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Trump: Obama "Did Nothing" About Russian Meddling; Strong Storms Set to Batter Central U.S.; Supreme Court to Hear Travel Ban Case This Fall. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired June 27, 2017 - 06:30   ET

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

[06:30:01] CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: This time it was about 16 pages, Joe.

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Certainly was, Chris.

It was a lot more and the takeaway from this decision of the Supreme Court is, if you're an international traveler from one of the targeted Muslim countries, and you have a bona fide connection to the United States, you can get in. Otherwise, you can be turned around. It's only a temporary decision, because the court is going to hear the full case in the fall.

Now, the takeaway from the president of the United States in a statement calling this a clear victory for national security, saying: As president, I cannot allow people into our country who want to do us harm. I want people who can love the United States and all its citizens and who will be hard-working and productive.

The president also tweeted last night, calling it a great day for security courtesy of the United States Supreme Court. He promised to keep winning for the American people. Of course, the president did need a win on this, even if the order that is being partially put into effect is something he called politically incorrect and watered down.

Over the last 24 hours, however, the most notable news from the president of the United States has been his tweets attacking Democrats and the president, the former President Obama, for their role in the Russia investigation.

Otherwise, the White House has been muted in some of its responses. The president going so far as to not even answer questions during a joint appearance with Prime Minister Modi of India.

Brianna, back to you.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Joe Johns, thank you. We'll be talking about that series of tweets as well and also how does the rest of the world view the U.S. under President Trump? A brand new poll with some eye opening results. We'll discuss that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [06:35:50] CUOMO: President Trump clearly does not like political implications of the Russia investigation and he's going at it overall once when it on Twitter, slamming his predecessor for doing nothing about Russian hacks, which is not true factually. This comes as a new poll shows how the U.S. is seen by the world under President Trump.

Let's get back our panel here. Let's get Chris Cillizza, Drucker and Karoun Demirjian.

So, what do we learn from this poll? Put up some numbers for people here. Pew International, 37 countries, 22 percent have confidence in Trump, what was Obama's number, 64 percent. Forty-nine percent have favorable views of the U.S. under Trump versus 64 percent under Obama. More trust in Putin than in Trump.

Let's start with that as a headline, Karoun Demirjian. What do you make of this? Dismissed as a poll, only worth the paper it's printed on, or do you believe it speaks to a valuable insight?

KAROUN DEMIRJIAN, CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER, WASHINGTON POST: Well, that's kind of a surprising last point, more trust in Putin than in Trump. You know, it goes to just the impressions basically of what people are seeing as they're looking at the this whole affair, and you do have to wonder, if this is due to fact that the president's line about these things keeps changing.

I mean, look, we're talking about different countries with different populations and that affects how their relationship is with the press, their relationship with the public and that all goes into the impression people have of a leader both in their home audience and abroad. But, you know, the president has been dealing with this whole affair in fits and starts, sometimes contradicting himself and sometimes being vindicated but more oftentimes being in a situation where people are questioning what he did and what he's doing in the day-to-day to hand tell, and that has potentially led to this result.

KEILAR: David, I suspect if you asked Donald Trump supporters about this poll, and you even say --

DAVID DRUCKER, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Fake news.

KEILAR: Well, but wouldn't they say, who cares? Do we want other people in the world to like us this? This isn't a popularity contest.

DRUCKER: I think they would not trust the poll.

KEILAR: They wouldn't trust it.

DRUCKER: A talked to a lot of Donald Trump supporters because I want to know how they're thinking because --

KEILAR: Well, people --

DRUCKER: -- their vote matters and they don't trust criticism of the president. They think it's manufactured. They think it's out of context. I think these numbers are interesting, and I think a lot of it has to

do with how the president talks and conducts himself versus in many ways the actions of his foreign policy team which is a very topnotch foreign policy team.

The president gets into Twitter spats with the mayor of London after a devastating terrorist attack there. He jawbones our allies, criticizes them, while coddling Vladimir Putin, a major adversary of ours, and I think that leaves a lot of countries around the world, particularly countries friendly to us and that welcome more aggressive leadership by the United States around the world unhappy with us and not knowing if they can depend on us.

I think the argument that President Trump got into with South Korea some weeks back is very telling. We're in the middle of trying to box in North Korea. There's a very contentious election in South Korea and the president's talking about canceling a missile shield after a previous agreement is made.

His team tries to clean it up and says, no, he didn't mean that, don't worry, we're with you. Trump says what are you talking about? I meant what I said. Maybe we're going to yank this thing.

That kind of inconsistent leadership where your allies and adversaries don't know if you're coming or going, it makes Trump feel as though he's keeping everybody guessing, on their toes, and he thinks that is more effective. But actually if you want to prevent adversaries from doing things we don't want them to do, if we want our allies with us in fights that are important to us, they need to know where we stand and that we're consistent and can count on us. They don't have that with Trump. One of the reasons Putin is doing so well in this poll --

CUOMO: He's not doing that well, he's at 27, OK?

KEILAR: It's not an awesome number.

DRUCKER: But in other words --

KEILAR: Doing better.

DRUCKER: -- trusted more than Trump is because people know where he stands. Thanks for correcting how I phrased that, but people know where he stands.

CUOMO: Right.

[06:40:00] DRUCKER: Or worse mostly but they can depend on it.

CUOMO: Right, but 27, 22, I mean, that's a race that the president should win at some point. Anybody who knows him as a man, Chris Cillizza, Donald Trump needs to be respected. He cares about what the world view is of him, not just because of responsibility and import of his office, but as a man, he wants to be respected, and that's why the attacking of the predecessor is so interesting to me.

CHRIS CILLIZZA, CNN POLITICS, REPORTER AND EDITOR-IN-LARGE: Yes. CUOMO: They must believe in there, right up to the main man himself,

the president of the United States, bashing Obama makes us look good, even on this Russian investigation. I'll even talk about something that I think every time it comes up is bad for me, which clearly the president believes, even about the interference, because I think it's even worse for Obama.

CILIZZA: So, I think he has -- first of all, Chris, the fundamental thing to understand about Donald Trump psychologically, you look ate his whole life he viewed himself as on the outside looking in, right? Father was a developer in Queens, but not in Manhattan. He goes into Manhattan but not accepted by the big developers, the big money in Manhattan.

He has to start his own golf clubs because the really exclusive golf clubs don't want him. When he comes to Washington in 2011, the Washington folks laugh at him because of the idea he might run for president. So, everything is motivated by that sort of face pressed against its glass, I'll show them mentality.

I think -- so there's a desire to be liked and to be respected. I think the way that he views this particularly as it relates to the world and this is true in this business, the way you get respect is through strength, through unapologetic strength and that Barack Obama didn't do that. And that Donald Trump will, that he will go out, he will be tough, he will be unapologetic. He will tell the world how it is.

And frankly -- and Brianna was touching on this -- if you tell a Trump supporter about this poll, David's right, many of them will disbelieve it, but say they believe it, they'd be thrilled. They don't care that he's not popular in France. They think that's -- that's great. Why should he be popular in France? Look at France, they don't share our values. It's not make France great again. It's make America great again, right? That's his focus.

So, I'm not sure that's all that concerning to him even though maybe it should be as it relates to how we're viewed in the world.

CUOMO: Panel, appreciate it. Pithy insights, as always.

All right. We're going to take a break. When we come back, remembering the fallen, seven sailors lost their lives when that Navy destroyer collided with the merchant ship. We still don't really understand what happened there but we do know we need to honor their memories. There is a ceremony and details, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:46:53] CUOMO: All right. You need to consider the source on this next story, but the report is that North Korea is comparing President Trump to Adolf Hitler. North Korean state media, which is just what it sounds like, an instrument of the regime there, describing the president's America first policy as Nazism in the 21st century.

The tough talk comes days after American student Otto Warmbier died, following 17 months of detention in North Korea. Many call his death a homicide, caused by some action in North Korea. Expanded sanctions are expected against Pyongyang over a series of missile tests in addition.

KEILAR: The U.S. Navy is holding a memorial service for the seven sailors killed when their destroyer, the USS Fitzgerald, collided with a container ship off Japan's coast earlier this month. The ceremony was held at the naval base in Japan where the Fitzgerald is based and more than 2,000 sailors and their families attended opinion an investigation is under way into what led to the deadly crash.

CUOMO: All right. We said bad weather to keep track of, severe storms are going to pound the central U.S. What could it mean?

CNN meteorologist Chad Myers, what do you see, my friend?

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: I see hail, damaging winds and also the potential for tornadoes across the upper Midwest.

This weather is brought to you by Purina, your pet, our passion.

So, the weather this morning is in the Northeast, in fact, a little round of showers just moved through New York City and we'll see some storms upstate today but that's not the weather we're concerned about. It's there, Nebraska, Kansas, South Dakota, all the way through Colorado, that's where the storm coming out of Montana this morning will be this afternoon.

The storms are always bigger in the afternoon because the sun's out, and that sun heats the ground and the air wants to rise like a hot air balloon and that's how you get the bigger storms. That's the area of severe weather for today. The biggest threat damaging hail, hail big enough to damage your car for sure out there.

So, make sure you, your pets, the farm, everything, protected out there in the Midwest -- Brianna.

KEILAR: All right. Take some cover there. Chad Myers, thank you so much.

The Supreme Court agreeing to hear arguments on the president's travel ban this fall. Is this a victory for the president? We're going to dig deeper, ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:52:42] CUOMO: Donald Trump's controversial travel ban is headed for the Supreme Court. They agreed to hear it in full in the fall. But the highest court did already reinstate parts of the halted ban, announcing those parts will go forward and they put in their own test how to qualify people for entry into this country.

Joining us now is CNN senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin.

And as much as I love to have you on the show for any reason.

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Yes, sir.

CUOMO: I actually need you this morning.

TOOBIN: Yes, sir.

CUOMO: Usually, their orders are like a paragraph, final word. It's like 16 pages. I've been through it. It seems very complex for the court in a situation like this.

How do you see it? What happened?

TOOBIN: Well, this was clearly a compromise within the court, and about the issue as a whole. But I think it's important to emphasize that all nine justices, liberals and conservatives alike thought some of the travel ban reinstated. So, there's no question, that's a victory for Donald Trump and his administration.

What they didn't do was prohibit the people who had some contacts with the United States, the people who had job offers here, close family members here, if they're admitted students here, they will still be allowed to come from those six countries.

CUOMO: Well, they say students with acceptance, workers with jobs, speakers who are invited, but then there was this other catch-all, bona fide as we would say, bona fide relationships they can show credible proof of.

What does that mean?

TOOBIN: Well, I don't think it's all that complicated. I mean, I think it means people who have relationships here, people who have families.

CUOMO: What kind of relationships?

TOOBIN: I mean, it's going to --

CUOMO: They didn't say family, though.

TOOBIN: Well, I mean, you know, immigration authorities are used to making value judgments. I mean, this is not something new to the immigration -- this is not something that consular officials have made before. They have to evaluate people's ties here.

And remember, you're talking about six countries that don't have a lot of immigration to the United States as it is. So, you're not talking about thousands of people. There will be some judgment calls and I expect some people will go to court because they're not happy with the decision.

But I also think that this is a reasonable compromise for the court to engage in, as they await whether deciding to hear the case.

[06:55:06] Another point to consider is that this order, the executive order, we don't talk about this a lot, is that it was meant to be a pause for 90 days. CUOMO: Yes, 90 days.

TOOBIN: Those 90 days will be up by the time the Supreme Court hears this case. I think it's entirely possible that the Supreme Court says we're not going to hear this case in the fall. This is moot. The 90 days is passed. We're going to wait for the Trump administration to pass a new order based on its investigation.

CUOMO: What if they don't? What if there is no additional executive order and which they very well could do says we've taken the 90 days, we figured out new procedures and we're going to permanently install these rules.

TOOBIN: Then the court has two choices. One is they send the whole thing back to the district court to be litigated again, with a permanent rule, or they simply decide the case. They simply say whether this is a legitimate use of the president's power.

CUOMO: Why --

TOOBIN: And, by the way, I just think, you know, the Supreme Court has always been receptive to claims of national security, claims of executive authority than the Fourth Circuit and the Ninth Circuit which decided this case. I've always thought, and yesterday's order is indicative of this, that the Trump administration is in better shape in the Supreme Court than they are in --

CUOMO: I'm surprised they didn't win outright, you know, given --

TOOBIN: He may yet.

CUOMO: Given what the court's history is, in this regard on this issue, as you point out.

Another thing, switch hats for a second and put on a political hat.

TOOBIN: OK.

CUOMO: Why is this being declared a victory given what we're saying right now? They were always on pretty good legal ground. He screwed it up in the first order in terms of hyper-extending what would have been the traditional purview of the president. Politically, even if it is proven that he has a right to do this, that doesn't make it true that it is right. This doesn't mean that he is articulated a real national threat. Has doesn't mean that he's really keeping us safe from the people we need to worry about most.

TOOBIN: Well, to answer your question politically, I think when the Supreme Court says you can do much of what you wanted to do, that's both a legal and political victory especially since you've been slapped around by the court so much. So, I mean, I don't think there is any doubt this is a political and legal victory for the president.

CUOMO: The baker case, the baker who doesn't want to make the case for same-sex couples saying it's a violation of their religious liberty. The court says we'll hear it in the fall. Expected issues? TOOBIN: It's a tough case, because as always it's about competing

issues, competing values. Is the ban on -- is this like where a baker says, you know what? I will not bake a cake for an interracial marriage. I will not bake a cake for a mixed religion marriage.

CUOMO: Could a baker do that?

TOOBIN: I don't think so.

CUOMO: Why not?

TOOBIN: Not under current laws, because anti-discrimination laws have been interpreted, you don't have the right to discriminate on the basis of race, even for religious purposes. I mean, there were a lot of cases about that when the Civil Rights Act passed in the '60s, people said I have a religious objection to the mixing of the races and the courts said in effect too bad.

CUOMO: So, if you're going to have this baking just like anything else you have to follow the law of the land.

TOOBIN: If you're open to the public, you have to admit the public. But the question is, is gay rights in the same category or do people's religious objections to same-sex marriages qualify differently than racial intermarriage cases, and I think it's -- I don't know how the court is going to come out.

Gorsuch is proving to be Clarence Thomas-like in his conservatism, very conservative across the board. He's voted in 15 cases, the only justice he's voted with in all 15 cases is Clarence Thomas.

CUOMO: The Democrats said he may seem genial on the outside, but what will he be when he gets inside the room, we're seeing that now.

TOOBIN: Indeed.

CUOMO: Jeffrey Toobin, perfect as always.

And thanks to you our international viewers for watching. For you, "CNN NEWSROOM" will be next.

For our U.S. viewers we have a big day in a battle over health care. This CBO score, what this bill means for families like yours is going to make a difference. What do you say?

Let's get after it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY), SENATE MINORITY LEADER: This CBO report should be the end of the road for Trumpcare.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are no longer forcing someone by a policy that they don't want.

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: If you're on the fence, I'm not so sure this report helps you much.

SEAN SPICER, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: He wants a bill that has heart, wants to make sure people have access and that it's affordable.

SEN. LISA MURKOWSKI (R), ALASKA: These are our families that are being impacted. So let's please get it right.

KEILAR: The Trump administration says Syria could be preparing another chemical attack.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a very ominous statement but very much a red line.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: When you kill innocent children, innocent babies, that crosses many, many lines.