Skip to main content

tv   Wolf  CNN  October 24, 2017 10:00am-11:00am PDT

10:00 am
hello, i'm wolf blitzer. 1:00 p.m. here in washington. wherever you're watching, thanks very much for joining us. >> this is cnn breaking news. following breaking news, president trump arriving up on capitol hill to meet with republican senators. he's there to sell his massive tax plan but the escalating tension with some fierce republican critics has just turned up a dramatic notch. the president's feud with senator bob corker erupting once again today. the president tweeting out several times against the top republican lawmaker on the foreign relations committee,
10:01 am
including this tweet, quote, bob corker, who helped president o, president obama, give us the bad iran deal and couldn't get elected dog catcher in tennessee is now fighting tax cuts. corker dropped out of the race in tennessee when i refused to endorse him and now is only negative on anything trump. look at his record, closed quote. the senator fired right back against trump on twitter saying, quote, same untruths from an utterly untruthful president #alertthedaycarecenter. he then elaborated in an extensive interview with cnn's manu raju. >> you didn't run for re-election because you couldn't get his endorsement. is that accurate? >> no, it's into the accurate. you know, nothing that he said in his tweets today were true or accurate. he knows it. people around him know it. i would hope the staff over there would figure out ways of
10:02 am
controlling him when they know that everything he said today was absolutely untrue. >> do you regret supporting him in the election? >> let's just put it this way, i would not do that again. >> you wouldn't support him? >> no. no. i think that he's proven himself unable to rise to the occasion. i think many of us, me included, have, you know, tried to, you know, i've intervened, i've had private dinner, i've been with him on multiple occasions to try to create some kind of aspirational approach, if you will, to the way that he conducts himself, but i don't think that that's possible. he's obviously not going to rise to the occasion as president. no, absolutely not. i think that the things that are happening right now that are --
10:03 am
that are harmful to our nation, whether it's the breaking down of we're going to be doing some hearings on some of the things that he purposefully is breaking down relationships we have around the world that have been useful to our nation, but i think at the end of the day when his term is over, i think the debasing of our nation, the constant nontruth telling, the -- just the name-calling, the things like -- i think the basement of our nation will be what he'll be remembered most for. and that's regretful, and it affects young people. we have young people who for the first time are, you know, watching a president stating, you know, absolute nontruths nonstop. personalizing things in the way that he does, and it's very sad for our nation. >> manu is joining us live from
10:04 am
capitol hill. manu, it's getting very, very awkward getting into this important meeting up in the senate. give us a little bit more background how tense the situation is right now between the president and the chairman of the senate foreign relations committee. >> reporter: well, wolf, these two used to be pretty close. senator corker was one of the closest senators who had a relationship with the president for some time. the president considered him to be secretary of state, he considered him to be vice president very briefly. they played golf together. they regularly communicated, but it really started to deteriorate back in august when the president made the remarks following the deadly violence in charlottesville after the white supremacist rally. corker said it showed he needs to demonstrate some competence and stability to be successful at the job and that sent off trump. and that led to an extended back and forth that only escalated in the last several days when corker suggested that if it
10:05 am
weren't for several members of the president's national security team the country could lead to chaos. later bob corker suggesting it could lead -- the president's actions could lead to world war iii. fast forward to today. corker was upset at the fact that the president continues to say something that he, in corker's view, is completely false. corker essentially calling him a liar suggesting that the president said that he would -- he would not endorse him for re-election and that is the reason why he is not running for re-election. on four separate occasions according to corker the president promised to endorse him. that is a number of what the president says are mistruths, falsehoods, things coming from the president's mouth. the fact that corker's retiring, he is at liberty to do what he -- really try to rein in the president, try to go after the president and try to call out the president and one interesting thing from the interview, too, wolf, was he said he's going to use his
10:06 am
senate foreign relation committee perch to spotlight relationships in which the president has, quote, purposefully tried to deteriorate those relationships. senator corker is not going away quietly. the president wants to punch him, he's certainly ready to punch back, wolf. >> they're punching big time, manu. i want you to stand by and keep us updated where it moves next as the republican senators head into this luncheon with the president in that very, very special interview with manu senator corker called out the president for being untruthful. he stopped short of calling him an actual liar, but his message is clear. hissen to what -- listen to what he said. >> you said he's an untruthful president. are you calling him -- >> is that a question? >> yeah. >> we grew up in our family not using the "l" word but, yeah, they're provable untruths,
10:07 am
provable. so, i mean, on the iran deal, everybody knows the role i played there. they're working with me, interestingly, right now on tax reform. i made the deal with toomey that has allowed that to go forward. i want to make sure it's done properly and then everything else four times he's encouraged me to run and told me he would endorse me. i don't know. it's amazing. unfortunately, i think world leaders are very aware that much of what he says is untrue. certainly people here are because these things are prove bring untrue. i don't know why he lowers himself to such a low, low standard that debases our country in the way that he does, but he does. you know, look, i don't like responding. you can let them go unanswered, but it's just not me to -- we
10:08 am
don't do tweets like that. we've responded twice to, again, untruths but, you know, it's unfortunate that our nation finds itself in this place. >> is the president of the united states a liar? >> the president has great difficulty with truth on many issues. >> all right. here with a bit of a reality check, our white house reporter jeremy diamond is. how truthful are the claims against senator corker? >> wolf, this is one of the latest feuds that the president has had and it's not always easy to give a reality check. on this instance we very clearly can. let's start with what the president tweeted this morning. he said, corker helped president o give us the bad iran deal, referring of course to president obama, and that was just the latest instance of the president lashing out at corker accusing
10:09 am
him of supporting the iran deal. that, of course, is not true at all. corker was actually a vocal critic of the iran deal throughout his time in congress. he wrote in a washington post editorial that congress should, in fact, oppose that iran deal writing that the congress should do so. and that is exactly what corker did. look here. corker's words, the gop leads the united states to iran, wealthier and more willing to work in the middle east. in that same opinion piece he wrote congress should reject this deal and send it back to the president. and that is exactly what corker worked to do, working with most nearly every republican and even handful of democrats to reject that deal. he did just that. that measure though that he put forward came just two votes short. he voted against the iran deal
10:10 am
in a procedural motion, but it fell just two votes shy of actual passage. but even before that, even before the iran deal came forward and congress was able to weigh in, why was it able to weigh in? well, it was because of what senator corker as chairman of the foreign relations committee was able to do. he worked with republicans and democrats to pass this iran review act which passed overwhelmingly in the senate 98-1 and in the house 400-25. this bill was the bill that gave congress the ability to actually weigh in on the iran deal which otherwise the obama administration may have very well gone unilaterally and passed this motion by itself. and so, of course, when we look at this claim from the president, the reality is that this is simply a false claim. senator corker was one of the most vocal opponents of the iran deal and he worked with both republicans and democrats to oppose it. wolf? >> yeah, they needed 60 votes, this resolution of disapproval
10:11 am
against the iran deal. they got 58 so that was shy, but even if they would have gotten 60, the president would have vetoed that resolution of disapproval that they would have needed a 2/3 vote to override that veto. corker was opposed to the deal from the beginning, but they simply didn't have the votes, right? >> exactly. that's exactly right, wolf. >> jeremy diamond, our white house reporter. thank you very much. our panelists standing by. we have a lot to discuss as we await the president and the republican senators to emerge from their presumably pretty tense meeting that's going on right now. they're having lunch up in the senate. this is cnn special live coverage. let's take a look at some numbers: 4 out of 5 people who have a stroke, their first symptom...
10:12 am
is a stroke. 80 percent of all strokes and heart disease? preventable. and 149 dollars is all it takes to get screened and help take control of your health. we're life line screening... and if you're over 50... call this number, to schedule an appointment... for five painless screenings that go beyond regular check-ups. we use ultrasound technology to literally look inside your arteries... for plaque which builds up as you age- and increases your risk for stroke and cardiovascular disease. and by getting them through this package, you're saving over 50%. so call today and consider these numbers: for just $149 you'll receive five screenings that could reveal what your body isn't telling you. i'm gonna tell you that was the best $150 i ever spent in my life. life line screening. the power of prevention. call now to learn more. a silicon valley server farm. the vault to man's greatest wonders... selfies, cat videos and winking emojis.
10:13 am
speaking of tech wonders, with the geico app you can get roadside assistance, digital id cards... or even file a claim. do that.. yeah, yeah that should work. it's not happening... just try again. uh, i think i found your problem. thanks. hmm... the award-winning geico app. download it today.
10:14 am
how much money do you think you'll need in retirement? then we found out how many years that money would last them. how long do you think we'll keep -- oooooohhh! you stopped! you're gonna leave me back here at year 9? how did this happen? it turned out, a lot of people fell short, of even the average length of retirement. we have to think about not when we expect to live to, but when we could live to. let's plan for income that lasts all our years in retirement. prudential. bring your challenges. not all fish oil supplements provide the same omega-3 power.
10:15 am
introducing megared advanced triple absorption it supports your heart, joints, brain, and eyes. and is absorbed by your body three times better. so one megared has more omega-3 power than three standard fish oil pills. megared advanced triple absorption. underway right now, the u.s. senate and president trump meeting with republicans on capitol hill as he and senator bob corker escalate their war of words. if you're wondering just how dramatic these talks on capitol
10:16 am
hill are this picture says it all. senator tom tillis tweeting this picture of himself bringing popcorn to the meeting with the president and the senate republicans. let's discuss this and more. joining us our cnn politics reporter editor at large chris sciliza, lauren fox, cnn political analyst david drucker and gloria borger. corker, gloria -- >> where's our popcorn? >> no popcorn here. we're working hard. corker is not the only critic. i could go on. lots of critics of the president right now. bottom line though in this push for tax cuts, how is all of that going to play out? the criticism he's getting from fellow republicans and their eventual votes? >> it complicates everything. i mean, this president doesn't exactly have a lot to show from congress. he's got this much to show from congress. he didn't -- he didn't do the
10:17 am
repeal and replace, the affordable care act. he hasn't yet done tax reform. just yesterday he tweeted and undercut republicans with him saying, okay, we're not going to touch the 401k. so at the very least, wolf, it has complicated things because he doesn't have anything to show and his personal relationships among republicans are dwindling. now having said that, i wouldn't say that any senator would vote against his constituents and what he believes to be good policy because he doesn't like donald trump, but -- but it is a complicating factor because they also believe to a person that this is not a president who will have their back. if they do something controversial, if they do something that may not win 100% in the polls, will this president back them up? you saw in the
10:18 am
>> just wrote a piece on cnn in which you document the exchange that the president had with republican senators. there's more than one or two or three that were sort of nasty. corker is the most obvious example here. it's far from the only. including the senate majority leader including who trump sort of openly speculated, well, maybe you should resign if you can't get the job done. ask me later about it. >> 11 out of 52. >> 21%. it's one in five. i mean, you know, this is not one or two small things. this is -- this is not -- >> it's only 1:00. >> right. right. it hasn't even gotten out of this meeting yet. i think to gloria's point, there's a lot of legislative successes at the margins which is 40 -- let's say 45 republican senators are going to be for almost everything that donald trump is.
10:19 am
same thing would be true when barack obama is the president. the issue is the five, six, seven in between. a lot of them have legitimate concerns which are policy and politics focused. how can i make this work for my constituents? the issue is they don't trust him. honestly, would you given that track record? not just attacking personally but, remember, he went after house republicans agreed to a health care bill, trump said it was mean. that's number one. number two, there's no personal goodwill that exists there among that small group. they are not inclined to bend over backwards maybe an exaggeration but even slightly to help him because they know he could be sawing that limb off as they inch out of it. he's done it before. there's no reason to suggest he'll do it again. that's where these pieces of legislation either go or fail and it's that -- i don't know if it's a lack of understanding, a lack of care of how you get a big piece of legislation through, but no matter what the
10:20 am
outcome is the same. trump is going to be in a tough place when he goes to them in a week or month and says i need you on this. >> when he went after senator corker, senator corker was on the morning tv shows, said some not so nice things about the president. the president immediately responded with that tweet. isn't it sad that a light weight senator bob corker couldn't get re-elected in the great state of tennessee will fight tax cuts and then he said bob corker who helped president obama give us the bad obama deal couldn't get elected as dog catcher is fighting tax cuts. he loves that phrase couldn't get elected dog catcher. we went back and we put together this little clip. watch this. >> without the media, hillary clinton couldn't be elected dog catcher. i mean that. >> and then i have to listen to a little guy like rubio say, oh, he's a con man. this guy couldn't be elected dog catcher if he ran. >> i think lindsey graham is a
10:21 am
disgrace. i don't think he could run for dog catcher in this state and win again, i really don't. >> little marco rubio, you know, he's a -- he's a no show in the u.s. senate. he couldn't be elected dog catcher in florida. >> he couldn't be elected dog catcher. >> he loves that expression. he uses it and uses it and uses it again. >> yeah. this is the best twitter spat since marco rubio called trump a midnight chalker and he responded in kind plus. look, i think what is going on here and chris talked about it and gloria talked about it is on the one hand there is no trust between senate republicans and president trump and among the reasons there is no trust, it's not necessarily policy differences although there are those -- it's not necessarily they don't know each other well, although there's that. donald trump likes to move around when it comes to negotiating legislative deals and while that may work in real
10:22 am
estate and entertainment, it does not work in legislation. you can even look at deals he has cut or outlines he has agreed to with democrats. look at the immigration bill. they were going to do something but no wall. trump then changes that. that is the original sin when it comes to negotiating legislation. if you agree to something, you have to stick to it or people don't trust you. now, understanding that, corker did one thing that republicans are not happy about today. even though he has been in fights before with the president that the president has started, they feel like he is the one that struck first today, that he could have dismissed the questions about his past comments and let it be. tax reform is going to be very difficult to do. they're trying to keep president trump from acting like president trump. corker getting into a fight with them being the instigator doesn't happen. i think he's going to be the most unpopular guy at the lunch, not the president. >> what happens, lauren, if they
10:23 am
fail to deliver on tax reform or tax cuts going into the 2018 mid term elections? >> absolutely. it would be a major disaster if republican senators cannot deliver on something. they failed on health care and everyone knows it. going into that lunch today, i think that's why there was so much frustration with senator corker on capitol hill. a whole lot of members didn't support him and saying he was right. they're hoping he stops, cut it out. we're going to see that going forward. corker is not running again. a lot of these members are going to go out in 2018 and they may be primaried by somebody who's being backed by steve bannon, one of the president's closest allies in washington. i think that they're all very concerned about that going forward. they don't want anymore of this drama. >> it will be interesting to see which of these republican senators very quickly, gloria, actually goes out and speaks and reacts to the corker/trump feud after this meeting with the president.
10:24 am
>> we had a very productive meeting with the president of the united states. we discussed the major outlines of what we want on our tax cuts and the president mentioned to us, as jeff zeleny's reporting this morning, that he'd like us to work a longer week so we can approve more judicial nominations and that's what they're going to say. they're not going to come out and talk about this feud, and i think you're right. they're saying to corker, shut up. stop this and go away. we want to pass tax reform. but at some point, some of these other senators are going to have to say, wait a minute here. we're dealing with the president who throws tantrums every morning and it hurts us. it hurts our ability to get our work done. >> there are other republican senators who privately tend to agree with senator corker. >> all of them.
10:25 am
>> they don't want to go public. >> it means something, wolf, to lauren's point, that the one guy who's willing to do this stuff is retiring. i'll remind people, bob corker was not nearly as critical six months ago when he was undecided on running for re-election. it's 100% right. the only people who are going to come out and talk, it was great, all on the same page. >> let's see. >> the very fact that -- i think. the very fact that you won't have -- i don't think you will see any people say, you know, bob corker's got a point. people like roger when i canner. everybody stand by. watching developments. we're waiting for the president and the republican senators to
10:26 am
see. let's see how tense it is inside. i'll speak live with a republican lawmaker about whether he agrees with senator corker's criticism. some breaking news involving the niger ambush. telling them why the american team was in that area to begin with. big news that's coming up as well. remember that accident i got in with the pole, and i had to make a claim and all that? is that whole thing still dragging on? no, i took some pics with the app and... filed a claim, but... you know how they send you money to cover repairs and... they took forever to pay you, right? no, i got paid right away, but... at the very end of it all, my agent... wouldn't even call you back, right? no, she called to see if i was happy. but if i wasn't happy with my claim experience for any reason, they'd give me my money back, no questions asked. can you believe that? no. the claim satisfaction guarantee, only from allstate. switching to allstate is worth it. only from allstate. try revitalift triple power anti-from l'oreal. i have more confidence. my coworkers were like, your skin looks great! revitalift triple power visibly reduces wrinkles, refirms and smooths texture in one week. guaranteed, or your money back.
10:27 am
from l'oreal paris.
10:28 am
10:29 am
10:30 am
there's breaking news about the investigation into the ambush in niger. our chief national correspondent jim sciutto is at the pentagon working his sources. update the viewers on the news that you're learning because it adds new light on what actually
10:31 am
happened. >> that's right, wolf. we're learning multiple officials, military officials telling us that part of the mission of this u.s. army team was to gather intelligence on a known terrorist leader believed to be operating in that same area. in addition to that, they were meeting with local leaders, local leader engagement as they call it and that was part of their job, go out, speak to these people and ask them, gather intelligence as they do that on what was believed to be a senior terror leader operating in the area. i should make clear that it was not part of their mission or their orders to kill or capture this leader. that kind of job would be reserved for more elite special forces teams, ones with more backup, its. this was purely an intelligence gathering operation. of course, as we reported earlier as they were leaving with local leaders, it's believed they believe they were delayed somewhat. some suspicions in the air. one thing they were investigating is whether they were delayed on purpose to set
10:32 am
them up for an ambush after the fact by these some 50 isis affiliated fighters that came in. to be clear, again, part of their mission was to gather intelligence on a known terror leader operating in the area. it was not their mission to capture. >> very interesting. another new element that we're learning. the original reporting as you well know had those french mirage fighter jets overhead in, what, half an hour, 30 minutes or so. what is the pentagon now saying about that? >> reporter: first, we learned there was a u.s. drone operating in the area at the time of the atta attack. within minutes general dunford told us that u.s. drone was over the site of this observing. it did not fire on the militants but it was over the site observing. we know that french mirage jets came in as well, again, observing. they did not fire their weapons either. that's one thing that's being investigated. they were under no restrictions
10:33 am
from doing so but they did not pick up targets on the ground to fire. this happening about an hour into the firefight. an hour into the firefight before the u.s. troops on the ground called in for support from the air. >> the investigation over the pentagon continues. they have some fbi agents on the ground helping out. jim sciutto, thanks very much. in the operation, of course, four soldiers were killed. staff sargeant jeremiah sargeant, sargeant black and la david johnson. two others wounded. five nigerian soldiers were killed in this operation. here with us to discuss retired u.s. army colonel, steve warren and spokesman for the antiisis coalition. the newest tracking number. author and contributor for the new yorker, esquire magazine among others, guys. thanks very much, elliott. welcome to cnn. you served five tours in iraq
10:34 am
and afghanistan. you hear about the delay in this mission. what goes through your mind? because when you served you were on similar missions. >> i think the thing that's important to consider is they were going into an area where they probably had incomplete intelligence. if they were looking for this individual who is some type of islamic state leader, you know, who is that person an interest to, to the nigerians, the americans, there are a lot of things that aren't clear. if it was a setup, obviously it's something where they would be held up for a little while so the conditions have been put in place to launch some type of ambush which this says this was. >> it looks like there was an intelligence failure. the investigation is continuing, steve. you go into a sensitive area like this without armored personnel carriers. i don't know if they were wearing body armor, but clearly they weren't anticipating an attack by 50 isis inspired at least terrorists. >> yeah. there's no question, wolf, that
10:35 am
this was a surprise attack. they were not ready for this attack. sometimes we believe in this. it's an imperfect science. we know that folks are working as hard as they can to gather the intelligence but there's times when the enm i gets a vote and they get to slip in. >> we all know that la david onson, one of the sergeants who was killed, his body was found 48 hours later. he was separated from the other three and 48 hours later and it was unclear, you know, why -- what happened there, but it's raising a lot of questions, especially for the family. >> i think something you also can't under estimate is something like this. you go to an environment that by and large, the estimation was pretty permissible beforehand. if these people were running -- the special forces soldiers were running a patrol there. then within a short period of time we realized that there are up to 50 militants in there. so the idea of it taking two days, you can't just go back in
10:36 am
and search for that body. you have to go in in a very deliberate way. you don't know exactly where sargeanton be son wound up and you have to start a search pattern. so there's lots of questions right now, and i think what we're seeing out of the pentagon is a very deliberate investigation that's trying to get the answers. >> this investigation is really important because most people didn't know that the u.s. has, what, 1,000 troops in niger right now. they certainly didn't know how potentially dangerous it is and there's a lot of questions that members of congress, the american public, especially the families have. >> there are a lot of questions, wolf. it's important that everyone take a -- kind of take a breather and let this investigation play out. we can't lose sight of the fact that it's a very important mission that they're conducting in africa. this mission is in america's national interests. the worse thing we can do is over react before we know all of the circumstances. in other words, to place heavy restrictions on these guys who are out there engaging with the africans every day, engaging
10:37 am
with the nigerian forces every day, building them up and really helping us fight this enemy over seas. >> yeah, i suspect if there was 1,000 u.s. troops in niger going out on a reconnaissance mission, they're wearing body armor and they're in armored vehicles right now in case there are other attacks along these linings. they have to learn the lessons from this to make sure it doesn't happen again. guys, thanks very much. >> thank you. up on capitol hill right now presumably tense meeting underway between the president and several of his republican critics, including senator bob corker, the chairman of the foreign relations committee who essentially called the president earlier today a failure. i'll speak live with a republican lawmaker about whether he agrees. very disturbing warning why they say north korea's nuclear threat is, quote, an imminent, an imminent level. we'll have details. you do all this research
10:38 am
on a perfect car, then smash it into a tree. your insurance company raises your rates. maybe you should've done more research on them.
10:39 am
for drivers with accident forgiveness, liberty mutual won't raise your rates due to your first accident. switch and you could save $782 on home and auto insurance. call for a free quote today. liberty stands with you™. liberty mutual insurance.
10:40 am
10:41 am
10:42 am
right now president trump is in his luncheon meeting with republican senators up on capitol hill making his sales pitch for his tax cut agenda. cuts worth more than $1 trillion. senator bob corker one of the president's most vocal critics says he's skeptical about the value of the meeting. he's saying it's a photo op that's underway. congressman francis rooney is joining us. he's a republican from florida. he's a member of the joint economic committee. congressman, thanks so much for joining us. >> thanks for having me on, wolf. >> just in the past four hours or so senator corker suggested the president's a liar. he suggested the president is debased the united states. hasn't risen to the occasion as president suggested that he needs watching. he needs to be in a day care
10:43 am
center and that he's not a good role model for children. do you agree with any of this? >> no, i don't, and i don't agree with the principle involved here. you know, if we didn't have so many big problems to try to solve that this is distracting us from, it might be different, but this is a tragic, almost kind of soap opera here when we have really threatening challenges to our country that we need to work on. >> because the senator, senator corker, suggests that the president in effect represents a threat he needs to be watched by his national security advisor, his chief of staff, the secretary of defense, the secretary of state without that kind of observance he fears the president could lead the country into what he calls world war iii. are you concerned about any of that? >> i think that senator corker has just made himself judge, jury, executioner. of course i'm concerned about nuclear war and any kind of excessive force. you look at what the president has accomplished by getting china involved in north korea, i was for him refusing to certify
10:44 am
the iran agreement until we bring iran to the table to let us know what goes on in a military basis. they stopped their ballistic missile program. we need a little tough love and the president and secretary tillerson have given that. >> let's talk about the main subject of this luncheon with the tax cuts. on the tax push by spontaneously taking various positions on twitter, is the president and some of his critics are suggesting actually undermining the process with the house and the senate? >> well, first of all, i'm he not sure what the process is. we're supposed to be working on a bill over here that no one has seen any details of. i keep hearing rumor here, rumor there. i want to see what we're doing. maybe some specifics will come out as to what the president would agree to, what the senators would agree to. >> the president as you know over these past several days and weeks, he's taken several
10:45 am
sensitive items off the table, entitlements, for example, no cuts at all to medicare, medicaid, social security. now he says no cuts at all to 401 ks which are very popular with a lot of middle class families. they won't be touched. here's the question. you want to make sure that there aren't trillion dollar increases to the national debt, to the deficit as a result of these tax cuts. where are you going to cut? >> well, if you cut the state and local tax deduction you pick up a trillion and a half. >> that's very unpopular with states like california, new york, other states where there are significant state income taxes. you're going to get a whole bunch of republicans m those states who are not going to be happy. >> you're right, wolf. we've got them lining up in the room where we're at. the fact of the matter is it's a sea change of principle going to a double standard deduction and simplifying the payment of the taxes on that three by five
10:46 am
card. only 4 or 5% of people are going to itemize. if only four or five% of the people itemize it seems any deduction they leave in place will be paid by the higher income people. >> so if it's going to cost the first ten years let's say a trillion and a half dollars, the deficit, the national debt will go up by a trillion and a half, $1.5 trillion, are you going to vote for it? >> i'm going to have trouble voting for something that increases the debt $1.5 trillion. i'm going to have trouble voting for something that's not a pure simplification rate reduction using the elimination of all of these carve outs. >> you're going to vote for the senate passed budget. it will come up on the house floor without any changes. i assume you'll vote for that, right? >> what i've got a balance, i've been speaking about it an awful lot. the fact that the budget is a vehicle to get to a
10:47 am
reconciliation tax vote of 51 senators. that's a good thing. if that's the case, does it really matter what the budget says? if it doesn't matter what the budget says, i don't know why the senate couldn't have passed ours conservatively. >> let me get your thoughts on another issue the president earlier tweeted his praise for comments on hezbollah, the iran backed -- the u.s. regards it as an iran backed terrorist organization. the strong comments that vice president pence made in a ceremony honoring the 241 military personnel, mostly marines killed at their barracks back in 1983 outside of beirut. here's what the vice president said. >> brutal act that brings us here today was planned and perpetrated by the terrorists of hezbollah. under president trump's leadership we've redoubled our commitment to cripple hezbollah's leadership and bring it to justice.
10:48 am
>> this past summer as you may remember, maybe not, he welcomed the lebanese prime minister to the white house. they were speaking in the rose garden and the president praised the government of lebanon in his words on being on the front line of the fight against terror groups including hezbollah. but you probably know this, the president clearly did not know it, that hezbollah is a major partner in the lebanese government right now. the lebanese government is not fighting hezbollah. the lebanese government includes hez bo hezbollah. are you concerned that he isn't familiar enough with the nuances of the conflicts and there are many underway in the middle east. >> when i had dinner with him a few weeks ago he seemed to have a very strong grasp of some of the problems that we faced in the world. i have personal experience with lebanon having worked that issue as an ambassador during the 2006 war. you're absolutely right. lebanon's had a historic
10:49 am
christian, drews, hezbollah coalition. that coalition is nominated by one or another party. right now unfortunately hezbollah has the upper hand. >> yeah, they're a major player in the lebanese government right now as you point out withdrews, christians, sunni and shiite muslims as well. hezbollah, the lebanese government is not fighting them. they're part of that. congressman francis rooney, thanks so much for joining us. we'll certainly welcome you back. >> thank you for having me on, wolf. up next, as japan is coming. senator corker has blistering comments. stand by for that. plus, why did afghanistan appear to photo shop a picture of its meeting with the secretary of state rex tillerson and the president of afghanistan. you'll see what they didn't want the afghan public to know. i'm done. done with figuring it out for myself. i'm done with surprises. i'm done with complicated.
10:50 am
if you're on medicare, and ready to be done with complicated, turn to unitedhealthcare and our medicare advantage plans... like aarp medicarecomplete. these plans can combine your hospital and doctor coverage, with prescription drug coverage and more, all in one plan for a low, or even no, monthly premium. so call now.lan for a low, or even no, monthly premium. so call now. we can answer your questions, even help you enroll. i deserve to get the most out of my plan. we'll make sure your doctors are all connected, you know what your copays are... and you can save on prescriptions; plan members saved an average of over 5000 dollars last year. medicare open enrollment ends december 7th. if you're done with complicated, if you're doso done... complicated, so done... call now to enroll in a plan from unitedhealthcare, like aarp medicarecomplete. [sfx: mnemonic]
10:51 am
10:52 am
10:53 am
he's brought us to the obstructed justice at the fbi. and in direct violation of the constitution, he's taken money from foreign governments and threatened to shut down news organizations that report the truth. if that isn't a case for impeaching and removing a dangerous president, then what has our government become? i'm tom steyer and, like you, i'm a citizen who knows it's up to us to do something. it's why i'm funding this effort to raise our voices together and demand that elected officials take a stand on impeachment. a republican congress once impeached a president for far less. yet, today, people in congress and his own administration know this president is a clear and present danger who is mentally unstable and armed with nuclear weapons. and they do nothing. join us and tell your member of congress that they have a moral responsibility to stop doing what's political
10:54 am
and start doing what's right. our country depends on it. senator bob corker, the chairman of the foreign relations committee, did not mince words when he spoke about president trump today saying that the president has a problem with the truth and the international community is taking note. > . >> unfortunately, i think world leaders are very much aware that much of what he says is untrue. certainly people here are because these things are prove blee untrue. i mean, they are just factually incorrect and people know the difference. so i don't know why he lowers himself to such a low, low standard and to base our country in the way he does. >> let's discuss this and more with cnn military analyst
10:55 am
retired rear admiral john kirby. he's a state department pentagon spokesperson. are you concerned that the world leaders believe that president trump is not telling the truth and has a credibility problem around the world? >> i think definitely there's a credibility problem. one, there's a lack of clarity on where the united states is going on foreign policies and i think they are also concerned about the decline of u.s. leadership around the world. that's why you see leaders, like president macron in chance and chancellor merkel in germany trying to move balls forward and you see russia and china wanting to step in and fill what they perceive to be a growing vacuum of u.s. leadership. >> this is the hallway over there at the u.s. senate. two pictures, rex tillerson, the secretary of state, he showed up in afghanistan to meet with the
10:56 am
afghan president. take a look at those two pictures over there. on one picture there was a clock that was removed by the afghan -- they didn't want to show the people of afghanistan that the meeting didn't take place at kabul. it took place at bagram military base. what does that say that they have to meet at a bomb shelter rather than at the afghan president's offices in the capital? >> it certainly speaks to a much more tense security situation in kabul. no doubt about it. we know the taliban is continuing to gain ground and to cause attacks there in kabul. it certainly speaks to a more dangerous security situation and it's embarrassing from a pr perspective because you have the u.s. state department picture being accurately depicted and president ghani and the presidential office sort of
10:57 am
doctoring this photo, which is come pleat completely inappropriate to do. >> they can never announce it in advance for security reasons. all right. we'll continue our analysis of that. president trump is up on capitol hill. he's going to emerge any moment now from his meeting with republican senators, including senator bob corker who is there. the two traded some major insults earlier today.
10:58 am
10:59 am
what's that, broheim? i switched to geico and got more. more savings on car insurance? yeah bro-fessor, and more. like renters insurance. more ways to save. nice, bro-tato chip. that's not all, bro-tein shake. geico has motorcycle and rv insurance, too. oh, that's a lot more. oh yeah, i'm all about more, teddy brosevelt. geico. expect great savings and a whole lot more.
11:00 am
all right. here we go. i'm brooke baldwin. good to be back. thank you for being here with me on this tuesday and watching cnn. to capitol hill where president trump is pitching his tax cut plan. this looked like russian flags and someone was tossing it to the president as he was