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Haley Warns U.N.; Government Shutdown Looming; U.N. Votes Condemns Jerusalem Decision. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired December 21, 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: Plus, the White House insists again there are no plans to fire the special counsel once Congress leaves town. So why do some Democrats just not buy it?

And a defiant threat from the Trump White House as the United Nations considers this hour condemning the president's decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NIKKI HALEY, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO THE U.N.: America will put our embassy in Jerusalem. That is what the American people want us to do. And it is the right thing to do. No vote in the United Nations will make any difference on that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Let's begin with that dramatic showdown at the United Nations. The general assembly, this hour, preparing to vote in a resolution that condemns President Trump's decision to officially recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital. First in the Security Council and now in the full General Assembly, critics accuse the White House in taking sides in a dispute that has long been central to the Israeli- Palestinian conflict. The U.S. ambassador, Nikki Haley, insists that's not the case, but also says this is bigger than that. She says public votes at the United Nations, with the clear goal of whacking the United States, whatever the issue, will have consequences.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NIKKI HALEY, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO THE U.N.: The United States will remember this day in which it was singled out for attack in the General Assembly for the very act of exercising our right as a sovereign nation. We will remember it when we are called upon to, once again, make the world's largest contribution to the United Nations. And we will remember it when so many countries come calling on us, as they so often do, to pay even more and to use our influence for their benefit.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Ambassador Haley's remarks come a day after President Trump suggested nations could lose their foreign aid over this vote.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, we're watching those votes. Let them vote against us. We'll save a lot. We don't care. But this isn't like it used to be where they could vote against you and then you pay them hundreds of millions of dollars and nobody knows what they're doing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Our diplomatic correspondent Michelle Kosinski joins us now live.

Michelle, this is a big confrontation at the United Nations. Tough talk from both the president and now today Ambassador Haley. Where does it get us?

MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN SENIOR DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENT: Yes, and we weren't even sure if Nikki Haley would speak today. I mean we heard her very strong words on Monday when the U.S. was standing absolutely alone in the U.N. Security Counsel.

Today, though, the U.S. has a few more friends here. But Nikki Haley did speak just recently and she didn't pull any punches. I mean she wanted to start right out of the gate by shaming the U.N. and shaming other countries. That is the word she used. In fact, it was the third word out of her mouth saying to its shame the U.N. has been a hostile place for Israel. So she rebuked the U.N. for its stance on Israel and ended her speech by saying that this is something that the U.S. will remember.

Now, when I say that their -- the U.S. is here in the U.N. General Assembly, at least, among a few more friends, her words were very much aligned with Israel's today. In fact, Israel spoke right after her, again, talking about this vote being shameful and a vote that should not be happening because, of course, the U.S. has reiterated that it doesn't really change the final status of Jerusalem, so there's no need to go to this length.

We do expect possibly Hungary, the Czech Republic, also Canada and Australia not to vote against this resolution that rebukes the United States, but to abstain. And other U.S. allies, including the U.K. we're now hearing, are still deciding how exactly to vote, John.

KING: Michelle Kosinski with the update there. We'll keep an eye on this as the debate at the United Nations General Assembly continues.

Michelle, thank you.

With us in studio to share their reporting and their insights, CNN's Abby Phillip, Olivier Knox of "Yahoo! News." Perry Bacon of FiveThirtyEight, and CNN's Lauren Fox.

Two ways to look at this, domestic politics, the United States and Israel standing up against the world, President Trump likes that. He thinks that plays well with his base. He thinks actually it plays well even beyond his base a little bit. The other way to look at this is, what if -- what will, if anything, the international impact be? Is the Trump White House actually ready, whether it's to cut off foreign aid to the country's pushing this, or cut off -- reduce its dues or pull its dues from the United Nations, or is this bluster?

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: I mean I think it's been interesting to see the international community adjust to this kind of rhetoric from this administration. It's an extension of the idea that the United States shouldn't pay money into institutions that do not directly benefit it in a very tangible way. Putting aside the sort of soft power policy that I think has been in place for many, many decades. And so what you -- that's what you're seeing here.

It's also a little bit kind of almost like a grievance based foreign policy where the United States is saying, we are going to hold a grudge against you if you do this. It's different. I mean I think we just need to put it in a different category and say, let's see how people respond, because what we saw with the other foreign institutions that we have been a part of that we've said, OK, we're not going to pay any more money into this if you guys don't pay more is that they've adjusted and they've said, OK, we're going to pay a little bit more so that you guys can have a win and everybody can be happy. It may very well be that this kind of rhetoric actually has a reaction to it that is positive, even if it doesn't result in the United States suddenly pulling out of the United Nations.

[12:05:30] KING: But do you see -- do you see six months from now, a year from now, when we're looking at this, will we be able to say, look, President Trump cut aid to Egypt, he cut aid to Turkey, he cut aid to other places who supported this resolution. The president refuses to pay U.N. dues or scales back. Is that going to happen or is this a big, giant political show?

OLIVIER KNOX, "YAHOO! NEWS": That's a good question. But if you listen to the rhetoric from the administration from yesterday into today there was a shift. The president was clearly referring to cutting aid, bilateral aid, to concern countries. That would mean cuts to Egypt and Afghanistan and Jordan and places that -- where the United States really doesn't want to destabilize the situation any further. That was also unlikely. That was more likely that they would go to the dues route.

This is actually -- it's getting a lot of attention because this was going to be a completely nothing vote. Non-binding. Everyone sort of expects there to be an overwhelming vote against the United States. It would have gotten a couple of lines in the newspaper. Well, now it's a test of American credibility and clout on the international scene, which is not great for the Trump administration except that they can portray this as a shining moment of, you know, moral clarity.

It's also a relatively conventional Republican approach to the United Nations. This is much more in line with Jeane Kirkpatrick under Reagan, or John Bolton under George W. Bush. Republicans tend to be much more skeptical, if not outright hostile, to the United Nations. So this falls into sort of a continuum of American policy.

KING: But to Olivier's point, Perry, their -- maybe it would be a much smaller story. I think it would be more than three lines, but it would be a smaller story if the president and his United Nation ambassador hadn't decided, let's make this a confrontation. Let's have a showdown and a stare down at the United Nations right there in the hall of the general assembly. Why? Why he -- I mean the president obviously, you know, thinks that this helps him, at least here at home.

PERRY BACON, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT: This is -- his anti-U.N. politics, as these guys have said, a lot fits into -- a little bit into the Nikki Haley aura or campaign presidential (ph) eventually happen too, I think. So I think it fits both of their politics pretty well and I think it lines up with where -- domestically where things are going. Again, I'm with Olivier in the sense that I think this is mostly symbolic and I'm very skeptical we're going to cut off aid or even not pay some U.N. dues six or seven months from now.

PHILLIP: And, frankly, I think the threats are not as effective as they used to be. I think countries recognize that there's unlikely to be a reaction that that's extreme despite the rhetoric, so they just roll with the punches.

KING: Well, let's -- let's listen -- let's listen a little bit more to Ambassador Haley because she is essentially making the point, and you made this point earlier, the United Nations, it's here in the United States. That's where it's based. The United States has always paid the bigger share. The idea of being, we want to have more influence. We want to be the democracy, the shining light, if you will. She's essentially saying, our dues are contingent on you agreeing with us.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NIKKI HALEY, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO THE U.N.: When we make generous contributions to the U.N., we also have a legitimate expectation that our good will is recognized and respected. When a nation is singled out for attack in this organization, that nation is disrespected.

What's more, that nation is asked to pay for the privilege of being disrespected. In the case of the United States, we are asked to pay more than anyone else for that dubious privilege.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Well, let's just look as we continue the investigation. We'll see what happens. We'll see e if the United States actually pulls its dues or reduces its payments to the United Nations.

But there you see the United States pays 22 percent of the contributions, followed by Japan, China, Germany, France, and the U.S. there. But you look at that 22 percent. It is a whopping difference. Number two, Japan, coming in just under 10 percent.

The -- we don't know where we go from here, but this administration decided it wanted to escalate this fight that Egypt started in the Security Council. This is Turkey and Yemen I believe putting the resolution forward in the General Assembly. But they could have tried to downplay it. They decided to raise it. LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER: This is clearly America first

policy. What Trump said on the campaign was that America is not getting a fair shake in the world, that we are doing all of these things and it's going -- we're not being appreciated by our allies, by the countries that we're trying to protect. And I think that that is exactly why they decided to make this a big show rather than just sort of letting the vote happen and, you know, moving on very quickly.

KING: Right. And to the point Perry made, this show's called INSIDE POLITICS. It's hard not to notice this is the day after a cabinet meeting in which the president sat with his defense secretary to one side, spoke to him, his secretary of state to the other side, did not say a word to him or acknowledge him at all, but he praised Nikki Haley.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Nikki, that was the right message that you and I agreed to be sent yesterday. And I've had a lot of good comment on it, believe me. People are tired of the United States -- the people that live here, our great citizens that love this country, they're tired of this country being taken advantage of. And we're not going to be taken advantage of any longer.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: It's an interesting personnel moment, if you would there. The secretary of state, who we've all known for months, has a frosty relationship at best with the president. The president doesn't say a word about him at the year-end cabinet meeting, but --

[12:10:12] PHILLIP: And the secretary of state, who has a frosty relationship with Nikki Haley, sits there as his sort of nemesis is being praised by the president. It is -- it's all the reality show drama.

But I think that what it reflects is that the president feels like Nikki Haley is representing him accurately on the world stage, which is something that he doesn't always feel Tillerson does because Tillerson sometimes freelances and sometimes goes farther than he wants him to go and sometimes is running parallel foreign policy objectives. Nikki Haley, at least from the verbal perspective, says that word disrespected, that she used earlier today, that is a Trump word. He does not want this country to be disrespected on the world stage. The fact that she said that, it's coming right out of the president's brain and out of her mouth.

KING: Well, you see on the right side of your screen there, the small box. We're going to keep our eye on the vote there. The United States will be rebuked, we fully expect. The question is, which countries abstain? What's the margin of the vote? We'll keep an eye on that vote. If it happens this hour, we'll bring it to you.

Up next, though, the president prods his party to keep the government open, but a deal to avert a crisis doesn't mean we won't have a messy debate. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:15:27] KING: Welcome back.

We move on now to a countdown and a reminder that -- not that you needed one -- dysfunction in still in abundant supply here in Washington, D.C. Exactly 36 hours left until the government runs out of money. They still don't have the votes. They still don't have a firm plan.

House Republicans promised more details later today, and the president is giving them a pretty big nudge. He tweeted this this morning. House Democrats want a shutdown for the holidays in order to distract from the very popular just passed tax cuts. That's the tweet. The president went on to say, House Republicans, don't let this happen. Pass the CR today and keep our government open. CR means continuing resolution. That's how Washington doesn't really work but keeps the government open instead of passing a budget.

Ask members in both parties and most say it would be a cosmic accident if a government shutdown actually happens. But don't mistake a bipartisan wish to keep things up and running as a bipartisan agreement on just how to do that. The policy divisions are very real across the aisle, meaning between Democrats and Republicans, and inside the Republican conference. Just a few of the many unresolved issues, does Congress now wasn't to shore up Obamacare after the president said he just broke its back by repealing the individual mandate, are they willing to blow a bigger hole in the deficit for disaster relief, do they want the so-called dreamers to stay, and as a result give them what many conservatives would call amnesty, and will they come up with more money for the Children's Health Program known as CHIP? All need to be answer. Most, though, probably won't be by this time tomorrow.

And that is the big question, how much do they decide they can do, because there are some quick sanded hand grenades in the issues we're dealing with here. How much do they decide they can do today and tomorrow and how much do they say, skip it, we can push this off until the middle of January?

FOX: They're going to be skipping a whole lot. And they've already said that they're going to push the health care debate, which is a big one for a senator like Susan Collins in Maine, who made that a contingency on voting for the tax reform bill. They're also going to push off immigration and they're going to perhaps have to push off even really a big debate about the spy program with the FISA program. So that is a big question of, you know, how much they're going to be able to get done. At this point it's going to look like the bear minimum and they're not even sure exactly how they're going to do that at this point.

KING: Right.

As we continue the conversation, I just want to let our viewers know, that resolution critical of the United States at the United Nations doesn't specifically mention the United States but criticizes any government that takes sides on the Jerusalem question, has just passed the United Nations. We're going to get more details of what the vote, who abstained and the like of that. we'll bring that back to you as we continue the conversation.

But to Lauren's point then. We had an all Republican Washington. They promised they were going to pass budgets the way they used to pass budgets. Washington hasn't passed a real budget, according to the rules, the way it's supposed to work, since Bill Clinton was president of the United States. That tells you a lot.

But -- so they're going to carry over into 2018 the big immigration question, a deficit question, Obamacare fixes question. In a year in which Republicans are trying to protect the majorities and you already see the beginnings of a Democratic wave because of the president's unpopularity. Huh?

BACON: This is better than -- and, really, it says that Donald Trump is right on the politics here, a shutdown would be terrible tomorrow. After just passing this huge tax bill, it would be bad PR, it would distract from their attention. So I do think the smartest thing to do is pass another short-term CR, push everything until next year.

These debates they keep having though is, the core of it is, there's a big part of their caucus, the Rand Pauls, the Freedom Caucus, that wants to cut a lot of spending. The Democrats don't like that. A lot of the Republicans don't like it either. So this constant CR, almost shutdown, CR, over and over again, we keep going through this same cycle because there's a core divide in the Republican Party about how much spending to cut and how.

KING: I agree with you, a shutdown would be disastrous right now for everybody in this town actually because most of America --

BACON: Yes (INAUDIBLE).

KING: Most of America doesn't like this town and still thinks this town would mess up a free lunch. My question is like, the Republicans, I get it, it's been hard for them, but why didn't they deal with at least one or two of these like last month as opposed to saving everything for an election year?

PHILLIP: They cannot walk and chew gum at the same time. That's the truth. That they just can only deal with one big thing at a time. And the biggest priority, and it -- politically this makes a lot of sense, they needed to do taxes. They needed to deliver something before the end of this year so that they could say they've actually been, you know, working for their paycheck.

But, at the same time, they have tougher decisions to make. And those decisions are even tougher now because they didn't pay for their tax bill. And so they're facing the prospect of having to spend a lot of money to deal with other issues or to negotiate with Democrats on other issues. And they just don't have a lot of political capital within their own caucus to do that kind of thing. And their -- and as to your point, they're pushing it off into a period of time that will actually make it more difficult because fewer and fewer Republicans are going to want to take hard votes on some of this stuff next year.

KING: Right. OK, I want to stop this conversation for a second.

[12:20:01] As I mentioned, just moments ago, at the United Nations, a resolution has passed very critical of the United States. It doesn't mention the United States by name, but criticizes President Trump's decision implicitly to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. The countries of the United Nations saying the United States now going beyond the bounds, putting its thumb on the scale, if you will, on an issue that is supposed to be left to final status negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians. One hundred and twenty-eight nations voted in favor and this resolution, nine voted against, 35 abstained.

Our CNN national security contributor, Rear Admiral John Kirby, is with us.

Admiral, what does this mean?

REAR ADMIRAL JOHN KIRBY (RET.), CNN MILITARY AND DIPLOMATIC ANALYST: Well, this is a big rebuke to the Trump administration and their decision to announce Jerusalem as the capital and the fact that they're going to move their embassy there. I think it's not very -- not unexpected. I think you could tell that the Trump administration knew the vote was going to go just resoundingly against them when -- by the way they reacted and the way they threatened yesterday.

But here, importantly, it is symbolic, but there also is some tangible, realistic, practical outcome here. One, it will make it very, very difficult for the peace process to move forward in any kind of meaningful way because this gives life to the Palestinians' complaint that the system has been rigged against them and that they're not going to -- they're not going to give them any incentive to move forward on this.

Number two, and this is a really important one, John, it further isolates the United States from the international community. I man they talk about America first. This is actually America alone. It is yet another foreign policy issue where the United States stands apart from the rest of the world. And that's not a good thing for our leadership and our ability to influence events overseas.

KING: How likely -- I'm going to use that term -- do you think it is that the president actually will retaliate? That the words we heard today from Ambassador Haley, whether it is, as the president suggested yesterday, direct foreign aid to individual countries who spearheaded this effort, or just pulling back from the United Nations saying, fine, we're not going to pay 20 percent anymore and picking a much lower number. How likely is that?

KIRBY: I think it's rather unlikely. Now, I can't say that he's not going to do something. He'll probably feel like he has to now because the vote was so resoundingly against him. But I think that hopefully cooler heads will prevail here and they'll realize that they don't cut off their nose to spite their face. The foreign aid and assistance we provide, and it's not clear whether he's talking about foreign military sales or aid through USAID. Regardless, that is in our interest. It actually helps us influence events overseas and promote stability and security there, to keep problems from coming home to us. Plus, it gives us a vote at the table as these countries move forward on reform and political programs. The last thing you want to do is pull that back out of spite. It's not charity. Pull back out of spite and then leave a vacuum for countries like China, which would only too gladly fill that with their own financial contributions to our detriment.

KING: Admiral Kirby, appreciate your insights.

KIRBY: You bet.

KING: Let's go around the table and talk about this.

The admiral, Olivier, you've been at this a long time, makes a pretty rational case there, that you actually end up hurting yourself and your prestige around the world. You creates openings for Russia, China, others to step in where the United States has been the lead partner, if you will, in many of these aids efforts. That's a logical, rational case. Will the Trump administration follow it?

KNOX: That's a good question. You know, the issue of other countries moving into the vacuum left when the United States pulls back is a real one. You can think of China moving forward on climate. You can think of the E.U. and Japan working out free trade agreements while we sort of dither. It's a real thing.

The only quibble I have with John's point is, no one really thought that the peace process was in great shape. No one thought that with Bibi Netanyahu as the Israeli prime minister and Mahmoud Abbas as the Palestinian president, we were on the cusp of some major breakthrough, even though the White House was going to release its peace -- supposedly release its peace plan sometime in the next month or so.

It's going to be interesting to watch. Mike Pence is going to the region. He delayed his trip there to be -- in case he was needed for the tax vote. He's going there now. What kind of reception does he get?

I'm really -- I really want to know which nine voted against this and who were the 35 who abstained? That's really important because the final result wasn't that much of a surprise. Everyone knew this was heading towards a major majority voting against the U.S. position.

KING: I think now we'll watch the president's reaction. The president always says, when he gets punched, he counter punches. This is a -- this is a punch. I can get you through the list that voted against here, Guatemala, Honduras, Israel, the Marshal Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau (ph), Togo, and the United States. Those are the votes against. Abstentions will, of course, include many traditional allies around the world who did not -- who disagree with the president's decision but did not want to publically cast a vote condemning it at the United Nations. We'll keep an eye on that debate.

Up next, selling the tax plan in 2018. The Democratic leader of the House, Nancy Pelosi, already has her one-liner ready.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D), MINORITY LEADER: It's a monster -- a Frankenstein. And anybody that's familiar with Frankenstein knows that it was a creation, a monster that was created. You know the ending of the Mary Shelley's story? The monster comes back to destroy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:29:13] KING: Welcome back.

The biggest legislative accomplishment of President Trump's first year in office, what he calls a Christmas gift to the American people is on its way to the president's desk. Just a few moments ago, the congressional leadership officially enrolled -- that's the process for sending the bill down to the president. It's expected to happen soon. The signing itself perhaps over the holidays while Mr. Trump is at his resort in Florida, Mar-a-Lago.

The Republican's next challenge? Convincing skeptical Americans this is actually good news for them. Speaker Paul Ryan blames elitist commentators for minimizing the benefits to the middle class.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. PAUL RYAN (R), HOUSE SPEAKER: The average income family of four in Wisconsin is going to get in excess of a $2,000 tax cut. That's real relief for real people living paycheck to paycheck.

We're encouraged at the fact that this is going to give the American economy the jolt of energy it needs to give people the opportunity they deserve.

(END VIDEO CLIP)