Trump's National Security Advisor Under Fire
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: General Flynn's comments just add to our concern about the relationship with Russia.</s>MIKE PENCE (R), VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Those conversations had nothing whatsoever with those sanctions.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't think you'd want a guy who would forget that.</s>DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Defending against the North Korean missile and nuclear threat. That's considered very high priority.</s>SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D), NEW YORK: North Korea is testing President Trump.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There are massive numbers of non-citizens in this country who are registered to vote.</s>SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I), VERMONT: Nobody believes that. It's a lie. It's a delusion.</s>TRUMP: We are going to keep our country safe.</s>SCHUMER: This executive order is so bad, he ought to just throw it in the trash can.</s>ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Chris Cuomo and Alisyn Camerota.</s>ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: We want to welcome our viewers in the United States and around the world. This is NEW DAY. It is Monday, February 13, 6 a.m. here in New York. Up first, the president, Donald Trump's embattled national security advisor. Is he on thin ice? White House officials dodging repeated chances to defend Michael Flynn after reports that Flynn discussed sanctions with the Russian ambassador before President Trump took office.</s>CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: All right. The president is also facing his first foreign policy test. North Korea test-launched a ballistic missile. What will President Trump do to respond to Kim Jong-un? He also has a growing list of challenges. We're on day 25 of the Trump presidency. Let's begin our coverage with CNN's Joe Johns, live at the White House. Good morning, Joe.</s>JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Chris. Unsure footing here at the White House this morning as this new administration tries to slog its way through multiple controversies in areas that the president viewed as strong points during the election.</s>JOHNS (voice-over): President Trump's national security advisor, General Michael Flynn, under fire. The White House sidestepping questions about Flynn's future.</s>CHUCK TODD, NBC'S "MEET THE PRESS": Does the president still has confidence in his natural security advisor.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's a question that I think you should ask the president.</s>JOHNS: A U.S. official confirming that General Flynn did discuss U.S. sanctions with a Russian ambassador before Trump was sworn in. Contradicting denials made by Flynn himself and Vice President Mike Pence.</s>PENCE: They did not discuss anything having to do with the United States decision to expel diplomats or impose a sanction against Russia.</s>JOHNS: General Flynn on thin ice, despite Trump's refusal to address the firestorm.</s>TRUMP: I don't know about it. I haven't seen it. What report is that?</s>JOHNS: A senior administration official telling CNN Flynn has no plans to resign, nor does he expect to be fired. President Trump facing another big test over the weekend: North Korea firing a ballistic missile into the Sea of Japan, as the president met with Japan's prime minister, Shinzo Abe, both leaders addressing the launch late Saturday night.</s>TRUMP: The United States of America stands behind Japan, its great ally, 100 percent.</s>JOHNS: Meantime, the Trump administration is weighing their options on his suspended travel ban, which could include writing a new executive order.</s>STEPHEN MILLER, SENIOR WHITE HOUSE ADVISOR: We can appeal the emergency stay to the Supreme Court. We can take our case on bond to the next circuit. We can continue our appeal with the panel or we can return to the district court and have a trial on the merits. All options are on the table.</s>JOHNS: As fears grow in immigrant communities after hundreds of people in 11 states were arrested last week. This as a White House advisor reignites a conspiracy theory about voter fraud that has been repeatedly debunked without providing any evidence.</s>MILLER: There are massive numbers of non-citizens in this country who are registered to vote. That's the story we should be talking about, and I am prepared to go on any show, anywhere, any time and repeat it and say the president of the United States is correct 100 percent.</s>JOHNS: Today the president meets here at the White House with the Canadian prime minister. Among the topics of discussion, NAFTA, the North American free trade agreement, which the president has vowed to renegotiate -- Alisyn and Chris.</s>CUOMO: Joe, appreciate. Let's discuss. We have a big panel. We have CNN commentator and political anchor of Spectrum News, Errol Louis; CNN political analyst David Gregory; and CNN political analyst and national political reporter for "The New York Times," Alex Burns. Errol Louis, for all the intrigue surrounding Michael Flynn, there is a simple question that will get you to the root of it. Where is the transcript? We know that the communications between Flynn and the Russians were being monitored. It's multiply sourced. There are lots of different communications. They say they have them. There is an answer to whether or not he was discussing sanctions with Russia and how? Do you think we'll see that proof?</s>ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think we'll find out whether or not the president thinks we're going to see it. You know, the question here is not just what's in those transcripts, and I assume the president has already seen it. I assume that he and his top advisors were making a decision about what that transcript.</s>CUOMO: He said he didn't know what report people were asking him about when the Flynn issue came up. What report? I haven't seen it.</s>LOUIS: Yes, well, you know, the president has the best information network in the entire world. So I assume at some point he's going to find out. If he doesn't know right now, he'll find out a minute from now and then he'll have to make a decision. And I think that's what's going to really sort of tell the story. And also, I think it can get folded into -- and we've seen him do this with other important issues like his taxes. It does get folded somewhat into this larger question of what went on with the Russians with regard to the election. What kind of connections do they have to Trump, financial and otherwise and political? And how does all of this fit into it? So this is a sort of an important piece of a much larger puzzle. And if they want to sort of make sure that we don't ever see any of this until the full puzzle is known, it may be awhile before they see those transcripts.</s>CAMEROTA: David, I think it's interesting to try to determine what is President Trump's breaking point with some of his staff for whom -- to whom he is loyal. The Logan Act that this might have violated is an obscure law rarely used. Why would this be the breaking point for Michael Flynn?</s>DAVID GREGORY, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, for a couple of reasons. Look, Stephen Miller, this young aide who was out on the Sunday programs yesterday couldn't have been more emphatic by what he didn't say when he was called on to defend Kellyanne Conway. Boy, he was ready to go.</s>CAMEROTA: Yes, good point, David. Let me stop you right there, because just so that people know how he deflected, let me play this and then you can make your point.</s>TODD: Does the president still have confidence in his national security advisor?</s>MILLER: That's a question that I think you should ask the president. The question you should ask Reince, the chief of staff. I'm here today as a policy advisor, and my focus is on answering the policy questions that you have.</s>TODD: The White House did not give you anything to say other than that?</s>MILLER: They did not give me anything to say. It's not for me to tell you what's in the president's mind. That's a question for the president.</s>GREGORY: By the way, what's so interesting is this is a crowd that doesn't like to do Washington as usual. That was complete Washington textbook, which is let him twist in the wind. By him I mean General Flynn. So they're not defending him. They're obviously talking about what they want to do with him, where, you know, they've defended Kellyanne Conway. So I think, look, he embarrassed the vice president by setting him out there to say something that wasn't true, and I'm sure the president is loyal to Flynn. You've got other aspects, too. You've got this sort of shadow NSC that's lead by Bannon and Miller that's at work. And you have, I think, a sense that they're really not very organized within the NSC. They don't know what they're doing, especially with a president who tweets all of these -- this incendiary language about foreign affairs.</s>CUOMO: To inform that position, David Gregory, we've got the "New York Times" here. Let's put up what they wrote about this. "Three weeks into the Trump administration, council staff members get up in the morning and read Trump's tweets and struggle to make policy to fit them. Most are kept in the dark about what Mr. Trump tells foreign leaders in his phone calls. Some staff have turned to encrypted communications to talk to their colleagues after hearing that Mr. Trump's top advisors are considering an 'insider threat' program that could result in monitoring cell phones and e-mails for leaks." What do you make of that, Alex, in terms of what the daily reality is there versus past administration?</s>ALEX BURNS, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, I think we've seen things like this in past administration. Not quite the National Security Council like this, but you know, that you do get to a point where an administration is politically beleaguered in a bunker mentality, deeply paranoid about leaks. It just usually doesn't happen three weeks after the inauguration. Right? So what you see here happening at the NSC and other quarters of the Trump administration, is that the president trusts very, very few people. He is surrounded by people who trust very, very few people. They are detached and alienated from the sort of professional bureaucracy, the civil service. And that's why somebody like Flynn ends up being such a key man in a situation like this. He is the president's conduit to a much larger national security bureaucracy that Donald Trump doesn't particularly have any deep familiarity with. And so, he may be a difficult person for Trump to get of, even in spite of all the pressure he's facing, both within his administration and without.</s>CAMEROTA: And Earl, ominous things are happening on the world stage, obviously. President Trump was at a dinner with Prime Minister Abe of Japan when he got word that North Korea had launched a test missile. Now what?</s>LOUIS: Well, now what? Now we see, as we saw that night, that he can sort of make a quick statement and sort of say we stand behind Japan 100 percent. But this is where a lot of his statements over the course of the campaign now come together, and this gumball that he sort of created where he sort of suggested on the campaign trail, "Well, maybe South Korea should have nuclear weapons. Maybe Japan should have nuclear weapons. I'm going to be so tough on North Korea" and so forth. Now you have a bad man in North Korea who sort of calls his buff. And there's no sort of comprehensive defense doctrine there. There's no foreign policy team in place. We're not sure how all of this interacts with a very complicated relationship with China that candidate Trump also talked about. We'll pressure China, because they've got influence over North Korea. These are all questions that were asked throughout the campaign. We never have any comprehensive answers. So it was almost as if there was a pop quiz. And we have a student who really wasn't ready for it.</s>CUOMO: David, you have the U.N. Security Council. You've got its members there, including the U.S. asking for an emergency meeting. Isn't that the right call?</s>GREGORY: I think so. I mean, I think this is actually a case of deliberate restraint on the part of the Trump administration. And some good moves all around. You had a president who was restrained, who was standing behind the Japanese leader. I thought being -- creating a joint response. He just did have -- President Trump had a conversation with President Xi in China. There's no question that North Korea must have come up so that you can have a more coordinated response. And let's be honest. We've had successive administrations who have been bedeviled by North Korea. It's not an easy question. I think there is a feeling that, if this was a medium term missile, this was not quite as provocative. But here was a case where the president kept his powder dry. I think that's important. And it underscores the importance of a national security advisor. Because this is the person who coordinates all the information and how it gets to the president and who the president is listening to. And I think that becomes an important question in the administration, given Steve Bannon and Steve Miller and General Flynn, all of whom have some purview over foreign affairs.</s>CAMEROTA: All right, panel. Stick around if you would. The White House once again renewing false claims of widespread voter fraud in the presidential election. Why do the president and his senior advisors keep talking about this but not presenting any evidence? Our panel takes that up next.