Transcripts For CNNW Inside Politics 20170209

Senator. The senators crime . Disclosing what trumps own Supreme Court nominee told him about the president s public attacks on federal judges. I asked him to express his criticism and to condemn these kinds of public attacks on an independent judiciary. And at that point, after some back and forth, he did say that he found them to be disheartening and demoralizing. Plus, notice a trend . More punching. Take issue with the trump ordered military strike or one of the president s adult children, and brace for the official government backlash. For someone to take out their concern with his policies on a Family Member of his is just is not acceptable, and the president has every right as a father to stand up for them. With us to share their reporting and insights, abby philip of the washington post, lisa lair of the associated press, reed wilson of the hill and Mary Kathryn Hamm of the federalist. Its a busy day in washington. The president is looking to bridge the partisan divide on one issue, his Supreme Court fight. A handful of democrats among those breaking bread with the president at the white house now. We hope to get a glimpse of that. And a big federal Appeals Court ruling could come any minute. The 9th circuit judges will decide whether to keep in place or to lift that lower court order that blocks implementation of the president s controversial travel ban. That ban, of course, people from seven muslim majority muslim countries. The president , you been paying attention, hes been working the refs pretty hard on this one. You can be a lawyer or you dont have to be a lawyer. If you were a good student in high school or a bad student in high school, you can understand this. And its really incredible to me that we have a court case thats going on so long. Now that was a calm president talking about this. He has been more energetic in some of his tweets and other public comments. It has washington talking about the appropriateness to the point where its now exhibit a in a Supreme Court nomination. As we await, lets start as we await this ruling which we expect to come today. Were not sure it will come today, but we expect it will come today on how important for this president to win this round because he wants the ban in place and number two, on capitol hill, they showed no appetite of stepping in to help him if he loses this round. The president is clear that he thinks on this initial issue of, should the ban, the stay of the ban be lifted and also on the overall legality of the ban, he thinks that its pretty clear cut that its very easy, and hes he doesnt sort of buy into this idea that you should just sit back and wait for the process to unfold. And his staff is backing him up on this. And to some extent, i think he is helping to highlight the fact that the judiciary, although it is independent, is in some ways a sort of framed biparssship. The threejudge panel thats dealing with his case, two of them were appointed by democrats and one appointed by a republican. These criticisms really help to highlight that, and i think no matter what the outcome here, trump is sort of setting this up for a kind of like battle against the sort of the state of the judiciary in which some people on the court might have been appointed by democrats, and he will assume that they are biased against him for that reason. You mentioned the word battle. This word will come up a lot in the hour. On just about every issue whether its ivanka trumps clothing line, whether its about the judges and this one judge who initially said no to the president and pros his ban. This is a white house that proves hell punch back and a president that proves it will punch constantly. We just saw the swearing in of Jeff Sessions. The last several days have been pretty raw in washington as they finished the confirmation there. Just after being sworn in, senator sessions spoke and he appears to be talking both about the travel ban and then the broader immigration issue, which he will now play a key part in. Hes led this nation to say were going to respond effectively to the threat of terrorism, and you can count on your department of justice to do so in an effective way. And you have said something that i believe, and i think the American People believe, that we need a lawful system of immigration. One that serves the interests of the people and the United States. Thats not wrong. Thats not immoral. Thats not indecent. We admit a Million People a year plus, lawfully, and we need to end this lawlessness. The threat is a public safety. Pulls down wages of working americans. And the latter part there, has long been a sessions passion, deal with the immigration system, both legal and illegal immigration into the United States. The first part, talking about the president responding to the threat of terrorism, he didnt say he was supporting the president , his boss, but he didnt say against socalled judges or things like that. Theres a way to say, i think im right and theres a way to some people crosses the line. Yeah, i mean, what is good politics in a president ial campaign may not be good politics in governing. Clearly, trump has an ability to find peoples weakest point and just nail them on that. Now hes in washington. Congress can pass things. Congress can reject things. Targeting individual senators may not be the best approach particularly on things they feel sensitive about. Senator blumenthal, he was, of course, the senator who first made the comment the judge toad him, his attacks on the federal judiciary were disheartening. I spoke to him before the nominee came out. Hes a democrat. Is he going to vote for trumps pick . Probably not. Compared to some of his colleagues, he certainly sounded more open to giving him a fair hearing. You still have to wonder if he feels that way after being pillered on the internet by donald trump. This may not be good politics now that he needs to win over people in congress. Are we being had here in the sense that this morning, the president of the United States, yes, i i asked that question quite a bit actually. The president of the United States this morning on twitter, his favorite vehicle, especially if its coffee time. Senator blumenthal who never fought in vietnam who said for years he had. The president of the United States saying that the senator was misrepresenting what the judge told him. However, the spokesman hired by the Trump White House says that is what he said. The sherpa helping the Trump White House says that is what he said. Republican senator ben sasse, a conservative, not a trump fan, says that is what he said. Disheartening is a great word. Judge gorsuch and i talked about that, and frankly, he got passionate about it. I asked him about the socalled judges comment because we dont have socalled judges or socalled president s or socalled senators. And this is a guy who welled up with some energy and said any attack on any i think his term to me was brothers or sisters of the robe, is an attack on all judges, and he believes an independent judiciary. Now again to the point, what the president , senator blumenthal was not representing what the judge said. The president was not factual in his tweet this morning. But were talking about this judge gorsuch being willing to stand up and criticize the president in these private meetings and prove his independence which is exactly what judge gorsuch needs to do to get the democratic votes he needs to get through a filibuster. At the moment this election like some big negative for the white house, but it helps its going to help the judge in the long run. You can imagine we all probably want to hear a confirmation from the judge in a confirmation hearing. This is certainly going to come up. It will be the first question anyone asks. And i can imagine it will probably be asked repeatedly, whether or not this is somehow appropriate for the white house. So i suppose the question then becomes, what is the president of the United States going to tweet about his own Supreme Court nominee, essentially standing up to him. And will President Trump tolerate criticism from his own Supreme Court nominee if that criticism in the long run helps the president get his Supreme Court nominee . Or because he criticized the president , should he prepare for the tweets . Thats a real open question. I wonder, like trumps relationship with almost everyone is adversarial. Even friends and family sometimes. We shouldnt be surprised from a litigious man that he has an adversarial relationship with judges. He feels very comfortable in that space. I also wonder whether he sometimes is saying, look, if youll come after me, especially democrats, or actually anyone, im going to throw at you whatever scandal you were last embroiled in and youll have to pay the price for that in some small way. Whether it may make him back off. For somebody like blumenthal, his base loves him fight with trump. It works for both. Its a little dynamic. Im not sure it does help him. Because the political dynamics, the Democratic Senators are facing this base that wants nothing but complete oppositional rezuftance. When Something Like this happens, it makes it harder for blumenthal to consider voting for gorsuch because he looks like hes being made steamrolled by trump and thats the worst thing he can do given where the Democratic Party is. Thats the official line from democratic leadership. Gorsuch didnt go far enough. Hes also refused to say it with his own mouth in public. A lot of democratic leaders, including senator Schumers Office are saying, wait a second. Lets not give this guy a pass for saying its disheartening in private but refusing to say it in public. I dont think the story is going to die. Its not clear what gorsuch did this week is going to be sufficient to quell the concern. The democrats are in a political argument, too. They say he has to say publicly they know full well if the tables were turned, they would tell their nominees, dont speak publicly now. You do that just at your confirmation hearing. Its disingenijen wassou in the. Because he is out there tweeting that a senator is not telling the truth when the senator was telling the truth and it sparks a discussion about the senator. 95, 96 prks 98 of what this president does is combat. Yet, hes sitting down for lunch right now and brought in the Democratic Senators, some of them, who are the key. Weve talked about the trump state democrats on the ballot in 2018. In many cases, trump won their states by 15, 20, 30 points so hes doing something traditional. Hes doing something bipartisan or at least trying to bridge the divide. Trying in the sense to rekindle a tradition that has fallen apart in recent years. President obama tried to reach out to republicans a number of times. There were a number of dinners after work and more informal settings. None of that worked to bridge any kind of partisan divide. This is a very combative president. Trying to play the normal game of washington in a washington thats fundamentally changed. Sure, a lot of democratic targets. I think ten senators up in 2018 who won democrats who won states that donald trump won. You know, those ten are the obvious targets to get to a 60vote threshold in the senate. But how many are going to be put off like blumenthal is going to be put off . How many are going to be railroaded like democrats have been railroaded by their own base in trying to come up with some opposition. So its a traditional play, but in a totally different landscape. Perhaps a little more nuanced than we give him credit for . He is combative, but he is not ideological. So there are opportunities often for liberals and moderate democrats to work with him on things but the base will almost certainly not allow that. But i do think hes this interesting character and perhaps hes combative with everybody and doesnt care what you believe and when you come down and sit at that table, he does want to make the deal. He is that guy to some extent. He likes to be liked. The outside trump is often very different from what you hear with people who have the little meetings with him. Its like a small conversation set, he can actually be charming. The one thing ive spent a lot of time talking to senators up for reelection. People weighing challenges to senators for reelection. One thing everyone seems to agree on is that nobody knows how this is going to play out. The political dynamics are so much in flux. Still less than a month in, although it feels like an awful lot longer. Just three weeks. Nobody knows how this is going to play out. Nobody knows if democrats are going to primary their own, if republicans are going to be weakened, if trumps Approval Ratings stay this low. So they are all sort of trying to keep options open at every place. If you are a red state democrat, you go to the white house. And you see you dont know which way the wind is going to blow in a year from now. The three least spoken words in washington i dont know. But they apply to just about everything. I think this is on purpose. The president if the democrats want to have a fight every day, they have to get to the gym and stay fit because hes going to bring it every day. The white house has buy american as one of its mantras. Now they are encouraging americans to buy clothing made overseas . People confuse nice and kind but theyre different. 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I heard that. When its time to get organized for retirement, its time to get voya. All umm. Ed. You wouldnt want your painter to quit part way, i think you missed a spot. So when it comes to pain relievers, why put up with just part of a day . Aleve, live whole not part. You want this color over the whole house . Welcome back. Hire american, buy american is a favorite slogan for President Trump and his America First white house. But there are exceptions. Go by ivankas stuff. I hate shopping, im going to go get some myself today. Its a wonderful line. I own some of it. Im going to give a free commercial here. Go buy it today, everybody. Find it online. That plug for the ivanka trump clothing line from the White House Briefing room by a taxpayer paid government employee, a pitch for a clothing line that relies heavily on cheap chinese and other overseas labor. So what . Family business or across the line . This is a really easy one. You really shouldnt do this stuff. Especially since there was this whole motion to separate ivanka and trump from their businesses. At least nominally. And this completely undermines that whole thing. The federal statute that deals with federal employees not doing this sort of thing actually kind of exempts the president from that but it does not exempt his aides. They are covered under this rule and its one of the things pretty clear theyre not supposed to do. I think actually that kellyanne knows that. But this white house has made it pretty clear that when it concerns something that the president himself is personally very upset about, they will go up to that line, exactly where he was, and defend him. Right. Thats the point i was going to make. I bet you a nordstrom shopping spree the boss liked that. If you havent followed the news, the nordstrom store said theyll no longer carry ivanka trump. They say its not selling and every year they review everything they sell and some things dont make the cut for next year. Thats why they made the decision. President trump thinks its political and personal. Tweeted yesterday, my daughter ivanka has been treated unfairly by nordstrom. Heres what struck me again. Kellyanne conway from the White House Briefing room. Heres sean spicer. He speaks for the United States government. Standing in a room that is the official government podium, if you will. Listen here. When it comes to his family, i think hes been very clear how proud he is of what they do and what theyve accomplished. And for someone to take out their concern with his policies on a Family Member of his, is just not acceptable, and the president has every right as a father to stand up for them. Not acceptable is the interesting language. Not acceptable. He speaks for the United States government. If you Say Something or do something critical or negative about the president s family, its not acceptable . You know, i think its clear this is an ethics violation. There seems to be little question about that. But i have to say, the dresses seem lovely. Ive seen them in the store. But hes the leader of the free world. This is the white house. Maybe Better Things to spend his time on . There are thousands of troops in afghanistan. Were not hearing about that. Plenty of issues were not hearing about. What were hearing about from him is his daughters his family business. His daughters business. There are questions about the appropriateness beyond the clear ethics violations, there are a lot of questions about the appropriateness of his use of time of what he is doing in the office. Like, i mean is this really what the taxpayers i bet a lot of trump voters love it because hes punching back at everything that gets in your way. Theres something about sticking up for your daughter and descending to qvc level which weve not quite reached yet with and exhibiting on air. Its only thursday. But i think one thing that i think would help us understand the trumps better is that there is no separation between personal and business. It is who they are. And i think thats how they understand it. Thats certainly how donald trump understands it. And so separating those two does not feel natural to them. And will not feel natural as president. And im not sure how interested they actually are in doing it. For me, theres the family loyalty, number one, but it gets back to the thing we talked about before. Relishing the combat. If you cross what are perceived or you do cross that, they get you back. Senator john mccain, this is a bug pivot, but senator mccain was raising questions about the raid in yemen. Was it a success . Was it done right . Was it rushed . Properly planned . Donald trump on twitter again. Senator mccain should not be talking about the success or failure of a mission to the media. Only emboldened the enemy. Hes been losing so long, he doesnt know how to win anymore. Look at the mess our country is in. Should not be talking about the success or failure of a mission to the media. His press secretary has talked about, hes describing it as a success. The pentagon has talked about it, released videos. A kerfuffle in that. I think we have this thing called the first amendment, and i think the chairman the chairman of the Armed Services committee has every right to talk about a military. What is this one about . Let me go back to the ivanka trump product line. This is something that democrats wish they had done in 2016. Attack donald trump like they attacked mitt romney. Takes profit above all else tried that with the trump ties and all that. It was not the central focus of a message like the Obama Administration campaigns assault on the Romney Campaign was. This is not a president running for reelection who has ethical issues that here we are three weeks in. Weve seen a few of them. These are not going away. Theyre going to be larger ones, and if theyre talking about a product line from the podium these can seem like petty fights or take the family loyalty to the ivanka thing. The mccain thing. He thinks mccain is pushing on russia. They can take it as petty fights. Listen to john thune who can count the votes. They have a 5248 majority in the senate. Every time you pick one of these fights and poison the well, it may cost you a vote down the line. Its probably not advisable for that line of discussion or that kfrgss to be going on publicly. At some point the president is going to need senators, every republican senator, because we only have a 52vote majority in the senate in order to accomplish his agenda. So i hope everybody can dial it down a bit and keep focused on the things that unite us. Id like to see that list of things that can unite us. Well continue the conversation when we come back. President trumps new attorney general sworn in this morning after a big clash with congress. Will the fighting get even tougher for the remaining cabinet picks . [car engine failing to start] [clicking of ignition] uh wha woof eeh woof wuh [silence] [engine roars to life] [dog howls] dramatic opera music swells from radio [howling continues] deartheres no other way to say this. Its over. Ive found a permanent escape from monotony. Together, we are perfectly balanced, our senses awake, our hearts racing as one. I know this is sudden, but they say if you love something. Set it free. See you around, giulia welcome back. Democrats tried awfully hard to sink attorney general Jeff Sessions nomination. Trump reminded them today in the oval office, they failed. Youll do a fantastic job. Thank you. Trump getting the last word there. President trump. Thats becoming a bit of a habit. Even in the supposedly genteel u. S. Senate. They call their targets my friend, my colleague. No longer. Take a look at this tweet from senator Elizabeth Warren. If Jeff Sessions makes even the tineiest attempt to bring his racism, sexism and bigotry into the department of justice, hell hear from all of us. I was joking with the staff that we have to rewind and go back because every day you say it escalated again and escalated again and its unprecedented. Weve never had rhetoric like this. Were only three weeks in. How do we keep we cant keep escalating. But am i wrong . Is there the language of washington, its been raw, polarized for a long time. But to publicly call a guy a racist and the republicans have their counter. Well get to that. This is both sides. Theres a ratcheting going on here. But its also because the rhetoric, i think, often from the left because trump is sort of been able to neutralize it. That kind of language was able to sink nominees in the past. Now they are like, what do we do next . And that does require a stepping up. And its not working partly because the filibuster is not operative now when it comes to these nominations. But i think thats some of it. Theres a lashing out that, im very upset about whats going on. I dont like any of these picks and none of this is working. He has a candidate just plu away the lines of what was considered acceptable political discourse. The president is the president. The president sets the tone. Not just in washington. Theres been some flareups in state houses. You see this trump style of doing political business. This unvarnished attacking, sort of filtering down. Its changing our political culture. It just is. Is there a shift back in 2020 . Do people get sick of this . We dont know but you definitely see it throughout washington, throughout the country, and i thought this whole fight in the u. S. Senate just seemed a little laughable. Theyre fighting over the decorum of the u. S. Senate. Meanwhile, the guy, ten blocks away in the white house is attacking half the body. So it just didnt really it all seemed discourting. Where is their Political Correctness like backlash . This is what Elizabeth Warren is doing for them. Shes basically saying, forget about all of this stuff about pulling punches on the president s nominees, even if hes a fellow kaernt. Democrats and the base really want their people to step up to the line and call it what it is. The same way trump was able to sort of like blow away all of this sort of genteel talk, washington talk and be himself and voters really like that. I feel like this is, to your earlier point, this is a longterm escalation of sort of the breakdown of decorum in american government, starting with abe fortis in and Robert Bourque and the heated rhetoric over nominees from Supreme Court now down to the secretary of the education who the Vice President had to come and rescue at the last minute with a tiebreaking vote. The difference is, we used to complain about too much filibustering and the rs do a little more and the ds do a little more and it gets worse. This 20year trend has been distilled down into two weeks. Or one Campaign Season getting even more heated because theyre all sitting there in the same building on capitol hill. So this is the culmination of a longterm trend. Its just happening a lot faster. Go back 30 years, 24hour news got blamed for some of this. Now Thomas Jefferson would have looked silly in his wig today. This is a twoway street. We read you Elizabeth Warrens tweet. Heres senator ted cruz. Once went to the floor to call his own leader a liar, but listen to him here talk about the democrats. When the left doesnt have any other arguments, they go and just accuse everyone of being a racist. And its an ugly, ugly part of the modern Democratic Party. The democrats are the party of the ku klux klan. Look at the most racist. The dixiecrats. They were democrats who imposed segregation, imposed jim crow laws who founded the klan. The klan was founded by a great many democrats. I dont we can have an historical conversation, if youd like. The robert byrd question. You know, theres some truth there about the dixiecrats and the like. That was then, this is now. To the now part of this. Is this how you get attention in todays politics that if you said wow, so i have to do wowplus . I think the internet has created an environment where that kind of thing is rewarded. Those videos go viral. Elizabeth warren, democratic groups fundraised hand over fist off her comments. And hes up for reelection in 2018. All politicians want this viral moment they can get a money bomb and an infusion of cash on whether its good for democracy, i think, is another question. Money bombs and attention are different than actual eelectoral wins. You reach the end of this tactic, calling someone a racist for whatever their belief that disagrees with you doesnt work. Accusing someone of the sam doesnt work on the other side and you go, what now . If its not getting you the electoral and legislative wins you have to go a different direction. The black hole of cynicism to your ray of sunshine. As were escalating through all of this and doing nothing but money bombs and fundraising nonstop, how does this stop . How does Mitch Mcconnell back off something he needs to back off . How does Chuck Schumer back off something when he has thousands of people protesting and demanding nothing but opposition to donald trump . I think were in for worse before we get better. Senator obama, then president obama came here and had a honeymoon because people thought, okay, hes going to change washington. Does trump run the same risk . The American People wanted change. This guy, the professional politician didnt do it. Were sending the bull into the china shop. If we have this environment where youre a racist, you started the kkk and everyone is on dictionary. Com to find the next adjective to take it to the next level, does anything get done nor in two years, four yeas does he face the same environment like, where is the change, sir . Things are moving forward and getting done. Whether they get tax reform done. Thats something we talk about needing democrats on your side of the fence. Tax reform has to be a bipartisan process. Were talking about the trade deals moving forward. There will be things that are done. Obamacare replacement in mind. Whether thats the change americans are looking for or whether were just hating all of our incumbents and voting them all out. 2006, 2008, 2010, 2014, you can argue 2016 was a significant wave, too. A lot of big things happened. Sit tight. The battle ahead for the president s labor secretary and other cabinet picks. 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So if youre 62 years or older, contact reverse Mortgage Funding today to receive a free information kit about reverse mortgages and the flexible payment feature. Just call the number on your screen or go online and visit flexreverse. Com isnt it time to take control of your finances . Call now or go online at flexreverse. Com and request your free reverse mortgage information kit today. Welcome back. You know that old saying, close only counts in darts, horseshoes and hand grenades . The Vice President had to vote to break the tie on education secretary. They came close but not close enough to block another nominee they really wanted to get, the now attorney general Jeff Sessions. Listen here. Heres Chuck Schumer, the democratic leader of the United States senate. Andy puzder, democrats dont like him. He says he should quit. Nominating puzder to oversee the Labor Department is clearly having a fox guard the hen house. They ought to withdraw puzders nominee before he further embarrasses this administration and further exposes the hypocrisy of President Trump in saying one thing to the workers of america and then doing another. The odds of that happening are probably longer than the odds of winning the powerball. But what is it . What is it that puts Chuck Schumer there . They lost one, they come out and fight again. They lose again and fight again. If you talk to them privately, they think they have a chance for andy puzder because of ethical and other issues well get into in a minute. This is the democratic base. Fight again, senator. I dont think theyre wrong to keep trying. We dont really know whats going to happen with any of these people. We dont know at what point theres the breaking point. Its not so much will the trump folks withdraw puzder but will puzder decide this is too much for him . He doesnt want to deal with it anymore. Democrats, theres a decent argument they should just keep trying. Theres nothing they lose by opposing trumps nominees in this case, politically. They only gain because their base really wants them to. Im not saying they should give in. Im saying this is sort of an admission of their rel tough weakness here that he says he should withdraw. Hes conceding. We dont have the votes to stop him so we hope he leaves. Elizabeth warren and ben carson. Democrats were really startled by the blowback. Elizabeth warren, a liberal icon got for voting in favor of ben carson. Thousands of people showed up in front of Chuck Schumers house in brooklyn. He was in washington at the time. To protest him supporting any of these nominees. Thousands of people showed up in rhode island, to protest Sheldon Whitehouse town hall because he voted for one of the nominees. They know the base is demanding they go aggressively after these nominees and whether they succeed or not is almost beside the point. They know if they couldnt take down betsy devos, its hard to see how they take down anyone else. Thats not really what this is about. Calls were flooding into congress to oppose betsy devos. No similar thing for andy puzder. The one thing that people are taking, at least note of, is that there will be a hearing next week in st. Louis county court to debate over his unsealing his divorce records. That could lead to some embarrassments as we get closer to an actual record. But theres no ground swell to oppose him like there was betsy devos. There is just a ground swell to oppose trump nominees. Quickly on that point. His now exwife had accused him of domestic abuse. Shes since publicly said that she pulled some of that back. People want to see the files to see the specifics on that. He also acknowledged in his back and forth with the government Ethics Agency of having an undocumented house worker. Some say thats disqualified prior nannies but also some people have gotten through, including some democrats have gotten through dealing with those issues. Because of the procedure here and im a broken record. Democrats brought on themselves which only requires 51 votes and they have 52 republicans, theres a low percentage chance youll win each of these battles. Ive thought it seemed like a strategic misstep to scatter shot your fire instead of concentrating on one particular nominee who might it looked like betsy devos might be that person but it really takes a super heavy lift. The lefts base is running into this like bladesaw of demoralization because every one of these is going to get through for the most part. The question they have to ask themselves after this is whether the protests and the attention and the means and all the things that have worked in the past are not working right now . And i would point out in cases like wisconsin, an environment of constant protest over many, many years got you Governor Walker and another term. And a red wisconsin in a president ial election. The lefts base, although it will be successful in pushing democrats to do the things they wanted to do, whether that actually works for them is another really big question. And some democrats will admit that. These protests could go badly for them. Particularly if they get taken over by wto anarchist elements. They start becoming violent. The base starts demanding primary challenges. There is weariness for more conservative areas about where this movement could lead for sure. And one of the things, if you are a fan of Good Government or just government. One of the issues here, talking about the specifics of these fights over individuals. One thing thats a reality is, in part, because the democrats are stalling and because of some of the trump nominees were slow getting their paperwork in. Six cabinet members have been confirmed so far. Still awaiting confirmation on pretty big jobs. Treasury, agriculture, health and human services. The clock runs out at 1 46 a. M. , ive been told later on today. You see the not coirmed on the other side. There is an impact here just in terms of the operations of government. Again, these delays are a mix of politics and process, but that hasnt that matters. Among them is his office of management and budget director. Thats like these are some kind of basic washington jobs that are necessary that the president has to put forward a bmg in a couple of weeks. That process cant really fully happen until he has some of these people into place. They really want to work on obamacare without having tom price confirmed, they really cant do anything publicly on that. The list goes on and on. And, you know, when i talk to people, they are saying, these people need to be in place in order for the government to really move forward. And in order for trump to deliver on some of these promises. Health care is a huge one. The budget is also a big one, too. Tax reform infrastructure hanging in the balance. If the president doesnt have his nominees in place to move the levers of government, to put plans on the table, to get executive orders out there, they really need those people. Were scoring the administration at the end of the year, this is three weeks in. Keep a scorecard now, youll rip it up a few teams. At the end of the year, these delays could matter. Our reporters open their notebooks, cltding how a trump appointment might help a republican governor save his own skin. But kind is honest. This bar is made with cranberries and almonds. So, guess what . We call it cranberry almond. Give kind a try. Tech dont let a cracked windshtrust safelite. Plans. With safelites exclusive on my way text. Youll know exactly when well be there. Giving you more time for what matters most. team sing safelite repair, safelite replace. Mthat stuff only lasts a few hours. Or, take mucinex. One pill fights congestion for 12 hours. Guess i wont be seeing you for a while. Why take medicines that only last 4 hours, when just one mucinex lasts 12 hours . Lets end this. Welcome back. Change of plans here. Were told were Just Moments Away from seeing tape. The president is having lunch at the white house with Bipartisan Group of senators. A couple republicans. But the main focus, several democrats whose votes he hopes to get when his Supreme Court nominee neil gorsuch comes up for a vote. There may be a filibuster. Were told the president said it would be unfortunate if any senator voted against his nominee because of politics. That happens in this town. He also said again he believed the judges comments have been misrepresented. Were talking about judge gorsuch in a number of meetings with senators has said he has found it to be disheartening and demoralizing that the president of the United States has publicly criticized. The federal judge involved in the travel ban case who put the stay in place. As we wait for the tape, how does the president say that when his spokesman, hired by the white house to help judge gorsuch, says judge gorsuch said demoralizing, disheartening. A republican senator says in my meet with me he said disheartening and demoralizing. How can the president say its being misrepresented . I dont think that if President Trump had been silent today and just been like, oh, thats fine that neil gorsuch criticized me that wed be talking about whether neil gorsuch actually criticized him. Its important for this to play out the way that it would normally play out which is someone says something negof it about trump and trump punches back. Wed have a lot more skepticism toward this whole situation if it didnt play out that way. Im going to put that out on the table. They know that it cannot look like this whole organized, like preordained moment in history. And i think President Trump is also reluctant to fall into any troeps like that. Hes going to respond exactly the way he wants to and that i dont think that necessarily hurts couldnt the president say, thats his opinion. Hes a judge. He comes from a different perspective. I stand by what i said . Has he ever said that . He can say im not afraid to have people its a strategy of confusion, right . You say someone says, that is a fact. The president or the white house says thats wrong. And then everyone spends the next day debating whether it is or is not correct, right . Sometimes that means factchecking. Sometimes debates like this. And then at the end, if you are a viewer and not living and breathing this stuff you kind of dont know whats righter wrong and thats wrhen we get in a difficult situation. The president said if you hear it from somebody like cnn or the washint, dont believe it. A friend of mine has written in the past it feels like much of the American Public is watching what they feel are two unreliable narrators. One is the media, which they have real reservations about, and one is trump. Theyre trying to make sense of it. Depending on your biases, youll fall on either side of that. Its a real problem but both sides have answering to do for the making of it. Its a wonderful test. Ive said this before. You can do this yourself. You can do this yourself at home. Find your own sources to go to. Were about 20 seconds from the tape here playing. Very quickly, very key. The democrats, joe manchin, heidi heitkamp, key when trying to break a filibuster. Here we go. Sorry. So thank you all very much for being here. We had a couple of great meetings this morning. The airline industry. Get that one going. Theyve got a lot of problems, but its going to be good. We just had talks with qatar and a couple of countries. Afghanistan. I would say that thats a tough situation, but well do something about it. Well be having some well be giving you some pretty good information soon. Were going to have some good conversations with other World Leaders over the next two hours. A lot of things are happening. A lot of positive things. I want to start by thanking senator manchin for having the courage to vote for somebody thats really very outstanding. Really outstanding. As good as theyve seen in a long time. Nominating the justice to the Supreme Court, a justice, has always been considered one of the very important things that a president can do. I guess im looking very much at defense and were negotiating a lot of contracts with airlines and with a lot of other people, but when you get right down to it, the f35 fighter is very important, and all of the things were doing is very important. But ive always considered, and a guess a lot of people have, the Supreme Court nominees to be right up there. Right up there. Well take defense number one. I think, senator, we have to go with defense of our country number one. And right after that, i suspect its going to be Supreme Court justices. Judge gorsuch is an exceptionally qualified nominee. Probably theres rarely been anybody thats been more qualified. He has impeccable academic and legal credentials. He went to columbia. Very, very great student. He went to harvard. Top of his class. He went to oxford. Great student. Great intellect. He has an outstanding record for ten years on the bench. One of the great legal writers. Ive read some of the things hes written and, believe me, hes a great, great writer. Hell respect and very much respect the constitution as written. And he will apply the law as written. Hes a mainstream judge. Very much mainstream. And i urge you all to confirm him. Hes been doing very well. A lot of people are liking him very much on the other side. And i think that because of politics, perhaps theyll not vote for him. Thats a shame because thats not being honest. Ive had a couple of people tell me from the, side because, believe it or not, i have a lot of friends on the other side, too, and they think hes outstanding. And then they go on to tell me that perhaps they wont be able to do that. But thats one of the reasons that our country is in stagnation in so many different forms and so many different ways. Its very dishonest and very unfortunate. But well see what happens. I think hes doing very well. And i know that some people are going to come on board and hopefully we can do this in a very quick and civil manner. The cabinet slowly is happening. Jeff sessions just got you are very happy about that, because jeff is outstanding. And we just swore in Jeff Sessions as attorney general. N and i think hes going to be outstanding. I just want to thank you all for being here. Were going to have a good lunch and talk about our Supreme Court nominee and somebody who will do a fantastic job for many years to come. Thank you very much. Thank you. Comments about you you misrepresented his comments. His comments were misrepresented. What you should do is ask senator blumenthal about his vietnam record that didnt exist after years of saying it did. So ask senator blumenthal about his vietnam record. He misrepresented that just like he misrepresented judge gorsuch. Thank you all very much. Thank you. You see the president of the United States meeting with democrats and republicans, members of the u. S. Senate, making his pitch for his Supreme Court nominee, judge neil gorsuch to be confirmed. Also in the same at the same, at the very end you heard him once again very, very critical of senator richard blumenthal. He says misrepresenting comments by judge gorsuch. Judge gorsuch making the point to senator blumenthal yesterday that what the president tweeted, what the president said about the judiciary in judge gorsuchs words, this according to senator blumenthal, were the words were demoralizing and disheartening. The president saying that was a distortion of what was said, but its interesting that the official spokesperson that the white house selected, that the white house had selected for judge gorsuch confirmed thats precisely what the judge said. Take a look at this. Weve got some live pictures coming in from the white house right now. The White House Briefing room. Lots of questions coming up for the press secretary sean spicer. Hell be taking questions from reporters later this hour. Likely to be asked about gorsuchs comments critical of the president. Well, of course, have live coverage of that coming up this hour. In the meantime, lets get more on these latebreaking developments