Return to Transcripts main page

CNN NEWSROOM

. Harley Davidson Shifts Some Production for European Customers out of the U.S. to Avoid Tariffs; Trump Baby Blimp Flies High. Aired 12-1a ET

Aired June 26, 2018 - 00:00   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:00:11]

JOHN VAUSE, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: You're watching CNN NEWSROOM live from Los Angeles. Ahead this hour, Donald Trump doubles down on his threat to end due process for undocumented immigrants despite the U.S. Constitution.

Hitting the road an iconic American brand responds to European tariffs by moving some of its productions out of the United States.

Later, the protest planned for Donald Trump's trip to London which may be hard for the U.S. president to ignore.

Hello, everybody. Thank you for joining us. I'm John Vause. This is NEWSROOM L.A.

After weeks of protests, negative headlines and rebuke from Republicans in Congress, Donald Trump insists the national uproar over immigration is good politics. The president spoke Monday night at a campaign rally in South Carolina telling supporters the detention facilities for undocumented immigrants are better now than they were under his predecessor, Barack Obama. Once again, he accused Democrats of wanting open borders and crime.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: The Democrats want to protect illegals coming into this country, some of whom are not good. Some of whom cause lots of problems in the worst possible way. They want to protect illegals coming into the country much more so than they want to protect you, and that's not where we're coming from. OK.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Juliette Kayyem is a former assistant secretary at the Department of Homeland Security, CNN national security analyst and she joins us from West Newtown in Massachusetts.

Juliette, OK, we'll get to the politics of what Donald Trump was saying a little later. But I want to talk about the system, which now appears to be in place to try and reunite these families, which are being separated under this Trump/Sessions policy.

The guide lines came out over the weekend and what they say is that they are (inaudible) to ensure that those adults subject to removal are reunited with their children for the purposes of removal.

So, in other words, if a parent is fighting deportation, maybe claiming asylum, the quickest and easiest way to get their kids back is basically to give up their legal action and agree to be deported.

JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: That's exactly right and that is exactly what the administration is doing. In other words, even though these people may have a lawful claim to seek some sort of status within the United States, asylum seekers being the most obvious, they will not be able to see their children unless they wave that legal claim.

There's a lot of names for this, possibly hostage taking, but that is what the administration is doing. What it's also doing is slow rolling the reunification of these 2,000 plus kids that still are not with their parents and in many cases, it seems have not even been able to communicate with them.

That is sort of shocking at this stage. The executive order that President Trump signed is almost six days old now. It should not be taking this long to unify these kids. And I think that's just a sign of the White House's both inability to actually sort of, you know, effectuate policy, but also its unwillingness to focus on this tragedy of epic proportions. These kids should have been unified by now.

VAUSE: Just talking about process here because if a parent pushes on with their legal case to try and stay in the United States that can take years. Even if they win, they are the ones who have to track down their child and apply to be that child's sponsor, which is another lengthy legal process.

KAYYEM: It would be, and I wish we had precedent for it. I mean, no other administration has attempted to do that, take the child away from the adults or the parents seeking lawful status during the course of whether that parent would get lawful status. No one went down this path again.

There have been instances in previous administrations in which a child was taken away, but that was instances where the child may have been at risk, the parent was a drug dealer, abuser, or something like that you're talking about five or ten over the course of one administration, this was policy.

So, there's actually no -- I can't give you a definitive answer. You know, there will be court cases to determine what happens to the kids during these legal processes, but I suspect that most parents will take -- will leave because they -- they want to see their child, it would be the most natural thing to do.

VAUSE: OK, and right now, according to the CNN's reporting, it's still unclear who actually takes responsibility, which department, for linking parents with children. We're reporting policies putting it on parents to track down their children using Health and Human Services hotline.

Here's how a public defender from Texas detailed the process for some of his investigators using their hotline number of Health and Human Services. Their inquiries are met with vague statements that the child is in the United States.

[00:05:10] The Office for Refugee Resettlement, which is part of HHS, demands to speak directly to the parent or child, we explain the parent is in federal custody at local detention facilities to no avail.

We ask the local jails to facilitate the calls with the Office of Refugee Resettlement. It took more than one hour for one call to be setup, so the jail stopped doing it. It just seemed so incredibly complex and it's being made just so incredibly difficult for these parents to get ahold of their kids.

KAYYEM: And it's not that difficult. This is the thing that it's so outrageous for those of us who have been in Homeland Security, family unification is what we do. I mean, but most of the time the crisis in earthquake or tsunami.

But even assuming that this was not a crisis of the Trump's administration's own making. This is a situation that could have been easily solved. Look, you have a pool of kids and parents, we have a certain number.

They're only in a couple of locations. We have a working infrastructure in America. We have computers, translators and pictures. There's no reason it should be taking this long, except there was no plane and there is no plan.

And that continues to be the tragedy that the Trump administration just exacerbates and so you have, as you have these lawyers and volunteers trying to put the pieces together where if the White House took ownership of it, I promise you we'd be done by now.

I have seen -- family unification is relatively easy if you have all the -- all the -- if you have a focus to do it because everyone wants it to happen. I think the White House doesn't want it to happen. They want these people gone and they're using their kids as sort of collateral.

VAUSE: We know that there's a plan to house more undocumented immigrants. James Mattis said preparations are under way for the military to house undocumented immigrants perhaps as much as 20,000 unaccompanied children. Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAMES MATTIS, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: They have come to us asking us to build temporary camps on two of our bases. That is what we've been asked to do. The details are being worked out between our staff to get how much capacity they need at the two bases?

(END VIDEO CLIP) VAUSE: So, add to that 20,000 or so reporting we have from "Time" about the U.S. Navy drawing up plans as well, "The Navy memo outlines to build temporary and (inaudible) tent cities to house 25,000 migrants at abandoned airfields.

The memo also proposes a camp for as many as 47,000 people at former naval weapons stations near San Francisco. Another facility that could house 47,000 people at former Naval Weapons Station Concord near San Francisco, another facility that could house as many as 47,000 people at Camp Pendleton, the Marine's largest training facility located along the Southern California coast."

I mean, if you do the numbers here that's temporary accommodation just by the military for about 140,000 people.

KAYYEM: Yes. I mean, it's -- and I don't think they're going to get to those numbers. I think this was a typical sort of White House response. They have a problem, they turn to the military. The truth is that the White House lost big time in the last week.

It first had to, you know, stop the tearing apart of these families but as recently as today, Customs and Border Protection did announce that it would no longer seek prosecution of these unlawful migrants at 100 percent.

In other words, they are realizing that the detention of this many people is not feasible. It means that you actually can't do the things that one ought to do which is go after the drug dealers and smugglers and child abusers.

So, this was something that was not thought through, it was announced, and I would be very surprised if the military had to accommodate that many people because the truth is there wasn't a border crisis before this. We know this.

Over the last two decades the numbers had been going down. The Trump administration created the crisis, but I think the courts and of course, politics step in to make them stop doing it.

VAUSE: One Democrat lawmaker said I haven't seen like this, these sort of numbers since World War II and the Japanese interment. Juliette, good to see you. Thank you so much.

KAYYEM: Thank you.

VAUSE: Well, joining me now for more on this former Los Angeles City councilwoman, Wendy Gruel, and CNN political commentator and Republican strategist, John Thomas.

OK, we heard from the president just a short time ago, he said that rally, campaign-style rally, hitting a few familiar themes, which resonate with his base. You know, the accusation here is conflating all undocumented immigrants as criminals and gang members.

So, here are some facts. Customs and Border Protection, of course, a million apprehensions are made on average by Border Patrol agents between 1980 and 2016. Obviously, it changes, last year, it was around 300,000.

But also last year, 2017, there was written testimony from the U.S. Border Patrol acting chief. (Inaudible) from 2012 to 2017, 5,000 people were arrested with confirmed or suspected gang affiliation. That included 159 unaccompanied minors, 56 of those either confirmed or suspected members of the gang MS-13.

[00:10:10] So, John, you know, many have said that this is the president demonizing an entire group of people by conflating essentially undocumented immigrants with dangerous, you know, wall- breaking criminals. Someone seeking asylum, for example, is not a criminal. That's why their case is not heard in a criminal court. It's heard in a civil court.

JOHN THOMAS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, if they come seek asylum through a port of entry, if they illegally across the border that is a crime --

VAUSE: It's a misdemeanor.

THOMAS: If they done it repeatedly, it becomes a felony. The challenge here is we are feeling sorry for these illegal immigrants, but a lot of these coyote smugglers are thugs and criminals. So much so that the parents when they send unaccompanied minors have to give their daughters birth control because they know their kids are going to be raped on the way there.

And we should encourage that kind of activity? The fact is Donald Trump is enforcing the law and the government is not prepared to enforce the law because past administrations had been OK with illegal immigration and now the Trump administration is saying how do we prepare for these detention centers. We don't have these in place.

And instead of just doing the past policies of catch and release, it's more complicated than that.

VAUSE: It is complicated. Wendy?

WENDY GREUEL, FORMER LOS ANGELES CITY COUNCILWOMAN: Well, and I think that his policy which he keeps saying wasn't his policy, Congress has to act, I can't don executive order. And, in fact, changes his mind several times. The fact is that this administration had a policy of taking kids away from their parents at that time.

I think that as you mentioned it's more important to really be looking at those that may come in that you need to see if they are a gang member or some kind of affiliation. But generally, people are coming here because they are terrorized in their own country.

Parents are risking their lives to get here, a place which is supposed to be somewhere where they can seek asylum and have that consideration. Instead the door is closed, saying we don't care if you can get killed in your own country.

VAUSE: The policy of past administrations had been dealing with the problems in those countries, so people stay in those countries. And this is something the Trump administration has shied away from. Wouldn't it be better that the people didn't come at all, that the problems were solved in South America?

THOMAS: Well, that's assuming that the reason they are asylum is actually because they are looking for asylum or if they are looking for better economic opportunities. I don't know how we're going to fix the economy of Honduras to the degree --

VAUSE: Not through tariffs.

THOMAS: Right. But Trump's whole agenda and partially why he got election was he's going to put Americans first, not other countries, but Americans first and that's why he's trying to sort out.

VAUSE: OK. Well, the president had a busy weekend on the Twitter machine. Here's one which sparked a lot of controversy, "We cannot allow all these people to invade our country when somebody comes in we must immediately with no judges or court cases bring them back from where they came.

Our system is a mockery to good immigration policy and law and order." It goes on and on. We get to the question of due process in a minute. But John, again, the language the president chooses to use, invasion in this case or infestation, equating immigrants with vermin.

You know, I don't always state it, but this is the kind of language, which is often being used before there was some kind of, you know, ethnic or religious group being persecuted en masse, you know, in past societies.

GREUEL: I mean, if we want to quibble over where they're illegally crossing, invading, sneaking.

VAUSE: They're more than illegally crossing.

GREUEL: They're illegally crossing. I mean, we can --

VAUSE: But invasion implies it's organized, it's some kind of deliberate act --

THOMAS: Well, they do they march up en masse from Honduras.

VAUSE: Wendy?

GREUEL: Well, I think his language is insightful. I think that his language is demeaning an individual's right to seek asylum and I think his language is also encouraging people here in the United States.

We've seen, you know, instance after instance where people have gone after legal residents who happen to be Latino and accusing them of all kinds of crimes --

THOMAS: There's a very pot v kettle situation considering what Maxine Waters said today.

VAUSE: We'll get to that in a moment. Donald Trump is selling the politics of fear, resentment or both. It's working because the Gallup poll with his approval numbers. They are still pretty high overall, around 41 percent, which is down slightly. But among Republicans 87 percent, that's incredibly high. So, John, to your point, Republicans like this stuff.

THOMAS: Yes, I mean, it is smart politics. Look, he got elected when he came down that escalator in the primary saying he's going to build the wall. He got elected being tough on immigration. So, of course, it's no surprise the Republican Party likes it, but it's not just Republicans.

The latest CBS poll showed that over 50 percent of Americans want a wall. They want to secure the border because no one likes kids being detained. If you had a wall perhaps you can stop them from coming over and having this situation in the first place.

[00:15:09] VAUSE: Well, you know, despite the wall that Mexico is never going to pay for --

GREUEL: Not going to happen in our lifetime.

VAUSE: The solution, according to the president is basically ending due process, which is denying a hearing before a judge. Here's how the press secretary, Sarah sanders defended that idea on Monday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Virtually all Americans agree that it makes no sense that an illegal alien sets one foot on American soil and they would go through a three to five-year judicial process to be removed from the country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: So, Wendy, I guess, most people would agree with that in essence, five years obviously is too long, but that indicates a need for judges and the need to try and improve the court system.

GREUEL: This has been the values of our American system for a very long time. To throw it out the window just because you want to win an election or say I'm tough on immigration, what's next? I think that's the concern that so many of us have.

If he is going to violate these kinds of rights, what happens for the rest -- if he doesn't agree with you, you're not going to have the same rights over due process. So, I think Americans I don't think all agree you should not have due process.

VAUSE: Yes. OK. Well, there is a familiar strategy from the president which essentially escape one controversy by starting another. Run away from one fire by lighting another. Do you want to know what the controversy is? Here it is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SANDERS: I was asked to leave because I work for President Trump. Healthy debate on ideas and political philosophy is important, but the calls for harassment and push for any Trump supporter to avoid the public is unacceptable.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: So, Sarah Sanders, back story, she was at a restaurant over the weekend, the owner asked her to leave. But John, the owner did not ask her to leave because she worked for Donald Trump, he asked her to leave because she gets up there and in the opinion of the owner and many other people, she lies day in and day out defending the indefensible from this president. It had nothing to do with Republican or Democrat.

THOMAS: Well, it was that she works for Donald Trump.

VAUSE: No. She could have worked for a Democrat, again, this is the impression I had. If she got up and lied for a Democrat president like she lies for Donald Trump, we documented how she twists the truth and puts out misinformation time and time and again and abuses the media and accuses them of doing things they have never done. I think that was the essence of it. Not that this was Republican versus Democrat thing.

THOMAS: Right. I would think it's because they hate Trump so much so when Sarah and her husband decided, you know, we're going to go home. Sarah's extended family went across the street to another restaurant to try to have a quiet meal when the owner of the Red Hen Restaurant organized a protest to stand outside the next restaurant to scream at Sara's family.

Have we gotten to such point where your extended family can't have a meal out would be heckled? Our politics have always been very passionate. But for some reason it's OK, and it's very -- look it's not right on either side.

And neither side's hands are clean. But to take it out and we're seeing the rhetoric exacerbated. I think it started with this -- I get it from CNN all the time. But it's one thing when it happens on Twitter, another thing when it happens in person.

VAUSE: Obviously, there are some Democrats out there that say this is a strategy, which is needed at this point in time.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPRESENTATIVE MAXINE WATERS (D), CALIFORNIA: If you see anybody from that cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you -- and you push back on them. And you tell them they're not welcome anymore, anywhere.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: So, naturally, in response the president took the high road. No. Only kidding. "Congresswoman Maxine Waters, an extraordinarily low IQ person has become together with Nancy Pelosi, the face of the Democrat Party.

She's just called for harm to supporters of which there are many of the make America great again movement. Be careful what you wish for, Max." Wendy, is this what we want from the president of the United States, the leader of the free world, the schoolyard bully?

GREUEL: Absolutely not. I mean, what you're seeing is the tone has been set by the president of the United States by that bullying he has done, the comments he has made and the people he's gone after. I've had several conversations this weekend with friends some on the side of yes, the owner should have done that, others say I think the owner did it respectfully in having that conversation when she asked Sarah sanders to leave.

But there's not unanimity in it. What there is unanimity is, this president of the United States has set this tone that says it is OK to bully people. I was this weekend registering voters in Santa Clarita, and I had a gentleman who viciously attacked me verbally and felt very confident that he could do that because that's what the president of the United States has done.

[00:20:08] This is a time where we have to take action and not use those words in a way that is going to be demeaning to people.

VAUSE: It does seem, John, because the president does it, it now has sort of given a green light to others to go out there and be abusive, nasty, say mean things, that's putting it nicely, or say racist inspired remarks to people, what sound as if they're racist and bigoted remarks.

THOMAS: The president does not have his hands clean on this issue. Maxine Waters has had racist comments, urging violence comments since the riots. This is nothing new, but the problem is it's not just Maxine it's others.

VAUSE: Why does (inaudible) all the time?

THOMAS: Because that's who he is.

VANIER: He's not. He's the president of the United States now --

THOMAS: But that's who he is, but the point is Maxine Waters is an elected official, she knows better. I think there's a movement to censure here. Let's not forget, a few months ago, Steve Scalise was shot because of this kind of rhetoric.

It's reaching a boiling point, and again it's very personal for me because the amount of death threats I get on this show on a nightly basis, it's insane, to see our elected officials saying push back, you can go to dinner, lunch, it's scary. I need men with guns around me.

VAUSE: It should start at the top, but it's not.

THOMAS: It should but because one person does it, it's not OK for everyone else. VAUSE: You are a good guy because I did bet you a steak dinner that the North Korea summit wouldn't happen, and I was wrong. And you gave $200 to Olivia that needs a bone marrow transplant and you're a good guy. Thank you both.

A short break. When we come back here, Turkey's president enters a new term with broad new powers. Critics say the country is now trapped under a one-man rule.

(Inaudible) for a somber moment, decades after the Korean War, the remains of some of America's war dead might be finally about to return home.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VAUSE: Opposition leader, Muharrem Ince, has conceded defeat to Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Turkey's presidential election, but Ince also has a warning saying Turkey will suffer from one-man rule.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[00:25:05] MUHARREM INCE, TURKISH OPPOSITION LEADER (through translator): The new regime that takes effect from today onwards is a major danger for Turkey, a single party or person becoming the state and at the same time the executive, legislative and judiciary is a problem in itself and will continue to be a major danger for Turkey.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: President Erdogan will have sweeping new powers after winning the five-year term on Sunday. A constitutional referendum last year abolished the office of prime minister and curtailed the powers of the parliament giving the president wide-ranging executive authority. International monitors say the vote on Sunday was skewed in Erdogan's favor.

Prince William is making the first official visit to Israel and the west bank by a member of the British royal family. In the coming hours, he'll go to Jerusalem (inaudible) Holocaust Memorial to lay a wreath, and meet with the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and playing football match with Israeli and Palestinian children. On Wednesday, he's expected to hold talks with the Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah.

The 68th anniversary of the queen will pass on Monday without the usual anti-U.S. rhetoric from North Korea. During the summit between the U.S. president and the North Korean leader two weeks ago, Pyongyang promised to return the remains of up to 200 U.S. service men who died during the war.

Paula Hancocks joins us now from Seoul, South Korea with more on this. So, Paula, just how imminent is the repatriation of the war remains and is it known how this will happen? How will it all occur?

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, at this point, we don't have a clear time line of when it's going to happen because frankly, I don't think the U.S. military has a clear time line at this point. It's up to North Korea when they decide to pass these remains over to the United Nations Command, which is headed by the U.S. military.

So, what we know at this point is they have 100 wooden caskets at the DMZ, at the joint security area there, awaiting for when this is going to happen. We expect, judging from what we've seen in the past as well when remains have been repatriated, they'll go to an air base within South Korea and probably be flown to Hawaii, which is where they can do the forensic analysis.

Clearly, this is a very important issue for the U.S. president, Donald Trump, he mentioned it after that summit in Singapore with Kim Jong- un. But time wise, we're still waiting to see when it could happen, but it could be the coming days -- John.

VAUSE: OK. Paula, thank you for the update. We appreciate that.

A short break and when we come back, next on NEWSROOM L.A., get your motor running right out of the U.S. Why one of the biggest motorcycle makers said Donald Trump's trade war is making it too costly to do business in the U.S.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VAUSE: Welcome back everybody. You're watching CNN Newsroom live from Los Angeles. I'm John Vause with the headlines this hour. Donald Trump says the recent uproar over immigration is a winning issue for Republicans. He spoke at a campaign rally in South Carolina on Monday. The President also said detention facilities for undocumented immigrants are much better now than under President Obama.

Turkish opposition leader Muharrem Ince is continuing to beat Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the country's Presidential election but he is warning Turkey is falling victim to one-man rule. Mr. Erdogan begins his new term with widely-expanded Presidential powers. He now has complete executive control of Turkey, the right to rule by decree and he can choose his own cabinet.

Britain's Prince William has a busy day ahead of him in Israel. In the coming hours he'll lay a wreath at the Holocaust memorial, he'll meet with the Israeli Prime Minister, and he'll take part in a football match with Israeli and Palestinian children. And then on Wednesday, he's expected to meet with the Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank.

One of the most iconic American brands is hitting the road out of the U.S. Harley Davidson is shifting some production of motorcycles for European customers out of the United States to avoid the E.U.'s tariffs. Those new taxes are retaliation for the Trump Administration's tariffs on imported European goods. President Trump responded on twitter, "Surprised at Harley Davidson of all companies would be the first to wave the white flag," adding "taxes are just a Harley excuse. Be patient."

(Inaudible) those worried a trade war might be eminent. Take a look at the closing numbers; the Dow fell more than 325 points. Tariffs mean uncertainty and as we know the markets do not like uncertainty. Again, a closer look at the impact that Donald Trump's economic policy, I'm joined by Alex Cherin, Senior Vice President of EKA Public Relations. His specialty is international trade and global logistics.

Did your title just get a lot longer?

LEX CHERIN, VICE PRESIDENT OF EKA PUBLIC RELATIONS: I may have. It may have.

VAUSE: I mean when you look at the situation with Harley Davidson. Oh, the department of irony seems to be working overtime here. According to the company's SEC filings, the E.U. tariff would add more than $2,000 to the average cost of a Harley exported from the U.S. to the E.U.; eventually costing the company up to $100 million a year. But we did hear from the union representing the workers at Harley Davidson saying this is all just an excuse. Many pointed to the fact that the company sales in the U.S. have been falling. So is this move being driven primarily by Trump's trade war and the tariffs or is there more to this?

CHERIN: Well John, real trade wars in the real world have real consequences and this is the first real high-profile consequence we've seen as a result of the Trump Administration policies. So look, the consensus in the international trading community overseas to a person is that this Administration is kind of winging it, kind of making it up as they go along. There's no consistence in the application of tariff structures and these policies have consequences. It's ironic. This is a really high profile iconic company to be the first real public victim of this Administration.

VAUSE: I get it. The Republican Senator Ben Sasse released a statement saying in part this will go over like a Vespa at Sturgis. The problem isn't that Harley is unpatriotic, it's that tariffs are stupid. The tax increases on Americans their work and apparently we're going to see more of this. So what you and I guess a whole lot of others including Ben Sasse are saying that this - this trade policy continues as is, there are going to be a whole lot of other companies pulling up stump and heading overseas?

CHERIN: No doubt, no doubt. I mean just take Harley Davidson, the company that's in the news today. Three times, three times they've been to the well and they've been burned by this Administration. Within the first weeks of Trump taking office they went to the White House and urged the Administration, begged Trump please do not pull out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership. He did. Number two, please as they urged the Administration, do not impose this 25 percent tariffs on steel imports, it will kill our manufacturing. He did that. And then just today, obviously, you saw the reciprocation from the E.U. in terms of the $2,200 tariff.

VAUSE: OK, it was a year ago to the day at a campaign rally in Ohio, the President warned the days of taxing exported U.S. motorcycles would be coming to an end.

(BEGIN VIDEO) DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're doing great in the United States but when we sell a motorcycle to certain countries, we have as much as a 100 percent tax to pay and I said tell me when they sell back to us, meaning reciprocal, so when they sell back to us, what tax do we charge them? The answer is zero. Those days are going to be over very soon.

(END VIDEO)

VAUSE: Yes again, good for politics but the country with the 100 percent tax, India. The next highest tax on U.S. exports of motorcycles, Thailand and China. All the way down, Russia number 11 with 14 percent. E.U. was never mentioned in this. This is a whole new tax and to your point, this is a whole new tax.

[00:35:00]

CHERIN: Right.

VAUSE: And to your point, this goes to the whole inconsistency of what being taxed and what isn't being taxed. And that this is, essentially, a direct result of this trade war. There's - there's no other cause of effect here. This is the Europeans responding directly to Donald Trump.

CHERIN: Absolutely. And the redirect sounds great and it's red meat for his base, but there is, absolutely, no consistency in either the development or the implementation of the trade policy. And you're seeing that play out, today.

The irony here, too, John, is that where this is really going to have an impact is in the heartland. Those states that the Republicans are counting on for the midterm elections and that Trump is going to count on in - in the next presidential cycle whether it's Harley Davidson today or the Swabian manufacturers in Minnesota and Iowa who are also impacted by this.

Whiskey producers in Tennessee and the south he, whether by default or design, is hurting the constituency that he and other Republicans desperately need.

VAUSE: OK. Here's a statement from the White House on tariffs. Only defends against the cheap production, low wages, and low standard of living which exists abroad are our only method of maintaining our (INAUDIBLE) standards is through a protective tariff.

Only that wasn't this White House. That was President Calvin Coolidge whose tariffs during the 1920s when the economy was roaring. It was said to be one of the many factors that lead to the Great Depression. One hundred years on, is there any reason why tariffs will now actually work in, you know, trying to even the playing field and not have a similar results of slowing down the economy and causing a whole lot of pain. Has anything changed?

CHERIN: No, look, John. Protectionism is great and we study it in history class, but it doesn't have any applicability to the modern world. We live in a global, multilateral trading system. We've done that for the last two, three, four decades. And we've been good at it. And we've prospered as a result of that.

And the Trump administration's policy, despite its inconsistencies, is really to go back to the era of unilateral trading. It just doesn't work in the global framework.

VAUSE: The problem is that - with economic policy and with every decision that is made, there has to be a loser somewhere. When lead came out of paint, there were lead manufacturers who were upset. But at the end of the - so, you know, that is the price you pay for a global economy.

Eventually someone somewhere has to miss out. And what it seems is that this administration has not thought, you know, two or three steps ahead.

CHERIN: They have not gamed (ph) this out well, at all. You know, you can afford U.S. administrations history has proven, can afford to be protectionist, to take risks, to beat the drum into a trade war, but there has to be some sort of arbiter.

There has to be some sort of international body that can be the referee. We don't have that anymore. The Trump administration has made it very clear they're not going to rely on the World Trade Organization. They're, certainly, not going to rely on NAFTA, and again, they pulled out of treaties like the TPP that would otherwise provide some protection.

VAUSE: Yes. All right, Alex, we see what was playing out now with the submarket (INAUDIBLE) system, rough days (INAUDIBLE). Alex, thank you.

CHERIN: You got it.

VAUSE: Next here on Newsroom L.A., the larger than life Trump, the American president might not actually want to (INAUDIBLE).

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:40:27]

VAUSE: The actress, Roseanne Barr, says she regrets that appalling, racist tweet which ended the reboot of her TV show. She pleaded her case in an emotional, just released interview. She spoke to a friend and a counselor 24 hours after being fired and she broke down about the situation.

She'd linked a former Trump official, who was African-American, to the film "Plane of the Apes."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RABBI SHMULEY BOTECH, AMERICAN RABBI: But you still regret and don't excuse what you wrote? ROSEANNE BARR, COMEDIAN: Of course. No, I don't excuse it. I horribly regret it. Are you kidding? I've lost everything, and I regretted it before I lost everything. And I said to God, I am willing to accept whatever consequences this brings, because I know I've done wrong.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: She goes on to say quote, "I'm not a racist, just an idiot."

U.S. president heads to London next month and activist there are seeking permission to fly a blimp of Donald Trump. Jeanne Moos reports on what might be described as an infantile protest balloon.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: President Trump is often accused of acting like a baby, but now activist in Britain are planning to fly him, in the form of a baby, the baby Trump blimp.

LEO MURRAY, BRITAIN TRUMP ACTIVIST: He's as high as a small house. He's basically a big fat round chubby baby and with tiny, willy(ph) hands with a phone.

MOOS: Currently stored in a warehouse, activist want to fly him over Parliament on July 13, when President Trump is scheduled to visit. The helium blimp was paid for with money raised on a crowd funding site, $11,000 and counting.

Sort of reminds us of the inflatable Trump chicken that popped up at anti-Trump protest in the U.S. Large numbers of serious protesters are expected to turn out for President Trumps visit to Britain, but the baby blimp organizers think --

MURRAY: Mockery is the right way to approach Donald Trump.

MOOS: Attacking ...

MURRAY: His tremendously fragile ego.

MOOS: The activists are partitioning London's major, Sadiqu Khan, to let their Trump baby blimp fly. Initially the city rejected their requests saying, this isn't a protest, this is art. But even if officials refuse to allow Trump baby to fly above Parliament, organizers do have a backup plan.

MURRAY: Trump baby will fly. This I promise.

MOOS: There's talk President Trump will visit one of his golf courses in Scotland. The activists say, Trump baby loves golf and might show up there. Remember the time candidate Trump was interrupted by a crying baby?

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF UNITED STATE: Don't worry about that baby, I love babies.

MOOS: We imagine his reaction to baby blimp might be similar.

TRUMP: Actually I was only kidding. You can get the baby out of here.

MOOS: Jeanne Moos, CNN.

TRUMP: What a beautiful baby.

MOOS: New York.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Thanks for watching CNN Newsroom live from Los Angeles. I'm John Vause. World Sports with Patrick Snell -- almost for got my name -- starts after the break.

[00:45:00]

(COMMERICAL BREAK)

(WORLD SPORTS)