President Trump Hinted Using Migrants as Pawns Against His Opponents; George Conway Attack President Trump in a Tweet
CHRIS CUOMO, CNN HOST: CNN TONIGHT with D. Lemon starts right now.</s>DON LEMON, CNN HOST: Hey, Chris.</s>CUOMO: Hey, Don.</s>LEMON: Don't you think he's already decided of thinks that he's above the law of he's trying to do all of these things and you know, send undocumented immigrants into so-called sanctuary cities. Don't you think he's already decided?</s>CUOMO: I think this president --</s>LEMON: And telling people to reportedly to break the law and he has their back.</s>CUOMO: So, I agree with you on the facts, obviously. What is the motivation? And I'm not going to duck it by saying I can't know the heart of a man.</s>LEMON: Right.</s>CUOMO: I will say this. I think that the president lacks a certain sophistication when it comes to how the law works, despite all the business and all the litigation, he lacks a certain sophistication.</s>LEMON: It's called ignorance, but go on.</s>CUOMO: But, you know, he should know these types of things, the Flores settlement, that doesn't mean the judge, Flores.</s>LEMON: Right.</s>CUOMO: He should know that. But there is something else that you're hinting at. He has a pathological problem with seeing things as just a matter of convenience. He does not respect anything that he does his own will, and that can be a problem when you have a lot of power.</s>LEMON: It is problematic. It's interesting, though, I wonder, though, if he thinks -- well obviously -- I don't -- number one, I don't think he's going to do it. But if he does, if he wanted to somehow legally they figured out how to place undocumented immigrants into areas so- called sanctuary cities if he thinks that's going to hurt his opponents, that's you know, which I think he does, wouldn't that essentially be hurting America, or Americans, unless, you know --</s>CUOMO: Well, he's just thinking about the leadership there, look at you, you're flooded with these people you said you wanted to have, how do you like it now, now your own constituents hate you.</s>LEMON: Yes. But what if the reverse happens if they accept these people into their communities and they figure out a way to work it and make it work then it backfires on him.</s>CUOMO: It could. Although he's got a built-in base of people --</s>LEMON: Yes.</s>CUOMO: -- who don't want them here.</s>LEMON: Yes.</s>CUOMO: And who like the harshness as an extension of the rule of law. That's the irony to me. He's respected and revered for being somebody who's about the law and he keeps flouting it and abusing it.</s>LEMON: Yes. I've got a congressman coming up who says this would be akin to President Obama taking people who didn't have insurance, right, and putting them into places where Republicans who oppose the Affordable Care Act, so that those people could weigh on their system instead of in the areas where people did and, you know, I don't think the former president would do that because he's an adult. But this time who knows? Would he even suggest or think of something like that?</s>CUOMO: The idea of seeing them as pieces on a board, I think is also telling.</s>LEMON: It's amazing.</s>CUOMO: I also think that this is a real issue. He has the ability to make a difference on the border. Congress does too.</s>LEMON: Yes.</s>CUOMO: That relationship is broken and it's hurting all of us.</s>LEMON: Yes.</s>CUOMO: And you've heard me talk about the Democrats before but he's got this emergency declaration which I don't think was a legal extension of that statute, but now that he has it and it's being challenged in California yet still operative --</s>LEMON: Yes.</s>CUOMO: -- he can build the accommodations they need right now, Don.</s>LEMON: Yes.</s>CUOMO: Under that emergency declaration. He could give them what they're asking for right now himself would be a big winner.</s>LEMON: This has been a heavy week. So, I'm going to leave it on a happy note with you.</s>CUOMO: What do you got?</s>LEMON: I got this, because I just want to show the skills that you don't have. This is, boom, Chris's son Mario.</s>CUOMO: Where do you think he gets it? That's Mario, Mario Nicholas, in your face.</s>LEMON: Boom. You didn't teach him any of that.</s>CUOMO: Can't be learned. It's natural, it's genes, brother, genes.</s>LEMON: Listen --</s>CUOMO: And not them baggy ones you have on.</s>LEMON: That's what -- that's what's important. Family, those are the things that are important.</s>CUOMO: This is what marriage does to you, pal.</s>LEMON: Boy.</s>CUOMO: It's just the beginning, soon you'll break an ankle just turning just to chase him back to the basket.</s>LEMON: Be lucky if I can afford jeans after that.</s>CUOMO: It's going to be the best thing you've ever done in your life.</s>LEMON: And that's why you wear the same outfit every night.</s>CUOMO: Every night.</s>LEMON: He can't afford it. He's got too many kids.</s>CUOMO: Budget. Wash it myself.</s>LEMON: See you, Chris.</s>CUOMO: See you later. Have a great weekend.</s>LEMON: Thank you. Have a good one. You, too. This is CNN Tonight. I'm Don Lemon. And what's happening this week in the United States of America is stunning. If any of it happened in another country -- well, we would call it the action of a tin pot dictator with delusions of grandeur and no respect for the rule of law. Sound familiar? Just listen to President Trump, essentially declaring war today on sanctuary cities and not, coincidentally, on Democrats with this threat to dump detained immigrants in those cities.</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We are looking at the possibility, strongly looking at it to be honest with you, California, the governor wants to have a lot of people coming in, refugees coming in, a lot of sanctuary cities, so we'll give them to the sanctuary cities, maybe, to take care of if that's the way they want it. We can give them an unlimited supply and let's see if they're so happy.</s>LEMON: Seriously, think about this. Whether you support this president or not Democrat, Republican, independent, nonpolitical, just think about this. It is stunning and frankly, it's horrifying that the president of the United States would use desperate people, many of them children and their parents, as a pawn, as a weapon to punish his political opponents. And how is that even punishment? Because the president is assuming here that nobody would want migrants living in their city. That Democrats would knuckle under to avoid that. Even put it in writing, tweeting, "Due to the fact that Democrats are unwilling to change our very dangerous immigration laws we are indeed, as reported, giving strong considerations to placing illegal immigrants in sanctuary cities only." Doesn't seem to matter one bit to this president that according to documents obtained by CNN the administration got legal guidance, months ago, that his plan is illegal. The husband of the counselor to the president saying this quote, look at your screen, OK, this is George Conway, this is a quote. "Watching Trump try to work the levers of government these days makes one think of what it would be like to see a chimpanzee try to drive a Corvette, except that the chimp would probably have a better idea of what it was doing." That's harsh. And then there's this from the House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.</s>NANCY PELOSI, UNITED STATES SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: The president of tweets have cheapened the presidency. He's just being a freak. I mean, he's just terrible.</s>LEMON: But there is so much more. Remember, the president's -- remember that visit to the border, just a week ago, remember how we later learned that behind closed doors he told border agents to refuse to let migrants in. Now senior administration officials tell our very own Jake Tapper that in that meeting the president told the then head of Customs and Border Protection that if he were sent to jail for keeping those migrants out, he would get a presidential pardon. So many people have been accused of such wrongdoing that are now relying on presidential pardons, so many of them facing prison time. Officials say it wasn't clear if the comment was a joke or not, a joke, I don't know. Doesn't sound like a joke to me. It sounds exactly like the kind of thing that this president has done, or tried to do over and over and over. It sounds like all the other things he said since day one on his campaign, stoking fear of immigrants and using that fear to try to get what he wants.</s>TRUMP: When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best. They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists. We have illegal immigrants that in many cases are treated better than our great veterans. Countless Americans are killed by illegal immigrants because our government won't do its job. We have some bod hombres here and we're going to get them out. They want to have illegal immigrants pouring into our country, bringing with them crime, tremendous amounts of crime. We are bringing in some very bad, bad people. We don't want this group of people anymore. These are rough, rough people, in many cases. Yes, sir, we have barb wire going up because you know what, we're not letting these people invade our country. In those caravans you have stone cold killers. You've got some bad people in those groups, you've got some tough people in those groups and I'll tell you what, this country doesn't want them. The United States will not be a migrant camp, and it will not be a refugee holding facility. I am being harmed in my country, my country is extremely dangerous, I fear for my life, say that, congratulations, you'll never be removed. Now I look at some of these asylum people, they're gang members, they're not afraid of anything. How stupid can we be? And the asylum program is a scam. Some of the roughest people you've ever seen -- you say, wow, that's a tough cookie. I am very fearful for my life. Give him asylum, he's afraid. He's afraid.</s>LEMON: So, just, I want you to think about this. Why isn't he as passionate and he doesn't talk as much about people who come into the country and overstay their visas, people coming many on airplanes? That is the biggest problem with the legal immigration. If you support this president and you care about immigration why isn't that a big issue to you? Don't talk about that. You've got to wonder whether this president believes he is above the law. But there are still some people looking out for the rule of law. In a speech to the University of Virginia Law School federal district court Judge Carlton Wayne Reeves rebuked the president for his attacks on the courts comparing him to the segregationist era. Remember when then candidate Trump slammed an American born judge for his Mexican heritage, claiming he had an inherent conflict of interest in a lawsuit against Trump university. But just listen to what Judge Reeves had to say about that.</s>CARLTON WAYNE REEVES, U.S. DISTRICT COURT JUDGE, SOUTHERN DISCTRICT OF MISSISSIPPI: I know what I heard when federal judge was called very biased and unfair because he is a Mexican heritage. When that judge's ethnicity was said to present -- to prevent his issuing fair rulings, when that judge was called a hater simply because he is Latino. I heard the words of James Ethan (Ph), a race baiting politician empowered by the falsehood of white supremacy, questioning the judicial temperament of a man solely because of the color of his skin. I heard those words and I did not know if I was in 1967 or 2017.</s>LEMON: The president who attacks the judiciary, a president who uses migrants as a weapon to attack his political enemies, a president who falsely claims his campaign was spied on, falsely claims his campaign was spied on. That's the kind of president whose attorney general, the top law enforcement official in the nation, will go right ahead and make the same outrageous claim of spying, saying exactly what the president wanted him to say.</s>WILLIAM BARR, UNITED STATES ATTORNEY GENERAL: I think spying on a political campaign is a big deal. It's a big deal.</s>SEN. JEANNE SHAHEEN (D-NH): You're not suggesting, though, that spying occurred?</s>BARR: I don't -- well, I guess you could -- I think there's a spying did occur, yes, I think spying did occur.</s>LEMON: And that attorney general will go right ahead and play into the president's favorite conspiracy theories, conspiracy theories, yes, I said it, about a so-called deep state that he thinks is out to get him.</s>SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): So, would it be odd that the candidate was never really briefed by the Department of Justice that your campaign may be targeted by a foreign entity?</s>BARR: That is one of the questions I have is I feel normally the campaign would have been advised of this.</s>GRAHAM: OK. And can you think of a good reason right now why they wouldn't have been?</s>BARR: I'm interested in getting that answered. I don't understand why the campaign was not advised.</s>LEMON: The fact is the campaign was advised. Then candidate Trump was personally warned in August of 2016 by senior U.S. intelligence officials that foreign adversaries, including Russia, were likely to try to infiltrate his team or get intel about his campaign. But the attorney general, he just put it out there, not only without any evidence, but in contradiction to known facts. It's beginning to sound like a pretty transparent attempt to protect the president from the Mueller report, the report two years in the making, the report the attorney general got three weeks ago, a report that's coming out in a matter of days. You've got to wonder. What is this president afraid of? Does this president believe he's above the law? That is the question for Laura Coates, Ryan Lizza, and Max Boot, next.