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Trump Speaks at WH Opportunity and Revitalization Council Meeting; Biden Releases Video In Wake of Allegations; Electability Questions Loom Over 2020 Democratic Field. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired April 04, 2019 - 12:30   ET

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

[12:30:00] DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's a very complex deal. It's a very big deal. One of the biggest deals ever made, maybe the biggest deal ever made. It'll be a great deal for our farmers.

Technology, intellectual property theft, everything is covered. There's not a thing that's not covered. We could have made a quickie, but we're in a very good position. Our economy is way up. China's not way up -- and we're kind of to make a very good deal or we're not going to make a deal at all.

But I think it looks like the deal is moving along nicely. So I think you're going to meet me in -- we're going to say hello to the media for a little while sometime after 2:00. OK?

Thank you, everybody.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thanks, everybody.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's go. Thank you.

TRUMP: Yes, a lot of good things are happening with Mexico. Mexico understands that we're going to close the border or I'm going to tariff the cars. I'll do one or the other and probably start off with the tariffs. That'll be a very powerful incentive because Mexico has the strongest immigration laws anywhere in the world.

They don't have courts like we do. We have a stupid system of courts. It's the craziest thing in the world. We could be the only country that has it. You put a foot on the property, you put a foot into the United States, congratulations, go get Perry Mason to represent you. You end up with a court case.

And then they release you, and you come back four or five years later but nobody comes back. Two percent come back. The not so smart ones come back. It's the most ridiculous system anyone has ever seen, and we have catch and release and we have chain migration where somebody comes in and brings the whole family. Bring them all, your grandparents, your brothers, your sisters, your cousins.

The craziest thing I've ever seen put in by Democrats and the Democrats are going to straighten it out. And if they don't straighten it out, and I predicted this. I mean, I hate to see it, but at least I can say I was right. I told everybody. This is -- you have a national emergency at our border, and nobody even talks about drugs. The drugs that are flowing in. So for the last four days, and you actually have covered it to a very minor extent, Mexico has been capturing people and bringing them back to their countries at their southern border. They've been taking people under their very powerful laws. They have the right to do it, and they are bringing them back to where they came from.

That's about three days now I guess since -- frankly since they heard I was going to close the border. But before I close the border, if Mexico and -- and we love Mexico. We love the country of Mexico. We have two problems.

We have the fact that they allow people to pour into our country. We have to stop them. Border Patrol's been incredible. ICE has been incredible. Law enforcement has been incredible. And the other problem is drugs. Massive amounts of -- large -- most of the drug, much of the drugs coming into our country come through the southern border in all different ways. Much of it where we don't have walls.

The wall is under construction, by the way, large sections. We're going to be meeting I think on Friday at a piece of the wall that we've completed, a big piece. A lot of it is being built right now. A lot of it is being signed up right now by different contractors.

It's moving along very nicely, but we need the wall, but we need lots of other things, so we need help from Mexico. If Mexico doesn't give the help, that's OK. We're going to tariff their cars coming into the United States.

The other thing is because Mexico is such a big source of drugs, unfortunately, unfortunately. Now we have China sending fentanyl to Mexico so it can be delivered into the United States, it's not acceptable. So -- the second aspect of it is which you haven't heard before is that, if the drugs don't stop, Mexico can stop them if they want, we're going to tariff the cars. The cars are very big, and if that doesn't work we're going to close the border.

But I think that will work. That's massive numbers of dollars. So, if we don't see people apprehended and brought back to their countries if we see these massive caravans coming up to our country right through Mexico, coming right through Mexico, like nothing, buses are even given to them. The last three days it hasn't happened since I said we're closing the border.

The only thing frankly better but less drastic than closing the border to tariff the cars coming in and I will do it. Just like you -- you know I will do it. I don't play games, I'll do it.

So we're doing it to stop people. We're going to give them a one-year warning, and if the drugs don't stop or largely stopped, we're going to put tariffs on Mexico and products. In particular cars, the whole ball game is cars. It's the big ball game with many countries, it's cars.

[12:35:02] And if that doesn't stop the drugs, we close the border because Mexico last year, and over for many years, just like China, except China numbers are even bigger, and I don't blame China and I don't blame Mexico if they can get away with it. I blame the people that used to sit in this seat because they should have done something about it. And I'm not just talking about President Obama, I'm talking about many presidents. They should have done something about it.

So if Mexico doesn't do what they can do very easily, apprehend these people coming in, and they can do it in a much more humane fashion. Why should they walk up 2,000 miles and then be brought back? They can stop them right at their southern border, right where they come into Mexico. And they have unbelievable immigration laws where they have the right to do it, the most powerful in the world, as good as can you have. And they're going to do it. And if they don't do it, we're going to tax the cars. And if that doesn't work, we're going to close the borders.

But we're also going to do something having to do with tariffs on drugs because not only are hundreds of thousands of lives a year being ruined in our country, but numbers of people are dying that you wouldn't believe. We'll lose one military personnel and it's a front page story, and yet we have 100,000 people -- people don't even know the number. They say 77,000, they say 72,000. Any number they give you can guarantee to raise it. And if the drugs don't stop, we're going to put tariffs on.

It also costs our country at least $500 million through our southern border, $500 billion. So we will put tariffs on -- if they don't apprehend and ultimately we're going to give a period of time, but if in a year from now drugs continue to pour in, we're going to put tariffs on.

Now, we have a deal. USMCA, it's all done. They're going to have to live with it, OK? They're going to have to live with it. I'm not trying to be unfair. They're going to have to live with it.

The USMCA is a great deal for everybody, but this is more important to me than the USMCA, so they're going to have to live with it. Thank you very much.

(INAUDIBLE)

TRUMP: Thank you.

(INAUDIBLE)

TRUMP: Thank you very much, everybody.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thanks, guys.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can you get the USMCA --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (John), thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you very much.

(INAUDIBLE) TRUMP: Whatever.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Please start moving to the door.

TRUMP: Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Please start moving to the door.

TRUMP: Thank you. I'll tell you one thing, it's a great deal. If they don't pass it, it's purely political. That's a -- the USMCA, everybody wants to see it passed, but we'll see. Whatever they want to do is OK with me. Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thanks, guys. Thank you, (John). Let's go.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Gary), thank you. Come on, guys.

JOHN KING, CNN ANCHOR: The president of the United States in the Cabinet Room there, taking questions from reporters. Most of that conversation about relations with Mexico and with China. Trade tensions, immigration tensions, drug smuggling tensions from the president. Let's try to translate what we just heard.

To me, the most significant thing is, the president didn't say it this way, but that he's backing away from his threat to close the border. He's traveling to the border tomorrow, he's been saying he's going to shut down ports of entry to try to -- he wants to take those resources by shutting down the ports of entry, take those resources. He was threatening and put them off to fight illegal immigration, illegal border cross.

The president now saying there he's warning Mexico that if they don't do a better job stopping migrants from coming to the north, then he will put tariffs on their car. So again, he's saying --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In a year.

KING: -- the problem is --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In a year.

KING: In a year. He says the problem is the flow of immigrants and the flow of drugs. His solution, connecting a whole different issue, the trade issue is to put tariffs on the cars but he said he would give them a year and a warning which tells me, we began the week thinking on Friday he might announce the closing of the border. Senators from Texas, other members of his party, his economic advisers have told him that would be a disaster. It appears he's backing off

MARGARET TALEV, SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, BLOOMBERG: I think it's exactly that way. That's exactly the way I heard those comments also. And it's been very important in terms of the president's thinking to have so many Republicans inside his own administration as well as inside the Congress and in the business world say, if you do this, this will hurt you because it will hurt the economy and that will hurt you in turn as you head into re-election. And so what we heard him do there and the White House is to shift the focus over from that closing the border debate into the tariffs debate and then give it a year which will put us right smack in the next presidential -- I mean, I know we're already in the middle of the next presidential election, but who is going to remember a year from now that the magic date is April the 2nd, you know.

KING: And who's going to know if he says the same thing tomorrow because the president, one of his strengths and one of his frustrations for his own team is he often makes up policy on the fly in the sense. And if you listen to that conversation, you know, he says that -- he did say, he did give Mexico some credits, he said the government of Mexico because of his threats to close the border in his view is doing a better job of turning migrants around.

But the president again at the end there, talking about the USMCA saying it was done, it's not completely done. He said a number of things though to keep the fact checkers busy for the next several hours about the percentage of those who are captured at the border, who come back for their court dates.

[12:40:04] But the bigger point is, he's looking -- he seems to be looking for a way out after saying I'm going to close the border. But again, to your -- whether it's the Chamber of Commerce, whether his own economic advisers, Republican senators including the two Republican senators from Texas saying publicly, it would be a disaster and calamity for our state and for the country.

TOLUSE OLORUNNIPA, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, THE WASHINGTON POST: And we've seen this pattern from the president so many different times where he amplifies a crisis, he makes a big issue out of something, he quickly declares victory and then backs down after he gets a lot of pushback from members of his own party by saying that, you know, since I said I was going to shut down the border, everything is getting better, the Mexican government is finally doing its job. We're not really seeing that in the numbers. I don't think when the March and April numbers come out, we will see any major difference in the number of people coming across illegally. There's no sign from the Mexican Government that they're doing anything differently than what they were doing before.

But the president wants to be able to declare victory and say, you know, even though I'm backing down from this threat to shut down the border, I got something out of it. And I think that's the pattern that we see from this president all the time.

KING: I want to get to the China part in a minute because the president will announce later today he's planning a summit with Xi Jinping. Again, that's a huge deal. They're not done with the trade negotiation with the president being optimistic. But to this point, this is the second time in a week, if you're a Republican member of Congress and the president often has not listened to you and has often frustrated you, Mitch McConnell, another Republican, we saw him back off this new healthcare plan, we're not doing that before the 2020 election. A lot of Republican senators again including principally the Texans right there on the border said, Mr. President, stop talking about closing the border, it would be a calamity. This is twice in a week the president has, pick your word, changed his mind, blinked, backed down, depending on your view of the president, you'll pick your own word for that. But that is a new dynamic.

Right. And if this frequency keeps up between now and 2020, that's going to be a very big problem for all of the GOP trying to manage what Trump is staying and whether do they follow it ever or they just kind of spent their time trying to hold them back?

KAROUN DEMIRJIAN, CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER, THE WASHINGTON POST: I think that this is -- as Toluse was saying, this is not the first time we've seen this dynamic. It's usually not two major issues in a week that happens really on the airwaves, more than a dozen in private rooms that people report on. But, it's -- look, this is not necessarily going to be the biggest policy season, to begin with in terms of making things happen in Congress because we're heading toward an election. That's always the case.

KING: And we have a divided government, it's not going to happen.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

DEMIRJIAN: And we have a divided government. However, if you wanted to do anything in Congress other than get a lot of judges through the Senate, you're going to have a real problem doing that because the Senate Republicans do not like to move until they know that Trump is behind them.

When Trump is in a position where they can't even say that's a reasonable area of basic things for you to be saying, there's no place for them to go except for just continue to -- just try to straighten things as quickly as they can, but of course, we see that split happening.

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: Yes.

DEMIRJIAN: And that raises questions for whether they'll be behind him going closely.

HENDERSON: It is so odd to see him so publically kick the can down the road for a full year, right? I mean, this idea on the one hand. You know, he's talked about this with such urgency, right? This is an imminent threat, it's basically an invasion from the southern border, a hundred thousand people are dying a year he said of drugs. And so to say, oh, well, listen, they have a year and we might put tariffs on cars. At some point I think he said he might put tariffs on drugs as well which I don't really -- OK --

KING: Yes. How that works.

HENDERSON: Yes, yes. I'm not sure how that works. But that was really odd to give that long a time. KING: And again, again, this is just one of the things that will keep the fact checkers busy. The president said of those apprehended coming across the border, they get released and they're given a court date. The president said about two percent and he essentially said the stupid ones, about two percent return for their court hearings. PolitiFact says about 60 to 65 percent return for their court proceedings. So again, I hate to do this everybody but as part of our jobs, what the president says in those frays often turns out to be very distant from the actual facts.

Let's come back to the China question. He's meeting with the vice premier later today, we're told by U.S. officials are going to announce the summit with Xi Jinping which would tell you they think they can get to a final agreement. You don't bring the two presidents together unless you think you're going to have an agreement to sign.

The president said he wouldn't do it unless he got a big deal. He's not going to take an easy deal he said, and he said it would include intellectual property which has been a source of contention between the United States and China essentially since China's economy become matured going back several presidents.

Are they that close? Do they really think they can get that deal?

TALEV: I don't know. We hear so many mixed signals from the White House and people kind of close to the president in this world of trade about how close they are and how ready they are. The president likes to have summits and he likes to reach agreements, and he's been wanting to meet with Xi for a couple of months now and the day keeps getting push back. It's getting push further back, and even as recently as this morning we're hearing mixed signals from inside the White House on how ready they really are to go forward.

So I think he does want to have this meeting and he's ready to have the meeting, but there's still a lot of, you know, questions about whether this is going to be like soybeans with a ribbon on top or something real, really real and I think we just don't know yet. Today's discussions could be important.

KING: But you get the -- the vice premier --

TALEV: And so we get a clue.

KING: The vice premier is the number one official on trade. Sometimes setting a deadline is what gets you -- if you got a couple of big hurdles to get over, sometimes the deadline helps you, sometimes not. We'll see. The president said it's going to be a great deal and then he said it's not a great deal, we're not doing it. So we'll watch as soon as that play out but it would be a huge deal for both economies if it's true.

[12:45:01] A quick break, we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: Joe Biden says he gets it, but he isn't saying he's sorry. The former vice president tweeted a two-minute video yesterday responding to several women who have come forward to say Biden touched them at events, and what he described as innocent gestures of friendship and affection made them uncomfortable.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Social norms have begun to change. They have shifted, and the boundaries of protecting personal space have been reset, and I get it. I get it. I hear what they're saying, I understand it, and I'll be much more mindful.

[12:50:01] That's my responsibility. My responsibility and I'll meet it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Is that enough to quite the controversy? Will it impact Biden's standing way atop the 2020 Democratic field? Let's discuss with the co-hosts of the Pollsters podcast, Democrat Margie Omero, and Republican Kristen Soltis Anderson.

He is atop the pack, he does this video. Most people think of Joe Biden as a good guy. Just first impressions then we'll get into some data. Is that the best way to handle this? Is that going to get people to say, all right, give him a chance? Do we know anything about how the public processes these issues?

KRISTEN SOLTIS ANDERSON, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST AND POLLSTER: So I suspect that you are not going to see poll numbers move a great deal over this. We're still way too early in the process. A lot of polls are still being driven around name ID and things. And the fact that Joe Biden is well-known vice president for a very popular Barack Obama. This is why I think this one issue alone is not necessarily going to be make or break.

But, I think it tells us a little bit about some of the kills he's going to need to get better at if he wants to be a strong contender. One is speed. This story could have just been a one-day one news cycle story. Some women come out and say they feel uncomfortable if he would have done that video a few days ago and said, look, I am so sorry, I did not realize my behavior was making people feel this way, it would have been a one or two-day story.

But instead, where is Joe's statement? Where is Joe's statement? Where is Joe's statement? Allowed it to drag on, and I think it's that kind of nimbleness that he's going to need if he's going to navigate the new political world that's very different from when he ran for president say, back in 1980.

KING: And that does fit the broader question about Joe Biden. Has his moment passed? Is the age too different? Not just the Me Too but everything. Social media, being more nimble, being more quick? What does that -- what are we learning from this?

MARGIE OMERO, DEMOCRATIC POLLSTER: Well -- so first, I give him credit for going on camera. Other folks when they have had some kind of incidents like this they send out a tweet, they issue a statement. He went face to face. Clearly, he's taking it seriously or thinks it may be serious. I think that -- well, first of all, I think we -- just a pollster plea to take a step back to not look for tiny bumps in national primary surveys as a sign that something is happening. There's a lot of like clicky stories about tiny, tiny of movements out there about all the candidates. It's just my pollster daily plea for that.

And I think, you know, right now, I think Biden has clearly had some advantages because people -- he has a higher name ID than a lot of the other candidates. And as people will learn about the rest of the field, the field is not set, there are still more candidates entering. We may see some changes, and whether that's because of this story or other stories, whether it's Biden or what people are learning about other candidates. We don't know yet.

KING: That part -- that's the hard part to dissect, and you're absolutely right about anyone poll or a poll this week, you want to take it over time. That doesn't always work that way in this business, and then the internet age. But you have 17 candidates now, Congressman Tim Ryan getting in today. Those candidates start moving around, other -- sometimes their numbers go up, that means other people's numbers come down.

But let's just look at Joe Biden. I want to show on the polling here if you just look. This is a poll, number one, it's from earlier in March, the 21st through the 25th. So this poll taken before anybody processed this. They may have heard about it before but these new allegations.

There he is. Twenty-nine percent, this is among all Democrats leading. It's a national poll, it's not Iowa or New Hampshire. But that's a good position to be in although some people think being the frontrunner at this show is also a bit of a curse, but 29 percent there. That's among all Democrats there. All Democrats.

Now, this is the number that's significant to me. If you flip this over among female Democrats, the vice president, 11 points ahead of Bernie Sanders. So he starts with all Democrats and with Democratic women in a very powerful position. Does that strength help him get through a controversy like this?

ANDERSON: I think so. I think in part because there are a number of Democratic voters where their number one issue is, can we nominate someone who can beat Donald Trump? And more than someone -- there's a perception that they're being weakened by the primary process, does that make people worry. Oh gosh, are we making it harder for Joe Biden, if he is our ultimate nominee, to go on to win in a general election?

So, I would defer to Margie in this, to what extent the electability question is really important to Democratic voters and how they're looking at things like a story like this where they personally may say, look, I think Joe Biden is a good guy. But is this kind of stuff going to dog him for the next year and a half throughout an election and do we need to find someone who's a fresh face as a result? OMERO: I think it's always a challenge to ask people to play political consultant, right, to figure out, OK, you may think this, what do you think other people going to think down the road? I think primary voters are really looking for who do I want to see defeat Trump? I mean, Democratic primary voters feel very united around the fact that they want somebody different than the current president so they're going to be looking at what they find appealing.

It's important to remember Democratic primary voters are overwhelmingly female, just proportionally female, and that, you know, women voters, think about a variety of different things, prioritize a variety of different issues, but being able to able to demonstrate that you understand the challenge they're willing to face is something all the candidates will need (INAUDIBLE).

KING: And so to that point, let me show some other data here. This is again a poll conducted last month. Are Democrats are better off with Biden or with Bernie? If you look here, Democratic voters seem to think, again, you look at this number here, look at Sanders, without Sanders here, with Biden, 51.

[12:55:05] Democrats enter this race very, very early in this race thinking that Biden is more electable than Bernie Sanders in that case. Again, not the specifics here but just the idea of the president is in the space a little bit on this issue, that he's back in the news. Does that -- if the electability is his calling card, is there any reason to think this might dent out a little bit?

OMERO: I think that voters are going to be looking for somebody that excites them, and thinking that, will that person be able to excite other voters, other Democrats, other voters around the country, someone who can bring people together for what's next. And not be thinking about this in terms of a process kind of conversation.

ANDERSON: I think for Republicans they're mostly looking for, will Democrats -- how far will they move to the left? How will they define electability? Will electability be defined as someone who holds positions that are more moderate and therefore can appeal to a broader section of the middle? Or electability be defined as someone who can go toe to toe with Trump and fight him even if they are more ideologically to the left? I think that's still an open question.

KING: And we'll see if the vice president speeds up getting off the sidelines to try to answer for some voters.

Thanks for joining us in the INSIDE POLITICS today. Brianna Keilar continues the news after a quick break. Have a great afternoon.

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