Trump Not Bringing Attorney DiGenova Days After Hiring Announced; Students Lead Nationwide Marches Against Gun Violence; Young Activists Vow to Take Gun Reform Movement to the Polls
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. Thanks so much for joining me this Sunday. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. We begin with yet another shuffle to the president's legal team. Today, Trump's attorney announcing that two new lawyers will not join the president's team for the Russia probe after all. Joseph DiGenova and his wife Victoria Toensing are out just days after meeting with Trump. The president tweeting in part, "Many lawyers in top law firms want to represent me in the Russia case," and adding, quote, "I am very happy with my existing team. Besides there was no collusion with Russia except by crooked Hillary and the Dems," end quote. Of course all this after the massive marches across the country for gun control and safety.</s>CAMERON KASKY, MARJORY STONEMAN DOUGLAS STUDENT: Americans are being attacked in churches, nightclubs, movie theaters and on the streets, but we the people can fix this.</s>WHITFIELD: Powerful moments as young people called on lawmakers for change from the nation's capital and beyond. The demonstrations launched by the teens who survived the Parkland school shooting in Florida. Later today the president returns to Washington from Mar-a-Lago and tonight one of his alleged mistresses, porn star Stormy Daniels, will speak out to CNN's Anderson Cooper about her relationship with the president airing on "60 Minutes." We begin with the president's personal attorney, Jay Sekulow, saying in a statement that President Trump is disappointed conflicts stand in the way of Washington power attorneys Joseph DiGenova and his wife Victoria Toensing, representing him in the Russia probe. CNN's Boris Sanchez is live in West Palm Beach near the president's Mar-a-Lago estate. So, Boris, what are you learning about the situation?</s>BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hey there, Fred, yes, just a few days after it was announced that Joseph DiGenova and Victoria Toensing would be joining the president's legal team, it turns out actually they're not. Jay Sekulow, as you noted, the president's attorney, making the case that they are not joining the president's legal team because of conflicts of interest. Of course we have to point out, Victoria Toensing also represents certain clients that are part of Robert Mueller's Russia probe, though she apparently did get some waivers from those clients allowing her to represent the president. So this comes as a bit of a surprise. The president on Twitter trying to change the narrative again about his legal team. He was making the case that contrary to fake news reports, that the White House was not having any issues finding representation. That's after last week CNN reported that the White House had approached a number of prominent attorneys for representation ultimately to be denied, to be declined. So the president there, we should take those tweets with some sort of grain of salt. Obviously he tweeted out last week there were no shakeups coming to his legal team. That was shortly before his lead attorney, John Dowd, resigned. Beyond all of that, Fred, the president has remained quiet on two major stories this weekend. First on the gun control marches that you mentioned. We didn't get any kind of direct statement from the president yesterday. There was something put out by Deputy Press Secretary Lindsey Walters touting what she felt that the president had achieved on gun control, passing the Fix NICS bill, as well as the Stop School Violence Act. Definitely several steps back from what the president had previously talked about in raising the minimum age to buy assault weapons and being open to comprehensive gun control. The president has been mum on those issues since. But the other major noteworthy thing that's coming this weekend the interview that Stormy Daniels is giving to our colleague Anderson Cooper on "60 Minutes" tonight. The president uncharacteristically silent as he has been consistently attacked not only by Stormy Daniels but also her attorney. President Trump not weighing in on the allegations that he had an affair with her or the allegation that she was paid $130,000 to keep quiet about it. Certainly not something that we're used to seeing from a president who's very vocal when it comes to anyone that criticizes him or in his words claims false things about him -- Fred.</s>WHITFIELD: OK. So the Stormy Daniels interview this evening, the other alleged mistress Karen McDougal, she spoke earlier in the week and we aired that interview, and then as the president makes his way back to Washington, the first lady will be staying in Mar-a-Lago for the week for spring break. Do we know anything about her reaction to these interviews now airing from these women who allege their relationships in detail with the president?</s>SANCHEZ: She has stayed quiet throughout all of these allegations, Fred, now in the several weeks that we've had these consistent news reports about Stormy Daniels and her interactions with the president's attorney Michael Cohen. We should note that her stay here in spring break was long planned before this interview with Stormy Daniels was announced. However, we do have to point out that on Friday it was originally planned for her to travel with the president to Air Force One alongside each other leaving the White House together. That changed. She ended up traveling separately from the president to arrive here in Mar-a-Lago. So you may want to read between the tea leaves there, but it's certainly not something that we're hearing publicly from the first lady that she's even paying attention to these allegations -- Fred.</s>WHITFIELD: All right. Boris Sanchez, thank you so much. Appreciate that. Let's talk a little bit more about the shakeup of the legal team and beyond at the White House with my panel Douglas Brinkley, as a CNN presidential historian, Michael Zeldin is a CNN legal analyst and Karoun Demerjian is a political analyst and congressional reporter for the "Washington Post." Good to see you all. All right. So Joseph DiGenova and Victoria Toensing, you know, powerhouse Washington attorneys, and they just released a statement, saying, I'm quoting now, "We thank the president for his confidence in us, and we look forward to working with him on other matters," end quote. But for now, Michael, that team will not be working with the president after meeting with him earlier in the week after the White House announcing that they were on the legal team as it pertains to the Russia investigation. So what does this indicate to you?</s>MICHAEL ZELDIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, so the reporting says two things. First and most fundamentally Joe and Vicky have a conflict and taking on the representation of the president. They represent Mark Corallo, a person who quit the administration when he said that they were engaged in what he thought was obstructionist behavior, and they represent Sam Clovis, a former campaign manager who may have information relevant to Papadopoulos and his meetings with Russians. Those are irreconcilable conflicts. They're not really waivable, so in the end I think that was the right decision. The other reporting, though, is that the president didn't seem to have good chemistry with them and we learned if anything else the president likes to have good chemistry with the people around him, most of us do, and that if there was a sense that this was not a team that I could work with and combined with the conflicts that just made for no sense that they would join the team.</s>WHITFIELD: But, Karoun, what's interesting about that is the chemistry almost seems like an aside because that came or that discovery came apparently during the Thursday meeting, but it was Monday when the White House made the announcement that they would potentially be joining the team. So wouldn't the White House, the president, somebody know about this potential conflict with this team and representation of Trump during this investigation, given there are at least, you know, two other people involved in investigations of the Russia probe, already being represented by this team?</s>KAROUN DEMERJIAN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Right. I mean, I think this just kind of goes to show to illustrate that there is tension between the president and his advisers when it comes to selecting exactly who should be interfacing with the Mueller probe for him and there are attributes of these lawyers, they're very well-known around Washington, you know, that would make them very attractive to have them join the team especially when it's been difficult for this White House to have their pick of the liter. The president's tweets notwithstanding from this morning, it has not been the easiest job for this White House to staff up their legal team, and they did just lose a key member of that also earlier this week. So I think the fact that you've seen that yes, they're coming on, no, they're not happening within a span of days just goes to illustrate what we've been talking about for a long time, which is that there are tensions in the White House about and in the president's personal legal team as well, about how you deal with the Mueller probe, about who should be bending the president's ear on these matters and it seems like that is not even a completely resolved thing even when there are public announcements made to the effect that you think that that had already been settled.</s>ZELDIN: May I add just one thing to that.</s>WHITFIELD: Yes. Go, Michael.</s>ZELDIN: I agree with Karoun absolutely. The other thing, though, I would add is that it speaks to the ongoing sort of problem in the White House of doing due diligence because this was really knowable that Joe and Vicky had this conflict and basic due diligence would have said look, we can't bring them on. They've got an irreconcilable conflict with representing their clients and us.</s>WHITFIELD: Right.</s>ZELDIN: But due diligence seems to be a continuing issue and that is what happened here, too, I think.</s>WHITFIELD: And Douglas, what does this overall say about the stability or lack thereof in the White House? Because if it's that not doing due diligence to find out that there is a conflict, if they could discover right away, it's also, you know, John Dowd, the personal attorney, who is out and the same week that National Security adviser HR McMaster is out. What is this saying about the White House?</s>DOUGLAS BRINKLEY, CNN PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: That Donald Trump doesn't do due diligence. We all know that about him. He's very impetuous. He does things in a willy-nilly fashion all the time. He undermines his own most cherished plans with a tweet. And, you know, it's been amazing to me that someone like General McMaster, who's actually a very thoughtful and brilliant military and foreign policy analyst, has been able to stay in for a year in that kind of helter-skelter environment that's going on in the White House. So Donald Trump is what he's always wanted to be, his own guy, my way. And, you know, they're going to have a revolving doors of lawyers by the time it's done because whenever he gets bad news, whenever something negative appears here on CNN, he lashes out at somebody, it's either by a fire or humiliation or an ugly tweet, and that's just the way this president is wired.</s>WHITFIELD: And then, Karoun, all of this happening on the heels of these passion-filled more than 800 marches globally, but particularly what culminated right there on Pennsylvania Avenue, the first family was not at the White House. What signal is that sending to have the youth of America and their families descending on the nation's capital to try to ensure safety in schools in schools, in streets, in all public places? Yes, there was a statement coming from the deputy press secretary, but not a peep from the president and that the president and first lady wouldn't be present, knowing that this was going to be a movement of this magnitude right outside the White House? What does that indicate to you?</s>DEMERJIAN: Right.</s>WHITFIELD: Or is that problematic?</s>DEMERJIAN: I think a lot of people that were participating in that march or supporting it from, you know, other parts of the country that weren't on the streets noticed that, that the president is in Florida when this is happening in Washington, D.C. There is tension between the president and these protesters. So the idea that the president would be among the protesters or joining with them when they're basically protesting and asking for the president to take a tougher stance and a more proactive stance on influencing gun control measures that doesn't necessarily -- you know, you wouldn't expect to see the president also rallying and carrying signs when part of what they're protesting is where he stands. But the fact that he's not here, that's another incentive for the people that are sympathetic to these marchers to be angry about what's going on. Look, Congress isn't in town either. So for lawmakers that don't agree with these students and their supporters, didn't want to be around, they didn't have to be around either. So it's kind of -- it's convenient for people that feel attacked or that these protesters are directly addressing with these protests to not have to actually be there to take it face-to-face. I mean, it's a strategic move that kind of cuts down that tension but it doesn't make the fundamental conflict go away, which is that these people are asking for gun control policies that most of the GOP doesn't support including right now, it seems, the president.</s>WHITFIELD: And then, you know, Douglas, on the issue of unity, which is what you saw on display, you know, globally, but particularly in these American cities and the nation's capital there, and then when, you know, there is an expectation from Americans about the unity coming from the White House, the president and in this case the first lady, and we understand the first lady will be staying in Florida and Mar-a-Lago for a week, the president making a return back, and this, you know, on the heels of the same week where the first lady made a commitment, you know, particularly to the youth about cyber bullying, et cetera. Are these incongruent messaging?</s>BRINKLEY: Yes. They are incongruent. I think Melania has made a mistake picking cyber bullying as her main issue that she wants to be identified with. There's so many other issues to put her brand on because it kind of makes her look ridiculous when Donald Trump is the kingpin of cyber bullying. I was disappointed that President Trump didn't meet with some of these, you know, gun control protesters. I mean 16 dead in Parkland, 58 dead in Las Vegas, he could have done something informal, talked to them, or if he was going to be in Mar-a-Lago, meet with Rick Scott, the governor, and say, look, you've done something very brave down here, you've made buying guns no longer 18 but moving it to 21 How can you help me do that nationally? I thought the president missed an opportunity to show he really cared over this historic weekend and it's because he's all about politics, he's trying to weigh on how not to anger the NRA and make sure that he doesn't lose 23 seats this November that the Democrats can get control of Congress with.</s>WHITFIELD: And there was a remarkable assemblage of people right there in Parkland, that's only about 45 minutes or so away.</s>BRINKLEY: Exactly.</s>WHITFIELD: You know, from Mar-a-Lago, so it's not being in Washington, then perhaps there was an opportunity, you know, to send some sort of message to the people there. All right. Michael Zeldin, Douglas Brinkley, Karoun Demerjian, see you soon again. Thanks so much. All right. Still ahead, people in Parkland, Florida, are vowing that yesterday's marches will not be the end of the conversation over gun control. How they're using this movement to motivate their communities to act.