The Trump Presidency; Tariff Troubles
HOWELL: The United States Justice Department made what appears to be a big concession, agreeing to a request from Congress for key evidence in the Mueller investigation related to possible obstruction of justice by the U.S. President Donald Trump. And on Monday, the Democrat-controlled Judiciary Committee heard testimony from one witness who knows all about a president committing obstruction of justice. Our Pamela Brown has this.</s>JOHN DEAN, FORMER NIXON WHITE HOUSE COUNSEL: The last time I appeared before your committee was July 11, 1974.</s>PAMELA BROWN, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Tonight, former White House counsel to President Nixon testifies before the House Judiciary Committee, saying Trump's former White House counsel, Don McGahn, should testify too.</s>DEAN: Mr. McGahn represents not Donald Trump, but the office of the president. His client is the office of the president, and I think he owes that office his testimony before this committee.</s>BROWN (voice-over): John Dean, a CNN contributor, whose testimony in the Watergate investigation helped topple Richard Nixon's presidency, telling Congress there are many similarities between Trump and Nixon.</s>DEAN: I would say the trump administration is in fast competition with what happened to the Nixon administration.</s>BROWN (voice-over): Ranking member, Republican Doug Collins, calling today's hearing a "mock impeachment inquiry."</s>REP. DOUG COLLINS (R-GA): I don't appreciate the fact that here we are again with priorities in this committee turned upside down.</s>BROWN (voice-over): But as the drumbeat among Democrats for an impeachment inquiry intensifies, Dean's testimony is driving the ire of the president himself.</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: John has been a loser for a long time. We know that. I think he was disbarred, and he went to prison. Other than that, he is doing a great job.</s>BROWN (voice-over): Trump also on the defensive over his tariff drive with Mexico, which critics have called a manufactured crisis of his own making.</s>TRUMP (voice-over): If we didn't have tariffs, we wouldn't have made a deal with Mexico. We got everything we wanted and we're going to be a great partner to Mexico now, because now they respect us.</s>BROWN (voice-over): And while Trump claimed that a fully signed and documented agreement will be revealed, Mexico's foreign minister contradicted Trump, saying no secret immigration deal existed between his country and the U.S., and President Trump administration pushing back on The New York Times reporting that parts of the deal were hashed out months ago.</s>MIKE POMPEO, UNITED STATES SECRETARY OF STATE: I've seen some reporting that says that these countless hours were nothing, that they amounted to a waste of time. I can tell you that the team here at the State Department believes full-throatedly that this is an important set of agreements, important set of understandings, one that we'll continue to work on, because in the end we'll be measured by the outcomes that we deliver.</s>BROWN (voice-over): Tonight, the president also turning up the heat on China trade talks, saying more tariffs will be imposed if the Chinese president does not meet with him at the G20 summit later this month.</s>TRUMP (voice-over): I think he will go and I have a great relationship with him. He's actually an incredible guy. He's a great man. He's very strong and very smart, but he is for China and I'm for United States.</s>BROWN (voice-over): Trump also railed against the Federal Reserve for raising interest rates, saying they are undermining his negotiations with China.</s>TRUMP (voice-over): We have people on the Fed that really weren't -- you know, they're not my people. But they certainly didn't listen to me because they made a big mistake. They raised interest rates far too fast. Don't forget the head of the Fed in China is President Xi. He is the president of China. He also is the head of the Fed. He can do whatever he wants.</s>BROWN (voice-over): Pamela Brown, CNN, The White House.</s>HOWELL: And now for the context and perspective from Scott Lucas. Scott is a professor of international politics at the University of Birmingham. He is also the founder and editor of EA WorldView, live via Skype from Birmingham, England. It is good to have you, Scott.</s>SCOTT LUCAS, INTERNATIONAL POLITICS PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM: Good morning, George.</s>HOWELL: So, let's start with Mr. Trump and tariffs, Trump tariffs. Clearly, President Trump has a growing confidence about the use of tariffs as a tool to either punish or motivate other countries to get what he wants. What do you make of this latest threat towards China so that President Xi will meet with him?</s>LUCAS: Well, George, what I think we are seeing is the two themes that are going to be in the Trump reelection campaign all the way to 2020. We are going to see tariffs and anti-immigration, sometimes linked into the case of Mexico. Now, that is fine as long as it "fires up his base" as you have noted. But the real race is on between let's say the reality, which is economic damage. And let's say the Wizard of Oz, in which Trump is saying, for example, on one hand that America is doing great from all of this. And as he said yesterday, that the entire Chinese economy has been wiped out because it lost $15 trillion in GDP, which is not exactly true. It is too early to tell. Will voters buy what in effect is largely a campaign which could be called deception or will they feel the pain of the tariffs before November 2020?</s>HOWELL: That kind of leads to the next question, the agreements that Mr. Trump has been working on. He and his team say that it was tariffs that really got him over the finish line, but how much of it was real, a real motivator, and how much do you see as political theater that caters to his base?</s>LUCAS: Well, you know, when we pull the curtain back, we saw what the Wizard of Oz really was, and what is happening in the last few days since Friday's agreement between Mexico and United States and Donald Trump proclaiming victory, is that Mexico and American officials in December and then again in March, had agreed on the provisions. They agreed that Mexico would deploy more forces. They agreed that there would be some migrants that would be held in Mexico as they awaited hearing asylum application results in the United States. Mexico may have accelerated some of these stuffs, but there was no new element in the agreement. And I think related to the piece, one of your commentators said yes, this is classic Trump, which is, I brought this art of the deal when in fact the deal was already struck. Now, what does he do next? Does he turn back to the Chinese and proclaims some breakthrough when one doesn't exist or does he get mad at Beijing if he doesn't get any type of advance that he can spend for reelection?</s>HOWELL: The tariffs on Chinese imports cause American households more than $800 a year despite the spin, the optics of tough talk that satisfies the president's base. What do you think will be the impact among voters as real people start to feel the real difference in their wallets?</s>LUCAS: Well, George, one thing that we are finding in the era of 24/7 and social media and just trying to handle the information is we don't which way voters will decide in the end because quite often voters are confused or uncertain about what is happening. So let's get back to some</s>HOWELL: Scott Lucas, we appreciate your time. Thank you.</s>LUCAS: Thank you, George.</s>HOWELL: Also in the United Kingdom, Boris Johnson is viewed as the front-runner in the race to lead Britain's Conservative Party. Still ahead, we will show you how the hard-line Brexiteer is taking his campaign now to the streets. Plus, protestors in Hong Kong staged the city's biggest demonstration in many years. And now, they want to do it again. We will have a live report from Hong Kong as "CNN Newsroom" live pushes ahead.