White House Can't Guarantee Trump Hasn't Used The N-Word.
BOLDUAN: Add this to the file of things we've never thought we'd have to ask and also hope we wouldn't need to. Is there a tape of the President of United States using the N-word? And why can't anyone close to the President get their story straight on this one. He, himself denies the rumor that has been percolating since the campaign. But the White House press secretary falls somewhere short of that.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Can you stand at the podium and guarantee American people will never hear Donald Trump utter the N-word on the report, I mean any contact.</s>SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I can't guarantee anything but I can tell you that the president address this question directly. I can tell you that I've never heard it.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just to be clear, you can't guarantee it?</s>SANDERS: Look, I haven't been in every single room.</s>BOLDUAN: Adding to the confusion, again, why is this confusing? Trump campaign official Katrina Pierson. She's depending herself a secret reporting of 2016 phone call amongst campaign staff and it was really spy Omarosa Manigault Newman. On the call they were discussing the rumor and Pierson said this.</s>KATRINA PIERSON, TRUMP CAMPAIGN OFFICIAL: I've said, "Well, for who we think of any time of this if this kind is happening, he said, no."</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well that's not sure.</s>PIERSON: And so -- And he said, "Why don't you just go ahead and put it to that." I don't know what the</s>BOLDUAN: This is after denying the call ever happened because really denied it never happened then the tape came out and then, and now Pierson has this.</s>PIERSON: Your viewers, I'm pretty sure, have run into an individual that is the complete epitome of annoying to where you absolutely have to finally give in, in order to get on about your day. That happens a number of times because Omarosa is a bully.</s>BOLDUAN: All cleared up. Do you see what I'm saying? No, I don't even see what I'm saying at this point. CNN's Jeremy Diamond sees what I'm saying, you know, what I'm saying. It's not the White House. Jeremy, why is this is so confusing? What are you hearing?</s>JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, part of the confusion here, Kate, is that there are really credibility issues on all sides of this issue. The President has his own credibility issues. Katrina Pierson, as you just mentioned, has her own credibility issues. She had previously denied having said that she believed the President has indeed said that racial epithet during any kind of conference call. And Omarosa of course have a track record of lying in the past. She would advance her own personal agenda. But really what's important here is that Omarosa's allegations here all lead back to the White House. Let's remember the crack of this issue is whether or not there is a tape on which the President has said the N-word. You just heard Sarah Sanders declining to provide any kind of certainly. But we do know that the President himself has been adding fuel to this fire lashing out on Twitter against Omarosa repeatedly. And he is in particular use, you know, quite serious language as far as attacking her personally calling her a low life, calling her a dog and it seems to fit a pattern of the President lashing out to attack African- Americans in particular over their intelligence. That's something that we've certainly seen from the President throughout his presidency but Sarah Sanders yesterday defending the President himself insisting that he is an equal opportunity insulter.</s>SANDERS: This has absolutely nothing to do with race, the President an equal opportunity person that calls things like he sees it. He always fight bar with bar.</s>DIAMOND: And so, you hear there Sarah Sanders talking about that equal opportunity insulting that the president does on the daily basis defending these insults by saying, "Well, he insults everybody else but of course he was Sarah Sanders who just a couple of weeks ago went on a rant against the media insisting that she has been the subject of personal attacked against her, particularly about her appearance. But it appears that with Sarah Sanders when it comes to the President insults they are OK. Kate.</s>BOLDUAN: Jeremy, thank you so much. Joining me now to discuss this CNN White House Correspondent Abby Phillip and CNN politics reporter and Editor-at-large Chris Cillizza. So, Abby, just going up with Jeremy was laying out right there. So now is the best defense, it's OK that the president calls a woman a dog because he's just mean to everyone.</s>ABBY PHILLIP, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: OK. I think we've seen this from the White House and from the President's allies in the past. They all seemed to say I response to where the preparing says something inappropriate or out of line or beyond the pale that the president is allowed to do whatever it takes to defend himself. Hut there are lot of people calling him to question that approach. First of all as Jeremy pointed out Sarah Sanders, just months ago, was asking us to increase the civility in politics. The President has repeatedly refused to do that. And also, in this case, the President has spent so much of it's time as president choosing to insult African Americans in one particular way by insulting their intelligence. And that's something the White House is never acknowledged. Sure, he insults the intelligence of a lot of people but the majority of them have been black. And also, the President is clearly not paying attention to the fact that this is a part of a broader problem with addressing race in this administration. And he has never really tried to kind of bridge that divide here.</s>BOLDUAN: And, Chris, Sarah Sanders' answer when asked about the rumors of Trump and the n-word. It is something different than I guess she often gives. I mean, it's not the tweet speaks for itself. It's now "I can't guarantee anything." What is this? Like self- preservation?</s>CHRIS CILLIZZA, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: To quote the great '80s band Great White, Kate, it may be once bitten twice shy. Because the truth of the matter is, that I think Sarah Sanders has repeatedly -- Abby and her colleagues to what has have documented this, has repeatedly been put out to say things that it wound up either be wholly not true about what the president knew, when he knew with those sorts of things. Or that had to change her story repeatedly because she was either getting false partial information. So I do think some of it is that. I mean, the danger in that of course is that we know Donald Trump watches these press briefings. We know that while Donald Trump thinks he is the best pollster and everything else, strategist. He definitely thinks he is the best communicator and understands how to deal with the media the best. So she's in a position where that's going to get scrutiny no matter what. But it did feel like hedging her bets a little bit. that's not something we've seen before out of this administration, particularly as it relates to things Donald Trump says he did or didn't do.</s>BOLDUAN: Yes. I mean, you don't have to look really far at all, Abby, to figure out that there were a lot of ways to answer the question. I mean, like the way that Sarah Sanders answered tough questions in the past. I mean, we just pulled a few together. Listen to this.</s>SARAH SANDERS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I would say that his tweet speaks for itself there. I think the President's statement via Twitter today is extremely clear. I don't have anything to add beyond the statement itself. I think that statement speaks for itself. There's nothing to add.</s>BOLDUAN: What do you think is difference this time, Abby?</s>PHILLIP: I think this is one of those -- maybe it's an acknowledgment on Sarah's part that this is a really important thing. If she -- if it turns out that she says that this tape doesn't exist and maybe it does, I would be credibility explosive. I think her credibility would really be shot after all of this And I think it's also because she knows that she doesn't know. She knows that there are a lot of people around her who don't know. And she knows that perhaps the President may not even know. So she's beyond hedging her bets at this point. I think she understands that this is something that she should just stay as far away from. But I should also point out that she got to that answer where she says, you know, "I can't say that for certain." After a lot of pressing by reporters, we had to kind of drag that out of her. That was not her first response to it. So it just goes to show that even when she was -- that because she was pressed, she wasn't willing to really put her credibility on the line in this case where I think there are too many uncertainties, even for her.</s>BOLDUAN: And look I know, Chris, you're going to say, "Why are you surprised, Kate? Why are you acting outright?" But I mean, i think it still a moment and I think you -- I think you both would agree still think, it's just like yesterday. I think it's a moment too. I think it's a moment to stop and talk about it when the president call, the president of the United States, makes it official public statement and calls a woman a dog. I think it's a moment to stop and acknowledge, and discuss when the president of the United States -- when it's unclear and no one can guarantee that the president of the United States hasn't used the N- word. They aren't certain that the president -- there is a level of uncertainty enough that the president would use that word that they can't guarantee it's not on tape.</s>PHILLIP: Absolutely. I actually wouldn't say -- I mean, yes, we shouldn't be surprised, Kate. But that also doesn't mean that we shouldn't be shocked and appalled that on some level, right, and take note of it. I think Donald Trump relies on the fact that he feels as though if he says and does enough things that it's hard to keep track of it. I always make the analogy of a basketball game. If one team out and starts guarding the other to extremely aggressively in doing what would be considered fouling in an neutral understanding of the rules. You have two options if you're the referee. You either foul out all the players or you suddenly or consciously/unconsciously adjust the way in which you referee the game. That's what Donald Trump is banking on. I think that's what we have to be wary of not doing.</s>BOLDUAN: No, foul, everyone should be fouled out until we're now just playing a game of horse. It's the only game I can ever win, Abby. So maybe that's just what I want to do. Great to see you guys, I really appreciate it. Thank you. Coming up, a historic night of primary contests including the first transgender nominee for governor from a major party. The other big wins, the big losses, and what it could all mean for the midterms. What did we learn from last night? Let's talk about it.