Interview with Trump Campaign Advisor Mercedes Schlapp
SCIUTTO: Welcome back. President Trump, attacking Democrats and Republican Senator Mitt Romney, one day after his impeachment trial in the Senate ended with his acquittal. A short time ago, at the National Prayer Breakfast, the president called into question Romney's faith. Of course, Romney cited his faith as a reason for him making the decision to vote to convict President Trump. But as impeachment moves into the rearview mirror, the president is about to ramp up his re-election push, one official telling CNN to expect at least one rally a week, now, for the rest of the year. Joining me now, Mercedes Schlapp, she's senior advisor to the Trump 2020 campaign. Mercedes, appreciate you taking the time this morning.</s>MERCEDES SCHLAPP, SENIOR ADVISOR, TRUMP 2020 CAMPAIGN: Thank you for having me.</s>SCIUTTO: I want to start with the president's comments at the Prayer Breakfast. Normally, meant to be something of a respectful event although, let's be honest, it's been political in the past. But the president, taking it in a direction here, attacking Romney and calling into question, it seems, his faith or the reason he gave -- his faith -- as making this decision here. I wonder, do you question Mitt Romney's faith?</s>SCHLAPP: I don't question his faith. I think that it's kind of odd that he would use his faith as an excuse to go after the president, especially when we know that there's a personal vendetta against the president. You know, we know Mitt Romney --</s>SCIUTTO: How do you know that?</s>SCHLAPP: -- has been envious of the president's success. Well, I mean, it's very clear. Look, Mitt Romney has decided that he is going to be that outlier in the Republican Party, and go against the president. That is just where he has positioned himself. He wants to be more accepted by the Acela corridor and be the senator of the Acela corridor rather than the senator of Utah. So there is definitely the sense, with Romney, that he has, from the beginning, even before President Trump was elected, that he was going to use his faith, his moral ground to make the case against the president even being elected in the first place.</s>SCIUTTO: Well, listen, to be fair, he did sit down with the president as he considered him for secretary of state early on. But, yes, he was the only Republican to vote --</s>SCHLAPP: Right, he asked for specific favors from the president, so he wanted the president to endorse him for his Senate bid because there was a conservative who was running against him in the primary, and the president stood by Mitt Romney. And, yes, they did meet at that moment for the secretary of state --</s>SCIUTTO: OK.</s>SCHLAPP: -- position. And it just shows that he -- Mitt Romney has no loyalty.</s>SCIUTTO: Well, he made a case that he was having loyalty to his faith. But let's set that aside for a moment because Mitt Romney was not the only Republican senator who criticized -- let's be clear -- the president's behavior here. And you had several Republican senators -- Susan Collins, Lamar Alexander, Rob Portman -- saying, even as they voted to acquit the president, that his behavior was inappropriate and that they believed the president learned a lesson from impeachment. Did the president learn a lesson here?</s>SCHLAPP: Look, the president did no wrong. And I think for these senators, they -- you know, they have the right to have their opinion on this matter. But you've got to ask the question, does this rise to the level of impeachment? Were the senators going to say, let's just lower the standards of impeachment so pretty much anything stands up to those high crimes and misdemeanors standards, which impeachment calls for. Or removal, in this case. And it just is, I think, very disappointing --</s>SCIUTTO: But that's --</s>SCHLAPP: -- when you look at the facts, these -- Democrats said there was overwhelming evidence. The senators reviewed the evidence and it was very clear that the Democrats --</s>SCIUTTO: Well, no.</s>SCHLAPP: -- couldn't even get a majority on this issue.</s>SCIUTTO: There's a difference there because they said the behavior was inappropriate, did not meet the standard. And I just want to say, Senator Ted Cruz -- who, at least for the last couple years has been a strong defender of the president -- he bluntly told the White House, according to a story on CNN this morning, to drop the claim there was no quid pro quo. A quote in that story, "'Out of a hundred senators, zero believe you on the argument there is no quid pro quo,' Cruz said, and told the defense to stop making it.'" I mean, no quid pro quo is central to the president's defense there. So what it appears, is that yes, they said it didn't meet the standard for high crimes and misdemeanors, but that it was a quid pro quo and that it was inappropriate. What's your response?</s>SCHLAPP: Again, you know these senators are going to have their own opinions on this matter. But what we know are the facts, and that's that the president was transparent from day one. We know that the president of Ukraine made it very clear that he felt, quote-unquote, "no pressure" on the call. And thirdly is the fact that they got the military aid, something that President Obama never gave them. So we know that the foreign aid was released, and we can go and start rehashing these details over and over again --</s>SCIUTTO: We do know --</s>SCHLAPP: -- what we know to be fact, Jim, is that these Democrats, from day one, have made a decision to start this cycle of investigations. This is what they started since the president was elected.</s>SCIUTTO: Just --</s>SCHLAPP: Six of those seven House managers have said that they wanted the president impeached. So this is their political strategy. If the Democrats want to continue down this --</s>SCIUTTO: I get --</s>SCHLAPP: -- road of impeachment and political strategy, they will continue to lose independent voters who are very tired, and even those disgruntled Democrats --</s>SCIUTTO: OK, that's -- before we get to that, because I do --</s>SCHLAPP: -- who are very tired with these political games by the Democrats.</s>SCIUTTO: I do want to ask about 2020. But point of fact, Senator Marco Rubio, Republican of Florida, he made the point that it was congressional authority and threats that got the administration to release that aid, not the president's desire. That the Congress threatened they were going to pass legislation to require it because they had already authorized that aid. But let's get to 2020 here. Because we should note that even in the midst of this divisiveness, Democrats and Republicans actually voted together on USMCA -- of course the priority of the president -- but also judicial reform here. And I wonder, as folks at home listen here, are there, do you believe, areas of agreement between the president in Election Year and Democrats? Legislation that they could agree on this year.</s>SCHLAPP: Look, I would hope so. When -- during my time at the White House, what we encountered was Democrat obstruction. We worked -- we tried to work with them on a comprehensive immigration reform, and the Democrats didn't want to work with us on this issue. We wanted to work with them on infrastructure, and Nancy Pelosi walked out of the room. So we have tried to work with the Democrats on these issues. We -- actually, we were thrilled that finally, USMCA got off of the desk of Nancy Pelosi, and it was finally passed. Why? Because those Democrats in those key states were saying, my guy -- you know, my constituents need it, we need this to get done. During my time in Iowa, I'll tell you, I spoke to hundreds of individuals and they basically were saying, every time you mention USMCA, it was a big win. It was a big win for the president, but most importantly, it was a big win for this country and for our farmers.</s>SCIUTTO: Yes. And a rare case of bipartisanship, we should note. Final question, because --</s>SCHLAPP: Yes.</s>SCIUTTO: -- Stephanie Grisham, of course, the spokesperson for the White House, was just on the air on another network, a short time ago. And she said, in response to particularly Romney's vote here, but in her view, the people should pay for opposing the president on this. Do you know what exactly was -- she's threatening there? She threatening payback for a senator like Mitt Romney, for instance?</s>SCHLAPP: The payback is that the president is going to win re- election in 2020. I will tell you, there are Democrats out there, there are independents out there who are tired with the political shams of these Democrats. They are wasting the people's time, wasting our tax dollars. Let's get back to the business of the people, let's find common ground and work on big initiatives like infrastructure, like bringing down drug -- prescription drug prices. There is so many areas that we can work on.</s>SCIUTTO: Yes.</s>SCHLAPP: The problem is, is that the Democrats are going to have to let go of their obsession with trying to remove this president. The same way Nancy Pelosi ripped up the president's State of the Union speech, is the same way that these Democrats asked the Senate to rip up the ballots of millions of Americans. They need to stop that --</s>SCIUTTO: OK, we should --</s>SCHLAPP: -- and let's get back to work.</s>SCIUTTO: Point of fact, that there has been a bill for drug prices but hasn't moved, and Democrats supported that. But, Mercedes Schlapp, I do appreciate the time and hope we can have you back on the program soon.</s>SCHLAPP: Thank you so much.</s>HARLOW: Travelers in New York, now feeling the impact of a new Trump administration policy that specifically targets New York residents. What prompted the decision and what the state plans to do about it.