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Trump & NATO Secretary-General Hold Joint Press Conference. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired April 02, 2019 - 14:30   ET

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

[14:30:00] DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And I think tremendous progress has been made, if you look -- in fact, you showed me this originally yourself -- if you look at the charts and the different things, you go back 10 and 15 years and it is a roller coaster ride down in terms of payment, and since I came to office, it's a rocket ship up. We've picked up over $140 billion of additional money and we look like we're going to have at least another $100 billion more in spending by the nations, the 28 nations. We're going to have -- and that is exclusive of the United States. We'll have another $100 billion more by 2020 or a little bit into 2020. So tremendous progress has been made and NATO is much stronger because of that progress.

And Mr. Secretary-General, it is a great honor to have you with us at the White House. Thank you.

Thank you very much.

JENS STOLTENBERG, SECRETARY-GENERAL, UNITED NATIONS: Thank you, Mr. President. And thank you for hosting me once again in the White House. It is great to be back. Great to see you. And thank you for your strong commitment to NATO, to our alliance and to our trans- Atlantic bond and for your strong position on burden sharing. Because as just mentioned, after years of cutting the defense budgets, NATO allies have started to invest more and, by the end of next year, they will add $100 billion more into the defense budgets since you took office. And that helps. And it proves also that NATO is a strong alliance. We have increases in the forces and we have stepped up in our joint fight against terrorism. And we are investing more. So actually North America and the United States and Europe, we are doing more together now than we have done for many, many years. And that is all shows the strength of this alliance. We are celebrating the 70th anniversary of NATO. So it is great to see you. I look forward to our meeting and thank you for your support.

TRUMP: Thank you. And it has been an honor.

And we're very proud of what is happened over the last couple of years with respect to the relationship and to NATO. A lot of the media doesn't understand what took place, but a tremendous amount of additional money was invested by other nations, which was a fair thing from the United States -- from our stand point, the standpoint of the United States, and a lot more money will be invested. But we've been picking up a tremendous and disproportionate share and we just want fairness. I have to have fairness for our taxpayer, too. And I think that is what is happening. And I very much appreciate it.

Thank you very much.

Thank you all very much.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Mr. President, is it your intention, sir, to close the border this weekend? What would it take to not close the border?

TRUMP: Well I haven't made that intention known and I'm ready to close it if I have to close it. Mexico, as you know, as of yesterday, has been starting to apprehend a lot of people at their southern border coming in from Honduras and Guatemala and El Salvador and they've -- they're apprehending thousands of people. And it is the first time really in decades that this is taken place. And this should have taken place a long time ago. Mexico has the strongest immigration laws in the world. Nobody has stronger. I guess some have the same but you can't get any stronger than what Mexico has. And we don't want people coming up on this dangerous journey and coming in. Our system is absolutely maxed out and Border Patrol has done an incredible job. But the system is absolutely maxed out. And it is a very unfair thing. So Mexico has -- as of yesterday, made a big difference. You'll see that because few people of any are coming up and they say they're going to stop them. Let's see. They have the power and the laws to stop them.

And what we have to do is Congress has to meet quickly and make a deal. I could do it in 45 minutes. We need to get rid of chain migration. We need to get rid of Catch and Release and visa lottery and we have to do something about asylum. And to be honest with you, I have to get rid of judges. Every time -- and you won't even believe this, Mr. Secretary-General, you catch somebody that is coming illegally into your country, and they bring them to a court. But we can't bring them to a court because you could never have that many judges. So they take their name and they take their information and they release them. Now we don't release too many. We keep them. It is called catch and keep. But you don't have facilities for that. But you have to bring them through a court system. If they touch your land, one foot on your land, welcome to being Perry Mason. You now have a big trial.

So what they've done over the years is they release them into the United States and they say come back in four years for a trial. And nobody comes back. I guess 1 percent -- 1 percent to 2 percent come back and nobody can understand why they come back. They are the only ones that come back. It is the -- the worst, dumbest immigration system in the world.

[14:35:12] The Democrats could change it with one meeting, everybody would agree. But they don't want to change it because they don't want to give the Republicans a victory, they don't want to change it because they want open borders, which means crime and lots of other things coming in, including drugs. So we'll see what happens. I think the Democrats today -- I spoke to a couple of them and, all of a sudden, they are changing because they're seeing it really is a crisis. It is a national emergency on the border. And let's see if they can do it.

But I want to thank -- it is a very short period of time because for years this should have been done but Mexico is now stopping people coming very easy for them to do and stopping people from coming in through Mexico. Let's see if they keep it done. If they keep doing that. Now, if they don't, or if we don't make a deal with Congress, the border is going to be closed, 100 percent. And this should have been done by other presidents. So many things should have been done by other presidents, but if we don't make a deal with Congress, or if Mexico -- and probably you could say and/or -- if Mexico doesn't do what they should be doing, they shouldn't have people coming into their country either. This is their southern border they have to protect. And then we'll close the border and that is it or close large sections of the border. Maybe not all of it. But it is the only way we're getting a response and I'm totally ready to do it.

And I will say this, many people want me to do it. Because we're being abused by a bad legal system that was put in by Democrats and that has to be changed. And it can be changed in 45 minutes if they want to change it. Let's see what they do.

Yes, Steve?

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Do you worry about the impact on the U.S. economy by closing the border?

Trump: Sure it is going to have a negative impact on the economy. It is one of the biggest trade deals in the world that we've just done with the USMCA. It is a big trading partner. But to me, trading is very important. The borders are very important. But security is what is most important. I have to have security. This is what this gentleman is all about, to my right. And we're going to have security in this country. That is more important than trade. Hey, all you hear me talking about is trade. But let me just give you a little secret, security is more important to me than trade. So we're going to have a strong border or a closed border. And when we close that border, we will stop hundreds of millions of dollars of drugs from coming in, because a tremendous amount of drugs come through our southern border. And so that is one of the benefits. So I'm totally prepared to do it. We'll see what happens over the next few days.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: It sounds like Mexico is doing enough to keep you from immediately closing the border, though, from what -- all of their apprehension.

TRUMP: They made a big step over the last few days. They are apprehending people. You see how many there are -- it is a lot of people. The fact that they are doing that means fewer people are going to come. But we pay hundreds of millions of dollars to Honduras and Guatemala and El Salvador as a combination. And what do they do? They don't do anything for us. It is supposed to be money well spent. I understand the reason for it. But that money doesn't get there. So we're giving hundreds of millions of dollars to these three countries and the money is not going to where it is supposed to be going, number one. Number two, they're taking advantage of the United States. And they have been for many years. So I cut off the payments yesterday. I know what the payments are supposed to be for. They're supposed to be to help so that they don't have this problem. But they don't do that. The money is gone and it is not spent properly. And they arrange -- the thing that bothers me more than anything, they arrange these caravans. And they don't put their best people in those caravans. They put people in you don't want to have in the United States and we're not going to have them in the United States. It is very simple. It is very, very simple.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Mr. President --

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: -- on health care. Mr. President --

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE QUESTION).

TRUMP: Say again?

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE QUESTION).

TRUMP: I think he's been a terrific leader. And I could just say, during my time, so it is already amazing two and a half years. But we get along really well. And he made his first statement was we had our first meeting and I think I got them to put up the other countries respectfully, 27 countries put up the other -- $64 billion, $64 billion. That is a lot of money. And he went out and he said, what a great job he did. A lot of people don't like giving credit. Like the media never gives me credit but the media gave me credit. Now up to $100 billion and it will be higher than that by the end of 2020. But I appreciate the job he's done. He's done an excellent job. And when it came time to renew, because a lot of people wanted that job, that is a great job -- it is --

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: -- but people wanted it but I had no doubt in my mind who I wanted.

[14:40:29] UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE) -- the vote until after the election.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE QUESTION)

TRUMP: People are paying and I'm very happy with the fact that they're paying.

Yes?

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: What kind of -- (INAUDIBLE)? TRUMP: I hope it is not a security threat. I hope we have a good

relationship with Russia and with, by the way, China, and everybody else. But I think the fact that we have NATO -- and NATO is a lot stronger since I've been president -- would you say that is correct? We've taken a lot more money --

(CROSSTALK)

STOLTENBERG: And they are investing more and we need to maintain credible defense in the defense for all NATO countries.

TRUMP: But I think we'll get along with Russia. I do believe that.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Mr. President Trump, on health care, why are you pushing a vote on health care replacement until after the 2020 election.

TRUMP: Because I think we'll have a great health care package. I think the Republican Party will become the party of health care. I see what the Democrats are doing. It is a disaster. What they're planning and everyone knows it. You'll lose 180 million people under private insurance and very important, Obamacare has been such a catastrophe because it is far too expensive, it cost the people -- they can't afford it and of course the premiums are very high, $7,000 to $8,000 on average so you have to spend $8,000 before you hit. So Obamacare is bad. So if we get back the House and on the assumption we keep the Senate and we keep the presidency, which I hope are two good assumptions, we'll have phenomenal health care.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Mr. President -- (INAUDIBLE)?

TRUMP: No, I wanted to delay it and put it after the election because we don't have the House, so even though the health care is good, really good, it is much better than when the plan comes out, which we'll be showing you at the appropriate time, it is much better than Obamacare. So when the plan comes out, you'll see it. It is possible that the Democrats would want to do it. It is much better for the people. But I'm assuming they won't because the Democrats never do anything that necessarily is going to be anything other than political. So what happens is we'll go through the election and we have a very good chance at retaking the House and we have a very good chance at keeping the Senate, and I think we will keep the Senate, and I think we're going to keep the presidency and we'll vote in the best health care package we've ever had.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Mr. President, tomorrow --

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: -- NATO accomplish - (INAUDIBLE)/

TRUMP: I think maybe things they've accomplished but they stand for a signal of truth and of strength. And we have a great leader.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Mr. President --

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE QUESTION)?

TRUMP: I'll be talking about Germany. I always talk about Germany. They are not paying their fair share. I have a great respect for Angela and I have great respect for the country. My father is German, was German, and born in a very wonderful place in Germany. So I have a great feeling for Germany. But they are not paying what they should be paying. They're paying close to 1 percent and they're supposed to be paying 2 percent. And the United States over the years got to appoint 4.3 percent which is unfair. And the U.S. GDP under me because the GDP has gone up so much because it is 4.3 percent of a much larger GDP. So we're paying for a big proportion of NATO, which basically is protecting Europe. So we're protecting Europe and, at the same time, they've taken advantage of us on trade. So we have the best of all worlds. We're protecting countries that have taken advantage of the United States in trade but it is all changing. It will take a while but it is all changing.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Mr. President, there's going to be a vote in the House Judiciary on a subpoena to demand a unredacted version of the Mueller report and all the background materials, if they do vote out the authority of the subpoenas, will the White House fight those?

TRUMP; I think it is ridiculous. We went through two years of the Mueller investigation. We have -- not only that, you read the wording. It was proven -- who could go through that and get wording where it was no collusion, no nothing. So there's no collusion. The attorney general now and the deputy attorney general ruled no obstruction. They said no obstruction. And so there's no collusion, there's no obstruction, and now we'll start this process all over again? I think it is a disgrace. These are just Democrats that want to try and demean this country. And it shouldn't be allowed. And I'll totally live by the attorney general -- I have great respect for the attorney general and I'll live by -- and nothing you give him, whether it is Shifty Schiff or Jerry Nadler, he's been fighting me for half of my life in Manhattan and I was very successful, thank you. But Nadler has been fighting me for years and years in Manhattan. Not successfully. I will tell you, anything we give them will never be enough.

[14:45:38] UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: What about the fact that --

TRUMP: We could give them -- it is a 400-page report, right? We could give them 800 pages and it wouldn't be enough. They'll always come back and say, it is not enough, it is not enough. This thing has gone on for two years. And really it started long before that. It practically started from the time I came down the escalator because this is a whole -- this was a whole plot, whether you want to use the insurance policy as a time frame, this is an insurance policy just in case she -- Hillary Clinton -- loses. Well, she lost and she lost big. This has been going on for years. Now they want to keep it going on. We had -- they spent over $30 million on an investigation. They found no collusion. Which, by the way, was the most ridiculous premise I've heard of any way and you understand exactly what I mean. No collusion. There was no collusion. There never was. After $30 million, we'll start this process again because Jerry Nadler wants to start it or because Schiff wants to start it. I'll rely on the attorney general to make decisions. But I will tell you, anything that is given to them will never be good enough. You could give them the -- more documents than they've ever seen and it would never be good enough. So I think it is somewhat of a waste of time. This is just politics at a very low level.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: What about the fact that Congressman Nadler opposed the release of the Starr report in 1989?

TRUMP: That is a good thing. And you bring that up. And Jerry Nadler was on the opposite side of this and thought it was a disgust thing to give the Starr report, but we should give the Mueller report. And the Mueller report is much tighter because the Starr report went to Congress and the Mueller report goes to the attorney general. So there's a difference. They made that because the Starr report got out of control with respect to going to Congress. Because I guess a lot of people had it that maybe shouldn't have had it and did bad things with it. So now they limited it to the attorney general and did that specifically for that reason. So Jerry Nadler thought the concept of giving the Starr report was absolutely something you could never do. But when it comes to the Mueller report, which is different on our side, that would be something that he should get. It's hypocrisy and it is a disgrace.

I will say this, look, there was no collusion. There was no obstruction. They were very disappointed. I don't know what they were thinking because they all know. I guarantee you, they go into a room between Nadler and Schiff and the group and they laugh like hell at how they've kept this thing going for two years. They laugh like hell. And I hope that this investigation now, which is finished, it is totally finished, no collusion, no obstruction, I hope they go and take a look at origins of the investigation, the beginnings of that investigation. You look at the origin of the investigation, where it started and how it started, who started it, whether it is McCabe or Comey or a lot of them, where does it go and how high up in the White House did it go? You will all get Pulitzer Prizes, OK, Pulitzer Prizes. You should have looked at it a long time ago.

And that is the only thing that is disappointing to me about the Mueller report, the Mueller report I wish covered the origin of how it started, the beginning of the investigation and how it started. It didn't cover that. And for some reason, none of that was discussed. If you look at the I.G. report, it's very serious. And we have another I.G. report coming out very soon but we'll learn a lot. But look at the beginnings and where it started. The whole -- the whole situation. Because this is been a very, very bad thing for our country. The question was asked before about Russia, about Germany, about all of the different things -- that you and I discuss so often. This has been a very bad thing for the United States. It has been a total waste of time. But what hasn't been a waste of time is some very bad people started something that should have never been started. And I hope that will continue forward. Because people did things that were very, very bad for our country and very, very illegal. And you could even say treasonous, OK.

Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you.

(CROSSTALK)

[14:50:22] BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: A couple of things. The president just said there that he will close the border, but he left an opening. He vows to have a health care plan to replace Obamacare, even though he says he won't have one until after the 2020 election. And despite the conclusions the president is making on the Mueller report, just a reminder, we still haven't seen it. And the attorney general said that the president is not exonerated on the issue of obstruction.

So with me now, Abby Phillip and David Chalian.

And, Abby, let me start with you, on the border. He says, if there's no deal with Congress, he'll close the border. But it is noteworthy, when asked about the negative impact economically, commerce, this would have on the U.S., he acknowledged it saying, yes, it would be bad.

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, exactly. He knows because he's been briefed on it repeatedly by his aides here in the White House. They've been emphasizing to him how damaging this could all be to the U.S. economy if he follows through on this threat. But I was struck, Brooke, by how the president was saying so many different things about what it would take for him to not close the border in that spray. He talked originally about Mexico needing to do more and then this afternoon you hear him acknowledging that Mexico is doing more. He said, we'll see what happens over the coming days, if they continue to do that, if it amounts to something, but now he's shifting it over to Congress saying he wants changes to legal immigration in exchange for keeping the border open. Now it is no secret that the White House wants changes to immigration to change the way certain parts of the law work. But it is not clear to me that the threat of closing the border is going to work on Nancy Pelosi, who is not particularly interested in dealing with some of the issues in the law. And frankly, I think Democrats probably view this as a -- a problem of President Trump's own making. If he closes the board, the kind of damage would be blow back on him more than anything else. It's interesting to see the president going from one end to another in one pool spray and you're left wondering what it would take for him to make a final decision on this. I think all of this, in addition to what we're hearing from our sources, seems to indicate the White House is trying to put the brakes on this for another few days to give the president more time to work this through but plenty of White House aides are trying to find an exit valve for him on this because of how damaging this whole idea of closing the border really could be to the United States economy and also to Mexico as well -- Brooke?

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: David, what do you think?

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Brooke, the list that Abby is talking about, and it is amazing he said this could get done in are 45 minutes. Chain migration and Catch and Release and visa lottery and asylum and judges. I don't know --

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: Forty-five minutes?

CHALIAN: -- what he's thinking in terms of how Nancy Pelosi is going to get something done on that priority list there in 45 minutes. That makes absolutely no sense. This does not align whatsoever on what the Democrats would engage with him on immigration agenda and no mention of their big-ticket items about DREAMers or path to citizenship and the idea this could be done in 45 minutes with that partisan and divisive wish list, that was just bluster.

BALDWIN: On -- what about on health care, David? Once again mysterious plan that doesn't exist. And it apparently won't exist until Trump and the president's mind was re-elected in 2020 and it is his own admission they won't have a plan until then.

CHALIAN: Yes, the fact that he is punted on this, it actually is allowing both Republicans and Democrats to rejoice for different reasons. Republicans on the Hill are quite glad that Donald Trump doesn't seem to want to inject an actual policy battle for a year and a half on specifics of some plan and that he is pushing that off until after the election. Democrats are downright gleeful that the president seems to put health care an issue they have a political advantage on with the American people as proven in the 2018 midterm elections squarely in the center because now the entire election Donald Trump just said, he wants to make the election about Republicans getting control of the House and the Senate keeping it in GOP plans and his own re-election should be looking forward to what they could do on health care afterwards, that is a fight Democrats are eager to join.

BALDWIN: Isn't that the reason -- Abby, chime in -- isn't that the reason he's saying he's essentially punting because the Republicans don't have majority in the House?

[14:55:02] PHILLIP: It is. He's punting because everyone in the White House on Capitol Hill, they know that there's almost a zero chance of a bill addressing health care getting through both chambers of Congress in the next two years. That being said, I spoke to a senior White House official this morning who made it clear that the president's view of this is that health care is a major weakness for him going into this election. They are worried that if you have Democrats on the one hand talk about Medicare-for-All, talking about all of the various ways in which they want to address the health care concerns of voters, which we know based on polling is extremely important to them and they go into this election completely empty handed with no answers to that, that is a problem. But they also think that Medicare-for-All is a radical idea and they want to sort of put Democrats on the defense on that. And the only way to do that is for the president to continue to talk about it. That is why the president is talking about it. But I think Republicans more generally, all of the rest of the Republicans who are running in 2020, they don't see much advantage in having this conversation at all. They are recognizing how powerful it is as a motor for Democrats in 2018 and they would rather talk about literally anything else.

So you have competing interests here. But the compromise I think we're seeing right now is the president saying, we're not going to put an actual bill out there. We'll talk in generalities about what we want from a health care bill and talk about how bad Medicare-for-All is and then vote on it after the election. So this is kind of a compromised position that we've gotten between the president, who wants one thing, and Congressional Republicans, who want something completely different.

BALDWIN: I think we all know we'll talk about health care on both sides for the next year and a half.

I want to ask about the Mueller -- the House Democrats -- let me flip to this, David. The House Democrats voting to issue a subpoena over concerns about White House security clearances. We were reporting about the 25 individuals including the president's son-in-law and daughter who apparently weren't initially cleared and then the White House overturned that. And then by law the president is allowed to do that, but still.

CHALIAN: Yes, he is allowed to do that. But obviously, the question still hangs out there for the White House as to why career professionals are adjudicating the security clearances were overruled, especially in some of the most highly sensitive positions if they were making a sort of professional, emotionally distant kind after assessment. But, Brooke, you said the Mueller report, and what is so interesting to me, I wish I timed how long his answer was about the Democrats and the Mueller report, because you could see how much this is still under his skin. Despite his statements that he's been cleared and exonerated, he is still so worked up about the notion that the Democrats, with gavel power in the House, would still be asking questions about this. And in fact, what he tried to do is a political jujitsu to attorney -- to turn it completely around and although he thinks it is bad to have an investigation into him but he's welcome to how that investigation got started. This is something that the president, it seemed clear to me in watching him in the Oval Office, there's -- despite claiming exoneration, is not ready to let go of this at all.

BALDWIN: He said he was exonerated. We know Mueller's records, vis- a-vis, Barr. And we wait to see the Mueller report, all 400-some pages come mid-month.

David and Abby, thank you so much.

We do have more on this breaking news, the president's comments. But also a massive manhunt underway. Police are releasing new details about the suspect in the murder of Grammy-nominated rapper, Nipsey Hussle. What we are learning about their relationship, next.

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