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Spicer Wraps Up White House Press Briefing; Republican Congressmen Face Angry Town Halls; Tillerson, Kelly to Mexico amid Tension over Immigration. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired February 22, 2017 - 13:30   ET

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

[13:30:00] SEAN SPICER, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The president has talked about that, talked about it with bid leaders H1B visa, et cetera. You'll see more of that coming, but I think there's a prioritization of how we deal with immigration, both illegal and legal, and we'll have more on it later.

I've got to run. Thank you very much. See you tomorrow. Take care.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: So there you have it, Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, wrapping up his briefing, answering reporters' questions for a little more than half an hour. Lots of questions were asked, very important questions. The press secretary didn't completely answer a lot of those questions. We'll assess exactly what we learned, what we didn't learn.

I'm Wolf Blitzer, in Washington. Once again, we want to welcome our viewers in the United States and around the world.

To help sort all of these important issues out. There's a lot going on today, let's bring in our chief national security correspondent, Jim Scuitto; CNN legal analyst, Laura Coates; CNN political analyst, David Gregory; our CNN politics reporter, Tal Kopan.

Jim Sciutto, let me start with you.

On the issue of the new travel ban that's about to be announced, there are several important questions about rhetoric, statements the president, as a candidate, had made that potentially could complicate implementing round two of this travel ban.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Right. What's Sean Spicer is trying to do, and clearly, the White House strategy with this amended travel ban is to make it just about vetting from countries that is have vetting problems, not making it about Muslims coming from those countries. A reminder, these are Donald Trump's words when he announced this during the campaign December 2015. First was title was "Donald J. Trump's Statement on Preventing Muslim Immigration," pretty broad there. First line, "Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States." That's what he said during the campaign. That's on the record. Since then and since the election, he's started to focus more on terror, keeping the country safe. You heard Sean Spicer saying this is just about country that is didn't have proper vetting. So the question is, do the courts accept that quite remarkable pivot

from the initial public statements, and we know in the ninth circuit case, they mentioned Donald Trump and his surrogates' statements on the campaign trail, does it meet the legal standard? That's for the courts to decide.

I will note there has been a continuing contradiction among Donald Trump's advisers here, because Stephen Miller, he was quoted on the air just a short time ago speaking to Martha McCollum, that the changes are minor and technical. So, if they're minor and technical, but Sean Spicer is saying it's a whole different thing, not about the Muslim faith, but actually about vetting, listen, it's going to be for the courts to decide what it is on paper.

BLITZER: Laura, you're a legal analyst. We did learn that the new travel ban has been completed. They're now going through how best to implement it to make sure that the due process requirements are fully met, which they weren't met the first time. But this issue of a Muslim ban, that rhetoric that the president, as candidate, delivered did you the campaign, how much of a problem is this for getting round two approved?

LAURA COATES, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: It's a huge problem. If due process is your minor technical point, you have a big uphill battle. Remember, the court made very clear, they gave a blueprint in the ninth circuit, that essentially said, listen, we don't believe in the smoke and mirrors, if this is simply a pretext for discrimination, it violates the First Amendment of the Constitution, which is not what you can turn off and on if you're the president of the United States based on unfounded or perhaps just a bold assertion of national security. They're going to have to combat two things, take away the minority religious preference, which violates the Establishment Clause, and also figure out a way to provide some clarity for the court that says there is a reason why the existence vetting measures that we currently have in place are insufficient with respect to these seven countries. If it's because of your campaign rhetoric that will not pass constitutional muster.

BLITZER: Sara Murray, our White House reporter, is in the briefing room.

Sara, reports came out that the president is micromanaging all the various cabinet departments and agencies, vetting individuals that a secretary may want for a senior position, to make sure that those individuals didn't say or do anything contrary to the president's policies, didn't say anything negative about the candidates who have running.

[13:34:43] SARA MURRAY, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Wolf. We do know this is a president that's been preoccupied for a long time about the notion of loyalty and he takes any criticism very personally. We've seen that playing out as these cabinet secretaries are trying to staff their various agencies, that there has been concern coming from the White House about potentially people filling these political appointee slots who have been critical of the president in the past. White House press secretary, Sean Spicer, downplayed this today,

basically, said, if you're looking at political appointees, you want people who are supportive of the president and supportive of his priorities, as you know there were a number of Republicans that might be well qualified for these jobs who weren't necessarily supportive of Donald Trump early on in the campaign, especially when we are looking at roughly a dozen candidates.

One of the concerns we've been hearing are worries that you will not broadband fill all of these slots of people who have the proper level of experience if you're only looking at people who are support I was of Donald Trump from day one. The White House as you said is dismissive of this concern, who basically said anyone who will fill a political appointee should be on board 100 percent -- Wolf?

BLITZER: That's an important point, indeed.

Sara, stand by.

David Gregory, on the issues of the town halls of Republicans that they are now facing, some of them becoming rather loud, a lot of protests going on, citizens complaining. We did hear from Sean Spicer, in response to a question, there seems to be in his word, a hybrid. Some people are legitimately upset, they have every right to do so, but some of this is manufactured, and there's a lot more noise than there are -- there seems to been a lot more noise than there seems to be specification issues. In other words, it's directed from the outside.

DAVID GREGORY, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: I think that's largely true. I don't think the manufactured part is true, but the fact you have some districts with loud resistance, organized resistance, resistance similar to the Tea Party, which is that it's coming organically, this time from progressive circles, in some cases being brought in from outside the district, to make a lot of noise, and to be disruptive. That's what the Tea Party was in large measure, and it's taking on big questions, are the Republicans going to resist where progressives and middle of the roaders think they should, like on health care.

We're getting, and we heard from the press briefs, a lot of policy discussions now that's unsettled policy discussion. This whole debate about Obamacare is not going to go well, because it's going to be messy and hard, just as it was when President Obama pursued it. It's going to be contentious. That's what I think the town has are legitimately reflecting.

BLITZER: You know, Tal, the president, earlier, before the press briefing, he had a photo-op with his secretary of treasury, budget director, basically, insisting the whole budget is a mess. He used that word. But he did say and we did hear from Sean Spicer that make by early to mid-March, some new proposals for health care would be released, and some new specification budget decisions would be released as well. But the president repeatedly referred to the whole process right now that he has inherited as a mess.

TAL KOPAN, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: It might look like a mess. Folks on Capitol Hill are sort of waiting with bated breath to see what they get if we have this march dead lining, but there's a lot of things in the budget that's contrary to Republican ideological ways. For example, he wants a massive border security plan, we're going to build a wall, we're going to hire 15,000 people minimum, plus detention centers. There's very big-ticket items. We're not even talking yet about an infrastructure time. Yet at the same time, Mick Mulvaney, his new budget chief, is one of the biggest budget hawks that comes out of Congress. And there's a lot of questions how those two different ideas will work out.

BLITZER: And who's going to pay for a lot of it.

(CROSSTALK)

GREGORY: Wolf, if you take the larger view, the only thing particularly well done is Judge Gorsuch. That was a hornet's nest because of how the Republicans handled Judge Garland, and all that's correct. But that was teed up well, organization. All the traps were hit before he got going. The president could have been in a position to roll out some things on tax reform. He could have gotten that ball rolling a lot more seamlessly, hasn't done it yet, hasn't been organized. This focus on immigration has been incredibly divisive but also not organized. This is the chaotic part of --

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: Jim, the secretary of Homeland Security, Secretary Kelly, the secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, they'll be meeting with the Mexican leadership. They're on their way to Mexico now. They should be arriving in Mexico City shortly. There's been various descriptions of what their mission is right now. Clearly there are some serious strains because of the president's repeated assertion that the U.S. is going to build this border wall and Mexico will pay for it.

[13:40:09] SCIUTTO: Apparently, Kelly and Tillerson will propose that Mexicans detain non-Mexicans crossing the border. Of course, a burden for Mexico in light of the accusatory language, to say the least, used by the president. You had Sean Spicer there, in his words, say we have a healthy and robust relationship with Mexico, I believe Mexico will echo that. I wonder, certainly, in public, some strains have leaked out about paying for the wall. So we'll see if Tillerson and Kelly -- Kelly had a long history working with Mexicans as chairman of Southern Command, where border security is an issue, so he's been partners with them in the antidrug war, et cetera. Do the personal relationship, Tillerson's well-known diplomatic skills, does that get over this enormous hump by the president remains to be seen, and the ask they're going with is a pretty dramatic ask to make of someone you're not having the warmest relationship right now.

BLITZER: Another sensitive issue, Laura, the issue of transgender bathrooms. The press secretary was asked a few times, what is the administration's stance on this? Does it differ from the Obama administration? He said further guidance would be released later today. Explain the issue. It is a sensitive issue for the Department of Education. COATES: It is. What happened is a couple years ago, you had this

issue of the fourth circuit of a student in Virginia, Gavin Graham, who was trying to use the bathroom of the sex he identified with. You have the president issuing guidance saying, listen, I'm going to assist the public schools around the country to figure out how we should sensitively treat people who are transgender, especially in the schools. And the Civil Rights Division backed them up. The Department of Education backed them up. And essentially, the Department of education said Title IX guards against sex discrimination. We didn't talk about transgender identity being sex, but it's the same thing we're talking about protecting people. Well, the Supreme Court will now hear the case March 28th, because the fourth circuit said, we're going to rely on the president, President Obama's guidance at that time. So, if Trump then reverses that guidance, even if it's for benign reasons, which he has suggested that it is, the court may send it right back to the lower courts and say, because you relied on that guidance, it no longer exists. This could be a very lengthy court procedure and an affront for civil rights that's happened for the LBGT community.

BLITZER: You heard Sean Spicer saying the president is a strong believer in states' rights. And that would be a sensitive issue as far as this Supreme Court decision is concerned.

COATES: It will be. It's not just whether the federal government should have a role in deciding what should be the local policies for schools, or is this a states' rights issue. It will be a constant battle between federalism and different administrations. That's the theory, but when it comes down to it, Title IX does guard against sex discrimination. Gender identify is about sex discrimination. It's a civil rights issue.

BLITZER: We know about the uproar in North Carolina as a result of the ex-governor there.

Everybody stand by.

We're getting more reaction coming in. Democratic Congressman Ted Lieu of California is with us. We're going to get his reaction of what we heard from the White House, new policies on immigration, some of those fiery town halls.

Congressman, stay with us.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:47:53] BLITZER: Right now, constituents across the nation are extending Republican lawmakers a message that they are not happy. Outside a town hall event for Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell, people lined up for miles, carrying signs protesting many of the Trump administration's new policies. Other Republican lawmakers are having town has later today, including Ryan Costello of Pennsylvania, Senator Dean Heller of Nevada, and Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana. They're hoping to avoid scenes like these. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED CONGRESSMAN: We wrecked our economy with our regulations --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Liar, liar, pants on fire.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Last I heard, these coal jobs are not coming back. Now they don't have the insurance they need because they're poor, and they worked the coal mines, and they're sick. The veterans are sick, the veterans are broken down, they're not getting what they need. If you can answer any of that, I'll sit down and shut up like Elizabeth Warren.

UNIDENTIFIED CONGRESSMAN: The insurance --

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED CONGRESSMAN: No, what percentage --

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED CONGRESSMAN: Let me finish my answer, please. I'm going to answer the question.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When will you be defunding Planned Parenthood?

(SHOUTING)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you willing to cross party lines to make things work for everyone in your constituency?

UNIDENTIFIED CONGRESSMAN: I cross party lines all the time. Last week, I was the single --

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED CONGRESSMAN: Do you want to be poor or richer? That is the --

(SHOUTING)

UNIDENTIFIED CONGRESSMAN: I would like to answer questions.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: President Trump weighed in with this tweet. I'll read it to you: "The so-called angry crowds in home districts of some Republicans are actually, in numerous cases, planned out by liberal activists. Sad," with an exclamation point.

Meantime, President Trump is sending two of his top lieutenants to Mexico. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will get there later today, and joined by Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly. They'll be meeting with President Enrique Pena Nieto and other government and military officials. The relationship between the two presidents has gotten off to a rocky start, but Secretaries Kelly and Tillerson hope to move past that as they engage the Mexican government on border security, immigration and trade and, of course, the wall that the president wants to build along the border.

House Speaker Ryan is paying a visit to the U.S./Mexican border, there along with other Republicans, as they view the area of Trump's promised border wall. The president has tasked Congress with coming up with a roughly $20 billion it's expected to take to build that wall.

Let me bring in Congressman Ted Lieu, of California, a Democrat, a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee and Subcommittee on Homeland Security.

Congressman: Thanks for joining us.

[13:50:55] REP. TED LIEU, (D), CALIFORNIA: Thank you, Wolf.

BLITZER: You heard Sean Spicer say the U.S. and Mexico have a robust healthy relationship right now. Do you agree with that assessment?

LIEU: Thank you, Wolf. Donald Trump is afraid people are going to watch CNN. You must be doing something right. Thank you for reporting real news.

To your question, Sean Spicer is lying again. He said relations are phenomenal. That is false. There have been large protests in Mexico against Donald Trump's policy and Mexican lawmakers just introduced legislation to say they are not going to buy U.S. corn. These relations are at one of the worst points in U.S.-Mexican history.

BLITZER: Secretary Tillerson and Secretary Kelly are heading there today, going to be having high-level meetings. Spicer also said it was an important trip but he pushed back on what you're suggesting. He said they're going to try to mend some fences with Mexico but this is clearly a critical moment in U.S./Mexican relations. I assume you agree?

LIEU: Absolutely. This is not the first time this has happened. When President Trump offended the prime minister of Australia, we had Republican U.S. Senators call the ambassador to try to mend fences. Now we're sending two secretaries to try to clean up the mess that Trump has already done in terms of relations with Mexico.

BLITZER: The White House says everyone who is here illegally undocumented immigrants here in the United States everyone is subject to removal but also say the enforcement guidelines are not meant the facilitate mass deportations. You're response?

LIEU: Having come to the United States as an immigrant I find the administration's actions offensive, unamerican and cruel, and it's going to separate children from their parents, break apart families. And at least under George Bush we had compassionate conservative. This is cruel conservatism, and is going to lead to more deportations and that is not good for America. And I hope people see about what's to happen and we stop it. BLITZER: The president is letting the so-called Dreamers, children

brought here as young kids by their parents from other countries, and they have grown up here in the United States, the only country they know -- he says the DACA provisions for Dreamers will remain in effect. You're pleased by that?

LIEU: I am, but they could also deport their parents of these DACA students, and I'm not pleased with that. This is all based on an ultimate reality of facts. It's been negative since 2007. That means more Mexicans have left America than entered. And studies show documented and undocumented commit less crimes than people born in America.

BLITZER: Let me quickly get your reaction to President Trump's tweet that a lot of unrest is being caused by liberal activists. Sean Spicer basically said the same thing in his briefing, saying that the anger that the media is showing is not necessarily genuine. What's your response to that?

LIEU: These protests at these town halls are continuation of the massive backlash against President Trump, starting January 21st with the women's march, then at the airports, and now at the town halls. And I think it's sad that the president of the United States is ignoring the concerns of the Americans.

BLITZER: Ted Lieu is a congressman from California.

Congressman, thanks for joining us.

LIEU: Thank you.

[13:54:46] BLITZER: So, who will lead the Democratic Party in the era of a new president, President Trump? Eight candidates want to become the chair of the Democratic National Committee. They debate tonight live on CNN, at 10:00 p.m. eastern. Our Chris Cuomo and Dana Bash are the moderators. Watch this debate tonight.

Any moment now, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will department for Mexico. The visit is meant to ease tensions between Trump's administration and Mexican president, Enrique Pena Nieto. Tillerson's State Department is responsible for explaining U.S. foreign policy to the country, indeed, to the world through daily press briefings, but they haven't held one since President Trump took office back on January 20th.

CNN's global affairs analyst, Tony Blinken, is with me, a former deputy secretary of state during the Obama administration.

It's been a month now and there's been no daily State Department briefing --

TONY BLINKEN, CNN GLOBAL AFFAISR ANALYST: That's right.

BLITZER: -- to the news media, no on-camera briefings. There's a spokesman, but it's pretty unusual to be this long not hearing from the State Department? BLINKEN: It is, and it takes an important mega phone out of our

hands. This is the way to explain policy and clarify policy, I think there's probably good reason for it and that's that it's unclear what the police is, it's hard to know what to say when there's this dysfunction in the national security process. To date the right people haven't been brought around the table in The Situation Room, secretary of state, chairman of joint chiefs and others normally when you have a normal process everyone gets around the same table, debate the policy, decide the policy an everyone speaks with one voice. That hadn't been happening.

BLITZER: Presumably a State Department spokesperson could go out there and say something contradictory within minutes?

BLINKEN: Yes. The vice president and the secretary of Homeland Security and they did a good job in I think reassuring Europeans except no one in Europe could tell what exactly represented the administration's policy and I think Secretary Tillerson is under the same challenge.

BLITZER: All the senior positions that just below that of secretary of state are unfilled. Assistant secretaries their vetting people presumably reviewing the process but you have temporary career diplomats filling in some of those spots.

BLINKEN: That's exactly right. It's not the same thing as having a full time -- when he's off going to Mexico which is a good thing who is back in the White House representing the State Department when they're talking policy? Assuming they're even convened in that room. He's there to protect the interest of the department to make sure it's fully represented.

BLITZER: What's wrong with what the White House says, they are political appointees, they don't want those who support the president, support the president's policies. They don't want people, Republican or Democrat, who criticized Candidate Donald Trump during the extent of the campaign. I'm sure that the Obama administration didn't want critics serving in high-level positions.

BLINKEN: On one hand, there's nothing wrong with that and the president is entitled to have his people, so is the secretary of state. But two things what's going on, and I think a new problem with the national security adviser has to get his arms around is while the NFC has been operating you see other competing power centers rising. You have Mr. Bannon, apparently, making -- with Russia, even Mexico. You have Jared Kushner coming in talking about a peace plan. Then you have a bunch of freelancers presenting peace plans for Ukraine around behind the back of the National Security Council. Unless regular order is re-established and that really is Mr. McMaster's job it's going to be hard for anyone to make policy and doubly difficult because our partners around the world don't know who to listen to.

BLITZER: You served on the National Security Council --

BLINKEN: I did. BLITZER: -- before you became deputy secretary of state. I assume you're reassured that General McMaster is now the national security adviser.

BLINKEN: He's a first-rate pick. And everything he's done in his career, whether it was on the battlefield or thinking and writing about national security, has been first rate. I think it's hard to find anyone who has anything negative to say about him. But he has to get a grip on this. I hope one of conditions he took about taking the job was it's going to be one process, the national security process, and all of these alternative work-arounds has to go.

BLITZER: Tony Blinken, thanks very much.

BLINKEN: Thanks, Wolf.

BLITZER: Coming up, we're slated to hear directly from the vice president, Mike Pence. He landed in St. Louis a little while ago, where he'll address the vandalism at a Jewish cemetery, part of a rash of anti-Semitic incidents across the country. We'll bring his comments live.

The news, in the meantime, continues right now, right here on CNN.