Trump Considering Offering Billions to Iran to Return to Nuclear Deal?
BALDWIN: So, remember the Iran nuclear deal that President Trump walked away from almost as soon as he took office? Well, now there's new reporting from The Daily Beast that Trump is considering a French plan that would actually extend a $15 billion credit to Iran if it comes back and complies with the very same nuclear deal that Trump walked away from. Here was Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin reacting today when asked if the White House is working with France on such a deal.</s>STEVEN MNUCHIN, U.S. TREASURY SECRETARY: Absolutely not. So we have had direct conversations with President Macron and with Bruno Le Maire, the finance minister. And they absolutely understand they would need waivers from the U.S. to do that. And that is not something we're contemplating at the moment.</s>QUESTION: Sea change? Is there a sea change with Bolton gone?</s>MNUCHIN: No, no sea change. I have been perfectly clear. Secretary Pompeo and I have been executing the president's maximum pressure campaign. President Trump has said he would sit down with Rouhani with no conditions. That's not planned. That's not planned at the moment.</s>BALDWIN: CNN political commentator Jen Psaki served as the White House communications director under Obama. You know all about that Iran nuclear deal. Does this feel like whiplash?</s>JEN PSAKI, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Oh, it certainly does, Brooke. I mean, I think, in the least surprising development today, perhaps, Donald Trump did not have a plan when he pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal, you know, the first deal in decades that gave not just the U.S., but the world, a look into what Iran was doing and prevented them from creating a nuclear weapon. So that's pretty clear. I would dispute, while I'm not in the administration, what Secretary Mnuchin said. One, we have seen evidence time after time that sometimes Cabinet secretaries don't know what's in the president's head. But, two, President Macron invited Foreign Minister Zarif of Iran to the margins of the G7 to have a conversation. He wouldn't have done that without some sort of wink or nod from the U.S. and the U.S. delegation. There's Trump -- there's no way out for Trump here. Right now, there's no plan with Iran. And he needs to kind of -- they need to figure out a way to get back to the table, but there's not an easy way to do that.</s>BALDWIN: Do you think Iran would agree to it?</s>PSAKI: Hard to say. I mean, Iran has their own politics. The leaders have their own politics. Years ago, a couple of years ago, when we got the deal passed, Rouhani was a little bit more powerful than he is today. There was kind of a hope of him helping the economic situation in Iran. They have kind of indicated they wouldn't want to come back to the table. But if there's some sort of deal where sanctions are eased, where the Europeans are negotiating it, maybe. I think it's hard for us to predict from here.</s>BALDWIN: OK, I want to move on to something else, just tapping your brain, as someone who worked in the White House. Politico is reporting that Israel was most likely behind the cell phone surveillance devices that were found around the White House, around Washington. Prime Minister Netanyahu has denied, denied, denied any of this. I know people know that President Trump has oftentimes used an insecure cell phone to get in touch with friends. What was it like when you were in the White House, and what could the Israelis have learned?</s>PSAKI: Well, I think, one, it's -- any official who has worked in the intelligence community or around the intelligence community will kind of tell you that it's very likely and happening that Israel is spying on the United States, the United States is spying on Israel. And while they don't admit that when they're in the administration, I think it's well known that's happening. When you're in the White House or when you're traveling on behalf of the White House, there are well known protocols that are in place for a reason, because it's known that the spying occurs, that there's intelligence-gathering that many countries are trying to gather on the United States. President Trump does not abide by that with cell phone use. When he goes to Mar-a-Lago and he is sitting at a table sharing details of North Korea, there's lots of ways he doesn't. There's lots of reasons that's concerning, but one of them is that our partners and allies around the world, some who we have close intelligence-sharing relationships with, that makes them nervous. They don't want to give us intelligence and information that, frankly, we could use to keep the United States safe because they're worried about what the president of the United States will do with it.</s>BALDWIN: Yes.</s>PSAKI: That's not good for us. That's not good for the safety of the American people. That's one of the areas that's pretty concerning around his kind of loose use of the protocols.</s>BALDWIN: Jen Psaki, thank you very much. Good to see you.</s>PSAKI: You too.</s>BALDWIN: We are hours away from the next Democratic debate. And three women will be on that stage. We have the results from this fascinating new survey about where American voters stand on electing a woman as president. Plus, 145 CEOs signed this letter urging Washington to act on guns. We will discuss why corporations are increasingly jumping into these political fights.