Trump: DOJ Report Totally Discredits Mueller Investigation; Trump Blasts DOJ Report But Says It Exonerates Him; Trump Falsely Blames Dems For Separating Families At Border
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Republicans control everything.</s>POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: We're out of time, Tara Setmayer, Joe Trippy, nice to have you both. Thanks for being here. Thank you, all, for joining us for all of the breaking news this morning. I'm Poppy Harlow in New York. Have a great weekend. My colleague, Kate Bolduan, picks it up right now.</s>KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I'm Kate Bolduan. It was like a Friday morning Trump tweet storm, minus the Twitter today. President Trump holding somewhat of an impromptu press conference in front of the White House about, well, everything. From the Justice Department, inspector general report, a horror show in his words, to the controversy over children and parents being separated at the border, the Democrats' fault in his words, to North Korea's nukes, problem solved, in his words. So, let's get to it. A lot of fact checking and gut checking needed today. First, the IG report, the president slamming its conclusion that there was no evidence that bias impacted the conclusion of the Hillary Clinton e-mail investigation. But, Donald Trump also says the report proves he and his campaign did nothing wrong.</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: The report yesterday may be more importantly than anything it totally exonerates me. There was no collusion. There was no obstruction and if you read the report, you'll see that.</s>PRESIDENT TRUMP: What you'll really -- excuse me, wait, wait, wait. What you'll really see is you'll see bias against me and millions and tens of millions of my followers and I think that the Mueller investigation has been totally discredited.</s>BOLDUAN: CNN's Ryan Nobles is at the White House. Ryan, you take it from here.</s>RYAN NOBLES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kate, first, let's point out that this was really unprecedented what the president did today to walk out to the north lawn, where reporters are stationed, something that presidents don't ever do. He clearly had a lot to say this morning, in particular about this inspector general report and what is interesting about the president's take on that inspector general report is that while he disagrees with its overall conclusion, there are aspects of it that he thinks supports his belief that he should be exonerated in the Russia probe. Let's first touch on this idea that the president disagrees with the overall conclusion. Let's listen to his point of view on that.</s>PRESIDENT TRUMP: The end result was wrong. There was total bias. You look at Peter Strzok and what he said about me, when you look at Comey, I guess, you know, interesting, pretty good report and then I say that the IG blew it at the very end with that statement. You read the report, it was almost like Comey, he goes point after point about how guilty Hillary is. And then he said, but we're not going to do anything about it. The report, the IG report was a horror show. I thought that one sentence of conclusion was ridiculous.</s>NOBLES: So, he disagrees with the overall conclusion and that overall conclusion specifically says that while there were errors made by the Department of Justice, by the FBI, that those errors were not made as a result of a political bias. As you heard the president there, he specifically pointing to these text messages between Lisa Page and Peter Strzok that he says shows this demonstration of political bias. The president is taking it one step further when he argues that that exonerates him in the Russia probe. It is important to point out, Kate, this inspector general report has nothing to do with the Mueller probe, it is all about the investigation into Hillary Clinton's e-mails, so the president taking a step further perhaps than is warranted -- Kate.</s>BOLDUAN: Taking liberties perhaps we should say, Ryan, great to see you, thanks so much. Joining me right now to discuss this and always a whole lot more, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. Senator, thanks for coming in.</s>SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: Good morning, thank you.</s>BOLDUAN: So, what Ryan was talking about, the conclusion of the IG report, the president today said that it was ridiculous, and that the IG blew it on the overall conclusion. Did the IG blow it in your mind?</s>GRAHAM: Well, you can ask me that after we talk to him on Monday. I want to give him a chance to tell us why he believes that, he'll get challenged and I'll let you know Monday after the hearing.</s>BOLDUAN: From what you've seen in the report, the evidence they laid out, bad actors, people did bad things, Comey messed up, Peter Strzok definitely messed up, but they didn't see bias in the overall conclusion.</s>GRAHAM: I'll ask him why he concluded that and see what he has to say.</s>BOLDUAN: You are open to the possibility that you don't agree with the IG's report?</s>GRAHAM: I think he'll be challenged about his conclusion. I think he's a good guy and we'll see what happens Monday. I'll tell you better after I hear him explain why he got to where he did.</s>BOLDUAN: The president maybe -- was the president jumping the gun?</s>GRAHAM: I think the president looked at this report and said, what more do you need to show bias and I'm in a different lane here, I'm in a different business, my job is to provide oversight to the Department of Justice, I respect Mr. Horowitz, let him explain to us why he reached that conclusion and we'll see what happens.</s>BOLDUAN: The jump the president made that he exonerates him, that it shows no conclusion and no obstruction, you say?</s>GRAHAM: Well, here's what I think most people will take from this, particularly the Republicans to be honest with you, that the institutions investigating President Trump took a real blow here. Now there is nothing in this report about whether or not he colluded with Russians, he's denied that he has, haven't seen any evidence of collusion.</s>BOLDUAN: Nothing in the report that gets to that point.</s>GRAHAM: It's not what the report is about, but the people showing bias against the president were part of the initial Russia investigation. But you'll be kidding yourself if you think this doesn't do a lot of damage to the institutions that are now looking at the president. This gives a face to many of what the deep state looks like.</s>BOLDUAN: But with this report seems to conclude is there is not a deep state. Overall conclusion --</s>GRAHAM: I've been saying there is not a deep state, I look at this, and I see the people are conducting an investigation of one political candidate versus the other, seemed to have a very not just a political opinion but a motivation. So that's why we'll have the hearing.</s>BOLDUAN: The president was wrong, though, in saying that this exonerates him with regard --</s>GRAHAM: Yes. I mean, this report -- now I'm trying to tell you something that I think is important. This doesn't -- this is not the Mueller investigation. They didn't look at whether or not Trump colluded. What did they find? They found that the people that started the investigation were completely in the tank for Clinton, hated Trump.</s>BOLDUAN: Not all of them.</s>GRAHAM: No, not all.</s>BOLDUAN: Talking about Bob Mueller.</s>GRAHAM: I'm sure there are a lot of FBI agents that don't share this, but Strzok was in the investigation early on of Russia. Here is the point you got to get. Just back up.</s>BOLDUAN: OK.</s>GRAHAM: The institutions have been crippled.</s>BOLDUAN: Crippled?</s>GRAHAM: Absolutely. If you don't believe that the average American is going to think that the FBI is far more political than they ever believed, that's crazy.</s>BOLDUAN: Is Christopher Wray all wrong when he says that the institution is strong?</s>GRAHAM: I don't -- I think the institution has got a lot of problems. Look at all of the interacts between people in Washington at the FBI and reporters and, you know, the best way to investigate Washington is not do it from Washington. What have I learned? The FBI's footprint in Washington needs to be reduced. There is too much of a Potomac fever attitude. I'm shocked. I didn't buy into this stuff. That, you know, all these people are out to get Trump. There is enough evidence now to prove to me that the FBI needs to be looked at really closely.</s>BOLDUAN: What does that mean? You're on judiciary. This is a big threat coming from you.</s>GRAHAM: It is not a threat. It is a promise. It is a promise we're never going to -- J. Edgar Hoover's spirit is alive and well in some corners of the FBI. Remember this organization during the --</s>BOLDUAN: Wait a second. You like Christopher Wray.</s>GRAHAM: Yes. I like him a lot. I voted for him.</s>BOLDUAN: You don't think he can clean things up?</s>GRAHAM: I think if the FBI director is telling the country everything is fine here, he should have confidence in the FBI, he's going to have a tough sell.</s>BOLDUAN: I got to talk to you about immigration. The compromise bill has been drafted, pathway to citizenship for DACA, border security addresses the separation of families at the border and makes big changes to legal immigration. Do you support this in concept?</s>GRAHAM: Yes, I voted for every form of immigration known to mankind.</s>BOLDUAN: So, then Senator, the president this morning blames Democrats for the fact they haven't been able to reach a deal. Blames Democrats for the fact that families are being separated at the border for -- I'll play what he said, listen.</s>PRESIDENT TRUMP: The Democrats by the way are very weak on immigration. If you notice when I came over, they were all saying about separating the families and that's a Democrat bill. That's Democrats wanting to do that, and they could solve it very easily by getting together. They think it is a good election point. I think it is a horrible election point for them.</s>BOLDUAN: He says Democrats were to blame for not having a deal, but then he also said he will not sign this deal. So, who is holding this up?</s>GRAHAM: Well, I think the Democrats had 60 votes in the Senate, big majority in the house in the first year of President Obama's term and did nothing about immigration.</s>BOLDUAN: Talk about now. Talk about now. Now there is a real --</s>GRAHAM: Plenty of blame to go around. President Trump could stop this policy with a phone call.</s>BOLDUAN: He doesn't seem to acknowledge that.</s>GRAHAM: Well, he can't. I'll go tell him. If you don't like families being separated, you can tell DHS to stop doing it. Here is the problem.</s>BOLDUAN: Wait, what does that say? They keep saying it is the law, it is the law, it is the law, it is the law.</s>GRAHAM: He didn't think Democrats are working in good faith with him.</s>BOLDUAN: So, is this another one of those never let a good crisis go.</s>GRAHAM: I think both parties are looking at it that way a bit. I'm trying to solve a problem. The jails are full of people. If you got a problem with putting somebody in jail, who 's a parent, the jails are full.</s>BOLDUAN: But it is different. You're talking about -- it is a single parent home and if someone goes to jail, those children are taking care -- they'll go to the foster care -- with the families. We're talking about just a regular joe schmo --</s>GRAHAM: Where are these kids taken to?</s>BOLDUAN: They're taken to an abandoned Walmart?</s>GRAHAM: They're in the custody of the United States. They're not being tortured. They're not being mistreated.</s>BOLDUAN: You don't think this is OK what is happening?</s>GRAHAM: I think this is a terrible situation I'd like to fix. Let's not talk about parents being separated from their children because they commit crimes. That happens every day. What I'd like to do is have a rational legal immigration system so people don't come here illegally, they can come here and go back to where they live.</s>BOLDUAN: But again, the president says he thinks it is horrible. He says he thinks it is horrible that parents and children are being separated.</s>GRAHAM: Always horrible. It's horrible when somebody goes to jail with children.</s>BOLDUAN: Is this unnecessary?</s>GRAHAM: I think -- here's what I think. I think if you don't tell people you're going to be serious about enforcing the laws, you'll get more of it. You know what would be necessary is to fix it. I'm disappointed that the president said he wouldn't support the house bill. I'm very disappointed we couldn't get --</s>BOLDUAN: I get it. He's playing politics, right? Everybody's playing politics. The president could fix this with a phone call, you said.</s>GRAHAM: Yes, but that just incentivizes more illegal immigration.</s>BOLDUAN: Are you sure?</s>GRAHAM: Yes, I'm sure. I'm sure that people are going to be less likely to bring their kids to America if they get separated than if they lived together and get released into the country. I'm real sure about that. But here's what I'm really sure about. Our system is broken, and Democrats and Republicans ought to fix it including the president.</s>BOLDUAN: You fix the crisis right now, this one issue -- fix this crisis right now and also continue the discussion about something you've been fighting for, for I don't even know.</s>GRAHAM: Ten years.</s>BOLDUAN: I mean, for ten years now. It is not going to be fixed in two weeks. We're heading into a midterm, we're talking like raw politics here.</s>GRAHAM: Let's take this crisis. And see if we can find something good for border security and good for DACA and stop separating families, but also stop incentivizing people to bring their kids. Let's see if we can do that. Maybe something good will come from this.</s>BOLDUAN: Can you trust the words coming out of Donald Trump's mouth? I ask this because he mischaracterizes what is coming out of the IG report. He mischaracterizes what is happening at the border separating families. Can you trust the words that come out of his mouth?</s>GRAHAM: I think from -- here's what I think. I'm trusting as much as Obama. Obama told me stuff I didn't believe.</s>BOLDUAN: That is a low bar for you.</s>GRAHAM: Yes, it's pretty low. Here's what I would say about the president and the words coming out of his mouth. He thinks he's turned a corner with North Korea, we'll see. Time will tell. He thinks he has. I hope he has.</s>BOLDUAN: All right. Stick around. That's our next topic. Talking about exactly that. North Korea coming up next. President Trump just said solved the North Korean problem. Is it already done? Lindsey graham will weigh in on that and discuss the path forward now. The markets are now turning red after the Trump administration hits China with new tariffs and China vows to retaliate. Stay with us.