Trump: Don't Believe What You See and Hear
WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: The year is 2018, not "1984," but the sentiment is eerily similar to George Orwell's dystopian novel. The president of the United States saying it's not just the media lying to you but now your own eyes are deceiving you as well.</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Just remember, what you're seeing and what you're reading is not what's happening. Just stick with us. Don't believe the crap you see from these people, the fake news.</s>BLITZER: That was yesterday at an event for veterans. Let's bring in CNN's politics reporter, Chris Cillizza. Chris, the president there having, what some are describing, an Orwellian moment.</s>CHRIS CILLIZZA, CNN POLITICS REPORTER & CNN EDITOR-AT-LARGE: Yes. Look, Wolf, this is a book that probably everyone read at some point in your high school or collegiate life. I want to read you a quote from the book that will ring eerily reminiscent. "The party told you to reject the evidence of their eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command." I'll add there, Wolf, take it out of the fictional realm, I'll add that, in many authoritarian countries around the world, led by what we would call authoritarian dictators, there's a lot of state-run, state- controlled media. No free and independent press. Basically, you can only believe what the top person tells you to believe. The thing that worried me the most is not that Donald Trump said it. It's the cheering that you heard in that clip in response to it. I think that is just people cheering because they don't like the media, which is their right, but I wonder what their lives would be like without a free and independent media.</s>BLITZER: While the president is telling people not to believe what they see or read, they are not being completely honest over at the White House or forthright about what we all saw in Helsinki last week at the summit with Putin, are they?</s>CILLIZZA: That's right. Let's play a little sound first. This is from the summit last Monday in Helsinki, Finland. Donald Trump/Vladimir Putin being asked questions. Let's play that.</s>UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: President Putin, did you want President Trump to win the election, and did you direct any of your officials to help him do that?</s>VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through translation): Yes, I did. Yes, I did. Because he talked about bringing the U.S./Russia relationship back to normal.</s>CILLIZZA: OK. Now let's go -- what you heard is this, Wolf, over here close to me. "President Putin, did you want President Trump to win the election and did you direct any of your officials to do that?" Here's what still is on the official White House Web site as the White House transcript. "Did you direct any of your officials to do that?" That doesn't make a lot of sense because you're missing this whole first part, which says, "Did you want Donald Trump to win," to which Putin responds, "Yes, I did, yes, I did." Now the White House has said -- CNN has reached out. The White House said there's nothing malicious in this. What it is, is, as Putin was having it translated to him in real time in Russian, the question obviously asked in English, a part of it was missed by the official White House stenographers. Those are not appointees. Those are lifetime people. These are not partisans who are keeping track of what's being said. The thing to note is they haven't corrected the record. Everyone agrees this version is what happened. If you listen to that clip we played, this is the version. This is the version on the White House Web site. It's a simple change. You literally cut and paste this and put it here. Don't know why they haven't done it. They should do it. They correct transcripts all the time for less major omissions or something wasn't said properly. Given what President Trump has said over "would" versus "wouldn't" as related to Russia, given what he said when he said, no, but wasn't talking about no as it relates to Russian targeting, you'd think they would want to change this to accurately reflect the record. Back to you -- Wolf?</s>BLITZER: It's unclear why they still haven't fixed it. They've known about this mistake for a week at least. Thank you, Chris, very much. As Michael Cohen officially turns on President Trump by releasing a secret audiotape, there's a comment in the tape that suggests there's more being held secret. We'll discuss. And a short time from now, lawmakers will grill Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on the president's summit with Vladimir Putin. One of those Senators standing by live to join us as we learn what Pompeo is expected to reveal.