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The Lead with Jake Tapper

Trump Says He Has No Plans to Fire Mueller; New Trump Remarks After Security Briefing. Aired 4:30-5p ET

Aired August 10, 2017 - 16:30   ET

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

GORDON HUMPHREY (R-NH), FORMER U.S. SENATOR: He really should be -- Congress and the cabinet should be thinking in serious terms about whether he's fit to serve.

[16:30:05] JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Have you talked to any members of the cabinet? Have you talked to any of your former colleagues in the U.S. Senate about this issue?

HUMPHREY: I have, yes. Yes.

TAPPER: Any Republicans?

HUMPHREY: Not a great many. I live in New Hampshire. I'm not a denizen of Washington. I left there a long time ago.

But I'm finding that behind the scenes, they're saying the man is crazy. In front of the scenes, they're not quite ready to do that and that's why it's so important that we talk about the 25th Amendment to the Constitution which authorizes the cabinet or the Congress in the alternative to appoint a body that either finds the president fit or unfit from a physical and/or mental point of view to exercise his powers.

Most Americans don't know that or are not aware of that amendment. It's been part of the constitution now for 50 years but that part of it, Article 4 of the 25th Amendment, has never been used before so people aren't aware of it. If Congress and the cabinet are ever to get to the point where they feel comfortable in exercising their constitutional powers, then public opinion and awareness must be prepared.

TAPPER: All right. Senator Gordon Humphrey, thank you so much.

Tell us when you hear back from the members of the New Hampshire congressional delegation. We'd love to have you back on.

HUMPHREY: Thank you very much, Jake.

TAPPER: Back to the breaking news this hour, President Trump saying he has not given firing special counsel Robert Mueller any thought in new comments this hour.

Let's go to CNN White House correspondent Sara Murray who's with President Trump in New Jersey -- Sara. SARA MURRAY, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jake, it looks like

the president covered a lot of ground again in speaking to reporters, waiting for the tape of this. This is, of course, the second time he's fielded questions from reporters this afternoon.

Now, he did talk more about North Korea. He talked about the threats that North Korea has made, potentially striking somewhere near Guam, and essentially said, try it and see how we respond. The president said that that was not a dare, it was just a statement.

But he also talked a little more about the Russia investigation. He mentioned seeing the news of the raid on Paul Manafort's home, this pre-dawn FBI raid and the president said he was surprised to see that. It sent a strong signal.

And, Jake, that matches what sources were telling me yesterday that there were those in Trump's inner circle here in Bedminster, New Jersey, that were very rattled to see and hear the news of this pre- dawn raid at Paul Manafort's home. They said that's an indication that Mueller is not proceeding carefully with this.

Now, Trump also talked about his interactions have been like with Mueller. He said he and his team are essentially working with Mueller but they're not really passing communications back and forth. That's a little different from what we had heard from Trump's chief counsel, John Dowd. He did an interview with "USA Today", where he said he did pass some messages on to Robert Mueller, the special counsel in the Russia investigation on behalf of the president.

And Jake, there was another fascinating point the president made that I want to get to. When we talk about what's going on and the dynamic between U.S. and Russia relations and this is, of course, what's been happening with the U.S. embassy in Russia. We know that in response to the U.N. sanctions that Russia has been trying to retaliate. They said they're going to kick out diplomats at the embassy there.

And the president had -- I don't know how you want to take this, if it was snarky, if it was cheeky, if he was being dead serious, we're waiting to see the tape. But this is the first time he's responded to the news that Russia wants the U.S. to pair back its embassy staff and he said he wants to thank Putin because we're trying to cut down our payroll, and as far as I'm concerned, very thankful that they're going to let go of a large number of people -- Jake.

TAPPER: All right. Sara, stick around, we're going to come back to you. We have a lot to talk about with my political panel so let's dive right in.

So, Phil Mudd, former CIA and FBI official, you have President Trump and we will hear the tone in which he made these remarks in a second, but saying that in terms of Russian President Putin kicking out embassy staff, saying, good, because we've been trying to pare down the staff, he's doing us a favor.

PHIL MUDD, CNN COUNTERTERRORISM ANALYST: Look, you have wars of choice and wars of options. The president is choosing which choice he wants to make, that is he's choosing not to focus on Russia. Russia is an opportunity in Syria. Russia is a threat in Europe. He's choosing to go down an optional route, that is to raise the stakes with North Korea.

We should be telling North Koreans, look, you're a fourth world economy at best. You do not pose a serious threat to America economically. Maybe you do in a nuclear fashion but we'll deal with the Chinese and the South Koreans and figure it out.

Meanwhile, he should be raising the stakes with the Russians saying you posed a threat in Europe. You're an option we have to deal with in Syria. You're a potential key on the Iranian nuclear deal.

The priorities here are interesting because I can't figure out why the president is choosing to de-prioritize Russia, which is the key to so many things that are crucial to American security, and prioritize the North Koreans who have fewer than 1,000 miles of paved roads.

[16:35:06] Why are we doing this?

NEERA TANDEN, PRESIDENT, CENTER FOR AMERICAN PROGRESS: I have an idea on Russia, which is not --

TAPPER: I bet you do.

TANDEN: On every single issue related to Russia, the president has basically taken the position that is closest he can get to the Russian position. I mean, he attacks every country, every group, everyone he feels maligned by, but the Russians basically say they're going to ship out 700 personnel and he's agreeing with them or joking about how it's not a terrible thing. It's the only area in which he deescalates or takes their position on every issue, and you wonder why people are raising questions about his relationship with Russia and possible collusion.

TAPPER: I is as a matter of fact true, Amanda, that President Trump has gone after everyone from Meryl Streep to Don Lemon to the cast of "Hamilton", but I can't find one time he has said anything negative about Vladimir Putin. In fact, when Bill O'Reilly said Putin's a killer, the president said that we got a lot of killers. You think we're so innocent, about the United States -- a remarkable comment for an American president to make.

AMANDA CARPENTER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, I mean, I think it's a remarkable amount of spin to act like the removal of Americans from that country is somehow good. I think people need to ask questions about how President Trump is pretending to project strength on the international stage. Republicans standing by him say he's strong, this is the kind of president we need.

No, you are elevating North Korea. They shoot a BB gun into the ocean we'll be in a position of having to respond or do something. We're at their mercy right now and that is a bad position to be in and also we're losing staff in Russia.

TAPPER: Let's play that tape of the new sound from President Trump. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

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

We are having a meeting today, we actually had a much larger group than this. This is the finals. But we discussed many things. One of them obviously was North Korea. We discussed Venezuela. We discussed Afghanistan and the Middle East generally.

We had some very good meetings, very good ideas, very good thoughts, and a lot of decisions were made. This was a very important day actually. Made a lot of decisions.

With that, if you have any questions? Yes?

REPORTER: Did you make any decision on Afghanistan, whether to add additional --

TRUMP: Yes, we're getting close. It's a very big decision for me. I took over a mess, and we're going to make it a lot less messy, but that has been a place -- 17 years, our longest war, I read in one of your columns.

REPORTER: Yes.

TRUMP: And frankly, it's going to be a decision that's going to be made very soon.

REPORTER: And do you have full confidence in your national security adviser?

TRUMP: Yes, I do. General McMaster, absolutely. He's our friend, he's my friend and he's a very talented man. I like him and I respect him.

REPORTER: Sir, why did you decide to announce the transgender ban reversal a couple of weeks ago? And are you betraying a community that you pledged to support?

TRUMP: Look, I have great respect for the community. I think I have great support or I've had great support from that community. I got a lot of votes.

But the transgender, the military is working on it now. They're doing the work. It's been a very difficult situation. And I think I'm doing a lot of people a favor by coming out and just saying it.

As you know, it's been a very complicated issue for the military. It's been a very confusing issue for the military. I think I'm doing the military a great favor.

REPORTER: Mr. President, do you have any response to the Russian president expelling 755 workers from our embassy?

TRUMP: No. I want to thank him because we're trying to cut down on payroll, and as far as I'm concerned I'm very thankful that he let go of a large number of people because now we have a smaller payroll. There's no real reason for them to go back. So, I greatly appreciate the fact that they've been able to cut our payroll for the United States. We'll save a lot of money.

REPORTER: Mr. President, was it appropriate for the FBI to raid the home of Paul Manafort pre-dawn?

TRUMP: I thought it was a very, very strong signal or whatever. I know Mr. Manafort. I haven't spoken to him a long time, but I know him. He was with the campaign, as you know, for a very short period of time, relatively short period of time but I've always known him to be a good man. I thought it was a very, you know -- they do that very seldom, so I was surprised to see it. I was very, very surprised to see it. We haven't really been involved -- excuse me?

REPORTER: Have you spoken to the FBI director about it? Or the --

TRUMP: No, I have not. I have not. But to do that early in the morning, whether or not it was appropriate, you'd have to ask them.

[16:40:04] I've always found Paul Manafort to be a very decent man, and he's like a lot of other people, probably makes consultant fees from all over the place, who knows, I don't know. But I thought that was a very -- pretty tough stuff. To wake him up, perhaps his family was there, I think that's pretty tough stuff.

REPORTER: Mr. President, speaking of the attorney general, have you -- how would you categorize your relationship with the Attorney General Sessions? Have you guys spoken about the differences you've had in the past?

TRUMP: It's fine. It is what it is. It's fine.

He's working hard on the border. I'm very proud of what we've done on the border. I'm very proud of General Kelly and what he's done on the border.

One of the reasons he's my chief of staff right now is because he did such an outstanding job at the border. We're down 78 percent. Nobody thought that would be. I mean, in the old days with other administrations, if you were down 1 percent, it was considered a big thing. We're down 78 percent at the border and nobody thought that was possible.

So I'm very proud of General Kelly. He's now chief of staff.

At the same time, I'm very proud of what we've done over the last six months, between Supreme Court, tremendous amounts of legislation that's been passed. You know, we had 42 to 48 bills passed. I'm not talking about just executive orders. I'm talking about bills passed.

We had massive executive orders. We got rid of record-setting amounts of regulations and a lot of it is statutory where it's a 90-day period and you have to wait. Then it's another 90-day period, you have to wait 30 days. Much more is coming out. And I believe in regulation. You have to have some regulation, but

we're going to have a small percentage of regulation compared to what we have, and I think that's why you see business enthusiasm is the highest it's been in 18 years, why unemployment is the lowest it's been in 18 years. The unemployment rate just came out. It's the lowest it's been in 18 years.

With that being said, we have companies moving into the United States, whether it's Foxconn, you saw the two large auto companies moving back. Probably they'll go to Michigan, but they're negotiating with various states.

We have had -- we have done a lot in a short period of time, so I'm very proud of it. I think that General Kelly is going to be a fantastic chief of staff however.

REPORTER: Mr. President, are you going to increase the U.S. military presence in Asia?

TRUMP: We're going to look at what's happening in Asia. We're looking at it right now. We're constantly looking at it. I don't like to signal what I'm going to be doing but we are certainly looking at it and, obviously, we're spending a lot of time looking at, in particular, North Korea.

And we are preparing for many different alternative events with North Korea. He has disrespected our country greatly. He has said things that are horrific.

And with me, he's not getting away with it. He got away with it for a long time between him and his family. He's not getting away with it. It's a whole new ball game. And he's not going to be saying those things and certainly not doing those things.

I read about , we're in Guam by August 15th. Let's see what he does with Guam. If he does something in Guam, it will be an event the likes of which nobody has seen before, what will happen in North Korea.

REPORTER: When you say that, what do you mean?

TRUMP: You'll see. You'll see. And he'll see. He will see.

REPORTER: Is that a dare?

TRUMP: It's not a dare. It's a statement. It has nothing to do with dare. That's a statement.

He's not going to go around threatening Guam and he's not going to threaten the United States and he's not going to threaten Japan, and he's not going to threaten South Korea.

No, that's not a dare, as you say. That is a statement of fact.

REPORTER: Mr. President, can you talk about the nuclear posture and what your priorities are there? TRUMP: Yes. Nuclear to me, number one, I would like to de-nuke the

world.

I know that President Obama said global warming is the biggest threat. I totally disagree. I say that it's a simple one. Nuclear is our greatest threat worldwide, not even a question. Not even close.

So, I'd like to de-nuke the world. I would like Russia and the United States and China and Pakistan and many other countries that have nuclear weapons get rid of them. But until such time as they do, we will be the most powerful nuclear nation on earth by far.

The first order I gave to my generals, as you know -- you know, Mike -- my first order was I want this, our nuclear arsenal, to be the biggest and the finest in the world. We spent a lot of money, a lot of time, and a lot of effort, and it's in tip-top shape and getting better, and getting stronger. And until such time as this scourge disappears, we will be so much better and so much stronger than anybody else, and nobody, including North Korea, is going to be threatening us with anything.

REPORTER: Sir, what specifically have you changed in the nuclear arsenal? And the reason I ask, a lot of experts yesterday in response to your tweet said that modernizing the arsenal takes many years. It can't be done in six months. It's a long process that's only just begun.

TRUMP: We've done a lot of modernization but we've done a lot of renovation and we have it now in very, very good shape, and it will be in much better shape over the next six months to a year. It's a very important thing. Actually, it was the first - military is very important to me. As you know, I did extremely well with the military vote, Mike and I, but we are - my first order was we have to do the military but before we do the military per se we're going to do the nuclear, and we are in very strong shape. We are going to be increasing our budget by many billions of dollars because of North Korea and other reasons having to do with the anti-missile. So we are going to be increasing our budget by many billions of dollars. We'll probably be able to report that over the next week. As you know, we reduced it by 5 percent but I've decided I don't want that. We are going to be increasing the anti-missiles by a substantial amount of billions of dollars.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, (INAUDIBLE) on Iran (INAUDIBLE) whether you feel like they are in compliance or will be in compliance.

TRUMP: I don't think Iran is in compliance. We wrote them a very tough letter to the - as you know, to the Congress. I personally don't think they're in compliance but we have time and we're going to see. We also put down a lot of defaults or potentially default situations. I don't think they're living up to the spirit of the agreement. President Obama in his wisdom gave them $150 billion. He gave them $1.8 billion in cash which is - that's a hard one to figure, but that was his decision. I think it's a horrible agreement. But they are not in compliance with the agreement and they are certainly not in the spirit of the agreement in compliance. And I think you'll see some very strong things taking place if they don't get themselves in compliance. But I do not believe they are in compliance right now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, what's the latest on the leak investigation that the Attorney General announced late last week and is there any separate investigations that your -

TRUMP: Yes, sure, we're looking - we're always looking. You have two leaks. You have the leaks coming out of intelligence and various departments having to do with Syria, having to do with all sorts of different places, having to do, frankly, with North Korea and those are very serious. And then you have the leaks where people want to love me and they're all fighting for love. Those are not very important, but certainly, we don't like them. Those are little inner White House leaks. They're not very important. But actually, I'm somewhat honored by them. But the important leaks to me and they're leaks that the Attorney General is looking at very strongly are the leaks coming out of intelligence. And we have to stop them for the security and the national security of our country.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, any notes to the Special Counsel, Bob Mueller, can you talk about -

TRUMP: No, not now. We're working with them. We have a situation which is very unusual. Everybody said there's no collusion. You look at the counsels that come in. We have a Senate hearing, we have judiciary, we have intelligence, and we have a house hearing, and everybody walks out, even the enemies, they said no, there's no collusion, there's no collusion. So they're investigating something that never happened. There was no collusion between us and Russia. In fact, the opposite. Russia spent a lot of money on fighting me. And if you think about it, I want a strong military. You see our budget is up by - it will be hundreds of billions of dollars soon, our military budget. Russia doesn't like that.

Hillary was going to cut the budget substantially, the military budget. Russia is very important for Russia, oil, oil, and gas. We are now an exporter because of an incredible six months that I've had, an exporter of oil and gas. That's bad for Russia. I always said, I don't think Russia wants me because I want a strong military and I want low energy prices. Energy is a disaster, low energy prices is a disaster for Russia. Additionally, it seems that Russia spent a lot of money on that false report. And that was Russian money and I think it was Democrat money too. You could say that was collusion. Plus the Democrats colluded on the Ukraine. So they colluded. And then when you get down to it, why isn't the FBI looking at the DNC server? You have a server that they refused - the Democrats refused to give to the FBI.

Now, I don't know how the FBI can investigate something if the DNC, the Democrats, refuse to give the server. So we have an investigation of something that never took place. And all I say is work with them because this is an event that never took place. Now, as far as somebody elsewhere, did they file the right papers or did they forget to file a paper, you know, I guarantee you, if you went around and looked at everybody that made a speech or whatever these people did, that's up to them. Did they do something wrong because they didn't file the right document or whatever, perhaps you'll have to look at them but I guarantee you this, probably a lot of people in Washington did the same thing?

[16:50: 27] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, given your harsh criticism of the democrats now, how are you going to bring them in on things like infrastructure?

TRUMP: Well, we'll have to see. I'm not sure that we will bring them in. I mean, maybe we'll bring them in, maybe not. I think the infrastructure bill will be bipartisan. In fact, frankly, I may have more support from the Democrats. I want a very strong infrastructure bill. We, as of this moment, spent over $6 trillion in the Middle East. As far as I'm concerned, when I say spent, we've wasted $6 trillion in the Middle East. And yet we can't fix our roads and our bridges and our schools and our airports and I think that's a very sad situation. So, I'm very strong on infrastructure and a lot of Republicans are but I know a lot of Democrats are also. I think that will work out. I think it's going to work out very well.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, you thought or thought about, considered leading the dismissal of the Special Counsel. Is there anything that Bob Mueller could do that would send you in that direction?

TRUMP: I haven't given it any thought. I mean, I've been reading about it from you people. You say I'm going to dismiss him. No, I'm not going to dismiss anybody. I mean, I want them to get on with the task but I also want the Senate and the House to come out with their findings. Now, judging from the people leaving the meetings, leaks, but they leave the meetings all the time and they say, no, we haven't found any collusion. There's no - there is no collusion. You know why? Because I don't speak to Russians. Look, I won because I suppose I was a much better candidate than her.

I won because I went to Wisconsin, I went to Michigan. I won Pennsylvania. I fought a smart battle that's why I win. I didn't win because of Russia. Russia had nothing to do with me winning. The thing that - we had a great team and I guess I did a good job. And you know what, honestly, they spent much more money than I did by a lot, you know that. They spent a lot more money and honestly they did not do a very good job of campaigning.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And one more question about Senator -- Senate Leader McConnell. We talked about - you talked about him outside a little bit earlier. Have you reached out to him since your phone call yesterday -

TRUMP: No.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And have you given any consideration to asking his wife, your Transportation Secretary to help bridge whatever -

TRUMP: Elaine is doing a very good job. We're very proud of Elaine as Secretary of Transportation. As you - as you said, Mitch's wife, she's doing a very, very good job. I'm very disappointed in Mitch, but if he gets these bills passed, I'll be very happy with him. I'll be the first to admit it. But honestly, repeal and replace of ObamaCare should have taken place and it should have been on my desk virtually the first week or the first day I was there. I've been hearing about it for seven years. So repeal and replace should have taken place. The tax bill, tax cuts, tax reform, hopefully, they get that done. I hope they get it done. And the other thing would be the infrastructure bill. In addition to that, you know, we've passed a lot of things. We passed accountability with the V.A., we passed a lot. We're doing a lot of great work at the V.A. And we're doing a lot of great work all over.

You look at what's happening with the coal industry with them putting on. I mean, I looked at West Virginia the other day. I was in West Virginia making a speech and they are doing great as a state. The great Governor of West Virginia, Jim, who you saw, he just became a Republican. He left, it's first time in many, many years a thing like that's happened. He just left the Democratic Party and became a Republican which was a great moment, hasn't happened in many years. So we're very, very happy with what's happened. We think it's been an incredible six months. We've done you know, a lot of record-setting business. It's incredible. You look at what's going on with the economy, and you know to me, very important, you look at the enthusiasm of businesses, you look at companies moving back in.

You just saw on Friday the two big car companies that are coming in. You saw last week, FOXCONN, they make the Apple iPhones, they make all of the desktops. They make - they're the biggest in the world. They're coming into Wisconsin with an unbelievable plant like we've never seen before. And I actually said to Tim Cook of Apple, I said, you know, Tim, I won't consider myself successful as President unless I see you start building those big beautiful plants that you have all over China, you start building them in the United States. And he's going to do that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, you were critical of the intelligence in the run-up to the Iraq war. Should we trust the intelligence now we're hearing about North Korea?

TRUMP: Well, you know, it's different intelligence. I have Mike Pompeo, I have great confidence in him. That doesn't mean I had confidence in his predecessor, OK, which I didn't actually, although he did say good things about me. He did say he had no information or no anything on collusion. So I shouldn't maybe say that. But I will say it. But I have tremendous confidence in Mike Pompeo, Dan Coats, fantastic. I mean, we have - we have people. I think the new head of the FBI is going to be - I think I've done a great service for this country. I think that Christopher will do a fantastic job as the head of the FBI.

So, look, I have - nobody has greater respect for intelligence than Donald Trump, but you have to have the right leaders. I think we have great leaders right now. And you know, you can look at the intelligence over the years. It was intelligence that got people to make one of the worst decisions ever made in the history of our country going into Iraq because they said there were no weapons - you know, you look at it, it ended up being there were no weapons of mass destruction. They said, I mean, listening to them, weapons of mass destruction were all over the place but they were not there. That was intelligence. I have great respect for intelligence as led by the people that I have in charge now. We have great people, and I think - I think it's going to lead us to tremendous victories. And that's what we need.

[16:56:09] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What is that intelligence telling you about North Korea?

TRUMP: It's telling me a lot of things. But you'll probably find out about it before anybody else, right? With your leaks, we got to stop the leaks. The leaks are very dangerous for our country. But no, I have great respect for the intelligence community and I think with the leadership we have right now, hopefully, it will be a very, very successful eight years for this country and then after that we'll continue onward. But we have a lot of things we have to straighten out. You have the Middle East, you have North Korea. We have a lot of places of tremendous conflict and tremendous danger for this country.

I will say, getting the 15-0 vote at the United Nations from the Security Council the other day, that's something that very few Presidents would have been able to get. And I have great respect for the fact that China and Russia went along with it. That was a tremendous day for the United States. I think it will have a strong impact on North Korea. I don't know that it will be the end all but I think it will be a very, very - I think it will have a big impact on North Korea and what they're doing. Thank you all very much. Thank you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: President Trump taking questions from reporters in Bedminster, New Jersey, a lot to talk about. President Trump has not taken comments like that from reporters, taken questions, I think since February when he had that one singular press conference. We have a lot to digest with my panel. I want to start, guys, with the comments that President Trump made when asked about the fact that in retaliation for the sanctions against Russia, Vladimir Putin expelled 755 U.S. diplomats and other personnel from the embassy in Moscow. Take a listen to what President Trump had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: No, I want to thank him because we're trying to cut down on payroll. And as far as I'm concerned, I'm very thankful that he let go of a large number of people because now we have a smaller payroll. There's no real reason for them to go back. So, I greatly appreciate the fact that they've been able to cut our payroll for the United States. We'll save a lot of money.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: I mean, first of all, it's not going to help cut payroll at all. That's just not how government budgets work. But beyond that, what Putin did was an anti-American action. Period. That's all it was. That's the definition of an anti-American action, and there President Trump is thanking him for carrying it out. NEERA TANDEN, CENTER FOR AMERICAN PROGRESS PRESIDENT: Yes, I mean,

Americans versus the Russian interest, right? This is actually happening because of the sanctions. Putin said it is retaliation against America for what it did. He's expelling American diplomats and others, and the President is cheering him on. I mean, it is - it is a bizarre act for the American President to take the side of a foreign government against our own state department personnel who are being expelled.

TAPPER: And Amanda, when we first heard that he had said this, I think we all said - we all thought to o1urselves, well, maybe he was joking, he was trying to be funny but there wasn't any obvious attempt at humor there.

AMANDA CARPENTER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: No, it looked like he was being fairly serious. Does he believe his own spin, I'm not sure, but that is the answer that he gave when asked about Americans leaving the country. I think the next time he should probably roll over and ask Putin to scratch his belly. I mean, this is an act of submission. There's no win for America. We don't have staff on the ground with a very important country not only for geopolitical reasons but because they meddled in our election and there's investigations going on. I can't accept that as an excuse and I think, other people should press him for a better answer.

TAPPER: What was your response (INAUDIBLE)?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A couple of surprises. Let me give you one bottom line as a former government official. The government is going to kill this guy. He defends Vladimir Putin, their State Department, and CIA officers are coming home. And at Langley and in foggy bottom, CIA and State they're saying, this is how you defend us? We saw the same thing in his transgender comments. What is the military saying to him on transgender? Show us the policy. You know what that means inside government, ain't going to happen. What did the Department of Justice say on Paul Manafort? You can say what you want, a judge told us we cause to search his home early in the morning because we don't trust the guy who was your campaign manager.