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Slam Clinton Over Recount Efforts; Trump Shifts on Some Major Campaign
Promises; Trump's Conflicts of Interest. Aired 8-9a ET - Part 2>
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KING: What are we learning here? What are we learning? I mean, we're laughing about the give me, you know, pack of cigarettes and a six-pack of beers.
ED O'KEEFE, THE WASHINGTON POST: No, I'm not laughing about that. He's got a point there.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
KING: Well, number one, it saves -- if, if President-elect Trump, he hasn't said he's going to change his mind. He said he's open to changing his mind now after listening to the general. If he changes his mind on that issue he staves off a fight with Congress and perhaps a fight with the generals he inherits.
O'KEEFE: Yes.
KING: Who said that you can't order us to do that. LISA LERER, ASSOCIATED PRESS: We're learning that the realities of governing are really hard.
KING: Right.
LERER: I mean, the best example, I think, is this -- is the Obamacare stuff. You can't -- he said, you know, that he wants to keep the provisions of Obamacare that everybody likes, keeping your kid on your insurance until they're 25, you know, guaranteeing insurance for people with pre-existing conditions. You cannot keep those parts of the law without the individual mandate, without requiring that healthy people buy insurance. That's, of course, the part of the law that Republicans in Congress hate.
It's unclear how this all works out and how you balance that. And that's why I think you see Obamacare not really being mentioned as much by Mr. Trump. Not really on his list of priorities because that's a really hard knot to untangle as Republicans for the past six years have learned.
MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: And other things, too, saying that he was going to assign a special prosecutor to investigate Hillary.
KING: That's gone. He said -- now he says he wants to turn the page on that.
RAJU: Turn the page.
KING: He says -- he told the "New York Times," look, I want to move forward, I don't to move back, I don't want to hurt the Clintons. I really don't. She went through a lot. Suffered greatly in many ways.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Building the wall --
RAJU: The wall --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, it's now a fence.
RAJU: Possibly a fence.
KING: Right.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right.
RAJU: Suggesting that climate change is manmade and maybe he'll rethink whether or not to walk away from the Paris accords.
KING: That's another big deal.
RAJU: Another big deal.
KING: Yes. OK. RAJU: The real risk for Trump is that a lot of his voters elected him because -- particularly in the Republican primaries, because they felt betrayed by the Republican leadership in Washington not fulfilling their campaign promises. If he starts to walk things that he said on the campaign trail back it may go over better here in this town but the people who supported him initially, that is his real risk.
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KING: That to me is the biggest question. How much -- because I think he has more latitude than most politicians with his base. I think they elected him. They elected the strength, they elected the leadership, they elected the man. And I think he gets -- and even a lot of them would tell you, he's not going to -- Mexico is not going to pay for, he's not going to really build the wall but be tough on immigration. But how much latitude I think is the defining question.
[08:35:04] NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: And it's unclear, you know, what you said in terms of what they actually believe he would do or whether or not they just liked that he said it and liked that he was strong. But it is unclear as to what they do expect. I mean, you would imagine that they expect something materially in their lives to change. Their lives to get better. Their neighborhoods to get better. Their income to get better. And it's unclear how he even does that. Right? I mean, what's his jobs plan. He talks about infrastructure. That doesn't really seem to be --
KING: How do the Republicans -- how do the Republicans go along and do that? Go along with that, the money, right?
HENDERSON: Right. The trillion-dollar plan. So, you know, so what's left for Trump to do after you untangle the slogans that aren't actually governing.
LERER: And he's not draining the swamp. Right?
HENDERSON: Yes.
LERER: You see big donors, you see lobbyists involved with his transition, being appointed to major positions.
HENDERSON: The term limits. That's not going to happen.
LERER: So, at some point, people will want something. But, you know, particularly not to harp on Obamacare but we're seeing now a lot of articles and reports that people -- they don't quite understand what it is, and so there are people who are using the benefits of Obamacare.
HENDERSON: Yes.
LERER: Particularly in places like Kentucky who voted for Trump who now say well, I want to keep those benefits.
HENDERSON: And Ohio even. KING: Right. Right.
LERER: Yes. So it's all -- it's pretty --
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KING: This is not a criticism. We just don't know a lot. He's never been in government. He was a Democrat once. Then he was an independent. We just don't know a lot about how he's going to go about these things. Listen here to that point. Listen here. This is in the "New York Times" interview when he's talking about what was his signature issue early in the Republican primaries -- immigration.
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TRUMP: I feel very strongly about an immigration bill that I think even the people in this people can be happy. You know, you've been talking about immigration bills for 50 years and nothing has ever happen. I feel very strongly about an immigration bill that's fair and just and a lot of other things.
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KING: The part that a lot of people in this room can be happy with. He's met with the "New York Times" editorial board.
HENDERSON: Yes.
KING: Some reporters, but he's also with the editorial board, which writes, "We support a path to citizenship, not legal status, and we do not support deporting, kicking people out who are undocumented who came in the country legally."
So, again, I don't know what he means. But even the people in this room can be happy. If Donald Trump makes the "New York Times" editorial board happy --
LERER: He's not making --
KING: President Trump, I should say, then he's not going to make his base very happy.
RAJU: He's already walked away from the -- deporting the 11 million people here illegally.
LERER: Right.
RAJU: He's no longer is he talking about a deportation force. When he's pushed on that issue, he says, well, we'll deal with the 11 million later. Let's do the other things, border security first. But that would be a huge capitulation if he does something to provide --
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KING: Can he send -- can he send his proposal up? President Obama never sent legislation to Capitol Hill. O'KEEFE: Right.
KING: He said, well, you guys pass something and I'll -- you know, I'll work with you on. Can he send up his proposal that builds a wall, that includes a deportation force? Have Congress reject it and then cut a deal? If only Nixon can go China, can only Trump get immigration reform?
O'KEEFE: I mean, that is one way to do it. It's how Washington has worked in the past and he would be smart to try that. There was support. We covered it. The Senate bill in 2013 basically built a border wall or fence, so that could get done.
HENDERSON: Yes.
O'KEEFE: All he's trying to do here now if he says he's focused of getting rid of criminals and repeat offend is continuing and amplifying what the Obama administration has been doing and has been criticized for at great length for the last few years. So that's essentially status quo. It's what do you about guest worker visas? What do you do about, you know, those that are still trying to get in here illegally? And yes, what is the status of those that are here?
It's going to be so hard for Republicans to come up with a way to justify splitting apart families and it's something that I think they know is just way too difficult to deal with. So if you send people on a 15, 20-year path I think most people would swallow hard and accept that.
RAJU: And Paul -- and a lot of the Republicans want a pass this on a piecemeal basis. Do individual pieces like security first before dealing with the 11 million here illegally. But Democrats are going to insist on tying it all together. That's going to be a problem for him.
KING: I think incremental -- incremental is going to become a very important word in the next Congress as oppose to all these big comprehensive bills.
Everybody, sit tight. One sec. The president-elect says he's handing off most of his business empire to his children and he says he'll face no conflicts. But his critics, well, they disagree. And they promise to watch very closely.
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[08:42:21] KING: Welcome back. If you check the new president and his family the Secret Service is considering a big new post at Trump Tower. The rent, of course, would be paid by you, the taxpayers, to Trump Organization. And as the new president enjoys his inaugural parade, guess what, he's going to pass right by the new Trump International Hotel, just a few blocks before he gets home, to the White House. Plus dealings with world leaders whose countries have major Trump properties or proposed Trump ventures.
Ethics watchdogs look at all this and see a web of conflict. And potential conflict. The president-elect says he's thinking it all through and will come up with a plan.
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TRUMP: I can be president of the United States and run my business 100 percent, sign checks on my business. So in theory I don't have to do anything. But I would like to do something. I would like try and formalize something because I don't care about my business.
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KING: Obviously he cares about his business. What he says -- what means is as president he says that he can push this aside and leave it to the children, and a lot of ethics watchdogs say hey, wait a minute, your children are in transition meetings, your children, you know, are part of this process. Your children are very close to you and you talk about having them as informal advisers.
I start from the position of cut the guy a little slack and give him time to figure it out. Because he just won an election and he thinks he has his business.
O'KEEFE: Yes.
KING: But how does do this? This is incredibly hard and complicated.
LERER: It's also that to start thinking about it now or to start taking steps to do it now is a little bit late in the game. Look, Mitt Romney was a very wealthy man. I covered that campaign. He had a lot of international holdings, he had accounts all over the place. They put it in a blind trust. So that was clearly something that Mitt Romney had planned for for many years to make sure that you didn't have even the appearance of conflicts.
KING: Right.
LERER: That's just not a concern that Donald Trump seems to have. I mean, he's meeting with Indian developers of his hotels in India while in between transition meetings. His children are sitting in on foreign leader calls.
KING: Right.
LERER: I mean, could you imagine an alternative universe Chelsea Clinton sitting in on foreign leader calls and what the outcry would be? This is a pretty --
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RAJU: Continually hound the Trump presidency even if he's not doing anything untoward and if his motivations are pure. I mean. look at his meeting with the British politician just last week or a couple of weeks ago when he registered his opposition to offshore wind farms. Why? Because of his Scottish golf course.
KING: Because of his Scottish golf course. Right. RAJU: He's been concerned about it. He said, well, he was just -- he said in the "New York Times" interview well, he was just discussing his personal opposition to offshore wind farms but it raises the potential conflict of interest concern because his business was worried about that as well. So he has to think about that because the public will be watching him very closely.
O'KEEFE: I think --
HENDERSON: Yes, this was their campaign against Hillary Clinton, right? This idea that she was using her --
[08:45:03] KING: Pay-for-play.
HENDERSON: Pay-for-play, her position as secretary of State to benefit the Clinton Foundation. And so --
KING: But he owns buildings. How does he do it?
HENDERSON: Yes. That's the thing.
KING: How does he do it? You can't -- he'd have to sell all those buildings.
HENDERSON: Yes.
KING: But he says wait -- he says wait a minute, no. Why should I have to do that?
LERER: Yes. But somebody other than your daughter has to be running the business.
HENDERSON: Yes.
KING: Right.
LERER: And certainly your daughter can't be --
O'KEEFE: And he's never going -- and the other thing to keep in mind, too, they held a conference at Trump Hotel down the street here with diplomats who are based here in town showing them some sales packages because heads of state they come to Washington now may feel obligated to stay at his hotel and pay the rate and then go down the street to the White House. Normally they'd stay at their residence.
LERER: A nuclear house.
O'KEEFE: Or Blair house or somewhere else. Instead his family may be collecting the check.
HENDERSON: And the campaign ads just right themselves, right? I mean, you can see pictures of folks going into the Trump Hotel.
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O'KEEFE: But this is what I wonder. This is what I wonder. This is what I wonder.
KING: Do people --
O'KEEFE: Do Americans care?
KING: People know who they -- I mean, again, we can have the popular vote conversation if we want, but he won the election and he is who he is. And they know -- most Americans know what Trump is so they know the business.
O'KEEFE: Yes.
HENDERSON: I mean, I think they will care if their lives don't improve. Like you can have the juxtaposition of Donald Trump profiting from being in office and jobs still leaving Indiana.
O'KEEFE: But how will we ever know if he holds a privately held company and --
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LERER: And because of the tone in White House has set at the top. So if he is behaving like this, that's going to trickle down to all the staff. And then you could have an administration that's rife with scandals. You can have a series of eruptions of people enriching themselves at the benefit of the taxpayer. And that does become a problem whether it's -- you know, even if it's not just him, if this is the tone of his administration, that's problematic.
KING: The Democrats will be watching from day one but also some Republicans in Congress have also suggested they're going to watch this from day one.
RAJU: And the question is if they start to investigate and look into it, then it becomes a problem. But that's going to be a very, very high hurdle.
O'KEEFE: They could also introduce a law to change the law and make him --
KING: Right.
O'KEEFE: You know, just as beholden to the federal laws as federal employees and everyone else. And not concern about it.
KING: We'll watch it shake out.
Up next, our reporters share from their notebooks including more drama on the way for Democrats. First here are the results of INSIDE POLITICS quiz. We asked, what should President Trump's top priority be for the first 100 days? The majority of you like roads, bridges and airports. You said infrastructure. Look at that.
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[08:51:27] KING: Let's head one last time right around the INSIDE POLITICS table, and ask our great reporters to give you a sneak peek into their notebooks. Nia-Malika Henderson?
HENDERSON: In terms of Obamacare obviously lots of focus on Congress and in terms of what they're going to do with repealing it and replacing it. Also should be some focus on governors particularly Republican governors. If you look at the expansion of Medicaid particularly that covered about 15 million people and roughly about 10 governors who were Republican governors have this expansion of Medicaid in their states. They are looking to be very involved in terms of what this repeal and particularly the replace is going to look like because they are on front lines of these folks in their states who have the Medicaid expansion under Obamacare. So they are very concerned about what this is going to look like and want definitely have a say.
KING: And they may get a backlash against them. Then what would happen?
HENDERSON: Yes. Exactly.
KING: Ed?
O'KEEFE: Speaking of backlash and Obamacare, before Thanksgiving I spoke with Chuck Schumer, the incoming Senate minority leader. We had an interview with him and he's chomping at the bit about this talk of Obamacare repeal and privatizing Medicare. He says, the Republicans are silly if they think they're going to do this because think of all the good things in this law that they don't want to take away. They are preparing to highlight that repeatedly over the course of the next few months if it starts, the idea that 20 million people are covered, that women have more protection and coverage than they ever had before. That younger people can stay on their parents' plans.
He says Republicans will rue the day that they try decide to try to repeal Obamacare. Same goes for Medicare, his response to that which he's repeated since, was make my day. Go right ahead and try because it won't work.
If you think about it, Democrats have run against the threat of privatizing or changing entitlement programs before. There's congressional elections two years from now. Something says they're probably going to try it again.
KING: It'll be interesting watch. Chuck Schumer, the new sheriff for the Democrats in the Senate. We'll watch one. Manu?
RAJU: Nancy Pelosi is projecting confidence publicly that she will win the leadership elections Wednesday to be re-elected as top House Democrat against Democratic Congressman Tim Ryan of Ohio. But behind the scenes she is scrambling to lock down support. She's done -- taken steps to reassure skeptic that she's listening to them, bringing in new voices into the leadership team, also telling the rank-and-file members that they'll have more of a platform on the committees to voice their positions.
But when I talk to a number of members what they want to hear is a concrete plan for the Democrats to regain the House majority, not necessarily by 2018, but by 2020 and she needs to reassure those skeptics, and people are very anxious that she has a plan to do that. That she's the candidate of the future, not of the past, and that's going to be the test come Wednesday in that secret ballot election, John, so you can never quite predict what will happen.
KING: Be fun to watch the not-so new sheriff on the House side at the moment. Lisa?
LERER: Yes. Curious about the direction of the Democratic Party. One place to watch is the race to head the Democratic National Committee. The party committee is one of the Democrats' last bastions of power in Washington now that they've lost Congress and the White House and likely soon the Supreme Court. And there's about a dozen names floating around out there. The leading contender these days seems to be Keith Ellison. He's locked up support from liberals who think the party needs to come out with a more populist economic message.
But this week we learned that the White House and some DNC donors don't quite love the idea of Ellison. They're looking more towards Tom Perez, the Labor secretary, maybe Jennifer Granholm, the former governor of Michigan. So we'll have to see how this all shakes out. Elections are supposed to be in February. One person everyone is watching, of course, is President Obama. The big questions is whether he gets involved.
It's unclear whether the White House will go from behind-the-scenes whispers to a public position but that will certainly influence where this goes.
KING: The Democrats saying he didn't care much about the party while he was president. But maybe on the way out he does. We'll watch that one.
I'm going to close with a long ago memory of Fidel Castro and the fits he caused American presidents and vice presidents. I traveled with Vice President Al Gore and then First Lady Hillary Clinton to Nelson Mandela's inauguration as president of South Africa. It was a long time ago, May 1994. And Fidel Castro was among the who's who of world leaders on hand.
In the parliament building before the ceremony Castro and Vice President Al Gore were in the same corridor and on a collision course. But the vice president zigged and zaged a bit with his Secret Service detail to avoid the encounter. Castro clearly wanted a quick hello and any recognition of the Cuban dictator back in those days was beyond taboo. So much so that a couple of young White House staffers were actually reprimanded after that trip when words surfaced, via Twitter folks, they had stopped to pose for photographs with Castro, who was robust, smiling and in his trademark military uniform as he mingled at that remarkable event. Long time ago.
That's it for INSIDE POLITICS. Again thanks for sharing your Sunday morning. Up next, "STATE OF THE UNION."
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(Byline: John King, Manu Raju, Nia-Malika Henderson)
(Guest: Ed O'Keefe, Lisa Lerer)
(High: In a statement later Saturday, President-elect Donald Trump called Castro a brutal dictator who oppressed his own people for nearly six decades; while President Obama chose a very, very different approach, offering condolences to Castro's family and avoiding any direct mention of Castro's brutal history. On Twitter this morning, President-elect Trump criticizing plans for a recount in Wisconsin. Donald Trump looking to walk back from some of his major campaign promises such water boarding, prosecuting Hillary Clinton, climate change and Obamacare. Donald Trump insisted the law totally on his side when it comes to his business.)
(Spec: Barack Obama; Cuba; Donald Trump; Fidel Castro; Death; Government; Policies; Wisconsin; Elections; Politics; Barack Obama; Donald Trump; Chuck Schumer; Paul Ryan; Obamacare; Fidel Castro; Ivanka Trump; Abuse; Business; Children; Cities; Congress; Economy; Elections; Employment and Unemployment; Energy; Environment; Families; Government; Health and Medicine; Immigration; Infrastructure; Insurance; Internet; Labor; Latin America; Legislation; Media; Medicare and Medicaid; Meetings; Minorities; Politics; Profiles; Real Estate; Social Security; Supreme Court; Taxes; Trade)