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Trump On McMaster: He's A Man Of "Tremendous Talent"; Lawmakers Confronted At Home Turf Town Halls. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired February 21, 2017 - 12:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:30:26] JOHN KING, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back. President Trump has a new National Security Advisor, replacing the controversial general who was forced out last week with a very different general.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), U.S. PRESIDENT: General H.R. McMaster will become the National Security Advisor. He is a man of tremendous talent and tremendous experience. I watched and read a lot over the last two days. He is highly respected by everybody in the military, and we are very honored to have him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: General McMaster is considered one of the military's sharpest minds, and his writings include sharp criticism of Vietnam-era Commanders for not standing up to President Johnson.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEN. H.R. MCMASTER, NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR: I just like to say what a privilege it is to be able to continue serving our nation. I'm grateful to you for that opportunity, and I look forward to joining the national security team and doing everything I can, to advance and protect the interests of the American people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: What a difference here in the sense. No disrespect but General Flynn who has some issues with the investigations ongoing about his Russia contacts, but a guy who was in -- from the intelligence community mostly and loyal to Trump in the campaign. Here is a career military guy who's battlefields commander. Who -- and doesn't seem from anybody who knows when we had talk to him. He never really gave a hoot about politics.

MOLLY BALL, THE ATLANTIC: Well, in it's -- it was really striking the extent to which this selection was praised across the spectrum. You had Democrats. You had "Never Trumpers". You had John McCain. You had all kinds of different Republicans supporters.

MOLLIE HEMINGWAY, THE FEDERALIST: Even Flynn supporters.

KING: Yeah.

BALL: And even Flynn supporters. So it was very hard to find that any opposition to this. And after the firestorm surrounding General Flynn., that is -- it got to be a huge relief to people who are hoping for a little bit more stability and a little bit more of a chance for this administration to actually start doing things as opposed to being consumed by these constant personnel conflicts.

However, the Russia issue remains. We still don't have a firm sense of where this administration is going on Russia. McMaster has been a hard liner toward Putin. And we don't know if Trump is coming around to that position or not.

KING: That's an interesting point. Very different from General Flynn in terms of his views on Russia, also different from the President in the sense that he is for increased military spending, or more robust military, but thinks a lot of it needs to go into the cyber world and the quick response world. But the President has talked about, you know, tanks, and ships, and planes.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Without a question. So this is a very -- I mean a sense of a modern mind. I mean he has been a brilliant strategist by everyone we talked to. The words of leader come up, nonpolitical. I think this is one of the reasons why being in the government and governing is different than campaigning. It's not always wise to affiliate your entire government with people who were with you on the campaign. I think this will be the most notable example. He is there to answer -- reset all this.

So I think it's a beginning of the second month of the presidency here. It's going much different than the first month. First one day in here. But I think it was one of the strongest hires he's probably had.

DOMENICO MONTANARO, NPR: You know, you can't be completely non- political and, you know, rise your --

KING: It's a different kind of politics.

MONTANARO: Correct.

(CROSSTALK)

MONTANARO: Right, exactly.

Being able to figure out how to rise your way to the top --

KING: Right. With survival.

MONTANARO: -- in big organization and within Washington. And part of that is that skill is going to be really important in the Trump White House.

Because you know what Trump likes? He likes somebody who can stand in a room, who can make a presentation, who can be -- have a big personality. And McMaster, by all accounts, is somebody who is known for his blunt talk, who will tell you like it is, give you the information that he thinks is necessary and important. And can kind of stand up in a room of a bunch of people who can do the same thing.

KING: And it's a unique job, because the National Security Advisor is not there to give his opinion on paper anyway. The National Security Advisor's job is to take it what the secretary of states say, that are the generals of the Pentagon say, what's this person say, what is every interest that Party say than just steal it. And hopefully from that bring a recommendation to the president. But if there's dispute to give the President a good briefing and say, sir, your call.

HEMINGWAY: Right. And that synthesizing of information is so important. And I think that people don't quite realize how important this approach that McMaster's has was for Trump winning this presidency.

I mean, he really went hard against both Republican and Democratic Foreign Policy., the way we fight wars, the way we just have these lengthy times in country without having clear strategy and vision. And you read what McMaster has been saying. He is laser focused on understanding their strategy and having a clear end to your war fighting and communicating that to the American people. These are things that haven't been done in a long time. But it matches well with Trump.

[12:35:09] KING: So let's go back through some of the general's history, and so we just show on T.V. (ph), commanded the tank unit against the Iraqis and the critical 1991 battle. That's the first Persian Gulf War. Wrote the book criticizing the military brass for not standing up for President Johnson over Vietnam, he led a regiment in 2005 in the battle over a key Iraqi town. This was part of the troop surge, part of the new effort at the end of the Bush Administration to turn of the Iraq war, and he helped develop the counter insurgency doctrine, known as "clear, hold, and build strategy.

A different kind of thinker, challenges orthodoxy. I covered the first Persian Gulf War. He was a colonel then. That tank battle he was outcome without men thus they say in Hamilton. And -- he was viewed as the stunt.

I mean they still the way that was done. And it's just an interesting change. If you see some of the video there, that's from a dam rider piece from the 1991 Gulf War. That maneuver was key. This tank, you know, were key to changing the whole that composition of what turned out to be a very quick and aggressive win in that war.

But to have -- they're having a battlefield commander now, down the hall from the President, an interesting for respect.

ZELENY: And we'll have question, is someone who has been there. But I think it's also important to note that they don't have much of a relationship at all. If you saw in the video there, you can see the President is literally holding up his bio in front of him.

This someone who -- he knew General Flynn, he got to know him and trust him in the many months on a campaign trail. This is someone who is known about 48 hours, and known of for about 72 hours. But I think their relationship obviously will have to work.

But as Domenico said, he's not a political perhaps, but he knows how to navigate Washington and boy, will that be ever need. Because The National Security Council now is ribbon with all types of suspicions about this White House, and my guess is his first order of business is calming all that down and telling people get back to work.

KING: Get back to work. What does he tell us about the President? A very different, you know, in the course of a week, the president goes from one National Security Advisor to a person who is very different in his world views, especially on the Russia issue as we've talked about. And just -- what does he tell you about the president during the campaign?

You know, the President would make mistakes. He doesn't like to admit he make mistakes. He would make a estimate and then he would recalibrate it and adjust. I was very successful for him. He never says I was wrong, but gets to a place that gets to where he wants to go.

BALL: Well, the question particularly for someone who is, Mollie, is saying is tax with bringing information to Trump. The question is who does Trump listen to and what does he decide to believe? Because as we have seen he has sort of a quirky sense of which information he is presented with that he decided as believable or not. Based largely on his internal on his gut, at not necessarily based on the evidence.

And so, you know, you do have a -- he likes big men. He likes the guys who thinks of as sort of alphas. Guys like Tillerson and Mattis, and Kelly as I think as well. All of them have reportedly been frustrated with the administration so far. Because they don't feel that their views necessarily have purchase in the White House.

So, you know, General McMaster, can have all of the establishment love in the world. But if he's not getting anywhere with the President in terms of making Trump see the world his way or making Trump see what he believes are the facts. Then that's going to be tough for him.

KING: Very important journey you of one you might say on that.

OK. Everybody sit tight. Up next, who's going to save me, an emotional exchange from the townhall this morning, just the latest top moment for a lawmaker back on home turf.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:42:38] KING: Welcome back. Democracy in action, well, it could mean some difficult moments. Even for the most seasoned of politicians.

Senator Chuck Grassley who made his name going County to County in Iowa talking to voters, and smack into one of those uncomfortable exchanges a bit earlier today. An Afghan man living in Iowa told Grassley he worked as a translator for the United States Military. And that works means he said that he would risk his life by going home. But the gentleman went on to say he's now having trouble getting paperwork to seek asylum here in the United States.

So he asked Senator Grassley point-blank, who is going to save me? And Senator Grassley, just watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Trying to get the American people safe, but I am a person from a Muslim country and I am a Muslim. Who is going to save me here? Who is going to stay behind me and save me on this?

(APPLAUSE)

I've been shot two times. I've been brought bomb side -- brought side bomb once, but nobody care about me. But I was with the United States Armed Forces back in Afghanistan but I didn't shot. I didn't shot because of my mom and dad.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you, thank you. Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Senator, answer his question.

SEN. CHUCK GRASSLEY (R), IOWA: I'm not -- I'm going down the list, and when we're done with that list --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We want your answer.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No. That's not the question.

GRASSLEY: Who brought up that answer?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I did.

GRASSLEY: OK. Who was going to like this?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Awkward moment there as the senator saying I'm going to go down my list, then after my list however we should note that after the event -- after that senator did not directly answer the question right there after the event. He did pose for the gentleman with a picture there. We assume maybe some accommodation, or at least some conversation between Senator Grassley and that man.

This comes up. Let's come back into the room. This comes up as members of congress for home this week? And we know some of this is organized. You have Democratic groups, progressive groups who want to pressure them on Obamacare. Want to pressure them on other issues in the Trump Administration.

I think they should all hold townhalls when they're home. Some avoid them because of this and everything like that. But, when you see this, it's heartening I guess, to just see them out there taking the heat.

ZELENY: Without question I think first and foremost, even though he didn't answer, at least Senator Grassley is holding townhall meetings.

KING: Right.

ZELENY: Regardless of how heated every summer this has been, he's always held meetings. Now, that said, he didn't answer the question. And that -- this is in Iowa Falls, Iowa. Iowa falls is a community about an hour or so at North of Des Moines. It is -- had an immigration issue for a long time.

[12:45:06] So these are not issues now that are sort of new. These are engraining communities there. But I think that the question is will any lawmakers come back and change their mind over this? And the reality is probably not.

Because things are sort of locked in here, but when you were saying before about immigration and the worker permits and other things, I do think that hearing from your constituents could foster some type of compromise here.

Before, they're hearing earfuls on healthcare and other things and from Democrats mainly. Not entirely, though. Some Republicans and Trump supporters I'm wonder why things aren't done already. You said you were going to repeal Obamacare.

KING: Right.

ZELENY: It didn't happen.

KING: Right. It's interesting you say that because we can show you some pictures outside of the townhall Lawrenceburg, Kentucky, the senate majority leader Mitch McConnell is back home. And he is now in the townhall. We don't have anything from inside yet but you see there welcome home Mitch there from progressive groups greeting the majority leader. You'll get that and you expect that.

If you are Mitch McConnell, you would expect the Democrats to organize to get in your put to judge point. There are a lot of conservatives who just today these immigration policies don't deal with the dreamer issue. They say why not? They said -- as conservatives are saying, well, when we have President Obama, we couldn't repeal Obamacare. Why are we waiting so long now?

HEMINGWAY: Well, I think, you know, looking at all these things and presuming that Republicans have problems. I think Democrats would love to have these types of problems.

KING: They would love to be in-charge. HEMINGHWAY: Well, in the presidency who haven't done it before, controlling the house, having all the governors in the state legislatures as well.

I mean, Obamacare is a deeply unpopular law. And people do want it repealed. We're getting, you know, despite the fact that there is a lot of anger at Trump and we saw that poll last week from few that showed that there is just unprecedented opposition to Donald Trump.

We're hearing a lot from the opposition. I think we should also be paying attention to those -- that huge chunk of people who just didn't even vote this year.

KING: Right.

HEMINGWAY: They have almost no voice in the media I think. And then of course there's the electorate that actually voted for Trump and probably are willing to give him more than a month to fix some of these problems.

KING: And that they're --

HEMINGWAY: They're probably a little more patient than the opposition.

ZELENY: No question, no question.

KING: The President sometimes doesn't show the patience of his voters I think, understanding that these things do take time.

BALL: But it is true that instead Congress feels that it's gotten very little direction from the White House or conflicting signals about these big priorities, about things like repealing Obamacare and what to replace it with.

Virtually no progress has been made on that, in part, because they do not feel the President has been focused on this issue. And indeed, if you wanted to, tomorrow he might tweet something or make an off hand comment that would completely upend all of the work that's been done so far.

And so those efforts -- it has only been a month, but it has been very hard for Congress to decide on a path forward.

KING: Right.

BALL: On these big ticket issues. They do have a great problem to have. They have consolidated Republican governance that ought to mean that they can move forward in a big way with big policy priorities. And it's just been a lot harder than they thought, in part, because these things take time, and in part because they just don't know where the President's that is.

KING: And in part because of you're winning that means there are more of you. And when there are more of you, you have competing ideas, you have more ideas. So, this one is going to take a while. Everybody sit tight. Up next our reporters share from their notebooks, including one prominent Republican Senator passing up a slot at CPAC

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:53:40] KING: Let's close by heading around the INSIDE POLITICS table. Ask our great reporters to get you out ahead of the political news just around the corner. Molly Ball.

BALL: Senator Rand Paul was invited to CPAC this weekend and he's not going to attend. He is going to be spending time away from D.C. I am told this is the second straight year that Rand Paul is not attending CPAC. Last year he was focused on his re-election, which went pretty smoothly. But it's a real change for CPAC, which for a long time was very heavily libertarian and really belonged to Rand Paul and to his father Ron Paul and to the legions of young libertarians who loved them.

Now, you know, Rand Paul won the CPAC Straw Poll twice. The last time it was Ted Cruz, and Ted Cruz will be at CPAC. And he's in a way I think he becomes more of the standard bearer for that movement if it still exists.

KING: There were many CPACS with the polls. Well miss that one. Jeff?

ZELENY: A week from tonight, the biggest speech yet for the president. It won't be a state of the union address, but it will look like one on television. The President will be addressing a joint session about Congress. He's already been working on his speech, I'm told, and his advisors desperately want him to continue what he has really done over the last couple of days or so and continue that to a reset button, if he will into that speech next week. Talking about lowering taxes, healthcare, keeping it focused on issues, not campaigning. We'll see how he does.

KING: Interesting, first big moment for the President out on Capitol Hill. I'm looking forward to that. Domenico?

MONTANARO: Taking it forward to Saturday and the new Democratic National Committee Chair race taking place in Atlanta. At this point, someone to watch -- and not because they're likely to win, but because of their constituency is Jamie Harrison, the South Carolina Congressman.

He has had a significant block of potential voters and depends on where they wind up going. That could actually throw the race. Expect multiple ballots and expect that, you know, Tom Perez at this point, the formal labor secretary under Obama, seems to have the inside track. Of course, Keith Ellison, the more populist Minnesota congressman is his main rival. But you have to wonder if Keith Ellison is there, a member of the CBC, congressional black caucus, why so many have thrown their support to Harrison.

KING: Interesting to watch, a big debate among those candidates coming up here on CNN. Molly?

BALL: A bunch of Democratic Attorney Generals worked together very well to fight President Trump's immigration ban. And even though more than 30 states opposed President Obama's immigration policies, only one state filed an amicus brief to help out the Trump administration.

[12:55:07] So, I'm talking to people in the Attorney General's Staffs at these 30 states and -- or former Attorney General Staff. And they're talking about how if opposition through the courts is going to be a main strategy of the opposition, how they need to work together to support Trump -- the Trump presidency.

KING: Work together in the court some to support, and those who are opposing, trying to make a name for themselves as well. Not just in court. Future ballots maybe.

Thanks for joining us at INSIDE POLITICS. Pretty soon, the White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer is taking questions from reporters at the White House. We'll take you there live when it happens. A quick break here, we'll see on IP tomorrow.

Wolf Blitzer's standing by after a quick break.

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[12:59:55] WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello. I'm Wolf Blitzer. It's 1:00 p.m. here in Washington, 8:00 p.m. in Jerusalem, 9:00 p.m. in Mosul, Iraq. Wherever you are watching from around the world, thanks you very much for joining us.

So let's begin with the breaking news. Take a look at this. We've got some live pictures coming in from the White House briefing room, we're only moments away from the White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer taking to the podium and he'll undoubtedly --