Return to Transcripts main page

Inside Politics

The Fallout of Attorney General Jeff Sessions Recusing Himself; A Look Into The Repeal And Replace of Obamacare. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired March 03, 2017 - 12:00   ET

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

[12:00:00] JOHN KING, CNN HOST: Thanks, Kate. And welcome to INSIDE POLITICS. I'm John King. Thanks for sharing your Friday with us. Remember this one, it's one of the many different ways President Trump said there was no there-there.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: During the election?

DONALD J. TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: No, nobody that I know of.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So, you're not aware of any contacts during the course of the election?

TRUMP: How many times do I have to answer this election? Russia is a ruse.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: A ruse, the president said. Well, in the past 24 hours, we have learned a handful of Trump associates, including his son-in-law, had previously undisclosed meetings with Russian ambassador. They say these meetings were about policy and about courtesy and nothing more.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D), MINORITY LEADER: This is just totally unacceptable. And the very idea that they're making excuses and splitting hairs in this or that. This is a -- we have not seen the end of this. The recusal is an admission that something was wrong.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: As you can see, Democrats were a little skeptical about all that, but the Attorney General's dramatic decision yesterday to recuse himself from the Russia election meddling investigation makes appointment of a special prosecutor far less likely.

Plus, more internal Republican tensions over how to replace Obamacare, but House Speaker Paul Ryan insists things are fine.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL RYAN, SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: I'm perfectly confident that when it's all said and done, we're going to unify because we all -- every Republican -- ran on repealing and replacing and we're going to keep our promises.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: The speaker there. He's on the road today. We'll get to that in just a minute. With us to share the reporting and our insights, Margaret Talev of Bloomberg News, CNN's Manu Raju, Mollie Hemingway of The Federalist, and Jackie Kucinich of The Daily Beast.

Day 43 of the Trump presidency is not unfolding as the White House had scripted things, and President Trump isn't happy about that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEFF SESSIONS, ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES: I have now decided to recuse myself from any existing or future investigations of any matter relating in any way to the campaigns for president of the United States. I feel like that I should not be involved investigating a campaign I had a role in.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Now, for the record, it was Jeff Sessions right there, not Democrats, who gave misleading testimony to Congress. It wasn't Democrats who met with the Russian ambassador at last year's Republican Convention and it wasn't the Democrats who invited the Russian ambassador to a meeting at the Trump Tower.

But the president wants you to see this is all politics. Here is -- look at this. The Democrats are over-playing their hand, he said, in a series of tweets last night. They lost the election and now they've lost their grip on reality. The real story, the president says, is all of the illegal leaks in classified and other information. It is, the president says, a total witch-hunt.

Welcome to Day 43. Happy Friday, everybody. It's interesting politics. What's the president is doing there is pretty smart from a political standpoint. When you're in a moment of crisis, you want to keep your support, so you want to make it about politics. This isn't all about politics. But what is it about is the question.

We learn about these previously undisclosed meetings. The president's team meeting with the Russians. They know this is a big story out there. Why not follow the politics 101 playbook and get all this out on your own, not knowing the president's been picking a fight with the intelligence community? Let me them do it to you.

MARGARET TALEV, CORRESPONDENT, BLOOMBERG NEWS: I think that ship has already sailed, though. And that's really the problem. During the transition, which is a period of time when traditionally White Houses begin to stand up working relationships with Congress, to some extent to Democrats who they feel like they could work with, to the press, setting up operations, trying to figure out how you're going to fill out this room with deputies and assistant secretaries and that sort of stuff. That's not what was happening during this transition. But there were conversations with the Russians.

There was a time to disclose all this stuff on the front-end, just say: 'Look, it's no big deal; yeah, Flynn talked to the ambassador, didn't say anything. It was a courtesy call. Yes, Sessions talked to the ambassador.'

The time has passed out. It's over. And so, now they need to switch gears.

KING: But the question is, look, they don't like us. It is no secret the Trump people don't like us, they don't like to play by traditional rules. That has worked to their benefit in many ways, but there is a playbook in this town.

If you know there's some stuff out there that will be used against you, you find a friendly setting, you do a media interview, you do something, you get it out first.

When the president is running around calling the intelligence community Nazis, if I'm Jared Kushner and I know I met with the Republican ambassador leak, I would leak that on my favorable terms.

MOLLIE HEMINGWAY, SENIOR EDITOR, THE FEDERALIST: Not with the Russian ambassador. But it's impossible to know -- you notice that Trump is being political, but we're not getting a lot of coverage about how everybody else is being political as well.

It is hard to plan for a leak campaign that involves so much disinformation. This goes back to October. You remember there was a story about a private server set up with a direct line between the Trump Tower and the Russian Kremlin and it turned out not to be true.

There was a story in The Washington Post about Russia hacking the Vermont electric grid and it turned out not to be true.

[12:05:00] Now, we have this claim that meeting with the Russian ambassador, which is something that basically every senator does all the time, the Democratic Senators do all the time, have done this week. This is an ambassador who meets all the time. Now, all of a sudden, you're supposed to say, you should have known that saying that thing that everybody knows you do --

(CROSSTALK)

KING: My point is not that they did it. My point is not that they did it. I think the one thing we know here is that the Russian ambassador deserves a raise. This is his job. This is his job. You're the Russian ambassador. Donald Trump is the Republican nominee. You want to get to know him and his people. They might be the next presidency of the United States. So, he's asking for --

HEMINGWAY: And you want to get to know Dianne Feinstein and you want to get to know Claire McCaskill who are Democratic senators --

KING: Absolutely. They met them with him too. I'm going to leave them out. Claire McCaskill made a stupid mistake yesterday. She said she didn't meet with the Russian ambassador when she had.

But this is about -- let's talk about these people coming into power, in the sense that the Russian ambassador is doing his job. And you know what? They can perfectly say we're doing our job too. We are meeting with the Russian ambassador.

The question is -- I just want to put up on the screen. We've seen all these meetings now, Michael Flynn, Jeff Sessions, Jared Kushner, JD Gordon, Carter Page. Some of them, foreign policy advisers to the president or his campaign. Nothing wrong in theory with them sitting down with the Russian ambassador. But why not just be open and transparent about this?

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER: Especially when it's such a vulnerability of this administration. It's something that both sides of the aisle are concerned about, Trump's relationship with Russia. We hear this from Republicans as well. This is not just a Democratic concern. There's a Republican concern.

There could be nothing to any of these meetings. And the issue for Sessions was not that he met with the Russian ambassador, as Margaret pointed out aptly. Democrats meet with Russian ambassador too. It's that he didn't disclose it.

And, finally, he said that it was not -- he was uncertain about the question. He thought it was a campaign-related question. He was meeting in the capacity of the armed services committee. But the fact that he didn't disclose this meeting is what got him into hot water.

JACKIE KUCINICH, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, THE DAILY BEAST: And the categorical denials. That's the other thing.

KING: OK. Several times, including one of the gentlemen just on that screen say there were no meetings. Never happened, never happened.

(CROSSTALK)

KUCINICH: But if there were meetings, just say what the nature of the meetings were. That's so easy and then you don't have us saying, what are you hiding here and is it cover-up (inaudible) crime.

HEMINGWAY: We don't have (inaudible) right now about Russians meeting with Democrats.

KUCINICH: Why would we? They are not in power.

HEMINGWAY: But we don't have people pressing and getting sort of hyperventilating about this. One of these meetings with the Russian ambassador was at the Republican National Committee where there were 100 ambassadors and there was a casual like hello. Do you really think that this is a wise course of action for the media to sort of participate in this frenzy?

KING: No, I'm sorry. I'm going to push back on that part. I'm happy to have conversations about what Democrats meet with the Russian ambassador too. The Russian ambassador -- I've been in this town for almost 30 years. This Russian ambassador is known as an ambassador, yes, but mostly as a spy, as an intelligence operative as are ambassadors all over the world. That's part of their job.

There's nothing wrong with meeting with him. He represents the Russian government here in Washington. He was at the Obama White House I think twenty-something times for meetings with people during the Obama administration.

HEMINGWAY: And we're not having a conversation about how troubling that is.

KING: It depends on the conversation. If these are the only contacts between Trump associates and the Russians, the meetings with Russia's ambassador, and they didn't talk about anything except let's have better relationships, what do you think about Ukraine, what do you think about that, then in the end, there's no there-there.

I'm happy -- I would be happy to say there's no there-there. The question is, when this becomes an issue, why don't they publicly disclose this and get upfront. To Manu's point, just one sec -- to Manu's point, this is not just the media. Listen here, this is a Republican Congressman and an independent senator who leans with the Democrats saying, why are we still talking about this?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. WILL HURD (R), TEXAS: I think everybody who's had contact with the Russians need to get in a practice of over-sharing. I think the problem is we're making this a partisan activity.

SEN. ANGUS KING (I), MAINE: The denials remind me of Obi-Wan Kenobi in the first Star Wars. Remember where he says, these aren't the droids you're looking for and they go on by. We've just got to continue to follow this and it's in the interest of the president and the people around him to get this all out. It's the drip, drip that's really going to be damaging.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Please, you're animated.

HEMINGWAY: So, if you look at what the question was asked by Al Franken to Sen. Sessions, it was obvious he was asking, as a surrogate of the Trump campaign, were you meeting with Russian officials? He was like, no, I wasn't. And that is true. We can talk about all these other things, but you need the context of the question and the idea again that there is --

KING: Did Jeff Sessions give Hillary Clinton that grace anytime she said I don't recall or any time she gave a half answer to a question --

(CROSSTALK)

KING: Sen. Sessions may have taken the question in the context of the thing, fine. But he could have corrected the record after the hearing or he could have said, I just want you guys -- he's been through this before.

HEMINGWAY: Again, this idea that regular typical meetings with diplomats is something that should be -- that needs to be disclosed as part of some drip, drip, drip campaign --

KING: When the FBI is investigating whether your candidate's associates had contacts with the Russians during the campaign or is investigating the broader question of Russia meddling in the election and you want to be the top law enforcement officer in the United States, I'm sorry, yes, yes.

[12:10:09] You just say, Sen. Franken, I had zero contact with him about the campaign. I had two meetings in which we talked about the Ukraine and other stuff that even I don't understand. He asked for this meeting. I had it because I'm on the armed services committee, but it had nothing to do with --

(CROSSTALK)

RAJU: The underlying issue is the policy. What is the policy of the United States going to be towards Russia? That's really what it gets at the heart of -- are they going to loosen sanctions on Russia? Are they going to pose stiffer sanction? That is -- how does Donald Trump deal with Russia is at the heart of the matter.

HEMINGWAY: No, that is exactly right. You have Donald Trump advocating a completely different foreign policy approach, new ways of engaging with other people, including Russia, new ways of handling ISIS, and you have an establishment that is trying to box him in and limit his call for creative ways of thinking and you're seeing that boxing in and that is the interesting --

(CROSSTALK)

KING: But he won the presidency of the United States. He's a very good communicator. If he wants to make his policy case -- this is hurting him, not helping him make that policy case. If he wants to turn the direction, he's a pretty good communicator. I think he can do that.

These are his people hurting him. Even if they think -- they thought they had every right -- I have the right to private meetings. I have the right if you're a senator to meet with the diplomat. Once this got to the political point where it was -- the president wanted to have a big event yesterday. He wanted to be on an aircraft carrier selling his big speech and the Attorney General had to recuse himself from a investigation. This is not good for him.

I want to just bring into the conversation this because this is -- if this gets people (inaudible). One of the great parts about this is -- the other part of this, the Russians, let's just say they are not exactly the most trustworthy of people in communications.

But our Matthew Chance tried to ask the Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman yesterday about the ambassador, who again is known around this town, Democrats and Republicans, they view him, yes, as a loyal ambassador to the Kremlin, but also somebody who is involved in a little spy work every now and then. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARIA ZAKHAROVA, RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY SPOKESWOMAN: Mr. Kislyak is a well-known -- world-class diplomat who was a deputy minister of foreign affairs in Russia, who was communicated with his American police decades on different fields and CNN accused him on being a Russian spy, recruiting --

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it was US officials.

ZAKHAROVA: Come on, come on. Stop spreading lies and false news.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: I love her response.

RAJU: She said false news.

KING: I love her response.

RAJU: We've heard that before.

HEMINGWAY: Well, I do think we should be careful about calling ambassadors spies. We understand that ambassadors are involved with clandestine services, that's true of all countries.

KING: It is true of all countries. He's not unique. But I'm just saying that, for years, Democrats and Republicans administrations in this town -- I think if we had brought in a bipartisan group of people from Capitol Hill, they would tell you in their briefings, they are particularly warned about certain ambassadors and this is one of them who is just a certain government. That's the way it goes, right?

RAJU: Yes. And, look, I do think that the larger concern -- you hear this -- I spend all day interviewing people on both sides. You hear concerns from both sides about how the Trump administration is going to deal with Russia and a lot of folks in Capitol view Russia as an enemy.

Their concern about these meetings, suggesting that there may be a level of coziness that they are not comfortable with. So, this is something that both sides really want to look into, not just Democrats. This is something that the committees too are looking into, the intelligence committee on both sides. We'll see. If see find it, then maybe there is nothing there.

KING: Maybe there's nothing there. More on this, the politics of it and the policy, there's two competitions going on here, in a little bit.