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White House: No Health Care Vote or Shutdown This Week; Poll: Trump's Approval Rating Hits Historic Low; American Detained in North Korea. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired April 24, 2017 - 06:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Health care is coming along well. Government is coming along really well. A lot of good things are happening.

[05:58:39] REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), MINORITY LEADER: The Democrats do not support the wall. The wall is, in my view, immoral, expensive, unwise.

JEFF SESSIONS, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: We're going to get paid for it one way or the other.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a political stunt, an obsession for the president that should not shut down our government.

REINCE PRIEBUS, WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: Health care may happen next week. It may not. It's not something that has to happen in order to define our success.

GOV. JOHN KASICH (R), OHIO: It's 100 days. He's never held public office. There is a big learning curve.

MICK MULVANEY, WHITE HOUSE BUDGET DIRECTOR: We're talking about historic accomplishments by this administration, but all anybody wants to talk about is health care.

SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R), FLORIDA: The last thing we can afford is to send a message to the world that the United States government is only partially functioning.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Chris Cuomo and Alisyn Camerota.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: We want to welcome our viewers in the United States and around the world. This is NEW DAY. It's Monday, April 24, 6 a.m. here in New York.

President Trump begins a pivotal week, with his 100th day now in sight. Congress is back to work with deadlines looming. First, they have to pass a spending bill by Friday to keep the federal government open. The president wants to include a big down-payment on his border wall. CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: The top of the president's wish list for the

week is a vote on health care in the House. The demand sent shock waves through the Republican ranks. The disconnect between Congress and Trump comes as new polls show President Trump's approval hitting historic lows. But it depends how you measure it.

We'll take you through the truth of the numbers.

Day 95 starts with a critical week in the presidency. We have it all covered. Let's begin with CNN's Joe Johns, live at the White House.

Good morning, Joe.

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Chris.

Five days to go here, and reality now apparently setting in on the slim likelihood of getting a do-over on health care through the House of Representatives before the end of the week. The Republicans who control the government now apparently settling on a strategy to bring the first 100 days to a smooth landing rather than a tumultuous government shutdown.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN KELLY, SECRETARY OF HOMELAND SECURITY: The president has been pretty straight forward about his desire and the need for a border wall. He'll do the right thing for sure, but I suspect he will be insistent on the funding.

JOHNS (voice-over): The White House setting up a showdown with Congress just five days before a potential government shutdown. Demanding that a $1.4 billion down-payment for President Trump's border wall be included in this week's must-pass spending bill.

PELOSI: The Democrats do not support the wall. The burden to keep it open is on the Republicans. The wall is, in my view, immoral, expensive, unwise.

JOHNS: Democrats scoffing at the demand as some Hill Republicans speculate whether the fight is worth the political capital.

RUBIO: I think that's a fight worth having and a conversation, a debate worth having for 2018.

SEN. PETER KING (R), NEW YORK: Once the government is up and running and stays up and running, then we have to fight this out over the next year.

JOHNS: President Trump insisting that American taxpayers need to foot the bill for the wall now, but eventually at a later date, Mexico will be paying. A very different message than his campaign bluster.

TRUMP: The American people will not pay for the wall.

Mexico will pay for the wall. A hundred percent. JOHNS: Vice President Mike Pence ending his overseas trip a day early to help out on Capitol Hill. Despite the president's attempt to downplay the importance of the 100-day mark, Trump's jam-packed schedule proving the administration thinks the milestone is significant. Officials telling CNN the president is expected to sign a flurry of executive orders this week, culminating with a major rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday to mark his 100th day in office.

PRIEBUS: He is fulfilling his promises and doing it at breakneck speed.

JOHNS: White House officials are trying to prove the president is taking action, given the lack of legislative accomplishments.

MULVANEY: We're talking about historic accomplishments by this administration in the first 100 days, but all anybody wants to talk about is health care.

JOHNS: Despite the touted efforts to revive the battle to repeal Obamacare, but officials now say there is no expectation of a vote before Friday.

PRIEBUS: It's a marathon, not a sprint. So we're hopeful for this week. But again, it is not something that has to happen in order for it to define our success.

JOHNS: Trump's budget director also downplaying expectations for Wednesday's big announcement on tax reform.

MULVANEY: You're going to see on Wednesday for the first time is here's what our principles are. Here are some of the ideas that we like, some of the ideas we don't like.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JOHNS: What does seem clear is that administration officials are saying the president does not, at the end of the day, want the government to shut down.

Meanwhile, in another note, the president expected today to have dinner with about a dozen ambassadors to the United Nations Security Council. This comes after the United States' work and confrontation, even, with North Korea over its nuclear ambitions -- Chris and Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK, Joe. There are new polls. Thank you very much for all that background. There are also some new polls to tell you about. They show President Trump's approval rating hitting an historic low. An ABC News/"Washington Post" poll shows only 42 percent of Americans approve of his job so far. While an NBC News/"Wall Street Journal" poll shows only 40 percent. This is the lowest approval rating for any president at the 100-day mark in decades.

Let's bring in the panel to discuss all of it. We have CNN political analysts Ron Brownstein, April Ryan and David Drucker. Happy Monday. Great to see all of you. David, let me start with you. What does -- is there a connection between that historic low approval rating and what he will be able to accomplish this week and beyond?

DAVID DRUCKER, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, I think you could say that, obviously, because his approval with Democrats is so unusually low, the notion that he's going to be able to work with them on anything, never mind health care -- anything, infrastructure included -- is very low. And I think that could have an impact on his presidency over the next couple of years.

But if you want to look at how his approval ratings are distributed nationally, it's very uneven. And so if you go into Republican House districts, and if you go into Republican states, even though we've seen some Republican members of Congress try and put a lid or put distance between themselves and him and criticize him when they felt it's warranted, a lot of Republican voters -- and these polls showed that -- think very highly of him. Think he's doing a pretty good job.

CAMEROTA: He has something like a 96 percent approval rating with Republicans who voted for him. No buyer's remorse in that group, as far as we...

[06:05:11] DRUCKER: Correct. The Supreme Court confirmation meant a lot to them. Because for many of them, that was the key reason to vote for President Trump. And so if you're looking for members of Congress in his party to start abandoning him, you're not going to see it. And if you're looking ahead to 2018 and wondering if Republicans can still gain Senate seats, at least, the prospects are still good, because the president hasn't lost voters in his own party.

CUOMO: Ron Brownstein, he can't grow. That's what the headline is from these polls. The base is in good shape. He doesn't have to worry about having his own turn against him. But there was DJT 100. That was supposed to be Jared Kushner's main, big job. Get the president to 100 percent approval, expand his base. It's not happening. Why?

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Exactly, and I think that really is the key dynamic here. Right? And we see a very consistent and very distinctive pattern in the polling about President Trump. Not only in the polling; in the election results and the general election, even in the election results in the primary. And they all tell us the same thing.

He has a powerful, even visceral hold on the voters in his coalition who are primarily voters who feel either left behind or actively disrespected by economic change, cultural change, demographic change. But he has a very hard time growing beyond that.

You know, you look at this polling, and it is very hard to imagine what would cause President Trump to, on any sustained basis, have a support from the majority of the country. I mean, he is a plurality president right from the beginning. And the critical question for both parties is -- is that enough? He had 46 percent in the election. Holding that, which is where he is, you know, that means that a

majority of the country, I think, pretty clearly from the beginning in this polling is uneasy with the idea of him being president. And it really does reframe the question for Democrats.

It may be that the biggest question they face is not so much whether they can peel away large numbers of the people supporting Trump who, as David said, are not feeling a lot of buyer's remorse. The question is, can they mobilize and consolidate the majority of the country, both in the election and in the polling to express unease about them as president.

CAMEROTA: April, let's talk about what's going to happen this week. I mean, given that Democrats don't seem to support President Trump. Republicans do. What does that mean for health care, for tax reform, for funding the border wall?

APRIL RYAN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: When it comes to issues of health care, you know, both sides of the aisle really see some fixes need to come forth. But it's how you fix health care and who may be taking off or who may have to pay more. Those are some of the issues for health care he has to bring both sides together, as he found out when it did not happen on the seven-year mark of the Affordable Care Act, the anniversary.

Also, when it comes to this border wall. This is a big issue. Now we're hearing Jeff Sessions come out, talking about, the attorney general talking about there is money, possibly, to help fund at least a portion of the wall. But it's not just about building the wall. It's also about the funding to maintain the wall. And he's brought up the immigration issue, which is good for -- for trying to, again, find a fix.

But the issue is the payment. And not only that, you may have one group of his -- well, you may have his base, supporting this wall issue and the fact that Mexico is not going to pay for it right now. But you still have that issue of Republicans who are fiscal conservatives who are very concerned about the exploding price of this wall.

And then when you talk about infrastructure and other things, I mean, again it's back and forth about cost. And I think this president gets weighed down when you have people who are looking at pulling back on government and not having as much money to pay out. And I think that's his problem right now for both Democrats and Republicans.

CUOMO: David, he's also stuck in that he keeps saying that he's going to get the wall done. So he's kind of set up his own expectations on it. In terms of what he has to do this week at the end of 100, right, what is the mark for him? We know that they're going to put out a flood of executive orders. We know what Republicans have said about executive orders has said about in the past. But all that matters is what comes out of your mouth this minute, it seems, in politics right now.

What does he have to get done this week? DRUCKER: Look, I think a key -- a key marker for them this week would

just find a way to get the government funded. And don't let that breakdown into a government shutdown scenario. Because at least it will show a measure of competence and control at the top in Washington.

Look, I think the reason that Trump is faced with all of these questions about the 100-day mark is because he, himself, has set the marker so high. Nobody asked him.

CUOMO: He said that was somebody else's deal, though.

DRUCKER: Yes, but we know that it...

CUOMO: Is that OK?

DRUCKER: It wasn't somebody else.

CAMEROTA: All right. We have -- we have examples of when the president himself used that as a marker. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: On November 8, Americans will be voting for this 100-day plan to restore prosperity to our country.

[06:10:06] Just think about what we can accomplish in the first 100 days of a Trump administration.

Just think about what we can accomplish in the first 100 days.

There are those that say I've done more than anybody in 100 days.

I don't think that there is a presidential period of time in the first 100 days where anyone has done nearly what we've been able to do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: There you go, David.

DRUCKER: Yes, well, so here we have a...

CUOMO: It about sums it up, David. Thank you very much.

DRUCKER: Well, look...

CUOMO: All you have to do now is say it is what it is.

DRUCKER: It's a condo -- look, it's a condo project. It looks beautiful, but he said it would be ready in March. It's not going to be ready until June, July or August. And he's going to have to sort of contend with that.

Look, I actually think the most interesting thing that could come out of this week, aside from this whole 100-day business, because his supporters are going to be fine with him. His opponents are not going to be fine with him, no matter he meets the marks or he doesn't meet the marks.

Take a watch with about what happens with these Obamacare subsidies. All right? These sort of subsidies are the things Republicans don't want to fund, but a lot of their constituents utilize. And if they don't come up with a solution for this in the government funding bill, you have a lot of insurance companies that could exit markets, cancel plans. And it's all going to fall on Republicans because of where these districts are and because they're in charge of government.

And we're going to see if Trump can work some sort of deal with Democrats for his border wall funding. But this gets us back to the problem of the polarization. Because he doesn't have a relationship with Democrats. This is the other side of yes, the polling isn't distributed evenly. But because he has no relationship and they're particularly opposed to him, it's hard for him to work any deal.

CUOMO: You wrote a good piece about that, David, that people can Google, Google in "The Examiner."

Ron Brownstein.

BROWNSTEIN: I was going to say that, you know, the problem on the border wall, like on health care, is not only the Democrats. Certainly, David is absolutely right. The fact that Trump's -- President Trump's approval rating is so much lower among voters than the opposite party than any incoming president ever at this point makes it very difficult for Democrats to work with him on almost anything.

And the fact that seven of the ten senators, Democratic senators up in 2018 that -- in states that Trump carried felt fine voting against Neil Gorsuch is an indication or whether he has less leverage than they initially expected on them. But I would say that -- you know, I would point out that if you look at both health care and the wall, there are significant divisions among the Republicans.

"The Wall Street Journal" has a survey today, and so they could not find a single border state, representative or senator in either party who wanted to go to the wall for funding the wall in the -- you know, in the continuing resolution. And it is something that has polled at around 33 percent in the Quinnipiac polling. About half of non- college whites, but very few among anybody else. So there are divisions even within the coalition on the kind of distinctive economic nationalist and -- components of the agenda.

CAMEROTA: Very interesting, panel. Thank you very much for all of that. Stick around. We have more questions for you.

CUOMO: Right. And we also already have one answer. Remember, the answer to why does 100 days matter in this presidency? It's because President Trump said it did. That's why. That's your first answer of the morning. So from health care to tax reform, what will get done, if not this week, just within this 100-day milestone that will give some legitimacy to the president's promise? Our panel discusses, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:15:18] CUOMO: All right. So the hope for the White House is to cross off two major tasks before President Trump's 100th day in office, which will be this Saturday. So they want to pass a spending bill -- keep the government open, right -- and pass a healthcare bill in the House. What's going to happen?

Let's bring back CNN's political analysts, Ron Brownstein, April Ryan, David Drucker.

Quick show of hands. Does anybody think both those get done this week? OK. Good.

Professor Ron Brownstein, let's move to the next question, which is who will people blame at the end of these things if it doesn't get done? Let's put up some numbers for context, and you take us through what these -- how these matter.

You know, if it doesn't get done, these are the "Washington Post" numbers. You see the breakdowns, mostly on Trump. Then on Republicans, interestingly. What is that about, not loyalty? And you see the rest of the numbers within Congress.

So what do you make of those numbers, Ron? The blame game matters.

BROWNSTEIN: Unified control of government has been very fleeting over the last 50 years. I mean, since 1968, no party has controlled the House, the Senate and the White House for more than four consecutive years.

You know, it was common. Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman did it for 14 years. William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt did it for 14 years. Republicans did it for 10 years in the 1920s. There is a reason why it doesn't happen, which is that, you know, if you are in control, you are a very clear target.

And if conditions are not getting better in the way that people expect, if you can't deliver on what people expected, you get a backlash in many cases, in most cases from your own voters.

If you do deliver on what you ran on, as Obama, you know, in 2009 and 2010, with that super-majority, passed a lot, you often generate a big backlash from the other side. Because we are so -- we are so polarized.

So I think it is, you know, the Republicans are in a difficult position on something like health care and the wall. On the one hand, if you don't do it, you do get -- you demoralize your own voters. On the other hand, if you do do it, if you do do it, you're looking at something with the wall that is 33 percent support in Quinnipiac polling, and the healthcare bill has 17 percent support.

So then you're doing something that a majority of the country doesn't want. It is hard to hold unified control of government in such a polarized era. And I think, as they work through these legislative challenges, you see exactly why. CAMEROTA: April, explain to us why President Trump and Reince Priebus

seem to be so optimistic about health care when we don't have much evidence that there's been a consensus? Reince Priebus was just on "Meet the Press" yesterday and, once again, he was sort of talking about this accelerated timeframe for when they're going to be able to get it done. Let me play that for you.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRIEBUS: I would like to have a vote this week. And I think the leadership knows that we'd like to have a vote this week. But it's not the -- on Monday, we're still going to be here working for the American people. So whether health care repeal and replace comes on Friday or Saturday or on Monday, in the grand scheme of things, you know, it's a marathon, not a sprint.

[06:20:09] So we're hopeful for this week, but again, it's not something that has to happen in order for -- to define our success.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Why are they setting up that expectation of this week, April?

RYAN: But you know, what Reince just said, "We're hopeful for this week, but we're not setting, you know, the bar at this week."

So bottom line, this president when he was a candidate, campaigned on getting rid of Obamacare. Repealing and replacing it. And with that, he has to come in and try to show that he's doing it. And they have to show optimism. Even as much of their party is very concerned with how they roll this out and how they make it work.

It's not going to happen this week. There's still a lot of concerns about the details of it. And when you talk about the subsidies, that is a big issue. And that's one of the main reasons why Obamacare worked and is a problem. Because a lot of people needed those subsidies to be part of the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare.

So there's a lot of -- a lot of back and forth with their own party when it comes to...

CAMEROTA: Yes.

RYAN: ... the Affordable Care Act and changing it to Trumpcare. It's just a lot going on, and I don't believe it's going to happen this week, but they have to show the picture that they're winning.

CUOMO: Well, they need it. Because the savings that they were going to get in health care were going to be fundamental to pay for the tax cuts.

RYAN: Yes.

CUOMO: So there was a little bit of a domino theory. One thing that they're going to have to add to the polling on who to

blame is they're going to have to add who told President Trump he could get a vote this week? Who told him that?

CAMEROTA: Reince Priebus is still saying it.

CUOMO: Reince Priebus is saying they want it. But I'm saying in house. The next wave of this guy is out or this woman is out is going to be a function of who told me to go out there and say this was going to happen next week when it was never going to happen. That takes us to the 100-day mark.

RYAN: Chris, the bottom line...

CUOMO: Go ahead, April.

RYAN: And that's what I'm saying. And that's the bottom line. They like these significant moments. You know, it was a seven-year anniversary. They felt that they were going to repeal and replace. And now, it's the 100-day mark. They like these dates to make a big pronouncement. But when it falls, it makes a bigger pronouncement that you fail.

CUOMO: True.

RYAN: So they might need to pull back on these big pronouncement days.

CUOMO: But the president -- Trump likes to -- Trump likes the sell, though. He likes to build the expectation.

DRUCKER: He likes the made-for-TV moment. I think the tax -- I think the tax reform announcement, by the way, is a perfect example of both the opportunities they have, but the trouble they get themselves into because they want to go so grand.

So the president last week says, "We're coming out with our tax reform plan next week." And then we get a couple days down the road and we find out it's Wednesday, but Wednesday or Thursday.

And then Mick Mulvaney, director of Office of Management and Budget, says over the weekend, "Well, we don't know if we're going to be able to tell you if it's revenue neutral or not. We don't know if we're going to be able to tell you whether we -- it will support border adjustability or not."

My point is that, whether it's revenue neutral or not, or whether they support the bat (ph) or not, it's if you tell us you are coming out with a tax reform plan and then start to dial it back, finally saying it's just a discussion of our principles. We're going to finally tell you where our rate cuts are. We don't -- the truth is, this might just be tax cuts. And three months into an administration, if you're not ready to roll out exactly where you are on tax reform and give Congress, your party clear direction, you're actually doing more harm than good. And you're throwing cold water on your own announcement, because it's not really what you said it was. CAMEROTA: So Ron, nobody thinks that there's going to be a government

shown -- correct me if I'm wrong -- this week. That is not what anybody is threatening. But chances are that they will, as usual, kick the can down the road, that this won't be sort of a solution for a budget. That this will be a continuation of, you know, another week or two or something to that effect.

BROWNSTEIN: Well, no. They would continue along with you. I mean, I don't think that David is on the Hill more than I am. But it depends how much the president wants to insist on the wall. I mean, and that is -- that would be -- I cannot imagine the wall -- a significant funding for the wall not provoking a big fight over keeping the government open.

But you're right. I mean, the big questions are still down the road. And I do think that, you know, this kind of one-two punch of whether they can get health care, and historically, as I've said before, the model is you can always get a bill through the House by moving it to the right. And I think they can do that again sooner or later, build a conservative majority.

The question is whether they're positioning it a way they can get it through the Senate. And then a key question, is tax reform revenue neutral or tax cut? All the signs point toward they're going to have to cut taxes, because they can't reach a consensus on how to do it in a revenue neutral way.

CAMEROTA: OK, Panel, thank you very much for all of that. We have other news to tell you about, because North Korea detaining another U.S. citizen. Is Kim Jong-un's regime using this as leverage because of the escalating tensions? We have a live report for you next on NEW DAY.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:28:56] CUOMO: Right now a U.S. citizen is being detained by North Korea. He is the third American being held by that regime. And it's raising tensions even more as an American carrier strike group approaches the region.

CNN's Ivan Watson live in Seoul, South Korea, with more. Ivan, what do we know?

IVAN WATSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: OK, this is a professor by the name of Tony Kim, Chris. And he was -- had been teaching for several weeks at the Pyongyang University of Science and Technology.

Now, he was on the way out of the country, leaving Saturday morning from Pyongyang International Airport, and that is when the North Koreans grabbed him. We do not know why and we don't know what kind of charges they may press against him. But once the North Koreans do this, judging by past behavior and trends, it is very, very serious.

The other two Americans that are currently in custody are University of Virginia student named Otto Warmbier and another man named Kim Dong-chul. They were grabbed in 2015, 2016, and they face either 10 or 15 years of hard labor for various charges that the North Koreans have pressed against them.