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Global Outrage Erupts over Trump's "Shithole" Remark; Trump Issues News Sanctions Outside Iran Nuclear Deal; Clyburn Talks Trump's Disparaging Racist Remarks; Trump Honors MLK Amid Racist Remark Uproar. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired January 12, 2018 - 13:30   ET

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

[13:30:00] FARAI SEVENZO, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It has been a completely united front, including from the African leaders. And it did. People are wondering why there is such a disconnect between the American diplomats on the ground and the actions coming from the president's office. Remember, back in October, the U.S. charge d'affaires, together with his team, they went and donated blood for the survivors of that awful, terrible crash. People have been talking about this all day long in our part of the region in Kenya. This may well carry on over the weekend, Wolf. It has been an interesting thing to see how they have reacted.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: I suspect it will.

Farai, stand by.

Brunelli, you're in Haiti. What has been the reaction there?

BRUNELLI JOSEPH, JOURNALIST: Today's anniversary of the earthquake, the timing really couldn't be worse. The government is mostly focused on that and people focus on that and people are just mostly outraged. They consider that Donald Trump's remarks are racist.

They are disrespectful. Some don't think we should even give these words and remarks any attention because they are not worth their attention. Haitian people are known to be very proud and resilient. We overall although people are very angered that President Trump can't really destroy or sway Haitian dignity. Unfortunately, we are mourning so we haven't gotten a lot of flash back. People are focusing on the anniversary of the earthquake in Haiti today.

BLITZER: Exactly eight years ago, hundreds of thousands of Haitians were killed in that earthquake.

Patrick, you are in El Salvador for us. What's the reaction there?

PATRICK OPPMANN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We just had, a few minutes ago, El Salvador's president -- this is a close ally in the region. He is getting back saying that these comments by President Trump hit at the dignity of the Salvadorian people and they reject him entirely. You don't have to understand why.

This is the newspaper that said Trump calls insults El Salvador, and calls it. You don't have to speak Spanish to understand what these are saying. People find these comments racist and don't understand them when they have a close relationship, and they should say it is adding insult to injury. Just a few days ago, they said they are changing immigration policy and deporting some 200,000 Salvadorians and aliens who would be up for deportation.

That would have a massive impact on those that rely on those who come from them in the United States. It is really a turn of the relationship. It would have been a good relationship. U.S. diplomats here are trying to repair the damage, saying that it's a beautiful country, but perhaps it's damage that cannot be undone -- Wolf?

BLITZER: Patrick Oppmann, Farai Sevenzo, Brunelli Joseph, thanks for the reports.

While the president's comments may be shocking, they are not necessarily all that surprising, given what he said in the past. But as former U.S. undersecretary for political affairs, former ambassador to NATO, Nicholas Burns, points out, this may be a new low. This is what he tweeted: "The damage overseas from Trump's ignorant and racist remarks can't be exaggerated. No president in the last 100 years has reduced America's moral authority as he has."

Let's bring our global affairs correspondent, Elise Labott, and CNN global affairs analyst and former deputy national security adviser, former deputy secretary of state under President Obama, Tony Blinken.

Thanks to both of you for joining us.

I want to get to more of the reaction internationally, Tony.

But, Elise, there is news that you are getting just now on the U.S. attitude towards Iran. Today is the deadline that the U.S. has to certify that Iran is complying with the nuclear agreement.

ELISE LABOTT, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: What he was supposed to do today was decide whether to waive or reimpose a host of sanctions about several sets of sanction that is the U.S. was obligated to wave under the Iran deal. They continue to waive the sanctions under the deal, but he is saying this is the last time he is doing this. He wants to work with Congress. He wants to work with the Europeans to fix legislation that governs how the U.S. stays in the deal and he wants a stronger deal in effect. He is saying he doesn't want a 10-year deal that is going to expire. He wants a stronger deal to impose new sanctions on the nonnuclear activity. Keeping the focus on other activities such as the ballistic missile programs and support for terrorism and human rights. President Trump going to say, this is the last time I'm going this, I want a stronger deal or the sanctions will be reinstated.

[13:35:20] BLITZER: He is saying in certifying it is that Iran is complying on the nuclear front with the agreement?

LABOTT: No, no. He's not saying that, although many --

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: By certifying it --

(CROSSTALK)

LABOTT: No. He had already decertified a few months ago saying that Iran is not meeting the spirit of the deal, as he said. Today, he has to make those decisions whether he is going to waive the sanctions in the national security interest. He is saying in effect that Iran is not meeting the spirit of the deal, but under U.S. national security interests, I'm going to waive those sanctions, re-imposing those sanctions. He decertified a while ago. This is just related to the sanctions. And he has a couple more --

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: He is supposed to do that every 90 days.

LABOTT: There are five sets that are coming up. Some 120 days and 180 days. Between now and next week, it's about five different sets of sanctions that the Obama administration agreed to waive for this president.

BLITZER: They will continue waive it, at least this last time.

LABOTT: Correct.

BLITZER: Tony, you were very much involved in the negotiating that President Trump said is the worst agreement and the worst deal the U.S. ever had and it was awful, and he hates it clearly. What do you think of this decision.

TONY BLINKEN, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: His entire team is telling him to stick with the deal and he did the right thing in waiving sanctions and letting the deal continue. If he did the opposite, if he didn't waive the sanctions, he would crater the deal and the United States would be blamed. We'd be isolated. It's the only thing in our relationship with Iran that is working.

BLITZER: This is the last time.

BLINKEN: He said that a few times. The problem is he put the deal in a permanent purgatory that. Creates uncertainty about whether we are going to stick with it. It alienates our allies. It makes it harder for us to get them to focus on things we want to crack down in Iran about, human rights abuses, support for terrorism, destabilizing activities. And it's the wrong thing to do. The one thing that is working, the one thing making us safer is a deal that Iran is complying with by our own intelligence estimates and by the international group that is observing this, by all of our allies. We should stick with it and focus the world's attention on the other problematic aspects of Iran --

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: On the other big story, the breaking news, the world reaction to the president's vulgar comments about immigrants coming to the United States from Africa and Haiti and other countries. This is going to have an impact on attitudes. There will be fallout and national security fallout as well.

BLINKEN: That's right. It's impossible for us to know what's in the president's heart but we know what's coming out of his mouth is incredibly vile. It's destructive at home but also around the world. If you are an American ambassador going into your host country and complaining about the way they are treating their own people, a minority, forget it. You've had your argument taken out from under you. It's a great gift from Vladimir Putin, who likes to paint us as a divided racist society. Back during the Cold War, one of the biggest weapons of the Soviet Union at the time was to try to paint it as a racist society. Luckily, the Civil Rights movement took that away from them. Now we are giving this back. To terrorist recruiters around the world, who are trying to appeal to young people, to be able to show us, to show our president as a racist and as a bigot, that is a wonderful tool. This is going to do real damage.

BLITZER: The U.S. ambassador to Panama today, Elise, all of a sudden, a career foreign service officer, resigned.

LABOTT: He did it in December actually. He notified the White House and the State Department just found out a few weeks ago. And in the letter, he said that he was sworn in as a junior officer, he was bound by the Constitution of United States and to uphold the policies of any given president at any given time. He was told by his mentors that if there was any time he could not fulfill that duty, if he couldn't stand by the president, it was time to resign. He said that was the time.

To build on what Tony said about the U.S. view around the world, the State Department is doing clean up. The charge d'affaires in Haiti had to go in to see the president of Haiti on the anniversary of that devastating earthquake to reaffirm the U.S. commitment to Haiti. In Africa, the U.S. ambassador to Botswana going in. They also want to know, am I also, as the president said, a shithole country. Today, the State Department is advising ambassadors to go into the countries and go to your host country and reaffirm the U.S. commitment to Africa and all nations, and say I'm honored to serve here and I'm honored to serve your country.

[13:39:59] BLITZER: I want to read another tweet from the president from overnight. Late last night he tweeted this: "The reason I canceled my trip to London is I'm not a big fan of the Obama administration having sold perhaps the best located, the finest embassy in London for peanuts only to build a new one in an off location for $1.2 billion. Bad deal. Wanted me to cut ribbon." And he goes on to blame President Obama for the awful deal.

BLINKEN: First of all, as everyone knows, this was a decision made by the Bush administration.

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: To move the embassy.

BLINKEN: For good reasons. We couldn't secure it adequately. We had to find a new place for it, and they did that. LABOTT: Under law, by the way.

BLINKEN: Under the law, a Congress mandate. We have gone, unfortunately, from a first president who couldn't tell a lie to the current president who can't tell the truth about anything, including this.

BLITZER: This was after 9/11.

BLINKEN: That's right.

BLITZER: There was deep concern. If you know where it was, it was right in the heart of London.

(CROSSTAKL)

BLITZER: Very hard to put barriers around there to protect in case there was going to be --

(CROSSTALK)

BLINKEN: A concerted program, starting with the Bush administration, continuing by Obama, to make sure that every single one of them --

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: Did you sell it for peanuts?

BLINKEN: We didn't. Look, I won't comment on the deal that was made.

BLITZER: He's a real estate guy.

BLINKEN: He's a real estate guy. That's his business. We did what we had to do. And it was the right thing. And it was initiated by President Bush.

BLITZER: Everybody stand by.

There's more news we are following. Up next, the president's disparaging comments sparking bipartisan backlash across the nation. The highest ranking African-American in the House of Representatives standing by to join us, Congressman Clyburn. Lots to discuss. We'll be right back.

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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. SUSAN COLLINS, (R), MAINE: The president's comments were completely inappropriate. He should not denigrate the citizens of other countries. And it also does not help us come up with a bipartisan approach to immigration for him to make comments like that. I think it was highly unfortunate and really out of bounds.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BLITZER: Another Republican Senator, Susan Collins, of Maine, reacting to the president's vile remarks about African countries. And he ignored questions from reporters about whether he made the comment. Ironically, the question as the president signed a proclamation for the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr holiday.

Let's get more from the highest ranking African-American in the House of Representatives, Democratic Congressman James Clyburn, of South Carolina. He's joining us from Columbia right now.

Congressman, thanks so much for joining us.

What's the impact of the president's comments?

[13:45:27] REP. JAMES CLYBURN, (D), SOUTH CAROLINA: First of all, thank you so much for having me, Wolf.

I think the impact has been dramatic. I think that the president has really stepped into it here. I think that the Congressional black caucus solidified efforts and one of which is to pursue the essential resolution. I hope we can do that and get bipartisan support for it. The president is the commander-in-chief. This is kind of the conduct of unbecoming of an officer. If a general or some other line officer in the military were to say something like this, he would be censured. It should occur here with the commander-in-chief at a minimum.

And then, of course, when we get back next week, I think that the Congress ought to sit down in a bipartisan way to find what it is we are trying to do on behalf of DREAMers and get DACA done. Let's look at what we should do for border security and let's take this discussion about immigration off of this issue. It should not be in here. I said to my colleagues yesterday this is a smoke screen. I think the president is doing what he does so often that he is going to stick it to DACA recipients and give the backhand to DREAMers and using this discussion as a camouflage for doing that. We ought to step out of these discussions about immigration policy, put it in something where it ought to be and get back to discussing a budget resolution and get a continuing resolution to go forward or put a budget in place and tie it all to the president's wishes on border security, our wishes on behalf of DREAMers and let's go forward and start to discussion. This is a cam garage.

BLITZER: On Twitter, the president sort of denied he made the vulgar comments or denigrating comments about Haitians. A Congressman who said that -- who was there, a Democratic Senator, I should say, said the president did in fact make those remarks, Dick Durbin, of Illinois.

What did you think when you heard the comments the day before? And the president, this weekend, is going to be together with all of us, remembering Dr. Martin Luther King. He signed this declaration today. What went through your mind when you analyzed all of this?

CLYBURN: I will tell you what went through my mind. I thought about Dr. King's letter from Birmingham to the jail. You may recall when he wrote his letter, he was responding to a letter he received from eight white clergy men. They said to Dr. King in the letter they believe that his cause was right. They thought his timing was wrong. Dr. King in his letter said to them time is neutral. Time is never right. Time is never wrong. Time is always what we make it. Then he said something I think is critical. He said that he was coming to the conclusion that the people of ill will in our society make a much better use of time than the people of good will. I will call upon my Republican colleagues and say to them that if they are in fact people of good will as I think they are, let's break our silence on this. Let's not be quiet and pretend you didn't hear it or didn't recall it. The fact of the matter is, Senator Scott, I am told this morning, said that he says that Senator Lindsey Graham confirmed that it was said. I believe Senator Durbin said that Senator Graham responded to it when it was said.

BLITZER: Yes.

CLYBURN: So let's stop this foolishness because Dr. King said that we are going to be made to repent in this generation. Not just for the vitriolic words and deeds of bad people, but for their silence of good people. Let's break our silence.

[13:50:05] BLITZER: Congressman Clyburn, thanks so much for joining us.

CLYBURN: Thanks so much for having me.

BLITZER: Thank you.

Puerto Rico, Germany, Japan, across the world, the president's insults have known no bounds. Why his latest remarks have become, to a lot of people, par for the course.

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BLITZER: President Trump's recent comment, slurring so many immigrants, asking why the U.S. would want these people from, quote, "S-hole countries," it may be shocking to some, but it shouldn't necessarily be all that surprising. That's because the president has said things like this before. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

[13:55:12] UNIDENTIFIED CNN CORRESPONDENT: And 40,000 have come from Nigeria. Mr. Trump added, "Once they have seen to the United States, they would never, quote, "go back to their huts in Africa."

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Germany is a mess. She's ruining Germany.

When Mexico sends its people, they are not sending their best. They are bringing drugs. They are bringing crime. They are rapists.

If we are attacked, Japan doesn't have to do anything. They can sit home and watch Sony television.

Something is going on. We have to find out what it is. I do want surveillance. I'll absolutely take databases on the people coming in from Syria.

UNIDENTIFIED CNN CORRESPONDENT: "That's poor leadership ability by the mayor of San Juan and others in Puerto Rico who are not able to get their workers to help. They want everything to be done for them when it should be a community effort."

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS, ABC NEWS ANCHOR: If you call China an enemy, why is it OK to do business with an enemy?

TRUMP: Because it's an economic enemy. Because they're taking advantage of it like nobody in history. They have done the greatest theft in the history of the world.

UNIDENTIFIED CNN CORRESPONDENT: The president allegedly said that Haitian immigrants, quote, "all had AIDS."

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: The White House, by the way, denied that the president said those words involving Haiti back in December.

Our breaking news coverage here on CNN continues right after this.

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