[Hill:] Welcome back. We are just hearing from the president speaking moments ago. Let's listen in.
[Donald Trump, President Of The United States:] ... a little better negotiating position. When they did that, they killed 12 people. One happened to be a great American soldier, a wonderful young man from Puerto Rico. Family's from Puerto Rico. And you can't do that. You can't do that with me. So they're dead, as far as I'm concerned. And we have hit the Taliban harder in the last four days that they have been hit in over 10 years. So that's the way it is.
[Question:  Trump:] Say it. What? No, actually, in terms of advisers, I took my own advice. I like the idea of meeting. I have met with a lot of bad people and a lot of good people during the course of the last almost three years. And I think meeting is a great thing. I think that meeting with you're talking about war. There are meetings with war. Otherwise, wars would never end. You would have them go on forever. We had a meeting scheduled. It was my idea. It was my idea to terminate it. I didn't even I didn't discuss it with anybody else. When I heard, very simply, that they killed one of our soldiers and 12 other innocent people, I said, there's no way I'm meeting on that basis. There's no way I'm meeting. They did a mistake. And, by the way, they are telling people they made a big mistake. They're saying it loud and clear that they made a big mistake. Go ahead. Well, Camp David has held meets with a lot of people that would have been perceived as being pretty tough customers and pretty bad people. There have been plenty of so-called bad people brought up to Camp David for meetings. And the alternative was the White House. And you wouldn't have been happy with that either. So, Camp David would have been a good place. But I don't want to meet under circumstances where they go around and try and make themselves a little bit more important by killing a soldier, by killing actually also a great NATO soldier, in addition to our soldier, and also a total of 12 people. I don't want that. But, you know, Camp David has had many meetings that I guess people would not have considered politically correct. Yes. Well, we're looking at that. And we're thinking about it. You know, as I have said, we have been policemen there for a long time. And the government's going to have to take responsibility or do whatever it is they do. I have been saying from the campaign that we want do get out at the earliest possible time. We're doing a very good job. Our soldiers are incredible. But they're serving as policemen, to a large extent. I just made a statement on it. Yes, we'd like to get out. But we will get out at the right time. What? Well, India and Pakistan are having a conflict over Kashmir, as you know. I think it's a little bet less heated right now than it was two weeks ago. And I'm willing to help them. I get along with both countries very well. I'm willing to help them if they want. They know that that is out there. David? You know, I don't even know who they are, other than I know that I guess you could say no, but I don't know them. I don't know them. I would say this. They're all at less than 1 percent. It's a I guess it's a publicity stunt. We just got right a little while ago 94 percent popularity or approval rating within the Republican Party. So, to be honest, I'm not looking to give them any credibility. They have no credibility. One was a person that voted for Obama, ran as a vice president four years ago, and was soundly defeated. Another one got thrown out after one term in Congress, and he lost in a landslide. And the third one, Mr. Tallahassee Trail or Appalachian Trail he's the Tallahassee Trail, right? The Tallahassee Trail is nice too, but I think he was the Appalachian Trail. But he wasn't on the Appalachian Trail. He was in Argentina. Yes, go ahead. Say it louder.
[Question:] [OFF-MIKE] you think the military as a police source on our southern border?
[Trump:] Well, right now, Mexico has been doing a great job for us. And, frankly, we're very appreciative. But we have also been very pretty rapidly changing the regulations, the rules, winning in court. We have had a lot of wins. We did it early on, but we're having a lot of wins in court right now. The courts are backing us up. And that has a lot to do with our success of the southern border. In addition, a lot of wall is being built. And every time we put up a mile of wall, that helps us a lot.
[Question:  Trump:] So, we're talking to a lot of different people on that. You know, we're recovering from the hurricane also. Florida did get hit, not as hard as we anticipated. And you look at Georgia, you look at South Carolina, North Carolina. I'm going to North Carolina right now, North Carolina, to have a rally for Dan Bishop. But before I go to the rally, we're going to be stopping at one of the sites that got hit very hard by the hurricane. So, we're also recovering from the hurricane. But we have to be very careful. Everybody needs totally proper documentation, because, look, the Bahamas had some tremendous problems with people going to the Bahamas that weren't supposed to be there. I don't want to allow people that weren't supposed to be in the Bahamas to come into the United States, including some very bad people and some very bad gang members and some very, very bad drug dealers. So, we are going to be very, very strong with that. Let me just explain. Large sections, believe it or not, of the Bahamas were not hit. And what we're doing is bringing the people to those sections of the Bahamas that have not been hit. We have done a lot of the USAID. We have done a lot of work with our U.S. Coast Guard, with our FEMA, who have been phenomenal. I mean, they have been phenomenal. So, we will see what happens. We will see what happens. Well, I saw a statement was just put out having to do with North Korea. And that will be interesting. We will see. It just came out over the wires a little while ago. So, we will see what happens. In the meantime, in the meantime, we have our hostages back. We're getting the remains of our great heroes back. And we have had no nuclear testing for a long time.
[Hill:] President Trump speaking there moments ago with reporters. Lisa Monaco is with us, Gloria Borger also with us this hour. I want to pick up on what the president was saying about this plan and the canceled meeting that we heard about with the Taliban. He said: I took my own advice. He didn't speak with any advisers who talked to him out of the meeting, saying, Lisa, that it was this attack that the Taliban has claimed responsibility for which killed 12, one U.S. soldier killed in that, and because of that attack and the people who were killed, then the talks, according to the president, that those talks are now dead. There is a question about the Taliban, Lisa, taking responsibility for this attack while they're supposed to be in the middle of some sort of negotiation with the U.S. What does that say to you?
[Monaco:] Well, it really makes you question their commitment to any of the commitments we're trying to get out of them, one, a cease-fire, which we know they haven't committed, two, renouncing, which they have never done, 911. So how can we trust that they will make good on their commitments if they continue if they refuse to agree to a cease-fire, and they continue these attacks, even while they're being invited to Camp David?
[Hill:] And we're hearing, Gloria, the president there. He was asked, did any advisers talk you out of this meeting? He said very clearly: I took my own advice. This was all my decision.
[Gloria Borger, Cnn Senior Political Analyst:] Well, that seems to be what the truth, because there are advisers, we know, who disagreed with him. There are advisers who thought, whatever you decide to do, even if you want to talk to the Taliban, you should not do it at Camp David. And what the president also said is that they have been hit harder in the last four days than in the last four years. And, Lisa, maybe you can talk to this, but what does that mean? Where does that put any kind of negotiation? And where does that put the notion about what we're going to do with our troops in Afghanistan?
[Monaco:] Well, a few reactions to both the president's comments and what Gloria just said. One is, what is this what is the strategy here, right? So I heard the president say he did not talk to anybody about this, he made this decision on his own. Well, that is really turning a national security policy process completely on its head. You're not getting an informed decision. You're not getting the best decision you can without having lots of voices in the room on this. And in terms of the Taliban's continued terror attacks, their continued violence in the region, I mean, we don't have a strategy, it seems, to have these talks, while also continuing to have a counterterrorism presence, continuing to prosecute the counterterrorism issues. The president said, what about the also, what about the security for our forces? What about security for our NATO presence? And the president said, we are the we have been the policemen in that region. Frankly, the mission in that space has been twofold. It has been to continue to prosecute the counterterrorism mission and to ensure another 911 doesn't emanate from that region, and, secondly, to ensure the Afghan security forces can operate there on their own.
[Hill:] And, real quickly, too, we had talked about this, but the president talked about Camp David. And he said: Well, I was also considering the White House. If I had done that, nobody would have been happy with that either. There have been, in his words, plenty of bad people there. Lisa, you were there with President Obama for that Mideast peace summit. Just I mean, just take us inside that room. How does this happen there when you're trying to bring sides together? And did it make sense for the president to consider Camp David?
[Monaco:] No, it didn't make sense for the president to consider Camp David, let alone the White House for this type of meeting. Camp David has been used historically to bring our allies together, to plan strategy, to bring partners together in a joint effort. Reagan famously met with Margaret Thatcher there. And, yes, as you mentioned, I was present in 2015 when President Obama held meetings with all of our Mideast and Gulf allies in the region to talk about the Syria problem, to talk about continued pressure on Iran. That's where you use a place like Camp David. And, very importantly, Camp David and bringing somebody there and bringing an ally and a partner there is a reward for that partner, for that ally. And this is not the type of thing we should be doing with the Taliban, who quite literally has blood on their hands from 911.
[Hill:] Go ahead, Gloria.
[Borger:] I just also want to ask and I don't know if there's any answer to this which is, why is the president tweeting about all of this? I mean, it's kind of stunning to me. And, again, I don't have Lisa's experience with national security. But why would the president be tweeting about a meeting he was going to have that was top-secret that he canceled and then today talk about, well, I was thinking about having it in this venue, and I was thinking about having it in that venue? I mean, is there any reason for him doing that, other than wanting to make it the reality show continue for another day? I can't figure that one out either.
[Hill:] It's a question that I can't either answer either. But it does raise significant questions, to your point, Gloria.
[Borger:] Yes.
[Hill:] Stay with us. The president also in that exchange earlier talking about the special election, which is being seen by many as a test for him in North Carolina, in addition to the controversy surrounding Air Force members staying at one of his resorts. We have more on that. Stay with us.