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Inside Politics

With No Evidence, Trump Accuses Obama Of Wiretapping; FBI Asked Justice Department To Refute Trump Claims; Poll: President Trump's Approval Rating at 45 Percent; GOP May Unveil Their Obamacare Plan This Week. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired March 06, 2017 - 12:30   ET

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

[12:30:11] JOHN KING, INSIDE POLITICS HOST: Welcome back. An angry Oval Office session Friday. More anger and lashing out Saturday and Sunday in Florida. The President who accused his predecessor of tapping his phones is described by a number of sources as a president frustrated with his own staff. Curious of constant leaks and now convinced there's a calculated coordinated effort within the intelligence agencies in the larger federal bureaucracy to undermine his presidency.

And the President and his teams say this media, the news media, us, are an eager part of this conspiracy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS, WHITE HOUSE DEPUTY PRESS SECRETARY: The media loves to create this false narrative against the current President, but is so quick to dismiss anything under the past administration. If the President walked across the Potomac, the media would report that he couldn't swim.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: I think we'd report that's pretty cool.

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's good out there.

KING: But listen, God bless people who work for politicians and have to defend them in times of crisis. So I'm not here to pick on Sarah (ph) how could you say.

HENDERSON: Sure you are.

King: No, but I am -- this is not the people's court. This is not the people's court. So I want to get at the President's state of mind. You touch on a moment ago, aides describe him as furious, now he's hater and now he's put his aides on television. She says he firmly believes this may have happened. This may have happened. That Barack Obama may -- may have the Nixonian, McCarthyist abuse of power.

Kellyanne Conway, if something happened, the American people need to know. Well you don't do may's and if's. After the president of the United States accuses the former president of the United States of breaking the law.

HENDERSON: Yes, you know, and if he believes all of these, he should get out and say it, right? I mean, all of a sudden he's hiding behind Twitter, he's hiding in the White House. He doesn't want cameras in there. I don't think Sean Spicer is going to brief on camera today of those three cabinet officials that didn't want to talk about it. So -- and, you know, instead he is putting these incendiary remarks on Twitter and then going -- and sending his aides out and hiding.

KING: And whey they try to push back, they often push back against us saying anonymous sources, anonymous sources, anonymous sources. You mentioned your colleagues have some great reporting. We at CNN spent the weekend a number of us, that's a half dozen of us contributing to the story saying, he's mad, he's lashing out, he's calling friends and saying his team can't get out of its own way. He is mad at people within.

So, as they push back and say well that's just the media again, here is a very good friend of the President, Chris Ruddy, the CEO of the conservative news site Newsmax, who saw the President in Florida this weekend. He said "He was pissed". Sorry, I don't like to say that in the daytime, but that's a quote from somebody close to the President of the United States. "I haven't seen him this angry", so we're not making this up.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSECORRESPONDENT: We're not at all. And as you said we spent the weekend on the phone, as did, you know, every reporter. The reality here, though, one thing of all the people we spoke to, we didn't hear him taking any responsibility for this himself.

Yes, he gave a great speech last week. The reality, though, he has created all this. So, one thing that was absent from that Friday meeting was this incredibly animated in the Oval Office right before he went to Florida, was any sense of something that he can change, that he can do differently. I think that that is the issue here. But he is furious that his attorney general who is very, you know, he supports and likes him, but he did not think that he should refuse himself.

But if you think back, this is stuff that he has said for a long time and gotten a ton of press for it, but he is president now. He realized it, of course. That's the only difference here.

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER: And it should take some responsibility. I mean, it was this Saturday morning twittered tirade that has gotten him off message, and I've talked to some Republicans on the Hill in the last couple of days, and they are frustrated to say the least. I mean, you heard Mitch McConnell say a couple of weeks ago, stop tweeting essentially because you take us off message. What do the Republicans on the Hill want to do this week?

KING: Right.

RAJU: Focus on repealing and replacing Obamacare, central part of Trump's agenda. But it's not going to -- we overshadowed by things that the President himself did.

KING: And yet, some people think, you just alluded this a few minutes ago, that he does this to distract. That well we -- we're talking about could possibly President Obama have wiretapped Donald Trump as opposed to Jeff Sessions actually didn't tell Congress about two meetings with the Russian ambassador and had to recuse himself.

The Trump campaign after months of saying there were no meetings, had to disclose it not only were there more meetings, but one of them was involving Jared Kushner, the President's son-in-law, at Trump Tower. So maybe they were not talking about that is a victory for Trump but I'm not sure because if you look now, as this gets stirred up again, we have a brand new poll out today that shows a majority of Americans think there should be a special prosecutor. Even most Democrats in Congress aren't sure we're at that point yet.

They want the Intelligence Committee to investigate for it, but look at this among the parties and breakdown. 82 percent of Democrats, 67 percent of independents, but that's a problem for Donald Trump at the bottom. We need a p in word Republicans, that's a problem for CNN when we get the graphic right. But 43 percent of Republicans think there should be a special prosecutor. And now he's taken the story to -- he added more steroids to it.

KAREN TUMULTY, THE WASHINGTON POST: And I think that speaks to something we've also seen out of this White House which is that under normal circumstances, if we had a White House full of people who have lived through this government, not just as part of a campaign, they would know that the first thing you need to do is learn all the facts yourself.

[12:35:06] Get them all on the table. Learn everything you can about this so that you can get ahead of it. They have felt like they are -- because their stances to deny in the counter punch, they are actually behind the curve constantly as these revelations are coming out from --

KING: It's such a good point because the President describe -- I spoke to long time friend, this is the President's a little paranoid about this. Now, Devin Nunes in your paper that have reported by your colleague. It seems that he says, "It's not paranoia at all when it's actually happening. It's leak after leak after leak from the bureaucrats in the intelligence community and former Obama administration officials and it's very real. The White House is absolutely concerned as trying to figure out a systemic way to address what's happening."

The chairman is right. It is actually happening. But the last several leaks have been about Jeff Sessions did meet with the Russians. Jared Kushner did meet with the Russian ambassador.

ZELENY: Right.

KING: These are all things to your point they know this is an issue, they could have -- the last several leaks, correct me if I'm wrong, have all been about correcting the record. Of putting facts on the record not Donald Trump rob the bank. Not nefarious here, not nefarious stuff, just correcting. They say this, well, it's not true.

ZELENY: Exactly. And you have to wonder if all of this sort of stuff over the weekend is to pave the way for something that else that also may be coming. Is there going to be some other information about someone who actually had a conversation? I think that, you know, there may be more strategy in here than we --

HENDERSON: Yes.

ZELENY: -- are talking.

(CROSSTALK)

HENDERSON: Yes. And his word of teleprompters (ph) seem to come in the wake of this Russia allegations and revelations. His all idea about the media being the enemy of the state, that was after a lot of Russia coverage, and now this claim about Obama doing something illegal and wiretapping him has also come in the wake of conversations about Russia.

RAJU: And he does have an ally and Devin Nunes he just point that out. He does -- I mean, that's been very concern about the leaks, he said if there any law has been broken right now, it's possibly the fact that classified information has been out there although some of the -- something has been leaked is not classified. Nevertheless, that's where at least Republicans -- some Republicans want to put the focus --

TUMULTY: Right.

RAJU: Of this investigation as much as, let's say, the Trump contacts allegedly that occurred with the Russian.

KING: That's great. Investigate it for me to see. Do a good thorough bipartisan job then produce a public record or writing.

Up next, no big balance from that big speech to Congress but there are some new poll numbers that are favorable to the President and his agenda.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:41:50] KING: Welcome back. A brand new CNN-ORC poll out today tells us the President did not get a big bounce out of last Tuesday speech to Congress. That's always the goal. A big joint address of Congress, the President hopes to get a bounce. His approval rating now on the job 45 percent with 44 percent heading into the speech. So, barely a blip up, maybe just a tiny bit within a poll's margin of error.

If you look at this by party, pretty much the same is going into the speech. Republicans are with the President. 88 percent approve of President Trump's job performance. Independents, a majority disapproved. Democrats, forget about it. It's pretty much a mirror image of above. Nine and 10 Democrats had a disapproved the President's performance. That's the polarize environment we're in as the Republican Congress tries to begin movement on the Trump agenda.

Economic issues, tax reform would be included in that. The President is on pretty good standing. National security, travel ban out today. The revised version, split. A divided country. This is where it gets problematic for Republicans. On issues like immigration and health care, the President is under water at the moment. The health care debate, very important, because house Republicans want to start moving this week on their plan. If you get Obama Care now, if you get government subsidies for your health care, Republicans say we have a better deal relying on tax credits.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPRESENTETIVE PETE SESSION (R), CHAIRMAN HOUSE RULES COMMITTEE: Let me say this. Whether you double the cost or not, I don't think we're going to do that at all. What we're going to do is Republicans have better ideas on how to fix health care. And the daunting issue is still, Chris, is that people go without coverage. They're going to show up that the most expensive point of health care, and that is an emergency room.

And Republicans do understand this. And so, if we allow individuals and the tax credits at the heart of this, if we allow all individuals to have the same tax advantage, they can be responsible for a fair shot of getting health care. And we are struggling with that. And Republicans are going to have to come up with an answer. We said we could deliver and we've got to.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: They said they would deliver and they've got to. But help me, number one, are they as unified as Congressman Sessions seems to think on this tax credit idea? Can they get it through the House? And how much does this broader political environment where the President didn't get much of a bounce, where Washington has consumed now by stunning allegations directly from the President of the United States about his predecessor. How much does this environment affect the nuts and bolts of the agenda?

RAJU: In a huge impact, because you need the President to be healthy in order to get or have take really difficult vote, particularly those members in modern districts. I think you'll see some of the more conservative members come under a lot of pressure to ultimately support something at the end of the day because of -- he is still popular with his base. But the conservatives are also concerned about the policy.

There are number of -- these members of the House Freedom Caucus who believe that the issue providing tax credits to provide for health insurance. A lot of people to provide health insurance is nothing but (INAUDIBLE) than another entitlement.

They're threatening to vote against it. That's going to be center piece of the plan. And there are some moderates in both the House and the Senate who are concerned about the coverage numbers and about the cost. We don't know don't know how much this proposal is going to cost at this point. We also don't know how many people are going to be covered by it. They have not released any estimates from the Congressional Budget Office. And we're about ready to get into votes in the committee this week.

So, a lot of questions about whether they can get this through, but we do know Paul Ryan wants to get this pass out of the House by the end of this month. But he can only afford to lose 20 members. That's difficult in a chamber that is relatively somewhat nearly divided.

[21:45:14] KING: And then can he sell whatever they do in the House and the Senate. So, that's another issue. Where Republicans don't like some, some of the -- they don't like the tax credit idea --

RAJU: Even Planned Parenthood, defunding Planned Parenthood. You loose the Murkowski of Alaska for instance.

TUMULTY: All thought, I've talked Republicans who say this is not a problem for the president. This is an opportunity that if he can engage on policy, if he can start knocking some heads and sorting out these differences on tax reform, on health care, that this could be, you know, what gets him through all of these other difficulties that we have spent the rest of the show talking about.

KING: Start doing things that are relevant.

TUMULTY: Good luck (ph).

KING: Start -- do things that are relevant to the people out there as opposed t facing wreck less allegations.

HENDERSON: I mean, if he can do that. And we've seen so far glimmers of that. Obviously with his speech on Tuesday, they thought they were going to be able to ride that through the week. And right into some momentum for this week in terms of all the issues they want to be talking about. I mean, clearly some good numbers for him in terms of the economy.

And I talked to one Republican early on. And she agrees largely with what Karen said to this idea that he has to do a few things around Obamacare. Tweak it, repeal it, reform it, whatever, around tax reform as well. And maybe some sort of a wall. I mean, maybe it's probably going to end up being more like a fence, but so far he hasn't been able to get out of his own way, and hasn't been curious enough in terms of engaging with Congress to get some of the stuff done.

KING: Well see. Changing -- getting things done and changing Washington would go a long way in helping improve this standing. He didn't get about how the speech which has to be disappointing at the White House.

Up next, our reporters share their notebooks, including a new buzz word, right here in the nation's capital.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:51:14] KING: Let's close as we always do. Head around the "Inside Politics" table, ask our great reporters to get you out ahead of the big political news just around the corner. Nia-Malika Henderson?

HENDERSON: Well, what it's going to be fascinating to watch is the Trump effect in terms of politicians and politics in different countries. And we've seen that somewhat in France with Marine Le Pen, also in Mexico there is -- his name is Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and his name is -- his nickname is Amlo for short, and he is seemingly doing really well in Mexico right now in terms of being the next president, possibly replacing Enrique Pena Nieto who steps in June of 2018, and he sounds both like Trump and the anti-Trump. He talks about the Mafia of power, the Mafia politicians and is doing really well in gaining some traction there. It will be interesting to see how he does in terms of campaigning for the presidency. He's run twice before, lost, but there's a whole new ball game now with Trump.

KING: New playbook to copy.

HENDERSON: Exactly. Jeff?

ZELENY: As 02:16, there is some skepticism and some objection to the health care bill. Well, this is going to be the first sign and the test of how strong the Trump movement actually is out there. He is not traveling this week, which tells (ph) a little bit surprised. But at least he is not scheduled to travel.

But at some point when there is opposition from House Freedom Caucus members and other things, what will his supporters do? What will he do specifically to urge them to vote for this? I think this is one thing we have not seen him use the power of the presidency for. I am told that he is going to use it, and he is going to convince some of these, you know, reluctant conservatives to sign on board of this.

Now, easier done on the House and the Senate I think but keep on eye on the Trump movement to see on which muscle it has.

KING: Let's see if they gets out there. Rally Trump can be powerful. Let's see. Manu?

RAJU: John, we're just two weeks away from Neil Gorsuch's confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Republicans are still searching for those eight Democratic votes in order to put Gorsuch over the top because they're expected to need to get 60 votes on the floor of the Senate and there were 52 Republican senators. They don't expect to lose any of those Republican senators.

The question is where do those eight Republican senators -- Democratic senators come from? There's a pretty concerted advertising campaign by these conservative groups are pushing Neil Gorsuch to get those red state Democrats who are on -- who are running for re-election, including Joe Donnelly, who's been a target of $1.2 million worth of ads in Indiana from conservative outside groups.

The question is where the other three more members, one person, Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, also up for re-election. I talked to him about Gorsuch. He is not there yet. So, a lot of questions about where those final votes are going to come from.

KING: Yes. There's a Supreme Court nomination battle. On other stuff you forget that sometimes. Karen?

TUMULTY: Well, the phrase that you've been hearing on everyone's lips, and I think especially within, like, the last week is the phrase deep state. This is the idea that there is an entrenched federal bureaucracy. Not only national security, but throughout the government that basically leans left. That is going to -- that was there before the President got there. It will be there after he leaves.

But what I am finding extraordinary is the degree to which people on the right are now calling for Donald Trump to do something about that. Certainly Steve Bannon believes that the success of his presidency really hinges on bringing deep state under control. Steve King, the Iowa congressman yesterday tweeted that the President needs to "purge leftists" from the executive branch.

And Newt Gingrich is actually calling upon the model of Abraham Lincoln essentially saying that there has to be an idealogical house cleaning of the federal bureaucracy.

KING: They could start by filling the hundreds of jobs they've yet to fill for their own appointees so they could put them in these agencies. We'll see.

I'll close with this. The President's stunning wiretapping allegation again puts front and center a fascinating dynamic year of the new Washington. Meeting (ph) Republican say they're determined to ignore all the drama around the Trump presidency and just focus on passing their ambitious agenda, but there, of course, is no ignoring or escaping the drama.

The Republicans who wish the president would cancel his Twitter account. No, they are going to be asked daily about his twitter misses. They're beyond thinking he will change his ways. But one interesting thing this weekend, there's so many elected Republicans and outside Trump allies say they wish he would bring a veteran Washington hand to the White House operation. But they see the likelihood of that as about equal to the likelihood of the President curing his twitter addiction.

Thanks for watching us in "Inside Politics". See you back here same time tomorrow. After a quick break, Wolf Blitzer.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Hello. I'm Wolf Blitzer. It's 1:00 p.m. here in Washington. Wherever you're watching from around the world, thanks very much for joining