Transcripts For CNNW CNN Special Report 20200927

Your off. All right. The crises he has faced. We will defeat the virus and emerge stronger than ever before. Reporter hear from the people who were there. I was in the early meetings in the oval office. Reporter in the rooms where it happened. Why does he seem to like putin . Reporter this is a cnn special report. Fight for the white house Donald Trumps presidency. Together we will crush the virus. [ applause ] reporter against the backdrop of a Global Pandemic President Trump was making his case for a second term. And from the looks of it, no real concerns about an extremely contagious and deadly virus. What the white house was trying to do was say look, we believe that covid is gone. You saw donald trump try to sort of put lipstick on a pig last night. We will defeat the pandemic. But there may have been an accidental clue this was not the whole story. Thanks to advances, we have pioneered the fatality rate. Reporter pioneered the fatality rate . In fact, President Trump and his administration have been pioneers of a mishandled response and flawed leadership. From the very beginning. New details on the deadly coronavirus outbreak in china and spreading across the globe. Reporter as early as january President Trump was warned about the Novel Coronavirus according to author bob woodward. In a january 28 briefing, obrien told President Trump covid19 would be the, quote, Biggest National Security Threat of his presidency. President trump says he does not remember that briefing. There were also briefings with other intelligence and Public Health officials. Washington post white house reporting and cnn contributor josh dawsey. Hhs secretary alex azar called to brief the president and they talked about it briefly and the president soon moved the conversation to vaping. And azar later said to others that he was quite frustrated. I was in the early meetings in the oval office. Reporter former white house counselor kellyanne conway, however, tells a different story. He did take it seriously. He banned travel from china in january. Nobody thought we should do it. Zero cases. Zero deaths. Reporter it was not a full ban on travel from china. Tens of thousands of people were allowed to travel to the u. S. Even after it was ordered. Perhaps more importantly, President Trump was publicly dismissing the threat. With cdc efforts to come up with a test botched and no comprehensive effort to identify and isolate the virus nationwide. Still the president would continue to point to partial travel bans to argue that he was on the case. Cnns White House Correspondent kaitlan collins. If you talk to experts, by the time the president put those in place the virus was already circulating inside the United States. Reporter all of this was accompanied by a nearly daily barrage of president ial lies. We have it totally under control. Its one person. Coming in from china. We think we have it very well under control. The consensus among his own Health Experts was that we needed to shift to a strategy of trying to limit the number of illnesses and deaths instead of just trying block it from entering the United States. Reporter according to New York Times Investigative Reporter eric lip ton. Trump was unwilling to accept that advice. This has a fatality rate of 2 and 3 . We dont know exactly. Based on the numbers so far. And the flu is higher than that. It turns out privately weeks earlier trump was saying something very different. You just breathe the air and thats how it is passed, and so thats a very tricky one. Thats a very delicate one. It is also more deadly than your you know, even your strenuous flus. Trump says he down played the virus to not panic americans, something he continued to do into early march. It will go away. Just stay calm. It will go away. A message at odds with Health Experts. Cases kept increasing and increasing. A the coronavirus death toll that jumped again today. Finally, on march 11th, the day tom hanks and his wife rita wilson, game the first highprofile to test positive and the day nba shut down the season, trump set out to assure the nation. My fellow americans. The president was uncomfortable heading into it. New york times White House Correspondent and cnn political analyst maggie haberman. The president looked unfamiliar with the material as he was reading it. It contained at least three errors. That speech was probably the single most important moment in the u. S. Response to the coronavirus, but for all of the wrong reasons. Cnns abby phillip. It really highlighted that the administration was not prepared to deal with the crisis. It was an historic day on wall street. The next day the New York Stock Exchange halted trading for 15 minutes after the s p 500 fell 7 . The white house scrambled to try to fix the errors about travel bans and insurance coverage. Then, one day later today i am officially declaring a national emergency. The country had lost two months really to ramp up testing and production of key supplies such as ppe and ventilators. He had it at his fingertips. President trump says historian could have nationalized the response and invoked the defense production act to immediately force companies to manufacture what was needed. He had an opportunity with covid19 to use the enormous power of the presidency in a moment of national crisis. Governors were left to fend for their states. It was just mass pandemonium. Maryland republican governor, larry hogan. It was a 50state strategy, some states doing better than other. Hogan secretly sourced half a million tests for his state from south korea. I asked the president about that at a briefing we had. Could have saved a lot of money but thats okay. Go to south korea for testing kits . I dont think he needed to go to south korea. He needed to get knowledge would have been helpful. He had been assuring testing was available in the United States. The question was, why if thats true is the governor of maryland having to go to another country. Testing was lagging far behind despite the president s spin. Anybody that wants a test can get a test, and thats the bottom line. That was a lie. Experts agree one of the singular reasons we still have so many cases and so many deaths is because the u. S. Lagged in its ability to identify the virus through testing and isolate it. I said earlier today that i hope we can do this by easter. Trump then tried to pressure governors to open up their states and their economies. I really do believe a lot of the governors should be opening up states. What mistakes do you think have been made by the president . Allowing some of the governors to make decisions and mayors to make decisions about whether and when to lockdown and how the lockdown also made this more fraught. It was not a health strategy. It was a political strategy, allowing the white house to blame the governors no matter what and accept zero responsibility. This while the president also sought to undermine the nations leading Infectious Disease expert, dr. Anthony fauci, for telling the truth, including acknowledging the fact that the president s delay in action cost lives. Obviously you could logically say that if you had a process that was ongoing and you started mitigation earlier, you could have saved lives. Obviously no one is going to deny that. The president tried to control the message, minimizing the risk. Young people are almost immune to this disease. Pushing unproven, potentially dangerous drugs to treat covid19 such as hydroxychloroquine. What do you have to lose . Ill say it again, what do you have to lose . Take it. Or this jawdropping moment. I see the disinfectant where it knocks it out in a minute, one minute. And is there a way that we can do Something Like that by injection inside or almost a cleaning . The president s briefings ended for a while and he let the experts take the lead. He pushed guidelines on social distancing and wearing a mask, and he finally wore a mask himself. The Trump Administration did eventually invoke the dpa for key supplies such as testing swab. Progress has been made when it comes to treatment and the Trump Administration is optimistic about developing a vaccine. Dr. Collins that spent decades along dr. Fauci has said he has never seen vaccines come together as quickly as they are. But the facts sadly speak for themselves. The u. S. , with less than 5 of the worlds population, has a much higher case count and death count than the rest of the western world, the worst response of any western wealthy nation according to this data, and it is not even close. And recently the president seems to be back to undermining efforts to save lives, whether it is Holding Events with seemingly no social distancing or required mask wearing or even mocking joe biden for wearing a mask, again. Did you ever see a man that likes a mask as much as him . We wanted to ask President Trump about all of this and more, but he turned down repeated requests for an interview. He views this virus as standing in the way of him being reelected. Covid19 was not of his making, but covid19 was his opportunity to be a great president. He looked at covid19 and backed away, not wanting to take a chance. The quality donald trump values perhaps the most, that when we come back. Im a physician, but my dream is to help young women feel empowered. Id like to have online courses teaching them body positivity and selfconfidence. But when covid hit, i needed a Financial Plan to make it a reality. Without andrea, my Financial Advisor from northwestern mutual, it didnt feel possible. 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New from Revitalift Derm intensives 10 percent pure glycolic acid serum. With our highest concentration of glycolic acid in a serum. Resurfaces skin to visibly reduce dark spots starting in just two weeks and reduces wrinkles for a more even skin tone. Powerful results. Validated by dermatologists. Theres a reason dermatologist love it. New revitalift glycolic acid serum. From loreal. Were worth it. You know, some of these people have like a 10 loyalty, meaning if they sneeze in the wrong direction, theyre gone. Loyalty. Good morning. Welcome to your new day. It is monday, december 19th. Texas electors sealing the deal for donald trump. To make Donald Trumps victory official today. It was the day trumps win was officially certified by the electoral college. The president elect was reportedly celebrating with top aides at his private club in palm beach, florida. The conversation turned to whom he should hire. They focussed on Campaign Advisers and supporters who had been loyal to him during the 2016 campaign at a time when most republicans were trying to distance themselves from him. That dinners certainly been consistent with everything that weve seen from this president. He has been obsessed. Obsessed with loyalty. He always has been. Here he is in 1980. I learned that there were some great, loyal people, and i have learned that there were some people that could have been more loyal, and those people i have discarded totally. And once donald trump became president , he didnt just look for it, he demanded it. It is a tradition that president s bring a little clique with them, whether it is the boston mafia of john f. Kennedy, the georgia mafia of jimmy carter. Loyalty is not new in the white house. But trumps brand of loyalty was new. The trump people said essentially, if we could ever find that you publicly posted something negative about the president , you are very unlikely to get a position. I have never heard of that kind of vetting of people for negative comments about the president in their past lives. His early hires were loyalists throughout the campaign and in the early months of the presidency. He did hire a few onetime opponents who have been loyal since. Thank you, mr. President. Including secretary of housings and urban development, ben carson. Our president , donald j. Trump, he makes promises and he keeps them. And secretary of energy, former governor rick perry. Mr. President , i know there are people that say you said you were the chosen one, and you were. But it would not take long for President Trump to learn others loyalty was fleeting. I have a very, very good idea of who the leakers are, who the senior leakers are in the white house. Former White House Communications director Anthony Scaramucci was hired six months into trumps presidency to weed out disloyal leakers. There were three or four people that were probably the biggest leakers and he wanted them gone, so the loyalty goes one way towards him. This demand for loyalty could be a problem when it seems to supersede ethics. Loyalty means you do what i need you to do, even if it is unethical. You work for me. That may be a good strategy if you run a small, private business, but it is absolutely unacceptable for a constitutional officer in a republic. He immediately tests you to see if you are going to be on his side or if you are going to be his enemy. What do you say about it was an unfamiliar situation for someone such as andrew mccabe, then acting director of the fbi. He had served four administrations at the fbi for both republican and democratic president s. As career Government Servants dedicated first and foremost to the constitution and to the rule of law, those folks are not going to simply cede to the president s will. Does working for President Trump ultimately mean you have to agree with him all the time if you want to keep your job . Yeah, i think thats the case. Theyre going to do what they think is their job. Director comey. And that is a very tough decision for people to make, and it is one that will likely bring you great personal pain and sacrifice. And so if you are committed to doing that work, youre likely going to run headlong into a conflict with President Trump. I have now decided to recuse myself from any existing or future investigations of any matter relating in any way to the campaign for president of the United States. For instance, jeff sessions, an incredibly loyal guy, but made one decision, you know, complying with ethics suggestions from doj and thats it. Hes dead to President Trump. He could run you over with a steamroller at any time. I need you to do things and i need you to be willing to take the blame for me when things go poorly. Perhaps contributing to unprecedented turnover. 89 of his senior staff, trumps ateam, have left. Thats more turnover than all of the past five president s had in their entire first terms. And one more number. Trump has had 40 of his top positions replaced more than once. Former White House Press secretary sean spicer. There were some people that werent qualified but they had been loyal to the president. And when people have left, several formers found themselves eventually speaking out against President Trump. It was challenging for me to go to work for a man who is pretty undisciplined, doesnt read briefing reports. The only person in the military that mr. Trump doesnt think is overrated is colonel sanders. The ultimate betrayal for trump, who resorted to name calling. Former National Security adviser john bolton, a wacko. Former secretary of defense, jim mattis, the worlds most overrated general. Former secretary of state rex tillerson, dumb as a rock. He would turn on them in a really aggressive way, in a way that ive never seen or heard of president s doing before. I think, you know, turnover is natural in any white house. Former trump adviser david urban. I think this Administration May be more high pressure, more issues that are pressing. A demand for loyalty that trump relied on for what he hoped to be his first big policy win, repealing and replacing obamacare. We have so many unbelievable alternatives, much less expensive. I think donald trump believed that his iron grip on Republican Voters would get him all republican votes. Two months after the trump inauguration, the republicans had a bill that would begin the dismantling of obamacare. The bill is passed and without objection and while the bill did make it through the house, the senate posed some issues. I think that there would have to be fundamentally change. The senate bill was known as skinny repeal going into that vote in july 2017. Trumps hopes for success rested with Arizona Republican senator john mccain, who trump had attacked for years. Hes not a war hero. Hes a war hero. He is a war hero. 5 1 2 years hes a war hero because he was captured. I like people that werent captured. Senator mccain was sick and he was heading out to arizona. I made the suggestion maybe we should go out there and see him on one of these trips that we were making, and the president did not want to do that. In the early hours of july 28th, 2017, mccain arrived to vote, a singular motion that left the Senate Chamber aghast and the white house reeling. No. It was incredibly personal. President trump holds on to grugru grudges and, like, he wants loyalty. He probably will never let that moment go. For the rest of mccains life and long after his death, trump would attack him. I was never a fan of john mccain and i never will be. Something that trump would do to any republican who turned against him. No, im not a fan of mitt romney. Well, jub bush is a puppet to his donors. He has effectively chased many of his critics out of the republican party. The president has defied political wisdom in bringing the party along with virtually everything that he has done over four years now since he was a candidate, and he requires paychecks. From tax reform to judicial appointments to impeachment. The only good headline ive ever had in the washington post. More on those later. But first, when we come back, trumps economy. Take the good, with the bad live the life you want to have send it off, with a bang whistling. So you can find just the right plan for you. Like the visit a doctor anywhere our rv takes us plan. The zero copays means more money for rumba lessons plan. And the visit my doctor while eating pancakes plan. 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Donald trump came to washington based on a promise. Im a great deal maker. Thats what i do. I made a lot of money. Im going to give it my best. I mean, we havent really seen a whole lot of deals. Hes actually frankly been more likely to walk away from deals or threaten to walk away from deals. Reporter thats republican congressman charlie dent of pennsylvania, who resigned in 2018 and in 2020 endorsed joe biden for president. Candidly, and im not blaming the president for this, this is congresss fault in some respects, i never thought we should have led off with health care. The amendment is not agreed to. Since that health care piece never really materialized, he was frustrated and thats why he was returning back to his campaign instinct mode. We want lower taxes, bigger paychecks. Reporter the president was determined to strike a deal on tax cuts by the end of his first year in office. Theres never been tax cuts like what were talking about. This is a tax bill. Reporter democrats railed against republicans for rushing a complicated overhaul of the tax system through congress. It is about 500 pages, and they want us to vote on this thing in about an hour. An hour. Reporter some republicans such as senator jeff flake of arizona worried that a radical tax cut might inflate the national debt. At first you were a holdout, one of two key holdouts. What were your concerns . I would have felt there was a better option simply to lower the Corporate Tax and leave individual rates as they were. But mine was not a popular opinion. Reporter at the 11th hour senator flake reversed course, siding with President Trump. In the end as a whole i thought it was a good package. Reporter the tax cuts and jobs act, the first major tax overhaul in more than three decades, passed the house, then the senate in late december 2017. The bill promised to slash individual and Corporate Tax rates, increase wages, and boost business spending. These massive tax cuts will be rocket fuel for the american economy. Reporter some of that did happen. Most americans saw a small increase in their takehome pay. Some of them ended up with big tax bills at the end of the year. And Many Americans felt that they just didnt get a tax cut. I can think of no better Christmas Present for the american people. Reporter experts say the tax bill was a much bigger present for companies. The Corporate Tax rate was slashed from 35 to 21 . I mean, really what we got in 2017 was a big Corporate Tax boondoggle. Reporter rana faruhar is cnns Global Economic analyst. He sold this idea that hey, these companies are going to save so much money theyre going to bring back investment now from overseas. Were going to see new factories, were going to see hiring. Well, some money did come back. About 700 billion or so. But the majority of it went into share buybacks. When companies go into the market and they buy back their own shares. So its great for the c suite. Its great for that top 10 . But it doesnt change the story on main street. I would respond with a lot of disagreement. Reporter white house economic adviser larry kudlow. The biggest beneficiaries of that 2017 bill whose centerpiece was the business tax cuts were actually middleincome bluecollar workers, main street folks. They had the largest gains in wages. Reporter economists say the bill probably did help lift wage growth for Many Americans. Overall momentum that began under president obama. But the bulk of the tax bill benefit went to the rich. Adding to that success, Trump Supporters say, nearrecord low unemployment. Were in the midst of the longest positive job growth streak in history. Reporter and a booming stock market. The nasdaq has hit 9,000 for the first time ever. Reporter all true for a while. There was a period i think if you were to interview the average Corporate Executive in the United States when they felt more confident in their ability to make investments in the United States. As a result of trump. Reporter the dow jones hit more than 100 new highs between the 2016 election and the end of 2019. With the dow peaking at a record of 29,551 points on february 12th, 2020. Right before the coronavirus outbreak froze the u. S. The president lives and dies by the market. And so anytime theres bad Economic News he does whatever he can to try and goose things. And hes done that by tax cuts. Hes done it by trying to encourage Interest Rates to be kept low, pushing the fed around that. Weve accomplished an economic turnaround of historic proportions. Reporter in september of 2018 president ial trump emboldened by americas Economic Growth and chinas slowdown, ramped up his trade war with beijing, imposing tariffs on billions of dollars of chinese goods entering the u. S. There was a need certainly to rightsize the relationship with the United States. But what the president did was he disavowed the strategies that were put forth by trade experts. The tariffs are not being paid for by our people. Its being paid for by china. No, tariffs are being paid by American Consumers who have higher prices on consumer goods that are being essentially taxed as they enter the United States. Reporter in retaliation the chinese put pressure on iowa and nebraska. Reporter by placing tariffs on hundreds of American Products such as soybeans, hurting American Farmers. This great dealmaker undermines American Farmers by going after the chinese and in the end has to get congress to send Financial Assistance to farmers. I think that the chinese were at certain points ready to come to the table and actually make some changes but oftentimes right when a true deal might have been about to be cut youd see the president really ramping up that really inflammatory rhetoric. Its got all different names. Wuhan. Kung flu. Reporter the president escalated his tariff roulette with china. Well, its a tricky business. Were very cross at them about denying the freedoms in hong kong and breaking that longstanding treaty. The president s cross with them with respect to their lack of human rights and the uighur problem. Were holding them accountable. Reporter but former National Security adviser john bolton says President Trumps recent sanctions on chinese officials involved in the mass incarceration of uighur muslims in xeen jiang contradicts his previous stance. Bomb yofr in his book he alleges during a conversation with xi he said xi should go ahead with building the cops which bolton writes trump thought was exactly the right thing to do. President trump denied that accusation. I cant make sense of our policy. Were rhetorically tough on china. Were intermittently tough. Richard haass was the director of policy planning under president george w. Bush. He is now president of the council on foreign relations. But in many areas where weve been missing in action and weve sent inconsistent and weak signals. More significantly, we didnt join the transpacific partnership. If we wanted to put pressure on china, what better way than to join with our Pacific Trading partners . That would have been serious. The president wouldnt do it e reporter Trump Supporters say the president s foreign policies with china are working. There is a widespread belief that many, many reforms need to be made in china in terms of technology transfer, in terms of theft of intellectual property, that this president concessions were able to get with president xi and the chinese by imposing tariffs. The longterm legacy of this president , similar to nixon, will be china. Reporter thats a harder case to make during a Global Health crisis. Were already in a recession. In fact, were already in a depression technically. The numbers are that bad. When you layer the problems of the pandemic on an economy that already had all these structural weaknesses, that doesnt add up to any kind of a good picture. Reporter but during his acceptance speech at the Republican National convention President Trump was painting a rosy picture. Over the past three months we have gained over 9 million jobs. And thats a record in the history of our country. What the president failed to mention, those gains followed a record 22 million job loss over the previous two months. Something else the president didnt cover . The Enormous Economic toll caused by his bungled pandemic response. We have seen the smallest Economic Contraction of any major western nation. The economy has been President Trumps calling card his entire first term. Goodness. Look at those numbers there. Down 7 . Even as the shock waves of the covid crisis hit wall street in march 2020 we are going to see a spread of economic stutter stops. I do think once we get rid of the virus were going to have a booming economy. The covid crash on wall street is officially over. Yet even as the virus continues to grip the country it has not stopped the stock market from surging. The s p 500 closed at a record high tuesday for the First Time Since the pandemic began. It is the best time to talk about the economy. Folks at the lower end of the socioeconomic spectrum need to know theres somebody in the oval office thats going to focus on rebuilding the economy. This president s done it once. And hell do it again if reelected. Yet during the economic downturn the white house is grappling with an eviction cries facing millions of americans. We will make America Great again. Youve heard that before. Up next, the reshaping of the federal judiciary. For all the moments youve missed and all the moments you havent hi love, cant wait got the ring yes and with jared it doesnt have to than Rheumatoid Arthritis. 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Get lasting hydration, fuller looking, glossy lips from our hydrating formula with hyaluronic acid. New lifter gloss in 10 shades. Only from maybelline new york. About the covid19 virus. Its real. And its dangerous. So, on behalf of all of us working on the front lines, please take it seriously. And while we dont yet have a cure or a vaccine, we do know how to keep you and your loved ones safe. Wear a mask. Wash your hands. Stay six feet apart. Do your best to stay out of crowded spaces. And get a flu shot, its even more important this year. We can do this. If we do it together. Ive always heard, actually, that when you become president the single most important thing you can do is federal judges. Ruth bader ginsburg, who is far more than really a Supreme Court justice, has died. Youre telling me now for the first time. She led an amazing life. She was an amazing woman. That was President Trumps public reaction to Justice Ruth Bader ginsburgs death, but privately an insider says trump had been salivating to replace ginsburg, and now he had an opening, an opening to rally his base and remind some republicans who were turning away from him because of various failures, including covid, that the future of the courts might be more important. Article two of our constitution says the President Shall nominate justices of the Supreme Court. All reminiscent of 2016 and another justices passing. All right. I have some very sad news. United states Supreme Court Justice Justice Antonin Scalia has died. Antonin scalia served on the court since 1996 and it looks like president obama is going to appoint a new member of the court which would tip the liberal balance for the first time in the years to the liberal side. Cnn legal analyst. But what happens is that actual night sets in motion a series of dominos that produced the court we have today. Though leading in the polls, trump was still considered a long shot, but he knew the world would be watching later that night. Donald trump of new york. As the gop president ial debate took centerstage. A moment of silence for justice Antonin Scalia. He capitalized on the moment, suggesting a couple of respectable conservative judges to fill the vacancy, sealing the deal with conservatives. You could have a diane sykes or a bill prior. To be clear, you are okay with the president nominating somebody . I think hes going to do it whether im okay with it or not. I think it is up to Mitch Mcconnell and everybody else to stop it. It is called delay, delay, delay. This nomination should not be filled by this lame duck president. President obamas nominee, u. S. Court of appeals chief judge merrick garland, never got even a single hearing. Outside adviser to the president for judicial selection leonard leo, the l. A. Times says youre the man to see if you aspire to the Supreme Court. Leonard leo, cochair of the federalist society, joined trumps team. He wanted to put out a list of individuals for the u. S. Supreme court. One of the most important things well be doing, whoever the next president is, is naming judges. He wanted first someone who was, in his words, not weak. What that did was it basically said to the american people, this is what i, donald trump, stand for in terms of judicial selection. Many felt that judicial Selection Campaign helped pave trumps path to the white house. With trump now in office and a republicanheld congress, Legal Adviser don mcgahn, leo and mcconnell wasted little time. Today im nominating dr. Neil gorsuch. The momentum did not stop there when moderate republican and longtime jurist Anthony Kennedy retired in 2018, trump nominated young, conservative u. S. Appellate judge Brett Kavanaugh to try to swing the court further to the right, but he was not expecting this. Federal investigators will now be looking into a matter connected with federal judge Brett Kavanaughs u. S. Supreme court nomination. Started off rather predictably, but then a woman by the name of Christine Blasey ford came forward. I told leader mcconnell and others i would not vote unless we heard from dr. Ford. I believed he was going to rape me. I tried to yell for help. Former senator jeff flake. I think he acted as i would have acted had i felt i was unjustly confused. Im here today to tell the truth. I have never sexually assaulted anyone. Down the street at the white house, trump fired off a shot of his own. This is a big con job and schumer and his buddies are all in there laughing, how they fooled you all. Following a weeklong investigation that critics of kavanaugh thought was too brief. Charade. Sham. Bullies. Well call the roll. Kavanaugh was confirmed to the u. S. Supreme court by a twovote nomination. The nomination of bret m. Kavanaugh is confirmed. Another victory for trump, another justice on the bench. While the Supreme Court confirmations grabbed the headlines, Something Else was happening that largely went unnoticed by the public. District courts and the circuit courts, you know, it is one of those quiet things that folks across america dont perhaps grasp the gravity of. These courts all interpret the laws of our country every day in so many different ways. They identified 40something, you know, conservative judges and they jammed them through the senate with incredible speed. Speed and strategy, because mcconnell blocked so many obama nominees trump inherited 103 vacancies. Astoundingly, the president has appointed almost onethird of all current Appellate Court judges. Much of the law in america is set by the federal courts of appeals. That is probably one of the very few things that helps republicans justify why they support him, is that he got the judges they wanted confirmed and put in place. That means controversial issues such as abortion, gun control, health care, immigration and racial and same sex discrimination, cases that could very likely be ruled on by trump appointees, largely young, white, male, conservative judges, serving lifetime appointments. But perhaps none of the issues will have the Global Impact such as the rulings we will see concerning the environment. Miners, get ready, you will be working your open. The message was clear, trump would roll back environmental regulations he said hurt businesses. I am taking historic steps to lift the restrictions on American Energy and to cancel jobkilling regulations. It was considered a slap in the face. Former epa director betsy it was absolutely a display of sheer contempt for all the scientists, engineers, and economist whose have worked on that for years and years. And this will be just the beginning. The United States will withdrawal. I wasnt surprised because the president gave every indication he thought it was ridiculous. Former epa director and republican governor. Its a hoax in his mind. Warning shots to environmental agencies everywhere. Deregulation has arrived. I think you can have clean air, safe skies but do so in a manner that doesnt strangle business and produce gloom and doom so many predict. Every single man, woman and child in this country has threatened drinking water, threatened fisheries, threatened air quality and more contaminated land because of this administration. Donald Trumps Administration really doesnt want regulators in my life, anybodys lives. So, their philosophy is to diminish regulations. A philosophy and legacy that could very well be defined of the legacy of the judges he has appointd and still hopes to appoint. We will fill that seat. I dont think theres any question hes what he is on the judiciary. That has a Lasting Legacy that can extend well beyond a generation. Theyre likely to effect the law in america for our children and grandchildren long after donald trump is gone from this earth. Coming up, trumps divisive stand on immigration. When mexico sends its people, theyre bringing drugs, theyre bringing crime. Theyre rapists. Ars old. My family was really poor. Now, ive got fifty employees. When the pandemic hit, i was really scared about losing my business. But osmar, my Financial Advisor from northwestern mutual, he told me, brother we got your back. His Financial Planning helped to save my business. If i could talk to my younger self, i would say, youre going to be proud of yourself. Smooth driving pays off with allstate the safer you drive the more you save youve never been in better hands allstate click or call for a quote today home instead has helped seniors stay home. Now, staying home isnt just staying in the place they love. Its staying safe. Home instead. To us, its personal. Home instead. That includes temperature scan, and sanitizing everythingfe. And all of our staff wearing gloves and masks. Not that mask. This mask. Thats the visionworks difference. Visionworks. See the difference. About the covid19 virus. Its real. Its dangerous. And we do know how to keep you and your loved ones safe. Wear a mask. Wash your hands. Stay six feet apart. We can do this. If we do it together. We are going to build a great boarder wall to stop illegal immigration. Long before the rally chants during the 2016 campaign. Build that wall, build that wall. Build nat wall. Donald trump believed immigration was the issue that would help land a republican back in the white house. They lost on immigration. Theyre going to have to do something on immigration because our country is a different place than it was 50 years ago. He entered with a harsh, if not blatantly racist stand on immigration. When mexico sends its people, theyre bringing drugs, theyre bringing crime. Theyre rapists, and some, i assume, are good people. It was an unscripted moment, says julie, co author of the book boarder wars. Nbc dropped him from the apprentice. Macys stopped selling his mens wear. But solidifying a base, especially energized by the calls to keep undocumented immigrants out. And candidate trump had one of the most shockingly bigoted policies, shark discrimination based on religious observance. Unconstitutional and hate filled. Donald j. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of muslims entering the United States. Reporter and he was clear, once he got in the white house, he would not back down. Weve defended other nations boarders, while refusing to defend our own. He signed this executive order, which was a travel ban on roughly half a dozen muslimmajority countries. And the idea was to catch people by surprise, create confusion, mayhem. Chaos has, of course, rippled from airports and foreign capitals around the world. Sean spicer was complaining that members of the media are unfairly using the term ban to describe the president s action. Not everyone was on board and that makes it challenging to communicate why youre doing it. They put put in effect stricter vetting procedures for a large number of countries. I think based on a a qualified success. What was seen as an unqualified failure, the Trump Administrations familyseparation policy. If you cross the boarder unlawfully, even a first offense, were going to prosecute you. If youre smuggling a child, were going to prosecute you and that child will be separated from you, probably, as required by law. Reporter a zerotolerance policy enforcing a law that had never been enforced in a widespread manner. Children were being held apart from their parents on the boarder of mexico. Reporter the policy led to thousands being separated from their families. Nonstop Horror Stories of children crying for their parents, alone and scared. When trump first started to hear the stories, he didnt want to be seen as the monster who would take children away from their parents. Reporter almost two months after it began, trump ended his own policy, one that his own white house pushed with an executive order. My wife feels very strongly about it. I feel very strongly about it. Reporter a lot of Trump Supporters think nat was one of the lower moments of his presidency. I think as a nation, we can do far better. We owe, people, as human beings, a better shake than they got. Reporter he was looking for a way to turn the page and rally his base as he turned to the midterm election. Thousands of migrants in a massive caravan. Reporter the summer of 2018 and the president s policies alone have failed to prevent immigrants from coming to the southernrd