Transcripts For CNNW CNN Newsroom With Brooke Baldwin 20190402

The party of Great Health Care. Its good. Its important. The president will be putting forward plans this year that we hope to introduce into congress were doing the same thing with taxes. Remember when we started with taxes, people criticized us for not giving enough details and we sent principals to the hill, one or two pages and from that following the proper legislative process we got a tremendous tax bill that passed into law, also got rid of the individual mandate at that time just as an added benefit. Were going to do the same thing on health care. Cnn Kaitlan Collins is at the white house this afternoon. Do we know what led this president to this aboutface on the Republican Health care plan. Reporter well, brooke, he seems to be heeding the warning of his fellow republicans on capitol hill that didnt want to have the fight. Those are the republican lawmakers sent scrambling when the Trump Administration threw its weight behind the lawsuit that would invalidate obamacare because they knew they did not have a backup for the Affordable Care act so the strategy to get in touch with the president to try to change his opinion is to call him frankly and there was several calls from a steady stream of republican lawmakers but two of those were key. One was from the Senate Majority Mitch Mcconnell and the other was from the House Minority leader kevin mccarthy. Now we know that mcconnells strategy seemed to work because he told the president he thought republicans had a good thing going with the tax on democrats proposal for medicare for all and keep that up and then he advised the president to wait until after the election to try to take any legislative steps here. Now if you look to the president s tweet, the part you just highlighted, you see that is what the president is saying. Hes taking Mitch Mcconnells advice and putting it there. Now white house aides have been struggling to defend this change from the president today. Several of them have gone on television talking about it. But democrats on the other hand see this as a political gift. They are more than pleased to have this fight with the white house and here is what nancy pelosi essentially summed it up as today. And now what is he saying today . It is like nixons secret plan. I have health care youre too young to know. Nixon had a secret plan. Read it in the history books. It is history to you, it is my youth. But anyway, a secret plan in vietnam. This is his secret plan, theyre not going to pass it until after the 2020 election. Reporter so, brooke, the president saying this vote would happen after the 2020 election and assuming that republicans will win back the house. But also this is guaranteeing that health care is going to be front and center in the president ial election. Well have that conversation next, thank you very much. Well talk about it for the next year and a half and along with the president ial punt and campaign pivot and a white house official said now the position is to keep democrats on the defense for the proposal for medicare for all and what we saw today, when a white house official talked to our own jim sciutto. Again, i present you the political reality of what were seeing in the house of representatives where you have the radical left basically controlling these moderate democrats and pushing and advocating for socialized medicine and government takeover of health care which we know would be detrimental to our Health Care System. So with me now, cnn political analyst julia Hirshfeld Davis and from the New York Times julie, nice to see you. And in case one has forgotten, lets a remind people of another promise made. It is going to be a tax reduction of 10 for the middle class. Business will not enter into it. And this will be on top of the tax reduction that the middle class has already gotten. And were putting in a resolution probably this week, i think these folks know about it, and kevin brady has been working on it very hard, really for a couple of months. So we know how that movie ended, julie. Is this now with health care and president trump, is this another example. Politics make a lot of promises but is this another example of promises made but promised not kept. I think so. I think this president certainly has a penchant for in the heat of the moment when he thinks there is political gains to be made, making a lot of promises that he doesnt necessarily have a plan to put in place and that he hasnt really vetted or talked to other republicans about to figure out whether they are feasible or prudent. There was a promise right before the midterm Congressional Election around the time that from the clip you just played where the president was talking about signing executive order to end bridge right citizenship and we havent seen that happen either. That is something that he wanted front and center in the campaign and he thought it was worth talking about that and he didnt follow through. I think the news with this proposal that hes made more recently is that he is heeding the advice for now of elect elected republican officials that are telling him this is not a political winner and we dont have a plan and he seems to agree with that. On the flip side of it all, did trump do the Republican Party a huge favor for the year and a half and saying were the party of health care and vote for us and we have a plan and if asked for specifics, hes like sorry were breaking up and sorry bye. They dont have a plan so they cant give specifics. For sure it is helpful that hes willing to back off of saying were going to have a plan for you next week on putting together a working group. That is helpful to them. But i still think hes created political problem that frankly they already had which is that he keeps talking about repealing obamacare and talking about taking away the system that people know right now even if not everyone loves it, they know that it is there. Democrats are talking about ways in their campaigns to add onto it or to make it stronger and the president and his party seem to be talking about ways to get rid of it and havent come up with an affirmative case for what they would do instead and for a people feel in their pocket books that could be dangeroust terrain to be on. And you mentioned democrats ran on this and did extremely well last november, but how important this issue is right now. Last year we learned today people were borrowing 88 billion just in the last year to pay for health care and polls have shown that health care is one of the most important issues through 2020. How do you think republicans will win without a plan . Well, the strategy certainly seems to be and this is what weve seen the president pivot to today to just attack democrats and say theyre plans for the Health Care System are radical, that it was a government takeover and it would cost too much money and then nobody would have any choices. And really try to get people to turn against what democrats are offering. And i think they may have some success with some voters who are skeptical of the idea who maybe dont like obamacare and skeptical of the idea of adding on still more and whether that system would be helpful to them and the soaring costs they are feeling. But i do think it becomes a big problem for them, republicans saw how well democrats did in the midterm Congressional Election hammering away at the health care message and republicans dont have anything to answer that with except for, well their plan is very bad. So unless they could come up within an affirm tv pl affirm plan it is a liability for the president and the candidates going into 2020 and they are aware of that. Thank you so much. Good to see you. The president erratic and unilateral governing is becoming a pattern in this white house. Chris lizza has new announcement on why this could be his Strategic Plan for reelection in 2020. So what do the last couple of weeks tell us. First of all the Strategic Plan, the big takeaway there is no plan. But ill get to that. But lets go through. Okay, here we have sunday march 24th, you remember it was ten days, nine days ago, brooke, we get bill barr, the attorney general saying he has the report by bob mueller and he said collusion has not been established. Big deal. Very positive news for donald trump. Tuesday, march 26th, this guy, saw him on cable television, michael avenatti, one of the lead instigators against trump, representing stormy daniels, he is arrested on bank and wire fraud as well as extortion. Great week. This is going to set up terrifically for the next month or so for trump, right . Wrong. Because why . Days later Trump Administration announces it is going to side with a texas judge ruling that the aca, the Affordable Care act, obamacare, totally invalidated and they are going to have to replace it entirely. That is trouble. He threatens to close the border at the end of the last week, again in our march poll, brooke, 38 of people approved of how donald trump is handling immigration. 58 of people disapprove. Not a good fight. And then we get to it. The plan is there is no plan. That is true on health care, it is true on closing the border because his aides are scrambling because they dont know how it would even work and true more broadly for trump, there is a theory out there after he won in 2016 that he is playing three dimensional chess and operating from a Strategic Blueprint that is just too complex for any mere mortal like myself to understand. The truth of the matter he is not. He is simply acting and then reacting to the reactions. That is it. So hes the sort of master of puppets and he maybe has no plan and it freaks everyone out and including his own people. But its worked for him so farish. Absolutely. And 2020, talking about the numbers gee numbers were getting, what do you make of how much these three have earned. We have three people who have submitted their reports for the first quarter. Big number here is Bernie Sanders. 18. 2 million and 900,000 individual donors and 12 million for harris and then buttigieg and 158,000 donors. And here is what i would say. This is also of what we expected with the exception of here. This is more. This is the guy who is a mayor of south bend, indiana, who no one could pronounce or knew his name months ago and now he is ahead and 7 million is significant and harris is from california thinking she could raise money and a top tier candidate since she got in and then sanders. It shows where he was in 2015. Cue 2015 when hes running for president and becoming an internet phenomenon and he raised 18. 2 million at the same time in 2019 where he is more of a frontrunner. People forget this, Bernie Sanders raised 228 million in his 2016 campaign. We forgot you are talking about someone, there arent three politicians in america that have raised that. Barack obama and donald trump and Hillary Clinton, other than that, 228 million. So he is on a pace that would put him above that and that would make him, if not the frontrunner fundraisingwise, he would be right there eventually over time with beto orourke and maybe kamala harris. Those are the three that i think with biden presumably who will set the pace fundraisingwise. Mayor from south bend, indiana 17 million who would have thunk. I wont have thunk. Chris, thank you. Fireworks at a House Oversight hearing. The issue, those questionable White House Security clearances. I mean, really, what is next . Putting Nuclear Codes in instagram dms. This is ridiculous. We need to get to the bottom of this. Well discuss. Plus six months after killing of journalist jam ago khashoggi we learned his children are reportedly receiving millions of dollars from saudi arabia. And firing fbi director james comey sits down with cnn and weighs in on the mysterious Mueller Report. Hear his warning and what he said about the president not being exonerated on obstruction. Youre watching cnn. Im brooke baldwin. Biopharmaceutical researchers. Pursuing lifechanging cures in a country that fosters innovation here, they find breakthroughs. Like a way to fight cancer by arming a patients own tcells. Because its not just about the next breakthrough. Its all the ones after that. In just a couple of minutes the House Oversight committee will vote on issuing a subpoena for more information on White House Security clearances as a result of the whistleblower Tricia Newbold alerting that senior officials overruled concerns raised by about 25 individuals who clearance were denied and both Jared Kushner and ivanka trump are among the 25 individuals. Republicans and democrats incredibly divided over this very issue. Here is just a piece from their fiery debate earlier today. This lady was scared. You hear me, shes scared. Shes small in stature and shes already seen what is going on in the white house. She was scared to death. And she was afraid, sadly, of our republican colleagues. First saturday, deposition. Then yesterday a press release to one witnesses while you hand pick parts of her testimony and now today, now today were going to subpoena a guy who just sent us a letter saying hes willing to come here voluntarily. Ive been on this chitty 17 years and never seen anything like this. Oh, please. Youve done it. I havent. There is an antinepotism law in this country that the president has circumvented by having his daughter and soninlaw work in the white house as volunteers. Overturning the security clearances is a choice the commanderinchief can make. Hes the president of the United States. It is not against the law, it is not against policy, there have been no leaks of National Security information. It is not like this process has led to classified emails being on an unsecure server. I will protect whistleblowers, period. Cnn senior Congressional Correspondent manu raju is up live for us now. Lets talk about congresswoman alexandria ocasiocortez sounding the alarm as were others. You talked to her right after the hearing. What did she say to you . Reporter well she and other democrats are raising concerns that this white house does not have adequate safeguards in place in the security clearance process and theyve approved people who should not get security clearances who have access to the nations foremost secrets and who are later deemed unsuitable to have access to that same information. Those are the allegations that were raised in that private witness testimony with Tricia Newbold who the democrats say is a whistleblower from the white house raising serious concerns. Nowo casio cortez said what is next for the white house putting unusual codes on instagram direct messages, that is something she said in the hearing and afterwards i asked her about Jared Kushner and ivanka trump and whether she believes they should have security clearances revoked . Well, you know, i think it depends on the process. Did they go through the full security clearance process and were there any flags raised and were there clearances did that process get overridden through the proper channels. Reporter republicans say this is not anywhere near as bad as the Hillary Clinton email situation. What is your response. It is like i said in committee, were getting reports that there is communication happening with saudi officials via whats app. I mean, like i said in there, what is next instagram dms. This is completely insecure and the issue with that, as we saw in the leadup to so many attacks and so many issues is that when we have insecure channels of communication, anything can get hacked. And if we dont know what what Hostile Forces know about us, we are putting thousands of lives at risk. Reporter so i asked her if she wants to see Jared Kushner before her committee to ask questions. She kicked that up to the chairman of the committee elijah cummings. He has not said that explicitly but he does want to talk to a range of white house officials aware of the security clearance process. They want to know about how these problems they view have been resolved or not being resolved and as you heard from republicans earlier, they view this as a reckless attempt by the democrats to try to smear the white house. They believe there is nothing wrong here that a few places have been overblown so not much agreement and the democrats have subpoena power and plan to use this in moments. Well stand by and wait for that. Thank you very much. And disturbing new reporting concerning the murder of Washington Post journalist jam ago khashoggi. His children have received multimilliondollar houses in stau saudi arabia and Monthly Payments and they are part of the kingdoms attempt to ensure his children will basically keep quiet about their fathers murder. Six months ago today, cash oegy walked into the saudi consulate in istanbul and never heard from again. Saudi operatives face trials soon for the brutal killing and this comes from the post greg miller here with me from d. C. And thank you so much for being on and thinking of all of you all and that it has been six months already. But let me first ask you about your reporting on khashoggis children. What have the saudis given or promises to give them since his death . So there is two pieces of that. What theyve gotten and what they might get and what theyve gotten so far are houses in saudi arabia worth as you said millions of dollars. And they are also getting each of the children is getting a Monthly Payment from the saudi government of between 10,000 and 15,000 a month and that is just ongoing. And then as i said in the story today, they are in position to get many millions more potentially as the cases and trials of the accused killers move forward in saudi arabia. This could easily be perceived as a payoff to keep quiet. I know you quoted them saying such support is part of our custom and culture not attached to anything else. But my question to you, though, is it . Right. The saudi government insists they are not putting any strings on this money. That the saudi government often compensates victims even of natural disasters and this should be viewed in the same way. But of course it cant be viewed in the same way. These are the children, the grown Adult Children of a journalist who was critical of the saudi government and was brutally murdered in a saudi government facility. So i think there is no other way to look at this. There is compensation to the family for that brutal act and i think also in an effort to try to give them no reason to become more outspoken in their criticism of the government. To not become symbols of that regimes repression. You mention the issue of how far to go in protecting their fathers legacy has been a source of tension among the khashoggi siblings. How do you mean . I think that these are siblings and they all have different positions and opinions on this. And so there are a few and i think it is the daughters particularly who have tended to want to be more outspoken, they are the ones that wrote an oped piece for the Washington Post that talked about their father. While the sons have listen, were not going to get our father we should make sure that we get take care of ourselves at this point and ensure that were able to live our lives. And the oldest son obviously wants to continue living in saudi arabia. So that is a very delicate thing for him. He has to consider if the family becomes too critical of the government, would he be able to stay there and continue in his career with his family. Greg miller, thank you very much. The Washington Post. Appreciate it. Today is the democrats deadline for the attorney general to release the Mueller Report and it is that is not likely going to happen, we have heard from bill barr and hell have it out by midapril. Subpoenas are still coming and jpgs, one of the people involved in the investigation, just reacted to the barr letter on cnn. What he says about obstruction. Tech at safelite autoglass, we really pride ourselves on making it easy to get your windshield fixed. With safelite, you can see exactly when well be there. Saving you time for what you love most. Kids whoa kids vo safelite repair, safelite replace people say the secretary general will be with us for quite a long time because he was just extended, so congratulations on that. That is a big thing and i was with you 100 and i think you know that. Weve felt strongly on that. And we worked together on getting some of our allies to pay their fair share. It is called burden sharing and as you know when i came it wasnt so good. And now they are catching up. We have seven of the 28 countries are currently current and the rest are trying to catch up and they will catch up and some of them have no problems because they havent been paying and their very rich. But were looking at the 2 of gdp level and at some point i think it is going to have to go higher than that. I think probably it should be higher. But were at a level of 7 out of the 28. The United States pays for a very big share of nato, a disproportionate share but the relationship with nato is very good. The relationship with the secretary general has been outstanding. And i think tremendous progress has been made, if you look in fact you showed me this originally yourself, if you look at the charts and the Different Things, you go back ten and is a a ten and is a years and it is a roller coaster ride down in terms of payment and since i came to office its a rocket ship up. Weve picked up over 140 billion of additional money and we look like were going to have at least another 100 billion more in spending by the nations, the 28 nations. Were going to have and that is exclusive of the United States. Well have another 100 billion more by 2020 or a little bit into 2020. So tremendous progress has been made and nato is much stronger because of that progress. And mr. Secretary general, it is a great honor to have you with us at the white house. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you, mr. President and thank you for hosting me once again in the white house. It is great to be back. Great to see you and thank you for your strong commitment to nato, to our alliance and to our trans atlantic bond and for your strong position on burden sharing because as just mentioned after years of cutting the Defense Budgets, nato allies have started to invest more and by the end of next year they will add 100 billion more into the Defense Budgets since you took office. And that helps. And it proves also that nato is a strong alliance. We have increases the forces and we have stepped up in our joint fight against terrorism. And we are investing more. So actually north america and the United States and europe, we are doing more together now than we have done for many, many years. And that is all shows the strength of this alliance. We are celebrating the 70th anniversary of nato. So it is great to see you. I look forward to our meeting and thank you for your support. Thank you. And it has been an honor. And were very proud of what is happened over the last couple of years with respect to the relationship and to nato. A lot of the media doesnt understand what took place, but a tremendous amount of additional money was invested by other nations which was a fair thing from the United States from our stand point, the standpoint of the United States and a lot more money will be invested. But weve been picking up a tremendous and disproportionate share and we just want fairness. I have to have fairness for our taxpayer, too, and i think that is what is happening and i very much appreciate it. Thank you all very much. Mr. President , is it your intention to close the border this weekend . What would it take to not close the border . Well i havent made that intention known and im ready to close it if i have to close it. Mexico, as you know, as of yesterday, has been starting to apprehend a lot of people at their southern border. Coming in from honduras and guatemala and el salvador and theyve theyre apprehending thousands of people and it is the first time really in decades that this is taken place and this should have taken place a long time ago. Mexico has the strongest immigration laws in the world. Nobody has stronger. I guess some have the same but you cant debt a you cant ge any stronger than what mexico has and we dont want people coming up on this dangerous journey and coming in. Our system is absolutely maxed out and Border Patrol has done an incredible job but the system is absolutely maxed out. And it is a very unfair thing. So mexico has as of yesterday made a big difference. Youll see that because few people of any are coming up and they say theyre going to stop them. Lets see. They have the power and the laws to stop them. And what we have to do is congress has to meet quickly and make a deal. I could do it in 45 minutes. We need to get rid of chain migration, we need to get rid of catch and release and visa lottery and we have to do something about asylum and to be honest with you, i have to get rid of judges. Every time and you wont even believe this, mr. Secretary general, you catch somebody that is coming illegally into your country, and they bring them to a court. But we cant bring them to a court because you could never have that many judges. So they take their name and they take their information and they release them. Now we dont release too many. We keep them, it is called catch and keep. But you dont have facilities for that but you have to bring them through a court system. If they touch your land, one foot on your land, welcome to being perry mason. You now have a big trial. So what theyve done over the years is they release them into the United States and they say come back in four years for a trial. And nobody comes back. I guess 1 1 to 2 come back and nobody can understand why they come back. They are the only ones that come back. It is the the worst, dumbest immigration system in the world. The democrats could change it with one meeting, everybody would agree. But they dont want to change it because they dont want to give the republicans a victory, they dont want to change it because they want open borders which means crime and lots of other things coming in including drugs. So well see what happens. I think the democrats today, i spoke to a couple of them, and all of a sudden they are changing because theyre seeing it really is a crisis. It is a National Emergency on the border. And lets see if they can do it. But i want to thank it is a very short period of time because for years this should have been done but mexico is now stopping people coming very easy for them to do and stopping people from coming in through mexico. Lets see if they keep it done. If they keep doing that. Now, if they dont, or if we dont make a deal with congress, the border is going to be closed. 100 . And this should have been done by other president s. So many things should have been done by other president s but if we dont make a deal with congress, or if mexico and probably you could say and or if mexico doesnt do what they should be doing, they shouldnt have people coming into their country either. This is their souther border they have to protect and then well close the border and that is it or close large sections of the border. Maybe not all of it. But it is the only way were getting a response and im totally ready to do it. And i will say this, many people want me to do it. Because were being abused by a bad legal system that was put in by democrats and that has to be changed. And it can be changed in 45 minutes if they want to change it. Lets see what they do. Yes, steve. Do you worry about the impact on the u. S. Economy by closing the border . Sure it is going to have a negative impact on the economy. It is one of the biggest trade deals in the world that weve just done with the usmca. It is a big trading partner. But to me, trading is very important. The borders are very important. But security is what most important. I have to have security. This is what this gentleman is all about, to my right. And were going to have security in this country. That is more important than trade. Hey, all you hear me talking about is trade. But let me just give you a little secret, security is more important to me than trade. So were going to have a strong border, or a closed border. And when we close that border, we will stop hundreds of millions of dollars of drugs from coming in because tremendous amount of drugs come through our southern border. And so that is one of the benefits. So im totally prepared to do it. Well see what happens over the next few days. It sounds like mexico is doing enough to keep you from immediately closing the border, though, from what all of their apprehension. They made a big step over the last few days. They are apprehending people. You see how many there are it is a lot of people. The fact that they are doing that means fewer people are going to come. But we pay hundreds of millions of dollars to honduras and guatemala and el salvador as a combination and what do they do . They dont do anything for us. It is supposed to be money well spent. I understand the reason for it. But that money doesnt get there. So were giving hundreds of millions of dollars to these three countries and the money is not going to where it is supposed to be going, number one. Number two, theyre taking advantage of the United States. And they have been for many years. So i cut off the payments yesterday. I know what the payments are supposed to be for. Theyre supposed to be to help so that they dont have this problem. But they dont do that. The money is gone and it is not spent properly. And they arrange the thing that bothers me more than anything, they arrange these caravans. And they dont put their best people in those caravans. They put people in you dont want to have in the United States and were not going to have them in the United States. It is very simple. It is very, very simple. Mr. President on health care. [ inaudible question ]. Say again . [ inaudible question ]. I think hes been a terrific leader and i could just say during my time, so it is already amazing two and a half years. But we get along really well and he made his first statement was we had our first meeting and i think i got them to put up the other countries respectfully, 27 countries put up the other 64 billion. 64 billion. That is a lot of money. And he went out and he said, what a great job he did. A lot of people dont like giving credit. Like the media never gives me credit but the media gave me credit. Now up to 100 billion and it will be higher than that by the end of 2020. But i appreciate the job hes done. Hes done an excellent job and when it came time to renew, because a lot of people wanted that job, that is a great job it is but people wanted it but i had no doubt in my mind who i wanted. The vote until after the election. [ inaudible question ]. People are paying and im very happy with the fact that theyre paying. Yeah. What kind of [ inaudible question ]. I hope it is not a security threat. I hope we have a Good Relationship with russia and with, by the way, china and everybody else. But i think the fact that we have nato and nato is a lot stronger since ive been president , would you say that is correct . Weve taken a lot more money and they are in visiting m vesting more and we need to maintain defense for all nate our countries. But i think well get along with russia. I do believe that. Mr. President trump, on health care, why are you pushing a vote on Health Care Replacement until after the 2020 election. Because i think well have a Great Health Care package. I think the Republican Party will become the party of health care. I see what the democrats are doing. It is a disaster. What theyre planning and everyone knows it. Youll lose 180 Million People under private insurance and very important, obamacare has been such a catastrophe because it is far too expensive, it cost the people they cant afford it and of course the premiums are very high. 7,000 to 8,000 on danaverage you have to spend 8,000 before you hit. So obamacare is bad. So if we get back the house and on the assumption we keep the senate and we keep the presidency which i hope are two good assumptions well have phenomenal health care. Mr. President [ inaudible question ]. No, i wanted to delay it and put it after the election because we dont have the house, so even though the health care is good, really good, it is much better than when the plan comes out, which well be showing you at the appropriate time, it is much better than obamacare. So when the plan comes out, youll see it. It is possible that the democrats would want to do it. It is much better for the people. But im assuming they wont because the democrats never do anything that necessarily is going to be anything other than political. So what happens is well go through the election and we have a very good chance at retaking the house and we have a very good chance at keeping the senate and i think we will keep the senate. And i think were going to keep the presidency and well vote in the best Health Care Package weve ever had. Mr. President , tomorrow nato accomplish i think maybe things theyve accomplished but they stand for a signal of truth and of strength. And we have a great leader. Mr. President [ inaudible question ]. Ill be talking about germany. I always talk about germany. They are not paying their fair share. I have a Great Respect for angela and i have Great Respect for the country and my father is german, was german and born in a very wonderful place in germany, so i have a great feeling for germany. But they are not paying what they should be paying. Theyre paying close to 1 and theyre supposed to be paying 2 . And the United States over the years got to appoint 4. 3 which is unfair and the u. S. Gdp under me because the gdp has gone up so much because it is 4. 3 of a much larger gdp. So were paying for a big proportion of nato which basically is protecting europe. So were protecting europe and at the same time theyve taken advantage of us on trade. So we have the best of all worlds. Were protecting countries that have taken advantage of the United States in trade but it is all changing, it will take a while but it is all changing. Mr. President , there is going to be a vote in the house judiciary subpoena to demand a unredacted material of the Mueller Report and t redacted report and will the white house fight those. I think it is ridiculous. We went through two years of the mueller investigation. We have not only that, you read the wording. It was proven who could go through that and get wording where it was no collusion, no nothing. So there is no collusion, the attorney general now and the Deputy Attorney general ruled no obstruction. They said no obstruction. And so there is no collusion, there is no obstruction and now well start this process all over again. I think it is a disgrace. These are just democrats that want to try and demean this country. And it shouldnt be allowed and ill totally live by the attorney general i have Great Respect for the attorney general and ill live by and nothing you give him, whether it is shifty shift or jerry nadler, hes been fighting me for half of my life in manhattan and i was very successful, thank you. But fadler has been fighting me for years and years in manhattan. Not successfully. I will tell you, anything we give them will never be enough. What about the fact that we could give them it is a 400page report, right . We could give them 800 pages and it wouldnt be enough. Theyll always come back and say it is not enough. It is not enough. This thing has gone on for two years and really it started long before that. It practically started from the time i came down the escalator because this is a whole this was a whole plot, whether you want to use the insurance policy as a time frame, this is an insurance policy just in case she Hillary Clinton loses. Well she lost and she lost big. This is been going on for years. Now they want to keep it going on. We had they spent over 30 million on an investigation. They found in collusion. Which by the way was the most ridiculous premise ive heard of any way and you understand exactly what i mean. No collusion. There was no collusion. There never was. After 30 million well start this process again because jerry nadler wants to start it or because schiff wants to start it. Ill rely on the attorney general to make decisions. But i will tell you, anything that is given to them will never be good enough. You could give them the more documents than theyve ever seen and it would never be good enough. So i think it is somewhat of a waste of time. This is just politics at a very low level. What about the fact that congressman nadler opposed the release of the starr report in 19 i89d. That is a good thing. And you bring that up. And jerry nadler was on the opposite side and thought it was a disgust thing to give the starr report but we should give the Mueller Report and the Mueller Report is much tighter because the starr report went to congress and the Mueller Report goes to the attorney general. So there is a difference. They made that because the starr report got out of control with respect to going to congress. Because i guess a lot of people had it that maybe shouldnt have had it and did bad things with it. So now they limited it to the attorney general and did that specifically for that reason. So jerry nadler thought the concept of giving the starr report was absolutely something you could never do. But when it comes to the Mueller Report, which is different on our side, that would be something that he should get. Its hypocrisy and it is a disgrace. I will say this, look, there was no collusion. There was no obstruction. They were very disappointed. I dont know what they were thinking because they all know. I guarantee you they go into a room between nadler and schiff and the group and they laugh like hell at how theyve kept this thing going for two years. They laugh like hell. And i hope that this investigation now, which is finished, it is totally finished, no collusion, no obstruction, i hope they go and take a look at oranges the oranges of the investigation. The beginnings of that investigation. You look at the origin of the investigation, where it started and how it started, who started it, whether it is mccabe or comey or a lot of them, where does it go and how high up in the white house did it go . You will all get pulitzer prizes, okay, pulitzer prizes, you should have looked at it a long time ago. And that is the only thing that is disappointing to me about the Mueller Report, the Mueller Report i wish covered the oranges origin of how it started, the beginning of the investigation and how it started. It didnt cover that. And for some reason none of that was discussed. If y if you look at the ig report and we have noranother ig report cog out very soon but well learn a lot but look at the beginnings and where it started. The whole the whole situation. Because this is been a very, very bad thing for our country. The question was asked before about russia, about germany, about all of the Different Things that you and i discuss so often. This has been a very bad thing for the United States. It has been a total waste of time. But what hasnt been a waste of time is some very bad people started something that should have never been started. And i hope that will continue forward. Because people did things that were very, very bad for our country and very, very illegal. And you could even say treasonous, okay. Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you. A couple of things. The president just said there he will close the border, but he left an opening. He vows to have a Health Care Plan to replace obamacare even though he says he wont have one until after the 2020 election. And despite the conclusions the president is making on the Mueller Report, just a reminder, we still havent seen it. And the attorney general said that the president is not exonerated on the issue of obstruction. So with me now, abby phillip and david challian. And abby, on the border, if there is no deal with congress hell close the border but it is noteworthy when asked about the negative impact economically, commerce, this would have on the u. S. , he acknowledged it saying, yes, it would be bad. Yeah, exactly. He knows because hes been briefed on it repeatedly by his aides here in the white house. Theyve been emphasizing to him how damaging this could all be to the u. S. Economy if he follows through on this threat. But i was struck, brooke, by how the president was saying so many Different Things about what it would take for him to not close the border in that spray. He talked originally about mexico needing to do more and then this afternoon you hear him acknowledging that mexico is doing more. He said, well see what happens over the coming days, if they continue to do that, if it amounts to something, but now hes shifting it over to congress saying he wants changes to Legal Immigration in exchange for keeping the border open. Now it is no seektd that the white house wants changes to immigration to change the way certain parts of the law work. But it is not clear to me that the threat of closing the border is going to work on nancy pelosi who is not particularly interested in dealing with some of the issues in the law and frankly i think democrats probably view this as a a problem of president trumps own making. If he closes the board. That damage would be blow back on him more than anything else. Its interesting to see the president going from one end to another in one pool spray and youre left wondering what it would take for him to make a final decision on this. I think all of this, in addition to what were hearing from our sources, seems to indicate the white house is trying to put the brakes on this for another few days to give the president more time to work this through but plenty of white house aides are trying to find an exit valve for him on this because of how damaging this whole idea of closing the border really could be to the United States economy and also to mexico as well, brooke. What do you think brooke, the list that abby is talking about, and it is amazing he said this could get done in are 45 minutes. Chain migration and catch and release and visa lottery and asylum and judges. I dont know record scratch. In terms of how nancy pelosi is going to get something done on that priority list there in 45 minutes. That makes absolutely no sense. This does not align whatsoever on what the democrats would engage with him on immigration agenda and no mention of their big ticket items about dreamers or path to citizenship and the idea this could be done in 45 minutes with that partisan and divisive wish list, that was just bluster. On what about on health care, david . Once again mysterious plan that doesnt exist. And it apparently wont exist until trump and the president s mind was reelected in 2020 and it is his own admission they wont have a plan until then. Yeah, the fact that he is punted on this, it actually is allowing both republicans and democrats to rejoice for different reasons. Republicans on the hill are quite glad that donald trump doesnt seem to want to inject an actual policy battle for a year and a half on specifics of some plan and that he is pushing that off until after the election. Democrats are down right gleeful that the president seems to put health care an issue they have a political advantage on with the American People as proven in the 2018 midterm elections squarely in the center because now the entire election donald trump just said, he wants to make the election about republicans getting control of the house and the senate keeping it in gop plans and his own reelection should be looking forward to what they could do on health care afterwards, that is a fight democrats are eager to join. Isnt that the reason, abby, chime in, isnt that the reason hes saying hes essentially punting because the republicans dont have majority in the house . It is. Hes punting because everyone in the white house on capitol hill, they know that there is almost a zero chance of a bill addressing Health Care Getting through both chambers of congress in the next two years. That being said, i spoke to a senior white house official this morning who made it clear that the president s view of this is that health care is a major weakness for him going into this election. They are worried that if you have democrats on the one hand talk about medicare for all, talking about all of the various ways in which they want to address the Health Care Concerns of voters which we know based on polling is extremely important to them and they go into this election completely empty handed with no answers to that, that is a problem. But they also think that medicare for all is a radical idea and they want to sort of put democrats on the defense on that. And the only way to do that is for the president to continue to talk about it. That is why the president is talking about it. But i think republicans more generally, all of the rest of the republicans who are running in 2020, they dont see much advantage in having this conversation at all. They are recognize how powerful it is as a motor for democrats in 2018 and they would rather talk about literally anything else. So you have a competing interest here but the compromise i think were seeing right now is the president saying, were not going to put an actual bill out there. Well talk in generalities about what we want from a Health Care Bill and talk about how bad medicare for all is and then vote on it after the election. So this is kind of a compromised position that weve gotten between the president who wants one thing and Congressional Republicans who want something completely different. I think we all know well talk about health care on both sides for the next year and a half. I want to ask about the mueller the House Democrats, let me flip to this, david. The House Democrats voting to issue a subpoena over concerns about White House Security clearances. We were reporting about the 25 individuals including the president s soninlaw and daughter who apparently werent initially cleared and in the white house overturned that and then by law the president is allowed to do that, but still yeah, he is allowed to do that. But obviously the question still hangs out there for the white house as to why career professionals are adjudicating the security clearances were overruled, especially in some of the most highly sensitive positions if they were making a sort of professional, emotionally distant kind after sesment. But brooke you said the Mueller Report and what is so interesting to me, wish i timed how long his answer was about the democrats and the Mueller Report because you could see how much this is still under his skin despite his statements that hes been cleared and exonerated. He is still so worked up about the notion that the democrats with gavel power in the house would still be asking questions about this and, in fact, what he tried to do is a political jujitsu to attorney to turn completely around and although he thinks it is bad to have an investigation into him but hes welcome to how that investigation got started. This is something that the president it seemed clear to me in watching him in the oval office there is despite claiming exoneration, is not ready to let go of this at all. He said he was exonerated. We know muellers records visavis barr and we wait to see the Mueller Report, all 400 pages come midmonth. David and abby, thank you so much. We do have more on this breaking news. The president s comments and also a massive manhunt underway. Police are releasing new details about the suspect in the murder of Grammy Nominated rapper Nipsey Hussle and what we are learning about their relationship, next. Moving . Thats harder now because of Psoriatic Arthritis. But youre still moved by moments like this. Dont let Psoriatic Arthritis take them away. Taltz reduces joint pain and stiffness and helps stop the progression of joint damage. For people with moderate to severe psoriasis, 90 saw significant improvement. Taltz even gives you a chance at completely clear skin. Dont use if youre allergic to taltz. Before starting, you should be checked for tuberculosis. Taltz may increase risk of infections and lower your ability to fight them. Tell your doctor if you have an infection, symptoms, or received a vaccine or plan to. Inflammatory bowel disease can happen with taltz, including worsening of symptoms. Serious allergic reactions can occur. For all the things that move you. Ask your doctor about taltz. Hour two, youre watching cnn, im brooke baldwin. The news just in, cnn has finalized details for the Second Democratic president ial debate which this network will host and mark preston is with me with those details. So mark, tell me more. Well, brooke, as you just said, the dnc has named detroit as the host for the second debate now. This is a move that is going to be seen as symbolic