Trump Delivers First State of Union; Remarks on North Korea
SCIUTTO: Welcome back. And a live look now at the Dow Jones, down, as you can see there, more than 400 points. About a percent and a half. The biggest drop in recent memory there. If things stay that way, it will be the biggest loss in points since Trump took office. Top health insurance and drugstores, the main drag on the market today after Amazon, JP Morgan Chase and Berkshire Hathaway all said that they were getting into the insurance business. More competition there. Tonight, President Trump laying out his priorities in his first official State of the Union Address. But hanging over his speech, developments in the ongoing Russia investigations, allegations of surveillance abuse and the sudden departure of the deputy director of the FBI. CNN White House reporter Kaitlan Collins over at the White House today. Kaitlan, what are we expecting in the speech as the White House released bullet point details at this point?</s>KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yes, they have, Jim. And we can expect the president to do two things tonight. First, he's going to tout what he sees as the success of his first year in office, that sweeping tax bill, his Supreme Court appointment. And then he's going to lay out what he hopes to get done his second year in office, immigration, infrastructure, we can see him touch on trade, national security. But, overall, he's going to try to project this sense of bipartisanship and unity here in Washington, which is an interesting dynamic because it comes at a time when Washington is anything but unified because not only do we have recent developments in the Russia investigation really hanging over as a cloud over this White House, we've also seen this fight between some conservatives in the intelligence community really escalate over that controversial memo that we're told the president is advocating for its release. And this comes as Democrats and Republicans cannot agree on an immigration solution. And the government is scheduled to run out of money again a week from Thursday, just shortly after it just recently shut down. So we'll certainly be seeing a message of unity from the president tonight. But it doesn't seem to be reflecting here in Washington right now, Jim.</s>SCIUTTO: Kaitlan Collins at the White House. Thanks very much. Here with me now, CNN political commentators Maria Cardona and Steve Cortes, Shannon Pettypiece, White House reporter for "Bloomberg," as well as Chris Cillizza, CNN politics reporter and editor at large. We have, as we begin the panel, some news just coming into CNN, and that is another highlight expected in the president's State of the Union speech tonight. We are told by administration officials he's going to make, quote, eye-opening comments on North Korea. Digest that for a moment. North Korea, a very dangerous place right now. Chris Cillizza, the president has a history of making eye- opening comments.</s>CHRIS CILLIZZA, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: I was going to say.</s>SCIUTTO: Remember, fire and fury being one of them.</s>CILLIZZA: Yes. I mean fire and fury, little rocket man. I mean I'm interested to see how -- what --</s>SHANNON PETTYPIECE, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, "BLOOMBERG NEWS": More eye- opening things we could get.</s>CILLIZZA: Eye-opening would mean in that context. Look, he is -- I think he is taken as sort of a -- a mandate of his presidency, Jim, that he be more aggressive --</s>SCIUTTO: Right.</s>CILLIZZA: And tougher as it relates to North Korea. So, again, I'm sort of interested -- it feels like you've already gotten the rhetoric at -- throughout this year towards North Korea from President Trump on a 10. Maybe this one goes to 11.</s>SCIUTTO: Right.</s>CILLIZZA: But I just don't see how you up it from sort of taunting him and saying, we're going to bring fire and fury down on you. I mean that -- and, again, rhetoric and eye-opening is not -- just -- it's not a policy, necessarily.</s>SCIUTTO: Well, right. Well, we'll see -- we'll see if it's a proposal as opposed to just words.</s>CILLIZZA: Right.</s>SCIUTTO: But to you, Steve.</s>STEVE CORTES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I think it very well could be, though. I think what this president has done, which previous presidents and Republicans as well didn't do, is use the leverage that we do have over North Korea, and that's via China. And I think this president has been pretty explicit in the past that we're willing to get far tougher with China. And, by the way, when it comes to China, we hold the cards. China needs us desperately for trade. If we get tough with them on trade, as a threat to get tough with North Korea, that's great leverage.</s>SCIUTTO: But do we really? Because, I mean, the issue with China is that China has different priorities, right? And you talk to U.S. military officials. And they say, as much as China doesn't love a nuclear North Korea --</s>CORTES: Right.</s>SCIUTTO: Their greater fear, frankly, is a unified North Korea or a collapsed North Korean state.</s>CORTES: Sure.</s>SCIUTTO: They're willing to trade with little rocket man in effect for some status quo.</s>CORTES: And they have many interests but nothing -- the Chinese communist party cares about nothing more than keeping prosperity. It's effectively bribed the people, right, to maintain their power.</s>SCIUTTO: Right.</s>CORTES: That can't last, the prosperity and growth in China, without shipping goods to the United States, without filling Walmart with Chinese goods.</s>SCIUTTO: Maria. Maria, and then Shannon, please.</s>MARIA CARDONA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: It's interesting -- it's interesting because for me when -- when the White House says expect some eye-opening comments, I'm sorry, that is really scary because before when he's had some major, aggressive comments, they didn't give us a heads up. They're giving us a heads up on eye-opening comments? And this is in a year where we are as close to nuclear war as we have been in a generation. So for that to be a strong America, I think a lot of people would disagree. And just one other thing on China. Economically, the world is not saying we have the cards on China because China has now beat us in terms of global leadership. We are being beat by China and being beat by Germany.</s>PETTYPIECE: Yes, I think it's an interesting decision, though, to be emphasizing North Korea right now. And I wonder if there's something else going on that we don't know about. Because up until this point the administration's really been talking about how this was going to be about the economy --</s>CARDONA: Yes.</s>PETTYPIECE: About security, safety, immigration, bipartisanship, looking forward.</s>SCIUTTO: Unifying message.</s>PETTYPIECE: And not -- and wanting to focus on the domestic agenda and the successes this administration has had. So throwing in something that could be, quote/unquote eye opening, little rocket man style at this point, it does make me wonder, has there been some shift or some reason they feel like the need to add a mention --</s>SCIUTTO: Something going on, meaning what? Meaning what?</s>CARDONA: Yes, it's called the Russia investigation.</s>SCIUTTO: Sorry, just quickly, is that what you were referring to, the need for a distraction? Is that what you're hinting or --</s>PETTYPIECE: No. I mean I -- and I will say, this is just my perception. I have no reporting to back this up. But is there something on a foreign policy end --</s>SCIUTTO: Right.</s>PETTYPIECE: That's going on that means they want to change their message.</s>PETTYPIECE: Because there are plenty of distractions going on, the Nunes memo and whatever</s>SCIUTTO: Before -- before we go there, because I do -- I do want to move on to -- I mean same speech but different topic. You heard from Kaitlan Collins, this is a consistent talking point from the White House about this speech. The president's going to give a unified speech. Chris Cillizza, can the president give a unifying speech?</s>CILLIZZA: Well, yes, I mean, yes, in a vacuum. Can he give voice to we should all come together? Sure. I mean any of us can say, we should all come together. Will it work?</s>SCIUTTO: Can it be received? Can it be received?</s>CILLIZZA: No. And I think, look, I do think there's a tendency to look at big speeches, particularly State of the Unions, as a blueprint or an outline or an indicator of where this White House is -- where any White House is going, right, over the next year or even three years. I think that would be a mistake with Trump. And the reason that I cite that is -- I don't mean that in a pejorative way, I just mean it as a fact. The past year has suggested no one day is terrible indicative of any next day.</s>SCIUTTO: Right.</s>CILLIZZA: So I'm not convinced that --</s>CILLIZZA: I'm not convinced that we should see this as a -- this is a day-to-day presidency.</s>SCIUTTO: Well, let him finish this, Steven, and then Maria.</s>CORTES: You know what is unifying is economic growth. Millions of Americans right now are benefiting from an accelerating economy, are seeing bonuses only because of the tax cuts, which were just passed.</s>CARDONA: Oh, come on.</s>CORTES: And, by the way, those bonuses aren't paid according to your party affiliation. About half of those people voted against Donald Trump. The check still clears in their account. Economic growth is -- it's truly the tide that lifts all Americans.</s>CILLIZZA: Well, I think if he -- so if he did that, if he did that, if he did it -- if you used an economic message -- right. If he used an economic message --</s>SCIUTTO: Quickly, though.</s>CILLIZZA: If he used an economic message and only did that and from now for the next 280 days until the election, that's the only thing he talked about, fine.</s>PETTYPIECE: We're really one --</s>SCIUTTO: OK, one at a time. One at a time. And we're going to come back to you, Chris, but a quick final word from Maria before we come back.