Trump: My Sweden Comment Based on Fox News Report; Sweden Baffled by Trump's Remarks
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You look at what's happening in Germany. You look at what's happening last night in Sweden. Sweden, who would believe this? Sweden they took in large numbers that are having problems like they never thought possible.</s>PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: So, this isn't the first time the administration has had to explain itself. So, I want to bring in CNN White House correspondent Athena Jones live in West Palm Beach, Florida, near Mar-a-Lago, where the president is spending the weekend. So, Athena, you were at the president's rally last night. Was it clear at the time he was referring to a FOX News report?</s>ATHENA JONES, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: No, it wasn't at all clear at the time. In fact, as soon as he said that comment about something happening last night in Sweden, a lot of us were scratching our heads. People around the world viewing this rally were scratching their heads. I got a lot of questions about it on social media. People were confused. Let's play that report that the president says he saw that led to that comment and then we'll talk about it on the other side. That report from FOX.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Perhaps no nation on earth is more committed to accepting foreign migrants and refugees than Sweden. 2016 alone, loan the country accepted more than 160,000 asylum seekers despite of having a population of less than 10 million people. Only 500 of these migrants were able to get jobs in Sweden. But if these arrivals aren't able to work, they are at least able to commit crimes.</s>JONES: That segment went on to have -- to include an interview with a filmmaker who accused the Swedish government of trying to cover up, or covering up a lot of violent crimes that were supposedly committed by refugees. We don't have any evidence of that. But what's interesting here is that it's very clear that the president is an avid watcher of cable news and it's interesting to see that this is where he gets a lot of his news from. But that lack of precision from the president, the president simply repeating things that he hears and sees, this is something he's been doing since the very beginning of his campaign. But it clearly is causing problems. It leaves people around the world wondering what he's talking about because he said last Friday night, or Friday night, last night, making it sound as though he was referring to a specific incident. You had the former Swedish prime minister, Carl Bildt, tweeting, "Sweden? Terror attack? What has he been smoking? Questions abound." Bottom line here: words matter. The president's words in particular matter and a lot of people are watching and listening very closely to every word the president says -- Pamela.</s>BROWN: Yes. I mean, people around the world watching, listening, trying to figure out what he meant. And, Athena, we've also learned the Senate Intelligence Committee, rather, is asking the Trump administration to preserve documents related to Russia. Do we know what this was based on? Is it based on a specific concern that documents would be destroyed or is it just -- they are taking this investigation seriously and they want to make sure they have all the documentation?</s>JONES: I think it's more the latter than the former. We did hear from Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer who spoke on the Senate floor on Thursday who raised concerns of his own saying he thought there was real concern that the administration could dry to cover up its ties to Russia by deleting e-mails or text or other records that should shine light on these connections. But more than anything, this seems as though this is something that any investigating committee would do to make sure they can preserve all the documents they might need to look into this case. White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus responded to a question about this on "Meet the Press" this morning. Let's play what he had to say.</s>REINCE PRIEBUS, WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: I'm aware of it and I think they're going to do their job. And they have to do that. Those are things that Richard Burr and that team have to do. And that doesn't mean there's anything there. It just means they need to do some things to satisfy their committee that they have looked into something and then they can have meetings behind closed doors that they always do in the intel committee and then they'll issue a report. And as long as they do their job and we -- and we cooperate with them, they'll issue a report and the report will say there's nothing there.</s>JONES: So, they're going to cooperate, but he's saying there might not be anything there. And just to be clear, we're talking about dozens of -- more than a dozen letters sent to agencies, organizations and individuals asking them to reserve records. And those letters were sent out on the same day that FBI Director James Comey briefed the members of the Senate Intelligence Committee. That was Friday. That's according to my colleague, Manu Raju -- Pamela.</s>BROWN: All right. Athena Jones, thank you so much. We appreciate you bringing us the latest there from Mar-a-Lago. Now, let's talk it over with our panel. We have CNN political commentator Ben Ferguson, a Republican and host of the Ben Ferguson Radio Show, Wajahat Ali, "New York Times" contributor and Muslim- American playwright, and Brian Stelter, CNN senior media correspondent and host of "RELIABLE SOURCES". Gentlemen, great to see you. Brian, I'm going to start with you to get your reaction to President Trump's clarification on his Sweden comment that it referred to a story that he watched on FOX News the night before.</s>BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: It confirms his voracious appetite for cable news, whether it's FOX News, CNN or other outlets. But this segment on FOX was out of context and I would argue pretty misleading. It suggested according to this conservative filmmaker, there's been a surge of violence in Sweden. There were scary images broadcast on the screen. It really created this portrait of a country in crisis. Folks in Sweden, journalists, politicians and others, have refuted that idea, say it was exaggerated. So, we should consider where the president is getting his information from. His sources of information, his CIA, all these agencies work for him. But he's relying instead on a FOX News segment.</s>BROWN: Right. Ben, the president does have access to more information than pretty much anyone else in the United States.</s>BEN FERGUSON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Sure.</s>BROWN: Are you concerned that it our commander-in-chief made a confusing public comment about another country and cited cable news as his source when he could have just asked for clarification of any number of people within the intelligence community?</s>FERGUSON: I'm not because I don't think there's anything wrong with the president of the United States of America watching the news and making a comment about refugees coming to that country and some of the issues that they're having in Sweden. I'm also not surprised that Sweden has tried to downplay this story and this filmmaker because tourism is a large part of their country and they want to make it very clear that this is a very safe place.</s>BROWN: Hold on --</s>FERGUSON: So, again, for the president to look at this is no big deal.</s>BROWN: Let me play something, though -- top officials thought he was talking about a terrorist attack the night before in their country because it was -- because it was sort of confusing. And now, you know, it's clear that world leaders are watching and listening to what the president of the United States says. Should he be more careful with what he says and should he find other sources beyond just what he might see on, you know, cable news? Go ahead.</s>FERGUSON: I think there's two points here. One, he was making a comment and maybe he should have clarified that even more so about the refugee issue there. He was obviously trying to compare and contrast that to what he's trying to do in this country to vet and have extreme vetting to make sure that we don't make the same mistake that he's implying that Sweden has done. Again, for Sweden to punch back hard, I'm not surprised by that. And the reason why is because they want to protect the image of their country. I get the reasoning why, but it doesn't mean what the president was implying is somehow not happening there. And that's what this filmmaker was talking about.</s>BROWN: Well, as Brian pointed out --</s>STELTER: According to the BBC, crime levels are relatively low in Sweden.</s>BROWN: Right.</s>STELTER: But I think it gets to a broader pattern of misinformation. I don't want to lose our minds about one comment about Sweden. Everybody has slips of the tongue. But President Trump in his first 30 days has had a pattern of misleading statements. He also said at the rally that it's no way to vet these thousands and thousands of people coming to the U.S. We all know there's a long vetting process. We have heard about it. I'm sure the president heard about it too. So, I think the issue is when he's saying these things at rallies that might excite the audience but don't hold up, it does create problems all around the world, in this case in Sweden.</s>BROWN: Let me just ask you, bring you in, Wajahat, because critics like Ben is insinuating say that this is really the media making a mountain out of a mole hill. Do you agree?</s>WAJAHAT ALI, CONTRIBUTOR, NEW YORK TIMES: No, never forget Sweden. Never forget the Bowling Green massacre. Never forget the 3 million immigrants who illegally voted for Clinton. All those are examples, by the way, of fake news, alternative facts and lies, which Kellyanne Conway and Sean Spicer and Donald Trump and other people around him have repeated. And the karmic irony of this is that on that press conference and that rally, he attacked the media. We, Pam, Brian, are the enemies of the American people. Why? For simply reporting facts. And Donald Trump doesn't take his intelligence briefings. He takes his news from some offhand sources and on Thursday's press conference, remember, he again said something about the Electoral College victory, the largest since Reagan, which was again a lie that was brought out by a member of the press, the enemy of the people. And what did he say? Oh, I just heard that from someone. If you're the president of the United States of America, words matter, tweets matter, why are you saying fake information? Why can't you take the time to read your intelligence briefings, stop watching FOX News or any other channel, and maybe watch CNN or read "The New York Times," which is not the enemy of the people but does its job in reporting. And also I think --</s>FERGUSON: Hold one second, though. Let's be clear about saying, you just said twice. And if we want to talk about fake news -- are you implying that the president is not taking his intelligence briefings? Because you just implied it twice, which is not accurate if you're all about being accurate. Or is that a cheap shot at the United States of America?</s>ALI: Well, there's leaks that are happening in D.C. And as we all know, that apparently he does not sit there and read his intelligence briefings. He himself remember praised the fact that he's a very smart person. I'm not saying that he doesn't.</s>ALI: Ben, nice try to pivot.</s>BROWN: It is not -- it's not fair to paint with a broad brush that he is not reading his --</s>ALI: No one is saying that. No one is saying that. But I'm saying I'm recommending --</s>FERGUSON: It's exactly what you're implying.</s>ALI: I'm recommending that he spends more time -- he spends more time, Ben --</s>FERGUSON: Hold on. It's what you said, the perfect example of exactly why Donald Trump attacks people just like you because you just implied to the American people watching right now that Donald Trump is not sitting down for his intelligence briefings or not reading them, which is not true. You don't -- you cannot it back that up, but you say it twice.</s>ALI: I'm not saying that. Ben --</s>BROWN: Let me just jump in here. We don't know his consumption stacks up to, you know, how much time he's spending on the intelligence briefs and with officials.</s>STELTER: That's true.</s>BROWN: But let me just pose this to you, Ben, because it was just yesterday -- because it was just yesterday that the president tweeted out that the media as a whole is the enemy of the American people. That the media is fake news and yet, then he goes on to his rally and cites something he watched in the media and then caused alarm, of course, in another country, as we know. I mean, how does that square?</s>FERGUSON: I think you should have add the word some in there. It's pretty clear there are some people in the media that are directly -- their job now is to attack the president of the United States of America and to undermine him at any way they can to make him look back bad. If you have watched some of the coverage, it's abundantly clear there are some reporters out there who are going to make their M.O. as the guy or gal that attacked the president of the United States of America. Now, I don't think everybody in the media is doing that. And sometimes the media is right. And sometimes, Donald Trump is wrong. And when he's wrong, I've been very clear about that. The Electoral College is a perfect example of that. But there are many people in the media now that when they wake up in the morning, they go to work or to the White House to report, it is to attack the president of the United States of America and I think that was his point. There's a lot of Americans --</s>BROWN: Brian, is that fair?</s>STELTER: I was asking who. I wish there was specific examples that you could cite, Ben.</s>BROWN: Ben?</s>FERGUSON: I think if you look at the demeanor of some of the people that have been in the press briefing room and just the connotation, the way they attack and the way that they write and the way that they report the news, it is very clear that they have a major disdain for the president of the United States of America. And you have not seen this when it was towards Barack Obama for example, whining and complaining that they're not being called on for example because they should be called on.</s>ALI: Respectfully, Ben, as a patriot, aren't you offended that Donald Trump is calling the press, the fourth estate, the enemy of the American people for simply doing reporting? He said the Russia story, fake news.</s>ALI: Is Russia fake news? We're simply doing our job and he's saying we're the enemy of the American people. As a patriot, I want you to stand up for the fourth estate and the First Amendment.</s>FERGUSON: Here's what I'll say as a patriot. I am a guy who gives my opinion for a living. I know I'm not a, quote, "genuine, true journalist." But when journalists do the same thing that I do for a living, which is give their commentary and their opinion and act as if somehow they are non-biased, it's pretty pathetic. And there are some people in the media that act as if somehow they're are non-biased when in fact they're not. I am biased.</s>BROWN: But who specifically, Ben? You said people -- I mean, as Brian asked, if you're going to make an allegation like that, what are you talking about? Who exactly are you talking about?</s>FERGUSON: I'll give you a generic example. You look at how many reporters have complained or have done those subtle one-liners about how they are not being called on at the White House and how he's going to, quote, "nontraditional journalists". This happened last week. Multiple people were saying this.</s>BROWN: Go ahead, Brian. .</s>STELTER: He was pointing out the press strategy, right, which was call on more conservative outlets. Trump can call on whoever he wants, but the biggest news outlets in America --</s>BROWN: And then in the next day, he did call on CNN and others.</s>STELTER: CNNs, ABCs, and NBCs, CBS's, those are the ones being called the enemies of the American people. He is singling out five of us, CNN, "New York Times," ABC, NBC, and CBS. He's trying to drive a wedge between those outlets and other outlets. And, by the way, I don't think it will work.</s>BROWN: All right. Brian Stelter, Ben Ferguson, Wajahat Ali, I've got to jump in and wrap it up there, unfortunately, because that was a very good lively, important discussion to have. Thank you, gentlemen. Do appreciate it. And coming up on this Sunday, marching with a message. Hundreds take to the streets of Times Square to protest the travel ban and right at the front of the pack is my next guest. The pop mogul, Russell Simmons, he joins me live on why this event is so important and what he'd like to tell the president.