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Inside Politics
GOP Congressman: Trump Has "Engaged in Impeachable Conduct"; Trump Dismisses Reports of Administration Infighting Over Iran; Biden Expands Lead in Polls Since Entering Race. Aired 8-9a ET
Aired May 19, 2019 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
[08:00:19] JOHN KING, CNN HOST (voice-over): A defiant White House no as Democrats demand documents and witnesses. And the attorney general channels the boss.
WILLIAM BARR, ATTORNEY GENERAL: We should be worried about whether government officials abuse their power and put their thumb on the scale.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I am so proud of our attorney general that he is looking into it.
KING: Plus --
PROTESTERS: What do we? Stand up, fight back.
KING: New state abortion restrictions guarantee big court fights and a big campaign issue.
SEN. KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND (D-NY), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: If this is a fight that president Trump wants, if this is the fight he wants with America's women, it is a fight he will have and it is a fight he will lose.
KING: And the Democratic front-runner makes a bipartisan bet.
JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Let's stop fighting and start fixing. We can only do it together.
KING: INSIDE POLITICS, the biggest stories sourced by the best reporters, now.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KING: Welcome to INSIDE POLITICS, I'm John King. To our viewers in the United States and around the world, thank you for sharing your Sunday.
A busy hour ahead. We begin with the words of the attorney general and more importantly, what they mean in a Washington overcrowded with confrontation, and in a Washington that suddenly has one lonely Republican saying the Mueller report is a road map to impeachment.
To listen to the Attorney General William Barr is to hear President Donald Trump.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARR: If we're worried about foreign influence, for the same reason, we should be worried about whether government officials abuse their power and put their thumb on the scale. And so, I'm not saying that happened but I'm saying that we have to look at that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: He's not saying that happened, but his boss says it did. A seasoned lawyer like Mr. Barr knows the traditional AG playbook calls for neutral words or no words at all about ongoing investigations.
Mr. Barr also has no problem with witch hunt. Those words, of course, the president's bludgeon, in two-plus-years of searing attacks questioning the confidence and the integrity of the special counsel, the FBI, and his own appointees atop the Justice Department.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARR: If you were the president, I think you would view it as a witch hunt and a hoax because at the time, he was saying he was innocent and that he was being falsely accused. And that's -- if you're falsely accused, you would think something was a witch hunt.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Mr. Barr's words the president no doubt has the attorney general he always wanted. But they're also a new problem for the Trump White House.
The first Republican member of Congress saying the president has engaged in impeachable conduct. In making that case, Michigan's Justin Amash starts with Barr, quote: Attorney General Barr has deliberately misrepresented Mueller's report, the congressman writes on Twitter. President Trump has engaged in impeachable conduct.
Now, Amash is a tea party conservative who is often a lonely voice of dissent as a party he sees wrongly under President Trump's spell. So, yes, as an outlier. But as other top Republicans say, case closed, let's move on, this is Amash's take on a report he says few of his colleagues have actually read.
Quote: Contrary to Barr's portrayal, Mueller's report reveals President Trump engaged in specific actions and a pattern of behavior that meet the threshold for impeachment.
With us this Sunday to share their reporting and their insights, Maggie Haberman of "The New York Times," Jonathan Martin, also of "The Times," CNN's Jeff Zeleny, and Seung Min Kim of "The Washington Post".
How much does this matter? It is one voice. Let's not overstate it. It guarantees Justin Amash a Trump-supported Republican primary next year.
How does it change the conversation in Washington, if at all?
MAGGIE HABERMAN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: I think the other question, and I'm going to defer on Seung Min on this, but I think the question is, does this then give Democrats who have said they would only move forward if there were bipartisan support for impeachment, is one person enough to then say, this is bipartisan. I think it's going to be a really difficult case still. I mean, Amash has been a critic of the president for a long time, for many, many months, but he is make a point that few have made to put it that starkly that these are impeachable offenses and that very few people have read this report.
I think it depends on how much he continues to keep talking about it. I'm skeptical it's going to change minds.
KING: But it does guarantees every Republican on a Sunday show this week, every Republican if they're encountered out on the campaign trail somewhere, a town hall back home, is now going to be asked about this. Their hope, their hope was if Republicans stayed in lockstep, they could say, let's move on and pay no attention whether you think it's impeachable or not. The back half of the Mueller report is a pretty damning indictment of how the president does business.
SEUNG MIN KIM, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Correct. And that's why it's going to complicate matters for Republicans later today, later on the week on Capitol Hill. But I think what this does for Democrats especially because we've seen the frustration arising among some Reagan file Democrats who believe that they really do need to go ahead and pursue something.
[08:05:10] We heard Democratic lawmakers this week start making the distinction between a vote for impeachment and just start impeachment proceedings, trying to get that started and not necessarily voting on the actual resolution on the floor. But Nancy Pelosi has continued to take a take it slow strategy. What Justin Amash's comments are going to do are really going to give an opportunity for those Democrats to say, look, we do have a Republican saying this, so why don't we move forward.
KING: On -- I want to get to the point you can put Justin Amash and Nancy Pelosi in the same sentence now, tells you something about Washington. In this Republican Party, this has been bottled up, this has been a keep the genie in the bottle. A lot of Republicans don't like the way the president does business. Never mind the Mueller report, whether it's the deficit, the trade.
What happens now, is my question? Jake Tapper will sit down with Mitt Romney next hour on "STATE OF THE UNION." You have voices like Ben Sasse who have tried to bottle up Thursday frustration, but on blinders and move on.
Is this something? Or can they just make him one outlier?
JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: No, the reality is if nothing up until to this point as we sit here in the middle of May, you know, 18 months before an election, if nothing has happened now that has really caused Republicans to leaved reservation, I think this will not either. People are afraid. The Ben Sasses of the world -- how long has it been since Ben Sasse actually has spoke out about something like this? He's trying to think of his own primary if he runs or not.
So, the reality is every time these senators even take a small vote -- look at Senator Roy Blunt. He defied the Republican Party just a touch and got slapped by some -- of his own conservatives in Missouri. So, the reality is, this will not change much, but it does open the door to the conversation and it forces every Republican to be asked about this.
But I think at the end of the day they're afraid of the president's base and they won't talk about it.
KING: And to your point about Speaker Pelosi, she was a couple weeks ago way over here. Don't do it. Bad idea, it would help the president.
She's been forced, in part by her own liberal base, and in part by the White House. The White House counsel this week says, no, hell no, go away, take a hike to any Democratic documents. They see Bill Barr. They thought maybe there would be an outlet to go to a more seasoned voice in Washington ask say, are there some areas of compromise, if they want to compromise, I'm not saying the Democrats do, but there was a potential avenue there. They listen to him and say no.
So, listen to Nancy Pelosi. To your point, she's not saying impeach him but she's starting to inch up toward that line.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): When they're saying unless you have a legislative purpose, you cannot ask any questions. You cannot investigate unless you have a legislative purpose. But one of the purposes of -- that the Constitution spells out for investigation is impeachment.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Almost saying convene the trial, start a trial because then we'll have better standing in the courts to say, give us the documents. Doesn't mean we'll ultimately vote for impeachment. But is that what she's saying, force us down this road, we will take it?
JONATHAN MARTIN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: That's what it seems to me, she's trying to nullify some progressives in her base but at the same time not give Trump the fodder he wants. It's such a fascinating moment where you've got this weird coalition -- speaking of weird coalition, you mention Pelosi and Amash, the sort of, you know, AOC- Donald Trump coalition here where both parties want impeachment proceedings for different reasons, right?
The left wants them for reasons they believe are on the merits that this president has clearly committed impeachable offenses and he deserves to be impeached. Trump and his allies like the idea of impeachment because to them it creates this idea of persecution of a Washington mess of Democrats who won't work with him, who wants to investigate him. He likes this.
I will say this, though, we have a story in today that's in part about this. It's so striking to me the economic numbers are superb on many levels, but yet the president for a variety of reasons is not capable of talking about that. Instead, would like to have this fight in which he denies Democrats documents and invites impeachment.
HABERMAN: I don't think he actually wants to be impeached. I think that's an important point here. I don't think any president -- Rudy Giuliani has made this point, and it's true, that no president actually --
(CROSSTALK)
HABERMAN: Right, I do think what they want do is they want to make Democrats say, yes, this is what we're doing. I do think you see Pelosi inching towards that for the reason you said, we know this is going to court and they consider is easier to allow an outside arbitrator to make this decision and then they can say, look, they said we could go down this road.
KING: And that's Amash's point in his constitution. If you agree with him or disagree with him, he's consistent that the idea is here, Congress is here. He sounds like Nancy Pelosi, he also sounds like the House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler saying, we have a job.
[08:10:04] We're going to do it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. JERRY NADLER (D-NY): They're saying the president is above the law, that Congress has no right to investigate abuses of power, obstruction of justice or corruption in the administration, and that's just wrong. The implication of what they're doing would make the president a tyrant in a sense of not being accountable to the American people, not being answerable to Congress.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Again, it's almost the impact point Amash makes in his tweets, that Congress has a job, the president is not above the Congress. They're called co-branches of government. But Nancy Pelosi and Justin Amash, now Jerry Nadler and Justin Amash in the same sentence, politics does make strange bedfellows.
ZELENY: It does, indeed. And it -- we'll see if anyone else joins that sentence. It's hard for me to think through the Republicans in the House and certainly in the Senate who will join on that. But we don't know. Watergate started out very slowly.
But I still think that this is more of a problem for Democrats. Are they going to -- Speaker Pelosi will the hold the line or not?
MARTIN: The political incentives have to be working towards that. I mean -- ZELENY: And they're not.
MARTIN: Right now, it's the opposite, exactly. Right.
ZELENY: But Amash does open the door to every Republican being asked about the ten examples that Robert Mueller says are obstruction. If you read that, think about that, do you excuse that, you accept that?
HABERMAN: For this week.
ZELENY: For this week, right.
HABERMAN: What they learn from Donald Trump is if you wait long enough, things move on.
MARTIN: Does he run again by the way? Does he run again for Congress? Does he run for libertarian nomination for president or he just not run at all? That's an important question.
ZELENY: Exactly, Amash 2020 will be talked about.
KING: This is day one of this story. We'll see where it goes and how long it lasts. We'll watch the Twitter feed.
Next, mixed signals on Iran and the White House shift on some big tariffs.
And politicians say the darndest things, history edition, courtesy Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PELOSI: I went to Congress, 23 women out of 435 in the House of Representatives. Two out of 100 in the Senate. We made a decision, this has to change.
At the beginning, the men were not too fearful of us. You know, 23 out of 437, that was nice. Until our numbers grew, then it was like, what are they all standing in the well for together? Why are they wearing the same color today?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[08:15:50] KING: Three big issues that were calling cards of the 2016 Trump campaign were front and center this past week, trade, immigration and Iran. The president stepped back from two trade confrontations, delaying planned new auto tariffs and making a deal with Canada and Mexico to end aluminum and steel tariffs. The idea there, to calm fears in Congress the president is risking U.S. property by picking too many fights, and to allow a sharper focus on the bigger trade war with China.
The president also unveiled a new immigration plan. Not only is it a nonstarter for Democrats, it was an instant dud with fellow Republicans.
And a week that began with muscular rhetoric about Iran ended with word the president told his acting defense secretary he is in no mood for war, and with the president weighing in on reports of in-fighting involving his national security adviser and his secretary of state.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: They put out messages that I'm angry with my people. I'm not angry with them. I make my own decisions. But I'm angry with my people, I'm not angry with my people, I'm worse than they are. They're worse than me are. They're more militant.
Mike Pompeo is doing a great job. Bolton's doing a great job. But they make it sound like it's a conflict.
Everything is a source says. There is no source. The person doesn't exist. The person's not alive. It's bull (EXPLETIVE DELETED), OK?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: There is -- there are sources. Sources do exist and they do say these things but that's -- I'm not sure what to make of that. But that is, God bless him -- he's the most --
MARTIN: That was the real source there, by the way --
(CROSSTALK)
KING: He's the most transparent president in history because that was transparent.
HABERMAN: On certain fronts, yes.
(LAUGHTER)
KING: On certain fronts, yes.
What is he trying to say there? Because there have been reports from credible people inside the White House that he gets nervous about John Bolton from time to time, that he thinks he's been through muscular, maybe trying to get too far leaning forward when it comes to military confrontation. Of course, public view, it's all working fine, I make the decisions.
But what is going on?
HABERMAN: He doesn't like the reports about -- there's two things he doesn't like. He doesn't like reports about in-fighting which we know have plagued his administration more than most. And as you know very well, every administration does have some level of this. Advisers are not in the same place. The president is getting frustrated with intelligence they're being given.
But with Trump it all leaks out and all leaks out as sort of this broader picture of an administration in chaos. So, that's one thing he doesn't like. He doesn't like the perception he's being led around on policy. And I think there was a real sense for a while he was being pushed towards a conflict he doesn't want with Iran.
He's very well aware that his base of supporters in 2016 were the ones who opposed the Iraq war, who were against extended U.S. engagements in the Mideast. I think he's trying to deal with that while propping up his people. That said, as you know, he has a real habit of public saying, I love this person, and then with the next hand, he's, you know, taking out a bat and taking at their knees. So, it doesn't necessarily mean anything.
KING: The public embrace, Rex Tillerson can tell you how that goes.
The headlines, CNN is reporting, you know, Trump has raised concerns with heightened rhetoric, leading a large scale military intervention with Iran would be devastating to him politically. In "The New York Times," you're part of this story: The internal tensions have prompted fears the Trump administration is spoiling for a fight, even if the commander in chief may not be.
The issue now becomes, number one, the president himself tweeting, maybe -- Iran doesn't know. You know, is there a credibility for the White House? Who do you believe or what do you believe?
And then the other question is, Iran says no negotiations. We're sending an aircraft carrier group into the region. No matter who's to blame, where's the off-ramp now when you have more of a confrontation?
ZELENY: It's a great question. One of the biggest things in terms of foreign policy is that, you know, some people view this as a plus or not, is the uncertainty, just not sure what President Trump is going to do. Is he going to follow the routine, the norms, or is he going to do something else?
But there is clear -- all week long it was clear that either someone was trying to set up John Bolton, which is totally possible, is he a lot of people inside the administration who do not agree with his views. So, the president, as Jonathan said, was speaking on Friday to the realtors. He made that statement at a group of realtors.
Why not talk about the economy? That's what some of his supporters and advisers wonder, why does he not say anything else? We're at a 50-year unemployment low. But all this is going on.
But the bigger issue from Republican senators I talked to look at some of the states they represent.
[08:20:05] South Carolina, Alabama, Tennessee, other places, these are automakers that are really concerned and troubled by the trade war here. So, that is a real issue the president hasn't necessarily dealt with. There was some progress on a Mexico and Canada week. Obviously, that deal is huge. But the trade war going on, that is a big issue for --
KING: And to that point, he did retreat some on the auto tariffs. But as he retreated, he bought himself six months and made clear in the document that he believes he can say it's a national security crisis to the United States and push back on foreign imports.
Toyota issued a strongly worded statement, say, hey, we employ a lot of Americans. What are we talking about here? Walmart says it will raise prices because of tariffs. That on CNN.com this week.
What is the end result here? A lot of members of Congress were happy in the sense that they were like, focus on China. Even if we don't agree with you on China, focus there. Don't do all this stuff in the neighborhood. But we're still sort of in an uncertain world.
KIM: And I think the uncertainty is how the president likes it, but it's certainly not how Republicans and Congress like it, whether it's on trade or on foreign policy.
Going back to the foreign policy point for a second, I mean, the credibility questions are growing even among Republicans. Lindsey Graham said this week on Capitol Hill that all of us are in the dark when it comes to Iran and you have a lot of people protesting for briefings and wanting more information from the administration. Certainly, Republicans are sighing a big breath of relief, especially as this kind of clears the way for Congress to begin considering -- begin considering the U.S., Mexico, Canada trade deal. But a lot uncertainty remains and that's certainly not what Republicans like right now.
KING: What about the immigration plan? I mean, I don't get it. I don't get it.
HABERMAN: What I think -- honestly, it's a signal from the White House he has a problem on this issue for his own election prospects.
KING: So, it's a campaign --
HABERMAN: Yes. I mean, it was noted -- Republicans -- restrictionist -- immigration restrictionists have tried for years to talk about the cutting the number -- reducing the number of legal immigrants. This plan doesn't do that. I thought that was really noteworthy.
But to your point, this plan was dead on arrival. Jared Kushner doing all these briefings. Republicans publicly and privately saying, what is this? Why are we going ahead with this?
The president when he delivered this speech in the Rose Garden, it was a very --
(CROSSTALK)
HABERMAN: -- you know how you can tell when he's not into his speech, either because he kind of talks back to the speeches if he's reading it the first time, or he seems not that engaged. I mean, I don't think you're going to hear him selling this plan a lot going forward.
MARTIN: There's not a lot of audience to sell it to. It's basically understood that Mitch McConnell is not going to bring up a major bill between now and next year. He's going to confirm judges and they're going to pass spending bills to keep the government open and raise the debt ceiling. They don't want to be able -- it's not going to happen. So, 18 months, here we go.
KING: Especially on immigration.
MARTIN: Especially immigration, right.
KING: If you watch that speech --
MARTIN: Complex issue.
KING: That was an eat your piece moment.
Democrats have a clear front-runner and Joe Biden aims to keep it that way.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[08:26:37] KING: Four weeks into the race, Joe Biden is the undisputed front-runner. His big rally Saturday, yesterday in Philadelphia, proof the former vice president thinks the first lap of the early primary states went well.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: Some of these same people are saying, you know, Biden just doesn't get it. You can't work with Republicans anymore. That's not the way it works anymore. Well, folks, I'm going to say something outrageous. I know how to make government work.
(APPLAUSE)
Not -- not because I've talked or tweeted about it, but because I've done it. Our principles must never be compromised but compromise itself is not a dirty word.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Well, compromise sometimes is a dirty word, or a risky word anyway in primary battles. And Biden's critics suggest he yearn for a time that cannot be restored, at least not be now given the battle lines drawn by President Trump. But making government work again is Biden's brand and his 2020 bet.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: Our politicians, our politics today, traffics in division. And our president is the divider in chief.
If the American people want a president to add to our division, lead with a clenched fist, a closed hand, a hard heart, to demonize your opponent, to spew hatred, they don't need me. They've got President Donald Trump.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Not sure making government work again will fit on a hat like Making America Great Again, or at least they won't sell as many. But a lot of people thought he was going to get in, he was going to
sell this message, his name recognition would have him up here and then he was going to start coming down. That hasn't happened.
ZELENY: It hasn't happened. And I think one thing is clear. We said it wasn't a policy speech. It actually was a policy speech. The beginning of every sentence of every policy that he is going to roll out, climate change, other thing is, I can beat President Trump. That was one central, clear anthem.
So, yes, he's going to get policies. They won't be acceptable to progressives but the question for Joe Biden, he has had a good run, no doubt. He's also had the training wheels on. His staff has kept him away from people, as Jonathan has written about, and he'll be doing a lot of fund-raisers in the coming weeks. He's going to try to maintain a lead.
There's a sense from a lot of voters out there they do want someone to defeat the president. The question is, when other Democrats who are starting to not get oxygen, when they start going after Biden, we'll see how he handles it then. But without a doubt, in the first month has been good.
KING: And the biggest test of that will come on the debate stage.
MARTIN: Right.
KING: And again, you have 20-plus candidates, you have 20 on the debate stage, they'll draw lots and random thing. We have no idea who will be on the stage with him and how that will mix up until we get closer to it. But we are seeing bits of it.
Here are some of the Democratic candidates starting to try to chip away a little bit at the front-runner.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D-CA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I have a great deal of respect for Vice President Joe Biden, but I disagree with him. That 1994 crime bill, it did contribute to mass incarceration in our country.
GOV. JAY INSLEE (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He's going to have to say that we have to remove our reliance on fossil fuels and our electrical grid. I have not seen to date any suggestion that he can do that.
MAYOR PETE BUTTIGIEG (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm not going to weigh in on any of my competitors. What I will say is I was opposed to the Iraq war. (INAUDIBLE) as a senator, but I believe it was a bad idea.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MARTIN: Three issues right there you just heard. The '94 crime bill, the '03 Iraq war and this question --
0830
[08:29:49]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[08:29:49] MAYOR PETE BUTTIGIEG (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm not going to weigh in on any of my competitors. What I will say is that, you know, I was opposed to the Iraq war (INAUDIBLE). But I believe it was a bad idea.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JONATHAN MARTIN, "NEW YORK TIMES": Ok. So three issues right there that you just heard -- the '94 crime bill, the '03 Iraq war and this question about climate change. They're all making a bet that they can move voters off Biden with a policy argument when Biden's argument isn't policy-based.
It's I can win and by the way, you loved Obama and I was his VP for two terms. That's the challenge is that I think that the Biden bet is that he's got an Obama halo with over half of the party and that the party's only litmus test is can you beat Trump?
And so the question for me is how it much longer the policy, gentle polite contrast like that last and how soon do we start getting closer to the bone and say, Joe, you're too old or you're creating --
(CROSSTALKING)
MARTN: This is risky.
JOHN KING, CNN HOST: Let's say Candidate A does that.
MARTIN: Right.
KING: Candidate A might take themselves out even if it's effective they might take themselves out too because he's so well liked.
(CROSSTALKING)
MARTIN: But that's not good enough though.
KING: Because if you look at these numbers, again, it's what -- eight and a half months until anybody votes. So I use these poll numbers and I tell you all at home, it's early. We have no idea who's going to win this race. But you'd rather beat Joe Biden now than anybody else especially if you look when he got into the race, 31 Fox News Poll, eased up to 35. Gets into the race, Quinnipiac 29, he's up to 38. Our CNN poll you can see 28, he's up 39.
Again, that's where you want to be. The question is how do you -- do you just -- if you're the Democrats do you just think over time the air comes out of the balloon or do you start to think now, no. To your point, you've got to get somehow tougher -- whatever it is.
MAGGIE HABERMAN, NEW YORK TIMES"; Well, this is the problem. I mean this is also -- Joe Biden has been helped, and Jonathan and I wrote about this, too. The fact the President has been focusing on him so insistently I think the best thing that happened both to other Democrats in the field and to Trump in the last week was the entrance of New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio, who the President does not see as a real target but does see as a fun --
MARTIN: Plaything.
HABERMAN: -- tune-up bag. Yes.
KING: All politics is call.
HABERMAN: Correct.
KING: He got distracted.
HABERMAN: And his own aides are very happy to have him tweeting about Bill De Blasio and not about Joe Biden who is creating this aura of general election campaign.
KING: And to the point of your story though -- to the point of your story, do the Democrats read that and maybe pick up on what the President's argument is?
Let me read a little bit from it. "Trump can't stop attacking Biden, GOP strategists wished he would. The President has told advisers he believes he can portray Mr. Biden, a longtime Washington veteran as representative of an ossified political class, same way he did Hillary Clinton. Wounding him with enough attacks and put-downs that Mr. Biden will either stagger into the general election or collapse in the primary.
Is there somebody in the field who's going to stand up and say you've been in Washington too long. You're part of the problem, not the solution. Complicated by the fact that he was the vice president for eight years to the most popular Democrat in the country. But is someone at some point going to say, you know what, I have to take the risk.
HABERMAN: They're going to, yes. And who it's going to be.
KING: Yes.
SEUNG MIN KIM, "THE WASHINGTON POST": Exactly. And I think who it's going to be is the big question but you already do see some people just kind of dance around it. But Democrats thus so far have been so resistant to these kind of -- these sharp political attacks. That's why they're making the contrast on policy and not anything else.
I mean, I don't know when other candidates would go after Biden for, say, his conduct during the Clarence Thomas hearings. I don't know if that's something that's going to be on -- JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: At the end of the
day Joe Biden's biggest rival is Joe Biden. What he says -- so, it is a high wire act. But so far he's doing strong because voters, again, are looking for someone who can win.
Can he? We don't know the answer to that question, of course, but I think Joe Biden's biggest opponent is Joe Biden.
MARTIN: If he survives these first two debates in June and July and does not create a sort of self-inflicted error or really take on some incoming from one of his rivals it's going to be -- I had a Democrat, a big Hillary supporter. Likes Biden but is certainly not eager about Biden say to me, look, the donors in this party, especially, a lot of the activist, too. They so desperately want to beat Trump.
If this is Labor Day and Biden has not stumbled yet or taken on any real kind of blood, then you're going to see some more rallying to him in a way that could be hard to stop.
Now that said, famous last words. We're still a long ways out but Biden has got to stumble or someone has got to make him stumble.
KING: We'll see. I think the debate -- we're in the space where he's going to raise money and he's going to stay careful.
MARTIN: Rose garden -- baby.
KING: You get to those debates. We're going to see.
Up next, a busy week on the 2020 trail, including two newcomers looking to make a mark in that very crowded Democratic field.
[08:34:24] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KING: Sunday trail mix now to get more of a taste of the 2020 campaign. Two new Democratic entries in Iowa this week and the Montana Governor Steve Bullock says he's the only Democratic candidate running for president who have won a red state and he says that's what Democrats will need in 2020. The other new candidate, New York's liberal Mayor Bill De Blasio insists his big city background is not a barrier he says to understanding rural voters in Iowa and elsewhere.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO (D-NY), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It's all about working people. It doesn't matter if you're in Gowrie, Iowa or you're in New York City. And in the end, people should trust someone who's already done it. That's what I'm going to say.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Senator Bernie Sanders out this weekend with a new education plan. It calls for a minimum salary of $60,000 a year for public school teachers, an end to for-profit charter schools. And an expansion of after school and summer school programs. In an emotional moment for the Democratic candidate Pete Buttigieg at
a town hall yesterday in Iowa. An 11-year-old girl asked the South Bend mayor if he had any advice for dealing with bullies?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BUTTIGIEG: I had experiences with bullying when I was growing up. And everybody who's different can be bullied. The secret is, everybody's different in some way. The person who is bullying you probably has something a little broken in them.
I think it really matters that we have a president who doesn't show that kind of behavior. It's one of the reasons I'm running for president.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Up next for us, first Alabama, then Missouri. Two more states move to restrict abortion and to ignite a big national debate.
[08:39:29] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHRIS WALLACE, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: Do you want the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v Wade?
Donald Trump, President of the United States: Well, if we put another two or perhaps three justices on that's really what's going to be -- that will happen. And that will happen automatically, in my opinion, because I am putting pro-life justices on the court.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Abortion rights and Supreme Court picks reminded by that debate clip -- always campaign issues but big action in the states is upping the stakes as we gear up for 2020.
Let's go through some of the numbers. This is the 2016 map. Use this as your guide as we take a look at what's happening in the states. These are states where in 2019 new abortion restrictions-- red means restrictions- - that have been enacted. All states carried by President Trump, you see the new restrictions enacted in these states.
We're going to overlay it now with states where new restrictions are pending. You see several more states. What's common among them? Again -- all states carried by President Trump in the 2016 election. Either enacted or debating new abortion restrictions in these states.
We'll bring in just a couple more here -- you bring in these states here and you see three blue states -- Vermont, New York and out in Nevada -- three blue states that are debating new abortion protections.
So this issue is percolating in the states as we get closer and closer now to the 2020 presidential election. The one that's getting the most attention, let me move this away here, is the new Alabama law. There's a Missouri law the governor will likely sign in the week ahead. But the Alabama law gets the most attention and this is why.
[08:45:02] It bans abortion at every stage of pregnancy. Doctors could face up to 99 years in prison for performing abortion. Doctors could face felony charges even if they're just involved in considering the procedure, attempting.
Here's where it gets controversial -- exceptions when the mother's life is at risk but not for rape or incest. That has even some in the pro-life movement concerned a little bit about that bill here.
What's the issue here when it comes to the polling? Let me stretch this out for you a little bit. Most Americans say, let Roe v Wade stand. 43 percent of Republicans say that. 73 percent of Democrats. Overturn it, only two in 10 Americans say that. A little more than a third, approaching 40 percent of Republicans. A sliver of Democrats say that.
And so then you come to this question, though. You saw the President in that debate in the last campaign. Only 20 percent of voters, 21 percent, said the Supreme Court was the most important issue in the last presidential election. But among those voters they went lopsidedly for President Trump.
Republicans in past campaigns have used the issue of the courts to motivate voters more, to turn them out in elections. To bring them over. Maybe you didn't like President Trump on this issue or that issue but you wanted to be with him on judges.
Listen to some of the Democrats running this time. They are hoping the Democrats can turn that tide in 2020.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SENATOR KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND (D-NY), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I believe access to abortion is a constitutionally recognized right. If this is a fight that President Trump wants, if this is a fight that he wants with the American people, if this is a fight he wants with America's women it is a fight he will have and it is a fight he will lose.
SENATOR ELIZABETH WARREN (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: They're coming after Roe and they've been stacking the courts for years to try to make sure that this would happen. And what's happened is we have seen women's rights shrink and shrink and shrink. Well, I think it is now time to fight back.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Will this change? Will Democrats be able to use this as a motivating -- several of these state laws are going to be challenged in the courts but we may be deep into 2020 if not past 2020 before we get the Supreme Court to clarify this at least the latest round of this.
In terms of the campaign impact, Democrats say, these states are helping them in an odd way, if that's the way to put it.
MARTIN: Yes.
HABERMAN: Yes.
MARTIN: I spoke to parties over the weekend about this. And it's very clear to me that Democrats are energized about this prospect of using this issue to mobilize their base, but also to kind of persuade those few voters that are still persuadable in America that, you know, you might like your lower taxes but this is a part of the GOP that's a little too extreme.
You don't like Trump's conduct. Here's one more issue to sort of layer on the Trump conduct kind of issue there. And the Republicans, frankly, already have Evangelicals locked in. There's not a lot of voters that they can add in that coalition that that base loves Trump already. They're super energized. They want to change the -- I'm not sure what this does.
HABERMAN; Well, the President himself also tweeted about this last night.
MARTIN: Very telling.
(CROSSTALKING)
HABERMAN: And what he tweeted was he didn't actually comment on the bill himself but noted that he personally favors, you know, rape and incest exemptions and life of the mother which many of these bills don't have. And so I don't actually think this is an issue where the President himself wants to have speak out. And you saw that in how he handled that.
KING: To your point. He says -- he put out, "I'm strongly pro-life with three exceptions- - rape, incest and protecting the life of the mother." He went on to say that radical left, with late-term abortion is worse is imploding on this issue. We must stick together and win.
HABERMAN: So he's saying two things.
KING: Right. He's saying two things. He's saying two things there.
At issue is though the Alabama governor just signed this law. The Missouri governor is about to sign a similar law.
Martin: The last part of that tweet -- three-tweet deal was very telling TO ME. He's saying, stick together on this which is basically his way of saying, don't do the Alabama route and have us SEEN as the extremists. Portray them as the extremist --
ZELENY: Right.
MARTIN: -- by focusing on issues like late-term abortion instead of making it about sweeping restrictions, no exceptions for rape and incest.
ZELENY: I talked to a top Republican strategist who works with the President a lot and he said this is the last thing we need. That was the day after the Alabama Governor signed the law. So they do not want this. The suburbs have already seen this erosion of support.
HABERMAN: Exactly.
ZELENY: But the question is, can Democrats capitalize on this? We don't know because so many young voters have not been really awakened to the idea of Roe being overturned. I think this heightens that urgency.
(CROSSTALKING)
KING: If they're nervous about this. Why not have a White House political shot (ph) contact the Republican governor of Alabama and the Republican governor of Alabama and the Republican governor of Missouri before hand. And said work with your legislature, dial this back a little bit?
ZELENY: Great question.
KIM: It's a wonderful question. But to the Democrats -- going back to the Democrats. This is an opportunity for anyone, I would think this is perhaps an opportunity for Senator Gillibrand to break out of the pack where we've seen that she struggles to gain traction in the polling and in donations and what not.
She, as any other -- any of the other female candidates has really leaned on her gender from day one to make her case to Democratic primary voters. She's traveled down to Georgia to rally against the legislation. And also she has said she would only nominate justices who support Roe versus Wade.
[11:50:02] KING: We're going watch this one play out as well.
Our reporters share from their notebooks next including an inside look at why Team Trump is upbeat about 2020 even though the public polls don't look so good.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KING: Let's head one last time around the INSIDE POLITICS table, ask our great reporters to share a little something from their notebook, help get you out ahead of the big political news just around the corner.
Maggie.
HABERMAN: President Trump got a polling briefing with his campaign manager Brad Parscale, his son-in-law Jared Kushner, the Vice President on Friday in the White House. This is basically a more detailed version of a poll of 17 states that was done by his campaign. It shows him struggling against Biden and against Bernie Sanders but they believe there are better figures for him deeper in the numbers.
KING: Undervalued stock, actually.
HABERMAN: Correct.
KING: Incumbents are hard to beat.
Jonathan.
MARTIN: It's gotten overwhelmed in all the talk about impeachment in the 2020 campaign but the future of two of the three GOP House leaders is in question suddenly because you have two things going on. Steve Scalise is number two, is being wooed personally by President Trump to run for Governor of Louisiana this year. And the number three, Liz Cheney is thinking about running for the senate next year in Wyoming.
Now I'm told that Scalise is dead set against running for governor this year -- 100 percent he's not going to do it, I'm told. Cheney is a different story. My understanding is that she's being tugged both ways. She's torn is the way it was described to me yesterday by folks that know her.
What's fun about this is that nobody is watching more closely than the number one GOP House leader, Kevin McCarthy, because those two could be a threat to him at some point, maybe in 2020 or down the road if the GOP does not get back the majority.
[08:55:04] KING: Interesting to watch -- a lot of fun there.
Jeff.
ZELENY: Spending some time with one of the newest people in the Democratic race, Montana's Governor Steve Bullock. It's clear that his bet, the Bullock bet we should say is that based on the fact that he's from outside of Washington. He's going to be running against Washington, which means running against some of the Democratic senators as well.
He's saying again and again, I'm a governor, I've gotten things done. But Bullock's biggest bet is something he has no control over. Does Joe Biden stumble and does that give an opening for him? So for all of Bullock's focus on record as governor, he'll be waiting to see how the other guy does.
KING: Outsider thing -- worked for governors before.
ZELENY: It certainly has.
KING: Worked for the current president.
Seung Min.
KIM: I'll be watching a key vote in the Senate on disaster aid, particularly spending for the hurricane-hit states down south and the flood-hit states in the Midwest.
Disaster aid usually a bipartisan endeavor but it's been really complicated this time around by the President's resistance to increase spending for Puerto Rico. And now there's not even a guarantee that the White House would support what the Republican-led Senate comes up with this week but the states are really hurting and there's a lot of pressure on Congress to get aid done pretty quickly. KING: No guarantee they will support the Republicans -- (INAUDIBLE).
I will close with what has become a Washington punch line. This is infrastructure week, or the week we learn if there ever will be an infrastructure week. President Trump told top Democrats a few weeks ago he shares their goal of a $2 trillion package. He invited them back this week to share how he wants to pay for it.
The Chamber of Commerce among the GOP establishment groups pushing a gas tax increase to pay for this. Top White House aides led by the chief of staff Mick Mulvaney rushed this past week to assure conservatives they won't let that happen.
But some of those conservatives are still nervous because the President when infrastructure came up in an interview with Fox News took a shot at Mulvaney.
So can the President come up with $2 trillion without taxes? And if so, how? Or will lose any chance of Democratic support by pushing something much smaller. The fate of infrastructure week hangs in the balance.
That's it for INSIDE POLITICS. Hope you can catch us weekdays as well. We're here at noon Eastern.
Up next "STATE OF THE UNION WITH JAKE TAPPER" -- a big morning ahead. His guests include the Democratic presidential hopeful Jeff just mentioned, Governor Steve Bullock, and Republican Senator Mitt Romney.
[08:57:14] Thanks again for sharing your Sunday. Have a great day.
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