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Netanyahu and Other Countries Will Follow Trump's Decision on Jerusalem; Hispanic Caucus Members Confront Chuck Schumer Over DACA; Spielberg's New Film Spotlights Battle Government Attacks on Media; Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired December 22, 2017 - 10:30   ET

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


[10:30:00] REP. RAJA KRISHNAMOORTHI (D), OVERSIGHT AND GOVERNMENT REFORM COMMITTEE: So let's get back to town, let's work on this in a bipartisan way, and the season of, you know, recognizing the humanity in our fellow men and women I think it's only appropriate that we recognize the humanity in our Dreamers and do something about it and make sure that they have a pathway to permanent residency here.

HARLOW: The president is tweeting this morning about bipartisanship and working with Democrats. We'll all watch what you do when you get back from break.

Have a really nice holiday, Congressman.

KRISHNAMOORTHI: Thank you.

HARLOW: Thank you.

KRISHNAMOORTHI: Thank you. You too. Thank you so much.

HARLOW: So U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, is following through on her threat to take names of those countries who voted against the U.S. on this Jerusalem-Israel resolution. A potential fallout and a look at what that could be ahead.

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[10:35:14]

HARLOW: The Trump administration sending a very clear message after the overwhelming vote against the United States as the United Nations' Ambassador Nikki Haley following through on the threats to take names sending invitations to what they're calling a friendship only to countries that did not support this resolution that condemn President Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sat down exclusively with our Oren Liebermann following this vote. Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: We're now talking to several countries who are seriously considering now saying exactly the same thing as the United States and moving their embassies to Jerusalem.

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Which countries or from what continents?

NETANYAHU: I can tell you that, but I won't because I want it to succeed and I think there's a good chance it will.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: CNN military and diplomatic analyst John Kirby joins me now.

Nice to have you. Let's just start on that. I mean, it strikes me, of course, Oren, a good reporter, asked Netanyahu, well, what other countries are you talking about that would make this sort of unprecedented move that the United States did make, seeing how alone it really stood in the General Assembly of the United Nations yesterday, Netanyahu said, I want it to work so I can't tell you? Do you, do you buy there are other countries that will follow the U.S. lead on this?

REAR ADM. JOHN KIRBY, CNN MILITARY AND DIPLOMATIC ANALYST: Yes, actually I do. I think I would be guessing but I'm guessing that some of those nations are the same nations that voted against this.

HARLOW: Right.

KIRBY: Like, you know --

HARLOW: Let's show them. We'll show them up here. It's Guatemala, Honduras, Marshal Islands, et cetera.

KIRBY: Yes. I think some of those will probably be the ones. But look, I mean, this is kind of beside the point and I'm sure it makes the prime minister very happy that several, several other countries are going to match the United States in this regard, but answer me this, Poppy, how does that get us closer to a two-state solution, to solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?

HARLOW: Right.

KIRBY: It doesn't. It only pushes it further away. Everybody understands the sacred nature of the city of Jerusalem and how important it is to all three monotheistic faiths, and that is why in these several U.N. resolutions that were reaffirmed yesterday, it's always been figured that the final status of Jerusalem would be the outcome of negotiations between the two sides, not predetermined beforehand.

So by doing this, the United States and whatever countries may follow our lead, are only pushing that two-state solution further down the road, if at all.

HARLOW: My colleague, Jake Tapper, dove into something so important and not covered enough in affect of this last night on his show and he makes the point, Admiral, that, you know, some of the countries that spoke out against the United States on this one, you know, got up to the lectern and made these remarks about how the U.S. is wrong and human rights, et cetera, are countries like Venezuela and Yemen and Syria and North Korea. Countries with horrible human rights records lecturing the United States on this.

KIRBY: Right. Yes. I saw that and I think that was great that Jake did that. I think it's a reminder, Poppy -- it's a reminder of a lot of things. One of the things is that how isolated we are now making ourselves, how we are pulling ourselves out of a leadership role, out of being an exemplar, which we have been, not just in the U.N. or in NATO or other multilateral organizations, but around the world.

Now we're getting lectured on human rights and we're getting lectured on jealous sovereignty by nations that are the poster child -- poster children for that kind of behavior. It's sad. It's very sad to see our leadership being diminished this way.

HARLOW: John Brennan, former CIA director, took to Twitter in response to this, not mincing words. Here's part of what he writes. He writes that, "This move by the president shows that the president expects blind loyalty and subservience from everyone. Qualities usually found in narcissistic, vengeful autocrats."

He's talking about the fact that the U.S. has threatened to pull funding from major, major allies of ours because they voted against us on this. You know, big allies in the region, like Egypt, like Jordan, et cetera. Is he right?

KIRBY: Yes. Well, I mean, I think I certainly understand the emotion that -- with which he wrote that tweet. I think the two things I'd point out, one in the first round where he talks about sovereignty. And we hit on this just a few minutes ago, you know, Haley was very boastful about our sovereignty and respecting our sovereignty, and yet she was in a very hypocritical way not willing to recognize that every other member of the U.N. is a sovereign state that can express their will, too.

HARLOW: Right.

KIRBY: Number two, on the foreign aid and assistance, remember, aid and assistance is not a charity. It's not something we do, you know, just because we're nice people, although there is altruism about it. It's in our national interests to provide aid and assistance to countries overseas so that they can solve their problems and that those problems don't come here to roost here in the United States.

It is very much about homeland security. And so he's cutting off -- Trump is cutting off his nose to spite his face by threatening to cut off aid and assistance. We're only going to be damaging our own security as a result of that, not to mention our reputation.

[10:40:04] HARLOW: We'll see if that happens. Right now it's just not getting invited to the friendship party. We'll see if they actually cut the -- cut the aid.

KIRBY: Yes, and if you look at that invite, well, it's just a reminder that most of the nations on that invite list didn't vote at all. So it's a strange --

HARLOW: They abstained. Exactly. Exactly.

KIRBY: Yes. It's a strange way of saying they're our friends.

HARLOW: Admiral Kirby, have a great holiday. Thank you.

KIRBY: You too. Thanks, Poppy.

HARLOW: In moments President Trump will sign the tax bill before he heads to Florida for Christmas. We're on it all. You'll see him sign it. What does he say? Ahead.

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HARLOW: In just a few minutes, President Trump says he will sign the tax bill and despite the fact that both the House and the Senate did pass a stopgap spending bill to keep the government open, the president will sign that as well, there wasn't any action on DACA or protecting the so-called Dreamers from deportation, a promise from so many Democrats.

[10:45:10] Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer getting an earful about that.

Suzanne Malveaux is on Capitol Hill with more. So what happened here?

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Poppy, there's a profound sense of disappointment from those who are really pushing and advocating for the Dreamers here. What happened is this was high drama yesterday, was essentially we're seeing the continuing resolution, this funding effort for the government moving full steam ahead and there were advocates that decided they really wanted to stop this.

On the House side they had the vote, there were some Democrats who did vote along the party lines, voted for that continuing resolution, well, members of the Hispanic Congressional Caucus, about 17 members, they saw that they marched from the house floor across the Hill to the Senate side, to the office of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer wanted to meet with him and emphasize the importance of Democrats sticking together, saying no, we're not going to move forward with this spending effort, this spending bill, we are going to put our foot down and say that we want immigrants, we want DACA to be attached to this.

They knew they were not going to get those numbers, but they wanted higher numbers, not 48 -- all 48 Democrats, but at least a good showing. We are told by reporting that, yes, that the chairwoman came out of that meeting that lasted about an hour, saying he is going to try to convince some of those Democrats not to vote for this. Ultimately they did not get what they wanted. They got a commitment, they say, from Schumer saying that it would be top of the list in January 19th when that continuing resolution expires.

"The Washington Post" said it got even heated during that conversation, it was not private. This is when Representative Luis Gutierrez accused Schumer of throwing the Dreamers under the bus and Schumer raised his voice that there was some back and forth there. Well now cooler heads are prevailing, at least both sides trying to come out and present a united front.

You have Schumer today releasing a statement saying, I understand the anxiety of the Hispanic Caucus and share their anguish on the issue, that he'd try to do everything he can. And then Gutierrez putting out this tweet saying, "This fight continues in January. I think that Democrats are on the same page now."

But, Poppy, as you can imagine a lot of frustration, a lot of emotion, and incredible disappointment, a real rift in this caucus, the Democratic Party as well to see what they can do for those Dreamers, Poppy.

HARLOW: And Representative Gutierrez will join my colleague and friend Brooke Baldwin this afternoon 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. Eastern so wait to hear from him there.

Suzanne, have a great holiday. Thank you.

In moments President Trump will sign this historic tax bill before he heads to Florida for Christmas. You'll see it here. Stay with us.

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[10:52:11]

HARLOW: Live pictures of the White House where the president at any moment will sign that historic tax reform bill passed by Congress this week. We'll keep you posted and show it to you when it happens.

Meantime, legendary director Steven Spielberg's new movie "The Post" comes out tonight. In it, Spielberg spotlights the newsroom of "The Washington Post" back in the '70s during the investigation into the Nixon White House.

Our entertainment reporter Chloe Melas sat down with the director, Steven Spielberg, to talk about a lot including how this film parallels our current political climate.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEVEN SPIELBERG, DIRECTOR, "THE POST": This film has tremendous relevancy now. There are, it's so many things happening with the attacks on, you know, the free press and and the news being basically labeled fake, you know, so often and where there is some kind of a disagreement, you know, everything the news said is dismissed simply with a stamp that just says fake. And and it was just kind of startling that this started to happen with the Nixon administration.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Joining me now is Chloe Melas. Fascinating you sat down with Spielberg. You talked about a lot. But

first on the film, you know, they started making this thing before Trump was president but very relevant now.

CHLOE MELAS, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: You know, Steven Spielberg told me that as soon as he saw the script for "The Post," Poppy, he knew that if he couldn't make it this year because of the parallels between the Nixon administration's conflicts with the press and the current Trump administration with all of the issues with fake news and issues with press outlets, that he felt like the relevancy was more prominent than ever.

But he also wants to make sure that people realize that this movie is not meant to be a partisan film, that this is supposed to be about patriotism, bringing everyone together. If we can all agree on one thing, is that we want the truth to be out there and that that was his common goal of doing this movie. And he also said, which I love, he called investigative journalists his heroes.

HARLOW: Look at that. For a lot of folks Steven Spielberg is their hero.

Let me ask you about this, you also talked to him about the issue, you've not only been covering so much but breaking so much news on, and that is sexual harassment in the entertainment industry following, you know, Harvey Weinstein, for example. What did he say?

MELAS: Yes, I mean, Poppy, I was able to segue into talking about the #metoo movement, because this film also not only stars Tom Hanks but Meryl Streep playing Katharine Graham, the publisher of "The Washington Post," the first female CEO of a Fortune 500 company not that long ago, just the early '70s, and I asked him, do you feel like a lot has changed and, you know, did you feel like you knew a lot about the harassment allegations that were -- that are so rampant and he had something really interesting to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SPIELBERG: I -- you know, was I surprised? I wasn't. I was shocked but I wasn't surprised because if you have peripheral vision you're going to sense these things out of the corner of your eye.

[10:55:08]

SPIELBERG: You can't not know that this has been going on rampantly for -- I can't even tell you how many decades, but this is something that is being dealt with today and the courage of these women that are coming forward, I've never seen anything like it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MELAS: Now he said that despite the glass ceiling that Katharine Graham was able to shatter that women -- we still have such a long way to go in how we're perceived and he said that he has never seen change happen so quickly than in the past six to eight weeks.

HARLOW: Wow.

MELAS: And I just want to tell you, he said that this is a national referendum on morality.

HARLOW: Wow.

MELAS: I loved that.

HARLOW: And they were -- you know, the #metoo movement, the "TIME" Person of the Year reflecting that.

MELAS: He said it's a national reckoning.

HARLOW: Chloe, thank you very much. Great reporting.

MELAS: Thank you.

HARLOW: Great sit down as always.

So the president any moment will sign the tax bill at the White House then he heads to Mar-a-Lago for the holiday. You'll see it all live right here. Stay with us.

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