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Negotiations on Tax Deal; Trump Aide Leaving White House; Rosenstein Testifies Before Committee. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired December 13, 2017 - 13:00   ET

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


[13:00:00] DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Although I shouldn't say that until we sign.

(LAUGHTER)

We've been there too many times. Let's count the vote first. Right?

(LAUGHTER)

But I want to thank my whole team, Gary and Steve and everybody. The whole team has been really something special. And, Diane, thank you very much for everything. We appreciate it.

So we're very close to getting it done. We're very close to voting. And our economy, as you know, has surged from where it is when I took it over. We were having an economy that was going in the wrong direction. They can say all they want about the last administration, or even administrations. This country was going in the wrong direction, from the economic standpoint. And you saw where it was -- one of the early times we heard about 1 percent and 1.2 percent, and you were going down.

401(k)s right now -- I met last week in New York City with a very, very fine group of policemen. And they were all so happy about their 401(k)s. They feel like they're geniuses because, in one case, he said, I'm up 39 percent.

I see all the guys carrying the booms are smiling. Are you up, too? Yes, he is. Oh, look at him.

(LAUGHTER)

He's got that boom. Let's see. He's got the one that's the highest and the closest. So he's a good boomer.

(LAUGHTER)

But he's got a big smile on his face, right? Thank you. Thanks very much.

You know, usually with the press -- they won't admit it -- but he does because he's beyond the press.

(LAUGHTER) But I want to -- I just want to say that people are up 30 percent, 40

percent, 50 percent, depending on what's in there, and they are very, very happy.

So we think we're going to grow that a lot more. We really think the economy has a long way to grow and it needs the tax cut. It needs it desperately. And all that money is going to be spent on expanding businesses.

We have so many different things in this bill that are going to create jobs. And for me, this is a bill -- very simple -- it's a massive cut for the middle class and it's about jobs. And the jobs are really defined by the companies. The companies are going to be expanding and they're going to be creating jobs. You know, in education, we're talking choice. Well, in jobs, we're going to be talking choice, too, because, right now, people go for one job and they don't have many options. They're going to have plenty of options. They're going to look at five, six, seven jobs, and they're going to pick the one they want. And wages are starting to go up. First time in many years, wages now are actually starting to go up.

So we have a lot of great things happening, but what really is something that, I think, will really be the capper is going to be the massive tax cuts that we're planning that hopefully, within a very short period of time, we'll have signed into law.

It will be bigger than anything ever done in this country. Bigger than the Reagan cuts, bigger than any cuts, and it will also be reform. And there are also some other things in that bill that are very, very big that are somewhat unrelated, but ultimately I think it's all related.

So I just want to thank everybody at the table -- Mike, everybody at the table -- for being here. And I want to have a very fast lunch so you can go immediately back and finish it up.

(LAUGHTER)

I actually feel very guilty having you here. So I want you to go back immediately and finish it up.

Thank you very much. It's going to be something very, very special. Thank you all. Thank you.

QUESTION: Mr. President, will you support the 21 percent corporate tax rate? And would you sign the current 21 percent?

TRUMP: I would -- yeah, I would. We're going to see where it ends up, but I certainly -- it's at 35 right now, so if it got down to 21, I would certainly be -- I would be thrilled. I would be thrilled.

We'll see. We have haven't set that final figure yet, but certainly 21 is a very great difference.

QUESTION: Mr. President, after Alabama, is it crucial to get a vote in the next week? TRUMP: I think it's very important for the country to get a vote next week. Not because we lost a seat. Wish we would have gotten the seat. A lot of Republicans feel differently; they're very happy with the way it turned out.

But I would have -- as the leader of the party, I would have liked to have had the seat. I want to endorse the people that are running.

But, I will tell you that it's -- to me, it's very, very -- just, very important to get this vote. Not because of that, but because of the -- and I don't know what the vote will be. I don't know what exactly the final -- we have a margin now of two, plus our great Vice President. So I really -- I think we're going to get the vote, but I will say, we have to get more senators and more congressmen that are Republicans elected in '18. And then you'll see a lot more of what we're doing right now.

QUESTION: How can that loss affect your agenda going forward?

TRUMP: I don't think it's going to affect it. I think we're doing a lot. This is the biggest thing that we've worked on. This also has to do with other subjects.

[13:05:00] As you know, I won't mention the subjects, but there are some subjects in here that are very vital to the -- beyond -- I'm talking about beyond pure tax and tax cuts.

But I'm just very excited by it. This is one of the biggest pieces of legislation ever signed by this country. And I can tell you that everybody around this table, we are very, very excited about it. And thank you all very much. Appreciate it.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: All right. So, there you have it. The president of the United States speaking about the tax cuts. Also speaking about the major setback he and the Republicans suffered in Alabama. Doug Jones, the Democrat, the winner. Roy Moore the loser.

The president said he was - as the leaders of the Republican Party, he wanted to hold onto that seat.

That seat will now go to the Democrat. The Republican majority in the Senate goes from 52 to 48 to 51, 49 once Doug Jones is sworn in, presumably in early January.

Gloria Borger, Dana Bash, April Ryan are with us right now. This is a big setback for the president. Even as he's trying in these final days of 2017 to get this tax bill through.

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes, look, this was a huge loss for him last night. No doubt about it.

He just said now, moments ago, I would have liked to have had the seat. I think that's an understatement.

He endorsed Roy Moore and Roy Moore lost. And he understands that going forward in 2018, his majority is going to be reduced. So, this tax bill is very meaningful to him in a lot of ways, Wolf. First of all, he needs a win. He wants a big win.

He understands that his - he'll - it'll be a little easier for him, one vote easier, to do it - to do it now.

And the problem he may have and the question I have is, will people be less willing to do this if they have real questions about it? If they believe that he's weakened or that it'll be harder after January. Would they want to try to put it off? I mean, who knows?

You know, Chuck Schumer this morning said, let's not do this now. Let's not rush into this.

BLITZER: Yes, he wants the new Democratic senator to be sworn in before they have a -

BORGER: Exactly. Exactly.

BLITZER: -- final vote on the Senate floor.

You know the Hill quite well. Are these Republicans who are maybe a little bit on the fence. Are they less likely now to feel the pressure from the White House now that the president has lost his candidate in Alabama?

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: No, I think that they feel even more pressure from the White House.

But on the flip side, they have a lot more leverage. Susan Collins, the moderate from Maine, is probably one of the most powerful, if not the most powerful, person in the city right now.

Because even more so, obviously, next year, when the margin shrinks to a one-seat majority. And that Doug Jones is going to be sworn in. Because she will determine, in many a vote, whether or not the Republican Congress and the Republican president gets a victory or not. And so, she does have a lot of leverage.

I do think that one of the things that the president said about the need for a bigger majority come 2018, there are many a Republican banging their head against the wall listening to him say that.

Because that was what they were hoping to do in Alabama last night. That's what they were hoping to do when these allegations against Roy Moore came out by trying to get him to step aside.

That's why the Senate majority leader, the Republican leader in the Senate, begged the president, please help us get Roy Moore out of the race.

Not only did he not help in the last week or so, he went all in big time to help Roy Moore. And that produced a Democrat from Alabama which, as we said many times last night, was the first time that we've seen that in a quarter century. So, if the president wants to keep the Republican majority, grow the Republican majority, he's going to have to have a very tough conversation with people like his good friend, Steve Bannon, who are all about, right now, purity and all about running Republicans in primaries against those who have proven that they can win their states.

BORGER: He's going to have to have a conversation with himself.

BASH: Exactly.

BLITZER: You know, April, a lot of his advisors were cautioning him against going all in for Roy Moore. He decided to go all in and went to Pensacola, right on the border. Campaigned for him. Tweeted for him. Did robo calls for him. And Roy Moore lost.

So, is the president's influence, I guess the clout that he has, has it been reduced because he's failed now in Alabama?

APRIL RYAN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Gloria said something very poignant, weakened. Yes, you said something poignant. No, weakened. The president was weakened last night.

For intents and purposes, he should not have lost the state of Alabama last night and he did with Roy Moore.

And you see it in his tweet this morning. Where he said, well, you know, I told you before I didn't think Roy Moore would've been the one to win a primary. So, he's trying to double back.

But now what he has to do is bring this splinter party together. Because there are a lot of Republicans now who are coming against the president's actions against Roy Moore, against this -- whatever this was with Roy Moore over the last couple of months.

[13:10:00] They're trying to come back. I mean, you've got people like the Jack Kemp conservatives who are very upset with the Roy Moore. You've got compassionate conservatives who are upset with Roy Moore.

But you have other people who, kind of, listen to the bass pieces, the pillars of the party. But it's not necessarily all about the pillars but also broadening that umbrella and including people versus shutting people out.

BLITZER: All right, everybody stand by.

We -- I want to go -- we're going to speak with a key Republican senator momentarily. But Jim Acosta is at the White House.

Jim, I understand you have some details on this conference committee tax bill that, apparently, has been worked up by the House and Senate conferees?

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, I think these details are just coming out as we speak. And from what we understand from our folks up on Capitol Hill, this is pretty close to what we've been hearing all along. Those details should be coming out later on this afternoon when the president speaks here at the White House. He's going to be giving some details about this tax reform deal.

You heard, just a few moments ago when the president was talking there, that he is feeling pretty good about this.

But make no mistake, just to underline what you were just saying a few moments ago with April and Gloria and Dana. This is a president who is licking his wounds this morning.

He was, as April was just saying a few moments ago, trying to engage in some revisionist history on Twitter, saying, well, he warned everybody that Roy Moore would not be able to win and that's why he backed Luther Strange.

Wolf, we were out there on the south lawn of the White House when President Trump was asked about Roy Moore and these accusations that he was a child molester down in Alabama. And the president said that he believed Roy Moore's denials.

And so, the president is trying to have it both ways here. I talked to a very key Republican source, who is close to this White House, last night, who said that this was an earthquake, what happened down in Alabama. That this was devastating for the president. And that he has, essentially, egg on his face, because he listened to Steve Bannon.

The president and Steve Bannon have been speaking frequently over the last several days about this race down in Alabama. And what I'm told by a source close to the White House is that Bannon was encouraging the president to stay with Roy Moore. And the president did that at his peril.

And now, he is going into 2018, going to the midterm season severely weakened with just about everybody in Washington knowing that he lost last night just like Roy Moore did -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Yes. And it's interesting on the taxes. The president just said that if the final corporate tax rate is 21 percent, in the Senate and the House it was 20 percent, going down from 35 percent, he's fine with it. Even though, originally, he wanted it to go all the way down to 15 percent. But now, he says he'd be thrilled if it's 21 percent in the final language.

We're going to get a lot more details. Stand by.

I want to go to Capitol Hill right now. Republican Senator Mike Rounds of South Dakota is joining us. Senator, thanks very much for joining us.

SEN. MIKE ROUNDS (R), SOUTH DAKOTA: Yes, sir. Appreciate the opportunity to visit. BLITZER: All right, the president says that some Republicans are

happy with the loss in Alabama. What's your reaction to the result last night that we all saw in Alabama?

ROUNDS: Well, I think a lot of us were afraid that we would lose it. But we also knew that regardless of the outcome, it would be challenging for us.

None of us were relishing having Mr. Moore up here. Most of us had suggested that he withdraw from the race. So, we knew we would have a problem either way.

Naturally, without having a Republican coming from Alabama, it means our margin in the Senate is slimming now than what it was. We're down to 51.

But we're going to have to deal with it. And we're going to have to move forward in getting our tax bill done with Luther still here. He's been a great member of the Senate. He'll work with us and, hopefully, we'll be able to get this tax package through as a Christmas gift to the American people.

BLITZER: Yes, Luther Strange, he's the sitting senator right now. He replaced Jeff Sessions. But he will be out once Doug Jones is sworn in.

A lot of your fellow Republicans are really criticizing Steve Bannon, the president's former strategic adviser. Bannon was very much out in front in Alabama. And, by a lot of accounts, he was pushing the president to go out there, fully endorse Roy Moore. And establishing -- attacking establishment Republicans in the process.

Do you believe, Senator, that Steve Bannon should still have the president's ear and should be a major player among Republicans?

ROUNDS: Well, I'm not sure how much of a major player he was to begin with. He does have a faction and we don't want to lose the different organizations that make up our majority in the different states.

But, once again, I think what this really said down in Alabama, and everybody else should learn from it, is that candidate recruitment is critical and candidate selection in the primary is absolutely critical, because you've got to elect someone in a primary that can win in a general election.

And all the different factions have got to be taking a look at whether or not the candidates that they're backing can actually get elected in a general and be a part of a Republican team up here, to get 80 percent of what most of us agree on completed.

[13:15:00] BLITZER: You know, Steve Bannon has publicly said that among the Republicans up for reelection next year in the Senate, the only one he supports is Ted Cruz of Texas. He wants all the others to go. Very much in contrast to your leader, Mitch McConnell, who says exactly what you just said, you've got to have candidates who can win a general election, not just win a Republican primary. On this specific issue, senator, you're with Mitch McConnell, right?

SEN. MIKE ROUNDS (R), SOUTH DAKOTA: I am. And I think our leader has been very clear that, look, we're together on 80 percent of all the votes we do as Republicans. We're going to have our differing points of view, but even that can be healthy. We make bills better by having independent thought. We've got folks from all across the gambit. We share information with one another. We try to do things in such a fashion that we can get a majority vote on the floor of the Senate. And Leader McConnell understands that.

It's a tough job to play that he has in front of us and he -- it doesn't make him real popular with a lot of the people out there that want to see a purer approach to everything. And, look, for a lot of the stuff that we do, it's a matter of compromise. But the compromises that we're making with Republicans in control is still better than -- for the folks that believe like we do in conservative causes, it's better than what it would be if we don't have the majority here.

We get to set the agenda. We get to try to make things better. We get to look at regulatory reform and tax reform. This would not be happening if the Dems were in leadership roles in the House and the Senate.

BLITZER: We'll see what happens in the coming days on this tax bill.

Senator Rounds, thanks so much for joining us.

ROUNDS: Thank you. Appreciate the opportunity.

BLITZER: All right, thank you. Mike Rounds of South Dakota.

You know, Gloria, the assumption is the tax bill, the compromise that's worked out between the House and the Senate conferees will pass, but it's not a done deal yet.

BORGER: No, it's not a done deal. And we just got an e-mail from Manu Raju on The Hill saying that Corker, Senator Corker, told him that, I have all the same concerns that I have had. He didn't say whether he would vote against it, but he didn't say he was for it, either.

BLITZER: And Susan Collins has expressed some reservations about various aspects of this new version as well.

BASH: Yes, absolutely. And you're right about Senator Corker. The first time around they kind of went ahead without him. They could afford to lose that one vote. But not anymore. And Susan Collins, as I mentioned earlier, is always a key player, but especially now. I was told by one of her aides last night that as long as the promises that the president made to her before she voted for the original Senate bill remain in there, particularly dealing with health care and kind of offsetting the fact that the bill -- at least the original bill -- repealed the individual mandate of Obamacare and there are a few other things that she demanded and got, as long as those are in there, that she'd be OK.

I actually witnessed Mike Pence huddling with Susan Collins yesterday outside the Republican lunch for a little while. So it's hard to imagine that they finalized this without knowing that Susan Collins had read it and was OK with it.

BLITZER: One good thing about --

BASH: And if they didn't, then they're -- they really are in big trouble.

BLITZER: One good thing about covering Capitol Hill, you have access. You can see what's going on as they walk around the halls up there.

BASH: The best seat in town.

BLITZER: You know, April, it's very interesting. Earlier in the week, Dina Powell, the president's deputy national security adviser, announced she would be leaving the White House in the coming weeks. Now we're getting word that another aide, Omarosa Manigault Newman is going to be leaving. You've been doing some serious reporting on this, Omarosa. Why is she leaving all of a sudden after her one year in the White House?

RYAN: Well, it's not a year yet. You've got to -- it's not a year yet.

There's a lot of information that's continuing to come out. She's leaving because General Kelly was tired of it. He was tired of all the drama, from the fact that Omarosa Manigault, Minister Omarosa Manigault Newman is a mood changer for the president. She can get in his ear in some kind of way. He can be happy and then all of a sudden she points something out and he -- his whole mood would change and he would lash out.

Also there were concerns about her wedding, how she brought the guests into the White House when she wasn't supposed to. Then there were issues with the fact that she doesn't get along -- and these are some of the things that I'm told that General Kelly articulated to her last evening, the fact that she doesn't get along with the head -- the new head of the HBCU Initiative, which she's in charge -- well, she works with.

And then being Omarosa, you know, not knowing what she's doing, and he's had enough. And I understand last night that -- and according to TMZ now, TMZ talked to a source close, very close to Omarosa, who said there was indeed tension, so that Omarosa is acknowledging that there is -- there was tension.

BASH: (INAUDIBLE) detention?

RYAN: Tension -- there was tension. I'm sorry.

BASH: Oh, tension. Oh, OK.

RYAN: No, no, not detention. No, no, no, no. OK. No, we're not talking Gitmo.

[13:20:01] No, there was some sort of tension last evening. And what I'm hearing from many sources is that General Kelly confronted her. She was very vulgar, very -- she was cursing, very animated. He -- they worked out a negotiation for her to leave January 20th. But for some strange reason that didn't sit well with her. Also within that situation, her assistant was fired.

So then, after that, that calmed down, but she -- and, oh, she also said, what I'm told, she asked General Kelly, well, does the president know, and General Kelly said, yes, the president signed off. She said I wanted to call general -- the president, and General Kelly said, this is not going to the principal's office. It's done.

So once that piece stopped, a little later on, she tried to go see the president. She tried to go into the residence.

BASH: Oh, my goodness.

RYAN: And, mind you, General Kelly has cut off her access -- walk-in access to go into the Oval Office and things of that nature. Security alerted General Kelly. He came back down, told Secret Service to take her out of there.

BLITZER: Why?

RYAN: She was escorted off the property.

BASH: Because she tried to get into the White House residence?

RYAN: Yes.

BASH: Wow.

RYAN: To see the president.

BLITZER: Is she going to be allows back on White House property or is it over for her?

RYAN: I don't -- I -- if Secret Service escorts you off the property, I can't see her filling out her remainder than what -- to January 20th. But it was very ugly. It was hide drama last evening from what I'm hearing, and it's still coming in.

BORGER: Like there wasn't anything else going on last night.

RYAN: I mean --

BLITZER: I thought the drama was Alabama, but, yes, over in the West Wing.

RYAN: Yes, I know.

(CROSS TALK)

RYAN: And, you know, and the sad piece about this, and we all work in Washington. We've worked for years. And we have all covered the White House together. That is not a place for things like that. And we've never seen anything like that. There's decorum and an understanding that the highest levels of power is about working for the people. And many people within the White House, to include Reince Priebus from -- at the beginning of the administration, the administration's still in the beginning stages, you know, they wondered what she was doing for her $180,000 a year salary. No one really knew. She was a free agent. So General Kelly had had enough and he had finally gotten the president to sign off. And last night it did not end well.

BLITZER: She was a contestant on "The Apprentice," President Trump's former TV program. So they have a history. They go way back to that.

RYAN: And she was fired again.

BORGER: Twice, yes.

BLITZER: Yes. All right. I don't know if he said "you're fired."

BASH: This time for real.

BLITZER: This time he didn't say --

RYAN: He didn't say you're fired, but General Kelly said, you're fired.

BLITZER: All right. Everybody stand by. There's more news we're following.

I'm going to also speak live with Democratic Senator Cory Booker on the Alabama upset and his calls for the president to resign over harassment and assault allegations.

Plus, breaking news up on Capitol Hill. The deputy attorney general testifying on the integrity of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation, after we see anti-Trump tweets from one of his FBI agents. You're going to hear that, see more.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:27:14] BLITZER: The nation's number two official over at the Justice Department gets grilled about the Russia investigation and Republican claims of political bias. The deputy attorney general, Rod Rosenstein, is testifying before the House Judiciary Committee. Earlier during the hearing, a Republican lawmakers raised questions about political contributions to Democrats by member of the Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. STEVE CHABOT (R), OHIO: How, with a straight face, can you say that this group of Democrat partisans are unbiased and will give President Trump a fair shake?

ROD ROSENSTEIN, DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL: And I've discussed this with Director Mueller and he and I collectively have a lot of experience managing offices in the Department of Justice. We recognize we have employees with political opinions and it's our responsibility to make sure those opinions do not influence their actions. And so I believe that Director Mueller understands that and that he is running that office appropriately.

CHABOT: I would submit that a Mueller team overwhelmingly ought to be attired with Democratic donkeys on their jerseys, or I'm with Hillary t-shirts, certainly not with let's make American great again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Joining us now, Democratic Congressman Eric Swalwell of California. He's a member of the Judiciary Committee that was questioning Rosenstein.

Congressman, thanks so much for joining us.

REP. ERIC SWALWELL (D), CALIFORNIA: Good afternoon, Wolf. Of course.

BLITZER: So what's your reaction, your takeaway, from the Republican arguments that the whole Robert Mueller investigation may be tainted because of a bias in favor of the Democrats?

SWALWELL: I don't buy it. And Bob Mueller's own actions show that there was a perceived bias by a member on his team and he moved quickly to remove that member. That's exactly what you would want him to do in this situation. If that member were still on the team, I would understand their concerns. But I can only, you know, attribute their concerns to an effort to really undermine the investigation and also signal to the White House that the president would be given a free pass on obstruction of justice if he were to fire Mueller, which is very alarming and concerning to hear that.

BLITZER: Because they released the texts of various -- of texts that were sent among former FBI officials involved in the investigation of Hillary Clinton, for example. Let me real a couple of those. Here's one exchange between Peter Strzok and another FBI agent, Lisa Page.

She says, quote, God, Trump is loathsome human. He says, yet he may win. Good for Hillary.

She responds, it is. He asks, would he be a worse president than Cruz? She replies Trump, yes, I think so. He says, I'm not sure. Oh my God, he's an idiot. She replies, he's awful.

Does this lend credence to Republican claims of bias in the Russia investigation? Does it lend that kind of credence?

[13:30:03] SWALWELL: Well, he was removed for that perceived bias. And so I think that was the appropriate action.

You know, you can't do that on a work phone.