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Inside Politics

Supreme Court Sides With Democrats In Virginia Gerrymandering Case; Israel Inaugurates Trump Heights In Dispute Golan Heights; US Trade Representative's Office Opens Hearing On Pending China Tariffs; Biden Still Leads 2020 Democratic Pack; O'Rourke Hits Biden, Claims He Flip Flops On Issues; Ocasio-Cortez Takes Aim at President Trump. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired June 17, 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: And make it better, that's pretty fascinating.

AYESHA RASCOE, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, NPR: And he looks at everything from -- how does this look on TV. He also said in this interview, he talked about I send my tweet out and then I look at the TV and I can see breaking news that I just sent this tweet. And so, it's very important. Like that's how he gage things. That's how he gauges what the success of what he's doing.

KING: But let's listen to that part because, again, it tells you that we know he does it sometimes when he doesn't like what's on television. He wants to change the narrative on television. Look at how proud he is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF UNITED STATES: If I don't use social media, I do not get the word out. I put it out and then it goes onto your platform. I put one out this morning, and as soon as I pressed the button, they said we have breaking news, Every network, every station. We have breaking news. They read my tweet. Why is that bad?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: It's not bad, he say. He is, you know, for a 73-year-old man, he is using the new age media, if you will, incredibly effective ways. He did it as a candidate, he does it as president. One of the arguments where he say why would even have a new White House press secretary, he's his own.

LISA LERER, NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER, THE NEW YORK TIMES: Right. But I think it does speak to what he is spending his time on. Like All White House is worry how their images are conveyed. And that's why presidents pay many people, staffs of people, communication staff in the White House, consultants to do that, to get their message across, to frame the shot, to think about whether it's live or taped, and that's what he spends his time on.

So you have to wonder about, you know, it's just an interesting --

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And he also doesn't recognize the significance and implications of his words on Twitter. He's simply trying to change the media narrative to get a breaking news banner on not recognizing it. When he says things are patently untrue, they're false, that insulting people that has a real ramification because you're the president of the United States, of course we're going to pay attention when you say something because your words actually matter.

JULIE PACE, WASHINGTON BUREAU, ASSOCIATED PRESS: They do think that this is a lesson that the media has had to learn over the last couple of years. And I do think it's important that viewers and readers also think through some of the motivations behind this.

That, you know, we're so used to sort of living in a Washington where the President's words in and of themselves are news. Because to Lisa's point they are generally pretty carefully crafted or explain a real policy or real push by the administration. That's just not the case with this President. Sometimes it is simply a matter of trying to define what he's seeing on television or trying to push a narrative.

LERER: Well, generally, they're designed to shape world events, to calm markets, or to shape international affairs and that's not his aim. His aim is to shape the image of his presidency and to shape how he himself is perceived.

KING: And to attack. He uses it again, is it presidential swank question, but he uses it effectively to attack.

Here's another one here, the colonnade walk. If you cover the White House, if you're even been to the White House, it's one of the more -- you walk from the residence to the Oval Office, from the Oval Office to the residence, Rose Garden at your side. It's pretty ominous setting, pretty amazing setting. Here's the President's take.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS, HOST, ABC NEWS: Do you feel the weight of the office when you're walking down this colonnade?

TRUMP: I think about the office when I'm walking down this. This is a -- just because you've grown up looking at this colonnade. Look, in another hour from now, we have a big ceremony on Poland. You'll see hundreds of cameras out there and this is what they're looking at. So you grow up looking at it and you say, "Wow, I'm now a part of it. It's a very special house, the whole White House is a special place."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Cameras. What Trump's -- it's not hundreds, but there can be dozens.

RASCOE: Yes, there will be cameras. But it does show a little bit of introspection on Trump's part saying I looked at this when I was younger and now I'm actually a part of it. You do see Trump basically trying to use the White House, and especially like the Oval Office, to like -- he uses it when people come in. He likes to brag. He likes to show off. And he always likes to say people were never brought in here before, they were so impressed.

He uses it as a way to kind of impress people. Look at where I'm at. Look at, you know, let me give you a tour of the White House. He definitely uses the setting.

PACE: There's definitely a part of Trump who -- which is enamored by sort of the trappings of the presidency. Not just the White House and the Oval, but the plane and the helicopter, and like the toys that you get when you're president.

What we've seen a lot less from Trump is him reflecting on through power of the office. What you could use the office for and to play into his re-election campaign, you know, we just don't hear him talking a lot about what he would, want to even do with that office in a second term.

That to me is so unique. You normally hear presidents at least talking about what they would like to have accomplished by the time they get done with their four or eight years. He just doesn't reflect, at least publicly, in that way.

KING: That's a great point. We'll see if we get more of it as we get to the official campaign part tomorrow but that's not his way, not his way.

Up next, a warning from the Commerce secretary. He says, "Do not expect a quick deal with China on trade." And he says, "The President is perfectly fine with keeping tariffs in place."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:34:44] KING: Topping our political radar today, the Supreme Court says no to Republican lawmakers in Virginia on the issue of gerrymandering. The state's GOP controlled House of Delegates challenged a lower court ruling that said several districts were drawn in a way that weakened the influence of African-American voters. In a 5-4 decision today, the Supreme Court said the Virginia House had no standing to bring that case.

President Trump's name now officially part of the landscape in disputed Middle East territory. The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu officially inaugurating a new settlement called Trump Heights in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. This comes three months after the President said the United States would now recognize Israel's sovereignty over that territory, reversing decades of American policy.

American businesses this week getting their chance to raise concerns about the President's plan to hit China with another $300 billion worth of tariffs.

[12:40:00] The US Trade Representative's Office launching seven days worth of hearings on the issue beginning today. Some hope President Xi and President Trump will work all this out at the G20 Summit. The Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross says that's unlikely.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WILBUR ROSS, US COMMERCE SECRETARY: We will eventually probably make a deal. But if we don't, the President is perfectly happy with continuing the tariff movements that we've already announced as well as imposing the new ones that he has temporarily suspended.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Secretary Ross saying there that maybe the two leaders will get the talks back on track at the G20, get the two countries back negotiating, but don't expect a break-through. That's going to be of interest to global markets.

PACE: For sure. I do think getting talks back on track actually is significant, certainly after what we saw with Mexico, all of the back and forth there. I think the markets would be probably soothed a bit just by the visuals of Xi and Trump sitting down and opening up another round of talks on this issue.

RAJU: And Xi Jinping is meeting later this week in North Korea, with Kim Jong-un. Does he come to the table with some sort of new way to revive the nuclear talks as a way to perhaps cut a deal with China tariffs also, so perhaps he's playing a game of three-dimensional chess with Trump.

KING: His power and authority being sorely tested in Hong Kong right now too with those demonstrations which are fascinating to me.

When we come back, to the Democrats in 2020, Elizabeth Warren on the rise, where she now stands as we prepare for the first debates.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:46:15] KING: Ten days and counting now to the first debate featuring the Democrats running for president. And there's fresh evidence today that Senator Elizabeth Warren enjoying a little momentum boost right now.

Let's take a look the numbers. Here's the brand new Fox poll in the Democratic race. Former vice president Joe Biden is still your faraway front-runner. Bernie Sanders in second. Look at Senator Warren now, bunched up but at 9 percent with Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Senator Kamala Harris.

And here's where you see the boost for her. Biden staying about the same. Bernie Sanders down 10 points. Warren up five and Mayor Pete up seven from a Fox News poll back in March. So a little momentum both for Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Senator Elizabeth Warren as we head into the debate cycle.

Here if you're Warren is what makes you, again, a little happy. Enthusiasm --this is an NBC-Wall Street Journal poll, Enthusiasm of the 2020 candidates by Democratic primary voters, you see Warren from March to June heading up. That's the way you want to go, right?

Vice president, enthusiasm for the vice president -- former vice president down a little bit. Bernie Sanders down a little bit. So Warren moving up. Still in the middle of the pack but heading in the right direction. She says don't ask me about the polls right now, please.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D-MA) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It's way too early to talk about polls. What are we, eight months away from the first caucuses and primary elections. I'm out there doing what I believe in. I get a chance to talk about what's broken in America, how we can fix it, and to build a grassroots movement to get that done.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: She thinks it's too early for her to talk about the polls. But you have to be happy. You shouldn't overstate this, but you want to be going that way. You want to be heading in the right direction, especially at a moment when more people are going to tune in as you get onto the debate stage. And a couple of weeks back we were talking about she was static and struggling. Now we're talking about she's going that way.

PACE: Quite the contrast of Warren and Trump when we opened the show. All he wants to talk about is his polls. You know, she's right to try to downplay this because some of the presidential primaries is peaking at the right time and it is too early if this is your peak. But she is definitely making slow and steady progress and her campaign argues that is because, you know, she is spending a lot of time in these early states. She's not doing big traditional fund-raising.

After these events that she does, she shakes hands, takes pictures with literally everybody who wants to take a picture in a state like Iowa and New Hampshire, you can actually have a face-to-face interaction with a decent share of the electorate in those states. She's heading in the right direction. But she's right, there's a long way to go here.

KING: It's a lot long way to go. But you judge candidates by how they grow and how they deal with setbacks because every candidate will have a setback, every candidate will probably of ten setbacks.

LERER: Right.

KING: That's just the way it goes in the long hall. And the growth -- her growth is impressive.

LERER: Her growth is impressive and you're right, you want to see do the candidates learn and improve. I think there will be an interesting question of what happens if she passes Bernie Sanders in the polls. Do we see some kind of really bigger surge for her.

But, look, I think Senator Warren and Mayor Pete Buttigieg have figured out something about this current election, which is this is being played in big part at this moment on cable news. And so he has figured out how to be on cable news constantly by simply being available he need. I mean I saw that guy quoted in just about every publication. I think I read about his shaving routine, which is a little more Mayor Pete that both and I really needed or wanted to have.

And she has figured out by just leading the pack on policy. By releasing plan after plan after plan that hit in such a way that they really demand to be covered, even if there is some big Trump tweet out there. So, by finding a way to dominate cable news, they have found a way to boost their name ID and get their numbers up.

KING: And to that point, one of the candidates who's struggling, Mayor Pete may have taken the next generation lane from him by getting before him is Beto O'Rourke, the former congressman. Made a national splash when he ran for Senate last year, losing though to Ted Cruz.

[12:50:02] He has decided and this is a risk, this is a risk, that one of the ways he wants to get attention heading to the debate is to get more pointed in his criticism of the front-runner.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BETO O'ROURKE (D-TX) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He supported the Hyde Amendment which would prevent middle and lower income women, particularly of color, from being able to make their own decisions about their own body and having access to the health care that would make that possible. Changed his position on that. He is dismissed China as not a real threat to the United States of America. China is a very real threat and we need a president and a commander in chief who recognizes that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RASCOE: He's trying to find a lane. Like he's trying to find something that will make him kind of stick out, because unlike Warren and Buttigieg, when people -- his numbers haven't gone up, so people aren't getting to know him and falling in love with him or at least falling in like with him right now. So he's trying to see what can I do to get my name out there. He put out the energy plan a little while back, but he hasn't had like a steady rollout of policies or anything like that. So what can I do to stand out.

And so one way --

RAJU: It's also a risk. It's a risk because it could reflect poorly on you if you're not delivering an attack effectively or voters don't like you going negative this early in the race. We saw this happen in the very large Republican race in 2016. A lot of these candidates went after Trump very aggressively early on and we saw what happened with Rand Paul, Lindsey Graham.

KING: Do you think Joe Biden will give out nicknames?

RAJU: We'll see. PACE: But there is a real question about how these candidates were on

stage. Beto is not going to be one of them, but who are onstage with Biden --

UNDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right.

PACE: -- handle that second debate night. Do they decide they have to start chipping away at his lead this early by drawing pointed direct attacks standing side by side with him.

KING: Or do they think being there with him elevates them and people think why something new. It's just going to be fascinating. Ten days out from the first one.

Up next, new impeachment numbers but do they put any more pressure on Speaker Nancy Pelosi?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:56:37] KING: Support for impeaching the president is on the rise, but don't bet on Nancy Pelosi changing her tune. These numbers from a new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll, it shows 27 percent of registered voters support beginning impeachment hearings. That's up 10 percentage points for May.

The overall increase though driven by a big jump in support among Democrats. You see it there. The number of House Democrats who favor beginning an impeachment inquiry also on the rise, up to 63 on our CNN count. But if you look at that number in content, 63, it's a little more than a quarter of the House Democratic Caucus. Worth listening to those folks the House speaker says, but not a big enough number to make her feel real pressure.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): Every time one of my members says they're for impeachment. Oh, the pressure is on. The pressure is not on. I respect everybody's opinion about where they think we are on this, but I also respect the work of our chairman in terms of legislate, investigate, litigate. And we have that responsibility to find out what happened.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: She has her own definition of pressure, I think. It might be a little different than the rest of us.

RAJU: And no, John, you point 63 Democrats support impeachment inquiry. Why is that 63 only? Because of her. If she were to come out and support an impeachment inquiry, there would be 200 Democrats supporting it. She is able to keep her caucus in line, she can organize very well internally to keep forces at bay who are trying to pressure her, trying to pressure the caucus. She believes they are on the right path. Get information, fight these things case by case.

Ultimate concern for her is losing the House. What will this mean if they were to open an impeachment inquiry, what would it mean to those members in Trump districts who helped power this new Democratic majority. That is her main concern. Politically she thinks it's the wrong way to go and at the moment the House is not going to move. She's not right of that.

KING: The House is not going to move unless the speaker doesn't. So we do see this subset of those who do in favor impeachment getting a lot of attention including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez who has a little Twitter thing going with the president.

He -- yesterday saw her on television and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, I think we have a very real risk of losing the presidency to Donald Trump. And then he says I agree. And that is the only reason they play the impeachment card which cannot be legally used. I'm not sure the legally part is not break the fact check machine. But she responded Mr. President, you're from Queens. You may fool the rest of the country but I'll call your bluff any day of the week. Opening an impeachment inquiries exactly what we must do when the president obstruct justice, advisers, witnesses to ignore legal subpoenas and more.

Little emoji at the end there. This is colorful and interesting. The question is does it move the needle at all?

RASCOE: This is where you see a real disconnect between the political class, the chattering class and Twitter and what we're seeing in the polls where the support for starting an impeachment inquiry is not there in the polls among the public. And that is why you have Pelosi kind of standing firm on I don't -- you know, this is a political risk.

Now, the people that back beginning impeachment say this is a case Democrats need to make proactively. And if you want to stand for something and stand for -- stand against what you feel like the president has done that you need to take this seriously. And if you don't start now, then what will other presidents in the future kind of get away with. But they're saying that case needs to be made. But it's not right now doesn't seem to be getting through to the public or very slowly you see numbers going up.

LERER: You do see strong support for impeachment is among more liberal Democrats and African-American voters, Latino voters, and so you see that reflective in the districts that are supporting.

KING: We'll see if it changes. We're out of time for today.

Alex Marquardt right in for Brianna Keilar. He starts right now. Have a great day.

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