tv Face the Nation CBS June 3, 2018 8:30am-9:30am PDT
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captioning sponsored by cbs >> brennan: i'm margaret brennan this is "face the nation." the meeting with jim jong-un is on in less than ten days. as the president welcomed a north korean official to the white house. but the goal for the summit continues to be a question. >> we have very significant things. but we had hundreds -- we have hundreds that are ready to go. but i said i'm not -- why would i do that. >> brennan: things aren't so nice between u.s. and some of the closest allies. countries including canada, mexico, china and members of the european union are furious about president trump's new tariffs, back home the present's own e picy.g issue
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>> i don't think anything goodwill come out of a trade war and i hope we pull back from the brink here. >> we'll talk to ohio governor john kasich and texas congressman will hurd about that trade war. and republican efforts to try to move forward with protecting the children of undocumented immigrants. even if it means a showdown with congressional leadership and the president. the "new york times" 20 page memo from the president's attorney arguing as chief law enforcement officer the president couldn't obstruct justice. will that strategy work? we'll ask our political panel. plus we'll kick off our 2018cbs news mid term election battleground tracker and tell you exactly where things stand as democrao te control of congress. former speaker john boehner right when he says -- >> there is no -- there's a trump -- republican party has to take a nap somewhere. >> brennan: politics, policy and news all ahead on "face the
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nation." good morning and welcome to "face the nation." trump administration officials got an earful in two parts of the world this weekend about the president's new trade tariffs. congress secretary wilbur ross went on an economic mission to china and others met with finance ministers in canada ahead of this week's g7 summit. here at home some of the president's biggest supporters including farmers and manufacturers are still unsure how these new policies will impact them. we want to go to westerville, ohio, just outside of columbus to the republican governor, john kasich, welcome to "face the nation."fs pop withmaess sand even with your home senator, yes, a democrat, he supports the
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president's efforts here. why do you think some of these working class ohioans are wrong? >> well, because there's -- among republicans, democrats all the people that study these things, you get into trade wars, the president of france said when you take nationalism as approach to your economy it can lead to war. and we know what happened when we imposed all these barriers on people in the past. the economy slowed down, people paid higher prices and then beyond that, it increases acrimony among our friends, we're punishing our friends. if they were cheating that's one thing. but slap this on under a phony excuse, going alone on that, withdrew from the paris accords, withdraw from the iranian deal which they're your fuss about. didn't get into pacific trade agreement it iss it's not america first, it's america alone. just not good policy in fact it borders on dangerous in my opinion. >> brennan: your point is taken on the international scale but
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for those steel worsers ink youngstown, ohio, do you to you explain how to proceed they can their job is this an industry that can't be saved at this point? >> well, the first thing is, that the industry is modernizing, they are more competitive. we have 40 million americans that work in trade relayed jobs, most of the exports activity are done by small and medium sized businesses. what this is going to do is cost consumers, slow down the economy, it's not prudent, it's not smart. those very steelworkers will find out that things will cost more and what they will buy will not be good. i hope the administration will back away from this policy. >> brennan: have you calculated what the cost to ohio would be if canada, mexico, european union go ahead? >> it's not just my state that's involved here. it's our nation. it has significant consequences for us here a home. onljust ecot geopolitically. when did it ever make sense for anybody powerful, rich or fame
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us to say i'll just go it alone. that's what we're doing. it's very, very concerning. frankly my party, the republican party has been in favor of free trade as long as i can remember. >> how do you make the case to bring people back to the party of free trade. because the president ran on this platform and it was popul popular. how do you convince people that rat reagan-era free trade isn't >> waell, because when we take a look at what free trade has done for us, it's listed more people out of poverty all over the globe. it's produced belter products for us here in the united states because of competition. and it's lowered the prices for consumers. but walking away from free trade and going to protectionism is going to yield again products that are not as good. products that are going to cost more. it's not going to lead to the engeneral newt that the american worker is capable of. >> brennan: republican leadership in congress would agree with you on those
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principles they're not happy about what the president is doing but they're not not stopping him or unable to stop these tariffs. >> well, look, margaret, i have been frankly shocked at the fact that our leaders think they have to ask permission from the president to do anything. this is very foreign to me. it's alien to me. when you are elected to the united states senate or house of representatives, you have a duty to represent your district but most important represent your country. not just be thinking about your political party. >> brennan: what is the -- what should paul ryan be doing right now? >> i think they ought to make it very clear that they're not going to just sit back and tolerate this that they're going to do whatever they can do legislatively to send a clear signal. the same way they ought to be doing these things on the issue of daca. those are the dreamers that are here. it's like we don't want to pass an immigration bill because the president might veto it.
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send it to him. let it veto. that's your job as congressman. i have to tell you that i'm very proud of this group of republicans who are saying that they're going to do everything they can to getote on pr dreamers.rm and >> brennan: what is it the president say that immigration and dealing with it now may be a losing prospect when it comes to the november races, particularly ton this issue of daca. there's the tremendous debate within the party about it right now. why do you think that is wrong? >> because, margaret, we have 800,000 people who came to this country as children, they violated no law, they're innocent people that came to this country who were great contribute turnovers what is happening in this country. they're part of our fabric. now we're going to turn arounds? u know, margaret, everything in life is not about the next election. this is an injustice to these people. and frankly the idea that people will stand up against their party or stand up against the
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president, i respect that. >> brennan: are you going to 2? how do you build a coalition of republicans, same republicans john boehner said are takingnaha i don't know what i'm going to do in 2020. i know that i believe that i need to be part of creating a network of people who seek the truth, who are objective and rational. and that's my interest right now. as to what that is going to mean, how that manifests itself, i'm really not quite sure. >> brennan: but for you immigration and free trade need to be at the heart of it it sounds like you're saying? >> well, i think that's important. the problem with our national debt is skyrocketing. i'm worried about our foreign policy. i'm very, very concerned about this upcoming meeting with north korea, every time we've entered an agreement they backed away from it, misled us and we cannot let the pressure up on north korea. so, you know, promises don't matter. to me has to be a
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ent, aerifiable agreement and if we relax these sanctions at all we ought to be committed to being able to reimpose them if the north koreans break their word. that is very, very serious, margaret. if you let the pressure up, i am very, very fearful that we will just find ourselves in this same situation or worse situation down the road. i'm glad they're talking. i'm glad they're meeting. but don't let the pressure up until we get verifiable results. anything other than that will weaken our position and strengthen them. we know what the history of that regime is. >> brennan: you've been a critic of the president, but in this case you think unpredictability has been an asset? >> well, look, i praise him when i think he does a good job and i'm critical when i think he's off the mark. in terms of this, i think keeping the pressure on, having these sanctions placed probably the work that they have done to communicate with china and so i give him credit for putting the pressure on for sure.but w thate
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can't be in a hurry to get an agreement. if we can get some verifiable agreements, fine. we can loosen things. but there has to be a real gain and not just pr show. that's just not going to work for the best interests of our country and the world. >> brennan: governor, thank you very much for your time. >> okay, margaret, thank you. >> brennan: we turn now to republican congressman will hurd of texas he sits on intelligence and homeland security committees joins us live from san antonio. congressman, good morning to you. i want to quickly ask you this "new york times" obtained letter from the president's attorneys laying out their agriculture you'llment saying he as president has complete control over federal investigations, cannot be compelled to testify and could not have obstructed the fbi's probe into rushelecon. sitting on house intelligence as do you what do you make of this argue. [. >> well, this is going to be something that will be supported
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out through the judicial system i'm not a lawyer. but one of the things i've learned is if you are innocent, act like you're innocent and bob mueller should be allowed to continue his investigation and turn over any stone and pursue any lead. >> brennan: should the president be compelled to testify to bob mueller, the special counsel? >> this will be a judicial issue that -- what is, what can he be compelled to do. if you don't have anything to hide why wouldn't you testify. that would help close this investigation quicker which i think that is something this administration wants to see. one of the things that i'm focused on is on issues that is firmly in the responsibility of congress and that's trade, that's immigration and these are big issues that will come into the forefront of the next few days and week. >> brennan: i do want to ask you about trade. but to button this up, the president's attorney said this morning, president probably has the power to pardon himself doing so would be unthinkable.
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what would happen in the house if the president tried to do that? what would the political ramification be? >> that would be a terrible move. people would erupt. thinking about trying to fire mueller is a bad move politically. so i hope we don't have to get to that point and it's hard to predict what would happen but that would be -- that would create outrage on both sides of the political aisle. >> brennan: let's get to that issue of trade you brought up. would there be support in the house where you sit for legislation that would require the president to get congressional approval before putting on tariffs? there's talk in the senate abut doing it, would you support something in the house? >> absolutely. has sh responbility whent comes trade with the executive branch over the last couple of decades. i think that is something that we need to re-evaluate. one of the things as you mow margaret i spent nine and half
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years as under cover officer in the cia i was dude in the back alleys at 4:00 in the morning. one of the things i learned be nice with nice guys and tough with tough guys. >> brennan: can mexico and european union are not national security threats? >> they're not. we are lucky to have canada and mexico as our neighbors. imagine what some of our other allies have to deal with. a sound foreign policy does not mean penalizing youral lies while you're rescuing a chinese company that clearly violated u.s. sanctions i'm speaking about zte. let's address the real problem. china is dumping steel on the markets, let's address that. china is stealing intellectual property, let's address that. let's not help chinese company continue to sell their widgets all around the world while we're going to ultimately impact the american consumer. why should my fellow americans compare about this? here in south texas it's hot.
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if you like a drink or cold beer on hot day it's going to be more expensive. if you have to fill much your car with gasoline, it's going to be more expensive. if you buy food in a grocery store it's going to be more expensive. this makes absolutely no sense to say create jobs in the united states of america, we are celebrating 3.8% unemployment. that is the best it's ever been in almost half a century. so what jobs is this going to be bringing back. only going to impact jobs. that's why most of us, a lot of us in congress thinks this is not the way you handle trade, this is not the way you deal with your allies. >> brennan: on the issue. immigration majority of americans seem to support some kind of protection for dreamers, so-called daca recipients, but your bosses in congress have tried to block a vote on this. do you have a sure fire way to force a vote in the house and get a bill to the president's
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desk? >> margaret, let me correct you for a second. they're not my bosses. my bosses are the 800,000 people that i represent in the 23rd congressional district of texas that's where i'm working on this issue with friends like jeff den ham from california, others from florida and new york city to force this discharge petition where it's saying we're going to bring multiple bills to the floor on immigration have that vote. i hope teachers are still teaching in the school that having a public conversation and discourse is still important to keeping democracy alive and thriving in the united states of america. >> brennan: speaker ryan and his -- everyone with him are trying to block this vote from happening. do you have a vote to force this to ther from? >> we do. we're adding votes every single day. we're engaged in conversations to figure out is there another path? i don't believe that there s. the time has come, it's 2018, we
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don't have operational control of our border. we have a million plus young men and women who of ha only known the united states of america as their home that are in this uncertainty period. they don't know about their future. now is the time to solve this problem and do it once and for all. >> brennan: this month? >> yes. this month of june. >> brennan: congressman, thank you very much. >> always a pleasure. >> brennan: we'll be back in one minute with lot more "face the nation." don't go away. pap it's easy to think that all money managers are pretty much the same. but while some push high commission investment products, fisher investments avoids them. some advisers have hidden and layered fees. fisher investments never does. and while some advisers are happy to earn commissions from you whether you do well or not, fisher investments fees are structured so we do better when you do better. maybe that's why most of our clients come from other money managers.
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korean nuclear crisis now at the johns hopkins school of advanced international studies. welcome to the show. both of you. the president is preparing for the summit, kim jong-un has done his homework, what does the president need to do? >> i think the president needs to work out along with his team what he should say, what he should not say. and what some of the benefits that he can offer for kim. i think for -- if i were prepping the president for this type of event i'd keep it as simple as maybe a quadrant where you have a say, avoid, what to s i think the president should be aware that kim jong-un all accos he's been reading up on everything. what is going on in south corey,
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in the u.s., as well as russia. >> you've negotiated with north korea before, the president is not known for being scripted. is the outcome of this summit prebaked? how much risk is there in getting these two leaders in the same room? >> i think a lot of us hope that some of it at least is prebaked and it makes sense. but it's very hard to know. i think both these people who are meeting are infamous or famous for their improvisational their surprise factor. es s -- i taking good advice my colleague has just suggested. areas to stay away from, things to offer and things expected to get that would be good. it would be good if they had agreed, for example, on what steps to implement any understanding they might reach at general level in singapore. >> brennan: who are those things to listen for, the follow-on things? >> i think all of us should the
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shiny objects and focus on the substance. and the substance that brought us to a crisis for almost a full year was a nuclear weapons capability with ballistic missile capability that can reach the united states of america, that's what was new in 2017. so the issue is, how much detail can we get on the term denuclearization, what does it mean for north koreans to give up nuclear weapons, production capability, ballistic missiles of extended range. how do we monitor the giving up, the turning over of this an we verify commitments that might be made in a general sense in singapore. >> brennan: declaring an end to the korean war would that ab shiny on it. >> that would. i thought it was notable that the president spent so much of the conversation with the press after the the meeting talking about the peace issue. and that was concerning for me because that's probably what the north koreans mentioned in the meeting, and they probably know
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that it hits a chord with the president who seems pretty interested in ending this korean war. but i think we have to remember that we can't have peace without denuclearization of north korea and that peace without denuclearization is going to be a fake peace. b. >> brennan: it was a propaganda win in some ways for kim yong chol the former to walk into the house. have either of you heard anything about what north korea has agreed to give up? have you heard any concessions so far? >> right now we should recognize that there is something of a de facto pause in the testing of nuclear explosive devices and testing of extended range ballistic missiles. that's good thing. in a way something to watch out for because we don't want to end up there. we don't want to end up with legitimizing a north korean nuclear weapons program, ballistic missiles which they are not testing that is not a good end game.
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not bad for condition going into talks. we have a long, long way to go. >> brennan: the president said he doesn't want to use the term "maximum pressure" any more. this was the idea of isolating kim jong-un and putting sanction, on him how significant was that? >> i was surprised hear him say that, maximum pressure is the policy that we have been following. i am unclear as to whether he has discuss understand with the allies. i suspect that this is the first time that they have heard maximum appreciate suffer no longer on the table. but i think that maximum pressure really was the only thing that could get kim jong-un to reorient his mind on how he approaches nuclear weapons. i think for the most part it would be -- require mental gymnastics for us to think that kim jong-un is going to give up nuclear weapons on the 70th anniversary of north korea's founding, something that he completed that has grandfather
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and his father were unable to do. to give that away for a mcdonald's franchise in north korea is something that does not make logical sense to me. >> brennan: you're laughing. >> i am. because i like mcdonald's reference. in truth, for those who think there really is a chance that north korea would give up their nuclear weapons over a period of time in action for action type process, not a big bang, which everything goes before they get anything but sort of what we've done before but better. those who think that believe that the only way this would happen is if the north were going to get some sort of guarantees that they didn't need to worry about regime change. that's the only way. that means normalization of and tnly w most of us ca see that happening is if among the things that happen is that north korea addresses the human rights issue. that's a very tough one and i'm
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sure notice the president didn't even -- did not raise it. >> brennan: he made a point of saying, maybe later, didn't talk about it. thank you, both of you. we'll be back in a moment. stay with us. benjamin franklin captured lightening in a bottle. over 260 years later, with a little resourcefulness, ingenuity, and grit, we're not only capturing energy from the sun and wind, we're storing it. as the nation's leader in energy storage, we're ensuring americans have the energy they need, whenever they need it. this is our era. this is america's energy era. nextera energy.
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>> brennan: we are just over five months away from the mid term elections and today we are kicking off our battleground tracker poll with the cbs news director of elections and surveys, anthony salvanto. good to have you here. typically, party in control of the white house often loses some seats with these congressional races. democrats seem to be banking on a blue wave to retake control. is it that clear cut? >> it is not that clear cut. toss up. today the election wera democrats are poised to guarantees, you're right about theye out party, typically the out party does get some seats. we think they would get enough to just barely take the majority.
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we estimate they get 219 seats, it takes 218 to control the house. so it's that close. we think that as we go along we're going to see this go back and forth. we think that the house could come down to just a handful of districts and that's going to be really exciting to watch. >> brennan: as you sayven those exciting because they're not clear. trump supporters are not clear democrats, they're suburban tend to be fairly well off. >> right. here is how we know. that the house of course is a race for 435 districts. they're all up. but the bulk of them never change parties. incumbents get reelected, partisans stay with their preferred party. all of this really comes down to a relatively smaller number of districts that are competitive. where both parties have good candidates, voters are evenly divided. what we have done here is we've taken a sample in our surveys, heavily concentrated in these districts. we think there are about 50-06
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of them that are going to determine control. these are the swing districts. so as we look really hard at those places, we start to follow them, they're coast to coast in republican pockets like new jersey or california. even texas. they are heavily suburban as you mentioned they are places where there's not necessarily concentration of trump voters and not necessarily a part of the democratic base, that's a big part of what puts them in play. >> brennan: establishment republicans in particular want to run on the economy. and certainly the president gave them what he is crediting as a very strong jobs number, you do see unemployment rates for african american at multi-decade lows. how does that that change the race? >> well, the good economy is clearly part of the wind at the backs of republicans. one of the things we think in the survey could help them hang on to their majority even narrowly. voters across the districts say that the economy is good. that is true of both republicans
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and democrats and independents. clearly a plus for the republicans. but there's a bit of what you might call a pay off problem for this republican congress. in that we ask about some of the things that the congress has done, including economic things. chang to he care. most voters say that they haven't yet felt the affects of those things, not positive effects not even negatively just aren't there. so, you start to see the republicans probably needing to make an argument going forward that these things have helped people because that at least in the survey doesn't seem to be resonating just yet. >> brennan: when the white house talks about making mr. tweaks to tax policy that might be something to help out some of the republicans. the democrats, though, by all accounts are energized. does that make a difference? >> coming off a year which they did well in a lot of these special elections, lot of democrats have been hopeful they can let it carry over to those 435
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districts. even in this survey we see democrats heavily dependent on turning out voters who don't typically vote in mid terms. really can't stress that enough. even as we watch polling going forward you're going to see lot of folks who tell us, tell us that they're going to vote in the mid terms but they don't profile as though they normally do. often mid term is lower than in pat tall. democrats have to change that equation. right now, democrats say theyre dng it, the saytha tthey're enthusiastic, they say that this mid term vote is as important as their presidential vote. that's an important part to watch going forward we'll see if they can sustain it though over six months. >> brennan: that's always the question, right? the president himself no not on the ballots this actually sort of a referendum on him and what he's delivered? >> yes. in congressional elections we usually see majority of people saying that they feel their vote is either to support or oppose the president. it's no different here. half of the folks voting for
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democrats say that they're doing it to oppose the administration. but is that enough? is that going to go enough? we also see that people say they're not quite clear on what the democrats would do if they got elected, if they got the house majority. so that's part of the argument that it look like democrats still need to make if they're going to get even more seats and sort of build more comfortably into position where they could take control. >> brennan: and steve bannon who was very successful in advising the president back in 2016 is urging republicans to run on immigration. not necessarily the economy. is that a good strategy? >> well, look, we have talked to republicans in these districts, they want to hear about immigration. they say that they feel like immigration has changed their local area not for the better. it one of the their top issues, not the top issue, something that unites the base. >> brennan: security issue or employment issue? >> actually both. very much both. they are concerned about security but they have also been
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in recent polling also concerned about immigrants taking low wage jobs. now the difference, though, is that in lot of these districts, folks say that jobs are still at least a minor problem. and if you look at that idea that the economy is still good, larger question to watch due to -- do republicans run on, everything is good, the economy is good message or if you're talking about immigration, you're saying well there is still problems that need to be fixed because it hasn't -- problem hasn't resolved. which is it? right? in the larger sense everything is good or still problems. that's one of the key things to watch as they go forward. >> brennan: you heard john boehner say there's no republican party any more it's trump's party, republicans are taking a nap? where. how the money is he with that? >> in terms of couldn't dates for congress, three quarters of republicans say that they want their house candidates to be somebody in line with donald trump and that is as opposed to
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have a candidate more independent from donald trump. so, to that extent, it does appear to be the president's party. >> brennan: well, obviously republican leaders in the house and senate don't like hearing the criticism but for mitch mcconnell how concerned does he need to be on his side of the capital about losing? seats? >> only somewhat. but not very. because the map really favors the republicans going in. here is what i mean. when we look at the third of the senate that subpoena for election, the cycle most of them are democrats and there's lot of democratic senators who were trying to hang on in states that are traditionally republican that are red states. that's -- particular plea true across the midwest from missouri to indiana to north dakota. when you look the that, in this hyper partisan environment where republicans vote for republicans, these senators have to worry that that's what's going to happen to them. that because there's more republicans they will get swept out. the difference what we'll watch
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through the year whether or not these red state democrats can make it about local issues, can make it about them and their candidacy as opposed to that national partisanship. but overall on balance that favors republicans. >> brennan: we'll hear from you an none knee quite a lot as we head toward the fall. thank you very much. we'll be back with our political panel. ♪
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south l.a. is very medically underserved. when the old hospital closed people in the community lived with untreated health problems for years. so, with the county's help we built a new hospital from the ground up and having citi as an early investor worked as a signal to others to invest. with citi's help we built a wonderful maternity ward and we were able to purchase an mri machine. we've made it possible for the people who live here to lead healthier lives and that's invaluable. ♪ >> brennan: like to welcome our panel for some political analysis.
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david knack muir extra covers the white house for the "washington post." susan page is the washington bureau chief at "usa today." michael crowley is senior foreign affairs correspondent at politico and ed o'keefe is cbs's own political correspondent. susan let's start off with you. the "new york times" yesterday got this 20-page memo from the president's attorneys laying out some of what their justification is basically saying that the president can't legally be compelled to testify nor can he be guilty of obstruction of justice. some are reading this as president saying he's above the law. how should we understand this? >> pretty brash memo. we have tradition of powerful presidency, we do not have tradition of an all powerful presidency, the genius of the founders was system of checks and balances that we have. i don't know if the courts would uphold the view that the lawyers outline in this memo but i do think even if they did, it will come down to political one, question of impeachment that is
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what the white house is also focused on not only legal questions involved here about whether you can keep the president forced to testify. that he woulde wtan investigation. >> brennan: this is going to be a political question you heard congressman hurd saw it would be a problem, particularly on pardon front if the president tried to do that to himself. probably has the power to do it. >> he does. like this week he finally realized he can do. in essence do whatever he wants with. the fact that he met with kim kardashian the reality tv star, last week pardoned jack johnson the boxer only after sylvester stallone got involved. there's some concern here in town that this is the signal perhaps to folks that are under legal cloud that if you ride this out i'll take care of you on the back end. hurd said it's a potential
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problem, he shouldn't go too far certainly not consider pardoning himself if it would come to that. >> brennan: the former attorney general, eric holder, who served under obama administration said he laid out that he thinks this is clearly the president trying to send a message to some of his allies that, don't worry too much. you'll have a pardon coming your way. >> sure you look at these from this past week but of scooter libby, these are big, bold moves that the president seems to be taking that are outside what has been established in the last couple of president sees the process by which these things look less politicized he's saying i'm not bound by convention, i'll willing to take the heat on something like this. this is very clear not just to the people in this probe but others around the president who may be dragged into this who -- down the line. >> some may look, cast of characters the possible pardon for martha stuart of d'nessh
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dousza. >> these are people who support the president, who attacked barack obama. so the president, it's about his politics. so system that had been politicized in the past that previous presidents, most recent presidents, this president is jumping right in, i don't mind that. i relish a fight. i relish the backlash almost. we've seen that with his cultural wars. also speaks to his personality. this fiat power he has. you are pardoned, i have -- i am supreme authority in the country i don't care how this was done in the past, it's very trump, almost out of reality show. you're fired, you're pardoned he loves that magical power and exercising it without anyone in congress able to stop him. >> brennan: i want to ask you, the president is also going to canada this week at a time when this may not be so welcome. given the tariffs he put in place. you heard the canadian prime minister come out and say this
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is not only deeply insulting it's hurtful and it's damaging ultimately. what is the approach here? this just about gaming leverage? >> i think that is part of it. may also be partly politics the trump as mid terms approach and trump is thinking about his reelection he wants to show his base that he is taking clear, tangible actions to stand up for american industry against these foreign companies. as we all know, core theme of his 2016 campaign was an america is getting ripped off both economically and diplomatically this is way for him to follow through on that promise. i do think if you look at trump's recordedded back to the 1980s started talking about national politics he does think america is being ripped off. now, loads of economists and leading political figures think that he doesn't understand how these things work. i do think that this truly motivates him, the idea that we're getting taken for a ride. i do think that -- he's going to be a skunk at the garden party up in canada at the g7. and he's opening himself up to
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strong counter attacks, john kasich had a nice line, it's not america first, it is american alone. >> head of the council on foreign relations, richard hass saying that we've gone from the g8 economy to putting russia out for their bad behavior now g7 now it's the g6, america is bakesly isolating itself. i talked to a former obama state department official just yesterday for a story, who pointed out that these tariffs came in at the same day that trump is welcoming top north korea official to the white house and saying i'm not going to use maximum pressure any more, we're talking well. was that a timed on purpose or not it looks bad for the allies seeing not just trudeau but japanese prime minister abe getting more rang degree with him. >> republicans have going for them is this economy. 3.8% unemployment, that's a remarkable number that we got on friday. and there's concern that getting into a trade warhda aeuro mexicc
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recovery. that would be very bad for the white house, for the republicans, by the way for the country. >> you know it's bad when the house speaker puts out a statement that says, i disagree with this decision. >> didn't mention the president's name. >> hasn't issued those statements in the past. when other senators call it dumb, say they're going to try to persuade the white house to pull it back they know it's a problem that will cost them big time in. >> brennan: so much more to talk about. but i do want to take a quick break here and come back in a moment with more insights from our political panel. stay with us.
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for pg&e. most people in the community recognize the blue trucks as pg&e. my truck is something new... it's an 811 truck. when you call 811, i come out to your house and i mark out our gas lines and our electric lines to make sure that you don't hit them when you're digging. 811 is a free service. i'm passionate about it because every time i go on the street i think about my own kids. they're the reason that i want to protect our community and our environment, and if me driving a that truck means that somebody gets to go home safer, then i'll drive it every day of the week. together, we're building a better california. >> brennan: we are back now with our panel. i want to pick up on the big question of what is going to be happening with north korea. you've got the japanese prime minister coming to town, a summit there. just had the north koreans visiting the white house. david, you've written a bit about the photo op, the propaganda that the north koreans won this week. why does that matter? >> a lot of people say, look, a presidential summit should be reward for steps taken before
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the summit. you've seen north korean do some things like shut down their nuclear testing that you had earlier. but not really formal plea committed to some sort of clear deep denuclearization. now he's going to singapore for something this president thinks a lot about which public display and the show. and the president has been very enamored with images of kim jong-un and south korean moon. what is he thinking in terms of that. but people say, look, can't do go far, you're america, moments ago you were name calling him. what are you going to do to sort of make clear that you're going to continue this tough maximum pressure that you talked about not go too far. north u st o try to say, we're equal with the world's greatest power. >> brennan: michael, the president's unpredictability, former defense secretary, robert gates, unpredictability has been
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to his benefit here. just a week ago the summit was off. now it's back on. no more maximum pressure. the policy seems to be changing as we speak. >> it does. it seems like the president is improvising this and hard to predict where it goes. but i think there is a school of thought that says that that u unpredictability, the entire united states foreign policy establishment said you could never launch a first strike against north korea, this guy might do it. he also had theory nothing to do with that, the north koreans got where they needed to be where their nuclear missile programs said, okay, we're ready to talk. everything else was just noise, the tweeting and bluster. on the one hand what we saw from hru thetalked about the oval officeusetter from north korean leader seemed pleased by the size of the envelope. there's eagerness and enthusiasm that makes lot of people nervous that he wants to be seen as a
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peace make tore shut up all the democrats who have been saying he's going to start a nuclear war and end life as we know it. there was a note of realism i thought in his rhetoric where he said, we're probably not going to set up -- probably, not going to sell everything in one summit. this may be the beginning of a process, could take a long time. >> brennan: that means something in diplomatic terms, i'm buying myself some wiggle room. >> we've been say income all along. maybe some reality is creeping into his -- what seemed like earlier believe that maybe snap your fingers and solve this problem it's going to take years. >> brennan: ed, one of the problems the president continues to talk about from his perception of the problem, is immigration. but yet you're seeing republicans not want to move forward with a vote on this. as you heard congressman hurd say he can force a vote. >> is this procedural move called discharge petition that would essentially force the hand of paul ryan and compel him to
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hold votes. on competing immigration proposals. interesting that hurd told you that he thinks that will happen. earliest could happen is june 25th. our polling shows that the battleground polling out this morning that immigration actually remains top of the mind concern, 51% want to hear a lot about it. places that i think fourth among issues. problem is, democrats and republicans want to hear different things. democrats want to find a way to allow those dreamers to stay in the country legally, allow them to continue to contribute to seat society. republicans are concerned they are adversely affecting their communities. employment verification and things like that. and i think it's just striking, anthony mentioned it near plea two-thirds republicans say immigrants in the communities they believe adversely affecting them that is why ryan doesn't want this to happen. phone it passes the house with mostly democratic votes, president doesn't want it, senate doesn't wanted it, you've two-pronged problem. conservatives will be upset and
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didn't do what they wanted. then these moderate republicans in the swing districts are going to have to go home empty handed potentially loses the races, a huge headache for them. they're not going to be able to sort it out if recent history is any guide. >> brennan: i want to get to lack of better term a cultural moment this week. one that the president had some thoughts on. comedian rose an -- rosanne had racist time, her employer at abc fired her. then you had another tv network issuing statements about comedian who works there who had some four-letter words to refer to the first daughter. seems like the rhetoric can't get any worse, david. why is the president talking about it? why does it matter if. >> the president has shown that he does not shy away from these cultural fights. also had nfl change the rules on national anthem something the president took credit for.
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you had a few weeks ago talking about the correspondents dinner and down to rose app, they -- roseanne, the president deserves an apology of liberal comedians. this is a sense that it's not just trump but obviously culture and social media saying in sight thoughts out loud. these things are happening almost on a weekly basis these big flare ups much the president who is somewhat obviously pushes those buttons. >> what struck me about this is the increasing willingness and expectation that corporate america will step up on these cultural issues. that if abc has this star who says offensive thing they are expected. or tbs our starbucks has controversy that involves racial profiling one of the stores that they are expected to do something about that. i one fer if it's even because feeling that washington is no longer able to respond in realtime to some of these cultural issues that we now
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expect corporate america to do that. >> or fundamentally always a business decision. >> susan on that, we were talking about the blue wave not being a tsunami. you had a conversation with president clinton. >> president clinton and james patterson who has a thriller coming out today. i thought he has a blue wave since he lost control of house and senate in 1994. he said a blue wave had been building. built he wasn't sure that it still was, there were too many intervening narratives. i think that includes this good economy and the prospect of what will look like a successful summit with north korea i am perilling the expectations that democrats are is is to win the house in november. >> brennan: that's what's so interesting to hear john boehner say there's no republican party. you have that identity crisis and democratic side and republican side playing out here. thank you for all of your
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>> brennan: thank you for watching. until next week for "face the nation," i'm margaret brennan. captioning sponsored by cbs captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org i'm dianne feinstein and i approve this message. i support the affordable care act, and voted against all trump's attempts to repeal it. but we need to do more.
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i believe in universal health care. in a public health option to compete with private insurance companies. and expanding medicare to everyone over 55. and i believe medicare must be empowered to negotiate the price of drugs. california values senator dianne feinstein to negotiate the price of drugs. i we worked with pg&eof to save energy because wenie. wanted to help the school. they would put these signs on the door to let the teacher know you didn't cut off the light. the teachers, they would call us the energy patrol. so they would be like, here they come, turn off your lights! those three young ladies were teaching the whole school about energy efficiency. we actually saved $50,000. and that's just one school, two semesters, three girls. together, we're building a better california.
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