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White House Press Briefing; Trump to Build Wall, Mexico to Pay; Trump Signs Actions to Build Wall, Boost Deportations. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired January 25, 2017 - 13:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


QUESTION: And presidents from Eisenhower to President Obama spoke about their faith.

[13:30:00]

SEAN SPICER, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Right.

QUESTION: Will the president attend?

SPICER: I'm going to have to get back to you. I'd be glad to check on that. I just don't have the president's schedule for next week. So I will get -- I...

(CROSSTALK)

SPICER: I -- hold on a second. Paul Bernard (ph).

QUESTION: Sean, what will the White House and president (ph) do on immigration to sanctuary cities and sanctuary counties that say go ahead, keep your money we don't care, we're going to harbor these illegal criminals? And also, what do you do about countries that pretty much say the same thing, who won't allow those people to come back into their country?

SPICER: Well, I think the first step, Paul, is the funding piece. And again, this is a multi-step problem and it's why you've started to see deferent executive orders get rolled out and then there's, you know, a congressional piece that we have to do legislatively. But to the extent that the president can continue to identify areas that he can handle with an executive action and orders and memoranda to get -- start curbing the problem of executive -- of illegal immigration.

But also, again, it's about -- it's -- we talked a little bit about yesterday in terms of funding. There's a taxpayer issue here. You know, you've got the American people out there working and then having their money sent to places where folks that aren't in this country legally are getting sent to cities that are therefore using their tax dollars. That's a part of it.

So it's not a one step solution, I think that's why you've got the wall, you've got some funding issues, you've got the vetting. But it is not a one step process. It's going to be a multi-tiered, multi- step problem. QUESTION: Sean, on this Supreme Court , what is the president's view of Judge Gorsuch? He's a name that's been circulated. And then more broadly, does the president feel like the choice should be someone who are -- is in their late 40's, early 50's as a way of leaving his imprint on the court?

SPICER: I think that there have been several names that have been floated out there. He put out the list a while ago of 20 or so. That's where I would look. I'm definitely not getting ahead of the president on this.

But I would suggest to you that the people that are on that list that he put out during the campaign represent the kind of people that he's not just going to represent -- or he's not going to nominate for the Supreme Court, but we have well over 100, I think it's 103, vacancies at the federal level and at the appellate level. And I think that's going to continue to guide him.

Margaret?

QUESTION: Sean, one point of personal privilege. Could we get the text of the executive orders when the president makes the announcement?

SPICER: Yes.

QUESTION: That would help...

(CROSSTALK)

SPICER: In fact I will tell you this with -- Margaret, I was just told the president is about to speak. I will get you the executive orders ASAP. Thank you guys very much. Real quick -- hold on -- hold on -- real -- guys, OK hold on.

(CROSSTALK)

SPICER: Just for guidance purposes, we will be gaggling tomorrow on Air Force One.

Thank you very much. We look forward to seeing you in Philadelphia. Bye, guys.

[13:32:50] WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: All right. About a half hour briefing by Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, making all sorts of news that I want to make sure we can assess.

Joining us right now, Jeff Mason, the White House correspondent for Reuters; David Chalian, our CNN political director; Gloria Borger, our CNN chief political analyst.

He was very forceful in defending the president's decision to go ahead and seek some sort of federal investigation, for example, on voter fraud, which the president has suggested is massive and a lot of illegal immigrants were voting. He suggested the other night, what, three billion to five billion. No evidence of that.

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: None.

BLITZER: But he is going forward with a full-scale investigation.

BORGER: We don't know how that investigation would take place. There has to be a complaint, according to justice correspondent, Pam Brown, for the Justice Department to investigate it. Would he ask Congress to do an investigation? Congress seems uninterested, including Republicans seem uninterested in doing that.

The case he made or tried to make was that this is not just about 2016, this is about the integrity of the system. And he used examples of people who are registered to vote in two states at the same time. That, however, is not evidence of voter fraud, Wolf. That doesn't mean that those people go to the polls in two states or that a person who has died is still on the rolls. Nobody is voting there. And so he didn't really make the case for what the president is charging. But he tried to make the case that this is larger than Donald Trump's complaint that actually he would have won three million or so votes had illegal voters not been able to vote.

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: I wouldn't just say larger, Gloria. I think he made the case for something different.

BORGER: Yeah, exactly, exactly.

(CROSSTALK)

CHALIAN: I think it's weird that what Sean Spicer was trying to do there is move this conversation, that it is no longer about the baseless, unsubstantiated, totally incorrect claim by the president that three million to five million illegal votes were cast in 2016. Instead, we are now getting from Sean Spicer a more traditional argument of voter irregularities that are out there, whether it is registrations that are not correct, due to people that are deceased or registered in two places. He said he didn't want to get ahead of a Thursday announcement of some sort of -- I don't think -- it certainly sounded like there may be a task force coming to look at this that are going to make recommendations about these registration problems. I think Sean was trying very hard to move it off what the president was saying and make it about something.

[13:35:31] BORGER: Particularly after he was questioned about the fact that the president's own lawyer had said that there had been no sign of irregularities -- I believe it was in the state of Michigan -- and that's whether he said, well, we're going to focus on larger states, such as California, and such as New York. But it doesn't really address the heart of the charge that the president of the United States is making that is completely unsubstantiated.

BLITZER: I think David makes a good point, Jeff, that the review that he wants to go forward with now is different than the allegation he made the other night.

JEFF MASON, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, REUTERS & PRESIDENT, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT'S ASSOCIATION: That's right. You also heard him talking about just some broader voting rights issues. He talked about the difficulty of sometimes getting driver's license. Not sure what he meant there, in which states. He certainly touched on some issues that will be very controversial for Democrats. You see this no doubt as an effort to reduce the ability of minorities to vote in states where, you know, there have been long fights about whether or not you should have to show a picture I.D. at the voting booth.

BLITZER: Let's go to our senior White House correspondent, Jim Acosta. He's in the briefing room right now for us.

The spokesman -- the press secretary also said the president is going forward with plans to build what he called a large physical barrier along the border between the United States and Mexico. That would be the wall, and he said, very quickly, Mexico will pay for it.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Wolf. Obviously, we all watched what Sean Spicer had to say. We don't have all of the details for that, but they are looking to existing law. They're looking back, from what I'm told, to the 2006 Secure Fence Law that was passed and signed into law during the Bush administration.

The question is how much money is in that account and is there enough money in that pot to build a wall along the entire U.S.-Mexico border? My sense is, Wolf, that there is not. And that is why there is likely to be some negotiations that go on between President Trump and the Mexican president, Enrique Pena Nieto, about having Mexico chip in for this. But obviously as we heard during this news briefing, Sean Spicer was asked about this, the president of Mexico has said adamantly they are not going to be paying for any wall along the U.S.- Mexico border. And so this is setting up what appears to be a confrontation that is looming on the horizon between the U.S. and one of its biggest allies. And the question becomes what does President Trump do in if Mexico just flat refuses?

We do understand that, as part of this executive order package we're going to see the president sign today, that they're going to be looking at having the Department of Homeland Security examine just how much of its money goes to Mexico in terms of foreign aid. But I can't imagine, Wolf, there is enough money in that pot to help pay for the billions and billions of dollars that would be required to pay for a wall to be constructed along the U.S.-Mexico border. We've talked about this time and again. This is an extremely daunting task that the president seems determined to undertake.

BLITZER: We're going to be hearing momentarily, as you know, Jim, from President Trump. He is over at the Department of Homeland Security right now signing some new executive actions, making a statement. We're going to get that audio and that videotape momentarily. We'll have it for our viewers.

Right now, set the scene for us. He decided to go over there not only to talk about the wall that Mexico would pay for it, but also talk about other issues involving undocumented immigrants here in the United States, including his plan to do away with what are called sanctuary cities in the United States. ACOSTA: That's right. And the nation's capital is one of those

sanctuary cities. This is essentially a federal program where grants are provided to cities to allow undocumented immigrants to find sanctuary in those cities. It was a program that was supported by the Obama administration. It is something that Donald Trump railed against out on the campaign trail. And it's a program that he plans to end.

You are already hearing from municipalities around the country and local officials saying, well, they're not going to abide by this, and they're going to find other ways to make their cities sanctuary cities without the federal government's help. It's unclear as to what the actual affect will be of that executive order.

But from what we understand from talking to sources about what will be in this executive order package, there's going to be money for stepping up enforcement, stepping up removal of what they consider to be criminal undocumented immigrants in this country.

And they're talking about ending the so-called Catch-and-Release Program. That is also something that's going to be very controversial, but you heard Sean Spicer during this briefing today say that the law is going to be enforced, and this is keeping one of Donald Trump's campaign promises, Wolf. Elections have consequences, and they are going full steam ahead when it comes to all of these immigration actions that he talked about during the campaign.

[13:40:23] BLITZER: stand by for a moment.

He also said, by the way, that if U.S. wants to deport undocumented immigrants, if most countries don't want to accept them, the U.S. Will retaliate with visa and other issues as well.

Everyone, stand by.

President Trump about to sign executive actions directing the building of a wall, a couple of thousand miles along the border between the U.S. and Mexico, and ending sanctuary cities here in the United States.

We're going to bring you much more of the breaking news right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:45:13] BLITZER: Welcome back. Any minute now, President Trump will sign executive actions on immigration and a boarder wall with Mexico. He is at the Department of Homeland Security for a visit right now. We'll bringing that to you as soon as it happens.

In the meantime, the president is asking for, quote, "a major investigation" into voter fraud here in the United States stemming from his false belief that millions of votes were cast illegally in the recent presidential election.

Here to talk about that and more, the former New Mexico governor, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Bill Richardson.

Governor, thanks very much for joining us.

BIL RICHARDSON, FORMER NEW MEXICO GOVERNOR & FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED NATIONS: Thank you very much, Wolf.

BLITZER: Do you believe a formal federal investigation into voter fraud in the United States is necessary?

RICHARDSON: No, I don't believe it's necessary. I'm flabbergasted that he keeps repeating these claims with zero evidence. Who is going to do the investigation? The Congress doesn't want to do it. The Justice Department has to have a complaint. This is a fabrication, a political fabrication. He is trying to justify how Hillary Clinton beat him, close to three million votes, by the popular vote. I think that's all it is. He is a sore winner. Put this away. Nobody is going to do this investigation. I'm flabbergasted that he believes that he could just order an investigation of any kind with zero, zero evidence.

BLITZER: Well, he says that there are a lot of voters out there who are registered, let's say, in your state of New Mexico, but may be also registered to vote in California if they move, for example, and there are dead people who are still listed on voter registration lists. Is that a problem?

RICHARDSON: Well, look, every state handles their own voter frauds. And by the way, most states are run by Republican secretary of states that manage elections. So, I'm going to have fun seeing how these Republican secretary of states, who claim there is no outright voter fraud -- yeah, there's some aberrations, like in any election, but they're minimal. They're almost nonexistent. He is claiming three to five million illegal voters, illegal immigrant voters.

This is his campaign against illegal immigrants. This is his political campaign still going on, feeding for his constituency that wants action on immigration. The same with the border wall. This is going to cost $14 billion. The president of Mexico, it would be political suicide for him to do this. They're not going to pay for it. President Pena Nieto, although he is a good president, he is less popular than President Trump. He is not going to agree to this. Look what he said yesterday, Wolf --

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: Let me interrupt for a second, Governor. What President Trump says is there are complicated ways that Mexico will wind up reimbursing U.S. taxpayers for the billions of dollars of this new wall, and he will come up with that arrangement. 100 percent, he says, Mexico will pay for the wall. Your reaction?

RICHARDSON: Well, I think it's nonsensical. It doesn't make sense. This is what Pena Nieto has said he's going to do. One, he said maybe Mexico will pull out of NAFTA. That effects on the border a lot of firms created by NAFTA in New Mexico, in Arizona, in Texas, in California, because of NAFTA. That's got to go. Secondly, we need Mexico's cooperation on security issues, on the cartels. We need Mexico's cooperation on migration. We need some kind of renegotiation on NAFTA that protects American workers. But, you know, the Mexican president, by saying he is pulling out of NAFTA possibly with this negotiation, we're going to be at the short end of the stick if Mexico doesn't cooperate with us on cartel issues, on drugs. What if they don't send another el Chapo? So, he is negotiating against himself, President --

BLITZER: All right. I think we just are losing -- unfortunately, we're just losing the satellite connection with Governor Bill -- former Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico.

We apologize for that, but thanks so much for joining us.

[13:49:37] Coming up, any moment now, the president, President Trump, will sign executive actions directing the Department of Homeland Security to fulfill one of his most contentious campaign promises, building that wall along the border with Mexico. We're going to bring it to you once it happens. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: The President Donald Trump has just signed two executive actions, one ordering his long-promised, much talked-about border wall with Mexico. The other calls for a major increase of number of border control forces, domestically, here in the United States, and looks to increase deportations of undocumented immigrants.

My panel is back with us, Jeff Mason, the White House correspondent for Reuters; David Chalian, CNN political director; and Gloria Borger, CNN chief political analyst.

Momentarily, we are going to get the video tape of this signing ceremony over at the Department of Homeland Security. As soon as that comes in, we will show it to our viewers.

But he's making the case the wall will be built, Mexico will pay for it. There will be tougher measures, domestically, in the United States, to deal with the deportation of undocumented immigrants, beginning with the criminal, those who will hurt the United States.

BORGER: Let's talk about the wall first, because he told David Muir, of ABC, that we are first going to pay for the wall and then Mexico will pay us back. So effectively Americans are providing a down payment on this for which we will be reimbursed. We have no idea how that will work, other than the fact that he says it's complicated. We also don't know where we're going to get this $10 billion. There are estimates flying around. We're not sure how much it's going to cost. Is there already money unappropriated in the budget that's not spent? But when you talk about $10 billion, this is a Congress that intends to do tax reform, provide tax cuts, not only for middle class Americans but also corporate America. So, the question begins to -- people begin to ask, well, where are we going to get all this money from -

MASON: Where's the money going to come from? BORGER: -- and how much red ink is going to accrue?

MASON: Yeah, I think that's the big question. And it's also something that the Republicans are going to have to defend if they become sort of the party that's spending more instead of reducing spending.

BORGER: Yeah.

MASON: And I think the other thing that's striking, we're just a few days into this administration. Anyone who thought that Donald Trump was not going make good on some of these promises have seen that's certainly not the case. And he has running straight ahead on things like the wall and the other things that were big, big pillars of his campaign.

[13:55:16] BLITZER: And during the campaign, David, as you know, he promised that no more sanctuary cities, like Los Angeles or San Francisco, where local officials are refusing to comply with federal laws as far as undocumented immigrants are concerned. We just heard Sean Spicer say the president is determined to make sure that the laws of the United States are enforced.

CHALIAN: And we're going to see what the mayors of those cities have to say and how they respond to what the president is saying.

But this should surprise no one. He talked about the terrible murder of Kate Steinle on the campaign trail all the time as a reason to end this system of sanctuary cities.

On the wall, though, I do want to note one other thing he told David Muir about the repayment. He said - when David Muir pressed him and said, well, you know the president of Mexico said he's not paying for the wall, and Donald Trump said, well, he has to say that. Well, you can say back, don't you have to say that they are going to pay for it?

(LAUGHTER)

Neither one is able to show how this is going to end up. And so, I think for Donald Trump to just brush off the Mexican president's refusal to pay, but totally by the fact he will get them to pay, it seems to me that nobody really has the path forward here.

BORGER: And the president of Mexico is going to be visiting here next week --

CHALIAN: Next week, yes.

BORGER: -- and you have high-level Mexican officials here this week. And Sean Spicer was asked, well, did you give them a heads-up on your executive order, it's not as if they weren't expecting it. But he said, basically no, we don't generally do that. So, when the Mexican president meets with the president of the United States, we'll have to see what comes out of that meeting. I mean, you will recall the meeting during the campaign, Donald Trump apparently didn't mention paying for the wall during that meeting. BLITZER: It's interesting, he's living up, as you point out, David,

to a lot of his bedrock campaign promises, signing executive orders, beginning the process of dealing with these issues. You know, it's sort of been undermined by these side issues that have come up, the argument of how big an audience was behind us for the inauguration or this issue of three to five billion illegal immigrants voting in the election. Those are the issues that have taken away from what are serious steps that he's taking, promises that he's trying to deliver on.

CHALIAN: Completely. Imagine if he did dedicate half of his presidency thus far to untruths, and if that was not something that was happening, the complete focus this week for the news media and the country overall would be his checking off these boxes of these promises.

BLITZER: Jeff, among other things, you're the president of the White House Correspondent's Association. I know you have been working with Sean Spicer and other White House officials to make sure that traditional rules, the access that the White House press corps gets to the president and the top aides are being fulfilled. How are you doing?

MASON: Honestly, so far, is seems to have gone pretty well. We did have a long discussion before the Trump administration began, about whether or not to keep the briefings in the briefing room, and they considered moving us out into another space. And they ended up backing off on that and those briefings that we've been seeing and taking part are in the briefing room. And that's a good thing. They also had quite a few what we call pool sprays, a group of journalists that go in to see the president when he signs a bill or takes a couple of questions, and that is good access. There are still some issues that we're working on but we've gotten off to a pretty decent start.

(CROSSTALK)

CHALIAN: And he's been taking those questions.

MASON: He has.

BORGER: Right.

CHALIAN: Which is not always. Sometimes we have seen presidents do pool sprays and they just don't respond at all.

MASON: That's right.

CHALIAN: The shadow question, Donald Trump has been answering some questions.

BORGER: I think Donald Trump likes the "Show-and-Tell," so he likes the signing the documents then taking a question or two and escorting the press out, because I think he likes the formality of being president and of being able to do these things, and then instantaneously being on television. It's a role he likes, sitting at a desk in the Oval Office. MASON: And that is one of the argument for having a press corps right

there in the White House. It's not just for us to be able to see it and be able to report on it, but the White House also benefits from having a chance to get its message across. It's our job, of course, to aggressively report on that and do our jobs as journalists, but being physically present is really a win-win.

BLITZER: But it's encouraging that so far, so good.

MASON: Yes, I agree.

BLITZER: Given some of the --

MASON: There were --

BLITZER: -- statements that were made earlier.

MASON: We started from a position of having to explain and defend a lot of the role of the media but we've gotten, at least, so far, a pretty decent place.

BLITZER: All right, guys, thanks very, very much.

That's it for me. I'll be back 5:00 p.m. eastern in "The Situation Room."

For our international viewers, "Amanpour" is next.

For our viewers in North America, NEWSROOM with Brooke Baldwin starts right now.

[14:00:11] BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Wolf, thank you. We'll take it.

I'm Brooke Baldwin. Thank you for being with me.

A big day --