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Massive Protests against Trump in U.S, Around World; Interview with Denver Protesters; Interview with Sen. Cory Booker; Donald Trump Speech to CIA; Celebrity March Attendees Speak Out. Aired 3-4p ET
Aired January 21, 2017 - 15:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[15:00:00] (SHOUTING)
AMERCIA FERRERA, ACTRESS: We will not go from being a nation of immigrants to a nation of ignorance.
MICHAEL MOORE, DIRECTOR & ACTIVIST: The old guard of the Democratic Party has to go. It has to go.
(CHEERING)
MOORE: We need new leadership. We need young leadership. We need women leadership.
(CHEERING)
SCARLETT JOHANSSON, ACTRESS & ACTIVIST: President Trump, I did not vote for you.
(CHEERING)
JOHANSSON: That said, I respect our out president-elect, and I want to be able to support you. But first, I ask that you support me.
(CHEERING)
JOHANSSON: Support my sister. Support my mother. Support my best friend and all of our girlfriends.
CECILE RICHARDS, PRESIDENT, PLANNED PARENTHOOD FEDERATION OF AMERICA: I wish every single one of them could see you're a beautiful fire, some of them in Congress. A terrifying one.
(CHEERING)
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Some of the voices here in the headquarters of the movement in Washington. Organizers of the march say there's 2.5 million demonstrators participating in what they're calling sister marches all around the world. More live pictures for you. Huge crowds gathered across major U.S. cities.
We have CNN crews covering these marches nationwide.
Let begin in D.C. Kyung Lah in the thick of it.
Kyung, tell me where everyone is.
KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They're applauding loudly because the woman, like a music festival, is Madonna. If you look here to the right and look at the crowd, they are quite a bit more energized. There's been anxiety with calls for the march to begin.
They have rerouted this march. They have instructed people, when this march begins -- and it is running an hour behind schedule. They'll walk down the constitution and head to the White House, but word rippling that people are already there. This entire area is already filled with people all the way to the White House. But the intention is that they are eventually going to spin around and then walk that way.
So, something that we've been talking to people about is what happens from now because there's been a lot of discussion after the election about bubbles. Did they live within their bubbles? This was their attempt to come out of the bubbles. They travel from California, New York, heading to President Trump's doorstep so that he listens to them, but they head to his bubble. The question is, will there be anything further done? People here say that they are going to try, they are going to try to become the Tea Party of the left -- Brooke?
BALDWIN: Yeah. I was talking to the women this morning. A lot of Republicans might say, where were you a couple of months ago? But they're here now. They're staying, at least for today. They have their message. We'll listen throughout the country.
Kyung, thank you, in D.C.
Thousands of these women, and men, we should point out as well, are flooding the streets of downtown Denver.
Ana Cabrera there with them.
Ana, tell me why they want to show up.
ANA CABRERA, CNN CORRESONDENT: This really is all about rejecting messages and rhetoric of hate and divisiveness and embracing messages of unity and emboldening and empowering the groups, whether they're women, immigrants, disabled. These are the people coming out in full force, men, women, and children to say, we are with you, and we want to send a message to the future generations and the current administration.
If I can go ahead and push into the crowd here, you can see, there are thousands of people rallying right now in downtown Denver.
And alongside me are the three women, the individuals who helped spark Denver's rally movement. And I want to introduce briefly here, Chita McCullum (ph), Jessica Rogers (ph) and Karen Hinckle (ph).
You three got this going and look at what it turned into. What goes into your mind?
CHITA MCCULLUM (ph), MARCH ORGANIZER: Surreal, awesome and just pure love. I am so main love with Colorado and proud of us for coming out and standing up for what we believe to be right.
CABRERA: I know for you, this was personal. You're a math teacher who works with a lot of the Latino community. You heard the fear that they had and expressed during the election hearing and the talk about deporting families. You have a daughter who is a who has Asperger's.
KAREN HINCKLE (ph), ORGANIZER: I sobbed the whole way here. I'm very emotional. But I'm so proud of what we've done and we set out to send a message and I'm sure that message has been sent.
CABRERA: What is the big message?
HINCKLE (ph): That we are all equal. That we all deserve to be treated equally and equitably, regardless of our gender, skin color, those are the things that make us beautiful. Not reasons to be shameful. We need to be proud of who we are and that's the message that we all have to stick together and we are powerful together.
[15:05:23] CABRERA: Jessica, this is one moment in time. After today, what's the takeaway going forward?
JESSICA ROGERS (ph), ORGANIZER: We're hoping to keep the momentum going through community organization. We have meetings scheduled to get people together to talk about what we're going to do and feel strongly that since Colorado is a blue island in the sea of red, we need to get Colorado organized so that we can be a regional pillar for the mountain state.
CABRERA: Thank you, ladies, for joining me here.
So, Brooke, that is the message, the takeaway we're hearing from the voices here today.
I want to say that we are seeing all generations and people from a lot of different specters here, from the elderly to, again, some people in power. We saw the representative here, Pearl Mudder (ph), and we're seeing a lot of people coming together, which is pretty refreshing.
Back to you.
BALDWIN: Ana, thank you so much.
I spent my entire morning backstage in Washington at this women's march, and I ran into Senator Cory Booker and I grabbed him and said, we've got to talk. Because here you are, and I wanted you to explain to me you wanted to show up around the sea of pink? What you thought? You were there at the inauguration yesterday. And also, would he liked to be called Mr. President in four years? This is what he told me. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SEN. CORY BOOKER, (D), NEW JERSEY: Yesterday, my heart was heavy. Today, I feel ignited again.
BALDWIN: You ran through issues. Planned parenthood. Women who feel passionate about a myriad of issues. But some saying, he's not my president. He's not my president but the truth, he is.
BOOKER: Yeah.
BALDWIN: We sat at the inauguration yesterday.
BOOKER: Absolutely.
BALDWIN: And he's the 45th president.
So, in terms of unifying, what's your message to these women who refuse to own it?
BOOKER: First, I have no message to people who might want to say those words. The reality is, Donald Trump is president and bad things happen. I think this is a bad thing. But they don't define you. What defines you is how you choose to respond to that. If people get caught up in a set of sedentary advantage, but right now, we need the fighting, resisting, waking people up to the issues. Because if you're Republican or Democrat, you did not vote to have 30 million Americans lose health insurance. You did not vote to put insurance companies back in charge.
BALDWIN: Republicans say, OK, you have a massive march in Washington where thousands of people are here, but where were they a year ago? If they felt so strongly, show up more.
BOOKER: I actually agree with you. In this sense, we did not show up in the election. The low-voter turnouts' astonishing and this is a reaction to something bad but that's OK. That's behind us now. Now is not the time to underestimate the power we still have to stop the things that are happening. We saw that in the opening of the new Congress where they tried to strip away the ethics, oversight, and the people spoke up and stopped them in their tracks. We have so much power and I still believe even though Donald Trump is the president of the United States, I believe the power of the people is greater than the people in power.
BALDWIN: It's patriot of his message yesterday when he was standing up in front of capital and saying, this is all about you, the people. And read a quote from yesterday. He said, "Today's ceremony has a special meaning because, today, we are not merely transferring power from one administration to another, or one party to another, but transferring power from Washington, D.C., and giving it back to you, the American people." And he says this standing in the nucleus of Washington.
BOOKER: That rings hollow because the majority of people voted against him and that was a time to reach out to people and talk about inclusion and seem magnanimous. Attack John Lewis on Twitter. When you attack people, who have shown a higher level of sacrifice than he'll ever be able to show in his life, that's problematic. When I saw Bush, when I watched Clinton and Obama, they brought a dignity to the office and magnanimity and kindness to others, not picking on the little guy or attacking the character of individuals. This is a person at every step of his way is sending to the office, demean and degrade people based upon not something they did but their character, attacking a federal judge, saying he can't do his job because of his ancestry, attacking women in the most-vile terms, as a football player in locker rooms and immigrants. I'm hoping when he won the election, it would stop. It hasn't. He continues to be a bully.
[15:10:08] BALDWIN: What do you want him to say?
BOOKER: I'm done with words. I want actions now.
BALDWIN: Four years will be here in a blink. Are you going to run for president?
BOOKER: No, and I think we'd make a mistake if we made decisions -- we make a mistake if we're focusing on four years from now.
BALDWIN: A lot of women here are hoping for somebody to emerge from the crowd of Democrats who will lift their voice in a way they feel like this president isn't. Is that you?
BOOKER: I will definitely be one of many in this country lifting our voice stepping out to fight but we weaken ourselves and think this is about 20. Because I've seen intelligence briefings. I've seen and sat in on foreign policy committee hearings. What can happen in the next four years is this w years? Too many things can happen that can hurt people in our nation and around the globe if this president isn't checked. So right now, I don't care about 2020 and 2018.
Tomorrow, literally, I'm going to my office today to be working on legislation, on coalitions, on reaching out to people, to fight this president because in my opinion, the things he has told us he intends to do are dangerous. Not just to Democrats, but dangerous to poor people, dangerous to people living on the margins and bisexual transgender people and people in small factory and inner cities. And I'm gearing up for the fight today and don't care about tomorrow.
BALDWIN: Are you open to it?
BOOKER: I'm open to fighting. I am open to fighting.
BALDWIN: Open to being president?
BOOKER: I am not open to being president. And I don't want the discussion right now, because I think that's an attempt to distract people from the work we have to do right now.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BALDWIN: So, Senator Booker, thank you so much. I had to push him a little bit, but there you heard it at least now,
what is this, January 21, 2017, he's saying no to a presidential run for now.
So much to talk about. We're in Washington D.C. We've got hundreds of thousands of women taking to the streets across the country. We want to hear from them.
Also, we want to hear from the president of the United States. Mr. Trump, is at the CIA. He's actually, we're hearing now, being briefed by CIA leadership, so we'll talk to our panel about what to listen for momentarily here on this Saturday.
You're watching CNN.
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BALDWIN: All right. So, we're going to pictures. Here we have the crowd on their feet. This is the CIA. We're waiting for Donald Trump, President Trump to arrive.
I have Jim Sciutto sitting here with me.
Talk me through the significance of what's about to happen.
JIM SCIUTTO, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Look at the setting. Those stars behind the podium, there's 117 of them and those are stars for CIA officers who have died in the line of duty. I can bet a lot of money that location is not accidental. You're bring in a president in there who you might guess in the light of what's been a very heated relationship since the election, public comments via Twitter and elsewhere, accusing the intelligence community in effect of being politicized, and particularly, the intelligence analysis related to Russian interference in the election, accusing that being politicized.
So here you are in that grand hall as you enter the CIA in Langley, Virginia, this is the first thing you see when you walk in there. You can't see it there, but there's a book, lower, that has some of the names listed, some that will never be listed because they were very classified positions. Just a reminder of the job that these intelligence officers do.
And I would expect that will be part of Donald Trump's message today, saying, listen, we thank you for what you do. And I'll tell you, a lot of folks noticed yesterday that Defense Secretary Mattis, in his first statement, the second line called out the intelligence community. And he made a point of saying it's the soldiers and the intelligence operatives, et cetera, in his words, I believe, he said the defenders in the country. That's a message as well to the intelligence community, the military, to the public, the American public.
[15:15:58] BALDWIN: To the president?
SCIUTTO: Maybe to the president as well. You'll see some of that today.
BALDWIN: What do you think, Gloria?
GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: I think there's some hope in the building that once Donald Trump gets his own people in charge that he may speak a little differently about the work that the intelligence community does. We know that there's been a delay in confirming Congressman Pompeo for the job. But people in that building were worried. They're career people. They're not partisans. Their work was being defamed, they believe, so they're looking for signals like this, which the president, as Jim was saying, is giving very deliberately. And they're looking for encouragement.
And here's the vice president.
BALDWIN: The vice president.
(APPLAUSE)
MIKE PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UITED STATES: Thank you to the acting director, Meroe Park. Thank you for 27 years serving the United States of America here at CIA.
(APPLAUSE)
PENCE: It's a great privilege for me to be with you today and to have the opportunity to introduce, at his first event on his first full day, the new president of the United States, Donald Trump.
(APPLAUSE)
PENCE: As you can imagine, as you can imagine, it's deeply humbling for my family and I to find ourselves in this role. I'm grateful to our new president, for the opportunity he's given me, and to the opportunity the American people have given us to serve.
But it's especially humbling for me to be before all of you today, men and women of character, who have sacrificed greatly, and to stand before this hallowed wall, this memorial wall, where we remember 117 who paid the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom.
I can assure you this new president and our entire team recognizes and appreciates the sacrifices of all of the men and women of the intelligence community of the United States of America.
(APPLAUSE)
PENCE: I've gotten to know our new president. We've traveled a lot together. When the cameras are off, two things I know for sure. Number one, I've never met anyone more dedicated to the safety and security of the people of the United States of America, or anyone who is a greater strategic thinker about how we accomplish that for this nation. In fact, to understand the life of our new president, his whole life was strategy. He built an extraordinary success in the private sector. And I know he's going to make America safe again.
(APPLAUSE)
PENCE: And lastly, and lastly, I can honestly tell you, all my years serving in Congress, serving as governor in my homes state, traveling cross country and seeing the connection he's made to men and women who serve and protect in every capacity in this country, I've never met anyone with a greater heart for those who, every day, in diverse ways, protect the people in the nation through their character and their service and their sacrifice.
And so, let me say, it is my high honor and distinct privilege to introduce to all of you, the president of the United States.
(APPLAUSE)
(CHEERING)
[15:20:06] DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Thank you. Wow.
(APPLAUSE)
(CHEERING)
TRUMP: I want to thank everybody, very, very special people. And it is true, this is my first stop, officially. We're not talking about the balls and we're not talking about even the speeches. Although, they did treat me nicely on that speech yesterday.
(LAUGHTER)
I always call them the dishonest media, but they treated me nicely.
(LAUGHTER)
But I want to say, there is nobody that feels stronger about the intelligence community and the CIA than Donald Trump. There's nobody.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: And the wall behind me is very, very special. We've been touring for quite a while, and I'll tell you what, 29? I can't believe it. 28. We better reduce it. That's amazing. And we really appreciate what you've done in terms of showing us something very special, and your whole group, these are really special amazing people. Very, very few people could do the job you people do. And I want to just let you know, I am so behind you. And I know maybe sometimes you haven't gotten the backing that you've wanted, and you're going to get so much backing. Maybe you'll say, don't give us so much backing.
(LAUGHTER)
Mr. President, please, we don't need that much backing.
(LAUGHTER)
But you're going to have that. And I think everybody in this room knows it.
You know, the military and the law enforcement, generally, speaking, but all of it, but the military gave us tremendous percentage of votes. We were unbelievably successful getting the vote of the military. And, probably, almost everybody in this room voted of the for me. But I will not ask you to raise your hands if you did.
(LAUGHTER)
But I guarantee a big portion because, we're all on the same wavelength. We're all on the same wavelength.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: Right? We know. It took about Ryan about 30 seconds to figure that one out, because we know. We're on the same wavelength. But we'll do great things. We'll do great things.
We've been fighting these wars for longer than any wars we've ever fought. We have not used the real abilities that we have. We've been restrained.
We have to get rid of ISIS. We have to get rid of ISIS. We have no choice.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: Radical Islamic terrorism, and I said it yesterday, has to be eradicated, just off the face of the earth. This is evil. This is evil.
And you know, I can understand the other side. We can all understand the other side. There can be wars between countries. There could be wars. You could understand what happened. This is something nobody can even understand. This is a level of evil that we haven't seen. And you're going to go to it and you're going to do a phenomenal job. But we're going to end it. It's time. It's time right now to end it.
You have somebody coming on who is extraordinary. You know, for the different positions of secretary of this and secretary of that and all of these great positions, I'd see five, six, seven, eight people. And we had a great transition. We had an amazing team of talent.
And by the way, General Flynn is over here.
Put up your hand.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: What a guy.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: And Reince, my helper. Reince, you know -- they don't care about Reince. He's like this political guy that turned out to be a super star. Right? We don't have to talk about Reince. But we did. We had just such a tremendous, tremendous success.
So, when I'm interviewing all of these candidates that Reince said his whole group is putting in front, it went very quickly. And in this case, went so quickly, because I would see six or seven or eight who are for secretary of agriculture, who were just in the other day, Sonny Purdue, former governor of Georgia. Fantastic guy. But I'd see six or seven, eight people for a certain position. Everybody wanted it. But I'd met Mike Pompeo. That was the only guy on that. I didn't want to meet anybody else. I said, cancel everybody else. Cancel.
Now, he was approved, essentially, but they're doing little political games with me. He was one of the three. Now, last night, as you know, General Mattis, fantastic guy, and General Kelly got approved.
(APPLAUSE)
[15:25:40] TRUMP: And Mike Pompeo was supposed to be in the group. It was going to be the three of them. Can you imagine all of these guys? People respect that military sense.
All of my political people, they're not doing so well. The political people aren't doing so well. But we're going to get them all through, but some will take longer than others.
But Mike was -- literally, I had a group of, what, nine different people? Now, I must say, I didn't mind cancelling eight appointments. That wasn't the worst thing in the world. But I met him and I said, he is so good. Number one in his class at West Point. I know a lot about West Point. And I'm a person that very strongly believes in academics. In fact, every time, I say I had an uncle who was a great professor at MIT for 35 years, who did a fantastic job in so many ways, academically. He was an academic genius. And then they say, is Donald Trump, an intellectual. Trust me, I'm like a smart person.
(LAUGHTER)
And I recognized immediately. So, he was number one at West Point, and then, essentially, number one at Harvard Law School, and then decided to go to the military. He ran for Congress. And everything he's done has been a home run. People like him. But much more importantly to me, everybody respects him.
And when I told Paul Ryan that I wanted to do this, I would said, he may be the only person that was not totally thrilled.
Right, Mike?
Because he said, I don't want to lose this guy. But you will be getting a total star. You're going to be getting a total gem. This is a gem. And I just --
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: You'll see. And many of you know him anyway, but you're going to see.
And again, we have some great people going. But this one is something very special because this is one, if I had to name the most important, this would certainly be perhaps, and in certain ways, my most important. You do the job like everybody in this room is capable of doing. The generals are wonderful and the fighting is wonderful. But if you give them the right direction, boy, does the fighting become easier and, boy, lose so fewer lives and win so quickly. That's what we have to do. We have to start winning again.
When I was young, and when I was -- and I feel young. I feel like I'm 30, 35, 39.
(LAUGHTER)
Somebody said, are you young? I said, I think I'm young. You know, I was stopping when we were in the final month of the campaign, four stops, five stops, seven stops, speeches, speeches, in front of 25,000, 35,000 people, 15,000, 19,000, from stop to stop, I feel young.
When I was young -- I think we're all so young -- we were always winning things in this country. Would win with trade. Would win with wars. And at a certain age, I remember hearing from one of my instructors, the United States has never lost a war. And then after that, it's like, we haven't won anything. We don't win any more. The old expression, to the victor belonged the spoils. You remember, they always used to say, keep the oil. I wasn't a fan of Iraq. Didn't want to go into Iraq. But I will tell you, when we were in, get out wrong. I always said, in addition to that, and I said it for economic reasons, but if you think about it, Mike, if we kept the oil, you probably wouldn't have ISIS, because that's where they made money in the first place. Should have kept the oil.
But, OK. Maybe have another chance. But the fact is -- should have kept the oil -- I believe that this group is going to be one of the most important groups in this country toward making us safe, toward making us winners again, toward ending all of the problems. We have so many problems that are interrelated to the kind of havoc and fear that the sick group of people has caused.
So I can only say that I am with you a thousand percent. And the reason you're my first stop is, as you know, I have a running war with the media. They are among the most dishonest human beings on earth.
(LAUGHTER)
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: And they sort of made it sound like I had a feud with the intelligence community. And I just want to let you know, the reason you're the number-one stop is exactly the opposite. Exactly. And they understand that, too.
Man, I was explaining about the numbers. We did a thing yesterday at the speech. Did everybody like the speech? (APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: (INAUDIBLE)
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: But we had a massive field of people. You saw that. Packed. I get up this morning, I turn on one of the networks, and they show an empty field. I'm like, wait a minute, I made a speech. I looked out, the field was -- it looked like a million, million and a half people. They showed a field where there were practically nobody standing there. And they said, "Donald Trump did not draw well." I said, it was almost raining. The rain should have scattered away, but God looked down and said, we're not going to let it rain on your speech. In fact, when I first started, I said, oh, no. First line, I got hit by a couple of drops --
(LAUGHTER)
-- and I said, oh, this is too bad. But we'll go right to it. And the truth is, I stopped immediately, and then became sunny. and I walked off and it poured after I left. It poured.
But, you know, we have something that's amazing because it looked honestly like a million and a half people, whatever it was, it was, but it went all the way back to the Washington Monument. And I turn on -- by mistake -- I get this network -
(LAUHGHTER)
-- and it showed an empty field. Said, we drew 250,000 people. Now, that's not bad, but it's a lie. We had 250,000 people literally around in the little ball we constructed. That was 250,000 people. The rest of the 20-block area, all the way back to the Washington Monument was packed. So, we caught them and we caught them in a beauty. And I think they're going to pay a big price.
We had another one yesterday that was interesting. In the Oval Office, there's a beautiful statue of Dr. Martin Luther King. And I also happen to like Churchill, Winston Churchill. I think most of us like Churchill. Doesn't come from our country, but had a lot to do with us, helped us, a real ally. As you probably now, the Churchill statue taken out, the bust. And as you also probably have read, the prime minister is coming over to our country very shortly and they wanted to know whether I'd like it back. I said, absolutely. But in the meantime, we have a bust of Churchill.
A reporter for "Time" magazine -- and I've been on the cover 14 or 15 times. I think we have the all-time record in the history of "Time" magazine. Like, if Tom Brady is on the cover, it's one time because he won the "Super Bowl" or something. Right?
(LAUGHTER)
I've been on 15 times this year. I don't think that's a record, Mike, that can never been broken. Do you agree with that? What do you think?
But I will say that it was very interesting that Donald Trump took down the bust, the statue of Dr. Martin Luther King. And it was right there. But there was a cameraman that was in front of it.
(LAUGHTER)
So, Zeke, Zeke, from "Time" magazine, writes the story about I took it down. I would never do that because I have great respect for Dr. Martin Luther King. But this is how dishonest the media is. Now, big story, the retraction was like, where? Was it a line or do they bother putting it in? I only like to say that because I love honesty. I love honest reporting.
I will tell you, final time, although I will say it, when you let in the thousands of other people that have been trying to come in -- because I am coming back -- we have to get you a larger room.
(LAUGHTER)
(APPLAUSE)
(CHEERING)
TRUMP: We'll have to get you a larger room. You know?
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: And maybe, maybe it will be built by somebody that knows how to build. And we won't have columns.
(LAUGHTER)
You understand that?
(CHEERING)
[15:35:16] TRUMP: We get rid of the columns.
But, no, I just wanted to really say that I love you, I respect you, there's nobody I respect more. You're going to do a fantastic job. And we're going to start winning again and you'll be leading the charge.
So, thank you all very much. Thank you. Beautiful.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: Thank you all very much. Have a good time.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: I'll be back. I'll be back.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: Thank you.
(APPLAUSE)
(CHEERING)
BALDWIN: OK. I have a panel sitting here. We're going to talk through exactly what we just heard there at CIA from the president here.
Jim Sciutto, I'm going to, out of the gate, start with you, as you perfectly explain to the viewers the significance of where he was standing in Langley, the 117 stars, the lives lost in the country. What did you just hear?
SCIUTTO: Listen, that is hallowed ground at the CIA. Those stars represent men and women killed in the service of their country. Those are the words that are over those stars behind President Trump's head there. One of them is for Johnny Michael Span. He was the first American killed in Afghanistan after the invasion after 9/11.
The first word out of Donald Trump's mouth in that hallowed spot -- I'm not saying it's equivalent of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, but for the CIA, it is. These are unknowns who gave lives. The first comment was about favorable FOX News coverage, and then went on for a moment to say no one backs you more than me. And then I think my colleagues and I made a running list of the dozen other topics he mentioned there beyond FOX News coverage. The Zeke Miller thing about the MLK statue, and General Michael Flynn and Reince Priebus, the size of the crowd yesterday. He did eventually circle back, and, again, say I'm 1000 percent behind you.
The truth is all you needed to hear is I'm here because of the great sacrifice you made. I'm standing here because of the representation of the sacrifice. I'm behind you and I appreciate the work. There were about a thousand other things in there.
And I'll just speak from this point. As a journalist who's covered the intelligence community for a long time, I'm just amazed at that kind of commentary from the president in that spot at this time. But let me just tell you, it's not my place. Let me tell you what folks inside the community, I imagine -- because there were 200 folks there from the CIA who volunteered to come today. Weren't required to. It's a day off. But volunteered.
What did they want to hear but, certainly, support, that they're not seen as a political body as the president in his own public comments, accused him of being, heard comments and wasn't what they were, I imagine, expecting or hoping to hear from him?
BORGER: It was a campaign rally, and that's not what you expect at the CIA. And I think the president, the president's staff knew he had a lot of ground to make up because of the problems he's had with the CIA, tweeting negatively about them, comparing them to Nazi Germany, questioning intelligence, and whether the DNC was hacked by the Russians, and on and on and on. He did say today -- to give him his due -- he did say, I'm with you a thousand percent and I want you to know that, and went on about his nominee, Pompeo, and maybe gave people there an awful lot of reassurance that finally the president was going to be on board with the information they work so hard to deliver. But when he goes off on these tangents about himself and the size of the crowds and the Martin Luther King statue --
SCIUTTO: There were many more words about the size of his crowds than about his support for the CIA.
BORGER: Right.
And when he conflates the military with the CIA -- he said the military gave us a tremendous percentage of votes, we're all on the same wavelength, well, these folks are not part of the military.
BALDWIN: Right.
BORGER: And so I think that there may be some people that are scratching their heads, asking, why did you come here? Because, politically, it was the right thing to do, and your staff told you to do it, or because it is what you believe about us.
BALDWIN: When he said the media was the most dishonest people in the world, referring --
BORGER: Oh, I forgot that.
BALDWIN: You forgot that, so I'll add that for you, Gloria.
(LAUGHTER)
I know we jotted the same line at the same time, saying it was the media that made up the feud between Trump and the CIA.
And forgive me, damn well, he pushed back on the CIA reports, on the conclusions they came to on Russia and hacking.
(CROSSTALK)
SCIUTTO: -- the tweets with intelligence in quotes.
BALDWIN: Exactly, in quotes.
[15:40:00] DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: We, the media, are an easy target. That's not going to change. It's been so since the beginning of the republic and probably since the beginning of time and the free world. He can say what he wants. It's unfortunate he said that there, on hallowed ground. It happens to be not true that we conflated things that he said. All you have to go do is look at his Twitter feed to see what he said putting intelligence in quotes, saying at his own press conference that the way he thinks that they acted is like Nazi Germany. That's not us. Those are his words.
Let's put that aside for a second though. I know, during the end of the campaign, when Donald Trump, now President Trump, was most successful because of people around him saying, if you tweet X, Y, or Z or go off-script, it is going to take away from the message that you want to get out. He needs to understand, and maybe it's going to be a learning curve, that that's still the case, even more so when you are president of the United States.
Look, we've all been in this town a long time and even if you're just doing public relations 101, it's, you know what? I'm so happy that you came here on a Saturday. I'm here on a Saturday, very first full day in office to say thank you, I support your work.
BALDWIN: For you. For you.
BASH: This is to you, this is -- I'm going to be your leader and that's it and anything else he says, whether it's about him or crowd size, anything, takes away from that message.
BALDWIN: Andre Bauer, hand on, got to go.
Trump, you supported him throughout. He's now the president. How do you defend what we just saw?
ANDRE BAUER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Last night, Donald Trump danced to "I Did It My Way." We, in the media -- I guess I'm a part of it now -- have an expectation level of people who worked their way up to president and carry themselves a certain way. Donald Trump's a businessman. He has raw skills. He's been able to connect with the voters, and not worried about appealing to what we perceive to be presidential. He's a different breed. There's no question. Is it what we'd want, whether it's staff? No, but he'll do it his way, and not always going to come off the way we want it to, but he's connecting. I'm getting texts from Johnny Lunch Bucket out there, the real people that aren't politicians, and they feel like somebody actually talks their language and doesn't have flower speeches. They want results and that's what they care about.
BALDWIN: To push back on you -- and I listened to Sciutto carefully talking about the hallowed ground and, yes, he acknowledged the 117 stars behind him, and I don't think you have to be a politician to have grace.
BAUER: No question.
BALDWIN: Was what he did appropriate? The zig-zagging instead of talking about you, the people?
BAUER: You know, from being a guy that was in elected office, he has the ability to get a lot more hits than he's getting. He could have a direct message. Maybe he needs to look at the teleprompter, but maybe he just wants to stay scrappy. Maybe he thinks it's more effective talking off-the-cuff and people can relate that aren't inside the beltway.
SCIUTTO: Can I just pipe in?
BAUER: Sure. SCIUTTO: Because you just gave this impression that it's the media that calls the hallowed ground. And that somehow that's --
BAUER: I didn't mean to touch on the hallowed ground.
SCIUTTO: Then let me just quote from -- as you've been getting messages, I've been getting messages, because I speak to folks in the intelligence community.
"It is, exclamation point, hallowed ground. It is your place to call it out. We intelligence professionals are apolitical and quiet. You have to call it like it is."
So I just want to take away, and that may not have been what you're implying, but hear that message, well, the east coast elites so the media who has these expectations. I could tell you, honestly, because I talk to a lot of folks who risk their lives in the line of duty in intelligence, they have that expectation as well. This is --
(CROSSTALK)
SCIUTTO: And I'm hearing it now, probably as much as you are.
What?
BAUER: I come from a family with FBI. My uncle and grandfather was an admiral, buried here at Arlington. I get it. I don't mean to overstep the hallowed ground. I meant, overall, Donald Trump's whole approach, I don't think he's going to conform anytime soon.
(CROSSTALK)
SYMONE SANDERS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think there's a difference between Donald Trump, keeping it real or 100, as if I think boiling down, what Andre is saying, and then Donald Trump respecting where he is, understanding the moment and speaking to that moment. He seemed not well up there on that stage. He was rambling. I thought it was petty, childish. He seemed very insecure. And that's going to get us into war and really upset some of the markets. Like Donald Trump has to understand that he's now the president of everybody. He can't give campaign speeches for the next four years. He's the president of all folks and he needs to act like it. I was totally turned off, as a real person, because I think we talk about real people, and I'm one of the real people, I just didn't vote for Donald Trump. I was turned off by what he said.
BALDWIN: David Drucker?
[15:45:46] DAVID DRUCKER, SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT, WASHINGTON EXAMINER: Look, it's clear he went there to repair his relationship with the intelligence community because he has been beating up on them, and now their victories are his victories and his failures are their failures, as well as the country's. And I think he and his team understand that he now needs them in order for him to be successful on national security. However, I think there's one thing we should understand. The majority
of the vote of members of the military who voted, he was very popular in the opinion polls taken during the campaign. There's been a large belief among many members of the national security community and many members of the military that the administration that just left was not doing a good job of utilizing them and their talents. They were upset with many of the policies, and welcomed this change in leadership. They welcome a General Mattis, somebody they feel is going to do a better job utilizing the tools that we have and put -- when they put their lives in danger, having better outcomes. So, I think we need to understand both sides.
And they may be more willing to put up with President Trump's antics, their new commander-in-chief's antics, if they feel him and his advisors get the job done better.
BORGER: If he had said that -- and he did partly say, I'm going to be behind you, 1,000 percent, and same wavelength, all the rest. But there's a pattern where every discussion, every discussion takes a circle and winds up with Donald Trump, whether it's Donald Trump's crowds --
(CROSSTALK)
BORGER: -- or how the media is rigged and made a mistake or whatever. This was a solemn moment. He was trying to make amends to a community that's been worried about him, that he needs. And that was a smart thing to do going there today. Very smart. But somehow, it wound up to the size of his crowds at the inaugural.
DRUCKER: I think it will depend on how successful he is as president. If there's no attacks, if our strategy and combatting ISIS works, then I think he'll be willing to put up with some of the stuff. Otherwise, it will wear thin.
BALDWIN: Let me just jump in and, Kate, ask you, because you've written books on first families, and this is, you know, the first full day for President Trump. Have we ever seen a president at the CIA on day one?
KATE ANDERSON BROWER, CNN CONTRIBUTOR & AUTHOR: I don't think so. I know we've never seen anything like we're seeing today with the intelligence and you have to have a thick skin as a president. Look at what happened to LBJ and President Nixon, the Vietnam protests at Lafayette Square, and you could hear them in the White House. They heard them. Lady Bird Johnson and her daughters talked about what it's like to live in the White House and the public is against a lot of your policies.
And I don't think this is the end of people disagreeing with Donald Trump. So, you have to have a thick skin, and I think some of the insecurity is coming out.
BALDWIN: You mentioned the women and the marching. I just want to point everyone's attention, of course, to we're covering the president, but also covering the throngs, hundreds of thousands of women and men, old, young, in between, taking to the streets, not just here in Washington but around the country and across the globe. We'll hear from these women next, here on CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[15:50:44] BALDWIN: We're back live in Washington, D.C. I'm Brooke Baldwin.
What a day. We just listened to President Trump at the CIA. We'll now pivot to all of these women, and men, all ages, around the country, marching for all kinds of reasons. Listen, I talked to many this morning. This isn't just about Trump and about Hillary Clinton. This is about issues they feel passionately about. It's not just necessarily even women's issues. We're hearing about so many of them on CNN throughout the course of the day.
As I was at the headquarters in Washington this morning, I talked to the star power behind the march here in D.C. Here's what they shared with me.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: What do you want from this?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, we want for our elected officials here and in our states and at home, to know that we will not allow our rights to be rolled back. We will not be silenced. And the voice of the woman is powerful.
AMERICA FERRERI, ACTRESS: We're all out here today saying to every single individual -- your voice matters. And your presence matters. And we need you to show up, not just today, but for the next four years and beyond.
CHER, SINGER & ACTRESS: I'm 70 years old and I know what it's like.
BALDWIN: 70?
CHER: Yeah.
I've been through 12 presidents. I know what it's like to have nothing. I know, but that's another thing. I feel bad for his supporters. I know the pain that they're going through. Because I was very poor growing up. And I know what it's like to have no one care, to have no one listen to you. And so, we're marching for them, too, they just don't know it.
BALDWIN: If you had President Trump standing right here and you truly had his ear, what's the one thing would you tell him.
LINDA SANSOUR, CO-CHAIR, WOMEN'S MARCH ON WASHINGTON: That he's not my president.
BALDWIN: But he is your president. He is the 45th president of the United States. SANDOUR: For the next four years, I'm operating under the idea that
I'm building power for 2020, building power for 2018. I will continue to organize in my local community. But Donald Trump is not my president.
BALDWIN: He is the president for the next four years.
SANSOUR: He has been inaugurated. I have never felt this kind of dissent in the system.
BALDWIN: Ever?
SANSOUR: Ever in my life. I follow rules. I do the right thing. Something inside of me that I've come to trust with every huge decision in my life is saying be here today and never stop fighting. You can't talk about women that way. You can't talk about Muslims and immigrants and disabled, all this stuff that we've seen on tape. It's not like "he said/she said." We saw it. He can't live in the White House, in my brain.
CHER: I really just don't like him. I don't respect him. I've never heard anybody who lies like they're telling the truth.
BALDWIN: What do you tell these women who say, he's not my president, he's not my president. He is their president. I understand they are frustrated. But how does this kind of --
(CROSSTALK)
VAN JONES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I've got to tell you, if people are going to be honest -- I say hear the messy truth. People didn't work hard to stop Trump. I remember 2008. And the work effort that went in. I remember 2012. People talked about Trump. They tweeted about Trump. They worried about Trump, but they didn't do the work.
FERRERA: A lot of us were blind-sided by what happened in this election. I think it was unprecedented. There were no rules. And we were all kind of watching, shocked at how things continued to progress and how a candidate could get away with so much of what he got away with. I think I think everybody was a little bit unsure of how to impact the sort of snowball effect of what was going on. And yes, the better position to be in right now would be that we kept him from office. And his administration and so many of his appointees. But this is where we are. And we have to, answer the call to action and to protect ourselves and to protect each other.
SOPHIA BUSH, ACTRESS: Planned Parenthood has a higher approval rating than our Congress. 74 percent of Americans believe it should be federally funded. America believes in marriage equality. America believes in racial equality. And we got screwed. It's time to show up. Mid-terms are in two years. If these guys think that they can eviscerate the government as it represents the people, like watch out for the next election, bros, it's not going to work.
SEN. KRISTEN GILLIBRAND, (D), NEW YORK: He's our president but, honestly, our democracy is strong. We can survive any president. But what we have an opportunity to do, is to speak out and to be heard. And to talk about what we want for this country. And to ask our representatives to fight for us.
[15:55:20] PATRICIA ARQUETTE, ACTRESS: It's a big job to be president. You can do it. As far as women go, we are 60 percent of the population now in the United States. So, it's important to actually address our needs now.
JACKIE CRUZ, ACTRESS: I feel that we can do this. We can make a change.
CHER: Don't give up, you know. Stand and be counted, or sit and be nothing.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BALDWIN: I asked Cher just look at the camera and say, what's your message to young girls.
I just want to thank all of those people for talking to me today.
Let's go to Miguel Marquez, in Boston, surrounded by women there, and men.
Miquel, I see you marching.
MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is a little bit of everything. They have hundreds of groups that are taking part in this thing.
What is maybe more amazing than the number of people that have showed up today is just how long people waited to march, three, four, five hours.
I want to give you an idea of what it looks like here, still marching through the streets of Boston tonight. They had organized for about 25,000 people to show up. Senior sources say in the Boston Police Department say they have 120,000 to 125,000 people out here on the streets of Boston.
Why, they say, why are organizers out here? They say this is like the first meeting, a nationwide organizational meeting to hold the Trump administration to the fire. And they say they will be here in two years for the mid-term elections and in four years when he's up -- Brooke?
BALDWIN: Miguel Marquez, in Boston, thank you so much.
I'm Brooke Baldwin. Thanks for being with me.
Quick break. CNN special coverage continues after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:00:02] ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.
JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello. I'm Jake Tapper. Welcome to this special Saturday edition of "The Lead" on President Trump's first full day in office.
