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Congress Strikes Budget Deal to Avert Shutdown; Trump Pushes for Health Care Vote This Week; Trump Invites Controversial Philippines President to White House. Aired 6-6:30a ET
Aired May 01, 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: In many cases, you're forced to make deals that are not the deal you'd make.
[05:58:46] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If he wants to reach out, we're all ears.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Washington lawmakers reaching a deal to avoid a government shutdown.
TRUMP: We need the wall to stop the drugs and the human trafficking.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Donald Trump has given us a graveyard of broken promises.
TRUMP: They say, "We don't cover pre-existing conditions. We cover it beautifully."
SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY), MINORITY LEADER: He said he'd cover more people at less cost. His bill does just the opposite.
MIKE PENCE (R), VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think healthcare reform is just around the corner.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A meeting (ph) with Duterte is not appropriate.
REINCE PRIEBUS, WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: It doesn't mean human rights don't matter. We need cooperation among our partners in Southeast Asia.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Chris Cuomo and Alisyn Camerota.
CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: All right. We want to welcome our viewers from the United States and around the world. This is NEW DAY. It's Monday, May 1, 6 a.m. here in New York, and we begin with breaking news.
No government shutdown. Congress has a deal to keep the U.S. government funded, not just through next week, but through September. The bipartisan deal has a lot to discuss. Notably, money for President Trump's border wall not there. Funding for Planned Parenthood is there.
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: And the White House extending a controversial invitation to a world leader with an abysmal human rights record. Plus, another member of the president's national security team is on the way out.
We have it all covered for you. Let's begin with Suzanne Malveaux, live on Capitol Hill. What's the latest, Suzanne?
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Alisyn.
Well, really surprising news to wake up to on a Monday morning. Lawmakers working over the weekend, those negotiations, to make sure that the government is funded beyond this Friday, well through September.
Now, this comes after tense talks between Democrats and Republicans for weeks now, both sides seemingly equally determined to avoid a government shutdown.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MALVEAUX (voice-over): Rare bipartisan agreement on Capitol Hill over a $1 trillion spending bill that includes billions in new defense spending and $1.5 billion for border security but not a single dollar for President Trump's border wall, despite the president's insistence that a wall is necessary at Saturday's campaign rally.
TRUMP: We'll build a wall, folks. Don't even worry about it. Go to sleep. Go home, go to sleep. Rest assured. That's the final thing, we need it.
MALVEAUX: Also left out of the bill, federal cuts to sanctuary cities and money for a deportation force, two of the president's other campaign promises.
TRUMP: At the heart of my administration's efforts to restore the rule of law has been a nationwide crackdown on criminal gangs; and that means taking the fight to the sanctuary cities that shield these dangerous criminals from removal.
MALVEAUX: The spending bill includes some victories for Democrats, including no cuts to Planned Parenthood funding, a nominal cut to the EPA's budget, a $2 billion increase for the National Institutes of Health, which the president targeted for budget cuts, and $295 million to help Puerto Rico continue making payments to Medicaid, a Democratic demand the president has spoken out against multiple times.
The bill also includes millions to reimburse local law enforcement for extra security for the president and first family when they travel to Florida and New York.
Other bipartisan victories include $407 million in wildfire relief for western states and a permanent extension to a program that provides health insurance for coal miners, a key constituency for President Trump. TRUMP: Who are the miners here? The miners, finally, we're taking
care of our miners. We love our miners.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MALVEAUX: Votes on the funding bill are expected in both chambers by the end of the week. At the same time, there are some House Republicans who are vowing to bring back their health care plan to repeal and replace Obamacare -- Chris.
CUOMO: Another interesting play there, Suzanne. President Trump is pushing a health care vote again, despite existing significant differences among members of his own party. This time they're trying to beat the next recess, which is going to happen this week. That's right: they get more time off in D.C.
Meantime, the president under fire, inviting the Philippine strongman leader to the White House. CNN's Joe Johns live at the White House with more.
Good morning, Joe.
JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Chris.
In many ways, it's Groundhog Day for this administration. The first 100 days are over, but there's a long list of agenda items that did not get through. At the top of that list, perhaps, the goal of repealing and replacing Obamacare.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PENCE: I think healthcare reform, repealing and replacing Obamacare, is just around the corner. I think we're close.
JOHNS (voice-over): The White House expressing confidence in the GOP's latest health care bill. President Trump trying to spin the administration's efforts, saying they aren't pushing for a vote.
TRUMP: I said just relax. Don't worry about this phony 100-day thing. Just relax. Take it easy. Take your time. Get the good vote, and make it perfect.
JOHNS: Despite calling out lawmakers by name at his Saturday rally.
TRUMP: And I'll be so angry at Congressman Kelly and Congressman Marino and all of our Congressmen in the room if we didn't get that damn thing passed quickly.
JOHNS: The president falsely claiming that the new bill guarantees coverage for those with pre-existing conditions.
TRUMP: Pre-existing conditions are in the bill. And I mandate it. I said it has to be. We have -- we're going to have lower premiums.
JOHNS: When in reality, the draft bill would allow states to opt out of this requirement under certain conditions. Meanwhile, the Trump administration is under fire for inviting the
Philippines' authoritarian leader to the White House. Rodrigo Duterte has led a deadly crackdown on drugs that's left thousands dead.
PRIEBUS: If we don't have all of our folks together, whether they're good folks, bad folks, people that we wish would do better in their country. Doesn't matter. We've got to be on the same page.
JOHNS: The White House arguing that the U.S. needs the Philippines to combat the North Korean threat. As Trump's critics and human rights organizations respond with outrage.
The president also raising eyebrows for again questioning if Russia is responsible for hacking during the 2016 campaign.
[06:05:08] TRUMP: If you don't catch a hacker, OK, in the act, it's very hard to say who did the hacking. With that being said, I'll go along with Russia. Could have been China. Could have been a lot of different groups.
JOHNS: Offering no evidence to discount the conclusions of his own FBI director and 16 other intelligence agencies.
President Trump marking his 100th day in office over the weekend with a campaign rally, reprising attacks on his favorite foe.
TRUMP: I think we would all agree the media deserves a very, very big fat failing grade.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
JOHNS: The focus here at the White House now turning to the president's next 100 days. The other agenda items that haven't been finished, including tax cuts, tax reform. And he's getting ready for his first overseas trip that's going to come up in a few weeks. The whole world right now watching to see how the president will handle everything from the crisis on the Korean Peninsula to the climate -- the Paris Climate Accords.
Chris and Alisyn, back to you.
CAMEROTA: Joe, thank you very much.
We have a lot to discuss. Let's bring on our panel. We have CNN political analysts David Gregory and Maggie Haberman; and CNN contributor Salena Zito. Salena just interviewed the president over the weekend.
Great to see all of you. So Maggie, let me start with you. Let's just put up for everybody what we know is in this budget deal and what's out, since it affects every single person watching it. So here's what's in: $15 billion for defense spending; $1.5 billion for border security, but not the wall; 2.4 for disaster relief; $2 billion funding for NIH; $800 million for -- to fight opioid abuse. Chris and I have been talking about all last week, how important that is to so many Americans, including President Trump's supporters. Two hundred and ninety-five million for Puerto Rico Medicaid; $57 million for emergent presidential security needs, whatever that means; extend miners' health insurance.
Here's what's out, and this is kind of fascinating. No funding cuts for Planned Parenthood. As you all know, that's a big deal for both sides of the aisle. No money for a deportation force. No federal cuts to sanctuary cities. The president had threatened that. No funding for the border wall construction.
Maggie, is this a win for Democrats, and if so, how did that happen?
MAGGIE HABERMAN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Look, you're certainly seeing Democrats talking about this deal. You have not heard Republican leadership commenting yet. And that tells you all you need to know about the frame.
In terms of how it happened, look, the Trump White House has been stymied legislatively so far. And they know it. And they would like to start getting things through the House. They feel like they can't get to other legislative priorities if they don't. And also, this is not just a legislative priority; this is funding the government. The threat of a shutdown is always very problematic and very dangerous. I think for this White House, there was a fear that it would raise the competency argument.
But they do appear to have given in on a bunch of key Republican priorities. The main one, to me, frankly, that's interesting is not the wall, because we already knew, the president had made clear he was not going to draw -- yes, he was not going to draw a line on that one. He said it was fine to sort of deal with getting funding for it later in the fall. We'll see if that happens. But that was their approach.
Planned Parenthood not seeing any slashes in funding is very interesting. Considering what you heard Republicans, less Trump, but Republicans more broadly campaigned on in 2016. And I think it is a reflection of the various interests, you know, at his ears, essentially.
CAMEROTA: Meaning Ivanka Trump may have had an influence.
HABERMAN: And possibly others. But I think that -- I think that, look, he was very clear. He's the only person who said, even while critical of, you know, abortion work taking place, he was very clear from the debate stage in the Republican primary that, you know, Planned Parenthood does good work other than that. So it is not a total surprise, but it is still really notable, given where the GOP Congress is.
CUOMO: Look, the opioid stuff, I don't think it's $800 million we just had in that graphic. I think it's about $100 million to fight opioids. But...
CAMEROTA: Why? What do you think is the discrepancy?
CUOMO: Well, because all the other reporting has them at 100, and we have it at $800 million. That would be an unprecedented... CAMEROTA: We'll check that.
CUOMO: ... commitment to fighting it, if it's almost a billion dollars.
CAMEROTA: We'll check our math.
CUOMO: But the point is this, he is careful to maintain commitments that go to the heart of people's lives. And that's something, when you talk about opioids, when you talk about the ability to pay for your family's needs. David Gregory, this was a particular sensitivity and a key part of the connection that Trump had to his constituency. Salena knows this very well.
But David, when we see those pockets of money, is that something to remember, in terms of win-loss here, also?
DAVID GREGORY, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes, but I think it's lower down on the list. It's a huge issue. But what the federal government can do about opioid abuse, let's see. You know, I think it can certainly play a constructive role but maybe not as big of a role as what Donald Trump has already laid out is priorities. You know, overturning Obamacare, building a border wall.
[06:10:03] You know, he's running into the problem which he may say it, but it doesn't make it so. You know, if he's not telling the truth about what's really in the health care bill, it's a problem on a couple of levels.
One, he continues not to tell the truth. Two, he doesn't really necessarily know what's in the bill. And three, he can't seem to muscle it through Congress.
He's also not cutting back on payments for the EPA, as he had promised to do. So I think he's running into the difficulty of what he can actually get accomplished, even under Republican government rule.
Look, they're still not passing a budget. Let's not get so excited about a stop-gap budget -- you know, spending bill, because they still can't pass a budget. The Democrats couldn't do it. The Republicans can't do it. And he faces the very real test of clearing out some of this underbrush. Some of it quite significant when it comes to health care before he can get to a tax cut bill, which I think would be a signature achievement, if he can get it.
CAMEROTA: Salena, let's play what David was referencing, and that is this interview that the president gave yesterday to CBS, where it was about are the pre-existing conditions going to be in whatever health care bill they try to pass this week? So listen to him answer this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Pre-existing conditions are in the bill, and I mandate it. I said it has to be.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One of the fixes that was discussed, pre-existing was optional for the states.
TRUMP: Sure, in one of the fixes, and they're changing it. They're changing it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It would still be permanent?
TRUMP: Of course.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. What's the development, sir? A crucial question: it's not going to be left up to the states. Everybody gets pre-existing, no matter where they live.
TRUMP: No. The states are also going to have a lot to do with it, because we ultimately want to get did it back down to the states.
The state is going to be in a much better position to take care of it, because it's smaller.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So I'm not hearing you, Mr. President, say there's a guarantee of preexisting...
TRUMP: We actually have -- we actually have a clause that guarantees.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CAMEROTA: OK, Salena, you interviewed him this weekend, as well. Did you touch on this?
SALENA ZITO, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: No. We did not talk about the health care bill.
But you know, in -- I suspect in his mind's eye, he sees the bill. The bill says that. And then there's the waiver that's attached to it, so a state can make that decision on its own. But you know, as the bill stands, you know, he believes that it's kept inside the bill.
CAMEROTA: But is that -- we don't know if that's right. Look, what we do know is that...
ZITO: Yes, right, we don't.
CAMEROTA: The MacArthur Amendment, I think, is what we're talking about, where states can waive the national preexisting condition rules, but then they would have to set up high-risk pools in order to offset that. But give us the headline and your impressions from when you interviewed him.
ZITO: Well, I would say one of the things that stood out to me was how -- how serious he -- and somber he became when he talked about the seriousness of his job. He -- like previous interviews that have already been released, he talked about, "Look, this is completely different than the life I had before. And you know, in my other life, when I made deals, if they came apart, I knew there was another way to make another deal. In this job, you know, people's lives are at stake every time I make a decision. And so that complication, that -- that burden is much more difficult than I anticipated. The weight on every decision that I make."
GREGORY: Can I just say how alarming that is that he is still saying this? And I've been thinking about this since we had this discussion on Friday. You know, it's one thing not to be a politician; it's one thing not to have experience with the presidency. Everybody is surprised at some level and humbled at some level with how difficult the job is.
But he seems like he's never picked up a book. You know, it's funny. Presidents actually write books. They have diaries. The -- for -- since the founding of the republic, they actually relate to other people what it's like and how hard the job is. And apparently, President Trump missed this entire work of literature that was done by previous presidents on how difficult the job is.
ZITO: Well, I think that that's part of why people voted for him. If you go out and you listen to what they say, they weren't looking for a polished politician. They weren't looking for a student of history.
GREGORY: Salena, think about that. You don't have to be a polished politician to have some sense of what happened before you. Willful disregard for history, precedent, actual facts. Come on. I mean, give people more credit who voted for him than that. They didn't want to throw all of that out. I can't believe that.
CAMEROTA: But it wasn't a top priority. I mean, right? I mean, when we interviewed people, nobody -- that just wasn't a top priority.
MAGGIE HABERMAN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: But when does that ever come up, honestly, in interviews?
CAMEROTA: In polls.
HABERMAN: To voters, you don't say to people...
CUOMO: You have a distinction between culture and competence. I think Salena is right that they wanted somebody who was not just a rebel, a renegade. That was disloyal to a lot of the things that matter in Washington.
HABERMAN: But that's not the same thing.
CUOMO: But they thought he was smart...
ZITO: Saying it's right or wrong -- yes.
CUOMO: ... and they thought he could get things done, and they thought he knew what he was talking about.
CAMEROTA: On the business front.
HABERMAN: Correct. Well, but I think in general, look, I think that -- I think that this president, as we know, is very good, historically, at sort of playing a role. And we have seen him do that in various places in his life. [06:15:14] I don't think that it is the same thing. I think Salena is
absolutely right, that people were looking for somebody who was raw and real. I don't think that raw and real has to mean not familiar with precedent or with what came before in the highest office in the land.
CUOMO: In fact, there was...
HABERMAN: It's not the same thing.
CUOMO: ... there was a notion that he knew even better.
HABERMAN: He said it. He said it over and over.
CUOMO: He could see through the game. He could see through the lines. And, you know, now we'll see how it plays out in real time.
CAMEROTA: Panel, stick around, please.
CUOMO: All right. So we have more on President Trump's decision to invite Philippines' President Duterte to the White House. Does the U.S. really need the controversial leader to help rein in North Korea? Next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CUOMO: President Trump surprising his own State Department over the weekend, inviting the Philippines' controversial president to the White House. This is a polarizing leader accused of human rights abuses. But the White House says he's critical to dealing with North Korea.
Let's bring back the panel: Maggie Haberman, David Gregory, Salena Zito.
David Gregory, the Philippines is key to hemming in North Korea? True or false?
[06:20:00] GREGORY: I don't know. I mean, I don't know exactly what the president is referring to or what may have come up in meetings with the Chinese that could make the Philippines so.
I think that the Philippines could be a bulwark against China's expansion in the South China Sea. That may be on the president's mind.
But there, again, is an impulsivity to this: surprising his own national security team. We'll see what the internal pushback is. Duterte is an authoritarian bad guy on the world stage. And as transactional and pragmatic as the president may want to be, dealing with North Korea and/or China, separate issues, linked issues, again, he's got to remember a sense of the overall. The more he courts strongmen around the world is not a good trend for freedom-loving countries around the world and achieving things through our allies.
We cannot cast aside traditional allies and rely upon strongmen. I'm not certain that the president really actually understands this, if he's just looking from one deal to the next.
CAMEROTA: Maggie, what is it with his seeming affinity for Vladimir Putin? He has just said complimentary things or at least -- yes, I think you'd have to call them nice things about Kim Jong-un. Is it that President Trump sort of wants credit for working with people that other people ostracized and couldn't worth with?
HABERMAN: And I think it's yes to all of the above. And I don't think you can pull them out. I mean, I think -- what you just said, I think, is a key part of it.
When you speak to people in the Trump administration, they will tell you, "Look, we are not going to do what the Obama White House did." Now, you can debate whether that's wise or not, but that is their approach.
And so some of it is strategic. But some of it is also that, you know, we saw this throughout the campaign. The president has sort of a predilection for praising strength. And he doesn't make a distinction between whether that strength is used for good or bad purposes sometimes. You know, he praised -- and insisted he didn't -- Saddam Hussein, at one point for saying he killed terrorists. In fact, he was also considered a state sponsor of terrorism.
And so I think that you -- you are seeing sort of a continuation of a pattern. It's very hard to know with these calls, whether it is that he is reaching out to these leaders with the goal in mind of saying, "Hey, come to the White House, please." Or if that's something he does riffing on the fly during a pre-arranged call, and I just don't know that we're going to know.
CUOMO: Salena, traditionally, you would shun or call out human rights abusers. That's what you would do. That is not what's being done now. Duterte is, of course, the latest and most egregious, because this is a man who kind of campaigns on his desire to kill drug dealers and tells crazy stories about how he's done it himself in the past. What is Trump's read on this, in your estimation?
ZITO: Well, I mean, I think to Maggie's point, where you know, she explained how he is -- how President Trump likes to show that he makes relationships with people that President Obama wasn't able to. He talked at great length about the young woman, Aya, the human rights worker in Egypt whom he helped free. And he made a point that, you know, he said, "Look, President Trump -- I mean, President Obama wasn't able to do this for three and a half years. I got it done in ten minutes."
And then you talked about the strength of President El-Sisi, who also faces a lot of criticism for his, you know, sort of strong-arm governing.
You know, when we discussed North Korea in our interview, he -- he was very frustrated by what was going on with North Korea and the back and forth. And he -- he stressed that, you know, he's trying to use diplomacy. And he thinks that that is a really important part. I suspect that is why that he's trying to make a relationship with the
Philippine president. He wants to build these allies as a wall of strength against North Korea. But, you know, it's hard to determine what the greater, you know, sort of complex thing that he's trying to make happen.
CAMEROTA: So David, you know, obviously, there's a consensus among all of the U.S. intel agencies that Russia meddled in the U.S. election and was behind the hacking that we saw during the election.
President Trump has been reluctant to come around on that. Here are his latest thoughts this weekend on Russia's involvement.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: If you don't catch a hacker, OK, in the act, it's very hard to say who did the hacking. With that being said, I'll go along with Russia. Could have been China. Could have been a lot of different groups.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So President Donald Trump is ambivalent about -- not ambivalent, just not sure.
TRUMP: No. We have to find out what happened. I'd love to find out what happened.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But you don't think it's...
TRUMP: I'll tell you one thing. It had nothing to do with us, had nothing to do with this, and everyone knows it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CAMEROTA: David, your thoughts?
GREGORY: You know, again, I would love it if President Trump could just speak a little bit more seriously on major national security matters. Things that are bigger than him and that are about the presidency and an effort to undermine an American election. But he seems not to care about big issues like the presidency and America's fate in history.
[06:25:14] So what he does now is just kind of deflect in ways that make no sense, where he's saying that, "Well, I'll go along with Russia. Maybe it was somebody else." He has no idea.
And if he really wants to get behind these things, then perhaps he can cooperate more with Congress to find out what really happened. But he still wants to give it the back of the hand. And let's remember, this is still the president who falsely accused his predecessor of spying on him with -- when we have a consensus in the intelligence agency that, in fact, it was Russia.
And by the way, it was the previous administration that could have done a lot more to both get to the bottom of it and retaliate against Russia and didn't do so, because it didn't want to look like it was interfering in the election.
CUOMO: Sebastian Gorka, the kind of, you know, shadowy figure that would come out every once in a while with that great baritone and talk about how we're all dumb when it comes to foreign diplomacy. He's now out of the White House. What do you make of this?
HABERMAN: Is expected to be out of the White House. I'm not clearly whether he's gone right now at this...
CUOMO: Different reports. Maybe he's going to take a different job in the administration. Maybe he's out of the administration.
HABERMAN: A lot of fog of war with this administration, especially when it comes to personnel issues.
But in terms of Sebastian Gorka, he had become the thing that this president dislikes the most, which is a distraction, and a distraction for him, personally with negative headlines. There have been questions about his previous comments. There have been questions about whether there are some links, whether he's been accused of being linked to some far-right Hungarian extremist groups. He has said very little to denounce this. Some of those reports have been battened back, but it's just becoming needless. I think it is also part of Henry McMaster, the national security advisor, who replaced Mike Flynn, essentially rearranging things the way he would like. Even if that is never going to be said overtly, I think that is where this stems from.
CAMEROTA: Panel, thank you all very much. Talk to you soon.
So other news to get to. This pool party in Southern California ends in a hail of gunfire. What sparked this deadly attack? We have that story next on NEW DAY.
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