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Trump Marks 100 Days Amid Protests in D.C.; N. Korea Missile Launch Sends Message of Defiance; N. Korea, Syria, Russia Top Trump's Foreign Policy; Poll: Trump Base Holding; Trump Marks 100 Days Amid Protests in D.C.; Interview with Debbie-Wasserman Schultz; Closer Look at Trump's Fight Against ISIS Stand. Aired 1-2p ET
Aired April 29, 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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[13:00:29] WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello. I'm Wolf Blitzer. It's 1:00 p.m. in Washington. Wherever you're watching from around the world thanks for joining us.
Marking a milestone, the Trump presidency reaches the 100-day benchmark facing challenges here in the United States and around the world. Right now, demonstrators are gathered outside the White House as part of the march for, quote, "march for climate, jobs and justice," protesting the president's policies on climate change and other issues.
On the international front, North Korea poses a very tough challenge for the president right now. Only yesterday, Kim Jong-Un's regime launched another missile in defiance of the United States.
For his part, President Trump has called the 100-day milestone ridiculous, but that didn't stop the White House from posting a statement touting the president's record. It reads, quote, "In his first 100 days, President Donald J. Trump has taken bold action to restore prosperity, keep Americans safe and secure, and hold government accountable."
This evening the president marks his 100-day holding a campaign-style rally for supporters in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
For more on President Trump's 100-day benchmark, let's bring our reporters. Our White House correspondent, Athena Jones, standing by at the White House, and correspondent, Brian Todd, is out among the demonstrators in Washington.
Athena, the White House put out a statement and video boasting about the president's performance during these first 100 days. What does the administration see as its biggest accomplishments and biggest frustrations?
ATHENA JONES, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Wolf. Well White House a doubt the administration's biggest accomplishment in the first 100 days is getting Justice Neil Gorsuch confirmed to the Supreme Court. This is something the president ran on. He bragged about it yesterday in his speech before the national rifle association. And, in fact, members of that organization which, of course, bashed Trump early on, spent millions to help him get elected, they also pointed to this appointment of Justice Gorsuch to the highest court in the land as a huge accomplishment that was included in an editorial and an op- ed in the "USA Today" by Chris Cox, who was a top NRA official. And one of the attendees at the event said the fact that Gorsuch is now on the court means that gun rights are now protected for another 30 or 40 years. That's definitely his biggest accomplishment.
The biggest frustration, the ability to repeal and replace Obamacare. The first time it was House conservatives who were standing in the way. This time it's moderates. This is something that House -- former House Speaker John Boehner warned about back in February saying in the 25 years he's served Republicans could never agree on what health care bill should look like. That is the struggle they're facing.
BLITZER: Athena, we mentioned the president's rally later tonight in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Fill us in on that and other items on his agenda today.
JONES: This morning he had a phone call with CIA Director Mike Pompeo. He will leave here a few hours from now around 5:00 set to take off for Pennsylvania. Upon arriving there, he will tour a tool company in the area. And then, at 6:45, he's set to sign an executive order. This will be his 31st executive order that will look at U.S. involvement in organizations like the World Trade Organization. And then, of course, that big rally tonight in Harrisburg, at 7:30 p.m., which he's already tweeting about looking forward to -- Wolf?
BLITZER: Brian Todd, you're out following the demonstrations here in Washington. And you noticed how they are setting the scene for a lot of anger today, marking this 100 days. What are the protesters major complaints?
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, tons of energy here. And their point is really to go against the initiatives that President Trump has started in his first 100 days, especially as it pertains to the environment. The initiatives of the executive orders he signed about drilling, about the federally protected land, the possibility of drilling on that. They have made a point in this protest, Wolf, as we pass the Trump International Hotel, by the way, of placing indigenous people at the front of the line of protesters.
I'm with one of them right now, Lorna Hank. Lorna is from an indigenous tribe out of Manitoba, Alberta. She came all the way from there.
What brought you out here today?
LORNA HANK (ph), PROTESTER: What brought me out here was we're fighting line three in Minnesota, the Sandpiper, also fighting the KXL. I'm here with my family and my sister I believe is out on the with west coast.
[13:05:08] TODD: Lorna, the administration says that they can drill for resources that they desperately need without hurting the environment. Do you believe them and what do you say to that?
HANK (ph): Not one bit. They've had over 800 spills. And it's not going to work out.
TODD: All right. Lorna, thanks very much for talking to us and good luck.
HANK (ph): Thank you.
TODD: So, Wolf, tens of thousands of people here. We are at 12th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue. A few more blocks to go to the White House. Lots of chanting. Signs, slogans. It's one of the most colorful protests I've had the pleasure of covering. Our photo journalist, Walter, is showing you down the street on Pennsylvania Avenue here. Just a lot of energy here on the street, Wolf. They really want to call attention to climate change as well. They're afraid that president will pull the United States out of the global climate change agreement. That's the central theme today -- Wolf?
BLITZER: Brian Todd, out on the streets of Washington with the protesters. Brian, thank you.
Athena Jones, over at the White House, we'll check back in with you in a little bit.
On the eve of the president's 100-day milestone. He labeled it not a milestone but an artificial deadline. Fair enough. But months before he took the oath of office, then-Candidate Donald Trump set that deadline for himself. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I am asking the American people to dream big once again. What follows is my 100-day action plan to make America great again. A constitutional amendment to impose term limits on all members of Congress.
(CHEERING)
TRUMP: I will announce my intention to totally renegotiate NAFTA.
I will direct my secretary of the Treasury to label China a currency manipulator.
Cancel every unconstitutional executive action, memorandum and order issued by President Obama.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: Begin removing the more than two million criminal illegal immigrants from the country.
We're going to suspend immigration from terror-prone regions where vetting cannot safely occur.
Middle-Class Tax Relief and Simplification Act. The American Infrastructure Act.
The Repeal and Replace Obamacare Act.
(CHEERING)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: He outlined a very ambitious agenda for his first 100 days. How much of that agenda has actually come to pass?
Let's put that question and others to our panel. Abby Phillip is CNN political analyst White House reporter for "The Washington Post"; analyst, Mark Preston is with us; April Ryan, our political analyst, White House correspondent for American Urban Radio Networks; and Jennifer Jacobs, from "Bloomberg Politics."
Abby, what do you think? I looked at this list we just pointed out. Most of that list has not yet come to pass.
ABBY PHILLIP, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Right. I think this White House actually, despite what they say, acknowledge that what's really missing here is any major legislative achievements at all. When you take a closer look at some of the things that the White House has done, some of them through executive order, a lot of them relating to immigration and to energy, they're kind of small in scope. And I mean I think they should get credit for some of those things, but a lot of the other executive orders that they signed, bills they've signed, set in motion reviews, reports. They set in motion sort of a lot of activity on the bureaucratic side, but not a lot of action. So the one thing I hear the most from White House aides at this point is that they get it. The president wants a really big bill that he can put his name on, that he can call his own, and they did not get that in the first 100 days.
BLITZER: On three of the issues, Mark, the middle-class tax relief, a major issue, American Infrastructure Act, rebuild America's roads, bridges, airports, that was a trillion-dollar initiative, supposedly, repeal and replace Obamacare, they tried that, didn't get very far, at least in the first round, and continuing their efforts. During these first 100 days, in fairness, even if there's a Republican president, Republican control of the House, the Senate, it still would have been very hard to get major legislation like that through.
MARK PRESTON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Even if they had whopping majorities in the House and a super majority in the Senate there are still fault lines in the Republican Party on several of these issues. Listen, Donald Trump came in much like a lot of presidents do with a lot of promises. However, most presidents who come in, president- elects, they step back and they realize they have to learn how to govern. Donald Trump came in and said basically it's my way or the highway, and it turned out it was the highway for Donald Trump on many of these issues. He will have to retrench right now and figures out what issue is most important. And quite frankly, he's going to have to start reaching out to Democrats and centrist Republicans to get things done. BLITZER: Any indication, April, he will do that?
[13:09:57] APRIL RYAN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: He's got to. He says he wants to do that with the Democrats when it comes to the Affordable Care Act. This president is trying to find help from his own party, who is struggling right now to find its own core. And this 100-day mark is a negative for this party because it shows that he cannot work within his own party. You have fiscal conservatives very upset with him about how he's blowing out the deficit when it comes to issues of ACA, when it comes to infrastructure, and when it comes to the tax reform bill. He has to go to Democrats. He's got to find a way. And, Wolf, the problem with a lot of the Democrats, they're scared to work with them because some of them are fearful he will tweet out something negative about them.
So there's a lot of dynamics with this president within his own party and Democrats. I don't know what kind of olive branch he will extend but it has to be one that bears a lot of good looking fruit.
BLITZER: Let's look ahead, Jennifer, to the second 100 days in that interview he granted to Reuters, earlier in the week, he said the job, he came to learn during these first 100 days, was a lot more difficult, a lot harder than he thought it was going to be. A lot of people are criticizing him, saying he should have known being president of the United States is a very, very hard job. But I assume he's learned some lessons during the first 100 days that he will apply to the next 100 days.
JENNIFER JACOBS, REPORTER, BLOOMBERG POLITICS: They all have. We've been talking with some of his senior staff behind the scenes and they have all talked about how they learned lessons. And they've been very frank. You know, we were told that Jared talked about how he thought he could run government exactly like a business and he could go in and start tackling these projects like a business, and there was so much bureaucracy and rules and so many things and stuff you have to get through, it's been a wake-up call for him. Other aides -- I was told that Reince Priebus, his chief of staff, has talked about how they're trying to step on other agencies less. They're trying to bring everyone in and make sure everyone feels like they have a voice in each process, instead of steamrolling people out in the various agencies or other senior officials. So they have the staff secretary's office down. It's all about communicating with each other more and learning the process. And they have all talked about that. When they say that it's harder than they thought, they don't necessarily mean it was like beyond their scope or difficult for them, they just mean the bureaucracy has been -- it's a tangle, and they're trying to figure out how to unroll it.
BLITZER: Abby, you cover the White House. Is the division within the White House, within the senior leadership, as serious as a lot of the reports have suggested?
PHILLIP: What I hear is that, right now, while a lot of the differences of opinion on policy, the populist and the sort of globalist, that still exists and probably is not going to go away any time soon. I'm hearing a lot of talk they're starting to work more as a team, trying to put some of that in a process where they can sort of work through the policy differences and actually get things done. We'll see how that goes. I mean, we have a couple major tests coming in the next couple weeks. The president and the White House has to figure out what they will do about trade. That's a big difference of opinion between those two camps, the populist and globalist, who, in a lot of ways, want him to keep the basic framework of free trade. There's the spending bill coming up. They have to fund the government for the next several months. On the Affordable Care Act, we're just at the very beginning of that process where maybe they might get it through the House, but once we get to the Senate, we have to grapple with the big decisions about what that bill looks like and priorities are. You know, people's jobs, I'm told, are pretty much kind of stable at this moment. But the policy disputes are still there and they're still very deep.
BLITZER: Yeah.
They got to move relatively quickly on repealing and replacing Obamacare because that -- the president has said you have to do that before you do tax reform.
PRESTON: Because you need the savings from health care in order to pay for the tax cuts. There's no pay-goes as structured right now. Tax reform will be difficult right now for the president because Republicans on Capitol Hill have a different vision of it. And while publicly they're saying we can get there, I think there will be problems on that. When it comes to health care, strictly from a political standpoint, he needs to get health care done this year. If he goes into next year and tries to do health care and it fails, heading into a midterm election, that could be disastrous --
(CROSSTALK)
[13:14:13] BLITZER: Because even if he gets it through the House, he has to get it through the Senate, and the Republican majority in the Senate is a lot tighter than in the House.
Everybody stand by, April Ryan, Abby Phillip, Jennifer Jacobs, Mark Preston.
Coming up, just hours after Kim Jong-Un's failed missile test, the "USS Carl Vinson," the aircraft carrier and battle group, begin exercises with the South Korean Navy. A report from inside Pyongyang.
And up next, just how far will the president go to end North Korea's nuclear program. It's one of the critical foreign policy decisions the president is facing in the weeks ahead. We'll have a closer look at the president's global impact. That's coming up as well.
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BLITZER: In a message of defiance, North Korea test fired a ballistic missile that the U.S. military says blew up over land. It comes only hours after the U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson warned that if Pyongyang's nuclear and ballistic missile programs are not curbed it, could lead to catastrophic consequences. And President Trump tweeted this, "North Korea disrespected the wishes of China and its highly respected president when it launched, though unsuccessfully, a missile today. Bad."
CNN international correspondent, Will Ripley, is in North Korea for us -- Will?
WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, this latest missile launch really only underscores why the Trump administration believes that the North Korean nuclear threat is the most pressing global security concern right now. In President Trump's first 100 days in office, North Korean supreme leader, Kim Jong-Un, has attempted to launch at least nine missiles, not all successful, including the latest launch in the early morning hours, which U.S. and South Korean analysts only believe traveled 22 miles before exploding over North Korean territory. They had initially thought it traveled much further exploding over the waters just off the Japanese coast. It was enough to stop rail service in the country, both bullet trains and subways, as there was a nationwide North Korean missile alert, a sign of how tense things are not just on the peninsula but in the region in general.
Threatening to ratchet it the tensions even further, the arrival of the "USS Carl Vinson" aircraft carrier strike group conducting naval exercises with the South Korean Navy. This always infuriates Pyongyang. It's noteworthy the kind of missile they attempted to launch is a modified scud that analysts say North Korea could try to use to fire at and potentially sir sink U.S. warships. So clearly, Pyongyang trying to send a message of defiance, despite international pressure and rhetoric from the White House. And Secretary of State Rex Tillerson at the U.N. on Friday urging the world to isolate this country and put economic pressure to rein in its nuclear missile programs. Pyongyang officials here say they will push forward with more nuclear tests and more missile tests -- Wolf?
[13:20:53] BLITZER: Very disturbing.
Will Ripley, joining us from Pyongyang in North Korea. Thanks, Will.
For the first 100 days, North Korea, Russia and Syria have dominated President Trump's foreign policy agenda.
For more let's discuss with our panel, global affairs correspondent, Elise Labott; our senior international correspondent, Clarissa Ward; and our CNN military and diplomatic analyst, retired Rear Admiral John Kirby, a former spokesman at the Pentagon and the State Department.
This is going to make the North Koreans very angry, very nervous. The "USS Carl Vinson," that battle group, comes in and begins joint exercises with their arch enemy, South Korea, that always generates not just nervousness but a reaction from North Korea.
JOHN KIRBY, CNN MILITARY & DIPLOMATIC ANALYST: It typically does generate a reaction and I think you can be assured the Pacific Command will be watching this to see if there is a specific tangible reaction to the exercise. But I talked to folks in the Navy this morning and tell me this was an exercise although not long planned done in in the context of the recent provocations was not done in answer to yesterday's missile test but a chance to continue to hone some capabilities, some naval capabilities, but to send a strong message we have a military presence in the region and it's potent and powerful, and it's something that north needs to take seriously.
BLITZER: Presumably, the North Koreans, to demonstrate their anger, could do more war games of their own, artillery shells. They could do another missile launch --
KIRBY: Yeah.
BLITZER: -- ballistic missile launch. First -- the last two were not that successful clearly -- or they could take their nuclear test and do that, which would really generate a lot of anger.
KIRBY: Again, I think we need to assume he's going to react in some way beyond rhetoric and I think everybody is looking for that right now.
BLITZER: There was talk this week, Elise -- and you were up in New York at the United Nations -- Secretary of State Rex Tillerson saying maybe there can be a direct dialog between the U.S. and North Korea. Is that realistic?
ELISE LABOTT, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: I don't think it's realistic right now. I'm not really sure that secretary Tillerson meant direct unilateral talks between the United States and --
(CROSSTALK)
BLITZER: What did he mean?
LABOTT: -- and North Korea. I think when they said direct talks he meant that the parties, the ones that are involved in the region, South Korea, Japan, China, Russia, sit down. I'm not sure he really meant unilateral talks.
(CROSSTALK)
LABOTT: In any event, I mean, I think North Korea would come to the table if there weren't certain conditions, which the U.S. has laid out, which is, if you're going to seriously take some steps to denuclearize, then show you're committed to get rid of your nuclear program, everything could be on the table. You heard yesterday at the U.N. Security Council that he was really giving a forward-leaning assurance to the regime, we are not looking for regime change, we only want, you know, to counter this nuclear threat and abate it. And so if that's all Kim Jong-Un wanted was a regime assurance, you know, he would be willing to sit down.
I think if he looks around at Saddam Hussein, and Moammar Gadhafi and any country that gave up its nuclear weapons, it didn't end well for them. I don't think he's going to be loathed to give up his weapons any time soon.
I think the key really is China. Everyone has been saying it. You heard President Trump, trying to lean on China a little bit with that tweet that Kim was disrespecting him. Until China's really willing to put the squeeze on North Korea, 90 percent of trade, 90 percent of oil, I don't really think North Korea is really going to change. And China's also loathed to do that because they don't want to see the regime collapse. That will hurt them, too.
BLITZER: Clarissa, this is not the only national security threat the U.S. is facing right now. You've spent a lot of time recently in Moscow and Syria and neighboring countries throughout the Middle East. They're all watching this unfold as well, and it seems to be a test of this new American president.
CLARISSA WARD, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPODNENT: It seems to be a test, and the question is, is President Donald Trump going to continue to veer ever so slightly towards a more establishment, a more traditional American tone, or is he going to continue to surprise the international community with either U-turns or with policies that do not traditionally gel with what we've seen from Americans. And so far, I think the only thing everyone can agree on is that -- or the only predictable thing, as "The New York Times" put it today, the only predictable thing about the president is how unpredictable he is. I think you're seeing some countries, like Russia, they see the writing on the wall, they see that President Trump is adopting a slightly more establishment tone, and we have seen a huge shift in the media the coverage in Moscow. It's incredible, Wolf --
(CROSSTALK)
[13:25:35] BLITZER: Tell us about that.
WARD: Before he was presented as a maverick, he was an outsider, dealing a blow to the establishment, a successful, handsome businessman. Now --
LABOTT: Going to improve U.S. relations with Russia.
WARD: Going to improve the relationship. Now, forget it. It's all about his chaotic foreign policy. His low approval ratings. His Russophobia. We have seen a real shift in the zeitgeist and the media coverage in Russia.
BLITZER: Russians clearly did not like the U.S. decision to launch those 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles against the regime of Bashar al Assad, his air base in Syria, because of the chemical weapons attack.
KIRBY: No. Clearly that was a provocation in their mind and Lavrov and the rest of them came out and said it was illegal and careened about it at the U.N. But the president made a decision it was going to be just tactically done to send message about the Syrian gas attack.
I want to pile on to something Clarissa said. I think it's right. The president has been unpredictable and that has put people off their back foot a little bit. Some cases that's good, some cases not so good. It's one thing to do that with Syria and Bashar al Assad and another with Kim Jong-Un. When doing brinkmanship, you have to be careful. This is a guy, you have to take him at his word, rhetoric and actions.
The other thing I want to say, on North Korea, I don't think the president's national security team is getting enough credit for running what is -- from all appearances is a regular, disciplined, normal interagency process. They've made some pretty good decision since coming into office how to deal with this quickly looming crisis, but it's torn us under sometimes by his bellicose rhetoric and sort his off-the-charts --
BLITZER: You credit General McMaster, the national security adviser --
KIRBY: Yes.
BLITZER: -- to the president. He's very different than his predecessor, Michael Flynn, who was fired?
KIRBY: People I've talk to say he's running a more normal process, nerves are calmer on the National Security Council staff. There's predictability in terms how far the day is going to go, in terms of scheduling and meetings, and that kind of thing. But he's also got, in Defense Secretary Mattis, a very stable, solid former military leader. And, of course, you know, you got Mr. Tillerson, who, although I don't think he's done a good enough job communicating to the State Department about where he's going and what he's going to do, he has keep some of the temperature down.
BLITZER: Guys, thanks very much. John Kirby, Clarissa Ward, Elise Labott, appreciate it very much.
Coming up, to mark this, the 100th day of his administration, President Trump will gather his faithful supporters tonight in a campaign-style rally in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. What does his base say about the first 100 days of the Trump era? We'll discuss that.
Plus, live pictures. Protesters, thousands of protesters here in Washington, marching from Capitol Hill up to the White House. Much more on this when we come back.
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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[13:32:45] DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: They say I have the most loyal people. Did you ever see that? Where I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn't lose any voters, OK? It's like incredible.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: One full year before Donald Trump became president of the United States, he was in awe of the strength of his own political base, and that support appears to be holding. Look at this. A "Washington Post"/ABC News poll this week shows 94 percent of the people who voted for Donald Trump approve of his performance in office. Overall, barely four in 10 Americans say the same thing. Let's bring in CNN political commentator and former Trump campaign
strategist, David Urban.
David, are you surprised by his ability to hold that base?
DAVID URBAN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: No, Wolf, I'm not. As you will see this evening in Pennsylvania at the farm show, the capacity is about 7500. I would imagine 25,000 people have signed up to come see the president speak. His support is not only wide but deep amongst the base and I think that they haven't, in this first 100 days, like a lot of this critics, have not lost one ounce of faith in him.
BLITZER: You were very instrumental in helping him carry -- win the state of Pennsylvania. A Republican in a presidential race hadn't won Pennsylvania since 1988, right?
URBAN: That's correct. But the president won the state of Pennsylvania.
BLITZER: But you were one of his key operatives in that state. How did he do it? Looking back and looking ahead, could he do it again?
URBAN: Look, I think the president's message was the right message for the right time. The president worked very hard to take his message to folks who -- in outlying rural counties, not just the Philadelphia media market, Pittsburgh media market, like Secretary Clinton did. Let's not make any mistake, Wolf, the secretary performed well in the Philadelphia media market. She did very well. Her numbers would have been good enough to win any other year. The president's message resonated with the folks out in these Pennsylvania 67 counties. The president did very well in 50 of them, enough to put him over the top over the secretary. You will see that in the midterms and next election.
BLITZER: This rally tonight is almost like a political campaign rally.
URBAN: Sure.
BLITZER: This really does energize him. It does wonders for this president. Talk about that.
URBAN: Sure. The president, he loves connecting with the people that supported him. He loves it. It energizes him. Earlier in the day, he will do a tour of the manufacturing facility and meet the workers there and drive down the road to the political rally. You've been on the campaign trail, Wolf, and you know it's -- anybody who's run, whether for local or national office, it provides a great deal of energy, and energizes this president like any other elected official.
[13:35:13] BLITZER: He's getting criticized, though, for keeping, for always talking about the election, the Electoral College. Gave an interview to three Reuters White House correspondents and handed out a map of the Electoral College. Yesterday, when he was speaking before the National Rifle Association, he was talking about his Electoral College. Is that appropriate now, 100 days into his presidency, to keep talking about that?
URBAN: Listen, Wolf, it was so -- his election was so improbable, I think he wants to remind people the mandate that got him here. When we started, out on the stage, there were lots of folks, you were there from the beginning and saw, as they dropped out one by one, and even at the very end, nobody thought he would win, and on election night he surprised everybody. I think just wants to keep reminding folks of that.
BLITZER: Is he as unhappy, as the pundits seem to suggest right now, that he misses his old life? He said as much in that interview you saw the other day, that he had a really good life, he misses a lot of it, misses driving a car, for example.
URBAN: Sure. You heard that from President Obama, and Doris Kearns Goodwin and other historians report the same. When presidents get elected they recognize the loss of freedom they have. They can't drive a car or walk to the grocery store. They can't go out to dinner like they used to or hang out with their friends. And this president is reflecting on some of that. He's a real person. He doesn't have the filter that some of these other presidents have had. This is how he got elected.
BLITZER: What do you think, in the first 100 days, his biggest accomplishment has been and his biggest failure?
URBAN: I think clearly the court, getting the Supreme Court nominee through.
(CROSSTALK)
BLITZER: He got it through but they had to change the rules to -- they did the nuclear option to go from 60 to --
(CROSSTALK)
URBAN: That was set up a long time ago. If you look back to Senator Reid, what he had done when majority leader, he paved the way --
(CROSSTALK)
BLITZER: For other federal judges.
(CROSSTALK)
BLITZER: I'm not saying it's not an accomplishment. To get his Supreme Court nominee confirmed, that's a bigger accomplishment.
URBAN: It's probably the biggest accomplishment in the first 100 days. Justice Gorsuch will have far reaching -- his nomination to the bench, far reaching implications --
BLITZER: Only 49 years old.
URBAN: -- for the next 40 years.
BLITZER: For the next 40 years.
URBAN: Look, in terms of -- I think there have been some stumbles on rolling out some of this -- some of the legislative initiatives.
(CROSSTALK)
BLITZER: Repeal and replace Obamacare.
URBAN: I think the White House relied too much on Republicans in the House to help get them there.
BLITZER: The speaker.
URBAN: I would say the speaker. They relied too heavily. I think they learned from that. I think you saw a completely different attack with the tax plan, much broader idea put out. And they will negotiate with both the House and Senate, to try to get a bill they can get through.
BLITZER: I'll see you at the White House Correspondents Association Dinner later tonight.
David, thanks for joining us.
URBAN: Thanks, Wolf.
BLITZER: David urban, our political commentator.
Live pictures coming in. These are folks who are protesting the president, the president's climate policies, among others. They're making their way from Capitol Hill over towards the White House. We're watching this closely.
As President Trump marks his 100-day milestone, what do Democrats have to show for the president's first months in office and do they still lack a common message, do they lack a single leader? Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, she's standing by live. There she is. We'll discuss with her when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[13:42:41] BLITZER: Thousands of protesters marching in Washington, protesting this 100-day mark for the president, protesting his environmental climate policies.
I want to go to CNN correspondent, Rene Marsh, outside of the White House.
They were moving, Rene, from Capitol Hill over to the White House. Looks like they're getting there now. What's the latest.
RENE MARSH, CNN AVIATION & GOVERNMENT REGULATION CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Wolf. I can tell you it's about a two-mile walk from where they started and they are now here at the White House. There are a couple of gaps here but you see the signs. They all pretty much have the same message here, which is essentially that the regulatory roll backs we've seen from the new administration is not something they're on board with. We've spoken to several people, one man from Alaska, talking about the negative impact on his life, seeing the climate change issues. People pointing out just the weather today. It is a pretty hot one out here. Outside in Washington, D.C., more than 90 degrees here, and people are saying that is exhibit A.
Wolf, as we kind of just walk and approach the crowd as they're coming here, we do know that Sierra Club, one of the organizers -- they essentially are leading all of this -- they said that they got a permit for about 100,000 people. We don't have an official count just yet, but I can tell you, there are tens of thousands of people out here at this march.
So now that they're here at the White House, the goal here for all of these folks is, they're going to essentially surround the White House and they're going to be sitting down at a certain point, once they're all kind of surrounding the White House, and then they will beat their chests about 100 times and they say they're beating their chests about 100 times to signify the first 100 days in office under this administration. And again, the complaint here is that they feel like this administration has essentially pulled off an all-out attack on environmental issues.
We just found out that just yesterday, the EPA, Wolf, they made changes to their website and that has angered a lot of people here. Some of the changes include getting rid of certain references as it relates to climate change. That word has gotten out here amongst this group of protesters and many people say yet another example of this administration not protecting the environment and clean air and clean water. So that is the message here, Wolf.
It will be some time before these folks actually have their seating around the White House. Lots of people still need to be filled in. But at the end of this all, we're told that the entire White House will be surrounded with all of these protesters -- Wolf?
[13:45:27] BLITZER: Yeah. The president is still in the White House right now. He'll be leaving the White House in a couple hours to head over to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, for his rally later tonight. I assume if he looks out the windows of the White House he can see these protesters getting closer and closer.
Rene Marsh, thanks very much.
The White House says President Trump has taken bold action in his first 100 days in office, and he's keeping his promises to the American people. It's a safe bet that most of the Democrats totally disagree with that assessment.
Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, of Florida, is joining us, the former chair of the Democratic National Committee.
Congresswoman, thanks for joining us.
REP. DEBBIE WASSERMAN-SCHULTZ, (D), FLORIDA: Thanks. Good to be with you, Wolf. BLITZER: Let me read to you the tweet that he just posted, the
president of the United States, just a few moments ago, quote, "Mainstream in parentheses, fake media, refuses to state our long list of achievements, including 28 legislative signings, strong borders, and great optimism."
All right. Let me get your reaction?
WASSERMAN-SCHULTZ: Well, I mean, really, all the objective analysis that has been done on this president's first 100 days has clearly pointed to a big fat "f" being stamped on his report card. He has the lowest approval rating of any modern times president in the first 100 days. He has really not signed any major legislation into law. He's been handed major defeats like the fact that there is an overwhelming majority of Americans that do not want the Affordable Care Act repealed and they were not able to pass their, you know, storied and often promised repeal and res place plan, particularly because it would have yanked health insurance coverage away from 24 million people. There are plenty of Republicans in Congress hearing from their constituents that they want to make sure that doesn't happen.
BLITZER: You got to, though, give him credit, Congresswoman, he did get -- we just heard from one of his supporters, David, say his biggest achievement getting Neil Gorsuch on the U.S. Supreme Court. A man of only 48 or 49 years old, he's going to be there for maybe 40 years. That's going to have an enormous impact on judicial decisions in the decades to come.
WASSERMAN-SCHULTZ: Well, aside from the fact that Supreme Court nomination was stolen by Republicans because they refused to even talk to President Obama's Supreme Court nominee, for over a year, it shouldn't even have been Donald Trump's appointee, but it wasn't Donald Trump that got him confirmed. The United States Senate confirmed him and the only way they were able to do that was by changing the rules that were in place for, you know, the majority of the United States history. So, this is -- hardly be deemed an accomplishment when they really had to engage in wholly unethical conduct to get their Supreme Court nominee confirmed and they confirmed somebody who will be historically extreme.
BLITZER: What is your feeling about his national security policies? Because a lot of the analysts have suggested he's moving towards a rather traditional conservative approach. What are your thoughts as far as his handling of North Korea, Syria, Russia, China, other critically important issues?
WASSERMAN-SCHULTZ: Well, I just returned from a Congressional delegation trip focused on our military strategy. I'm the ranking member of the military appropriations subcommittee and I will tell you that certainly our military particularly over in Korea and japan are focused on being ready to fight tonight. What I'm concerned about, though, is that this administration is really unnecessarily ratcheting up and turning up the heat and making the situation more grave than I think it needs to be. While I certainly believe that we need to make sure that North Korea understand that they're becoming a fully capable nuclear state is absolutely unacceptable, it is dangerous to -- and having just been in that region, there is a hair trigger atmosphere there and the rhetoric that President Trump and secretary till son and his administration is engaged in is, as we can see with the provocative actions of Kim Jong-Un recently, is not helpful in trying to make sure that we can use a more diplomatic approach to keeping him in check.
[13:49:57] BLITZER: We're showing our viewers, Congresswoman, live pictures, thousands of protesters marching in Washington, protesting the president's first 100 days, specifically on climate-related issues. You see all these people demonstrating. Obviously, a lot of anger out there. I'm sure you share their feelings. Give me your thoughts on the effectiveness of these protests.
WASSERMAN-SCHULTZ: This is at least the third major protest, major march on Washington and around the country since President Trump took office 100 days ago. You had the women's march that was millions of people around the country, the march for science which was literally tens of thousands and now the march for -- to combat climate change which is also going do result in being at least hundreds of thousands of people around the country. Probably more than that. And it shows you that we have a mobilized and organized effort to push back and fight President Trump's really hardline extremist agenda. He has tried to take away health care from millions of people, he wants to roll back protections for our environment that are going to do grave harm for generations to come. You have millions of women who are fighting him on his plans to take health care away from us, to roll back protections for our equitable treatment. They're not going to stand for it. And I think that's been actually the best news story of the first 100 days is how many people are organized against President Trump's irrational and extreme agenda.
BLITZER: Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, of Florida, thanks for joining us.
WASSERMAN-SCHULTZ: My pleasure. Thank you.
BLITZER: President Trump promised he could defeat ISIS, but now nearly -- exactly 100 days in, where does the fight stand?
Our senior international correspondent, Nick Paton Walsh, takes a closer look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERANTIONAL CORRESPONDENT: He said nobody would be tougher on them.
TRUMP: I would bomb the (EXPLETIVE DELETED) out of them.
(CHEERING)
PATON WALSH: But 100 days in, how are ISIS doing under Trump? In Iraq, they're losing badly.
(GUNFIRE) PATON WALSH: Now controlling only 7 percent of it, down from over a third. Several civilian casualty incidents have led to questions whether Trump has eased rules of engagement, made it easier to bomb. Yet in west Mosul, civilians are so frequently caught in the crossfire or dragged into it by ISIS, the higher death toll was always a risk at the fight's bitter end.
(on camera): You can see the problem. These Iraqi police and army have in streets as tight as this where, frankly, any item around them could be a booby trap, any roof could have an ISIS sniper on it.
(GUNFIRE)
PATON WALSH (voice-over): But is this retreat down to Trump?
(GUNFIRE)
PATON WALSH: Not really. You will struggle to find officials who say it isn't just the same plan the Obama Pentagon put together being followed through.
And then there's Syria.
(EXPLOSION)
PATON WALSH: Trump's decision to launch strikes against its regime for using chemical weapons possibly complicated the fight against ISIS. By making a clear enemy of the regime, who were, on paper, at least, also fighting ISIS.
But the plans to retake their capital city, Raqqa, moving along fast, regardless, coal coalition-backed fighters set to encircle it from the south.
ABU BAKR AL BAGHDADI, ISIS LEADER: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
PATON WALSH: But the ultimate symbolic prize, the capture or death of ISIS leader, Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, eludes them.
(voice-over): Do you think Abu Bakr al Baghdadi is still in Mosul or greater Mosul?
LT. GEN. STEPHEN TOWNSEND, COMMANDING GENERAL, OPERATION INHERENT RESOLVE: Well, I sure hope he is. I don't think he is. I sure hope he is because, if he is, we've got him trapped. I'd like to see his end. I'd like to see his end in Mosul.
PATON WALSH: Where's your best pointer of where he is right now?
(voice-over): Elsewhere, like in Afghanistan, they are on the rise. His commandos deploying the MOAB, the largest nonnuclear bomb the U.S. has ever dropped in anger, and a strategic review is under way.
But there aren't really any new options in America's longest war. Just more of the same. And still the Taliban, are the bigger problem. But it's hard to know how Trump, or anyone, can fight ISIS's most
enduring threat, the idea. Transferable now indefinitely, online, inspiring deranged thugs from London to Paris. Defeating that idea requires a better one, and nobody's found that yet.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: And Nick Paton Walsh is joining us live from Irbil in Iraq.
Nick, talk to us a little bit about the push for Raqqa, Syria, the so- called caliphate capital.
PATON WALSH: Very much the pressure rising, and a sense we've had in the past month or so that they're beginning to get all the elements in place to begin to not only encircle, but besiege that city, particularly around the town where we're hearing recently from monitors there may be actual moves by America's allies to get inside that city center.
But there's a huge wrench thrown in the works here, Wolf. Turkey is deeply unhappy with the allies the U.S. has chosen for this fight. Take Raqqa, and that's the Kurds. In fact, they've been bombing them over the past few days, leading potentially to President Erdogan saying he wants to partner with the U.S. to take on ISIS inside of Raqqa, massively throwing a spanner into geopolitical works here. Turkey always unhappy with the original American plan for the siege against Raqqa, using the Kurds, who they consider to be terrorists. And now a lot of questions I think ahead of Donald Trump meeting President Erdogan in the White House on May 16th. Quite exactly what they'll discuss about the Raqqa offensive, which was supposed to be potentially the first major military operation of the Trump White House -- Wolf?
[13:55:43] BLITZER: Yeah, and in Mosul, Iraq, the battles continue as well.
Nick Paton Walsh, thanks very much for that report.
That's it for me. I'll be back, though, later today. A special, very special edition of "The Situation Room," 5:00 p.m. eastern.
In the meantime, CNN NEWSROOM, with Ana Cabrera, starts right after this quick break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
