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Environmental Protestors March on White House; President Trump's First 100 Days in Office Examined; North Korea Launches Failed Missile Test; Cyclist with Diabetes Starts Non-Profit. Aired 2-3p ET

Aired April 29, 2017 - 14:00   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:00:00] ANA CABRERA, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to our special live coverage of President Trump's 100th day in office. I'm Ana Cabrera in Washington. One hundred days is a major early term benchmark for a presidency, and President Trump just tweeted this moments ago, "Mainstream fake media refuses to state our long list of achievements, includes 28 legislative signings, strong borders, and great optimism."

Let's get to that list with our panel. So, 100 days in, the president admits the job he won back in November has been harder than he expected.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I loved my previous life. I loved my previous life. I had so many thinks going. I actually -- this is more work than my previous life. I thought it would be easier.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: Now, the president is marking the 100th day milestone with a taste of that old life, retreating to his comfort zone of big crowds and faithful fans. He's holding a rally tonight in Pennsylvania. This is a state that helped him win back in November, turning red for the first time in nearly three decades. The rally will get under way about the same time the first punch lines are landed at the annual White House Correspondents' Dinner in Washington. This is normally a chance for the press and the president to mingle and take a few jabs at each other, lighthearted jabs. Tonight, though, President Trump will become the first president since Richard Nixon to outright skip this time-honored tradition.

But as President Trump is quickly learning, not all things are avoidable. While the show goes on at rallies and dinner parties, threats remain, a big one, North Korea. The regime there just tested another ballistic missile. The Pentagon says it failed just like the last. President Trump is casting the test as a show of defiance toward China, tweeting, quote, "North Korea disrespected the wishes of China and its highly respected president when it launched, though unsuccessfully, a missile today. Bad!"

Also on his 100th day back here at home, President Trump confronts a divided nation. Those concerned about his policies are taking to the streets this weekend. Huge crowds are expected to rally outside the White House. We have live images overhead here in D.C. These pictures from the people's climate march. Demonstrators bused in from as far away as the Midwest to make their voices heard on Trump's 100th day in office. The march comes on the heels of several nationwide science marches last weekend, and CNN has team coverage today. Correspondents Athena Jones, Rene Marsh, and Brian Todd join us from Washington. Let's start with Brian at the climate march. The White House touts President Trump's rollback of Obama-era EPA regulations as one of his biggest achievements so far. These protesters clearly see it differently, Brian.

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They certainly do, Ana. They're very much against that rollback of the EPA. They're concerned that the president is going to pull the United States out of the global climate change agreement. They're concerned with his executive orders about possibly drilling in protected areas and drilling off the coast of the United States. Check this out. This is just a great shot here. This is a sit-in in front of the White House. They just moments ago sat down and are going to be observing a moment of silence in a couple seconds here.

We have got people here, we told about this earlier, listen to this sound for just a second. This is planned. They were planning on pounding on their chests to signify the heartbeat of this environmental movement. And I'll let you listen to it for a couple more seconds.

So it's a sit-in. It is a heart-pounding choreographed moment here in front of the White House, and they are surrounds the White House. We're going to show you the shot here, my photojournalist and I are going to walk over here and show you how this one crowd, this one section of the crowd is surrounding the north side of the White House. You've got crowds down near on 17th street. I can point down there. They're surrounding the west side of the White House.

Scott, if you can get the shot way down the street there, you can see the banners down the street. They're surrounding the west side of the White House. Also surrounding the south and east sides of the White House. This is all planned, Ana, all choreographed. We have had a celebrity sighting, actor Leonardo DiCaprio, a very passionate environmentalist was at the forefront of the march. We marched with him, tried to get him to talk to us. He didn't want to talk to us. But you can see the passion on the street here for this. Tens of thousands of people have come out. And I might add temperatures are in the 90s right now so they're braving a lot of challenging elements to be out here, Ana.

CABRERA: It's looking a little swampy there in Washington, D.C., today. Let's get to Rene Marsh who is outside the White House as well where marchers are all now gathering as they arrive from their march.

[14:05:05] Rene, as climate change protesters rally there outside the president's door, I know you have some new reporting on changes just made to the Environmental Protection Agency website. Tell us about it. RENE MARSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Ana, I mean, same sort

of scene as Brian here, as they are standing outside the White House, and they are all starting to hear about this new reporting that we're talking about here, which is changes to the Environmental Protection Agency's government website.

We are aware the agency has acknowledged that they have made changes in the language on the website. Specifically under sections of the website that says environmental topics, there are changes to the climate page, climate change page. If you click on that, it says that this page is being updated and there is no data or information there.

Many people that we spoke to here say it is another example of the administration trying to erase this idea of climate change. However, the administration saying they are making this changes to the website essentially to reflect the new administration and their new approach to the environment.

But out here, there is a lot of passion. We just got through a moment where they were hitting their chests for 100 times to signify the 100 days in office here for this administration. We do know that the president has not departed from the White House as yet. So if he happens to peek out of one of the windows, this is the scene that he will see because these people are essentially surrounded around the entire White House, Ana.

We also know that there is a group here from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, where the president will hold a rally later on today. That group says that they are intentionally leaving this protest early so that they can then meet the president in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. And they plan to disrupt that rally there with the message that you're hearing out here, which is essentially they feel that the administration is attacking their environment and they want changes, Ana.

CABRERA: All right, Rene Marsh, and we will look at that website that you're talking about to show some of those changes that were recently made.

But I do want to also turn to Athena Jones, because beyond what they've done here on the website, which it just says "The page is being updated," as you can see. Athena Jones is there at the White House as well where we are hearing from those protesters, clearly determined to get the president's attention on this 100th day in office. He will be going to Pennsylvania, we know, tonight, but he's supposed to be in D.C. this morning. Any reaction from the White House right now?

ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Ana. So far no reaction to this big protest, this noisy protest taking place right outside the president's front door. I can hear the drums beating from where I'm standing.

But as you mentioned earlier, we have seen the president tweeting. Earlier today, he talked about how excited he was about the rally he's having tonight in Pennsylvania at 7:30. Just a short while ago, he tweeted basically that the mainstream, he said the mainstream fake media isn't giving him the credit he deserves for his accomplishments over the past 100 days. He cites 28 legislative signings, strong borders, great optimism.

Ana, that's not very different from the tweet we saw maybe eight days ago when he said "No matter how much I accomplish in these first 100 days, and it is a lot including Supreme Court, the media will kill." So the president not happy with the way he's being graded.

But the White House, itself, has put out a highlight reel about three minutes long of the president's achievements including a lot of positive commentary from the media. It's very heavy on FOX News clips but it also includes clips across the media. They've also on their website, WhiteHouse.gov, put together a list of the president's accomplishments, certainly perhaps -- certainly the biggest accomplishment of this White House in these first 100 days is the success in appointing, getting Justice Neil Gorsuch confirmed to the Supreme Court. We heard the president brag about that yesterday in his speech before the National Rifle Association.

But the White House put out a longer list including things like approving the Keystone XL pipeline and Dakota access pipeline, the kind of moves that these protesters are against. It also lists the decisive action the president took against Syria for the use of chemical weapons among other things. But what we can expect to hear the president tick through this list tonight as he tries to put a positive spin on this 100-day measure that he has certainly mixed feelings about. Ana?

CABRERA: All right, Athena, Rene and Brian, our thanks for being our eyes and ears on the ground there. We'll of course, be checking back in with them. But these marches are a reminder that even five months after an incredibly divisive election, the country remains unsettled.

[14:10:00] So let's talk this with our panel of political experts. Jason, I'll start with you. You were on the president's campaign as a communications manager. You're the president right now. If you're him, what is he thinking seeing all these protesters?

JASON MILLER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think he sees the protesters and he knows, yes, there are people still upset with the way the election won, but I think he's trying to win them over. I think that --

CABRERA: How?

MILLER: I think the way he's fighting to try to improve the economy, the way he's standing up and fighting for the forgotten men and women that he discussed in his inauguration speech. And I think really what you talked about, what's happened in the first 100 days. Certainly we talked about Justice Gorsuch. We've talked about the economic numbers. But I think there's a broader cultural shift that we've seen. Look, the Reagan revolution changed the political party, but the Trump revolution really changed the political system. You can tell there's just a different feeling about it in the way that he's not going to abide by the traditional norms and constructs --

CABRERA: We're definitely seeing changes compared to what we would expect in terms of the norm.

MILLER: You see this deepening with the way that the president is going to be rallying with the people in Pennsylvania as opposed to Washington in a black and tie ballroom with a bunch of insiders. I think he's going to feel good right now.

CABRERA: Let me ask you, Bakari, do you see it that way, that the president has done what he said he was going to do in terms of reaching out and helping the forgotten men and women and reaching out to these protestors specifically?

BAKARI SELLERS, CNN COMMENTATOR: Not only has the president not done much reaching out, but I think that we all see based upon what the president set out in his checklist for the first 100 days that he hasn't done much of anything. You know, he texted and tweeted about the 28 bills that he signed into legislation. But when you look at those 28 pieces of legislation that he signed, many of those were for naming veterans hospitals throughout the country. They were for naming other buildings and institutions. Very little of those pieces of legislation had anything to do that would substantially affect anyone's life.

So what we're looking at right now is 100 days with no results. He had in his 100-day plan contract with the country 10 pieces of legislation he was going to put forth. He put forth one of those, and that was to repeal and replace Obamacare. That failed. I think people are starting to feel the pain of the Trump administration, and it's evidenced by this rally and many more that are happening around the world.

CABRERA: And on that note in terms of what he's actually accomplished, 28 pieces of legislation that he's talking about signing into bill, those aren't those main accomplishments that he had wanted to get, those big wins on issues of immigration, Stephen, on issues of, well, in part, climate change. We've seen him do some of these executive orders, but still the coal jobs haven't returned just yet. We haven't seen education addressed. We haven't seen infrastructure addressed. Those were all part of his 100-day contract with the American people.

STEPHEN COLLINSON, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Right. In many ways I think the administration set itself up to get these kinds of judgments because it was so, you know, out there coming forward. That speech the president gave in Gettysburg in the campaign about this is what I'm going to do in my first 100 days. At the same time, 100 days is not a long time to move a big piece of legislation through Congress.

The times when a lot of big legislation is passed is at times of national crisis, like FDR in 1933, the Obama administration during the financial crisis at the beginning of the last presidency. But I think what you can see is you need to ask the question, did the president set himself up in these 100 days for a successful presidency? And then I think it's more difficult to say that.

Reagan in 1981 didn't pass a lot of legislation, but he changed the culture of Washington. He laid the foundations for passing big bills down the road. The question the Trump administration has to confront is, look, it's not Democrats that have stopped these big bills from passing through Congress. It's the Republicans. And can the White House somehow mobilize this Republican majority in both Houses of Congress to pass the big things like health care and tax reform? That's a real big question the administration is facing right now.

CABRERA: I see you shaking your head there, David.

DAVID DRUCKER, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, it's a good point to understand where the president has faltered and what he's accomplished. I mean, if you look at the Supreme Court nomination and confirmation of Judge Neil Gorsuch, that's a major campaign promise, and may be one of the only reasons he won the presidency because Republican voters ultimately decided that they would take their chances on getting a Supreme Court pick that could keep the court conservative for a generation rather than losing it. So we shouldn't underestimate what that means to both his base and Republican voters writ large.

But where he has faltered, and it's been because of Republican resistance on the Hill, not Democratic resistance, is health care. We see brewing problems with tax reform because of Republicans on Capitol Hill. And so I think for the president it's not that he should have done everything in 100 days. It's that he set a marker that he would do many, many things in 100 days, and if he wants to improve his performance going forward, he's going to have to become a better legislative negotiator.

You know, he bills himself as the world's greatest negotiator. And one of the things he hasn't been able to do yet is negotiate a big legislative deal. He's new at this. There's time to get it right. But if you're looking at why health care has been so complicated and why tax reform may be problematic, it's because in talking to Republicans on the hill that have been doing this a long time, they know that the president and his senior team all inexperienced in doing legislation at this level, have made a lot of key mistakes as they tried to build support for the health care bill, and that's where he's tripped up and where he's going to need to improve.

[14:15:22] CABRERA: Abby, I wonder if he has missed the boat in the sense of not trying to tackle more bipartisan type issues sooner instead of pushing those to the side like infrastructure, for example.

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, yes, I mean, I think there are some people who say that could have been a path, but it would have been one that he would have had to have chosen very early on. And it's hard to do that when he doesn't set the agenda on the hill. Paul Ryan has to decide what he's going to put on the floor, and he's not going to start out with something that is going to force Republicans to compromise on some really important things for them.

So they went with a strategy that I think seems reasonable given that they have majorities in the House and in the Senate. The problem for Trump is that he ran kind of outside of the ideological paradigm in Washington. You have a candidate in Trump who is not a sort of, like, Tea Party Republican. He's not a establishment Republican. So it's harder to figure out who his allies are on the Hill.

And Republicans, many of them who are in power right now have never experienced what life in Washington is like with a Republican president. So it's very hard to figure out what can their agenda be that they can agree on to do something instead of just stopping things.

CABRERA: We heard the speaker, Paul Ryan, say that after the first attempt of the health care plan failed. He said it was easier to be the party of no for a long time. Now we have to figure out how to get things done. So a moment of reflection perhaps for him. And Maria, we'll come to you. We have to take a quick break. But I haven't forgotten that you're with us as well. We heard from a lot of our gentlemen and Abby.

So stay with me, everybody. Much more with our panel coming up. Also ahead this hour, tensions rise, President Trump's 100th day met by yet another provocative move by North Korea. We'll take you to Pyongyang next.

Plus, political pledge, candidate Trump made plenty of promises on the campaign trail. We'll break down how many he kept and how many are still unmet. This is special CNN coverage of President Trump's 100th day in office. Great to have you with us. Stick around.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:21:30] CABRERA: North Korea is keeping the military tension high this weekend. Pyongyang recently launched another ballistic missile, that happening less than 24 hours ago. It didn't get very far. U.S. and South Korean military officials agree that this missile launch was a failure. It appears to have blown up over land shortly after launch. CNN's Will Ripley is in North Korea today. He says this missile was meant to send a message. Will?

WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Ana, North Korea defiantly firing back at the Trump administration in their first 100 days. This is at least the ninth missile that North Korea's supreme leader Kim Jong-un has attempted to launch while President Trump has been in office. Not all of them successful, obviously, including this latest launch, which U.S. and South Korean analysts say only traveled about 22 miles before exploding over North Korean territory.

Initially they had thought it traveled much further, possibly exploding in the waters after the Japanese coast. That was enough to trigger a nationwide North Korean missile alert in Japan that halted subway and rail service for 10 minutes. Just goes to show how tense the situation is not only here in the peninsula but across the region as well.

And threatening to ratchet up those tensions even further, confirmation the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier strike group has now arrived in the waters off the Korean peninsula and is conducting joint naval drills with the South Korean Navy. This always infuriates North Korea. And it's noteworthy that the kind of missile they attempted to launch is a modified scud that we actually saw at that massive military parade earlier this month, a missile that analysts say could be used to try to sink warships like the Carl Vinson.

So moving forward, North Korea has promised that they will continue with their missile tests and with nuclear tests as well despite mounting international pressure and despite Secretary of State Rex Tillerson sharing that special U.N. Security Council meeting on Friday where he urged the world to isolate North Korea and put more economic pressure to try to rein in programs here on the ground they say they absolutely will not stop. Ana?

CABRERA: Will Ripley reporting from Pyongyang. Thank you so much.

Let's get back to our panel now. Maria, I'll turn to you first. Obviously President Obama also wrestled with North Korea during the whole course of his presidency. Is it unfair to think President Trump should be able to solve this?

MARIA CARDONA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I think the way that you have look at it, to go back to the conversation we were having in the previous segment, is how does he approach these problems? Before -- or during the campaign, he campaigned as somebody who had a huge disdain for Washington, who had a huge disdain for people who have actually spent their lives trying to deal with these problems.

He now has come here and has understood, and you could see it in what he said recently about, oh, this job is a lot harder than what we thought. What we're seeing is that the reality show candidate turned president who campaigned in fantasy and in wild fact-free hyperbole is running smack into the wall -- we know how he loves walls -- smack into the wall of reality.

And it turns out that just because you think that you're a force of nature, you're actually not shaking up Washington. You can't even make your own party do what you want. Turns out you can't make judges you approve your unconstitutional Muslim bans or keep money from sanctuary cities.

So this is a huge reality check for not just Trump, for the administration, because other than a very select few, he has not surrounded himself with people who actually know how to deal with problems like North Korea. And this is going to be just the beginning if he doesn't understand that he's going to have to deal with these things.

[14:25:04] CABRERA: He has admitted so much this has been a bit of a learning curve for him. He said -- I want to put up a quote he said after he met with the president of China. This is what he told the "Wall street Journal." He said "After listening for 10 minutes I realized it's not so easy. I felt pretty strongly that they had a tremendous power over North Korea but it's not what you think." So did President Trump underestimate how big a challenge foreign policy could be?

MIKE SHIELDS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Look, I don't think so, because he was led head-on into it. Look, here's what he has done in the first 100 days. He said he was going to campaign on making America safer, changing our policy of leading from behind, focusing on manufacturing jobs. He's done those things. If we're going to tick through a 100-day list, then you can always find things to nitpick. If look how he changed the culture of Washington and started to do some things that are different, that's where you're seeing the protests come from.

I think the EPA website that says "this is being updated" is a perfect metaphor for exactly what's going on in Washington right now. And of course you're going to have protesters. No one out there is protesting for jobs.

CABRERA: Should he be reaching out to the people who are protesting? There are tens of thousands of people out there who are part of this country, too.

SHIELDS: Those climate change protesters need to understand that they are why they lost the election. The voters of Michigan -- listen, the voters in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, manufacturing voters who previously voted Democrat delivered this president a victory because of the regulations that have been put on them by environmental policy. And so while they're going to get mad at the president, what they really ought to do is ask themselves within their own movement, what are we doing to reach out to these voters to convince them that them losing their job is worth what they're protesting out there?

CABRERA: Is that why Trump's approval ratings --

SHIELDS: Across the board, you're going to see reaction from the left on what he's doing. On North Korea, he's changing policy there. Of course people are going to react.

SELLERS: Just to put a little fact, what these protesters are talking about is climate change, and there's really no other side to this issue. Climate change is real. It's not a hoax perpetrated by the Chinese --

SHIELDS: Tell people that lost their job to regulations. There's another side to it.

SELLERS: If we would like to talk about jobs, and you talk about Donald Trump's 238,000 manufacturing jobs that he allegedly has brought back in the first three months, that's all well and good. But I also want to hear you give the president of the United States, the 44th president of the United States, credit for bringing back 2.5 million jobs when he bailed out the same people in Michigan that you're talking about.

So to go back to what we're talking about, and a lot of these issues that the president of the United States is dealing with, it's because you asked the question when we started this hour, is he going to reach out? So, it's not is he just going to reach out to these individuals that are marching in the street or the people who march for science, or the women's march, is he going to reach out to African-Americans or anything. That's not it in isolation. Donald Trump has to realize he is not a president for himself or his family. He's a president of the United States of America. And he actually has to begin by reaching out in his own party, and then maybe we can start to see some of this growth of the president.

MILLER: Bakari --

CABRERA: Last word here real quick. We've got to leave it.

MILLER: If we're going to talk about the 44th president, I think we do have to bring up the fact how this last administration did nothing on North Korea. The problem only got worse. At least President Trump is coming in and engaging the Chinese to tackle this issue.

SELLERS: Because they're a currency manipulator, right? That's another flip-flop.

CABRERA: All right, guys. All right, guys.

(CROSSTALK)

CABRERA: We will -- hold your thought.

(CROSSTALK)

CABRERA: Hold your thought. Hold your thought, guys.

Stay with us, everybody.

Up next, campaign promises are one thing, political reality is another. A scorecard as the president hits his 100th day in office, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[14:32:54] CABRERA: And 100 days in, what exactly has President Trump accomplished? Here's how he sees it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I truly believe that the first 100 days of my administration has been just about the most successful in our country's history. Most importantly, we're bringing back jobs. You asked the people of Michigan, you asked the people of Ohio, you can ask the people of Pennsylvania, see what's happening. See the car companies come roaring back in. They don't want to leave. They want to stay here. They want a piece of the action. Our country is going up and it's going up fast.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: How does that square with the many promises he's made? CNN's Tom Foreman is keeping score for us.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: One hundred days of promises colliding with political reality started with a staggering loss. TRUMP: On my first day, I'm going to ask Congress to send me a bill

to immediately repeal and repeal and replace --

Repeal and replace --

Repeal and replace that horror show called Obamacare.

(APPLAUSE)

FOREMAN: That pledge brought surefire applause on the campaign but calamity in office. The president's party even with control of Congress found itself bitterly divided. Some saying his plan went too far, some not far enough. And his first attempt at major legislation was yanked without a vote.

REP. PAUL RYAN, (R) SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: I will not sugarcoat this. This is a disappointing day for us.

FOREMAN: Despite continued talk about a pledge to build a border wall and have Mexico pay for it --

TRUMP: The wall gets built, 100 percent.

FOREMAN: -- there is no concrete progress on that, either.

True, this president has signed more legislation than any of the previous five presidents in the same period, much of it erasing Obama- era regulations. But none produced the broad public impact typical of major laws. For that, he has turned to executive actions, signing more than any other president in the first 100 days since Harry Truman, quickly wiping out the trade deal known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

TRUMP: We just officially terminated TPP.

(APPLAUSE)

[14:35:02] FOREMAN: But his most incendiary idea, banning travel from several majority Muslim nations, has stalled in the courts over the administration's protests.

REX TILLERSON, SECRETARY OF STATE: Protecting the nation from foreign terrorist entry into the United States is a vital measure for strengthening our national security.

FOREMAN: The legal branch of government is where President Trump has scored by far his biggest victory.

TRUMP: We have to replace Judge Scalia with a conservative, great judge.

NEIL GORSUCH, SUPREME COURT JUSTICE: I Neil M. Gorsuch --

FOREMAN: Despite overwhelming Democratic opposition, Neil Gorsuch was approved and seated on the Supreme Court.

TRUMP: And I got it done in the first 100 days. That's even nice.

FOREMAN: Even as the courts overall challenged other Trump initiatives, including his attempt to cut funding from so-called sanctuary cities for not helping enforce immigration laws.

Meanwhile, on the foreign front, the president reversed on his campaign promise not to intervene in Syria, taking fast action following a Syrian gas attack, unleashing a barrage of missiles and the "mother of all bombs" in Afghanistan, raising tensions not merely in the Middle East but also with far-flung allies and adversaries including North Korea.

His meetings with foreign leaders came with the backdrop of a fiscal plan to substantially boost U.S. military spending while cutting budgets for many other agencies.

TRUMP: You know, I tweeted today @RealDonaldTrump, I tweet. You know, it's awesome. Don't worry, I'll give it up after I'm president. We won't tweet anymore, I don't think.

FOREMAN: And of course, there were tweets. Unproven claims of voter fraud, unproven accusations of President Obama wiretapping Trump tower, and a relentless stream of attacks on the media about what President Trump calls "fake news," especially over the march of stories about possible Russian ties to his circle.

This president has undeniably pushed forward at a breakneck pace and perhaps many of his promises will yet come to pass. Faced with a string of protests and a plummeting approval rating, his first 100 days, as he, himself, has hinted, have been more complicated than expected.

Tom Foreman, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CABRERA: Our thanks to Tom Foreman.

Up next, the highs and the lows of the Trump administration's 100 days. And you're looking at live pictures of protesters outside one of Trump's properties in Chicago this afternoon. You're live in the CNN Newsroom.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:41:46] CABRERA: Welcome back. We are keeping attention to the live pictures coming in from across the country as we mark 100 days since President Trump took office. And you see some of these live images. The camera is a little shaky because we are rolling with the protesters who are outside the White House and around the country.

The people's climate march is drawing large crowds we've seen in spite of the heat and the high humidity today. We'll continue to monitor these for you as we discuss President Trump's successes and his missteps during his first 100 days. My panel is back with me now. OK, guys. Think of this as sort of a lightning round, quick answers here.

And Mike and Jason, I'll start with you since you are, of course, supporters of President Trump. What do you see as his biggest misstep in his first 100 days, Jason?

MILLER: I think the biggest misstep probably was relying on House Republicans to have an Obamacare repeal and replace bill ready to go. I think they're not going to make the same mistake with tax reform. I think as you look forward into this next 100 days, the administration is really going to be the driving force behind these key initiatives.

CABRERA: Health care and Republicans, biggest misstep?

SHIELDS: I think because they're outsiders learning that Washington is a much bigger dragon to slay than maybe people thought it was, that doesn't mean they're not going to keep at it. But I think understanding a team of outsiders getting into Washington, it's a much, much bigger problem to change this place than they probably first thought.

CABRERA: What about you, Abby?

PHILLIP: I think the president also didn't identify the need to have a functioning White House. I mean, the White House was so chaotic they really couldn't get anything done partly because they were so disorganized and they had no idea how the government works. So we're seeing some of that changing. And I think that will actually have a sort of behind-the-scenes but a real impact on their ability to actually do things going forward.

CABRERA: David, what do you see as the biggest misstep so far?

DRUCKER: Well, look, I think we can say the president's first 100 days have been consequential. I don't think they have been historic. And the only reason we need to point that out is because he insists they have been. To be historic, to be unprecedented, you want permanent changes on the government that go beyond executive orders that can be wiped away by the next president.

To me, the most interesting thing that has happened in his first 100 days just happened the past week or so. And obviously with him there are so many things that went under the radar. He was all set to trigger a pullout from NAFTA until his cabinet officials came into him and said this would hurt many of the people who voted for you, hurt the American economy.

And he changed course which is a credit to somebody who can change course, show flexibility. But it shows that he is learning on the job. It shows that the things that he said on the campaign trail he is learning are not always the case. He's a lot more conventional than a lot of people expected him to be. He's a lot more conventional than he may want to admit he is. But I think that's what is making him so interesting to cover.

CABRERA: Misstep, Stephen? COLLINSON: I think we've had a lot of unnecessary controversies that

really don't help advance the administration's agenda. Look, we all know that Donald Trump operates much differently than any other kind of president. But some of this Twitter stuff, the row over the crowd sizes, the claim about supposedly he was wiretapped by President Obama, all this kind of stuff is unnecessary. It creates a lot of noise, and I think it does sort of erode the administration's credibility among people that may not agree with the president but don't necessarily wish him ill as well.

CABRERA: So use of Twitter, some of these things. We've heard from health care. What about you, Bakari, as far as missteps from the president? What's the biggest one?

[14:45:05] SELLERS: Well, I think the largest one, the one that is the most glaring over his administration, is probably the hiring and subsequent firing of Michael Flynn. There is a lot there to chew on. We don't know what it is. It kind of goes to Abby's point about the White House not having a structure in place to do simple things like vet. And so I think that right now, there are a number of things we can go down, but right now today one of the hottest issues in America in terms of missteps is that Michael Flynn rabbit hole and where does it go?

CABRERA: And what about you, Maria?

CARDONA: I think to that point, his lack of wanting to provide -- be more open on the Russia investigation issue because that really gives everybody the sense that here is something to hide. That's on the Russia thing which I think will be a huge issue that we'll be dealing with for months on end.

But I think broadly, he had a great chance, Ana, to reach out to those people who did not support him. He gave one speech which was the night that he won, that could have been seen as a unifying speech. Every single other speech that he has given he feels like he is still on the campaign trail. Even 100 days into his administration, he still feels like he has something to prove.

And speaking that way, he is continuing to push away the majority of the American people who did not vote for him and the majority of the American people who today still do not support him. We see it in his colossally bad approval ratings 100 days into his administration. He's not reaching out to anybody that he needs to in order to become the president for everyone as opposed to just the president for the very few people who supported him.

CABRERA: And he has a lot of time to do that. We're only 100 days in. He's got 1,000-plus more days in office for sure. And so we'll give him a chance. But we will be back to discuss his successes as well because I know you guys are eager to talk about that. I'm sure you all have some opinions. So stay with us. We'll take a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [14:51:24] CABRERA: I'm Ana Cabrera in Washington. You're in the CNN Newsroom for our special coverage of the president's 100th day in office. My panel is back with us. We just talked about President Trump's missteps over these last 100 days, so now to his successes. Lightning round, and Maria, we'll start with you.

CARDONA: He's been incredibly successful at uniting the Democrats in the resistance against him. To fight --

CABRERA: Simple as that.

CARDONA: -- every single thing he is doing to roll back protections for the environment, to roll back protections for women's health both domestically and globally, to make sure this country is actually a land of opportunity for everybody and not just, again, the few who voted for him or his own family, frankly, because he has turned the presidency into a work of public service, to a work of self-service.

CABRERA: Bakari, biggest success for President Trump?

SELLERS: I think you have to start with Neil Gorsuch. I think number two is Nikki Haley, quickly, although I believe they're trying to roll back some of her ability to talk freely at the U.N. And number three, something that benefits him is he's been able to systemically over the past 18 months tear down the media to the point where the majority of America doesn't trust it anymore and that only benefits Donald Trump.

CABRERA: Very quickly, David, biggest success?

DRUCKER: I think foreign policy in that he has embraced a more traditional post-World War II bipartisan U.S. foreign policy in terms of asserting U.S. strength and influence both in Asia and the Middle East. He had talked a lot about pulling back, retrenching, focusing on building infrastructure, letting the world go upon its merry way. That would have not been a good thing for the country or his presidency, and I think the adjustment that he made there coming into the White House is going to pay dividends for him down the road.

CABRERA: All right, we've got one minute left here, Abby, go.

PHILLIP: I tell you what I hear the most from people is regulations. He's actually been extremely successful in pulling those back and really changing the way that the government works around regulations. Some people like this, some people don't, but it's undeniable that it's been going on. They've been using the Congressional Review Act a lot more than past presidents, and that's something that's real and it's going to be ongoing, and also something that's going to be pretty long lasting considering that the two out, one in regulation rule, meaning they have to get rid of two in order to put one in, is something that is going to really have a profound effect on the entire government for the duration of his presidency.

CABRERA: OK, one word for us. Biggest success.

MILLER: I'd say the coupling of economic and security issues and the way we're going to start closing some of these trade deficits. Obviously Gorsuch --

CABRERA: That's more than one word.

(LAUGHTER)

CABRERA: I was getting the wrap in my ear, Jason. But I did want to give a Trump supporter a chance to say -- we'll come back to you, Mike and Stephen.

Thank you for joining us. We're back in just a moment for our special live continues coverage on President Trump's 100th day.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Phil Southerland is a former professional cyclist. He's been racing uphill since the first year of his life.

PHIL SOUTHERLAND, CYCLIST: At seven-months-old mom took me to one doctor who said your kid has got the flu, come back in one week.

GUPTA: But within days Phil's weight plummeted. His mom rushed him to the hospital.

SOUTHERLAND: The good news is your son is going to live for now. The bad news is he has diabetes. He's got to take shots, insulin, and most likely he'll be dead by 25.

GUPTA: That death sentence didn't stop him. At 12-years-old, Phil jumped on a bike.

SOUTHERLAND: I disobeyed some rules. I ventured my way to a snack machine and got a Snickers bar. Then I figured, OK, I don't want to wait two hours for my insulin to kick in. I do want to eat these candy bars. How can I do it? And so I rode my bike through the streets of the neighborhood until my legs hurt again. So the bike gave me the discipline and motivation I needed to control diabetes.

GUPTA: In college Phil got the idea to start a non-profit called Team Type 1 to empower other athletes with the disease.

SOUTHERLAND: I believe sport can be the unifying point for people with diabetes.

GUPTA: His goal, to have the first all-diabetic cycling team race in the Tour de France by 2021. His other passion, helping diabetic kids in Rwanda get much need medical supplies.

SOUTHERLAND: I want every kid with diabetes to know they are the hero, every person with diabetes to know that their dreams can come true.

GUPTA: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, reporting.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CABRERA: Hello, I'm Ana Cabrera in Washington. Welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. It's great to have you with us on this 100th day in office for President Trump.