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Trump Breaks from Vacation to Blast Sen. Blumenthal, Media; Pence Blasts Story on 2020 Run, Calls It "Offensive"; Chicago Sues DOJ over Sanctuary City Funding; North Korea Calls Sanctions an Attack; "Why Trump Won" Airs Tonight. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired August 07, 2017 - 13:30   ET

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

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[13:30:32] WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: President Trump kicking off his 200th day in office with a series of fiery tweets, lashing out at the news media, touting his base, and reinforcing he is not, repeat, not, on vacation, saying, "Working hard from New Jersey while White House goes through long-planned renovation. Going to New York next week for more meetings."

Let's go to our White House reporter, Kaitlan Collins, joining us from Bridgewater, New Jersey, near where the president is staying at his golf course.

Kaitlan, the Russia investigation was also the focus of several of the president's tweets this morning. Update our viewers.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes. It definitely it was, Wolf. Though the president says he doesn't have time to watch television or doesn't watch CNN specifically, he was clearly watching it this morning particular Senator Richard Blumenthal was interviewed on "New Day." In that interview, Senator Blumenthal voiced support for continuing the investigation into Russian meddling in the election. Let's listen to what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. RICHARD BLUENTHAL, (D), CONNECTICUT: This grand jury investigation also involves the rule of law and fundamentally Americans care about the rule of law. So protecting Bob Mueller through the legislation that a group of us, on a bipartisan basis, offered last week requiring a three-judge panel if the president threatens to fire Bob Mueller, I think it's very important to protect and safeguard the independence and integrity of that investigation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: We know the president was watching that, Wolf, because minutes after that interview aired, he went on a tweet storm about Senator Blumenthal. Let's look at what he had to say: "Interesting to watch Senator Richard Blumenthal, of Connecticut, talking about post- Russian collusion when he was a phony Vietnam con artist." He continued, "Never in U.S. history has anyone lied or defrauded voters like Senator Richard Blumenthal. He told stories about his Vietnam battles and conquests, how brave he was, and it was all a lie. He cried like a baby and begged for forgiveness like a child. Now he judges collusion?"

So as you know there, Wolf, the president is referring to a 2010 controversy when Blumenthal made repeated remarks that he had served in Vietnam, though it was later cleared up that he had service his full Marine service here in the United States. It's a familiar attack that the president has used often to criticize Blumenthal.

But it really gives us an insight into how the president spent his morning here in rainy New Jersey, on Twitter and watching TV.

BLITZER: Interesting, Kaitlan. Blumenthal responded with a series of tweets of his own: "Mr. President, your bullying hasn't worked before and won't work now. No one is above the law." And tweeted, "This issue isn't about me. It's about the special counsel's independence and integrity."

Kaitlan, thank you very much. Kaitlan Collins reporting for us.

Let's discuss this and more. Joining us, our CNN senior political analyst, Mark Preston. Our CNN political director, David Chalian. And White House reporter for "Bloomberg News," Shannon Pettypiece.

Let me get specifically, the president tweeted, David, his base is stronger than ever. Is that backed up by the polls?

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: No. There's not actually -- I can't find shred of evidence. Didn't just say stronger than ever. He said getting bigger and stronger, growing. I cannot find evidence in any poll, recent poll, that shows his base is actually growing.

Now, he pointed out in his tweets, Wolf, to rallies in Pennsylvania and Iowa and Ohio and West Virginia. Clearly, he still has rallies with enthusiastic supporters. I'm not sure if they're growing bigger and stronger than the campaign. I really don't know what the evidence is to back up that claim.

BLITZER: What do you think about the exchange with Senator Blumenthal? Going after -- not the first time he's done it. Clearly, the president was watching CNN's "New Day." Senator Blumenthal was a guest. He was angry about what he heard from Blumenthal and then he launched into this attack.

MARK PRESTON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Let me answer two ways. First, as a father with two children, who you would think would look up to their leaders, the president of the United States. And the way that he acted this morning on Twitter is not something I can turn to my children and say, this is a good example of somebody that if -- to follow. Specifically, if you have a disagreement. Clearly, the president has a disagreement.

From a strategic standpoint, it makes absolute no sense other than to try to connect with some of his base who are supportive of him. If you look now, he has nearly 35 million followers on Twitter. Imagine if he took the energy that he has and put it into getting behind an infrastructure bill, try to mobilize 35 million people on Twitter, how much more powerful he would be? In many ways I think, Wolf, his actions are actually detrimental to him making progress.

[13:35:22] BLITZER: Senator Blumenthal will join me later today in "THE SITUATION ROOM." We'll get more of his reaction to what we heard from the president.

The strategy, the tweet storm, what's behind it, Shannon?

SHANNON PETTYPIECE, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, BLOOMBERG NEWS: There were tweets this morning, but it appears General Kelly, chief of staff, Kelly, has been trying to rein in the tweets. Our reporting indicates that has been an effort by Kelly and his lawyers to at least not get him to stop tweeting but have someone review the tweets and let him know these are the implications if you do this, this what you're going to be stepping in if you move in this direction. I don't know if that was the case with the Blumenthal tweets. You could see if someone said, all right, this will create a distraction, if you want to do that, go ahead and do that. There's more voices in the room around these tweets than a few months ago.

CHALIAN: To that point, you're not seeing on Twitter this morning despite their being a tweet storm going after Mueller or somehow exposing himself to more legal controversy in the Russia investigation. You're not seeing him go after fellow Republicans the way he did with Lisa Murkowski, which ended in her helping to defeat his hoped goal of repealing and replacing Obamacare. At least this time he is going after Democrats and going after the media, which is probably safer ground.

BLITZER: We are seeing the vice president, Mike Pence, Mark, really going after "The New York Times" for that report over the weekend that Pence is at least thinking about 2020, amongst several other Republicans, shadow candidates, as they call it.

MARK PRESTON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Right.

BLITZER: There you see the headline from "The New York Times," "Republican shadow campaign for 2020 takes shape as Trump doubts grow."

Listen to the vice president's press secretary who was on TV earlier today discussing this. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARC LOTTER, PRESS SECETARY FOR VICE PRESIDENT MIKE PENCE: It's absurd, and really what you've got here is speculation, conjecture, half-truths, masquerading as news on the front page of the Never Trump "New York Times." The vice president has been nothing but supportive. He is supportive of the president. And his singular focus is on making sure the president's agenda is enacted and that the president is re-elected in 2020.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: What's your analysis of this reaction?

PRESTON: Wolf, a couple of things. One, we often talk about speaking to an audience of one. We see it from the White House briefing room often times. That's what we saw from the vice president.

BLITZER: The audience being the president.

PRESTON: That audience being the president of the United States, pushing back very hard against "The New York Times." But I would take a different tact, a little bit a different tact on this. I think it would be malpractice not to have the vice president out there making sure his profile was strong with the donor community. If there was something that were to happen to the president, if he chose not to run, then you certainly would want your running mate to be in a strong position to then try to carry on the agenda.

PETTYPIECE: And I think this might have to do more with 2024 than 2020. I know 2024 seems like a long way out, but Mike Pence, Vice President Pence, is 57, 58, around there. He still could have a run in eight years. The people I've talked to in Pence world, they see that as his political future more than 2020. Putting him in a strong position now and that's the best way to get a Mike Pence president in 2024 is to get Trump re-elected in 2020 and serve, have a nice, calm, stable productive four years.

BLITZER: David?

CHALIAN: Indeed. If Donald Trump were to run for ere-election and lose at his effort at re-election, we all know that 2024 campaign begins the day after election day 2020. So that's only three years away from now if, indeed, that were to happen. So it's not that we've never seen before members of the president's own party with ambitions of seeking the Oval Office themselves go to certain key states, make their moves, build up their donor relations. What is interesting is it's only six months in and the president happens to be in a very weakened political state now, so therefore, the context is read a little bit differently.

PRESTON: And we should note quickly, Vice President Pence has been very loyal to the president, and continues to be very loyal to the president.

[13:39:11] BLITZER: Sure, he has.

All right, guys, thanks very much, Mark Preston, David Chalian, Shannon Pettypiece. Appreciate it.

Up next, the city of Chicago suing the Department of Justice over sanctuary city funding. And now the Department of Justice is firing back at the city's mayor, Rahm Emanuel. New information just coming in. We'll update you, right after this.

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BLITZER: The city of Chicago is suing the United States Justice Department over new sanctuary city funding requirements. The new conditions demand access to immigration information in order for a state to receive the federal funding. The Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel says the new stipulations placed on federal grant money are unconstitutional.

Let's go to our national correspondent, Ryan Young, who joins us live from Chicago.

Ryan, overall, what, Chicago that $3.6 of billion federal dollars at stake. Tell us more about the specific grant that the city, the mayor is now suing for.

RYAN YOUNG, CNN NATIONAL CORRESOPNDENT: This is the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Program. A big conversation here. President Donald Trump has taken several swings at Chicago for the violence in the city. And Rahm Emanuel and the city are fighting back, talking about the idea that this program that they're going to put forward to pull money away from the city could definitely hurt the city. They believe being a sanctuary city allows citizens of anyone to be able to call 911. Their belief is they go through federal guidelines they are putting forth, but that would make certain communities not want to talk to the police department. The mayor says they need cooperation from immigrants to make sure when they dial 911 they don't have to worry about their immigration status.

This back and forth has been playing out in conversations throughout the city for quite some time. Now the city is moving forward, suing the federal government, saying they need this money. The $3.2 billion that comes forward, sometimes buys tasers, bullet-proof vests. The city says to move forward, they want to make sure they have this money.

Listen to what the mayor said earlier this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[13:45:26] RAHM EMANUEL, (D), CHICAGO MAYOR: Our police departments are part of the neighborhood, part of the community built on the premise of trust between the residents and the police department. It's not -- the police department is a part of the fabric of what makes a community safe. And we want people to come forward to work with the police department, not to fear them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YOUNG: And the federal government's already hitting back, Wolf. Listen to this statement put out also this morning. "In 2016, more Chicagoans were murdered than in New York City and Los Angeles combined. So it's especially tragic that the mayor has less concerned with that staggering figure than he is spending time and taxpayer money protecting criminal aliens and putting Chicago's law enforcement at greater risk."

One of the big conversations, when you someone who might need to be put on immigration hold, do they let ICE agents know 48 hours in advance? They can have that conversation. Or do they also tell ICE agents they have someone like this in custody? That's the big conversation. When you talk to the police department, they say they want to make sure, especially in the immigrant communities, a largest Hispanic community here, that they feel comfortable calling 911, especially when reporting crimes. So you have this conversation.

This is not the only city that will probably partake in this battle, but the first one that's taking this first punch, suing the federal government, saying that you cannot withhold these funds. They feel it's unconstitutional. The big question now, Wolf, will other people join in in this fight, will other people join Rahm Emanuel and back him up taking on Donald Trump and the federal government?

BLITZER: Ryan Young, in Chicago for us for us. Ryan, thank you.

Up next, the Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov meet amid a new sanctions bill. A bare- chested Vladimir Putin goes fishing. What's behind the release of the Russian president's vacation photos? Much more, right after this.

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[13:51:43] BLITZER: North Korea slamming sanctions unanimously approved by the United Nations Security Council, and vowing revenge. The regime threatening the U.S. with, quote, this statement, "There's no bigger mistake than the United States believing that its land is safe across the ocean."

Let's go to Fareed Zakaria, who is joining us now.

Fareed, what do you think of these latest U.N. Security Council sanctions? Do you think they might make a difference, because all of the other sanctions over the years certainly haven't slowed down much North Korea's nuclear program?

FAREED ZAKARIA, CNN HOST, FAREED ZAKARIA, GPA: Wolf, there's almost no chance these sanctions will work. The key issue has always been China. The U.N. have very intense sanctions against North Korea anyway. But North Korea is an isolated economy that does business with really one country in the world, China. China provides 50 percent of its food and 90 percent of its fuel. So the only way this would work is if the Chinese started to implement these sanctions in a truly sustained and almost draconian fashion, which they have never been willing to do so far. The reason they're not willing to do it is not that the Chinese are somehow unaware of the problems. It's that they worry about the total collapse of North Korea and what would that would do.

Until you solve that policy conundrum, until you have a serious strategic conversation with the Chinese about what a Korean peninsula would look like with a collapsed North Korean -- millions of refugees, a unified Korea, presumably, on South Korean terms with American troops on China's border -- until you have that conversation, they're not going to suddenly start jumping just because one more round of U.N. sanctions has been passed.

BLITZER: Fareed, you have an important new CNN special report that will air later tonight, "Why Trump Won." It's airs at 9:00 p.m. Eastern.

I want to play a little clip. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The entire industry blindsided. An industry and a country blindsided.

ZAKARIA (voice-over): Stunned journalists blame the polls.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST, A.C. 360: The data was wrong. The polls were all wrong. What does this mean for the whole polling industry?

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Polling was wrong, we were wrong, everything was wrong.

ZAKARIA: Most people believe the polls were way off, including Donald Trump.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Those polls were wrong in just about everything, weren't they?

ZAKARIA: But that's not right. In fact, almost all the national polls had the winner wrong, but the numbers were not far off.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The polls was the least behind of anything. The polling showed it was a close race and people chose to disregard that.

ZAKARIA: The race tightened in the final days, giving Clinton collectively a 3 percent lead. She ended up winning the popular vote by 2 percent, in other words, so close that it was well within the margin of error.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: So why was -- Fareed, why was Donald Trump able to break through and win the presidency?

ZAKARIA: On the specific issue of polling, it turned out that while the national polls were right, state polls were wrong in some key states. Those states had a lot of non-college educated whites who were underestimated. And it a lot of undecided voters who broke in a historically very unusual pattern. Usually, they broke 50-50. The broke heavily for Trump. Those were the two ambiguities, the non- college educated whites and the undecideds. They pushed Trump over the edge.

BLITZER: A quick question about Vladimir Putin, the Russian president. They released some new shirtless photos of the Russian leader on vacation. There we see him fishing. Anything behind the timing of the release of these new images. We've seen him shirtless, of course, on horseback before.

ZAKARIA: I think the thing about Putin you have to remember, which is he knows how to use imagers to bolster a certain kind image of him as a strong man, as vibrant, as vigorous. And we may laugh at them. We may think they're corny. The truth is, this kind of stuff works. It works not just in Russia, it' works in Turkey, China. And in some way, this is part of what Trump does, project an image that's more powerful than anything you might here in the fine print of the captions.

BLITZER: Look forward to watching "Why Trump Won" later tonight, 9:00 p.m. Eastern, Fareed's special report.

That's it for me.

The news continues right after a quick break.

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