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tv   Face the Nation  CBS  January 14, 2018 10:30am-11:31am EST

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captioning sponsored by cbs jotted today on "face the nation" president trump vulgar closed door comments about african countries and haiti prompt charges of racism and make relations between republicans and democrats even worse. and congress work together to head off a government shut down this week and find way to protect the children of the illegal immigrants. and a terrifying false alarm. >> this is not a drill. >> about i am meant missile attack in hawaii sparks outrage and raises questions about preparedness in case of the real thing. we'll talk to key members of the senate including republicans tom cotton of arkansas and cory gardner of california. plus west virginia democrat joe manchin. as one year anniversary of the trump administration approaches we'll have cbs news nation
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tracker pole that plains why the president has lost support. plus plenty of political analysis on the news of the week. it's all just ahead on "face the nation." good morning, welcome to "face the nation" i'm john dickerson. yesterday was anything but a good morning in the state of hawaii. where an emergency alert went out to residents and tourists warning a missile was headed their way. today there is outrage about the incident that it happened in the first place and that it took so long to send out a second alert saying it was a false alarm. cbs news david begnaud is in honolulu, david, good morning. >> good morning, put yourself in the shoes of people walking around the island. alert comes out on cell phone saying there's a missile inbound to hawaii. people were abandoning their vehicles on the freeway. one family put their children in a manhole. and before officials could get out a second alert saying no, no, this is a false alarm, the first alert spread like wildfire on social media. people panicked.
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the false alarm sent people running in hawaii. frantically searching for cover. the warning came around 8:00 saturday morning, state emergency officials texted it to cell phones, ballistic missile threat inbound to hawaii. it's scrolled across televisio televisions. >> a missile may land or sea in minutes. this is not a drill. >> played on radios. >> if you are outdoors, seek immediate shelter in a building. >> kids are crying, nobody really knew what to do. >> when we got the alarm we actually were terrified. >> took more than 30 minutes for officials to let people know that they had made a mistake. and there was no threat. the governor blamed an employee who pushed the wrong button during a shift change. >> what happened today was totally unacceptable. many in our community were deeply affected by this. and i'm sorry. >> you know, john, one reason it it was so frightening because in hawaii they have been practicing monthly, air raid drills with
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sirens. preparing for a possible attack from north korea. when the alert went out yesterday, lot of people thought this was the real deal. >> dickerson: david begnaud in honolulu, thank you. joining us is arkansas republican senator tom cotton a member of the armed services and intelligence committee who attended the immigration meeting with the president and we'll talk about that meeting in a moment, but first we want to get your thoughts, senator on this false alarm in hawaii. we've heard lot about imminent threat from north korea, shouldn't the system be a little bit better, also the president's reaction was to talk about fake news. but is there a presidential role to focus the mind on this issue? >> good morning, express my regret turnover family and every person in hawaii who was scared by this alarm, it took fairly drastic steps. i think it's appropriate that we give the government of hawaii a little bit longer to get to the actual facts and release those, figure out what went wrong here. if it really is the case that a single employee could hit the
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wrong button, that system needs to be redesigned. built the broader context is that we've had to deal with north korea going back 25 years, that puts them on the path to nuclear weapons that was bad decision just like the deal with iran, we ought not let nuclear weapons be proliferated because -- then once they do get proliferated like they are in north korea we have to have a robust missile defense system. it's important that we pals the government funding bill that funds missile defense systems both at the take-off phase on the korean peninsula, but also when they're at the peak and atmosphere we have on west coast. simple fact of the matter is, once the missile gets close to its target, there's a limited number of option, is that we have, that's why missile defense is critical. >> dickerson: should be federal issue in terms of these warnings? >> well, the military obviously has northern command of very thorough early warning system. and the military never detected any kind of launch obviously the state mutant reconsider the way
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their emergency management system works. and link that more closely to the united states military. i think it is appropriate for state emergency management systems to have these kind of alerts in addition to hurricanes and floods and earthquakes and so forth. >> dickerson: you were in the oval office meeting that got a lot of attention where the president reportedly used vulgar and derogatory term. also there was senator purdue, he talked to abc this week i want to get your thoughts about what he said what he told reporters. >> senator durbin has been clear, reports were basically accurate are you saying the president did not use the word that has been so widely reported? >> i'm telling you he did not use that word, george, i'm telling a close misrepresentation, any time you want me to say that. >> dickerson: your view on this? >> john, i didn't hear that word either. i certainly didn't hear what senator durbin has said repeatedly. he has history of misrepresenting what happens in white house meetings, perhaps we shouldn't be surprised by that.
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here is what did i hear. hear is the -- >> dickerson: sorry tonight runt. didn't hear the word or it was not said because senator graham told your republican colleague this is what happened. senator flake was in subsequent meeting where he was told by people in the meeting this happened. just button that up, you're saying it did not happen more you just don't recall. >> i didn't hear it. i was sitting no further away from donald trump than dick durbin was. i know what dick durbin has said about the president's repeated statements is incorrect. >> dickerson: was he lying? >> he has misrepresented what happened in white house meeting before he was corrected by obama administration. but here is is the point, john. we have an immigration system today that treats people based on where they're from or what they're related to, not who they are. that's not the system we need. when senator durbin and graham came to the oval office and proposed not to fix that system but to expand it, to create more quotas more set asides for other countries, senator -- president reacted with pretty tough language as he said because we want to move to a system that
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treats people for who they are not where they're from. >> dickerson: stand precisely the problem here is that the president in the sentiment leaving tea side the word, sentiment behind it which senator graham saw was strong enough that he rebutted it according to accounts of the meeting, sentiment to treat people based on where they come from. not who they are. the countries they come from, these african countries or haiti. so that's treating people in a big old basket not as who they actually are, that was the sentiment for getting it is -- forgetting the word for a moment. >> john, the exact opposite. that's what senator durbin and senator graham are doing. what i'm trying to do and senator purdue wants to do, what the president supports, treat people for who they are. that's why we want to move to skill-based system if you're a doctor or scientist or computer programmer shouldn't matter whether you come from nigeria or norway or any other country on this earth. the data we have system that rewards ties of blood, ties of kin, ties of plan. that's one of the most unamerican immigration systems i can imagine, that's why we're trying to fix it. >> dickerson: the president and
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white house officials have said leaving the word aside they said he used strong language. help me understand the strong sentiment about why people who come from african countries and haiti should not be allowed in and the strong sentiment for why people from norway should be allowed in, what's the policy sentiment the president is supporting there if not to put people in baskets? >> the point is that country of origin quo thats or arbitrary, they treat people where they're from not who they are. today, for instance, over 300,000 indians are waiting to i am great. they can't do because we have arbitrary caps from which people come. if you change our immigration system to a skills-bailed system that respects and treats people for who they are, as individuals, as opposed to residents of a certain country or relatives of certain people in the united states, it's a system that is more in keeping with american values. >> dickerson: so then in this notion of american values, which is sat the heart of the debate. people need to know that their president isn't judge can people on the color of their skin but
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based on their skills. can you say then that the president in your conversations in this specific one, was not grouping people based on the countries they came from that was sentiment was no where in anything he said, not the words but the sentiment from him. that that was absent from his mind or anything else. >> john, what senator durbin and senator graham proposed expand our country of origin and quota-based system, the president reacted strongly against that as he should, because we want to get away from country of origin system that treats people as nigerians or norwegians and treats them as individuals. doctors and scientists and computer programmers and so forth. >> dickerson: i understand your sentiment you're clear on that. but the president's sentiment you're say ink all these meetings there was never instance which he did what you're saying -- >> he in his tweets, interviews and public statements just tuesday when we had the large meeting, cabinet room he repeatedly insist that we need to move to a skills-based system. >> dickerson: you were in the room where it happened, you're saying you didn't hear any of this sorted of lumping everybody
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together is that what you're saying? >> i did not hear derogatory comments about individuals or persons, no. >> dickerson: okay. this sentiment is totally phony as well that is attributed to him. >> yes. dickerson: senator cotton thank you for helping us nail that down. we turn to cory gardner who joins us from his family tractor dealership in yuma, colorado. thanks for being with us, you heard senator cotton say that was not the sentiment or word that was used, "wall street journal" that has that this moment may i am peril a deal on daca, where do you think things stand between republicans and democrats who are trying to put a deal together here? >> you know, i wasn't in that meeting in the president i was in previous meeting earlier this week where we talked on tuesday, about putting deal together that reflected the four priorities of the president. i think that we can do this, in fact working together with a group of people we've put a solution in front of the president, in front of our colleagues, solution that would
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end diversity lottery, solution that would start addressing chain migration amongst daca children, put a solution together for daca, would address other issues on border wall system, i think we put together a very responsible plan and i hope that we can build on that. but, look, it's unbecoming comments that i hope that we can move beyond that and i hope that what we see are republicans and democrats coming together, not to fight politics, but to actually come up with solutions to address this challenge before us. >> dickerson: do you think this word obviously rocketed around this week, also obviously now international point of conversation, if senator cotton is right and senator purdue is right and senator durbin made this up, that's a pretty extraordinary thing, you've now got people in the president's own party saying it's a racist comment. if another senator makes up something that causes people to come to that judgment, that's a pretty serious thing.
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>> i'm not going to get into who said what said but what was reported is unacceptable. what we have to do is not let that define this moment. we have a very, very serious challenge in front of us, a challenge the president laid out very clearly this past week, it's a challenge that i think members of the house, senate republican and democrats want to address and have to address. we can't let this moment's politics defeat the important policy choices ahead of us. look, we put toga very responsible plan. and if people want to better that, approve that, let's do that. so much of what i hear talks about the second part of this conversation that the president talked about phase two of the immigration debate. what here dealing with right now are children who were brought here as children at a very young age, no fault of their own, that's what we can address. we can address the border wall system. we can address this issue of chain migration as the president says and we have done that. we've put a stop to the end of the diversity visa plot re. that was a bipartisan solution. if people want to do better, we
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can. i just am so worried what happens in washington is this. people let the politics of the moment, they go to collective corners, perspective corners then they stop talking about the policy that we have to address. this is a chance for us to prove to the american people that we can help meet what the president talked about, in a way that is beneficial to border security, that improves border security, do it in a way that addresses these children who were brought here through no fault of their own and actually have solution that america be be proud of. >> dickerson: do you think democrats will act -- a, have they academy in good faith in the negotiations you're talking about primarily then second darely after we've gotten this oval office moment, there are lot of democrats who are trying to make all republicans pay for it. is that -- do you think the other side of this negotiation is going to avoid the politics you just described? >> look, i have no doubt that there are probably people in the republican side of the aisle who may not want solution on this, probably some on democratic side of the i will who don't want solution on this. they rather have those things to
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fight over. but that's not where a lot of the democrats that hive been working with are, that's not where the republicans that hive been working with are. where we are is trying to find a real solution, we know that most americans agree our immigration system is broken. they know we can do better than what we are doing right now. and this four-part deal that we've put together starts to begin -- it begins to address the challenge in front of us. this isn't going to solve everything at once. but it does solve very important piece, then we can build trust of the american people that we've done our jobs, we've improved security, we've fixed the challenge the dreamers face and we can do it in way that the president signs with the majority of republican and democratic support. let the people who want to play politics, let them play politics, that's not what this moment is about. >> dickerson: the president in that meeting that you were at, the public meeting suggested he said, i'll sign whatever you bring to me. i'll take the heat, he seemed to be kind of on the side of the argument you're now making, the
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has that sentiment survived the sausage making process and -- it sounds what you're describing what he wants there for she sign it quickly. >> the president's credit every time i've had a conversation with him in recent months he's talked about need to find a solution on this daca populati population, hundreds of thousands of people in america that are part of daca right now. he's talked about the needs to bring a solution for the dreamers, talked about working together to do it. i have no reason to doubt him even today despite the blow up that we had this past week. i do think he's sincere people with letting our better angels prevail will come together with a solution. this is a chance for us to say, we're not going to let this moment leave us without a solution. >> dickerson: we've talked about politics getting control of things. but you are in charge of helping republicans get elected in politics. there was a town hall where senator grassley republican from iowa held back in iowa, "des
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moines register" said it was basically focused entirely on the president, one person asking if the senator felt like he was being held hostage president trump. how is it going to be for republicans running with president trump as president in these elections that you're in charge of? >> i think people are fired up, that's good. people are engaged in politics. people engaged in levels they have never been engaged before. people on both sides of the aisle that supported president trump never been involved in politics before, people who may be on the left side of the political spectrum engaged in activities they have never been engaged before, that's good. what we want do try to shout each other down, continue to fail to listen to each other, listen to the legitimate concerns that people have. there are people who oppose a wall, there are people who support the wall. they don't do it necessarily because they have evil or hate in their heart, they do it because they have legitimate concerns. time we listened to each other in the country and do the right thing. >> dickerson: we'll laugh to end it l. we'll talk about that
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again. thanks so much for being with us. we'll be back with west virginia we'll be back with west virginia democrat joe manchin. stay with us. that was it. now i have nicoderm cq. the nicoderm cq patch with unique extended release technology helps prevent your urge to smoke all day. it's the best thing that ever happened to me. every great why needs a great how. for 100 years, heritage and innovation have made gillette the #1 shave in america. now get gillette quality at lower prices -- every day. brought to you by 1200 workers in boston -- we're proud of giving you our best. gillette. the best a man can get.
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>> dickerson: we're back with joe manchin who joins us from charleston, west virginia. thank you, senator. where do you think things are -- on this negotiation over daca and the dreamers? >> i'm encouraged. first of all we have a bipartisan recommendation, bipartisan legislation that's been worked out after they set down last week with the president. and it seems to do everything that was asked of them. i would be very, very encouraged, hopefully all my colleagues will look at this in a center positive way and if the president said what he said as far as you give me something in a bipartisan way, something we work out i'll sign it. we hope to get that done and move on. but this is -- all the hype that's going on around it sun believable. >> dickerson: when you say it's unbelievable, what is unbelievable?
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>> well first of all, someone saying that senator durbin or senator graham is going to make something up that the president of the united states has said and thinking that they would do that in order to gen up people one way or another, that's wrong. senator durbin and senator graham i don't believe that any senator would walk in and make something up so atrocious as that and say, this is what was said if it wasn't said. we got to move on. fitfuls said in whatever content it was said. it was hurtful, it's harmful, shouldn't have been said. but let's move on. don't let it stop the whole procedure. >> dickerson: some democrats would like to use this to kind of push republicans, make them answer for it, be particularly -- use it as way to gain more leverage, policy reasons. also they want to use it to politically hurt the president and his party. >> john, listen, that's wrong, too. if my fellow colleagues and democrats in the congress want
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to do something, that's wrong. that doesn't fix anything. we have a shut down looming, we have to make sure this government runs and operates in a newspapersal way. it takes all of us working as americans. i take note to represent everybody in -- i take oath to represent everybody in west virginia. or people on republican side who might be opposed to me. i'm representing all of them. and we have got to move this country forward. for the hope of the world. when you look, i heard my friend lindsey graham say, we're not just country of race, we're a country of ideas. of hopes and dreams all over the world. why can't we do that and make that dream come true. people have to have that opportunity, we need more border security, john. in 2013, 68 senators, john, democrats and republicans voted for mammoth overhaul to immigration. john, we had 42 billion dollars that was going to be spent for border security.
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that did include more wall, it included technology, more border agents. it did everything to secure our border. the people coming here we should know they're coming for the right reasons. but they also should be coming for the dream of america. we can't shut that down. nor should we. but we should be much more selective, every ounce of technology to prevent people coming for the wrong reason. >> let me ask you about this, this negotiation here is going to be like any negotiation this year which will require 60 votes you're always on the top of the list of people the president would need to get those 60 votes. how much outreach have you gotten eater from republicans or the white house on anything in this new landscape where they're going to need to get nine democrats to pass anything? >> well first of all, john, i'm glad we're back to regular order. regular order in the senate is not the same regular order in the house. the house operates on simple majority, 218 democrats or 218 republicans can do whatever they want to without even considering the other side.
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we saw what happened when we tried to operate under the budget reconciliation gimmick with health care repeal then with the tax cut. there was no outreach to democrats trying to work with democrats even myself being very conservative in nature. not at all. now they need nine. i'm going to be there when it's right. i'll be an honest broker when there is something that we can do better and i won't be against something for the sake of politics. if i'm going to be against something it's because i think there's a better way to improve it. that's what i'm going to do, john. i think we can. we can get more than nine or ten democrats. i think we can have an overall majority, hopefully of 60, 65 or 70 democrats and republicans working together. we're not going to get the extreme. never going to happen. >> dickerson: speaking of ex treatment, government fundings look like it's going to run outr one of these moments? >> well first of all, john,
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shame on any of us say we're going to let it rub out for the sake of politics and shut the government down. none should be representing the good states that we represent such as west virginia and colorado and arkansas if we allow that to happen. there's no sense for that to happen. we can come to an agreement. the president has to stand firm and say, listen, this is bipartisan deal. i truly believe i've said this, every time i've been in the presence of president of the united states, president trump i always felt that he wanted to do things in bipartisan. i think that after we leave the meeting then the hard core comes at him, the hard core of the base come hard at him and changes things a little bit. i think he's going to stand firm, we're going to get something done and move forward it's going to be good for our country. >> dickerson: 30 seconds, this there's an important issue as stake where some people think is fighting over, funding for the chip program to help the children of the working poor, that's important to west virginia, isn't that worth having a fight over to get that funding? >> trust me, we're going to get
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funding. allow it to string on a hundred days, i've got 50,000 west virginia children, this is wrong. so wrong. where is your priorities? where is your value? these are children, if you didn't get the children a healthy start who who are we as country, this needs to be done. she shouldn't play politics with it. >> dickerson: we'll have to end it there. thanks so much. we'll be right back. stay with me, mr. parker. when a critical patient is far from the hospital, the hospital must come to the patient. stay with me, mr. parker. the at&t network is helping first responders connect with medical teams in near real time... stay with me, mr. parker. ...saving time when it matters most. stay with me, mrs. parker. that's the power of and.
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>> dickerson: welcome back to "face the nation." ahead of the first anniversary of the trump administration, we have cbs news ugov nation tracker poll results. cbs news elections and surveys director anthonyal salvanto joins us. welcome, it's always great to have you back. let's start just with the headlines of this survey, what's the headline? >> people think the economy is doing better than it was a year ago. but that's not how they're evaluating the president. hairy sewell waiting him personally whether or not they like how he's handling himself personally. in fact a year ago we asked people how they would look at this president that's what they said were going to look at. over time there's a bit of what might have been to his approval rating. in that we had this middle group of the country who at the start
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said that they were either conditionally supporting the president or they weren't supporting him but they were looking for a reason to come over to his side. well, that little group has shrunk over time. it's moved toward the polls where he's got a small group of very firm supporters and now larger group of very firm opponents. we called resisters. as people moved to the polls and towards resistance you talk to them he they admit the economy is doing better. they think manufacturing jobs are returning. but when they evaluate the p they use words like they're embarrassed they don't like how he's handling himself that's what affects their judgment. >> dickerson: these are people that you looked at over the course of a year. you've been looking at the country for a year a view you've taken over a long period of time. those who were conditionally potentially open to supporting the president, was the economy what they were looking for from him? what was causing them to get
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over those personal hurdles in the first place? >> the conditional were more focused on policies. they said not just cut my taxes not just bring manufacturing jobs back, they have said that those things are happening. but at the same time you talk to them about the political fight that they see going on. they don't like those as much. they don't like the tweeting. they never have. they would rather see things focused on policy, his best numbers came when he started cutting deals with democrats. by definition you're going to bring over more people if you do that, but for those conditional supporters those were the kinds of things that they were looking for. when they got it things moved up. but at the same time those folks were more on the fence were looking for a reason to support, they feel like the president is disrespected people like them, underscores just how personal this has been for a lot of folks. >> feels like the personal focus of all these responses has put
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an asterisk or changed james carville, that the economy is stupid. if you can get the chew right everything else falls into place. let's me ask you about this. what is the country going into the next year, what are their priorities, what are they concerned about? >> we asked people, if you can give the state of the union, what would you say? they would say the economy is doing better, most folks said that they felt like we were divided. and back to this point about the personal being involved. the president's opponents feel like not just he disrespected them but for many they feel like he's working against their group in particular. lot of our african american respondents felt like the president was working against their group, lot of folks felt like he was working against their economic class. remember, we saw lot of people vote for the president because they thought that he would do well by folks who had been left behind, by the new economy. well that's only at best mixed there are lot of folks feel like he hasn't addressed the needs of
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folks who are working class that sort of moved them away. very personal. very group based. >> dickerson: so people are feeling personal and feel like the president is threatening their group there is that group of core supporters who think finally somebody speaking for me about this president. how big is that group, the group the president once referred to by saying i could shoot somebody on fifth avenue still have support. how big is that group and is it at the same size it was a year ago when you started this project? >> it is a little bit smaller but not much. it is 18% now. that is the core of the core. we've labeled them the believers. they think things are going terrifically. they believe that the president is making their culture and their way of lifesaver. they think that he is, they say that he is bringing back jobs. all of those things are going well. but the big difference for them is that they seem to relish the political fight that they see while others the other conditional supporters do not.
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they prioritize taking on the media, taking on -- they want to investigate hillary clinton. that's what they see going forward. and that really separates them from the rest of the group, so as it's gotten a little bit smaller it's gotten a little more intense. >> dickerson: let's talk about democrats for a moment, they see big chances in 2018 to take advantage of this unhappiness with the president. first of all the unhappiness, where is his overall approval rate hang do you find about that? >> his overall approval rating has been in the high 30s throughout his presidency. in fact if you look historically at the history of the cbs news poll we have not seen a president whose numbers have moved so little in the course of the first year. most of them move much more. that tells you a story about polarization. tells you a story about division how folks don't change the way they're thinking very often. at the same time, if you look at
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democrats, as we head into a mid term year, they cannot -- numbers are clear they cannot simply be default choice for people who don't like the president. we ask folks if they consider voting for a republican who was more independent from the president, another third of folks of independence say that they would. so the democrats are still in play there with a group that could consider somebody more moderate or could consider what they will do and when you ask folks what do you think democrats will do if they take power, people are sweating, will they go after the president or try to work with the president and they get more potential votes from whole say they will try to work with the president. >> dickerson: a danger for democrats making it all about donald trump because they want to work with the president. anthony, thanks so much. we'll be right back with our panel. so we know how to cover almost anything. even a swing set standoff.
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doesn't remember it, senator per due says it was not used where are we? >> this is extraordinary. we're talking about the credible report that term so inflammatory so offensive that we can't say it on air. into a bipartisan group of senators, wasn't just with his best friend and casual conversation. this is shocking. and i think one of the things that is perhaps most alarming to the white house is the degree to which the president's credibility has eroded that we are inclined to believe, most of washington inclined to believe senator durbin and senator graham rather than the president. took the white house 12 hours to decide to dispute the language was used. this has huge reamer cushions for the effort to reach a deal in washington democrats are now going to make a deal with a president who use a term like that.
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and global changes. this strikes me has being pretty serious. >> i think that's exactly right. the idea about any deal getting done on almost anything for the next year, whether it's infrastructure or whether it's immigration. if the president one day saying i want a bill of love publicly talking about bringing in chuck and nancy and we'll work this out then behind closed doors with bipartisan group as this, if you are a democrat even one who wants to work with the president, i don't know what i can trust, how can i possibly -- the trust gap has been completely eroded over the course of the year, now it's almost gone. you're right it puts democrats in position of saying, how can we negotiate with somebody, go back to our base and say, yeah, i'm going to work with somebody who says these things about other people who -- >> not just problem for democrats but also for conservative commentators and republicans who in the first 12 hours before the white house decided to deny this, reportedly donald trump calling friends and
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bragging about it. people are going out there defending the fecal crater comments on the grounds that, it's absolutely true. blurring the lines between the republican party and worst aspects of trumpism. and now you have this problem, now pull back say is no, no, we're denying it. you have this really weird position which is sort of miniature, classic example where senator purdue says, at first i didn't hear it. now he says i -- i heard him not say it. very difficult to figure out how you can say i didn't hear something then say i affirmatively heard that he didn't say something. and end up leaving lot of people looking like fools or desperate like cory gardner was earlier of trying to sort of -- and senator cotton trying to argue the merits of a policy that is so at odds with the rhetoric of the
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president. >> senator cotton maintains that he wants immigration based on who they are, skills they bring, themselves as individuals put president's remarks were basically this ecological government if you come from a country that he believes is poor, unworthy country then you are poor, unworthy country you do not deserve to be in this country. you contrast that with a white european country to make remarks that are so in my mind incredibly clear about the mea meaning, that somewhat bewildering someone can dispute. >> also reports that offer cans who come here are -- africans are better educated than even the norwegians or native-born americans here. that's sort of the problem with the disconnect. >> politically most surprising, shocking thing i heard senator cocotton say to suggest that senator durbin made this up for political gains and that he is known to have misrepresented
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white house conversations in the past. what kind of meeting are we going to see in the senate this week as they try to get this -- weekend deadline to fund the government. who is going to feel like, let's join hands and avoid a shut down. >> that's right. cotton and purdue made that claim because purdue said that to on the air. senator cotton went one step further he said, leaving the word aside he said the president did not group people in this fashion no matter what. which is a little bit at odds with what the white house has said he had strong sentiment but not the specific word. >> that's right. dickerson: nosean to have debt ton saying the sentiment wasn't even there which seems to me to be taking this further. >> once again we're not talking about policy we're talking about personality. that's what makes any kind of compromise or any kind of work done in congress at all impossible, that the merits of the actual legislation which by the way, has been handled in the
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past. there was a bill passed in the united states senate with republican support in 2013 that addressed this chain migration, family migration issue, that addressed border security. that addressed many of the issues that are coming up once again which do need to be handled in a bipartisan way, that were handled, obviously never made it to the house and never passed. but this idea that democrats are trying to do this simply to embarrass the white house or make president look bad or even have a conversation is about this policy we could if the president weren't part of the conversation. that's impossible. >> probably going to be hard to over state how much democratic voters and liberal activists are just going to have nothing to do with immigration. because with these remarks and other remarks the president has reportedly made, this signals that immigration reform for the president isn't about finding more rational system for doing this it's primarily way of
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punishing people 'that the president believes doesn't deserve to be here. if that is the frame with which the president is acting then i cannot imagine a being able to go back to african american leaders say we cut deal with them. for conservatives like me, i'm not 100% on tom cotton's plan and i like it, i have no problem with the skills-based immigration plan, but if you're arguing for that which is contra dick storely to what trump said, if you are doing in the context of defending his comments you're pleadly reasonable people, democrats, independents, basically making argument that is the immigration plan that donald trump wants because he doesn't like these countries. even though i don't think donald trump understands that this contradicts this sweeping generalization of africans and answer because it would actually let in skills-based immigrants. shows corrupting power that trump has over the republican
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party ends up being defense of his personality and his statements rather than any serious argument. >> dickerson: susan, some didn't go this far, paul ryan said it was unfortunate this language. that's not the danger that jonah is talking about, it's not -- if the language is true, it's more than unfortunate. >> once again we see, it's actually been surprise to me reluctance of republican leaders including paul ryan who has history on racial issue, it is a positive and admirable one. reluctance this they continue to show about being very critical of donald trump when he says things that are so provocative. and i think there are republicans -- only republicans willing to do this are those who don't plan to run for office again. like jeff flake, for instance in arizona. and i think that is a sign that republican party is now the party of trump. you better not be too much at odds with president trump.
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>> this idea, too, that the party can separate itself from the president. jonah's point it makes it difficult for any of the republicans who are going to try to run as -- i'm just going to be a check on the president. i can criticize the president but hold my own. it is really -- everything that now passes congress or doesn't pass congress gets the name trump labeled on it. you now have to defend both the president and the policy. >> sort of related aside, what's a little funny about this, there is hesitancy on the part of republican leaders to just flatly label what president was racist, it was a racist thing to say, it signals racism that comes from his rhetoric. but immediate aftermath of the remarks the white house reports from inside the white house said that white house officials thought this would play well with trump supporters about this, might think this is swell. if that's the case then there really shouldn't be as much hesitancy as seems to be about labeling it racism.
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>> dickerson: we need to take a short break. we'll be right back with more from our panel.
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>> dickerson: we're back with our panel. jonah pick up on what jamelle was saying. let me look at it this way. i'm a republican and i say, okay, maybe salty language not the best way to put it, the president got some -- lots of judicial nominees through, he's cutting regulations all over the place. so, you know, lots of achievements and this is just part of his roughness but, boy, he's put points on the board. >> he has put points on the board. tax cuts and conservative judicial appointment, this guy. the larger problem is that the rhetoric and the drama of the presidency turns off more people than it attracts. politics ultimately is about addition not subtraction. donald trump is a divisive president for the country but relevant point, is that he's a divisive person in the republican party. as we saw, saying during the break, alabama was only
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possible, doug jones victory was only possible because a lot of suburban republican voters were just so embarrassed about roy moore, that same dynamic applies we saw poll numbers earlier across the republican party. lot of republican voters who like these specific things are embarrassed, they're demoralizessed, don't want to defend donald trump at work or school and it creates -- he energizes democrats and liberals in profound ways which is setting the kindling for a huge prairie fire. >> cory gardner is setting the senate campaign committee said in your interview, people are fired up. yeah, democratic people are fired up. we've seen in every election we've had this year democrats outperforming what we would expect them in terms of turn out. that is probably the best possible news for democrats heading into the mid term. >> dickerson: is the house now,
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democrats need 24 seats to have control of the house, where is that stand in the prognostication? >> it looks like a better chance than not. that the house flips. lot of it is due to this intensity. the base is important if the base is bigger, right now in your own poll hard core base is 18%. hard core trump base is not enough. the other question that i've been looking at, too, where are independents. we talk about trump winning the base, even in 2016 he lost the national vote but he won independents. he took 46% of independents. only getting a third of those voters now. what we've seen in past elections, one side is fired up, other side is not. that is important. but independents break overwhelmingly for the other party. in this case, if the independents give the republican candidates only 30-something percent you can't in an election
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only carrying that. >> and more likely to go against the president. >> not just republican control of the senate. still unlikely democrats win the senate, they have uphill battle. more likely than it was last year. more likely than it was six months ago that democrats can pull the hat trick and win the senate. in this case that completely just cripples any republican agenda for the next election cycle. >> dickerson: what do you think of the argument, if i'm a republican i could imagine, well, if democrats take control they're going to impeach the president, there for use that as thing to scare republicans to the ballot box. do you think that is san effective strategy or the only vat gee? >> i think it is probably true. it is probably correct if democrats gain the house they're going to be lot of democrats elected with the idea that they're going after the president in serious way. that could be trouble for the democrats down the road. we've seen this president clinton's impeachment does not
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necessarily serve yourb even if you can show it was wrongdoing or misconduct. i think, some people i talked to may be curious, republicans think the house is gone. they think it is unlikely they can hold the house and the question republicans now face is, what are the longer term consequences of the presidency of donald trump and whether attitudes towards african americans, hispanics, are going to guarantee republicans trouble going four and eight and 12 and 20 years down the road. >> that was the argument after the 2012 election. no republican can possibly win only by putting together a coalition of older white americans. and then donald trump proved that wrong. this is the other challenge for republicans and this president, run for president exactly one time as he points out and he won. and nothing that he's doing now is any different from what did he in 2016. because it was successful. it got him through the primaries, a general election, why should he possibly change
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that. unlessor until there are consequences, i don't think it's ever going to change. >> that's the problem. there are consequences. to your point, waiting, the fact is that behavior did he on the campaign trail which was interesting, worked against hillary clinton who was particularly problematic candidate, is unpresidential in a president. his approval ratings his support all that have has plummeted normally when president's approval ratings plummet they change their behavior and start reaching out. i think that is the consequence, his approval rating is so flow that dangerous for republicans but he seems unwilling to get off this idea that all he needs to do is please the base. >> learn term there is chance does turn decisively against donald trump. years ago, it was said that people my age who grew up during
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the bush at manages for the rest of their lives. have generation like that voting against donald trump for the rest of their lives. >> dickerson: we'll have to end it there. not the rest of their lives. we'll be right back. the great emperor trekking a hundred miles inland to their breeding grounds. except for these two fellows. this time next year, we're gonna be sitting on an egg. i think we're getting close! make a u-turn... u-turn? recalculating... man, we are never gonna breed. just give it a second. you will arrive in 92 days.
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>> dickerson: that's it for us today. thanks for watching. i'm see you tomorrow on "cbs this morning" and i'll see you next sunday on "face the nation." captioning sponsored by cbs captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org 00 deaths in america last year. we need to stand up and say enough. the only way this problem is going to be solved is if we raise our voices.
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