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White House Struggles on Abuse Scandal; Trump Defends Aide; Senate to Introduce Immigration Plan. Aired 7:00-7:30a ET

Aired February 12, 2018 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:00] KELLYANNE CONWAY, WHITE HOUSE COUNSELOR: One week ago Rob Porter was a top aide. Today he's out of the White House.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think the chief of staff is doing a really good job. And, most importantly, I think the president thinks he's doing a great job as well.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We thought Kelly was the guy who could manage the place. You cannot make a bigger mess than you're cleaning up.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The president doesn't want you to see these facts because it completely undermines his claim of vindication.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We will be releasing that memo. We've asked them to clean it up.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My understanding is that there are additional sources and methods revealed in the Democratic memo.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I urge all my colleagues to read the memo so that they can know what Donald Trump is trying to hide.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome to your NEW DAY. Alisyn is on assignment. Erica Hill joins me.

Thank you for being here on a Monday.

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: Good to be with you.

CUOMO: Good to have you.

The Trump White House struggling still to get the story straight on the scandal rocking the West Wing for nearly a week now, largely because of its inability to give one true story. Trump aides defending the president's chief of staff, General John Kelly, over his handling of the domestic abuse allegations that led to the ouster of Rob Porter. President Trump taking heat for a tweet that defends men accused of sexual misconduct and dismissing the women alleging abuse. Porter's second ex-wife now responding to the president's apparent lack of empathy with a new essay. HILL: Meantime, a big day on Capitol Hill. The Senate begins debating one of the thorniest issues in Washington and frankly across the country, immigration. GOP senators will introduce President Trump's plan, which faces an uncertain future. Can Congress, though, strike a deal to protect dreamers? Well, the White House, we should point out, also set to unveil today its $1.5 trillion infrastructure plan. The big question, how do they pay for it?

A lot to cover on this Monday. We begin with CNN's Kaitlan Collins, who's live at the White House

Kaitlan.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, Erica, it's been six days since Rob Porter resigned and the White House is still struggle to give a consistent explanation of who knew what and when. All while the president's public remarks on this situation are raising questions about just how seriously he takes these allegations.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS: Top White House aides doing damage control, denying reports that President Trump is considering replacing Chief of Staff John Kelly amid criticism over his handling of the domestic abuse allegations against his right-hand man, Rob Porter.

KELLYANNE CONWAY, COUNSELOR TO PRESIDENT TRUMP: I spoke to the president. He said please tell Jake that I have full faith in Chief of Staff John Kelly, and that I am not actively searching for replacements. He said, I saw that all over the news today. I have faith in him.

COLLINS: White House Budget Director Mick Mulvaney downplaying reports that he's being considered for Kelly's job.

MICK MULVANEY, WHITE HOUSE BUDGET DIRECTOR: I don't want that job. I love the job -- jobs that I have now. And, more importantly, I think the chief of staff is doing a really good job.

COLLINS: This even as some Republicans are calling on Kelly to explain why he continued to elevate Porter's profile in the West Wing despite learning about the allegations months ago.

FORMER GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE (R), NEW JERSEY: I think, in the end, we've got to hear from John Kelly as to what he knew. And I think the president needs to hear that before he can make an evaluation of competence.

COLLINS: Multiple aides insisting that the president is disturbed by the allegations and sympathetic towards Porter's accusers.

MARC SHORT, WHITE HOUSE LEGISLATIVE AFFAIRS DIRECTOR: He's very disappointed in it. And I think that he believes that the resignation was appropriate.

CONWAY: I think the president, like the rest of us, were shocked and disturbed by the allegations. This is not the Rob Porter any of us have worked with. But, George, you're looking at contemporaneous police reports, at pictures, at details, allegations by these women.

COLLINS: This characterization a stark contrast to the president's tweet over the weekend declaring, people's lives are being shattered and destroyed by a mere allegation, after he expressed sympathy for Porter Friday but said nothing about his alleged victims.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We certainly wish him well. It a -- obviously a tough the time for him. He says he's innocent. And I think you have to remember that.

COLLINS: Porter's second wife, Jennifer Willoughby, slamming Mr. Trump's response in an essay for "Time" magazine, writing that the president's words were, quote, meant to imply that I am a liar. Willoughby adding that despite Mr. Trump's dismissal, I want to assure you that my truth has not been diminished.

Meanwhile, Axios is reporting that Porter has been telling associates that some senior White House officials strongly encouraged him to stay and fight rather than resign. Porter reportedly also maintaining that he never misrepresented anything to Kelly, as the White House continues to insist they were misled.

MULVANEY: Under the circumstances, he wasn't entirely forthcoming with him. And I think the photographs took everybody by surprise.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS: So, as you can see there, Erica and Chris, a messy trail of conflicting statements coming out of the White House as the outcry over this is stretching into a new week on the day that the president is expected to unveil his $1.5 trillion infrastructure plan.

CUOMO: All right, Kaitlan, thank you very much.

Joining us now, CNN political analyst David Gregory and associate editor of RealClearPolitics, A.B. Stoddard.

Good to have you both.

[07:05:00] David, you know, people will say, boy, you guys just can't move off of this story. How can we when we don't know what this story is? We haven't gotten a straight line out of them. Congratulations to Kellyanne Conway. She at least said the right thing in terms of respecting the women's allegations on the show yesterday, but that's not a unified voice coming out of the White House.

DAVID GREGORY, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: No, it's a mess. And I don't know that we're going to get to the bottom of it, Chris, but there's a lot to get to. This was poorly handled, either bungled or full of deceit or both. There are real questions about John Kelly's role here as chief of staff. But they have closed ranks, as I say. And I think this weekend showed that.

The president also showed us two different things. On the one hand, he's willing to get rid of the guy because there's internal pressure, enough people saying to him, no, no, you can't keep him around, even though there's ample evidence that he was encouraged to stick around throughout all of this and people knew about these allegations and kept him along because they liked him a lot, thought he was doing a great job.

And then the president and his kind of public face, with his comments, is going to be true to form. You know, the guy's been accused of sexual misconduct in the past and it's going to show this insensitivity toward sexual misconduct and/or abuse and side with those who are accused. And, at the same time, kind of wade into another cultural flashpoint to try to stir up his own supporters in the moment -- in this Me Too moment. An incredibly important moment in our country.

So he's doing all of these things at once, but I think it's pretty clear which way he wants to go, which is kind of straight past it.

HILL: Well, we also saw pretty clearly thoughts in the tweet over the weekend, people's lives are being shattered and destroyed by a mere allegation. Some are true and some are false. Some are old and some are new. There's no recovery for someone falsely accused. Life and career are gone. Is there no such thing any longer as due process?

What's interesting here to is, I mean, yes, the president is really setting the tone in many ways for the country here and it is not a tone, to David's point, that a lot of people would like to see.

CUOMO: And he's talking about himself in that tweet, obviously.

HILL: And, yes, likely he is. But he's also shown a very clear pattern here in terms of who he sides with. It is along party lines, often times. It's also along gender lines. As we look at what's happening here, A.B., and as we're moving forward, when do we get to the point where it finally catches up with the president? Is that actually going to happen? We look at all the people on the screen there. Roy Moore, he said, well he totally denies it.

A.B. STODDARD, ASSOCIATE EDITOR, REALCLEARPOLITICS: I know. It's really interesting actually that Mick Mulvaney said yesterday, a member of his cabinet, that he might have been thinking of Steve Wynn when he wrote that tweet, which just shows you how many interesting characters there are around the orbit of President Trump, that he would have to be thinking of someone that none of the rest of us were thinking about when he -- when he -- when he wrote that tweet on Saturday morning.

Look, I think that the president's record on this is clear and it's not going to change and his supporters don't much care, although Ron Brownstein has been pointing out that his -- his support among women in recent polling, women who voted for him by 61 percent, white women without a college degree, he's now below 50 percent with them. And with women with a college degree, he's at 29 percent.

My question to congressional Republicans is, why remain silent on this? Why -- you're not in John Kelly's head. You're not trying to keep a stable White House and hold on to staffers you think, despite having serious failings and perhaps even being potential criminals, are worth keeping because you think they're so capable that they're required to stay in a job in a chaotic place. What are congressional Republicans doing being so silent on this issue when they easily could come out, after seeing those photographs and reading these accounts and say that this is obviously someone, even if they knew him in the Senate, where Rob Porter worked for a long time for Senator Hatch, they could come out and say something.

It is their hides that are on the line in November when they're facing many headwinds in the midterm elections. And I will remind them that women can actually vote. So this is something they should consider in the next months to come.

GREGORY: Well, I mean it's a good point. And it's, I think, an obvious point for a lot of congressional Republicans. But I don't think they want to go anywhere near this. How many examples now do we have of congressional Republicans just shying away from an issue that the president will go straight into. They want to talk about the tax cut, the impact of the tax cut. They may not like this market volatility, nor will the president as a result in the financial markets. But the president will go right there. And he'll go there, just like the kneeling in the NFL, because there's a lot of people who have followed the Me Too movement and said, wait a minute, what about due process for someone who is accused?

CUOMO: Right. Right.

GREGORY: This is a horrible example to use that in. And instead of doing the appropriate and the easy thing in this situation, which is to say, hey, this guy who worked for me, I, you know, I care about him, great reputation. This is so sad. But I'm also thinking about these women who were involved and what horrible abuse they apparently went through. There are photographs. There are contemporaneous police reports. As Kellyanne Conway pointed out, it was so easy to do the right thing.

[07:10:09] CUOMO: And it wouldn't matter because it's such an obvious ploy by this president to cover his own behind, if there weren't this echo effect by mostly all these men who support President Trump. And it's a danger here. Workplace appropriate behavior matters. Systemic change matters.

But, you know, A.B., this is domestic abuse we're talking about. This isn't inappropriate conduct. Women die because of this. It is a scourge in our society. And the president is just glossing all over that because it suits him, and for another reason with this Rob Porter.

Let's be honest. This guy didn't have a security clearance for a reason. Neither does Jared Kushner. The guy's got dozens of changes to his financial disclosures. And the question becomes pretty obvious here, is that did they have to ignore this because they can't lock down on clearances because the president's son-in-law is hanging out there with a dubious clearance right now? STODDARD: The president can't acknowledge domestic violence or sexual

harassment because he's on tape talking -- bragging about grabbing women and assaulting them and he has a whole bunch of accusers of his own. So he's not going to be talking about women as victims. And that's why he was sticking up for Rob Porter on Friday. They can't start, you know, getting into the details on what a liability and interim security clearance is of course because, as you point out, his son-in-law can't get a full one.

They -- rules are out the window in this administration, as you know, especially within the West Wing, and that's -- they're doing what they want to do. They've made that perfectly clear, that they don't really consider those things, you know, disqualifying for the son-in-law or for Rob Porter or anyone else. And that's a separate issue.

The fact that this domestic violence thing is different than sexual harassment really needs to be underlined. It's clear that the White House really didn't believe that this was a huge, potent issue and a liability until they saw the photographs. President Trump is very visual. He's obsessed with television. And he knew that those photographs were going to be repeated on air. And that changed his mind.

And Axios is reporting over the weekend that President Trump thinks that people who beat their wives are sick, even though he stuck up for Rob Porter and said nothing about those women on Friday on camera.

HILL: Well, and let's -- let's make (INAUDIBLE) on the photograph here. It's not like the photograph had the president coming out and saying, hey, this is an issue. I mean he did that with -- and we have both pictures side by side. He did that with Al Franken. And he said, it's really sad if you look at that picture -- I'm paraphrasing here -- but he used the phrase, that picture of Franken is worth a thousand words, essentially.

CUOMO: Yes.

STODDARD: Yes.

HILL: And the picture of Colbie Holderness is worth how many words? Apparently zero when it comes to talking about the women who were detailing their abuse here.

David, really quickly on the point of the security clearances.

You know, CNN has been reporting for some time, as we're looking into this, there are dozens of people, 30 to 40, not just Jared Kushner and up until a few days ago Rob Porter, who were missing these security clearances, who were still working it out.

CUOMO: Maybe they can't give attention to them because they're vulnerable on it, especially with Kushner.

HILL: Right.

GREGORY: Right. HILL: When does it -- when does it catch up and when does that actually get dealt with?

GREGORY: Well, you know, I don't know when it catches up because it's got to be, you know, leadership in Washington that presses this point because what I fear is, a lot of people in the public hear this and think, oh, you know, this is kind of whining and carping about what official Washington does. And we sent Donald Trump there to be a change agent and we're not going to pay attention of these things, which is just further erosion of governance that people look the other way on and say, oh, but, look, but didn't he keep his promises and hasn't he really shaken up Washington? That's a divide that I think is -- is dangerous here.

CUOMO: And this -- and once again, we do this on the show often, do you hear that? That's the silence from Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan. Ryan talked about what's presidential and what isn't when Obama was in there. And now, once again, another moment that screamed for their leadership missed.

HILL: David, A.B., appreciate it. Thank you both.

The immigration debate kicking off in the Senate today. Can lawmakers get a deal done for dreamers? A Republican congressman who has been at the center of those negotiations joins us next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:18:26] HILL: The Trump White House has said a lot in defense of former White House aide Rob Porter and his boss, Chief of Staff John Kelly. They can't seem to get the story straight, though, when it comes to the abuse scandal rocking the West Wing.

Let's discuss now with Republican Congressman Carlos Curbelo of Florida.

Sir, good to have you with us.

REP. CARLOS CURBELO (R), FLORIDA: Good morning from Miami. Good to be with you.

HILL: There is an inconsistent message at best here that we're hearing out of the White House as to what happened and when and who knew what when. If you were advising the White House this morning, what should the message be?

CURBELO: I think it's important for them to be transparent and explicit about who knew what, when and why it took so long to act. I can speak for myself that I learned that someone I was considering hiring here was on my team. There were serious domestic abuse allegations against him. I would take action as quickly as possible. We don't know that that's what happened in the White House and I think we need further explanation.

HILL: Is the president's messaging on this appropriate? Is it what you would advise the commander in chief? CURBELO: Well, no. I think, first, especially after looking at those

pictures, we have to really express the concern and the pain that we feel for those women because, obviously, someone abused them, but we don't know the details and we're not here to convict anyone. But, obviously, they were abused. They are victims. And they should be treated and talked about as such.

Now, I understand the president's sentiment too. I don't think we need to rush to convict people, to condemn people. And, yes, everyone should have the ability to defend themselves but that doesn't mean that we ignore the pain and the suffering of the victims of domestic abuse, which is very real and very serious.

[07:20:12] HILL: A lot of this, especially over the last couple of months, has been boiling down political lines, which is disturbing for a number of people who have lived through it. And I want to pull something from -- Jennie Willoughby, who wrote an opinion piece for "Time" over the weekend saying, ultimately this is not a political issue. This is a societal issue. And the tone has just been reset by the White House. If the most powerful people in the nation do not believe my story of abuse in the face of overwhelming evidence, then what do other -- what hope do others have of being heard?

You have been outspoken about the Me Too movement. You've talked about your daughters and the importance of women being heard. How much is this current conversation and what we're hearing -- what we are hearing from the president and what we're not hearing from both the president and from leaders in Washington, how much is that impacting women out there who are concerned about their voices being heard?

CURBELO: Well, this is a very important point. There's not a Republican truth and a Democratic truth in our country. And there's not a pro-Trump truth and anti-Trump truth. There is one truth. And I think all of us, especially those in leadership positions, those who have been elected by communities to represent them, need to stand by the truth. And we need to stand by what is decent and what is appropriate.

And especially when it comes to these issues of the treatment of women, whether it's sexual harassment or sexual abuse or domestic abuse, whatever it is, there is one truth, which is that all of this is wrong. It is all unacceptable no matter if a Republican does it or if a Democrat does it. I think you've seen Congress come together on some of these issues in a way that's somewhat encouraging. We need everyone else in our country to do it as well. And we need people to act the way they would want to have their children see them act.

And I tell people a lot of times, you know, I'm -- I -- I often think about my daughters and the way that they would perceive these things. And what I teach them and the way I conduct myself, whether it's in public debate or in weighing these important issues should be consistent with what I want my children to learn at home and at school. So I do think that's a -- that's an important point. And I think we all, in this country, need to work a little harder to put our political difference aside. And when it comes to basic truths, rally around those so that we can have a more successful and happier society that we can all be proud of.

HILL: And a discussion that we will -- we will continue on.

But I do want to get your take on immigration. We know this is obviously near and dear to you. You were hoping for a path to citizenship for dreamers. You brought a dreamer with you to the State of the Union.

The Senate taking this up today. You spoke with Paul Ryan last week and you said he gave you his strongest commitment yet that DACA legislation will be considered on the floor of the House. Did he commit to open debate?

CURBELO: Well, the speaker agreed to -- considering a legislation on the House floor. And I'll tell you why this is so significant. In 2013, the Senate went first, passed a broad, comprehensive immigration reform bill. And in 2013 passed, 2014 passed, and the House did absolutely nothing. And the guarantee that I wanted before last week's vote on the bipartisan budget agreement was that this time was going to be different, that the House was actually going to take action on immigration.

I cannot guarantee any outcomes, and the speaker can't either, because we need 218 or so votes in the House. But the fact that immigration legislation is going to be considered in the House is a major development. It's wonderful news. I look forward to what happens in the Senate this week and maybe next. We know it's going to be a robust, bipartisan debate and that a consensus product should emerge.

I would like to see a similar process in the House. But as long as the House moves immigration legislation, we can then go to conference and get a product that a lot of members can support. That's the goal.

And, by the way, it would be historic. We have been debating immigration reform in this country for a very long time. The time for action is now.

HILL: And we'll be watch to see what that action is.

In terms of the speaker of the House, Jim Jordan, over the weekend, saying that there are some issues with Paul Ryan. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JIM JORDAN (R), OHIO: He could have stood firm from the position that we passed earlier in the week, the position that our conference then supported. I wish he would have done that. So do I think the speaker has problems? Yes, I do, particularly now as we head into this big immigration debate.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: Does Paul Ryan have problems here? Do you have faith in the speaker of the House?

CURBELO: I certainly do. And I don't think Paul Ryan has problems at all beyond the challenges of being speaker of the House, which we don't know how difficult a job it is. But that criticism is coming from the wing of the Republican Party that does not see politics as the art of the possible. They see it as the measure of our differences. And that's just wrong.

[07:25:17] When you're a congressional leader, you have to work across the aisle. You have to forge these bipartisan compromises. And no compromise pleases anyone fully. However, that's the nature of the system we're in.

By the way, for a lot of these conservatives that call themselves constitutionalists, this is what the founding fathers envisioned. Republicans and Democrats. People with different perspectives coming together and forging compromises. The reason we know that is because our Constitution is replete with compromises.

So it's unfortunate that some in the House Republican Conference are, again, trying to start trouble when they know that all Paul Ryan is doing is what any congressional leader has to do, which is to sit at the table and reach a compromise so that we can fund the federal government. Chuck Schumer isn't 100 percent happy with the deal that was cut. Nancy Pelosi isn't either. She actually whipped against it, even though she signed off of (ph) it. Think about that. So Paul Ryan is doing the best he can with institutions that require people to work together.

HILL: We are going to have to leave it there. Appreciate your time. Thanks again.

CURBELO: All right. You all have a good day.

CUOMO: All right, so Adam Schiff is going to meet with the FBI to discussion redactions to the Democratic rebuttal memo that President Trump decided not to release. What will change? Anything change? Are we seeing a single or a double standard? A fellow Democrat on the Intel Committee joins us next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)