Return to Transcripts main page

New Day Sunday

Trump Rallies His Base as Washington Celebrates the Press; Trump Signals Summit with Kim Could in Weeks; Stinging Satire Unleashed at Media Dinner; Trump Rallies His Base as Washington Celebrates the Press; Trump Slams Montana Senator Over Ronny Jackson Allegations. Aired 7-8a ET

Aired April 29, 2018 - 07:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

[07:00:19] DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Strength is going to keep us out of the nuclear war.

What Jon Tester did to this man is a disgrace. Well, I know things about Tester that I could say too.

MICHELLE WOLF, COMEDIAN: Of course, Trump isn't here if you haven't noticed. I would drag him here myself.

TRUMP: Is this better than that phony Washington White House correspondents dinner?

Russian collusion. Give me a break. We will impeach the president. I don't think we are going to have a lot of happy people if that happens.

WOLF: A lot of people want Trump impeached. I do not. Because just when you think Trump is awful, you remember Mike Pence.

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY WEEKEND with Victor Blackwell and Christi Paul.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. It's 7:01.

You saw the politics and punch lines that everyone most likely is talking about very possibly arguing about at some point today as well. President Trump dodging those jokes at the annual White House correspondents dinner as he rallied his base in Michigan.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: While the crowd at the dinner in Washington, D.C. gave the comedian mixed reviews, the crowd in Washington township, Michigan, was all in for the president's message. Just watch their reaction here and listen to it when the president raised or rather praised himself for the progress with North Korea.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) TRUMP: One of the fake news grips this morning. No, they were saying, what do you think of President Trump had to do with it? I tell you what. Like, how about everything?

CROWD: Nobel! Nobel! Nobel!

TRUMP: That's very nice. Thank you. That's very nice. Nobel.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: CNN's Sarah Westwood and Elise Labott with us. Thank you, ladies, for sticking around.

Sarah, President Trump full steam ahead he seems to be when it comes to his upcoming meeting with Kim Jong-un. What have we learned it other than the time line that he gave yesterday?

SARAH WESTWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: President Trump was eager to talk about his upcoming meeting with Kim Jong-un during that campaign style rally as we just saw very friendly crowd met his mention of the subject with chants of Nobel as in the peace prize. While he brushed those off saying he wants to get the job done, he had no problem claiming credit for progress of South Koreans and North Koreans have made towards talking more and the moves that North Korea has made toward denuclearization and he teased his upcoming meeting with Kim Jong-un saying it could come up within the next few weeks.

Now, this would come after more than a month of behind the scenes preparation for meeting of this caliber. Newly minted Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has already traveled to Pyongyang to lay the groundwork for the meeting. The administration has been searching for a neutral location for the meeting to take place in. Trump admitted during his rally he has no idea what will happen when he sits down with Kim Jong-un and there are a lot of questions about what his strategy really is going into the meeting. But it's clear that the summit remains a high priority for the administration and we now know it will happen within the next month, Christi.

BLACKWELL: All right. So, Elise, now to you and South Korea is saying that North Korea has agreed to more concessions. I mean, they haven't really done anything yet but at least rhetorically they are opening themselves up to more transparency.

ELISE LABOTT, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: That's right. I mean, listen. It's a lot of little things and also some big commitments to each just today, they said that they are moving their time zone to be more with South Korea, talking about ending their nuclear program. He said at the summit apparently that Kim Jong-un that he is willing to give up his nuclear test site and abandon the nuclear test site and make it unoperable.

Now, and he also said, you'll see as I get more trust with the United States as we move towards nonaggression. He has always said that this policy was in response to what he called a hostile policy from the United States. And so, he said you'll see when I don't have this hostile policy anymore, I am not the type of person that wants to or will use nuclear weapons against South Korea, against the United States.

[07:05:06] So, he's making some very big commitments, saying he'll get rid of this nuclear test site by May. We'll just have to see if that happens.

BLACKWELL: All right. Elise Labott, thank you. Sara Westwood, thank you as well. Stay with us.

PAUL: So, the president used his rally there in Michigan to attack Democrats who are calling for his impeachment and he did address the latest developments in the Russia investigation as well. Take a listen here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We have to keep the House because if you listen to Maxine Waters, right?

(BOOS)

She goes around saying, we will impeach him! We will impeach him. Those people said, but he hasn't done anything wrong. Oh, that doesn't matter. We will impeach the president.

So I don't think we are going to have a lot of happy people if that happens. I think it's going to be a little bit tough. But she goes around and others and says we will impeach him. It doesn't matter if you do anything right or wrong. They want to do that.

We've got to win the House. And you know what? We're going to win any way. But we are going to win the House.

Have you heard about the lawyer? For a year, a woman lawyer, she was like, oh, I know nothing, I know nothing. Now, all of a sudden, she supposedly is involved with government. You know why? If she did that, because Putin and the group said, you know, this Trump is killing us. What are you saying that you're involved with government so that we can go and make their life in the United States even more chaotic?

Look at what's happened. Look at how these politicians have fallen for this junk. Russian collusion, give me a break.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: So, Sarah Westwood is back us here and CNN political analyst Julian Zelizer as well.

Good morning to both of you. I want to touch, first of all, what the president was saying about impeachment, you know, that we will impeach him and every time he said we will impeach him, he got a reaction from his crowd. I mean, the base does latch on to that.

So, with that said, Sarah, does the verbiage he is using -- because then he goes into the fact they have to win the House, does the verbiage of impeachment, does it serve him well? Does it get people to the polls really at the end of the day?

WESTWOOD: Well, certainly, that's a tactic that I think the president and a lot of Republicans may use to try to preserve their majority in the House, which is to get Republicans to the polls who might otherwise be complacent this election by raising the prospect of impeachment and that is, obviously, a more likely prospect however distant it remains if Democrats do take back the House.

And another thing that a lot of Republicans in the White House fear if and when Democrats do take back control of the House is that in the hands of Democrats, a lot of congressional committees will begin opening more and more investigations into this administration and yielding more evidence that could be used in any potential impeachment proceeding. So, this is certainly something I think you'll see the president and Republicans talking more about as we get closer to November to try to motivate those Republican voters to go to the polls.

PAUL: All righty. So, Julian, the other thing he mentioned might have surprised a lot of people when he was talking about Natalia -- all right. The name always takes me a minute. Veselnitskaya, of course, talking about he said that lawyer, that woman.

And then he said this was interesting. He said, you know why she came out and said she was an informant? I'm quoting him because Putin and the group said, you know, this Trump is killing us, what are you saying, that you're involved with government so that we can go and make their life in the U.S. even more chaotic. In other words, help me if we are understanding this improperly, but it sounded is as though the president's assertion was corresponding with and acknowledging what intel has asserted that Russia just wants to breed chaos and confusion in the U.S.

JULIAN ZELIZER, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes, it's not a total surprise he said that. President Trump hat ability to take any potentially bad story and spin a narrative that is favorable to him and to explain it away. That's exactly what he is doing. He is now acknowledging a lot of what intelligence has been saying, news reports have been saying and he has been denying but when he acknowledged it he is using it to explain he is actually been very tough on Russia which goes against a lot of the facts. But that is the kind of way he deals with this kind of news. So, it wasn't totally a surprise to see him talking about it that way.

PAUL: Did you expect him to talk about it in a different way? To explain --

ZELIZER: Yes. The other alternative is just to say it's not true. It's one of the two. And so, that is probably what was more predictable. It was just part of the Russian collusion story and part of the, quote/unquote, fake news.

My guess is this is solid enough, at least within his inner circle that he does need to deal with it.

[07:10:05] So, this is the way he is doing that. PAUL: OK. Sarah, let's talk about North Korea because there is some

news this morning president Trump, as we just said, talking about the fact that he believes this meeting with Kim Jong-un will happen in the next three or four weeks. North Korea saying that a nuclear test site will be destroyed and they will invite international journalists and international people in the community to come and witness the destruction of what they say is an operational site there.

But I want to listen to Bill Richardson, a former U.S. ambassador and governor of New Mexico, we talked with him yesterday. He has had his own meetings and conversations about North Korea. And here's what he said about moving forward with the U.S. and North Korea in this meeting that's coming up.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL RICHARDSON (D), FORMER GOVERNOR, NEW MEXICO: I think this is the real thing. I'm hopeful but a lot of risks and I just hope we are prepared because I know those North Koreans. They are prepared. They're going to be relentless. You know, they've got something up their sleeve.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: And a lot of questions about the authenticity of what North Korea is trying to put out there that they want to denuclearize. What do you make of Bill Richardson saying the U.S. has to be prepared, Sarah, how should they be prepared?

WESTWOOD: Well, we don't know a lot about what specifically President Trump is asking the North Koreans to do in exchange for relief from the sanctions that his administration has imposed against North Korea. For example, we don't know what level of verification the Trump administration is going to seek in terms of denuclearizing. We don't know what kind of timeline they're going to push Pyongyang to denuclearize by in the next six months, in the next two years?

That's not something that this White House has been particularly clear on. And the fear from critics is that President Trump could be so eager for a legacy item, for the photo opportunity that he won't push harder to achieve the kind of things that would lead to real denuclearization as opposed to just a symbolic gesture from North Korea, a North Korea that's hurting economically and that wants to see these sanctions lifted.

PAUL: So, Julian, again, some more news this morning as opposed both South Korea's head of intel and the Prime Minister Abe of Japan said that North Korea's denuclearization, quote, should be resolved in a peaceful way. Do you get a sense that that's even possible?

ZELIZER: It is possible. These discussions and the opening that happened this week are very real. And even if we don't have the details yet, even if there is any many questions about the ability of President Trump to carry through on a good deal or, you know, how the North Koreans will follow through on promises, all of that exists. But there are negotiations that are now going to take place. So, that gives the possibility of a peaceful resolution to conflict that has been going on since the 1950s.

There is a lot of work to do. The negotiations will have their own dynamics and we'll see how President Trump performs.

PAUL: Are you confident that President Trump can make it happen differently this time?

ZELIZER: I'm not confident at all. We have gone through this many times before. It's failed. Bill Clinton experienced that. George W. Bush experienced that.

So, there is reason to believe that it won't work. But that doesn't mean that it won't. And President Reagan was able to achieve a breakthrough with the Soviets that no one thought was possible. So, we'll see.

The only problem is, thus far, he has not given any evidence of knowing or being willing to engage in diplomacy. So, the burden is on President Trump to prove his critics wrong.

PAUL: All right. Sarah Westwood, Julian Zelizer, we appreciate it so much. Thank you.

ZELIZER: Thank you.

BLACKWELL: All right. The new Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is on his official trip abroad. He's on his way to the Israel. This is after series of meetings in Saudi Arabia. He said there that Iran destabilizes this entire region and the if the Iran deal cannot be fixed, this is a quote, the president has said he will leave that deal.

Earlier this month, Pompeo met North Korea's leader as you remember these photos ahead of President Trump's impending meeting. And in an exclusive interview with ABC News, he told Jonathan Karl that Pompeo, Pompeo himself rather, says that Kim is prepared to work towards denuclearization.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE POMPEO, SECRETARY OF STATE: We talked about serious matters. He was very well-prepared. I hope I've matched that. We had an extensive conversation on the hardest issues that face our two countries. I had a clear mission statement from President Trump. When I left there, Kim Jong-un understood the mission exactly as I've described it today. And he agreed that he was prepared to talk about that and to lay out a map that would help us achieve that objective and only time will tell if we can get that down.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: And President Trump said at that rally last night that he might be meeting with Kim Jong-un in about three to four weeks.

[07:15:02] Still to come, the mixed reviews of the White House correspondents dinner. Did Michelle Wolf deliver low blows or did she hit it right on target?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WOLF: Just a reminder to everyone, I'm here to make jokes. I have no agenda. I'm not trying to get anything accomplished. So everyone that is here from Congress, you should feel right at home.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: All right. The president, President Trump, designed a counterprogramming of his own against the White House correspondents dinner.

PAUL: Yes, he held a campaign rally in Washington Township, Michigan. This is what was happening in Washington, D.C.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WOLF: It's 2018 and I'm a woman so you cannot shut me up, unless you have Michael Cohen wire me $130,000. Michael, you can find me on Venmo under my porn star name Reince Priebus.

[07:20:05] It is kind of -- it is kind of crazy that the Trump campaign was in contact with Russia when the Hillary campaign wasn't even in contact with Michigan.

People call Trump names all the time. But he's heard all of those and he doesn't care. So, tonight, I'm going to try to make fun of the president in a new way, in a way that I think will really get him. Mr. President, I don't think you're very rich. Trump is so broke.

CROWD: How broke is he?

WOLF: He has to fly failed business class.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: All right. So those were some of the --

PAUL: Cleaner?

BLACKWELL: Yes. I call them tapioca jokes! I don't know if that is right reference but what comes to my mind.

So, the question is, was this a political gift for the president? Was this too far?

Let's bring in Julian Zelizer. He is back with us. And bring in Dean, opinion contributor at CNN.com and host of SiriusXM Radio Dean Obedellah show, appropriately named.

Good morning, Dean. Welcome to Julian. ZELIZER: Thanks.

BLACKWELL: So, Dean, first. What did you think?

DEAN OBEIDALLAH, CONTRIBUTOR, CNN.COM: I was in the room there and I thought some of the jokes really landed well. It was funny, some don't. Look, in today's hyperpartisan world, unfortunately, people don't laugh when they agree with the politics of the jokes. And you look back at the dinners year after year, you'll see people who get upset with the jokes, some are too mean, some are too cruel.

Last year before that Larry Wilmore and the list goes on. Overall did a good job. It's a tough job, but I think she did well and ruffled some feathers but that somewhat it's about going after people in power and making it uncomfortable, while going after people in power, and that's what she did last night.

PAUL: Julian, do you think this year was any worse than past years in terms of the criticisms and maybe some of the -- some of the people who might say, that does not sit well with me?

ZELIZER: I mean, you always have historically this kind of criticism. I think it's more of the environment and so tensions are so high and the feelings not just in that room but in the country are so divided that I think the reaction to any comedy, any event like this is going to be triply intense.

She was hard hitting. She went after the administration the same way the administration goes after a lot of people and she also went after Democrats. She also went after the media. So, it was political comedy and that is what we should expect.

BLACKWELL: Let's play some of the racier, not the raciest jokes because it is Sunday morning. But some of the more controversial jokes. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WOLF: Of course, Trump isn't here if you haven't noticed. He is not here. I know. I know. I would drag him here myself. But it turns out the president of the United States is the one you're not (EXPLETIVE DELETED) to grab.

Then we have Sarah Huckabee Sanders. We are graced with Sarah's presence tonight. I have to say I'm a little star-struck. I love you as Aunt Lydia on the handmade tail. Mike Pence, if you haven't seen it, you would love it.

There is, of course, Ivanka. She was supposed to be an advocate for women, but it turns out she is about as helpful to women as an empty box of tampons. She's done nothing to satisfy women so I guess like father, like daughter.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: All right. So, Dean, the president just tweeted a couple of minutes ago about Washington, Michigan, and thanks for the love and all of that. But did Michelle Wolf give the president a reason to, I guess, do what he did last year, was not go and not send any of his team?

OBEIDALLAH: Well, I think after the dinner, I saw people who were on the left and the right both say Trump is never coming to this thing. That was because of the way Michelle Wolf really hammered the administration. Look, Donald Trump did not show up and it's a bigger issue. That is about cultural norms, the idea of not bracing the First Amendment. So, Michelle Wolf went after the people in the administration that was there.

Did the room feel bad for Sarah Huckabee Sanders during those jokes? Yes, you could feel that. But these are people in power she's going after. And I think Donald Trump made a big mistake not attending and this. I think he could make more likeable and use comedy to go after his enemies and make his base love it because he is mocking the media to their face.

And Donald Trump, I'm not a fan, but can deliver jokes pretty well. So, I think he made a mistake not attending.

BLACKWELL: Dean, I thought the same thing, Dean. I mean, if you think about to his routine at the Al Smith dinner doing the campaign, he was funny for a portion of that.

PAUL: The Gridiron, he was funny.

BLACKWELL: He got a little mean at some portion.

OBEIDALLAH: He really could do a good job here, he really could, and I think he is making a mistake not doing it, continue to double down on his base and forget the rest of America is not a winning strategy, objectively speaking.

[07:25:03] PAUL: Julian, does it serve him to show up here and as Dean was talking about -- I mean, I cringed for Sarah Sanders.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

PAUL: I don't like seeing anybody get in an uncomfortable position and just who I am and that is why he is laughing because he knows that is too.

BLACKWELL: I don't mind an uncomfortable position.

PAUL: But I wonder as we understand it, Trump was saying you go, you go. He was encouraging them knowing that this is what we they were going to be dealing with.

ZELIZER: Right. I mean, the administration knew what was coming and, frankly, it's fair game and every member of the administration, including Sarah Sanders, has been incredibly hard hitting about really serious issues involving social groups around the country. So, I think it's a bit disingenuous, all of a sudden, for them to feel badly and be defensive about hearing a comedian make comments about them and about other institutions.

I think the president should have come. I agree. I think staying out of the room is probably the worst strategy rather than being there and being able to offer a response to use comedy as a way to disarm people.

But this fits a longer pattern. He has been very, you know, he has created a wall between himself and much of the media, so there is no reason to expect he would want to come to the White House correspondents dinner. This is his strategy, this is his approach with much of the press.

BLACKWELL: All right. Julian Zelizer, Dean Obeidallah, thanks so much for being with us this morning.

PAUL: Thank you, gentlemen.

So, President Trump going after Senator Jon Tester at that Michigan rally last night. He claims that he has dirt on him after tester opposed White House physician Ronny Jackson's nomination, of course, with secretary of Veterans Affairs. So, we're going to talk about that with our political expert. Stay close.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:31:38] CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: Thirty-one minutes past the hour. Always grateful to have your company. I'm Christi Paul.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Victor Blackwell.

Good to be with you.

President Trump is thanking his supporters there from Washington Township, Michigan, last night.

This statement from the president: Great evening last night in Washington, Michigan. The enthusiasm, knowledge, and love in that room was unreal. To the many thousands of people who couldn't get in, I cherish you and will be back.

PAUL: And the usual presidential style, President Trump's style, I should say, he minced no words at this rally. He touted his impending meeting with North Korean's leader and had some choice word for journalist and did go after Montana Senator Jon Tester. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You may have heard I was invited to another event tonight, the White House correspondents dinner.

(BOOS)

But I'd much rather be in Washington, Michigan, than in Washington, D.C., right now.

(CHEERS)

If we would have said where we are today from three or four months ago, remember what they were saying? He is going to get us into nuclear war, they said. Nuclear -- no. No, no.

Strength is going to keep us out of nuclear war. It's not going to get us in.

So, we are doing very well. I spoke to the president this morning of South Korea for a long time. They just had a very good meeting. He gives us tremendous credit. He gives us all of the credit.

Senator Jon Tester of a really great place, Montana, who voted, by the way, in favor of sanctuary cities, who's weak on the border, didn't vote for tax cuts, he took a gentleman who is a truly high quality human being. Tester started throwing out things that he's heard.

Well, I know things about Tester that I could say too.

(CHEERS)

And if I said them, he'd never be elected again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Let's start right there, with Jack Kingston, CNN political commentator and former senior adviser to the Trump campaign, and Brent Budowsky, opinion columnist for "The Hill" and former Democratic aide.

Gentlemen, welcome back.

JACK KINGSTON, CNN POLITCAL COMMENTATOR: Thanks, Victor.

BLACKWELL: Jack, do you believe the president that he knows something that could end Jon Tester's career?

KINGSTON: Well, knowing the president you don't know what that means. It might mean he did vote against repeal of DACA, and the tax cuts and reopening the government, things like that. Or maybe there is something more. I frankly think a lot of that is just rhetoric that --

BLACKWELL: Because this is not a president who has been, I guess, praised for exercising restraint in this arena. If he knew it, he'd say it, right?

KINGSTON: Probably so. But I think what has now happened is that the Tester race is one of the national races. Montana, the president won by 20 points.

And up until now, really, his opponent, Gianforte, is a House member. Zinke, of course, went to be a secretary of interior. And then Fox dropped out or declined to run.

So, Rosendale is now a national Republican cause. I think that that's what the president is doing as much as anything else is nationalizing this race.

BLACKWELL: Let's talk to you, Brent, about this, and the issue as it relates to Ronny Jackson.

[07:35:00] The Secret Service, according to the White House documents shared with CNN, disputes at least the single claim about Dr. Jackson having wrecked a government vehicle. That was one of the claims that was spread by, not made by, but spread by Senator Tester.

Doesn't he have to answer for that if it's, indeed, not true?

BRENT BUDOWSKY, OPINION COLUMNIST, THE HILL: Well, I think it would be good if all of the facts come out on all of the different allegations. But let me cut to the chase about this, the Republicans are afraid they could lose control of the Senate now, as well as the House.

The president is taking the veterans issues as another partisan issue. Jon Tester is a strong, courageous, heroic fighter not only for working people but particularly for veterans. He is an advocate of veterans for Montana and nationally.

The chairman of that committee, the Veterans Affairs Committee in the Senate, is Johnny Isakson, who is a good man on veterans issues. He works closer with Senator Tester, the lead Democrat on that committee. They treat veteran issues as nonpartisan.

BLACKWELL: Let me jump in here. If Jon Tester spread this, sent out this release with this long list of accusations from 23 currents and former coworkers or colleagues, I should say, of Dr. Jackson, should there have not been an investigation into the validity of those claims no matter if they had been repeated? At least in the infancy to even check with the Secret Service records before he released those claims?

BUDOWSKY: Oh, I think we need to find out all of these facts. But let me emphasize when these were presented to the committee leadership, Senator Isakson, the chairman, his staff was in those meetings with Jon Tester. Senator Isakson had his people release a statement afterwards. This is a Republican saying that he had no problem with the say Senator Tester handled it. I think if president Trump wants to, he can reappoint him right now and they have it.

(CROSSTALK)

BLACKWELL: Hold on, jack.

BUDOWSKY: Hold on a second. The reason the nomination was withdrawn is overwhelming opposition to Dr. Jackson to Republicans, as well as Democrats, who agreed when the president, himself, said he lacks the experience to hold a job as important and huge as the Veterans Affairs Department --

(CROSSTALK)

KINGSTON: That is why the debate should be. The debate should be on his management ability, his style and so forth. It shouldn't be on false allegations.

An allegation that he was drunk and wrecked the car is outrageous. Secret Service has denied it. The allegation he was knocking on a hotel door and disturbing President Obama is an outrageous allegation. Again, Secret Service has denied it.

And I think that he should do what Clarence Thomas did when Clarence Thomas actually was passed out of committee and then the Anita Hill accusation came up. Clarence Thomas on his own said, you know what, I'm secure on who I am, I know these claims are false and I will go back through the grueling process.

I do think Dr. Jackson should have said, you know what, this is Washington. Everything is a fight. Everything is politics. Everything is political.

I'm going to go ahead and go back through the process. Let's spend it and see who is lying and who is not.

BUDOWSKY: That's fine with me.

BLACKWELL: OK, well, the president has said he wouldn't do it. I mean, that was the day before the Dr. Jackson pulled his nomination saying he wouldn't go through it so that was the president's suggestion.

Let's listen to another element actually from the crowd last night in Washington Township, Michigan, last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CROWD: Nobel! Nobel! Nobel! Nobel! Nobel! Nobel! Nobel!

TRUMP: That's very nice. Thank you. That's very nice. Nobel.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: In reference to the Nobel Prize for the president's work trying to denuclearize the Korean peninsula there.

Jack, has the president earned those chants of Nobel?

KINGSTON: Not yet. I actually think that the expectations are very high. I think we should all be enthusiastic. The world is watching.

However, it's not done yet. The president is saying I will walk away if nothing gets accomplished. That is a big statement right there but they do need to sit down.

So far, everything is great and every American and everybody in the world is hoping for the best. But I don't think it's done yet.

BLACKWELL: Brent?

BUDOWSKY: I actually agree with what Jack just said, strangely enough. There's been nothing accomplished yet except the atmospherics which are positive and which are important. What really happens here is that President Trump frightened the South Koreans as much as the North Koreans and President Moon from South Korea who was threatened with sanctions from Trump on trade recently and who saw Trump attacked his secretary at time, Rex Tillerson, for wanting to have negotiations. President Moon took the initiative.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

BUDOWSKY: So, let's hope that this works. This will be Trump's moment if he wants to seize it, he will have to say things and agree with things that he has criticized before to get an agreement.

[07:40:07] We'll have to watch whether the North Koreans can pry the South Koreans away from the United States. That is their strategy.

Finally, when the president recently said that Kim Jong-un was very honorable and very open, that was a ludicrous and inaccurate statement and probably the CIA equivalent in North Korea was telling Kim Jong- un, I think we've got a sucker here. He wants a deal too much and he is praising you and unbelievable thing he said.

(CROSSTALK)

BLACKWELL: I do want to wrap this up with a reminder of the president's predecessor who was awarded the Nobel Prize back in 2009, and this was the statement, if we're talking about atmospherics in relations to nuclear weapons. It says that the Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009, it should be awarded to President Barack Obama for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples. The committee has attached special importance to Obama's vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons.

So, the atmospherics appear to be enough for President Obama. We'll see if it justifies a nomination or a win for President Trump moving forward and what becomes of all of this.

Jack Kingston, Brent Budowsky, thank you both.

KINGSTON: Thank you, Victor.

BLACKWELL: All right.

PAUL: So, life along the U.S./Mexican border is something we want to talk about with you next. What do people on both sides of this think of the border about a wall between them? Well, guess what? W. Kamau Bell went the border and he got some interesting perspectives. We have that straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:46:05] BLACKWELL: Tonight, W. Kamau Bell returns with an all new season of the CNN original series "UNITED SHADES OF AMERICA."

PAUL: And in this episode, he heads down to the U.S./Mexico border. He wanted to see what life is really like on both sides. Here's a preview.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

W. KAMAU BELL, UNITED SHADES OF AMERICA: Today, I'm back in Nogales, Sonora, Mexico, to check out a place that reveals the human cost of America's immigration policy, Kino Border Initiative, and our meeting with one of its leaders, Father Sean Harris (ph).

Tell me where I'm at right now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So this is a place where we provide two meals a day, mostly to deportees.

BELL: This is their first welcome back to Mexico?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It really is, essentially. We provide food, clothing, financial support. This is a critical work on the border.

BELL: Are there people who are coming here who have like been in the States for years?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. We're seeing an increasing number of people who have been living in the United States for a long time, who are being deported, in comparison to last year.

BELL: Father Harris, for some people, they thought their life was set up there. And then suddenly, they're deported and they find themselves in this room.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sometimes almost overnight.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: So we asked him what struck him most about both sides?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BELL: There's two things. One, you know, there is this sort of narrative around the country about how terrible Mexico is and it's filled with crime and I'm not trying to say Mexico doesn't have issues and crime, but -- America does too. But when I was on the Mexico side, it was Nogales, Sonora, Mexico, it's much more lively in the city I was in and more people and more business.

On the American side in Arizona, Arizona, there is a lot of businesses that have been closed, there's not a lot of people there and it's because of border security. In the old days, like 15 years ago, Mexican -- people from Mexico could cross the border easily and do business in America. They could actually work in America, go lunch in Mexico and they go back to work in America. That can't happen anymore, it's basically strangling Nogales, Arizona.

BLACKWELL: I know you've got an up-close look at what happened when people try to cross the border and when they don't make it across. Tell us about that. BELL: Yes, I went to the Kino Border Initiative and talked to the press who was one of the people who runs that, and I got to meet people as they just come off the bus after just being deported. Some of those people have been in America for years and some trying to make it across the border and you see people in that moment as they come off like what happens now? To be clear some of those people are not all from Mexico. They're from Central and Southern America.

And it's really quite impactful and amazing to see that and they all just sort of seemed to be dealing with it. It was -- it was very impactful.

PAUL: I know you toured parts of the wall that exist.

BELL: Yes, there's a wall -- there's a wall, everybody. Breaking news. Breaking news banner, there is a wall, yes!

PAUL: And you went on a ride-along as I understand it with members of the border patrol. What do you think is something that is an image that maybe most Americans have about border patrol or how the whole thing works that might be -- that might be false? What are we misunderstanding here?

BELL: You know, the two guys I were with seemed like they really have their hearts in the right place. I know as a black man on TV about the cops having their hearts in right place, I'm already in a difficult position. But I know their hearts are not the hearts of the border police. We have a clip in the show of different border police pouring water out that they feel has been left at the border for people who are crossing who need water to drink.

So, I think there's -- not all border police are the same. But on top of that, I asked them about the wall and they didn't seem to be excited about the idea of this Trump wall either. Everybody we talked to down there, obviously, not a scientific survey, nobody was like, yes, a wall will help this. People like, generally, I think more secure, even more difficult you make it across, the harder it impacts to people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: The new season of "UNITED STATES OF AMERICA" with W. Kamau Bell premiers tonight immediately after "ANTHONY BOURDAIN: PARTS UNKNOWN" right here on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:54:21] PAUL: You know, sometimes, you just need a good laugh. And in this week's "Staying Well", they say there's power in that.

BLACKWELL: And people are able now, through laughter and through this help through this program to overcome anxiety.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANJALI KHANNA, FORMER GRADUATE STUDENT: Fear of failure has held me back, a lot of things causing me anxiety, worrying about the future and like dwelling on the past.

With improv, you can't really think about it. You just have to like act in a moment.

BECCA BARISH, THE SECOND CITY WELLNESS PROGRAM: Improv anxiety is an improv program designed specifically for people with anxiety. A lot of times when people anxiety, you want to avoid the thing that makes you feel that way.

[07:55:03] So, this class provides people with a skills, where they're getting more comfortable being uncomfortable. One day a week is just your regular, every day improv class. The other is a therapy group, run by licensed social workers, who have a background in improvisation.

NIMEET SHAH, IT PROFESSIONAL: I was a very, very kind of in-my-shelf type person. Making eye contact was even so difficult for me. Little by little, through this program, you realize that just because things are uncertain doesn't mean they're frightful. I got more fit, I got more engaged, I got a promotion that work. Things have been going gangbusters.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PAUL: Good for him. Well, we're wishing you good memories and some good laughter today. Thank you for being with us.

BLACKWELL: "INSIDE POLTICS WITH JOHN KING" starts right now. All right. After a break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)