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House Leaders Scrap Plan; Trump Tweets about Ethics Panel Plan; 115th Congress Starts. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired January 03, 2017 - 13:00   ET

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


SEN. CHARLES SCHUMER (D), INCOMING MINORITY LEADER: -- presidents of both parties, every president of both parties has done throughout the decades. We will hold President-elect Trump accountable to the finest instincts of what America has always stood for, e pluribus unum.

The bottom line is the president-elect ran has a change agent. He ran against the establishments of both parties. He promised to change the way America operates to oppose elites, drain the swamp, pay attention to working families.

But, my friends, since the election he seems to have forgotten that. Looking at the cabinet, which is stacked with billionaires, corporate executives, titans of Wallstreet, and those deeply embedded in Washington's carter of powers -- of power, it seems that many of his campaign themes are quickly being abandoned.

He said he was going to unrig the system. So far, it's still looks rigged. Too many of his cabinet picks support the same hard right doctrine heir (ph) positions that many in the Republican Party have held for years. Policies that is the American people have repeatedly rejected.

If president-elect Trump lets the hard-right members of Congress and his cabinet run the show, if he attempts to adopt their time-worn policies which benefit the elites, the special interests, corporate America, not the working man and woman, his presidency will not succeed.

Maybe not in the first 90 days, but certainly in the first two years. Unfort1unately, that seems to be the path he is following throughout the transition.

So, Mr. President-elect, if there's one part of my speech that I hope you listen to and take to heart, it's this one. And I mean it with the best of intentions.

If you abandon change and simply embrace the shop warn hard right pro- corporate pro-elite policies diametrically opposed to the many campaign themes that helped you win working class votes and get you elected, your presidency will not succeed.

We Democrats will hold you accountable to the working people of America. Not to the conservative ideologues in Washington who seem to have great number in your cabinet. We will hold your feet to the fire every time you abandon your pledge and work instead as an ally of the hard right.

So, Mr. President, the issues facing this country are many. We have a lot of work to do creating jobs, raising incomes, making college and health care affordable, rebuilding our infrastructure, making trade laws work for the American worker, keeping Americans safe from threats of violence and terrorism, taking care of our vets.

Now, each one take serious thought and action. These issues are too important for mere words. Our challenges too entrenched for mere tweeting. Making America great again requires more than 140 characters per issue.

With all due respect, America cannot afford a Twitter presidency. We have real challenges and we have real needs to get things done.

And many Americans are afraid, Mr. President-elect, that instead of rolling up your sleeves and forging serious policies, for you, Twitter suffices.

There's nothing wrong with using Twitter to speak to the American people. It's a good use of modern media. But these issues are complex and demand both careful consideration and action. We cannot tweet them away.

For instance, a tweet bragging about the 800 jobs that were saved at the Carrier plant doesn't solve the underlying problem. While it's good the 800 jobs were saved, even at Carrier, 1,300 jobs are still leaving. Hundreds more jobs are leaving it from the nearby Rexnord plant down the road. They're going overseas.

And, most importantly, thousands of jobs, more each month, leave our shore from every part of America. Tweeting about 800 jobs you saved is not a remanufacturing policy. That's not an economic policy.

[13:05:00] We're going to hold the president-elect accountable for a real policy to stop jobs from leaving this country. Not just one-half of one plant, not just one tweet, even if Republicans in Congress oppose it.

Similarly, tweeting, very smart to Vladimir Putin for ignoring American sanctions, is no foreign policy. America doesn't conduct foreign policy by tweet. Least of all, by flattering Putin after our intelligence agencies have confirmed that Russia interfered in our election.

Conducting foreign policy by tweet by spurning vital intelligence briefings that lay out the real emerging threats around the world, that should alarm Democrats and Republicans alike.

It is utterly amazing that our Republican colleagues who have spent years lambasting President Obama for not being tough enough on Putin are now, with a few rare exceptions, utterly silent.

On this and so many others issues, the president-elect must be held accountable on both sides of the aisle. On January 20th, we won't be in reality T.V. We'll be in reality. We Democrats will make sure government works for every American in reality. Not just on T.V. and on Twitter.

So, to those who wonder what the Democratic minority will do in the 115th Congress, the answer is simple. We'll fight for our principles. We'll fight for our values.

And we shall fulfill our solemn constitutional duty to hold the other branches of Congress -- of government accountable. To the extent that the president-elect and the Republican majority pursue policies that help America and are consistent with our values. We stand ready and willing to work with them.

But if they propose policies that will hurt Americans, deny health care, cut their benefits, unleash irresponsible Wallstreet risk taking at the expense of consumers, their efforts will crash and break apart like waves upon the rock of the Senate minority. That is our challenge. That is our charge. And we rise to meet it.

Thank you, Mr. President. I yield the floor.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: A very strong statement by Chuck Schumer, the new minority leader, the Democratic leader in the United States Senate. Really going after the president-elect of the United States, Donald Trump. Mincing no words, saying the president-elect will be held accountable on a whole host of issues.

We want to welcome our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer reporting from Washington.

I want to bring in our panel of political experts. Our -- "The Washington Post" reporter, David Nakamura, is with us. CNN Political Director David Chalian, our Chief Political Correspondent Dana Bash and our Chief Political Analyst Gloria Borger.

Dana, I was listening very closely to -- let me start with Gloria. I was listening very, very closely to Chuck Schumer. If the president- elect was watching and listening, that honeymoon, if there ever was a honeymoon, is clearly over because he went directly at the president- elect on a whole host of issues.

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes, on Twitter, this is not reality television. This is reality. Look, I think Chuck Schumer is going to be a fighter. But I think he also understands that he's got a fine line to walk.

For example, on infrastructure plans. If there is a big infrastructure proposal, the Democrats are going to say, great, we're going to fund that. And we want to work with the president on that. The Republicans not so much.

But I think he laid down the law that the Democratic Party is going to remain the Democratic Party. And when they can work with Trump, they will. And when they can't, they won't.

BLITZER: He came close, Dana, to ridiculing the president-elect on several sensitive critically important issues, including Russia.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Including and especially Russia.

And this is one of those examples of where you have a Democratic leader, the Democratic leader now, Chuck Schumer, working hand in glove with the most veteran highest ranking Republicans on national security on a very, very important issue of national security, like Russia, and where they disagree with the Republican president.

And this is just one of many ways that things are incredibly scrambled right now here in Washington.

BLITZER: David Chalian, were you surprised at how forceful, how tough, how blunt Schumer was in this opening statement?

[13:10:03] DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: I wasn't that surprised. I've covered Chuck Schumer a long time back in his New York days, too, and blunt is a way that he always --

BLITZER: But supposedly, the two of them had a good relationship.

CHALIAN: No, and I think they do. I think we have to be clear what this speech was. We have to put this in context.

Chuck Schumer, for the first time, was speaking as the leading Democratic in the nation. So, what he was doing right there, is telling his party, I'm going to wave the flag. I am going to be the leader of the opposition. I am going to fight this fight for you.

This -- I don't think we should take anything we should take from what he said there that Chuck Schumer is going to get down and deal with Donald Trump and find ways to do it.

But he was telling his own party, I've got this. I will carry the flag.

BLITZER: So, he was speaking, David, to his base more than he was addressing the Republican majority in the Senate?

DAVID NAKAMURA, REPORTER, "THE WASHINGTON POST": What was interesting to me was, sort of he had two messages I thought. One was that, you know, Donald Trump ran as this change agent. And we're going to hold him accountable to that.

He's not -- he goes in, sort of, adopts (ph) far right policies that the public -- the American public didn't really support during this election cycle broadly. We're going to make that clear and tie him to -- you know, onto the Supreme Court nomination, if he goes to a very conservative member.

On the other hand, he's saying, you know, don't be tweeting about foreign policy and doing things differently than others have done on different administrations. So, I think he's, really, just trying to sort of establish some markers that they can judge Trump by as he goes (INAUDIBLE.) BLITZER: He said, Dana, this is not reality T.V. Clearly, a dig at Donald Trump who used to work in reality T.V. This is reality. You had a chance to sit down earlier today with Chuck Schumer for a rather candid interview. Give us the highlights.

BASH: Well, first of all, you're right. They do know each other. They're both New Yorkers. And Donald Trump was a frequent and early giver to Chuck Schumer's campaigns because it wasn't that long ago that Donald Trump gave to Democrats because he was one.

But the thing that I thought was interesting was just as you were saying and it was very clear in this speech how much he is trying to walk the line. Trying to be somebody who will stand up to Donald Trump and fight for Democratic principles. But also, make clear he's not just going to do that just to say no to everything, like, for example, Mitch McConnell did to Barack Obama.

He talked a little bit about that. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (D), MAJORITY LEADER: The only way we're going to work with him is if he moves completely in our direction and abandons his Republican colleagues. That's not going to happen very often, and I'm even less optimistic that any of that could happen seeing his cabinet choices. 90-95 percent of the time, we'll be holding his feet to the fire and holding him accountable.

But we're Democrats. We're not going to just oppose things to oppose them.

BASH: I've known you for a long time. You love a deal. Not unlike the president-elect. I find that hard to believe that you don't want to make deals with him.

MCCONNELL: Here's the problem. The Republicans in the Senate and the House have been run by a hard-right group, an almost Tea Party group. And they are so far away --

BASH: But now, they've got a deal maker --

MCCONNELL: -- from where we are.

BASH: -- in the White House just like you.

MCCONNELL: Well, look, we're going to look at the specifics of what he's proposed. And on the overwhelming bunch of them, particularly given who he's chosen as his cabinet people, we're going have to oppose them because we just disagree in principle.

Of course, I'd like to make a deal. You know, if we could get together on immigration and have a path to citizenship, just as I was happy to work with John McCain and Lindsey Graham, I'll be happy to work with Donald Trump. But he hasn't even talked -- come close to talking about that so we're going to end up opposing him on those issues. BASH: How much pressure are you feeling from the progressives? I mean, I'll just give you one example. Democracy for America leading progressive group said, Democratic leaders from Chuck Schumer down need to stop playing footsie with Trump and pretending we can find common ground.

MCCONNELL: We're playing no footsie. My views are exactly the same as Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. Both of them have said --

BASH: Since when?

MCCONNELL: -- both of them have said the same exact thing. If we can work with him and be true to our principles, we're not going to reject it. But, overall, we're sticking to our principles. We're not compromising for its own sake. We're not taking a quarter of a low to say, quote, "We can get something done." Our principles are going to be our guiding light.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BASH: And he also told me that in a phone call with the president- elect, he said to him, you know, you ran going after both Democrats and Republicans. But judging by your cabinet picks, you are going to govern as a hard-right Republican. I said, what was his response? He said, nothing.

BLITZER: It's going to be an exciting few weeks and months and years, I must say this.

Everybody stand by. I want to get to the Republican leadership right now. Doing an about-face on plans to gut an independent House ethics panel.

The proposal on the first day of the new Congress was widely criticized, including by the President-elect, himself, Donald Trump.

Our Senior Political Reporter Manu Raju is joining us from Capitol Hill. Manu, bring us up to speed. The initial vote to strip the panel of its power and now the complete reversal by the Republican leadership to scrap that initiative.

Tell our viewers what happened.

[13:15:08] MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: Yes, that's right, Wolf.

This sort of came out of left field. Last night in a closed House Republican meeting where they were just going to discuss the rules package that essentially sets the parameters for debate and structuring the House going forward for the 115th Congress, it was going to be adopted by the conference, the House Republican Conference, but, out of nowhere, this rules amendment was proposed behind closed doors by Congressman Bob Goodlatte, who proposed to change how ethics investigations are conducted on the House side. There's a lot of concern from some members that an independent commission, this body, is overzealous in some ways and is designed to simply to try to get headlines. That's what the critics say. And they said that we need to do more to reign it in and bring it under more control for members of Congress who can have oversight of that committee. So they had a provision that was adopted in this rules package last night that would have gutted this independent body.

Now this morning, after a night of criticism from outside watchdog groups, from Democrats and even Donald Trump tweeting that why are we even focusing on this issue on day one of the new Congress, the Republican leadership got its members together behind closed doors and said, this has to go. We were told that Kevin McCarthy, the House majority leader, told his colleagues that this was not going to pass this afternoon unless they agreed to drop this provision. And some folks referenced the fact that Donald Trump has also opposed this provision.

So what do they do? They agree to strip it out after that scathing criticism because of the optics here, Wolf, in an effort to try to get on the same page after a day of disunity and division over an issue that the Republican leadership just was not expecting yesterday, Wolf.

BLITZER: Yes, let me read that tweet that Donald Trump put out this morning because it was pretty surprising. "With all that Congress has to work on, do they really have to make the weakening of the independent ethics watchdog, as unfair as it may be, their number one act and priority? Focus on tax reform, health care, and so many other things of far greater importance, #dts, drain the swamp."

How much of an impact - clearly that had an impact on the Republican leadership in the House, but how significant was it, Manu?

RAJU: Very significant. I was talking to a lot of members this morning who actually expressed that concern before Donald Trump even tweeted that. Even Paul Ryan, the House speaker, last night making that case to his colleagues. Bu at about 10:30, 11:00 this morning, the House majority leader, Kevin McCarthy, said they're still going to move forward with that rules package, and that was really before that Donald Trump tweet really got a lot of attention.

So as soon as it started to get a lot of attention, members started to realize that we can't be on the wrong page - on opposite page as the incoming president of our own party, and that's one reason why they agreed to do this behind closed doors. Knowing how bad it would look optically and Nancy Pelosi, Wolf, the House Democratic leader, also teeing off, releasing a statement today sharply criticizing the Republicans for backtracking on this and said that their true colors were shown last night by deciding to do this behind closed doors. So Democrats clearly not letting this go. You know the Republicans know that it did not look so good to do this at the beginning of the new Congress.

Wolf.

BLITZER: It certainly didn't.

All right, thanks very much, Manu. We're going to get back to you. I want to discuss this Republican reversal on the ethics vote. I'm

joined now by Noah Bookbinder. He's the executive director for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.

Noah, thanks very much for joining us.

Are you ready to give the president-elect of the United States a lot of the credit for reversing this decision?

NOAH BOOKBINDER, EXEC. DIR., CITIZENS FOR RESPONSIBILITY AND ETHICS IN WASHINGTON: I think the credit really goes to public outrage, that people looked at what House Republicans have done, that apparently they read the mood of the American people and thought what people wanted was loosening of ethics in Washington and they just got it totally wrong and there was instant outrage.

I think that the president-elect saw that. He responded to it. It wasn't the strongest condemnation. He kind of seemed to suggest that maybe what they were doing was right, but it shouldn't have been the first thing out of the gate. But that was enough of a signal to House Republicans that they were going to lose with the public that they changed their minds.

BLITZER: Because I know you're a strong supporter of this panel, this ethics panel. Are you ready to say to the president-elect, though, even though you didn't think his statement was strong enough, "thank you, Mr. President-elect.

BOOKBINDER: I think that he came out on the right side of this one. I think he is someone who has been under a lot of fire for ethics issues on his own, even before he is taking office. And so this was kind of an easy one for him to come in and see, as we did and as so many others did, how wrong this was.

[13:20:12] So, yes, it's a good thing that he came out on the right side of this issue. There's a lot more that needs to be done on ethics issues from him on down.

BLITZER: Now, it wasn't that easy, though, for him to do this. His incoming White House counsellor, Kellyanne Conway, was on TV earlier this morning defending the decision by Congressman Bob Goodlatte, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, to gut this entire panel. And he, in effect, pulled the rug out from under her. So it wasn't necessarily all that easy a decision for him to admonish the Republican leadership in the House and say, guys, you got this wrong. You've got to move on to other issues. Forget about it.

BOOKBINDER: Sure. I mean he's somebody who has - who have been willing to break with his own advisors in the past and with his own party. But I think that we've seen him feeling pressure on ethics issues over the past number of weeks, and he saw the response to this move by House Republicans and probably assumed that this one was not worth holding the line on, and he was right about that.

BLITZER: Noah Bookbinder of - the executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. You must be happy right now that we're back to where we started, not changing the rules on this first day of the 115th Congress. Thanks very much for joining us.

BOOKBINDER: Thanks for having me.

BLITZER: Let's get some analysis from our panel.

Gloria, you know, you've got to give Donald Trump a lot of credit for this because I suspect if he wouldn't have tweeted on that this morning, this probably wouldn't have happened, because even Paul Ryan, who opposed it, Kevin McCarthy who opposed it, they were putting out statements defending the decision going forward.

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Right.

BLITZER: And then all of a sudden they had to reverse themselves.

BORGER: They were for it after they were against it, right? And they were - they were against it privately, and then they decided to go along with their - with their troops afterwards. And I think - this is one of those stories where you have to scratch your head and say, what were they thinking? Doing this behind closed doors, without any warning, before the Congress comes back into session, on, of all things, gutting your own ethics panel rules, it's crazy. It's absolutely crazy.

And Donald Trump, we have learned through this campaign, understands how things play. And he basically looked at this and said, are you guys kidding me? I ran on drain the swamp, and here you are gutting your own ethics panel. This is ridiculous. And I think this is a sign of things to come.

I think Donald Trump will not be shy about telling Congress from the outside when he disagrees with them. And this is going to be a lot of headaches I think for Paul Ryan and the leadership going forward because Donald Trump may become the speaker of the House, as well as the president.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, headaches in some cases, but in this particular case, maybe he's a little bit late -

BORGER: Yes.

BASH: Because Paul Ryan and Kevin McCarthy and others had put out statements trying to defend it.

BORGER: Right.

BASH: But he saved their - saved the day at the end.

BORGER: Yes.

BASH: And - and it's like - it's sort of - I just keep thinking, I would love to crawl into Paul Ryan's head right now because he spent so many weeks, months just hoping that Donald Trump is not the Republican nominee. Then he becomes that and also the president, and he has to try to figure out a way to deal with him. And now, on day one of the new Congress, he realizes that using that medium, Twitter, that Donald Trump used to attack Paul Ryan, by the way, in the past, he can actually help Paul Ryan do something that he had trouble, John Boehner his predecessor had trouble doing, which is to help get the very unruly Republican rank-and-file focused and really shame them into listening to the leaders -

BORGER: It would have been nice if he would have given him a heads up on this.

BASH: I would have been nice. I - I would not be surprised if - because there's constant communication between Kevin McCarthy and Paul Ryan and Donald Trump, if this was something that they knew he was going to do. I'm told by Trump world that this was all DJT, meaning Donald J. Trump, but I wouldn't be surprised if this was something that was coordinated.

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: But look at the speed with which things happened this morning.

BASH: Right.

CHALIAN: It was - it was mind-blowing. Kellyanne Conway, who is speaking for the president-elect, is supposed to come out on television and have a full understanding of his thoughts on this, she embraced this change.

BORGER: Right.

CHALIAN: She was not at all with Ryan and McCarthy. She was defending it and embracing it. And then Paul Ryan puts out a statement that clearly indicates he thinks it's going to pass -

BORGER: Right.

CHALIAN: Because he starts doing fancy footwork about, even though I'm opposed to this, this is how it's going to be.

BASH: Exactly.

CHALIAN: And then the president-elect tweets, and like that, unanimous consent done.

BORGER: He blows it up.

CHALIAN: So just an unbelievable speed. But it shows you also, Donald Trump keeps his own counsel clearly a lot -

BASH: Yes.

CHALIAN: And this was so against brand. It was so off brand for him to have him do this that even Donald Trump, the person that has broken up the establishment, actually sides with the establishment here. And as you said, it's not so much of a headache for them when Donald Trump's on their side.

[13:25:16] DAVID NAKAMURA, "WASHINGTON POST" REPORTER: You also wonder a little bit about communication. I mean they haven't taken office yet. Yes, granted, but they have Mike Pence, who's a former Congress member. You have Reince Priebus, who's supposed to be in touch. And they just named staff to actually active legislative director on The Hill. You think there could have been discussion before this. Obviously the Republican leadership was surprised yesterday, but closed door meeting, which I understand.

BASH: Exactly. That's (INAUDIBLE).

NAKAMURA: And so that - it also stuck me though that Chuck Schumer just said, you know, said, you can't have a Twitter president. We can't have a - this is going to reinforce to Donald Trump that he gets results, frankly.

BORGER: But you do when you're president.

NAKAMURA: Yes.

BLITZER: He could put out a statement, a written statement, issue a press release or he could issue it on Twitter with 140 characters or less.

(CROSS TALK)

BLITZER: But you know what, he can double that if he does two tweets in a row, as he did on this so he can have a lot more than just 140 characters.

BORGER: But if I'm Paul Ryan - if I'm Paul Ryan -

BLITZER: All right, guys, everybody stand by. We've got a lot more to come.

I want to show our viewers some live pictures right now. The vice president of the United States, Joe Biden, he's in the old Senate chamber with a ceremonial swearing in of the members of the 115th Congress. We're watching that. He's there doing a swearing in. That's Richard Burr of North Carolina. Oh, and - well, that's not necessarily Richard Burr. It was Richard Burr. But we'll move on.

BORGER: Murkowski. It's Murkowski.

BLITZER: It's -

BORGER: Lisa Murkowski.

BLITZER: It's Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, of Alaska, who's being sworn in by the vice president. This is ceremonial. They've already done it officially, officially on the Senate floor. Let's listen in.

JOE BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Do you solemnly swear to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that you will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that you take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that you will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which you're about to enter, so help you God? SEN. LISA MURKOWSKI (R), ALASKA: I do.

BIDEN: I don't have a doubt about it.

(CROSS TALK)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)