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Trump's Meeting with Merkel; Trump and Merkel to Reset Key Alliance; White House Apologizes. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired March 17, 2017 - 12:00   ET

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


[12:00:00] KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: So much for joining us AT THIS HOUR. "Inside Politics" with Dana Bash today starts right now.

DANA BASH, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to INSIDE POLITICS. I'm Dana Bash. John King is off.

Fridays tend to be sleepily here in Washington, members of Congress are usually home in their districts, the president, these days, heads to Mar-a-Lago. But today, St. Patrick's Day Friday, could not be any busier here in the nation's capital.

On the health care front, the Trump administration and GOP leaders don't have the luxury of a low-key Friday. They're scrambling to save their Obamacare repeal and replace bill from failure. Not enough support from fellow Republicans. Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price was on Capitol Hill early this morning hoping to bring the administration's health care overhaul back from the brink, and the president himself is twisting arms in the Oval Office.

President Trump is planning another weekend at Mar-a-Lago, we should say, but first he is doing something very important. As we speak, he is holding probably the most important meeting to date with a fellow world leader. The president is hosting Chancellor Angela Merkel, there you see her arriving at the White House just a little while ago. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who had a famously simpatico relationship with President Obama, but who, in policy, in outlook, in style could be - not be more different from President Trump. During his presidential campaign, Trump was not a Merkel fan, particularly when she beat him out in 2015 for the honor he thought he deserved. At the time Trump tweeted, "I told you "Time" magazine would never pick me as the person of the year, despite being the big favorite. They picked the person who is ruining Germany." For the record, "Time" did pick Donald J. Trump as their person of the year in 2016.

That same year brought these hugely unflattering broadsides from the future president.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The German people are going to riot. The German people are going to end up overthrowing this woman. I don't know what the hell she's thinking.

You watch what happens to Angela Merkel, who I always thought of as a very good leader, until she did this. I don't know what went wrong with her. I don't know. What went wrong? Angela, what happened?

Hillary Clinton wants to be America's Angela Merkel.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Now, the two will stand side by side for a news conference in a little over an hour. We'll see if he calls her Angela or Angela or chancellor, now that they're both world leaders. And, of course, you're going to see it live right here on CNN. In the meantime, let's bring in our panel of reporters. Jonathan Martin of "The New York Times," Amy Walter of The Cook Political Report, Molly Ball of "The Atlantic," and our own Manu Raju.

Now, I'd say, guys, it is an incredibly busy day. We just talked about Merkel arriving at the White House, the health care situation that's going on. But there's something that also happened, many people thought was really impossible, an apology, an apology from the White House. This one was to Britain for parodying a claim from a Fox News analyst that British intelligence might have spied on Trump at the behest of President Obama. Well, the West Wing continues to stick by President Trump's accusation that Obama had him surveilled, of course an evidence-free accusation. We're going to talk about that in the next block.

But I do want to start with what's going on at the White House right now, Germany and Angela Merkel being there. So many important issues at stake. You've got NATO. You've got the refugee crisis, you know, and a host of other problems with Russia and Asia and so forth.

Jon, let me start with you.

JONATHAN MARTIN, "THE NEW YORK TIMES": Yes.

BASH: What do you think is the most critical part of this meeting right now?

MARTIN: Well, it establishes some kind of a base line relationship with one of our key allies in Europe, a country that, you know, really sustains the EU economically at least. And, you know, hopefully some damage control from those comments that you just played from the president over the course of the last year. I mean this is not ancient history. This is - this is not 20 years ago. Those comments were last year he was saying this or the last couple years he was saying this about her. It just creates a sort of awkward spot for us to be in. And, look, I - you know, Trump is somebody who is cursed and blessed by a short memory. So he is happy to kind of move on from what he said last year. The question is, Dana, will Chancellor Merkel be willing to move on as well and let bygones be bygones.

AMY WALTER, COOK POLITICAL REPORT: Well, and - but if we go just to the substance of what he said, not of how he said it, the issue of immigration has been a big problem for her. And the fact is, she has a very tough re-election coming up in many cases because of the blowback to the number of immigrants that were allowed into the country. And we're seeing it all through Europe.

In fact, she is, to your point about the linchpin of the EU, she's sort of the last vestige of what we consider -

MARTIN: Yes.

WALTER: Like the old world EU -

BASH: Absolutely.

WALTER: Right, as we're watching -

MARTIN: Old Europe?

WALTER: Old Europe, I guess, is what she represents right now -

MARTIN: I mean -

WALTER: After Brexit and after what we're seeing in France and in the Netherlands, et cetera, this is - this is sort of - this should be for the U.S. a one very key important ally in that region.

[12:05:10] BASH: You mentioned her in terms of where she stands, and she is the last vestige of that kind of - the leaders that we saw -

WALTER: Right.

BASH: And I guess I can say it at this point, we can say the last generation of leaders.

MARTIN: Right.

WALTER: Yes.

BASH: But there's also her as a personality. And I want to play for you something that the chairman of the Munich security conference said about Angela Merkel ahead of this meeting.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WOLFGANG ISCHINGER, FORMER GERMAN AMBASSADOR TO U.S.: If there is one leader around who I think can deal with, can handle the new American president, I think it's got to be Angela Merkel.

If he wants to, you know, make America a better place, make America move forward, both economically and politically, he can't do it with good and reliable partners. These partners are represented by Angela Merkel.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: OK, so there's the partnership, that's one thing, but I just want to focus on the - who she is. She's a tough cookie. Do you think that maybe the president will meet his match with her?

MOLLY BALL, "THE ATLANTIC": Well, I'm going to be fascinated to hear what Trump says today about the relationship with Germany because in the view of people like Steve Bannon and the sort of Breitbart alt- right wing of the party, Trump is just one piece of a transnational populist uprising, right? And Merkel is the last globalist.

WALTER: Yes.

BALL: And so that is what her re-lection is going to be a referendum on. It is all about, as Amy said, it is all about the refugee crisis and the number of refugees that Germany has taken in. That's why Trump was criticizing her and comparing her to Hillary Clinton during the campaign. So are they going to find a way to see eye to eye despite those differing ideologies? He is going to bring that up? Or is it all just going to be about practical sort of brass tax, you know, are we friends?

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER: Yes, and the thing about Trump, though, is in these meetings he tends to say what that person believes, even if -

BASH: They want to hear.

RAJU: What they want to hear.

BASH: Yes.

RAJU: He does that almost -

BALL: And then he comes out later -

RAJU: And then he comes out later and makes a - something completely contradictory to what he just said. Privately he just does this on a variety of issues, not just meetings with foreign leaders, but with also with members of Congress and the like. So I think it will be probably a pretty cordial meeting and probably be a pretty cordial press conference. We'll see if he takes questions from people who will - could make them illuminate their differences, either on immigration or have him respond on wiretapping, or if Trump decides to pick from his two American questioners, people who are conservative media, people who may not push him on those issues. But I'm sure that Trump will try to strike that tone and sound like they're on the same page.

MARTIN: Well, wiretapping - the wiretapping would be a timely question because, of course -

BASH: Yes.

MARTIN: The Obama administration tapped Merkel's phone -

BASH: Yes.

WALTER: We were saying -

MARTIN: Not so long ago.

RAJU: And I'm sure that Trump will bring that up if he's asked.

MARTIN: Oh, you know Trump will bring that up, right? And - because it will be a twofer for him, right? It would be a dodge for his own issue, but also it would be - here's an example of the last president doing wiretapping, right? So -

WALTER: To - but to Molly's point, I think that is important to sort of what he brings up and how he chooses to bring it up and the fact that she is bringing with her economic people, right?

MARTIN: Yes.

WALTER: It's that the debate is much more about the economic.

MARTIN: Be about (INAUDIBLE), yes.

WALTER: Look at all these jobs that we bring to the U.S.

MARTIN: Right.

WALTER: We have BMW plants.

MARTIN: Right.

WALTER: We have Siemens. We're about making America -

BASH: Well, making more (INAUDIBLE) here than in Germany.

WALTER: Yes.

MARTIN: Right.

WALTER: Right. We're all about making America great. So that's, I think, where they want to have the conversation, more so than, let's make this a debate on immigration policy, populism, and nationalism.

BASH: But, you know, you talked about the fact that she is kind of the last person in leadership role in Europe, at least one of them, the biggest, that is focused on globalization. And it is not in kind of the Steve Bannon frame of being more nationalistic. But that's not the only reason why I think she has been - she has been somebody that's been on the tip of President Trump's tongue. I want to play for you something that he said about her, and about Vladimir Putin not that long ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Whom do you trust more if you talk to them? Angela Merkel or Vladimir Putin?

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, I start off trusting both. But let's see how long that lasts. It may not last long at all.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Remember that when he said he basically sees them on equal footing? Them, meaning Vladimir Putin and Angela Merkel, at the beginning.

BALL: Well, and, of course, you know, Merkel and Putin have been starkly at odds over, you know, over NATO in particular -

BASH: Sure.

BALL: And over the Russian incursions into eastern Europe and Ukraine. And to the point that Putin supposedly found out that Merkel was afraid of dogs and started bringing a dog to their meetings as a result in an attempt to intimidate her. So - so it is - it will be very interesting to see if the Russia relationship also becomes a dimension of this statement.

[12:10:01] BASH: And she grew up behind the iron curtain.

WALTER: That's right.

RAJU: Yes.

BASH: I mean she grew up in then east -

MARTIN: East Germany, yes.

BASH: In east - yes, in east Germany, which was the Soviet Union.

RAJU: And will Trump reaffirm the United States support for NATO or will he say what he said on the campaign that it's an obsolete organization and that other member countries need to pay a lot more. That's going to be a fascinating thing because you've seen members of Trump's own administration saying that of course the United States stands firmly behind NATO, but the president of the United States himself not going as far as a lot of his cabinet members and the like. What happens when a key ally like this may bring it up, or if a reporter brings it up at the press conference.

BASH: And let's bring in back home to something that you mentioned, Amy, which is the immigration and the refugee crisis. And that has been a major point of criticism from President Trump about Angela Merkel. Let's listen to something that he said back in January.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I have great respect for her.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

TRUMP: I have felt she was a great, great leader. I think she made one very catastrophic mistake, and that was taking all of these illegals in - you know, taking all of the people from wherever they come from, and nobody really knows where they come from.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: So that's, obviously, his stance. It's interesting given the fact that his own attempt to deal with that in this country has just been blocked for the second time by the federal court.

MARTIN: Well, and it's not even really a close comparison given the size of our country versus the size of Germany.

BASH: Right.

MARTIN: And they have absorbed far more refugees than we have.

BASH: Oh, no question. Yes.

MARTIN: And so it's a very different cultural question here than it is there. But, look, it's in Trump's interest and the Bannons of the world to kind of blur those distinctions. I mean they - you know, it - they want to create sort of a larger narrative about the threat of radical Islam, or to some of them the threat of Islam generally, and the west. And so, you know, we - I think Trump wants to sort of, you know, make this into more of an issue for his own domestic political reasons.

WALTER: Yes. And it's a cultural debate as well. I mean that's what we saw in the Dutch election and I'm sure we'll see it in Germany as well.

MARTIN: Yes, of course.

WALTER: It's not just simply about safety and security, it's about, are you changing the identity of this country.

MARTIN: The other, yes.

WALTER: And we're seeing that throughout Europe. And that's what this debate is here. We spent the other day -

MARTIN: Right.

WALTER: Talking about Steve King and his views on people coming into this country and intermarrying or whatever his view on that, however he described it ultimately. But, fundamentally, are we changing what it means to be an American?

MARTIN: Who are we?

BASH: Yes.

WALTER: Who are we and who are we as Europeans?

BASH: And you're right, and not to get, you know, too far into our history books, but there's a reason why Germany is so focused on it, because they're still trying to make up for -

WALTER: Hurt (INAUDIBLE).

BASH: What happened in World War II for the, you know, concern about the other turning into concentration camps.

WALTER: Yes. Yes.

BALL: Well, just to go back to NATO. The allies are still very nervous about what this administration plans to do - BASH: Yes.

BALL: Because, you know, you did have Trump trash talking NATO to some extent during the campaign and this was the primary, I think, objective of British Prime Minister Theresa May's visit as well, as to get assurances on NATO, and she did. He said very nice things about NATO.

Mike Pence, the vice president, when to the Munich conference. Also said nice things about NATO. However, they are - what they are saying is, we love NATO, NATO's great, but people have to pull their own weight. We need more defense budget spending from our allies in NATO. What they - the question they haven't answered is, if not, then what are we - what are we going to do about it? What is the United States prepared to do about it if we don't get those commitments?

BASH: Great question. I'm not sure there's a real - a real answer yet.

Hold those thoughts. We have a lot more to talk about.

And up next, we are going to talk about the fall-out from Trump's wiretap claim that is now impacting America's relationship with one of the U.S.'s great allies. Why the White House is learning the hard way that words matter.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:17:53] BASH: Two White House officials today saying sorry to the British government. They're apologizing for these words yesterday from the White House press secretary.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEAN SPICER, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: There has been a vast amount of reporting which I just detailed about activity that was going on in the 2016 election. There is no question that there was surveillance techniques used throughout this. I think by a variety of outlets that have reported this activity concluded.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Spicer was referring to reports that the British intelligence agency had spied on then-candidate Donald Trump. That prompted this response from Downing Street. "We've made clear to the U.S. administration that these claims are ridiculous and should be ignored. We've received assurances that these allegations won't be repeated." That's from a spokesperson for the British prime minister.

Now, apology time. The White House press secretary came out and, according to our sources, both he and the national security adviser said to British officials by phone, including the U.K.'s ambassador to the U.S., that they were sorry and they reportedly described Spicer's comment as quote, "unintentional."

Let's talk about this for a couple of seconds. I want to tell our viewers, we're waiting for - oh, let's go to it now. This is the president with Angela Merkel.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Send a good picture back to Germany, please. Make sure.

QUESTION: How did your talks go, Mr. President?

TRUMP: Very good.

QUESTION: Did you talk about NATO? (INAUDIBLE)?

TRUMP: Many things.

ANGELA MERKEL, GERMAN CHANCELLOR: (INAUDIBLE).

QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE).

MERKEL: (INAUDIBLE).

(CROSS TALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

BASH: Well, not a lot of comment coming from either of those leaders, but, boy, body language really is telling.

[12:20:03] MARTIN: Is it getting cold in here a little bit? A little chilly?

BASH: Right.

WALTER: Wow.

MARTIN: Iced over.

BASH: I mean he's hunched over.

MARTIN: It was remarkable that -

BASH: His face did not look - he wasn't all that relaxed. I would say that's fair to say. His hands in his in his -

MARTIN: Cupping his hand a little bit.

BASH: Yes. Yes.

MARTIN: How much longer are they going to be in here for? Yes, it was - it was telling. It was very -

Look, he's not somebody who has a good poker face. And I think it was pretty clear there that the - he is not as sort of naturally in line with her as he is say, well, I don't know, Nigel Farage, for example. (INAUDIBLE) the same kind of - what do you think, Amy? There was love there?

WALTER: (INAUDIBLE) that way.

MARTIN: Yes.

WALTER: We didn't have the Abe.

BASH: No.

WALTER: That was really the best one, the -

MARTIN: Well, the handshake. Yes.

BASH: No.

WALTER: With the - the handshake.

MARTIN: Yes. Yes.

BASH: Handshake. They didn't even - they didn't -

WALTER: Did they shake hands, do we know?

BASH: I - as far as - I - not that we saw in this tape. Maybe they did before.

MARTIN: The patented Trump sort of pull-in handshake.

BASH: Yes.

WALTER: We did not see that.

MARTIN: Yes.

BASH: But hopefully, for his sake, there will be a nice picture being sent back to Germany. That's what we (INAUDIBLE).

MARTIN: As he requested.

BASH: OK, let's turn back to the apology and I actually have something that I want to play for the viewers that, Manu, you got on Capitol Hill from a Republican congressman, Tom Cole. Let's play it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. TOM COLE (R), OKLAHOMA: I see no indication that that's true. And so it's not a charge I would have ever made. And, frankly, unless you can produce some pretty compelling proof, I think the president, you know - President Obama is owed an apology in that regard because if he didn't do it, we shouldn't be, you know, reckless in accusations that he did.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: It's apology Friday, I guess.

RAJU: Yes.

BASH: But, you know, before, and we're going to get back to talking about this, we were discussing the administration having to apologize to Great Britain for putting - from repeating what apparently is false information from the White House podium. This is different. This is - he's telling you that the president should apologize to his predecessor.

RAJU: Yes, that's right. And he's sort of the first Republican I've heard say this. I've asked a number of Republicans who would not go that far. But it's a sign, Dana, that Republicans just want to move on.

MARTIN: Right.

RAJU: They don't understand why the president continues to dig in. They don't understand why Spicer did what he did yesterday. There is a massive legislative agenda they're trying to get accomplished. They're trying to get healthcare through. And the president needs to sell his party. He needs to be in a strong, political position. He needs that political capital. And what another congressman told me this morning, Charlie Dent, the moderate Republican from Pennsylvania, he believes that continuing to go down this wiretapping rabbit hole is killing his credibility, is sapping his political capital, is going to make it harder for him to get these things done. And that's why you're hearing people like Tom Cole saying, apologize and move on.

BASH: And forget about his credibility here, what about the credibility he has abroad and the credibility of his spokesman -

MARTIN: Yes.

BASH: Who clearly went through so many verbal gymnastics yesterday to try to defend the evidence-free claim that he got himself into trouble.

BALL: And yet it's not Donald Trump that you hear apologizing.

MARTIN: Yes.

BALL: Because that is his brand, is that he never backs down and he never apologizes certainly, not to President Obama, whom he's said so many things about. And so what you hear from these Republicans on Capitol Hill is an increasing sense of frustration, with the House Intelligence Committee, and then the Senate Intelligence Committee, bipartisan statements, absolutely knocking down trump on this, and feeling really frustrated that, as Manu said, that they keep having to chase things. Of course, they don't have to. You have - they have the ability to just ignore him.

MARTIN: Yes.

BALL: But that's a weird place for the congress to be too to just ignore -

BASH: It's hard to ignore on something like this.

BALL: Well, they did on the illegal voters. Remember, Mitch McConnell was asked, are you going to -

BASH: Yes.

BALL: Do an investigation into whether there were millions of illegal votes and he just said no and they just didn't do it. So they do have the ability to just ignore him if they so choose.

BASH: All right. Go ahead, Amy.

WALTER: Well, except that he - he punted it to them, which is also -

MARTIN: Yes, he put it on their -

RAJU: Yes.

WALTER: He said, well, I don't know if that's really true. Let's make sure Congress does. So it's one thing to say -

MARTIN: Yes.

WALTER: Just ignore some of these tweets, which I think a lot of them do. It's another thing that - are we going to see more and more of the case where, when he gets into hot water, he pushes it to -

MARTIN: His escape hatch, yes.

BASH: OK, speaking of tweets, thank you for the segue, Amy.

WALTER: Yes.

BASH: I just have to show, before we go to break, Hillary Clinton doesn't tweet very often, so she just retweeted a tweet from her longtime aide - former aide Philip Runis (ph), who said, Philip Runis, rather, who said, "Russian spy, health care is complicated, diplomacy is exhausting" and she retweeted, "things I learned today." We'll just leave you with that.

Up next, House Speaker Paul Ryan is trying to saving his own health care plan, meeting with members of his own party to get them on board with his bill to replace Obamacare. President Trump is working it too. More on why the president is so confident this bill will pass, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:29:04] BASH: Winning is easy, governing is harder. Lynn Manuel Miranda wrote those words for George Washington to say in the Broadway sensation "Hamilton." And as we speak, House Speaker Paul Ryan is living the reality of those words, governing is hard. It's very hard. Especially with a fractured GOP caucus with lots of different ideas but no consensus yet on how to keep the GOP campaign promise to repeal and replace Obamacare. This morning, Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price was on Capitol Hill presenting a united front with the GOP leadership.

Meanwhile, at the White House, President Trump says he's flipping Republicans and, according to him, the House Republicans he met with who were opposed to the health care plan are now on board.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I want everyone to know, I'm 100 percent behind this. I also want everyone to know that all of these nos or potential nos are all yeses. Every single person sitting in this room is now a yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[12:30:06] MARTIN: OK.

BASH: Just like that. Jonathan.

MARTIN: Let's square it by who was in that room, OK. It's a little bit of inside baseball but there's the Freedom Caucus, which is really the hard-liner