Transcripts For CNNW Wolf 20180323 : vimarsana.com

Desperately needed for our defense is not fully funded. Thats what he tweeted a while ago. Then a few minutes ago he tweeted, News Conference at the white house concerning the omnibus spending bill at 1 00 p. M. Thats 1 00 p. M. On the east coast. The president making a threat, but now apparently hes decided to go ahead ask sind sign the legislation . Thats what we were told, and i do believe the president to raise concerns that you were just reading there. He is concerned about funding the border wall. At the same time, fiscal conservatives across washington believes this bill spends way too much, its too big. So the president in some respects is trying to place blame on congress for this to highlight that hes not happy with this but indeed will sign it, anyway. If he would veto this, wolf, he would surprise people and has been known, of course, to surprise and march to his own drummer here. That would touch off a cascading series of events because the house and senate are not in. Almost all of them have left washington, so the government would shut down. But we are not expecting that. We are told by Administration Officials he is going to sign it and voice his reservations at the same time, wolf. Theyre setting up a diplomatic Reception Room right now. The White House Press pool getting ready to go in. The president presumably will make a statement and then he will sign this legislation into law, and then maybe, maybe, well see if he answers any reporters questions. The president calls it a News Conference. Well see if it actually is a News Conference as opposed to a simple signing ceremony and statement by the president. Jeff, stand by. I want to bring in our panel, our cnn political analyst David Gregory is with us, our cnn Congressional Correspondent manu raju, our Senior Correspondent john king and our Senior Analyst gore gloria borger. Most of the senators have split, theyre out of town already, and if he doesnt sign this into law, the government shuts down. And he doesnt get to go to maralago, and john and i were discussing this earlier, i think hes scheduled to go later this afternoon. I think what the president wants to do, particularly if he signs this, is be on the record saying, this is what i dont like about it, and the democrats are forgetting the dreamers, and what about my wall, and im going to make these demands. But otherwise he would be shutting the government down, and our reporting says he doesnt want to do that. But it is a remarkable moment in a sense that what the president is about to do, assuming the sources are correct and he doesnt pull the rug out from underneath everybody again, sur is under the chaos and dysfunction of his presidency. The people said vote for it, vote for it, the president spoke for it, now hes going to go in and sign it. Rush limbaugh and everybody on the radio said, mr. President , this is a bigger spending bill than president obama could have ever dreamed of. He built up their hopes. New hes going to sign a bill he doesnt approve of. So its chaos, its dysfunction and its president ial weakness. Also, you get a sense, and maybe im wrong, that he wasnt paying much attention to what was in the bill. I mean, it is an omnibus bill so it is large, but clearly he had been briefed on it, but how much attention was he paying to it. This is a product of months of negotiations that have occurred between the leadership, between the white house officials. White house officials knew what was in this bill. They knew they were not going to get everything they wanted because they made the calculation that those people who were upset, the freedom caucus, the rush limbaughs of the world, they wouldnt be happy with this bill so they cut him out of the negotiations. They tried to make a deal, get bipartisan on board. Its something they didnt like because it spent more money than they wanted. And you saw a significant number of republicans support it despite the number of concerns from the right, but the president should have known what was in this bill before friday morning and threatening to veto it because the white house was involved in this. Its classic donald trump, right, because he can say this is a swamp at work, this is an ineffective party at work. He transcends the party in his own mind. To state the obvious, hes in a rather independent mode at the moment where hes deciding hell run the government the way he shall like. No one will tell him what to do. He says, ill blow this thing up. Then decides, well, i cant quite do that so ill go back to being the outsider guy. It is so headsnapping that i think he defies people to say, no, no, im actually weak. I threatened to do this, i backed off of it but im still very much in control. Nobody believes that because the truth is he couldnt get what he wanted and yet hes still getting some things out of this. He said it would be easy. This is what he campaigned on. The politicians are stupid, they dont know how to cut deals, i will cut better deals. And he said he would make compromises, which is important, but what he tweeted about this morning is he didnt get a lot of wall funding and hes saying its the democrats fault that the dreamers dont get protected here. The democrats offered the president that deal. 640 million they offered him, not 26 billion. They wanted a pathway of citizenship for the dreamers. The president didnt want that because its a Midterm Election year. The president made that choice days and weeks ago. Now hes secondguessing himself threatening to blow up the deal this morning and now hes apparently going to sign it. Hes calling his own press conference, can we just say that . He is his own communication director. He hasnt had a real formal white house News Conference in more than a year. John bolton, his new National Security adviser, we know having covered the bush white house, the lack of process here, right, the lack of good debates and any kind of thoughtful process leads to really horrible results. It can result in life and death and not just the titilation of the aspects of the presidency. He is not listening to people who advise him. Whether you support him, you dont support him, whatever policy you care about, the lack of process here really does matter. This is probably why its important for the president to come out, speak, take questions, too, because clearly his people cannot speak for him anymore. Time after time they have been undercut by this president , whether its by h. R. Mcmaster, secretary tillerson about the spending bill, and Mick Mulvaney said before the mics yesterday that the president would sign it before this veto threat this morning. The president is the person who should be answering questions. Hes also taking over his legal strategy. Not only is he operating his white house as he operated the Trump Organization someone told me this morning who has known him for a long time, just remember, the Trump Organization, there were only Vice President s. There were like no executive Vice President s, there were only Vice President s. He says thats what the white house is. There are only Vice President s. Theres one guy in charge. As steve bannon said yesterday, if john kelly goes, hell be his own chief of staff. So the president now is calling his own press conference, calling his legal you know, calling the shots for his legal team, calling the shots for his congressional leaders. Its, you know, a man in full. I want to set the scene for our viewers. Youre looking at the diplomatic Reception Room. Youll see the president will make a speech at the micro figurine here. There is a table where presumably the president will sign this legislation, a 1. 3 trillion spending bill to keep the government from shutting down. Getting briefed by fox news, among other places. Even senator bob cork era mid th corker amid the threats of veto said, please do, mr. President. Im just down the street and ill bring you a pen. Rand paul, another republican senator, said, i agree, donald trump, veto this sad excuse for a spending bill. He reignites a debate within his own party. Its party unity, party energy. The democrats have it. Weve seen that consistently in the elections. The republicans do not right now and the president puts a match to the fire and pours gasoline on it. Why do we win the senate and the house and its bigger than anything requested by barack obama. The Youtube Channel says its a bill signing. The president will sign it after believe building up hopes this morning. If the democrats take back the house or even just win more seats in the house, they will have more leverage or even power next year. This could be the last spending bill the president has any significant influence over and it gives him almost nothing of what he wanted. It does give him the military spending. He wanted more money for the military and he gets it. But he doesnt get his wall money, he doesnt get his infrastructure plan, and he doesnt get other infrastructure priorities and the president just wants to campaign, and its possible the next years budget will have speaker pelosi, not speaker ryan. They were upset about his spending. They thought bush was a spender. He was a piker compared to this. If they ever have any doubts about how conservative the president was on fiscal issues, you know, this kind of ends it. And the way this is all rolled out, too, was a way to kind of limit the dissension in the ranks. They unveiled this 2200page bill thursday night that nobody had read. They jammed it through the house and senate on friday also that nobody had read. But let the people let off their steam and then sign the bill, move on into the weekend. They quickly passed it in the house, passed it in the senate. Now the president presumably will sign it into law. Hes going to be making a statement, then hell do the signing ceremony. Well see if he takes questions from reporters. Weve also been told the White House Press briefing, which had been scheduled for this hour with Sarah Sanders, the press secretary, has been canceled in lieu of the president s statement. Stand by. Much more breaking news after this. Hes a nascar champion whos shes a worldclass swimmer whos stared down the best in her sport. But for both of them, the most challenging opponent was. Pe blood clots in my lung. It was really scary. A dvt in my leg. I had to learn all i could to help protect myself. My doctor and i choose xarelto® xarelto®. To help keep me protected. Xarelto® is a latestgeneration blood thinner. Thats proven to treat and reduce the risk of dvt and pe blood clots from happening again. In clinical studies, almost 98 of patients on xarelto® did not experience another dvt or pe. Heres how xarelto works. Xarelto® works differently. Warfarin interferes with at least six bloodclotting factors. Xarelto® is selective. Targeting just one critical factor, interacting with less of your bodys natural bloodclotting function. Dont stop taking xarelto® without talking to your doctor as this may increase risk of blood clots. While taking, you may bruise more easily, or take longer for bleeding to stop. It may increase your risk of bleeding if you take certain medicines. Xarelto® can cause serious, and in rare cases, fatal bleeding. Get help right away for unexpected bleeding, unusual bruising, or tingling. If youve had spinal anesthesia, watch for back pain or any nerve or musclerelated signs or symptoms. Do not take xarelto® if you have an artificial heart valve or abnormal bleeding. Tell your doctor before all planned medical or dental procedures and before starting xarelto® about any conditions, such as kidney, liver, or bleeding problems. Youve got to learn all you can. To help protect yourself from dvt and pe blood clots. Talk to your doctor about xarelto®. Theres more to know. You said youre not like me, never drop to your knees, look into the sky for a momentary high, you never even tried till its time to say goodbye, bye everybody fights for a little bit of light, i believe. Geico motorcycle, great rates for great rides. But im not standing still. And with godaddy, ive made my ideas real. I made my own way, now its time to make yours. Everything is working, just like it should were following breaking news. Momentarily were told the president will go into the diplomatic Reception Room at the white house, make a statement and sign a 1. 3 trillion spending bill into law. A while ago he threatened to veto it. He issued a tweet saying, im considering a veto on the omnibus spending bill based on the fact that the 8 millionplus Daca Recipients have been totally abandoned by the democrats, not even mentioned in bill, and the border wall, which is desperately needed for our National Defense, is not fully funded. Well see if he answers reporters questions, and there will be a pool of white house reporters inside. They will ask the president some questions. He might just say thank you and leave, or he will answer some questions. I would suspect some of those questions might be questions he does not want to be asked, for example, the russia probe and his new legal team. Sure. He clearly doesnt want to be asked about that. And pamela brown, evan perez and i are reporting just now that joe digenova who was announced earlier this week is joining the legal team. Now, his role on that legal team is in question. Joe digenova and his wife victoria tensing met with the president yesterday afternoon, and our sources tell us that while the president liked their message, he is now not convinced that they are right for the legal jobs. So maybe theyll join the legal team, maybe they wont. Maybe theyll be in a more pr role than a legal role. But jay sekulow, one of the president s attorneys, did announce on monday that joe digenova will be joining our legal team later this week, and after this meeting yesterday, we are not so sure. One thing you have to appreciate about this president and his presidency is how incredibly transparent the chaos is. Because he literally is sharing what hes thinking about, and we are in on every part of the process. The flow of the Decision Making up and down, again, i think its no way to run a country or a government because of what the dysfunction creates and what the implications of that are. But we are really seeing that. And you know that trump is lashing out in lots of directions. We havent talked about Stormy Daniels and the other accusers who are giving interviews, fearing that could become part of the independent counsel. Someone has clearly gotten to him and said joe digenova is great to go on fox news, may not be the one i think it might be the president himself. As we know, he is newly emboldened and believes he now knows how to run the white house. I think he has this meeting yesterday. People have raised questions about conflict issues with joe digenova and victoria tensing because they represented other witnesses in the russia investigation. Thats one of the reasons john dowd left. That box that were seeing next to the microphone over there looks like its the actual legislation, the 2200 pieces of legislation. The president will make a statement. Take a look at this mon strosst. Hes not very happy with this. He has said he will sign it into law. The other party is not the one you control. He can control surprising things if he is planning on signing it, unless he changes his mind and decides to veto it and shocks everybody. That will be a pretty remarkable scene to criticize something that was a product of his own white house in Republican Leadership and Democratic Leadership that he thought he was fully behind. His budget director, john, Mick Mulvaney worked with the legislators in the senate. He was clearly on board. The director at the white house, he was clearly on board frlt th then for the president to say he was all for a veto. Have you ever seen anything like this . He came out and said Rex Tillerson wont be fired, a few weeks later Rex Tillerson was fired. The president is happy with his legal team, john dowd left the legal team. This is a dangerous time to have a murky disconnect in your legal team. Because anybody who has gone to the special counsel understands this is a solid team, a tried and true panel of prosecutors with a discipline. If there is lack of senior voices, lack of client listening in the camp right now, its a tough time to be messing around with your lawyers. Theyre still putting out feelers, the help wanted sign for some more lawyers. The president of the United States should sit down with a team of veteran, solid, highly detailed, meticulous prosecutors. Good luck. They tried to get ted olson who is one of those excellent attorneys with a lot of experience here in washington and hes a grownup who expects to be listened to. Treat him with respect. David makes a key point. A lot of the grownups in town lawyers know clients who say no and disagree with their strategy. But they expect to be treated with respect. They dont expect to have their coffee in the morning and get slammed on twitter. They expect to be paid, thats another thing. They expect their advice to be listened to. But now the client is the lead attorney, and thats a problem. Because the president is directing all of this. Once again, were standing by. The president is going to be making a statement just before signing this legislation into law. 1. 3 trillion spending bill. It will keep the government operating until the end of september. Were standing by to hear from the president. Well see if he answers reporters questions. If he does, presumably those questions will be on a whole range of issues he doesnt really want to answer. Well be right back. Little things can be a big deal. Thats why theres otezla. Otezla is not an injection or a cream. Its a pill that treats psoriasis differently. With otezla, 75 clearer skin is achievable after just 4 months,. With reduced redness, thickness, and scaliness of plaques. And the otezla prescribing information has no requirement for routine lab monitoring. Dont use if youre allergic to otezla. Otezla may cause severe diarrhea, nausea, or vomiting. Tell your doctor if these occur. Otezla is associated with an increased risk of depression. Tell your doctor if you have a history of depression or suicidal thoughts, or if these feelings develop. Some people taking otezla reported weight loss. Your doctor should monitor your weight and may stop treatment. Other side effects include upper respiratory tract infection and headache. Tell your doctor about all the medicines you take and if youre pregnant or planning to be. Otezla. Show more of you. The president will make a statement and then hell sign into law this 1. 3 trillion spending bill reluctantly. He complained about it. He told everyone by twitter, im considering a veto of the omnibus spending bill. He didnt like it, but apparently on Second Thought hes going to go ahead and sign it into law. If he didnt sign it into law, the possibility certainly exists the government would shut down at midnight tonight. The house and senate are no longer in session. Most of the members have already left washington on various assignments, either gone back to their districts or overseas travel so theyre not even around. If he doesnt sign it into law the government will shut down at least for the time being. Heres the president of the United States. Thank you very much, everybody. We have a lot of good news to report. Some tremendous trade deals are being made with various countries. Were negotiating very long, very hard but very quickly. And the deal with south korea, according to secretary ross and bob lighthizer, is very close to being finished, and were going to have a wonderful deal with a wonderful ally. Were getting very close to it. It was a deal that was causing a lot of problems for our country in terms of employment and in terms of lots of other things. I might ask secretary ross to just say a few words about that, and then were going to get on to this ridiculous situation that took place over the last week. So, secretary ross . Thank you, mr. President. We believe we are relatively close to a pretty comprehensive resolution with the south korean government. It would encompass, if it goes through, both the 232s and broader trade issues. We hope sometime next week to be able to have a real announcement. Thank you very much, wilbur. I appreciate it. The last time we negotiated Something Like this, and as you know, its always been a problem for our country. They get together and they create a series of documents that nobody has been able to read because it was just done. You tell me who can read that quickly. It takes a long time to read it. For the last eight years, deep defense cuts have undermined our National Security. If you look at whats taken out, they hallowed our readiness as a military unit and put america at really grave risk. My highest duty is to keep america safe. Nothing more important. The omnibus bill reverses this dangerous defense as crazy as its been, as difficult as its been, as much opposition to the military as weve had from the democrats, and it has been tremendous. I tried to explain to them, the military is is for republfor re democrats and for everybody else. But we have tremendous opposition to creating, really, what will be by far the Strongest Military that weve ever had. Weve had that from the democrats. So if we take something for the military, they want something for, in many cases, things that are really a wasted sum of money. Its not right and its very bad for our country. Were looking to do funding for our final fight in certain areas. As you know, weve gotten just about 100 of our land back from isis. We have troop increases necessary to accomplish what we have to do, and we have, very importantly, a pay increase for our troops. And this will actually be the largest pay increase for our incredible people in over a decade. It increases total defense spending by more than 60 billion from last year and funds the addition of critically needed ships, planes, helicopters, tanks and submarines. We have submarines being built the likes of which there is nothing anywhere in the world like the submarines we build. Our military equipment is the best equipment in the world. One of the things you saw two days ago with saudi arabia and with other countries, saudi arabia as an example is buying hundreds of billions of dollars worth of our equipment. And were getting very fast approvals on that. Therefore, as a matter of National Security, ive signed this omnibus budget bill. There are a lot of things im unhappy about in this bill. There are a lot of things we shouldnt have had in this bill but we were, in a sense, forced if we want to build our military, we were forced to have. There are some things we should have in the bill. But i say to congress, i will never sign another bill like this again. Im not going to do it again. Nobody read it. Its only hours old. Some people dont even know its 1. 3 trillion. Its the second largest ever. President obama signed one that was actually larger, which im sure he wasnt too happy with, either. But in this case it became so big because we need to take care of our military. And because the democrats, who dont believe in that, added things that they wanted in order to get their votes. We have to get rid of the filibuster rule. We have to get rid of the filibuster rule and go to 51 votes in the senate if were going to have really sustained, continued success. Daca recipients have been treated extremely badly by the democrats. We wanted to include daca. We wanted to have them in this bill. 800,000 people. And actually, it could even be more. And we wanted to include daca in this bill. The democrats would not do it. They would not do it. To prevent the omnibus situation from ever happening again, im calling on congress to give me a line item veto for all Government Spending bills, and the senate must end. They must end the filibuster rule and get down to work. We have to get a lot of great legislation approved, and without the filibuster rule, it will happen just like magic. I want to address the situation on border security, which i Call National defense. I call it stopping drugs from pouring across our border. And i call it illegal immigration. Its all of those things. But National Defense is a very important two words, because by having a Strong Border system, including a wall, we are in a position militarily that is very advantageous. And before i get off of that subject, i would like to ask secretary mattis to talk about what weve accomplished in terms of the military, because there has never been anything like weve been able to do. Our military is very depleted but its rapidly getting better, and in a short period of time it will be stronger than its ever been. I would like secretary mattis to say a few words, please. Thank you, mr. President , ladies and gentlemen. In 1790 in George Washingtons first annual address to congress, he stated to be prepared for war is one of the most effective means of preserving the peace. As the president noted, today we received the Largest Military budget in history, reversing many years of decline and unpredictable funding. And together we are going to make our military stronger than ever. We in the military are humbled and grateful to the American People for their sacrifices on behalf of this funding. Now its our responsibility in the military to spend every dollar wisely in order to keep the trust and the confidence of the American People and the congress. Thank you. Thank you very much, general. The border weve worked very hard on. We have a lot of, really by any standard a lot, but not by this standard, but were going to make it go a long way. Theres a lot of money coming to the border and it will be coming in a period of time. We funded the initial down payment of 106,000, but well be start work literally on monday on not only some new w l wall not enough but were working on that very quickly but also fixing existing walls and fixing acceptable fences. You have to be able to see through the other side to see whats coming. In many cases its not a pretty picture when you look. But you have to be able to see it. So we have 1. 6 billion for the wall. That will start immediately. This is a shortterm funding but its immediate, starts immediately, and id like to ask secretary nielson to say a few words about what weve done in terms of Homeland Security and what the bill does for Homeland Security. Thank you. Good afternoon. We at the department of Homeland Security work very closely with the department of defense and we support this omnibus in the defense of our country. As the president has stated, under his leadership he has delivered for the americans. This is for american enforcement. This will help us with our Aviation Security with some badly needed upgrades, and we look forward to working with congress on some Additional Needs that we have. I will say, however, its unfortunate that congress chose not to listen to the security on the front lines. We will continue to make sure the wall is where we need it, how we need it as the president described and to make sure it serves the American People and the security of this nation. We will also work with congress to close the dangerous loopholes that the president has mentioned many times and to continue to increase our overall security. And finally, we thank those in congress who support the department of Homeland Security. I will continue to make myself available to them. I look forward to working with them, but we must fund the department and giff ve it the ts and resources it needs to execute the mission the American People have asked us to do. Thank you. Thank you very much, secretary. So we have many elements in the bill that we wanted. Just to look at a few of them, were providing 654. 6 billion in total discretionary funding for defense. Its a record. All records for defense. There will be nobody that says that our military is going to be depleted like theyve been saying over the last long period of time. Long period of time. Frankly, beyond president obama. That wont be happening. Were spending a lot of money on nuclear, our nuclear systems, to upgrade, and in some cases, brand new, whether its submarines, Nuclear Submarines and others. So well have by far the most powerful Nuclear Force on earth, and it will be absolutely in perfect shape and condition, and hopefully, praise be to god we dont ever have to use it. But there will be nobody thats even close. This will give a substantial increase to people even outside of the military, but military related. Some of the many things that were buying in the military, we have 23. 8 billion to procure 34 navy ships. Our navy is at about the lowest point in terms of ships that its been in over 100 years. And were adding a significant number of extremely advanced vessels. 10. 2 billion for 90 f35 aircraft. Thats the most sophisticated aircraft in the world, jet fighters. Theyre hard to find, theyre hard to see, therefore theyre hard to beat. Its very tough to beat a plane when you cant see it. This is the most advanced in the world. 10. 2 billion for 90 f35. We have 2. 9 billion for 15 kc46 Tanker Aircraft. The Tanker Aircraft is very important based on everything. It allows our planes to travel anywhere in the World Without landing. 1. 8 billion for 24 fa18 ef super hornet aircraft fighter jets. 1. 7 billion for 10 p ara the poseidons. Incredible stuff. 1 billion for the black hawk helicopter, fighting machine. 1. 1 billion for the upgrade of 85 abrams tanks. 75 million for the cooperative programs that were working with israel and others on various Missile Defense systems. Were spending a lot of money on Missile Defense. We have a lot of offense thats been recently installed. Were spending tremendous money on Missile Defense. You understand what that means . Everybody does. With what we have out there, Missile Defense is very, very important. We are funding our Border Patrol agents and our i. C. E. Agents. They are working long hours under tremendously dangerous conditions. Were adding large numbers of Immigration Judges, high quality judges. Not only are we adding them in the District Court level and the federal level of court of appeals, but were adding Immigration Judges at a very high level. So while were very disappointed in the 1. 3 trillion, nobody more disappointed than me because the number is so large, well start coming down. We had no choice but to fund our military because we have to have by far the Strongest Military in the world. And this will be by far the Strongest Military that weve ever had. So when you look at all of these pages, a lot of that is devoted a lot to the military. I just want to thank members of congress for working so hard. While we can be disappointed in some ways, we have to also know that there are a lot of strings pulling everybody in different directions. The republican senators, the Republican Congress men and women have been steadfast on their fight for the border and steadfast for their fight on the military. Were also spending 6 billion on, as you know, various forms of drug control, helping people that are addicted. Its a terrible problem, but this will be also this will be a record. Well be suing certain Drug Companies for what theyve done with the opioids and well be bringing the suits at a federal level. The level of drugs that are being put out there and the power of this addiction is hard to believe. People go to the hospital for a period of a week and they come out and theyre drug addicts. There has to be a better way. Doctors are way down now in their orders of the opioids, way down. Its a great thing. Were also looking for, in our research funds, were looking for a medicine that can stop the pain without the addiction so that people arent going to become addicted to these incredible drugs. Thats part of what we have. Were going to have 6 billion having to do with opioids and other problems that this country, and in fact the world, is having with drugs. So were extremely proud of what weve been able to do when it comes to our military. Our military will be far superior than to any military anywhere in the world. Thats very important for us. You see the players out there, you see what were dealing with. We are very happy with whats happened with opioids. Were very happy with whats happened with certain elements of the border. Not happy with 1. 6 billi 1. 6 bit it does start the wall and well make that 1. 6 billion go very far. I can say this, and i say this to Daca Recipients. The republicans are with you, they want to get your situation taken care of. The democrats just fought every single inch of the way. They did not want daca in this bill. And as you know, daca is also tied to the wall for the major funding, the 25 billion for the wall and other things. So i think that will be coming up very soon. But i do want the Hispanic Community to know and Daca Recipients to know that republicans are much more on your side than the democrats who are using you for their own purposes. With that being said, i just want to thank everybody for being here. Were very proud of many of the items that weve been able to get. Were very disappointed that in order to fund the military, we had to give up things where we consider, in many cases, them to be bad or them to be a waste of money. But thats the way, unfortunately, right now the system works. But we have a great country. We are going to have the greatest military weve ever had, and lots of good things are happening. The trade situation well be talking about next week. We have many trade deals, not only a deal being made on south korea which looks like its very close to being finalized, but many other countries are now negotiating fair trade deals with us. So well be rolling them out as you see them. Part of the reason, frankly, that were able to do that is the fact that we have the tariffs on steel and the tariffs on aluminum. Because it showed how unfair some of these trade deals that have been in existence for many years, how unfair theyve been. So it will be great for our country, and frankly, it will also be great for other countries. And it will be fair and it will be reciprocal. Thank you all very much. I appreciate it. Thank you. Mr. President [ inaudible question ] were going to figure it out. I looked very seriously at the veto. I was thinking about doing the veto. But because of the incredible gains weve been able to make for the military, that overrode any of our thinking. How concerned are you about tariffs with the stock market . I think the stock market will be great. When i came into office, the stock market was from a different planet. Its way up. China is going to end up treating us fairly. For many years they had free rein, they dont have free rein anymore. Were very friendly with china. We have great relationship with china. Its time. Its time. Last year we lost 500 billion on trade with china. We cant let that happen. Thank you all very much. Are they lying about the affair . There you have it. The president signs into law the 1. 3 trilli 1. 3 trillion spendin even though he doesnt like it. He likes the extra spending for the military. He said he signed this out of military concerns. He said he will never sign a bill like this again, and he insisted that nobody, nobody has actually read this 2200page piece of legislation. And you saw it there sitting on that little table. Its interesting, he signs this, gloria, into law, 2200 pages, even though he says no one has read it, including himself. Right. Which raises the question, why sign something into law that you havent even read . As he said, he said he had no choice because, you know, he makes it a binary choice, which is about the military. Ive got to fund the military. If i had vetoed it, i wouldnt have funded the military. But lets take a look at what we watched here. This is the president of the United States who tweeted out this morning that there was going to be a press conference that he was going to hold. Then he went to the podium and he became not only his own press secretary but his own communications director. We know on other fronts he is acting as his lead attorney. So what we saw the president do today is what Sarah Sanders would normally be explaining at a press briefing, but we know donald trump believes nobody can do this better than he can do it. So he put forward the only argument he had, quite frankly, which was this is about military spending. Weve done so much. You know, he had a little show and tell with mattis and with wilbur ross. He said weve got to get rid of the filibuster and i want the line item veto, which is unconstitutional, but he said i want the line item veto. So he said all of that because he knew it was a problem for him and only he could explain it. Its interesting how we see time and time again i made the point earlier that he tries to stand outside of the process that he is in charge of. And i have to say as easy as it is to look at this and look at the chaos and all the counterarguments about republicans control congress, hes a republican president. He knew these things before he issued the veto threat about the bill. He comes out of this and are saying to supporters of his and detractors by the way china will come around, tok market will be okay and the whole process im involved in is absurd. Im both victim of it, as are you, the American People. But im Strong Enough through all this chaos. This is the picture in his mind that gets presented out without some of the realities that we can so remarkable only he can do it. Stand there and say that he was forced to do this. Several levels, because he knew what was happening. White house was involved in the negotiations. He could have said i dont like the direction this is going. Lets pass a continuing resolution, keep the government open for another few weeks and negotiate a better bill, break it down. Not do a 2200page bill. Its also interesting this is a president who essentially is conceding that the congress has rolled him on this major legislative package. Coming in, he said he was smarter than everybody in washington that he alone could fix it and everybody here was stupid. Turns out that the president is the one who got rolled by republicans in congress, and democrats, too. Let rewind the tape a little bit. Why is donald trump president . He ran as an outsider, said washington is broken, and hillary clinton, a clinton, an established person isnt going to fix it. Im the art of the deal president. Theyre stupid. Im going to make it work for you. He just signed a spending plan the republican president with a Republican Senate and a republican house. He said its full of ridiculous stuff. Its not right. Its very bad for our country. Theres a lot of things im unhappy about. I was forced to do this and they forced me to do this. Where is the strength of the donald trump deal making presidency if they, his own party, can force him to sign something that is full of ridiculous stuff and Everything Else . Its a remarkable moment of this is what he was supposed to be best at. And hes being mocked, by the way. Rush limbaugh ann coulter, the voices he listens to on twitter are mocking him for being weak. Another shortterm spending bill for two weeks, as manu said, negotiate these issues. Instead he deferred to the republican and Democratic Leadership of the house and senate and said i hate this, i signed it out of National Security. I will never sign another bill like this again. He could have gotten 25 billion, as pointed out, for the wall. It would have really angered his conservative base which, by the way, today is really upset. He just signed a huge spending bill under the guise of complete government control. I want to go over to Kaitlan Collins at the white house. Give us your perspective t sounded like the president was venting. Reporter thats exactly what it was. He threatened to veto this bill, a threat that not even his own advisers took seriously but sent a scramble over at capitol hill after reporters and lawmakers were assured that the president was backing this bill. You saw the president say yes im going to sign this bill, begrudgingly. Here is what i dont like about it, main ly the lack of funding for his border war, when back in the campaign he said mexico would pay for it. And nothing on daca, something that the president failed to reach a deal with in the first place. A venting session in the diplomatic room. He said it would be a News Conference. He spoke for 30 minutes criticizing this bill, saying he will never sign a bill like this again. To be clear, that was a venting session for the president who said he signed this bill. We know that this morning he was watching the News Coverage of this bill. Lot of negative coverage about how this bill did not fund his immigration priorities. He sat there, complaining about it in the diplomatic room. As manu said, this has been in the works for several weeks now, especially in the last few days, and a process that the president has not been engaged on. His complaints there, they could have aired those before they voted on it and pass this had spending bill. He signed this bill and, wolf, it capped off a frenzied morning this morning on the white house and capitol hill with the president starting threatening to veto this bill. In the end, he is signing it. And as we pointed out, kaitlan, and youre right there at the white house, his budget director, director of legislative affairs at the white who us and other senior officials were working closely with Top Republican and Democratic Leaders to work out this 1. 3 trillion spending bill. The president was not that involved. As a result, he threatened to veto it a few hours ago but then went ahead and signed it into law. He certainly did. Theyve been telling people for weeks, just yesterday on camera, mick mulv a. Ney said to wrap things up, to keep things short. Paul ryan said he the assurances of the president. It really caps off the perfect end to this week here, wolf, where the white house says one thing, not only his press secretary, but other officials speaking on his behalf, saying hes going to do one thing and then he goes and threatens to do the complete opposite. Its not just with the spending bill. But also with his National Security adviser who we were assured last week was not on his way out. He got fired yesterday and was replaced by john bolton, also his legal team, who he said he was perfectly happy with. He wasnt going to add or replace anyone and then we saw the lead lawyer quit this week and he hired joe digenova. What we learned these last 14 months at the white house, the only person who speaks for the president is the president himself. Kaitlan, stand by. New conference at the white house concerning the omnibus spending bill. That was not a News Conference. He makes an Opening Statement and then calls upon reporters of various news organizations to stand up and ask questions n this particular case he made a statement, showed the 2200page document, walked out. Couple of reporters in the pool shout aid question and then he left. Its whatever the president wants, his version of a News Conference. He is the communications director, press secretary. He tweets it out. He is the only one, as kaitlan was saying, who can speak for himself. He decided to do it his own way. He didnt take any questions because he knows that it could be about Stormy Daniels and the 60 minutes interview airing sunday night, National Security adviser who everyone said was going to be replaced and he said no and then he replaced him. He didnt want to deal with that. What he wanted to do was hijack, it which he did. Two quick points. To be continued. When the president is mad about things, venting about things Early Morning tweets on the weekends have been a classic. Get up early on the weekend and pour your coffee. Number two, the president promised to drain the swamp. Lobbyists are getting calls from all over the country, is he really going to veto the bill . He is the best thing thats ever happened to the swamp. One different thought on all of this, we tend to Pay Attention to the minutes of this presidency. A lot of people are looking at the broader overview. This president stood up today, said some things that show hes being hypocritical. The broad overview is a guy who is trying and people not paying as much attention to the chaos of the day today. Im not sure hes thinking it through in all of those ways. Theres something to be said about that, to going his own way. This whole episode also underscores the uncertainty that this president brings to a republican effort to retake the house in the fall. They need him to shore up their base, fire up their base. When hes railing against his own party, they have distorted messages. Its never a good thing going into a Midterm Election. Great point. This is what democrats learned about barack obama, he was protecting the obama brand over the democratic brand, President Trump protecting the trump brand over the republican brand. He did manage, at least for a little while, to change the subject from some of the issues that he clearly doesnt want us to be talking about, including, for example, Stormy Daniels. Sure, he did. Hes not going to talk about it. Its interesting thats one story he has not seen fit to tweet about, nor will he, i dont believe. How theyre making progress on the wall, on trade. Then general mattis comes out and says this is the Largest Military budget in history. These were his talking points. I go back to the point that he believes very clearly they are best delivered by him. And he is the one alone not only who can fix it, but deliver it. Credibility issue out of this white house, wolf. If the people who represent the president cannot be trusted to deliver what the president is say iing, how can they say anything . A lot of news happening. Well stay on top of all of it. That does it for me, at least for now. Breaking News Coverage of the president s bill signing event will continue right now. Here we go, back on the breaking news. Im Brooke Baldwin in washington, d. C. The president sign this had 1. 3 trillion into law. He did it begrudgingly, calling it ridiculous. After a threat of a Government Shutdown saying he was considering vetoing the legislation. That was the tweet that everyone woke up to. He called this impromptu press briefing to sign this bill whi