White House Witch-Hunt; President Obama Rebukes Trump; Former Trump Adviser to Be Sentenced.
JOHN DEAN, FORMER WHITE HOUSE COUNSEL: A definitive study of this controversy was undertaken in 1994 by journalists Jane Mayer and Jill Abramson, "Strange Justice: The Selling of Clarence Thomas." They found a preponderance of evidence supported Anita Hill's claims. This controversy has received renewed attention with the MeToo movement, which is growing stronger and it's not going to disappear. In fact, Justice Thomas' truthfulness is an issue in this year's midterm election. A Democratic candidate in Massachusetts has made impeachment of Thomas for his false claims during his confirmation one of the planks of her campaign. In closing, Judge Kavanaugh's nomination has raised issues about the truthfulness of his confirmation to become a judge on the D.C. Circuit. His answers to this committee have not resolved the issue. Frankly, I'm surprised that Judge Kavanaugh is not demanding that every document that he's ever handled be reviewed by this committee, unless, of course, there's something to hide. Thank you.</s>BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, so John Dean there testifying, again, Nixon's former White House counsel testifying in this Senate confirmation hearing regarding Judge Brett Kavanaugh. And we have a photo I just want to throw up, because, remember, his testimony was integral in taking down President Nixon so many years ago. We have a picture, I think. Maybe not. OK. Of a younger John Dean. We will move on. Breaking news, the sentencing for former Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos will begin any moment now. He pleaded guilty last year to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russia. CNN's political correspondent, Sara Murray, is outside that court. And so, Sara, he asked the judge for leniency. What are you expecting?</s>SARA MURRAY, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right. He did ask the judge for leniency. And he's basically -- he and his lawyers have made the case that he was in over his heard. This is of course a former foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign. Now, prosecutors want to see George Papadopoulos spend some time in jail. They basically say he was only cooperative once he was confronted with evidence that he was lying, that he hindered various efforts during this investigation. And, of course, all of this plays out against a political backdrop. Ever since George Papadopoulos pleaded guilty, the White House has cast this man as a liar. They said he was little more than a low- level aide on the campaign. President Trump has said he barely even remembers being in the same room with him. So we will see what the judge decides when these sides are in court today. As you pointed out, we're expecting this to begin any moment.</s>BALDWIN: All right, Sara, thank you. We will check back in. Meantime, it is 60 days before the midterm elections and we begin with dueling speeches between two presidents, the current one and his predecessor. Moments ago, President Trump did some commander in chief counterpunching after former President Barack Obama spent more than an hour rebuking this Trump administration after months and months of not even uttering Trump's name. Trump went after a specific portion of Obama's remarks. So, first, you will hear Obama and then Trump's response.</s>BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: So, when you hear how great the economy is doing right now, let's just remember when this recovery started.</s>OBAMA: I'm glad it's continued.</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm sorry. I watched it, but I fell asleep.</s>TRUMP: I found he is very good, very good for sleeping.</s>TRUMP: I think he was trying to take some credit. He was trying to take credit for this incredible thing that is happening to our country. If the Democrats got in -- I have to say this to President Obama. And it wasn't him, but would have been the same thing. If the Democrats got in with their agenda in November of almost two years ago, instead of having 4.2 up, I believe, honestly, you would have 4.2 down. You would be negative. You would be in negative numbers right now.</s>BALDWIN: Let's start there with Kaitlan Collins at the White House. Kaitlan, staying on President Trump, what more did he have to say about Obama?</s>KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brooke, it didn't take long for President Trump to respond to that criticism from Obama so publicly like that and at such length, going on and on, criticizing several aspects of the current administration. And right after that, President Trump got on stage there and he was asked by a reporter, did he watch the speech? Well, you saw his response there. And he was going after Obama for taking credit for the economy, but he didn't mention that one criticism from Obama, which was that the president has pressured the Department of Justice and the attorney general specifically. And that comes after just minutes before that speech, President Trump was speaking with reporters on Air Force One, and that is when he said that he does believe that Jeff Sessions, his hand-picked attorney general, should be investigating who it is, which administration official it is that wrote that anonymous "New York Times" op-ed criticizing the president, calling him ineffective and petty and questioning his ability to lead the country. Trump now saying that he believes that is something the Justice Department should be looking. Brooke, that shows that still in this White House, as this search is under way to find out which staffer it is that wrote that article, and as staffers try to convince the president that it wasn't them, so it's very much that the president does want the identity of this reporter to be revealed, something that the president referred to as treasonous last night, though it certainly is not, according to most legal experts.</s>BALDWIN: Kaitlan, thank you. Let's get more now on the excoriating speech from President Obama earlier this afternoon in Illinois. In an attempt to encourage people to vote in the November midterms, he reprimanded President Trump for being divisive and peddling fear. But Obama also called out the Republican Party for not holding this president accountable.</s>OBAMA: What happened to the Republican Party? Its central organizing principle in foreign policy was the fight against communism. And now they're cozying up to the former head of the KGB. In a healthy democracy, there's some checks and balances on this kind of behavior, this kind of inconsistency, but, right now, there's nothing. And, by the way, the claim that everything will turn out OK because there are people inside the White House who secretly aren't following the president's orders, that is not a check.</s>OBAMA: I'm being serious here. That's not how our democracy's supposed to work.</s>OBAMA: These people aren't elected. They're not accountable. They're not doing us a service by actively promoting 90 percent of the crazy stuff that's coming out of this White House, and then saying, don't worry, we're preventing the other 10 percent. That's not how things are supposed to work. This is not normal. These are extraordinary times. And they're dangerous times.</s>BALDWIN: Let's talk about all of that. CNN chief political analyst Gloria Borger is here. Leah Wright Rigueur, she is an assistant -- assistant professor of public policy at Harvard and the author of "The Loneliness of the Black Republican." So, ladies, good to see both of you. And, Gloria, let's begin with you. We know that Obama had been kind of reluctant to come out and be so eviscerating publicly. The gloves are off, right.</s>GLORIA BORGER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Look, former presidents don't like to do this to current presidents, particularly as directly as Barack Obama just did. But I think at a certain point, with the midterm elections coming up, and he knows how he can galvanize the Democratic vote, he did it. I mean, he said, this is dangerous. He -- this was not no-drama Obama here. This was -- this was just the opposite. This is somebody who was talking about a president who treats the Department of Justice like it's his own general counsel at the Trump Organization, and also criticized that anonymous letter, that anonymous op-ed in "The New York Times," saying, you know what, this isn't the way things are supposed to work. Don't call this person a hero because this person is trying to protect you from President Trump. You have to think about President Trump and what he's trying to do. Now, a lot of people will say -- and it may be true -- that listening to Obama galvanizes the Republican base, and I think that, of course, always, always would occur. But I think if Obama continues to do this and raises the stakes of this election, particularly in those suburban moderate districts in the House, then I think he can do a lot of good for Democrats.</s>BALDWIN: It is interesting listening to the two reactions. Leah, you have conservatives saying, oh, here he is lecturing us, and the liberals say, this is leadership.</s>LEAH WRIGHT RIGUEUR, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF PUBLIC POLICY, HARVARD KENNEDY SCHOOL OF GOVERNMENT: Right. And I think this is the Obama that people have. This is the Obama that people have been craving and have been asking for. And he's out and he's in full force. It is true that this unprecedented for a former president basically to take a sitting president to task you. But desperate times call for desperate measures. And this is what he said in the speech. The other thing that I think he did that was incredibly important today was not simply just criticize Trump or kind of go after -- go after the politics of fear and resentment, but he also linked Donald Trump directly to the Republican Party, right, which has consequences for the midterms, but then also gave Democratic voters, including unlikely voters, reluctant voters, something aspirational, so something to think about, something to go forward, a vision for what the country could be, including something as -- that really wouldn't have been in the conversation two years ago, like Medicaid and Medicare for all. so there's there's really -- he's really trying to do something transformative that speaks to these various coalitions of the Democratic Party, of liberals and progressives, bringing them together in a time of crisis.</s>BALDWIN: Agree that it's aspirational. I just wanted to underscore your point just for a second, Gloria, because it also -- when he mentions dangerous times, like, this isn't hopey, changey Obama.</s>BORGER: Right.</s>BALDWIN: This is, listen, this is what's up right now with this -- with this administration. And if you don't like it, young people, and then potential swing voters, go vote in November. Go ahead, Gloria.</s>BORGER: Yes, yes. I mean, look, I think he -- I think he set the stakes. And I also think he was, in a way, talking to Republicans.</s>BALDWIN: Yes.</s>BORGER: Because he was saying to Republicans, look, what happened to you guys? You're the guys who were the anti-communists. You're the guys who were against trade tariffs. You're the guys who were against the big deficits. And what are you doing here? What are -- what are you doing? Look at what Donald Trump has done on those particular issues, which is, by the way, what that anonymous op-ed piece also said. I mean, he was kind of scratching his head saying, look, if you're a Republican, these -- you're not the Republicans that I know. These -- where is your guts? Where's your conviction? Where's your courage of your conviction? Why aren't you saying to this president -- and some Republicans are, but why aren't you saying as president, you know what, we hate these trade tariffs, we don't like these deficits as far as the eye can see? And so he was also putting Republicans on notice, saying, hey, guys wake up to the fact that he is not conservative either.</s>BALDWIN: So, what is it, 60 days to go. Everybody keeps using the football analogy of fourth quarter before the Super Bowl that is November 8. And, Leah, I just think, though, you have these -- the two quarterbacks, right, Trump and Obama. And I'm just wondering, though, if you're a Democrat, do you have problems -- and we know that Obama will be out and he will be speaking and that really could be a good thing for Democrats. But isn't it a big problem from Democrats that he's really the only quarterback they have right now?</s>WRIGHT RIGUEUR: Well, what also have going -- I mean, for one, I think Democrats everywhere are rejoicing that Barack Obama has decided to hit the road. And we also know that Joe Biden is hitting the road and a few other folks. They -- I mean, they couldn't be happier that a former sitting and popular president has decided to come out and campaign hard and really reach out to people. But we also know that there is -- people have been calling it a blue wave. You can call it kind of a progressive push. We do know that they're all of these candidates on the state, local and municipal level who are running and who are trying new approaches to outreach, going after unlikely voters, voters who haven't come out in election -- the last election, disaffected voters. And one of the most fascinating things about the speech that Barack Obama gave today is that he actually spoke to those people, these kind of disaffected, unlikely voters, both in lecturing them a little bit, saying, if you want to change, you have to come out and do it, but also saying that Donald Trump is a symptom, he's not the problem, that, in fact, we spoke a lot about, hopey, changey things, but, in fact, it was a problem in the state -- in the United States, and that we should be talking about poverty efforts. We should be talking about health care. We should be talking about, money and income and trade and tariffs and things that ordinary Americans care about. So there really is -- I think there's -- we're really seeing this kind of coalition push, building push, that could have a really big impact on the midterm elections.</s>BALDWIN: ... see a lot more of Obama.</s>BORGER: I agree.</s>BORGER: I think one of the big issues, Brooke, is going to be health care.</s>BALDWIN: Quickly, Gloria, yes.</s>BORGER: The Democrats are going to going to go after the Republicans and say, they are not fighting for your preexisting conditions in court, and they are not going to fight for it legislatively. And you want to repeal the Affordable Care Act, you're going to lose coverage for preexisting conditions and this is going to hit people where it really hurts.</s>BALDWIN: Yes. Gloria and Leah, thank you so much for that chat.</s>BORGER: Sure.</s>WRIGHT RIGUEUR: Thank you.</s>BALDWIN: More breaking news. Coming up next, there's more fallout today from "The New York Times"' anonymous op-ed swirling around Washington here. Here's the deal today. President Trump now wants Attorney General Jeff Sessions to get to the bottom of this. We will talk to CNN's Michael Smerconish about that and so many things. Also, former Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos being sentenced in this hour for lying to the FBI in Robert Mueller's Russia probe. We are live outside that courthouse coming up.