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Talks Stall Over Wall Funding Limit On Migrant Detentions; Acting WH Chief of Staff Cannot Rule Out Another Shutdown; O'Rourke To Counter Trump's El Paso Visit With Anti-Wall March; Dem Congressman Accused of Anti-Semitism Faces Bipartisan Backlash. Aired 12:30-1 ET

Aired February 11, 2019 - 12:30   ET

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

JOHN KING, CNN ANCHOR: Fire up the espresso machine my friend. We'll keep checking with Phil up on Capitol Hill.

So here we are yet again. The Democrats feel like they're in a solid political position when it comes to saying no, or very limited money for the President's wall. Do they share that confidence here not in strong Democratic House districts wherein there are more purple or Senators who have to run statewide in the idea that, you know, the Republican argument will be the Democrats want to limit the number of illegal immigrants we can hold in custody when we catch them?

CARL HULSE, CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT, THE NEW YORK TIMES: Yes, I think Nancy Pelosi knows quite well that she's not going to shut the government down over the number of detention beds that would put the Democrats in a bad position here. You know, we've all been here a lot. A lot of times these things fall apart right before they come together. That happens all the time in appropriations bills.

I actually -- I hate to be super cynical, but, you know, I think that there's also part of these negotiators who like talking about detention beds rather than the wall. They don't want to bring a lot of attention on the wall that they're kind of making a deal there that President Trump doesn't really like, so let's talk about this.

I mean, that this is a solvable thing. It might cost some Democrats votes in the end, but you can probably get there. I would be stunned if there was another shutdown and even if they're not there, there will be a C.R. or something like that.

KING: But what makes some Republicans nervous and it's in you newspaper today is the idea that they thought, they thought, they thought -- emphasize on thought. That this time the President wouldn't shutdown the government even only he got say, 2 billion or little less than for the wall, not the 6 billion he wants, because he didn't want shutdown again. They want a smooth week. They wanted to think printed over the weekend or no later than today. Then votes in the House and votes in the Senate. Keep it low key, get it to the President and hope.

"Senior Republican aide said Senator Mitch McConnell majority leader and his leadership team were frustrated with the Democrats because they believed they had persuaded Mr. Trump to agree". And it goes out to say now they're worried that the hardliners, like Stephen Miller, the President's hard-line adviser at immigration would convince him not to accept the compromise.

MICHAEL BENDER, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: Well, I mean, the immigration debate particularly in the White House, you have sort of three different avenues. You have folks -- the border security folks who are the DHS, Kirstjen Nielsen and their interests.

You have the wall people which is -- people who want the wall which is the President. And then that Stephen Miller fits in there and he's interior enforcement. And by opening up this debate on detention beds is where you are going to get Stephen Miller's interest in this.

I do think, I agree with Carl. I would be stunned particularly from reporting inside the White House if there is another shutdown. The President has already agreed to restore funding, right? I mean, if you sort of undermine that most Americans are that this -- that 30 some day shutdown was Trump's fault, he's already washed his hands of that and was ready to announce a national emergency to get his wall done.

My sense is that that's where he still is and isn't willing to do another shutdown, that he'll just go the national emergency route if the Committee which he never thought would find a deal, you know, full fills that prophecy.

KING: So then is this from the President's chief of staff, is it real or is it just an attempt for leverage in the negotiations?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHUCK TODD, MODERATOR, NBC "MEET THE PRESS": We cannot definitively rule out a government shutdown at the end of this week?

MICK MULVANEY, WHITE HOUSE ACTING CHIEF OF STAFF: You absolutely cannot and here's why.

TODD: OK.

MULVANEY: Let's say, for sake of this discussion, that the Democrats prevail and the hardcore left-wing Democrats prevail. It was Democratic congresswoman who put out a tweet, I think yesterday, about zero dollars for DHS.

So let's say that the hardcore left-wing of the Democrat Party prevails this negotiation and they put a bill on the president's desk with, say, zero money for the wall or $800 million -- some absurdly low number. How does he sign that? He cannot in good faith sign that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: That's just a poke at the negotiators, or is he really going to recommend to the President, shut the government down again? ARIT JOHN, CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER, BLOOMBERG: I mean, I still think that President Trump doesn't want another shutdown but the interesting point that Mulvaney made is the hard left of the Democratic party is pushing for this.

I mean, you do -- if Democrats do agree to not sticking to this attention bad issue, you're going to have people like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other Democrats saying, like no money for DHS, no money for the wall, no money for ICE. And we saw -- I mean we saw it last year abolish ICE did become a rallying cry for some Democrats.

There is still this issue of the Trump Administration is not prioritizing, detaining people who've committed serious crimes and it is going to be something that might divide the Democratic caucus going forward.

ELANA SCHOR, NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER, ASSOCIATED PRESS: However, if there is a deal here that loses say on Ocasio-Cortez or Rashida Tlaib to leave vote, that's probably good for everyone. It allows this far left contingent in the Democratic caucus to distinguish themselves potentially from their leadership, helps them boost their base and it helps Nancy Pelosi to create that base as well. So, I totally agree, but I don't think that's a deal breaker.

KING: I'm with Carl that I think this is the typical game of chicken and then they figured it out but, but, just but. We live in new times.

Condolences now pouring in from both sides of the aisle for the passing of longtime Congressman Walter Jones of North Carolina. He died yesterday on his 76th birthday. Congressman Jones perhaps best know nationally for insisting French fries. We call it "Freedom Fries" when France refused to back the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

[12:35:06] He came to regret his support for that war and wrote countless letters to the family of the fall and expressing his condolences.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: Topping our political radar today, the Secretary of State Mike Pompeo being pressed overseas on why the Administration ignored Friday's deadline for a full report to Congress on the Jamal Khashoggi killing. The White House's refusal igniting angers on both sides.

[12:40:02] Democratic Senator Tim Kaine for example accusing the White House of covering up for a murder. Secretary Pompeo says, that's nonsense.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE POMPEO, SECRETARY OF THE STATE: America is not covering up for a murder. America has taken more action in response to the tragic murder of Jamal Khashoggi and will continue to take more action, continue our investigation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: The top U.S. commander in the Middle East says there could still be tens of thousands of ISIS fighters spread across Iraq and Syria. In assessment inline will put the national -- Director of National Intelligence and Congress two weeks ago.

General Joseph Votel says he's working to carry out the President's orders to get U.S. troops out that says pressure on what's left of ISIS must be maintained.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEN. JOSEPH VOTEL, CENTCOM COMANDER: I'm kind of aligned is where the intelligence committee is on this step kind of sought and talked about tens of thousands that have been dispersed and disaggregated from the area. So they're spread from, you know, kind of areas in Iraq, other areas in Syria.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Senator Elizabeth Warren spending her first official day as a presidential candidate on the attack in Iowa, Sunday. She told supporters, this is a dangerous moment for the country. And referring to the President, Senator Warren said, "Everyday there's a racist tweet, a hateful tweet, something really dark and ugly". And she brought up this possibility, this is in see the rapids.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And here's what bothers me. By the time we get to 2020, Donald Trump may not even be President. In fact, he may not even be a free person.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: You get a lot of applause from Democrats when you say something like that, but it's interesting to hear that from her because she's had this back and forth about confronting Trump, challenging Trump getting in his face to pulling back over the whole Pocahontas DNA test and now, why is she back?

SCHOR: I think it's no accident that you heard Senator Warren do that right after the President's pretty racially insensitive and bordering potentially racist tweet about the trail ,see one the trail is, right?

So she is punching back at him a little bit. But it's also a little bit of a sugar high to suggest to Democratic voters that the President might not be a free person. I mean, it's technically true but the chances are very, very slim that something like this could come to pass. And it's a great applause line, but it could come back to bite her.

BENDER: Lock him up, right? I mean, Warren is looking to get more interest in her campaign. The Native American stuff, the Pocahontas stuff has her, you see that in the small dollar donations to her campaign. And the latest "Washington Post" reporting hurts again, so you know, she's doing whatever she can to spice up her campaign.

KING: Interesting to watch them in the early days of the campaign try to stake out their lane and decide how he deal with the President. We'll see some back and forth, I suspect.

As for the President, he takes his wall messaging on the road tonight, but he's not the only politician heading to the border.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:47:10] KING: President Trump is taking his campaign for a border wall to El Paso, Texas tonight. The rally is being paid for by the Trump re-election campaign, which is about all the context you really need.

But the timing also comes, as we assessed earlier, as another possible government shutdown looms because of differences in the negotiations over border security. Now, when the President talks or tweets about the wall, he often twists the facts. Let's take look at the current state of play.

The border stretches nearly 2,000 miles. You see here, if it's green, there's a places along the border where there are barriers -- sometimes wall, sometimes other barriers. Red, no barrier.

Let's take a closer look. The President says a lot of times that the wall is being built. That's misleading. There was some fiscal 2017 money spent for replacement of border barriers -- existing barriers being upgraded and replaced. In the fiscal 2018 year spending, there was 82 miles of some new and some replacement funding that is in progress right now. Some new wall, mostly replacement funding there.

What is it look like? Depends where you are in the border, there are 374 miles of pedestrian fence. You see the different versions of it here, higher, tougher to get through. This is what the President wants, something like this. Two-hundred-eighty miles, this is more of the lower fencing here, mainly to stop vehicles from coming across the border.

So if you go through some of the sectors, here's why the President says, I want the wall. This is apprehension in the San Diego sector before the wall, after the wall. The President says, look, the wall works.

You move over here of the Rio Grande, this is where some of the new construction is taking place and without a barrier, apprehensions are way up. The President says we need a wall. Local officials say it's more complicated than that, but this is part of the President's case.

Tonight he will be here in El Paso where the number of apprehension has dropped substantially and you see in this sector, the green there, there is a lot of barrier there. So the President will make the case, give me more barrier. The crime rate drops. Apprehensions drop. Again, local official say it's more complicated. CNN's Jeff Zeleny is in El Paso waiting for the President, not only for the President, Jeff, but another politician with a counter protest or counter rally.

JEFF ZELENY, SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: John, good afternoon.

There will be a counter rally here and it's from a former Texas Congressman Beto O'Rourke who we do know is of course considering a bid for the 2020 Democratic Presidential nomination as well.

This is his hometown of El Paso. This is part of narrative. Part of his story about how he believes Democrats should push back on the President's immigration message.

So, Beto O'Rourke is going to be marching near where the President's rally is going to be, then he's going to be speaking outside the rally as well. He previewed a bit of his message today post on "Medium". He said, "El Paso is a safe city not because of the wall but because immigrants treat one another with respect".

And John, here in El Paso the city is about 80 percent Hispanic. This wall you can see behind me here this fence was built during the Bush Administration and started the construction in 2008. As you showed the crime has gone down, actually, overall writ large.

[12:50:02] So John, the big question here is, is Beto O'Rourke is doing a counter message, is he going to announce his bid for the presidency? I'm told by two friends of his he is not planning on doing that this evening. But that is still a question hanging over this race. He told Oprah Winfrey just last week, he plans to make his announcement known by the end of this month. So, look for one more sense of engagement her for one more Democrat.

But John, if he would get in this certainly would make immigration front and center. El Paso, of course, has a Republican mayor but it's largely a Democratic city, Democratic member of Congress here so the President coming into unfriendly territory if you will. In 2016, he won El Paso. He only got 26 percent of the vote here. So that is the dynamic going into this, John.

But certainly, excitement here among some Republicans to see the President, 6,000 people here or so are going to see him, but the rally outside with Beto O'Rourke perhaps even more interesting to many residents here. John?

KING: Well, watch your vote. Jeff Zeleny, it's early 2019 but it sure feels a little bit like 2020 already. Jeff appreciate that and so then El Paso.

Up next for us here. Critics on both sides of the aisle say a freshman Congresswoman's tweet are anti-Semitic. Now some Democrats say, Speaker Pelosi must act.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:55:49] KING: It's a bipartisan backlash today against the Democratic Congresswoman for weekend tweets condemned as anti-Semitic. Congresswoman Ilhan Omar has long been a critic of Israel's treatment of Palestinians and she backs a boycott, an economic boycott of Israel.

The new scrutiny comes because she added, "All about the Benjamin's baby", in response to a tweet about Republican criticism of her views. Then she tweeted that the American Israel Public Affairs Committee was paying politicians to be pro-Israel.

Now, two Democratic members of the House who are Jewish, Josh Gottheimer and Congresswoman Elaine Luria are demanding action from Speaker Nancy Pelosi, writing to her as Jewish members of Congress, "We're deeply alarmed by the recent rhetoric from certain members of our caucus. We hope that our caucus will take swift action to address these issues in the coming days".

What will the caucus do in this case? Republicans are saying -- she's a freshman Congresswoman, a Somali-American, that she should be removed from the Foreign Affairs Committee. Will the Democrats do that, or will that be giving Republicans the victory?

JOHN: We saw minority leader Kevin McCarthy when he stripped Steve King of his committee assignment say that, you know, Republicans act when members step out of line and he calls on Nancy Pelosi to act. Weeks have passed since then.

Now the controversy is rising to the level of her fellow Democrats calling on Nancy Pelosi to do something. So, it seems like at this point that she may be prompted to discipline her in some way to at least make a statement or comment saying, like we don't approve of this you sort of comment, but it's not clear what exactly she's got there.

KING: OK. And in the case of Leader McCarthy I just want to make clear. He himself had to delete a tweet from a short weeks ago. He said, "We cannot allow Soros, Steyer, and Bloomberg to buy this election." So, as he now sends this anti-Semitism on the Democratic side, he face this himself. Not that long ago, so he should be careful how high he jumps up on the box.

But to your point about the committee assignment or what sanctions would there be, Eliot Engel as the Chairman of the Committee he just put out a statement that says, anti-Semitism in any form is unacceptable and it's shocking to hear member of Congress invoke the anti-Semitic trope of Jewish money. He goes on to say, he hopes the Committee will focus on policy nowhere in here does he say anything about she shouldn't be here?

HULSE: Jerry Nadler also put out a pretty tough statement on her. One thing I think is, when you have a really diverse caucus as they now have, this is the kind of conflicts you're going to have and Nancy Pelosi is going to have to navigate and adjudicated them -- this is a brand new member. I don't think that they will take any severe action against her, but there will probably be some counseling to her or something along those lines. But, you know, this is something that's going to be played out in the months ahead.

KING: And it's playing out loud, it's playing out on line. I'll show you some tweets just first Republican members. You just see whether it's Senator Marco Rubio, Senator Cramer, Congressman Zeldin, Representative Cheney, Nikki Haley who recently left. There's few ambassador who has political ambitions. The Republican Party, a lot of Republicans saying it's not acceptable.

Nikki Haley saying it can't be tolerated. Liz Cheney, again, she's a leading member of the House Republican leadership, she wants the Congresswoman taken off the Foreign Affairs Committee.

What's interesting in stage of social media was an exchange Chelsea Clinton. Chelsea Clinton was critical of the congresswoman. The congresswoman she said, cosigned as an American we should expect all elected officials regardless of party and all public figures to not traffic an anti-Semitism. And then Congresswoman Omar, Chelsea, I'd be happy to talk. We must call out smears from the GOP and their allies and I believe we can do that without criticizing people for their faith. I look forward to building an inclusive movement of justice with you.

So this things play out in the Capitol but it is remarkable how -- now Chelsea Clinton and this playing out in social media.

SCHOR: And this isn't the first time that Congresswoman Omar has responded to criticism of the way she talks about the Israeli government by saying, hey, I'm willing to learn. I'm open to it.

So to Carl's point, that maybe some formalized counseling moment. But it's clear that Republicans event though, let's just also be clear, they took a long time to condemn Steve King the way that they did. Everybody knew it for years.

HULSE: Several decades, I think.

SCHOR: Several decades, yes. It's clear that Republicans are going to keep harping on this.

BENDER: And you know, there's a difference between bringing another voice and a needed voice to Congress and more inclusion and different cultures and different viewpoints, but it's another to sort of be throwing bombs here. I don't know if anyone plays the inside game better than Nancy Pelosi, so it will be interesting to see how she plays on this specific issue.

KING: And to you -- she has counseled many members of the past, to your point about that. If you know you have an issue and you legitimately want to clean it up, think before you tweet. Good advice for everybody in town.

Thanks for joining us today in INSIDE POLITICS hope to see you back here this time tomorrow.