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Mitt Romney's Physical Safety Under Threat at CPAC; President's 2021 Budget to Be Unveiled Today; Bill Barr Confirms Ukraine Information Vetting Process. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired February 10, 2020 - 10:30   ET

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

[10:30:00] KEVIN SHERIDAN, FORMER RNC SPOKESMAN: -- a lot of things, including the fact that the Republican Party is largely unified around this president. And it's at a 95 percent number at this point, approving of him.

So anybody that takes a position against the president -- and many of them do regularly -- needs to make their case to their voters. And I think they do a pretty good job of it. I don't see any, you know, big ramifications for Mitt Romney in Utah, for instance, or maybe some within the party are going to speak out against him.

But ultimately, this will move on very soon, I think. We'll be on to the next thing within days.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR, NEWSROOM: Listen to this, Tara, from Matt Schlapp, CPAC chairman, talking about Mitt Romney -- obviously not welcome, he says, at CPAC. And then he said this, in the wake of Romney voting to convict the president.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MATT SCHLAPP, CONSERVATIVE POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN: We won't credential him as a conservative. I suppose if he wants to come as a non-conservative and debate an issue with us, maybe in the future we would have him come. This year, I would actually be afraid for his physical safety, people are so mad at him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: I mean, what does it say about the country, some sects of the party, whatever Matt Schlapp is talking about -- you're a conservative -- that he be concerned about his physical safety, going to CPAC?

TARA SETMAYER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: It is outrageous, absolutely outrageous that this is what the party's become. And I'm one -- I'm someone who used to go to CPAC every year, as a conservative. It was like the Oscars for us. We would all get together, it was a great confab.

It has turned into a clown show. And Matt Schlapp saying that an honorable senator like Mitt Romney, who just, eight short years ago -- not even -- yes, eight years ago -- was our nominee for president, who has lived a life of integrity and character, is not welcome because he might be physically in danger? Is outrageous. And they're just OK with this?

I mean, I know that -- I understand that because I actually feel that I might not be safe, if I were to go to the convention this year. I've been to six Republican conventions, and the threats that I've gotten, the level of vitriol that I've received, threatening my personal safety -- the FBI was involved, for goodness sakes -- I question --

HARLOW: Jeez.

SETMAYER: -- whether I would be safe. So he's -- I think he -- there's some truth to what he said. But there's a sad state of affairs here if that is the reality.

And that the Republicans, who were the moral majority and used to talk about character and integrity, are actually talking about the possibility of physical threats to a sitting senator because he stood on principle and took his oath before God and was -- stayed true to that, he put country over party, that he may not be safe? What does that say about them?

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR, NEWSROOM: So, Kevin, just to push back against the -- I agree with you that probably the Vindman story or the firing, that might be gone in a couple of days. But the nature of the attacks and how across-the-board they are?

I mean, Jim Mattis leaves, right? Celebrated General Mad Dog Mattis, when President Trump -- and he attacks him too. No one, if you're not on board, you're a target, right? Does that -- who's standing up in the party to say, this ain't right?

SHERIDAN: People in the party do regularly stand up and say something. It's -- the problem, I guess, if your position is that --

SCIUTTO: Who?

SHERIDAN: -- he needs to stop this --

SETMAYER (?): Who?

SHERIDAN: well, senators constantly are saying this. I mean, pick a senator --

(CROSSTALK)

SETMAYER: Who?

SCIUTTO: I've heard them say "inappropriate" a lot --

SETMAYER: Name --

SCIUTTO: I've heard a lot of "inappropriate," but --

SETMAYER: -- senators besides Mitt Romney.

SHERIDAN: Mitch McConnell. A lot of these senators have come out and said, when he tweets something -- SCIUTTO: Mitch McConnell?

SHERIDAN: -- inappropriate, they --

SCIUTTO: Challenge the president, regularly?

SHERIDAN: -- do speak out.

SCIUTTO: Mitch McConnell?

SHERIDAN: Look, the problem, I think, you're not acknowledging here is that the Republican voters have decided that they are with the president on most of these issues, and they don't have the same problem with his level of vitriol that many in the media do, many Republicans do. I'm not making a value judgment either way on it. I'm saying the Republican voters and the Republican Party is at an all- time high right now, in the last 15 years, in approvals ratings.

So you know, this is just the reality that all these senators are facing. They're looking back at their states, they're seeing their voters, you know, they're listening to what they're saying to them and they've not buying into the same narrative that the entire media is buying into right now. And that's just a reality, that's just a fact. So they have to make their case to their own voters.

SCIUTTO: Yes. I'd argue --

SETMAYER: So --

SCIUTTO: -- it's not a narrative --

SETMAYER: -- the leaders in the party are now --

HARLOW: Wait, we --

SETMAYER: -- so the leaders of the party, you have to fall victim to mob mentality instead of standing up and saying, you know what, we welcome differences of opinion, that this is about principle, not a cult of personality? That's what you're saying? So because people are --

SHERIDAN: I'm not defending any kind of --

SETMAYER: -- so upset that Mitt Romney --

SHERIDAN: -- violent statements at all.

SETMAYER: Well, you're saying that -- well, OK, then what -- but then where are the leaders in the party to stand up and say that this is not acceptable, that we -- that people of a difference of opinion within the party are possibly physically unsafe because they differed with the president and stood on principle and the Constitution? That to me is where we're running into a huge problem with the Republican Party, and it will be the death of the party if people don't stand up and call this out.

[10:35:07]

HARLOW: We'll have you both back, guys. We got a lot of news to still get in, but it's important. I hear you. We'll have you back. Thank you, Tara. Thanks, Kevin.

SHERIDAN: Thank you.

SETMAYER: Thank you.

HARLOW: From Mexico will pay for it, now to American taxpayers will pay for it? Of course, we're talking about the wall on the southern border. The president's new budget plan, calling for $2 billion in taxpayer money for that. We'll discuss giant discrepancies and others, with the president's former top economic advisor, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:40:07]

HARLOW: All right. At any moment, the Trump administration will deliver next year's $4.8 trillion budget to Capitol Hill. The 2021 plan is remarkably different from what the president promised on the campaign trail.

TEXT: Trump 2016 Campaign Promises: To "get rid of" national debt in eight years; Mexico will pay for wall; No cuts to Medicaid. White House Proposed Budget: Proposal claims to close deficit by 2035; $2 billion for border wall; $1.5 trillion in cuts to "non-defense discretionary programs"

HARLOW: For example, he promised that his campaign, if -- over eight years, he would get rid of the national debt. Now, the budget says that it will close that deficit by 2035. And remember the pledge that Mexico will pay for the wall on the southern border? The president's new plan asks for $2 billion in taxpayer money to fund that wall.

Let's talk about this and the economic impact of the coronavirus, which is very important, with Kevin Hassett, the former chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors in the Trump White House. Kevin, so good to have you. Let's start on budget.

KEVIN HASSETT, CNN ECONOMICS COMMENTATOR: Hi.

HARLOW: You've seen this thing. So I want to talk about what you've seen --

HASSETT: Sure.

HARLOW: -- and what happened to the president's promise that he, if he's elected, would get rid of the entire national debt in eight years?

HASSETT: Yes, and in fact, just to remind the viewers that as chairman of the CEA, I was the head of this thing called the troika, which is basically the thing that constructs all the assumptions for the budget. So I was in the middle of the process for the budget over the last couple of years, and I sort of can see the nuances of how it's changed.

And I'd say that the two big headlines for how it's gotten sort of worse -- and then we'll talk about the president's new proposal -- is that military spending is way above what we originally thought --

HARLOW: Yes.

HASSETT: -- which, you know, the president has advocated. And then the tax cuts reduced revenue by more than we thought, in the first year. And I'd say those are the two things on that side.

But I think that, going forward, what he's done now is, he's really taken on entitlements in a way that's relatively newsworthy. You know, so he's looking at, you know, big spending cuts over the next decade to try to get ahead of the curve on the deficit, and I think it's really a big change in the sense that there's real positive policy changes that are leading in the direction of a reduced deficit.

HARLOW: I want to get to what you said about the tax cuts in one minute because that's very newsy. But just quickly on entitlements here, the president tweeted out, we're not going to touch your Social Security or your Medicare in this budget. What he didn't mention is Medicaid, and you've seen the thing. Are there cuts to Medicaid coming?

TEXT: Donald J. Trump: We will not be touching your Social Security or Medicare in Fiscal 2021 Budget. Only the Democrats will destroy them by destroying our Country's greatest ever Economy!

HASSETT: You know, I think that the way -- the way I think about what's going on is that if you look at the stronger economy and, you know, there's some pretty strong growth assumptions in the budget, maybe even higher than I would want to go right now -- but with those strong growth assumptions, then you get lots of people off of food stamps, lots of people out of welfare.

You know, looking back over the last three years, there's, what, about 7 million people off of food stamps, 700,000 people off TANF --

HARLOW: Well --

HASSETT: -- 300,000 people off of Social Security Disability. And so I think that, you know, we have to wait and see when the details come out at noon, but I think that the roaring economy really does do a lot of that work for you without having to go after much --

(CROSSTALK)

HARLOW: Maybe. It's making a lot of assumptions, though. But it's -- you can't guarantee --

HASSETT: Right.

HARLOW: -- that there are no cuts to Medicaid? That's pretty clear, and you've seen this thing. Let's get back to what you said about taxes. The corporate tax cuts, one of the big concerns was this, what's playing out, is that you would have such a reduction in revenue coming into the federal government that it was just going to balloon the deficit. CBO said in 2018, that this was going to balloon the deficit almost $2 trillion over 10 years.

What you're saying as the former chief economist to the president, is that's happened, that the outlook is worse than what you guys expected. Is that right?

HASSETT: Well, that's a little bit incorrect because what you did is you said that the corporate taxes are coming in way below expected because, really, the corporate taxes are losing revenue with the rate, but gaining revenue with all the international tax rules.

And the stuff that just can't pay for itself is, like, the joint tax scored about $700 billion over 10 for an expanded child credit. Now, I think probably a lot of Democrats support that, a lot of Republicans supported that. But child credits don't pay for themselves.

Because, you know, what economists want to do is find something that gets stimulated if you cut the rate, and the child credit, maybe if it stimulated fertility, could pay for itself. But otherwise, that's $700 billion that's not going to pay for itself.

And so looking at the fullness of time, if we get growth, then there's going to be enough revenue to cover the couple of trillion --

HARLOW: OK, that's in --

HASSETT: -- of tax cuts. But, you know, if that growth happens over 10.

HARLOW: That's an if, and I would just say a CBO report recently --

HASSETT: Sure.

HARLOW: -- showed that tax collections are weaker than they would have been without the 2017 tax reform, especially on the corporate side.

But let's move on to coronavirus for our remaining time, Kevin. Because you've spent a lot of time actually crunching some of these numbers. So let's start with China and then move to the U.S. What should people expect the economic impact of coronavirus to be on the Chinese economy?

HASSETT: Right. And, you know, our hearts go out to folks affected by this, it's a really great human tragedy. You know, I think that we're still updating our estimates of how many people in China are affected.

But you know, pretty much a rule of thumb would be if you shut down the economy for a week, then you're going to lose about 2 percent of GDP. And there's so much quarantine in China right now that when we look at it, then we're sort of seeing that Chinese GDP is going to be a good deal lower the first quarter, perhaps 2 to 4 percent.

[10:45:01]

And with that, what -- the way it sort of reverberates throughout the world economy is the Chinese consume an enormous amount of commodities like copper and oil and a lot of other things. And so the price of oil has been going down and that could well continue.

HARLOW: Yes.

HASSETT: And given that the U.S. is now an oil exporter, that could be pretty bad news --

HARLOW: So --

HASSETT: -- the other thing is that supply chains are disrupted because there are a lot of things like you know, iPhones and stuff, they get some of their parts from China.

And so all in, you know, I've talked to some of my friends on Wall Street. The estimates of what it does to first quarter GDP are about three-tenths to five-tenths. But, you know, turn it (ph) economics, let's turn back to people. Like, really, our focus is on --

HARLOW: Yes.

HASSETT: -- the human tragedy and trying to stay ahead of the curve on that.

HARLOW: You're completely right on that. Kevin, thank you very much and thank you for your outlook on those numbers --

HASSETT: Thanks, Poppy.

HARLOW: -- that'd be significant, if we see a 4 percent decline in Chinese GDP and the impact felt around the world. Appreciate it, Kevin. Thanks.

SCIUTTO: Question --

HASSETT: Thank you.

SCIUTTO: -- also interesting answers about entitlements.

President Trump's allies say the Department of Justice has a process to look into any information given to the department by Rudy Giuliani. Now, the attorney general is responding. We'll have that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:50:44]

SCIUTTO: Welcome back to breaking news. Attorney General William Barr is responding, just moments ago, to comments Senator Lindsey Graham made, saying that the Justice Department has, quote, "created a process" for Rudy Giuliani to provide the DOJ information that he dug up in Ukraine.

HARLOW: Evan Perez joins us now. What is Barr saying here? Because the nuance is important.

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Right, Poppy. That is correct. This is a press conference that was held to announce charges against members of the Chinese military for hacking into Equifax, the credit reporting bureau.

But one of the questions we had, right off the bat for the attorney general, is these comments from Lindsey Graham, the senator, saying that that Justice Department had set up a process to look into what these allegations that Rudy Giuliani has been making from Ukraine against Joe Biden, against Joe Biden's son.

And so the attorney general confirmed that he had a conversation with Lindsey Graham. He said that there is a process being set up in the field for the Justice Department to essentially vet the information that Rudy Giuliani claims shows that there was corruption going on in Ukraine that connects to Joe Biden's son as well as to the former vice president.

Now, of course, we have to remind folks that so far, all of those allegations are unsubstantiated. They have not been proved at all. But it is something now, that the Justice Department, according to the attorney general, is going to -- at least going to be looking into to see what is true, what isn't true.

Now, the attorney general was quick to add, guys, that essentially everything that comes out of Ukraine has to be treated suspiciously. He says there's a lot of very bad information, there's information that cannot be trusted that is coming from the Ukrainians.

And that presumably would include some of the information that Lev Parnas, the Giuliani associate who's been charged in New York, he's also been presenting information that he says comes from Ukraine. So you can bet that all of this information, now, the Justice Department is going to be taking a look at -- Jim and Poppy.

SCIUTTO: And by the way, it's information from a foreign country with political ramifications here. I mean, that's really a remarkable headline here.

Now, the Justice Department is taking a look at it. Evan Perez there --

PEREZ: That's right.

SCIUTTO: -- thanks very much.

The 92nd annual Academy Awards brought a little politics, a few surprises and a groundbreaking moment. CNN's Stephanie Elam joins us now from Los Angeles. So, Stephanie, "Parasite"'s the first foreign language film to claim the top prize.

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That is huge news, Jim and Poppy --

HARLOW: Yes. ELAM: -- that was the big news to come out of last night, the fact

that "Parasite" just continued to build momentum. And as it was leading up to the Oscars, you saw that some of the awards shows were giving it the top prize, but people were talking about it more and more in L.A. You'd hear people saying, I really just like "Parasite."

And then, after they won for director, when Bong Joon Ho won for Director, that's when everyone was like, ooh, this might be "Parasite"'s night, and that's exactly it.

But it's so funny, when you -- when I talked to him tonight, before the show and then afterwards, you know, he really -- after they got the Foreign Language Film, he thought that that was going to be it. And you can tell that he was completely shocked. In fact, when they won for the screenplay, he kind of just looked at the statue on stage, like, is this really happening? He said he kind of had an out-of-body experience, when I asked him about it later on.

But walking away with four Oscars and the big prize of best picture, the first time that you've seen a non-English language film take that honor, obviously, they were so excited.

And the crowd was behind them, you could feel the cheering, you could feel everyone really wanting them to have this moment, making sure they were able to finish their speeches when the lights went dark, Tom Hanks leading the cheer to get everyone back to that. So that was a big moment.

Then, obviously, for the Acting, it went pretty much the way we expected. That would be Renee Zellweger winning for "Judy" for Best Actress; and after that, Joaquin Phoenix, also winning for "Joker" for Best Actor, we expected that as well. And Laura Dern winning for Best Supporting Actress in "Marriage Story."

And the final big prize going to Brad Pitt, who won for Best Supporting Actor in "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood." And, you know, his speeches have been so on point all throughout awards season, and he took this moment to really soak it up and also get a little political there in his speech, which was kind of out of character for Brad Pitt. But definitely he was enjoying this entire awards season ride. So it was really great to see how this all culminated for these stars.

[10:55:02]

SCIUTTO: Watch "Parasite," it's powerful. It really is --

(CROSSTALK)

HARLOW: I did (ph), I --

ELAM: It's the best movie, it is so amazing.

SCIUTTO: -- it's really worth it. Yes.

HARLOW: Every week, I say I'm going to do that. Maybe this will be the week. Steph --

ELAM: It's hard with children, but try.

SCIUTTO: Kids get in the way, they get in the way.

Stephanie Elam, thanks very much.

HARLOW: Thanks very much.

And thanks to all of you for joining us. Big day in New Hampshire tomorrow. I'm Poppy Harlow.

SCIUTTO: And I'm Jim Sciutto. "AT THIS HOUR" with Kate Bolduan starts after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:00:00]