Return to Transcripts main page
Inside Politics
U.S.-North Korea Summit; Trade War Worries Looming after Trump's Tariffs; Trump Claims IG Report "Exonerates" Him; DHS: At Least 2,000 Kids Separated from Parents At Border. Aired 8-9a ET
Aired June 17, 2018 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
[08:00:15] NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN HOST (voice-over): Former Trump campaign chief Paul Manafort behind bars.
The president's response? Paul who?
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: He worked for me, what, 49 days or something? A very short period of time.
HENDERSON: In crisis at the border, children being separated from their parents.
REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), HOUSE MINORITY LEADER: This is not normal. In fact, it's barbaric.
JEFF SESSIONS, ATTORNEY GENERAL: We need to tell the world: please don't come unlawfully.
HENDERSON: Plus, the GOP pledges allegiance to the president.
KATIE ARRINGTON (R), SOUTH CAROLINA CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE: We are the party of President Donald J. Trump.
HENDERSON: As Republicans cast out a Trump critic.
INSIDE POLITICS, the biggest stories sourced by the best reporters, now.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HENDERSON: Welcome to INSIDE POLITICS. I'm Nia-Malika Henderson, in for John King. For our viewers nationwide and across the world, thanks so much for being with us this Sunday. And happy Father's Day to all the dads out there.
President Trump has made his opinions about the Russia investigation very, very clear, calling it a witch-hunt, a hoax, a plot by disgruntled Democrats, and claiming over and over again that there was no collusion.
This is the same Russia probe that has now put Trump's former campaign chairman in jail. "Drudge", they put it this way over the weekend, Manafort behind bars for the rest of his life?
A judge revoked Paul Manafort's bail, ending his house arrest after the special counsel hit him with new accusations of witness tampering.
Now, the president, he says, well, he barely knows the man who worked on his campaign for five months.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Manafort has nothing to do with our campaign, but I feel so -- I tell, I feel a little badly about it. They went back 12 years to get things that he did 12 years ago. You know, Paul Manafort worked for me for a very short period of time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HENDERSON: To him, this is the big story.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I think that the report yesterday maybe more importantly than anything, it totally exonerates me. I did nothing wrong. There was no collusion. There was no obstruction. The I.G. report yesterday went a long way to show that. If you guys read the I.G. report, I've been totally exonerated.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HENDERSON: Trump is talking about the Justice Department's watchdog investigation into how it handled the probe into Hillary Clinton's email server.
Now, the report does call out Comey, saying that he was insubordinate during the investigation and also finds that the FBI's credibility is damaged and it also says that certain agents did show bias but that bias didn't influence the actual probe. But the 500-page report doesn't address possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. It doesn't address our potential obstruction of justice either. And neither is political bias in the Mueller investigation mentioned in that report.
Now, despite that, sources tell CNN that Trumps legal team feels emboldened by the report, saying it gives them ammunition against Comey, and some Trump allies actually agree.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. RON DESANTIS (R), FLORIDA: The idea that you're going to have an obstruction of justice investigation because Trump fired the FBI director who the I.G. acknowledges had no business being that FBI director is a farce.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HENDERSON: Here with me now to share their reporting and their insights, we've got "The Washington Post's" Josh Dawsey," "Politico's" Eliana Johnson, and Rachael Bade, also with "Politico", and Bloomberg's Sahil Kapur.
A lot to discuss all this morning. Thanks everyone for being here.
And, Josh, I'm going to start with you on this. In some ways, Trump's reaction to the I.G. report released on Thursday was a bit delayed. He didn't really come out until Friday to talk about it and, boy, did he talk about it for, you know, 40 or 50 minutes on the south lawn -- on the north lawn there.
How do you see Trump his allies his lawyers using this I.G. report in the Mueller probe?
JOSH DAWSEY, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, THE WASHINGTON POST: Well, as you say, the president had a lot to say on Friday. He came out.
His argument that there was no collusion, it shows he did nothing wrong is not quite right because the report wasn't about it all.
HENDERSON: Right.
DAWSEY: And what the reports top-line finding stand is that there are a lot of mistakes were made in the Clinton investigation, particularly about James Comey, the FBI director. But the report did not focus on Trump. Now, now how his allies are trying to cast it is it focusing on Peter Strzok and Lisa Page. Peter Strzok obviously an agent involved in the investigation before he was removed from the probe and he said he'll stop Trump from being president, just certainly damaging text for Peter Strzok to have released in that report.
You know, that said, what the report found was that there was not political bias that influenced the investigation on a holistic level, but there were some bad actors. So, I think it's another cudgel for them. You've seen time and time again when things have come out that has been critical of the FBI or Comey, his lawyers have really tried to make the most of it.
[08:05:06] But I'm not sure how much traction they'll get on this. We'll have to see.
HENDERSON: But they're certainly trying to get traction on this. Rudy Giuliani was out recently and he basically said that and is an ABC interview, he said, in some ways contradicting the president, he said, well, I don't think it exonerates him. In some respects, it dramatically supports his position that the people who conducted the Hillary probe were extreme partisan for Hillary and against Trump.
That's what Rudy Giuliani had to say.
ELIANA JOHNSON, NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER, POLITICO: For once here, I think Rudy is absolutely right. Trump was wrong on the details when he came out and said this exonerates me, but he's right on the general point I think that this report was really bad for the FBI.
I think the irony of the report is that Comey has claimed all along that he had to take these extraordinary actions in order to protect the FBI's reputation for impartiality because he said that Loretta lynch was compromised and so he needed to distance the FBI from the DOJ. And in effect what happened was that he really hurt the FBI's reputation he and the small group of agents who were working on the Clinton investigation who, by the way, are the same group of agents who were working on the Trump-Russia investigation initially before it was handed up to Mueller.
These agents were found to be saying that they would stop Trump from becoming president in text messages and though the I.G. didn't find that the political bias directly impacted their decisions, you know, I was just thinking about it as a citizen, I wouldn't be comfortable having my future in their hands as investigators when they were talking this way and so blatantly disclosing their political bias and talking about it in a way that they were bringing it to the table when -- in terms of their work.
But, clearly, Mueller making some progress here in this probe even as you have obviously doubts being cast by Trump, by his lawyers and increasingly as some Republicans essentially saying maybe it's time to wrap this thing up. Mueller scoring some points there with Paul Manafort in jail at this point.
RACHAEL BADE, CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER, POLITICO: Yes, and he's definitely going to put the pressure to Manafort and see if he flips, right, and that's the big thing to watch. I think that I agree with Eliana here in terms of the DOJ report. I think that this whole revelation of text messages where an FBI agent said specifically, we're going to do something about it and to -- in order to make sure that Trump is not president, you can't overstate the significance that on Capitol Hill when it comes to Republicans taking this revelation and trying to say the Mueller probe now has no legitimacy.
This is an agent who was one of the first people to work on the Russia investigation and Republicans are already holding that up to say, look, we have a problem here. One example, Trey Gowdy, who is the top Republican on the House Oversight Committee -- just a couple weeks ago Republicans were bashing him because he said basically spygate, this whole spygate theory the president had that the FBI was spying on him, was totally false.
Well, now, he's coming out and saying, I have serious questions about this FBI agent. We need to bring them to the Hill. They're going to subpoena them, and it's really going to cause a problem I think for the Mueller investigation.
HENDERSON: Sahil, you want to jump in?
SAHIL KAPUR, NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER, BLOOMBERG: Yes, it's the perfect Rorschach test, right, if -- you know, it's very easy to look at the Strzok and Page messages and say that this is clear disdain for President Trump and this is not OK. This is out of bounds and I think a lot of the president's allies are going to focus on that. You know, I'm point that out.
The Democrats, on the other hand, are saying Comey's insubordination and the fact that he talked about he violated DOJ protocol, FBI protocol, talked about the investigation in Hillary Clinton in July and then again talked about reopening the investigation 11 days before the election cost her the election and made Donald Trump president. So, it's easy to see into this what you want. We were operating in a context, though, that the FBI did talk about one investigation that clearly hurt one candidate and didn't talk about the other investigation which probably helped them in an election that was so narrow.
So, I don't think it's, you know, quite so clear-cut here.
DAWSEY: But --
HENDERSON: Right -- go ahead.
DAWSEY: Giuliani told me on Friday, he said, our strategy is going to be investigate the investigators and try to do everything we can to show people that this probe has no legitimacy. And I think one reason that the president has liked Rudy Giuliani so much even though he's made a number of verbal missteps, has contradicted himself said things that were not necessarily accurate, is that the president's mind, Rudy's how they're constantly taking a brick back to these investigators. He's talking about the special counsel, accusing them of leaking without proof. He's saying the president was spied on, a dubious claim at times.
HENDERSON: And out there all the time.
DAWSEY: Well, maybe not dubious, but it's still kind of being researched. He's making non-stop accusations and you see polls turning increasingly on Republicans --
HENDERSON: It's being very effective, yes.
DAWSEY: That people are skeptical of the probes.
HENDERSON: Speaking of Rudy Giuliani, here he was talking about Trump's ability to pardoning -- to pardon, and what that might mean for the Mueller investigation.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RUDY GIULIANI, PRESIDENT TRUMP'S ATTORNEY: My advice to the president of the United States as his lawyer, not as a government lawyer, is no pardons.
[08:10:05] It would completely change the momentum that we have right now. Let me make it clear, right now, anybody listening, he's not -- he's not going to pardon anybody in this investigation, but he is not obviously going to give up his right to pardon.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HENDERSON: They clearly want to talk about pardons, right, Sahil?
KAPUR: Right. So, Rudy Giuliani's role as Josh pointed out, is the PR aspect of this. You know, the president wants to delegitimize this. He wants, you know, voters to doubt the legitimacy of this investigation and to think it's all in his words a witch-hunt against him.
The argument that Giuliani is making is that impeachment is the only viable punishment for any crimes against, you know, or any charges brought against a sitting president and he's also saying that if there are charges, the pardon power is there. He's saying no matter what happens, the president has a way to get out of this and I think that's sending a very -- in eyes of his critics, sending a very dangerous message.
BADE: That's going to be an interesting test for Hill Republicans for -- because for a long time, they had said if the president pardons one of his top allies, you know, that's going to be one of the last straws we're going to have to go after him and start potentially talking about impeachment. Well, you know, they've said these sorts of things before on policy issues and the president does whatever he wants and then they sort of turn a blind eye. So, I wouldn't be surprised if he did. It would be curious to see the reaction --
HENDERSON: And, Eliana, the person perhaps looking at a potential pardon or thinking about a potential pardon, Michael Cohen, someone who we found out this week is a bit nervous, disgruntled about the way he feels like the Trump team is treating him and possibly thinking about cooperating with investigators.
JOHNSON: That means -- I think that's exactly right. We found out this week that investigators now have like 750 -- I think thousand pages, though I may have that detail wrong, of Michael Cohen's texts and private message, app, you know, messages. But the issue of pardons, I think Rachel is right, is how they would play on the Hill.
HENDERSON: Yes.
JOHNSON: The House may flip from Republican to Democrat this November, in which case the issue of impeachment is a live option for President Trump and it's not -- it's no longer are Republicans going to hold them to account. It's, will Democrats --
(CROSSTALK)
HENDERSON: Launching it -- yes.
JOHNSON: So, when you hear Rudy saying, my advice to the president is not to pardon, it's not because he doesn't have the right to do it. It's because I think he believes the president would be impeached if he abused -- if he -- if the American people perceived he abused the part -- that he was abusing the pardon power.
HENDERSON: Yes. We'll see what Rudy has to say all later on this morning.
Coming up, children being taken from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border. The White House for its part says it's just following the law.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [08:16:40] HENDERSON: The administration says that at least 2,000 migrant children have been separated from their parents after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, and stories like these are dominating the headlines about mothers and fathers who can't find their kids, including the story of one Honduran man who killed himself inside a detention center.
The kids are being housed in shelters like this one you see here, that's inside a converted Walmart in McAllen, Texas, about 1,500 boys are there. Some were separated from their parents and others actually cross the border by themselves. The House Speaker Paul Ryan, he says he opposes the practice of dividing families and Democrats, they say that it's up to Donald Trump and the Republicans to fix it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), HOUSE MINORITY LEADER: They never want to take responsibility and they know this is shameful so they're passing it on to others. They controlled the White House, the House and the Senate. They could accomplish anything they set out to do if they cared, but they don't care.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HENDERSON: Attorney general and Sunday school teacher Jeff Sessions, he has cited a Bible verse in defense of this practice. He says it's not complicated.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SESSIONS: If we have laws and we do have laws, then they need to be enforced, and there's nothing wrong about that. And we need to tell the world: please don't come unlawfully, make your application, wait your turn.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HENDERSON: So, Rachel, you have Sessions there on basically saying the law is being enforced, fighting the bible. And Trump, here is what he has to say about this policy shift.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: No, I hate it. I hate the children being taken away. The Democrats have to change their law. That's their law.
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: President Trump could stop this policy with the phone call.
KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: He doesn't seem to acknowledge that.
GRAHAM: Well, he can. I'll go tell him. If you don't like families being separated, you can tell DHS stop doing it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HENDERSON: Who's right about this?
BADE: Well, the president is certainly spinning here when he says this is the Democrats' fault.
I mean, Republicans are in the White House. Republicans control Congress. This is a policy that his administration has basically started in order to sort of be -- I guess they think that perhaps this will get Democrats to the negotiating table because they'll be concerned about these migrant families, come perhaps and give the president his wall that he's been longing for.
But, listen, I think Republicans on the Hill are in this really awkward spot. You talked about how Ryan said he's not comfortable with this policy. At the same time, Republicans are not willing to blame the president, they're blaming it on an old court case when that's actually not true at all.
They have a provision in a bill that's coming to the floor this week that would keep families together. But even that is problematic because it basically allows kids to be detained and to be jailed with their parents. So, I don't --
HENDERSON: And it's not clear that the bill will actually ever come --
BADE: True. And it is unlikely that the bill would pass. But regardless, it's -- that's not going to fix the problem to fix that they had put forward.
HENDERSON: And Rachel there talked about this is a negotiating tactic and that's something that's coming out of the White House. You had a story on this and this is what from your story from "The Washington Post", the president has told folks that in lieu of the laws being fixed, he wants to use the enforcement mechanisms that we have, a White House official said. The thinking in the building is to force people to the table.
Is that sort of CYA spin at this point or is that actually what's going on?
[08:20:04] DAWSEY: I think it's multifaceted here, right? The president is fixated on these border-crossing numbers being over 50,000 and rising. He has excoriated Kirstjen Nielsen, his DHS secretary, repeatedly.
He wants anything to be done possible to bring these numbers down. They're exploding, part of it's more migrant workers coming over because it's seasonally warm, the numbers always go up in the summer, the president does not, you know, he wants these numbers down on the border.
HENDERSON: Yes.
DAWSEY: And the Republicans also want, at least the president does, to have negotiations on immigration. So, you have Stephen Miller and John Kelly and others pushing this policy to say, this will bring down, having zero tolerance at the border, doing so many separations will deter others from coming across the border, and whom the president repeatedly and falsely blaming this on Democrats to say, if I throw enough attacks at you, you'll come and negotiate immigration on me.
Now, let's be clear, Jeff Sessions is proudly saying, this is our policy.
HENDERSON: Right.
DAWSEY: Steven Miller is proudly saying these are our policy. The president saying, it's not my fault. I don't want to be associated with separating children at the border.
So, you have others in his administration who say, you know, this sort of tough crackdown is what we need, the president agrees with it privately, or at least he must because the policy continues.
HENDERSON: Continues, right.
DAWSEY: But privately -- I mean, when he gets out publicly, he blames it on Democrats. And a lot of them are just shaking their heads how he can blame this on Democrats. What are Democrats doing two separate kids at the border right now? It's kind of inexplicable in a way.
HENDERSON: And publicly, it's hard to find many Republicans out here who are actually backing this process. You've had Will Hurd, for instance, who's a moderate on to basically say this is -- this shouldn't happen. You have Franklin Graham, an evangelical pastor, saying this is disgraceful.
And here was another GOP congressman. Here's what he had to say about the policy.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. FRANCIS ROONEY (R), FLORIDA: It's heart-wrenching. It really is terrible. I would rather keep the families unified, detain them and adjudicate them.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Should the president do just that? He has the power to do that right now. He could do it with the stroke of the pen.
ROONEY: I think it would be a good idea.
(END VIDEOI CLIP)
HENDERSON: And that's Francis Rooney who is in a red district.
KAPUR: Right. This is not a policy that previous administrations have done, the Obama administration, the Bush administration, they did not separate, you know, people they were prosecuting, who are crossing the borders from their children. What they did was they put them in family detention center. This is a deliberate decision by the Trump administration to, as White
House Chief of Staff John Kelly called it, use it as a deterrent to get people to stop crossing, you know, coming here either to seek asylum or crossing the border illegally. Steven Miller in a new "New York Times" piece says this is a simple decision by the administration to have a zero-tolerance policy for this issue.
The president is that odds with his own advisors and his own administration officials on the nature of this policy.
Now, on Capitol Hill, there's legislation that House Republicans are pushing, a compromise between the moderate and restrictionists planks that would address this issue. It would not stop the administration from doing what they're doing. All it would allow, as Rachel pointed out, is to put the kids in the same -- you know, in the same detention facilities as the parents as they prosecute them right now.
I don't see that one going anywhere. It might pass the House. It's not going anywhere in the Senate. There is a bill in the Senate that --
HENDERSON: There are many, many bills, right.
KAPUR: Right.
HENDERSON: And we'll see what happens --
KAPUR: (INAUDIBLE) by 43 Senate Democrats that would end this administration policy also not going anywhere.
HENDERSON: Eliana, the president is going to meet with House GOP folks this week on Tuesday. What do we expect to hear from him in that meeting?
JOHNSON: I think we'll hear more dissembling about this policy and I think to contextualize it a little bit. The Trump administration is not the first administration to grapple with this issue. Both the Bush and Obama administration have grappled with -- you know, sure, there are some people coming across the border with their children but children are also used strategically in order to gain access to the country, and that was something that we heard both President Bush and President Obama talk about.
DAWSEY: Right.
JOHNSON: And it's something that the government wants to deter because these are extremely dangerous journeys and children are sometimes given to traffickers and used improperly in this.
And so, the Trump administration has made a policy decision. But I don't think we're hearing a coherent defense of it --
HENDERSON: Right.
JOHNSON: -- from the Trump administration. Defenders would say we want to deter the use of kids in this way and the problem is that kids cannot be -- the parents who are determined really to have brought their children here cannot be held with their kids for over 20 days legally, and that's what a bill on the Hill is trying to address.
HENDERSON: And something Trump has not said.
JOHNSON: And he has not said that. Now, there are fair criticisms of that policy that I think you'd hear. Previous administrations who tried this from very brief periods were criticized, but I don't think we've heard from the Trump administration a response to those criticisms.
HENDERSON: And we'll see if we get that -- we got to end it here, but we'll see if we get that on Tuesday, what the president has to say --
JOHNSON: Yes, I'm doubting.
HENDERSON: -- during and after that meeting.
Coming up, President Trump demands more credit for the summit in Singapore.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[08:29:04] HENDERSON: President Trump returns from the Singapore summit with a message to the American people and indeed the world. I ended the North Korean nuclear menace.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I did a great job. He gave us a lot. You haven't had a missile test in seven months. You haven't had a firing. You haven't had a nuclear test in eight and a half months. You haven't had missiles flying over Japan. He gave us the remains of our great heroes. And now, we're well on our way to get denuclearization and the agreement says there will be total denuclearization, nobody wants to report that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HENDERSON: The truth as always is much more complicated. In a statement that was signed by the Americans and the North Koreans, Kim Jong-un reaffirmed his commitment to denuclearization on the Korean peninsula, but he offered no specifics. President Trump meanwhile did offer and promised to suspend U.S.-South Korean military exercises.
Now, many experts are saying that the U.S. gave much more than it got, prompting this cover story in "The Economist" magazine. Now, as for the public, 71 percent of Americans say that they think it was actually a good idea to hold this summit, according to a Monmouth University poll. But a new Washington Post/ABC poll out today says that only 41 percent think it is likely that the North Koreans will actually give up their nuclear weapons.
[08:29:53]
The President says he plans to give Kim a follow up call probably sometime today. He'll spend his Father's Day maybe talking to Kim Jong-un. And he is spending his early --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He's a family-oriented man.
(CROSSTALK)
HENDERSON: And he's spending -- he's spending some time this morning, Donald Trump, tweeting about this. And here is what he had to say. "Chuck Schumer said the summit was what the Texans call "all cattle and no hat". Thank you, Chuck. But are you sure you got that right? He didn't get it right. The actual phrase is "all hat and no cow".
But Trump continues in this tweet to say "No more nuclear testing or rockets flying all over the place, blew up launch sites, hostages already back, hero remains coming home and much, much more.
Eliana -- you were there in Singapore covering this summit. Did Trump get as much as he is claiming to have gotten?
JOHNSON: I don't think -- he clearly didn't get as much as he is claiming to have gotten in that he claimed that the nuclear menace is no longer with us and that everybody should sleep well at night. That's clearly not true but I do think Trump got what he wanted out of the summit in that I think that these world events are sort of an end in themselves for Trump.
He is now talking about a summit with Vladimir Putin. And I think that these spectacles are really what Trump wants and then he's going to leave the details to the others.
He was already talking about at the press conference he did in Singapore, he was saying -- telling Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to get to work. And it is clear that it's going to be up to Pompeo to hammer out the details. Trump's gotten what he sought from this.
HENDERSON: And Congress will have something to say --
JOHNSON: Right.
HENDERSON: -- right as these negotiations --
JOHNSON: Pompeo was very clear that he wants an agreement but in contrast to the Iran deal which wasn't passed through Congress that this administration wants a deal that is passed through Congress so that it can't be undone by future administrations and that is to give Kim confidence that whatever is passed --
HENDERSON: -- stays in place.
JOHNSON: Yes.
HENDERSON: He's going to face likely a very skeptical Congress both from Democrats and Republicans.
Here is what Chuck Schumer had to say as well as Marco Rubio.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SENATOR CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY), SENATE MINORITY LEADER: What planet is the President on? Saying it doesn't make it so. North Korea still has nuclear weapons. It still has ICBMs. It still has the United States in danger.
SENATOR MARCO RUBIO (R), FLORIDA: This is a country that has made promises before and has broken them. We have to trust and verify. You know, the trust part is important but the verify part is even more important.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HENDERSON: Sahil -- what do we expect to hear going forward from Congress on this?
KAPUR: I think from the President's allies there is cautious optimism that this is the start of something big.
I think a number of things are true at once about this. The President is getting, you know, points from the American public for attempting diplomacy as opposed to nuclear saber-rattling and mean tweets.
But it's also true that there have been zero tangible concessions from North Korea on this. That's important. The statement -- the joint statement there was a reaffirmation of their desire. Of course, the reaffirmation is by definition is not news. They've lied about lied about this in the 1990s and the 2000s about, you know, denuclearizing. They've not followed through on their commitment.
Also I think one thing that has people scratching their heads is why the President is praising Kim in such glowing terms, you know, smart guy, talented guy, great negotiator, loved people, he is one in ten thousand. Why is that necessary to the process of diplomacy? I think even the President's allies are wondering.
HENDERSON: And here he is praising -- speaking of this, we'll go to the sound of the President lavishing praise on a murderous dictator.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: He's, you know, funny guy. He's a very smart guy. He's a great negotiator. He loves his people -- not that I'm surprised by that.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How can Kim love his people if he's killing them.
TRUMP: I can't speak to that. I can only speak to the fact that we signed an incredible agreement. It is great.
BRET BAIER, FOX NEWS CHIEF POLITICAL ANCHOR: But he's still done some really bad things.
TRUMP: Yes, but so have a lot of other people done some really bad things.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HENDERSON: Rachael -- what does this tell us about Donald Trump's approach to foreign policy?
BADE: That perhaps he thinks flattery, you know, will get Kim to do things that he otherwise would not do. Listen, if Obama would have said half the things that the President has said about Kim, Republicans would be totally up in arms right now.
I do think it is interesting, you know, we are talking about the treaty; basically the White House saying they're going to submit this as a treat to the Senate to be ratified or not. That is not just for Kim's sake -- and Kim wants that to happen because he wants to make sure whatever agreement they come up with lasts beyond the Trump administration into a next administration.
[08:34:57] But Senate Republicans, yes and senate Democrats very skeptical about this. One thing to watch in particular is this whole thing about, you know, withdrawing troops from the Peninsula. There is a lot of concern from what I've heard on Capitol Hill.
HENDERSON: Whether or not that will be part of the negotiation.
BADE: Right. Whether that will be part of the negotiation --
(CROSSTALK)
BADE: -- and they are just upset that the President even floated the idea because if there is a power vacuum, China steps in and that undercuts the U.S.
HENDERSON: And speaking of --
(CROSSTALK)
KAPUR: -- without a tangible concession.
HENDERSON: Yes. And speaking of power vacuums, one of the things we also see is Donald Trump cozying up to Putin; Putin taking sort of advantage of that as well. And Americans, if you look at who they think the President is besties with, you've got Vladimir Putin -- 27 percent say that Trump has the best relationship with Putin. Teresa May comes in at 6 percent. Benjamin Netanyahu -- again this tells us something about the President's strategy and perhaps looking forward to meetings with Putin.
DAWSEY: Well, the President has done things that other presidents haven't done in his rhetoric towards strong man dictators -- Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong-un, others. His allies say it is just kind of cold- eyed, real politics to say this is what the world is. We have to deal in these terms; we have to deal with these people no matter if they are murderous dictators or they interfere with our elections.
His critics say as an American president you need to have a moral imperative to the world. You should be speaking up for diplomacy. I mean that audio that we just heard, they were pretty telling. They ask the President what do you say about him (INAUDIBLE) and he says I can't speak to that.
HENDERSON: Yes.
DAWSEY: So --
HENDERSON: And multiple times pressing him on that.
DAWSEY: Right. And he says I can't you speak to that? Why can't he speak to that?
He also said in that clip that Kim Jong-un's people stand up for attention. He later said he was joking -- I want my people to stand up for attention. They don't have a choice. They can't (INAUDIBLE). They can't go anywhere. He starves them and kills them in North Korea.
And one of the more interesting parts of this president is how he has kind of scrambled alliances. He goes to the G-7; he goes after Canada, he goes after France on trade --
HENDERSON: That Putin should get back in if you do the G-8.
DAWSEY: -- calls for Putin to be there. As far as North Korea he praises on Kim Jong-un and continues to want to meet with Vladimir Putin. It is all situational. I mean when he is looking to make a deal with someone he flatters them. It doesn't matter if allies or adversaries.
One thing the President says repeatedly our allies don't care about us. We have to look out for ourselves. I'm president of America and they are president of their countries and we have to look out for ourselves. You can see that strategy be played out on the world stage.
HENDERSON: Yes.
Well, up next, Trump's latest trade move and why it puts the GOP in a tough position.
Plus future politicians, they say the darnedest things. This is coming from Kim Kardashian West talking to Van Jones about whether she sees herself running for office one day.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VAN JONES, CNN HOST: Would you ever run for office?
KIM KARDASHAN WEST, REALITY TV STAR: I don't -- I don't think that's even on my mind.
JONES: Trump's president. It could happen.
WEST: I know. That's why Kanye loves him. It's the idea that anything can happen. JONES: So can anything happen with --
WEST: I guess never say never, but that is not going to like Kim is running. That's not what I am --
JONES: Yes.
WEST: -- what I'm going for.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[08:38:05] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HENDERSON: Is the U.S. officially in a trade war? China warning as President Trump announces reciprocal round of tariffs on American goods; Trump is moving forward with a 25 percent import tax on $50 billion of Chinese products.
Now that decision comes after hitting U.S. allies with tariffs in Mexico, Canada and the E.U. Now for Trump this is just another example of America first but for the GOP it's yet more proof that it's his party now.
Politico, they put it this way. "This is the new Republican Party", saying in very colorful language "put a blond comb-over on the elephant. Take down the pictures of Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan. It's over. It's Donald Trump's GOP."
Now even when it comes to free trade -- a long-time pillar of the GOP -- Trump's party hasn't moved to block him and there's a real good reason for that. At the 500-day mark of his presidency Trump has an 87 percent approval rating among Republicans. Now the only president to score higher, that was George W. Bush a few months after the 9/11 attacks.
Sahil -- I want to go to you with this, first on tariffs. I mean this is -- as we said -- this has been a long-time pillar of the GOP. And this is President Trump basically making good on what he said on the campaign trail. This is probably a problem for Republicans in terms of how they deal with this.
KAPUR: Right. It was a very revealing moment this past Tuesday when Bob Corker tried to propose an amendment to the NDAA that would essentially say Congress has a say in the President's decision to impose tariffs. That's the kind of thing that they can vote up or down. Most Republicans would have supported it.
He was furious when Senate Republican leadership, in his view, blocked it. You know, they didn't -- in his view they didn't want to poke the bear. They didn't want to upset Trump. That was one of four different things that happened on Tuesday that revealed Trump's dominance.
The other was Mark Sanford --
HENDERSON: Sanford losing -- right. KAPUR: Conservative congressman whose only crime was criticizing Trump at times. The only time he voted no on things that Trump supporters were from the right like, you know, to increase spending. Corey Stewart -- the candidate supported by President Trump, also supported by neo-confederates in Virginia won the Senate nomination. The party is not pleased with that.
The last thing -- also on Tuesday House Republican moderates thwarted on immigration blocked from putting forward a bill for a vote that President Trump opposed because it would simply do the Dream Act without all these restrictionist measures that he wants.
[08:45:05] All these things happened on the same day.
HENDERSON: Yes.
And you mentioned Sanford there, of course, a loss on Tuesday. Here is what he had to say in addition to saying he felt like Trumpism is a cancerous growth on the GOP. Here he is with more.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. MARK SANFORD (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: The politics are easy -- pledge allegiance to Donald Trump. But I think that is a mistake at a soul (ph) level. I have been amazed at the number of different members who have come up to me over the last 24 hours since I have been back here on the Hill and have talked about a tribalism component to what is going on in the party and with the Trump effect that worries them and that they have never seen before.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HENDERSON: And so that was Mark Sanford there basically saying that it's a mistake at the soul level to pledge allegiance to Donald Trump. But I think if you look at the midterms, people running particularly, Eliana, in these red states that is exactly what they are going to do.
JOHNSON: You're right. Sanford is not alone in saying this. We've heard the same from Jeff Flake and Bob Corker. And if you are going to define yourself by opposition to Trump -- you can oppose his policies, but if you are going to define yourself by personal opposition to Trump, his character, his style, you're going to lose.
I think we have seen that pretty clearly. You can do it if you are not facing an election. But in an election year it is really going to hurt you.
And the other point I would make I think is that Trump's policies, his aides have tried to hold him back. They tried to hold him back on tariffs and they succeeded for, you know, 18 months or so.
And they tried to hold him back from attacking Bob Mueller personally, tried to hold him back from tweeting against Mueller. That also succeeded for 16 or so months.
And while it seems like we got the full Trump from sort of day one in office, there were things his aides succeeded at restraining him from doing but what we are seeing now really is Trump unleashed.
HENDERSON: Emboldened, very much so.
JOHNSON: Yes. And we are not seeing really any protests or any vocal protests from other Republicans. So I think that the Politico piece was spot on in that regard.
HENDERSON: Josh -- you want to get this.
DAWSEY: And the President pays close attention to what other Republicans say. I mean Tim Alberta wrote a great story in Politico about Mark Sanford and the headline was "I'm a dead man walking", where he basically was sharply critical of the President.
They gave the President that article. You saw the President attack Mark Sanford on Twitter, even invoking his affair in Argentina, and you can have an ironic twist. I mean the President has -- they keep binders in the White House on what people say about the President. He watches hours of television a day.
These Republicans who go after him have to face -- you saw the poll numbers you put up on the screen. He's very popular in his party --
HENDERSON: Very, very popular.
DAWSEY: -- and he will go back after them.
HENDERSON: Rachael quickly, you want to jump in?
BADE: Yes. No, sure -- it will be interesting because Republicans, they have to remain loyal to Trump. They have to suck up to him in order to protect themselves politically. But if there is a blue wave this fall, this could all come crumbling down on them because of that loyalty to the President. So that will be interesting to watch.
HENDERSON: Yes. That is the tight rope that they are all walking on at this point.
Next up, our reporters will share a page from their notebooks including why after all the scandal EPA chief Scott Pruitt still has a job.
[08:48:17] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HENDERSON: Time now for the INSIDE POLITICS forecast where our great reporters fill us in on the stories that will be making headlines just around the corner.
Josh -- we'll start with you.
DAWSEY: Sure. I'm looking at Scott Pruitt still. There are so many issues that Scott Pruitt has, asking his aides two personal favors for him trying to get jobs for his wife -- all sorts of up to maybe 12 investigations now for Scott Pruitt, the embattled EPA head.
But the President seems to stick by with him. We explored in a story today, you know, how he has been a bit sycophantic to the President and has been wont (ph) to do whatever the President wanted and remains one of his favorite cabinet members.
It is kind of a remarkable story that all of these other cabinet folks have been fired for doing far less but Pruitt survives. So I'm sure more revelations will be coming with different inspector general reports or reports (ph), administration reports but Scott Pruitt hangs on.
HENDERSON: Yes. And how long can he hang on?
DAWSEY: And how long can he hang on.
HENDERSON: Yes. That's the big question.
Eliana.
JOHNSON: You know, as President Trump continues his diplomatic efforts with North Korea I think Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is really the guy to watch. I was over in Singapore and President Trump singled out Pompeo by name several times. It was clear that behind the scenes he was really the guy leading the effort.
And so as we watch things moving forward and whether this effort by the Trump administration succeeds or fails it is clear the President is putting a lot of capital into it. I will be watching Mike Pompeo and I think his fate really rests on the success of these negotiations.
HENDERSON: Yes. That will be fascinating to watch.
Rachael.
BADE: The shadow campaign to replace Speaker Paul Ryan is on even though it has sort of died down a little in the headlines. Behind the scenes, the top two guys trying to replace him are trying to see who can hug Trump more.
Obviously House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, he's the next in line for the position. And we have seen him grow increasingly aggressive against the Mueller probe saying this week that he thinks it should stop and that if this was a court of law they would have thrown it out.
Meanwhile Steve Scalise, the number three in the House who would try to run if McCarthy can't get the vote has basically been saying when the President it sounded like was withdrawing his support from this immigration bill in the House said I'm not going to whip this if the President is not behind it which shows he puts loyalty to Trump way over Paul Ryan.
So again, it's who can hug Trump more and it is going on behind the scenes. It will heat up pretty soon.
HENDERSON: Yes. Interesting sort of shadow campaign to watch this summer -- who is going to be the next Speaker of the House? JOHNSON: Right.
HENDERSON: Sahil.
[08:55:00] KAPUR: You know, red state Democrats are cozying up to President Trump as they seek reelection in states that he won by double digits.
Joe Manchin of West Virginia this past week has a new TV ad out where he boasts about his support for President Trump's border wall.
Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota recently got a plum photo-op with the President at the signing of a financial deregulation bill that she pushed.
Joe Donnelly of Indiana got praise and a shout out from the President as he signed right to trial legislation that Donnelly had pushed.
This is survival in the age of Trump for these Democrats. I'm going to be watching to see if it works.
JOHNSON: Yes.
HENDERSON: Republicans doing the same thing and Democrats, as well, in those red states.
That's it for INSIDE POLITICS. Thanks so much for joining us.
You can catch us every week day at noon Eastern.
Up next, we've got "STATE OF THE UNION" with Jack Tapper in an interview with President Trump's lawyer, Rudy Giuliani. Stay tuned.
[08:55:47] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
