Jeb Says George W. Is Foreign Policy Adviser
JOHN KING, CNN HOST, "INSIDE POLITICS": Let's go "Inside Politics." With me this morning to share their reporting and their insights are Tamara Keith of NPR and Lisa Lerer of the AP. Let's start with the Chris Christie comeback trail. It begins and some people think it may end in New Hampshire, but Chris Christie, you know, a week or so after these bridge-gate legal maneuvers. He's up in New Hamspshire. He's trying to prove to people this will not deter me, I did nothing wrong, the facts will support me. He decides yesterday one of the things is to go after Hillary Clinton. You were just in Nevada. Hillary Clinton made a bold statement on immigration going even to the left of President Obama saying there should be a full and relatively quick path to citizenship. Not legal status, citizenship for the 11 million or so undocumented in the United States. Chris Christie says wrong.</s>GOVERNOR CHRIS CHRISTIE (R), NEW JERSEY: I think the path to citizenship issue is a problem. You know, for folks who have been waiting the appropriate wait.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, right.</s>CHRISTIE: And so I think we have to have a much broader conversation than just pandering. We should not just be pandering.</s>KING: Chris Christie there if you can't hear him saying she's pandering, she's pandering in that circle there. Number one, he's drawn a sharp line with her, all of the Republicans are. This issue guaranteed to be front and center, when it comes to Chris Christie's calculations, putting the conservative flag down here.</s>TAMARA KEITH, NPR: Yes, even though he in theory is trying to run in the moderate lane. And there's this theory that Hillary Clinton went to Nevada and set a trap for the Republicans. She went to Nevada and talked about immigration, went to the left of President Obama and was essentially saying I dare you to say something that will make Latino voters not like you. And Chris Christie seems to in some way be taking the bait. He's at least taking the same conservative position that basically the rest of the GOP fields has taken on this issue.</s>KING: And it is interesting setting a trap in the sense that, you know, her priority clearly is keep the Obama coalition. And more than two-thirds of Latinos in two consecutive presidential elections look at Nevada, New Mexico, Colorado, look at Florida, even a state like Virginia, the Latino population is growing. Is it that clear cut for the Clinton campaign? Do they feel on such safe ground here to number one put her on the left, and number two, throw a log on this Republican fire?</s>LISA LERER, "ASSOCIATED PRESS": Yes, I had a Democrat once several years ago explain to me why Democrats feel immigration is such a great issue for their party. It's not only because of the Latino vote and winning huge margins there. It's also because there's an idea in the Democratic Party that the right wing of the Republican Party can't help, but take the bait. So it falls, you know, and people like Steve King or other sort of outspoken anti-immigration advocates say comments that maybe come off as a little bit racist or a little bit intolerant and that paints the entire party with that stereotype and that helps Democrats. So it's not just about immigration, Latinos and that policy. It's about for Democrats and I think for the Hillary Clinton campaign tagging the whole party with this intolerant past backwards looking label.</s>KING: And so Hillary thinks it helps her when she looks at the path to 270, the National Electoral College Map. But what do we make of this. The poll in New Hampshire shows Hillary Clinton six points behind Jeb Bush, five points behind Marco Rubio right now. Four points behind Rand Paul right now. Tie there with Scott Walker and plus one over Ted Cruz. So struggling in a state that has traditionally been a swing state but has been in the last several presidential elections more blue, more Democratic. Now, Democrats up there say it's just cause she hasn't been there that much. This will be fine. Is it?</s>KEITH: New Hampshire is Hillary Clinton territory. If there's a state that is a Hillary Clinton state, it's New Hampshire. I think it's kind of hard to get animated about a poll 18 months out.</s>KING: What are we going to do every day?</s>KEITH: I'm sorry. But it is 18 months out and this poll has proven to be relatively volatile in the past.</s>KING: It is 18 months out. You're exactly right, but we also talk about in national polls a lot how, yes, it's 18 months out, but she starts nationally seems in a commanding position, she's ahead at least several points. This one here I think a little bit of a flashing light saying we've got some work to do.</s>LERER: And it also comes after, you know, a tough couple of weeks for Hillary Clinton. There have been a lot of questions about the foundation, a lot of questions about her and her husband's paid speeches. Are a people not to tout the home team, but we had a poll last week that found more than six out of ten voters thought that the word honest didn't really accurately describe Hillary Clinton. That's the kind of thing if you're seeing that pop up in polls now when the narrative gets set that's the kind of thing that starts to concern campaign strategists.</s>KING: So what do we make of this one? In a private meeting in New York yesterday, Jeb Bush meeting with fundraisers said his top adviser when it comes to the Middle East is his brother, George W. Bush. Some people in the room say they understood he meant Israel, not the broader Middle East. If he's the nominee or maybe even some Republican will bring that up given the unpopularity of the Iraq war, is that what he wants to be saying?</s>KEITH: Well, he did say it behind closed doors so maybe he thought he was safe. Nothing is safe behind closed doors. I think what he was doing in theory was he was responding to a flap earlier about one of his advisers not being in the right place on Israel. And so he was trying to say, but look my brother is really great on Israel so I'm with my brother on that. Those words, I take advice from my brother on the Middle East, is not good for him.</s>LERER: And you know, he was at a fundraiser being hosted by Paul Singer, who is a major Republican donor hawkish on Israel, but I think this is a good teachable moment for Governor Bush, which is that nothing you say to donors is ever closed doors. He's lucky there wasn't a recording device in there, but I'm sure maybe somebody has the tape on cell phone and that can pop back up as Mitt Romney, you pointed out, certainly learned in last time around.</s>KING: Also a bit of a Rorschach test where some conservatives might say great president bush's policies were strong but middle electorate say this is him trying to get away from the Jim Baker comments that angered a lot of conservatives. Lisa, Tamara, thanks for coming in. As we get back to you in New York, Alisyn, one person who we thought might run for president, Governor Rick Snyder of Michigan says for sure he will not now. We thought he was going to wait until the early summer, but he has decided to pull himself out. We are still waiting on Governor Kasich of Ohio, but the Republican field starting to take shape.</s>ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: OK, there you go. Thanks so much, John. Have a great weekend. Make sure to watch john king and his inside politics panel break down the best political news of the week every Sunday at 8:30 a.m. Eastern. Meanwhile, thousands of ISIS followers said to be here in the U.S. We get reaction to the FBI's chilling warning from the White House next.