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At This Hour
Trump Blames "Both Sides" for Charlottesville Again; Confusion Over Trump DACA Stance; North Korea Fires Missile Over Japan; Hurricane Jose Brewing in Atlantic; Interview with Sen. Ed Markey. Aired 11:30-12p ET
Aired September 15, 2017 - 11:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[11:30:00] BRUCE LEVELL, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, NATIONAL DIVERSITY COUNCIL FOR PRESIDENT TRUMP: In the end, there's no way in the world for us, as American citizens, since we're on the subject of race reconciliation, this is something that on the social issues of how we direct ourselves and our ministries and our society in our cultures and our communities, on who reconcile with, some who we take care of.
(CROSSTALK)
KEITH BOYKIN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: OK. It's not putting policy --
(CROSSTALK)
KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Hold on.
BOYKIN: -- on race for the president or the governor.
BOLDUAN: Please, please, please.
Keith, one quick final thought. I have to go. I'm over time.
BOYKIN: I don't know where to begin. But it's not about tax cuts or all that stuff.
LEVELL: Start with the truth.
BOYKIN: Whatever. He interrupts me now.
We have one side, white supremacists, KKK members, Neo-Nazis --
LEVELL: Here we go.
BOYKIN: Would you let me finish this time, Bruce?
BOLDUAN: Gentlemen --
BOYKIN: Don't be a hypocrite, like your president.
(CROSSTALK)
BOLDUAN: Please, Bruce, give him the respect.
LEVELL: All right.
BOYKIN: We have one side that has a history of violence, another side responding to the history of violence. Yes, there may be some violent people in that group, but for the most part, the people who were there were protesting against the violent people. And the president chooses to equate those two. That's wrong. He shouldn't have done it in August or now, and it will continue until he stops doing it.
BOLDUAN: All right. Bruce, thank you.
Keith, thank you very much.
LEVELL: Thanks for having me, Kate. Thanks.
BOLDUAN: Coming up, some of President Trump's die-hard supporters furious over a potential deal with the Democrats over DACA and a delay in building the wall. And some saying they just don't know where the president stands right now. Many of the other party saying they don't know where he stands or is going to go with this. We'll break it down. That's next.
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[11:35:34] BOLDUAN: If you are suffering from a mild case of whiplash today, nope, not just from that last segment, from yesterday, you are not alone. All of Washington seemed to need a neck brace after President Trump's string of comments on DACA. There's a deal, nope, it's a discussion. The wall will come later. Nope, it needs to be now. And funded now.
Here is President Trump on DACA and what he wants to do for Dreamers, and this is just yesterday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're working on a deal for DACA, but a lot has to do with the amount of security. We want very heavy security at the border.
We have to have an understanding that whether it's in the budget or some other vehicle, in a fairly short period of time, the wall will be funded, otherwise we're not doing any deal.
TRUMP: They cannot obstruct for a wall because we definitely need a wall.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOLDUAN: So where are they now? Let's discuss. CNN politics reporter, editor-at-large, Chris Cillizza, is joining me now.
Chris, I need some levity. I'm not going to find it today. Here we go. After a day of mixed messages let's call it and so many members of his own party saying they do not know where he stands has the dust settled at all on this? Do you get a better sense of it today? CHRIS CILLIZZA, CNN POLITICS REPORTER & CNN EDITOR-AT-LARGE: I will
say the dust has settled and no better sense of it. Having the cake and eating it too. The dust has settled because we haven't heard that much about da DACA today. The president has gone on to other things via Twitter but very little clarity, I think, about this. Paul Ryan has said that he wants -- he's appointed a group of folks, members of Congress, Republicans, to put together and vet proposals as it relates to DACA and the wall. Mitch McConnell said, I look forward to seeing the president's thoughts on this. So legislatively, it's going to be a much slower row to hoe. I think Donald Trump is not where he stands on it. He said one thing as that clip really illustrates, well, he said one thing before he got on Air Force One, and something else when he returned on Air Force One later in the day. So, we'll see, but, no, by no means a settled issue about where he really wants to go and more importantly, whether Republicans in Congress are going to go along.
BOLDUAN: That's a good point. I saw the wheels in your head turning. Do not throw out a "time will tell" on this show. Do not think about throwing out "time will tell."
CILLIZZA: Kate, it is what it is.
BOLDUAN: Stop it right now.
CILLIZZA: What?
BOLDUAN: What? I'm not doing it.
Yesterday, the conversation was, Trump makes deals with Democrats. Today, as you mentioned, he's on to other things, a string of tweets seemingly having nothing to do with any of it. He's taking on an ESPN anchor, saying that his travel ban should have been tougher, boasting about success against is, railing against chain migration. But, Chris, can you actually read all of these tweets as a whole? If so what's he saying?
CILLIZZA: There are two theories of sort of thought of Donald Trump broadly speaking. One is that he's playing four-dimensional chess and everything -- under that theory this is a purposeful tacking back to the conservative base. Everything you went through are things that the conservative base will like after a day on DACA they wouldn't. The other theory, that I subscribe to, it's zero-dimensional stress, the unifying systemic theory of the cases there is no strategic theory. He says stuff, tweets stuff, he looks at the reaction and then reacts. I tend to -- they say I spend a long time watching a bad football game last night and they always say football, the NFL is a week-to-week league. Whatever happened last week is not indicative of this week. I think Donald Trump is a day-to-day president. Yesterday does not tell us that much about what will happen today.
BOLDUAN: Or again the tweets are directed to one group, his actions are directed to a whole other one.
CILLIZZA: Yes. And that's the four-dimensional chess argument, which is possible. BOLDUAN: I don't play one two or three-dimensional chess. I just say
things. I have no idea.
CILLIZZA: Look, if there was ever someone who just says things --
(CROSSTALK)
BOLDUAN: That is you. That is you, in a nutshell, my friend.
Chris, thanks so much.
CILLIZZA: Thanks, Kate.
[11:39:50] BOLDUAN: Coming up for us, global outrage and brazen defiance, North Korea's latest missile test. The U.N. Security Council holding an emergency session in just hours to try to figure out how to respond this time around. I'm going to talk to one Senator who thinks he has the answer. That's next.
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BOLDUAN: Defiance on display. In the face of another round of sanctions, North Korea fires off another ballistic missile over Japan overnight, a second missile to be fired over Japan, flying over 2,000 miles, which is basically the distance between Pyongyang and the U.S. territory of Guam, a symbol not lost on anyone. The U.N. Security Council is meeting this afternoon for another emergency session in response, but what exactly can they do to stop the North's provocative actions?
Joining me now, Democratic Senator Ed Markey, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Senator, thanks for coming in.
[11:45:01] SEN. ED MARKEY, (D), MASSACHUSETTS: Thank you. Good to be with you.
BOLDUAN: Thank you.
You put out a forceful statement following this launch and part of it saying, essentially, that Trump administration lacks a strategy to denuclearize the Korean peninsula. But, Senator, at this point, have you seen a coherent strategy from any recent administration? Nothing stops them.
MARKEY: Now is the time because, obviously, the North Korean just an open defiance of what the U.N. has done so far. The sanctions aren't having an impact upon the North Koreans. So we should right now move to the final sanctions. We should move to what it is that we think is going to work, if anything can work, to bring the North Koreans to the table. So, those sanctions that were voted upon last week in the U.N., they're nice, they're fine, but they're clearly not having the desired impact on the North Koreans. What I would say is that our position should be, to the Chinese, to the Russians, to everyone, that there should be a total cutoff of all oil that goes into North Korea. We should just say that the oil which fuels the North Korean economy is just going to be shut off --
(CROSSTALK)
BOLDUAN: But, Senator, I mean, after the list of sanctions that have been put in place, right, it's textile, coal, iron, seafood, natural gas, work permits. You think there is any amount of sanction that actually is going to bring them to heel? You have any confidence a sanction will change their behavior?
MARKEY: In 2006, there was a cutoff of oil for the North Korean economy and they went back to the table in one month. We haven't made that one of the sanctions yet. There's been some cutoffs of oil, which have been voted, but not the full cutoff. We should move to that right now because this perfection of their hydrogen bomb and ICBM program is moving much more quickly than any of the experts had predicted.
(CROSSTALK)
BOLDUAN: That means getting China and Russia on board, right?
MARKEY: That's right. And so we have to move China, especially, but Russia as well, to that final position of just a complete cutoff of revenues that can be used by the North Korean regime, of oil that can be used by the North Korean regime. And if China and Russia do not, in fact, agree in the U.N. this afternoon or at some point in the near future, my belief is that the United States Congress should pass legislation that denies anyone that is cooperating with the North Korean regime, economically, access to the global financial system, that we --
(CROSSTALK)
BOLDUAN: So you agree with President Trump on this?
MARKEY: I think that we just have to move to that position. And the tougher we are, is the sooner we're either going to get a response from the North Korean regime or we're going to realize that there is nothing that can deter them. But at this point --
(CROSSTALK)
BOLDUAN: Also, Senator, don't you think if you take that kind of ultimate position with China, it doesn't risk real ramifications against the U.S. economy?
MARKEY: Right now, China is having it both ways. China has penalized the South Korean economy, $10 billion a year in denied tourism, because they're cooperating with the United States in deploying a defensive system in South Korea. So China just has to be called out. Same thing is true with the Russians. Right now, they're both playing a double game where they're punishing South Korea while simultaneously still cooperating with the North Koreans. And we just have to say to them, look, cut it off, all economic activity, or else, unfortunately, it's going to lead to an escalation in the tensions in the region. And we have to say to the Chinese, our goal is not to decapitate North Korea. Our goal is not to collapse their economy. Our goal is to bring them to the table so that we can freeze the ballistic missile and hydrogen bomb program. And that's something that Russians and Chinese should want, but they're going to have to square up their economic actions with what they say is their strategic objectives as well.
BOLDUAN: Let's see what happens first at the U.N. And also what comes out of the White House, if the president agrees with your position where he goes next.
Senator, appreciate your time. Thank you.
MARKEY: You're welcome. Thank you.
[11:49:36] BOLDUAN: Coming up for us, first it was Harvey and then Irma and now Jose. Another storm marching closer to the U.S. mainland. Its path right now. We will have the latest forecast. That's next.
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BOLDUAN: As millions in the Caribbean and Florida are dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Irma, another storm, Jose, is brewing in the Atlantic.
Let me bring in Chad Myers for this.
Chad, the FEMA administrator said it's too close to the state for his comfort.
CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: I'm seeing the latest 11:00 advisory has the left side of the cone right over New York City. Not the center of the cone and not the other center of the cone, but I will get to that in a second.
Here's where Irma was in warm water. Here's Jose, not so warm here, but it gets warmer here and working its way in that direction. Where does it go from here? That's five days away from a real answer.
Here's where it started. Let's go back to Sunday. Through Monday and Tuesday, and now we are Friday. This then does a loop in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. It has no concept of where it wants to go, but it's getting closer and closer to the U.S. Here's where the models are taking it. Just east of North Carolina. North Carolina is very, very close to that cone. New York City and Nantucket and Cape Cod, you're in the cone. Here's the European model. We will watch it over the weekend. It is still six days from being here. That's not a forecast, but an idea. The forecast is this, still five days out. Could be close to New York City as a category 1 or maybe a tropical storm, but that's still in the forecast cone -- Kate?
[11:55:35] BOLDUAN: Got to keep our eyes on it.
Great to see you, Chad. And thank you so much.
MYERS: Thank you. BOLDUAN: Coming up, the latest on the urgent manhunt in London under way. An explosive device found in a subway during the busy rush hour. Did it misfire or go off too soon? Why was something that looked like a pail on fire? That's coming up after this.
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[12:00:13] JOHN KING, CNN HOST: Welcome to INSIDE POLIITICS. I'm John King.
