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Inside Politics

Trump Speaks at Service for Fallen Officers; Trump and Senators Meet Today; Conway on Leaks. Aired 12n-12:30p ET

Aired May 15, 2018 - 12:00   ET

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

[12:00:00] DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: One of the most alarming crimes taking place against our police are ambush attacks. Think of that, ambush attacks. I have directed the Justice Department to do everything in its power to defend the lives of American law enforcement.

We are honored to be joined today by the family of Detective Miosotis Familia.

Detective Familia was a proud member of the New York Police Department.

Where is that family? Where is that great family? Great family.

Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Can you come up here? This is a great -- come up here, please. Come on. I'd like to have this family. New York Police Department, close to my heart. Come on. Can you open those gates, please?

Come on, we'll go up here.

So I promised I wouldn't tell you that she's 90 years old, but, you know what, she is really something, right? You look like 55, maybe, 55? Huh? Boy, I tell you what, you got up those stairs better than I did.

Thank you so much. Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE).

TRUMP: Thank you, man.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'd like to honor you with a challenge coin.

TRUMP: Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Dedicated to you (INAUDIBLE).

TRUMP: And great guy, right, friend of yours.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He was my (INAUDIBLE).

TRUMP: Oh, wow.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE). TRUMP: Well, a fantastic person, huh? (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE).

TRUMP: So I just want to say, the officer just -- say something. You know what I'd like you to do, say how great she was. Come here. He's done this before. Say how great she was. You just told me something, that this was a great partner. Go ahead.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE).

TRUMP: Don't get nervous.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right. That was unexpected.

Yes, my name is Officer Samar (ph). I was Detective Familia's partner the night she was killed. And I knew her for about 10 years. I worked with her on and off.

This is a woman who got injured a while ago and volunteered to come back to patrol to one of the -- one of the roughest places in New York City. She volunteered to come back. To leave a cushy job to come back to patrol. She was only there for about two weeks. And I had the honor of being with her that night.

[12:05:13] And she may have been lost that night, but she saved a lot of lives in turn because of her memory and everything that transpired after the fact. She was an incredible person. And she is missed by family. This family is, again, they're incredible.

Thank you.

TRUMP: Thank you very much.

These are special people. They're just special, special people.

And I want to tell you that last year, just a few hours after the city of New York celebrated the Fourth of July, Detective Familia was on duty in her vehicle not far from Yankee Stadium. Big Yankee fan? Big -- you're all Yankee fans, right?

She was ambushed by a man for the simple reason that she was a member of the police department. She was a member of law enforcement. That was the simple reason.

The attack, because she was so incredible, was just looked upon so horribly. Her family, when people met the family, they saw what an incredible person she was. I just want to say that, to your entire family, it's such an honor to have you up here. We weren't going to bring you up, but I looked at you in the audience and I said, you have to come up, because you're representing something so important. You understand that.

She loved the department. She loved being a police officer. She loved her job. She was respected by everybody. They told me all about her. She was respected by everybody. So she's right now right there and she's looking down and she's so proud of you. She's so proud of you. And you are great. You are great. Thank you very much.

Stay. Yes, we'll go down together, OK?

I told them to stay. We'll go down together. I'm almost finished, right? We'll go down together.

So to all the families here today who have lost a loved one, I'd like to ask you to all please stand. Please stand.

You lost mothers and fathers, husbands and wives, sons and daughters. And America lost incredible heroes. But they will endure forever. Forever and ever. You know that. They're going to endure for -- they're going to endure forever. She will endure forever in our memories and our hearts and in the countless lives they touched through their courage and through their grace. Their legacy will never die. Your mom's legacy will never, ever die. You have good genes, right? Good genes. The best genes I've ever seen.

In a moment, we will listen to the roll call of these great fallen officers. As we read the names of your loved ones, we engrave them into the eternal chronicle of American valor. And when that siren blares, when the squad car races down the street, when the police officer steps forth confident and proud and strong, so brave in that crisp, blue uniform, we will think of you. We will think of your incredible daughter. We will be thinking of her. We will be thinking of all of the heroes we lost, and we will thank God for the men and women of law enforcement.

Thanks again to all of our wonderful police, our sheriffs, and all of law enforcement and law enforcement officers. You're incredible people. You are the finest. You are the greatest. You are our heroes.

[12:10:10] God bless you. God bless our fallen heroes. God bless their families. And God bless America. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you.

JOHN KING, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to INSIDE POLITICS. I'm John King.

We're going to stay with this scene. The president of the United States up on Capitol Hill at an important annual event, a very emotional event. The president speaking here at a ceremony to honor the fallen. Fallen police officers who have lost their lives in the past year right here.

The president brought a family of a New York police officer slain in the line of duty up on stage. Quite an emotional moment there, paying tribute to the family, paying tribute to her partner. The president now is going to participate in a wreath laying as part of this very important, annual ceremony again up on Capitol Hill. We'll watch the president head down the stairs here, just shaking hands.

This is an annual event. President Trump taking his time to thank the police officers nationwide who have fallen in the line of duty. And again, a very touching moment. He brought up the Familia family, a New York City police officer, a woman, her mother was there, her children were there. The president paying tribute up there. Now he's going to make his way through the crowd here, thank some of the other families.

We'll take a quick break on INSIDE POLITICS. We'll be back in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:15:55] KING: Welcome back.

You see the United States Capitol there. This is the annual ceremony honoring police officers killed in the line of duty. President Trump finishing up his remarks, now greeting families at that ceremony.

The president then stays up on Capitol Hill for the hour ahead. He's sitting down for lunch with Senate Republicans. Both the president and Republican senators have some big wants, but some competing priorities as well heading into what looks like a challenging midterm environment for Republicans.

The president, for example, wants to put some wins on the board. That starts with judicial nominations. He also wants a painless confirmation vote for his CIA pick and some cover heading into summit talks with North Korea and trade talks ongoing this week with China. And don't forget he also wants, when spending issues come back up, real money for his border wall.

The majority leader wants many of the same things, especially more conservative judges. But, some key demands could create some fresh friction between the gentleman from Kentucky and the president of the United States. One likely landmine, Republicans want the White House, and preferably the president, to say something, almost anything to atone for that tasteless remark by a White House staffer about Senator John McCain. Republican leaders also want some guarantees heading into that challenging election fight. Some message discipline from the president, and a recognition from him that he does not help Republicans everywhere.

CNN's Phil Mattingly is standing by on Capitol Hill.

Phil, it's a rare visit from the president. It comes at a very fascinating moment in politics. What are those senators looking for most?

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, John, the interesting element is for all the things Senate Republicans want from President Trump, a direct confrontation is certainly not on that list. What's been really interesting over the course of the last hour or so as I've been talking to Senate Republicans is very few of them, if any, expect to confront the president over those remarks by a top White House aide related to Senator John McCain. Now that doesn't mean some of them aren't furious. Some of them saying that there should be something done, but most kind of resigned to the fact that an apology is not coming and they're ready to move on.

Now, what do they want to move on to? You hit on some of the key points. Most notably I've heard repeatedly, people want information on what's going on with North Korea right now. They want to know how the kind of setup for the summit is actually going, what the administration is planning, any details they can get. There's a lot of Senate Republicans that are very interested in how that's going.

On top of that, trade. It's a huge issue right now and what we've seen really crop up over the course of the last 24 to 48 hours is this idea of this Chinese telecom firm, ZTE, all of a sudden the national security concerns and aspects related to that firm now being paired into the trade negotiations that are ongoing with Chinese officials who are in Washington this week. I've talked to a number of Republican senators who are very concerned the president keeps bringing it into the negotiations, would like some explanation on that fact.

You noted the president making very clear that on judicial nominations, a huge priority for Senate Majority Leader McConnell. He wants to continue to press forward. A lot of concern right now about government funding as well. The president saying lawmakers shouldn't go home for their August recess to try and actually get the appropriations bills done.

John, you know as well as I do, the idea of keeping everybody in town for August, it's always thrown out there. They never quite get to the final point.

But in terms of on net, what Republican leaders want out of this lunch, they want things to stay consistent. Keep in mind, it was just October of last year that a Republican senator actually brought popcorn to a closed door lunch with President Trump. That's how bad things had gotten between the Senate Republicans and the president. They're in a different place now. They want some continuity. They want, as you noted, message discipline. And more than anything else, they just want information about how these next couple months are going to go before those midterm, John.

KING: Keeping them in town, Phil, in an election year even more complicated.

MATTINGLY: Yes.

KING: As the president roams the halls on Capitol Hill, we may see Phil Mattingly throughout the rest of the hour. Sometimes the president wonders around. Hopefully he'll take some questions while he's up there.

With me here in studio to share their reporting and their insights, Margaret Talev with Bloomberg, Carl Hulse of "The New York Times," Sahil Kapur with "Bloomberg," and Eliana Johnson with "Politico."

It is a rare visit, number one. Number two, the timing is just very important given where we are in the election year and where we are in the question of, is Congress going to do much of anything between now and the election? Traditionally, and Republicans especially given the wind's in their face this year, they want to pass whatever they need to do to keep the government open. They'd like to confirm more judges. And then they want to go home and campaign. When is the president's biggest -- when the president walks in the room, we know judges, beyond that, what is he going to -- is -- what is he going to say, I need you to do this?

ELIANA JOHNSON, "POLITICO": You know, I think the president has almost entirely turned his attention to foreign policy because he knows that the prospects for accomplishing anything big domestically are so limited. So I think he's really going to press them on confirming Gina Haspel because he needs a CIA director in order to make this summit happen with North Korea and to do some of the other things he wants to do. So I think he's really going to press them on that. He may give Rand Paul some grief for his continuing opposition. But his focus is really going to be on foreign policy.

[12:20:27] On judges I think he knows their line. So they may discuss that, but they are of a similar mind on pushing as many judges through as possible before the November election.

MARGARET TALEV, SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, "BLOOMBERG": Yes, judges is easy for Republicans. That's like the one thing they can actually all agree on.

I do think we're seeing with Haspel, her latest outreach, the letter to Mark Warner saying that, in hindsight, it's clear to her that the enhancement terror program wasn't the right way for the agency to go. Senators may not get the apology from President Trump on how John McCain's treated, but this is, at least on a policy front, some measure to try to --

KING: ON the Haspel thing, significant.

Our Hill team, Manu Raju, Jeremy Her (ph), among the reporting, that in private meetings she has been willing to tell senators, yes, I believe torture is immoral. Yes, I believe some of the tactics we used were immoral. She wouldn't say that publically and she's telling senators in private meetings she didn't want to do that because she didn't want to pull the rug out from under any of her colleagues. Is that likely to be enough for her, essentially saying, look, you have to understand, I have to lead this agency. It is not -- you know, I just needed -- I could not whack them in public?

SAHIL KAPUR, NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER, "BLOOMBERG": It already has been enough, I think, to win over two Democrats, which may be enough to get her over the top if, you know, she doesn't bleed other Republicans beyond Rand Paul and I think John McCain, who was not necessarily expected to vote anyway. She's gotten Joe Manchin. She's gotten Joe Donnelly. Her confirmation hearing, she kind of skirted a lot of questions in a way that was not satisfying to progressives, to Democrats. She's going to lose the vast majority of them simply over the fact that they don't want the symbolism at the very least of someone who was identified in this dark chapter of American history to be leading the CIA, even if they don't necessarily oppose her personally.

KING: Is there any hope -- just for the American people, Congress does not have very good approval ratings, in part because they don't do a lot of things relevant to lives -- it feels that way anyway -- to people out there in America. Look at this list. It's things that Congress could be doing if it could get enough votes for things. DACA, neutrality, the Haspel confirmation vote, which will happen, the farm bill, which is very important anyway, but especially in an election year and especially when the president is tossing tariffs around, judicial nominations, there we're going to move, treating sexual harassment, a new plan for Congress, where's that one. Then it's the Defense Authorization Act, rescissions package, FAA, VA choice and opioids package.

TALEV: Did you even put infrastructure on that list?

KING: Yes.

And we're watching the president. You see the president and the Senate majority leader here. Let's listen for a second here.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President, how is Melania?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President, does your aide need to apologize to Senator McCain?

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Really doing well. Really successful. The doctors (INAUDIBLE) incredible. So Walter Reed (INAUDIBLE).

Thank you very much.

KING: The president was asked there -- the president was asked there if he was going to apologize. I believe also asked about the first lady.

You see him now going into the Senate. The Senate Republicans, the Senate Democrats as well, the senators meet every Tuesday for lunch. The president now going into the lunch with the Republican senators.

There you see some of the president's staff (INAUDIBLE). Great to see the president of the United States wandering the halls up there. (INAUDIBLE) of the apology.

You had a White House staffer who said something just tasteless and reprehensible about John McCain. John McCain issues a statement saying he couldn't vote, urging his colleagues not to vote for Gina Haspel because she refused to say publically that torture is immoral. You have this aide say, oh, it doesn't matter, he's dying anyway.

We're now a week into this and the aide has now publically apologized, even though our Jake Tapper reporting that she assured Meghan McCain in a private phone conversation she would say something publicly.

The president hasn't said anything. The White House, instead, is focusing on leaks. The president himself tweeting out this morning, the so-called leaks coming out of the White House are massive over exaggeration put out by the fake news media in order to make us look as bad as possible. No true, Mr. President. I'm sorry.

But that being said, leakers are traitors and cowards and we will find out who they are.

That's -- those are tough words from the president of the United States. And listen here to his counselor, Kellyanne Conway, again, using pretty combative language when she's talking about don't ask -- don't ask us to apologize, but we're going to find out who did this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KELLYANNE CONWAY, COUNSELOR TO THE PRESIDENT: Some leaks exist to hurt I guess colleagues. Some leaks exist because they disagree with the policies that are being put forth. But none of them are helpful. And I will tell you there's something else that's going on in this White House but not as badly as it was at the beginning, where it's not so much leaking as using the media to shiv (ph) each other.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you expect personnel changes as a result?

CONWAY: I do. Actually, yes, I do.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You do?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Expert personnel changes as a result. But, again, these are your colleagues using the media to shiv each other.

CARL HULSE, CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT, "THE NEW YORK TIMES": I mean that's a weird way to approach things at the White House, right, the president calling his own staff traitor and --

KING: Traitors. Traitors and cowards.

HULSE: And, you know, the White House service is usually loyalty within the White House. So this is all kind of strange.

[12:25:02] But the --

KING: Whatever you think -- whatever you think of the president or Kellyanne Conway's politics and policies, they have a point. They have a point. You would think 16 months in, if you were working for the Trump White House, you would either want your job and be loyal or you would leave.

KAPUR: Yes.

HULSE: Well --

KING: It is rather dramatic some of this --

TALEV: I think it's a point for the staff meeting --

KING: Right.

TALEV: Because you're absolutely right, you can't run any kind of an organization when the climate is so charged that you can't have a private conversation inside the shop. But that is not the -- the most successful public messaging. I mean John McCain, whenever you think about his politics and whatever you think about different phases of his political career, is an American hero. People on both sides of the aisle agree about his value and, you know, what he's done for American life and governance over the last several decades. And to decline to address any of that and only focus on this, you know, I think is not a winner if you're trying to reach across the aisle or anywhere in the middle. There is a segment of the Republican base that doesn't like John McCain and is completely fine with not addressing that issue. But I -- it's hard to get your head around the inability to separate the politics just from what's right.

KING: Right. Right. The lack of personal and institutional responsibility.

JOHNSON: Well, but that is our politics now.

KING: Right.

JOHNSON: Is equating the person with their politics. And I do think there's a certain extent to which we've been missing the forest from the trees in this Kelly Sadler McCain story. I don't think this is a case of a junior White House aide making an ill-considered comment. I think that Sadler's comment really does reflect the views of the president, who made a comment, a disparaging comment, about McCain during the primaries and the two of them have had sort of an ongoing feud that stretched through the first year of the administration with McCain giving his famous thumbs down vote, scuttling the president's first major legislative initiative, which was Obamacare replacement, now trying to scuttle Gina Haspel's nomination. And Trump has continued to complain to his friends about John McCain. So there's no love loss between the Trump White House and John McCain. And in that sense, I do think the Sadler comment sort of reflects what the boss' views are.

KING: Well, we'll see.

KAPUR: But they'd much rather be talking about the leak and the substance of what they (INAUDIBLE).

KING: Yes. Right. We'll see. We'll see. It was interesting, Phil Mattingly saying not expecting the senators to bring it up. A lot of the senators have been complaining to every TV camera they could find about this, to every reporter they could find about this. They should have the cards if they really believe it's an outrage, they should have the cards to mention to the president. They're senators. They should try that.

Up next for us here, deadly violence on the Israel/Gaza border leads to a very high stakes international blame game.

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