Trump Jr Suggests Government Conspiracy Against His Dad; Christie Speaks Out Against Jared Kushner
WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: The president's son, Donald Trump Jr, believes the Russia investigation is part of a government conspiracy to block his father's agenda. Listen to this.</s>DONALD TRUMP JR, SON OF PRESIDENT DONALD TURMP: My father talked about a rigged system throughout the campaign and people were, oh, what are you talking about? But it is, and you're seeing it. There is and there are people at the highest levels of government that don't want to let America be America. They don't want to let the little guy have a voice.</s>BLITZER: Donald Trump Jr made those comments at a conservative right- wing student activist event in Florida. It came on the same day Andrew McCabe, the deputy director of the FBI, was grilled by members of the House Intelligence Committee during a closed-door session. The interview comes as Republicans call for McCabe -- at least some Republicans -- to be fired. They claim he has conflicts of interest because his wife in Virginia formally ran for political office as a Democrat. Let's get perspective. Joining us, our senior politics reporter and editor-at-large, Chris Cillizza. And our chief national security correspondent, Jim Sciutto, who has been covering all of this. When you heard Donald Trump Jr, Jim, say what he said, is it all that different than what we've heard the president say about a hoax or witch-hunt and all of that?</s>JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: It's part of a disturbing trend. Certainly, the Trump administration and the Republicans, some Republicans today aren't the first to say that a government institution or investigation isn't fair. Go back to the Clinton days or go back -- that's Bill Clinton, but Hillary Clinton with the FBI. They felt horribly done by the FBI. What's different about this is this is a broader, more insidious accusation about the nature of our government, that there are people at the highest levels he says. This is about this deep-state conspiracy, which is an idea that in previous years you might expect to live only in the alt-right Web sites of the world. But now it's come forth. You have the president's son, and the president has said the same thing, about multiple institutions. The president said the Intelligence community is behaving like Nazis, the FBI is part of the deep state.</s>SCIUTTO: And this is insidious. These are institutions that are part of our system. And I can tell you dealing every day with people inside each of these institutions, hard-working people who dedicate their lives to government, civil servants who do so for multiple administrations of different parties, it's upsetting and concerting.</s>BLITZER: The words, "There are people at the highest levels of government that don't want to let America be America."</s>CHRIS CILLIZZA, CNN POLITICS REPORTER & CNN EDITOR-AT-LARGE: Yes.</s>BLITZER: That's Donald Trump Jr.</s>CILLIZZA: I mean, look, the literal translation of that is there are people who are rooting against -- people who are working actively to undermine American and American values.</s>SCIUTTO: Who in America?</s>CILLIZZA: Right. Now, I don't know -- my guess is he doesn't know the sort of impact of words like that -- Don Jr, he's speaking in front of a friendly audience and he just talks and talks. But it's part of this broader embrace of this conspiracy theory that Donald Trump Sr has shown a willingness to do from the second he was a candidate, right? I saw thousands or hundreds of Muslims celebrating on New Jersey roof tops on 9/11. No proof that that's true. Maybe Ted Cruz's father was involved in the assassination of JFK. No proof that that's true.</s>SCIUTTO: Birth certificate.</s>CILLIZZA: Right. How could I forget? The origin of the candidacy, Obama not being born in the country. So the problem here is it's not Donald Trump or Donald Trump Jr saying -- this is either the president or the eldest son of the president saying these things. Which I think Jim makes the good point, this used to be the stuff that would be in the fever swamps of the far right. And also, the far left had their own conspiracy theories. But the president has mainlined these things. He has taken them into the mainstream and said, I'm not saying this is true, but I'm not saying -- you know, simply by airing it, it gives it a level of credibility.</s>BLITZER: The New Jersey governor, Chris Christie, Jim, he's been pretty loyal to the president, but he is defending the Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation of Jared Kushner, the president's son- in-law, senior adviser. Listen to this.</s>CHRIS CHRISTIE, (R), NEW JERSEY GOVERNOR: I'm telling you that he deserves the scrutiny. You know why? Because he was involved in the transition and involved in meetings that call into question his role. OK? If he's innocent of that, then that will come out as Mueller examines all the facts.</s>BLITZER: A pretty startling statement coming from a Republican supporter of the president.</s>SCIUTTO: It is. Keep in mind, he's not the only Republican who has said and shown that they believe these investigations have merit. Look at Richard Burr, the Republican chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. He has said repeatedly these are open questions about involvement not just with Jared Kushner but there could be evidence of collusion, cooperation, et cetera. When you hear that, of course, this has the added personal tone because it was Chris Christie who happened to put Jared Kushner's father in prison for crimes. So we know they have some -- they certainly have bad blood there. But it does show that when all Republicans make the charge, Mueller, the FBI, are all deep-state Democrats who have it in for the president, remember, that's not true. There are substantive Republicans, folks like Christie, who supported the president, Richard Burr, who campaigned for the president, Mike Conway, the acting chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, who do not dismiss these civil servants, these institutions of being biased against the president.</s>CILLIZZA: To add to Jim's point, I always remind people, the reason we have a special counsel is because Rod Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general in the Trump Justice Department, decided we needed one. Bob Mueller was appointed FBI director by George W. Bush. The idea that Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer are behind the scenes orchestrating this is not born out on facts we can all agree on. This is the Trump Justice Department, not the Clinton Justice Department or the Obama Justice Department.</s>BLITZER: Chris and Jim, thanks very much. Good analysis. Just over an hour or so from now, President Trump will be joined by congressional Republicans for a tax bill-passage event at the White House. We'll have live coverage of that. It comes as a new CNN poll shows the bill is very unpopular with the American public. Might it cost the GOP at the ballot box in November? Our panelists are standing by. They'll weigh in on that and a whole lot more.