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North Korea's Attempted Missile Launch Fails; Pence Visits South Korea Amid Flaring Tensions; U.S. Drops Massive Bomb on ISIS in Afghanistan; How Trump's Policy Messaging Changed. Aired 8-9a ET
Aired April 16, 2017 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[08:00:18] JOHN KING, CNN HOST: To our viewers in the United States and around the world, welcome to INSIDE POLITICS. I'm John King. Thanks for sharing your Sunday -- Easter Sunday to millions of Christians around the globe.
Breaking news this morning: a new North Korean provocation is testing the Trump administration's patience but also exposing trouble in the hermit regime's missile program. Pyongyang yesterday test-fired what U.S. intelligence officials believe was a medium range missile, but it exploded just seconds into the launch. That an embarrassment to Kim Jong-un on a weekend the leader used as a show of military might, staging the traditional Day of the Sun parade with an emphasis on new missiles and missile launchers.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAEL HAYDEN, FORMER NSA DIRECTOR: We have an awful lot of American intelligence analysts looking over parade footage for a very long time to try to determine what may or may not be the status of these missile programs in North Korea.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: With the U.S. naval carrier group near the Korean peninsula, China warns of storm clouds gathering and urges Washington and Pyongyang to avoid a dangerous miscalculation.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LEON PANETTA, FORMER DEFENSE SECRETARY: I think we've got to be careful here. This is -- you know, we shouldn't engage in any precipitous action. There's a reason no U.S. president in recent history has pulled the trigger on North Korea.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: All this as the new president shows no hesitation in using American military power, getting the world's attention first with missile strikes first in Syria and the first-time use of a massive bomb against ISIS and ISIS camp in Afghanistan.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: If you look at what's happened over the last eight weeks and compare that really to what's happened over the last eight years, you'll see there's a tremendous difference, tremendous difference. So, we have incredible leaders in the military, and we have incredible military, and we are very proud of them and this was another very, very successful mission.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: With us this Sunday to share their reporting and their insights, Julie Pace of "The Associated Press", CNN's Manu Raju, Jonathan Martin of the "New York Times", and Abby Phillip of "The Washington Post".
President Trump is spending the Easter weekend at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, where officials say he was briefed on a failed North Korean missile launch and will have no further comment. Vice President Mike Pence is on the front lines of this tense standoff, visiting U.S. troops in South Korea this morning.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MIKE PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This is a challenging time all over the world but especially here in the Asia- Pacific. But let me assure you, under President Trump's leadership, our resolve has never been stronger. Our commitment to this historic alliance with the courageous people of South Korea has never been stronger, and with your help, and with God's help, freedom will ever prevail on this peninsula.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: CNN's Dana Bash is the only network correspondent traveling with the vice president, and joins us live now from Seoul with more on his message to the troops -- and, Dana, the message to key allies in the Asia-Pacific as well.
DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, you just heard a bit of what the vice president said. The only thing he has said since landing here in South Korea and it's almost as if it's a different administration from what we have seen and heard from his boss, President Trump, in the last week or so. The tough talk and tweets, vis-a-vis North Korea, that was not on display at all as the vice president landed here.
He also said just vaguely that the provocation that we saw this morning, not even mentioning North Korea by name, is a reminder that the troops, the U.S. troops who are stationed here, are at risk. Now, just by way of background and color, the vice president was briefed on this failed missile test within the hour, after we on Air Force Two, took off after refueling in Alaska, and short while later, one of the aides traveling with him, a White House policy adviser came back and made it clear right away that the administration was going to try to play this one pretty low key, saying, first of all, that they didn't -- this is not a surprise, that it wasn't a matter of if but rather when the North Koreans would try to put something provocative out there. And, obviously, it was this missile test that failed and the fact that
it failed according to this adviser after only four or five seconds in the air was one of the reasons why they weren't going to jump at reacting or maybe overreacting. The other, this adviser noted, is because it wasn't a nuclear test, and the source said that if it had been, the U.S. actions would be quite different.
But there's no question that the administration, the vice president and his staff knew very well coming to this peninsula now when the region is very tense but also given the fact that it is just hours after the North Koreans celebrated their very important day, the Day in the Sun that Will Ripley has been reporting on, they knew the chances were very, very high that something was going to happen that was going to test the Americans' resolve and how they were going to react.
[08:05:21] KING: As we wait for that reaction, Dana Bash with the vice president in Asia -- we'll keep track of that as it plays out.
And how the North Korean regime responds to this embarrassing failure is a big question. U.S. and South Korean intelligence agencies believe North Korea was already considering a new nuclear test even before this missile launch.
CNN's Will Ripley live in Pyongyang, where -- Will, am I correct, state TV has still made no mention of the failed missile launch?
WILL RIPLEY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And they won't, John. North Korea doesn't publicize failures. But if this missile launch had been a success, we'd probably see photos and video of the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un presiding over a successful event.
I've been in the country a couple times before and it's a surreal experience. The rest of the world is talking about this and pretty much everybody in North Korea is unaware. I met with officials today who were aware of the reports but, obviously, there's no comment expected from the country. But I can tell you the sense I get, there will be more missile launches.
And I wouldn't rule out the possibility of this sixth nuclear test, John. The Punggye-ri nuclear test site is primed and ready according to United States and South Korean intelligence analysts both in the government and private sector, and at this point, because there was a failed launch, it may be more motivation for the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to try something more provocative to show strength to the international community after unveiling Saturday all of these new missiles that you saw on display.
KING: Will Ripley for us live in Pyongyang -- Will, we'll keep in touch with you as the day progresses as well.
So, back here in Washington, the question is, what is President Trump's next move after a show of U.S. power did not dissuade North Korea from trying that missile test?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) TRUMP: We are sending an armada, very powerful. We have submarines, very powerful, far more powerful than the aircraft carrier -- that I can tell you. And we have the best military people on Earth. And I will say this: he is doing the wrong thing. He's making a big mistake.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: The president said he's making a big mistake. Obviously, the missile launch failed. Everyone waits to see if they launch again or if they go to the nuclear test. But the president's rhetoric has been pretty out there. Essentially, they don't comment on the specific launches but the idea you keep provoking us, we will feel the pressure, if not the promise to respond.
JULIE PACE, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS: And that would be a huge exchange in U.S. policy. We've seen previous administrations, Democratic and Republican, really focused on diplomatic negotiations, trying to bring China in and have talks with the North. That doesn't seem that's the Trump administration's policy.
But Trump has really put this out there now. He has made clear that he is willing to take action in North Korea. And I think the shift that you saw in Pence's rhetoric, though, when he's standing in front of U.S. troops who are stationed in South Korea, very close to the North, shows, though, that when you're on the ground there, this is a much different situation than when you're talking about this back in Washington. There are Americans and a strong U.S. ally that are right in the danger zone.
KING: And an acting president in South Korea right now, so a dicey political situation.
If you've ever been to the DMZ -- I've been several times -- it is the most surreal place on earth. The Cold War exists. You see the fencing. You see the mines.
You see the North Korean sentries right across. If you go too far out, the weapons come out. You are about to make a point.
MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER: Yes. I was just going to say, one, it shows also the difference between Pence and President Trump. Pence being very careful not to engage North Korea, discuss North Korea. Donald Trump not afraid to go after North Korea and Kim Jong-un.
I mean, going after them militarily is a huge risk, because South Korea is next door. There are missiles and arms pointed at South Korea from the North. They could stand to lose a lot if they do retaliate, as they are threatening to do, if they are provoked.
So, having a military option on the table as the president is suggesting is a huge risk. They may have to go through the diplomatic way to force China to intensify some of those, help with those sanctions, but it is interesting to see how Pence is taking a more diplomatic approach overseas at a sensitive time. JONATHAN MARTIN, THE NEW YORK TIMES: Yes, Trump is all for the sort
of big stick part, but he's also walking loudly here. So, he's not really a Teddy Roosevelt type. He's doing his own thing with the presidency and, obviously, Pence is much more of a conventional politician.
And when you're in South Korea, you speak in a certain language and you don't say certain things. You don't, you know, rattle sabers over there.
And, you know, it's just a matter of time before the president speaks about this. I was struck last night by the comment from Jim Mattis, the defense secretary, the president will have no further comment on this North Korean missile test.
[08:10:02] Well, OK, good luck with that.
KING: Well -- but the secretary of state said that, the secretary of state was in Asia and then North Korea did do a test and they said the same thing. We're not going to -- they don't -- they believe Kim Jong-un wants attention. He wants to in a running conversation with the president of the United States because he believes that elevates him on the world stage and not going to give him that conversation.
The key question how long the president can resist when Kim Jong-un says, sorry, Mr. President, send your naval carrier group, I will still -- again, it failed, and that's embarrassing for the North Korean regime, it failed, but they still test it against the president's conversation.
The secretary of state, as you mentioned, spoke with the Chinese state counselor, who is essentially China's top diplomat. The administration has been counting as past administrations have counted to try to get the Chinese to exercise some leverage. China did take some modest economic sanctions or steps back from North Korea last week, but again the regime tried this missile launch, so it would tell you in the short term that hasn't work.
ABBY PHILLIP, THE WASHINGTON POST: Well, it hasn't worked for quite some time because there's only so much that China can do to sort of curtail Kim Jong-un who is a lot more bellicose than people expected, a lot more bellicose than prior North Korean leaders. So, you're dealing with someone who is a little more erratic than what we're used to on the world stage.
And so, this is not an easy problem and I think what's interesting is seeing Trump learn that day by day this is not just something that a prior American president has just not taken the options that were on the table. If there were really good options to deal with North Korea as Leon Panetta said in your intro, we would have used them. The problem is that, there are real risks not just to us, but also to our ally in South Korea.
And the president is realizing after talking with the Chinese and talking with his advisers that it's not just -- there is no magic pill to really get rid of North Korea as a problem on the world stage. KING: It's a great point, because you could -- the United States
could, from those submarines or from that aircraft carrier group take out missile launchers, perhaps take out a nuclear site. However, the response from North Korea could be just a rain of traditional missiles just miles to the South, where you have thousands of U.S. troops and thousands of South Korean troops but millions of people who live in Seoul and in the suburbs around it. That has been the fear for 50- plus years now.
But the president's rhetoric has been strong. He was asked the other day, you've launched missile strikes in Syria, you dropped the "Mother of All Bombs" -- we're going to get to that in a few minutes -- in Afghanistan, this weapon never used before. Is that a message to Pyongyang?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REPORTER: Does this send a message to North Korea?
TRUMP: I don't know if this sends a message. It doesn't make any difference if it does or not. North Korea is a problem. The problem will be taken care of.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: It's the certainty there, and you want a president to voice confidence. But if you talk to Japanese or South Korean or Australian diplomats, others in the neighborhood, if you will, what they worry about is Kim Jong-un is perhaps the most unpredictable leader on the planet and now, they think this president -- the president of the United States who they're all looking to for leadership, is also unpredictable and they're not sure what he's going to do.
MARTIN: But it's actually telling that Trump has been told how sensitive this matter is by his own staff and by other foreign countries because his reaction there initially was un-Trump-like, where he said it doesn't matter.
RAJU: But then he couldn't hold it.
MARTIN: But the old Trump would have said you're damned right it send a message.
PACE: Well, even after the strike with Syria. I was in Mar-a-Lago when the strikes were called and in the immediate aftermath Trump advisers were saying this sends a message. This is, of course, in the middle of the summit he's having with the Chinese president, and we know from Trump himself during the course those of conversations, he learned a bit more how complicated the North Korea situation is.
And when you talk about these other allies in the region, yes, they like the strength from the U.S. Yes, they like the idea this is a president who is focused on the problem, who believes that this is a problem the U.S. could solve, but they would like a few more details about how this might go, because the impact of this regionally would really be enormous. KING: Right, and the president has drawn a line. We have our vice
president there. Will Ripley in Pyongyang. We'll keep an eye on that.
Ahead, promises kept and promises tossed aside as the 100-day mark approaches. But, first, what do those Syria and Afghanistan tell us about the new president's view on use of force and of America's place in the world.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[08:18:30] KING: Welcome back.
North Korea's hardly the only global challenge for the young Trump administration. National security adviser, General H.R. McMaster, is in Afghanistan today as the White House considers future troop levels and its broader strategy against both ISIS and al Qaeda. Just last week, you recall, the Air Force dropped the largest non-nuclear bomb in the U.S. arsenal. That on an ISIS camp in Afghanistan.
And that was just days after the cruise missile strikes in Syria, raising questions about a commander-in-chief who as a candidate was critical of U.S. military operations overseas and promised an America first foreign policy.
(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 a fantastic job, our secretary of state. General McMaster is 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: We talked about the many questions. It's hard because he was asked a question about Syria and what's your next commitment to Syria. Are you going to put troops on the ground? Are you going to increase the number of special operations forces? Are you going to create no fly zones? Are you going to try to create safe zones?
All of which would require, A, talking to the American people, B, probably going to Congress, C, more boots on the ground and the president gives a quick answer we're not going in and segues to talking about his staff, which -- it's good that he's proud of his staff, his team, but --
RAJU: Rex (ph).
KING: Yes, it's funny but it's not, in the sense that what is the strategic imperative? Let's start with Syria.
PACE: Well, in Syria, he says we're not going in. We actually are in Syria.
KING: Right. PACE: We have a small footprint there, but we do have a footprint that started under the Obama administration and you keep hearing mixed messages from the administration.
[08:20:02] You hear on the one hand that this strike was an isolated strike, that on the other hand you hear the U.S. is prepared to do more if there are more provocations from Assad.
And this is one of the commonalities between Assad and between the regime and North Korea. You have leaders that really don't have a lot to lose right now. So, yes, they hear tough talk from the administration, but it's not as though they have -- they're going to be scared off from this because they are in really vulnerable situations on their own. So, provoking the United States isn't something they might shy away from.
KING: Right. The North Korean leader didn't back down. He tested and failed, but he tested a missile. After Rex Tillerson was in Moscow, the Russian foreign minister came out with the foreign ministers of Syria and Iran, saying we are as unified as ever against United States aggression.
RAJU: Yes. And I think it was interesting, that sound bite you played. President Trump talking about how great his staff is, because he is relying so heavily on his staff to carry out his foreign policy and his military mission as well, as you expect a commander-in-chief would but perhaps more so than past commanders in chief.
Interesting last week, during -- in the aftermath of the 'Mother of All Bombs" dropped in Afghanistan the White House and President Trump would not say if he himself authorized that, saying instead we given total authorization to the military to carry out these strikes. So I think that's one reason why we really don't know where President Trump stands because he relies so heavily on his advisers and a lot of them may have different views than he is espousing in the campaign.
KING: We don't know where he's going but so far he has been more traditional Republican hawk, right, that you could see Marco Rubio if he had won the election doing what we've seen so far. The question is, where does it go from there? I mentioned the Syria question, his national security adviser is in Afghanistan, 16 years after 9/11, there's still a military presence there from the United States and from NATO and the question is, how long do you keep it? Do you beef it up? Do you pull it back?
So, this president is going to have to make that decision.
PHILLIP: This is the challenge with Trump is that he doesn't have a sort of underlying architecture for his views on foreign policy so it's hard to predict where he's going to go next. We don't know what his philosophy is about the use of force. We don't know what it means when he says we're not going into Syria, we're not going in here or there and that makes it challenging for us but also hard for the world to interpret how to respond to him.
Even our adversaries who have to make their decisions about what they do based on what they think we're going to do, there's really no way for them to know what Trump is going to do, and Trump has put that out there as kind of a badge of honor. I'm not going to tell you what I'm going to do.
But on some level, clear signaling is really important on the global stage, even while unpredictability can have its value. You have to be, have a certain amount of clarity so people can know where to go.
KING: Especially your allies who are part of the moving parts, they have moving pieces, they have people on the ground, they are making diplomatic decisions. They'd like to know where the United States is.
As we sit here and speak, the president of the United States just tweeted spending Easter Sunday in Florida, he just tweeted, "Why would I label China a currently manipulator", something he promised in the campaign, "when they're trying to help the United States in North Korea?"
And that is a snapshot we try to figure out the Trump doctrine. On this issue, it was transactional. The president of the United States during the campaign repeatedly said I will label China currency manipulator. Experts say they stopped doing that some time ago so he couldn't make a factual case now, you could make a historical case.
But listen to the president on that point, essentially saying, you know, as commander in chief, I'm going to make a deal. I'm going to take a security issue and economic issue and I'm going to make a deal.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: China which has been ripping us off, the greatest abuser in the history of this country.
President Xi wants to do the right thing. We had a very good bonding. I think we had a very good chemistry together. I think he wants to help us with North Korea. We talked trade. We talked a lot of things and I said the way you're going to make a good trade deal is to help us with North Korea.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: We don't know where this goes, but I do think it gets lost in so many important moving parts, the significance of the current relationship with China, in the sense that in the old days, even just in the last administration, when U.S. missile strikes hit Syria, China would have condemned them, because they don't like that you're going to other people's countries, because they're sensitive about their own backyard.
At the Security Council, when they were voting about Syrian chemical use of chemical weapons, China abstained as opposed to voting no against the United States position. That is a big deal. We don't know where it's going. But that in and of itself a big deal.
PACE: And I think it's worth asking whether that decision on the Chinese part was influenced or directly coordinated with the Trump administration based on these conversations that they had at Mar-a- Lago. I mean, it is fascinating to look at how Trump views the world. I mean, he does see this as an opportunity to make deals. And so, he will be willing to combine trade with China, currency with China and North Korea.
Will the Chinese bend on that? Maybe. It's a worthwhile strategy on Trump's part.
MARTIN: Real fast. He is responding in that tweet to sharp critiques from his opponents, namely Chuck Schumer, who is a very strong believer that the Chinese are, in fact, manipulating their currency.
[08:25:04] KING: They also believe it's a way to get back some of those blue collar workers by saying Trump promised you this in the campaign. Now, he's being weak. He wants to end up. You'll see how this plays out.
Up next, two weeks to the 100-day mark, the president said he's keeping big promises but he's also tossing quite a few into the waste basket.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KING: Welcome back.
When politicians break promises and change positions, they prefer evolution to flip-flop. Well, by that standard, mark week 13 of the Trump presidency as downright evolutionary. In just days, and this is a partial list, the president did a complete about-face on the Fed Chairwoman Janet Yellen, on funding the Export Import Bank, on labeling China a currency manipulator and relevance of the NATO alliance.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[08:30:07] TRUMP: I complained about that a long time and they made a change and now, they do fight terrorism. I said it was obsolete. It's no longer obsolete.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Whiplash was a term used often to hear in Washington this week, past week, as the president tossed campaign promises out to the scrap heap. His explanation? He's flexible. And whether you're mad or happy at all the shifts, you can't say he didn't warn us.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Meagan, I have a very strong core, I have a very strong core. But I've never seen a successful person who wasn't flexible, who didn't have a certain degree of flexibility. You have to have a certain degree of flexibility.
You have to show a degree of flexibility. If you're going to be one way and you think it's wrong, does that mean the rest of your life you have to go in the wrong direction because you don't want to change? (END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: He told us.
PHILLIP: Admirable. Yes. It's just funny to watch the clip about NATO, that suddenly NATO is fighting terrorism, when they've been fighting terrorism for quite some time now is really an extraordinary statement for the president of the United States to say.
But, you know, Trump is -- when you talk to people who know what's going on behind the scenes, what they're saying really is that Trump is actually just learning about some of this stuff. He's -- during the campaign, he didn't really have to do a ton of research to come up with policy positions. He gained them out on the stump, he would throw things out there, road test them and see how the crowd responded, and they weren't necessarily subjected to sort of like rigorous policy analysis.
Now that he's doing that as president, and he has people around him, he's getting daily intelligence briefings. He has a whole team of economic staff. People are giving him more and more information that is in some cases changing his mind.
RAJU: The world was more complicated than it was on the campaign trail especially when you're governing --
MARTIN: And your Twitter feed.
RAJU: Your Twitter feed, exactly, labeling China a currency manipulator would have major economic and diplomatic consequences. That's one reason why he backed off.
Now, the question is, what do his core voters think? Do they view it as he said this he'll be flexible or the fact that he said he promised to clamp down on China, go after them and bring back those jobs in the Rust Belt states and a lot of us concerned about China and Chinese trade practices, how do they feel by his about-face?
KING: And as they do, jump in, because you've been traveling quite a bit. But here's the president, the president saying, look, I'm getting the big things done. He tweeted the other day, jobs are returning. Illegal immigration is plummeting, law and order and justice is being restored. We are truly making America great again.
On big promises, he says he's succeeding. You can judge that at home.
Let's look at some of the big campaign promises, now, two weeks from 100 days: repeal and replace Obamacare, that failed. We'll see if they come back to it. Take China to task, the president set that aside.
A reset with Russia is a giant question mark. So far, that one is not moving in that direction. NATO no longer obsolete. And the wall he'll get some, unlike a massive wall and it's certain Mexico is not going to pay for it. MARTIN: Two observations watching that clip from the debate last year
is extraordinary, because it's a reminder of what we thought was the moment of purity on the right, the market for conservative purity, the Republican Party nominated the least pure candidate in the bunch and somebody who made a show of saying he was not ideological. So, this is where the GOP is right now. They aren't really a doctrinal party at this point anymore and that gives Trump some flexibility to veer left and right, because his voters know, and secondly we've become somewhat unnerved to Trump because we're marinating in this day in day out. But that list is extraordinary, John. A conventional president, I don't care, Democrat or Republican, had come into office and basically abandoned a half a dozen issues in the first 100 days it would be a roast.
KING: And not gotten a big significant legislation -- he did get -- he got Neil Gorsuch is on the Supreme Court which conservatives love.
MARTIN: But no legislative victories.
KING: And the question is, what is the mood out in country? We can show you video, some tax day protests yesterday, organized by liberal groups on the left, trying to say, Mr. President, we want to you release your taxes, something he's refused to do.
And I believe we have some -- there we go.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CROWD: Shame on you! Shame on you!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: This is one of the town halls, this is "shame on you" to Jeff Flake in Arizona.
So, you have the combination of these things, you see the tax protests there. The question is, is this a protest? Is this people venting or are the Democrats and other progressive groups getting legs underneath them to do something when it comes to the ballot box? We won't get the big test until next year. This is the Virginia's govern race and house special elections.
Is this just venting or is there an anti-Trump movement forming up?
PACE: I think the Democrats are hoping they can turn some of the venting and resistance movement into success at the ballot box. That's why the special elections are kind of mined for signs of what is happening on the ground.
[08:35:01] But this is going to be Democrats' challenge through 2018 is, one, trying to keep this up. It is hard to get people to keep coming out to protest and then get them to actually show up in a midterm election. So trying to keep up this enthusiasm for an anti- Trump movement and then turn it into success in 2018.
RAJU: The real challenge is also for the Republicans, making sure their base is energized the way they have in the past, if they do not do those things that Trump promised.
KING: That's a key point. Let me jump in on this point, because I want you to finish this point. You interviewed a voter in Georgia.
The question is, if Democratic intensity is up and Republican morale gets low, that's the recipe for success. That's what Republicans did in the midterms of the Obama years and you interviewed a voter in Georgia the other say who was just frustrated, a Trump voter says the vote seems to matter less and less because nothing can be done, just like repealing Obamacare. That was Eric Green, he's an IT worker from Atlanta. The idea being that Republicans promised this, but they're not doing it.
RAJU: Yes, absolutely. I mean, if they don't do these things, what are -- that is what the real fear is among Republican leaders, how do they go back to their base, give us more voters, well we couldn't do what we promised and we had all the powers in government?
MARTIN: And mid terms are about which party is more engaged, more motivated and which party wants to go to the polls and send a message. And right now, it's clearly the Democrats, the left, which is more engaged than Republicans and you saw in that quote there who are more frustrated about the inaction they see from leaders in Washington.
KING: So, you watch the intensity and then you watch the levers, we'll see as the parties work this out.
Up next, which is a bigger headache, the jobs President Trump has yet to fill or the infighting among those he has hired?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ALEC BALDWIN AS DONALD TRUMP: Steve, standing before me are my two top advisers. But I only have one photo in my hand. That's right, tonight is elimination night. There's been a lot of drama in the house and that's okay, but one of you must go.
The person who will stay on as my top adviser is -- Jared!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[08:40:06] KING: "Saturday Night Live" having a little fun there with what has been a recurring theme, infighting in the Trump administration, this now day 87 of the Trump presidency. And staffing issues have been an issue each and every one of those days. In the moment, the seemingly constant bickering among top aides, like Steve Bannon and Jared Kushner, the aides the president has hired. But just as big an issue is still this glacial pace of filling important administration positions.
Let's take a look at this. These are the jobs in the government, if you look down here, see who has been nominated and the cabinet secretaries come in, confirmed, you get the green around them here. Could be net level pretty good progress. I'll show you numbers in a minute.
But look down here all the jobs in the government, see all these jobs in the government? Well, they are still unfilled. Let's look at the numbers.
Of the cabinet level positions, 19 confirmed, three still awaiting confirmation. The broader job of filling the undersecretaries, the assistant secretaries, the day-to-day people who run the government: 508 open positions, 21 awaiting confirmation, three jobs confirmed. Of this 508, the president says why won't the Senate confirm them? Of the 508, he's actually named people for 33 positions but they haven't sent the paperwork up to the Senate, they can't act on it.
So, if the problem is the administration naming people, doing the paperwork sending it up to the Senate. The president has a different view.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I am waiting right now for so many people.
MARIA BARTIROMO, FOX BUSINESS: You're understaffed.
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're obstructionists so I have people, hundreds of people that we're trying to get through -- I mean, you see the backlog. Can't get them through.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: That would be not true.
PACE: Not true.
KING: That would be not true. The fact checker is sometimes a gray area. That is not true. They haven't named people.
When they name people, are the Democrats stalling on a lot of them? Sure, they are. But here's not a lot of people to stall on right now because this administration has been so slow to do its basic job.
PACE: And part of the problem is that Trump wants to be involved in a lot of the decision-making promises for the nominations for you saw the visual was so striking, there are so many jobs that need to be filled. The idea that the president of the United States would need to have signoff for each one I think is very telling about how he runs his administration.
There isn't a general message sent to agencies about the type of person they'd want to have, the kind of ideology they'd want to have for the jobs, so in a way, they get frozen until Trump signs off on an actual name. It's just stunning.
PHILLIP: And there's been this sort of ideological purity test put in place early in this administration that have blocked some people who would otherwise be very qualified from being nominated to these positions, and you have to wonder whether they're giving some second thought to whether they can continue with that because you cannot fill 500-some positions by ensuring that every single human being who goes into the government has never said a crossword about the president. That's a really hard test to have and it's contributed to this problem that we're seeing.
KING: And with so many vacancies, it adds pressure and stress on those who are hired. With so many vacancies in the agencies, it adds pressure and stress on the White House, which has to make a lot of these decisions.
So, "Saturday Night Live" making fun of something that's in the news just about every day, infighting in the president's senior staff. I want you to listen here, Roger Stone who is an agitator shall we say, friend of the president. A Republican agitator, I'm being polite, he'll take that kindly.
And Chris Christie who ran initially the Trump transition, and they booted him out and essentially flush all the work he done. He can agitate on occasion.
Here is their take on Steve Bannon, who, of course, was the architect of America first who came in with the president, who early on was viewed as the rising force and strongest force in the Trump White House. Now, he seems to be on the outs.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)
ROGER STONE, PRES. TRUMP'S FRIEND: I think Steve made an error not spending any of his political capital to bring other Trumpites and non-globalists into the White House circle. Therefore, now, he's alone and he's surrounded.
GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE (R), NEW JERSEY: I know Steve. Steve is a very bright guy. I go to the work with him during the campaign. I think he was a big help to the president during the campaign and everything that I saw him involved in, but staff are there to serve the principal.
(END VIDEO CLIPS)
KING: I think that was translating don't criticize the son-in-law.
But this is great drama, great theater. It gives us things to talk about here but it matters in terms of the administration.
MARTIN: Absolutely.
KING: Of what are we going to do in Syria? What are we going to do on tax reform? Why are we coming back on health care?
MARTIN: More than that, what kind of president is he going to be? I mean, is he governing as a Trumpist type nationalist figure who Steve Bannon would like to see reshape American politics and the GOP, or is he going to govern basically as a Bloomberg-style Republican who is friendly on wall street, wants to cut taxes but otherwise kind of socially moderate or apathetic.
And it's pragmatic abroad. It's not just kind of back stage fun Washington drama. It has huge consequences in terms of what kind of president this is going to be but in some cases, John, it's being made for him, the choice is being made for him. You showed that long list of folks not being appointed. Eventually, they're going to have to name folks to those jobs.
[08:45:02] And what they're going to do is, they're going to name conventional free market conservatives because that's who is available. There is no Trumpist personnel cabinet available. And that's why I think he's going to evolve into a more conventional president because eventually everybody around him and the agencies is going to reflect a more generic brand of pre-Trump era conservative politics.
RAJU: Especially if Bannon gets pushed aside, which seems to be a responsibility, striking last week and two occasions. The president will not give support to his top adviser.
KING: Steve is a good guy but --
RAJU: Yes, suggesting he barely knew the guy.
MARTIN: The guy works for me.
RAJU: The guy who works me.
PACE: The thing about Trump I think this is fascinating.
RAJU: Like his designated driver. Roller coasters go up and down.
PACE: Gary Cohn now, who's a Goldman Sachs executive who is now in the White House doing economic policy but has a pretty wide portfolio, is now getting a lot of attention. He's giving newspaper profiles written about him, he's on television.
KING: Uh-oh.
RAJU: Uh-oh.
PACE: That is then the death knell for a lot of his advisers, when they start getting too big for the president.
KING: You mean, when "TIME" calls Gary Cohn, the great manipulator.
MARTIN: Say no to the photo shoot, Gary. Say no. When "TIME" calls, turn them down.
PHILLIP: There's the delayed reaction for Trump. He doesn't respond immediately but somewhere down the road, it's going to be -- I didn't like that and it will replay in his head. It's a dangerous game for Gary Cohn to be playing right now.
KING: The question is, who brings him results? Which we haven't seen many big results yet s far. Everybody, sit tight. Our reporters share from their notebooks next,
including: could Democrats steal a seat in the House?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[08:50:45] KING: Let's close as we always do, go around the INSIDE POLITICS table and ask our reporters to share a little something from their notebooks and keep you out ahead of the big political news around the corner.
Julie Pace?
PACE: We talked about mike pence being in South Korea. That's just the first stop of the ten-day trip through the Asia Pacific region, and traveling to Japan, Australia and Indonesia and when he gets beyond South Korea there's going to be a lot of focus in the region about what the Trump administration's policy toward Asia is beyond this tough talk toward Pyongyang.
When Obama was president, he really made a pivot to Asia, an economic focus on Asia, a central part of his foreign policy. And we've seen Trump take some steps to try to reverse that, notably pulling the U.S. out of the Trans Pacific Partnership pact. So, there's going to be a lot of questions for Pence about what the broader U.S. policy is when it comes to economics, get beyond some of this military talk and tell us what you're going to do about the financial situation here.
KING: It will be interesting to see if he has the answers.
Manu?
RAJU: John, the North Dakota Senate race is going to be one of the most important in the country next year, Democrat Heidi Heitkamp will be fighting to cling on to her seat in a state the Donald Trump overwhelmingly.
But on the republican side problems on the recruiting found, namely Congressman Kevin Cramer, who is the North Dakota congressman who represents the whole state. He said a number of things that unnerved Republican leaders recently defending Sean Spicer in the aftermath of the widely criticized comments about Hitler and the Holocaust and now Republican leaders are trying to pivot and look for a new candidate.
They're looking for a wealthy self-funder, state senator by the name of Tom Campbell, whose political adviser tells me he's building a statewide organization preparing to run for either the House or the Senate. I asked Kevin Cramer about that, he said it's not going to deter him to make a decision on whether to run and criticized Washington elites for saying they don't know what North Dakotans actually think like he does.
KING: Until he needs their money, he'll criticize them.
Jonathan Martin?
MARTIN: Everybody was talking about 2018, I'm talking about this Tuesday, the short term, all eyes are on Georgia, where the House special elections to replace Tom Price, the health secretary is taking place. Now, all eyes there are on Jon Ossoff, who is a Democrat, and the reason for that is because he is running against a fractured GOP field. And the question is can Ossoff this Democrat get 50 percent of the vote in if he does he wins outright and a runoff that would be in June.
That's what Democrats are hoping for. Now, he's been polling 40 percent. Last week Democrats had a poll in the field had him at 46 so he's inching closer to that magic number.
But, John, as you know, in this scenario close doesn't count. If he's not at 50, he's looking at a two-month runoff where he's going to take a lot of artillery from the GOP. So, Democrats want him to 50. He's getting close. We're not sure if he's there and to employ one of the oldest cliches, John, it comes down to, guess what, turnout.
KING: We'll be up Tuesday night.
MARTIN: What does that field actually look like? Is it going to be more of a Democratic turnout or is it going to be more of traditional turnout? That's what we're watching.
KING: We'll be up Tuesday night late watching that.
Abby?
PHILLIP: Well, Ivanka Trump is heading to Germany toward the end of this month on the invitation of German Chancellor Angela Merkel who was in Washington not too long ago and didn't have the best meeting with President Trump. And what we're seeing here from Germany and also from other countries like China and Japan they are back channeling not just to Jared Kushner but also to Ivanka, and through Ivanka and her family, her children as well.
This trip is going to be about soft power. It's going to be something that you don't really hear much from Jared or from Rex Tillerson who focus very much on American strength. Ivanka has an opportunity here to potentially build some bridges in Europe and in particular where a lot of world leaders are skeptical of this administration. They want to see this side of America focusing on women, and also on American values.
KING: All in the family.
I'll close with this, a big agenda question the president needs to settle in the near future. Some in the White House want to move to a sweeping tax reform proposal and wait before pushing Congress to act on the giant infrastructure investments the president promised in the campaign.
But others in the White House think combing tax reform and infrastructure into a mega initiative is the way to go, believing jobs-creating spending could help win some Democratic votes even if the tax portion includes items opposed by the left. [08:55:07] It's a big choice because House Republicans are well along
with their own tax reform proposal and are eager to get it moving, both because it's been a top priority for a long time and to help heal some of the wounds of the Obamacare repeal effort which we all know went off the tracks.
So, the choice for the president? Stick with the Republican agenda as scripted or try to shake things up. We'll keep an eye on that.
That's it for INSIDE POLITICS. Again, thanks for sharing your Sunday morning, hope you can also catch us weekdays as well, Noon Eastern.
Up next, "STATE OF THE UNION" with Jake Tapper.
