Obama Secretly Vetting Potential 2020 Democratic Contenders; Robert De Niro Bashes Trump at Tony Awards
WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Chief counselor for the Democratic Party, that may be the chosen road for the former president, Barack Obama. He's been largely quiet during President Trump's first 500 days. But more recently, behind the scenes, the former president has been holding court with several prospective Democratic Party flag bearers who may have their eyes on the 2020 presidential race. Here with us right now, Edward-Isaac Dovere, chief Washington correspondent for "Politico," and CNN political analyst, Karoun Demirjian. Isaac, you wrote the piece. You were the first to break this. He's been meeting with a bunch of potential Democratic candidates. Tell us about it.</s>EDWARD-ISAAC DOVERE, CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT, POLITICO: At least nine that I could track over the course of the last couple of months. They range from people you might have heard more about, like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, to some of the further-out contenders, like Jason Candor. He's also met with Joe Biden and Duval Patrick. Some people who have gotten in there, Kamala Harris, Terry McAuliffe. It is the president trying to be a counselor, to give it some guidance, some advice. He sees it not as his job to come up with a plan on what the Democratic Party is supposed to do, but help advise the people who, in his mind, are the future of the party and get them to a place that would do well for Democrats in the future.</s>BLITZER: He's got a lot of experience in 2006, 2007 and the election in 2008. He came from being largely unknown to becoming the Democratic nominee and then the president for two terms.</s>KAROUN DEMIRJIAN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Right, he has built his own career or has tracked to becoming president very, very quickly. He can advise as much as he can from that point, but I think some of it is personality. I think it depends on the electorate actually warming to somebody. That's one of those intangibles that you need to find a candidate, maybe not craft a candidate just on the advice of somebody because he's got it. Certainly, he's playing an important role behind the scenes. He can play an important role in fundraising as well. But is a behind-scenes role. Obama cannot be seen as pulling the strings for the Democratic Party because he's a polarizing figure. Unfortunately, people really love him or they really hate him. And I think the Democratic Party has known that for a long time. You gain a lot with Obama, but if he's too front and center taking the stage, he can't run again, you can't vote for him again, and he turns a lot of people off who are maybe Trump supporters.</s>BLITZER: Of all the Democrat potential candidates -- let's put their pictures back up on the screen -- that he's been meeting informally with these past several months, I assume he's the closest to the man who was his vice president for eight years, Joe Biden, who does seem to be giving some suggestions that he seriously is thinking about running for president.</s>DOVERE: He is seriously thinking about it. He has sincerely come to the place where he says, he'll have to focus on the midterms. He'll make a decision based on his family and his feelings about the race toward the end of the year, beginning of next year. He and Obama are actually friends. It's one thing people can maybe overlook, so they've been in touch as friends. But Biden was in the office there, which is about a mile from the White House, and he was there in January. That's the last time he was in in person. But like the others, spent a lot of time one on one with the president. And these meetings have been kept very closely held. A number of advisers close to the potential candidates that I talked to didn't even know about them because they are worried about breaking Obama's confidence. And Obama himself is very cautious, always, about not letting himself be drawn into a political fight against Trump. And that's not how he's coming out in this.</s>BLITZER: All the vibes I get is Joe Biden is seriously thinking about this. Robert De Niro was at the Tonys last night. He spoke about the president of the United States in not such a nice way. Listen to this.</s>ANNOUNCER: Ladies and gentlemen, Robert De Niro.</s>BLITZER: Obviously, we couldn't play what he actually said.</s>DEMIRJIAN: Yes. No, he used some colorful language. This is the thing. He certainly got a lot of cheers in the Tony audience. That's preaching to the choir in a lot of ways. It's a venting, I suppose, of frustration that I think a lot of people feel of the president, but does it get you anywhere? Do you win anyone over if you're actually maybe trying to look forward? I don't think so. But you do see celebrities sometimes trying to build bridges and sometimes you see them lighting things on fire, and I think this counts as the latter category.</s>BLITZER: But does it play to the president's base? Does it give the president help politically to see this exchange that he had with the audience in New York?</s>DOVERE: I would guess that people who were upset about it are already voting for Donald Trump, and the people against him were voting against Donald Trump. What you saw also last night at the ceremony was like Tony Kushner, who won for "Best Revival of Angels in America" saying, get out in midterms. That sort of thing is maybe calling attention to that, more than just centered on the anger here.</s>DEMIRJIAN: Awards shows are not divorced from politics, they never have been, especially because a lot of these public figures believe they have a bully pulpit to speak from. There's ways of doing that. They had the Parkland kids who were singing. That was a very moving moment. And this. Again, it probably -- yes, people who listen to this closely and focus on it are probably already in one camp or another. But again, some people get rubbed the wrong way when language is a little bit too strong, and that's always a risk you take.</s>BLITZER: Kouran and Isaac, guys, thank you very much for coming in.</s>DOVERE: Thank you.</s>BLITZER: Just a short time from now, Kim Jong-Un and President Trump are set to be face to face in Singapore as the North Korean dictator surprises Singapore by spending some time out on the town. I'll speak with someone who has negotiated over the years with the North Koreans and I'll ask him to what expect later. Also, more than 600 migrants stranded in the Mediterranean Sea with no place to go after two countries refused to let the ship dock and let these migrants in. What's next for them? We have new information.