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White House Adviser Touts Trump's First 3 Weeks; Trump Holds Roundtable Discussion with Canadian PM; Trump & Trudeau Meet With Women Business Leaders; Trump: Need Policies to Keep Women in Work Force; The Truth and the Trump Administration; Miller: "Enormous Evidence" of Voter Fraud. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired February 13, 2017 - 12:30   ET

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

[12:30:01] MOLLY BALL, POLITICAL CONSULTANT THE ATLANTIC: -- we can't say here and say it a promise. And so -- and I think a lot of these things that he promised to do, it's not that -- we can't sit here and say that they won't get done, yet. But he is running up against reality that they can't get done immediately.

JOHN KING, CNN ANCHOR: Right. And again, he couldn't get -- nobody could get these things done that fast. But my question is, do they have the patience? Because he comes from a privately held business, he comes from rumor, he used his MOs (ph), he walks in a room and says, I want this done, and it gets done. Maybe he has to shape things up first, maybe it takes weeks, maybe -- but he is not used to months or years.

And when you see Stephen Miller saying things like that and the president tweeted out that he loved it. But it's just -- that's not based in reality. Now -- that, that's again, you're right. They may get repeal and replacing Obamacare, they may get major tax reform this year. He may like -- he's like going to get at least some version of his border wall if they could figure out how to pay for it. But to say out of the box when you know you're under water and that the people who didn't vote for you, are not signing to sort of get in their face to say we have been more successful in three weeks and many others that --

ED O'KEEFE, CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER WASHINGTON POST: Listen, but that wasn't Stephen's job yesterday. I mean his job yesterday was to explain and defend the president. And he's very good at that. If you have covered Congress in the last eight years, you know, that it was Jeff Sessions' top aide on immigration. And I would say at least twice, three times a week we would get some kind of memo or inbox with Stephen Miller explaining why the ongoing immigration debate was totally wrong. And this is the way you should think about it.

It just so happens that that guy is now running domestic policy at the White House at the 31 years of age.

KING: Right.

O'KEEFE: He did a fantastic job if for Donald Trump yesterday. He did a miserable job if you are someone who believes in facts and reality. KING: Right, the facts and reality part, I wanted to stop you for in second because we are just seconds away from, listen this is the White House Roundtable. We're going to listen to this tape right now. We'll continue the conversation on the other side.

DONALD TRUMP, (R), U.S. PRESIDENT: Hello everybody, use your (inaudible). Let me help you. Here.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sorry.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'll let you go first.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Seriously.

TRUMP: Cabinet Room.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Strong people.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Strong women are here.

TRUMP: Strong women are definitely here. There's no question about that. Thank you very much.

It's a great honor. Very nice, I have recognized how many -- your great success. It's so important. I'm honored to be here with Prime Minister Trudeau whose father I knew and respected greatly. And, he gave me a picture of myself and your father, and what a great picture. I will keep that in a very special place, at the Waldorf Astoria together.

We're going to launch the Canada-United States Council for Advancement of Women Entrepreneurs. We have some of the great ones in this room and business leaders. We have so many great women leaders around the table today. And we're going to go through your names and exactly because many of you I know. Some of you I don't. I want to find out all about you.

Women, as you know, I can say that from my past life, I have so many women executives and phenomenal. And really helped me a great deal business, so it was really fantastic, they played a tremendously important role. Women in our economy, women are the primary source of income and 40 percent of American households. And households with children under the age of 18 in order to create economic growth and lots of very good well-paying jobs, we must insure that our economy is a place where women, can work and thrive.

And I think that's happening in the United States much more so, and Ivanka is very much involved in this, and I appreciate you being involved in it. And I know Justin in your -- in Canada it's happening (inaudible), and that's very important. We need policies that help to keep women in the work force and to address the unique barriers faced by female entrepreneurs, and they are unique.

We need to make it easier for women to manage the demands of having both a job and a family. And you also need to make it easier for women entrepreneurs to get access to capital, and I guess pretty much you all entrepreneurs. We have to help them out because the system is not working so well for entrepreneurs getting capital. But it's in particular difficult for women.

So, we're going to get access to markets and access to networks, and I look forward to hearing your advice. We're going to go around the table, and I want to really learn something today. And, again, it's a great honor to be with you, and Justine I can say, on behalf of our country, it's an honor to be with you.

[12:35:05] JUSTIN TRUDEAU, CANADIAN PRIME MINISTER: Thank you, Donald, for welcoming us. And I'm really excited about launching this. Sitting around the table, here with a number of successful executives who just happen to be women. One of the things that I've been lucky enough to do over the past year in New York, in Beijing, and across Canada is sit down with women CEOs, women executives. To talk about both their successes and the challenges they're facing that are particular.

But also how, of course, we create more paths to success for women across our community and across, our community and our society. Whenever I sit down with a woman executive, I know that she has had to overcome significant barriers that exist. And therefore, is likely to have, you know, greater insight into help reducing barriers for others but also the formidable contributor to the success of the business and the economy.

So I think for me it's not just about doing the right thing. It's about understanding that women in leadership positions is a very powerful leverage for success, for business, for communities, and for entire economy. It's a great pleasure to sit with you now and to hear from your extraordinary leadership.

TRUMP: All right, thank you. So, how about we start with Ivanka, we go around that way. Ivanka, you might just want to say a, couple of words?

IVANKA TRUMP, ENTREPRENEUR: Welcome, and I am -- I'm honored to be here. I'm really looking forward to hearing from each of you to serve as tremendous role models for women and so many other business leaders across the entire (ph) countries, can lend some tremendously valuable perspective as we think about the unique challenges that entrepreneurs, women in the work force, female small business owners are can possibly each connect with that and as we think about how we level the playing field for this generation and for the next.

So, thank you for being here, and I look forward to hearing from each of you.

TRUMP: Thank you.

DAWN FARREL, TRANSALTA CORPORATION CEO: Thank you. I'm Dawn Farrell, and I'm from a company called TransAlta, which is located in Alberta, in where we're going to build the Keystone Pipeline.

TRUMP: Whereas there's a big chunk of it. That's right. FARREL: So thanks for the opportunity to contribute to this important dialogue and a dialogue that we've had for 100 -- over a 100 of years. My company is in the business of making electricity. We generate electricity from coal, natural gas, and also from renewable sources, winds, hydro, and solar. We have operations in Canada, United States, and in Australia. And really for us to excel, we have to be excellent at operations, engineering, financing, trading, and we have to excel in the public policy dialogue that happens around energy. And I'll talk about that.

TRUMP: Good.

FARREL: As part of today. We've done some excellent work here.

KING: OK, we've been listening here the beginning of an economic roundtable at the White House hosted by the President of the United States and the Prime Minister of Canada. Noteworthy that Ivanka Trump, the president's daughter, and senior advisor, I believe, this the fist time I've seen her really speak in any extended way at an official White House event.

And she obviously is part of the president's effort to encourage women in the workplace. Let's bring it around the table here in terms of what we're seeing here.

Not a lot of substance there. But an important moment for the two leaders as the part of the getting to know you process again. But they have some differences. Especially on immigration, refugee questions, but here is an effort to sort of, hey, pass that common ground on the economic relationship between the two countries. Anything jump out at you there, whether in of the remarks of the president or the prime minister, or just the politics of this?

BALL: Well, as you were sort of saying it. It's well managed event and to the extent that Ivanka is involved in that. You know, it may raise her profile on the issues that she is working on. There has been some uncertainty about how involved she plans to be in the White House, and given that, you know? She has her father's ear at all time. She can sort of to be as involved as she wants to be. And if she is going to do an event like this, and it's seen as successful, that will presumably give her more license to do more then.

KING: She is known during the campaign as someone when she thought, maybe he was out a ledge or out in politically difficult territory that someone would try to steer him back, more moderating against, I don't know if that's the right word.

O'KEEFE: Yeah, you know, a lot of people said they have the Valerie Jarrett job or whether they were going to get Valerie Jarrett job and Scaramouch's. He is one of the guys who officially has the job to value here, he used to have that given her ties to the president, direct ties to the president. And the fact that she's burning up quite an expense bill with the fancy hotels here in town having breakfast every morning with different CEOs, that's more of the Valerie Jarrett job. He is talking to the business community, bringing them into the White House to sit for this. Remember, that this is a common issue of concern for the Trump Family, I guess, by extension Ivanka, and the Prime Minister. When he took office, remember, he said famously, half of my cabinet will be women because half of the world's population is women. So why shouldn't they fill those roles? So there's obviously some common ground here from the cabinet.

[12:40:10] Also interesting, two down from the president, right or left is Chrystia Freeland, their former colleague at Reuters.

KING: Right.

O'KEEFE: Who's the Canadian Foreign Minister, some say she may be a future Prime Minister of Canada. There is a person who will get a lot of phone calls when she goes back to Ottawa.

KING: Elevate this media -- elevated in part because to deal with the Trump dynamic, when he won the election, and she recently had a meeting with the Secretary of State and I'm told went quite well.

O'KEEFE: Yeah.

KING: In terms of the West focus on stuff that matters, and, yes, we have some differences. But let's focus, at least, out of the box on the more issues that unite us.

OLIVIER KNOX, YAHOO NEWS: So, let's see what kind of this meeting. What to follow up is, but if you're Donald Trump would you rather be talking about women entrepreneurs, job creation, economics, and your business record? Or did Mike Flynn talk to the Russians improperly? What do you do about North Korea's missile launching and a host of other -- and the immigration restriction order? Which would you want to rather talk about? I think it's pretty clear.

KING: So for all we say about they, go off the rails sometimes? If you're saying occasionally some days they try to get the messaging back on track. I think that's what we see right here, hang tight.

Hold that thought, we recap that. Up next, a top White House aide repeats, what even Republican say, is simply untrue.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: Welcome back. If you only knew what happens in here during the break, ladies and gentlemen. On the Sunday shows before we went to that White House, now we were showing you Stephen Miller. He is the President's Policy advisor. He did a lot of the Sunday shows yesterday. One of the things he repeated, remember, you've heard President Trump say he believes three to five million people undocumented voted illegally in the election in 2016.

President Trump tells people, that's why he lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton. It's ludicrous, there's not evidence of it. More recently, the president has repeated the small groups, and Stephen Millers again yesterday in television, saying that one of the reasons the president loss in the State of New Hampshire just barely in 2016, is because there were bus loads of voters riding from Massachusetts.

Ask Democrats, ask Republicans, ask anybody in New Hampshire. They will tell you that is, "ludicrous". Listen to Stephen Miller.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[12:45:05] GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS, ABC ANCHOR: Right, just for where record you have provided, absolutely no evidence. The president has made a statement.

STEPHEN MILLER, WHITE HOUSE SENIOR POLICY ADVISOR: The White House has provided enormous evidence with respect to voter fraud, with respect to people being registered in more than one state, dead people voting, non-citizens being registered to vote.

George, it is not a fact, and you will deny it that there are massive numbers of citizens in this country who are registered to vote.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: It is not a fact, and it is -- call your Republican Secretary of State. If you are a Trump supporter, and you think this is a huge problem? Is it a minor problem? Sure. Could we do better on our election? Sure. Call your Secretary of State. Do this yourself. It's just -- but why?

Somebody tell me, why? He is on pret -- he is on the payroll now. You pay him. He is taxpayer paid employee standing in the White House briefing room spewing garbage.

(CROSSTALK)

BALL: Spicer here, this is something the president believes.

O'KEEFE: Yeah, I mean that's --

BALL: He believes it. That's not true, and he believes it.

KING: But always is -- forgive me. Is it your job, and if you work for the president and he beliefs this, isn't it your job to work on the president to get him through this, or at least not to repeat it on television? Just so sure I can't say that on television because we have no evidence that it's true?

BALL: Well, you do you see him suddenly changing the terms, right? You have Stephen Miller not saying three million illegal votes, switching the topic to voter registration talking about non-citizens being registered to vote, which does happen and may or may not result usually does not result. Only a few cases has resulted in actual illegal votes being cast. But you know, you see him switching to territory that is a little bit more defensible by trying to talk about voter registration instead.

KING: But he can walk around the west wing and find a few people who are registered to vote in both state -- in two states. That happens. You know, that happens, and states don't have the money to go back and do all this stuff. But if I want -- Fergus Cullen is the Former Chairman of the New Hampshire Republican Party, I refer you to his Twitter feed. Go in Twitter right now, it is spectacular to look at how they refute this.

Bur they are offended by this in the State of New Hampshire. Republicans and Democrats, because as he look, he lost a close election, OK do better next time. Try harder next time. But this is not true. We know how to run elections.

MARY KATHERIN HAM, CNN POLITICAL CONTRIBUTOR: Except he won, here is the thing I would tell it right now but, winner talk is just saying we won. I thought the argument they made at the very beginning of this whole discussion, which was if the idea were to win the popular vote. I would have worked on winning the popular vote. It didn't do Hillary a lot of good. Wining the Electoral College did. Stick with that.

Voter fraud is a thing that happens. It does not happen in giant numbers that usually swing elections. So, fine. If you want to investigate that, many Republican Secretaries of State are saying, look, we've done that. We've done the job. It's just that -- to me it's a loser argument.

O'KEEFE: The only northern migration I saw was people from New Hampshire all those months was people from Massachusetts attending Trump rallies.

KING: Some primaries.

O'KEEFE: Some Clinton rallies, too. Clinton rallies, too. A lot of people --

KING: A lot of people say they come up before the elections in their states.

HAM: Exactly.

KING: Because their states, they don't have --

(CROSSTALK)

O'KEEFE: But they weren't voting in New Hampshire. That's for sure.

KING: Oh, yeah, OK. Someday.

Up next, our reporters, (inaudible) was including why diplomats from across the globe are watching President Trump's State visits. Extra, extra closely.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:52:19] KING: We surround our table with reporters, not pundits. So, at the end of the program every day, they can share from their notebook. Get you out of ahead of the political news just around the corner. Molly Ball?

BALL: Well, now that Jeff Sessions has been confirmed as attorney general, one of the big moves he is expected to make probably in the coming days is to choose the U.S. solicitor general. This is a high profile position. It is the face of the administration in front of the Supreme Court arguing those big cases. Given the extent to which this administration is likely to be tied up in court, that person may have quite a lot to do.

There were said to be two contenders as of last week. Chuck Cooper, who has argued a lot of sort of conservative movement cases, and Kellyanne Conway's husband, George Conway, who's also very respected litigator and worked on the Paula Jones case against Bill Clinton. Chuck Cooper pulled out of contention last week. Feared he would be too controversial.

However, George Conway is not the last man standing from what I understand. The administration is aware that it would be controversial to have the husband of a senior White House counselor in that position and the potential conflicts it could cause, but in a decision is expected soon.

KING: We'll keep an eye on that one. Ed?

O'KEEFE: Speaking of big appointments, five more cabinet level nominees may get confirmed this week. Steven Mnuchin to be treasury secretary tonight. David Shulkin to run the V.A. tomorrow morning. Now Linda McMahon to head the small business administration. And later this week possibly before the president's day recess begins Scott Pruitt, to lead the EPA and Mick Mulvaney to run OMB. Those two guys would face similar theatrics pulled by Democrats last week in Michigan this week for those two.

And Andrew Puzder, the labor secretary nominee hearing is on Thursday. It's another one where Democrats are expected to try to make hay.

KING: All right.

KNOX: John, throughout the campaign, Donald Trump made a lot of comments that were controversial about foreign policy, about NATO, about relations with Russia, about Japan, about Korea, leading some leaders in foreign capitals worried that he would leave the diplomatic norms as shredded as the confetti from being -- the patriots victory parade that's in front of you.

And now they're watching very, very closely all of the diplomatic -- the early diplomatic visits. Theresa May of Great Britain. Even the king of Jordan who saw the president on (inaudible) on the National Prayer Breakfast. But they really, really are studying Prime Minister Abe of Japan. They're that visit because it was very well choreographed by the Japanese. They got that invitation tomorrow all good. They got those rounds of golf in and got the rest of it.

But one of the sources of concern that they're having is about that dinner that they had in the Mar-a-Lago dining room. And one of the concerns that I've heard from a couple of diplomats is, wait, now, who is in that room? What if they have business before my government? Do did they stay away? What about that business of pulling in the prime minister to do a selfie with a wedding party and they're just trying to get a sense of what the rules are going to be?

They're totally fine with unorthodox diplomacy, whether it was George W. Bush's ranch and property, the Sandy Lane Resort, I'm thinking it's more conventional. They're fine with that. If they know that Donald Trump is not going to be business as usual, but they want a little bit of reassurance about what's going to happen in that setting.

[12:55:06] KING: All right, Katharine.

HAM: Speaking of the NFL, they sent a warning shot to Texas this week saying that there's a bathroom bill under consideration there, and hey watch out, we might not give you a Super Bowl in the future. Which means, I fear that we are on the verge of yet another all consuming way to over blown bathroom fight in this country.

And I would caution that perhaps the more important political story is the economy in places like Texas and the fact that they are gaining residence often at the expense of blue or more high regulation states. And that maybe in the political world, we are valuing one story over the other one, what matters to voters, the economics. So, just a warning on that.

KING: Just a warning on that. We'll keep track of that. I'm going to save time. Don't have time to get to my notebook. I'll save it for tomorrow but I do want to tell you, the President of the United States, the Prime Minister of Canada, joint press conference at 2:00 right here. Stay with CNN for that.

Thanks for being with "Inside Politics" here today. Hope to he so you right back here at noon eastern tomorrow. Wolf Blitzer in the chair after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WOLD BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello. I'm Wolf Blitzer. It's 1:00 p.m. here in Washington, 8:00 p.m. in Jerusalem, 9:00 p.m. in Moscow. Wherever you are watching from around the world, thanks very much for joining us.

Up first, diplomacy top three agenda on Day 25 of the Trump administration. Also, the White House faces a deadly --