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Trump, May Wrap Up News Conference; Trump Releases Details of Call with Mexican President; Trump Will Talk to Russian President on Phone Tomorrow; Theresa May: No Relief of Sanctions Until Russia Accepts Minsk Accord; Trump Will Defer to General Mattis on Enhanced Interrogation; Mexico Releases Statement on Call with Trump; Mike Pence attends March for Life in Washington. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired January 27, 2017 - 13:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:30:00] WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Lots of news unfolding during the course of these 20 minutes.

On Mexico, the president releasing details of his nearly one-hour phone conversation with the president of Mexico, Enrique Pena Nieto. We'll get into that in a moment.

We also heard the president insisting he wants to have a fantastic relationship with Russia. He is going to have a conversation with President Putin tomorrow. He says let's see what happens on sanctions.

Although Theresa May, the British prime minister, insisted no relief in sanctions until the Russians accept the so-called Minsk Accord, which should have prevented the Russians from moving into Ukraine, taking over Crimea.

On, the issue of enhanced interrogation, torture, waterboarding, the president said he believes in all of that. He is going to defer, though, to his defense secretary, General Mattis, let him handle that, even though he thinks that torture actually does work.

We did hear Theresa May say the president promised her that he will offer 100 percent support for the NATO alliance, even though in recent weeks the president has said NATO may be obsolete.

Let's bring in our panel for some analysis.

And, Gloria, let's start with you.

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Let's start with NATO. What was astonishing to me was she turned to the president and said, I think you confirmed you are 100percent behind NATO, just to get that on the on the record, just to get that --

(CROSSTALK)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: She needed that back home. (CROSSTALK)

BORGER: Just to get that out there. That was one thing done off her checklist. The president did not disagree with that at all. He seemed to be looking at her quizzically as she said it. But generally told we heard a different tone, I think.

ROBERTSON: A little?

BORGER: OK, from Donald. A lot of a different tone from Donald Trump. Particularly on the phone call with Russia. We were talking about early today that John McCain sent out a statement saying that when Donald Trump gets on the phone with Vladimir Putin, he should remember the man on the other end of the line is a murder and a thug, who seeks to undermine American national security interests. And today, the president said, well, I don't know if I'm going to like him. Sometimes I think I'm going to like people and then I don't like people. And it works the other way around. So, he seemed to actually just give a little bit of an opening there on the question of his relationship with Putin, while not getting specific at all about sanctions.

BLITZER: For one moment, I quickly want to go over to our senior White House correspondent, Jim Acosta. He is in the East Room at the White House.

Jim, you were there. You saw the body language up close. You saw the aides who were all there, the British aides, the White House officials. What was your bottom line analysis based on what we heard?

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, that is one of the shortest news conferences I have ever seen in the East Room of the White House. We clocked it around 18 minutes. That is extraordinary in its brevity.

But, as you saw the president there explain just a few moments ago, he is open to lifting sanctions on Russia. He did say, it's early on in the process, but he did not close the door on that despite the fact that the British prime minister standing right next to him said she believes that the sanctions on Russia, because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and annexing of Crimea, should continue. That's an interesting conversation that President Trump will have. We'll look for that read-out from both countries to see what was talked about. I definitely think there was some news there.

And, of course, what you and Gloria were just talking about, what the president is saying, and it's extraordinary to hear these words uttered in the White House, that a president of the United States believes that torture works, that he agrees with torture. We heard that out on the campaign trail all the time. Those are one of those OMG moments from Donald Trump when he was a presidential candidate. But to hear the president of the United States say that he believes torture works, I think, is something that is going to send shock waves around the world. Despite the fact that he did say he is going to defer to his defense secretary, retired General Mattis, in his view that it should not work and it should not be used. As for that relationship between the U.S. and Mexico, I thought it was

quite striking that President Trump did not really give any ground. He did not give any ground when comes to building a wall on the border. He didn't lay out any specifics when it comes to paying for it. We heard that confusion yesterday as to who is going to pay for the wall, there were no details there.

When a news conference in the White House -- a joint news conference is 18 minutes, he is certainly the un-Obama, the anti-Obama.

(LAUGHTER)

President Obama would have taken each of those questions and gone for a very long time. We would have gotten paragraphs, not sentences, as we heard from this president today -- Wolf?

BLITZER: He has a lot of more activity coming up later today, the president of the United States.

Jim, I'm going to get back to you in a moment.

But, John, on the issue of Mexico, we did hear the president describe that one-hour phone conversation with the president of Mexico, Pena Nieto. He said it was a very good call. We have a very good relationship. He said it was a very good call. We have a very good relationship. He was very respectful. He is showing great respect. Then he began to unload on all the awful things happening from Mexico into the United States, the awful trade deals, the drugs, the people pouring in. He was pretty blunt on that.

[13:35:13]JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: He was blunt, but he was calm, he was quiet. His language was not confrontational. This was a very different Donald Trump we saw from beginning to end. In his opening statement, he didn't say anything except welcome to the White House. He talked about ISIS and this and that. He said nothing, I'm glad to have you here. And it was the prime minister who put the meat on the bones about what they talked about.

Then Donald Trump was something he almost never is, careful. In every one of his answers, he was saying very careful things, speaking calmly, making clear he is not going to back down in his grievances with Mexico. He believes what he believes about the trade issue, but very friendly, I like the president, I like the Mexican people, I want this to work. The tone very important coming out of a dust-up. Donald Trump normally just look at his Twitter feed, escalates fights. If you get if his face, he escalates. In this case, that was clearly trying to say I'm not backing down, I have serious issues here, but trying to de-escalate the volume.

(CROSSTALK)

Very, very interesting. Interesting words in every one of these negotiations, "I'll put the American people first," whether he is talking about Vladimir Putin or talking to the Mexican president.

If you are watching around the world and you are looking for this brash -- and he said I'm not so brash -- confrontational, stir it up outside of the box, disruptive Donald Trump, that's not what you saw right there.

DAVID GREGORY, CNN POLITICAL ANAYST: Can I just say, to John's point, I think the president deserves some credit here. Critics have been on him every day for a rocky start to his presidency. He is not a politician. He has not been part of the convention at all in diplomacy or the language or the choreography of the presidency.

To John's point, he was careful, he was measured and spoke about representing America. The fact that he put some distance with Russia and injected these cautionary notes, I think, is really significant, and is a sign, despite as much pushback as we've seen in the media and in other quarters from the Trump White House, that they want to find their footing. They want to try to prioritize what some of their goals are.

And I'm sure they're getting a lot of counsel, quietly, about how to modulate or calibrate how disruptive he is going to be here and around the world.

BLITZER: What's interesting, David Chalian, because the two British questioners asked some pretty forceful questions. One saying how could the British people believe you because you've change your positions on all these issues, but he didn't go after them. He was very calm in responding.

(LAUGHTER)

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Imagine if that same question was asked by an American reporter in Trump Tower two weeks ago. The response would have been completely different. I think for a president, who spent the first week trying to break every convention possible, be totally unconventional, he actually was quite conventional today. He understood, it seemed -- he was sort of wearing the trappings of the East Room, the moment of being on stage with a foreign leader, the understanding of the impact of his words. All of that was very present in Donald Trump today in a way it has not been, I think, for the most of the last seven days.

BLITZER: Abby Phillip, one of our CNN contributors, our analyst as well.

Abby, what was your reaction to what we just saw nearly a 20-minute news conference?

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Very similarly surprised to see Trump really moderating his tone and dealing with this in a way that we've never really seen before.

I think it's instructive that Theresa May did something that we now know that she was advised to do from President Obama, which is get in there really early, get in his ear very early. It seems like that strategy has already paid dividends. You see Trump reacting to her and working with her in a different way, and she is influencing him as a world leader, the very first one that he has really had to engage with person-to-person about how he approaches these situations in terms of tone.

You know, I'm a little surprised to see that he has declared pretty definitively that he seated the decision about torture to James Mattis. I think that will be a little bit of a relief to a lot of people who are watching, but you don't often see Trump kind of putting decision making on someone else's table, and that's essentially what he did today. He didn't back down on saying that he thinks torture works, so by saying that James Mattis is going to make the decision, that's a pretty big deal. And I think that's going to be reassuring to a lot of people in the intelligence world and in the defense world going forward.

BLITZER: Abby, stand by.

We're getting some breaking news. We're getting a statement in from the government of Mexico on the nearly one-hour phone conversation that President Trump had with President Pena Nieto. And it's an interesting statement.

I'll get reaction from our reporters and analysts here.

It was described by the Mexican government as, "It was a constructive and productive conversation about the bilateral relationship between the two countries on a whole range of issues." But then, listen to this. This is from the statement from the Mexican government: "With regard to the payment of the border wall, both presidents acknowledge their clear and very public differences in position on this sensitive issue and agreed to resolve these differences as part of a comprehensive discussion of all aspects of the bilateral relationship. The presidents also agreed, at this point, not to speak publicly about this controversial issue."

That's a pretty stark statement.

[13:40:36] KING: I don't mean this as flippant as it's about to sound, but you could put up a countdown clock as to when Donald Trump will talk about the wall, or to the point we just saw, or is he ready, as president of the United States, to step back some, to step back some? There is a way out here. Remember, during the campaign, the president as a candidate said he was going to rip up NAFTA. Then in the transition he said he wanted to renegotiate and modernize NAFTA. If you can renegotiate with Mexico and with Canada a joint agreement in which the president can make the case the United States is getting a better economic deal out of this, that pays for the wall.

(CROSSTALK)

GREGORY: What if he gets all of this after pushing Pena Nieto on the wall. What if he gets a better deal on NAFTA and some payment on the wall, in the end, this disruptive approach may bear fruit.

(CROSSTALK)

KING: This is what he takes about in the book "The Art of the Deal," this he what he talks about, throw deep, scare everybody, and then be the first to go back. (LAUGHTER)

BORGER: But, first of all, don't you think that the president will have to talk about this, because the Congress has to talk about it in some way, shape, or form. If you are going to slap some kind of a tariff on imports, you know, that's got to be part of a larger congressional discussion.

And to your point, this is the way Trump operates. You know, in reporting about Donald Trump over the last year, I was talking to a lot of people who have done business with him, and they said, what he does very often is he - and this is from somebody who worked for him. He would go into a board meeting, throw a grenade into the board meeting, upset the board meeting, walk out, and then say, you guys figure this out, and then come back in at a certain point. I think, in a way, that's what he has done with Mexico.

KING: Not how they teach at the School of Foreign Service.

(CROSSTALK)

KING: But we'll see if that works.

(CROSSTALK)

BORGER: I doubt they do it --

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: Let's see how long this lasts, this Mexico government's statement, the presidents also agreed, at this point, not to speak publicly about this controversial issue, the wall --

(CROSSTALK)

BORGER: Did he say tweet? Did he say tweet?

BLITZER: Let's see how long that lasts.

Christiane Amanpour is with us as well.

Christiane, we did hear the prime minister say very flatly that she got a firm statement from the president, during their private meeting in the Oval Office, of 100 percent U.S. support for NATO. This follows several statements by the president, when he was a candidate and earlier, that NATO may be obsolete right now because so many of the NATO allies are unwilling to pay what they should be paying for that defense expenditure and deploying troops when necessary. You heard her say that.

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORREPSONDENT: Absolutely. And, of course, sitting here overseas and knowing what all the overseas leaders were expecting in this press conference, you can imagine that a lot of what they've heard today went down very well. As you all have been discussing, this was a very different Donald Trump. Many people had been waiting to see whether there would be a May affect, so to speak, the first foreign leader to meet him, a woman, nonetheless, and on these very important issues. Of course, she was going with a lot in hand. She wants that trade deal, which she promised.

On NATO, it's very significant what was said. And he is 100 percent committed to it. And Theresa May says they are going to talk about, you know, upping NATO's game when it comes to fighting terrorism and cyber warfare as well.

Remember, the 2 percent of GDP is not a treaty obligation. It is aspirational by NATO countries, and only a handful of them pay it. And, yes, many people believe they should be paying much more, and that is what they are going to try to put out there as well.

Also, of course, the torture comments will go down much better here. People are very concerned. They won't be able to do business with the United States on military, intelligence, and other things, if the U.S. is breaking its own law on torture. Handing that over to Jim Mattis was a very interesting development, as you've just said.

Then again, you know, I've been talking to --

BLITZER: Good point

AMANPOUR: Yeah. About the whole Mexico deal as well.

BLITZER: Finish your thought. Go ahead. Go ahead, Christiane.

AMANPOUR: No, I was just talking to the former U.S. commerce secretary under George W. Bush. You know, this Mexico issue was a huge massive blow-up. And it's very interesting how both sides have now stepped back from that brink and agreed to talk about it in a big over-arching future discussion. And Carlos Gutierrez has said it has to come with immigration talks as well, because America actually needs, he said, something like 600,000 to a million farm workers, unskilled people, to come and, quote, unquote, "pick lettuce," and what Americans are going to want to pick lettuce? So, there are huge issues ahead. And he said it's not right to say that the U.S. has been stiffed by Mexico and NAFTA. This is a millions and billions of dollars' investment that helped all three economies. It's very delicate, this whole issue here.

[13:45:19] BLITZER: Yeah. That's an important point as well.

Nic robertson, I want to play a clip.

President Trump was asked about this notion that the U.S. might ease sanctions on Russia. And as you know, the president is having a phone conversation tomorrow, his first, with President Putin. Listen to what President Trump said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: As far as the sanctions, very early to be talking about that, but we look to have a great relationship with all countries, ideally. That won't necessarily happen, unfortunately. Probably, won't happen with many countries. But if we can have, as we do with prime Minister May and the relationship that we've all developed. And even in the short relationship that we've just developed, just by being with each other, and had lunch, and we've really had some very interesting talks and very productive talks. But if we can have a great relationship with Russia and with China and with all countries, I'm all for that. That would be a tremendous asset.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: And you heard from the prime minister, say she doesn't want to lift any sanctions until the Russians agree to abide by the Minsk agreements, the Minsk accords that prevent Russia from doing what it did, moving into Ukraine and annexing Crimea.

ROBERTSON: She said they would be discussing the issue of Russia through lunch. One can only imagine, had they discussed it prior, would she have stood there and said, actually, President Trump, you do agree with me 100 percent that doing a deal with Vladimir Putin is the wrong thing to do. Doing a deal with Russia over ISIS is hugely complicated. You get into the whole issue of regional allies, the Sunni-Shia split within the Middle East at the moment. It would be very difficult for him to support President Putin, to tackle ISIS, and align himself effectively with President Assad in Syria and Iran. A hugely difficult path to go down. Perhaps over lunch he will hear more from Theresa May, her thoughts on that.

But that Minsk agreement, getting that enforced, she said it in parliament a couple of days ago, absolute red line. Britain cannot support changing the relationship, lifting sanctions with Russia until they meet the terms of that. This includes handing back the control of the borders of Ukraine to Ukraine. Russians controlling the border --

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: Let me play the clip. This is the prime minister, Theresa May, speaking about NATO in her opening statement. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

THERESA MAY, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: On defense and security cooperation, we are united in our recognition of NATO as the bulwark of our collective defense. And today, we've reaffirmed o unshakeable commitment to this alliance.

Mr. President, I think you said you confirm that you are 100 percent behind NATO.

But we're also discussing the importance of NATO continuing to insure it is as equipped to fight terrorism and cyber warfare as it is to fight more conventional forms of war.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Gloria, this is an important statement from the prime minister. BORGER: Right. It was the statement she intended to get when she

came here, and she got it. Again, this is another way where Donald Trump was saying he was deferring to General Mattis. Well, General Mattis in his confirmation hearings, as we all know, because we listened to it, was that, you know, he said he was behind NATO 100 percent and more, and called it the greatest treaty, you know, et cetera, et cetera. I think this is another way where you see the president stepping back and deferring to somebody like General Mattis.

GREGORY: I wonder if there's a reason he did that. Prime Minister May may have needed to make that statement for domestic consumption and for European consumption, but it also gives President Trump some room. I mean, if he really feels that way, why not come out and say it in a stalwart way.

BORGER: He might.

GREGORY: He might, but he didn't there, which I thought that was striking. He said that NATO was not valuable because it didn't do its job on terrorism, and, yet, NATO, of course, committed troops to Afghanistan. So, that simply wasn't correct.

On Russia, what I think is interesting is what leverage the president now thinks he has. If Putin wants those sanctions lifted, maybe Trump is going to think twice about overturning them so quickly unless he gets something that's real, say, in Syria. Will he use it as leverage against Bashar Assad?

These things are going to be interesting to see what the initial steps are. If there is goodwill, like "Saturday Night Live" likes to parody, then how will Trump use that, as he says, for America's benefit?

[13:39:48] BLITZER: I want to go back to Christiane.

Christiane, we did significantly get a statement yesterday from the new American defense secretary, General Mattis. He had a phone conversation with his German counterpart, the German defense minister. And in that statement, from the Pentagon, said, he reiterated total complete, unshakable U.S. support for the NATO alliance. So, he did get that from the defense secretary over at the Pentagon. But, button this up, give us your analysis of what we just heard.

AMANPOUR: The bottom line is that NATO has been the single most successful military alliance in history, in modern history, frankly. It has kept the peace in Europe and it has allowed America to protect its strength, not just protecting a bunch of no-good European countries, as it's been sort of described by the United States, but because it has kept the peace in Europe and, therefore, economic prosperity and all the other stuff that goes with it. So, the idea that somehow this is going to be blown up and that it's obsolete, obviously, nobody overseas ever thought that was credible.

So, the fact that Theresa May -- and hopefully, we'll hear from Donald Trump -- say it is 100 percent a necessary alliance, it is a very big step. And obviously, leaders here are looking towards that today. The president of France and chancellor of Germany, and who President Trump will have talks with tomorrow by phone, have said, listen, there are challenges from this new administration when it comes to facing our joint problems and conflicts and bolstering this world order that the U.S. has led over 70 years so. So, it's a big, big moment right now.

And I think if Theresa May can translate the fears of western Europe and the entire U.S. foreign and security and intelligence communities, who identify Putin's Russia as the existential threat to the United States right now -- ISIS is a major threat, but not an existential threat -- that is something they hope President Trump will take on board and act accordingly. Even though it's in everybody's interest to have a better relationship with Russia, but not at any cost, and not on Putin's terms. So, that's what everybody is waiting and watching to see whether that pans out.

BLITZER: It's just beginning. Week one has just been completed for this new American president.

Everybody, stand by.

Coming up, as President Trump met with the British prime minister, spoke to large crowds gathered here at the March for Life event. His comments on the new administration's policies, the upcoming Supreme Court pick, that and more when we come back.

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[13:56:58] BLITZER: Anti-abortion demonstrators are gathering in Washington for the annual March for Life. Look at live pictures. This year, the movement is getting major support from the White House.

Just a little while ago the Vice President Mike Pence addressed the crowd.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE PENCE, VICE PERSIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I would like to say, over there, at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, we're in the promise-keeping business.

(CHEERING)

PENSE: That's why this administration will work with the Congress to end taxpayer funding of abortion and abortion providers.

(CHEERING)

PENSE: And we will devote those resources for health care services for women across America.

(CHEERING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Our congressional correspondent, Sunlen Serfaty, is at the march for us. She's joining us now live.

Sunlen, this the first time a sitting vice president has spoken at the march. What does this mean for the movement and those marching today?

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, when you talk to the anti-abortion activists, they feel encouraged by the new administration so far and encouraged that they point-blank will have a much larger platform for their opinions here. They were very happy with Vice President Pence coming down to address them today, and also, in addition, getting Kellyanne Conway out there one of Donald Trump's top advisors. They believe this gives them a boost of momentum, especially because many believe -- many of them hope they are on the cusp of getting an anti-abortion nominee on the Supreme Court, potentially as early as next week -- Wolf?

BLITZER: Sunlen Serfaty reporting for us. Thank you.

We'll have a lot more on President Trump, his new conference with the British prime minister. Upcoming, the new executive orders, right after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:00:10] BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, there. I'm Brooke Baldwin. You're watching CNN. Thank you for being with me on this Friday.

We begin with --