Transcripts For MSNBCW Deadline White House 20180621 : vimar

Had previously said he couldnt reverse, but this was a problem of his own creation. And warning that if trump doesnt tread carefully on his immigration policy, democrats will run against gop failure in november. We are also learning more about what brought on the president s rare walkback. Axios reporting today, quote, tv was the tipping point. A person who knows trumps mind poor person told me, quote, the president watches more cable news than most americans. So he experienced an overdose of the outrage and the media frenzy. None of the white house messaging seemed to be helping so he decided mostly on his own rather than at the urging of advisors, that some action was required to change the narrative. Not to get babies out of being locked up. And Washington Post gets to the president s central concern in the entire crisis that left those babies and children wailing and possibly permanently separated from their parents. Quote, for trump what mattered most in a he is drg the family crisis was looking strong. I watched his speech last night. He looked anything but strong to me. Take a look. Democrats put Illegal Immigrants before they put american citizens. What the hell is going on . Theyre building up immigration. They dont want to show whats happening in congress where this whole scam has been revealed. So they want to stay on immigration. Have you been seeing this whole scam . Have you do you believe what youre seeing . How no matter what she did, no matter how many crimes she committed, which were numerous, they wanted her to be innocent. With me, nothing no collusion, no nothing, and they just wanted to take all of us. They wanted to put us in trouble, and its not working too well. Did you ever notice they always call the other side and they do this the elite, the elite . Why are they elite . I have a much better apartment than they do. [ cheers and applause ] im smarter than they are. Im richer than they are. [ cheers and applause ] i became president and they didnt. I dont know, sounds a little more bitter than strong to me. With us from the Washington Post National Political reporter moderator of Washington Week robert costa is here. At the table Associated Press White House Reporter Jonathan Lemire, former republican congressman david jolly. Elise jordan former aide in the george w. Bush state department and nick political reporter joins us. I read your piece last night on the rally. I watched that. He seemed to swerve between doing his honey dos, whatever was written for him on the teleprompter and getting back into his sort of bitter airing of grievances which was most of what we just aired. That is kpangtly right. A little throw back to 2016. Certainly plenty of Hillary Clinton attacks with accompanied by lock her up chants from the crowd. Those have not gone out of style. Plenty of complaints about the media coverage. In particular our reporting indicates he has in recent weeks been furious at how he feels like hes been given a raw deal from the press about his summit with north korea, that he hasnt gotten enough credit, hes not being appropriately viewed as the historic accomplishment that it is. Certainly there was his up obsession with the fbi probe and trying to discredit those investigating him. More than anything, it was still about immigration. And it seemed like he was coming back he needed that warm embrace of his supporters after a rare reversal. Of course, he tried to sell it as anything but a reversal. The kpaexecutive order that he signed yesterday was mentioned once in his rally speech in minnesota. Instead he spent most of it thundering these sort of hardline immigration rhetoric. He invoked his Campaign Kickoff saying how mexico doesnt send their best. It seemed like he was trying to prove his bona fides again saying, i am an immigration hawk. I am tough on this, as if to overcompensate for having caved on the family separation issue earlier in the day. So, i feel like were in the same period of time that we lived in between the president s forced walk back after charlottesville where he read from the prompter i think in the room on something written for him, where he tried to walk back from saying there were good people on both sides. Within about 48 hours he was back to dam right theyre on both sides. I feel like were in this window where we may see him stick with the e. O. But as you say, we know where his heart is and we know he didnt change his mind because any part of him felt i think the whole country felt pain, hearing the audio of children wailing. Seeing the images of very Young Children. And then if none of that cracked your heart open, you belong in therapy. But then learning of the tender age facilities for very, very young babies. None of those things move donald trump. He didnt like the press coverage. Well, thats right. And hes not going to soften his stance on the bigger issue of immigration going into november. Hes going to continue to be more hard line for purposes of frankly following through on promises he made to his base. But recognize what this president always does in moments like this. He has to project strength, not substance. You can make the argument he doesnt quite understand the nuances of the substance, but what he sells is strength. So, the reason he retreated from the g7 was he couldnt show strength among allies and peers, but he could if hes standing next to kim jongun. There was no substance to the deal but there was strength. What he is doing now, he created this problem. Hell never acknowledge that. Hell blame the democrats. But what we saw last night was this image of strength. That there was a problem and he solved it and his base loves that. They voted for him because of that obstinate strength he continues to project. In the Washington Post, trump reveals hes made a paper mache. It is fitting President Trump has been forced into retreat by babies. Cruelty should never be mistaken for strength. Im guessing youre saying it is his belief that he looks strong to his base. As a brand manager, how he got here is by projecting strength to people who were angry and wanted somebody to go to washington and be strong in the face of the establishment. What is missing is all the substance thats required not just for the president of the United States, but anybody who is responsible for policy. What is getting lost and conflated in all of this and its important, this is one of journalisms finer moments to make sure the American People truly understand whats going on is the difference between an unaccompanied minor like we saw the spike in 2014 of unaccompanied minors. Right. And what this president is actually doing splitting up families. We havent seen that before and we cant let the right wing media empowered by donald trump actually change the narrative to that moment, to that type of what aboutism to both sides like we saw coming out of charlottesville. Robert costa, i want you to weigh in on everything were talking right here, but mostly your thoughts about this moment where donald trump has been either forced to or from watching the press coverage, led to a decision that doesnt represent his true policy ideas. We know as a policy matter he supports the separation of children from their parents. He just couldnt sustain the negative coverage. Can you weigh in on whether you see any parallels to other moments where hes been forced to pull back from something we know he believes in . In a sense this is a culmination of moments throughout his presidency where the president has been frustrated with his inability to get the funding for his promised border wall, dealing with a Republicancontrolled Congress that has not been able to execute for him on that key promise. And because of that, you see him taking this hardline stance on immigration. Just months before the midterm elections and a stance many Congressional Republicans are uncomfortable with. Yet he still continues to call for it. And you see him not pulling back. He did cave at this time, but as someone else mentioned, coming this september we could see him push for that wall again. Its a president disconnected at times with his party who are trying to keep their majorities. We have been covering the wall street Journal Editorial Board which under no circumstance can be viewed as a message board for the resistance. Theyve been incredibly tough on the president. It feels like a bit of an intervention. I want to ask you about some reporting you and your colleagues had this morning. Trump surprised his aides with the decision by ordering them to write an executive order and saying he wanted to sign it before leaving for minnesota despite telling reporters friday that such an order could not be done. Kelly urged the president to continue pressing congress to pass a law and argued that signing an order would not solve the problem. So, take us inside the white house machinations and what you call caving, walk back. Nup of them, the president so obsess the for projecting strength even if it represents cruelty is likely to welcome. Robert . You see a president right now, hes trying to adjust to this political moment. Hes calculating even against the advice at times of his White House Counsel Don Mcgahn and chief of staff general kelly who are telling him there are legal issues with trying to move forward with this kind of executive order. But hes watching cable news all the time. Hes getting pressure from gop lawmakers to take some sort of action and even advice from his own family about how to move from this position. Yet hes always torn, he still wants to go to minnesota and have the rally where he says hes tough on immigration, tough on the border, but he also wants to make sure that he doesnt lose all of his political capital. Thats why he moves with his executive power. Elise, Melania Trump went down to the border today, seemed to have seem to have been well received. I was reminded of her first interview after the access Hollywood Tape came out and how shes been deployed at some of Donald Trumps lowest moments. Lets watch her trying to clean that one up. As you can see from the tape, the cameras were not on. It was only a mic. And i wonder if they even knew that the mic was on because they were kind of a boy talk and he was lead on, like egg on from the host to say dirty and bad stuff. So, i think indisputably, that was the lowest moment of his campaign. Beyond dispute, this is one of the lowest moments of his presidency. Once again, melania bailing him out. When the trumpian move is deflecting, its never their fault, theyre never the ones accountable for the i alone can fix it at the rnc convention. He doesnt have any control over the policies he implements, its their fault, its president obamas fault. She took the trip today. I was heartened by it. She seemed genuine, caring, saying the right things. Then im going to be honest, i dont know what to make of the jacket. Whats with the jacket . It was very off message. The picture of her jacket from zara. I dont care in white lettering on the back of the green cargo jacket. She didnt wear it among the children, but she wore it boarding the plane. This isnt her first rodeo heading to a crisis zone and being critiqued for her clothing. She wore high heels this is a picture of Melania Trump boarding air force one to head down to mcallen texas to visit some of the children being held in Detention Centers. Shes wearing a green jacket, we believe that came from the Clothing Store zara. On the back its written in white, i really dont care, do you . Its on the back of her jacket. Nick . Look, the first lady spokesman said it was not meant as a statement. I choose to believe it was not meant as a statement. But, it does speak it does she cares, its just a jacket. Shes a model. She knows the power of clothes. She does. The important thing is it does speak to the layers of theater this president deploys. One thing theyre good at, this is probably conspiratorial, a split screen presidency. One screen for different audiences and one is what we saw at the rally, the other is the first lady making nice at the border. Maybe the third message is her wearing the jacket on the way to the border. Were all obsessed with it for good reason. They narrow cast these messages for different audiences. Thats an interesting bearing. I dont think its conspiratorial. Kids cant wear tshirts with writing on them for certain reasons because everything is saying something. And i wonder what you make of Melania Trump again getting sent in to do cleanup, being well received, and i think being genuine there. I dont have any doubt that she was there as a human being, but the fact that she has throughout so many of these crises put out messages that seem to stand in such stark contrast to her husbands. We found her tweet after charlottesville. She said our country encourages freedom of speech. Lets communicate without hate in our hearts. No good comes from violence, charlottesville. She was welcomed, warmly welcomed at Barbara Bushs funeral. There is a picture of her standing next to former president s. None of the three former president s voted for donald trump. What do you think of melanias vogue, but not rogue resistance . The jacket does confuse matters. Weve seen so little of her reese entally. After that surgery, she disappeared off the map for more than a month, i believe. Then she has slowly reentered the public sphere in the last week or two. But she does play a role, she used to be pretty popular. Her poll numbers are good, higher than her husbands. She has used them to change the subject, to give a softer edge to Donald Trumps very blunt, sharp sense. Whats also striking, though, is whatever behind the scenes role she has played here on this decision. She of course did tweet a few days ago the idea that she was upset by these images of the parents and children being separated. Its also a spotlight has been cast on ivanka trump who of course has made her portfolio in the white house. She billed herself as a force for good in this administration, in the west wing and with a particular focus on parents and children. But she was silent throughout this crisis. Obviously it is hard for a white house advisor and shes paid staff, not just the first daughter, shes paid staff to publicly disagree with the president. That said, it also perhaps speaks to the limits of her influence, but this could have happened all alongtio, particuly on an issue she says shes passionate about. We only hear from her publicly after its resolved. The limits of her influence is laid bare in the paris climate accord. Ivanka trump, tell me a debate where shes prevailed. Very few. Are there any . There is washington cliche, every time there is a momentous thing, suddenly friends of ivanka, anonymous aides, white house officials, people familiar with her thinking press go to the press and say, well, she tried her best behind the scenes. She lobbied. She may have been successful, she may not have been. That is something she did. The proof is in the pudding and it seems like there is very little influence she actually does wield. Robert costa, before i let you go, i want to ask one more question about what you saw last night. This is Donald Trumps sweet spot where hes in this monogamous conversation. Its just him and the base that loves him. Do you sense that that is sort of the gravitational pull that all the people trying to be guardrails on this administration will ultimately just relent and let him sort of be that guy as often as he wants . Thats his highest and best calling, keeping that base happy . Locking eyes with that Political Base is what this president is all about, having covered him for years. He is consumed with the idea of making sure that base sustains itself, that it will carry him forward politically, whether its through the midterm elections through the 2020 campaign. And despite all the different voices around him, his family, different advisors, fellow republicans, its the president and his base again and again on incendiary issue after insend heir i issue that carries him forward. Antenna up, watching cable television, his instincts about his Political Base. Thats what jars so many in his own party. It is also, though, that Political Base wasnt enough for donald trump to have drafted a victory speech on Election Night. It is not enough to give him enough confidence to have gone into Election Night thinking hes going to win but it is an interesting dynamic. Robert costa, thank you for spending time with us. When we come back. The enduring scandal, the children may never find their way back to their parents. One of the few reporters who has been inside those Detention Centers in texas joins us right here at the table. Also ahead is the political discourse circles the drain, new reporting on Donald Trumps legacy as the man responsible for normalizing cruelty. As we just mentioned ivanka trump who over sees women and childrens issues as Jonathan Lemire reminds us, stays really quiet until the scandal has passed. birds tweeting this is not a cloud. 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