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Inside Politics

Kushner's Talks With Russians Draw Senate Panel's Attention; Cheney: Russian Election Meddling Possible "Act Of War"; Trump Moves To Undo Obama Efforts; Sessions To Cities: "Enforce Our Immigration Laws"; Treasury Secretary: Send All Your Kids To "Lego Batman"; White House Denies Trying To Block Yates Russia Testimony. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired March 28, 2017 - 12:30   ET

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

[12:30:00] JOHN KING, CNN ANCHOR: Kushner disclosed that meeting took place. He only disclosed that last month despite months of reporters requesting that the Trump campaign and transition detail any contacts with Russians officials, that the ambassador meeting isn't the committee's biggest curiosity.

That would be the meeting Kushner disclosed yesterday after he realized the committee new about it. A session with Sergey Gorkov, a Russian banker close to President Vladimir Putin, and by the way, a man whose bank was under U.S. sanctions when he met with the president-elect's powerful son-in-law.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEAN SPICER, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: That was part of his job. That was part of his role. And he executed it completely as he was supposed to.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And so, he doesn't believe he owes the American public an explanation?

SPICER: For what? Doing his job?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: One problem with that explanation, the White House says the meeting with Gorkov was official transition business. The Russian bank, however, issued a statement saying Gorkov met with Kushner in his capacity as CEO of the Kushner Family Real State Empire.

And so, here again we have a competing stories and be potentially a collision between working in the West Wing but also keeping your eye on your business. This was during the transition. Jared Kushner, he was coming into. If the Russian bank is telling the truth, we've got a problem.

JONATHAN MARTIN, THE NEW YORK TIMES: And why is the son-in-law of the President working in the West Wing anyways? And why -- you know that.

KING: Well, that's -- but if he's going to make that choice, the President should be able to bring his own people in -- MARTIN: No politics --

KING: -- but you better have open aggressive transparency.

MARTIN: It's extraordinary that folks on Capitol Hill -- and both parties by the way -- just are OK with that. I mean, I guess because they -- there are a bigger fish to fry, but the willingness to sort of tolerate that, again from both parties, I think is notable.

KING: To me, it goes back to what Sean Spicer said in condemning the Russian government for arresting (ph) those protesters. If you're going to do something that you know is going to be so controversial, you have to have a giant bar of openness and transparency. And that we only find out about these meetings that Jared --

MARTIN: After weeks --

KING: -- maybe they're all innocent. But if there are all innocent meetings --

MARTIN: Right.

KING: -- why did they wait until --

MARTIN: It's mail (ph) progress. Yes. But -- yes (INAUDIBLE) putting out there instead story after story leaks out and it just -- it keeps ongoing like this like a thousand cuts (ph).

LAURA MECKLER, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: I just -- to me, I mean, there is (INAUDIBLE) story I've been working in the first place. But then there is on top of that, I think the point you made which is this mingling of business interests in the U.S. government. Republicans are saying to me that is a huge issue that it just keeps coming back and back and back.

And you start -- you said in your opening to the segment something to the fact that well, you know -- or earlier that, you know, his son is supposed to be dealing with family business. Here he was weighing on this. But, you can't have a line. You can't have a line between these two because it's constantly being blurred. And when you have something dealing with the Russians, I think then it's serious.

OLIVIER KNOX, YAHOO NEWS: Especially Russian sanctions because really -- that's the linchpin of this, right. There was a Michael Flynn, the President's ousted fired security adviser got in trouble because he talked about the sanctions that he has put on Russia with the Russian ambassador and then misled people about it.

The sanction thing is really important here. Jared Kushner met with a bunch of ambassadors. Let's just set that aside. That actually is his job. And you know what? Campaigns and transitions meet with foreign diplomats (ph) all the time.

KING: Yes.

KNOX: The question is whether there was decision making going on related to the sanctions. Any kind of deal making in the (INAUDIBLE).

KING: And the ambassadors want to refer to have this meeting with the banker. And again, it looks bad. And if you're in an environment where you know you're being watched closely and you're doing things that could have perception problem, why not be open and transparent about it?

KAREN TUMULTY, THE WASHINGTON POST: Well, I think, too, the fact that so many people in this administration are coming straight from the business world is showing on the transparency issues as well. I mean, you see it everywhere whether it's the, you know, State Department not giving briefings and the secretary not traveling with reporters.

They come from an environment where you basically don't have to be transparent about what you do. You don't have to report to anyone but your shareholders if you have shareholders. And, you know, the Trump business was a family business. And so, this is in many ways the procedures and the ethic used in a family business sort of being brought in to Washington.

KNOX: But the other thing is they view all of these as being in large part driven bipartisan desires to reduce and undermine the President's legitimacy. And so, they're in a different crash (ph) almost from the very beginning. Any question asked is seen as an attack on his legitimacy.

MARTIN: But to hurting (ph) themselves --

KNOX: And by the way, for a bunch of people that's completely true. They are using this to undermine the President's legitimacy. But, that's why they get so defensive so quickly. And that's why I think that they don't disclose these things sort of quickly.

KING: Yes, they make portion (ph) for themselves when they do that.

MARTIN: But they make it worse though.

KNOX: I'm not arguing they make it worse.

MARTIN: By waiting for the stuff (ph) to leak and having to respond to it instead of just putting everything out there. Look, if you have contacts with the Russian whether Russian government, Russian oligarchs, you know, why would you put everything out there immediately.

KING: And someone who agrees with you -- I don't how often this happened in his life -- but someone who agrees with you is the former vice president of the United States. We don't get to hear from him that often. Listen to Dick Cheney overseas delivering his speech yesterday where he says Russia's election meddling is a big deal.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DICK CHENEY, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT: There was a very serious effort made by Mr. Putin and his government, his organization to interfere in major ways with our basic fundamental Democratic processes. In some quarters that would be considered an act of war.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[12:35:11] KING: Tough words.

KNOX: There are a lot of things that Dick Cheney thinks are acts of war, though, but let's keep it in perspective. Big -- yes. But, this is the Russia hack part of this, right.

KING: Right. Right.

KNOX: This is the thing that's dabbling (ph) them on Capitol Hill. There are a lot of Republicans who really are angry about what happened in 2016.

KING: Right. And who are worried that Trump is going to get too close to Russia even nothing nefarious happened during the campaign, right. And they just think his inclination to make friends there. Everybody sit tight.

Up next, four years in a world of difference. The new President is about to undo his predecessor policies on climate change and in the process maybe tanking any post health care talk of bipartisanship.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: Welcome back. A very busy day in Washington. President Trump later today will sign an order rolling back the Obama administration's biggest domestic climate change initiative. The new order will begin the process of changing an Obama edict that utilities dramatically slash carbon dioxide emissions. It also make sense (ph) in Obama administration ban a new coalesces on federal land. The former president called his action urgent an overdue.

(BEGIN VIDEO-CLIP)

[12:40:07] BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF UNITED STATES: As a president, as a father, and as an American, I am here to say we need to act. But this is a challenge that does not pause for partisan gridlock. It demands our attention now.

And this is my plan to meet it. A plan to cut carbon pollution, a plan to protect our country from the impacts of climate change, and a plan to lead the world in a coordinated assault on a changing climate.

(END VIDEO-CLIP)

KING: Now, that was then. This is now. If you need proof, elections have consequences, today we will get another. And for all these talked with the President can't get things on legislatively, the collapse of the health care building, the Big China (ph) example, they do have executive powers to do quite a bit of what they promised in the campaign and this is a big deal.

MECKLER: Absolutely. And, you know, President Obama kind of lived by the sword, die by the sword. You know, he -- when he couldn't get his agenda through Congress, he turned to executive power in a much more aggressive way. And now we're seeing the undoing of it.

And I absolutely -- I agree 100 percent, he can get a lot done using executive authority and rolling back what's happened. That said, however, there are some basic economics of energy that are not going to change, you know? We're not going to see a roaring back of the coal industry because of, you know, natural gas is much cheaper and it's taken over. So there's a lot of things, like, fundamental things that are not going to just be able to undo this. And there's a lot more awareness to climate change in many circles, so I don't think you can completely turn back time. That said, he has a lot of authority.

KING: But it is striking. He is point person. Is it climate change deny or certainly a huge giant climate skeptic.

MARTIN: This is a good politics for Trump, John, for two reasons. First of all, it gets back to as core theme of jobs. And, yes, there are question about the actual (INAUDIBLE) but at the margin at least it's good on the jobs front which is what he ran on and why a lot of folks elected him.

Secondly, it will be further in the weeds (ph). This is the kind of thing that keeps the donor community, the business class OK with Trump, OK? And a lot of those same people are also the one whose fund the campaigns for the House and Senate. They like this kind of action in a business community that's good politics on two fronts of Trump.

KING: It is also interesting outright of the health care debacle, we had all these talks that we're going to be bipartisan. We are moving in town more than a week or two. We know that that was talk in the sense that they have huge policy divides, climate change being one of them. It's hard. Plus we're in this polarized environment where they fight over whether the apple pie is good or not.

And so the President is going to do this today. Sign an executive order, stripping away one of President Obama's signature, environmental initiatives.

And yesterday when you have this conversation, the Republican base, you know, what happen to the President, why can't we get the health care bill through. They bring Jeff Sessions, the attorney general over to the White House to essentially re-announce that his justice department is going to be going to be tough.

If you're a so-called sanctuary city out there, undocumented worker gets brought in and arrested, is held in your jail, and then you let him or her go? Well, Jeff Sessions says we might cut your federal funding.

(BEGIN VIDEO-CLIP)

JEFF SESSIONS, ATTORNEY GENERAL: DUIs, assaults, burglaries, drug crimes, gang rapes, crimes against children and murderers, countless Americans would be alive today and countless love ones were not be grieving today if these policies of sanctuary cities were ended.

(END VIDEO-CLIP) KING: Now, big city mayors and liberals on the coast are going to disagree with what I'm about to say because in those places, this is quite controversial, but back to your point about the environmental thing, politics. The White House -- and they did for a reason.

MECKLER: Yes, they did. They -- .

MARTIN: Great politics, yes.

MECKLER: Yes, absolutely. And they are headed for a clash and the court eventually with -- not just big city mayors, a lot of small city mayors not just on the coast. There's a lost of people who are in the cities who disagree with this and they will eventually, I think, they'll be a show down over this federal funding and whether they can cut it. That said, I think is important to know.

What they actually did yesterday was almost nothing. All he did was reaffirm a policy that are Obama had put in place last July. So there are actually with a lot of rhetoric and like a teeny tiny amount of substance there. That wasn't the purpose most likely.

They wanted to get out there. Kind of rattle the drum and put people on notice. I think they are already on notice, but -- and, you know, get people talking about something that is, again, closer to this core message, anti-immigration.

KNOX: Yes. He ran on a campaign that was larger again (ph). You've been betrayed, right, by the elites. And they need to show that they are actually fulfilling his campaign promises now and this is -- this comes across as a tough on illegal immigration.

MARTIN: It's popular. Enforcing immigration law is popular.

TUMULTY: All of this makes sense as a good marketing and branding strategy except for the fact that they keep stepping on their own message. I mean, it's guaranteed in this administration. It seems like every time they get a message, a narrative out there --

KNOW: Yes.

TUMULTY: -- something bizarre happens that has everybody talking about something else.

KIING: In this environment, the show of hands I guess is the best way to do this, showed on time.

[12:45:02] Anybody here who thinks that the Republicans can get 60 votes, meaning get eight Democrats to support Neil Gorsuch or they have to change the rules and go with the so-called nuclear option. Right now, most Democrats don't seem (INAUDIBLE) to vote. No one thinks so.

MARTIN: My hand is not raised.

KING: Yes. I don't think so. More partisanship on all this talk of bipartisan after health care. The Gorsuch thing is up next and that was gone across (ph) even more. So we'll see on that on place.

Up next, the "Lego Batman Movie", of all things, creating a first headache of sorts for the White House.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: Welcome back. I hope by now you know who is Steve Mnuchin. He is President Trump's nominated (ph) Treasury Secretary. Hi name soon will grace every green back. You pull out of your pocket, not just for the next four years, those things tend to hang around a while.

Mr. Mnuchin comes from Wall Street but before joining the Trump administration, he dabbled in film financing. He brought "Mad Max" back to the big screen. He paid so you could see Tom Cruise die over and over and over and over again in the "Edge of Tomorrow."

[12:50:04] He even made a cameo in "Rule Don't Apply", a great film. Yes, it's a great film about Howard Hughes. But today, Democrats aren't complaining about his acting. They're complaining about this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE ALLEN, AXIOS: What's a movie that we should see?

STEVEN MNUCHIN, UNITED STATES SECRETARY OF TREASURY: Well, I'm not allowed to promote anything that I'm involved in, so I just want to have the legal disclosure. You've asked me the question and I am not promoting any product. But you should send all your kids to "Lego Batman."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Always good to see Mike in the program too. Mnuchin helped finance that movie, "Lego Batman". Democrats say, everything is not awesome, kids you get that, but this could be an ethics violation. But come on now, right? I mean, you know, Democrats say it's an ethics violation. He did finance the movie.

MARTIN: I think Putin crony is a bit more serious.

KNOX: Yes.

MECKLER: Yes. In 2017 is that really going to be the top concern for the American public?

KNOX: You know what? A lot of people get their news from for lack of a better word entertainment shows. And so, they're going to process -- they process politics through that too. I guarantee you that a hit on "Lego Batman" reaches a completely different audience than something on this program for example.

TUMULTY: I don't know. It's --

KING: Have you seen like a Batman?

TUMULTY: Not that (ph), but -- I mean, I do think that if people -- if we get to the point where people can't even joke --

KING: Right. Right. Yes.

TIMULTY: -- I think he would ask and he was joking.

KING: And he did the disclosure up front.

MECKLER: Right.

KING: He did entrap with Mike Allen trying to ask him that question. They're trying to get him, lead him into the trap. Do we have the movie? Can we show over the movie?

Treasury Department by the way response, "It was a lighthearted moment" and comment Secretary Mnuchin directly acknowledge and understood the ethics law involved. Our little guy are going to love this movie. All right, by the producer and editor for a couple of points that this is -- it's a lot of fun. And so, I'm doing Steve Mnuchin a favor here. But I'm saying if you haven't seen the "Lego Batman Movie," don't worry that he make a little money of this. Go see the "Lego Batman Movie."

MARTIN: You're the financial interest --

KING: I have zero financial interest.

KNOX: More the pleasure.

MARTIN: How much are you making John, come on?

KING: What's that?

MARTIN: How much are you making off this movie?

KING: I make nothing off that movie. I'm making nothing of that movie. We're just trying to have a little fun.

MECKLER: But tomorrow, "Inside Politics" we'll be done with Lego figures, just saying.

KING: That would be nice. I get a day off.

(CROSSTALK)

KING: Inside Politics Lego version, I like that a lot. All right, everybody we're just trying to have a little fun. Fun is allowed, isn't it, in this town?

MARTIN: Occasionally, occasionally.

KING: Fun?

KING: Yes. I like that. All right. Good. We'll see you tomorrow right back here at the same time.

We're going to show you some live pictures inside the White House briefing room. The Press Secretary Sean Spicer will be taking questions any moment. You can guess there's a long list, probably not about the "Lego Batman Movie."

My colleague Wolf Blitzer picks it up right here after the break. We'll see you tomorrow.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:56:51] WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello. I'm Wolf Blitzer. It's 1:00 p.m. here in Washington. Wherever you're watching from around the world, thanks very much for joining us.

Up first, Russia is likely to be a dominant topic. Once again, today's White House briefing set to begin any minute now. Take a look at this. We got some pictures already coming in from the briefing room over at the White House. The Press Secretary Sean Spicer is expected to come out any moment now start taking reporters' questions. We'll have live coverage. That's coming up.

Our Senior White House Correspondent Jeff Zeleny is in the briefing room for us. Our Senior Congressional Reporter Manu Raju is up on Capitol Hill. Jeff, the White House denying that the administration try to block the former acting Attorney General Sally Yates from testifying in the Russia probe. That hearing was supposed to take place, but today that in response to a report in today's "Washington Post." What are you hearing from White House sources?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CEORRESPONDENT: Wolf, the White House is denying that "Washington Post" report saying, that simply is not how it transpired. But the timing certainly is interesting, because these letters going back and forth from Sally Yates's lawyers to the Department of Justice and to the committee. The last one was written on Friday. And of course that hearing was supposed to be scheduled for this afternoon.

But the White House said this in a statement a short time ago, Wolf, they said, the White House has taken no action to prevent Sally Yates from testifying and the Department of Justice specifically told her it would not stop her and suggests -- and anything to suggest otherwise is completely irresponsible. That was a comment from Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Sanders.

Wolf, there are still many, many questions about why this testimony didn't happen, if the White House had any involvement into the rescheduling or canceling of this hearing. That's something that we simply don't know at this hour. I can promise you, Sean Spicer will be asked right here at the briefing, Wolf.

BLITZER: Yes. I'm sure he will be. Manu, you're up on Capitol Hill. Democrats, a lot of them are now calling for the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee to step down from the overall Russia investigation. But Congressman Devin Nunes, the chairman is ignoring those calls. You caught up with him just a little while ago. Tell our viewers what he's saying.

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER: Yes, that's right. In fact, he said that he's going to stay as chairman of the committee, really pushing back at those criticisms from Democrats saying really chocking it up to partisan politics and saying that he has not heard those same criticisms from his fellow Republicans. Getting very contentious in a back and forth that we had earlier today not just about this issue, but also about the issue of Sally Yates, her testimony that was supposed to happen today, not denying that the White House asked him to cancel today's hearing. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: Are you going to stay as chairman and run this investigation?

REPRESENTATIVE DEVIN NUNES (R), INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN: Well, why would I not? You guys need to go ask them why there are, you know, why these things are being said.

RAJU: Can this investigation continue as you as chairman?

NUNES: Why would it not? Aren't I briefing you guys continuously? And keeping you up to speed?

RAJU: But they are saying that it cannot run as you as chairman

NUNES: You have got to go talk to them. That sounds like their problem. I don't have -- you know, my colleagues are perfectly fine. I mean, there is -- they know we're doing the investigation and that will continue.

RAJU: Did the Trump Administration seek to have Sally Yates not testify before your committee?

NUNES: Look, you guys are just speculating. I'm -- you know, I'm sorry whenever there's time, we'll do it. We'll do a press.

RAJU: But did they ask you to cancel the hearing on today? Come on.

NUNES: Yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: And Mr. Nunes saying that, well the hearing today --