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Obama Invites Trump to White House Tomorrow; Advisors Deliver Trump Plans for First 100 Days; How Trump Pulled Off Extraordinary Win; What Next for Clinton after Loss; White House Staff Prepares for Trump Family. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired November 09, 2016 - 14:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[14:30:00] KEVIN MADDEN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: So it's been five yards in a cloud of dust for them for the last year and a half. Now they have to think about how they'll plot out and plan a four-year administration.

And if you think of the size of the government right now, 16 cabinet agencies, 400 sub-agencies, 4,000 political appointees that President- elect Trump is going to have to consider. The magnitude of that will become clear right away.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCNHOR: On the transition, Bill, an inner circle, do you think it would behoove the president-elect to choose folks he trusts, the Giulianis, Christies, Sessions, Flynns of the world, or should it be Republican veterans who know Washington?

BILL BURTON, FORMER DEPUTY WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I think you need a mix of the two. Well, I personally wouldn't hire Rudy Giuliani to do anything, but he is close to President-elect Trump. You need people you can trust but you also need people who understand Washington, who can help move levers of government the way you need them moved.

And he's going to go through a rough patch. People talked about the investigations Hillary Clinton was going to be under but people need to understand that President-elect Trump was being watched by the FBI for his ties to Russia, the IRS is looking into his foundation. He's going to have his own legal problems. And having a team he can work with and can bring him through that will be important for him, too.

BALDWIN: Let me stay with you quickly, Bill. Is there anything in the final weeks that President Obama could do to sort of safeguard anything he's done before a President-elect Trump steps foot in this house?

BURTON: You know. I think there's a limited amount that you can do as president to protect your legacy after you're no longer in office because anything you do, be it an executive order or something -- proclamation can be easily undone by the person who comes after you so/think the president will be thoughtful about the things he wants to get done before he leaves office. And he will take these last months seriously and do everything he can before he gets out the door. But once President-elect Trump is in the White House, he has the keys.

(CROSSTALK)

MADDEN: Can I make a point on that? It's interesting, you have president Obama who has a 55 percent approval rating -

BALDWIN: Yeah.

MADDEN: -- president of states. And you have Donald Trump coming in probably the highest unfavorable -- disapproval ratings of anybody who is assuming the office. And the person with the more political capital right now is Donald Trump. So I think it's -- it would be hard for President Obama to get anything done with a new Congress coming in that will have Republicans controlling the House, Republicans controlling the Senate.

BALDWIN: But the question then is in reverse, kevin. What could a then-president Trump do immediately to overturn? I mean, he keeps talking about repeal and replace Obamacare, although I'm listening for details on what they'll replace it with. What will you be looking with?

MADDEN: Areas of common agreement. You heard Nancy Pelosi talk about how she wants to do something on infrastructure and potentially some tax reform. That's come from the Republican side. So, infrastructure and tax reform is something that I think Donald Trump, President-elect Donald Trump is going to be getting on top of his agenda. There will be a focus on Obamacare. There will be a focus on immigration as well. But that's one area, where if you're looking for common ground, and where you have a lot of support from the public, that's one area.

BALDWIN: Kevin and Bill, thank you both.

Gentlemen, appreciate it, on this day after the election.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: Coming up next, the raw emotion, the joy, the fear, the jubilation, the depression that has all come with a heated election like this one. We were talking about this a moment ago, some parents facing tough, tough questions today, how to talk about this election at home with your little ones, your sons, your daughters. One person who will not be discussing it, New England Patriots' Tom Brady.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOM BRADY, NFL QUATERBACK: My wife, she said I can't talk about politics anymore, so. I think that's a good decision made for our family.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:38:07] BALDWIN: Welcome back. We're live in Washington, D.C. I'm Brooke Baldwin. thank you for being with me.

It was an extraordinary win for Donald Trump. After running a campaign that defied pretty much any sort of political rule and despite pundits and these polls doubting him, the reality star, businessman-turned politician is now the president-elect of the United States. So how did he pull it off?

Mike Shields is joining me. He's a CNN political commentator, former chief of staff at the RNC. Van Jones is with us, a CNN political commentator, who supported Hillary Clinton; Paris Dennard is also a CNN political commentator who supported Donald Trump; and Kirsten Powers is a CNN political analyst and columnist at "USA Today."

So, welcome to all of you on this day after election day.

Congratulations to you.

Sorry to you.

(LAUGHTER)

BALDWIN: But you know, we were all with everyone watching last night and the coverage last night on CNN.

And I would like to begin with you, sir, on a moment that has been shared thousands --

(CROSSTALK)

VAN JONES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Millions.

BALDWIN: Millions of times over. If you missed it, here you go.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JONES: This was a white-lash. This was a white-lash against a changing country. It was a white-lash against a black president in part. And that's the part where the pain comes. And Donald Trump has a responsibility tonight to come out and reassure people that he is going to be the president of all the people who he insulted and offended and brushed aside.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: What did you mean by that?

JONES: I meant exactly what I said. Throughout the western democracies right now there is a black lash brewing. It's nativist, it's populist, it's often xenophobic. We are expecting the working classes throughout the west to absorb an awful lot of change really fast demographically, geopolitically, et cetera, and you're seeing this reaction and this is a part of that. Brexit is a part of that.

We have been talking all night -- that was 1:00 in the morning and we had talked about everything, we had talked about gender, we talked about region, we talked about income, we talked about twitter, and we hadn't talked about the elephant in the room, so somebody needed to do that, grass-roots. You're in touch with one, I'm in touch with the other. There's a grass-roots that's very happy about Trump and a grass-roots that's very afraid. I've heard from Muslim parents all day afraid to send their daughters to school with their hijabs on. I've talked to Latino families afraid they're going to be sent out of the country tomorrow. So, somebody had to speak to that pain and I was proud to do it.

[14:40:47] BALDWIN: As a Trump supporter, how would you respond?

PARIS DENNARD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think I'm in the community as well and I'm getting e-mails and texts from people saying as am African-American. I am proud to say I voted for Donald Trump. I have friends that are Mexican-Americans who said, you know what, I didn't like the rhetoric he used but he's our president, move forward.

I think what Mr. Trump tapped into, not necessarily this two Americas but it's the fact that there are a lot of Americans who feel left behind. These are African-Americans, these are white Americans in Appalachia, these are people in Rustbelt who feel left behind by the system and feel like they've been failed by Washington, D.C. Mr. Trump spoke directly to them and I think the results last night showed that he tapped into that. That's why he got 8 percent of the African- American vote when many said he'd get zero. That's why despite all of the rhetoric that came about with respect to Hispanics and Mexicans and the wall, he got 29 percent, which was better than Mitt Romney. I think he tapped into a universal cry for help, for change, and for something to make America great again, and the American people responded.

BALDWIN: The country is divided. I think this is the perfect example of seeing that. People are hurt, people are elated. Then, of course, to your point about kids. We just had that conversation with Dana Bash. Little girls had been crying. They thought Hillary Clinton was going to do it.

You're an auntie, how do we talk to the young ones? And how do we bridge this awful divide?

KRISTEN POWERS, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, look, first of all, it's important to say when you're wrong so I wanted to say I was wrong.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: You're the second person to sit in that seat saying that.

POWERS: I think it's important to say that and to say we need to listen a little more.

BALDWIN: Yes, yes.

POWERS: And so I think we've relied on, frankly, a political system that has worked -- I've been analyzing elections since 2004 and, pretty much every time, the polls have born out the way we thought they were going to. They didn't this time but there were a lot of people saying they weren't going to and I wasn't listening to them so I need to say that.

And I think that what Van is talking about is a real thing. A lot of my friends are in a lot of pain right now. So, that is something Donald Trump needs to address. But we need to be realistic about the fact that there are white people that are in a lot of pain as well, a lot of white men, in particular. We know that they are suffering more from prescription drug addiction and more suicides, so I think we need to take that seriously.

But we also have to recognize that part of what is driving this is sort of a nostalgia vote. So, you have a lot of white voters are very uncomfortable --

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: What do you mean by that?

POWERS: They're uncomfortable with the way the country is changing, gay marriage, black president. I'm not suggesting they're homophobic or that they hate black people. That's not what I'm saying. There's been a lot of studies on the evangelical white vote, for example, that they weren't voting, obviously, for somebody who was a strong Christian. They were voting for somebody who said we're going to go back, we're going to go back to the way it used to be back when you were dominant and you didn't have to compete with other people. So, that's another thing that is going to have to be addressed.

BALDWIN: I want to come to you, Mike, but you're shaking your head. Why?

DENNARD: I'm shaking my head because when he says "Make America great again, there was no time reference to that. There was a time when my grandfather, who is no longer with us, was able to put his children through college, he was able to give them a down payment for their home and pay for their first car. My mother wasn't able to do that for me. I've had to work for everything I've ever received in my life.

So there's a time in a lot of Americans' lives --look, more African- Americans own homes during the Great Depression than now, so there's a time period when America was great for you so it's personal. So for more Americans, many African-Americans that could have been a couple years ago, that could have been 20 years ago, but the narrative this is somehow bringing us back to slavery or bringing us back to --

POWERS: Nobody said anything about slavery.

DENNARD: That's what the narrative was.

POWERS: No, it actually isn't.

DENNARD: No, that's not what -

(CROSSTALK)

POWERS: That's not what anybody is saying. The person that I'm citing --

(CROSSTALK) DENNARD: When you talk about KKK values with Tim Kaine talking about --

POWERS: I never said KKK values.

(CROSSTALK)

DENNARD: Tim Kaine said that.

POWERS: I know but we're trying to have an actual conversation.

(CROSSTALK)

DENNARD: No, no, Van, don't say that. I am having an actual conversation.

JONES: No, you're talking over her. You keep talking over her.

(CROSSTALK)

DENNARD: You talk over people all the time.

(CROSSTALK)

POWERS: There's a person, Robert Jones, he studies religious voters, and he studied the evangelical white vote, and he wrote a book called "The End of White Christian America." This is the first time talking about it. He's not anti-Christian, not anti-white. He is a white man who said, in talking to these voters, that they have decided no longer are they going to say character matters or that you need to be a Christian, that they want somebody that will restore their place in the country as being the dominant culture.

[14:45:21] BALDWIN: I'm listening to this and Mike Shields, Mike shields, I'm reaching over to you. Whose party is this now? Is it Donald Trump's party?

MIKE SHIELDS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think that's a good transition for what I was going to say here.

I have a great deal of respect for Van. What he said last night was identifying an element of the election. There's a lot of racial splits when you look at the demographics, although Donald Trump did much better with Hispanics, especially in Florida, than a lot of people would have predicted, and so --

But I think we have to be careful -- you talk about how we have to bring people together. It's OK to talk about specific segments and elements but not paint with a broad brush. There were some Republicans after Barack Obama got elected that wanted to say he was a Socialist, and look at these elements of the Democrat party, and we can pick this element out, and they said that and that. There's a lot of this going on. There are millions of Americans who don't fit the definition of what's being talked about who voted for Donald Trump. There's Republican activists who were out -- they had a tremendous ground game at the RNC, tremendous, beat the Democrats on the ground at the RNC, staffed by Republican volunteers who don't fit the Muslims or being racist or a white-lash or whatever you want to call it. These are Republican voters.

So, if you want to bring people together, we have to stop painting with a broad brush. You can analyze these things, but let's not call a whole party a certain name based upon certain things that certain people have said. That's the first -- if you don't want to bring people together and we just want to fight -

BALDWIN: No, no. We want to bring people together.

SHIELDS: -- we'll do that.

JONES: Let me say a couple things. I think I'm the only national Democrat that said from the beginning that Donald Trump was real and could win. After Brexit, I think I'm the only national Democrat that said listen, this guy is real and can win. I think I'm the only national Democrat that in the middle of battleground, sitting down with Trump voters in their homes breaking bread and talking, trying to find common ground. So, common ground can be identified but we have to speak honestly. And when you have a candidate who, on the one hand -- I agree with you. It's like an ink-blot test, if you say make America great again, and different people interpret it different ways but part of the responsibility of leadership is to take responsibility for people who may be alarmed and to reassure them --

SHIELDS: But, Van --

JONES: -- and there's very little reassurance.

SHIELDS: -- I think Republicans have been honest. I work at a Republican super PAC. We said from day one there's things about Republicans running for Congress that are different from our nominee. One thing you didn't see in the Democratic Party was a really honest conversation about how terrible a candidate Hillary Clinton was and how devastating she was being -

(CROSSTALK)

(LAUGHTER)

SHIELDS: On this, and many things, your Democrat friends should listen to you more because you didn't hear it from the Democrat establishment. You don't hear it now. You don't hear it today.

POWERS: There was a massive fight in the Democratic primary between Democrats who didn't think Hillary Clinton was the best candidate. I don't -

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: Party's divided, country's divided.

JONES: You know, you are now in a very different position than you were 24 hours ago. And for at least the next four. if not the next 40 years. you're going to be in a different position. And you are in a position to be that bridge builder. It's hard for us to do what he said. Don't paint with a broad brush. They didn't show my whole statement. I said, in part, it was a white-lash. I gave credit that it was also a rebellion against elites and a revolution when it comes to polling, and it was, in part, a racial issue and a white-lash. If you only say, "No, our party is 100 percent pure of that stuff," and they Democrats say, "We are 100 percent pure of any elitism," we're never going to get anywhere.

I will tell you, my party is rife with elitism. Our establishment led us into a blind alley. I've said before, during and after. I need a partner on your side who might be willing to admit at least one person in the Republican party motivated by racial animus.

BALDWIN: I want to hear you respond to that, and then we have to go.

I appreciate you admitting the faults.

DENNARD: I think the media has incorrectly tried to pigeon hole -

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: But this is not us talking about the media. I'm giving you free airtime.

DENNARD: I will tell you this, fragile communities are hurting all across this country. And there are many Republicans that are African- American that are white, Hispanic, hurting. Mr. Trump spoke to that cause. There are Republicans, there are elements of the Republican party that do not ascribe to some of the things that I would hold dear to my heart, as being a Reagan Republican or Lincoln Republican, but that's not the whole party. When you see the many people, who came out to vote for him, that looked like me, that looked like you, that might be Democrats, they said aside from all that we believe and we want change.

[14:50:09] BALDWIN: OK.

My two takeaways, listening to this whole conversation, we all need a mirror. We need to take a look at ourselves, and we need to listen more and more.

Thank you all so much. Appreciate it.

Coming up, it's a position you don't want to be in, the person who just lost this massive election. We'll speak live to the man who wrote a book on the runners up and perhaps where their minds might be the days, the weeks, the months after such a loss.

Also ahead, new insight into how the White House staff is preparing for President Trump, and First Lady Melania. We'll be back after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Welcome back. You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin. Hillary Clinton, she had plans to deliver a victory speech last night

around a glass ceiling that was set to actually shatter, at the Javits Convention Center in New York. It was a symbol of this historic moment that would be, but was not. Supporters waited there until 2:00 in the morning waiting for the confetti, waiting for the fireworks, but in the end, the glass ceiling was still intact. Hillary Clinton gave her concession speech just a short while ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[14:55:18] HILLARY CLINTON, (D), FORMER PRESIDENTIAL DANDIDATE: To all the little girls who are watching this, never doubt that you are valuable and powerful, and deserving of every chance and opportunity in the world to pursue and achieve your own dreams.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Hillary Clinton also promised to keep fighting for what she believes in and said she would cooperate with the new president-elect. Bu for Hillary Clinton, the question now becomes what is next?

Let's ask Scott Ferris. He is the author of "Almost President, The Men" -- in this case - "Who Lost the Race That Changed the Nation. And Kate Anderson Brower is here, the author of "First Women."

Great talking to you here this day after the election day.

But, Scott, to you.

Here is a woman who came so close to winning the White House, not once but twice. That's historic in and of itself. Can you walk me through the arc of losing, and what's next?

SCOTT FERRIS, AUTHRO: Thank you, Brooke. It's a great pleasure to be here, especially with Kate, whose writing I admire a great deal.

Probably what's next is Hillary Clinton will disappear for a while. Remember, in 2000, when Al Gore won the popular vote but lost the election. he basically grew a beard and went off to think about what he wanted to do next in life. I don't think Hillary Clinton will be growing a beard but I think she'll be disappearing and thinking about what she wants to go next with her career. She is about ready to turn 70 so she will probably maybe not be in politics again as a candidate, so she'll probably try to find a role for herself. And the question is, what kind of role will she be allowed to have?

A lot of times losing presidential candidates, because their followers are disappointed and the party out of power is looking to somebody else, she may not have much of a voice given her special status as a former first lady and secretary of state, but they'll want to go somewhere else. So, it will be a struggle for Hillary Clinton to find a forum where she can make her views known and be part of the ongoing dialogue.

BALDWIN: Kate, let me turn to you. And as you abo the president-elect and family who will be right there in just a couple of weeks. You've been in touch with White House staffers. What are they saying to you about the Trumps?

KATE ANDERSON BROWER, AUTHOR: I reached out to a couple staffers, these butlers, maids who I grew to know from my first book and I think they're generally hopeful that they can work with the new family. There's an intense allegiance to the American presidency but of them are African-American and Hispanic and there is a concern, they think, wait and see how we're treated. There are certain rooms in the White House that you cannot change without getting the curator staff to approve of it. The second and third floor is in the family's private residence, including the yellow oval. So, for instance, the idea that Donald Trump could come in and bling the whole place out and look nothing like we know it, that's not possible.

BALDWIN: Got to get permission.

But back on your point about staffers around the White House, do they stay through different administrations or in this case would he have new staff?

ANDERSON BROWER: No. They typically stay through. The chief usher stays through for decades. They can say for as long as they're willing to. And they've been planning for this transition for 18 months. The chief usher has binders on the two nominees with lists of changes that can be made, lists of staff, photos for each after, so that the first lady and president aren't surprised by someone wandering in their bedrooms. Everything is planned perfectly.

And I'm amazed at the true commitment these people have. They are concerned. When Bush left -- they loved H.W. When he left, they got the Republican flu, they called it, because when Clinton came in, some of them called out sick. So they're still human. They have some emotions, depending on their allegiance.

BALDWIN: What about Melania, the soon-to-be first lady? And where she came from and her upbringing and the fact that she'll now be in this role of a public servant.

ANDERSON BROWER: She was raised in Yugoslavia under Dictator Tito, a Communist dictator. She grew up in a modest concrete apartment building, you know, Soviet Block apartment building. I think it will be difficult for her. It was difficult for Michelle Obama at the beginning to find an apolitical issue. We saw her talk about cyberbullying and getting pilloried in the press for that. So, it's hard for her to pick something that won't make enemies on one side or the other. She's ultra-traditional. And she's the first first-lady to have posed nude. But yet, I think she'll take us more back to more of a 1950s housewife.

BALDWIN: You do.

ANDERSON BROWER: Yeah.

BALDWIN: Scott, back to Hillary Clinton. How do you think -- what's her mind-set tonight, this first full day to perhaps breath after this whirlwind two years for her but, at the same time, having a lose again?