President Trump Slams Spike Lee After Critical Oscars Speech; Trump Heads Overseas as High Stakes Week Kicks Off in D.C.; U.S. May Drop Demand for North Korea Nuke Inventory; 58 Former Security Officials Rebuke Trump's Emergency Declaration.
POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Good Monday morning, everyone. I'm Poppy Harlow.</s>JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Jim Sciutto. It's a big week. No question.</s>HARLOW: A big week.</s>SCIUTTO: President Trump facing a week that could be defining for his presidency with deep challenges both here at home and abroad. Soon he will set out for Vietnam for his second face-to-face meeting in less than a year with the North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un. The goal is pushing Kim closer to what the president claimed had already been accomplished after their first summit last June. That is an end to the North Korean nuclear threat against the U.S. However, since then, there has been no verifiable progress in meeting that goal. And now CNN has learned that the Trump administration is weighing watering down its own demands from Kim.</s>HARLOW: That is really significant. Meantime, back in Washington, his national emergency declaration aimed at funding a border wall is under fire from literally dozens of former top national security officials and by dozens I mean these eight that you see on your screen all big names there. Plus 50 more. Both Republicans and Democrats taking aim saying, quote, "There is no factual basis to President Trump's emergency declaration. So tomorrow, the House will vote on a measure to repeal it. The same day that Michael Cohen starts a three-day marathon of testimony before three separate congressional committees. And on Wednesday, that testimony will be before your eyes. It will be in public. You will see it all starting Wednesday morning right here on CNN. So let's go to the White House this morning where Joe Johns is. And we understand the president is speaking to reporters not far from you so we'll hear that in just a moment. A lot to get off his chest before he takes off for this really critical summit.</s>JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Poppy. The president tweeting on a variety of issues this morning. Everything from border security to Spike Lee's speech at the Oscars. But the topic of the moment, of course, is the president's meeting this morning with members of the National Governors Association followed by his impending departure for the summit in Vietnam. The second summit with North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un. The president appears to be advancing and retreating in his rhetoric about the summit suggesting last night at the governors ball that he'd be happy with a stop to missile and nuclear testing in the Korean peninsula but then again this morning tweeting and going back to the original stated goal of denuclearization on the peninsula, though that certainly is not defined very well. Here's the tweet. "Meeting for breakfast with our nation's governors then off to Vietnam for a very important summit with Kim Jong-un with complete denuclearization. North Korea will rapidly become an economic powerhouse. Without it, just more of the same. Chairman Kim will make a wise decision." All of this is just a reminder that the president tweeted back in June that essentially there was no more nuclear threat from North Korea, which, obviously, is not true. The intelligence community has said as much. So another example of the president suggesting aspirations, goals in other words are the same as completed goals. And it just hasn't happened yet. Back to you.</s>SCIUTTO: Joe Johns, we'll be following it. And again we're awaiting those words from the president as he prepares to depart. As President Trump prepares to board that flight for Asia, my colleagues and I are learning that his own advisers are worried that he will give up too much to Kim with nothing or not enough in return. We've learned from multiple administration officials that the U.S. is weighing watering down its own demands from the North including no longer insisting that Pyongyang hand over an inventory of its nuclear and missile stockpiles before any U.S. concessions. CNN's Barbara Starr joins us now from the Pentagon. And, Barbara, it's an interesting dynamic because some of these concerns coming within his own administration. I wonder if there are similar concerns from inside the Pentagon.</s>BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think it's very clear that there are from the Pentagon, from the intelligence community, perhaps the only one not so concerned is the president and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, at least not publicly, voicing a lot of concern about it. They may well be behind the scenes. Look, here's the problem when it comes to North Korea. It's always the same issue. They are secretive. They engage in deception. Even if they handed over a first initial list of what they have in a nuclear program, what their sights are, what weapons, what technology they have the U.S. intelligence community is not about to believe the first, second or third list that they hand over. That's what this is all about. When it all began, President Trump vowed for complete, irreversible denuclearization with no concessions until North Korea completed that effort. Now there seems to be a lot of wiggle room all over the place, and it is causing some concern because what does the U.S. give up next? One of the things on the table right now, there are a number of U.S.-South Korean military exercises scheduled to begin. Will the U.S. pull back from those?</s>HARLOW: So, Barbara, we heard the president say it last night, quote, "As long as there's no testing, we're happy." This just a few weeks after his own CIA director Gina Haspel said that the North Korean regime is, quote, "committed to developing a long-range nuclear missile." And then you had Secretary of State Pompeo who is on his way there right now say this on "STATE OF THE UNION" with Jake just yesterday.</s>MIKE POMPEO, SECRETARY OF STATE: We started when the Obama administration had a policy which was essentially test, pray and cower. Right? Let them test missiles, let them test nuclear weapons, pray they stop and cower when the North Koreans made a threat.</s>HARLOW: OK. Just fact check that for us. Other than having summits, second one about to begin, is the U.S. policy and practice toward North Korea really that different right now than it was under the previous administration?</s>STARR: Well, you know, where you stand is where you sit. I'm sure the Trump administration absolutely believes that they have been much tougher on North Korea with sanctions. But it comes back to what happens at this summit in Vietnam. Does the president make additional concessions to North Korea on sanctions relief, on any of the economic items that Kim so desperately wants without any move even towards irreversible denuclearization. None of that has happened yet. North Koreans, by all measures, have not made or completed any steps towards denuclearization. They've worked at a couple of sites, but all of this is easily changed. And you know no testing. Maybe the concept needs to be understood that the North Koreans don't have to test right now. They have programs in place. They have missiles in place. They can threaten on a short and medium-term range in Asia. They've got plenty of capability without any further steps -- Poppy, Jim.</s>HARLOW: Barbara Starr, thank you very much for being there. A very important week.</s>SCIUTTO: It is.</s>HARLOW: And you very busy.</s>SCIUTTO: Well, no question. Look forward to going.</s>HARLOW: Yes.</s>SCIUTTO: It's interesting. Last time in the talks, the surprise concession was ending North -- U.S./South Korea military exercises. Concern, does the president offer taking U.S. troops or some troops off the peninsula which is something he has raised before?</s>HARLOW: Right. Right. OK. So this morning the president is also digging in on his national emergency declaration to get that money for a border wall telling Republican lawmakers not to be weak on border security. That's one of his tweets this morning. This is just a day of course before the House votes on whether to block that emergency declaration.</s>SCIUTTO: Meanwhile, 58 former National Security officials, both Republicans and Democrats, we should note, are releasing a joint statement this morning slamming that declaration. Joining us now, Alex Marquardt, CNN senior national correspondent, with more. Alex, it's quite a list here. It is a bipartisan list. And their words are pretty damning.</s>ALEXANDER MARQUARDT, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It is a resounding joint bipartisan rebuke of the president and his declaration of a national emergency there on the southern border. Let's just take a quick look at some of these names. 58 of the most prominent names in the national security space. You have Democrats like Madeleine Albright, some of the foremost officials in intelligence, John Brennan, James Clapper. And then a handful of Republicans as well. Thomas Pickering who served at the U.N. under George H.W. Bush. Chuck Hagel, who is secretary of Defense under President Obama, and Eliot Cohen who served at the State Department under George W. Bush. So it is very much bipartisan. And in this 11-page statement, these 58 officials could not be clearer. Let me read just part of this statement. They write, "Under no plausible assessment of the evidence is there a national emergency today that entitles the president to tap into funds appropriated for other purposes to build a wall at the southern border." Now this letter is designed to support other efforts to block the president's declaration of national emergency. Sixteen states that have filed lawsuits. The ACLU is suing. But, Poppy and Jim, as you mentioned, the biggest one is the House taking up this resolution in a vote tomorrow that would be designed to block the president's declaration of a national emergency. Of course, the Democrats do control the House. The big question, and this is coming from White House officials themselves, is not whether that resolution passes. It's by what margin. The president has said that he would veto it, but it would be a very strong message sent by Democrats. Nancy Pelosi, of course, the speaker of the House, has called the president's actions lawless. She said that it does violence to our Constitution. And the underlying fear here by these 58 officials is that in declaring this national emergency, that when, in fact, in their view, there is an actual national emergency, that it would take away from the measures and the actions that go into effect when a national emergency is declared -- Jim, Poppy.</s>HARLOW: All right. Alex Marquardt, great reporting, thanks so much. With us now is former public policy director for Mitt Romney, Lanhee Chen. Good morning to you, Lanhee. So what makes this different from so many other things that Republicans, many Republican lawmakers and the Senate may not like and say they don't like is they actually have to vote on this. McConnell is going to have to bring this to the floor. And they are actually going to have to vote on it. And I'm interested in, you know, their concerns ranging from the door this opens for Democrats. Future administrations to declare national emergencies on things like guns or climate change. And also just not believing that the facts under lie a national emergency here. What kind of predicament does this put Republican senators in?</s>LANHEE CHEN, FORMER MITT ROMNEY PUBLIC POLICY DIRECTOR: This is a worst case scenario, Poppy, for Mitch McConnell and for the Republicans in the Senate to actually have to be on record, I think, voting on the president's emergency declaration. Look. There are a series of different reasons why Republicans might take issue with this. You've noted some have constitutional concerns. There are policy currents. There are also electoral concerns. You've got a few Republicans like Cory Gardner of Colorado, Tom Tillis of North Carolina, who are going to be in very competitive re-election campaigns in 2020 in states that are trending purple. And for them to be on record having to potentially vote with the president this to emergency declaration puts them in a very difficult position electorally. This is on no one's wish list of votes on the Republican side in the Senate.</s>SCIUTTO: You know, we've been here before on issues. Makes me think of the Deripaska sanctions, right?</s>HARLOW: Right.</s>SCIUTTO: You know, no one really wanted those lifted. They didn't want to vote with the president on weakening measures against a Russian official, you know, accused of meddling in the election. And yet what happened, a majority of Republicans voted against that, 57, but not enough. They didn't get the 60 votes they needed. Of course here if the president really is serious about vetoing, you need to get to 67 Republican senators. I mean, do you see that possibility happening, given all the political concerns that you laid out?</s>CHEN: Yes, Jim, they're not going to get to 67. It's possible that they'll get to the 60 necessary to send it to the -- not to the 60 but they'll actually have votes to come together just to send it to the president for his veto as you say. But this is a much more public and much larger issue than the Russia sanctions vote was. This is something that has been closely covered that you've got all of America watching. And I think implicates these constitutional questions, these legal questions much more directly than any other tough vote that Republicans in the Senate have had to take. So this is a different situation.</s>HARLOW: Do you think, Lonnie, it matters to those Republican senators in terms of how it looks, how the optics look that the argument that the administration has made for this national emergency, many of those so-called facts are not supported by actual facts, whether it comes to where most of the drugs come across, you know, into this country or volume of illegal border crossings?</s>SCIUTTO: Or that terrorists are coming across the border.</s>HARLOW: Right.</s>SCIUTTO: Right? I mean, a lot of specious claims.</s>HARLOW: Right. Exactly.</s>CHEN: Yes.</s>HARLOW: I mean, so if they vote yes, are they then sort of de facto saying we agree with those statements from this administration?</s>CHEN: Well, I think they certainly are in agreement. The challenge is if they vote against the president, they raise the possibility that they're going to get attacked by the president, by other Republicans as being weak on border security. You already saw that in the president's tweet this morning. It puts these Republicans in a difficult position because on the one hand, they all got to Congress saying they're for border security and now potentially they're being put in a situation where if they vote against the president they're going to be called weak on border security. The bigger challenge here, though, is if you look at the president's emergency declaration, it relies on this underlying law that says the military, the use of the military is required. That's a very, very high bar. It's going to be very difficult I think for many of these Republicans to be on board with that.</s>SCIUTTO: Well, let's see. You know, is it principle or politics?</s>HARLOW: There you go.</s>SCIUTTO: This could be yet another test. Put your money down now where you think it will end up. Lanhee Chen, always good to have you on.</s>CHEN: Thank you.</s>SCIUTTO: Is the president's former fixer and lawyer about to unleash a slew of new problems, new accusations for this president? Michael Cohen set to blitz the Hill and testify in three hearings this week while the president is more than 8,000 miles away. Plus, diversity wins. History made on Hollywood's biggest night. We'll have all the latest.</s>HARLOW: And one hour from now, R. Kelly will appear in court on sex abuse charges. The singer faces allegations that he sexually abused a woman and three girls. The three underage minors over a 12-year period.