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Trump Speech on Infrastructure in Cincinnati; Trump Nominates Christopher Wray for FBI Director. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired June 07, 2017 - 13:30   ET

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

[13:30:00] DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Every other country looks out for their interests. It's time that we finally start looking out for our interests in the United States. No longer will we sacrifice American jobs, factories and wealth. The theft of American prosperity has come to a screeching halt, folks. And a new era of American greatness is about to begin. You see it. It's already beginning. We're going to restore America's industrial might.

And I look here and something, barges have been waiting for us to say hello. The captain says please wave.

Hello, Captain. He put up that big beautiful American flag.

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: Creating the jobs and tax base to put new instruct all over our country is what's happening. But to achieve our full economic strength, we must repeal and replace Obamacare.

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: Since Obamacare's implementation began, premiums have increased by an average of 75 percent in Kentucky and 86 first in Ohio. Just yesterday, we learned that the last statewide insurer in Ohio is leaving. Have you folks heard about that? That's it, bye- bye. Wave good-bye. What a mess. That could mean another 20 counties and 19,000 people will have no plans.

The House of Representatives has done and the House of Representatives has been working, I will tell you very, very hard. It's done in job in passing along an Obamacare replacement bill. Now it's time for the Senate, Mitch McConnell, working very hard to act and to save Americans from this catastrophic event because Obamacare is dead. Obamacare was run of the biggest broken promises in the history of politics. Remember, you can keep your doctor? You can keep your plan? Didn't work out that way. You end up paying not to have insurance. Because it was cheaper. But there's another major promise that Washington has repeatedly broken, and that is the one where we are here today. It's a promise that's gone unheeded. It's called restoring America. Restoring our country. The promise of a safe reliable and modern infrastructure. Hasn't been kept. But we're going to keep it. American lives and livelihoods depend on our action together.

That's why I'm calling on all Democrats, who honestly have really been obstructionists. Boy, have they tried. I mean every single thing. On health care, I won't get one vote. Obamacare's crashing, it's dead. It's in a death spiral as the head of one of the biggest insurance companies said it's in a death spiral. And we're coming out to do good, not to do bad, to do good.

We won't get one Democrat vote. Think of it, they're just obstructionist. Every single thing is obstruction. I don't think honestly, if I were in that party, I wouldn't be doing it that way. I'd be doing positive things. That's why they lost the House. They lost the Senate. They lost the White House. People don't want to see what's going on. They want to see us all come together, but I don't see them coming together. They're obstructionists. I'm calling on all Democrats and Republicans to join together if that's possible, in the great rebuilding of America.

Countless American industries, businesses and jobs depend on rivers runways, roads, and rails that are in dire and even desperate condition. And millions of American families rely on their water and pipes and pumps that are on the verge of total failure and collapse. We are pleased to be joined today by representatives from many, many industries that depend on a truly critical component of our nation's infrastructure. The 12,000 miles of inland waterways. We have farmers, coal miners and by the way, those coal miners are happy. Coal miners oh, they like Trump.

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: They like Trump. Same with steel workers and oil workers. We've taken those restrictions and those horrible regulations off your companies. We're going to have clean beautiful air, clean beautiful crystal water. But you're going to have your jobs also. You're going to have your jobs.

(APPLAUSE)

[13:35:05] TRUMP: Maybe more than ever before.

So I want to salute each of you for the work that you've done. And maybe more importantly, for the work that you're about to do. Because it's going to be a beautiful thing. You watch.

These citizens know firsthand that the rivers, like the beautiful Ohio River, carry the life blood of our heartland. In fact, I'm very proud that, behind us today, are those 12 barges. Look as the this. West Virginia, do we love West Virginia.

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: West Virginia. They're filled with West Virginia coal. And you know, next week, we're opening a big coal mine. You know about that. One in Pennsylvania. It's actually a new mine. That hadn't happened in a long time, folks. But we're putting the miners back to work.

The contents of just one nine-barge towboat like the one behind me carries the equivalent much 1,000 semi tractor-trailers. People don't realize it. People don't realize it but they do now.

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: Roughly 60 percent of United States grain exports travel down these waterways to the gulf. More than half of all the American steel is produced within 250 miles of where we're standing right now. And its production depends on the inland waterway system. And wait till you see what I'm going to do for steel and for your steel companies. We're going to stop the dumping and stop all of these wonderful other countries from coming in and killing our companies and our workers.

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: You'll be seeing that very soon. The steel folks are going to be very happy.

Up to 25 percent of the nation's energy cargo relies on these channels. And the refineries along their shores. But these critical corridors of commerce depend on a dilapidated system of locks and dams that are more than half a century old. And their condition, as you know better than anybody, is in bad shape. It continues to decay. Capital improvements of the system, which is so important, have been massively underfunded. And there's an $8.7 billion maintenance backlog that is only getting bigger and getting worse. Last December, up the Ohio River near Pittsburgh, one lock by the more than 50 years ago had to be shut down for five days due to hydraulic failure. And you know what that means? Five days means everything comes to a halt. We simply cannot tolerate a five-day shutdown on a major thoroughfare for American coal, American oil, and American steel, which is going to get more and bigger.

America must have the best fastest and most reliable infrastructure anywhere in the world. We cannot accept these conditions any longer. A few years ago, a gate broke from its hinges at the Markland Locks on the Ohio River in Kentucky. It took nearly five months to repair. Any of you know about that? It wasn't a pretty picture, right? I don't think so. And in 2011, a massive section of canal wall collapsed near Chicago, delaying everything, and it seemed like forever. Great American businesses like Land-o-Lakes, which is here today from Manhattan -- where are they? Stand up. That's good stuff. Come on, stand up. Good.

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: That's good stuff -- fear that the lock and dam systems they rely on are no longer dependable.

I am here with a message to you and for all of the great businesses that are gathered with us, and maybe more importantly, because that's what it's ultimately about, those businesses' workers. Together, we will fix it. We will create the first-class infrastructure our country and our people deserve.

My new vision for American infrastructure will rebuild our country by generating $1 trillion in infrastructure investment. Our infrastructure program - (APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: A lot. A trillion.

(APPLAUSE)

[13:40:02] TRUMP: You know, as of a few months ago, we spent $6 trillion in the Middle East, along with the death of so many incredible people. And along with all of the other problems that you've been watching every night on television and reading about in the papers. $6 trillion and yet, if we want to fix a road or want to fix a school, or we want to make sure that a bridge doesn't collapse in our country, forgetting about even building new ones, we don't ever seem to have the money. Got to change, folks. It's got to change. Something wrong. Something wrong.

(APPLAUSE)

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: So there's the president clearly getting ready to wrap up his speech in Cincinnati, on rebuilding the country's infrastructure. The president clearly trying to focus on than describing it the theft of American prosperity, he says, will come to a halt. He also got into the other issues in terms of going after the former president's health care, Obamacare, among other issues. He also promised he would end terrorism, saying his meetings in Saudi Arabia a couple weeks ago were historic. No mention, by the way, of the Russia investigations or James Comey, the fired FBI director's testimony tomorrow.

Let's get insight from our panel. Our senior Washington correspondent, Brianna Keilar, is with us; CNN political analyst, David Gregory, with is with us; and CNN Politics reporter, editor-at- large, Chris Cillizza, is with us as well.

Chris, let me start with you.

The president clearly anxious to change the subject if he possibly can. So much focus right now on these congressional investigations.

CHRIS CILLIZZA, CNN POLITICS REPORTER, EDITOR-AT-LARGE: Yeah, look, this is ostensibly infrastructure week. That's what the White House said they wanted to talk about. His Twitter feed is not focused on infrastructure, which is sort of the main line of Donald Trump. That's what he's really thinking. This is an attempt to talk about something that, frankly, does have some possibility or at least did have some possibility of getting bipartisan support or at a minimum, putting Democrats in tough spots. Joe Manchin in West Virginia, he mentioned West Virginia, Heidi Heitkamp in North Dakota, Senators up in 2018 and very Trump-friendly states. They're Democrats. You know, at this point though, I think I hate to use the barge ship metaphor but I do think the ship has sailed on Donald Trump winning bipartisan support for almost anything. We saw the FBI director. That was an attempt to throw another piece of chum out there and say here's a story that this guy gets pretty good reviews.

BLITZER: He named a new FBI director. CILLIZZA: And now this story on infrastructure. Comey testimony is,

you can tell, look there right next to me is the Comey count-down clock. That tells you what people are most focused on. It's going to be a huge moment I think for Washington and for his presidency. He knows it and he can't do anything about it.

BLITZER: There is a huge infrastructure problem here in the United States right now.

David Gregory, if he says he wants to spend a trillion dollars there's a trillion dollars-worth of problems, rebuilding roads, airports, bridges. There's work that needs to be done and this was one area where Democrats would join Republicans and work together.

DAVID GREGORY, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: There's some glimpse what could have been when you hear the president speaking in a disciplined way about his approach to ending Obamacare to an infrastructure plan. The reality is that he has been so self- destructive and there have been all of these distracting both for the media and by extension the public at large because of the president's behavior around the Russia investigation and other things by the way.

The other point that has to be made is you can't just talk about infrastructure in a vacuum. This requires a lot of the political capital. It is a campaign that requires a lot of work working together in the administration having issue discipline and then you look at the backlog in terms of legislative accomplishments. The Senate is bogged down on the idea of replacing Obamacare and matching what the House has done. There's still the idea of tax reform, tax cuts that the president wanted to do and infrastructure which is more spending, which creates real problems with the conservative wing of the Republican Party on more spending and what the impact is on the deficit. All these things have to be worked through over time, and we're in the middle, we're beginning summer. He's run out of time to keep building coalitions. That's going to be hard.

BLITZER: There's a new Quinnipiac University poll, Brianna, that just came out. His job approval number -- there you see it -- only 34 percent in this new poll approve of the president's job performance so far. 57 percent disapprove. That's hovering near record lows at this point in a presidency.

[13:45:06] BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: And it's not like it was that much higher coming in. When you look at the deficit he had between his approval and his disapproval, this is one of the reasons we talk about the glimpse of what might have been. I don't know if there ever was a glimpse he could get along with Democrats. I think back to President Obama coming in. He had very high approval ratings. Democrats in a political move to me it seemed clear they would have just looked at Donald Trump, how divisive he had been during the campaign, realized they don't have to sign on to anything he did. Seemed like Republicans, with Obamacare at least, there was this attempt to try to work with him. And in the end, they pulled out and didn't do anything with him on Obamacare. When you talk about infrastructure and other issues perhaps there could have been overlap on, maybe picking off one or two Democrats. GREGORY: He could have made it harder for Democrats.

CILLIZZA: Right.

GREGORY: This is something they supported.

KEILAR: On the issue of infrastructure, but there's also a way when I think back to the Republican playbook, you look toward Democrats could have looked towards maybe trying to work with him but in the end, they could have not worked with him just because Democrats voters were so anti-Trump.

CILLIZZA: In a different situation, too. Obama in 2008 comes in winning 373 I think, if my memory serves, 337 electoral votes. He wins in Indiana, North Carolina, states that no Democrat won since Lyndon Johnson or Jimmy Carter. Donald Trump, forget who he is which is problematic in terms of a willingness or ability to reach out. Donald Trump comes in having lost the popular vote by almost three million. Right? So there is not the -- Obama talked a lot about mandate in the first six months. He had a mandate. There were Republicans I remember talking to them who were worried about sort of bucking this new guy who people said is the new Kennedy. Do we want to take that --

(CROSSTALK)

GREGORY: Remember, back in 2000.

(CROSSTALK)

GREGORY: There was a disputed election and President Bush got a big tax cut and got education reform before 9/11. It's a matter of some issue discipline of which there is none. You can't try to pull that out now even though he's getting live coverage of this speech and his focus on it. He has to put the discipline there into it.

BLITZER: There were the themes, Brianna, were very evident in the speech. At one point, he says, "It's time we finally look out for our interests in the United States." The America First argument certainly came through during those remarks.

BRIANNA: It's something he's been emphasizing. We heard him the other day in the Rose Garden as he announced he was going to pull out of the Paris Climate Accord, that he was elected to represent Pittsburgh, not to represent Paris.

The question then becomes, and we're obviously seeing disagreement on this, how do you best represent Pittsburgh? Do you best represent Pittsburgh by a move like the climate accords, by what he's talking about here? There's been a lot of discussion about this. I was looking at what former President Obama said last night in Canada. He was warning against this. And he was making the case for why it was good for America to not take that position. But certainly, there are a lot of people who are fearful, as he said, who are uncertain and he understood this tendency to do that. We're seeing a lot of people do that. BLITZER: Everybody stand by, Brianna Keilar, David Gregory, and Chris

Cillizza.

We have a lot more coming up, including this. He's worked with James Comey and Robert Mueller, praised Sally Yates and represented Chris Christie in the Bridgegate scandal. A closer look at Christopher Wray, the president's new nominee to become the next FBI director.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:52:33] BLITZER: President Trump announced today he's tapped Christopher Wray to become the next FBI director. The announcement coming with little notice even for those on Capitol Hill, who learned the same way all of us did, via the president's Twitter feed.

Our justice reporter, Laura Jarrett, is joining us now.

Laura, what can you tell us about Christopher Wray and the reaction to his nomination?

LAURA JARRETT, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONJDENT: Wolf, the praise so far has been nearly universal. Everyone from his old boss, John Ashcroft, to other candidates say this is a person with integrity, whip smart, someone who puts justice before politics. While Wray never worked in the FBI, this is an establishment choice. He was a Yale Law grad, a federal prosecutor for decades, and he served as a top official leading the Criminal Division in the department under President George W. Bush. This is someone who understands law enforcement -- Wolf?

BLITZER: Do we know how those on Capitol Hill in the administration were actually notified? Were they simply notified the rest of us was, by way of the Twitter feed?

JARRETT: Yes. It appears that many first learned of this news this morning via Twitter, Wolf. I'm told that Senator Chuck Grassley, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, is going to consider this nomination, learned that Wray was the pick via Twitter. The top Democrat on the committee, Dianne Feinstein, didn't get a heads-up either. Take a listen to what she told Manu Raju earlier today.

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: What do you think of the FBI director nominee?

SEN. DIANNE FEINSTEIN, (D), CALIFORNIA: He may be fine. It looks like he's got good credentials. But I haven't known about it for very long, like for two hours. So obviously, I need to look into it. Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: So you were not made aware of this before --

FEINSTEIN: No. No.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JARRETT: But despite the somewhat untraditional rollout, Wolf, the White House has released a statement in which ray says it is a great honor to be selected and, quote, "I look forward to serving the American people with integrity as what I know to be firsthand an extraordinary group of men and women who have dedicated their careers to serving this country."

BLITZER: It's interesting, he's got a pretty distinguished background and he's received all sorts of awards, among other things. It looks like at this point it should be relatively easy for him to get Senate confirmation, right?

JARRETT: It looks that way, Wolf. This is somebody who at least within legal circles is a known quality, known as a super lawyer. And Grassley put out a statement saying he is going to get this nomination on track and get it done.

[13:55:14] BLITZER: Laura Jarrett, our justice reporter. Laura, thanks very much.

That's it for me. I'll be back at 5:00 p.m. eastern in "The Situation Room."

For our international viewers, "Amanpour" is coming up next.

For our viewers in North America, NEWSROOM with Brooke Baldwin starts right after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:59:51] ANNOUCER: This is CNN breaking news.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Here we go. I'm Brooke Baldwin, live in Washington, D.C., today for CNN special coverage of the critical moment for the Trump presidency.

And we have just gotten some paper that has landed in our laps today, being the eve of the testimony of the fired FBI Director James Comey, in which he details multiple briefings --