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Trump Speaks Gives Fiery Speech At Conservative Conference. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired February 24, 2017 - 13:00   ET

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

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WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, I'm Wolf Blitzer. It's noon in Beaux Bridge Louisiana, 1:00 p.m. here in Washington, 2:00 a.m. Saturday morning in Kuala Lumpur. Wherever you're watching from around the world, thanks very much for joining us.

We start with CPAC, the conservative activist conference just outside Washington taking center stage once again today. President Trump on that stage just a little while ago. The first time a sitting Republican president has made an appearance there in his first year since Ronald Reagan. That was 37 years ago.

And for the conservative faithful, the president did not disappoint. Hitting on his campaign highlights, trade, jobs, tax reform, deregulation and that border wall with Mexico. But he started with another pointed attack on the news media. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We have to fight it, folks. We have to fight it. They're very smart. They're very cunning. And they're very dishonest.

So, just to conclude, I mean, it's a very sensitive topic and they get upset when we expose their false stories. They say that we can't criticize their dishonest coverage because of the first amendment. You know, they always bring up the first amendment. And I love the first amendment. Nobody know -- loves it better than me.

So, let me state this as clearly as I can. We are going to keep radical Islamic terrorists the hell out of our country. We will not be deterred from this course. And in a matter of days, we will be taking brand new action to protect our people and keep America safe. You will see the action.

We've taken swift and strong action to secure the southern border of the United States and to begin the construction of a great, great border wall. By doing this and with the help of our great border police, with the help of ICE, with the help of General Kelly and all of the people that are so passionate about this.

For too long we've traded away our jobs to other countries. So terrible. We've defended other nations' borders while leaving ours wide open. Anybody can come in. Oh, we're going to build the wall. Don't worry about it. We're building the wall. We're building the wall. In fact, it's going to start soon. Way ahead of schedule. Way ahead of schedule.

Obamacare doesn't work, folks. It's -- I mean, I could say -- I could talk -- it doesn't work. And now, people are starting to develop a little warmup. But the people that you're watching, they're not you. They're largely, many of them, are the side that lost. You know, they lost the election. It's, like, how many elections do we have to have?

And, by the way, I want regulation. I want to protect our environment. I want regulations for safety. I want all of the regulations that we need, and I want them to be so strong and so tough. But we don't need 75 percent of the repetitive, horrible regulations that hurt companies.

It's time for all Americans to get off of welfare and get back to work. You're going to love it. You're going to love it. You are going to love it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: Phil Mattingly is over at the CPAC conference right now outside of Washington, D.C. Phil, the president spoke for, what, nearly an hour. How was he received over there?

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it was a red meat speech for a red meat crowd, no question about it. As we talked about, Wolf, these are conservative activists, kind of grassroots part of the Republican Party who make very clear that they are energized on a lot of the topline points from President Trump and his administration.

It felt, at various points during that speech, Wolf, that if you blinked, you could be transported back to October or September or any point during Donald Trump's insurgent campaign. The points were the same. The policy proposals were the same. The chants, of build the wall and USA, they were the same as well.

And I think what was most interesting about this speech is, one, kind of the historical context of it. As you noted, the Trump administration has kind of had a full blitz of this conservative action conference -- conservative advocacy conference. The first time a sitting president in his first year has been here since Ronald Reagan.

[13:05:10] But also, if you look back at President Trump's history here. He chose not to show up last year out of concern about boycotts or potential walk-outs.

But also, the point he made. His first appearance here at CPAC, back in 2011, as he described it, after he was done with his remarks, it was kind of the first time he recognized, hey, this is a pretty good deal. Maybe I should go into this further. Now, he's the president of the United States.

So, he made clear that was actually what he did. Some other context here, Wolf, that I think is important. Steve Bannon, the chief strategist who spoke here yesterday, a very rare appearance. Also noted that it was at that speech in 2011 when Steve Bannon, with Breitbart News, when some of the folks on that side of the conservative spectrum started to pay attention to Donald Trump.

So, this conference means a lot over the course of the president's history. It means a lot of, kind of, the growth of him on the political side of things. And you saw, once again, as his advisors made clear yesterday, everything he promised on the campaign, that's what he wants to deliver on. That's the message he feels is the winning message -- Wolf.

BLITZER: All right, Phil, thank you. Phil Mattingly over at the CPAC conference for us.

The president also spent a good amount of time at the top of his speech attacking the news media, what he called the fake news media. And he tried to clarify what he meant when he called that -- the news media the enemy of the American people.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: A few days ago, I called the fake news the enemy of the people and they are. They are the enemy of the people. Because they have no sources. They just make them up when there are none. They're very dishonest people.

In fact, in covering my comments, the dishonest media did not explain that I called the fake news the enemy of the people. The fake news. They dropped off the word fake. And, all of a sudden, the story became the media is the enemy. They take the word fake out.

And now, I'm saying, oh, no. This is no good. But that's the way they are. So, I'm not against the media. I'm not against the press. I don't mind bad stories if I deserve them. And, I tell you, I love good stories.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: All right. Here with us right now, our CNN Justice Correspondents Pamela Brown and Evan Perez; our Senior White House Correspondent Jeff Zeleny; and Ryan Lizza, our CNN Political Commentator, the Washington correspondent for "The New Yorker" magazine.

Jeff, why these -- at least in recent days, maybe throughout the campaign, this obsession with going after the media?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, that is part of his victory lap. And I was in the room for that speech and that is something, of course, the crowd of conservative activists loves. They feed off of that.

And this is a speech that the president was largely riffing on. This was not a carefully crafted text. He had prompters up, teleprompters up, but he was going after some old standbys from his campaign. But, look, he needs someone to run against. For more than a year, he was running against Republicans. And then, of course, for six months, he was running against the Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton. And now, he needs an opponent to run against. So, that opponent he has created is the media.

But, look, what he didn't say in that speech was how he's going to pay for any of his plans. Talking to conservative activists -- actually, the first gentleman I talked to afterward, I assumed he would say, this is a terrific speech. He said, how's he going to pay for this? Talking about infrastructure, the wall, the build-up in the military.

So, yes, they love the fact they have a Republican president, without question. But that is something that is coming up down the road here. How will he pay for this agenda? So, It's a distraction, in some respects. The president likes to, sort of attack the media. He needs an opponent. But the questions that those people are asking us, how do you pay for it?

BLITZER: Well, it's not just that. You know, Ryan, he has a lot of goals, a lot of objectives. But so far, in terms of implementing those objectives, very limited details that he's provided.

RYAN LIZZA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Oh, very little details. And, also, that's one of the reasons it's kind of unusual that he spends so much time attacking the media, almost ensuring that the headline of the speech would be some of the more controversial things he said.

And, to me, he said three things about the media that I found, as someone who cares a lot about the first amendment and as a journalist, frankly chilling. At one point, he said that we shouldn't be allowed to use anonymous sources.

Now, some of the journalism professors says that maybe they're just talking about the practice of the press. When the president of the United States says that, you know, I think we need to perk up and listen and see what he means, especially when, in the campaign, he talked about tightening libel laws. Right? That would be unconstitutional, a ban on using anonymous sources.

He also made, as we saw in the first clip, a sort of mocking reference to journalists who cite the first amendment.

You know, he went on to say he's the biggest fan of the first amendment, but the president is -- he's -- he pledges an oath to swear and defend and protect the Constitution.

So, to even to see it come out of his mouth, a mocking of the first amendment, I found a little -- a little troubling.

[13:10:09] And then, the final -- finally, he said, when he was talking about the media, that we're going to do something about it. Now, I don't know what he means, do something about it. But, again, when the president attacks the press as the enemy and says this string of things, it's a little concerning. You know, a senior military official this week said Trump's comments about calling the media the enemy were one of the greatest threats to democracy. And that's someone in the military. So, that's from -- and there are a lot of things to digest in that speech. But for my money, that was the part that I was concerned about.

BLITZER: Yes. And in his tweets, he has lumped so many mainstream news organizations as part of the so-called fake news, whether CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, "The New York Times", "The Washington Post." These are serious news organizations trying to do the best to get their news.

And, Pamela, you know, you and Evan and our whole team, Jim Sciutto, had a powerful story that was released on how the White House tried to get the FBI to deny the story of contacts between Trump campaign officials and Russian officials. And that was inappropriate and you are getting some reaction, serious blowback, if you will, from the White House.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Certainly. And the White House clearly came out strong, lashing out about this. And from the White House perspective, from officials there, what they feel like was misrepresented was the fact that the chief of staff, Reince Priebus, asked the FBI to knock down reports only after the deputy director -- that deputy director, Andy McCabe, approached Reince Priebus.

BLITZER: Deputy director of the FBI.

BROWN: Yes, of the FBI. Approached Reince Priebus at the White House after a meeting for a five-minute conversation, basically telling him that "The New York Times" reporting on contacts between Trump associates and Russian intelligence was, quote "B.S.", according to a senior administration official speaking today.

But it's clear, when you look at the Department of Justice procedures, there appears to be a violation here. Because it clearly limits the communication between the White House and the FBI, so to prevent any unnecessary interference in an ongoing investigation.

And so, it is possible that Andy McCabe's approach to Reince Priebus could have been overstepping the bounds there. The interaction that he had, talking about this "New York Times" article because it does touch on an ongoing investigation. And it appears that the White House also violated procedures by going to the FBI and asking them to knock down the story publicly -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Yes, we're getting a lot of reaction to that. The president is reacting, Evan, as well. He tweeted this this morning. Let me read it. The FBI is totally unable to stop the national security leakers that have permeated our government for a long time. They can't even find the leakers within the FBI itself. Classified information is being given to media that could have a devastating effect on the U.S. And then, in all caps, FIND NOW.

EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: So, the greatest, greatest irony of all of this and the president's criticism of anonymous -- use of anonymous sources, of course, is if you read our story. We have a quote -- or we have comments from a White House official because we were using an anonymous White House official who would not be allowed to be quoted on the record, obviously. And to essentially describe what their point of view was which was, in the end, what they wanted was for the FBI to talk anonymously to reporters to, on background, knock down "The New York Times" story.

So, again, they're criticizing anonymous sources, but they're engaging in the same thing. They're, you know, talking to us on being background. And they're -- what they were asking the FBI to do was to, on background, knock down "The New York Times" story.

Of course, the FBI did not want to do that because there's an ongoing investigation into these Russian contacts. They don't know everything yet so they can't yet say categorically that there's nothing there which is what Reince Priebus wants to -- wants them to say.

BROWN: And not to mention that there was a background briefing today as well, around the same time that the president was coming out and saying, you know, reporters shouldn't use anonymous sources. There were, you know, officials -- senior administration officials holding background briefings about our story that we reported yesterday and they asked not to be named. So, it's sort of curious that is a sticking point.

PEREZ: I think the problem here is that what we see with -- the story (ph) with this White House is when they don't like a story, they immediately go to fake news. They immediately go to that defense. They don't -- there's no, sort of, in between of trying to push back on the story, try to explain their point of view, actually engage in that conversation. Their immediate go-to is fake news.

BLITZER: All right, we have more. Everybody stand by. There's a lot more coming up. There's much more for our panel.

President Trump also gave us a big update on that big border wall he wants the U.S. to build it with Mexico. Up next, you're going to hear how it's coming along. The president says Obamacare, meanwhile, is a disaster. He's once again vowing to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. Now, that's despite a poll showing nearly half of Americans actually like Obamacare. We're going to break down the numbers for you right after a quick break.

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BLITZER: Speaking before an excited crowd of supporters, just a little while ago, President Trump promised a brand new travel ban will be released in a matter -- within a matter of days. The President not mincing words.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: So let me state this as clearly as I can. We are going to keep radical Islamic terrorists the hell out of our country.

We will not be deterred from this course.

[13:20:02] And in a matter of days, we will be taking brand-new action to protect our people and keep America safe, you will see the action.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Let's get back to our panel. Pamela, you and Jake Tapper had some exclusive reporting that the White House is trying to seek the cooperation of the Intelligence Community to back up their decision to ban travel for all practical purposes from seven Muslim majority countries.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: That's right. So my colleague Jake Tapper and I have been told by our sources that the White House reached out to the Department of Homeland Security and other agencies looking for an intelligence report to essentially justify why the seven countries should be in the travel ban, and we know the White House, the President -- from the White House, the President is expected to sign that new executive order next week. And so they wanted this before that.

But what's interesting here, Wolf, is that this came after the initial executive order was signed, and so it sort of raised the question among some intelligence officials about why wasn't this done before, why weren't they consulted before. And some have raised the concern that perhaps this White House charge is an attempt to politicize intelligence in order to fit the policy rather than the other way around.

BLITZER: Yes. That's a serious charge politicizing the intelligence from these various agencies.

PEREZ: Right. And that's -- it goes to the heart of what the criticism was from the appeals court which struck down this ban, which basically -- or upheld the hold on this ban simply because the court said that you didn't justify. You didn't offer any proof as to why these seven countries were selected.

And obviously, the Trump White House has tried to say, "Well, look, the Obama White House was the one that selected the seven countries." That's not exactly true. What -- really what the Obama White House was concerned about was travel from European countries that have visa waivers, people who can simply get on a plane without getting a visa but who had traveled previously to those seven countries. That is a far different issue.

And then frankly, that's the bigger problem right here, Wolf, is that really -- the bigger problem is that, you know, we're more likely to get a terrorist coming from one of these countries, visa waiver country, someone who's traveling to some of these --

BLITZER: In Europe.

PEREZ: In Europe, for instance --

BROWN: Right.

PEREZ: -- rather than from one of these places where people are highly vetted, especially in the refugee program or someone who has to get a visa. They're highly vetted. There's stringent restrictions on people even coming here from those seven countries.

BROWN: And what's actually interesting here, to Evan's point, some of the same people who greet the former Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson on countries to add for -- to the visa waiver program and requiring visas for people who visited those countries are the same people who are saying within DHS that these seven countries should not necessarily be in the travel ban because they do not believe that you can assess a threat based on nationality.

And so that is their key sticking point that they view this as an attempt to, you know, block these people based on their nationality rather than another purpose.

BLITZER: So by next week, we'll learn the differences between travel ban two as opposed to travel ban one, and we'll see what changes have been incorporated. The President also gave an interview to Reuters as, you know, Jeff. And he spoke about military spending or maybe he said this morning as well.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We're also putting in a massive budget request for our beloved military.

And we will be substantially upgrading all of our military, all of our military. Offensive, defensive, everything, bigger and better and stronger than ever before. And hopefully we'll never have to use it, but nobody is going to mess with us, folks. Nobody.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: He also repeated what he's often said during the campaign that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, everything the U.S. has done in the Middle East to try to stabilize that area and deal with terrorism has been a waste. $6 trillion he claims the U.S. wasted. He says that money could have been spent on roads and bridges and hospitals and schools in the United States. Airports. This is a familiar theme for him. He hates -- he says it was a disaster those wars in the Middle East.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Indeed, that's what he says. But this is yet another example, where the campaign promises and pledges and rhetoric are going to meet the realities of governing coming pretty soon, next week, when he gives his speech to the Joint Session of Congress on Tuesday evening, and then followed up on March 13th, when he submits his first budget to Congress, he has to square the circle here. It's a popular thing, particularly for Republicans to call for an increase in military spending.

But there are a lot of increases he's talking about, entitlements holding on to them, et cetera, that is going to increase the deficits. So that's what some fiscal conservatives are worried about. But, I think one of the other things we should have our eye on come Monday or so, we expect to hear his plan for ISIS.

[13:25:02] He said this morning at the CPAC speech, he will obliterate ISIS. Now, we don't know what that means. Does that mean put more troops on the ground, potentially in Syria? More troops in Iraq? So, the spending will come later, but I think specifically, what we should focus on now are his policies as opposed to, you know, move beyond the campaign sort of a rhetoric.

BLITZER: He may get a new plan to try to destroy ISIS, but he's also said, as you know Ryan, "I'm not going to tell ISIS what we're doing. They're going to have to anticipate the worst."

RYAN LIZZA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Right. And it's very interesting the line about saying the money in Iraq and Afghanistan was a waste of money, which used to be an argument you heard on the left. He has some military officials who are going to press him to stay longer in Iraq, to stay longer in Afghanistan who think that they, you know, that they can convince him of that. He's going to have to make a big decision there.

He has an OMB director who was willing to cut the military funding when he was a member of Congress. And so, it's going to be interesting to see how they put this budget together when they get all the campaign promises together.

BLITZER: And tax cuts.

LIZZA: And tax cuts, to repeal Obamacare. You can be as specific or as vague in these budgets, but it's the first opportunity for Trump to actually put everything in one place with some price tags on it.

BLITZER: How were they reacting at the White House to the former speaker John Boehner saying, "You know what, repealing and replacing Obamacare, not going to happen." What they possibly could do is fix it, improve it a bit, but they're not going to get it through.

ZELENY: A bit of truth serum there, I think from the former house speaker, they -- it's not uncommon that once you leave office, sometimes you have a better perspective potentially, or honest perspective or realistic perspective.

Look, the White House says he is going to do it. The President is going to replace the Affordable Care Act but the President talks about it this morning, is that the smartest thing for us to do politically would be to leave it alone. But it failed for Democrats. We can't do that to the American people.

But the reality is, more people if you talk to them and really sort of get what they're really thinking, they believe John Boehner is closer to right. He knows how difficult it was to write this bill in the first place. Writing a whole new bill, very difficult.

BLITZER: All right, guys. Everybody, standby because there's more developments happening. Town halls turning tense as Republican lawmakers face very angry crowds. We're going to go live to Louisiana to hear the complaints, the concerns of constituents.

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