Return to Transcripts main page

Wolf

Trump Retweets Controversial Image; Spicer on Emmys; Hurricane Maria Strengthens. Trump And Netanyahu Meet; Trump At U.N. Aired 1- 1:30p ET

Aired September 18, 2017 - 13:00   ET

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


WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, I'm Wolf Blitzer. It's 1:00 p.m. here in Washington, 6:00 p.m. in London, 8:00 p.m. in Jerusalem. Wherever you're watching from around the world, thanks very much for joining us.

In the spotlight right now, President Trump making his debut at the United Nations, telling diplomats to pay up and pledge one of his own properties in New York. All just moments after his arrival.

Plus, west wing paranoia. Officials reportedly fearful their colleagues are wearing wires for Robert Mueller, as the special investigation over Russian medaling in the U.S. presidential election heats up.

And then the Caribbean on alert right now as Hurricane Maria intensifies to a category three storm, following the same destructive path as Irma. It's just one of three storms raging in the Atlantic right now.

A day before his big United Nations' speech, President Trump delivered a pointed message to the world body just a little while ago. Get your house in order. Here's what the president said as he kicked off a meeting on reform at the U.N.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The United Nations must hold every level of management accountable, protect whistle blowers and focus on results rather than on process.

To honor the people of our nations, we must ensure that no one and no member state shoulders a disproportionate share of the burden, and that's militarily or financially.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Our Senior White House Correspondent Jeff Zeleny is right outside the U.N. building in New York. Jeff, the president once referred to the United Nations as a club that likes to talk, now he's joining that club.

What are you hearing about the message, the tone the president will deliver there tomorrow night. And I just want to alert our viewers that, momentarily, we expect to see President Trump and visiting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. They will be meeting in New York at a nearby hotel and they will be making statements. We'll have live coverage of that.

But go ahead, set the scene for this important appearance by the president at the U.N.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDFENT: Wolf, there's no question, that is one of the important meetings that President Trump will be having with the Israeli prime minister.

But a short time ago, earlier this morning, he did arrive here at the United Nations, President Trump, making his first visit here as president, of course. And, really, only the second time he's ever been in this building. He has been a huge critic of the United Nations, when he was running for president, he certainly --

BLITZER: All right, I'm going to interrupt you for a moment, Jeff. The president is with the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. They are speaking. I want to listen in.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Thank you very much.

It's great to have Prime Minister Netanyahu with us today. A friend of mine for many years. And it's a real honor.

I have to say, we are going to be discussing many things. Among them, peace between the Palestinians and Israel. It would be a fantastic achievement. And we are giving it an absolute go.

I think there's a good chance it could happen. Most people would say there's no chance whatsoever. I actually think, with the capability Bibi and, frankly, the other side, I really think we have a chance.

I think Israel would like to see it, and I think the Palestinians would like to see it. And I can tell you that the Trump administration would like to see it.

So, we're working very hard on it. We'll see what happens. Historically, people say it can't happen. I say it can happen. But I just want to say, Mr. Prime Minister, it's an honor to have you. Thank you.

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, PRIME MINISTER, ISRAELI: Great to see you.

TRUMP: Thank you very much.

NETANYAHU: Great to see you. Thank you.

Mr. President it's great to see you again. I want to say that under your leadership, the alliance between America and Israel has never been stronger and never been deeper. I can say this in ways that people see and in ways that they don't see. So, I want to thank you for that.

Equally, I look forward to discussing with you how we can address together what you rightly call a terrible nuclear deal with Iran and how to roll back Iran's growing aggression in the region, especially in Syria.

As you said, we will discuss the way we can seize the opportunity for peace between Israel and the Palestinians and between Israel and the Arab world. I think these things go together and we look forward to talking about how we can advance both.

Finally, we're going to be speaking tomorrow at the U.N. And I want to say that under President Trump, America's position towards Israel at the U.N. has been unequivocal. It's been strong. It's got both clarity and conviction.

And I want to thank you on behalf of the people of Israel and Israel's many friends around the world. Thank you, Mr. President.

TRUMP: Thank you.

NETANYAHU: And also, as you well know, this is the Jewish new year this week. So, I want to wish you and the Jewish community of America, Jews everywhere, people everywhere, Shana Tova, happy, healthy new year.

[13:05:08] Thank you, Mr. President.

TRUMP: Thank you very much. I appreciate it.

NETANYAHU: Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, do you plan to stay in the Iranian nuclear deal?

TRUMP: You'll see very soon.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sorry?

TRUMP: You'll be seeing very soon.

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: We're talking about it constantly. We're talking about plans. You'll see.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, everybody. Have a great afternoon. We'll see you soon.

BLITZER: All right. So, there, the president of the United States, the prime minister of Israel, both making statements. They were some shouted questions. I heard President Trump say, you'll be seeing very soon.

I think, yes, he was asked about Iran and the nuclear program there, what the U.S. is going to do about it. In mid-October, the U.S. has to decide whether Iranians remain in compliance of the nuclear deal that was worked out with the U.S. and other members of the U.N. Security Council.

Jeff Zeleny, you were listening very closely. The president said he's upbeat about peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians. He thinks it can happen, even though there are a lot of skeptics out there.

And you heard the prime minister of Israel praise the president, saying basically that U.S.-Israeli relations have never been better.

ZELENY: No question, Wolf. And it's no accident, no surprise that this is one of the first meetings that President Trump is having here this week at the United Nations. He wants to show that, you know, it is a new day, in terms of American-Israeli relations.

Of course, the prime minister and President Obama had strained relations to say the lease there. So, that's a lot of what this is about.

But, Wolf, the reality here is, you know, there has been not much progress, at least obvious progress, during the eight months or so in office, in terms of bringing a -- any type of peace agreement or accord to the front.

The president will be meeting on Wednesday with the president of the Palestinian authority as well. So, it's, sort of, getting the other side of this.

But I think, interestingly, we saw there, from Prime Minister Netanyahu praising President Trump. That is something we are going to hear over and over from other world leaders.

They know, by this point, Wolf, to get, sort of, on his good side, if you will, or to get what they want, they praise him for his election, for other things. So, that is something we are going to be watching as world leaders take a measure of the president and vice versa there.

But I do believe, at the end of that, our Jeremy Diamond who is a pool reporter who was in that room, he did ask about the Iran nuclear agreement and he did say, you'll be seeing it very soon.

But, of course, Wolf, this is something that President Trump promised to rip up. He said that he would rip up the Iran nuclear agreement that was brokered by the Obama administration. Of course, that simply has not happened. We are in mid-September now and that is something he was promising to do immediately when taking office.

So, again, one of the signs of governing far more difficult on the world stage than campaigning. The president will see that again and again this week, particularly, Wolf, when he delivers his address tomorrow morning to the United Nations general assembly.

Again, North Korea, that rising nuclear threat will be at the center of that speech. It also is the biggest foreign policy threat and challenge facing this new president and, indeed, the country -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Yes, President Trump says that Iran nuclear deal is the worst deal ever negotiation. But twice since taking office, the Trump administration has certified Iran is in compliance. They have to do it a third time, every 90 days or so, by October 15th. We'll see what they decide to do by then.

Jeff Zeleny at the United Nations for us. Thanks very much.

Let's talk about all of this, the president's appearance at the United Nations. Our Chief Political Analyst Gloria Borger is with us. Our CNN Political Analyst, the White House correspondent for "The New York Times," Julie Hirschfeld Davis, is with us. White House reporter for "Bloomberg News," Shannon Pettypiece. And our CNN White House Reporter Kaitlan Collins.

People are anticipating a major speech from the president tomorrow morning, when he addresses the United Nations general assembly for the first time. For years, he's been quite critical of the U.N. But now, he says, under his leadership, things are changing.

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Right. He says the U.N. needs to get its act together and he believes that it will get its act together. We know he's been critical of it in the past.

And I think people are looking at this president kind of scratching their heads. Because they don't under -- they don't really -- they haven't figured him out. It's not easy.

And they look at him as a man who says America's first. The mission of the U.N. is about the entire world. And so, they're trying to figure out how one fits in to another.

And they look at him as somebody who, on climate change for example, has pulled out of the Paris climate deal. But maybe there's a little opening there. Nobody, kind of, understands.

He hasn't ripped up the Iran deal, as Jeff was just saying. He hasn't withdrawn from NAFTA. He said -- he said he would.

[13:10:01] So, they're all on the same page on North Korea, but they're kind of trying to figure out what fire and fury may have meant.

So, in one-on-one meetings, I think they're trying to get a sense of the man. And I think Jeff is absolutely right. They have all understood that the key to Donald Trump's heart is flattery and they will use a lot of that. But I think they're trying to figure out who is the real Donald Trump?

BLITZER: Yes. You heard the president say, Julie, that the peace has a chance right now. He says the Israelis believe it. The Palestinians believe it. The Trump administration believes it. And he says, I think it can happen.

And then, you heard the prime minister of Israeli, Netanyahu, say the U.S.-Israeli relationship has never been stronger, never been deeper, not only in public ways but behind the scenes as well. A very upbeat assessment.

JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Absolutely. And, I mean, this is what we heard the U.S. -- the U.N. ambassador, Nikki Haley, say last week, that this week, you were going to see the president slap the right people and hug the right people. And, clearly, Bibi Netanyahu is one of the people he wants to hug very tightly. He has hugged very tightly.

It'll be interesting to see who he really is tough with. Obviously, North Korea is going to be a big issue where he's going to want to show toughness. There are other hot spots around the world that he'll talk about. But I do think a lot of this has to do with the one-on- one personal measure of the man.

And there's also the institutional issue here. It's a lot like we saw with NATO where he said very, you know, negative things about NATO. NATO is obsolete. NATO has no place in this world.

And then, he said, well, since I've become president, now NATO is OK. So, I have a feeling that we're going to hear some of that in the speech tomorrow. A critical eye toward what the United Nations does. Not as much of an embrace of globalism as we saw from the last president, certainly.

But he's there and he's meeting -- he's taking all these meetings. So, he clearly wants to engage and show that he can engage even with this America first kind of theme.

BLITZER: It is remarked earlier, that before his first meeting with the prime minister of Israel, Shannon, he was talking about U.N. reform. And over many years, he has often been very, very critical of the U.N., it's a waste (ph).

But now, he said he noticed early on, it was potentially a very good institution and he built a hotel not very far away. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I actually saw great potential right across the street, to be honest with you. And it was only for the reason that the United Nations was here that that turned out to be such a successful project.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: You're smiling.

SHANNON PETTYPIECE, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, "BLOOMBERG NEWS": He's a businessman. You can't take the real estate developer out of Donald Trump. Yes, he's always -- he'll always be the real estate man at heart.

He did -- I picked up on a subtlety of make the U.N. great. It was not make the U.N. great again.

But I think he has toned back the rhetoric of -- from candidate Trump to President Trump. I think he has reeled in some of that.

And to Gloria's point about the world trying to figure him out. He's trying to figure the world out as well, too. I mean, we all know he is someone who did not have any international experience, political experience, Washington experience, other than going to some fund- raisers.

So, to the extent they are trying to figure him out, he's also trying to figure them out. Who can I trust? Who's my ally? Who do I connect with?

He's had a lot of one-on-one meetings in the White House. But we all know, in Washington, a lot of times, those are fly in, fly out. There's only a couple of leaders he who he's really been able to establish a relationship with.

So, I think this week will be important to that as well.

BLITZER: You know, Kaitlan, he's been busy over the weekend tweeting a bit and getting some controversy as a result, referring to the North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un, as rocket man in one tweet.

And then, having -- retweeting -- forwarding a tweet from a controversial figure in which, you know, he is seen, in a fake video, swinging his golf club, there you see it, hitting Hillary Clinton in the back. She goes toppling in on her plane when she was secretary of state. He's got a lot of controversy for retweeting that tweet.

But he's not backing away from Twitter at all.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: No, he's not. And he often retweets videos like that, that are a little violent, like the one with Hillary Clinton, the one with CNN he had.

But the rocket man nickname was very interesting to me. Because as we saw him on the campaign trail, he often nicknamed his opponents. There was lying Ted Cruz, little Marco, crooked Hillary. And now, we're seeing that translate into his diplomacy as the president, calling Kim Jung Un rocket man on Twitter.

And even his national security advisor, H.R. McMaster, had a little bit of trouble defending that nickname, saying, oh, you know, it's just a nickname. He came up with this. But he was, like, I don't see that this is really a laughing matter, when this is someone who's threatening the United States and our allies on a regular basis.

So, it's interesting to see how that will translate into this week because this United Nations general assembly is like the Super Bowl of the diplomacy. And that's something that people questioned before Trump became president was what he would be like on the world stage.

BORGER: Can I just say something about the Hillary tweet, which I thought was distasteful in the extreme. Doesn't he have anything better to do?

[13:15:00] You know, these are -- he was preparing for this United Nations' meeting, having one-on-one sessions with heads of state. We just saw Netanyahu. There will be other dinners, for which I'm sure his briefing books are this high. And yet he seems to have the time to tweet some juvenile, juvenile thing about Hillary Clinton getting hit in the back with -- I guess she's still an enemy of his and she'll always remain an enemy of his.

COLLINS: No, but I think that's a good point. I mean, look, he's on the cusp of making these really big decisions that will define his presidency about North Korea and the Iran deal --

BORGER: Yes, it's -- yes.

COLLINS: And he's retweeting images like that. So I do think it calls into question, what he is doing with his spare time.

BORGER: He needs a little focus. He needs a little focus.

HIRSCHFELD DAVIS: But I think that's also part of the reason that we see him doing things like this. He tweets in these ways, oftentimes on the weekend, when he is under a lot of pressure. He's going into this week of very high stakes diplomacy on the public stage. He has no experience doing it. Hillary Clinton has been out there for the past week, you know, touting her book, out there in the public eye again. And it seemed like he's just really lashing out in a way --

PETTYPIECE: Yes. I -- see, I thought he'd been relatively restrained with the Hillary book tour.

DAVIS: So did I.

PETTYPIECE: I was expecting crooked Hillary tweet storms.

BORGER: I did.

DAVIS: And that's (INAUDIBLE).

PETTYPIECE: But, yes, so this is restrained.

BLITZER: (INAUDIBLE).

You know, Sean Spicer, the former White House press secretary, Kaitlan, was at the Emmys yesterday. A little skit at the beginning. I'll play a clip.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEAN SPICER, FORMER WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: This will be the largest audience to witness an Emmys, period!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: So there was some laughter. There was some awkwardness. What did you think?

COLLINS: I did not find it humorous at all as someone who sat in that press briefing room every day that Sean Spicer was the press secretary. I just don't think it's humorous when the former White House spokesman comes out at this awards show with all these Hollywood celebrities that they often rail against to make fun of the fact -- and, you know, pretty much admit that he lied to the American people while he was being paid by the American people to be a spokesman for the White House. This is someone who, when he came out a few days after that inauguration statement, he promised not to lie and to tell the truth when he could and if he didn't to correct it as soon as he could.

And we saw him not do that during his tenure as the spokesman, ranging from something as small as, how big the crowd was on Inauguration Day here in Washington, to things like how long Paul Manafort was the campaign chairman and whether or not Barack Obama wiretapped Donald Trump. So I just don't think that many taxpayers find it humorous for him to admit that he lied to the American people.

PETTYPIECE: I was talking to an image consultant. I friend I have is an image consultant who found it fascinating, the re-image campaign for Sean Spicer. He is someone who wants to have a long career for himself, whether it's books or television or commentary. He is viewed as very unlikable because of his time as press secretary and his combative press conferences and these misleading statements or lies, you know, at worse, that you would want to -- you know, people point it out. But this is all sort of the grand remaking of Sean Spicer. It's just fascinating to watch.

BORGER: Well, you know --

COLLINS: I --

BORGER: It may have helped rehabilitate Sean, but I don't think it did a lot for Hollywood, honestly, because, what, is it now a big joke and they're all in on the joke that he was -- did this from the podium? And it was when I turned the channel.

COLLINS: And it -- isn't it interesting that now that he's washed his hands of the White House, he can make light of the fact that he came out there to that podium and trotted out this misinformation to people who trust someone like that, who represents the president. It's a very grave position and you have a lot of responsibility. So him making light of it just did not sit well with me.

DAVIS: It's also such an encapsulation for the degree to which this White House is -- does sort of regard itself as entertainment and a TV show. I mean you -- we talked about the president tweeting about Kim Jung-un as rocket man. I mean I guess that's a little bit of a promotion from the fat kid. But still, I mean, that is something that you hear on a reality television show. And that is, in a lot of context, the way the president trees his job. It's clearly the way that Sean Spicer chose to make fun of his service there when he was gone. So I mean it's just -- it's just one more signal that this White House is not your typical White House.

BORGER: I was surprised to see Colbert do it, by the way, to --

DAVIS: Yes, I was surprised they went for the skit at all.

BLITZER: Like a lot of people, I wanted to listen to Elton John's rocket man earlier today just to remind myself about that song.

PETTYPIECE: We'll (INAUDIBLE), don't we. BLITZER: All right, guys, everybody, thank you very much.

A new paranoia, meanwhile, inside the West Wing as officials reportedly worry their colleagues are wearing microphones to the special counsel, Robert Mueller.

Plus, two of the president's lawyers said to be openly complaining about the investigation into public view at a D.C. restaurant. You're going to hear what happened and why one of them is worried about documents inside a White House safe.

[13:19:53] And breaking now, three storms brewing in the Atlantic and one of them expected to turn into a category four hurricane heading straight for the Caribbean. Stand by, we have a new forecast.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: We're tracking three major storms churning in the Atlantic right now. And the strongest of them, Hurricane Maria, is headed towards the Caribbean and Puerto Rico. Our meteorologist Allison Chinchar is tracking all of the storms for us.

Allison, Hurricane Maria poses the biggest danger to the Caribbean islands battered by Irma just a few days ago. So where is Maria now and where is it headed?

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Right. So right now we are just to the east of the Leeward Islands. But we're edging very, very close. It is a category three storm, winds of 120 miles per hour, gusting to 150. If that wasn't bad enough, we actually expect Maria to intensify in the next 24 hours as it pushes off to the west, northwest. The track will take it over the Leeward Islands, making its way towards Puerto Rico, the north eastern edge of the Dominican Republic, and then up towards the Turks and Caicos.

[13:25:02] Now, the thing with this is, it's where does it go from there? The models are in very good agreement up to the point of Puerto Rico. They may shift in terms of the exact landfall point, but they both say it's going to hit Puerto Rico.

It's after that, that the models begin to spread apart and shift in terms of where they go. The European model has it veering to the north much sooner, bringing it away from the U.S. The American model has it doing the opposite, continuing on that northwest track towards the U.S.

So why is there such a discrepancy between the two? It all relates to this high pressure system sitting over Bermuda. Now, this is what's currently steering it as we are going right now. If it stays where it currently is, that will allow the storm to veer to the north and back out into the Atlantic.

However, there is the possibility that the high could actually shift a little bit to the west. This is what the American model is banking on. Because if it does, that's why the American model figures it will end up towards the U.S. because it will be pushed further west because of that high.

The thing is, we're still talking at least a week out. So ultimately what that high does, it's just something we're going to have to keep a close eye on.

In terms of comparison to Irma, the yellow line is Irma. The red is Maria. So you can see Maria is starting a little bit further south, Wolf, and likely will end up a little bit farther north. But the point is, it's still going to impact many of the same places that were just hit by Irma.

BLITZER: Yes, and our immediate concern is Puerto Rico right now. They are in danger in Puerto Rico. They have to deal with this very, very carefully.

Allison, thank you very much. Allison Chinchar, our meteorologist. Coming up, a report that two of President Trump's lawyers were loudly venting about the Russia investigation at a restaurant here in Washington, D.C., and the concern of hidden microphones and moles inside the West Wing of the White House. We're going to have details when we come back.