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Sources: Intel Doesn't Support Trump Claim That Susan Rice Committed Crime; Washington Post: FBI Monitored Ex-Trump Adviser Carter Page; Trump: "We Haven't Failed" on Health Care; Trump: Staffing Slow Due to Democratic Obstructionism; Trump: Great Win for Estes in Kansas; Tillerson Meeting with Putin, Lavrov in Moscow. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired April 12, 2017 - 12:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:30:55] JOHN KING, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back. You might recall President Trump last week told "The New York Times" he believe Obama administration National Security Adviser Susan Rice broke the law and mishandled sensitive intelligence information.

CNN reporting, detailed reporting, tells a very different story. And issue was Rice's decision to ask for more information when she saw intelligence reports detailing conversations between Trump transition officials and foreign nationals who were under legal U.S. surveillance. The president, President Trump, says he believes Rice abused her power. That's a suggestion that's also been made by the House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes.

Remember, he is the one who went down for those mysterious White House complex meetings to review intelligence reports. But now that those reports have been shared more broadly with key members of Congress, what CNN is hearing is very different.

CNN reporters spoke with lawmakers and key staff maker -- members, excuse me. A mix of Democrats and Republicans, all of these sources saying there's little dramatic in the documents, and that Rice's request for more information appeared to be routine and in line with her legitimate duties. Now the president of course, also has access to those documents.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARIA BARTIROMO, FOX NEWS HOST: She said she didn't do it for political reasons. Susan Rice told --

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Does anybody really believe that? Nobody believes that. Even the people that try to protect her in the news media, it's such a big story. And I'm sure it will continue forward. But what they did is horrible.

(END VIDEO CLIP) KING: Well, let me just say, someone in the news media, I'm not trying to protect her. I called her out when she told Judy Woodruff from the one end, I don't know what he's talking about. And then had to come back and say actually, yes, I was involved in some unmasking, they call it. But she says she's not -- she's says she did nothing wrong.

Well, she's going to have to answer for Congress and rightfully so. Because she said one thing in public -- there was one thing that she had to get back and correct it. However, based on this reporting, the president knows what's in these documents.

JACKIE KUCINICH, THE DAILY BEAST: Right. And to declassify it.

KING: And to declassify them and we could share them.

KUCINICH: Yes. But we would all know --

KING: And redact the most sensitive stuff, put most of it out there and we would all know.

Instead, he continues to say something nefarious was going on in the Obama administration. And, again, CNN's reporting several of our correspondents, damn good reporters talking to Democrats, Republicans, staff makers, elected officials, who say, we don't see anything there.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Which is why this is always, you know, going to be a problem for this administration because they have, you know, essentially outsource let's say to the House. They said, you know, the House and Senate will investigate this. Well, that's what they're going to do. And they tried to control some parts of the investigation.

KING: But what the president said -- but the president is trying to shape public opinion before that getting done on.

ZELENY: Of course he is which is why Susan Rice is suddenly at the very center of this. Because there are a few other Democrats, short of the president himself who's off on an island someplace writing his book. Short of the president himself actually ordering but Susan Rice is probably the next best person in terms of someone on the right. You know, if you think Benghazi, you think other things. So that's exactly why they went toward her, but she will have to testify. She should have to testify and sort of get this all out there.

But if there's no their there, this has been one huge distraction by this administration here. But you're right, he's trying to convince his base of that and he may do that. They may always believe him. But the House Intelligence Committee and the Senate Intelligence Committee and the FBI may say differently.

PERRY BACON, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT: This sort of confirms less it would have when Nunes stepped down from the committee. I suspect we would learn something. Nunes is no longer running the Russian investigation. I suspect that we would learn something like this that people will look into these documents, the documents proved nothing. Maybe we don't know with Nunes on why he stepped down or exactly. But it seems like this information to conform to that the idea that he was not a credible chairman anymore, and then he in some ways had not been honest and straightforward about what the documents show.

AMY WALTER, THE COOK POLITICAL REPORTER: That's absolutely true. And to Jeff's point about it encouraging the base, that's fine. For the 35 percent of Americans who support this president are never going to leave his side, that's a great strategy. But the president's real trouble right now is the fact that we can talk about the special election in a moment, but the fact that it's pretty clear that the rest of the Republican base, outside of those who are really strongly supportive of him, not feeling as fired up.

[12:35:03] Democrats, every time the president does this, it only enrages and encourages them. And it discourages independents. This president's approval rating now is stuck at 40 percent. And he's not going to move that needle by making Susan Rice the, you know, new boogey person of his administration.

KING: And I mentioned the CNN reporting. I want to get to "The Washington Post" reporting this morning that Carter Page who is a distant foreign policy adviser, exactly how influential he was in the campaign as a subject of great dispute, but he was involved, he was on the letterhead in campaign. We now learned that he was actually the subject of a FISA, the intelligence court, of FISA warning.

Then to get a FISA warning you need to go to these judges and convince -- against an American, you have to go to these judges and convince them, show them evidence that this person is somehow under the influenced, acting inappropriately for a foreign power, acting as a foreign agent. Carter Page says none of this is true.

Carter Page by the way will be on "The Lead with Jake Tapper" today. So stay here this afternoon to watch that. He says, "I was so happy to hear the further confirmation is now being revealed. It shows how low the Clinton/Obama regime went to destroy our democracy and suppress dissidents, who did not fully support their failed foreign policy."

(OFF-MIC)

KING: Dissidents. What -- look again, it is quote unquote smart in this environment to say something that chins up your base. If you're Carter Page, you want the bright marks, you want the right, but an American citizen if they went to -- if you wonder -- if someone can prove to me that the Justice Department, the CIA, were all in cahoots with President Obama, on some conspiracy to corrupt the FISA Court process, I'm waiting. But you can't walk into a court with a political agenda and get one of these warrants, you have to show them something to get it.

KUCINICH: And the Trump administration wants this guy to go away. They don't want anyone talking because they don't need this out there. So, I don't -- I mean, who his constituency as of at this point is kind of --

KING: To that point, they have tried to say he was some hanger-on.

KUCINICH: Yes.

KING: So, I just want people, I want to go back in time here. Early in the campaign when there was a lot of questions, was Donald Trump a viable candidate, could he survive? He did an interview at the Washington Post where they were trying to press him, what is your world view? Who's your team?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FREDERICK RYAN JR., WASHINGTON POST PUBLISHER: As we heard you might be announcing your foreign policy advisory team soon. If there's any you can share on that?

TRUMP: We are going to be that. In fact, you know, I hadn't thought in terms of doing it, but if you want I can give you some of the names.

RYAN: I would be delighted.

TRUMP: I wouldn't mind. Do you have that list of (inaudible) a little more accurate. OK, are you ready?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Taking notes.

TRUMP: Walid Phares, who you probably know, PhD, adviser to the House of Representatives caucus, and counter-terrorism expert, Carter Page, PhD, George Papadopoulos, he's an oil and energy consultant, excellent guy, the Honorable Joe Schmitz, inspector general at the Department of Defense, Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg. And I have quite a few more.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Well, Carter Page, PhD there. That was in March of 2016. We don't need the play the sound but Sean Spicer would say later, he's an individual the president-elect does not know.

WALTER: Yes, and when it comes back to that point in 2016 and quite frankly throughout the campaign.

KUCINICH: Yes.

KING: Yes.

WALTER: Foreign policy types who came with any bit of experience who are part of the establishment, we're going nowhere near the Trump campaign. That was the team he was able to assemble. It was a pretty, I guess we can say, scrappy, group of folks that were not exactly the most, high talent.

ZELENY: It's also a moment of prime for the -- for Mr. Trump at that time. He was going to "The Washington Post" (inaudible). That was the publisher of The Washington Post asking those questions there. And if he was coming and say, look, I do have a team. I'm a credible Republican nominee trying to win the support of that editorial page, which is more conservative certainly than the New York Times not as the "The Wall Street Journal" of course, but that was a moment where he was proud of the fact that Carter Page (inaudible).

I think it's irrelevant how high up on the food chain, him that being the fact that there was a FISA warrant that was extended, that a judge signed off on that is not good news for the Trump campaign regardless of how you slice it.

BACON: We don't know what happened in the Trump administration. We do know that Carter Page and Manafort, they told stories or misleading (inaudible) and they down played their roles when their roles were on the campaign were significant at those times. And they have suggested they didn't know -- Trump didn't really know these people. Then you find out he (inaudible) within The Washington Post, one of them runs his campaigns. So they had -- so adding to the suspicions people how about what happened between Russia and Trump.

KING: Absolutely, we'll continue to watch all this as it plays out. Up next, there was a vote schedule and then the bill was pulled because of a Republican revolt, but the president says he did not fail at ObamaCare repeal and vows to prove the critics wrong as the 100-day clock ticks down.

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[12:43:32] KING: Welcome back. Well, this part depends I guess on your definition of failure or (inaudible) place effort. The (inaudible) Speaker Paul Ryan declared they're welcome to negotiation then he negotiated for days and changes were made to appease House conservatives. Then a vote, remember a signature Republican and Trump campaign promised, a vote was scheduled. Then that vote was abruptly canceled after Speaker Ryan told the president the bill was not going to pass because most of the conservatives, the president and his team had lobbied for days, were still voting, no. Webster defines failure as a lack of success. President Trump has his own lexicon.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: It's been very much misreported that we failed with health care. We haven't failed, we're negotiating and we continue to negotiate. And we will save, perhaps $900 billion.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BACON: So there you go. But then they shouldn't have called a vote.

ZELENY: Remember back on that day of that week when the White House said there is going to be a vote on Friday.

KING: There's no plan B.

ZELENY: No plan B. Well, OK, now we're on to plan C or D it seems like. But I mean the reality here is, of course they can still negotiate. It's not a done deal that they can't vote for this but this I think is one of those things every president goes through it, how to learn the ways in Washington. He can change as much as he want, but the reality here is, as long as the White House opens it to negotiation, I'm not sure anyone has come sort of enclosing the deal here.

KUCINICH: Yes, I think nothing had change.

[12:45:03] ZELENY: It's gotten worse actually I think and the vice president has a lot of skin in the game now too. He was trying to bring them together, it didn't work. So they tried at least a couple --

KING: But, it's telling that he still says, when they come back from recess, Congress has gone home, we will see with their mood is when they come back. It's always change. But the president still says he wants to do health care first because of the money you saved. If you pass repeal, it gives you more money on the table for tax reform. But if they come back and to Jeff's point, we have no evidence.

Mark Meadows, the Freedom Caucus chairman says we're making progress but he said that throughout the last go-around of the stew. We have no evidence they're actually making enough progress. You can get a bill for the House then a bill for the Senate and you know how bill becomes a law.

WALTER: And they are in awful, awful place, right. If you're a House member especially if you sit in a district that somewhat vulnerable in 2018, here are your choices. We get nothing done, our base is depressed, they say, you guys had all branches of government and you failed to do anything especially you're most significant issue. Or you pass something that super unpopular even with your base, and then get killed for it in 2018. So, you have two choices.

KING: Or you come back into this mess. And they keep trying to do health care because they tie to tax reform. And we run through the president's first year and he gets neither. Two giant or at least they get pushed back to the end is one point. I want to correct -- we talked earlier about what the president said about Susan Rice in that interview with Fox Business channel, not necessarily true, actually not even close to truth.

The failure on health care, that's in the eye of the beholder. We'll see how this one plays out in the end. I want you to listen here. One of the issues in the administration has been the slow pace of staff and key administration jobs, the assistance secretaries, the deputy secretaries, the people who make the day-to-day decisions about government. Now, the president says not my fault.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I am waiting right now for so many people.

BARTIROMO: You're under staff.

TRUMP: Hundreds and hundreds of people. And then they'll say, why isn't Trump doing this faster? You can't do it faster because they are obstructing. They're obstructionists. So, I have people, hundreds of people that we're trying to get through -- I mean, you see the backlog, you can't get them through.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Not true.

KUCINICH: You have to have people. I'm not saying that the Democrats won't --

KING: Get the name before the Democrats can obstruct them.

KUCINICH: -- yes. I have to say -- I'm not saying the Democrats won't obstruct them once they get there but you got to name them first. And this administration hasn't named a lot of people. And then some factors, it's because they don't agree on who should be named. So, until that, until they revolved their internal issues, they won't have external issues.

BACON: Whose obstruction? But it's the White House obstructing state, state obstructing the White House. The (inaudible) of that in the White House, there's a big fight about policy here. And (inaudible) partisan are being made but it is so important even the Russian know this thing is true.

KING: The credibility challenge also playing out as often those on Twitter this morning. This is the president of United States this morning who (inaudible) call help the Republican candidate win a special election in Kansas (inaudible). Mike Pompeo became CIA director, Ron Estes, the state treasurer in Kansas now will take a seat in Congress.

It was in doubt for a while because of what Amy talked about earlier. A little sense on what Republicans turn out? What the sense of the part. Republicans won, surprisingly close, but the Republicans won.

The president said this morning, "Great win in Kansas last night for Ron Estes, easily winning the congressional race against the Dems, who spent heavily and predicted victory." The National Democrat expect not dime and predicted defeat.

WALTER: No. And never predicted anything.

ZELENY: And Kansas is about as (inaudible) as gift. That's put the staffing for (inaudible), there's still a loyalty test that exists in the White House. If you are not all on board and supportive, you still have to go through all these hoops, even if you want to serve this administration. That's the hold up, not on obstruction.

KING: What's your lesson from Kansas?

WALTER: If I were a Republican sitting in a district that has a significant suburban area or any urban piece in it, I'd be very nervous. If you look at Sedgwick County which is Wichita, Trump carried Sedgwick County 60 percent in 2016. And this election, the Republican carried it with 48 percent. That is a danger sign if I sit in Orange County which went Democrat. Any district that the president lost -- I'm sorry, any district that he carried by less than 10, I would be nervous as a Republican right now.

KING: And we'll get another test of this next week in the Georgia special election in the Atlanta suburbs. Everybody sit tight. Up next, Nikki Haley's bosses in Moscow talking carefully. She's in New York talking provocatively.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:53:17] KING: Welcome back. I'll remind you, we're standing by for big diplomatic news in Russia. The Secretary of State Rex Tillerson meeting with Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, then to have news conference with the Russian foreign minister. Tillerson of course is America's top diplomat. And at these critical meetings in Moscow today, at least when he's in public, he's speaking diplomatically.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REX TILLERSON, SECRETARY OF STATE: Our meetings today come at an important moment in the relationship so that we can further clarify areas of common objectives, areas of common interest even when our tactical approaches may be different. And to further clarify areas of sharp difference so that we can better understand why these differences exist and what the prospects for narrowing those differences may be.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Oh, you got a flavor of Secretary Tillerson there. Protocols that they extend in diplomatic circles and that includes letting the boss, set the tone, usually.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NIKKI HALEY, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO UNITED NATIONS: Anything the Russians say at this point, no one's believing it. No one is. And you can -- the international community sees this for what it is. The international community has watched Russia cover-up for Assad for years.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Well, well, well, well. A lot of people asking, is she trying to pull them along? Is she trying to overshadow the boss? Or is this a deliberate strategy within the administration? Tillerson keeps it calm. He's in the meetings, she stirs it up.

KUCINICH: It's a really good question. But I don't think we know the answer to it yet. But, yes, it is striking to see these two major players in diplomacy not on the same page or don't sound like they're on the same page. WALTER: How much of this did we see in the Obama administration? Clearly internally, that there were debates and divides over Syria especially with Hillary Clinton, but also with Vice President Biden. I can't remember if it was as obvious as it is here, but it was clearly happening.

[12:55:04] KING: You make a good point. Samantha Power, the U.N ambassador, she wanted more aggressive approach in Syria, served as secretary of state. You are a good Trump translator Jeff Zeleny, listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Just so you understand, we're not going into Syria because, you know, there were some questions. Nikki Haley is doing a great job. Rex is doing fantastic job, our secretary of state, and General McMaster, fantastic. But if you add it all up and if they take every little word, they'll say, oh, they're different.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Just a list or when he does a list you want to be first on it?

ZELENY: I think you want to be first on in the president's list to have questions. But he's also made the case that he's the decider on this. I think he will decide of us.

But Nikki Haley is so far at least in that first 100 days. I think wins probably more stars than most other people because she is, you know, she's out there. She's clear voyance as she clear messaged on this here. But, we'll see what the president says when he explains his policy.

WALTER: She sounds more Lindsey Graham though than --

ZELENY: She certainly has.

KING: Yes. She has a big vote this afternoon at the United Nations Security Council. Stay with CNN for that. Also weighing that news conference in Moscow. Stay with CNN for that.

Thanks for joining us in Inside Politics. I'll see you right back here tomorrow. Wolf Blitzer in the chair after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, I'm Wolf Blitzer. It's 1 p.m. here in Washington, 8 p.m. in Moscow. Wherever you're watching from around the world, thanks very much for joining us.

We start with breaking news --