Trump Could Meet With Court Picks As Early As This Weekend; Trump Plan to Talk to Putin About Election Tampering; Trump: "Don't Know" How Long Chief of Staff Will Stick Around
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: Breaking news, OUTFRONT a rush to fill. Trump just announcing he's meeting with Supreme Court nominees this weekend. Promising an announcement days from now. Plus, Flynn on hold. The special counsel wants a delay in sentencing Michael Flynn. Yet another delay. What is the issue? And the president says journalists should be free from fear while doing their jobs. So, will he stop attacking press? Let's go OUTFRONT. Good evening, I'm Erin Burnett. OUTFRONT this evening, the breaking news. President Trump is free wheeling aboard Air Force One. It was just a 50-minutes from Washington, D.C. to the president sort of weekend getaway in the summer in New Jersey, but in that 50 minutes, he wanted to talk. He wanted to talk to reporters and he made some major headlines. From the Supreme Court to Russia to the fate of John Kelly, his chief of staff. First, the president in true Trump fashion, teasing sort of a bake off for his candidates for the Supreme Court.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Who you leading?</s>TRUMP: Well, we have great people. You know, we have 25 very outstanding people. Hey, look, I like them all, but I have got it down to about five.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is there a woman on the short list?</s>TRUMP: Yes, I do have a woman.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is that Amy?</s>TRUMP: I have two women on the short list.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Two women? Two women on the shortlist? Two women out of the five?</s>TRUMP: We have three women on the court now. I have two women out of the five.</s>BURNETT: All right, so as he tries to build all that -- you know, all that excitement, the president went on to say this is really important. He will not ask his nominees if they will overturn Roe v. Wade. Now, you might say, well, look at the nominees on the list, we can tell what they think. But that's not always true. And it's a hugely significant statement if true. The president also previewing his upcoming summit with the Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What do you hope to achieve with President Putin?</s>TRUMP: We're going to talk about Ukraine, we're going to be talking about Syria. We'll be talking about elections.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Which elections?</s>TRUMP: And we don't want anybody tampering with elections.</s>BURNETT: That's a big deal. He doesn't want anyone tampering because you'll remember only yesterday, the president tweeted, "Russia continues to say they had nothing to do with meddling in our election." And then, you know, went on to talk about shady James Comey and the disgraced FBI. So, that would be very important. And then, the president didn't stop addressing reports that he wants to replace his chief of staff John Kelly.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How long you think he'll stick around?</s>TRUMP: That I don't know.</s>BURNETT: A lot to get to this evening. So let's start with Boris Sanchez, he is traveling with President Trump. And Boris, the president spending the weekend at his golf course in Bedminster, where you are standing tonight. One headline after another, he wanted to talk. He wanted to spend his flight chatting. Let's start with the president's possible meetings this weekend with Supreme Court nominees. He says he's got that list of 25 down to -- as few as five. Two women on that list.</s>BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Oh, that's right, Erin. The president taking control of the narrative -- if you recall, just a few hours ago, we were talking about that embarrassing phone call that he shared with a comedian, a prank phone call aboard Air Force One. In just about 20 minutes, he has shifted the news in a different direction, one where he likes it to go. He talked about potentially hosting one or two possible replacements for Justice Kennedy at his property in Bedminster this weekend saying that he's whittled down that list of 25 possible candidates down to five. Including, as you noted, two women. One topic that's not going to be up for discussion this weekend, Roe versus Wade. The president saying that it would be inappropriate to discuss this possible candidates positions on abortion during their meetings. Here's more from President Trump on that very topic.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you looking for somebody who would overturn Roe v. Wade?</s>TRUMP: Well, you know, I'd say great group of intellectual talent, but we really -- you know, they are generally conservative. I'm not going to ask them that question by the way. That's not a question I'll be asking.</s>SANCHEZ: The president also saying he's not going to be asking these candidates their position on LGBTQ rights. Two quick notes, Erin on the subject of Vladimir Putin, the president suggesting that he may actually bring up the subject of election meddling with the Russian leader during their meeting in Helsinki next month. The big question, Erin is how strongly is President Trump actually going to confront Vladimir Putin. He's faced criticism from some of his staunches allies over what was perceived as a weak response to Putin during previous meetings when Putin has denied meddling in the 2016 election. And lastly on Chief of Staff John Kelly, the president denying reports that he was considering a replacement. We've previously reported that source have indicated that President Trump has reached out to allies polling them on their views of possible replacements for John Kelly for months. So this is something that we know has been on his radar. Again, unclear exactly what the president plans to do there but it is been -- it has been part of discussions that he has been having, Erin.</s>BURNETT: All right, thank you very much, Boris. And I want to go now to New York Times White House reporter, Julie Hirschfeld Davis, New York Times columnist Frank Bruni, and former federal prosecutor Jennifer Rodgers. Frank, the president say he's going to talk about elections with Vladimir Putin. Says he doesn't want anyone tampering with our elections. Yesterday, obviously, he sort of went along the vein that he did one of the last times he met with Putin. So he says he doesn't -- didn't do it. You know, yesterday was, the Russia says they had nothing to do with meddling in our election. That was it on Russia but, you know, he called Jim Comey shady and the FBI disgraced in the same tweet. So, is he really going to bring this up in the way his national security team and all of his national security advisers and all the chiefs of intelligence, and I could go on and on, want him to?</s>FRANK BRUNI, NEW YORK TIMES COLUMNIST: Are you saying that our president is inconsistent because I've never noticed that before. There is nothing in the history of this relationship with Putin, there's nothing in the history of President Trump's statements to date, to indicate that we should have confidence that he's going to bring this up in an aggressive way. He has more often than not thrown water on the theory of meddling despite the fact that his own intelligence, you know, experts have said over and over again. There's no doubt here.</s>BURNETT: I mean, remember his comment about it could have been some fat guy in the basement literally.</s>BRUNI: So occasionally he says something like this just to sort of mix things up and just to get us all to stop asking the question. But this is no signal of a changed course of the president or that he has now taking this seriously</s>BURNETT: It's part of this, you know, he sort of slams President Obama. He said the whole issue with Crimea and Putin's decision to annexed Crimea was because of Obama even though of course just a few days ago, he made Putin's point, well, look, they all speak Russian so, you know. Here's what he said on the plane.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're meeting with President Putin when you're in Europe. Will you talk to him about Crimea?</s>TRUMP: I'll talk to him about everything. Don't forget, President Obama gave up Crimea. That was totally given up by President Obama.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: President Putin did that, not President Obama.</s>TRUMP: No, no. President Obama gave it up.</s>BURNETT: I mean, of course, it wasn't President Obama's to give up. So, I mean, just to remind people it wasn't an American territory or anything like that. But, what do you take away from this?</s>JENNIFER RODGERS, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: Yes. I mean, of course, right, President Obama did not give it up. It was Putin who marched in there and caused it to happen. Obama did not just sit back and do nothing. You know, again, we have a president who kind of makes up his own reality in a lot of ways. And so, he's just trying I think to kind of smooth the way for this relationship that he wants with Russia that a lot of people still are not buying.</s>BURNETT: Right. I mean, that's the thing. And of course now, Julie, we also have the president saying we've got what, five people. You know, he has lists of 20 to 25. It sort of an Apprentice style situation that's going on in some ways, it feels like Julie, right. So he's now saying, maybe he's going to meet with people, but he's not going to ask them about Roe v. Wade. Do you put too much stock in that, Julie, or do you think, well, he doesn't need to ask them because they're going to have already vetted that completely?</s>JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, THE NEW YORK TIMES: Well, I mean, there's no question that the president does want -- does gravitate to this sort of reality show like process where it's like, who's up who's down and who's he going to pick. He enjoys that. I think that's why he's being so transparent about his timetable here because he wants people to watch the process. But in terms of not asking them about Roe v. Wade, he has said previously that when he put together this list, he had in his mind that he was looking for justices who would -- I think he said automatically overturn Roe v. Wade. That they would be pro-life people who would come from that sort of bench. So I think he's confidence in his mind already that the people on this list would all be inclined to do that. So he's almost doesn't need to ask them. It is interesting though, you know, this is the sort of thing the president often say, well, I'm not going to have a litmus test, I'm not going ask him about specific precedents that wouldn't be appropriate. And it's interesting to me that he is actually saying that rather than sort of going where he usually goes, which is to make it very clear what he wants to happen and just let people sort of extract points from there.</s>BURNETT: Yes, he's doing in a sense. And I've heard a little bit of he's playing the game in a way that he doesn't always play it. What about this issue -- you know, he makes the point of not one of them but two of them are women. Obviously, there's been a lot of buzz about some of the women on the list. They were obviously, I think what were there on the original 20 to 25. There were six women, so he's now saying two of these women are on his final list. A lot of people keep asking about this woman, Amy Coney Barrett, from the Seventh Circuit. How seriously do you thin he's considering her or any of those individuals.</s>RODGERS: S, you know, I actually don't think he's likely to pick a woman. I know Frank disagrees, and we're talking about this earlier. She's very inexperienced. She's been on the circuit court for like eight months. She was not a judge before that. She --</s>BURNETT: And you did make a point, right. There's already two women on the court, not dismissively but -- I mean, he did point out.</s>RODGERS: Yes, three women on the court.</s>BURNETT: I'm sorry, yes.</s>BRUNI: We'll keep an eye on it. As I said to, I would keep an eye on her. I mean, you're right, she's not that experienced. He has show with many appointments that experience is not his biggest thing. She got -- and remember, that she got into the back and forth at a Senate confirmation with Senators Durbin and Feinstein and it was all about her religion and she was standing up for her Catholicism, they were saying, can you be a devout Catholic and also interpret the law, you know, in unbiased way. In the course of that, she became a real hero to religious conservatives. And Donald Trump has shown that he likes to make religious conservatives happy.</s>BURNETT: I assume this was an abortion conversation --</s>BRUNI: She's also 46. So in choosing here, they would get someone who might be on the court for three decades or more, four decades.</s>BURNETT: Oh, for sure.</s>RODGERS: And they might not know where she stands on a lot of things. That's the other thing though.</s>BURNETT: I guess that's true when you only have eight months. OK. Now -- but what about -- you know, he says -- the whole Bedminster thing, can I remind people not the Donald Trump the "Apprentice" host but that is what this has reminisces of. Everybody, remember, Mitt Romney, Chris Christie, Rudy Giuliani, Reince Priebus, remember, they all came to Bedminster and he had the flag out and they did the whole meet and greet and shake. I mean, does that what he's going to do for SCOTUS?</s>BRUNI: The way you say, is that what he's going to with SCOTUS, you mean decorum might prevent -- traditional decorum might prevent Donald Trump.</s>BURNETT: I know, I suppose I shouldn't sound surprised.</s>BRUNI: -- as Julie said so eloquently before every moment of this presidency that he can turn into a serial drama and to something like reality T.V. he does. I think it's entirely possible but he'll do exactly that. Don't forget, we were told that two different justices came to Washington before he announced Gorsuch. So there was thing it's the last minute which of these two is it. So he's done this already to a degree.</s>BURNETT: Julie, what about John Kelly? I mean, this has been going on for a while. And I think at this point, your reporting, others reporting has been there's no love lost. There's not a lot between these two people anymore. But, what does that mean about John Kelly that he's praising him, but saying, oh, I don't know how long he'll be here. What are you hearing from your reporting, Julie on how long John Kelly will be around?</s>DAVIS: Well, for a long time, it's been the case that, you know, people have seen John Kelly as eyeing the exits. And there have been these cycles of rumors that have sort of ebbed and flowed and right now, they're flowing. That, you know, the date is approaching when he is going to be leaving whether by his own choice or by President Trump deciding that he's had enough. There's no question that, you know, that he has not seen as long for this world. I did think it was interesting the way that the president dealt with these questions today on the plane. He didn't say oh no, he's staying for a long time. That's totally wrong. He said, you know, he's a good man. We've had a good relationship, it almost sounded like that was in the past. And I wouldn't be surprised if we see some movement on this pretty soon. But again, we've been through this so many times, it's hard to pinpoint a date when he's going to be gone.</s>BURNETT: It was somewhat of a eulogy and I think as we've notice as often, he's a good man is not a good thing. Thank you all very much. And next, the breaking news. Bob Mueller asking for another delay in sentencing Michael Flynn. Does that mean because he thinks he'll get more out of him? What does this mean in terms of the information Flynn is still providing? Plus, the president taking a victory lap on his tax cuts. It was a big one. Do the facts add up? We're going check and talk to the president's top economic adviser tonight. And chilling details about the suspected gunman who killed five people at the Capital Gazette newspaper. One man who witnessed what he called the suspect's constant stream of venom in person is my guest.