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INSIDE POLITICS

Trump Serving Food To Irma Victims In Naples; Ryan Reacts To Trump's Meeting With Dems On DACA; Clinton Clobbers Bernie Sanders On Book Tour. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired September 14, 2017 - 12:30   ET

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

[12:30:00] (CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you so much.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So, when you're done there --

(CROSSTALK)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: -- get a sandwich.

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: Oh, I like that.

JOHN KING, CNN ANCHOR: Just washing the President, the First Lady, the Vice President, Governor Rick Scott of Florida. This is at a trailer park area in Naples, Florida obviously impacted by Hurricane Irma, a little small talk, serving of lunch. I see some sandwiches and some fruit there. A lot of people, you know, welcome to the new world we're living. Everybody's phone has a camera.

It's actually but it's, you know, it's heart warming in a way, in the sense that again, set your politics aside for a minute, the President of United States, the first lady, the vice president, the governor, the United States senator, heads of several federal agencies, other state and local official all standing there in a place where people are, maybe they're just cleaning up the downed tree. Maybe they still don't have power. Maybe they are ripping out dry wall, worry about mold in their house after the flooding and all the water of a hurricane. Having been in communities like this after storms like this, it helps. When you have nothing or when you are exhausted. And when you know, just had -- you had a lousy week. It helps to see the leadership support you.

MICHAEL SHEAR, THE NEW YORK TIMES: I addition I think to finding his voice a little bit. And we've talked a little bit about that and Sara knows this really well.

The advance teams for the White House were horrible when this White House is target. I mean, they just never put him in the right place. They never had the pictures that really they wanted that would have supported him. And in these last couple of weeks, it's gotten, I think, a lot better. They're getting the images out there and putting the press in him in places that he needs.

SARA MURRAY, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: When you just think about what this president was like as a candidate and how little of this kind of staff, this kind of staff that we see every presidential candidate do every single day. Five or six times a day. This guy did not do when he was running for president. He did a little bit here and there. But he didn't do a lot of glad handing. He would maybe work broke lines at big rallies. But sort of the retail politicking like interacting with people like this, serving up a lunch, you know, I remember being with Mitt Romney who was like serving up ice cream in 2012.

JULIE PACE, ASSOCIATED PRESS: -- diner job there with Trump.

MURRAY: That is not what Donald Trump --

PERRY BACON, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT: That's a $100 bill.

MURRAY: Yes. Right. But that's not what Donald Trump did as a candidate. So when, you know, as we talk about how he's kind of coming into his style as President and sort of how he's changed, I think this is a good example of how he has changed from candidate Trump into President Trump.

He does, he and the people around him do seem to be getting a better understanding that, you know, fine, maybe some people think it's cheesy that you go out there, that you serve people sandwiches, whatever that you put on your serving (ph) out there. But to some of those people there, it's not cheesy, it's nice to see their commander in chief on the ground, staying, reassuring things, looking them in the eyes, shaking their hands. And that I think is a lesson that the President is learning too.

KING: Right. And so that you're right about the glad handing part, but to the point of being relevant in people's lives and showing right up close and personal that you care about them, one of the reasons he is president, not this kind of politics but he did go in to the communities in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania and Michigan and say, I care about your factories, you know, and can made a connection in the way Hillary Clinton didn't.

And if he's involving in the sense that now he's more up close in front with the people here. This is a tribute to any White House. There was -- the first trip to Texas, there was political conversation about Melania's shoes getting on the plane, about why wasn't the President hugging more people or about why is he even there, he shouldn't be there or he should have been in a place that had more damage. I mean, everybody should just get a grip. And set politics aside.

MURRAY: -- in Melania's events, I was wearing heels that day at the White House too in the rain, like it turns out we can wear heels in the rain, that's fine.

KING: He's there. We're going to have feisty conversation about this big immigration decision to where it gets us. There's a feisty debate in this about (ph), about should he or should he be not be at least leading with Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi as suppose to leading with the Republican leadership.

[12:35:01] Those are all great and fun conversations, when a president of the United States whether his name is Donald Trump or Barack Obama or George W. Bush, you know, or the next president of the United States, wherever we get to that point, when they're going to do something like this, all Americans should say, thank you. That's what you get elected to do.

(CROSSTALK)

DONALD: -- questions, go ahead.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where was Obama around the last time --

(CROSSTALK)

PACE: A John King special.

(CROSSTALK)

KING: I think the president about crack pants (ph) so we know he recognized that shirt when he came by.

PACE: -- underscore, there is something inherent in the office of the presidency that Americans expect.

KING: Right.

MURRAY: Yes.

PACE: And even from a highly unconventional candidate and now President like Donald Trump, in these moments, Americans come to expect seeing their president on the ground, they come to expect seeing him reaching out to people, showing that he cares. Its just we are sort of unique in that way in the world that we have these expectations of our leader.

MURRAY: Whether you voted for him or not.

PACE: Whether you voted for them or not, absolutely. I remember traveling with Obama down to some southern states after really horrible tornados on areas where people clearly didn't vote for him. They were so happy to see him there. It is what we expect of the American president.

SHEAR: And Trump were battled against the traditions of this presidency, the traditions of the presidency with large. He didn't like them. He didn't sort of think he had to follow them. And yet, I think when you see him in these moments, it's beginning to dawn on him and his people a little bit. But, oh, yes, you can actually, you know, without losing your ideological views of government, big or small government you can sort of embrace the traditions of a White House and of a presidency and that can be OK. KING: Right. And take accountability to show up, show people you care. People who are exhausted, number one. Now, we will, three weeks from, three months from now, you know, he is famous (ph) still paying the bills, are those people getting what they need. Did the system that responded well at the beginning, you know, all -- did it stay good or did it collapse down the road. We'll get to all the accountability questions. But I think in the days and weeks after something like this to see the President in your community is a big deal.

We're going to take a quick break. We're keeping our yes on the House Speaker Paul Ryan. He's is on Capitol Hill. We're waiting to hear what he thinks of the president latest deal with Democrats. And again, if you haven't heard the details to that deal, the president says 800,000 Dreamers. Conservatives say, it's amnesty. The President says they should be allowed to stay. Now, the question is, can he work on a deal not just with Democrats but with the Republicans, who's still control Congress.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:41:23] KING: Just moments ago on Capitol Hill while we were watching the president on the ground in Florida. House Speaker Paul Ryan, the Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan reacting to a deal or at least the framework of a deal that the president of the United States, also a Republican, cut last night with the top two Democrats in Congress. The issue, the so-called "Dreamers", does Ryan like it?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. PAUL RYAN (R), HOUSE SPEAKER: But we have not begun negotiations. What we're doing is talking with ourselves here in our majority to make sure that we are all on the same page ourselves before we proceed in all of these things. And it's right and proper that the president talks with the other party. These were discussions and not negotiations. There isn't in agreement, the president wasn't negotiating a deal last night. The president was talking with Democratic leaders to get perspectives.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So I'm saying, if they do, you said it's right and proper --

RYAN: Oh, I think the president understands that he's got to work with the congressional majorities not to get any kind of legislative solution.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

KING: A little bit of spin there. A little bit spin there. But strong, yes. If you read through that, what the speaker was saying is Mr. President, we are the majority. He used the term twice. Mr. President we are majority. Lead with us, then bring in the Democrats, that's what the speaker was saying right there in his polite way. Am I wrong?

PACE: -- is really trying to remind the president of who is in charge there. The problem for Ryan though is the same problem with that Speaker Boehner had is that actually you can get to the majority another way. You can get to a majority with the Democrats and the more moderate weighing of the Republican Party. It's bringing the Republican Conservatives and the Republican Moderates together, can sometimes actually be more difficult to do.

So, Trump potentially could be trying to expose what we've all known about Speaker Ryan's very tenuous grasp or control of his own majority. But he is right. He puts the bills on the floor. McConnell puts the bills on the floor. That's the real power in this situation.

KING: And they have used that power to cater to the minority, but a vocal conservative minority in both the Senate and more importantly in the House. That's why John Boehner is gone. He just finally gave up with it. But every week, Paul Ryan, here's what other coming to you next. Is this a play -- that's my biggest question here, does the president understands enforcing this issue? Is he trying to isolate to say, you know, Congressman Steve King, the any status is amnesty? But that's small vocal crowd and I'm going to force them to the fringe.

MURRAY: I think it seems like a, you know, we talked about, is this a new Trump. I don't think we know that. But I do think a it's a warning shot to Republicans which is the president has a lot of people around him who impressed upon him the fact that he needs to have legislative accomplishments to show for himself.

And so, he is moving forward and trying to do that. And this is his warning to Republicans. If you cannot help me get this done, I know enough people in this town that you may not like who will help me do it.

KING: But he has dinner with Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer last night. Chinese food and chocolate pie in case you care at home. If you look at the Republican strategy to keep the House, Nancy Pelosi is their poster child. All the advertisements about Nancy Pelosi, she is liberal. She will raise your taxes. Government will run everything. She'll ruin your health care. And Donald Trump is sitting down making Nancy Pelosi a player.

SHEAR: And those are going to be added, the Democrats are smart, right. That they will run to counter the idea that Nancy Pelosi is the devil or whatever the Republicans would say. I think that I agree completely we don't know for sure whether this is fundamental change in a way Trump works.

But, he's a transactional guy, right. He's always been about figuring out the way to the end. And when -- how many stories did we all do about the fact that he has no real legislative accomplishment. And so, you know, the question is as Julie says, if you can get there another way, I think he is inclined to do it.

KING: And he is. The one constant is, he's a disruptor. He disrupts everything and he disrupted the town again. Last week with Speaker Ryan and Majority Leader McConnell sitting right there, he cuts a deal with Pelosi and Schumer surprises them in the Oval Office.

[12:45:10] The last night, he has this dinner and the speaker is saying it's not a deal, but it's the framework of an agreement. He's on board with the Democrats. He agreed to defer getting his wall money. So, the speaker is clearly unhappy there, reminding the president, we are the majority and let the majority work it out first then we go hunting for more votes. That was the message there. So, if you're Nancy Pelosi, you have a new partner in the president, but do you trust him?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you trust the president of the United States and should the dreamers trust him?

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D), MINORITY LEADER: Now, is that a fair question?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sure. Yes. Absolutely.

PELOSI: The -- when we are talking about this would be good, this legislation to protect the dreamers, yes, I do trust that the president is sincere in understanding that the public support is overwhelmingly with the public support knocks in these young people back.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: That is a grenade. First, the pregnant press (ph), do you trust the president? It was delicious if you cover politics. But the last part is the president sincere about getting status for the dreamers. That's pulling the pin and rolling a grade right into Paul Ryan's room. Go ahead.

BACON: And the problem is, is Paul Ryan in charge in the House of Republicans or is Donald Trump? And that's we're going to learn pretty soon. And because right now it looks like Paul Ryan is going to say, I decide what we vote and what we don't. I don't think he has that power. And I think if Donald Trump pushes this enough, he'll throw around it kind of the boss of Washington.

KING: But then he complicates things because you're not only trying to do the dreamer bill, you have tax reform which you're trying to get done. You have to come back to the spending bill, come back to the debt ceiling and all of the issues that traditionally a quick sand of worse for those Conservative-Republicans. The president could make them mad could get interesting.

SHEAR: And one last point. You know, the president may learn that Pelosi and Schumer are under a lot of pressure from the left as well. And even though it looks like the Democrats are all aligned, there are lots of folks in the immigration debate who do not want to see the other half of the deal.

The increased enforcement, you know, the idea that you have what I think Trump called a massive, a massive new amount of border security or interior enforcement where you got all these new ICE agents, you know, going all over the country tracking down and taking illegal immigrants and deporting them. That part it if the Republicans insist on that, the whole thing could fall apart.

KING: So we'll watch and see what the definition of massive is when they to actually put this on chart and put this on paper and see how -- is it more ICE agents? How much money it is? Is it cameras that we'll see? A lot of questions to be answered. But at the moment, very different Washington today, an interesting Washington today.

.Up next, Hillary Clinton blaming Bernie Sanders yet again, does that help or hurt the Democrats?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[12:51:55] HILLARY CLINTON (D), FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Sanders who is not even a Democrat, who criticized the president all the time, he could say whatever he wanted to say. His claims, which he could not defend really not even explain when pressed, filled up a lot of space.

I was arguing with my supporters at the Denver Convention in 2008 about why they had to quit complaining that I didn't win and get out and support Barack Obama. And I didn't get that respect.

He's not a Democrat. He makes that clear. He could be helpful if he so chose. And that's what I'm calling on him to do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: She's still feeling the burn. Is that returning the burn? All that public airing of grievances is raising a lot of Democratic eyebrows. Last night CNN's Anderson Cooper asked Hillary Clinton to respond to all the criticism that her book is not particularly helpful to Democrats right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINTON: Oh, I don't buy that at all. I think, you know, from my perspective, I have a lot of experience and expertise and insight that I'm sharing with the world and particularly with Democrats.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: A reminder after a long conversation about the fractures in the Republican Party of the Democratic Party has some issues too, shall we say.

MURRAY: Yes. Issues might be on under implementation. I mean, the one thing is do we expect Hillary Clinton to be over this at this point, if you would lost presidency, would you be over it by now, because I for sure would not be.

But you can understand why Democrats are saying, OK, this is, you know, we're just relitigating the last elections which we already lost. Why aren't we trying to pick up the pieces and figure out what we're going to do next and how we're going to try to mount the challenge to this guy?

PACE: And in some ways Bernie Sanders is actually still trying to do that as well, those are policy. I mean he's out there right now putting single payer health care on the table putting this up at something of a litmus test. For Democrats you've seen potential 2020 contenders starting to lineup behind it. But this is Bernie's role. I mean he is -- Clinton is right. He's not a Democrat. He's never really claimed to be one.

KING: And --

BACOM: And Clinton is right. The most important is because that Hillary book and that's fine. She's talking about it. But the big thing that happened was Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, the leading figures in the party of the future came out for Medicare for all. That's -- Hillary may think her ideas are helpful. Bernie Sanders has come to much more of a powerful figure in this party in terms of where it's going than Hillary Clinton is right now.

KING: At the moment, absolutely right about that. The question is who will stand up to oppose him, which moderate Democrat will say that's going too far to the left, that's an interesting question. She did win the popular vote. She reminds us of that repeatedly in her book. Last night with Anderson Cooper, she says, time to get rid of the Electoral College.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINTON: He didn't win the popular vote. He squeaked through the Electoral College. We've had several candidates, nominees who have won the popular vote and lost the Electoral College, what does that say. And it says, that an anachronism that was designed for another time no longer works if we've moved towards one person, one vote. That's how we select winners. I think it needs to be eliminated.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[12:55:01] KING: The founders were well aware this might happen. They put it there for a reason. So the small states didn't get blown away. So the people in today's world didn't exist at the time, don't just campaign in Florida, in California, in New York, in Texas and leave the little states behind. Any chance that's going happen or that's just what happens when --

SHEAR: Never. I mean and look, the -- she is exactly the wrong messenger for that even if it were, because she lost in the system that she's now asking to have eliminated. And so, you know, some point in the future, if there was a ground swell from somebody who won in the current system and said but still I think it's gone away. But this is not coming.

KING: As in court, they would say, the witness has no standing. I believe this how they would say that. Thanks for joining us today on INSIDE POLITICS. Thanks for dealing with all the breaking news with us, a little back and forth. See you back here tomorrow.

Wolf Blitzer in the chair after a quick break. Have a great day.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:59:59] WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello. I'm Wolf Blitzer. Wherever you're watching from around the world, thanks very much for joining us.

Up first, President Trump and the Democrats play another round of let's make a deal. The two sides say, they will work on a plan to protect the so-called "Dreamers" more than 800,000 individuals brought to the United States --