Trump Upset Over Democratic Victories on Budget
BROWN: Moments ago, the White House was on the defense about the spending bill that will avoid a government shutdown and about the president's tweet that actually encourages a government shutdown in order to change the rules. The White House budget director up in arms over how Democrats are claiming victory because of the fact that Planned Parenthood is not cut and there was no funding for a new border wall. But Director Mick Mulvaney pushed back. Watch.</s>QUESTION: The president, as you know, tweeted out this morning, that looking ahead to fiscal year '18, a shutdown may be just the thing that is needed to clean up this budget mess. Do you agree with him on that? Can you expand on that?</s>MICK MULVANEY, WHITE HOUSE BUDGET DIRECTOR: I have been through a couple shutdowns. It's -- let me answer the question this way. That's a good discussion to have in September. I think the president is frustrated with the fact that he negotiated in good faith with the Democrats and they went out to try and spike a football and make him look bad. And I get that frustration, because I think it's a terrible posture for the Democrats to take. If we're sitting here trying to prove to people that Washington is going to be different, that we're going to change things, we're going to actually figure out a way to work with them, and they do that to this president, listen, I would have taken offense at that. So, it doesn't surprise me at all that his frustrations were manifested in that way. We've got to do with -- We've got to do between now and September. I don't anticipate a shutdown in September. But if negotiations -- if the Democrats aren't going to behave any better than they have in the last couple of days, it may be inevitable. They were facing possibly shutting the government down. And some of them wanted to do that. My guess is their base is not going to be very happy to know that we are building this. OK? We're taking their taxpayer money to build this. All right, that's the deal that we cut. And my guess is, that's not going to sell very well with some folks on the left, but they are going to have to deal with that.</s>BROWN: All right, let's go to CNN White House reporter Jeremy Diamond. Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly also made a forceful case today. What can you tell us, Jeremy, about what is prompting this?</s>JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right. Let me give you a little bit of the backstory here first, though, as far as why we saw these two Cabinet-level officials come out in such a public manner in the Briefing Room to make this case. And what happened here today is, we saw President Donald Trump's frustrations in some ways spilling out into the Briefing Room, two senior administration officials telling me just moments ago that the president was unhappy and frankly baffled at the way the Democrats were taking a victory lap here, trying to claim that the budget deal was better for them than it was the White House. And that's why you saw Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly making the case here that the administration is going to be improving border security, touting the fact that they got the biggest increase here in border security spending, bringing it to totals higher than in the past decade, and that they are going to be able to start fixing parts of the existing border wall and fencing on the border there. And OMB Director Mick Mulvaney making the case here that Democrats really should not be claiming victory, given the fact that they did not get -- they were not able to prevent some of these funding priorities like an increase in defense spending. So, clearly, President Trump and his top aides very upset at the way the Democrats have been handling this, trying to claim victory, and pushing back in a very public manner at the White House today.</s>BROWN: All right, Jeremy Diamond, thank you so much for the latest there at the White House. I want to bring back in Jeff Zeleny. Also with me now, Sally Quinn, who is a contributor for "The Washington Post." Great to have you both with us. Sally, first to you. Let's just talk about the president's mind-set right now, because this of course on the heels of the string of really surreal interviews the president has done. Now he sends out his budget chief to be the attack dog. He's clearly frustrated.</s>SALLY QUINN, "THE WASHINGTON POST": Well, first of all, I think we should both hold hands and have a moment of silence for those people in the administration who have to speak for the president, because, as you noticed just now, they are stammering, they are stuttering. They're out -- but they don't know how to even explain it, because it's one crazy thing after the other. And we have heard the word unhinged before, but I don't think I have ever seen, even in the last year-and-a-half since the campaign, and certainly not in the last 100- and-some days, I don't think I have ever seen sort of 24-, 48-hour period where there's been so much sort of chaos and disinformation and incompetence and craziness as I have seen in the last few days. And...</s>BROWN: And what do you mean specifically, just...</s>QUINN: Well, you know, well, let's talk about the embrace of the strongman, Duterte and Kim Jong-un. He's honored, honored to talk to him on the phone, and inviting Duterte to the White House, who has been murdering, assassinating 7,000 people, and El-Sisi, and calling Erdogan to congratulate him when he got reelected. All of this reaching out to these people is -- I just find, where are we on human rights? And the John Dickerson interview was extraordinary, the whole part about the health care: Well, you know, we have preexisting conditions. Well, it's in there. Well, I -- and John was saying, but, excuse me, sir, do you understand? And what do you do? And it was -- didn't make any sense at all. And then when he started asking him about President Obama and the fact that he had said that he was spying on him in the Trump Tower, where there's -- everyone has said there's no evidence, and he continues to insist that it happened, and then refused and sort of walked out on John Dickerson. I just think that nothing is making sense anymore. The budget doesn't make any sense. I can't think of one thing that he said -- oh, and never mind Andrew Jackson, who would have been against the Civil War. And Andrew Jackson had already died before the Civil War. And that should have been -- that should never have happened. And, in fact, he didn't even know why we had a Civil War in the first place. I mean, it just -- I don't even know where to begin, Pamela, is all I can say. I don't even know where to begin. It is just "Alice in Wonderland." And that's not the first time anybody has said that.</s>BROWN: Set, you just sort of the stage for what happened then today, Jeff Zeleny, where clearly the headlines got under his skin. He put out his budget chief. And he really, Mick Mulvaney, to his credit, really tried to put a positive spin on the budget bill and the notion that the priorities were funded.</s>ZELENY: Well, look, this afternoon, we're getting sort of a back-to- back view. It almost feels like a year ago, with Hillary Clinton in the news, of course. President Trump is in the news, but he's the president. So, the news this afternoon is that the White House was frustrated that Democrats actually seized a little -- a bit of a rhetorical win on this budget, because, first and foremost, the president's border wall was not funded in this short-term funding deal. And, yesterday, actually, the president seemed OK with that. He said it's only a three-month deal. In an interview with Bloomberg, he was not as upset at all. But Republicans -- House Republicans, some Senate Republicans, are sort of furious that Democrats are getting the better upper hand here messaging-wise. That's why we're seeing the full-court press from the White House, saying, look, we have got everything in this. There were pictures of that border fence in there.</s>BROWN: But then tweeting the border fence, but then the president tweeting this morning that he wants a government shutdown, that it would be a good thing.</s>ZELENY: He's probably the only Republican candidate -- or the only Republican in town who wants it. If you're running for the House, you're running for the Senate in 2018, I promise you, you don't want a shutdown, because it never works out well for the party in power. So, the president saying that and Republicans actually wanting it two different things.</s>QUINN: I don't think he even actually understands what it means, a government shutdown. Honestly, I don't think he knows what it is, because he doesn't seem to know what the health care bill is about. He doesn't seem to know the details of anything. I mean, when we dropped the Mother of All Bombs, it was kind of like, well, the military is going to do what the military is going to do. I don't -- it was clear that he hadn't even been consulted. I just -- do you think he knows what the shutdown means?</s>ZELENY: Well, sure. I think that...</s>QUINN: I mean, on a personal level?</s>ZELENY: ... one of the reasons he was elected is because people wanted change in Washington. Now they are getting that change. So, the reality is, how does this all work out? But he's a delegator, at the very least. But this afternoon, one of the reasons on this health care vote, which is probably the biggest, most important thing happening in town, he's not answering questions directly because there was some confusion. They are sort of having members call his health and human services secretary. The administration is putting out its vast array of people here to talk about these issues, so he doesn't have to.</s>BROWN: Yes. And it does make you wonder, on that note, because Sean Spicer didn't answer any questions today. And you bet he would have been peppered with questions about health care. It was all about Mick Mulvaney and trying to put the positive spin here. Thank you both for that interesting discussion. And up next, the late-night host Jimmy Kimmel makes an emotional plea that has people on both sides of the health care debate applauding.