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Inside Politics
Trump Warns U.S. Companies; Trump Focuses on Agenda, Signs Executive Orders; Trump Invites Israeli PM to Meeting; Trump Meets with U.K. Prime Minister; CREW Files Lawsuit Against Trump; Trump Aide Touts Alternative Facts. Aired 12-12:30p ET
Aired January 23, 2017 - 12:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[12:00:00] JOHN KING, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to INSIDE POLITICS. I'm John King. Thanks for sharing some time with us today.
It's a busy first Monday for President Trump, who is making jobs and trade an immediate focus as he opens a week of executive actions focused on getting some of his biggest campaign promises.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We want to start making our products again. We don't want to bring them in. We want to make them here.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Also today, an ethics group filing a lawsuit against the new president, arguing he has not done enough to wall himself off from business conflicts and foreign influence. And we will see whether this afternoon's second Trump White House briefing is as surreal as the first. Most of what the press secretary said Saturday was simply not true, but the new administration, get this, has a new term for not telling the truth.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KELLYANNE CONWAY, WHITE HOUSE SENIOR ADVISER: Don't be so overly dramatic about it, Chuck. What it -- you're saying it's a falsehood and they've giving -- Sean Spicer, our press secretary, gave alternative facts to that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Brace for it, parents of America, alternative facts when you catch your kids doing whatever.
OK, with us to share their reporting and their insights, CNN's Sara Murray, Ed O'Keefe of "The Washington Post," CNN's Manu Raju, and Karen Tumulty of "The Washington Post."
It is President Trump's first full work week at the White House and brace yourself for a lot of action. Just a short time ago, the president signed an executive order to withdraw the United States from the Trans-Pacific Partnership. That's a massive trade deal corporate America loves but a deal that the new president says hurts American workers.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REINCE PRIEBUS, WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: All right, we're going to sign three memorandums right now. The first one is withdrawal from the -- of the United States from the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Everyone knows what that means, right? We've been talking about this for a long time. Thank you.
OK. Great thing for the American worker, what we just did.
PRIEBUS: Next, a federal government --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: That was the president just moments ago.
Earlier this morning, a roundtable with business leaders at the White House where the president brought both carrots and sticks. He promised massive corporate tax cuts are coming, but also issued a warning to companies that shut down operations in the United States and move jobs elsewhere.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: A company that wants to fire all of its people in the United States and build some factory someplace else and then thinks that that product is going to just flow across the border into the United States, that's not going to happen. They're going to have a tax to pay, a border tax -- substantial border tax. Now, some people would say that's not free trade, but we don't have free trade now because we're the only one that makes it easy to come into the country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: So first Monday on the job. A bit of a rocky weekend. We'll get to that in a moment. But in terms of the first Monday, bringing in business leaders, wants to talk about manufacturing, wants to talk about jobs, warns them about trade. Some Republicans don't like that, but it warns them about the border tax. Then signing this order again, the corporate America likes the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Donald Trump says it's one of those trade deals that screws the little guy. What do we make? Focus on -- focus on big campaign promises.
SARA MURRAY, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: If Donald Trump can stay on the issues today and Sean Spicer can avoid having another meltdown from the podium during the White House briefing, I think this is a very good day for Donald Trump. This is an opportunity for them to go out and say, a major criticism of Barack Obama was that he did not have an open channel of communication with the business community or with members of Congress. We're doing both of those, setting the tone for that on the first day.
And in addition to that, we're meeting with union members and union leaders to say, hey, a lot of your guys voted for me. They helped me get here. And we want to be talking to you too.
The question with Donald Trump himself, his advisers, his administration, as it always is, is can they be disciplined and can they stick to the things that people voted them in to do, or are they going to get distracted by these sort of side battles?
ED O'KEEFE, "THE WASHINGTON POST": I continue to believe -- look -- if you look at what's been done and what you've got, to doing what he just did in the last few minutes, it's all classic Republican, you know, policy and promises fulfilled. He has now pulled out of the TPP, which is going to upset part of his party, but became a popular rallying cry. He's put a freeze on federal employee hiring, which is something Ronald Reagan did on day one back in 1981. And then, once again, imposes the Mexico City order, or the global gag rule, by saying that U.S. funding can't go to international organizations that do anything regarding abortion. That was instituted by Reagan and George W. Bush. Clinton and Obama revoked it. He's putting it back in place. All very classic Republican stuff so far.
KING: But it's -- yes -- important, and we can put up for our viewers there these three orders, if you want to see them on the screen, just to think about it. But on that last point I think it's a -- the trade issue is certainly going to be a defining issue for this president. A ban on federal hiring very traditional for Republican president. It exempts the Defense Department. The military can go forward there.
[12:05:06] But the Mexico City policy, if you do remember the Reagan days, it is not so significant if you think it's a Republican president, but it is to a degree an early test because, remember, if we went back a decade, Donald Trump was completely pro-choice.
O'KEEFE: Yes.
KING: And he said he changed his view. But Republicans weren't sure, especially cultural conservative Republicans weren't sure as president would he actually stick to this. And we see the Mexico City policy today. We have a Supreme Court fight coming up. We have other -- Planned Parenthood funding in the budget there. So it is that -- that part of it. The trade stuff's not very conservative, but that part of it is conservative.
KAREN TUMULTY, "THE WASHINGTON POST": I think the Mexico City thing was basically a no-brainer on the part of Trump. But I do think that it's largely symbolic. It really doesn't have the -- the -- I mean, let's face it, the big show is going to be the Supreme Court.
KING: And whether he -- I think also the Planned Parenthood funding because some Republicans are squishy on that. Will they get a push from the president or will they get the sense that the president's with them?
MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER: And one other thing that he said this morning that will obviously cause some concerns on The Hill from his party was talking about a border tax, instituting a border tax on these companies that ship jobs overseas.
KING: Right.
RAJU: That's something that when he initially talked about that right after the election, Republicans were running away from that. The majority leader of the House, Kevin McCarthy, warned that it could start a trade war. Paul Ryan started to push -- you know, distance himself from that, saying, well, we're going to worry about doing this in a larger tax reform bill. But Trump, today, made it very clear that he wants to go that route. And as president, you do have fairly wide latitude to impose tariffs. Does he actually carry through with some of those threats? And I agree with Karen, I think a lot of this stuff is symbolic, like his executive order on Obamacare, like TPP. We knew it was dead, but it was a symbolic move. But when we start getting into the details of the legislative push on Obamacare, on the Supreme Court nominee and on doing things like the tariff, that's when things will start to really heat up.
O'KEEFE: And he hasn't taken any dramatic steps with his own pen so far. Remember there was talk that today might be the day that he starts moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem. At least as of this hour, it hasn't happened and may not happen today.
KING: Right.
O'KEEFE: And we haven't seen any action regarding deferred action for childhood arrives, the immigration policy that he said he would like to undo. There's been a lot of nervousness among Republicans and there's legislation ready to cover those kids up on The Hill that might move quickly should he decide to step in and do that.
TUMULTY: But on the deferred action for childhood arrivals, I mean he's said he -- but he's been sort of -- he's spoken on both sides of that issue.
RAJU: Right.
O'KEEFE: Yes. It's a tricky one.
RAJU: It was interesting to hear Priebus suggest yesterday that they may not do that through an executive action. Perhaps he suggested part of a larger immigration effort. I'm sure that would upset some elements of his base who expect him to take a pretty hard line on that issue (INAUDIBLE) immigration.
KING: But it's a great point because in this first week, first full week, he was around -- in the first full week people are testing because he did say many things that were either contradictory or slightly at odds with themselves during the campaign as his positions evolved on some issues and as he got up to speed on some issues. And so you have the Latino community wondering, is he really serious? Is he going -- is he going to kick -- the round-up kick them out? He said at one point that 1950s operation, Wetback it was called back in those days, and he used that term, the Eisenhower round-them-up, and then other people said, no, he's not serious about this, he's just sounding tough.
I am told -- and you're right, it didn't come today, or at least not yet today, that the whole week will be executive actions and events built around those executive actions to try to promote the first 100 day -- you know, message and agenda.
MURRAY: Right. And I do think it will be interesting to see how far he is willing to go with some of these executive actions because part of what we know is The Hill only has so much bandwidth to respond to all of the things that Donald Trump has decided to do, but then needs them to create legislation to support. So if you all of a sudden put an expiration date, for instance, on DACA, if you all of a sudden try to defund sanctuary cities, if you all of a sudden make all these moves, that has to set The Hill into action to move forward with whatever comes next, whatever's going to replace it. Same with Obamacare. And I think what we heard from sort of Paul Ryan and his conversation with Trump was, you got to sort of give us one big thing at a time. That's how The Hill works. We can't really juggle every policy priority.
TRUMP: But that's -- that's -- but that's not how Donald Trump works, most of the time.
MURRAY: But it's not how Donald Trump works.
O'KEEFE: And in that vein, as we came to air, John McCain hit send on his statement regarding the TPP, calling it a serious.
KING: Right.
O'KEEFE: The decision to pull out, that would have lasting consequences for Asia-Pacific relations, but offers no legislative alternative, to Sara's point.
KING: And -- but that is, again, this is the feeling out period we're having with the new president who is a Republican president but a lot of his ideas, John McCain's opposition there, across the party, they don't agree with him on trade.
O'KEEFE: Right.
KING: They don't agree with him on pulling out of trade agreements. They don't agree with him on opposing border tariffs. The Trump administration, the president himself said that he wants to do this country by country, that he can negotiate better deals. The issue is -- let's -- first, let's go back a little bit. Remember, as you saw the president at the top of the show signing those papers, he said, I've been talking about this for a long time. He has been about the Trans-Pacific Partnership. And the Democrats were with him in the campaign. This was not an issue of any dispute. Bernie Sanders moved Hillary Clinton against it. Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump were both against it. Here's how Donald Trump described it during the campaign.
[12:10:04] (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The TPP is a horrible deal. It is a deal that is going to lead to nothing but trouble. It's a deal that was designed for China to come in, as they always do, through the backdoor and totally take advantage of everyone.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Now, his critics and proponents of the deal went a little crazy after that statement because that's not what it was designed to do. It was actually a coalition of 12 nations designed to counter China because China has become such an economic force in the region. And so now you have Australia, now you have Japan, you have other countries who were partners with the United States in this deal, they're not happy with this either. It's not just Republicans in the United States Senate or corporate interests here in the United States. Our allies in the region are saying, why?
RAJU: And that's what the proponents of TPP have been saying, this is a way to counter China. That this is -- if this does not take effect, that could actually lead to China becoming more powerful and not have the -- have the opposite impact of what President Trump wants.
It will be interesting to see how people like Paul Ryan respond to this. Paul Ryan had distanced himself from TPP during the campaign. But he was instrumental in passing that fast-track trade legislation that would have -- that had to pass before enacting TPP. He's a free trader. And how does the rest of the party react? You heard John McCain say that because there are those concerns, those global concerns, that this could empower China.
TUMULTY: But this has -- this has been a moot question for a long time now.
KING: Right.
TUMULTY: I mean this was an argument that President Obama was unable to sell to his own party.
KING: Right.
TUMULTY: So going back and debating the merits of a product that did not sell is, you know, it's sort of, you know, at this point I think pretty pointless.
KING: (INAUDIBLE).
RAJU: Actually Ben Sasse, the Nebraska Republican Senator, issued a statement suggesting that, that the proponents of free trade have failed to make their argument. He said they need to regroup and figure out how to sell this (INAUDIBLE) trade.
KING: Right.
MURRAY: And, in essence, it all must be more interesting to see what changes he wants to make to NAFTA and what other sort of shots across the bow they send to China to warn them that they're on different footing with this administration.
KING: And you mentioned -- you mentioned NAFTA. That's next for the president. Although it's interesting, in the campaign he said he was going to rip it up. He said it was the worst deal ever. And now he says he's going to renegotiate it. He has meetings planned with the prime minister of Canada and the president of Mexico. He said he's going to renegotiate it. A little bit of a kinder, gentler approach, actually. A more diplomatic approach. A lot of people don't ascribe that -- those skills, those traits to President Trump. But I actually think he's handled that one in a way that has turned the temperature down a little bit because it was negotiated in the 1990s. We didn't have these. You didn't have so many robots in factories back then. And so why not sit down and renegotiate. I think it sounds a lot better to our partners to the north and south than rip it up.
MURRAY: Or modernize. If you say that --
KING: Right.
MURRAY: That sounds good to people on The Hill. It sounds good to their friends on K Street and everyone can agree that a deal that you signed back then maybe doesn't translate so well in 2017.
KING: Aspirationally. We'll see how those conversations go. Everybody sit tight.
Up next, the new president makes his first moves on the world stage, including a chat with Israel's prime minister.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[12:17:13] KING: Welcome back.
It was a signature theme of Donald Trump's campaign and of President Trump's inaugural address.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: From this day forward, it's going to be only America first. America first. Every decision on trade, on taxes, on immigration, on foreign affairs will be made to benefit American workers and American families.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: That blunt talk is all the buzz in global capitals, where leaders wonder just what it means when it comes to big economic and security issues. We're getting a few early clues. The president spoke over the weekend with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Remember, candidate Trump promised to upend longstanding policy and move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Still the plan, administration officials say, but they say the new administration will proceed cautiously, slowly. The question, as you mentioned this earlier on, this is one of the other areas where he's upending the apple cart, what does that mean, slowly and cautiously?
TUMULTY: Well, there are potential ramifications of doing this. One is inciting a lot of violence in the Middle East, undermining whatever efforts are underway for Mideast peace, undermining the United States standing in the region. This is something that they are going to have to proceed cautiously with. And I -- you know, I think this is another example of the difference between what you campaign on and what you govern on.
KING: But word out of --
RAJU: Well --
KING: Word out of Israel, excuse me, word out of Israel, though, it's the Prime Minister Netanyahu who wants the United States to do this, but even he said just be careful how you do this. I want it to be the end result, but let's be careful.
RAJU: And the other thing also in that regard too is what -- with the Iran deal that Netanyahu so aggressively campaigned for the United States to block and that Trump suggested that he would rip up right away, calling it, I believe, the worst deal that was ever negotiated. But the problem is that some members of his cabinet, including General James Mattis, the secretary of defense, suggesting that it's not so easy to pull out. That there need to be -- figure out that this deal is being implemented. Perhaps there's another way to go about it. So Karen's exactly right, campaign on one thing, but when you -- the realities of governing set in, that changes your approach and how you do it.
KING: Every -- yes, every president goes through that. Every president goes through that. But, you know, candidate Trump was so America first. All my decisions will be based on America first. How much of a difference will we see? And, again, this week, his first meeting will be Prime Minister May of the U.K. She is coming here to meet with him. Interestingly, she's also going to meet with Republican lawmakers at their retreat. I guess she's trying to maybe arrange some Democratic meetings. So -- but there's another one there. He was a big fan of Brexit. She now has a huge challenge, getting her country out of the European Union. And what she wants from the new president is one of those things he's very skeptical about, a trade deal. Donald Trump says he wants to negotiate. He thinks he's a better negotiator. But can he give her what she needs to go home with, word that they'll do that as quickly as possible?
[12:20:13] O'KEEFE: I mean that's certainly issue one for her I think when she comes over here is to demonstrate that we could be pulling out of Europe but remain, you know, the specialist -- or special relations with the United States. And we'll see whether she can get that from him. And it is notable that she's meeting with lawmakers. I -- most of the time world leaders don't do it in such a way that she's going to Philadelphia for that.
You know, I -- I just -- it's stunning from -- from what he said on Friday afternoon through today how much of the world order really just has to be looking at this and going, we really don't know what to expect right now. The news he's just made in the last hour will undoubtedly be, you know, will royal markets when they open again in Asia overnight and a lot of those leaders must be really thinking, how do we get through to these guys and say, is there any chance that we can reopen this? Can we try again? Or is it totally done for (ph).
TUMULTY: And Donald Trump, by the way, would argue that this sort of uncertainty was exactly what he was trying to create.
O'KEEFE: Yes.
KING: Right.
O'KEEFE: Absolutely.
TUMULTY: He kept saying over and over, I like to be unpredictable. Well, here we are.
KING: And he thinks it -- he thinks it helps him in negotiations too. If people are a little bit on edge, he thinks that helps him get a better deal.
MURRAY: Well, right, and I centrally think he must feel that way if he's going into these conversations with the U.K. as well. Like he obviously feels like he has an upper hand in this situation because President Obama said they would be sent to the back of the line. Donald Trump did not say that in the wake of Brexit, but he knows how much they want this trade deal. And he said today, I'm not opposed to negotiating new trade deals. But he certainly feels like if he goes into a unilateral trade deal, especially at this moment with the U.K., he feels like he has the upper hand and can get a better deal.
KING: Did everybody at the table spend the weekend studying the Constitution and the emoluments clause? Everyone did.
O'KEEFE: (INAUDIBLE).
KING: I mentioned -- I mentioned this lawsuit filed this morning in the southern district of New York, federal court in New York, it says Donald Trump is in violation of the Constitution. It says the president is in violation because the Constitution prohibits the president from coming under the influence of foreign governments, taking money from foreign governments. What this lawsuit argues is that because he still has his hotels, because he still has other business arrangements around the world and that foreign governments spend money in those hotels or do transactions with his businesses in some way, that he is in violation. Here's how one of the lawyers who helped file the suit, a little historical reference here, listen to how they explain why they think Donald Trump is wrong.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RICHARD PAINTER, FMR. CHIEF WHITE HOUSE ETHICS LAWYER FOR PRES. GEORGE W. BUSH: He is in violation of the Constitution if he is receiving payments from overseas from foreign governments or from corporations controlled by foreign governments. And this goes right back to the intent of the founders. What was the point of having a tea party and throwing King George's tea into Boston Harbor if you're going to have a president who is buying and selling tea from King George?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: I'm not smart enough to understand the legal merits of this, but I always love references to my home town, the tea party. O'KEEFE: And, you know, there's a Supreme Court with a bunch of strict
constitutionalists on it. So if it ever gets there, you wonder how they might rule.
TUMULTY: I think that --
KING: Now, the president says he's separated himself from his business. There's been some stories that the paperwork on that hasn't been filed. Hope Hicks, his -- one of his spokeswomen, said today he has separated himself from his business. We need to see the paperwork filed to see -- to confirm that that's true.
But --
TUMULTY: But beyond -- though, beyond how this comes out, beyond what the final legal decision on this is --
KING: Right.
TUMULTY: We lived through the Clinton years.
KING: Right.
TUMULTY: We know that having a lawsuit out there means things like depositions.
KING: Right.
TUMULTY: It means having to disclose things. So how the judges -- the degree to which they let this suit --
KING: Right, if they give this -- if they give these guys standing, a lot of people see this as the proxy back door to get his taxes. He says he won't release his tax returns. But if you're trying to get into foreign payments and the like and you get into the deposition phase, you demand Donald Trump's taxes. So the first question is, do they have legal standing?
RAJU: And, John, this is going to be the avenue that liberal groups, which are pushing this lawsuit are going to proceed on the courts because they're not going to be able to get much action in Congress to oversee a lot of the things, the business dealings, the potential conflicts of interest. So if they do gain some traction there, it could be potentially problematic because that's really the only effort to have some accountability or some recourse against the administration.
MURRAY: And --
KING: I'm waiting for the first tweet against activist judges.
Everybody hold tight. We've got to move on here.
Next, the lesson of a fascinating weekend for the women who turned out in huge numbers to march and for a new White House and its alternative facts. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[12:28:21] KING: Welcome back.
It's an old Will Rogers line, you never get a second chance to make a first impression. Well, for the White House secretary, Sean Spicer, that first impression was, to be polite, horrible. In an angry statement in the Briefing Room Saturday, Spicer lashed out at the news media but his tirade included a number of statements that just simply weren't true.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEAN SPICER, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: This was the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period, both in person and around the globe.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: The boss liked it. Then Trump counselor Kellyanne Conway took this leap.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Answer the question of why the president asked the White House press secretary to come out in front of the podium, for the first time, and utter a falsehood. Why did he do that? It undermines the credibility of the entire White House press office on day one.
KELLYANNE CONWAY, WHITE HOUSE SPECIAL ADVISER: No, it doesn't. Don't be so -- don't be so overly dramatic about it, Chuck. What it -- you're saying it's a falsehood and they're giving Sean Spicer, our press secretary, gave alternative facts to that.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The one thing he got right --
CONWAY: Hey, Chuck, why don't -- hey, Chuck --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Was Zeke Miller. Four of the five facts he uttered were just not true. Look, alternative facts are not facts. They're falsehoods.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Alternative facts. I don't want to be overly dramatic about this actually, to borrow a phrase there, because I don't -- I think sometimes we get a little silly when we worry about ourselves and how the president and his team interacts with the news media. But the idea that you can, when you are the president, or you speak for the president and you're standing in the White House, which is owned by the taxpayers, speak alternative facts, meaning deliberately say things that you know not to be true, that gets dangerous. Crowd size? Who cares. We'll be behind this -- you know, that will be behind us in a few days. But what if it's about policy? What if it's about foreign relation? Can Iran suddenly come forward with alternative facts about its nuclear program?
[12:30:10] MURRAY: Well, and I think that's one of the things that reporters, White House reporters, Hill reporters, any reporter.
