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Obama: There were times "I lost the PR Battle"; FBI, DOJ Face Probe Over Clinton Email Case. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired January 13, 2017 - 12:30   ET

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

[12:31:01] JOHN KING, CNN "INSIDE POLITICS" ANCHOR: Welcome back. President Obama has no more big events or speeches planned for his final week in office, but he isn't quite done yet. Still planning a few more executive actions and still trying to shape reviews of what he got right and where he thinks he failed.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, U.S. PRESIDENT: Because this is on me. Part of the job description is also shaping public opinion. And we were very effective and I was very effective in shaping public opinion around my campaigns. But there were big stretches while governing, where even though we were doing the right thing, we weren't able to mobilize public opinion firmly enough behind us to weaken the resolve of the Republicans to stop opposing us or to cooperate with us. And there were times during my presidency where I lost the PR battle.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: What do we make of candidate, candidate president saying I'm essentially I'm a good campaigner? But I didn't quite get the communication part, convincing the American people, part of the governing part down right?

MARGARET TALEV, BLOOMBERG POLITICS: Well, he is speaking to the historians here as he often does because what he is saying is I was right. I just didn't show it in the moment. And that's a different thing than saying the idea was wrong or weak or ill-formed or I made a messed up.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: It's a classic Obama sort of ism, I guess. You're right, he is speaking to the history books. He always wants to convince people that his idea is the right idea that he, you know, just didn't sell it right. And he wasn't selling down the river there, his PR team, that he just believes that people, you know, weren't -- if you could have ten more minutes to talk about it, certainly people would come to his point of view.

And the reality here is, history, we don't know exactly how it will be added to quick in the moment. But he is right, he did lose the PR battle. The question is on the substance, was he wrong on the substance of this? But I think it's instructive for the Trump people in terms how they write Obamacare. He largely, what the Hill do that, the balance between the White House and the Hill coming into sharp view for the first time in ten years, of course. Republicans control house senate and the White House.

ABBY PHILIP, THE WASHINGTON POST: The part of that that I think he is right about is the idea that he always seems to float a little bit above his party both in terms of approval, his ability to get re- elected, his ability to sort of to hold on to power over the course of eight years, whereas Democrats writ large have not. The whole party from everything below him has seen losses over the course of eight years. So there is in some ways a PR problem or a messaging problem where the American public are willing to accept him, maybe him personally, but are not willing to accept the idea behind his policies and the people that he needs in order to continue them into the future.

KING: Speaking of policies, he gave the farewell address earlier in the week, and everyone said that's sort of it. He is going to step back and yield, but he is not. He is trying to put his fingerprints or footprints or whatever you want to call it, some big policy changes, including a big Cuba shift yesterday. The current policy in the United States was if you escape Cuba and you get in a boat and you get out of that boat, your foot touches U.S. soil, you're allowed stay.

Pretty dramatic for the President of the United States with one week left in office to say never mind, I'm reversing that policy. Part of his outreach to Cuba, but conservatives and including a lot of Democrats, some Democrats, Bob Menendez, of New Jersey, a senator, Cuban-American, "Today's announcement will only serve to tighten the news, the Castro regime continues to have around the neck of its own people. Congress was not consulted prior to this abrupt policy announcement with just nine days left. The Obama administration seeks to pursue engagement with the Castro regime at the cost of ignoring the present state of torture and oppression and its systematic curtailment of freedom." That's from a Democrat.

JULIE PACE, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS: The politics on Cuba are always so fascinating because you have Democrats who sound more like Republicans on this issue particularly those who have family ties to Cuba. The policy is effective immediately. So as of today, if you are a Cuban who is trying to come to the United States over land, through the Mexican border or by sea and you arrive here, you will be turned away. There is of course a political asylum policy. So if you do feel like you're going to go back to Cuba and be tortured, you can apply for asylum.

[12:35:10] But this is something that happened in secret which was the way a lot of the Cuba policy happened. The administration says that they did that because they didn't want to spark an exodus from Cuba if people were expecting that the policy change happened. Trump can reverse this though. This is something that is basically a DHS rule change. I'm not sure if Trump is going to want to fight this battle, though. He's going to have so much else on his plate. And also, in talking to some administration officials, they think that they can box him in on this by saying, you know, essentially we are trying to stop the flow of immigration, which is something Trump has talked about as well.

PHILIP: It is very similar to me to what the Obama administration did around Israel, publically reprimanding Israel for their settlements. It's something they did kind of in secret without communicating with Democrats or Republicans on the hill. And it was something that they knew was going to spark a political firestorm. But they're doing it at the end because Obama wants to lay down a kind of marker about what he stands for, what he believes in. And regardless of the political consequences, he can only do that in this period of time.

KING: It's an interesting day in Washington. We talk about the soon to be former president doing some things as he leaves to try to essentially set some things in place that are hard for Trump to reverse. He says he is doing Trump a favor. I suspect it's Trump transition headquarters that might have a different view. As we speak, there are a number of senior Trump officials, people from the campaign who are now coming into the White House, senior staff, that are having a transition drill at the White House today.

The chief of staff is going to hang out with the chief of staff. The press secretary is going to hang out with the press secretary. They're going to go through some of the motions of what a Trump presidency will be, how the White House operates. That's one week from today as they've all paraded in. Does the president-elect have a political problem? This is polling from Gallup. They ask the American people how is the president-elect handling his transition? And if you look at the numbers over time, it's a net negative seven. Meaning a whole lot more people disapprove of how president-elect Trump is handling it than approve.

Obama was wildly -- everyone said is he doing great, plus 71. Bush plus 36. Clinton plus 50. For a guy who won the election fair and square but did lose the popular vote, does that number tell you that he has a problem, that there still a number one? I mean he has lost ground since the election. If you look deeper into that polling, it's especially among independents. Has the president-elect I guess failed from Election Day to today to try to reach out to those people who didn't vote for him?

TALEV: You're acting like he is trying to reach out to the people who didn't vote for him, but--

KING: He has not made it a priority. You're being polite, I guess.

TALEV: But, you know, it's not like he is trying, he s not like he's got a campaign like this blitz campaign to bring everyone together. He's still is Tweeting about how Hillary Clinton is lucky she's not in jail. So the question is, does that change--

KING: There is that.

TALEVE: --on January 20th or not? It's completely in his power to change these numbers. It's actually very easy to change the numbers. It might be difficult to get to plus 71, but to flip across that 50 percent threshold, the answer is obvious.

KING: He is a smart man, so clearly he doesn't want to. It's clearly he has decided this is not a priority of him to do this and so we'll see. We'll see, so maybe he won the election, so everyone says, oh, the strategy is crazy. This strategy is stupid. He is about to be president of the United States. We will see what the end game is there. Up next, the president-elect says he is glad his cabinet choice is speaking their minds on issues ranging from Russia and China to public housing. But does he agree with this them?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:42:38] KING: Welcome back. In the spirit of understatement that is sweeping Washington, I will say FBI Director James Comey is having an interesting week. I'd tell that Comey, CNN is told, for example, tell Donald Trump this week that the intelligence community had unverified the information that Russia is in possession of compromising information about the president-elect. That's just one of Jim Comey's interesting exchanges this week.

Then, there was this. When Comey, who twice in the presidential election made public statements about the Hillary Clinton e-mail investigation was asked if the FBI is now looking into allegations that Trump loyalists had some election related contacts with Russian officials.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANGUS KING, (I), SENATOR, MAINE, USA: Mr. Comey, did you answer Senator's Wyden's question that there is an investigation underway as to connections between either the political campaigns and the Russian -- Russians?

JAMES COMEY, DIRECTOR, FBI: I didn't say one way or another.

A.KING: You didn't say that --

COMEY: That was my intention at least.

A.KING: -- you didn't say one way or another whether even if there's an investigation underway?

COMEY: Correct. I don't -- especially in a public forum. We never confirm or deny a pending investigation.

A.KING: The irony of --

COMEY: I'm not saying --

A.KING: -- The irony of you making that statement here. I cannot avoid, but I'll move on.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: I'm no relation to Senator King, but I agree. The irony of that statement is -- is beyond delicious. And now, Comey himself is the focus on the investigation. The Justice Department inspector general says he will review whether the FBI violated agency procedures in its handling of the Clinton e-mail probe.

The "Wall Street Journal" editorial board today saying Jim Comey has to go. That's a conservative editorial board. Democrats on the senate side last night on the house side today coming out of these private meetings in which Director Comey is explaining things to them saying they're outraged and he has to go. Will he go?

PACE: That is one of the questions we didn't get to ask at Trump's press conference that I really wish we have been able to pose to him because he can get rid of the FBI director if he so chooses. And the fact that Comey could have been the one that brought this report that Trump is so outraged about -- to him perhaps opens up that possibility.

Just in talking to democrats, though, the last day or two, they are just beside themselves over the comment that he made to Senator King about not talking about an investigation. And I think it's fair for Comey to answer this question. If you actually can't do that, if you don't believe that that is your role as FBI director, then why did you feel comfortable doing that so late in the presidential campaign?

PHILIP: And it's worth remembering when James Comey was named to this position.

[12:45:04] Everyone thought it was sort of a stroke of brilliance that Obama had found this moderate republican who was known as a straight- shooter, nonpolitical. He was known as someone who really didn't get bogged down in some of these controversies -- political controversies that had dogged other AG's like Eric Holder, for example.

But, here we have James Comey really at the center of, you know, a year and a half's worth of controversy both involving the soon to be president-elect, Hillary Clinton, you know, Barack Obama. He is in -- on an island really by himself acting in ways that is pretty much angering everybody around him.

KING: But, he told democrats in the meeting yesterday to the point of discussing publicly the Clinton investigation. He said he had a horrible choice and a terrible choice, and he chose that what he thought was the least horrible of choices, when he made it public as opposed to keeping it private and then, perhaps, leaking it out. That one's still going forward but as Democrats say those grievances, the election is over.

The inauguration is a week from today. You mentioned this earlier in a context -- another context, but what does Donald Trump think about Jim Comey? Will he keep Jim Comey? Well, you read into this, if you wish. Donald Trump Tweeting this morning about this, why are Hillary Clinton's people complaining about -- what are Hillary Clinton's people complaining about with respect to the FBI based on the information they had, she should never have been allowed to run. Guilty as hell. They were very nice to her. She lost because she campaigned in the wrong states. No enthusiasm. For many of us, the election is over. But, you can't -- you know, he is jumping into the fray here because

he likes to be in the mix when he knows these stories are going to be discussed. That's part of, know, Trump trademark. But, it doesn't tell us really what he thinks -- what he thinks about Jim Comey.

ZELENY: It doesn't at all. And we do not know the relationship. But, when those two men were together in that briefing, we don't know that. But, I do know talking to people in the FBI that James Comey has more support inside the bureau than outside of the bureau, it seems like. And he has no plans of leaving at this point unless he's asked seven years left, something like that?

Something like that, yeah. And -- I mean, we'll see what Donald Trump does. I would be surprised if he removes him and replaces him. But, it's a year of surprises. Who knows?

KING: But, that -- it's a great question because again, you mentioned another context. It's a lot in front of him right now. His number one priority is economic growth. His number two priority is probably bringing some clarity to some of these big questions, governing questions, but the FBI director, he is having an interesting week. I think that's a fair statement. Our reporters share of notebook next, including a record-breaking $90 million pouring into pay for President-Elect Trump's inauguration. Where will all that money go?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:51:47] KING: Welcome back. We fill this table with reporters every day and we close by asking them to share a little bit from their notebooks to help you get ahead of the big political news. Julie Pace?

PACE: Trump's inaugural team is boasting about the record-breaking amount of money that they're raising for next week's big event, $90 million. And to put that in perspective, that's roughly twice as much as Barack Obama raised for his 2009 inauguration. But the question is where is all of this money going to go given that the Trump inaugural team has talked about holding fewer balls than Obama did and shortening the parade to about 90 minutes. In theory the extra money left over from an inauguration is supposed to go to charity and given the question that surrounded Trump's charity donations during the campaign particularly by one Abby's colleagues at the Washington Post. I think you'll see a lot of folks in this town looking for answers on extra inaugural cash.

KING: I was going to make a joke about the cost of a cocktail at the Trump Hotel. But anyway, it would be wrong. Jeff?

ZELENY: And we've heard a lot from Donald Trump again today but usually in small doses, 140 characters at a time. But a week from today behind us right here on the west front of the Capitol he's going to giving his inaugural address. I am told that he has been preparing and studying by watching old addresses and reading old addresses. Ronald Reagan's, John F. Kennedy's, and, yes, President Obama's, particularly his 2009 address. I was looking at about what he said and the reaction from the vast audience on the mall. But he is -- he and his small circle of advisors have been working on this address. I'm told it is going to be or at least intended to be much more optimistic than the last big address he gave at the Republican convention in Cleveland. This is going to be something that he uses and sees as a branding moment, and I'm also told this is going to be much shorter than he may you think. He realizes that an audience has, you know, has only certain time of staying power here. We'll see if he brings that to bear. But one week from today, that address, they'll be hitting the books and watching old addresses, I'm told again this week.

KING: It's interesting. Whatever your politics, an inauguration is a moment of majesty here in the nation's capital. The weather forecast is pretty good. The site behind us is beautiful. So we wish the president-elect well as he gets ready for his address. Abby?

PHILIP: Well, there's been a lot of talk about the ways in which Trump and Democrats are going to hold hands and work together on infrastructure and maybe child care and paid family leave issues. But there's also a way in which Trump has to do things in a conservative way in order to get Republicans on board, and that might prove to be a poison pill for Democrats. There's a lot of talk right now about privatization, especially when it comes to infrastructure, roads and bridges, but also the federal aviation administration.

There's been some talk on the Hill about privatizing that agency. Some Democrats are going to look at that from an ideological perspective and say there's no way. We'll see how far Trump is able to go with that and whether or not he is able to resolve some of those conflicts in order to get the Democrats on his side in areas where Republicans have made it pretty clear they're very, very skeptical.

KING: One week from today, the fun starts. Margaret?

TALEV: We spent a lot of time today talking about who is going to influence Donald Trump in his cabinet. Is it going to be Mike Flynn? Basically where does the buck stop? But Mike Pence is another one of those people to watch, and I had the pleasure of spending about an hour yesterday with a handful of reporters in a west wing interview with Joe Biden.

[12:55:01] I was surprised at the extent to which Joe Biden has been connecting with Mike Pence both in writing in terms of memos, memos on Iraq, memos on Ukraine, memos on how he deals with foreign leaders, and also in just terms of personal conversations. Mike Pence doesn't have a national security advisor or hasn't up until now, and so it's Pence and Biden engaging one on one. They seem like certainly an odd couple, and Biden himself said that he disagrees really strongly with Mike Pence on a lot of social policy, domestic social policy. But when it comes to getting along in person, he says he is a solid guy, he likes him very much. They like each other. And I would expect that relationship to continue and be one to watch in terms of shaping Pence's view on how to be vice president.

KING: He is a good public servant. I was going to say something else but I'm going to close with this. It's time to say goodbye to Joe Biden, I wish him the best. There he goes and Mike Pence would be smart to reach out to the vice president. Not on policy. They disagree, but Joe Biden knows how this town works.

[12:56:00] Quick break for us. Thanks for watching "Inside Politics" and I hope to see you Sunday morning at 8 o'clock. Get up early, we'll have some fun there too. Jim Sciutto in for Wolf after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)