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Inside Politics
Trump Attempts to Walk Back Comments on Accepting Foreign Dirt; Trump to Kick Off Re-Election Bid in Orlando Tuesday; DNC Unveils Breakdown for First Primary Debates; DNC Unveils Breakdown for First Primary Debates; 2020 Candidates Sound Off on Iran Confrontation. Aired 8-9a ET
Aired June 16, 2019 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
[08:00:39] JOHN KING, CNN HOST (voice-over): Campaign ethics, Trump style.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think you might want to listen. I think I want to hear it.
REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): That is an assault on our democracy.
KING: Plus, Trump 2020 gets its official launch this week.
TRUMP: My poll numbers are great. I think we're going to win.
KING: And the Democratic lineups are set. Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders, the biggest debate targets.
PETE BUTTIGIEG (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Democrats can no more turn the clock back to the 1990s than Republicans can return us back to the 1950s.
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Economic rights are human rights. And that is what I mean by Democratic socialism.
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.
Remarkable scenes, you can see them here, into the nighttime hours in Hong Kong as tens of thousands of protesters make clear, just declaring an extradition policy that gives more power to mainland China is not enough. It's remarkable pictures. We'll keep our eye on those demonstrations.
We begin our Sunday conversation with a fresh reminder of how much the Trump presidency is testing and often shattering our rules and our norms.
How could a president, having led the past two and a half years, think it is OK to take campaign help from a hostile foreign government? How could words that are so shocking somehow also be, given the source, not at all surprising?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS, ABC NEWS ANCHOR: Your campaign this time around, if foreigners, if Russia, if China, if someone else, offers you information on opponents, should they accept it or should they call the FBI?
TRUMP: I think maybe you do both. I think you might want to listen. I don't -- there's nothing wrong with listening.
I think I'd want to hear it.
STEPHANOPOULOS: You want that kind of interference in our elections?
TRUMP: It's not an interference. They have information. I think I'd take it.
You go and talk honestly to congressmen, they all do it. They always have. And that's the way it is. It's called oppo interference.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Actually, it is interference. It would be illegal and they don't all do it.
We know the president was told by top aides and advisers his words were beyond problematic. And this phone interview on Fox News is his effort to clean it up.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP (via telephone): I don't think anyone would present me with anything bad because they know how much I love this country. Nobody is going to represent me with anything bad.
Number two, if I was, and, of course, you have to look at it because if you don't look at it, you're not going to know if it's bad. How are you going to know if it's bad? But, of course, you give it to the FBI or report it to the attorney general or somebody like that. But, of course, you do that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Of course, you call the cops, he says, there in take two. Notice the "of course you have to look at it", carried over from take one. One would think the laws against taking such help would be clear by everyone by now. The Mueller report paints a damning picture of sweeping Russian 2016 interference, interference welcomed by the Trump campaign.
The president's words to ABC are not only at odds with the law, they are at odds with his hand-picked FBI director.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHRISTOPHER WRAY, FBI DIRECTOR: My view is that if any public official or member of any campaign is contacted by any nation state or anybody acting on behalf of a nation state about influencing or interfering with our election, that's something we would want to know about.
TRUMP: We have information on your opponent, oh, let me call the FBI. Give me a break. Life doesn't work that way.
STEPHANOPOULOS: The FBI director says that's what should happen.
TRUMP: The FBI director is wrong.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: With us this Sunday to share their reporting and their insight, CNN's Abby Phillip, Carl Hulse of "The New York Times", Matt Viser at "The Washington Post", and "TIME's" Molly Ball.
We have been through this the last two and a half years. Him, more personal than any of us. Is he inviting more foreign help? Is he telling his campaign somebody call us from Russia, China, somewhere else -- he says Norway. That's a joke -- take the call?
Or is he just not want to talk about the interference that happened in 2016 and this is his way of spinning us into a whatever?
ABBY PHILLIP, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: I think it is the third option. I think this is the president's way of saying what happened in 2016 really wasn't all that bad because there's nothing wrong with going to the FBI.
This has been a two-year effort on the president's part to basically erase that circumstance that started with the Trump Tower meeting when he tried to pretend that the meeting wasn't what it was about, because he knew that it would be a political problem.
[08:05:03] And then later on, they acknowledged that that's what the meeting was about, dirt on your political opponent. And then they tried to make it appear as if absolutely nothing was wrong with that.
This is how the president views this. The only way to move forward from the situation is to really change people's view of the sort of morality or ethics around it. And this is his latest attempt at that.
Not to mention that I do think he genuinely does not understand the problem with sitting down for a meeting and listening and then deciding later if it sounds pretty illegal, then you maybe take it to the FBI.
KING: Well, he is the president and so people follow his direction, right? This is Kaylee McEnany, who works with the Republican National Committee, who's going to be working with the Trump campaign. So, hat did the president tell you to do?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAYLEIGH MCENANY, TRUMP CAMPAIGN NATIONAL PRESS SECRETARY: We're following the president's lead.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: To be clear, though, what is the president's directive?
MCENANY: The president's directive, as he said, case by case basis. He said he would likely do both, listen to what they have to say, but also report it to the FBI.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: So the president's directive is break the law, then call the FBI. I'm sorry, if you accept help from a hostile foreign government, any foreign government, you're breaking the law. So, break the law and then call the FBI?
MATT VISER, NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER, THE WASHINGTON POST: It did seem, yes -- it did strike me to a, Russia, if you're listening, encouraging I foreign entity to hack Hillary Clinton's emails. Play this out the next two years. There are going to be foreign governments very interested in the outcome of the U.S. election.
And President Trump is not putting forward a united front from the United States that we do not want foreign governments to influence us. He is putting forward this idea that, sure, if you have dirt, if you have something, I'm willing to listen. And it does filter throughout his campaign apparatus who are eager to hear what the different governments may have on Joe Biden or other candidates in this Democratic race.
CARL HULSE, CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT, THE NEW YORK TIMES: Well, I think it's sort of a Trump paradox. Even despite his trouble with the truth sometimes, sometimes he's brutally honest. He said, of course, I would look at that. Are you crazy? That's what he was trying to say.
I think the walk-back had a lot of to do with the reaction from the Hill. I mean, it was pretty unanimous in the Senate, except from Mitch McConnell who sort of ducked the issue. But they had already been trying to deal with foreign governments.
Rudy Giuliani had said he was traveling to go find things out about Biden. They think this is normal activity despite what's gone on the past few years. It's pretty amazing.
KING: And to talk about, to Abby's point, that anything about Russia provokes the president into sometimes his denial, sometimes not just to acknowledge they meddled. Even to say, look, what happened in 2016 happened. It didn't affect the outcome. I'm not going to let it to happen in 2020. That you would think that would be a pretty simple answer, right? He
won't give that answer. If you read his tweets today, if you pick up the "New York Times", there is a story today about the United States government is actually retaliating against Russia, sending a signal, don't do this again, or if you do this we can poke you back.
This from the "New York Times" story. Two administration officials said they believe Mr. Trump had not been briefed in any detail. Pentagon and intelligence officials described broad hesitation to go into detail with Mr. Trump about operations against Russia for concern over his reaction, and the possibility he might countermanded it or discuss it with foreign officials as he did in 2017 when he mentioned a sensitive operation in Syria to the Russian foreign minister, to which, this is again, cyberattacks on the Russian power grid, essentially to poke them, say, we know what you did, we can do it even bigger than you can.
And the president tweeting this last night: Do you believe the failing "New York Times" just did a story that they are increasing cyber attacks on Russia? This is a virtual act of treason. He goes on to say it's not true.
Number one, "The Times" then clarifying it ran the story by the National Security Council and they said go ahead, in other words saying it's true.
What is the president's game here?
MOLLY BALL, NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, TIME MAGAZINE: When he doesn't like a story, he tends to call the media names. And that is a pattern, albeit a disturbing one. And there is no reason to suspect anything in the story actually isn't true.
"The Times" stands by their reporting. And I believe the number at this point is a zillion examples of stories that the president denied that he then either came out and confirmed or that turned out to be true and -- you know, this is just sort of bluster on his part. Although I, again, think it's disturbing.
But, I mean, I'm very interested in how this issue of election interference is going to become a political issue once we get to the 2020 general election. Are, whoever the Democratic nominee is, is this going to be something that they raise a lot? Is it going to be something that resonates with voters to potentially impugn the president's patriotism even?
[08:10:01] And then, if there does turn out to be dirt on whoever the nominee is, I think that person has the ability to potentially under cut the credibility of any negative information by saying, well, gee, where did you get this? Did you get this from the Russians? Is this even true?
I think one of the effects of the president's loose relationship with the truth has been to create so much doubt in so many people's minds, not just supporters but his opponents, aren't even sure they can believe anything they hear around him, whether it's the "New York Times" or what comes out of his mouth.
And so, that's going to make for a very strange climate in 2020.
KING: That's remarkable and important point. And back to the substance of "The Times" story for a minute, we talk about the president busting norms. Top officials in the United States government saying they don't tell the president about sensitive operations because it may make him mad, he may pull the plug on him, or they may tip other leaders off about it.
It is hard to wrap your minds around things like this.
We're going to move on, though. A rally this time not down the escalator. Remember that? Four years ago today. The president ready to formally ask you for four more years.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Ladies and gentlemen, I am officially running for president of the United States, and we are going to make our country great again.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: That believe it or not four years ago today, the now iconic escalator ride to open the most unconventional of presidential campaigns.
[08:15:06] A more traditional approach this time, a Trump rally Tuesday in Orlando is the official kickoff of a re-election campaign that begins with a strong economy. It also with an electorate that seems open to change at the top.
This is the 2016 map. We all remember, Hillary Clinton wins the popular vote but Donald Trump wins an Electoral College victory. Let's look at what we consider from the early 2020 battle ground states.
The president will start his campaign officially -- he's been out on the road. But he will kick it off in Florida. Pretty close in 2016. Key to the president's win then, key to his map now.
The president will launch it with a rally Tuesday in Orlando to get going on the road. But as he looks at the map, his campaign would say, Florida actually looks pretty good they think at this point, although polls are close.
A couple points on the map are warning signs for the president. In Michigan, Detroit news poll done recently. More importantly, I want to pull this up. He 40 percent in Michigan in 2016.
All of these Democrats in the current polling, it's a long ways off, but all of these Democrats beat the president now. If you look, Joe Biden, gets above 50 percent. So does Bernie Sanders. The president, as I said, just got shy of 48 percent, 41, 44, 43, 41.
He is underperforming now where he was in 2016. If you're an incumbent, that's what you worry about. That's Michigan.
We move over here in Pennsylvania, another public poll. Bring it up. Same idea. The president almost 49 percent. His shocking big win in Pennsylvania there, right?
Almost 49 percent. Joe Biden beats him. President at 42 percent.
Joe Biden beats him, the president is at 42. Bernie Sanders beats him, the president is at 43. Elizabeth Warren beats him, the president at 44. At 44 against Mayor Buttigieg, at 45 in a tie with Senator Harris, again underperforming where he was in 2016.
One way to go, it doesn't tell you the president can't win. It does tell you, the electorate open-minded. Yes, we have a strong economy. Yes, the president carried Michigan, Pennsylvania, Florida voters.
We're going to take a look. Going to take a look. The president said he doesn't believe the public polls. He's fine.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: We have great internal polling. There were fake polls that were released by somebody that is -- it's ridiculous.
No, we are winning in every single state that we polled. We're winning in Texas very big. We're wining in Ohio very big. We're winning in Florida very big.
You know when you will see that? You will see it on Election Day. It is unbelievably strong. The strongest I've ever been is exactly today.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: I think that's a bit of hyperbole. But you want a candidate, you expect a candidate to be bullish about his or her chances.
We went -- we lived through 2016. So whatever you see today in the polls could mean nothing when we get closer to the end of 2020. But you do see the president undermining numbers.
It just tells me not that the electorate is decided. Absolutely. We're not giving him four more years. But people in the big states he won are willing to think about it.
BALL: Absolutely. This is a perfect example, by the way, of something that the president denied in very forceful terms and his campaign then later came out and confirmed that those internal polls actually did exist and were correctly reported, although they did a little song and dance about how things.
So, it is the rust belt. All about the rust belt states. The reason Trump won the Electoral College. And they are the most -- the states have seemed to make the most of a U-turn since 2016.
We saw Democrats do very well in all the states in the 2018 midterms. We saw turnout resembling of presidential election in those midterm election. It wasn't because the president stayed home.
And the other thing that you really notice on the graphics is the third-party vote. President Trump didn't get 50 percent in a lot of these states, these swing states that he won, but there were third- party candidates. So, that's a wild card in 2020. Is there going to be a Green Party candidate who can get a little bit attention? Is there going to be a libertarian party candidate?
Is there going to be -- you saw how Democrats completely freaked out about Howard Schultz earlier this year. Is there going to be that kind of a centrist independent ticket that could potentially take votes from either side? So, you know, you could -- Trump doesn't need to get to 50 percent to with win if there are those wild cards in the race.
KING: But to that point, it appears again, everything could change between now and then. At this point it appears likely he will lose the popular vote again, if you think about the Democratic leanings of California, the Democratic leanings of New York, the big states. As long as Democrats turn out. So, you look how he did last time and can he perform?
Look at some of these polling now, in the 2016 race, President Trump won all the voters by seven points. He won independents by four points. He won white, no college voters by 37 points.
That's how he put together Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan. He loses right now to Joe Biden by 17 points among older voters, 30 points among independents. His margin goes from 37 to 10. So, he is losing his base, if you will, part of his 2016 base.
[08:20:00] It's the same against Senator Sanders. Biden runs the strongest. But Senator Sanders numbers there. Elizabeth Warren, white non-college, the president does a little bit better, but even there, losing 17 points.
So, he's underperforming where he was then. Again, he has a whole campaign to fix it, but he's got work to do.
VISER: Yes, and you're seeing Democrats make those arguments. Joe Biden pointing to numbers like that to the Democratic electorate right now for nominating him.
The other interesting thing for President Trump is he has a much more professionalized campaign operation this time around that can help in some instances to drive up his base of voters. They are identifying voters in a way that the President Trump's campaign did not do four years ago. So, that's an X factor where he and the Republican Party right now have a huge organizational infrastructural advantage over the Democrats.
So that could sort of change some of these numbers and the support.
KING: They're very, very smart about their targeting. Very high- tech, digital operation as well.
You made this point. The president is sometimes in competition with yourself, if you will. Look at these numbers from the Quinnipiac poll.
How do you feel about your personal financial situation? Twenty percent of Americans say excellent, 57 percent say good. So, 77 percent of Americans say excellent or good.
That should be, you know, do pass go, do collect $200 for any incumbent. That's a tripper on the board.
And then, you have another example this weekend, attacking the London mayor on Twitter, a Muslim mayor, for example. He's his own worst enemy. Economy is his best friend.
How do we work this out?
PHILLIP: That is the crux of the problem that for a president that has this kind of economy, he should be sailing to re-election. What is frustrating to the president and the campaign, that is not the case. And his deep unpopularity is a real problem for him, even in the places where he got enough support to win in 2016.
So how do you fix that? How do you fix the problem, which is President Trump? And I think there's really -- the campaign has not come up with a great solution to it. They are trying as much as they can to beat the drum of the economy.
But clearly, you know, at this stage, it's not working. You see the president getting very nervous about it. In the last week, he called out a company as saying, open your plant in Pennsylvania. This one town in Pennsylvania is really important to me.
That's not an accident. He is saying that because he wants to make it clear to those voters, I haven't abandoned you because there is -- I think this is the message you're seeing some Democrats trying to make, is that there is a segment of the population for whom this economy has not quite thrived for them. And those are the people who the president are going to need to really believe that he is still working for them. That some of these promises that he made to them are going to come to fruition.
HULSE: And the promises thing. I want to hit on that.
He told these people, we're going to bring back the mills. Your jobs are coming back. It really hasn't happened. Neither as the wall.
And they didn't repeal healthcare, the Affordable Care Act. So, there are things he didn't deliver on that I do think stick with people. To Matt's point, I was in his presidential campaign headquarters last election, and it was barely a presidential campaign, certainly nothing I had seen before. So, that's a good point. But I still say it's about women. Women -- 53 percent of white
American women supported the president in his election last time. I think he's going to have a hard, hard time hitting that number again. And that's going to hurt.
And you hear them start to say maybe we're going to play in Colorado, maybe we're going to play in New Mexico, Nevada. It's going to be tough I think in this --
KING: They're testing. They have the resources. They have the advantage of time because they don't have a serious primary challenge to test other places on the map if they lose to Michigan, if you lose Pennsylvania.
But those are much harder places demographically. The places they're looking. They talk about Oregon, they talk about Colorado, they talk about New Mexico. Just go to census.gov, much harder for this president.
Up next, 20 candidates divided over two nights. The first Democratic debate lineups are set, as are many of the fault lines. And politicians say the darnedest things, in this case, about not making the first debate cut.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, I heard the news. DNC saying Governor Bullock didn't qualify. That's horse (EXPLETIVE DELETED). You don't need to be from Montana to know anybody wins by four the same election that Trump won by 20 is doing something right here.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[08:27:44] KING: The lineup set for the first two nights of the presidential debates a little less than two weeks from now. These are the top 20 Democratic candidates, the 20 who qualified for the debates. Three others not included in the first round because they didn't meet the test.
Again, here's your top 20. This will be night one. Significant because no front-runner Joe Biden. No Bernie Sanders in 2016.
Elizabeth warren, the best performing of the Democrats so far in the national state polls, to be on night one. You see the rest of her rivals that night, that's night one.
The next night, that's what you do see the front-runner returning to the debate stage. Joe Biden. Bernie Sanders running second in most national polls, has the 2016 campaign experience. Pete Buttigieg trying to prove he belongs on this stage, make his generational change argument.
Senator Harris is here on this night. Senator Gillibrand, Senator Bennet as well. Governor Hickenlooper, this night here, the second night of the Democratic debates based on lottery.
Look at this. Just look at this from a polling perspective. Quinnipiac national poll this week percentage support for the Democratic candidates.
Twenty-one percent of the support nationally for the Democrats will be in night one. Most of that, you see the line here, is Elizabeth Warren's support. Most others barely registering in the polls, that's the lineup for night one.
Sixty-five percent of the support Democrats are showing nationally candidates is in night two. So, you might say that night two is a bit stacked. Most of that support, or much of that anyway -- the former vice presidents. There's Bernie Sanders and Mayor Pete, Senator Harris, and the rest here.
Now, two nights of the debates, Joe Biden's return to the debate stage is crowded, ten candidates on the debate stage, hard to manage. The former vice president, who is the front-runner who might be a target, right, says, let's play nice.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This is going to be an appearance, less than a debate. We are told we have one minute to respond. We have one minute to speak.
I think it's a gigantic mistake if Democrats, 20, or whatever number we have, go after each other. It's only going to make it easier for this guy to win. And so, I'm not going to speak ill of other Democrats.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Might they speak ill of him? Or not so ill, but just critically maybe? There is a difference between ill and critically.
[08:30:00]
BALL: They already have started to, even by name, you saw when Biden first got in there were elusions to him or to his style. And now, it's getting a little more explicit. But this debate is going to be fascinating, because there's going to be such an unsettled dynamic and it probably actually matters less for the candidates who are doing better in the polls and more for the candidates on the bottom who are -- this could be do or die for a lot of those candidates who are hovering around 1 percent to zero percent to try to create that breakout moment, try to make an impression on people.
And if they can't do that in the first debate, it is a real question whether they will have both the financial ability to stay in the race and also just the momentum to meet the debate criteria for the next debate.
JOHN KING, CNN HOST: I agree with you 100 percent. And also for Joe Biden on this debate stage crowd, he wants it to be nice. But his whole standing right now is based on a, Democrats know him. He was Barack Obama's vice president for eight years. They like him. And they have the perception at this moment that he's the strongest to go up against Donald Trump.
Well, the way, if you're one of the other candidates, whether you're 1 percent or 10 percent or 5 percent, is to try to get Joe Biden is to make him have a shaky debate moment.
Here are some of the fault lines we have seen in the campaign that we expect to see on debate night.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SENATOR KAMALA HARRIS (D-CA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: That 1994 crime bill -- it did contribute to mass incarceration in our country.
SENATOR KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND (D-NY), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I don't think there is room in our party for a Democratic candidate who does not support women's full reproductive freedom.
SENATOR BERNIE SANDERS (D-VT), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: When the future of the planet is at stake, there is no middle ground.
MAYOR PETE BUTTIGIEG (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We Democrats can no more promise a return to the 90s than Republicans can deliver on a promise to return us to the 50s.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: I don't think anybody goes into any of these debates, especially when you do get a minute or so, thinking you're going to knock out Joe Biden. But what's your challenge to get people to think, huh, ok, maybe not Joe Biden. Maybe that guy or gal.
MATT VISER, NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER, "WASHINGTON POST": All of those candidates are going to be on the stage that we just saw. So Joe Biden is going to be receiving it throughout the night from all sides.
And so I think he has a major test because he's been seen as the front-runner. He is formidable. He's tested. And this night is that's going to come under scrutiny. And it's possible that he emerges with a good night and he sort of proves those notions correct.
But he's also not debated fellow Democrats in a long time on the debate stage. And you know, he faces a lot of questions that can be posed very pointedly.
And Molly mentioned, you know, somebody like Senator Gillibrand whose campaign has not sort of taken off in a way, she could, you know, benefit from a moment with Joe Biden. And so I think candidates like that will be going in trying to create that.
KING: To create a moment for them and just to hope that he doesn't handle it very well and it raises doubts about him. Another big test is Bernie Sanders who had Hillary Clinton to himself in the 2016 campaign. And I used to call him a (INAUDIBLE) against an aircraft carrier. He put a lot of dents in the aircraft carrier.
It's harder this time -- it is more difficult because you have a more crowded field. On purpose, Bernie Sanders this past week went out and defended and advocated for democratic socialism.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SANDERS: We must recognize that in the 21st century, in the wealthiest country in the history of the world, economic rights are human rights.
As one of the great leaders in American history, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, and I quote, "Call it democracy or call it democratic socialism, but there must be a better distribution of wealth within this country for all of God's children."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Now, we know, if I can show you the debate night 2 lineup. Governor Hickenlooper has already come after Bernie Sanders some. So has Michael Bennet. Joe Biden has gently. Some of the other candidates have gone out of their way to say I'm not a socialist.
Sanders wants this fight, too because he wants to almost energize his base at a moment where, you know, Elizabeth Warren -- we'll come back to her later in the program -- Elizabeth Warren has taken some of his base. It's a more crowded field, it's more difficult. He's looking for a fight here to rally his very loyal base.
CARL HULSE, "NEW YORK TIMES": Right. He also is dealing with the socialism label that he's actually embraced for all these years. All of a sudden now this is a weapon that Republicans have turned on Democrats. And it's a little different for him. And he has to sort of deal with that issue.
And I do think that that has proven effective so far by the Republicans. And that's what Hickenlooper and Michael Bennet are talking about.
ABBY PHILLIP, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: I mean it's not likely that Bernie is going to really convert a ton of people on the socialism label. But I think what he is trying to do is inoculate himself a little himself a little bit by just softening the edges of what it is, trying to explain it to people, which I think he attempted to do in the last election and didn't do very effectively.
And this is a little bit more of a concerted effort on the part of the campaign to really put it out there as a speech and say this is what I mean when I say Democratic socialism.
[08:34:52] It is not going to hurt him in Iowa where, you know, quite a few Democrats are perfectly happy with that label. But once he starts branching out of those states, it's going to become an issue for him. And I think he's going to have to really justify -- justify that label for himself and defend himself frankly against not only Democrats but the Republicans.
You know, the Trump campaign, they absolutely love the fact that Bernie Sanders is a Democratic socialist. And they are, you know, just champing at the bit to use that as a campaign strategy not just against Biden -- not against Bernie but against all the candidates really.
We suspect it will be somewhat contentious, probably somewhat polite as well. We don't know exactly what to expect. One thing we do know about these Democratic debates is we're not going to get this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(CROSSTALKING)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You are the single biggest liar -- you probably are worse than Jeb Bush. You are the single biggest liar.
JEB BUSH, FORMER FLORIDA GOVERNOR: This is a tough business.
TRUMP: I know. You're a tough guy, Jeb.
BUSH: You're never going to be president of the United States by insulting your way to the presidency.
TRUMP: You're real tough. Yes. Let's see. I'm at 42. And you're at 3.
SENATOR TED CRUZ (R), TEXAS: For 40 years you've been funding liberal --
TRUMP: I funded you. I funded him. I funded this guy.
TRUMP: I never attacked him on his look. And believe me, there is plenty of subject matter right there.
He referred to my hands. If they're small something else must be small. I guarantee you there's no problem. I guarantee it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Yes. That all actually happened.
Up next a taste of the campaign trail. President Trump's potential Democratic opponents send him a strong message about Iran.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KING: "Sunday Trail Mix" now to give you a better taste of the 2020 campaign. Democratic candidates speaking out about the confrontation with Iran. The Trump administration says it has proof the Islamic Republic attacked two oil tankers last week in the Gulf of Oman. The Democrats in the presidential race say the administration to them sounds too eager for a fight.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BUTTIGIEG: I'm very concerned that we see a pattern that is reminiscent of the rush to war with Iraq. The question now is how do we have a measured understanding and response that moves in the direction of de-escalation?
[08:39:59] SENATOR ELIZABETH WARREN (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The administration cannot declare war on its own. It has to come to Congress and make that case and ask for an authorization for the use of military force.
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KING: In South Carolina this weekend, several Democrats speaking at a summit focused on economic opportunities for African-Americans. Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey among those who visited that summit. Also among the Democratic hopefuls who stopped by a rally with McDonald's workers pushing for a $15 an hour minimum wage.
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SANDERS: Our democracy is being assaulted by oligarchs and concentrated corporate power that is driving down wages, that is undermining the principles of our democracy, that is undermining free markets and the ability for labor to organize, the ability of labor to stand up, the ability of labor to be able to make sure that everyone in America can have their American dream.
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KING: And in Iowa last night, an important 2020 senate race and also perhaps a 2024 preview. Former United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley who some see as the face perhaps of the post-Trump GOP in Iowa yesterday to help Republican Senator Joni Ernst kick off her re- election campaign.
Not a peep about 2024. But Haley happy to give Iowa Republicans her take on the 2020 Democrats campaigning across the Hawk Eye state.
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NIKKI HALEY, FORMER AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED NATIONS: This year I feel really sorry for you guys. You have to sit through visit after visit with Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Joe Biden and 20 others. It's a really odd collection of liberals, radicals and socialists. And I know a lot about liberals, radicals and socialists. In case you forgot, I used to work at the United Nations.
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KING: Up next, Elizabeth Warren rising in the 2020 polls and getting attention again from the President who not too long ago bragged he had ruined her White House aspirations.
[08:41:54] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KING: President Trump is back to criticizing Elizabeth Warren again. And there is a lesson in that.
Our recent Iowa poll had Senator Warren in what is essentially a three-way tie behind Joe Biden. And a new Nevada poll this week puts the Massachusetts Democrat alone in second place in that early state.
Now she won't be on the same stage with Biden or Bernie Sanders in the first debate, but she is emerging as a clear threat to both. The "New Yorker" raises the big question this week, can she win it all? And the candidate thinks her long list of specific policy plans is the source of her growth.
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WARREN: 2020 is our chance to turn that around and to make this country work for everyone else. It's our chance to cancel student loan debt for 43 million Americans, to cover 12 million children by universal child care, provide universal pre-k, put the money we need to put in to break the back of the opioid crisis.
There is so much we can do for 2020. We just have to decide that we have the courage to do it.
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KING: She better worry about peaking too soon. But there is a trajectory. You want to be going that way, and she is. Why?
VISER: It is the -- you know, Mitch McConnell had this line of nevertheless she persisted, you know, which is sort of a gift to her when she was filibustering. And so her campaign has used that.
And that's a similar moment now. She has persisted. She was at a low point six or eight months ago. And it's through her plans, her ideology. She has a clear reason for why she's running. And she's worked hard and she sort of got back to this position where she does have a lot of momentum.
It's interesting her debate night. I don't know that her campaign would necessarily be happy with the debate night where all of the other sort of heavyweights are on the other night.
It's a chance for her to shine. But she does a lot better as an underdog. And she is the clear target for that night from the other candidates.
KING: That's a good point. One of the reasons -- one of the reasons she's up is that if you look deep into the polling, liberals -- a lot of liberals, people who self-identify as liberals are going Elizabeth Warren, not Bernie Sanders. They're very much alike.
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SANDERS: We will no longer tolerate the greed of corporate America. WARREN: Giant corporations in America have too much power.
SANDERS: The wealthy and multinational corporations will start paying their fair share of taxes.
WARREN: Start asking the people who have gained the most from our country to pay their fair share.
SANDERS: We are going to win this election not because we have a super PAC funded by billionaires.
WARREN: I'm not taking applications from billionaires who want to run a super PAC on my behalf.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Similar, but she is starting to show evidence that she might be able to expand her coalition beyond that. Very well received in South Carolina last night among African-Americans. It's a benefit for Warren, threat to Sanders?
BALL: Yes. I mean, I think, as Matt said, she benefits also from the fact that she's been pretty well-known among the Democratic base for some years now. She is not just getting on people's radar the way a lot of these other candidates are trying to do.
And so to there's always been a lot of Democrats who are willing to consider her but not sure she could get there. And so having momentum at this stage is really beneficial. But the sense that you get from talking to voters about Warren is also that she is benefiting a little bit from low expectations.
But because she didn't catch fire out of the gate, she was one of the first candidates to get in this race back in January and didn't catch fire. There was some hand wringing among supporters about that. Now that she seems to have some momentum, a lot of it is voters taking another look and saying oh actually like she's more impressive than I realized.
KING: And the President of the United States among them a couple of months ago, he was bragging that the Pocahontas slur had knocked her out of the race. Not so much. She's back.
Up next, (INAUDIBLE) out of Hong Kong where massive crowds -- look there -- taking to the streets to protest Mainland China's tightening control over the island.
[08:49:36] (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 notebooks, help get you out ahead of the big political news just around the corner.
Abby Phillip. PHILLIP: Well, President Trump last week announced that Tom Homan
would be his new border czar but first of all how he made that was very much premature. There are ongoing conversations within the White House about what exactly that position will look like and whether it is even legal to take some of that power that Congress statutorially (ph) to the Department of Homeland Security and give it to an unconfirmed White House official.
And also I think what the sticking point will be going forward is does President Trump have a problem when he's trying to name a permanent DHS secretary. Are they going to be ok with that kind of arrangement? That's one of the many reasons why this situation is very much still in flux.
KING: Another norm-buster.
Hey -- Carl.
HULSE: I'm watching the Supreme Court -- John. There is less than two weeks left in the term. There's about 24 big opinions that are left including some real politically-charged ones -- gerrymandering, census question, power of federal agencies.
I think this is the first time we're really going to see the impact of Justices Gorsuch and Kavanaugh. And I'm also waiting to see if Chief Justice John Roberts kind of puts his thumb on the scale in a couple of these cases to make sure it doesn't look super partisan.
KING: It would be a good time for a book.
HULSE: Someone should write a book.
KING: You should right a book. I can't wait for yours.
Carl did write a book and we'll have it pretty soon.
Matt.
VISER: On the horizon this Friday is Jim Clyburn's fish fry in South Carolina. It is going to be the single biggest gathering of the Democratic presidential race so far. All of the candidates, just about, are going including Joe Biden who has avoided a lot of these gatherings where he's on the same stage with other candidates.
Why? It is the importance of black voters. It's the importance of South Carolina. And it is the importance of Jim Clyburn. He is the most important politician in South Carolina for these Democrats. They'll each get a chance to speak and it is a tune-up for the debate the following week.
There is one difference with the fish fry, they're being asked to stay for the electric slide which will not happen in Miami at the debate.
KING: Ok. That is going to be hard to erase that image.
Molly. BALL: I have no segue from that. Well a few days ago, Congresswoman
Susan Brooks, Republican from Indiana announced her retirement. A surprise to a lot of people in the House of Representatives. This is bad news for House Republicans for a couple of different reasons.
[08:55:01] We all know that the Republican Party has been having trouble attracting women. There are only 13 women in the House Republican caucus. Losing one of them brings that number down and Brooks had been in charge of recruitment for the Republican Congressional Committee, particularly trying to get more women to run for office. Now she's stepping down.
It also could portend a wave of further Republican retirements. The Democrats have been predicting this. It's always a sign of a tough cycle ahead.
And although it looks on paper like a safe Republican district, Trump won it by 12 points, it is the kind -- it is in the suburbs of Indianapolis. It's the type of district that demographically the Democrats feel like in a wave year they could have a chance at winning.
KING: A lot of grumbling about the House Republican campaign team. I appreciate that one.
I'll close by circling back to those remarkable Hong Kong protests and how they now add to the China challenge facing the Trump White House.
The President travels at the end of next week to the annual global economic summit this year in Osaka, Japan. He has already raised the stakes saying he's prepared to raise tariffs on Chinese goods even more if President Xi Jinping doesn't meet with him in Osaka.
This economic test of wills has giant implications for the global economy. And the timing much more consequential now because the Hong Kong protests are a direct and a serious challenge to Xi's authority.
So far the President has said very little about those protests, expressing his awe at the size of the crowds and saying he hopes it all works out. It would seem the perfect opportunity for an American president to say back off and urge China to respect the will of the demonstrators.
But President Trump as we all know, more inclined to praise authoritarian leaders and he prizes his friendship with President Xi.
Bloomberg reports for example, the President went so far as to cancel the speech Vice President Pence planned two weeks to mark the 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre. So at least for now, don't bet on this president siding with those marching in Hong Kong.
That is it for INSIDE POLITICS. Hope you can catch us here week days as well. We're here at noon Eastern.
Don't go anywhere. Busy "STATE OF THE UNION" up next with Jake Tapper. His guests include two Democratic presidential hopefuls -- Pete Buttigieg and Beto O'Rourke.
Thanks again for sharing your Sunday. Have a great Father's Day.
[08:57:07] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
I'd take it. Whatever happened to no collusion. President Trump said he would take dirt on an opponent from a foreign government.
