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Poll: Replacing ObamaCare a Top Priority for GOP: Army's Redstone Arsenal in Alabama on Lockdown; New Polls on Trump: Bad at Home, Worse Abroad; Chaffetz: Give Congressmen a Stipend to Afford D.C. Housing. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired June 27, 2017 - 12:30   ET

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

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[12:30:27] JOHN KING, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back. If you're been paying close attention you know the health care policy divides among Republicans are beyond complicated. The political imperative though, rather simple.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. PAUL RYAN (R), HOUSE SPEAKER: It's the biggest signature issue we have and it's the biggest promise we've ever made in the modern era. We said if we get elected we would repeal and replace ObamaCare. We did this in the House, it is now the Senate's terms. I think they're going to do it.

So I do agree with Newt that we were elected to solve people's problems, to improve people's lives. Fixing health care is a big part of that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: You just heard it right there from the speaker. The biggest promise they've ever made. The speaker does not want to go into the 2018 midterms with a disappointed Republican base. Take a look here, this is NBC/Wall Street Journal poll data looking at partisan priorities. Seventy-six percent of Republicans say repealing ObamaCare is an absolute priority this year, only getting tough with ISIS and adding conservatives to the Supreme Court mean more to GOP voters.

But while the Republican voters urgently want repeal, even they, even GOP voters souring on what they see from the Congress. A month ago, more than half of Republicans thought the House Republican plan was a good idea. Now, just a third of Republicans like their own party's health care plan.

Now, that's the House plan there but the Senate plan isn't all that much different. I mean, the policy choices are complicated. You mentioned earlier in the program losing control of the messaging narrative. How is it, if you know, if you're a Republican, as Speaker Ryan so well put, this is our signature issue, this is the promise we have made well before Donald Trump came on the scene, but now you control the presidency, control both Chambers of Congress. How did they mess this up so much, in both -- and the policy part is complicated. I don't mean to, you know, laugh about that because these are legitimate part of philosophical, ideological funding role of government differences, but they promised this to voters?

MAGGIE HABERMAN, THE NEW YORK TIMES: Well, they promised this to voters and as it happens sometimes in campaigns people promise things that are not so easy. So we talked about this earlier in the hour, but you're talking about taking away health care from people. You can't pretend that is something other than what it is.

Now, you can argue that's a good thing in terms of getting rid of the mandate. You can argue that you are changing the way politics work. You can even argue that you are changing the way Medicaid funding is supposed to work but in the shorter term it is going to mean that there are going to be fewer people with health care, and that is just the reality, and that's just not a good thing to campaign on.

What works in a Republicans favor I will say, this is not in the short term in terms whether this passes but next year in terms of whether this has gone through or not, Democrats, their messaging is actually not great. You're on this, you are seeing a lot of outside groups that are very affected. The AARP, a couple of sort of down break typically, you know, against this form of government groups.

But Democrats have not really done a great job according to a lot of Democratic strategists I've speaking with, walking through exactly what this is going to mean. Who this hurts. Precisely, how this hurts. It's getting more sort of swept up in the anti-Trump message in general and that's a problem.

SHELBY HOLLIDAY, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: Why would they combine with the president's messaging that ObamaCare is a dead carcass, maybe we'll just let it fail. The Democratic messaging is also not helping in terms of the electorate because there's so much fear out there right now. When you go to town halls you hear, it such a deeply personal issue to people. They're worried that they're going to lose their doctors, their health care, they won't be able to pay for prescription drugs. And, you know, so much fear out there and they're not hearing from their congressmen, the people they put in office to represent them, how it will impact them.

I will also add to that graphic, the Wall Street Journal poll that found just percent of American think ObamaCare should continue the way it is. So (inaudible) urgency of change. Something has to be done, but the longer it takes for Republicans to address it, the more people get nervous, and the more people start to say, maybe ObamaCare is not so bad.

KING: But it lost faith in the Republicans to change it. I don't think it's -- in Washington, period, not just Republicans, but the Republicans happen to be in charge.

BETSY WOODRUFF, THE DAILY BEAST: And that's why Republicans are in a hurry to get this through the Senate. Because the longer they wait the more likely that this pushback from their constituents will (inaudible). I think it's really important not to count out Mitch McConnell yet.

If there's one person who can get 51 senators to vote for a bill that could be political suicide it's Mitch McConnell. Even the Democrats who despise him the most really respect his legislative prowess, the way he knows the Senate inside and out, the way he's almost a reincarnation of LBJ. Anyone can do what he can so it's not (inaudible).

KING: Well, listen, I agree a thousand percent although this a new test for him in the sense that he was masterful in denying President Obama's Supreme Court justice when the Republicans were still in the minority. And Harry Reid was the majority leader of keeping Republicans disciplined to block things --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's right.

[12:35:03] KING: -- and to keep Obama for his agenda. What we haven't seen is the Republicans being able to pass a big signature Republican initiative that's controversial. That's a different challenge.

Well, the timing is an issue because politically you want to get this done quickly. You want to deliver something to the American people and prove it works. You don't want to deliver something right before the midterm that's a huge question mark, voters are unsure about. But there are also economic reasons you want to get this done.

HOLLIDAY: Insurers have until December to decide whether or not they'll participate in exchanges. That's a huge problem. The insurance market instabilities could really impact Americans. And if we have a question mark for the rest of the year, a huge problem and on Republicans.

KING: Right. And would have may have been a Democratic problem in the past, now it's at least everybody's problem, maybe more so Republicans a little bit because they're in charge.

Everybody, stand tight. We get some breaking news.

The U.S. Army Redstone arsenal near Huntsville, Alabama is on lockdown right now. Let's get the latest. CNN's Barbara Starr at the Pentagon.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Hi John. We're monitoring this situation and there's not a lot of specific information yet. Redstone arsenal in northern Alabama. Reports of a possible active shooter on base, and now we're seeing the typical protocols, the base is on lockdown. They're going through the area, federal law enforcement responding.

There are conflicting reports at this point whether it is a possible active shooter or an actual active shooter. As we know in so many of these situations, it takes time for it all to sort out. Redstone arsenal is a huge facility. Thousands of defense workers there, largely civilians. They do a lot of missile and space work there. The base is telling us that -- the FBI and alcohol and tobacco and firearms officials are responding to this situation. Local affiliate coverage are showing us pictures of the lockdown, we have emergency vehicles responding. But at this point it is just not clear what exactly is happening on the Redstone facility.

And it's worth remembering in so many cases, thankfully, this prove to be situations sometimes where they prove to be reports where it doesn't pan out thankfully and there is no active shooter but we have also seen tragedies strike in so many places. At Fort Hood, Texas, at the Washington Navy Yard. So like civilian society, anytime there's a report of an active shooter they take it seriously, they lockdown, they sweep through theses areas. Law enforcement on all sides responds.

Governor Ivey also a short time ago, the governor of Alabama, issuing a statement that she is monitoring the situation and praying for the safety of the people at Redstone. John.

KING: We'll keep an eye on it. Barbara, very busy day for you at the Pentagon. Appreciate it being on top of this as well. We'll keep in touch, thank you.

Next, a new poll showing President Obama on shaky ground. Not only at home but across the globe.

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[12:42:00] KING: The president's poll numbers here at home are pretty miserable. Around the world, they're even worse. A new Pew Research Center global survey says the image of the United State is in sharp decline since President Trump took office, and personal views of the American president are largely negative. Only in Israel and Russia did Trump compare for favorably to his predecessor, President Obama. When citizens were asked which leader they trusted more to do the right thing, fewer than 30 percent of respondents in Germany, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Japan said they trust President Trump, that trust number just five percent in Mexico.

Obviously changed, the presidency in Washington causes change and perceptions around the world. This is a president who likes to be liked. Will he care about this? We know he follows polls here at home. Is he going to read this and get mad about it?

HABERMAN: I think he'll get mad. I think there's a difference between how he react wants to be liked and get mad. And sometimes I think that these things are flow chart.

Look, he began his campaign, very first speech, talking about rapists and drug dealers coming in from Mexico although he asterisked some people are decent people. That Russian number is really jarring. I think it's -- the impressions of him that are positive and trust in him is 42 percent where it was before. The Israel number, not so surprising given President Obama's relationship with Benjamin Netanyahu. But then the rest of it, look, this president's mantra has been America first. A theme that he seemed to seize on when it came up in an interview that my colleague David Sanger and I did with him in 2016 and he's said it ever since. That has implications and repercussions and he has preceded to pick a series of fights that have seemed curious at best, such as with the mayor of London over terrorism. You know, the arguments about NAFTA.

Well, real and substantive and actually really critical to the base of voters that elected him are offensive to people in places like Canada, because of the tone of this. A lot of this is not so much the policy. A lot of the policy decisions that the president is making with the exception of the travel ban which was just reinstated, they're not that hugely different than his predecessor or several predecessors but it is the tone with which he's delivering them.

KING: It's a key point because the lumber and dairy issues with Canada go back several presidencies, but it's how the president and how he was taking action. And then he call for NATO allies to pay more, to put up more in defense spending, to pay more of their fair share goes back several administrations, but none of those previous presidents publicly lectured NATO standing at a NATO summit.

HABERMAN: It's not so much a public lecture and I'm sorry, I don't mean to -- it's not just the public lecture, it was the public lecture that was not accompanied by and we are recommitting to Article 5, right. I mean, it's just the way it's done.

WOODRUFF: And let's remember there are also really important substantive policy issues here as well. Globally, there's much greater support to the Paris climate deal and you see in the White House and the Republican Party the Iran deal that (inaudible) support and most countries pulled except I believe Jordan and Israel. The fact that Trump has been so bearish about our relationship with Iran is something that's generated some disappointments with him.

[12:45:00] HOLLIDAY: I think Maggie brings up a good point to NAFTA. You can't help but look at those countries and see that those are the countries Trump has criticized in terms of trade. And he's really shaken a lot of people around the world because he's saying that our trade deals don't work and America's not getting what we want out of it.

So it's not just what he said or threats he's made to foreign leaders. It's, he wants to reshape the whole economic relationship with Germany, with Japan, with the U.K. And I think that has a lot of people nervous beyond just the political rhetoric.

HABERMAN: On trade, by the way (inaudible) the president while we have talked about including on this show how he has changed positions or sometimes takes both sides of the same issue in the same sentence. Trade is something he hasn't been really consistent over in 30 years. I mean, if you look at these ads that he took out from newspapers in the 1987 when he's promoting the "Art of the Deal", he talked about countries quote unquote, ripping us off. I mean, this is not new for him. KING: And look what we're expecting, action from the Commerce Department as early as this week on the steel question. You're dead right. Number one, he's been consistent as critics call him protectionist. But he's been consistent on this issue and he believes especially on those blue states that he turned red and got him elected --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Absolutely.

HOLLIDAY: He cares about the poll number either because on the campaign trail everything he said about foreign leaders, are not things that you would expect.

KING: And to a Trump voter that the world is mad at their disruptive president, that tells, that's fine. I want to come back to some of the numbers at home because some of the numbers in the new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll didn't get that much attention and yet they're stunning. And I think it's part because we have come to accept them as the new normal.

But look at the president of the United States. Is he changing business at usual in Washington, D.C.? It's their big campaign theme. All right, 47 percent good, 39 percent mixed, 23 percent poor. So a split there.

And is the president changing business as usual in Washington, D.C. But then look at these numbers. Is he honest and trustworthy? Fifty- five percent say poor, only 31 percent say good.

Knowledgeable and experienced enough to handle the presidency? Twenty-eight percent say good, 55 percent say poor. Has he had the right temperament to be president of the United States? Twenty-two percent good, 62 percent poor.

These are stunning numbers and the president lost the popular vote. Democrats are polarized against him. His rankings among Democrats, he can go back 50 years in history and way below. So he starts with a wall. He can't get Democratic support.

But five months into a presidency to see that, you would think that even a -- you know, you would think a slice of people who didn't vote for Trump would say let's give him a chance so let's be open minded. We'll be impressed, whether his stance on trade or what he did in Syria. But those numbers, they're stuck. How does he change them?

HOLLIDAY: Well, make no mistake. Those aren't good numbers but he's never had high numbers when it comes to the personality traits. Not on the campaign trail, not now.

One thing that could be a silver ling for the president is that his basic support is not dropping, not through the Comey testimonies, not throughout the trouble that he's had with health care. So he still has the base of support that's not moving down. It's not high but he's not losing his core voters. And I think that that's really interesting, because he's been through a lot. He's made a lot of mistakes, he is learning how to govern as his White House says and that base isn't falling.

KING: What we have at the five-month mark what we're going to have for four years?

WOODRUFF: I think that's likely and part of the reason is that what he does to appeal to his base is likely what also turning off moderate and several left Democrats. The more that Trump reaches out to those poor voters that love him so much the more he kind of goes full Trump. The more he's going to isolate folks who are more moderate and are going to be less likely --

HOLLIDAY: And we've seen that in the special elections but he's still winning the special elections. So it's hard to say.

HABERMAN: I don't think -- I mean, A, I don't think that I take issue a little bit with the special election issue there. I think every special election gets involved with enormous national significance and often as complicated (inaudible). I agree that I think this is probably what we're going to see.

I think it is not just that the more he is reaching out to his own voters, while it's certainly true, it was a savage 2016 election campaign. But we have seen, to be fair to him, since 2014, you started seeing that every candidate in every race on either side, either Democrat or Republican, their negatives were high. I mean, we are just living in an incredibly toxic political climate. The difference with this president is he's the first president to do extremely little to reach out to the people who didn't vote for him. He could still reach out to his own core of support but including not traveling west of the Mississippi until just last weekend. And even that was a, a prototypical trump campaign rally, right in Iowa.

So we have not seen him do what we had saw George W. Bush do or his father before him or Bill Clinton or President Obama, just reach out to other people. Obama, you know his critics argued did a lot less of that that he gets credit for and I think that that's a fair point. But I think that you have seen Trump decide there's no reason to and I'm not going to get if I do.

KING: It is what it is. And he's going to try to keep what he's got. It works the first time, he's going to see if it works throughout.

Well, everybody sit tight. Up next, you won't want to miss this. A request from an outgoing congressman for more money for congressmen.

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[12:53:58] KING: Welcome back. Affordable housing is a problem across the country and of course including Washington, D.C. One congressman says lawmakers are falling victim to the nation's capital out of control rents. Jason Chaffetz says, $174,000 a year, that's the congressional salary, not exactly a pittance. He says it doesn't stretch far enough.

Chaffetz in an exit interview with the Hill said this, quote, Washington, D.C. is one of the most expensive places in the world and I flat out cannot afford a mortgage home Utah, kids in college and a second place here in Washington D.C. I think a $2,500 housing allowance would be appropriate and a real help to at least have a decent quality of life in Washington if you're going to expect people to spend hundreds of nights a year here.

He's got a point. As once said in this city, I believe, rent's too high. We had a candidate --

HABERMAN: There's another word in there that you're missing.

KING: Yes, I've been missing that word. It's lunch hour and family- friendly here. He's got a point about the cost, but I suspect out there in upstate New York or in Dubuque or Iowa or in his home state in Utah telling people, let's give congressmen more money at this moment in time is a tough sell.

[12:55:10] HABERMAN: Timing is everything in life. He does have a point, though. I don't want to make light of this. They haven't had a raise in over a decade I believe. You know, there is a reason that you have all these members of Congress and senators who bunk up in these common houses. Some of them sleep in their offices.

You know, there are many reasons why they do it. But some of it is money and that's a legitimate point. That if you're asking people to basically give up any other form of income for public service, especially people don't come into this wealthy or with business (inaudible), there's a legitimate point about compensation.

WOODRUFF: Chaffetz is absolutely right. I live in D.C., it's very expensive. That said, I kind of wish he'd brought of the fact not just members of Congress but also the staff that work in the Capitol building are not paid generously at all. A lot of these folks are working crazy hours, they're dealing with difficult people, and the kind of salaries that they get just aren't great.

HABERMAN: (Inaudible) with difficult people.

KING: And at a time public service is getting a bad name, it's just hard to make that case. I guess if they perform -- I don't know the answer. We'll leave it there for now.

Thanks for joining us in the Inside Politics. See you back here this time tomorrow. Wolf Blitzer is up after a quick break.

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WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, I'm Wolf Blitzer. It's 1 p.m. here in Washington, 6 p.m. in London --