Trump Campaign Promise: Drain the Swamp.
TRUMP: And we're going to drain the swamp in Washington, D.C. And that's what it is.</s>KING: It's hard to forget that Trump campaign promise. Also, harder it appears to keep it. Seventeen Trump appointees have been granted waivers from conflict of interest rules in the first four months of the new administration. That 17 number equal to the number of waivers granted in the entire eight years of the Obama administration. Those granted waivers include four former lobbyists now doing government work related to their former clients. And the list includes some familiar faces, including the Chief of Staff, Reince Priebus, and the Counselor, Kellyanne Conway. It's hard to drain the swamp. The swamp fights back. But part of this is they're having trouble hiring people. And so, when you need somebody to do Puerto Rico policy, you end up hiring a lobbyist who had a policy, someone who's willing to come in. You talked earlier about the Trump base being largely supportive even as he veers from the campaign, and in some cases, abandons campaign promises. This one, the change Washington, drain the swamp, shake things up, this is sort of the core of the foundation.</s>PACE: Yes, this will be interesting to see how his supporters react to it because Trump represented more than anything just a shakeup to Washington. Someone who was going to go in and wasn't going to play by the old rules, was going to bring new people in, and wouldn't get caught up in these kinds of ethical dilemmas where you hired people doing work for companies that they had just made money for, and now, we see examples of exactly that. And the problem will only get bigger for Trump if he does decide to follow through on some of these promises of a staff shakeup because the pool of people that he would be drawing from are people who frankly are making a lot of money off of their connections to him right now. But, you know, the base has been loyal to Trump. They really have and it will be up to Democrats, I think, to try to hammer this point if they want to try to breakthrough here to make this clear that Trump promised to drain the swamp and it has been a failed promise in a way.</s>BENDAVID: And so much of his persona has been about calling people crooked or lying or fake or dishonest with the implication being that he's a guy who's straight and telling it like it is. And this raises a lot of questions for a lot of people. But his strongest supporters just seems to believe that he's on their side, he has the right enemies, he has the right ideas, he's with me. And so I think he may be able to withstand some of the stuff at least with his base.</s>DEMINJAN: He's also just got a slogan from the other side. It's a lot harder to explain why he hasn't drained the swamp because this lobbyist has this tie and this history, et cetera. It takes too long than saying drain the swamp, which he's very good at doing. And it's already been shown that his base doesn't care about the people who are rich. I mean, Trump is extremely rich and, you know -- and so it's not the money thing that's going to gets them. It's the ties and that takes longer to explain.</s>KING: Right, especially if one of these people gets caught in some shenanigans. So to) Reince Priebus point, his waiver allows him to do business with the Republican National Committee where he was former chairman. I don't think anybody watching has issues with that (inaudible). Kellyanne Conway's allows her to do business with political groups that she used to work for as a pollster and as a strategist. You know, on surface, nothing wrong with that unless somebody gets involved in some shady business.</s>KUCINICH: Well, exactly and it runs counter. He kind of boxed himself in. Because he said draining the swamp but he also said I'm going to hire the best people. Well, a lot of some people who might be the best in their profession, as Julie said, have their own shop, are making a lot of money and, you know, might -- that that would be a huge blow to them financially to go into the White House. So it's a tough promise.</s>KING: It's a tough promise. All right, everybody, thanks for joining us Inside Politics. Remember, the president's announcement on the Paris Climate Accords, 3 p.m. in the Rose Garden. Stay here for that. Wolf Blitzer in the chair after a quick break. Among his guests, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, Adam Schiff. Have a great day.