Return to Transcripts main page

Inside Politics

Joint Chiefs Didn't Know Transgender Ban Was Coming; Tillerson On Reported Tensions: "I'm Not Going Anywhere; Trump Takes Credit For Foxconn's "Incredible Investment"; Foxconn To Build $10B Tech Plant In Wisconsin; Will Spicer Cha-Cha His Way To "Dancing With The Stars". Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired July 27, 2017 - 12:30   ET

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

[12:30:09] JOHN KING, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back. The Pentagon is asking the White House for guidance on just what the president envisioned when he announced on Twitter yesterday his administration would shift course and ban all transgender individuals from serving in the military. It was an announcement that caught a lot of key players off guard. Key members of Congress, for example, and it turns out the generals and admirals whose responsibility it would be to implement that policy.

Barbara Starr live at the Pentagon with today's lesson in chain of command Trump style. Hi Barbara.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Hi John. Chain of command or lack thereof perhaps at least in the last 24 hours. Because what we're learning is the chairman of the Joint Chiefs and the heads of the military services simply did not know that the president was going to tweet this ban yesterday morning.

And now 24 hours later, they are asking for some guidance from the White House, what exactly does the president mean, what does he envision here? The chairman of the Joint Chiefs, the president's top, most senior military adviser, General Joseph Dunford, issuing a memo to the troops. And I want to read you just part of what General Dunford said to the troops a short time ago.

And I quote, he said, "There will be no modifications to the current policy until the president's direction has been received by the secretary of defense and the secretary issued implementation guidance. In the meantime, we will continue to treat all of our personnel with respect."

General Dunford, laying it out there in black and white. They do not know what comes next. They don't know what the president wants and they don't know how to carry it out, because all of this was military policy by Twitter. So a long way to go here.

One of the key questions that has emerged across the military is, what will happen to people currently serving who are transgender persons? Will they be forcibly removed from the military? Will they get an honorable discharge, which is vital for them to get military and health care benefits as retirees based on how many years, of course, they serve. Getting that honorable discharge, if the president wants to push them out, is going to be absolutely vital to their future. John?

KING: On day two of this still more questions than answers. Barbara Starr live at the Pentagon. Barbara, appreciate that very much.

Let's bring the conversation back into the room as we have the conversation. Number one, just what General Dunford said there. He said we're going to leave the existing policy in place until the president goes from what he said on Twitter to actually telling the Defense Department what he means.

This affects the national security of the United States and the lives of individuals whether you agree or disagree, the transgender people should be allowed to serve in the military. That's a perfectly fine debate the country can have. But it affects their lives from a management-style perspective.

Before you jump in, I just want to bring in David French, a National Review conservative writer, not a fan of the president but someone who rationally agrees with the president on the policy grounds here is like many people in Washington banging their heads on the wall about how it came about.

"Trump was right to step back from this new transgender brink", David French writes. "But he did it exactly the wrong way. Not only did he reportedly blindside members of the military with timing and nature of this announcement, his typical inflammatory tweeting was guaranteed to ignite another round of public fury."

So, here's another example that even people who agree with the president on certain issues are just (INAUDIBLE) but how he goes about his business.

JACKIE CALMES, LOS ANGELES TIMES: The president did this as the military has a review under way. Secretary Mattis is on vacation, but with the written statement from the Joint Chiefs of Staff is evidence that yesterday at the White House briefing, Sarah Huckabee Sanders did not tell the truth. She said flat out several times, this was a military decision. And clearly it was not.

And so today, and what she and her predecessor Sean Spicer before her would like to do in quite when they're hit by a barrage of questions like she was yesterday. And I presumably today to say, you will need to go to the Pentagon for that.

Well, in this case, the reporters are not going to let her get away with that.

KING: And again, we talked about Republican senators getting more and more open. Republican members of Congress getting more and more open (INAUDIBLE). That's the chairman of the Joint Chiefs there who put out a memo he knew would be public saying essentially, we're not this -- pay no attention to that tweet until we get actual, official, you know, government policy. JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: It's extraordinary and there were briefings at the White House yesterday. There was a briefing on in Venezuela (INAUDIBLE). There was a briefing on the new plant bills in Wisconsin. There was the press briefing -- there was no briefing or no speech on this, you know.

It seems very hasty and you really got the sense that the president was eager to change the subject and do something to appease the conservative base. So he is infuriated with his fight with Jeff Sessions here. This is something obviously has consequences.

Never mind, you know, that the commander-in-chief has still not unveiled his ISIS plan or his Afghanistan strategy. But he tweeted this yesterday.

KING: And this is -- it's been interesting. Again, remember, Donald Trump ran as a businessman. He said he's going to run Washington like a business. He said Washington was stupid, and once you get all the smart people in here under his management, things would run better.

[12:35:07] That's what he said in the campaign. That's not me making that up. You can go back and find that.

Now we had this constant early on the travel ban. Secretary Kelly was caught off guard. You could say, early weeks they made a mistake, they'll learn from this. Around sanctions, they just took away from the State Department apparently. They've done some other things that it had the secretary of state on edge.

As I reported on Sunday, I know he has told close friends he might leave town sooner or rather than later. Yesterday, Secretary Tillerson (INAUDIBLE) said, oh no, that's not true.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Secretary Tillerson, are you committed to staying in your position as secretary of state?

REX TILLERSON, SECRETARY OF STATE: I'm not going anywhere.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How long would you stay for?

TILLERSON: As long as the president's lets me.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How's your relationship with the president right now?

TILLERSON: Good.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Secretary Tillerson, publicly there. I am certainly as I am breathing, he has talked to friends back home in Texas about his frustrations about the possibility of leaving early.

What does this tell -- it's the Pentagon yesterday, it's Secretary Tillerson another time. Secretary Kelly, Jeff Sessions from the policy persecutive, they may not be meddling but they're undermining his leadership.

ABBY PHILIP, THE WASHINGTON POST: I'm always reminded by Republicans when we talk about Donald Trump, the businessman. We have to remember that Donald Trump ran a family business. He ran a business that did not have a board of directors or did not have shareholders that he was accountable to.

He's used to making decisions in a vacuum. He can just make them people act on them. But that's not how the government works and the White House and Trump has not realized that they actually need allies.

You know, John McCain put out a statement yesterday slamming both the process and the policy on this transgender decision, but he also said earlier this week that the legislature is a coequal branch of government. The presidency is not more important or more powerful than the legislature is. And that's really a shot across the bow at Trump just to remind him that you have to link hands with your allies on the Hill in order to gain traction for the things you want to do.

They did not do that this week. Not even in the slightest. People who were very supportive of this move had no idea it was coming and it blindsided the House leadership, who was basically like we think this is not -- this was not the policy that they wanted.

Maybe they wanted to move in baby steps in this direction, but the whole total upending of the Obama administration policy is not exactly one a lot of Republicans wanted and he caught them way by surprise.

KING: My question, will we remember this week three months, six months, a year eight from now, only looking back at the presidency. You remember this for Republicans being more open. Privately they all told us they're concerned about this, or they don't like that, or they wish (INAUDIBLE) the president would stop tweeting.

But the deeper concerns have been more relayed in private. Here's Senator Lindsey Graham, again, the president made no secret of the fact he does not enjoy Jeff Sessions being at the Justice Department. We know from our own Dana Bash and other reporters he's openly discussed with advisors the prospect of a recess appointment if Sessions were to go. Listen to Senator Lindsey Graham.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R), JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: If Jeff Sessions is fired, there will be holy hell to pay. Any effort to go after Mueller could be the beginning of the end of the Trump presidency. Unless Mueller did something wrong.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: These are republicans. These are republicans. The president likes to talk about the fake news, he likes to talk about Democratic obstructionists. These are Republicans. And if you go back through this week and just sort of stack it up -- CALMES: Right.

KING: -- read through the transcripts, or watch it on television, it's kind of numbing.

CALMES: Right. Well, I'll add one more to that. The Wall Street Journal editorial page and that for the first time, not even for the first time this week, this morning. "Mr. Sessions acted honorably in recusing himself and the president should let him keep -- let him do his job without harassment."

PHILIP: Ken Starr --

KING: Ken Starr.

PHILIP: -- last week (INAUDIBLE) and he's basically laid it out trying to explain, this is the ethical and right thing to do. He followed protocol and he said Trump needs to lay off of him.

KING: And then you said Trump needs to respect the rule of law (INAUDIBLE). Everybody sit tight. Up next, thousands of jobs may be coming to Wisconsin and President Trump says we have him to thank. (INAUDIBLE) a deal as he says.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:43:16] KING: Welcome back. President Trump says he's made a great new deal for Wisconsin. Remember, that's one of those blue states he turned red in his remarkable 2016 presidential victory.

At the White House yesterday, officials announced the Taiwan-based tech company Foxconn plans a major investment in Wisconsin in the district of the House Speaker Paul Ryan to be exact. Proof, the White House says, the president's hands-on approach will bring jobs back home.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This is a great day for American workers and manufacturing, and for everyone who believes in the concept and the label made in the USA.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Now there is a bit of a debate about how many jobs and the price of getting the deal. CNN's Christine Romans is to bring down the numbers. Christine?

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Hi John. A huge win for President Trump's job promise, a promise kept in Wisconsin. Foxconn, the Taiwanese manufacturer is coming to Wisconsin with a big investment. The CEO Terry Gou says Foxconn will invest $10 billion in an LCD panel plant.

Foxconn of course is a electronics manufacturing powerhouse. Assembling products for Microsoft and Apple from its Chinese factories. Gou teased bringing production to the U.S. shortly after his inauguration. But the CEO has promised that before with little results.

For example, back in 2013, Foxconn announced a $30 million plant in Pennsylvania, it still hasn't been built. The big difference here, Wisconsin is offering generous tax incentives totaling as much as $3 billion of taxpayer money.

Governor Scott Walker says the project will create 13,000 jobs by the year 2020. That would cost the state about $230,000 per job.

[12:45:00] But John, Foxconn was a bit more conservative with its job estimates. The company says it will create 3,000 jobs with the potential of generating 13,000.

Certainly 3,000 jobs in Wisconsin, john is a drop in the bucket for this humongous company. It employs a million workers, as I said in Asia.

You might recall this company had a real hit to its reputation in 2011 after a spate of workers suicides. At the time, the CEO said he would begin to position the company away from human labor and towards robotics. John?

KING: Christine Romans breaking down the numbers of the deal. Without a doubt, the president got a chance to stand at the White House yesterday and say a company that does most its work overseas is going to bring jobs to America. That's a good thing.

There is the debate about the numbers. Does it matter if they bring 3,000 jobs to Wisconsin or 13,000 jobs to Wisconsin? We can score this one as a win for the president showing that he is being more like a governor than a president. You know, sort of getting everybody to get together and figure out a deal to get a company to come?

ZELENY: I think you score one for the president, no question. But it does matters of course. The state of Wisconsin, the general assembly in the Senate still have to vote on this. And I was talking to the speaker for the general assembly who's at the White House yesterday and he hopes to call a special session in August for this.

This is the biggest deal Wisconsin has done in terms of sweeteners. With $3 billion, that's a lot of money. The fine print on this will not look as good as the big announcement but still it's of course, a big deal, without question.

KING: It could be $230,000 per worker. The incentives are getting --

ZELENY: If that's 13,000 jobs.

CALMES: It's a lot higher if you divide it by 3,000 workers.

PHILIP: But, you know, I do think you have to give Trump credit and some ways we have to look at this as a rare moment recently of the White House doing kind of what it's supposed to be doing. Having a big eastern ceremony on something that is central to his platform. And having the president be on message about this.

I mean, you can have a lot -- another conversation about whether, you know, the Republican Party is typically in this kind of business of meeting out deal by deal, bringing jobs, company by company back to the United States. But that's what this particular president promised to do's and if he's fulfilling that promise, more of that and less of all the other stuff.

KING: See you'll have free market conservatives saying this isn't the way you're supposed to do. But the president campaigned saying he was going to do this (INAUDIBLE) bring the drama of the other stuff into this particular thing.

I want to show you a photo. At the end of an interview the president did with the Wall Street Journal the other day. The Wall Street Journal photographer caught this photo of the White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and the new Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci, hopefully we can put it up on the screen there for you.

Reince Priebus is from Wisconsin. Reince Priebus was instrumental in this deal. We were talking during the break that the president didn't mention his chief of staff's role in this while he's at the White House yesterday. This is something he worked really hard on with the speaker staff, with his folks back in Wisconsin to bring about. Why?

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm going to quote Jeff Zeleny here if you'll allow me, from one of our morning conversations was this kind of Reince's baby. He worked very, very hard on this and the omission did not go unnoticed.

I talked to people on Capitol Hill who also worked on the speaker's office and everybody was kind of like, huh, Mr. Chief? And he really cared about this and he wasn't in there. And so whether it was deliberate or not, it was read at deliberate outside of the White House and I think that has meaning.

CALMES: It reminds me of the devout catholic Sean Spicer being excluded from their visit to the pope when they were in the Vatican and when you saw what happened to him.

KING: There's a word for that, small.

Up next, if you missed seeing Sean Spicer on T.V. lately and you happen to like dancing? Might be in luck.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[12:52:32] MELISSA MCCARTHY AS SEAN SPICER: I just like to announce that I'm calm now.

As long as you sons of (INAUDIBLE).

(OFF-MIC)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Move!

MCCARTHY: Guantanamo Bay.

Radical Muslims.

(OFF-MIC)

MCCARTHY: Spicy finally made a mistake.

You knew we have a chance!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: All right, welcome back. Well, Sean Spicer's resignation, no laughing, Phil, means we likely won't get to see much spicy again. But Melissa McCarthy has turned on this and now he's make her more in demand than ever. She'll be fine.

Spicer on the other hand is trying to figure out his next gig. The now former White House spokesman has been in meetings with tons of media organizations all week. But if you can't walk down a future as a talking head or as a spokesman, he maybe he'll trie to salsa his way to a big pay day.

Look at this. Courtesy of Page Six, "Dancing With The Stars" we are told, is interested in Sean Spicer. What do you think Jackie Calmes?

CALMES: I want to see that. I so enjoyed both Rick Perry and Tom DeLay when they did their, you know, come-down appearances on "Dancing With The Stars." I'd like to see it.

That said, I know CNN has said they're not interested in hiring him. I think that all of the other media companies should say that I do not get, you know -- Washington is the kind of place where we all criticize it for no matter what someone does, no matter how little credibility they have, they're going to find a big job. They're going to make even more money than they were. And, you know, maybe it's time for someone to be an example of the opposite.

KING: Well, part of that is, let's go back to Sean Spicer's time at the podium. A lot of reporters in Washington, they have Sean Spicer stood in front of them, said things that were demonstrably untrue. And then when they tried at least to get him in private to help them out, they didn't feel about that way. Here's a little bit of history.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEAN SPICER, OUTGOING WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: This kind of dishonesty in the media that challenging to bring about our nation together is making it more difficult.

I appreciate your agenda here but the reality is -- no, no hold on. No, at some point report the facts. You're shaking your head. I appreciate it, but -- OK. But understand this, that at some point the facts are what they are. [12:55:03] He is frustrated like I am and like so many others to see stories come out that are patently false, to see narratives that are wrong. To see quote/unquote fake news. When you see stories get perpetrated that are absolutely false, that are not based in fact, that is troubling.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Fake news. Absolutely false. You mean, like the White House communications director going on cable news and publicly saying I'm in the war with the White house Chief of staff and that lot of people in the White House are fighting and against their own agendas?

That's patently false and fake news. Oh, wait a minute. That happens to be true.

ZELENY: Yes. I mean, this is one of those things where, it didn't work out that well for Sean Spicer obviously. So, you know, whatever his next chapter is, we'll watch it. But we're going to get on to the business of covering this White House. I think that's more important.

PHILIP: And I do think that he started out -- if had he not started out from that podium defending something that was, with everybody who has eyes -- that everybody who has eyes can see was not true, we may not be in the position that we're in right now. But that's where this all started, and the credibility problem is very real.

KING: Those were his choices. Those were his choices.

Thanks for joining us in the INSIDE POLITICS. Keep your eyes on the Senate, they got big vote later today.

See you 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. Wherever you're watching from around the world, thanks very much for joining us.

Right now, we're standing by to hear for the White House --