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Comic Sparks Controversy With White House Dinner Monologue; Trump's History Of Insulting Comments; President Trump Says He Has Everything To Do With North Korea Breakthrough; Caravan Of Central Americans Hope For Asylum At U.S. Border. Aired 7:30-8a ET
Aired April 30, 2018 - 07:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[07:30:00] ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Barack Obama was roasted.
MATT SCHLAPP, FORMER POLITICAL DIRECTOR FOR PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: Let me --
CAMEROTA: George W. Bush was roasted -- always.
SCHLAPP: Let me just help -- let me just --
CAMEROTA: No, I'm just asking about your consistency.
SCHLAPP: OK.
CAMEROTA: Your consistency.
SCHLAPP: I've been on your show for a long time.
CAMEROTA: Do you think --
SCHLAPP: I'll take all these questions. I've answered all the questions --
CAMEROTA: Yes, and do you think -- here's my last question. Do you think the President of the United States should be held to a different standard with what he says in public than with what a daily show comedian?
SCHLAPP: A much higher standard -- a much higher standard.
And by the way, all of us should be held to a high standard and when people cross the line and do things that are repulsive and disgusting, like make fun of abortion --
CAMEROTA: Yes.
SCHLAPP: -- at a big dinner, I don't think we should laugh about it, and we should call it out.
CAMEROTA: Sure.
SCHLAPP: And by the way, Alisyn, you should, too. I called it out, Andrea Mitchell called it out, Mika Brzezinski called it out. CAMEROTA: Hey --
SCHLAPP: The head of the Washington Correspondents' Association --
CAMEROTA: Yes.
SCHLAPP: -- called it out. Call it out.
CAMEROTA: Sure. We've been talking about it --
SCHLAPP: Just say this was over the line.
CAMEROTA: Hey listen, Matt, we've been talking about it all morning and what people's comfort levels are. But what I'm asking you is if you're comfortable --
SCHLAPP: Will you call it out?
CAMEROTA: Hey, Matt, I ask the questions here.
What I'm asking you is why aren't you calling out making fun of a disabled reporter?
SCHLAPP: If -- I said this. I'll say it again.
We shouldn't make fun of people who are disabled. If that was the intent of what the president did, he shouldn't have done it.
I've said on your show a million times he is at his best when he fights on the policy agenda because the policy agenda is what the American people are rooting him on for. They're seeing a difference in the economy --
CAMEROTA: Yes.
SCHLAPP: -- and they're seeing a difference in their lives. When it's not about that it gets worse.
But for the president also, he is mocked more than anybody on the face of the earth. And it's also OK for him to defend himself --
CAMEROTA: Sure.
SCHLAPP: -- and I'm OK with that.
CAMEROTA: That's fine. But I'm saying that that dinner -- that he didn't get any sort of special treatment at that dinner. I've heard all sorts of presidents --
SCHLAPP: That not right.
CAMEROTA: -- criticize how he mocked (ph). That's it, Matt.
SCHLAPP: It's not right.
CAMEROTA: That's what the comedians do. But look -- SCHLAPP: No, no, no. We know this. Look, as a conservative -- let me just say this. I'll get it off my chest fast.
As a conservative, you're going to go to a Washington dinner, you know you're going to get mocked. We knew we were going to get mocked that night. We can handle being mocked.
This was beyond being mocked. This is mean-spirited. This is -- this is jokes about things like abortion.
Things that our society really just finds repugnant, and American found it repugnant, and most journalists found it repugnant. And I think it's a good thing that they found it so.
CAMEROTA: Yes. Matt, listen, it's totally your prerogative to get up and walk out but it's just --
SCHLAPP: It is.
CAMEROTA: -- taking your temperature on all of these things.
SCHLAPP: Would you have walked out with me?
CAMEROTA: No, I would not have walked out. I don't think that abortion jokes are funny but I --
SCHLAPP: Good for you.
CAMEROTA: -- would not have walked out. I definitely thought that there were cringeworthy moments --
SCHLAPP: Right.
CAMEROTA: -- and everybody has their own comfort level.
SCHLAPP: That's right.
CAMEROTA: And so, I thought that it was interesting to check.
You know, listen, your wife Mercedes, she represents the White House. You, obviously, are an ardent supporter of the president so I think that it's valuable to hear what your breaking point or where you are on the comedy spectrum with when people say things that are really uncomfortable, including the president.
But Matt, listen, thank you.
SCHLAPP: Thank you for having me on.
CAMEROTA: Thanks for being here.
SCHLAPP: OK.
CAMEROTA: Chris --
CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: I mean, you got to be kidding me. Not you -- everything you're saying is the right way and you know I would tell you otherwise.
But it is such obvious hypocrisy at play. How Matt Schlapp or any of these people can defend what the president did with his mannerisms -- and this is just one example. I could give you dozens.
CAMEROTA: Well, he wasn't defending. He was saying he wasn't --
CUOMO: It could blow right into Berman and Poppy's show.
CAMEROTA: He doesn't know how to interpret that. He wasn't defending.
And he was saying if that -- if the president was, in fact --
CUOMO: Please.
CAMEROTA: -- doing what it appears he was doing, he would not support it. So just to be clear.
CUOMO: But what I'm saying is this. When our partisan politics have gotten to the point where Schlapp will defend that and say well, I'm not really sure what he meant -- and, you know, sometimes he goes over --
CAMEROTA: It's different than --
CUOMO: -- the line and you know -- yes, and the president gets called out for that.
Please -- if you were going to mitigate what the most powerful man in the world says and he's being dead serious, he's trying to divide people. When he says these things he's trying to play the base that Schlapp so protectively covets. And then, you're going to get this upset about a comedian?
CAMEROTA: Is Matt still there?
CUOMO: You know, I mean if you like --
CAMEROTA: Is Matt still plugged in?
CUOMO: -- the jokes or if you don't like the jokes that's one thing.
CAMEROTA: I just feel like we -- that Matt has to respond to that.
SCHLAPP: I'm here.
CAMEROTA: OK.
SCHLAPP: Yes.
CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: I mean, Matt --
SCHLAPP: I'm here. I mean, Chris, come on.
CUOMO: I'm listening to you Matt, but here's my take on it and I've got to tell you it's --
SCHLAPP: I heard your take. I heard it.
CUOMO: But you have to defend that. You can't give the president the benefit of the doubt on everything -- you don't know what he meant to do when he made that mannerism.
Please, if it was
SCHLAPP: Chris --
CUOMO: -- your kid or your wife you would probably change party stripes over it. But you're going to give him the benefit of the doubt.
But this comedian, you're going to say oh, well this was way too far. We need to all stand up against it and walk out.
SCHLAPP: Chris, I never --
CUOMO: Come on.
SCHLAPP: I never said that. I asked Alisyn if she'd walk out with me.
I made a decision -- my wife and I together made a decision that it was too much. We didn't know how much longer she was going to go on --
CUOMO: That's your choice. You free to make it.
SCHLAPP: -- and we got up and left. We were sitting -- we weren't sitting at the front table. We didn't make a raucous. We just simply got up and left.
It was simply a personal decision because it was too --
CUOMO: I'm fine with that.
SCHLAPP: -- much for us.
CUOMO: Good for you.
SCHLAPP: And by the way, if the president or any other politician -- actually, if there are Americans who feel hurt by what they say and it's inappropriate, I don't think that's a good thing either. I don't think it's good for us to attack --
CAMEROTA: Sure.
SCHLAPP: -- people like this but I think --
CAMEROTA: And --
SCHLAPP: You guys do a splendid job of making the case against when the president is over the line all the time, right? CUOMO: You don't have to make a case --
SCHLAPP: And you invite me on, which I appreciate, but what about --
[07:35:00] CUOMO: When you mock someone with disabilities --
SCHLAPP: But what about when the Press Corps --
CUOMO: -- you don't have to make a case. There's no open question.
SCHLAPP: But what about when the Press Corps is over the line? In this case, the White House Press Corps Association --
CUOMO: They weren't the ones telling the jokes.
SCHLAPP: -- admitted that it was a mistake to invite this comedian.
CUOMO: So you call it out.
CAMEROTA: Yes, they admitted it. I mean --
(CROSSTALK)
SCHLAPP: You two -- you two should embrace that.
CUOMO: We did it all morning -- we've been talking about it. We did three segments.
SCHLAPP: I've watched you -- I've watched you but why is it hypocrisy for me to also say about comedians --
CUOMO: Because you're not as upset about what the President of the United States says on a regular basis and he's not joking. So if you're going to care about a comedian and be so offended by jokes that you may think failed or didn't fail -- it's everybody's right to feel different ways about it.
SCHLAPP: Because --
CUOMO: But where is it there, Matt. Where's the selective outrage?
SCHLAPP: -- you feel like Donald Trump -- because you feel like Donald Trump is over the line, right, those of us --
CAMEROTA: But you do not feel --
SCHLAPP: -- who support him --
CUOMO: -- he's over the line. He is over the line and you know it, Matt.
SCHLAPP: Those of us --
CUOMO: You would never tolerate it in somebody who wasn't aligned with your political interests. SCHLAPP: Go through the tapes. Go through the tapes of all the -- for the two years I've been on this show. We have walked through all of these questions. They have been well covered.
I have given all the answers. I've --
(CROSSTALK)
CAMEROTA: You're not walking out on the president in terms of when he makes fun of Carly Fiorina's face or when he makes fun of a disabled reporter -- you're not walking out on the president.
SCHLAPP: I wasn't in the room.
CUOMO: You never use language -- you don't have to be in the room to know how the president meant.
See, that's what I'm talking about, Matt. I wasn't in the room. I have said things.
No, you never say anything about the president like what you're saying about this comedian --
SCHLAPP: It's untrue.
CUOMO: -- and you know that.
SCHLAPP: I've been on your show.
CUOMO: You --
SCHLAPP: Run the tape. Go through all the --
CUOMO: I do. You get plenty upset at Alisyn and me for asking you the questions and calling you on things that are obviously inconsistent.
SCHLAPP: I'm not --
CUOMO: You've never in high dudgeon like you are this morning about anything the president has said.
SCHLAPP: I've been on -- whatever that term meant -- I've been --
CUOMO: High dudgeon?
SCHLAPP: I've been in that state of mind many times --
CUOMO: Google away, my brother.
SCHLAPP: -- on your show.
CUOMO: Information is power.
SCHLAPP: Look, Chris, here's the thing. What's good for the goose is good for the gander. This was a moment when the White House Press Corps actually could have
done something to look graceful and to make the American people say I get it, they're doing their jobs and they're doing it squarely.
CUOMO: The American people do know that.
SCHLAPP: It's bad that the American people believe that there is too often animus on the part of the press.
CUOMO: Of course --
SCHLAPP: They have it in for Trump -- and they have it in for Trump --
CUOMO: And journalists should be jail. The President of the United States says the media --
SCHLAPP: Come on.
CUOMO: -- is your enemy.
SCHLAPP: Come on.
CUOMO: The President of the United States says --
CAMEROTA: What do you mean, come on, Matt? He has said those things.
CUOMO: -- that everything that's reported is a lie if he doesn't like it.
CAMEROTA: Matt, he has said that.
SCHLAPP: Come on.
CUOMO: That's what I'm talking about, Matt.
SCHLAPP: Come on. I don't -- I don't buy into any of that. I don't think that's correct.
CUOMO: What did I just say that isn't true? What did I just say that he hasn't said?
SCHLAPP: All reporters should be in jail?
CUOMO: Come on, no.
He just said in the Comey book in one of the memos and the reflected literature in that book or whatever you want to call it -- that's a whole other discussion -- that maybe we should go back to putting journalists in jail. That will teach you about leaks.
He didn't say that?
SCHLAPP: Chris, do you think it's good to make fun of abortion? Did that offend you?
CUOMO: Hold on. Just hold on. Let's go one step at a time.
SCHLAPP: But I mean, you're --
Look, I'm a practicing Catholic. You know that I have my own feelings personally about what's right and what's wrong.
But I'm a journalist and you're open to everybody's views. And if a joke is good, it's good. If it's bad, it's bad.
SCHLAPP: But it wasn't so good, was it?
CUOMO: It's subjective. But hold on.
SCHLAPP: It wasn't so good.
CUOMO: Hold on. The president didn't say that putting journalists in jail may help stop the leaks? Did he say it or no?
SCHLAPP: I don't know.
CUOMO: You know he did. See, that's what I'm saying, Matt. You play with this selective curiosity, selective outrage.
SCHLAPP: No, no. Let me -- OK, so let me just answer the question. Do I think journalists should go to jail for reporting leaks?
CUOMO: Right.
SCHLAPP: No.
CUOMO: I don't care what you think.
(CROSSTALK)
SCHLAPP: Do I think people in government should go to jail if they break the law? Yes.
CAMEROTA: Yes.
SCHLAPP: If the president said that journalists should go to jail for printing leaks --
CUOMO: He did say it.
SCHLAPP: -- I would tell him I disagree with him.
CAMEROTA: OK, feel free.
SCHLAPP: We did --
(CROSSTALK)
CUOMO: You don't say that the comedian -- you disagree with the comedian. You don't say that.
SCHLAPP: I do. CUOMO: You say I had to walk out. It's terrible. It shows America this and it shows America that.
SCHLAPP: I didn't have to walk out.
CUOMO: But you don't feel --
SCHLAPP: I didn't have to walk out. Chris, what you do --
CUOMO: -- that about Trump and that's why the needle doesn't move. The reason the base isn't growing, Matt Schlapp, is what you're saying right now.
SCHLAPP: But, Chris, what you do --
CUOMO: The base isn't growing because you are not open to anything that you don't agree with.
SCHLAPP: Then why am I on your show? Why am I here?
CUOMO: Because you want the platform and we reward you for that. And when you come on and get to make your case.
SCHLAPP: That's a very mean thing to say. That's a very mean thing to say.
CUOMO: But it doesn't mean that we have to accept it when it doesn't line up with the facts.
SCHLAPP: If you looked at the social media after I come on your show, it's very mean-spirited. I'm sure you all get it as well.
CUOMO: Yes.
SCHLAPP: I'm not growing my platform by coming on your show. I'm coming on your show because I believe in my heart that if we can't talk to each other -- yes, I'm a conservative -- but if we can't talk to each other on these platforms our democracy is doomed.
If the White House Correspondents' Dinner can't have a fun nature with both the Republicans and Democrats, make fun of Pelosi, make fun of Trump, and show the American people you can have political disagreements yet you can come together and still laugh a little bit and have a glass of wine together, we're doomed.
If it's all Fox on one side and all CNN on the other side and nothing that brings people together --
CAMEROTA: Yes.
SCHLAPP: -- we are doomed.
If my organization, CPAC, does nothing but bring on conservatives and only talk to conservatives --
CUOMO: That is what you do. SCHLAPP: -- we are doomed.
CUOMO: That is what you do. You have people up on stage mocking --
SCHLAPP: That is not what we do. You're invited. You're invited. You're both invited.
CUOMO: -- me openly as if I'm some kind of enemy. You never came on and apologized to me. You never sent me a note.
SCHLAPP: I don't know what you're talking about.
CUOMO: You know damn well what I'm talking about.
SCHLAPP: I do not know what you're talking about.
CUOMO: But I'm not the news. I'm not what matters.
SCHLAPP: Chris, Chris --
[07:40:00] CUOMO: You are deciding what matters and what doesn't, Matt. We have you on this show as an embrace of democracy. If we censored people's opinions --
SCHLAPP: Good.
CUOMO: -- that would be different. You're allowed to be on this show whenever you want --
SCHLAPP: Good.
CUOMO: -- even though we get beat up. That's why Alisyn got (INAUDIBLE) because she didn't want to deal with it full-time.
SCHLAPP: And you're invited -- you and Alisyn are invited and I invite you every year through CNN, and you're invited again. Come to CPAC. I'll let you speak.
CUOMO: But, Matt, this is --
SCHLAPP: And I think that that's important that we do that.
CUOMO: Matt, this is what I'm saying.
SCHLAPP: Yes.
CUOMO: Alisyn conducted a very fair interview with you.
SCHLAPP: She always does.
CUOMO: She gave you points to push back for what happened --
CAMEROTA: Thank you. Thank you, both.
CUOMO: -- with the comedian.
CAMEROTA: She always does.
CUOMO: She went after a lot of people, including CNN people. She scolded the media for how we dealt with covering Trump --
CAMEROTA: The comedian.
CUOMO: -- some of us -- the comedian did. And that was all -- they're all fair points.
SCHLAPP: Nobody --
CUOMO: They were good reminders. But let me tell you --
SCHLAPP: But nobody in America --
CUOMO: -- your outrage at her does not match --
SCHLAPP: Nobody in America thinks that that was balanced treatment politically -- nobody.
CUOMO: Oh, that's fine and you may be right.
CAMEROTA: Right, but it doesn't have to be -- the comedian doesn't have to be right.
CUOMO: That's right.
SCHLAPP: OK, 90-10, whatever.
CUOMO: But look, you're OK -- it's OK for you to be upset about it. Here's what's not OK.
SCHLAPP: I'm not upset. I just felt like it was ruined and I didn't want to stay there.
CUOMO: Oh, you clearly were. You walked out. You made sure everybody knew why you were walking out.
SCHLAPP: No, it's not true.
CUOMO: You were -- they were picked up about all over the place. I was reading about it home while I was being attacked on my --
SCHLAPP: Chris, I did not -- I did not hate on myself that way.
CUOMO: I knew you walked out.
SCHLAPP: You weren't there and you don't know.
CUOMO: But I know how it was reported. See --
SCHLAPP: That's doesn't mean it was right. Come on, this is our problem.
CUOMO: Well, it's --
SCHLAPP: Just because something is reported, it's right?
CUOMO: But you did walk out, right?
CAMEROTA: Yes, but he didn't storm out is what he's saying.
SCHLAPP: I didn't storm out.
CUOMO: I didn't say he stormed out. I said you got up and you left and you let people know why. Is that all true?
SCHLAPP: I did not tell people why. I tweeted later in the car because my wife and I --
CUOMO: So then, you did tell people why?
SCHLAPP: -- were in our car and we were like really, that was despicable and --
CUOMO: And so then you did people why. So what I just said is 100 percent accurate. That's not my point.
My point is this.
SCHLAPP: I didn't --
CUOMO: If you want Kumbaya and you want people to come together it's not going to happen because there's a lot of division. But there is common ground --
SCHLAPP: It can happen.
CUOMO: -- and I'll tell you what corrupts the common ground.
I'll tell you what corrupts the initiative to take action on what matters to the American people which is about 80 percent of the issues, right?
You guys spend time on the 20. Why, because division sells. It sells for partisans -- we get that.
SCHLAPP: It sells for you, Chris.
CUOMO: Let me tell you --
SCHLAPP: It sells for you.
CUOMO: Well, let me tell you. It's a mixed blessing having to go after --
SCHLAPP: It is.
CUOMO: -- this stuff all the time. Let me tell you, I'm living that reality and so is Alisyn.
But I'll tell you this. When you come on and you are upset about this comedian the way you are right now, that's your right and it's fair. But you do not match that in any way when it comes to the president and his actions.
I've watched you in this interview say you're not sure --
SCHLAPP: I'm not.
CUOMO: -- what the president meant when he was clearly mocking the exact disability of the reporter that he was talking about.
SCHLAPP: That's not right because you can -- that's not right because you can pull hundreds of clips where he does the very same mannerisms.
CUOMO: Not that way. I've seen the clips.
SCHLAPP: I've seen him do that mannerism --
CUOMO: I've seen the lame defenses.
SCHLAPP: I've seen the mannerism --
CUOMO: This is a man who says --
SCHLAPP: But, Chris --
CUOMO: -- ugly and divisive things on a regular basis. At the same rally in Michigan --
SCHLAPP: Chris, you're going to --
CUOMO: -- he --
SCHLAPP: What you're trying to do is pick out the flaws of Trump to make a larger point.
CUOMO: I'm trying to say that you should be equally outraged.
SCHLAPP: What you need to listen to --
CUOMO: That would give you respect.
SCHLAPP: What you also need to listen to is that there are a lot of Americans out there who, when they watch your show --
CUOMO: Yes.
SCHLAPP: -- and when they watch other shows on television --
CUOMO: Right.
SCHLAPP: -- they feel like they're not -- they feel like there is a desire to get Trump.
That you don't like Trump. That you're trying to hold Trump down. That you're not holding other people to the same standards.
(CROSSTALK)
CUOMO: Because people like you were telling them that, Matt.
SCHLAPP: No, I --
CUOMO: Because you're telling them that at your little CPAC event and when you go out and you speak to people.
SCHLAPP: It's not little. It's actually pretty big.
CUOMO: You say that the president in Michigan said they hate you. The media hates you. Are you outraged by that, Matt?
SCHLAPP: I felt -- I felt like --
CUOMO: You felt what?
SCHLAPP: -- at that dinner that people who are the conservatives --
CUOMO: No, no the dinner. When the president said to the audience --
SCHLAPP: Are you going to let me answer? Please.
CUOMO: No, I'm not.
When the president said --
SCHLAPP: Oh, that's great.
CUOMO: -- to the audience the media hates you, how'd you feel about that because I didn't hear it in your interview with Alisyn?
SCHLAPP: OK. So, Chris, as a conservative, I do feel like there is a dominant piece of the media that hates our point of view on issues -- I do.
CUOMO: That's not what he said.
SCHLAPP: When she mocked abortion the room laughed -- the room laughed.
CAMEROTA: Oh, I don't believe that.
SCHLAPP: I couldn't believe anybody could laugh.
CAMEROTA: Listen, I wasn't there but it sounded like that that one did not go over well.
SCHLAPP: There were groans, too, Alisyn. There were groans, too.
But you all have to admit you guys work in the media. You look at your colleagues.
How do you think they voted in the last election? You know that they didn't vote a majority for Trump. They were probably with Hillary.
This is just the fact.
CAMEROTA: Matt, I don't know about that.
SCHLAPP: The whole dinner started off --
CAMEROTA: I actually don't what my colleagues --
CUOMO: Even if were true it doesn't mean that there's an animus.
SCHLAPP: It is true.
CUOMO: It doesn't mean that there's an animus.
SCHLAPP: It doesn't mean that it has to affect the reporting, I agree --
CUOMO: That's right.
SCHLAPP: -- but I think a lot of Americans believe that it can.
CAMEROTA: Yes.
SCHLAPP: And I think when Margaret --
CAMEROTA: Yes.
SCHLAPP: -- started off the dinner by saying we all know that our president said it took a village, there was a lot of laughter because there's a common -- look, the conservatives, and the liberals, and the Republicans, and the Democrats in that room known that that's a favorable room in the Democrats.
CUOMO: There's nothing conservatives about mocking disabilities, about mocking immigrants, about mocking what character and family is about, and respect for your spouse and women.
SCHLAPP: But you have a moral --
CUOMO: There's nothing conservative about any of those things and you decide to swallow it because it plays to political advantage.
SCHLAPP: You make a moral --
CUOMO: And that's the truth.
SCHLAPP: You make a moral judgment against Trump and that is why --
CUOMO: A make no moral judgments.
SCHLAPP: -- people don't feel -- that's why --
CUOMO: I make none.
SCHLAPP: You just did.
CUOMO: I make none. I'm saying those are not --
SCHLAPP: That's what that statement was. CUOMO: -- those are conservative bedrock. You guys used to make these issues your signature and now, you ignore them all for political experience.
SCHLAPP: That is not true.
CUOMO: That's my point.
SCHLAPP: That is not -- that is not true. What Trump has --
CUOMO: Well then, you come on this show and you be outraged about some of the things that he says that check those boxes that used to make you sick about --
[07:45:03] SCHLAPP: Chris, I did -- I did your show for two years and you asked me all these questions in the campaign --
CUOMO: Yes, and you would --
SCHLAPP: -- and now you're assuming my answers are different than what they were. And the fact is this.
What Donald Trump is doing as president is very much standing up for those values.
CUOMO: All right.
SCHLAPP: He's done more to do things for the conservative movement than we've seen in a generation and I have to stand up and try to help him get that done. I believe in what he's trying to do.
I understand that you think that personally, you find him morally reprehensible.
CUOMO: This is not true.
SCHLAPP: A lot of us don't find that.
CUOMO: You're putting words in our mouths to once again feed a narrative.
But we've got to go. We have other people to talk to this morning.
CAMEROTA: Matt --
SCHLAPP: Alisyn --
CAMEROTA: -- thank you for the Matt marathon.
SCHLAPP: My Lord.
CAMEROTA: Yes. Well, Matt --
SCHLAPP: Thank you.
CAMEROTA: -- we appreciate you coming on and talking to us. SCHLAPP: Thanks for having me on.
CAMEROTA: Thank you for being here.
SCHLAPP: OK.
CAMEROTA: Chris --
CUOMO: My Lord, because that's what Jesus teaches.
All right, let's get --
CAMEROTA: Chris --
CUOMO: -- some reaction to the interview with the Democratic Senator Ben Cardin of Maryland. He's on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
I really want to talk to you about what's going on with North Korea, obviously. But look, just tell me I'm wrong, Senator. You don't it plenty in the past.
Of course, there's more common ground than we're letting on in Washington right now.
When you do any kind of poll you know the American people are sized up about 80 percent. You know you, with your brothers and sisters no matter what the party is, is about 80 percent. You could do something.
But it's this talk -- it's this toxicity of playing to partisan advantage which, fair point, works politically, right? The negative ads in the campaign always work better than the positive ads. We know that through experience.
But it's this kind of talk. I'm outraged by the comedian. She went over the line. She was vicious.
But they never match that outrage on the right with what the president says.
Where do you find common ground if that's the kind of dialogue?
SEN. BEN CARDIN (D-MD), MEMBER, FOREIGN RELATIONS COMMITTEE: Well, Chris, it's good to be with you.
I agree with you completely in regards to what the defenders of Donald Trump when he doesn't tell the truth, he lies, when he misstates the case, when he demeans people, when he acts as a bully, you don't see that outrage. You don't even see them condemning those comments.
So they're very selective in how they go about these issues and we lose credibility.
We need to communicate. We need to listen to each other. We need to come together. Elections are over and you need to govern. You need to work together, and it's very difficult when you have that selective degree of being outraged.
So I agree with this exchange. It went on for a while but I agreed with what you said.
CUOMO: You know, but sometimes you have to have it. Alisyn did such a beautiful interview with him laying out what was there. He had opportunities, Matt Schlapp.
And by the way, he's a respected voice. To people who say don't have him on the show you have to be open to different opinions. You can test them, it can get hot, but it shouldn't be indecent and angry.
He is a great case of how the conservatives have embraced this president and I think it's fair.
You remember the Clinton years. You remember the campaigns that were based on character and how you treat women, and how you treat others, and what kind of moral standard you provide as a leader. That was -- you know, that was chapter and verse for the conservatives.
But now, they're embracing somebody who on a regular basis says things that tear at that fabric -- that tear at our respect for other people from different places. For women -- for just the us versus them dynamic.
I mean, how am I wrong about that?
CARDIN: Leaders have to speak out and that's one of the things I have done on human rights globally. But I also speak out about human rights problems here in the United States. No country's perfect, no person is perfect, and you need to be very clear.
And unfortunately, in regards to Mr. Trump and the way that he conducts his business -- forget the policies right now, but the way that he conducts the business you should be outraged.
CUOMO: I know things about Jon Tester that if I said them he would --
CARDIN: That was terrible.
CUOMO: -- never get elected. Shouldn't he have to say what he knows?
CARDIN: That's absolutely outrageous the way he picked on Jon Tester when this was not Jon Tester. This was a committee doing its work. Johnny Isakson has been part of that.
It's not been a partisan issue. The committee is not working in a partisan manner.
And he picks a very partisan way but he does it in a way that's very demeaning to the individual.
CUOMO: Well, it's also baiting. CARDIN: Yes.
CUOMO: I mean, if he knows things shouldn't he bring them out. If they're so important that they would change the outcome of an election, doesn't he have a duty to the American people to let them know as their number law -- you know, as their number one lawmaker -- as their number one leader in government?
Shouldn't he say what he knows if it's so bad that it would definitely change the fate of an election?
CARDIN: He's making up the facts as he goes. He makes up the stories --
CUOMO: Shouldn't that be called out then of that's -- he can prove it?
CARDIN: Well, we do call him out but unfortunately --
CUOMO: Right.
CARDIN: -- it looks like those who are defending Donald Trump never call him out on these type of things.
CUOMO: That's right, and look -- and I think that's fair. And you also have to do both sides which frustrates everybody.
CARDIN: Yes.
CUOMO: You know, two weeks ago Alisyn and I were talking about the implications of what happens in the Korea -- with the Koreas and if -- all big ifs and all caps underlined and all different types of font structure -- if you're able to have something that goes from armistice to real peace there at the partial or full urging of the United States government under the Trump administration, that is the stuff of a peace prize.
[07:50:02] And I got rained down on for normalizing Trump and all these other things that people on the left get aggravated by.
But now, where things stand, you saw that the South Korean president said I think that just for the effort so far, President Trump should be put up for the Nobel Peace Prize.
What do you make of the idea that the president's administration may be responsible for bringing peace to the Peninsula at some point -- all big ifs -- we get it?
CARDIN: Chris, there is no military that we can resolve the problems with North Korea. They'd be catastrophic. We need a diplomatic solution. We're all rooting for a diplomatic solution.
I applaud the president of South Korea for using the Olympics to start this process going. I am very much encouraged by President Trump and sending at that time the director of the CIA, Mr. Pompeo.
CUOMO: He deserves credit.
CARDIN: Yes, for that, absolutely -- to promote the diplomacy. It's the only way we can -- we can work.
So look, we're a long way away --
CUOMO: Sure.
CARDIN: -- from a successful completion here.
CUOMO: And the administration says that. Mike Pompeo said we have eyes wide open. It could still go sideways.
Kim Jong Un has been deceptive and that regime has been deceptive in the past. But the signs so far are closer than we've been in a long time.
CARDIN: Absolutely, and look, we are on one team, our team -- the United States. We need to calm down things on the Korean Peninsula. We need to denuclearize, ultimately.
But right now, a freeze, getting inspectors in -- that's a big victory for diplomacy. And yes, I will give President Trump credit if we're able to pull this off -- absolutely.
CUOMO: Good for you.
Senator, thank you for coming on --
CARDIN: Thank you.
CUOMO: -- to discuss what matters to the American people. I'm sorry you had to listen -- all right, Alisyn.
CAMEROTA: OK.
A caravan of Central Americans is at the U.S. border hoping to get asylum. CNN's Leyla Santiago has been traveling with them for weeks, so we have her live report on the showdown at the border, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[07:55:50] CAMEROTA: A caravan of Central Americans now at the U.S.- Mexico border after a month-long journey. They want asylum in the U.S. but President Trump is vowing to not let them in.
CNN's Leyla Santiago is live in Tijuana, Mexico with more. So tell us about this journey and what their status is now, Leyla.
LEYLA SANTIAGO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Alisyn, I'll actually show you the images of children. I mean, take a look at this child right now on the floor. This is what we're seeing.
They have arrived at the border and yet, hours later they still find themselves waiting to be let into the United States to seek asylum. We have multiple families that are covered with blankets. I can hear
-- or I heard overnight children crying, coughing, sniffling. I mean, they're not in the best of health conditions given the type of journey that they have taken.
So these folks are outside. There's also a group inside -- a much smaller group made up of mostly women and children.
They have been stopped at the door. A U.S. official basically said to them we are at capacity and so at this time they are not processing asylum claims.
The group, as together -- they made the decision to stay there. They said we will stay as long as we need to, to stay here and get to the United States to seek asylum.
Remember, Attorney General Jeff Sessions and the president said that they are going to send down extra immigration judges as well as U.S. attorneys to adjudicate these cases. But at this point Chris, right now, they wait.
CUOMO: And once again, Leyla, you and your team are in place. It's not easy for you to be there but it's really important for people to see the realities on the ground in this situation. These people aren't just going to go away.
Thank you for being there.
All right, so you've heard all about the uproar over the White House Correspondents' Dinner. So here's one of the fundamental questions. It's not about who found what funny or not, it's if you are outraged by this comedian. That she went too far, she was harsh, she wasn't funny, she was mean.
Shouldn't that be matched by similar feelings about the President of the United States and what he says, and he's not joking? When those two things don't go together what does it mean? We discuss, next.
