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CA Convention Exposes Divide in Democratic Party; 2020 Dems Jab at Biden; Trump Suggests Boycott of AT&T; Kushner Casts Doubt on Palestinians' Ability to Self-Govern. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired June 03, 2019 - 12:30   ET

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

[12:30:00] JOHN KING, CNN HOST: His campaign firing back today, "The only person Ocasio-Cortez helped with her tweet about Congressman Delaney was Donald Trump. If Democrats are serious about beating the president at the ballot box, we need less political grandstanding and more truth-telling from the Bernie wing of the party."

So, the debates are this month and it's just starting to get interesting here. This is the defining tug-of-war in this Democratic primary. We focused a lot, there's 23 of them. How are you going to break through? But the, what it's about? How far left does the party go? Can you sell a Democratic socialist as he calls himself, Bernie Sanders, Medicare for All?

Obviously, in that room of activists, it was yes, stay left. Biden, especially and Delaney and Governor Hickenlooper if you think they can have the chance, they're betting the party is more to the middle.

MOLLY BALL, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, and they're also making an argument about electability, right? This is more than an argument about which healthcare policy would be more successful in getting people insured or, you know, whether the liberals are right about this issue. It's much more about what are the American people willing to tolerate. And that is the concern that I think is driving Biden's frontrunner status at this point is -- the Democratic Party has become quite a bit more liberal. Liberals are about half of the party now which is a historical high water mark but a lot of them are still, when you talk to them out in the early states, feel pragmatic about who they choose and think it is more important to beat Trump, and so this is why we're trying to read these tea leaves, right?

Is it more important who gets booed in that room? Is it more important that the Bernie wing, you know, lost the fight for the chair of the California Democratic Party? There's a feeling that there may be a silent majority in the party that while it's not, you know, as loud as the activists, who need -- who really needs to be won over and I think that how Biden is doing in the polls so far speaks to that.

KING: And to that point, Biden is the frontrunner. California has the biggest share of delegates obviously. It's the largest state. It has moved up which makes it much more of a force in -- normally it's after the fact you know the nominee by the time California votes. Kamala Harris is the home state senator, Biden is also raising a lot of money up there. Biden was the one who, he was not there, but he was of an issue with the other candidates.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: As you all know, there is a debate among presidential candidates who have spoken to you here in this room and those who have chosen for whatever reason not to be in this room about the best way forward.

SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Some say if we all just calm down, the Republicans will come to their senses. But our country is in a time of crisis. The time for small ideas is over.

MAYOR PETE BUTTIGIEG (D-IN), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He wins if we look like Washington, and so the riskiest thing we could do is try too hard to play it safe.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: It was interesting. Biden used the words calm down. Senator Warren there -- Senator Sanders has been after Biden consistently. Senator Warren goes after him on some banking issues, sort of the senator from Delaware on the bankruptcy bill. But Biden used the words everyone was trying to get him just last week or 10 days ago, he said everybody needs to calm down.

So I took that as, again, everyone is getting ready to be on the debate stage. We're not sure who gets to draw to be on the stage with Biden. But I took that as we're starting to get more aggressive.

SEUNG MIN KIM, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: And look, the candidates had been pretty critical of at least of the vice president's policy stances from the moment that he got in the race. Clearly, his -- some of his positions in the financial industry, the crime bill, NAFTA, TPP, but you do see these knives sharpen a little bit more as first of all his lead in the polls, it remains kind of enduring. And also we get closer and closer to the debate. And it's a question to me when Biden starts to engage.

Right now he's kind of floated above the fray a little bit, but I think how he behaves on that debate stage kind of -- will indicate, first of all, how he's feeling about his competitors moving forward, and that will be an interesting dynamic to watch.

KING: And you do --

CATHERINE LUCEY, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, ASSOCIATED PRESS: Will they on that stage, if you remember the -- going into like the 2008 race, you saw, you know, candidates team up against Hillary Clinton. Will you see them sort of tag team against Biden, and how does he respond against that? That sort of stagecraft will be interesting to watch.

KING: And it's a bit more tamed but from Mayor Buttigieg there, he wins, he meaning Donald Trump, he wins if we look like Washington. That that surely your trademark outside.

CARL HULSE, CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT, THE NEW YORK TIMES: Says the mayor of South Bend.

KING: Says the mayor of South Bend, Indiana. Right.

HULSE: I think that if for one, it's actually starting to look like a campaign. I think you laid out perfectly, Biden is way out there. They have to go get him, but California is really a different player in this race, as you said. But so the -- California is so Democratic, and then the people at these events are super Democratic. So this is a nice easy target for Warren and Bernie and those folks, but, you know, at the end of the day California is a really strongly Democratic state.

I think you fight it out, but whoever the Democratic is at the end of this is obviously going to do great in California.

[12:35:03] But it does finally start to distinguish the candidates, and it gives the more progressive side a good chance to take on Biden who will probably much more concentrate on a few other states.

LUCEY: And one of the things the folks around the president are really looking for is how far this process pushes Biden to the left. So I think you're sort of seeing that like tug-of-war there. He has to try and talk to these people, but if you're trying to make a more centrist play --

HULSE: But I think he will -- I think he's going have to though.

LUCEY: He may have to.

HULSE: I think on some other stuff, he is going to have to move a little bit.

KING: Well, that'll be interesting when he's on the debate stage, whether it's Medicare for All, Green New Deal, some of the other issues, how he handles them. I just want to show you this flyer, why progressives knew he wasn't going to be there, the progressive group. Where is Joe Biden? A flyer they distributed at the convention.

This is the test, you're the frontrunner, you're going to have people come at you and again, inside Team Biden, they think, especially on the two coasts, the party is much more liberal than the rest of the country. The question is, are they right? Is that the right bet?

BALL: Right. And the reason that Biden is not showing up to these events is that he doesn't want the clip out there of him getting the Hickenlooper treatment, and it makes sense. I mean, it is a questionable strategy to purposefully tell people things they don't want to hear. I mean, it's hard to imagine a Republican candidate in the 2016 primary getting up at a major -- at the Texas state convention saying, guys, we're not going to repeal ObamaCare, right?

LUCEY: Yes.

BALL: I mean -- so that, it may be a political mistake to emphasize that when you're out there talking to the activists but I think Seung Min is exactly right, the debates are going to be really important because he has to show up for that.

KING: Right.

BALL: And his demeanor whether -- you know, it's hard to remain above the fray without seeming arrogant or entitled, and so he's going to have to calibrate that really carefully.

KING: Great month ahead.

Up next for us, North Korea's top nuclear envoy resurfaces after speculation he suffered the wrath of Kim Jong-Un.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:41:17] KING: Topping our political radar today, Wall Street in negative territory, that ahead of high-level talks that could lead to tariffs on Mexico barring a breakthrough. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross meeting with a Mexican official today before a more crucial discussion on Wednesday led by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. President Trump said last week, of course, he'll begin imposing tariffs on all Mexican imports beginning June 10th, starting at five percent unless Mexico stops migrants from crossing into the United States.

After much delay and controversy, the House is set to vote on a long- awaited disaster relief bill today. The $19 billion aid package includes funding for recent wildfire and storm victims with $900 million set aside for Puerto Rico. The bill was supposed to have been voted on before Memorial Day but some House Republicans blocked it repeatedly over concerns about its price tag and because it lacks funding for border security.

North Korea's top nuclear envoy apparently still alive and in good standing, despite speculation he'd been sent to a labor camp following failed talks with the United States. The North's official state newspaper featuring this photo today which appears to show Kim Yong Chol sitting just a few seats away from the leader, Kim Jong-un. The envoy is one of two who hasn't been seen publicly in weeks. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo asked this morning what he knows.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can I ask when the U.S. side was lost in contact with Kim Yong Chol?

MIKE POMPEO, SECRETARY OF STATE: I'm not going to answer the questions about the conversations with North Korea. We conduct our negotiations in private.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Up next, President Trump's one complaint about the accommodations as he arrived in the U.K. today.

(END VIDEO CLIP) [12:47:32] KING: There is one part of his welcome in the U.K. the president did not like, no fawning Fox News on the tele. He complained in a tweet, of course. "Just arrived in the United Kingdom. The only problem is that @CNN is the primary source of news available from the U.S. After watching it for a short while, I turned it off. All negative, and so much fake news. Very bad for U.S. Big rating drop. Why doesn't owner AT&T do something? I believe that if people stopped using or subscribing to AT&T, they would be forced to make big changes at CNN."

The president's use of CNN as a political foil is, of course, not news. And, remember, as a candidate he vowed to block the AT&T/Time Warner merger, but once president he lost that one in court.

CNN's Hadas Gold joins us now live from London. Hadas, I guess there are no norms anymore but it is not normal for a president of the United States to urge a boycott of a major American company, right?

HADAS GOLD, CNN MEDIA AND BUSINESS REPORTER: No, John. Absolutely not, especially when his favorite channel Fox News just happens to not be available here. It was pulled off the air about two years ago. But no president calling for an economic boycott of one of the largest telecommunications companies because he doesn't like their news network or that this news network is available all over the world is completely norm-shattering, especially tweeting it right as he's landing in the United Kingdom for such an important state visit.

But not only is this norm-shattering, these tweets only further bolster all of these accusations and theories that were flying around that when the administration first sued to stop AT&T from merging with CNN's parent company that was then called Time Warner, that it was all about politics. The administration said for months it's not about politics, it's about antitrust grounds but many in the antitrust community, even those who wanted further government intervention in merger said that this was a weak case. And as we saw that case failed in court and on the appeal.

Now, it wasn't just President Trump who wanted to stop this deal, but we also have to keep in mind that William Barr, the current attorney general, once actually sat on Time Warner's board, and he himself questioned the merits of this case and questioned the politics that potentially could have brought this case forward.

Now the politics was never actually debated in court. The judge blocked discovery on communications between the White House and the DOJ, so this case lost on pure anti-trust grounds. And John, I should note also that AT&T and CNN have declined to comment in reaction to these tweets.

KING: Hadas, appreciate your insights there. It's a -- shall we say interesting story, both from a business and a political perspective.

[12:50:05] Back into the room, the point Hadas made at the end to me is the most delicious about this. The president can criticize us all he wants. You know, fire away, it's part of his politics. That's what he does. We have a New York Times at the table. You've been on the receiving end of this as well. It's -- you know, as I always say, you only hurt the one you love. And he's --

HULSE: It's true in this case.

KING: No -- well, we know he reads a lot of the New York Times, we know he watches a lot of CNN but Bill Barr is his attorney general and Bill Barr as an attorney for Time Warner at the time argued that this was all politics, that it was because the president had animus towards CNN. There was a Vanity Fair piece about this back in the day and in the declaration, William Barr said of this. The product not of a well-versed substantive analysis but rather political or other motivation. As a forming attorney general, Bill Barr is the former attorney general (INAUDIBLE) that is disturbing to me.

HULSE: Well, he is -- you would think he would embrace that because he actually likes the way the attorney general has performed since he's joined the administration so maybe the -- Mr. Barr can get him to listen to that.

BALL: It was one thing to trash talk the press, but I do -- the idea that a president would actually seek to shut down companies that are responsible for --

KING: That employs tens of thousands of Americans.

BALL: -- that's pretty serious.

KIM: And remember, he's also called for changes to libel laws which is kind of the fundamental -- one of the fundamental pillars of the First Amendment just because he doesn't like news coverage.

KING: Interesting, shall we say. I'll just leave it there for now.

Up next, the presidential son-in-law touts his big Middle East peace plan as the secretary of state raises questions about it behind closed doors.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:56:12] KING: Presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner taking heat today on multiple fronts following an appearance on Axios on HBO. The presidential son-in-law and senior adviser has yet to release the details of his long-awaited Middle East peace plan. But, new comments critiquing the Palestinians who are already skeptical of the White House approach, to begin with, likely to raise doubts about the viability of any Trump administration plan.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JONATHAN SWAN, POLITICAL REPORTER, AXIOSMEDIA: Do you believe the Palestinians are capable of governing themselves without Israeli interference?

JARED KUSHNER, WHITE HOUSE SENIOR ADVISER: I think that's a very good question and I think that's one that we'll have to see. The hope is that they over time can become capable of governing.

SWAN: You don't think they want to have their own state free from the Israeli Government?

KUSHNER: I think that they want an opportunity -- look, they've been promised a lot of things for a lot of years, and they've been lied to. I think that they've been misled, and I think that a lot of the things that people have held out for them have just not come through for one way or the other. And you can blame all different types of things, but I do think that they should have self-determination. I'm going to least the details until we come out with the actual plan.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Self-determination is different than saying a state and to question if they're ready to govern themselves in the here and now. There are questions about Palestinian corruption, there are questions about the same people who've been around forever but to say that as you're preparing to release your plan complicates it even more, doesn't it?

KIM: Clearly it does, and I think that there were a lot of moments in that -- in a great interview with Axios that Jared Kushner perhaps wasn't prepared for. I mean, we talked about this moment, talking about the latest with his plan in the Middle East. Also his comments about the president's -- his own father-in-law's birtherism, I think that -- it was clearly a moment that he should have thought ahead, perhaps expected that and maybe coming and did not have a good response to that.

KING: Well, to that point, let's just listen. Again -- unless you've been hiding on another planet, not even on a cave on this one, you know President Trump's history with Barack Obama and birtherism. Jared Kushner is the president's son-in-law, so why this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SWAN: Was birtherism racist?

KUSHNER: Look, I wasn't really involved in that.

SWAN: I know you weren't. Was it racist?

KUSHNER: Like I said, I wasn't involved in that.

SWAN: I know you weren't. Was it racist?

KUSHNER: Look, I know who the president is and I've not seen anything in him that is racist. So again, I was not involved in that.

SWAN: Did you wish he didn't do that?

KUSHNER: Like I said, I was not involved in that. That was a long time ago.

(END VIDEO CLIP) KING: I was not involved in that. It's racist.

HULSE: Well, a long time ago is not a great rationale for something in that instance. I agree with Seung Min. How do you not have ready an answer for that? This is something that's percolated for years now with Trump. It's one of the big problems with people remember with him about Obama. That and weirdly attacking Obama for golfing all the time.

But it's just amazing to me to watch that interview that he wasn't more prepared. For somebody who is supposed to be the sharp guy on the inside of the administration.

BALL: I don't know how you do prepare for that though because there isn't a good answer to that question, you know. I don't think he -- I think he knows better than to come out and say on national television that his father-in-law is a racist or has done racist things. And so, you know, he's trying to find some way to not answer the question, and he could have just said I'm not answering that question which is essentially what he did.

But, you know -- and this is the larger problem for someone like Jared Kushner who's doing interviews like this to burnish his brand which is arguably been damaged by his association with his father-in-law and with the White House. But he also can't create any separation because that -- it's a part of him, and that relationship is very important to him.

KING: And so he further damaged his brand with that answer because he was unwilling to damage his standing with his father-in-law, the president of the United States. OK. I think I get that.

Thanks for joining us in the INSIDE POLITICS. See you back here this time tomorrow. Don't go away, a busy news day. Brianna Keilar starts right now. Enjoy your afternoon.

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