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Inside Politics

Trump Admin Trumpets Social Media Stats; The Stalled Trump Agenda; GOP Sen. Wants More "Focus" From Trump; Wyden: Dems Ready if GOP Sets Aside Partisan Approach; Comey Testifies Thursday About Trump Conversations; British P.M.: Trump "Wrong" to Criticize London Mayor. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired June 06, 2017 - 12:30   ET

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

[12:30:03] JONATHAN MARTIN, THE NEW YORK TIMES: He falls off the wagon, Maggie. He falls off the wagon, right.

MAGGIE HABERMAN, THE NEW YORK TIMES: I'm not going there with you. We saw him during the campaign. He was able when necessary to sort of drill down and do what you had to do. And then it reaches a point where he just can't do it anymore.

And I think that is what is so perplexing to the newcomers in his orbit in the White House. I think the people who've been with him for a while, they're used to this pattern. But for those who are new there -- and then you start to see people trying to make modifications for it like H.R. McMaster, the national security adviser insisting that the president did something he didn't do in Europe which is recommit to article five of NATO. The president didn't do that. But you're now reaching this point where you're seeing people trying to sort of almost isolate him off on his own and act as if there's a government going on without him and that's complicated.

JOHN KING, CNN ANCHOR: It's complicated and sends mixed signals. It's confusing to everybody, not only reporters in Washington but lawmakers in Washington, world leaders around the world. An interesting point because Dan Scavino celebrating the president's tweets here. Yesterday morning on television, Kellyanne Conway was insisting, stop paying attention to the president. He's the only the president, what would you pay attention to what he says. This Angus King in as independent who sides with the Democrats, but here's his take on this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. ANGUS KING (I), MAINE: This is a significant problem. And for the administration then to say, well, you know, don't mind what this man is saying over here. You know what, wizard of oz is, you know, don't pay attention to that man behind the curtain, that just doesn't pass the straight face test.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: This was amusing to a lot of people for a long time. And if you're Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, Speaker Paul Ryan, the committee chairs in Congress, for a long time you said, this is kind of cute, this is kind of amusing but it will pass or we will learn to process yet. They're now at the point. We're going to talk more in a minute about the specifics of the agenda. But they're now at the point where they're looking at, it's June and we are nowhere.

JULIE PACE, ASSOCIATED PRESS: It's not going to pass. This is how Trump likes to communicate. Everyone just needs to accept that. We also have to treat what he says on Twitter as the words of the president of the United States. We can't dismiss them.

In part, we can't dismiss them because that's really how we're hearing from the president these days. He did not hold a press conference from that foreign trip and he's not (INAUDIBLE).

MARTIN: Where is the intervention on Capitol Hill? I mean, let's be honest. If they're tired of it, you know, why aren't they going down to the White House today and say Mr. President, put down that phone?

KING: Well, he has a dinner tonight and we will see. But people -- you know that -- now you're doing what I did in the first walk asking -- answering a question that you already know the answer to. People have asked before including very high level people and they've been unsuccessful.

Everybody sit tight. Up next, the Senate to vote on ObamaCare repeal before the July 4th recess. They'll wait. No Senate plan on health care this year. So which is it? Good question and good luck getting reliable answer.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:35:05] KING: Welcome back. More on the president's agenda now. This is Day 137 of the Trump presidency. ObamaCare remains the law of the land. There is no White House tax reform bill. And the administration's outline of its tax reform ideas is at odds with the house speaker's plan.

The president is holding several infrastructure related events this week but his own aides say a detailed plan to fix roads and bridges and the like is weeks if not maybe months away. And yet this last night from the White House point man with Congress, Marc Short. "I think that the president is very effective in driving our message in Congress. He may not have a conventional style of doing that, but many of his efforts are extremely helpful to us in getting our legislation accomplished."

Arkansas GOP Senator Tom Cotton, an important Trump ally in Congress. Listen here. He sees things a little differently.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TOM COTTON (R), ARKANSAS: I think the president could be more focused and disciplined about staying on his agenda. I've communicated that publicly as well as privately to him. But Donald Trump is going to do well he's focused on things like jobs, wages, and security. To the extent that he's focused on all of the, you know, hair-on-fire, wild-eyed allegations and drama around these inquiries, he's going to do less well."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: This gets back to the discipline and focus point that Jonathan and Michael were discussing earlier in this sense. And again, Tom cotton has been a pretty loyal soldier for this president and this administration. Did that more of them are starting to speak more publicly? And he said I tried privately and now publicly. That tells you something about Republicans, a, worried about their president, and b, looking at a calendar and worrying about their party.

PACE: Right because the Republicans who are up in 2018 are the first ones that are going to feel the impact, it's not going to be Trump. He's not on the ballot for three and a half more years at this point. So they know that they're going to have explain to voters next year, there is no health care overhaul, there is no tax reform packages, there is no infrastructure spending, they're going to have to answer for that. And I think a lot of them are, one, uncomfortable with the idea that they might end this year without those but also are increasingly reluctant to walk a plank for someone who maybe has a 35 percent approval rating. So they're in a bit of a bind in either way it's not looking good for the president.

KING: And so where are we? Here's John Thune, a key member of the Senate Republican leadership speaking just yesterday. "I still think in the end there's a huge reason why we have to get to 50 on this." Meaning health care. "Obviously we're going to have a vote one way or the other, but if we don't pass something and we get into '18, it's on us to try to get this fixed."

So John Thune, a member of the leadership saying we're going to try to have a vote. Lindsey Graham, Republican senator also speaking on the very the same day. "I just don't think we put it together among ourselves. I've always believed, let ObamaCare collapse, which it will and challenge the Democrats to help us fix it. That's always been my preferred route."

You have others, Senator Richard Burr, the chairman of the intelligence committee saying, I don't think we're going to have an ObamaCare plan ready for a vote in the Senate this year. Which is it?

HABERMAN: All of the above. I mean, what Lindsey Graham said is actually very similar to what you heard the president say over and over which is let it just collapse and it will be on the Democrats. That's really hard to sell when you are the governing majority. And so I think that there are people like Tom Cotton who you have seen has had to take something of a calculated road on the issue of ObamaCare because a lot of people in his state like it. You have a lot of senators like that.

It's complicated as you all know for Republicans who have campaigned for cycle after cycle on repealing ObamaCare and making it better. And so there is where I think you see this road because the reality of changing it is, it's not really going to get that much better. I mean, that is what people will tell you privately. Republicans will tell you privately they are being candid about what they are looking at. And that is why I think you are seeing this push-ball (ph).

MICHAEL BENDER, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: It's a little bit of fool's gold here too. And that Republicans on their own can't do hardly anything in Congress. And the idea that something bipartisan is going to be easier is sort of hard to understand. And, you know, at some point they're going to have to explain to their voter who saw the Rose Garden ceremony after it passed the House, so I thought ObamaCare was done. I saw the marine band serenading the president in the East Room at the start of infrastructure week. What do you mean there's no infrastructure bill?

HABERMAN: The problem with these shows --

KING: Problem, right. They put on this show and it has been a Trump promise since he came down the escalator at Trump Tower and announced his candidacy. It has been a Republican promise for five years before that to repeal ObamaCare. Then it became repeal and replace ObamaCare. To your point, if the Republicans can't figure this out in the Senate or even if they can in the Senate, the Democrats say, you know, we could just fix ObamaCare.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. RON WYDEN (D), OREGON: If the Republicans will set aside this partisan gun at your head kind of approach, we stand ready if they're willing to do that to work cooperatively with them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: What is more likely heading into a midterm election year where getting out your base is the most important thing? The president stops tweeting or the Republicans abandon repeal and agree to just fix ObamaCare?

MARTIN: Well, they're definitely not going to agree to keep ObamaCare and do some bipartisan effect with Democrats nor by the way are Democrats going to step up.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right, they're not going to do it either.

[12:40:03] MARTIN: But that said John, I think Senator Thune's comments that you just flashed on the screen was so telling. This is the number three ranking senator, Republican, this is not someone who is a maverick. He is someone who's in those meetings and the fact that he is saying, we might have to come back to it. Oh my gosh, that is so --

KING: But he also said we're going to have a vote either way.

MARTIN: Exactly, that's what I'm saying. That signals to me that Mitch McConnell is now of the mind, let's bring this thing to the floor for a vote and if we pass it we go to conference and try to do it, and if we don't pass it, we move on to other work, you know. I mean, I really think that that's what is now the approach.

KING: You cannot know if they can just wash their hands of what has been their central organizing principle in the last four or five elections, but we shall see I guess. It's a brand new Washington.

MARTIN: Tax cuts though. Tax cuts are the Holy Grail for the Republican Party. They're desperate --

PACE: Not an easy task.

MARTIN: They're desperate to move on tax cut.

KING: Who knew that's complicated too? Everybody sit tight. Washington bracing for what part of FBI Director James Comey might say when he testifies before the Senate Intelligence Committee. Some Republicans are arguing, most of the country isn't as interested.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: Welcome back. The ground rules for the giant Washington event coming up Thursday now much more clear. James Comey will testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee and the former FBI director has the OK from the Special Counsel Bob Mueller to talk candidly.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. RICHARD BURR (R), CHAIRMAN, SENATE SELECT COMMITTEE ON INTELLIGENCE: They've talked. I understand that the Special Counsel has not fenced him off in any way, shape, or form from the items he intends to talk about.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's right. And those items intend to talk about are what?

BURR: Well, it's about Russia's involvement in our 2016 election which is the investigation and that does lead into the possibility of collusion.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: The chairman there say the possibility of collusion. And after a few days of non-answers, the White House now also on the record.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS, DEPUTY WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: In order to facilitate a swift and thorough examination of the facts sought by the Senate Intelligence Committee, President Trump will not assert executive privilege regarding James Comey's scheduled testimony.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: And you can't think of a day with more potential importance for this presidency than the former FBI director being questioned about did the president, in fact, ask for a loyalty pledge over dinner. Did the president, in fact, clear the Oval Office and keep just you there and ask you to shut down the Michael Flynn investigation?

HABERMAN: Yes, I think the potential for Comey testifying under oath in his own voice about what happened is going to be pretty powerful. How durable it is I don't know. What exactly we learn I don't know. There's obviously some guardrails around what he is allowed to talk about.

[12:45:01] And one question that I do wonder about and I've been wondering about this for a couple of weeks is, does he get asked about the president's repeated claim that Comey told him he's not under investigation. And I do wonder what gets said there and I wonder, you know, is that an answer that may have changed over the course of time? But I think that -- it is obviously going to be riveting, whatever he says. You know, my big question, frankly, is less what -- as much what Comey says as how the president handles this. That's my big question mark on it.

KING: And when you see Sarah Huckabee Sanders saying we're not going to invoke the executive privilege, they sort of danced around that for a few days. But it would have been a huge political risk is that because they realized that just would have been nuts. It would have sent the wrong signal or is it because some say they don't think this is going to be as damming or as damaging as others think?

PACE: They're hoping it won't be as damaging. They just -- they frankly don't know. There's a lot of uncertainty in the White House about what Comey is going to say. I think the driving factor in not invoking executive privilege was really the optics of it, the political risk. It just looks like you are scared of what Comey is going to say out there.

A lot of people on the outside though, Trump supporters, want to be involved in an effort to support him on Thursday. They are looking for guidance from the White House. How can we help? How can we be there?

We're not getting that right now. There's no movement towards setting up this Russia war room that was suppose to happen in the White House. So in a lot of ways, the West Wing is leaving themselves a bit defenseless.

KING: And what happened with that? Because there was a lot of talk, it was Corey Lewandowski, the old campaign manager who's going to come in, David Bossie, the former deputy campaign manager. They came in. They've had discussions with the president. They're around now more than they have been.

They've been around throughout the administration but around now more of a sudden. Some people say the president just wants his lawyer to deal wit with it. Other people say David Bossie and Corey Lewandowski realized government salary, government ethics rules, I'm not doing that.

PACE: I think it's tough to get even people who are loyal to the president to join an administration at this phase where you're facing investigation. You don't know exactly which direction this is going to go. But also frankly I think this came down to a lack of decision making in the West Wing.

It was unclear whether this should be housed inside, outside. There was some talks that maybe it should go to the RNC. And they basically as they often do in the West Wing, tie themselves up in knots in the decision making process and then gets left with nothing.

HABERMAN: Well, I also think there's a big question mark about this too. In part of the lack of decision making was that the main lawyer right now, Marc Kasowitz who's been the president's lawyer for quite some time wants to have this all funneled as I understand it through him. And that's understandable. I mean, as the lawyer, that's part of the whole concern here.

That is a tough herd of cats to sort of get in one line. And so I think that was part of the challenge. And I also had the sense from a couple people I talked to that the president himself hadn't totally bought in to what (INAUDIBLE).

BENDER: They're doing a little bit of time here. I mean, the political and communications questions is a pressing one right now. But as far as team around Kasowitz, no one is really participating in these congressional inquiries, right? It's going to be a while before they need appellate attorneys that have been named.

So they do have a little time to figure that out. But the point is still a good one that this has been a decision making process problem within the White House.

KING: Is it fair to say that one of the biggest tests, you mentioned a very important test how does the White House react to it. Another test, what's the Republican conversation next week because a lot of Republicans now, they want to focus on the leaks. They're going to say to Director Comey, if he was going to obstruct you, why didn't you come and tell us. So there'll be some efforts to help the president. I don't think there'll be, you know, in your face defense of the president if he actually had these conversations. But what the Republicans are saying after Comey is going to tell me a lot about where they think this ship is going.

MARTIN: It will be the first vast indication for just how durable the Congressional GOP loyalty is to Trump. Because for the first time, you're not just going to have a story in a seemingly adversarial newspaper. You're going to have a live, a former law man up there under oath saying these things. And that I think is going to be harder for the Republicans on the hill to dismiss as the product of some story or some article which they often like to do. It makes it harder. We will see who is actually on team Trump and who is looking for an off ramp.

KING: And for whatever Jim Comey's mistakes over the years and there are some, but he's a credible law man, skilled trained with a Republican pedigree. It's hard for them to just go after his integrity there.

Up next, Trump's tweets making a splash across the pond.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:52:08] KING: Welcome back. The British Prime Minister Theresa May is siding with London's mayor in the transatlantic Twitter war.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

THERESA MAY, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: I think he's doing a good job and it's wrong to say anything else. He is doing a good job.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Now distance from President Trump was not her initial instinct. Remember back in January when May visited the White House?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAY: President Trump's victory achieved in defiance of all the pundits in the polls and rooted not in the corridors of Washington, but in the hopes and aspirations of working men and women across this land.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: But things have soured since. Tensions were in the open for example at last month's NATO summit.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAY: I will be making clear to President Trump today that intelligence that he shared between law enforcement agencies must remain secure.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Now Trump's attacks on the London Mayor Sadiq Khan bringing fresh calls to cancel or scale back the Trump state visit plan for later this year. A more immediate question though, might there be a Trump effect Thursday when the United Kingdom hold its national election to tests Prime Minister May's hold on power. Unpredictable environment but she clearly has gone from coming to Washington then going to that Republican retreat where you heard her sing the praises of Trump in his wow what a victory to whoa.

PACE: And really amazing to think about how the political shift has happened in her country. She came into office, she was riding this waive of populism, the same wave that Trump had that carried him into the White House. Now you see that across Europe, not just in France and in Germany but also in the U.K., Trump is increasingly unpopular. For as much as the White House heralded that trip that he made in Europe, it's really hard to overstate how difficult that trip was and how leaders are really recoiling from him right now.

She's facing election. The fact that he went after a mayor whose city was just attacked, just the optics of that, whatever city it would but to a city like London in the U.K., which is supposedly our strongest ally, the optics of that are pretty equal.

HABERMAN: If you think about -- I mean, seriously think about the attack that this country suffered on September 11, 2001. And you try to imagine anybody going after Rudy Giuliani at the time. I mean, it's just (INAUDIBLE) and distorting his words.

I think that to Julie's point, this was a thing that a lot of people worried about who opposed Donald Trump during his 2016 campaign is, given his isolationist talk at times and he would argue he's not and he would frankly argue both sides of the opposition a lot of the time. But given what he was saying, given the unpredictability of it, and given that you are privately hearing in the last couple months aides to foreign leaders say they're concerned about what his tweets would be because -- I mean, exactly what we're seeing. You reach the concern that in this sort of post World War II order, post Cold War order that other countries aren't going to want to deal with the United States. And that's what we're moving toward right now.

BENDER: Theresa May has gone from what, 20 points up to single digits now. Some of its -- her own problems with security there. Some of it is the Trump stuff. It's hard to come up with a list of -- whether it's politicians or political operatives who are better off after cozying up to Trump.

[12:55:06] I mean, sort of the body count behind Trump is pretty lengthy. And we are now in a position where -- we're now in a world where the mayor of London, 25th largest city in the world, considers it beneath him to respond to a statement from the president of the United States.

MARTIN: And Jeremy Corbin, the labor opponent of Theresa May, is seizing on what Trump has said because he sees an opening here.

PACE: Making a referendum.

MARTIN: And by the way, May call this election a snap election because she thought it was an opportunity for (INAUDIBLE) to pick up a lot of seats. And now you have somebody, Jeremy Corbin who frankly makes Bernie Sanders-- like Jon (ph) mention in some ways with a real opportunity to become the next prime minister of the U.K.

KING: We'll keep an eye on this. Thursday's vote, big day in Washington. Big vote in the U.K. Nice tries. You can bring that next week.

Thanks for joining us in the "Inside Politics." We'll be back after a quick break. Wolf Blitzer in the chair.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, I'm Wolf Blitzer. It's 1:00 p.m. here in Washington, 6:00 p.m. in London, 7:00 p.m. in Paris. Wherever you're watching --