Trump Taking Steps To Build Border Wall; Protesters Decry Trump's Orders to Revive Oil Pipelines; Trump to Announce Visa and Refugee Restrictions; Donald Trump and His Alternative Facts.
JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Benjamin Netanyahu has his own plans for construction. Israel announcing thousands of new homes will be built in the West Bank.</s>ISHA SESAY, CNN ANCHOR: And later, diversity comes to the Academy Awards. But is this just a one-year fluke or a sign of real progress?</s>VAUSE: Hello, everybody. Thanks for being with us. I'm John Vause.</s>SESAY: And I'm Isha Sesay, this is NEWSROOM L.A. Donald Trump's campaign events resounded with chants of "build that wall." And soon, the rallying cry will be one step closer to reality. A White House official, confirms Mr. Trump will take executive action Wednesday, directing federal resources toward building a border wall with Mexico.</s>VAUSE: And Mr. Trump is said to unveil another aspect of his America First Policy. A Congressional source says, he will restrict Visas and refugees from countries including Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.</s>SESAY: Mr. Trump's continued insistence of widespread voter fraud is taking attention away from his Presidential actions. Maybe, on purpose.</s>VAUSE: The White House is getting a lot of pushback on the President's false claims. Here's Jeff Zeleny.</s>JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: The White House is standing by President Donald Trump's unsubstantiated claim that millions of people voted illegally in the November election.</s>SEAN SPICER, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The President does believe that. He stated that before. I think he stated his concerns of voter fraud and people voting illegally during the campaign. And he continues to maintain that belief based on studies and evidence people have presented to him.</s>ZELENY: Press Secretary, Sean Spicer, doubling down on the President's claim, but repeatedly unable to point to evidence that backs up the charge that has been debunked by Republicans and Democrats alike.</s>ZELENY: You said that the President believes that there was voter fraud. I wonder if you believe that. You were at the Republican National Committee at the time, and Chief of Staff, Reince Priebus was the Chairman of the RNC at the time. Do you believe there was widespread voter fraud?</s>SPICER: This is my job - is not, look -</s>ZELENY: How can he be comfortable with his win, if there was three million votes?</s>SPICER: He's very comfortable with his win.</s>ZELENY: Maybe he didn't win.</s>SPICER: No, he's very comfortable with this win. It's electoral based system, he got 306 electoral votes. 33 of 50 states voted for him. I think, look, Jeff, I've asked and answered this question twice, he believes what he believes based on the information he's provided. Yes ma'am?</s>ZELENY: What does that mean for democracy, though?</s>SPICER: Thanks, Jeff. Ma'am? It means that, I have answered your question.</s>ZELENY: Have you?</s>ZELENY: The allegations of voter fraud which Trump has repeatedly made before ticking off has surfaced again, after the President repeated that claim Monday night while meeting with Congressional leaders at the White House.</s>SPICER: I think we knew he won very handily. He is very comfortable with his win.</s>ZELENY: But he doesn't sound like it. He won the electoral college but lost the popular vote by nearly three million. He charged that three to five million people voted illegally, a claim as unsubstantiated as when he first made it after the election. But now it carries the weight of the presidency. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said if Trump believes it, he should disclose his proof and ask for an investigation, telling CNN's Manu Raju such allegations erode the President's credibility.</s>LINDSEY GRAHAM, UNITED STATES SENATE REPUBLICAN: I would urge the President to knock this off. This is the greatest democracy on earth. You're the leader of the free world. And people are going to start doubting you as a person.</s>ZELENY: From the White House podium, Spicer left open the door to launching an investigation, but repeatedly brushed aside questions from reporters.</s>SPICER: There is no investigation. It says - it said - I've said it was possible. Anything is possible. It was a hypothetical question. My point to you is that to ask us on day two he made a comment last night on something he has believed and said for a long, long time.</s>ZELENY: Even as he gets to work laying out his agenda, Trump is still on a quest to prove his legitimacy. The exchange came on the fourth full day of Trump's presidency, overshadowing his executive actions to revive the keystone pipeline and clear the way for the Dakota access pipeline. Two more reversals of the Obama administration. The President said today he is closing in on his first Supreme Court nomination to replace the year-long vacant seat of former Justice Antonin Scalia.</s>DONALD TRUMP, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA PRESIDENT: We will pick a truly great Supreme Court Justice.</s>ZELENY: The President discussed his Supreme Court appointments or his leading list of contenders with four top Senators; Republicans and Democrats. He is planning on making his announcement early next week. It's one thing his aides hope will move him beyond all this controversy of the voter fraud he is still talking about privately. Jeff Zeleny, CNN, The White House.</s>VAUSE: Joining us here in Los Angeles; Talk Radio host, Ethan Bearman; and Shawn Steel, Member of the California Republican National Committee. Let's just keep with Jeff Zeleny's reporting on what Donald Trump has been saying about voter fraud. I want to play for you what Senator Bernie Sanders said, the Democratic Presidential candidate had to say about this. And he said that this is a lot more than an issue of ego. Listen to this.</s>BERNIE SANDERS, UNITED STATES SENATE INDEPENDENT: But what I fear about that statement, and what is something we should all worry about. Is when Trump talks about three to five million people voting illegally, he is sending a message to every Republican Governor in this country to go forward with voter suppression.</s>VAUSE: Ethan, is this sort of some kind of invitation to those Republican Governors to ramp up voter suppression?</s>ETHAN BEARMAN, TALK RADIO HOST: Well, this clearly been an issue in the United States with some of the voter I.D. laws being struck down by the courts. And I think that Bernie Sanders - Senator Sanders, actually, has an interesting point. Look, we need to make sure that the integrity of the election is valid. Meaning, people who aren't allowed to vote can't vote, but we need to give Americans every opportunity to vote. And I actually think that our system can be made better by expanding the opportunities to vote.</s>SESAY: Shawn, South Carolina Senator, Lindsey Graham; blasted President Trump for repeating these unfounded claims. And he's warned Mr. Trump that this is going to erode his ability to govern this country if he does not stop it. Do you agree?</s>SHAWN STEEL, CALIFORNIA REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE MEMBER: Not at all. I don't agree with much of Lindsey Graham has to say on anything.</s>VAUSE: You would agree with Bernie Sanders, though.</s>STEEL: Bernie Sanders, actually, is an expert on voter fraud because he is such a victim of it, coming from the Democrat National Committee. So, he knows how to get screwed and he knows how to smile about it. So, I don't have a lot of respect for the guy. The real issue here on voter fraud is that it really needs to be talked about. It needs to be investigated. It needs - It's not something that is completely vacuous. It's not something that's completely made up.</s>SESAY: But it has been investigated?</s>STEEL: Investigated by the usual suspects.</s>VAUSE: Why won't the White House investigate it then?</s>STEEL: Well, you know what, I saw that Mr. Comey got his job renewed in the FBI. And I think if there're serious voter fraud situations, that's a national issue. I think the FBI will be looking at that. So, I'm not saying that there isn't any at all. But John Fund from The Wall Street Journal, has written several books about voter fraud going; listen, the Democrats have been stealing votes since Tammany Hall, long before you came to this country, 150 years ago. So, the Democrats are experts on stealing vote, particularly in the urban areas. That's just a fact.</s>VAUSE: You see their investigation, but the White House doesn't want one. OK, let's move on because there is some very big news tonight. In the coming hours, we can expect Donald Trump to make good on that promise to build the wall on Mexico. He tweeted this out a short time ago, "big day planned on National Security for tomorrow. Among many other things, we will build the wall." So, Shawn, I mean, this is one of his key campaign promises. A lot of people will be watching to see how all of this plays out. And also, a lot of Muslims, not just here in the United States, but around the world will be watching to see if there is that ban on Muslims entering the country.</s>STEEL: Two issues; building the wall, border security in the South, is something that legislation from Congress. Bush signed 11 years ago, but it was never been employed and used. Obama completely shut it down on purpose. Bush didn't do it wholeheartedly. So, we're taking an 11-year law, plus, the funding that was granted 11 years ago, and finally putting it into play. That's really not really news, it's something that should have been done that most Americans want. In terms of explicit anti-Muslim behavior coming from the Federal Government, nobody is going to support that. Nobody believes in a plural - pluralistic society like America has. Remember, we have the most integrated nation in the world. There is no nation comparable to the United States with the various hues, and languages, and diversity that we have. And that's something to be proud of. So, there is not going to be a hex on Muslims, per se, because that would be unconstitutional.</s>SESAY: And the language we heard from President-elect Trump on the campaign trail, which many people would say was decidedly anti-Muslim.</s>STEEL: You mean - you mean, extreme vetting? That's not -</s>BEARMAN: He talked about actually stopping all Muslims from coming back to -</s>STEEL: He backed away. He's not -</s>BEARMAN: Another example of he'll say whatever he needed to during the campaign, which included the big beautiful wall which will now be a fence in some areas.</s>STEEL: I hope it's a beautiful wall.</s>BEARMAN: But the point is, is he said whatever it took to get elected, and that's what happened. And so, now, look -</s>STEEL: Are you accusing him of being a politician?</s>BEARMAN: Exactly, which everybody claimed he wasn't. I'm going to say, right now, if there is a Muslim registry; I'm Jewish, I will register as a Muslim in this country to stand with my brothers and sisters who are Muslims, who are here legally, who are peaceful, who want to participate in our pluralistic society. I will not stand idly by.</s>STEEL: I almost hate to agree with you. But I can't think of a single Republican conservative, and I know a lot of them that supports a Muslim Registry.</s>VAUSE: General Foran, I say, has proposed the Muslim Registry, and he is advising Donald Trump right now.</s>STEEL: Well, I tell you, that's a very isolated point of view. But nobody wants a -</s>VAUSE: That he cut to presidency? Yes, he is meeting with Donald Trump.</s>STEEL: Thousands of people have the President's ear. And probably he's listening to it right now, because he likes watching</s>T.V. SESAY: Ethan, what message does this send to the world about who America is? What America is at this point in time under a Trump presidency?</s>BEARMAN: It shows that we're withdrawing from the world. And I think that's actually a very dangerous message. When the United States withdraws from the world, it leaves a power vacuum. We're no longer the beacon of liberty, which is what we're supposed to be. And when we withdraw, bad things happen. I mean, bad people like to fill those vacuums. And I want us to be that pluralistic society, that beacon of freedom and liberty. And so, if we withdraw that, that light goes dim.</s>STEEL: I disagree. I think the fact that he's meeting with the Prime Minister of England, the President of Mexico -</s>SESAY: Talk about the tax for the wall.</s>STEEL: Well, you know, he's coming here, and he seemed to be in good spirits about it. Maybe he'll write his first check to Trump. I don't know. And Prime Minister Trudeau. So, he's very much, and he's talking to world leaders constantly. He's not withdrawing from anything. And if anything, I think the American credibility is going to increase in the Middle East.</s>BEARMAN: He just withdrew from the TPP, which I actually supported him on. But he is talking about withdrawing -</s>STEEL: Which the teamsters liked too.</s>BEARMAN: He attacked, NATO. He is questioning the validity of our North Atlantic Treaty Organization.</s>STEEL: I think I - you know what, he doesn't like a bunch of parasites having Americans pay for their protection.</s>VAUSE: See, this is the part, is that when Donald Trump makes a point, quite often there is something there. Like NATO, yes, those countries are not dedicating their defense budgets like they should be to the four percent level; only three or four countries in NATO. So, there is a point. But the criticism of Donald Trump is he then takes it too far; calling NATO obsolete.</s>STEEL: Read his book. It's a classic art of deal making. He makes a position. It may be strident. And then the other party is really shocked and amazed, and ultimately, it goes halfway. That's exactly what Trump wanted.</s>SESAY: But it's not business. It's diplomacy. It's politics.</s>STEEL: It's called negotiations. Everything in life is negotiations, including diplomacy.</s>SESAY: But when you are the President of the United States, would you not agree that words matter? And when you put statements let out like that, you destabilize the world on many levels, including financially, economically?</s>STEEL: I think it's called disruption. And I think Americans wanted to disrupt the President, and they're tired of the way the Congress is acting, they're tired of the way world leaders have acted. And yes, what Donald Trump is doing is crazy, as a fox.</s>BEARMAN: And he has taken the word bully pulpit too literally, and taken it as a bully pulpit. I mean, that's the problem -</s>STEEL: People really need to get a good bully pulpit pounded on their head. That's what Americans love. Sorry, but that's the truth.</s>VAUSE: The problem with, you know, many of the issues is that there is a lack of clarity. And is there a Muslim Registry? Is there not a Muslim Registry? And there's confusions -</s>STEEL: There isn't.</s>VAUSE: Well, we don't know that for certain. Because -</s>STEEL: I do.</s>SESAY: Wow!</s>STEEL: I'll put money on the table. I can tell you it's not happening and it won't happen.</s>SESAY: Based on?</s>VAUSE: Will there be a ban on Muslims entering the country? Because, you know, you said -</s>STEEL: I hope so, there'll be vetting.</s>VAUSE: -- that there'll be vetting. There, you know, doubling restrictions for the refugees -</s>STEEL: What is wrong with that?</s>BEARMAN: Totally.</s>VAUSE: But there are - there are many people out there, right now, in this country who are Muslims, who are terrified. They don't know what is going to happen next. And they want some kind of definitive statement from their President, because he's their President as well. And right now, you talked to Muslims in this country, and they say they feel ostracized. They feel isolated. You know, they are -</s>STEEL: John, that's not true. These are professional - these are professional organizations like CARE, which is pro-Hamas, pro- terrorists, speaking on behalf of Muslims in America. I'll tell you, most of the Muslims in America, are Americans and they got day to day issues and they're not afraid of anything.</s>SESAY: Shawn, you can't say that. That's not true.</s>STEEL: They're a lot better from the places they came from. I guarantee you the people in Minnesota, who are Somalians are so much - 8,000 times happier being in Minnesota than they are back in Somalia.</s>SESAY: But that doesn't mean they are not worried. And you can't say that people don't have concerns within the Muslim American Community. Because they do.</s>STEEL: Show me some metrics. Show me some evidence. I don't see it. I hear talk. It comes from discredited Muslims, self-appointed discredited Muslim leaders who are extremists themselves that have an agenda that are tied in to terrorism in the Middle East. I don't trust the information.</s>SESAY: No. Just an anecdotally, I can tell you. Just anecdotally, I can tell you about Muslim Americans who are upset and who are concerned.</s>VAUSE: OK.</s>SESAY: Are their views not valid?</s>STEEL: Well, I got mine too. I got Mohammed Khan. Whose yours? Name them.</s>VAUSE: OK. Well, one of the other big controversial executive orders was signed by Donald Trump, and that was essentially to sign the go ahead for the Keystone Pipeline and also the Keystone of the North Dakota Pipeline as well in North Dakota. Donald Trump signed this, after President Obama essentially put a ban on it because of environmental reasons. Now, after the order was signed by President Trump, protesters gathered outside the White House. Native American groups they spent months in North Dakota trying to stop the Pipeline, because they say it would disturb sacred sites as well as pollute their water supply. Michael Knudsen, Joins us now from Bismarck, North Dakota. He's a Logistic Coordinator for the Standing Rock Medic Healer Council. Michael, last week the organizers of the protest up there in North Dakota; they asked the water protectors to leave the site and head home. Will that still happen now? Or will there now be renewed protests?</s>KNUDSEN: A lot of our -- a lot of our structures and the supplies that we have here. And we definitely respect the standing rock's two tribe's request for people to clean up the camps before floods or any kind of, you know, melting would happen. But we are also very committed as medics and health care providers to stay as long as water protectors are at camp and in the area because we are kind of the closest health care providers to the camp. What's happening now is that for months now, Highway 1806, which is the fastest route to Bismarck, which is the closest advanced hospital, is still closed. And so, we're still here at camp, and we're asking for that highway to be opened so that people can get medical care.</s>VAUSE: What basically are the options now left for these groups which have been protesting? Because when Obama was president, he clearly was against the pipeline. He ordered the Army Corps of engineers to take a look and essentially to re-assess the situation. Now, Obama's out of office, you have Donald Trump. Does this now present itself as like a legal challenge? Is that basically how this now needs to play out?</s>KNUDSEN: You know, I think that the legal aspect is really important. The environmental impact statement should still be going through. Obviously with Trump's, you know, memorandum, he is asking that be expedited. We'll see what the Army Corps says in response to that. But honestly, we all knew that this was a very real possibility, and we expected based on Trump's statements during his campaigning, that he wouldn't be our ally. He wouldn't advocate for indigenous rights or environmental protections. So the question really is, you know, what's going to happen to demonstrators who are still, you know, at a camp or across the country, demonstrating against Trump's policies, and what will that mean under this administration. And even under the Obama Administration, we've seen escalations in the violence, you know, the police violence and the state violence against, you know, peaceful demonstrators. We haven't seen a lot of regulation from the Obama administration. We don't expect that the Trump administration will take measures to make sure that people's rights to express themselves and free speech are protected. So at least as a medic collective, we're committed to providing care to demonstrators who are experiencing real physical and mental trauma at the hands of those who oppose, you know, our right to demonstrate.</s>VAUSE: OK. Michael, we'll leave it there. But thank you for being with us. Michael Knudsen there in Bismarck, North Dakota.</s>SESAY: Back to Sean and Ethan here in the studio. We need to take a listen to some of what President Trump had to say during his meeting with Auto Executives on Tuesday. Take a listen to what he had to say as he promised to cut regulations.</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I'm going to have friends that want to build in the United States. They go many, many years and they can't get their environmental permit over something that nobody ever heard of before. And it's absolutely crazy. And I am, to a large extent, an environmentalist. I believe in it. But it's out of control.</s>SESAY: To a large extent. He is an environmentalist.</s>VAUSE: I'm just curious.</s>STEEL: I think he likes the environment because he likes to breathe the air and drink the water. So that kind of makes us all pro- environmentalists. Look, we've seen --</s>VAUSE: That's a pretty basic definition.</s>STEEL: We've seen some people that have taken this environmental activity and regulation and control into a religious zeal that has become -- declares any body of water in the United States a marshland. Therefore, under the control of the EPA. That created a lot of fake stories in the past. Remember how coal dust was supposed to be spoiling the atmosphere throughout the states and creating what was called acid rain? That never existed. That was unscientific, unverified and blown out, not talked about anymore. But there is --</s>BEARMAN: Yes. Totally untrue.</s>STEEL: There is dozens and dozens of stories like that that created by some environmental strange person and university never had a real job in his life.</s>SESAY: So you think -</s>STEEL: And the problem is, they're completely shown unscientific over the years. And now they're in charge of the nut house. And that's what Donald Trump is trying to restore some -</s>BEARMAN: That's entirely untrue. And on top of it all, we have unregulated chemicals unlike Europe, which takes the precautionary principle with chemicals.</s>STEEL: You want to be like Europe?</s>BEARMAN: We did -- on the topic of chemicals, at least, yes. We have unregulated chemicals, Atrazine polluting our waterways. We have Glyphosine, a brand-new report came out showing the liver damage that happens at the low dosage extended period exposure to the -</s>STEEL: We're the healthiest society.</s>BEARMAN: We're not the --</s>STEEL: They're bringing us water.</s>BEARMAN: And cancer rates are off the curriculum because of the --</s>VAUSE: Cancer rates are through the roof.</s>BEARMAN: Yes. And because of all these issues which actually President Obama even ignored as well that we need to address. And that is the unregulated chemicals that are polluting the water, the food, the air and everything else. And that's going to go all the way to the wayside.</s>STEEL: Typical scare mongering.</s>BEARMAN: It's not --</s>STEEL: Americans are living longer and healthier. The trouble is we have so many healthy old people.</s>VAUSE: The age expectancy for the white male in the United States actually declined for the first-time last year.</s>STEEL: That's -</s>VAUSE: They're not living longer.</s>STEEL: That's - that's actually true for one segment of society. A lot of it has to do with they're not working, they're cold, they've forgotten American. And that was that community, along with not just white males, but a forgotten male and a forgotten female that got Trump elected, ironically.</s>BEARMAN: One more really important note back the pipeline. This is more than 200 years now of violating treaties with Native Americans that this president is going to continue just like all of the previous presidents.</s>STEEL: We don't know that yet, we don't know yet.</s>BEARMAN: So far so good. I mean, it doesn't look like he is going to respect.</s>VAUSE: Real like the pipeline.</s>STEEL: Nobody - nobody argues against keystone. Keystone's a rational, a good approach.</s>BEARMAN: Nope, I do not argue. I do not argue against keystone.</s>SESAY: We'll be going to leave it there. I know we will reconvene in the days ahead. Ethan Bearman and --</s>VAUSE: Sean Spicer?</s>SESAY: And Sean Spice -</s>VAUSE: Sean Spicer, thank you. Oh, my goodness.</s>STEEL: I'm not really Spicer. My man.</s>VAUSE: I just promoted you. Thanks, guys.</s>SESAY: Wonderful to have you both in this. Thank you. Thank you very much. All right. Quick break now. Israel approves new settlement housing. We'll tell you why all the past condemnation, by that matter.</s>VAUSE: Also a big victory for Iraqi forces against ISIS in Mosul. We'll hear why the next part of their fight could be much more difficult.