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Trump, China's Xi Agree to Delay Additional Tariffs; Trump Continues Threats Over Wall Funding; Secret Service Will Stay with Bush's Casket Until Texas Burial. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired December 03, 2018 - 12:30   ET

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

[12:30:00] CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: It imposes non-tariff barriers and conducts widespread spying and stealing from American companies.

Now, official talks broke down only a few weeks ago. Progress has been so far pretty limited. This truce welcomed by global markets. Asian stock markets closed up strongly, Europe also opened strongly higher here.

Now, the president's tough tariffs bringing the Chinese to the table. The president declared to reporters on the way home that he had made a, quote, incredible deal with China, John to open up the economy and its tariffs. China has not publicly gone that far. Instead, they are talking tariffs are still on, they're just not getting worse.

John?

JOHN KING, CNN ANCHOR: Christine Romans, appreciate that.

And that's the key point at the end. If you look at the Chinese media, it's much more vague, lacks details. The president saying they're going to start buying things immediately, farmers will be those who benefit most. When will we know if the proof is in the pudding if you will?

CATHERINE LUCEY, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, ASSOCIATED PRESS: The only thing we really know right now for sure is that this buys both sides some time. Like that's clear I think from what we're hearing from both sides.

KING: Both leaders decided it was in their interest to step back to the brink.

LUCEY: They both paused buttons pretty hard on this complex but in terms of the actual details, yes, the president is saying they're going start buying agriculture products, they're going to do things on auto tariffs. And we're going to have to see if they actually follow through on this.

Secretary Mnuchin was at the White House today, he was talking to reporters, he expressed a lot of confidence that, you know, Xi is going to follow-through in his promises. That they're going to, you know, have productive talks. But this is a very tight timeline to deal with some really big issues.

KING: OK, tight timeline, years, decades of mistrust. And the interesting part to me is let's listen to Republican Senator Roy Blunt on the state of Missouri, farm states have been hit hard, Chinese had stop buying things. This tells me everything here, the president making these promises even Republicans are saying, prove it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. ROY BLUNT (R), MISSOURI: I think the soy bean exports to China have gone to virtually zero from about one out of every three rows of Missouri soy beans were being exported to China. So whether it's those kinds of crops or pork or beef or chicken, we need to see some real specific figures here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Speaks volumes to me in the sense that midterm elections, Republicans got hurt in the Midwest. President is weaker now, and even people who had normally try to say nice things about the president, all politics is local. Senator Blunt saying I need to see real proof this is real.

RACHAEL BADE, CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER, POLITICO: Right. No, definitely. And Republicans, China has been their number one complaint in terms of international trade. Whereas a lot of Republicans like Roy Blunt expressed concerns about the president sort of escalating the trade war. When it came to China, they were more open to him getting tough, but again, they want specifics on there.

And just keep in mind that we have three months here. This is an issue, the main issue they're trying to resolve is intellectual property and technology. And that is something that has sort of been an issue for negotiators and American companies for literally decades. And I think they're going to take to an agreement in three months, I think that there's a lot of reason to be skeptical here and just like Roy Blunt said they want to see specifics and they don't have those right now.

KING: And remember, the president used (INAUDIBLE) during the campaign to talk about Chinese behavior. This is not a minor difference, this is not a minor difference.

And to the broader point about with their trade, post-midterm elections and post the G20, a celebration for the president at the G20 signing the new U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement which he says to replace NAFTA. But he also says, Congress has to pass it as is or it doesn't go into effect and we go back to pre-NAFTA.

Here's a Democratic senator among those who might think about running for president, but again from the Midwest, __ of Ohio saying no, Mr. President, it won't work that way.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. SHERROD BROWN (D), OHIO: You don't just sign this away because this doesn't live up to the promise the president said that it would be a renegotiated NAFTA helping workers and stopping outsourcing because it doesn't do that yet. I'm hopeful that it will and I have been talking to the U.S. trade rep for months and months and months on strengthening these -- strengthening the labor enforcement. We will still get there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: It's fascinating to me because this is like immigration -- immigration and trade are the president's signature issues. But you see, Republicans and Democrats I think more prepared than ever after the midterm elections to push back some.

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. And look, he may want to change it but under the rules, their fast tracked rules for considering yet and that means that they cannot change it in Congress. They do have to either take it or leave it.

And if they leave it, then if Trump does repel and steps away from the NAFTA agreement, then do we go back to the pre-NAFTA times? That raises a lot of questions for how some of these -- particularly the free traders who do support NAFTA and they support this going forward? People like Sherrod Brown who've been critical of NAFTA, do they try to kill it. And there are more people on the Democratic side who have been critical of NAFTA that are supportive of them. So, the president may say, take it or leave it, Congress may say leave it because of the difficulty in the politics.

KING: And so as he tries to figure this out in 90 days with China, he's also got the other problem with the Congress. It's a fascinating test for the president. Let's see how it plays out in this next world in Washington.

Up next for us here, Senator Kamala Harris says, she has a list, she's going to check it twice and make a big decision over the holidays.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[12:39:25] KING: Topping our political radar today, North Carolina's election chairman resigning amid controversy over some tweets he sent critical of President Trump. Democrat Andy Penry says he doesn't want to undermine an election fraud investigation now underway in the state's ninth congressional district. Allegations of fraud to an activity related to absentee and mail ballots could force a new election in that race.

Democratic Senator Kamala Harris of California says she'll decide over the holidays whether she'll run for president in 2020. The senator telling MSNBC it's a decision she'll make with her family. If she does run, Senator Harris will be a top contender in what's likely to be a very crowded Democratic field.

[12:40:00] She acknowledged in that interview, quote, let's be honest, it's going to be ugly.

The former first lady Michelle Obama canceling parts of her book tour in Europe so she can get back home here in Washington to attend President Bush's funeral. Meanwhile, a recent interview she gave offering some advice to Meghan Markle garnering headlines across the Atlantic. Mrs. Obama says she understands the pressure the American- born duchess feelings right now, but says she should be patient to find a cause that, quote, resonates with her personality.

Up next for us, a potential reprieve from a shutdown crisis but few signs of movement on the big sticking points.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: Welcome back.

It's deadline week to keep much of the government funded and open. But word today is, the shutdown drama could be delayed some. The money runs out on Friday, but there's talk of a temporary extension. Why?

Well, because of the differences. The president's border wall chief among them and because the Bush farewell is taking center stage at the capital for a few days.

[12:45:04] Republicans are pushing for an extension to just before the holidays, Democrats prefer a shorter one-week stop gap. The president is said to be OK with some extension but he is firm on what he needs in the final plan. Five billion dollars he says for his border wall, tweeting just this morning in part, "We would save billions of dollars if the Democrats will give us the votes to build the wall. Either way, people will not be allowed into our country illegally. We will close the entire southern border if necessary."

That's the president's take. In the past, it hasn't been just Democrats, a lot of Republicans haven't wanted to fund the wall. Where are we?

BADE: They want more time. They want more time to negotiate as you said. I think, you know, there's been a lot of speculation that Democrats and Republicans might meet halfway in the middle. The president wants $5 billion for his border wall, maybe Schumer and the Senate Democrats come up to something like $3 billion. But TBD at this point.

What I can tell you is that, from my reporting on the Hill, House Democrats are they are talking about how much they want to give. House Democrats are (INAUDIBLE) at each other right now about how much they want give. House Democrats obviously picked up 40 seats just a couple of weeks ago and they really want to hold the line and say not a penny more for the border wall.

But it's interesting because there's like -- Trump has a quiet victory here if you look. If Schumer is saying the starting point is $1.6 billion for the border wall fence -- border security, whatever you call it, that's another 1.6 billion he is very slowly creating -- building what he set out to do on the campaign trail.

KING: But you make a key point. The Democrats just won 40 seats. If the older members who are voting now not the new members but they are watching closely. Nancy Pelosi wants to be speaker, she's almost there but not quite. Listen to one of the people who's loyal to here, Gerry Connolly from across the river here on Northern Virginia talking about the president's border wall saying, I'm not so sure.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. GERRY CONNOLLY (D), VIRGINIA: I don't favor a government shutdown but neither do I favor a gun to my head to accept $5 billion for something he promised and then he promised Mexicans would pay for.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: How do we resolve this?

RAJU: Yes, that's a challenge because you need -- you may get -- need some Democratic votes in the House if there are some Republicans revolt in the House Republican majority and obviously you need Democratic support in the Senate. And as Rachael is mentioning, there is resistance to the $1.6 billion that was agreed to on a bipartisan basis on the Senate side.

So, there are -- it's possible. We could have a shutdown right before Christmas. We're not going to have a shutdown this week. They could put -- punt it most likely until right before Christmas. And at that point, that's where they're going to have to make some real decisions.

But, the short-term punt right now is just a punt. They have not made any progress to getting a deal to avoid a shutdown.

LUCEY: I think they're buying time and both sides are digging in right now. So it's hard to really see where it's going to end. It's going to go down to the wire because it always does. But right now, the president is really trying to signal a lot of strength --

KING: And we thought the president would sit down with Chuck and Nancy as he calls them. They asked them to delay, it supposed to be tomorrow but delayed because of the Bush funeral which again one of the legitimate reasons for a pause here but.

TARINI PARTI, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, BUZZFEED NEWS: I think from the White House perspective, the one thing to keep in mind is that the last time this happened, the president was criticized from his base for not getting substantial wall funding. So he's already been through this before and the people I've talked to who talked to the president have said that he really wants to put up a fight. He wants to show that he tried to get some wall funding even if it's, you know, isn't $5 billion at the end. He wants to show that he made an effort because he was criticized last time.

KING: And this is his last big moment if you will. The president, he's weakened by the election, but he will be even weaker (INAUDIBLE) come January because he'll be looking at a Democratic speaker and Democratic chairman.

BADE: Right. And let's remember, Republicans in the House and Senate before the election, they begged him and they promised him, we will have this fight after the election. He wanted to do shutdown just weeks before Election Day but Republican were like, oh, that's going to kill us in the Senate, it's going to kill in the House. And they got him to postpone but on the promise that they were going to do this. We'll see if they do it then.

RAJU: And politically maybe it will be better for him to get a shutdown with fighting a new Congress when the Democrats control one chamber. Easier to blame them at that point than right now when Republicans right now control all of Washington.

KING: He's the president.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He's the president.

KING: He's the president. Is he going to shutdown the government? Well, we'll see.

(CROSSTALK)

RAJU: He always said that he wants to do it.

KING: He has said he wants to do it. The question is, whether that's a bluff or whether that's real, we will find out sooner than we'd like probably.

Up next, (INAUDIBLE) to protect the president. As we go to break, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis paying his respects to George H.W. Bush just a short time ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAMES MATTIS, DEFENSE SECRETARY: As a young man, he proved his valor in the toughest circumstances. And for the rest of his life, he was the same kind of public servant, committed to us all.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:54:06] KING: Special mission 41 is on its way to Washington. A 747 carrying the former President George Herbert Walker Bush as it makes its way here to Washington. The president Secret Service detail remains with him and they will stay with him until he is interred at the presidential library, the Bush Presidential Library in College Station, Texas. Those charged with protecting Bush 41 were challenged by a man who fully embraced life whether skydiving on three of his birthdays in his later years or speed boating as president and vice president on his boat off the coast of Maine.

I'm grateful now to be joined by John Magaw, he was the lead of the president's protective detail when he's vice president and president. Also former director of the Secret Service. Thank you for coming in at this time.

Let me start there with the fun. Maybe not so fun for you guys but this was a guy who loved to get in that cigarette boat and gun it off the coast of Maine. What do you tell the vice president or then the president of the United States when he is out there bouncing around in the rough coastal waters off Maine or jumping out a plane and helicopters?

JOHN MAGAW, TSA UNDERSECRETARY DURING GEORGE H.W. BUSH ADMINISTRATION: Well, I was with him a lot of times when he did that.

[12:55:02] And in fact, we had a bar built in that craft that I could hold onto and be right behind him where I could put my hands on him and he always had a belt that I could hold onto. And he was receptive of that. You know -- but part of the man is that, you know, he loved the air, he loved the open. But at the same time, if he bumped any of those boys for the lobster fishermen, he would stop, go back if there's any damage to that, he would identify the number and make sure he paid for it whether it really tore up or not.

So, you know, he just was caring any way he went.

KING: And he was also the vice president who was on the road on a day when -- and I want you to tell me about the radio traffic. Ronald Reagan, the president of the United States gets shot here in Washington. And so obviously the health, the safety of the vice president becomes paramount and getting back to Washington became paramount. Take me through that day.

MAGAW: Well, yes, he was in Texas and got the word to come back. So we loaded on the plane as quickly as possible and started back. We got the clearances and everything.

And I know this has been told many times so maybe I shouldn't repeat it, but it is really very important. This was the man. We said Mr. President or Mr. Vice President, we'll go into Andrews and we'll chopper to the south lawn. And he said no, no. No, no. I'm not the president of the United States and that's the only one that can come on the south lawn. Let's get a motorcade and we'll go to the White House that way. And that's part of the man.

KING: He thought it would be disrespectful.

MAGAW: Disrespectful.

KING: Disrespectful. And also your job, he's the protectee and you're the -- as the lead agent, you're the lead body guy. You're in Panama City in the middle of the presidential campaign, June of 1992. There are protests and you think it's gotten to the point where his safety is at risk.

Take us inside that moment.

MAGAW: Well, with the intelligence that we had, I was very concerned and so we did something a little different. We backed the armored car right up to the stage. And we had the Mrs. with two people with her and I was very close to the president and all (INAUDIBLE) out of sight. And when the gunshots went off in the crowd, I was concerned about obviously I couldn't tell where it was coming from. I knew it was a small caliber, I knew it was hand guns. I knew it wasn't a high powered rifle, but I just decided in a split second I had to get him off of there.

And so I walked up to him and he's used to seeing me and used to knowing if I tell him something, we do it. Because I've been around him for most part of 13 years. So we just spun him around and took him off the stage. And one of the things that he said later, a little bit later, he said, thanks, John for your good judgment.

I mean, that point there for me is am I still here or am I gone? But I knew him well enough and it wouldn't have made any difference. He had to come off that stage under the circumstances and it worked well.

KING: Take me inside that part, you knew him well enough in the sense that from all accounts, and that's why when I came to Washington after the '88 campaign, the handover from Reagan to Bush in those days. By all accounts, he was the person who treated whether you were a king or a prime minister or someone who work in the White House residence, a janitor the (INAUDIBLE), he treated everybody with dignity and respect. Including if my memory is right, he would go to Camp David on the holidays because it was a secure site with the smallest possible detail for the agents who worked to him hard hours could be home with their families and the like.

Tell us about the man.

MAGAW: That's right. Both of them were that way, the Mrs. and him. Any time there was a holiday, they worried about the families and every time he would talk to me about it and how can we do the best for them? And like you said, Camp David was already militarily protected so -- and those are all highly classified and cleared people. So we were able to go up there with a limited amount and that was just him.

He wanted to make sure though that everybody got fed and they had the meals. As he wasn't going to enjoy a meal in one of the cabins and had the agents out there so he always made sure that in the command post, there was plenty of food and refreshments. And she was very -- Mrs. Bush, the first lady, was very concerned about, you know, this also. So, it was both.

KING: Appreciate your insights. That's an important day. John Magaw, thank you. Good to see you in person. It's been a long time. Thank you for your service as well, sir. Appreciate it. Those great days.

Thank you for joining us on the INSIDE POLITICS today. Please stay with us as our special coverage continues throughout the day.

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