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Trump Signals Desire for Bipartisan Immigration Reform; Reality Check: Trump's Economic Claims; Trump Sidestepped Many Foreign Policy Challenges. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired March 1, 2017 - 13:30   ET

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


[13:30:00] REP. RAUL GRIJALVA, (D), ARIZONA: The good faith I talked about and closing the door on potentially 11 million people in the country, that they can stay here if they follow the rules and work hard and that they meet all of the criteria of a good hard-working person and citizen in this country, that they would have some protection. OK. The problem I have with that is that we cannot create a situation -- and we have two classes of residents in this country, one without the opportunity to ever have the status permanent, legal, and have citizenship, and one that is in constant limbo of legal status and nothing beyond that. I think that is going against every value we have ever established.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Politically speaking, if you could get something that's better than nothing. The current status quo is terrible.

GRIJALVA: I don't disagree.

BLITZER: If the White House called you, Congressman, and said let's see if we can come up with something, work together, Democrats and Republicans, would you be open to that?

GRIJALVA: I would be. Any one of us would be open to that discussion. But as the man that I voted for twice, President Obama, and worked on his campaign and supported him for president, as we told him, I and others included, during the height of the immigration deportation issues, you need to stop these deportations and you need to be able to say we're going to move in a direction to look at comprehensive reform. To me, the definition of comprehensive reform is something that fits a broken system, that goes beyond enforcement. And if the White House is willing to listen to and get off the rhetoric they've been using up to this point to demonize the immigrants in this country, then I think people would be willing to. But there's an essential good-faith step and there has been harsh rhetoric used by this president and the systematic upgrading of deportation throughout this country. That's got to stop.

BLITZER: Congressman Grijalva, thanks very much for joining us.

GRIJALVA: Thank you.

BLITZER: Coming up, a closer look at the president's claims on the economy, including the number of people out of work, and the role he played in keeping jobs in the United States. We're going to have a CNN reality check. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:36:22] BLITZER: Markets here in the United States seemed to react positively to President Trump's address to Congress.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(BELL RINGING)

(CHEERING)

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BLITZER: At the start of the session today, the Dow has soared more than 300 points, topping 21,000 for the first time. But those numbers can be a bit misleading.

As we talk about the numbers, by the way, let's discuss one number that caught our attention. Talking about a number involving in the labor market. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Tonight, as I outline the next steps we must take as a country, we must honestly acknowledge the circumstances we inherited. 94 million Americans are out of the labor force.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Does that number add up?

Our chief business correspondent, Christine Romans, breaks it down for us -- Christine?

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSIENSS CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Wolf. The latest figures from the Atlanta Federal Reserve show 95 million American adults are not part of the labor market. They're out of the job market. President Trump's statement is technically true, but misleading. Misleading because the vast majority of those not in the labor market don't want a job. 44 million are retired. More than 15 million are in college or job training. Another 15 million are disabled. More than 13 million are taking care of a family member. So to say 95 million Americans are jobless exaggerates weakness in the labor market.

Now President Trump capitalized massively on job market angst on the campaigned trail and he hues to that theme now as president. But a better number to look at is the number of people who want a job and can't find one. Roughly, 1.5 million people have looked for work in the last year. They're not part of the labor force. And another 7.6 million Americans searched for a job in the last month. Those are the unemployed, and they're considered part of the labor force. Tens of millions of aging baby boomers will be dropping out of the work force in the coming years. Ironically, many economists, Wolf, say more immigration is necessary to fill that gap and keep the economy growing.

At the same time the president exaggerates how weak the labor market is, he magnifies how many jobs he's responsible for creating.

TRUMP: Since my election, Ford, Fiat-Chrysler, General Motors, Sprint, Softbank, Lockheed, Intel, Walmart, and many others, have announced they'll invest billions and billions of dollars in the United States and will create tens of thousands of new American jobs.

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: No question, CEOs have credited Trump for pro-business policies. He promises to cut their tax bills. He promises to kill regulations. But in many cases, the jobs he takes credit for were part of previously announced plans. What's new here, companies are going out of their way to promote the jobs being created here.

"CNN money" has a running tally, Wolf. You can check out all of the claims and the facts -- Wolf?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: Excellent fact-check.

Christine Romans, thanks very much.

Let's discuss all these number with my next guest, CNN senior economics analyst, Stephen Moore. He's also a former senior economic adviser to the Trump campaign, a distinguished visiting fellow of the Heritage Foundation here in Washington.

You can't dispute anything she just reported.

STEPHEN MOORE, CNN SENIOR ECONOMIC ANALYST: Well, I would take issue with what she was saying.

A couple of things. It is true there are 94 million Americans above the age of 16 out of the work force. And it is true. And it's an all-time record.

[13:40:00] BLITZER: Most of those people are retired or they're ill or raising a family.

MOORE: Well --

BLITZER: There's a tiny percentage of that 95 million or, actually, as she points out accurately --

(CROSSTALK)

MOORE: See, I'd take issue with that, too. It is true that baby boomers are retiring by the amount of 10,000 a day. I'm a baby boomer. I was born in 1960. If you look at the labor - the statistic that economists are very worried about is called the labor force participation rate, that is people in their peak earning years, from 18 to 65, people who could be in the work force, that's come to an all-time low. In fact, the decline of the labor force participation rate is actually most severe with younger people, not older people.

(CROSSTALK)

MOORE: Older people are more likely to be working today --

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: The 95 million figure he put out last night is misleading. You'd agree with that.

MOORE: Well -- no. Look. It's 95 million --

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: 40 million of them have retired.

MOORE: OK, let me give you another example.

(CROSSTALK)

MOORE: The number of people who are disabled, well, that has increased by four million people since 2007. Now, do you really actually think there are four million more people disabled? We know the answer to that is no. There reason they're disabled --

(CROSSTALK)

WOLF: A million here, a million there. OK.

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: I think the only fair point is when the president said last night that there are 95 million people outside of the labor force, he should have been more specific.

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: And he should have been precise instead of leaving the impression there are 95 million Americans looking for jobs.

(CROSSTALK)

MOORE: -- of that speech. And I'm going to get back to this, because I think he didn't say 95 million. I think he said - and he talked about people in those peak working years. But there is no question

(CROSSTALK)

MOORE: There are a lot more people who could be working or not, and there are a lot of people who simply dropped out. Now, Christine mentioned that. There are people that have been kind of discouraged.

The other thing she didn't mention is there are millions of people in the labor force technically employed but they can't find a full-time job. So I believe the real unemployment rate -- and I think a lot of Americans agree with me on this, Wolf -- is closer to 10 percent, not 5 percent, because it doesn't include discouraged workers and temporary workers.

BLITZER: You agree, you believe the jump in the Dow Jones since November 8, since the election, is at least, in part, the result of optimism because of Trump's election, is that correct?

MOORE: No question.

BLITZER: Because he's taking a lot of credit for that.

MOORE: Yeah, yeah. I was laughing when you said the markets seemed to react positively. I mean, my goodness, we have a 300-point increase. That's a pretty positive --

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: So you give President Obama enormous credit because when he took office during the Great Recession, the Dow Jones was under 7,000. When he left office, 18,000, 19,000.

MOORE: Yes.

BLITZER: So you give Obama enormous credit for the job he did in revitalizing confidence in the U.S. economy.

MOORE: He was there when it happened, so you have to give him credit for what happened in the stock market. But I think the reason why Americans were frustrated by the economic performance of Obama was not because of the stock market. You're exactly right. The stock market did well under Obama, although, after a crash. I think it was that the increase in the stock market didn't translate into great gains for the middle class. Let me make this case, Wolf. If --

BLITZER: It went from 9 percent to under 5 percent.

MOORE: But remember, those numbers are a little bit misleading.

I want to make this comment about Trump, though. If he's going to be successful with voters, it's not going to be because of what happened in the stock market. But a rising stock markets is a great thing. It's can that translate into gains for the middle class in terms of wages and jobs.

BLITZER: The stock market is a very good thing, especially for people who have invested their 401Ks

MOORE: Well, half of us own stocks.

BLITZER: And that's very positive. But a caution. As I always say, what goes up can go down. (LAUGHTER)

MOORE: We've learned that lesson over the last three years.

BLITZER: We've learned that lesson over the years.

Stephen Moore, thanks for joining us.

MOORE: Thank you.

BLITZER: Coming up, what you didn't hear in the president's speech last night, any mention of Russia or Vladimir Putin. Was there a subtle nod if you read between the lines?

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TRUMP: We want peace wherever peace can be found. America is friends today with former enemies.

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[13:48:27] TRUMP: We want peace wherever peace can be found. America is friends today with former enemies. Some of our closest allies, decades ago, fought on the opposite side of these terrible, terrible wars. This history should give us all faith in the possibilities for a better world.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: President Trump seemingly alluding to the U.S. relationship with Russia. His address to Congress used some broad-brush strokes to talk about foreign policy, foreign relations, choosing not to mention some of the greatest challenges facing his administration.

Let's discuss all of this and more with our CNN international diplomatic editor, Nic Robertson, joining us from Moscow; and CNN senior international correspondent, Clarissa Ward, who's in London.

Guys, thanks very much for joining us.

Nic, President Trump didn't refer to a number of issues, specifically in the speech, North Korea's nuclear ambitions, which I know he sees as the greatest threat to U.S. national security right now, Syria, Russia's hacking during the elections. What was your analysis, what was the reaction where you were in Moscow to what the president said?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: You know, Wolf, the Russian reaction here -- Dmitry Peskov, the president's spokesman, he has a daily phone call with journalists, and CNN asked precisely that question. Russia wasn't mentioned, what's your reaction to that. He said, well, look, this is President Trump dealing with American issues, what's on the American agenda, not his foreign policy agenda. So there's an understanding here. He said, look, if it was President Putin, he would have been talking about things that are important to Russia. So there's an acceptance and understanding there.

But at the same time, there continues to be this frustration. We heard President Trump talk about the possibility of working with allies and friends in the future, and Peskov, the spokesman for Putin, said, well, that could include us in the future, we could cooperate on counterterrorism. But there's a sense here that that window of opportunity to cooperate is closing. It's not closed. But Peskov's view on all of this is that they're still waiting to have that strong communication with Washington, with President Trump, to understand what his views really are with Russia -- Wolf?

[13:50:54] BLITZER: Clarissa, despite pushback from his national security adviser, the president did warn, and he specifically used the words "radical Islamic terrorism." How is that perceived internationally?

CLARISSA WARD, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRSPONDENT: Well, Wolf, I would say actually internationally people are not quite as concerned about the semantics debate that has taken on such prominence domestically. They're more concerned about actions. So they're less concerned whether he calls it radical Islamic terrorism and more concerned about, for example, the previous incarnation of the travel ban, which many internationally saw as being somehow Islamaphobic.

What they will be looking very closely at with last night's speech was some glimpse with what President Trump's foreign policy is actually going to look at. Even though he spent little time talking about foreign policy, I do think you got some kind of a glimmer of what it was going to be like. He said America is ready to lead. He reaffirmed some commitments to alliances, to NATO. But he made it clear America is not going to use the traditional mechanisms of global leadership that we have previously relied upon, whether that's foreign aid, projecting U.S. values onto the rest of the world, or whether that's paying or footing the bulk of the bill of alliances like NATO. There is going to be a shift. There is a sense that it's every man for himself out there. And there's two sides to that as well, Wolf, because on the same token, he's saying, listen, I don't care how you run your country or what you do as long as it is not a threat to national interest to the U.S. or to world peace.

BLITZER: Nic, you're in Moscow. There are reports that the former Utah governor, the 2012 Republican presidential candidate, Jon Huntsman, is in discussions with the president and others, the secretary of state, to potentially become the U.S. ambassador to Russia. What kind of environmental would Huntsman face if he were to become a U.N. ambassador there?

ROBERTSON: It's been linked to an environment where the perception is there are no great deals to be done with Washington, that it is back to essentially the same policies as the Obama administration. That window that I was talking about before that you hear analysts here describe where there's a possibility to do something with the United States, that's still open. But you have the generals here in Russia, for example, looking very closely at the announcement just in the past 48 hours that President Trump is looking for a $54 billion increase in the defense budget. 10 percent of increase in the defense spending. That is equivalent to Russia's entire defense budget. So you have the generals here who are going through their own massive military spend, who are in their own fight with their own finance ministry here to get more money for that spend, looking at what the United States is doing and saying, OK, we need to spend more money, too. Not a match for match if you will. But that sense that there is a slow move to -- back to the status quo, back to a slow arms race, if you will, not as we saw during the Cold War, but that sort of mentality. That's the environmental that Jon Huntsman could find himself entering here -- Wolf?

BLITZER: Clarissa, you mentioned the scaling back of U.S. foreign aid, which is under serious consideration by the administration right now. What kind of message would that send to various countries out there that would see a significant drop in U.S. economic and military assistance?

WARD: I think there's a lot of frustration, Wolf, and I think primarily because President Trump has placed so much emphasis of defeating ISIS or distinguishing ISIS, the word he used last night, but there seems to be a look of understanding this a military track solution only can't work in isolation of other -- you know, you have to look at the other facts that contributed to the rise of ISIS, whether they're geopolitical, social or economic. So there will be some frustration that the U.S. won't put its weight behind solutions that help with those broader themes -- Wolf?

[13:55:05] BLITZER: Nic Robertson, Clarissa Ward, thank you very much.

Coming up, how the Obama's managed to spark an $8 billion bidding war in the book industry. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: A major bidding war is over in the book industry. Random House just made separate deals with former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama to publish memoirs about their time in the White House. According to the "Financial Times," the deals are worth a combined -- get this -- $65 million. A significant portion of which, we're told, will be donated to charity. Both books could be released in 2018. $65 million.

That's it for me. Thanks very much for watching. 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 Brianna Keilar starts right now.

[14:00:11] BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, there. I'm Brianna Keilar, in for Brooke Baldwin.

One day after President Trump --