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Pelosi On Impeaching Trump: "He's Just Not Worth It"; Interview With Rep. Cheri Bustos (D-IL) About Impeaching President Trump; CNN Reality Check: How Trump Made Deficit Hawks An Endangered Species; Fox News Rebukes Jeanine Pirro After Questioning Omar's Hijab. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired March 12, 2019 - 07:30   ET

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

[07:30:00] ABBY PHILLIP, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: -- inappropriate comments that are so offensive and they make people so uncomfortable in the workplace that it is something that ought to have consequences in the workplace. We just -- we just don't know.

And for Gillibrand, she's in a tough spot where it's going to be difficult for her to air this out because it involves other people and she would essentially be kind of putting the information out there without necessarily having the consent of the people involved. And this person having not been sort of convicted of anything -- of any kind of crime.

But, for her, she got into so much hot water with Al Franken and how she helped to push him out, that that's why this is a problem for her. Democrats are upset -- some Democrats are upset with her about that and they are looking -- they are looking at this as an example of hypocrisy.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Hey, Jonathan Martin, just very quickly, we have 30 seconds left.

JONATHAN MARTIN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST, NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, THE NEW YORK TIMES: Yes.

BERMAN: Two big 2020 things that I think are interesting developments.

Number one, Stacy Abrams flat-out saying 2020 is definitely on the table -- a run for president. And, Beto O'Rourke going to Iowa this weekend which, to me, is everything you need to know.

MARTIN: And both bad news for Chuck Schumer, John, of course, who would desperately love both candidates to run for competitive Senate seats and who can raise lots of money for Texas and Georgia.

Yes, Stacy Abrams keeping it on the table which is, I think, a really fascinating move.

Beto O'Rourke moving even closer to a run. We expect him to announce his candidacy later this week and to be in Iowa later this week, as well. Keep an eye, guys, on where he goes in Iowa. This is not going to be

a sort of Des Moines, Cedar Rapids trip. We think he's going to be in the more rural parts of Iowa -- the kind of places where Obama won and then, Trump won.

BERMAN: Fascinating to watch.

All right, friends, thank you very much.

So how are Democratic leaders responding to President Trump's baseless claim that Democrats are anti-Jewish? We're going to ask the chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:35:55] BERMAN: New reaction this morning from senior Democrats to the announcement -- and it really was an announcement from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi where she said she does not want to impeach President Trump. She told "The Washington Post" quote, "He is just not worth it."

Joining me now is Democratic Congressman Cheri Bustos. She is the chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Congresswoman, thank you so much for being with us.

And you welcome this announcement from the House speaker. Why?

REP. CHERI BUSTOS (D-IL), CHAIRWOMAN, DEMOCRATIC CONGRESSIONAL CAMPAIGN COMMITTEE: Well, I welcome the seeking of the truth and I think what Speaker Pelosi is saying is that we've got a lot of work to do.

We've got to bring down the cost of health care. We've got to rebuild our nation with a real trillion-dollar infrastructure package. We just passed the "For the People Act" last week to try to clean up the mess in Washington. So we've got a lot of work to do.

I think what she's saying is let's not be distracted by these everyday pieces of information that are coming up until it all comes together.

If Robert Mueller's report shows a clear violation of the Constitution and clearly shows that President Trump has gotten in the way of democracy in a way that's impeachable, that's a whole other story. But what she's saying is let's stay focused on what we need to get done for the American people.

BERMAN: Do you feel as if the talk about impeachment up until now has been a distraction from the Democratic agenda?

BUSTOS: Well, John, here's the reality. We saw Michael Cohen testifying and it literally sucked up every bit of air in this building.

And at that same time, we were doing hearings on health care. We were talking about how we're going to bring down the price of prescription drugs. We have begin -- begun, outside of the hearing room, talking about how we are going to pass a real infrastructure bill to rebuild our country.

So we are talking about all of that and we're actually having hearings on those very, very important topics. Yet, I'm guessing most of your viewers would have no idea that is even going on right now.

BERMAN: Our viewers pay very close attention to everything. I wouldn't underplay their intelligence right now.

BUSTOS: I don't want to question their intelligence. They probably now everything that's going on.

BERMAN: Does it seem to you that what the House speaker is trying to do is maybe downplay expectations a little bit from the Mueller report?

BUSTOS: No, I don't think that's it at all. She doesn't know what's in the Mueller report. I don't know what's in the Mueller report. Adam Schiff, who is chair of the Intelligence Committee, doesn't know what's in the Mueller report.

We will know when Robert Mueller releases that. And then there's only going to be a select few number of people who will know that. We will be passing a resolution that says the Mueller report should be made public.

BERMAN: Right.

BUSTOS: I think that is very important. I believe -- look, we've invested almost two years of our resources, of our time, energy, effort, money to get to the bottom of this and I believe the American public deserves to know what that report says.

BERMAN: Last question on this. It is your job to get your fellow Democratic members reelected and you know a lot of them ran on wanting to impeach the president. So what do you tell them this morning?

BUSTOS: Oh, I would say also a lot of them ran on just having this ability to seek the truth.

I am one of 31 Democrats that comes from a district that Donald Trump won. I can tell you, we don't go home talking about impeachment every weekend.

And not only that, we don't hear from people that we represent talking about impeachment at every -- at every turn. They're talking about how we can play a role in helping their families have better lives. How, you know, their kids aren't faced with this tremendous student loan debt that we'll be talking about here in Congress later today.

You know, they just want to make sure that their families have an opportunity to succeed. This is not something that they obsess about every day back in districts like the one I represent.

BERMAN: So you worked in journalism, which I --

BUSTOS: Yes. BERMAN: -- think is cool and a lot of people don't know.

You also worked in the health care industry for some time. And the president proposed his new budget yesterday which includes reductions in growth to Medicare, which is something that he vowed when he was campaigning that he wouldn't cut.

So, how do you view that?

BUSTOS: Well, if I could quote my 85-year-old mother who calls me and leaves me voice messages and says don't let them touch my Medicare. I think my mom speaks for people in their 80s and their 70s and their mid-60s all over this country.

[07:40:11] Medicare is a program that works. It is -- it is handled cost-effectively, it's got the lowest oversight of any health insurance program in the country, and it works.

It is also -- Social Security and Medicare, together, are the greatest lifters out of poverty in the history of our nation.

And basically, what Donald Trump is doing is he is robbing the Peter -- Medicare part of it -- to pay the -- basically, pad Paul's stock portfolio. I mean, it is literally that's what he is doing. Taking from people who need something and giving it to others who don't need it as much.

BERMAN: So you don't like what the president is proposing on Medicare.

On the other hand, you don't necessarily like what some of your fellow Democrats, particularly the ones who are running for president, want to do with Medicare either. You have concerns about Medicare for All.

You told "The Hill" in an interview, "I think the $33 trillion price tag for Medicare for All is a little scary." What's scary?

BUSTOS: Well, here's what I can tell you. I worked in health care, as you said John, but I worked in health care before the Affordable Care Act, during it, and after. So I know the unsustainable path that we were on in health care. Prices were going up way too high and yet, the patient outcomes were not improving.

And then, we passed the Affordable Care Act and while it was flawed in the rollout, what ended up happening, until the Republicans took their meat cleaver to it, we insured an additional 22 million Americans. So let's not lose sight of the fact that the Affordable Care Act is something that works. It needs tweaking, it needs perfecting.

But all of the sudden to just say we're going to throw that out, along with throwing out the health insurance plans for millions of employees who get their health insurance through their workplace, and all of the sudden turn to something that I don't think it's a policy that we have all of the details thought out.

So what I would say to the Medicare for All proponents or for people who just want to make sure that we have care for all, is that there are a lot of different ideas on the table. Let's just make sure we're doing everything we can so people have access to affordable health care, no matter where they live, including in rural America, which is a real problem.

BERMAN: You used the word "scary" though for Medicare for All -- the price tag.

You know, some of the people running dispute that it would be $33 trillion. But that aside, do you think Medicare for All as a concept could be a liability to some of the Democrats like you in swing districts?

BUSTOS: Well, I'm not running on that as a platform nor are many of the people who are running -- will be running for reelection in November of 2020.

What they're running on is something that unites us as Democrats and that is -- I'm going to change it to "Care for All." We believe that whether you're a newborn baby, whether you're a pregnant mom, whether you're an 85-year-old woman like my mom, that we ought to make sure that you have access to affordable -- and again, back to the access -- accessible care.

BERMAN: Congresswoman Cheri Bustos, please give our love to your mom and thank you for joining us this morning. Really appreciate it.

BUSTOS: Thank you, John, appreciate it.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: All right, John.

Republicans used to care a lot about the deficit and debt. And now, with a Republican president, the GOP is on a massive spending spree. But we have a budget-busting reality check, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:47:13] CAMEROTA: Candidate Donald Trump once promised he would wipe out the national debt in eight years. Well, with his 2020 budget, it looks like he's going in the wrong direction. In fact, that will exponentially increase the debt in just three years.

John Avlon is good at math. He has our reality check. Hi, John.

JOHN AVLON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: I appreciate that, Ali. My teachers would disagree with you, but I digress.

Martin Luther King famously said that budgets are moral documents.

So it's fitting that the Trump administration's acting OMB director introduced its record-breaking $4.75 trillion budget with something less than the whole truth. Quote, "It's no secret that our nation's $22 trillion debt, which nearly doubled under the Obama administration, is unsustainable."

But the Trump administration is finding religion on the topic a little bit late after they ballooned the deficit and the debt when they had unified control of government. In other words, they're complaining about a problem they compounded and now want Democrats to help them out with it by cutting domestic spending on things like education, the environment, and massive cuts to Medicare.

Here's the crazy thing. Candidate Donald Trump said that he'd eliminate the debt in eight years. But, in fact, it's risen more than $2 trillion since he took office to an all-time high of $22 trillion.

But wait, you say. I heard the president's economic adviser Larry Kudlow tell me that everything was moving in the right direction.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LARRY KUDLOW, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL ECONOMIC COUNCIL: It's throwing off an enormous amount of new tax revenues. As the economy gears up, more people work and better jobs and careers, those revenues come rolling in. And the deficit, which is one of the other criticisms, is coming down and it's coming down rapidly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AVLON: Not so much. In fact, tax revenues are down. For example, tax revenues from corporations fell 22 percent from October to January.

At the same time, the federal budget deficit is up 77 percent in the first four months of fiscal '19 compared to the previous year. In fact, our deficit is expected to hit $900 billion by the end of this year and clear $1 trillion each year by 2022. That dwarfs the $587 billion during Obama's second term.

And the trade deficit the president obsesses over -- yes, that's moving in the wrong direction as well, growing $100 billion and hitting a 10-year high.

Look, we know that businessman Donald Trump called himself the king of debt, borrowing lots of money, spending lavishly, and then trying to renegotiate with the banks. But government doesn't work that way.

Presidential budgets are opening bids -- basically, wish lists, especially in a time of divided government. And because Republicans bailed on their traditional calls to reduce the deficit and the debt and Democrats aren't exactly inclined to embrace spending cuts themselves, some argue this whole thing feels like Lucy and the football.

If you look at the percentage of the debt each president's increased over the last four decades you see Reagan coming in at a 184 percent increase on the high end, and Bill Clinton on the low end with 36 percent.

[07:50:00] Now, just about every Democrat running for president now is calling for hiking taxes on the superrich and raising spending as well, while a new school of far-left economics are embracing something called modern monetary theory, which basically says that deficits and debt don't matter. None of this is good news.

Deficit hawks may be an endangered species in Washington but that doesn't change the basic facts of math or the history which shows that excessive debt is a force that has brought down empires. But, Republicans are going to have a hard time regaining their credibility on this core issue after abandoning their fiscal principles to follow the king of debt.

And that's your reality check.

BERMAN: Math rules. All right, John Avlon. Thank you very much.

CAMEROTA: It seemed like he was good at it there.

All right. A former Marine who is Muslim is issuing a challenge to Fox News host Jeanine Pirro. The two burning questions he has for her.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: Fox News host Jeanine Pirro is under fire for comments she made Saturday night -- listen.

[07:55:00] (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEANINE PIRRO, HOST, FOX NEWS "JUSTICE WITH JUDGE JEANINE": Think about it. Omar wears a hijab, which according to the Quran 33:59 tells women to cover so they won't get molested. Is her adherence to this Islamic doctrine indicative of her adherence to Sharia law, which in itself is antithetical to the United States Constitution?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Well, in response, Mansoor Shams, a Marine -- a Marine Corps veteran and a former -- sorry, a founder of MuslimMarine.org, tweeted this.

"Then this 'MuslimMarine' has two quick questions for Jeanine Pirro. What is an American Jew wearing a yamaka and an American nun covering her head/body 'indicative' of?"

Mansoor Shams joins us now. Mansoor, thank you very much for being here.

After you tweeted that it got a lot of attention. Did you hear from Jeanine Pirro?

MANSOOR SHAMS, FOUNDER, MUSLIMMARINE.ORG: I have not. Good morning to you.

CAMEROTA: Good morning to you, as well.

I am sure she will watch, at some point, this segment. So what do you want Jeanine Pirro to know?

SHAMS: Well, you know, as you -- as you've stated, my name is Mansoor Shams. I'm the founder of MuslimMarine.org. And I've been using my unique platform of a Muslim and a U.S. Marine to counter the sort of things like this as sort of a hate and bigotry and Islamophobia through education, conversation, and dialogue.

And I have to say that I'm extremely distraught and disturbed at the sort of things that are taking place in this nation for the last many years and this message by Ms. Jeanine Pirro, who happens to be a lawyer. And I don't know what Constitution that she's been reading.

It's extremely worrisome to me. You know, it's having real-life implications.

I have a 12-year-old kid who told me that in his middle school, as they were exchanging classes, that this other child comes in and yells "Allahu Akbar" -- you're all going to die -- shuts the door, and runs.

This has got to stop. This is having real-life impact on real people.

I live in a Jewish community myself and I see Jewish women wearing wigs. I see them covering their hair in these pouches. I see the Jewish men wearing these black suits and the kippah. I have to ask her what the heck is that indicative of?

CAMEROTA: Here's what Jeanine Pirro said after coming under fire.

She said, "I've seen a lot of comments about my opening from Saturday night's show and I did not call Congresswoman Omar un-American. My intention was to ask a question and start a debate. But, of course, because one is Muslim does not mean you don't support the Constitution.

I invite Congresswoman Omar to come on my show any time to discuss all of the important issues."

Were you satisfied that she understood?

SHAMS: No. No, not at all. I think she should be fired.

I mean, the reality is this is not her track record. I mean, you don't have to just look at this statement.

And, Fox News making an attempt to give -- you know, saying that they don't stand by the statement, that's not how you stand -- not stand by a statement. You take action and that action is that you fire an individual like this who is constantly dividing America.

And I think America has to really sort of decide which path and which direction it wants to go in. Do you want to listen to people like her who are dividing us and destroying the fabric of this nation or do you want to look at -- when it comes to at least Islam, do you want to come to people like me who is -- who has actually got a resume to prove it?

CAMEROTA: You know, Fox News, as you say, put out this statement.

And then, Congresswoman Omar, who was the subject of this -- she said, "Thank you, Fox News. No one's commitment to our Constitution should be questioned because of their faith or country of birth."

So why do you think that Congresswoman Omar is accepting this statement and not going as far as you are?

SHAMS: You know, I think she's got enough heat over the last few weeks. I've seen what's been going on. I mean, now I think she's probably very cautious of the type of words that are coming out of her mouth. But I don't think that in any way that she's satisfied with this sort of -- this sort of statement.

And I think the true action by Fox News would be to actually fire an individual like her. They don't deserve to have the sort of platform that they have. They're destroying millions of people's lives and making millions at their cost.

And again, as I mentioned before, I think it's time for America to really do some self-reflection and decide do you want an individual like her to dictate the narrative or do you want individuals like myself who actually signed on the dotted line saying that they would die for this nation -- who have served this country with dignity and loyalty?

I don't understand, honestly, what is taking place. It's really disturbing and I'm saying again is having real implications on real people's lives. Today, I may be the scapegoat but tomorrow it could be you. This is dangerous for everyone.

CAMEROTA: Yes. Your message is really powerful. I invite everybody to go to MuslimMarine.org and they can see that you have gone to 24 states and you carry your sign "I'm a Muslim and a Marine -- ask anything" because you're trying to start education and conversation. And that is just a really valuable service.

Thank you. I'm sorry, we're out of time, Mansoor Shams.

SHAMS: OK.

CAMEROTA: But we will have you back. Thank you for your service. Thank you for your service to dialogue.

SHAMS: Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Thank you so much.

END