Trump Again Invokes Obama as House Democrats Investigate Trump; O'Rourke And Buttigieg Clash Over Fate of Action on Guns
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We can't treat the United States of American the way they treated us under President Obama. China has been ripping us off for many years. President Clinton, President Bush and President Obama and others, should have done this long before me. The fact is, President Putin totally outsmarted President Obama on Crimea and other things. Including the red line in the sand. All right. He outsmarted. He made a living on outsmarting President Obama. President Obama built the cells. He built the cages that you people always talk about and attribute them to me. So President Obama had separation. I'm the one that brought them together. President Obama had zero interest rates. I don't have zero interest. I have real interest rates. And despite that I have a strong economy.</s>BALDWIN: Why can't he quit him?</s>CHARLES BLOW, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: There's an obsession, I think, as we were saying, he's jealous, right. And for a lot of reasons. I think one of it is that Obama was popular, at least during part of his presidency. Trump has never even broke 50 percent in popularity. It looks like he's heading towards a very tough re- election, if he can make it. Obama was re-elected. People still genuinely like Obama, both he and Michelle, they genuinely like them. And that shows up in the polling and he looks at that, this guy who he hates, and people like him, and he's thinking, why don't they like me.</s>BALDWIN: It bothers him deeply.</s>BLOW: And there it is.</s>BALDWIN: Switching gears to this raging debate over gun control, gun legislation, you know, recently you had Beto O'Rourke, of course, we know what happened in his hometown of El Paso, 22 people were killed. He took up on the debate stage last week and he's now being criticized by Democrats for standing up there and saying, hell, yes, we're going to take your AR-15, your AK-47. So now Pete Buttigieg has responded to that.</s>JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Did Beto O'Rourke say something playing into the hands of the Republicans?</s>PETE BUTTIGIEG (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Yes. Look, right now, we have and amazing moment on our hands, we have agreement among the American people, and even this President and even Mitch McConnell are at least pretending to be open to reforms. We know that we have a moment on our hands, let's make the most of it and get these things done.</s>BALDWIN: So, then Beto O'Rourke responded tweeting this, quote, leaving millions of weapons of war on the streets because Trump and McConnell are at least pretending to be open to reforms, that calculation and fear is what got us here in the first place. Let's have the courage to say what we believe and fight for it. Is O'Rourke being courageous or is he being reckless?</s>BLOW: No, I'm on the courageous side of that statement.</s>BALDWIN: Why?</s>BLOW: Because, I'm tired of people lying, I'm tired of liberals lying about guns, right. We know what is required to put a dent in this. And saying less than that, always kind of covering your bases and saying, oh no, I don't really want to do that, yes, you do. Yes, you do. If they say -- the NRA is going to say it's a slippery slope, it is. We're trying to grease the slope. Let's start somewhere, pass something and demonstrate to the American people that we can pass gun legislation, it doesn't mean the end of the Second Amendment. But we have to start --</s>BALDWIN: You're saying, OK yes, I want to take your guns away. How are you going to get any kind of bipartisan compromise with that?</s>BLOW: I think you have to separate the political calculus from the moral positioning. Beto is absolutely right. There is no reason, and we all know this, there is no reason that these weapons of war should be on the streets. None whatsoever. There's no reason that bullets that shred when they hit your body and tear everything up on the inside should be sold to the general public. We all know that, right. And if there's 300 million guns in America, and that -- the NRA and the gun advocates are right, only a tiny, tiny, tiny fraction of those guns are ever used for any kind of criminal purpose. But the only way to get that -- those numbers down of killings and shootings is that we reduce the overall number of guns. There is no other way. So you have to get that down. Beto is right.</s>BALDWIN: Beto is right and Beto is courageous so says Charles Blow. Thank you so much for coming on, always a pleasure, sir. Appreciate it. Got more on our breaking news. CNN has now confirmed that prosecutors in New York have subpoenaed eight years of the president's personal and corporate tax returns. Stand by for that.