Transcripts For CNNW CNN Tonight With Don Lemon 20170328 : c

Calling for him to step aside. Lets go right to cnns evan perez. What do you have . Well, theres been a lot of twists and turns in this story in the last 24 hours and of course towards the end of the day in an interview with phil mattingly, a top democrat said one or suggested one reason why the chairman of that committee should step aside from this is the communications hes talking about, the intelligence reports he might be talking about may include his own name. You know he served on the trump transition as a member of as an advisor, Donald Trumps transition to the now president. And so devin nunes might be conflicted according to adam schiff in his handling of the investigation earlier in the day nunes began the day by essentially outing his source as someone he met with at the white house. That was an unusual Statement Today from him. And we still dont know know what intelligence reports hes talking about. One intelligence one republican the hill who talked to gloria tonight says one of the things he might be talking about is simply capturing foreign diplomats in their interactions with the trump team. And he says hes done nothing wrong despite those calls. And previously undisclosed meeting that took place between Jared Kushner and a russian banker. What do you know . Thats right. This is a bank called veb. Its a very closely tied to the kremlin and the russian government. And Jared Kushner met with the chief of that bank. His name is sergei gorcov. He met with him according to the white house this was a routine part of him serving as essentially the top conduit for meet shz with foreign officials during the trump transition. We have seen a statement provided by the New York Times and they say that they met with kushner in his capacity as a developer, as the president of his own Development Team in new york. So the question is what which story is it . We know the white house has had trouble explaining all these meetings with russian officials. Weve even tried to get to the bottom of this in the past week and theyve sort of been very reluctant to provide all this information. But this could pose a new legal problem for Jared Kushner, don. Simply because if hes using a transition meeting, an official government meeting for his own business purposes, that could raise some legal questions for him and for the white house. I want to bring in now bill crystal, the editor at large of the weakly standard. Betsy mccoy, the former republican and good evening to all of you. Whats your reaction . First of all, i think itser shameful the effort on the part of the Democratic Party to taint, to smear devin nunes, a person of great integrity who was done something very import ntd for this country. Not just for the Trump Administration or the republican party. He is unmasking the he is disclosing the efforts of the permanent establishment in washington to taint, to undermine the effectiveness of the Trump Administration. And im very glad he did it, and i wish he had done it before last monday. You have no problem with him going to the white house first . I dont. In that role, first and foremost is to notify your colleagues in your committee. Democrats and republicans. Because the evidence doesnt change no matter who you take it to. Absolutely. And at the very beginning he would brief the committee and have a press conference. Otherwise hes going to be bum barded by every reporter in town but the fact he went from a press conference to the white house and his colleagues, i understand their frustration. And hes actually apologized to them for having side stepped and gone instead to President Trump. Perception matters and it matters because were talking about something that is the pillar of our democracy. The integrity of our elections. If i were a trump supporter i would want an investigation that is above board in every aspect so they can finally get this monkey off their back. I think its time for republican voices to raise the question about his ability to conduct a full and fair investigation because americans watching this are going to wonder if republicans who are in charge are capable of doing this and if theyre not, theyre going to take it out in the ballot box, maybe not against nunes but certainly republicans in tight districts. President trump could do it tomorrow. He could appoint any two former attorney generals and say have access to all the documents. If theres no problem here writhey make it all public. I dont understand it. Why dont they tell us everything . Why do you find out one thing after another . The reason theyre not telling you is because they dont want you to know everything because there might be problems there otherwise this is pretty easy to handle. Is this really a tough challenge . If theres nothing to hide hire two people to look into it and no problem. Nothing was done that was wrong. Kushner is fine. He can meet with this guy under sanctions in his capacity as a businessman and representative of the white house, theres no problem with that in america. Were used to having people do both things at once, right . I mean thats why this meeting wasnt made public. This is a problem. Steve hall is on the retired chief of cia russian operations. He says this whole masking thing is a ruse. Totally. I do not believe its a rouse. Its ludicrous. What was leaked . Its an inappropriate method by which the establishment in washington attempts to discredit members of the Trump Administration. What has been leaked . Look otwhat they did to Michael Flynn . Nunes says this has nothing to do with russia. You are saying Intelligence Officers let me finish. Intelligence officers in the cia, the nsa, people who have worked 20, 30, 40 years for this country are doing the Obama Administrations bidding. And its true in the Justice Department. We saw early on that high ranking members of the Justice Department were disloyal to the new president and spoke against his policies. Spoke against his policies. What a horror instructing their underlings to defy the president. This is such a side show from the real issue. How did this begin . Did russia interfere with our elections . That is a concern everyone youre saying the phrase you dont believe russia interfered with our elections . Yes, because its an incorrect phrase. Did russia tamper with our ballot boxes, with our Voting Machines . So interfering with Public Opinion is fine. Stealing emails and releasing them strategically is fine for a foreign power. Thats not the same as tampering with an election. How is that not the same . Because interfering with Public Opinion is very different than tampering with how the votes are counted. Or how the votes are lets make this zngz. If they had interfered or tampered with the voting booths, we would have a measurable metric of what they have done. What the result and the influence they did wield and with the cyber hacking, we cannot measure. Foreign governments did not attempt to influence Public Opinion. Does that mean we should allow it . Does that mean we should allow our democracy to be threatened . Im objecting to the phrase influencing Public Opinion. It has nothing to do with tampering with the election. How does that have nothing to do with tampering with the election . Donald trump said release these emails. And it undermined a credibility of a president ial candidate. Why did he quote from these emails . I think he quite correctly understood that this is just craziness to attribute the outcome of an election to the releasing of a bunch of emails. Thats ridiculous. Do you think it was appropriate to site those emails, it was a great thing they released them . Its irrelevant to the outcome of the election. Donald trump thought it was very helpful. When you say tampering with an election or that is the bottom line. Theres an illegitimate outcome. The truth is we are never going to know that the influence wielded by russia had on the election. Well never know if donald trump won or would have lost. I frankly accept that. What i dont accept is that we, as americans are not going to vigorously investigate to the last dam thing what happened so that we dont allow it to happen again. Let me get this in. I dont even have to say remember the old phrase dont touch that dial. I dont think you will because were coming right back. Im only in my 60s. Ive got a nice long life ahead. Big plans. So when i found out medicare doesnt pay all my medical expenses, i got a Medicare Supplement Insurance Plan. [ male announcer ] if youre eligible for medicare, you may know it only covers about 80 of your part b medical expenses. The rest is up to you. Call now and find out about an aarp Medicare Supplement Insurance Plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. Like all standardized Medicare Supplement Insurance Plans, it could save you in outofpocket medical costs. Call now to request your free decision guide. Ive been with my doctor for 12 years. Now i know ill be able to stick with him. [ male announcer ] youll be able to visit any doctor or hospital that accepts medicare patients. Plus, there are no networks, and virtually no referrals needed. See why millions of people have already enrolled in the only Medicare Supplement Insurance Plans endorsed by aarp. Dont wait. Call now. How bad was the Health Care Loss for the white house . Was it like hitting a pot hole or driving off a cliff . Joining me now New York Times Robert Draper whose new article is called trump versus congress. The Washington Post contributor join me as well. Thank you both so much for joining us. Robert, you first. You wrote an indepth article on where the president and his advisors find themselves after the epic defeat of the Health Care Bill on friday. Is health care dead and whats the impact on the rest of his agenda you think . Its a dead for the moment. Thats for sure, don. The influence of factors. A House Republican conference that has no experience in getting to yes. Republicans as a whole not really ever forming a consensus on what they wanted an alternative to obamacare to be and obamacare changed the paradigm by adding 10s of millions of people to the rolls and the prospect of them going off the rolls turned up the tension and left a lot of people at sorts as to precisely whats going to happen. I think they have to abandoned it for the moment. The president has said over and over he wants a win. He didnt get it here. He thinks tax reform will be that win for him and theres a report theyll do tax reform and infrastructure at the same time. I think they need to master the art of the deal with one thing at a time. And if he goes back to it and loses again, that would not look pretty. He says hell work with democrats on healthcare. Is that likely . I think that donald trump has created an atmosphere in washington of hunger games. Someone is going to have to die every week and he may ultimately be the one who shoots himself in the foot and head. If you look at the people around him or people who have stuck by him, everyone steams to be getting hurt. It just keeps rubbing off. People who try to help him and theres paul ryan who is ended up practically losing his reputation because of his involvement with health care and Reince Priebus is probably on his way out if you read the inside white house gossip. Gary cohen is probably on his way out. Bannon is strong. Jared kushner may be one of the people who has to die if things do not go well in the Intelligence Committee briefing. Of course. You mean all this metaphorically, sally . You know what im talking about, the hunger games. Okay. Just want to put it in the right context. People get alarmed when you say shooting and things. But what im talking is all a metaphor. Somebody has to go. Walk the plank is what im talking about. Thats a better analogy. Thank you. You had flynn and who might be about to rat on trump, who knows. And youve got all these people on both Intelligence Committees in fighting with each other. And i just dont see the atmosphere changing. I think its so toxic and poisonous and people are scrambling away. I just dont see the cooperation coming in any of the other projects that they try to get involved min. Heres what robert gets into in this article. You go into great detail about Stephen Bannon and his pursuit of economic nationalism. Is there any doubt in your mind that bannon is the intellectual driver behind the president s agenda . Theres no doubt and hes achieved a mind meld with the president that goes beyond. Theyre peers. Bannon is successfully financial just as the president is. He works late in the life. He basically has no social life, much like the president himself as far as i know golfing and yelling at you guys on the tv has no known hobbies. I would inject a note of caution to what sally has just said. Sheez i think weve heard this before the 2016 president ial campaign and bodies were thrown over board, pick your metaphor. Wait a minute, wait a minute. Careful. But trump prevailed. I dont think hes going to bend washington to his will, but im not sure washington is going to bend trump to washingtons will. Do you think democrats would work with the president and vice versa . It depends. On a bill like infrastructure, theyre going to be tempted to because there may be goodies. On healthcare . On healthcare, no. Because they say repeal is off the table. Thats right. And unless President Trump says we will go into obamacare and try to fix it as it is, the notion thatd democrats were going to come on board and participate in the repealing of the one great piece of legislation, monumental that the democrats participated in, in the last few years was never a realistic possibility and President Trump is now tweeting to the effect and saying out loud this is all the Democratic Partys fault doesnt really pass the smell test. I do agree with robert that i dont think congress is going to or washington is going to bend trump to its will. Thats never going to happen. But and just dont see i think that trying to sort of create some sort of a youre going to have to have an incredible blender to put these two together. The Trump White House and the washington quote establishment and youre not going to come out with a smoothie. And i dont see the democrats in any mood to do anything to help trump on any level. And it ends up being determining how these people are seen back in their home districts. And if they get any whiff lat that theyre hurting, theyre not going to play. And by the way, don, and sally, i just mentioned that one body we have not spoken about is not just the Democratic Party but the senate. Obamacare repeal and replace failed in the one body that we thought would be the most hospitable to President Trump, the House Republicans. He has yet to deal with democrats and the senate. When he tries to get tax reform and the border adjustment tax through the senate, hes going to find a wall waiting for him. Okay, thank you all. I appreciate it. Im going to get back to my panel now. Please no metaphors. I love those guys but how am i going to clean this one up . So lets talk about i think we talked about this Russian Investigation a lot. Can we talk about unless you had Something Else to add, i want to talk about the president s tweeting and the first thing out of judge geanines mouth is paul ryan must resign. Do you think thats a coincidence . It doesnt take judge janene to interpret what was a debacle for the republican party. You can try to blame it on them all you want but the bottom line is it was republicans who defeated the repeal and its the question is, is it precedent set ing. You had right wing republicans and the Freedom Caucus who both had so many issues with this piece of legislation that together they coalesced to bring it down. Steve bannon went into Freedom Caucus meeting and told them youve got to vote for this. And someone said nobodys told me what to do since i was 18 and i didnt listen to them either. I think theyve learned, some of the opens thatb they can buck the president , buck leadership and win, pay no consequences. Theyre answering to their constituents back home. And when you have a bill with 1 6 of the economy drafted really not with input from the two main facets of the republican party. Those in the tuesday meeting as well as the house Freedom Caucus and it is brought forth and says were going to pass this thing in 18 days without more input and that was frustrating to them. And the Freedom Caucus members were loyal to their people. They were not going to be swayed by bannon or any of the top officials. It demonstrated more than anything they were going to keep their promises to the people in their district. Do you think im going to ask you