Trump: CIA Memorial Wall Speech Was A "Home Run"
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: President Trump still talking about crowd sizes and how his speeches are being well- received. In an interview with ABC, the president called coverage of his political speech at the CIA headquarters unfair.</s>DAVID MUIR, ANCHOR, ABC WORLD NEWS: And you would give the same speech if you went back --</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Absolutely --</s>MUIR: -- in front of that wall?</s>TRUMP: -- it was a great -- people loved it. They loved it. They gave me a standing ovation for a long period of time. They never even sat down, most of them, during the speech. There was love in the room. You and other networks covered it very inaccurately. I hate to say this to you, and you probably won't put it on, but turn on FOX and see how it was covered and see how people respond to that speech. That speech was a good speech and you and a couple of other networks tried to downplay that speech and it was very, very unfortunate that you did.</s>CAMEROTA: All right. Let's bring in Michael Smerconish, host of CNN's "SMERCONISH." Good morning, Michael.</s>MICHAEL SMERCONISH, CNN HOST, "SMERCONISH": Good morning.</s>CAMEROTA: So that speech got a lot of criticism because he was standing in front of the memorial wall of fallen CIA officers and he was talking about himself and the crowd size at his inauguration. What did you think of how he just explained it again last night?</s>SMERCONISH: Well, I thought that the speech last Saturday at the CIA was really unsettling and I'm not thinking so much of the president's comments because, for better or worse, I've come to expect those sort of things from him. But, Alisyn, what's deeply troubled me has been the audience reaction. You know, the idea that bashing the media would be and get such an applause line, I think, is problematic because this was not exactly a Republican fundraiser. This was not a tea party event. This was not the national convention. So I've wanted to know who were the people in that room who would feel comfortable applauding such partisan remarks. There's differing commentary and reportage as to how much of that audience was comprised of CIA folks -- it was a Saturday -- and how many were there as part of the Trump entourage. So that's what's always stood out to me. The comments that he made yesterday though, I mean, equating the size of the standing ovation with one that was afforded to Peyton Manning at a Super Bowl victory? I mean, that was just odd to me.</s>CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Well, it also shows you where the president's head is in terms of how he wants to be perceived. And I know what you're referring to and the questions about clackers (ph), a new word that got entered into our vocabulary.</s>CAMEROTA: A professional clapper?</s>CUOMO: People who are brought there to applaud. You see it a lot in politics. The question is whether or not the president did that in that case. But, Michael, do you think that we're wasting energy checking the president on these types of style points? Do you think the focus should just be on the facts? And if you look at the ABC interview, the inability to push back on the president about where he is patently wrong, isn't that where our energy should be focused about what are the facts, not in terms of how people feel about him?</s>SMERCONISH: I really would much rather talk about those substantive issues but as long as he perpetuates this -- as long as, to the extent he was given the bait by David Muir and he took it, then he keeps this in play. And Chris, he shows no sign whatsoever of wanting to end the conversation. You'd think we wouldn't be still litigating the size of the popular vote in the November eight election, but to the extent that he keeps talking about it --</s>CUOMO: But that's different.</s>SMERCONISH: -- of course, we then respond.</s>CUOMO: That's different. How he was received at the CIA, you know, the baiting, irrelevant to the American people. Whether or not three to five million illegals, as he calls it, voted against him in the popular vote and now there's going to be money spent investigating that does matter to the American people. That goes to facts and you should get after it.</s>SMERCONISH: I'd like to think that it matters to the American people. I'd like to think that we'd be equally or even more concerned about what we seem to absolutely know, which is that there was a Russian attempt to -- I'll say it this way -- influence the outcome of our election. If you want to talk about committing resources to getting to the bottom of that I'm all for it. And by the way, a lot of this -- because I've been around this track, you've been around this track -- a lot of this has to do with people who are conflating names that appear on the voter rolls --</s>CUOMO: Right.</s>SMERCONISH: -- because they've passed or because they've moved and the system hasn't caught up with them yet, and the idea that someone committed fraud --</s>CUOMO: Right.</s>SMERCONISH: -- by voting as another individual --</s>CAMEROTA: Yes --</s>SMERCONISH: -- and the latter is that which there's no evidence of.</s>CAMEROTA: Right. And so, in other words, he is not drawing any distinction between voter fraud and voting registration problems. So there are voting registration problems and, in fact, two of his close advisers, Steve Bannon and the possible Treasury Secretary nominee Steve Mnuchin, are registered to vote in two different states.</s>CUOMO: Which is not illegal.</s>CAMEROTA: It's not illegal but if he's cracking down on it he could start there.</s>SMERCONISH: I had a relative pass in the midst of this conversation, an aunt, and it occurred to me that President Trump could today say that this woman, Mrs. X., my God, she's still registered to vote.</s>CUOMO: Right.</s>SMERCONISH: Well, she is still registered to vote because she just died, and when she doesn't show up for two successive years of elections she will then be expunged, and that's the way the system works.</s>CUOMO: All right. Also, I mean, obviously, that's the silly part of his concern, which is that dead people voted. Obviously, that's --</s>CAMEROTA: That's what he keeps citing.</s>CUOMO: That's impossible. It's something to deal with in terms of registration or housekeeping but, again, to the facts. He sits in the interview and he says well, then why did the guy write the study? Obviously, he didn't read the study or whoever talked to him about it didn't read the Pew study because the man lays out very clearly that he was trying to delineate these problems in the process and has a conclusion that he could not see any proof of them accounting for fraud. But he ignored that, dismisses the study, is insistent (ph) on it, and I think that is an area where you need to be going after him more than how he feels about how he was received at the</s>CIA. SMERCONISH: At a certain point it becomes circular. Yesterday, I said on radio that there's absolutely no proof of the three to five million having voted the way the president says. I had a telephone caller who immediately called me and said well, prove that it didn't happen.</s>CUOMO: Right.</s>SMERCONISH: Well, how can I prove that it didn't happen? And so, round it goes. And he said -- here's the point I want to make. He is satisfying a base, the 46 percent who voted for him, when he makes these arguments. Let's not think that there aren't people who aren't receptive to this because there are.</s>CAMEROTA: All right. Michael Smerconish, always great to talk to you. Thank you very much for all of that. We have a quick programming note. You can join Michael Smerconish tomorrow night for a primetime special, 9:00 p.m. Eastern right here on</s>CNN. CUOMO: All right. So, T.V. icon, comedienne extraordinaire, television producer Mary Tyler Moore is gone. Coming up, a groundbreaking writer for "THE MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW" shares her stories about this legend.