Steve Bannon Out at White House; Removal Of Confederate Statues
TAPPER: We're back with Ohio Governor John Kasich. Governor, according to a report this week, sources close to you are saying there's a growing sense of "moral imperative for President Trump to face a primary challenge in 2020." Now, I know you're not going to announce any plans on my show and you've made no plans, but if everything continues as it has been, does a Republican need to step forward to challenge President Trump in three years?</s>KASICH: Well, Jake, as you said, I don't have any plans to do anything like that. I'm rooting for him to get it together. We all are. We're only like seven months into this presidency. And, look, what we have to start thinking about, all of us, not just the president, but down where we live, in the neighborhoods, in the communities, we've got to build a stronger America. Look, why am I on this show? You asked me to come on. I'm trying to have a responsible voice, to call things out when they need to be called out, but also to support my country. So, what I hope is going to happen is I think we're going to - I hope we're going to have stability, the president is going to learn from these episodes, and we're going to do better. That's what I hope is going to happen. We'll have to wait and see.</s>TAPPER: Minutes ago, Defense Secretary Mattis announced that President Trump has made a decision about what to do next in Afghanistan, though we haven't heard what the decision is. This is what you had to say about troop levels in Afghanistan last year. Take a listen.</s>KASICH: I now believe we need to get out of Afghanistan. If I were president, I wouldn't be announcing the timeline, but I would give the aircraft that the Afghans need and I'd get out of there.</s>TAPPER: There are an estimated 8,400 US troops in Afghanistan. Do you think President Trump should be planning a complete withdrawal of US troops?</s>KASICH: Well, I wouldn't be in favor of him trying to add troops. Here's the thing. We've been there 16 years. We went there primarily to make sure that Afghanistan was not going to be a launching pad into United States with terrorism. We largely have accomplished that. But somehow, we've gotten ourselves involved in nation building, trying to build a strong central government in a country where central governments don't work. It's done in a regional way. My view would be, no, I think we need to begin to leave there and I think we can reserve the opportunity to use intelligence to be able to strike any of these training camps, any of these places where our intelligence community begins to think that they are now building a base and a launching pad that would be harmful to us and to our allies. So, continuing to put more troops in, is not the way I think we should go. I think we should begin to leave and then I think we should reserve the opportunity and the right, with the proper basing of our forces, in the region to be able to strike if we think that there is an effort being made to create another launching pad. But to just stay there after 16 years, I want our people to be able to come home.</s>TAPPER: North Korea -</s>KASICH: Thank goodness, I didn't change my mind from a year ago, Jake.</s>TAPPER: That's right. Not a good 'gotcha'. You stand by what you said. North Korea, of course, has threatened the US and South Korea ahead of tomorrow's planned military drills between the US and South Korea. North Korea calling them reckless behavior, driving the situation into the uncontrollable phase of a nuclear war. These exercises, of course, come after these weeks of growing tensions in the region with North Korea, focusing on American targets such as Guam and possibly Hawaii. Do you think that the US should consider postponing these drills?</s>KASICH: Not at this point. I think if they were like two weeks in the future, perhaps we could consider it. But when both General Mattis and Tillerson, the negotiators, negotiated all over the world, have a sense that we have to keep the pressure on, I agree with that. I do - I will give credit to administration that has talked about how important it is to protect the continental United States and that we are going to have every option on the table. And I think it's gotten the attention of the Chinese. A lot of people pooh-pooh, the Chinese are not going to do anything. Let me just tell you, Jake, if I were the president of the United States and we had a regime like North Korea and they were able to develop the technology to target the United States of America, we would have no choice but to take those systems out. No choice. And it would change the very fabric of that peninsula. And so, if the Chinese are worried about what's going to happen in North Korea, the best way to get - to have things happen that they don't like is just to sit back and do nothing. I think they're beginning to put the heat on Un, that dictator over there. So, at this point, I think we continue with the exercises, but we look for a way to get some sort of a freeze on that program, a verifiable freeze and begin to think about how, over time, we can have a more stable group of people who run North Korea.</s>TAPPER: But you would not only not rule out, but you would enact a preemptive strike if North Korea were proven to be establishing and developing nuclear-capable ICBMs that could hit the United States?</s>KASICH: Yes. Let me put it to you this way, Jake. I wouldn't take a chance on a government that unstable and a leader who is that erratic to be able have the capability to launch and to land a missile in Los Angeles and kill people there. Yes, I would reserve that right. And I would make it clear to the Chinese. I would send an envoy to see the Chinese now and say there is a red line. We're not going to sit back and have our people targeted by this regime and you can do something about it. And if you don't do something about it, you're going to have to live with the results. Yes, we have to protect Americans before we worry about anything else out here. So, what can happen is the Koreans can stop all their crazy testing and then we can get to a point where we can begin to talk about denuclearizing the whole peninsula. There's a lot of things we can talk about, but it needs to be made very clear to the Chinese. This is in your hands and you don't want to do anything? You're going to have to live with the result because we are not going to risk the lives of our people.</s>TAPPER: I do want to ask you about healthcare. The Republican effort, obviously, to repeal and replace Obamacare collapsed in the Senate. President Trump has threatened to stop the subsidy payments to Obamacare to help insurance companies pay for -</s>KASICH: That would be a disaster.</s>TAPPER: So, he made the August payment -</s>KASICH: No, that would be a disaster.</s>TAPPER: You think that he should -</s>KASICH: You can't do that.</s>TAPPER: Pledge -</s>KASICH: No, he's got to continue to fund it. No, you cannot just cut this off and create more chaos. Look, John Hickenlooper, the governor of Colorado, Democrat, and I are working together on a plan that can stabilize those markets, which we would be glad to present to people in the Senate. I'm hoping we're going to get an agreement on it. We're getting closer and closer. You've got to do this in a bipartisan way. And the thing you have to do is stabilize those insurance markets. And if you wanted to take away payments, you're going to create chaos. We can't have that. Let's stabilize those markets first. Let's not worry about Medicaid at this point. Let's get the Medicaid, Social Security and Medicare in terms of a package to deal with the rising debt we have in this country and do that in a responsible way. There's ways to get this stuff done, Jake. Believe me, I've been there. I saw us reform welfare. I saw us balance the budget. I saw us reform the Pentagon. We can do it if people will just get off their political soapboxes and begin to think about the country. Because I've got a message. We all get old and we all leave this planet. So, we're going to be judged in many ways by what we did when we were here. Stop playing games. It just doesn't make any sense. Do something. Be bigger than yourself. Live a life bigger than yourself. That's where we need to go in Washington. That's where we need to go across the board in all of the United States, with business and sports and religion, across the board. Let's get our act together and think bigger than ourselves.</s>TAPPER: All right. Inspirational words from Governor John Kasich. We always appreciate being here, sir. Thank you so much.</s>KASICH: Thanks, Jake.</s>TAPPER: Opponents who celebrated the president's decision to fire Steve Bannon may have popped the proverbial Champale a little too soon. The former White House chief strategist has rejoined "Breitbart News". And he's made it clear, he is still going to fight for the Trump agenda, saying, "in many ways, I think I can be more effective fighting from the outside for the agenda President Trump ran on. And anyone who stands in our way, we will go to war with." Ending a sentence with a preposition notwithstanding. Joining me now is Democratic Congressman Adam Schiff, chairman of the House - ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee. Congressman, good to see you as always.</s>REP. ADAM SCHIFF, D-CALIFORNIA: Good to see you, Jake.</s>TAPPER: So, in response to President Trump's firing of Bannon, you tweeted, "Glad to see Bannon gone. He never belonged in the White House, but the problem persists since the most profound source of division cannot be fired." Your position on President Trump and Bannon clear there. But let me ask you. Is there anyone else in the White House that you think should not be there?</s>SCHIFF: There's certainly a lot of people in the White House staff and NSC staff that shouldn't be there, people like Miller and Gorka and others, who not only, I think, represent the same thing that Steve Bannon did, but aren't capable of doing the job well. So, yes, I think there's more cleaning house that ought to take place. But as I mentioned in that tweet, Jake, the more fundamental problem is at the very top. I think what the president had to say about the demonstrations in Boston and elsewhere was perfectly fine, perfectly unobjectionable, but also perfectly inadequate after that debacle of a press conference he had supposedly on infrastructure. The real, I think, challenge and job for the chief executive in a country where race has always been such a difficult conversation is to do everything possible to bring our country together, to help make us a more perfect union. And what the president did this week was as if he stood on a line dividing the country and pushed to separate one American from another with all his might. And that is not what this country needs.</s>TAPPER: After President Trump's comments appearing to equate white supremacists and the counter-protesters, your fellow Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee Jackie Speier tweeted, "POTUS is showing signs of erratic behavior and mental instability that placed the country in grave danger. Time to invoke the 25th amendment." That's the amendment that would allow the removal of the president. Do you agree that President Trump is mentally unstable?</s>SCHIFF: Well, I certainly think that there is an issue with the president's capability. There is some attribute of this character that makes him seemingly incapable of introspection and a broad understanding of what the country really needs. And I think it's a question that people are asking, what is going on with this president, what can explain this kind of behavior. It began at the very beginning, Jake. I remember when he had won the election and within days seemed to suggest that the only reason he didn't win the popular vote was that millions of people illegally came to the country and voted. And I thought to myself, oh, my God, this man is not only going to not grow with the job, but is willing to say things that are just patently untrue. I'm convinced, if you took somebody off the street of America and you said you've just become president, but here's the deal, you didn't win the popular vote, they would have the common sense to say, look, I'm going to do everything I can to win over everyone. I realize that many people - indeed most people didn't vote for me. But he didn't do that. He is not capable of doing that. And I don't understand why. But I do recognize what a serious problem that is. And I think more than when I say it or when Jackie Speier says it, the fact that Bob Corker now says things along the same lines shows a broadening recognition that there are some serious issues with our president that aren't going to go away, that aren't going to get better, and indeed, with the pressures of the job, may very well get worse, and I think, for that reason, at a minimum, we need the very best people around him in the White House. And that means that not people like Bannon, not people like Miller, not people like Gorka, but rather some more adults in the room.</s>TAPPER: It sounds like you're saying that you don't disagree with Jackie Speier who said that President Trump is showing signs of erratic behavior, mental instability. So, it sounds like you're not disagreeing with that. What about the 25th Amendment part, which would call for the removal of the president? Do you agree with that?</s>SCHIFF: I don't think we're at a point of thinking about the 25th Amendment. For one thing, this is something that the vice president and cabinet would need to come together on. I think what the authors of the amendment principally had in mind was some kind of physical incapacitation or serious mental illness or a breakdown, an inability to function in office, and I think we're still far from concluding that that's the case, even though we find, many of us, his conduct an anathema and there to be a serious problem here. But I don't think it, particularly at this point in time, makes a lot of sense to focus on the 25th Amendment. I do think it means that we have to put real constraints on this president. We have to make sure that our system of checks and balances in Congress work. I think, frankly, the most powerful thing we can do, rather than pursue the 25th amendment at this point, is just make sure that one house or the other, and ideally both, are in Democratic hands. Frankly, the hands of a party not in the White House to be a more effective check on some of the damage this president can do.</s>TAPPER: Congressman, let me ask you, President Trump was, obviously, widely condemned for his comments, in which he seemed to be equating both sides for the violence and hatred in Charlottesville. But, obviously, let's remove the idea that there's any moral equivalence, is there any legitimacy to the argument that the violent tactics of groups like Antifa make matters worse and that Democrats and progressives need to condemn them?</s>SCHIFF: Anyone that's committing violence ought to be condemned. Anyone. There's no justification for it whatsoever. But I do think that that cannot be allowed to obscure the fact that millions of people are gathering around the country, and have since this present was inaugurated, in the most peaceful form of protests. And we can't allow the commander-in-chief to somehow equate the handful of people that would make those protests violent with any kind of sentiment that condones white supremacy or neo-Nazism. And I think it all gets back to the point you made earlier, Jake, and I think the fundamental problem here is that the president of the United States can't bring himself to repudiate a part of his support, and that is that small group of bigots that are supporters of his. He's taken a position essentially that if you're with me, you can do no wrong. And I won't condemn you practically anything that you do. His difficulty during the campaign, in your interview to condemn David Duke is not at all unlike the difficulties he has this week in a full- throated, unequivocal repudiation of the sentiment and an ideology that we not only find repugnant, but we fought a World War over. So, I think that's the root of the problem.</s>TAPPER: Congressman Adam Schiff, Democrat of California, thank you so much. Good to see you as always, sir.</s>SCHIFF: Thank you, Jake.</s>TAPPER: One Republican Senator now saying he worries that there is more violence to come and he says he doubts President Trump can bring the country together in the event that that happens. That's next.