to close the government down for this deal, right, it's good.
SHERRILL: Well, I don't think a fault is the right way to go here because this is something - that's Congress' responsibility. We're moving forward with bicameral, like as bipartisan legislation. I don't think anybody on either side of the aisle wants to see the government shutdown. This is something that we've been negotiating very hard, we've been working very hard to make sure that the government stays open.
BURNETT: So I want to ask you about one of your fellow freshman Democrats like Congresswoman Ilhan Omar. She tweeted that anti- semitic comment about Jews and money. You wrote a statement condemning anti-semitism after that. The President weighed in today. He said she should resign from Congress or at the least be removed from the Foreign Affairs Committee. What's your response?
SHERRILL: So I have been talking about the problems with anti- semitism, the growing anti-semitism that we've seen across the country and it is never acceptable. So I spoke out after Charlottesville, I spoke out after the Tree of Life synagogue shootings and certainly I spoke out in my district when we were seeing swastikas put on yard signs and then on the garage.
This is a problem and no one should feel that in any way that their words don't have repercussions. So, yes, I put a statement out and I was very happy to see that Representative Omar unequivocally apologized. I thought that was the right statement.
BURNETT: And that's enough of a repercussion. I mean, it's not a repercussion, but she apologized, that's enough for you at this time.
SHERRILL: I think what it really showed to me was we had people talking about in our caucus about just why those words are so hurtful and where they stem from and I think a real education process took place and I hope to see more and more of that as we move forward.
BURNETT: So in the statement that you put out though, you wrote, "Our leaders must hold themselves to a higher standard and ensure their words and actions do not promote heat or hurtful anti-semitic stereotypes." It sort of a - it harkens back just a few weeks ago, Steve King, racism gets censored by the Congress but nobody mentioned Steve King by name when it was all about him. You don't mention Congresswoman Omar by name in this, why not?
SHERRILL: Because I think what I was trying to do was talk about the broader problem of anti-semitism. It certainly was directed with what we were hearing coming out of a caucus member. But I'll tell you again, to hear that Congresswoman Omar unequivocally apologized, I think - and pretty quickly I was very happy to see that. I think people in our caucus understand the problems with racism, with anti- semitism, with sexism and I think we're working hard to address those problems and we're doing it very quickly.
BURNETT: All right. Congressman Sherrill, I appreciate your time. Thank you.
SHERRILL: Thank you.
BURNETT: And next more on President Trump's demand for congresswoman Omar.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: And I think she should either resign from Congress or she should certainly resign from the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[19:10:06]
BURNETT: But what about his own anti-semitic comments? Plus, Senator Elizabeth Warren attending and speaking at a Native American event today. Yes, and Republicans taking aim at Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her green new deal. Is this a big winner for the GOP?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MITCH MCCONNELL, SENATOR OF THE UNITED STATES: There's another victim of green new deal, it's ice cream, livestock will be banned.
(END VIDEO CLIP) BURNETT: Tonight, resign, that's the message from President Trump to
freshman Congresswoman Ilhan Omar for a series of tweets widely perceived as anti-semitic by Democrats and Republicans alike.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Anti-semitism has no place in the United States Congress. What she said is so deep-seated in our heart that her lame apology, and that's what it was, it was lame and she didn't mean a word of it, was just not appropriate. I think she should resign from Congress, frankly, but at a minimum she shouldn't be on committees.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Okay. Omar created a firestorm when she suggested politician who supported Israel were motivated by money. The operative tweet was it's all about the Benjamins baby. OutFront now, Keith Boykin former Clinton White House Aide and Scott Jennings former Senior Adviser to Mitch McConnell, and former Special Assistant to President George W. Bush.
So Keith the President is calling on Omar to resign even after she obviously gave an unequivocal apology, hypocritical or not?
[19:15:03]
KEITH BOYKIN, FORMER WHITE HOUSE AIDE UNDER PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON: Yes, of course, it's hypocritical. I mean Donald Trump himself has a history of anti-semitism he's never apologized with. Go back to 1991, he's quoted in a book saying he doesn't want black guys counting his money. He wants short guys with yarmulkes.
Back in 2015 he speaks to the Republican Jewish coalition, he says he doesn't need their money and so they probably won't support him. In 2016 he does a tweet where he talks about Hillary Clinton that says he has a Star of David on a pile of cash. In 2017, after the Charlottesville incident, where Nazis are marching and saying Jews will not replace us. Trump says that there are good people on both sides.
Then, last year in 2018 when the Tree of Life synagogue massacre takes place, Trump blames the synagogue for not having armed guards there. Then, to top all of that just last month Donald Trump quotes a tweet supporting and embracing Pat Buchanan, the man who had previously called a Hitler lover and anti-semite. Donald Trump is the one who needs to apologize and resign.
BURNETT: So I want Scott - to what Keith just said, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is jumping into the fight and her point is unlike a President, Congresswoman Ilhan demonstrated a capacity to acknowledge and apologize, which she obviously did. The President said it was lame and she didn't mean it. But if he has such an issue and thinks that it is deep-seated in someone's heart if they make a comment about Jews and money then well let's play him.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) TRUMP: I know why you're not going to support me. You're not going
to support me because I don't want your money. But that's okay you want to control your own politician.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: How is that any different, Scott?
SCOTT JENNINGS, FORMER SPECIAL ASSISTANT TO PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: Yes, I recall President Trump back then telling a lot of donors that I know I'll never get your support because you're going to want to donate to other candidates and that's fine. He said that all of the time.
BURNETT: Okay, that was at the Republican Jewish Coalition where he has speaking. You cannot - that's not relevant, Scott.
JENNINGS: Yes, and I know - well, I'm saying that I think he said that to a number of different Republican donor groups. Look, I don't agree with the President that she should resign. I tend to think elections should be respected and voters should make those decisions. I do agree with him that just like Steve King she ought to come off her committee especially the House Foreign Affairs Committee. I think that is absolutely the right answer.
But I think it's normal in politics these days for all of us to call for everyone's resignation every day. I think voters should make those decisions, but internally in the House I think the committee issue is the right one.
BURNETT: All right, the President has been called out before for anti-semitic things like that and he responds by saying, "Oh, but I have Jewish family members." Here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: My daughter Ivanka is about to have a beautiful Jewish baby.
I have a son-in-law who's Jewish, Jared was a great guy.
As far as people, Jewish people, so many friends, a daughter who happens to be here right now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Anybody want to jump in here?
BOYKIN: Yes, that's like saying some of my friends are black, so I can't be a racist. It's a ridiculous defense for Donald Trump. We know that in 2017 after he took office according to the ADL, anti- semitic incidents increased by 60% that year. Just a few months ago we had an attack here at CNN and a few other places by Cesar Sayoc who was motivated by anti-semitic bias in part stirred up by Donald Trump's hatred of George Soros and this fear that Soros was funding this caravan of immigrants coming to the United States. Donald Trump is responsible in large part for contributing to this
atmosphere of hatred and division in our country and he's the last person needs to be lecturing anyone about it.
BURNETT: So Scott to this point when racism comes up and these obviously when it came to Charlottesville the two racism and anti- semitism were intertwined. Let me just play a few examples of things that President has said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: You had some very bad people in that group, but you also had people that were very fine people, on both sides.
I call her Pocahontas and that's an insult to Pocahontas.
When Mexico sends its people they're not sending their best. They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists and some I assume are good people.
Look at my African-American over here.
Negotiating with Japan, negotiating with China, they say we want deal.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Scott, can he really attack Omar and say that as he did that her apology is lame, she didn't mean it and it's deep-seated in our heart when that's his track record?
JENNINGS: Yes. Look, the President does not have a perfect track record on these issues and my views on Charlottesville specifically are well-known well aired on this network. It was the darkest moment of his presidency, but that doesn't mean we can't have a reasonable conversation about a member of the House Democratic majority. She didn't just invent this by accident, she has had anti-semitic language associated with her since 2012.
[19:20:03]
And I know we're going to play what about-ism with Donald Trump and that's fine. You can pull a lot of stuff at, you have done that, but the reality is the Republicans just dealt with a very similar situation by taking someone off committees. The fact that they're unwilling to do that, the Congresswoman you just interviewed wouldn't even use her name, wouldn't even use her name on this program to call her out.
BURNETT: Well, that's a lot like Steve King and the Republicans, but well look if he's saying she should resign ...
(CROSSTALK)
JENNINGS: They took him off the committee. They took him off the committee. BURNETT: ... tweet about Benjamin, Scott, then how should he not
resign for saying that Republican Jewish donors buy those candidates. What is the difference?
JENNINGS: I don't think anyone should resign. I don't think anyone should resign. I think she should be treated very similarly to King.
BOYKIN: Last night you said she should resign from the Foreign Affairs Committee.
JENNINGS: No, I said - no, I did - I said she should come off her committee which is exactly what I'm saying today.
BOYKIN: That's a resignation.
JENNINGS: She should come off her committee.
BOYKIN: That's a resignation. But Donald Trump has a history of doing this stuff.
JENNINGS: What?
BOYKIN: Steve King, for example, has been in the office since 2003. He's a 69-year-old man. Ilhan Omar has been in office since last month. She's just getting started. She apologized immediately.
JENNINGS: Yes. Yes. I know she just learned about anti-semitism. She just speak about anti-semitism as a thing.
BOYKIN: Unlike Steve King ...
JENNINGS: She just learned about it.
BOYKIN: Well, what's Donald Trump's excuse for learning about anti- semitism and tweeting anti-semitic post repeatedly. His last campaign ...
JENNINGS: Well, if you want to defend the anti-semites in your party, go ahead.
BOYKIN: Donald Trump's last ...
(CROSSTALK)
BURNETT: She would be very familiar with anti-semitism, right?
BOYKIN: Donald Trump --
BURNETT: Keith, I mean, she would be. She's taken on the Gaza issue. She's not clueless about anti-semitism --
(CROSSTALK)
BURNETT: ... though that's not an excuse that adds up for her.
BOYKIN: Yes, and nobody ever said she was. My point though is that the Democrats are holding our own accountable, Republicans they have one example.
JENNINGS: How? What consequences? What consequences does she face?
BOYKIN: One example was Steve King. It took them 20 years to say anything about and they are going to parade that for the next 20 years, but they haven't done anything about Joe Arpaio who Donald Trump pardoned. They haven't done anything about Cindy Hyde-Smith who was talking about lynchings and how she wanted to do the lynchings.
They didn't say anything about Ron DeSantis and his monkey business stuff. They didn't say anything about Donald Trump and his racist birtherism, but it's all about one person, a freshman Representative from Congress who happens to be Muslim. That's the one they want to attack and it's blatant hypocrisy on the part of the Republican Party.
JENNINGS: Yes, because she happens to be the one who's expressing anti-semitic views today, that's why she's in the news and that's why we're talking about her. She's hardly the only one in the conference that has done this late, that's her issues.
BOYKIN: She apologized. When was the last time Donald Trump apologized?
JENNINGS: Ocasio-Cortez has had brushes with this.
BOYKIN: When was the last time Donald Trump apologized?
JENNINGS: This is outrageous. I can't believe the Democrats are going to the mat to defend this anti-semitic member.
BOYKIN: When was the last time Donald Trump apologized?
JENNINGS: I can't believe it.
BOYKIN: Nobody is going to the mat because ...
(CROSSTALK)
JENNINGS: But if that's how you want to play it, go ahead.
BOYKIN: We're asking for the Republicans to have consistency.
JENNINGS: Yes, you are.
BURNETT: Maybe when he said her apology was lame and she didn't mean it.
(CROSSTALK)
BOYKIN: ... anti-semitism, you will only do it when it's against another party. That's not consistency. That's hypocrisy, Scott. You know better.
BURNETT: All right, both of you, thank you, again. And next, the potential 2020 rival has caught the President's attention.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: How about Beto O'Rourke, that's his last name, right, O'Rourke?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: But are all of those shoutouts actually helping O'Rourke. And did Democrats like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez give Republicans a huge 2020 gift with the green new deal?
[19:25:00]
New tonight, Democratic Senator and 2020 candidate, Elizabeth Warren, making an unannounced trip to a Native American luncheon in Washington. Warren introduced the tribal leader, praised the first two Native American women elected to Congress last year. But she did not address her own best extremely misleading claims about Native American heritage. Jeff Zeleny is OutFront. And Jeff, is this a sign that Warren - what does this mean that she's trying to do this now all of a sudden back seemingly embracing being Native American.
JEFF ZELENY, SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORREPONDENT, CNN: Erin, I think it is another sign that she is still trying to make this right. She is still trying to really correct something that she started last fall by trying to correct it and really created just a cascading series of challenges of problems for her. But interestingly today she did drop by that event in Washington, but she didn't - it was essentially a secret. She did not announce that she was going. She didn't have reporters with her take questions at all. She was simply giving a speech.
But what they're trying to do, I'm told, from the inside is just trying to get the word out among a Native American leaders and others in the community that she really understands that she made a mistake by essentially saying that she had a tribal ancestry. She's apologized several times, but again by going back to that, well, this is not how she wanted her introduction week to go, but she is still talking about it. The question is though do voters care about it? We'll see how that goes as she continues campaigning.
BURNETT: Right. Of course, that is going to be the big question, do they care about that particular thing, does it reflect on her character and honesty overall, we shall see. You are at the site, Jeff, behind you of the CNN Town Hall with potential 2020 candidate Howard Schultz. Obviously he is facing major criticism that he could be a spoiler, because he's running as an independent. What does he need to do tonight to show that he can win, that he can run a viable campaign?
ZELENY: Well, I think he has to say why he wants to run for President, why does he want to be President. That is a central thing we've not really heard him say yet. We've heard him go off on the Democratic Party saying they're too liberal, too extreme that they need to elect someone in the middle. But I think he has to say why it should be him, why he could be President. But, Erin, being here in the State of Texas you cannot help but think
of Ross Perot in 1992. He was running on a single issue. He said that sucking sound you hear is jobs going to Mexico. He had a message. What does Howard Schultz's message going to be? We'll see if he reveals some of that tonight. But I'm told by people close to him he still has not decided. He'll make a decision over the summer, but again why does he want to be President, Erin.
BURNETT: That is the big question and over the summer of course much later, everyone else seem - I feel like we're getting this March timeframe from the other remaining laggards out there. Thank you very much, Jeff Zeleny. And OutFront now, a member of Trump's 2020 Re- Elect Advisory Council, Rob Astorino and National Affairs Correspondent for The Nation, Joan Walsh.
Joan, so obviously this is a very sore subject for Elizabeth Warren and one which she embraced aggressively so. Then, she gets her DNA test. She thinks it's going to help her case and all of a sudden everything implodes, and then she's apologizing.
[19:30:05]
Why go back to this today? Surely knew people would see she went there.
JOAN WALSH, NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT, THE NATION: Well I think she went there.
JOAN WALSH, NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT, THE NATION: Well, I think she went there to be seen, Erin. And the reason I think it's different from other things she's done is that she did not go and talk about her heritage. She didn't apologize. She didn't explain. She went and she honored a woman who was a leader in her tribe in Martha's Vineyard in her home state of Massachusetts. She was there to listen.
The more she does listen and not talk on native issues, the better off she's going to be. So, I think it's actually a brilliant thing to have done.
BURNETT: So, you know, and, Rob, to that point, right, obviously, it may have been unannounced to the press, they surely knew well, they figured out. But, look, she didn't go unannounced. She didn't crash the event, right? She was invited to introduce this tribal leader. She was a guest.
WALSH: And she was treated respectfully, we should say.
ROB ASTORINO, MEMBER OF PRESIDEN TRUMP'S 2020 RE-ELECT ADVISORY COUNCIL: Yes, I mean, look --
BURNETT: So does that help her, after all the criticism she's got from other tribes?
ASTORINO: Look, she literally has been exposed as a fraud and she benefitted from that. That signature card for the bar with her name on it and checking "Native American" or writing "Native American" or --
BURNETT: American Indian.
ASTORINO: -- American Indian, is going to haunt her. Every time she goes after Donald Trump or anyone else, they should show the card, really, and she advanced her career because of that.
WALSH: She didn't. "The Boston Globe" did an exhaustive --
ASTORINO: She did, there's no question. At least her intent was.
WALSH: But that particular card has no bearing --
BURNETT: I thought "The Boston Globe" was what she had done when it came to Harvard.
(CROSSTALK)
WALSH: No, this was Texas -- this was after she was hired at Texas. So, this was for the bar association. I don't know why she did it. I think she's stretching the truth by any imagination. But it's not -- you can't prove that that particular signature got her a job anywhere.
BURNETT: Why the heck would she do it? It's almost weird if she didn't do it to get --
WALSH: You know, I'm going to give this most sympathetic gloss. I understand she's in a lot of trouble over it and I understand why these issues of native ancestry and belonging are devastating to a community. Why she says she did it, she always heard these stories, as her parents, as her mom and her sisters were getting older, they were talking more about their native --
ASTORINO: My family was gladiators.
WALSH: That's funny. That's funny, Rob.
And she's talked about feeling more connected. I'm not saying it's the right thing to do, Erin, it's just not crazy and she wasn't a fraud. And we have no evidence to this point that she ever benefited from it herself. If somebody wants to bring her --
ASTORINO: She gamed the system or at least the intention was to game the system. She knows what she was doing.
WALSH: It's a bar association thing. It's not getting her a job.
BURNETT: Well, there's a lot of questions, I think we can all acknowledge, we don't know. We just don't know, and there are a lot of questions and no one -- it's very hard to understand why someone would have done this and so consistently, right, when, as you say, it strains credulity on any level.
However, we don't know. I want to ask you about -- the president obviously mentions her by name, he calls her out, whether --
WALSH: In a racist way.
BURNETT: In a racist way or see you on the campaign trail, Liz.
But he also calls out some of his other rivals. Beto and the president, Beto O'Rourke and the president had these dueling rallies last night. We all saw it.
ASTORINO: Robert Francis.
BURNETT: Robert Francis O'Rourke.
WALSH: Again, you're mocking what his family calls him.
ASTORINO: I'm not. That's his name.
WALSH: Here's the thing. But the president is not even trying to do that, right? Here's what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: A young man who's got very little going for himself, except he's got a great first name. And we were all challenged by a young man who lost an election to Ted Cruz. And then they said, you know what, hey, you're supposed to win in order to run.
How about Beto? Beto was defeated too, right? But he suffered a great defeat.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: He's going on and on about it, right? Beto O'Rourke is obviously less well-known than Donald Trump.
ASTORINO: Yes.
BURNETT: And he does this, he mentions him, Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker. He's calling them all out by name. Does he know he's helping them?
ASTORINO: You know what, I think if O'Rourke wasn't having his little anti-Trump rally down the road, Trump would have went into El Paso, did his thing, and left.
But he's going to take the bait and throw the punch, he's going to mock. What bothers me the most about Beto O'Rourke is he's paper-thin in his resume. But more than that, he lost the race and then says good-bye to his family and says, I've got to deal with this depression on the road for two months.
(CROSSTALK)
ASTORINO: Whatever. And it's like, if you're gong to be president of the United States, I don't want you cowering in bed in a fetal position when something goes wrong. I want somebody who is strong and can deal with defeat. WALSH: That's a little cruel, but I don't entirely disagree. I don't
think a woman could get to do that. I don't think a woman would get to come off a defeat like that and just drive around and leave her kids.
But, you know, more power to him. I personally as a Democrat think he has a bright future. I would like to see him run against John Cornyn for Senate. I think there's no other person who could run a good race in the Senate. I think the Democrats have a lot of good candidates.
So, I hope he doesn't run, but the president is definitely elevating him.
[19:35:02] And he's elevating him for both. Beto, like it or not, is a national figure.
BURNETT: Yes.
WALSH: So whether he runs for Senate, he's going to have a national fund-raising base, just like he did against Ted Cruz.
BURNETT: And, of course, as Trump's gift is uncertain things, he identifies the importance of the name. Being known as Beto is much better than being known as Robert Francis. You know, maybe we wouldn't all knew who he was, if that is what it was.
All right. Thank you, both.
And coming up tonight, don't miss the live town hall with Howard Schultz at 10:00 p.m. Eastern. And in the next hour, Democratic presidential candidate Amy Klobuchar is on "AC360".
And OUTFRONT next, President Trump seizing on the New Green Deal.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: They introduced the so-called Green New Deal. You're not allowed to own cows anymore.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Did Democrats just hand Trump a path to re-election?
Plus, President Trump speaking out about whether he knew in advance about the "National Enquirer's" investigation into his self-described nemesis, Jeff Bezos.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BURNETT: Tonight, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announcing he'll hold a vote on the Green New Deal. He wouldn't hold one on the shutdown a few weeks ago, but the Green New Deal, a totally different story here, people. It's going to force Democrats, including a whole bunch of 2020 contenders to actually vote. To not just say they like it, but to vote, to get a record on this Green New Deal spearheaded by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. [19:40:03] It comes after President Trump is slamming the deal on the
campaign trail.
Jason Carroll is OUTFRONT.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The battle lines have been drawn.
TRUMP: They introduced the so-called Green New Deal. It sounds like a high school term paper that got a low mark.
CARROLL: President Trump taking aim at the deal and the congresswoman who helped introduce it, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
TRUMP: I really don't like their policy of taking away your car, of taking away your airplane flights, of let's hop a train to California, of -- you're not allowed to own cows anymore.
CARROLL: Ocasio-Cortez quick to tweet, ah, yes, a man who can't even read briefings in full sentences is providing literary criticism of a House resolution. Ocasio-Cortez has become the face of the effort to get the climate change debate front and center.
The Green New Deal is an ambitious resolution aiming to eliminate carbon dioxide emissions in the United States by 2030, create jobs, and stimulate the economy. It does not call for taking away a person's car, airline flight or right to own a cow. But it is non- binding and the estimated costs are in the trillions.
The proposal entangled in confusion over the weekend after Ocasio- Cortez's staff released a summary of it, which included provisions not in the original resolution, such as economic security for all who are unable or unwilling to work. Her chief of staff saying an early draft of the summary was published by accident, adding, it was clearly unfinished and that doesn't represent the GND resolution.
Mistake or not, Republicans lining up to follow in the president's footsteps.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's another victim of the Green New Deal. It's ice cream. Livestock will be banned.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Like other socialist fantasies, this is not a plan that can be paid for by merely taking money from the rich.
CARROLL: GOP leaders calling out Ocasio-Cortez's plan as a socialist manifesto, too out of touch for mainstream Americans. A Republican super PAC releasing two digital ads seeking to link two Democrats to the proposal who haven't even endorsed it.
AD NARRATOR: And her Green New Deal means skyrocketing prices, higher taxes for Texas families.
CARROLL: Roughly 60 House and Senate Democrats have signed the resolution. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says he will call for a vote to bring undecided Democrats into the open.
SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY), SENATE MAJORITY LEADER: And we're going to be voting on that in the Senate. That will give everyone the opportunity to go on record and see how they feel about the Green New Deal.
CARROLL: At least one Democrat giving pause when pressed on the matter, possible 2020 candidate, Senator Sherrod Brown would not commit to supporting Ocasio-Cortez's version of the Green New Deal.
REPORTER: I haven't heard you take an actual position on this?
SEN. SHERROD BROWN (D), OHIO: And you haven't and you won't.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CARROLL: And Ocasio-Cortez defending her Green New Deal tonight, tweeting the following, saying: Trust me, I like ice cream way too much to do that, I also like visiting my family in Puerto Rico too much to ban airplanes. Maybe if the GOP did their job for once and read a piece of legislation, they would see that communities and jobs come first, not last in the Green New Deal.
Erin?
BURNETT: All right. Thank you very much, Jason.
So, Patrick Healy is with me now, politics editor for "The New York Times."
OK, the Green New Deal. Trump and the Republicans, obviously, McConnell thinks this is an incredible gift, force 'em.
PATRICK HEALY, POLITICS EDITOR, THE NEW YORK TIMES: They love it.
BURNETT: Force Kamala Harris, force Cory Booker, force all these guys to get their votes, Elizabeth Warren on the Green New Deal.
Winning move for the GOP?
HEALY: It's a good move. I mean, Mitch McConnell knows exactly what he's doing. President Trump came out of the State of the Union with a pretty strong message that the Democrats are going in a socialist direction.
Now, the Green New Deal is much more complicated than reducing it just down to socialism. There are doable policy goals regarding the carbon footprint, regarding greater high-speed rail. The reality is, there is real job creation baked into this. But they're caricaturing it in such a way that they are going to pin some of these Democrats, there are going to be several Democrats who aren't going to go for this --
BURNETT: Saying things like 100 percent of the energy in the country is going to come from renewable sources.
HEALY: Yes, and this is some ridiculous stuff. I mean, cows are going to be fine, your ice cream will still be available. You'll get your Ben & Jerry's. But the reality is, look, it goes into Trump's like mockery.
BURNETT: Yes, it does.
HEALY: He's effective in that. He gets people to, you know, somehow sort of look beyond, you know, the racist and sexist, you know, words that come out.
[19:45:02] And you know, he's able to sort of reframe policy debates in a lot of ways around making Democrats look silly.
BURNETT: And what about -- this obviously will do well in the far wing of the party, of course, and perhaps the primaries.
HEALY: Sure.
BURNETT: When you talk about the vast middle where you'll have votes or Democrats in the Rust Belt, right, Democrats who went for Trump.
HEALY: Sure.
BURNETT: Green New Deal plays very different there than it does in Massachusetts.
HEALY: Sure. No, yeah. Those are the key states that Trump has been obsessed with his base in the Midwest and he sees these kind of policies as going so against where the -- where so many voters are still emotionally in the Midwest, very much sort of believing that if there's a will, somehow manufacturing will come back, coal will come back. Trump is there, and the notion of clean energy just doesn't feel like a starter for them.
BURNETT: All right. Thank you very much, Patrick.
And next, Jeff Bezos mentioned Donald Trump in that explosive online post where he accused the "National Enquirer" of extortion and blackmail. Is there any evidence, though? Where's the evidence, Mr. Bezos?
And Jeanne Moos on President Trump's pet peeve.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: How would I look walking a dog on the White House lawn? Would that be --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BURNETT: New tonight, President Trump says he didn't know the "National Enquirer," owned by his longtime friend, David Pecker, was investigating one of his top enemies.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) [19:50:07] REPORTER: Were you aware that AMI was investigating Jeff Bezos?
TRUMP: No, no, I wasn't.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: This came one week after Jeff Bezos pointed the finger at the president?
But is there any evidence to support that?
Drew Griffin is OUTFRONT.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DREW GRIFFIN, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: It is a billionaire who dun it that has led to frenzied finger-pointing and unproven allegations.
Jeff Bezos, the Amazon founder, billionaire, and owner of "The Washington Post", says he was the target of political blackmail by a Trump ally and perhaps even payback from an unfriendly Saudi government. For their part, the Saudis say they have nothing to do with "The Enquirer" or its parent company, and the "National Enquirer" says it acted lawfully in its reporting and calls it nothing more than a tantalizing tabloid tail that the paper's own investigation will prove out.
ELKAN ABRAMOWITZ, NATIONAL ENQUIRER ATTORNEY: We just want Bezos to acknowledge the results of that investigation, which will show that politics had nothing to do with the story. It was a typical "National Enquirer" story.
GRIFFIN: This is that story. Hours before the "National Enquirer" released its multi-page spread of Jeff Bezos cheating on his wife, Bezos released a statement announcing a mutually friendly divorce and gets ahead of the "Enquirer's" blockbuster release.
Bezos launched his own investigation to find out who leaked his personal photos and texts and raised the specter it could be political. The CEO of the "National Enquirer's" parent company, AMI, David Pecker, is a longtime pal of President Trump. Bezos owns the "Washington Post," which has had hypercritical coverage of the Trump White House.
In a blog post last week, Bezos released what he said were e-mails sent to him from the "National Enquirer's" representatives, proposing if Bezos would disavow any belief that the "Enquirer's" coverage was politically motivated, the enquirer would not publish, distribute, share, or describe unpublished texts and photos.
Instead of buckling, Bezos exposes the "Enquirer's" tactics, then goes on to float the possibility the Saudis may be involved. Even the president today was asked about it.
REPORTER: Were you aware that AMI was investigating Jeff Bezos?
TRUMP: No, no, I wasn't.
GRIFFIN: Bezos has offered no proof, politics or Saudis were behind the story. The "National Enquirer" refuses to identify its source or the motivation behind the leaker.
But the "Enquirer" and its parent company, AMI, have other troubles. Ami is cooperating with a federal investigation into campaign finance violations for the tabloid's involvement in covering up affairs the president had with a porn actress and a Playboy model in exchange for not being charged with a crime. If it's determined the "Enquirer's" story on Jeff Bezos involved blackmail, former prosecutor Laura Coates says AMI could be in real trouble.
LAURA COATES, FORMER PROSECUTOR: If AMI has violated the cooperation agreement, it means that they are now exposed to great legal jeopardy for crimes that the SDNY chose not to prosecute initially, because there was a cooperator involved. The SDNY would be well within its rights to prosecute AMI for whatever conduct they committed that was a part of this cooperation agreement.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GRIFFIN: And, Erin, according to "The Daily Beast", Bezos' private security consultant finished this investigation into the leaks, turned it all over to private lawyers, who would make a decision whether to involve law enforcement. It is still unclear if that happened or if the parties involved now just want this all to go away -- Erin.
BURNETT: All right. Thank you very much, Drew Griffin, after a lot of insinuation at the very least was put out there.
All right. OUTFRONT next, Jeanne Moos on what's up with the president and people's best friend.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:57:51] BURNETT: Tonight, a tale of two Trumps. Here's Jeanne.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Two different Trumps took center stage at almost the same time.
President Trump you know, but Trump the show dog was competing at Westminster doing some things the president does, like shaking hands.
And some he doesn't, like having his mouth examined publicly.
Actually, Trump the Australian shepherd is named after the Trump card in the game of bridge, not the president, who that very same night was musing about whether he should get a dog.
TRUMP: How would I look walking a dog on the White House lawn? Would that be -- feels a little phony to me. MOOS: Trump the show dog did not win the herding group competition.
TRUMP: I understand losers.
MOOS: This is a president who barks out insults using the phrase "like a dog."
Bill Maher got fired like a dog. Sloppy Steve Bannon got dumped like a dog. Kirsten Stewart cheated like a dog.
TRUMP: And the guy choked like a dog.
MOOS: Trump himself has been depicted like a dog led around by Putin. Critics have called the president a canine.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When you lie in bed with dogs, you get fleeced.
MOOS: But you can't say Trump never had a dog. I'm happy to introduce Chappy. Actually, it was first wife Ivana's poodle. In her book, Ivana writes, "Donald was not a dog fan," she wouldn't move to New York without the dog. "It's me and Chappy or no one," I insisted. Chappy had an equal dislike of Donald.
Yet for at least five years, Trump posed with every Westminster dog show winner and those present said he seemed to enjoy it. Ivana writes, despite her issues with each other, Donald never objected to Chappy sleeping on my side of the bed. That's more than you can say for President Trump and Bo.
REPORTER: Are you going to be in the bed?
BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT: Not in my bed.
MOOS: Still with President Trump, there can be only country top dog. He's not going to let some pooch yank his chain.
Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BURNETT: Just say, it was a moment of introspection for the president, realizing that that would just not look right for him to have a dog. He's right.
Thanks for joining us.
Anderson starts now.
