he got away with it this week senate republicans voted to acquit president donald trump but can he ever escape the pain of impeachment one of his closest allies. steve cortez thanks for joining. us on wednesday president trump was acquitted on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of congress you must be delighted the white house has called it a full exoneration for the president but given this was the 1st full senate impeachment trial in american history. any witnesses senate republicans did not allow any witnesses it's not a full exoneration at all is it well i think it is a partial exoneration so i will partly agree with you by the way i'm one of the few people in sort of team trump who wanted witnesses because i think that witnesses would have achieved that full exoneration and so i again i'm not saying that on behalf of the white house i'm not even saying that on behalf of my organization america 1st that's just my personal opinion i disagree i don't want to see the full exoneration was that i actually wanted well i'm just saying it is an exoneration but for a full exoneration to prove to the american people i think just how corrupted this entire inquest was from the very beginning i thought witnesses would have been helpful there are still other ways that we can get to full exoneration for example senate committees looking into the targeting of president trouble all the way back to his candidacy by the national security apparatus of the united states. continuing through his tenure as president elect and then president of united states i still think that for full exoneration we need that investigation to fully to fully unfold perhaps the most high profile witness who republicans in the senate refused to call but who was willing to come and testify as president trump's own former national security advisor john bolton who says in a full of coming book that the president told him he wanted to freeze aid to ukraine until the ukrainians launched investigations into his political opponents if trump isn't guilty steve if there's nothing to hide he did nothing wrong he wouldn't have blocked bolton a republican from testifying woody. well look he blocked lots of folks from the white house and to testify and for very good reasons by the way it's not because that's an indication of guilt it's because executive privilege is a very fundamental premise of american law for the executive branch and it's something that's important not just for president trump to protect but important for any president to have protection that he can can rely on taking advice in confidence from his advisers and knowing that it will stay in confidence so that's a very important principle it's an important precedent of american law but look again i had john bolton being called as a witness i'm fine with him pretty particular in terms of the trade off of i'd be happy to hear what john bolton had to say under all juxtapose that for example with the whistleblower under oath with the bidens under oath with adam schiff under oath so i think it's too bad to some degree that the american people didn't get that full flushing out of the this entire story but so be it you know the 2nd to decide it again they are going to in the book very soon see what happens that on wednesday the vote to convict trump on abuse of power was by politics on $47.00 democrats plus one republican you'll polities former presidential candidate mitt romney whereas the vote to acquit him was policies on only republicans voted to acquit and even among those republican steve you had multiple senators lamar alexander lisa murkowski rob portman susan collins who openly said there was nothing perfect about that poll with the ukrainian president that it was wrong that it was inappropriate so again this is not an exoneration for trump is that he still tainted no i did not believe that he's tainted look when it comes to some of the republicans in the senate despite what the democrats want to tell us that he supposedly controls republicans on the hill with an iron grip i think we've seen it actually exactly the opposite particular when it comes to the senate there is a lot of opposition to this president and his agenda among republicans in the united states senate if there weren't for example when we controlled both houses of congress we would have gotten the wall fully built on the southern border so the idea that adam schiff and a lot of his allies in media continually put forward that he's some sort of king and he has almost dictate. tauriel control of republicans is just wrong i believe on the facts but on the issue of impeachment multiple rob republican senators criticize this president i just want to play a clip of donald trump on the white house lawn in october opening asking not just ukraine but china to investigate the bidens have a listen by the way like white guys. again. what happened. just about what happened. with ukraine. put aside steve for a moment the fact that a lot of americans including republicans think it's wrong for a u.s. president to ask a foreign totalitarian government to investigate a u.s. citizen let me ask you this why is it ok to ask china for a corruption investigation into hunter biden son of joe and a private citizen but not for a corruption investigation into evoke a trump daughter of donald and white house advisor in 2018 the chinese government gave 5 trademarks to because businesses around the same time as a father the president rather conveniently was trying to save a chinese telecoms company from going bust. right ok well listen i think those are apples and oranges comparisons if you want to i can talk about the evocate issue 1st of aka is a is a established and extremely successful business woman prior to her father entering politics so it's not surprising that she would be able to gain trademarks in a country like china there's nothing unusual about that when he's on the right of you when you're working in the white house and your father is doing deals that favor the chinese 6 days off do you get those trade moments well look the president has hardly been has either been easy on china if there's one thing that has really marked his presidency has been standing up to china where he was not going he was under me saying i'm going to save this chinese company people were shocked at the time and she did get a bunch of trade i'm not saying she did i think all i'm saying is why haven't we had people calling for an investigation into what insistency but here's the thing if we because as far as i know there's no there's no credible allegation that anything was untoward there were as we look at one of the by the haitians more the way they want to buy them we most of them divide the allegations have been questioned heavily by experts when we look at hunter biden and what he did in china and by the way i think the corruption issue of the bidens in china is a far greater issue actually than the ukraine issue i think it makes the ukraine issue while the somewhat heated corruption issues of the largest integer and who are in office right now is what you would than somebody did something 4 years ago and the government. i would be the 1st to say that if the trump children suddenly got massive business deals from a foreign government and a very corrupt government like the chinese communist party if they something got massive business deals made huge pay packages sale in an area of business in which they have no no in an area of business in which they have no previous expertise it which they have which they have never practiced before such as $100.00 hunter biden get in a 1000000000 and a half dollars from the government controlled bank of china for private equity you know again a business for which he had no track record for which he had no credentials other than his last name and being his father's son if that were to happen with the trump children then i would be the 1st to say many would argue that looking at him with a bit of children every day but let me ask you this steve you talk about corruption can you point me to a single specific case in ukraine or for that matter anywhere else in the world where president trump has shown an interest in corruption and fighting corruption that doesn't involve joe budden all the democrats just one example yes well for instance we're talking a lot about china here look the the approach toward china right now their president trump thankfully his comments within this country is that we're taking on china in a broad way in a national security sensitive trade way and in a corruption sense for example america has been incredibly abused by the chinese communist party regarding our intellectual property that's corruption absolutely come off as a right thing i'm asking about specific case of corruption involving ukrainian all the dogs or the israeli prime minister who's indicted on charges of corruption but is a good friend of the president he doesn't show interest in any specific case of corruption the democrats surely know that. i cannot no i don't know that but i can address the here's the difference between netanyahu and biden and there's a crucial difference netanyahu is not american he's not american politician he's a friend and ally to be sure of our country and of the president's on a personal level but joe biden was a constitutional officer of the united states the 2nd highest constitutional officer of the united states if he was engaged in corrupt practices or if his family was while he was the city vice president that is an extremely relevant and appropriate angle for this country to pursue what i want to talk about the issue of immigration and race huge issues in this country you called yourself a nationalist the president called himself a national you've also been a member of the president's hispanic advisory council to hispanic yourself and yet this is a president who opened his campaign by referring to mexican immigrants as rapists who was repeatedly referred to an invasion and invaders at the southern border the same language as you know that's been used by white nationalist terrorists who have attacked synagogues mosques latino's in grocery stores you'll sell steve the president to tone down his quote inflammatory rhetoric on invasions didn't you i did i don't like the term invader but 2 separate issues there by the way in terms of his opening when he when he came down the escalator trump tower and he talked about rapists and murderers coming from mexico that is factually correct now it's not the preponderance of course it's not even a large minority of the illegal migrants who come to this country but it is a reality that there are people who come here illegally with it what he said with a result of some of them wreak havoc upon this country and by the way they primarily wreak havoc upon hispanic americans our community suffers the most the ravages of dangerous illegal aliens who are often allowed to stay in this country to hide in plain sight in so-called sanctuary cities for example as 13 if you read a story we're going to get out of time again we're going to what do you make of it all as we all hispanic said we could all make up our own minds on invasions invade as you criticize but i agree with you i don't like the word invader so why do you say it so much because he's the president i'm not. racist offensive insightful things. just saying the only difference is ok now this is important and i will i will certainly defend him on this same invaders not racist there is nothing racist about defending our border for a couple of reasons number one america is not a race this is a multiracial country citizenship here has nothing to do with race you were born here or your naturalized legally in a race blind process holdings will. cross the border into america invaded is yes many would argue that is bigot he would write laws. he hasn't read he had anyone when he didn't he wouldn't hold anyone of any little or no way invade is he referring to the southern border when he said it in fact stevie's run more than 2000 facebook ads referring to an invasion at the southern border despite your your advice and you'll your protestations when you have the walmart shooter in the mosque shooter in christchurch the synagogue shooter in pittsburgh all referring to foreign invaders you can understand why so many people think this president is inciting violence and harming minorities you can understand that surely when you look at the common language no i certainly cannot this president as a matter of fact that we saw certainly his state of the union which was very much really an appeal to minority americans and i actually put an article about this it was the state of the union for minorities in terms of both the topics selected and the gas who were present for that magnificent state of the union speech it was really all about number one the accomplishments dust far that directly benefit minority americans and the number 2 road ahead and how at how minorities in this country black and brown people who he deeply loves and cares about are starting finally to fully participate in the economic appreciate that you're going to do with my go research and when you have terrorists who are using the same language offensive language that you and i don't like about jews and about mexicans and about people in el paso walmart's that's a problem isn't it you don't think is a problem that the president says these invaders are coming in and that people go and shoot them and say these invaders are coming at you don't think that's a problem there are sick demented people who unfortunately want to use violence to achieve political ends for example the shooter on the left now i would never blame that on bernie sanders even though he. clearly was an ardent bertie sander suddenly saw an example of what he saw in this condemned that shooter and didn't use any of the language the shoot used against republicans trump is that all trump has and condemned the shooters he's completely condemned the shooters i mean plenty condemn them all and i mean it doesn't mean something to you at a trump rally in may the president asked how we should stop migrants from illegally crossing the border someone in the crowd yelled out shoot them trump did not condemn that remark stevie smug and he made a joke about it less than 3 months later a man did shoot latinos in el paso wal-mart. he did not. share the migrants there is a funny i don't write on the. i don't think it's funny you know it also i don't think it's funny though is having a porous border because it's bad for our national security to say that's another debate i don't really say i'm asking about shooting people making jokes about shooting people and killing them invaders that's the problem surely you and i can agree on that i look i don't i as i've told you now i think 3 times i don't i don't prefer the term invader i don't ok however that doesn't mean in any sense that i'm soft on this issue illegal immigration is a scourge upon this country and it is a scourge that primarily mostly disproportionately ravages minority american citizens this president is doing his best unfortunate has been obstructed by the courts and by congress but he is doing this best to at long last gain sovereignty over our country it's one of the primary reasons that he was elected it is a it is an animating principle of our movement and he has followed through on like so many other conservative. i mean full of those lives just suddenly followed through on this issue you say trump isn't a racist i just want to play a clip from a trump rally in new mexico a few months ago which you were out and what the president said this jokingly about you he happens to be is panicked but i've never quite figured it out because he looks more like a wasp than i do. what do you like for the country you know that his. he says the country i don't know why i may have to go for the hispanic. stevie question your identity of the hispanic american you question your loyalty to america and to question your skin color how is that not racist. no well 1st of all he didn't question my spending this he's joking right it was a moment of levity and he's having you want to go why is he suddenly he held on like a wall because he do because he's ok he teases me he teases me often in private and this in this case he did in public that i look like such a wall street banker ok so he's making fun of. me as i did all the knicks not to america no and look very again what he meant was clearly and look i know this because i know him and because i talk with him privately when there are cameras about this issue what he meant there was you love both so much you love america so much you love the span of community so much and then in an in artful way he said which do you like more right it's just an offhand comedy there's nothing i could do like he had said he says the country i don't know you don't think that feeds into troops about disloyal cowardice even to joe and he was a joke was going to be racist. now look he was clearly laughing i was laughing by the way if i know there's always people love letters and joke steve steve lots of you don't even believe in ok the fact that we love our something doesn't i don't racist many i would never tolerate a racist comment even from president trump whom i greatly admire i would never tolerate a racist comment particularly one directed at me i will tell you this story about the president i privately the very 1st time i ever got the oval office in february 2017 when he welcomed me and the very 1st thing he said just the 2 of us no one else there was what can i do to help hispanic americans in this country and that we had a substantive conversation primarily about small business and about deregulation that is the heart of this president that's the mind of this president. of the results that have been achieved so far so you know again he speaks in artfully he speaks at times very inelegant lee i'll be the 1st to admit that as somebody who for the last several years has to come on shows like this and explain some of the state of the speaks well not notice someone who comes on the show to explain statements one last question before i let you go on sunday the kansas city chiefs won the super bowl and president trump went on twitter and congratulated the state of kansas even though the team. is based in kansas city missouri when the president does or says things like this which show his lack of knowledge of basic job graphy american history world events how embarrassed do you feel how hard does it make your job coming on having to defend him now look i wasn't embarrassed at all and here's the reason there is a kansas city kansas 1st of all next to kansas city missouri there are tons of cheese fans in the state of kansas so was it a mistake of course it was a mistake was a consequential not remotely in my mind i really don't to me it's something you laugh about that he quickly corrected steve cortez thanks so much for joining me on outfront thank you many. tens of thousands of people have become infected with the coronavirus respiratory illness to broke out in china in december so far the rate of death is less than 3 percent but as china scrambles to contain the viral epidemic foreign nations are evacuating their citizens and already the global economy is feeling the impact of cancel flights and business is closing so is the coronavirus destined to become the next pandemic many certainly seem to think so and the fear is leading to open racism against china joining me to discuss the chinese and global responses to the coronavirus is one and i think of a china global television network c g t n and their former chief political correspondent he's been covering the coronavirus from headquarters and he joins me now from beijing. thank you for joinin