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Midterm Elections Are Just Six Months Away; Ex-Bush Admin Ethics Lawyer Running For Senate As A Dem; Montana Voters Weigh In On Trump Vs. Tester; Trump Must Decide Tonight About Tariffs For U.S. Allies; Trump Calls WH Correspondents Dinner 'Total Disaster'. Aired 12:30-1pm ET

Aired April 30, 2018 - 12:30   ET

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

[12:30:02] JOHN KING, INSIDE POLITICS HOST: -- Democratic intensity it tends to follow what's the President's approval rating and we'll see what happens to play out. But President on the road, his own adviser is telling him so you're probably going to lose the House. The Senate is in peril. He says no way.

JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, THE NEW YORK TIMES: Absolutely, and he says that privately in meetings with his advisers. They will tell him like these are the numbers, here's the history, also here's what's happening right now and it doesn't look good for Republicans, and it doesn't look good because in part because of your own numbers. And he says, that's not going to happen. You know, he will say that, you know, he doesn't buy it.

Now, what you hear there, though, is a message to voters and to his supporters in particular. It's almost like remember Barack Obama's, you know, get Pookie get off the couch argument. You know, it's about don't think that we have this in the bag, people have to get out and go vote. But we've been talking about this for weeks and months. Will his message be translatable to other Republican races and that's the real key.

KING: And it never was for Obama. And in this President's case, a lot of his core supporters hate Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan. They despise the Republican Congress as much as they might not like President Obama.

JACKIE KUCINICH, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, THE DAILY BEAST: Well the candidates matter. You can't get a candidate in some of these states and so far right they're not able to carry the message. And that's what they're worried about in a couple different states.

But as you said, like Obama, it's really interesting. Trump's popularity with his base doesn't seem to attach to those candidates. And also, it really does matter what happens in the next couple months. If voters are discouraged with what the Republicans are doing whether or not the economy is good, we'll have to see if they're going to head to the polls.

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well the situation is dire for the Republicans. There are 23 seats that the Democrats, you know, pick up to take back the majority. Roughly two dozen of Republican seats are in districts with Hillary Clinton. One, there are number of retirements that President's poll numbers are not good and the enthusiasm gap is significant. Democratic base is much more enthusiast in election and ultimately via base election.

But look, that's why the President is out there. He's trying to energize the base. Maybe the economy will help. Who knows what the environments going to be like in six months. And look, the Democrats know how to ball opportunities when they present themselves and they could hear even if (INAUDIBLE).

KING: Well, I just looked at new fundraising numbers there from Nancy Pelosi on the Democratic side. There's lot of people keep saying it was time for her to go. It's time for generational change. She just announced she raised $16.1 million for Democrats in the last quarter and since March of 2018 has raised $67.7 million.

That's one of the reasons Democrats can't afford at the moment to give up on Nancy Pelosi. She is by far their best fundraiser. The question is going to be common, the President will be part of this. Do we have to make a decision on the Republican side, focus on the Senate because the House is gone?

Pour more money into the House, we think we can save it. Is this Mitch McConnell trying to talk to the President? This is to Fred Barnes in the Weekly Standard, "A tax bill can and will be revisited just as soon as the political winds shifts. But there's not much any future administration can do to revisit a 48-year-old strict constructionist put on the circuit court for a lifetime."

It's essentially saying protect the Republican Senate Majority first. And at least Mr. President you can still get your judges.

RAJU: Yes. That's really what all Mitch McConnell is doing right now is getting judges confirmed. And they believe that's what does energize the Republican base. You have to remind them what they're doing.

The President needs to stay on message and push them. We don't hear that much from the President, but that is clearly the message McConnell wants to push heading into the election year and things they want to do.

KUCINICH: And we should note that Republicans do have a much better map than Democrats going into the Senate races --

KING: The Senate side, right.

KUCINICH: -- on the Senate side. So that does seem, I mean, to your point, that might be money more well spent.

KING: And to that point, when we come back, we'll continue a version of this conversation. The President goes after a senator who helped torpedo his last cabinet pick. That would be Jon Tester of Montana.

We're out on the ground there. We'll hear from some voters.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:38:07] KING: Checking our political radar today. A long-time Republican running for Senate in Minnesota but as a Democrat. Richard Painter served as Chief Ethics Lawyer in the George W. Bush administration, but is launching now a primary challenge against Democratic Senator Tim Smith who was appointed to replace former Senator Al Franken.

Painter, a corporate law professor says on his website he won't take donations from PACs, dark (ph) money groups or Russian agents.

If you keep really close that, to the French President's White House trip, you may notice something missing from this picture. The small tree he brought over from World War I battlefield, gone. After being replant on the South Lawn is attribute to Americans who gave their lives in the war.

The French ambassador says it's simply in a routine agricultural quarantine and will be replanted after it's inspected.

More fallout today from the scandal surrounding Dr. Ronny Jackson who withdrew his nomination for Veterans Affair Secretary last week after a string of misconduct allegations. Reports saying he won't return to his job as the President Trump's personal physician, although White House says Jackson still on active duty and working in the West Wing. Meanwhile, the President says the Montana Senator who leveled the accusations against Jackson or at least lead the labeling should resign.

CNN's Miguel Marquez is on the ground in Town of Chester home state Montana to test whether the voters agree.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: So when the President says that Senator Tester should resign, that he has information on him, that he could release, how does that play for you?

RICHARD LIEBERT, RANGER, VETERAN, TESTER SUPPORTER: I'll stand by Tester all the way.

MARQUEZ: The only farmer and rancher in the U.S. Senate, the only one of 100 and that's very important also when we got trade issues, agricultural issues.

STEVE SMITH, POSTAL SERVICE WORKER, VETERAN, TRUMP SUPPORTER: I think he (INAUDIBLE). I'm not sure how many who voted for Trump also voted for Tester. There's a small percentage.

MARQUEZ (voice-over): Right.

SMITH: I don't know if this is going to be a big enough to help to Senator Tester.

(END VIDEOTAPE) KING: Miguel Marquez as you note on the ground in Montana, he'll have a full report on what he's finding out there tonight on "ERIN BURNETT OUTFRONT." It is always great to get out of Washington and talk to the voters in the case states.

[12:40:03] The President says he's got dirt on Tester. If he wants to release, he could. Tester should resign. Clearly the President, if we're trying to pick words the President going to campaign in this midterm election year, I think he should circle Montana on the map. He wants to go there. What to make of this -- singling out Tester when to be fair because the bipartisan revolves against Ronny Jackson.

RAJU: Absolutely was. John Isaacs (ph) and the Republican chairman in that same committee had concerns. He made Tester glad and made these concerns now publicly. He did not stop him. But I think it's an interesting development here because Jon Tester was not one of the five red state Republicans. They were very, very top of the target list.

And initially, he seemed a little bit more safe than a few other ones. Maybe he's not now as much because Trump has such a personal animosity to him and is directing his ire towards him. Maybe that could change the contents of that race. We'll ultimately see. But lot of veterans groups, too were concerned about Ronny Jackson. So we'll see if that --

KING: And it doesn't change the conversation from what is just an abysmal failure on the part of the White House to do the research first, even if all of this stuff against Dr. Jackson is untrue. We'll see where that plays out.

They should have known up front that this existed. That's how you protect your nominees. They did not do that.

DAVIS: Right. And I mean, we'll see whether this issue matters enough to Montana and for them to really, you know, hinge their vote on, you know, whether Senator Tester led the charge or whether it was a bipartisan charge or whether the charge were true or they weren't true. It's a little bit difficult to imagine that people who had voted for Tester and had voted for Trump, I'm assuming there's a, you know, some group of people like that would change their mind about the Senator just based on this one episode. It also has to do with whether the Presidents keeps up the drumbeat on this.

MICHAEL BENDER, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: We have Steele dossier, now we have Tester dossier and there's a lot of problems that Trump has credibility and going on an attack against them shows that you can jeopardize your own credibility as well.

KING: Dropping innuendo against Tester after complaining in the same speech about innuendo being used against Ronny Jackson and others. Welcome.

Next, President Trump has a big decision to make by midnight tonight. Will he slap import tariffs on some of America's closest friends around the world? (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:46:17] KING: Welcome back. It is deadline day for President Trump on a very big economic question. You'll likely remember those big new tariffs on steel and aluminum announced back in February. But the President then grant a temporary exemptions to the European Union and countries like Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Australia and South Korea.

The exemptions for all but South Korea expire at midnight. The leaders of Japan and Germany have made direct appeals to the President in recent days, but listen here, it doesn't sound like he's ready to bend, especially when it comes to America's friends in Europe.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The European Union, which has tremendous blocks, it's very hard for us to sell stuff into the European Union. It was put there to take advantage of the United States, OK? You know, it sounds so nice. The European Union.

You know why, I mean, they literally did -- like I said, they formed to take advantage of the United States.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: It doesn't sound like a president who is willing to take the advice of a lot of pro-business forces here in the United States, a lot of his own Republican establishment and direct appeals from Chancellor Merkel last week and other European leaders especially around the world as well. It doesn't sound like he's going to back off. Any reporting?

BENDER: He had -- it was a struggle for him to get to this point in the first place. He had to fight his own White House to get and now he's to deal with allies on this tariff issue. The reporting that I have is that, as you mention, this is a decision that's due by midnight tonight and I wouldn't be surprised if we don't hear about this until almost midnight tonight.

You look at just the next couple of weeks here, you mentioned Merkel and Macron were in town talked about the tariffs, they're also talked about, which is du tonight, talk about Iran trade, the Iran nuclear deals due mid-May. North Korea summit has got to be decided here pretty soon. So there's a lot of stuff --

KING: And President's team is on the way to China --

BENDER: Yes.

KING: -- to talk about similar trade issues and China says it's not interested.

BENDER: An already understaffed White House. It's a major issue. So when you get into these trade exemptions, you know, getting around to talking to Brazil, which has happened to be the second largest steel exports to the United States, where there add on these tariff, so it start to fall down on a list of priorities, and it seems like right now the White House is really under water on this and I would not expect something until later today.

DAVIS: There's a meeting on this obviously at the White House today. And I think the talk is that there is a possibility, at least, that Canada and Mexico who are now in the throes of renegotiating NAFTA with the administration and making some degree of progress could actually get, you know, an extension of a carve-out. But, you know, there's been a lot of friction in the negotiations with the Europeans. The White House wanted them to accept some export quotas so that they --they said we'll give you an exemption if you agree to limit your exports and the Europeans want to do that, and they're not going to do that, and so I think that, you know, the President really wants these tariffs on. And I don't think anyone has given him a reason that he finds satisfactory to give them an exemption, so we'll have to see what happens.

KING: And the Europeans are threatening, we can show you on the screen, to put tariffs on motorcycles, bourbon, orange juice, tobacco, motorboats and some other things, that's what the European threatening if the President doesn't back off here. If you listened to the President Saturday night, he's essentially saying, I know you're mad at me, meaning farm state America, but the President says it's worth it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: There may be a little pain for a little while, but ultimately for my farmers -- I love my farmers. They're great patriots. Because it's short term, you may have to take some problems. Long term, you're going to be so happy. You're going to be so happy. We're going to get it opened up or we're not doing business with these other countries, right?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: It's a risky bet he's making.

RAJUS: It absolutely is. I mean, to suggest that farmers will be OK taking a financial hit because of some vague promise in the future? This is why farm state Republican lawmakers have been furiously lobbying this administration to back off the tariff plan.

[12:50:11] The President has suggested some openness to that in these private meetings. He says he may go back into the TPP. But nevertheless, if he goes forward that he's going to get probably get some backlash.

KING: When we come back, if you were paying attention this weekend in a big dust-up, the President says he believes the White House Correspondents' Dinner is now dead. He skipped it twice. What's going to happen next year?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) KING: I want to tell you, any minute now the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expected to speak about what his team says is a significant development regarding the Iran nuclear agreement. We're going to monitor that. We'll take you there live when that happens.

Meanwhile, a much less significant conversation, but another debate here in Washington, President Trump declaring victory in his self- styled war with the White House Correspondents Association, calling it, among other things, its dinner, "An embarrassment, total disaster, very big boring bust." He also says he believes the event is, quote, dead as we know it.

[12:55:09] Matt Schlapp agrees. He is a friend of the President, head of the American Conservative Union and married to one of President Trump's senior advisers. They walked out during comedian Michelle Wolf routine considering it an abrasive attack on conservatives.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MATT SCHLAPP, CHAIRMAN, AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE UNION: I think the jokes about abortion for my wife and I were particularly just galling. The real moment to figure out whether this dinner is serving a purpose or not.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: This is conversation matter. It was (INAUDIBLE) for the President. Part of his brand is liberal media elites who don't understand America. Well, the comedian's remarks teed it up and the President is using it. This is now Michelle Wolf versus to say we can conversation in Washington.

KUCINICH: I think it's unhelpful. I was there. I didn't think it was very funny, but some of the -- but she's a comedian, she's not a reporter. Yet it does open up Washington journalists to the tit for tat with Trump and that is unhelpful because you were there. Margaret Talev (ph) was on the show, gave a beautiful speech. It was a beautiful defense of journalism and that should have been the focus.

KING: Right. This is a moment where the annual dinner for those who understand is a truth, it's a truth. If you cover the White House, it's a very tense job, it was antagonistic, especially so in this environment where the President is constantly attacking you and where his people often don't tell the truth. The idea is to have a truth and let it go but the remarks went way over the line. I think everyone agrees to that.

To your point about Margaret, she is a guest from this program. She is a friend, she's a great leader for the association. She said, "The program was meant to offer a unifying message about our common commitment to a vigorous free speech while honoring civility, great reporting." Statement goes on to say, "the entertainer's monologues was not in the spirit of that mission." Again, it gives the President of all bowl in a tea when he just wants to whack (ph).

BENDER: No question. He's going to take a swing wherever he can and I don't know. I think the comedian bombed in a room, a few jokes like were not that funny, and I think that's really the broad takeaway. The comedian wasn't -- not everyone enjoyed the comedian in the room. I was there, too. It is a fun night, and I think it would be a mistake to make any big, you know, broad pronouncements about, you know, about the dinner itself or the evening because of a comment.

RAJU: It was insensitive, but at the same time it was celebrating the First Amendment. It's her First Amendment, right. She said what she believed, and a lot of people disagreed and they're welcome to say that too.

KING: Well that's an interesting question because the dinner celebrates the First Amendment, yet should the association say, look, we're trying to be respectful, so be funny but find a line. And people would debate where the line is. It's an interest going forward who knows. The first time the cameras were allowed in the room by the way in 1993, the Bill Clinton presidency.

Thanks for joining us today on INSIDE POLITICS. See you back here this time tomorrow. You can catch our podcast on Apple. iHeartRadio, TuneIn or Stitcher, all those place.

Wolf standby for Wolf Blitzer, he's going to bring in the Israeli Prime Ministers' remarks. Any moment, he picks up our coverage right now.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, I'm Wolf Blitzer in Washington. Thanks very much for joining us. We have breaking news we're following any moment now. We're going to be hearing directly from the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu. He's expected to announce what his aides are describing as a significant development on that nuclear agreement with Iran that was worked out back in 2015. This comes amid rising tensions between Israel and Iran.

Also amidst the latest developments involving President Trump. He has to decide if he will pull the United States out of the Iran nuclear deal. He has until May 12 to make a final decision. But now the Iranian President seemingly flipping the script a bit, saying even if President Trump re-certifies the agreement, the U.S. would be in violation for all of the negative comments it's made about the deal.

CNN's Oren Liebermann is standing by live in Jerusalem. We understand the Prime Minister will be making the statement from the Israeli defense ministry in Tel Aviv. What do we anticipate Oren?

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN CORRESONDENT: And that's where our security cabinet meeting just ended a short time ago, which is an indication of how significant the situation is, where the tensions are, which is to say very high here and where Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is focusing his efforts here. It's right on Iran and a shot against the Iran nuclear deal.

We haven't learn what he is going to say yet in terms of what he will provide but his aides, as you pointed out, have said this is a significant development in the Iran nuclear deal. Netanyahu has never hid his contempt for the deal, so this likely one more reason Netanyahu giving President Donald Trump to leave the Iran deal. Netanyahu has always said, fix it or nix it.

Now with less than two weeks ago, he's making a very concerted lobbying effort against the Iran nuclear deal as Trump in those in the White House have said Trump has yet to make a decision. Wolf, I think it's fair to say at this point Netanyahu is going to take one more shot -- at least one more shot. He has two more weeks after this -- against the Iran nuclear deal.

And it's worth pointing out the meetings between the U.S. and Israel around this in the last couple of weeks. The head of U.S. Central Command was here. Last week, Netanyahu and Trump --