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Clinton's Speech Says We Owe Trump An Open Mind; President Obama States This Is How Politics Works Sometimes; Obama And Trump To Meet At White House Thursday; Florida Helps Trump Win Presidency; Republicans Solidify Control of Congress. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired November 09, 2016 - 13:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, I'm Wolf Blitzer. It's 1:00 p.m. here in Washington. Wherever you're watching from around the world, thanks for joining us.

We're following breaking news. The U.S. presidential election lived up to its billing, historic. For the first time in the country's 240- year history, a businessman with no political experience has risen up to become commander in chief.

Donald Trump promised that he could deliver the working person's vote and that's exactly what propelled him to the most important, most impactful job in the world.

Here's the electoral map as it stands right now. President-elect Trump collected 289 electoral votes so far easily topping the 270 needed for victory.

Former secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, the first woman to lead a major party's presidential ticket, she fell short.

And here's the popular vote. Look at this. Hillary Clinton actually leads there by a small margin. This morning, she delivered her concession speech, conceivably the toughest speech she's ever had to give.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I know how disappointed you feel, because I feel it, too. And so do 10s of millions of Americans who invested their hopes and dreams in this effort. This is painful and it will be for a long time.

But I want you to remember this. Our campaign was never about one person or even one election. It was about the country we love. And about building an America that's hopeful, inclusive and big-hearted.

We have seen that our nation is more deeply divided than we thought. But I still believe in America and I always will. And if you do, then we must accept this result and then look to the future. Donald Trump is going to be our president. We owe him an open mind and the chance to lead. Our constitutional democracy enshrines the peaceful transfer of power. And we don't just respect that, we cherish it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: Hillary Clinton also extended her thanks to President Obama and the first lady for their efforts. And, just moments ago, we heard the first reaction from President Obama.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And I know everybody had a long night. I did as well. I had a chance to talk to president-elect Trump last night, about 3:30 in the morning I think it was, to congratulate him on winning the election. And I had a chance to invite him to come to the White House tomorrow to talk about making sure that there is a successful transition between our presidencies.

Now, it is no secret that the president-elect and I have some pretty significant differences. But, remember, eight years ago, President Bush and I had some pretty significant differences. But President Bush's team could not have been more professional or more gracious in making sure we had a smooth transition so that we could hit the ground running.

And one thing you realize quickly in this job is that the presidency and the vice presidency is bigger than any of us. So, I have instructed my team to follow the example that President Bush's team set eight years ago and work as hard as we can to make sure that this is a successful transition for the president-elect. Because we are now all rooting for success in uniting and leading the country.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: President-elect Donald Trump struck a similar tone last night in his victory speech with talk of unity and healing the wounds of division.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT-ELECT: Working together, we will begin the urgent task of rebuilding our nation and renewing the American dream. I've spent my entire life in business looking at the untapped potential in projects and in people all over the world. That is now what I want to do for our country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Right now, we're waiting to hear from the White House press secretary, Josh Earnest, with the White House briefing. We're going to go there once it gets going.

First, I want to bring in our CNN Senior White House Correspondent Jim Acosta who spent last night over at Trump headquarters in New York City. Our Senior Washington Correspondent Jeff Zeleny was with the Clinton campaign and has been there for a long time. And our White House Correspondent Michelle Kosinski.

Michelle, you're over at the White House right now. We've heard a lot from President Obama just a little while ago. What's his message to the supporters, to the Democrats and his bottom line message to the country?

[13:05:00] MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Well, he really wanted to strike this upbeat tone as he came out and that's the demeanor that he projected. But it could not have been a more surreal scene in his hastily arranged gathering in the Rose Garden on this beautiful, perfect day.

And the press surrounded by a crowd of staffers, many of whom were openly crying, clutching tissues and hugging each other.

But the president wanted to get across a positive message. He wanted to say that Americans are all on the same team, that democracy is hard sometimes. It's not always inspiring. But he urged Americans to move forward with the presumption of good faith in fellow citizens.

What this was not the time for was to get into what is an enormous negative for him and his legacy. The fact that Donald Trump has promised to dismantle these key policies of his. Of course, those are the kinds of questions that the press secretary is about to get in a few minutes.

But remember, on his time on the trail, his unprecedented time and energy that he put into stumping for Hillary Clinton, his goal there was also to reassure, at certain points. To tell America that, in terms of what Donald Trump had been saying, that this is not who we are. That the president has faith. That the judgment and values of Americans would prevail, as he put it, and elect Hillary Clinton. And that America is not at divided as some people say.

Well, clearly, that is not the case. And you have to wonder, does the president now see America differently? Was he mistaken in trying to make that argument?

He also, at one point on the trail, called it a personal insult if voters did not elect Hillary Clinton. So, he has to be feeling the sting of that right now. But that's not what he wanted to focus on.

I think the best reassurance he could give America right now, in his view, is to focus on a peaceful transition of power -- Wolf.

BLITZER: A smooth transition. Jim, what have -- what have we been hearing from the Trump camp today? Are they focusing in on this smooth transition?

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: They are, wolf. But I think -- I think the most important thing right now is that we're getting a sense that both sides are laying down their swords after this very hard-fought campaign. Jason Miller, the Senior Communications Advisor for Donald Trump, tweeted, after Hillary Clinton's speech, a very classy speech from Hillary Clinton. An important step in bringing our country together. That was his first tweet since late last night when all of this was coming down.

Wolf, I think it's important to note there, there was no reference to crooked Hillary. You know, that is something you would -- you would see tweeted by the Trump campaign. Their top officials over and over and over again. They're not using the term, crooked Hillary. She is no longer their opponent.

I do know, from talking to officials with the Trump campaign, they are getting busy with the process of putting together this transition. There were meetings this morning over at Trump Tower, among top advisers to the president-elect.

And I talked to Mike Pence very briefly last night, Wolf, after it was all over. Mike Pence was leaving the room and I asked him, you know, what's going to happen tomorrow? And he said, we're going to get about the business of getting this transition going and that he looks forward to it.

But, Wolf, keep in mind, you know, a lot of people inside this campaign in very high, senior level positions were not anticipating this result. And so, to think that they're going to have this transition, this plan for a Trump administration up and running today, on November 9th, or even tomorrow is just really kidding themselves. They're just not at that point, at this stage.

However, we should note that they have a very capable team over there led by Chris Christie, the New Jersey governor. He's been working at this throughout this campaign. And as well as other top names. We're hearing Jeff Sessions, the senator from Alabama. Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York City. Reince Priebus, the RNC chair who is talked about as the next White House chief of staff.

So, there are certainly names out there of people who will take on these very important positions inside a Trump ministration.

But, Wolf, the other thing I think that we have to keep in mind here in looking at Donald Trump and his next moves here is what does the president-elect say to the country after this hard-fought campaign?

Keep in mind that the night before the election he was still referring to Elizabeth Warren as Pocahontas. Elizabeth Warren is not going to take that lightly. If the Trump campaign -- if the Trump team feels they're coming into Washington with a huge mandate, they may be kidding themselves.

They -- at this point, they're not even winning the popular vote. Yes, they did win a resounding electoral college victory. But they did not, at least at this stage, win the popular vote. And so, there are going to be a lot of Democrats, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama aside, who are going to have some sore feelings in Washington about this campaign that Donald Trump conducted. So, I think a lot of is going to hinge on his next steps, his behavior as we move forward.

BLITZER: Yes. Well, he was gracious last night in that victory speech. It was relatively brief.

[13:10:00] Jeff, there has to be a lot of soul searching among Democrats right now. Just a little while ago, we heard from Hillary Clinton, thanking supporters. What does she and her team saying about the next step?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, I was in the room with secretary Clinton as she was giving that speech. And just watching the anguish on the faces of these senior Democratic operatives. A lot of them also worked for President Obama. So, they were very much onboard with the idea of campaigning for what essentially was a third Obama term in the White House.

And the country clearly rejected that. So, it's a -- it's almost a double loss for them. But right now, Wolf, they really are soul searching what exactly went wrong? But secretary Clinton, I think she gave one of the most uplifting and honest, you know, really real speeches that we've seen her give in some time.

She said, look, Donald Trump, he deserves a chance to lead. And she urged Democrats to approach him with an open mind. But, Wolf, these feelings are very raw behind the scenes. And the reality here is, we've talked so much going into this election had the outcome been the other way. We've seen so much in-fighting inside the Republican Party this year, really kind of a reversal.

Republicans usually fall into line. That didn't happen this year, as we know. But, Wolf, the in-fighting now is going to be coming inside the Democratic Party, the recriminations here. And those conversations are starting quietly on the edges here.

But, first and foremost, I just asked a couple advisers what happened and were you surprised? And they said, up until last night, about 8:00 or so when they started seeing Florida go south. And then, as the hours went along, when they started seeing that blue wall crumbling. No one thought Wisconsin was in play. One top adviser said, we simply had the numbers wrong. We didn't see this coming.

So, it's sort of akin to what happened on the other side in 2012 when Mitt Romney's campaign was convinced, on Election Day, that they were winning. The Obama campaign -- or the Clinton campaign, excuse me, did not model the electorate properly. That is one early analysis here. They'll be going through everything.

But simply the numbers and data did not work. And they underestimated Donald Trump.

BLITZER: And Hillary Clinton never even visited Wisconsin after the --

ZELENY: She didn't. BLITZER: -- Democratic convention over the summer in July.

All right, everybody stand by. I want to talk a little more about what happened last night and what it means for the country moving forward. Joining us now from Tallahassee, Florida is the governor of Florida, Rick Scott. Governor, thanks very much for joining us.

GOV. RICK SCOTT (R), FLORIDA: Well, Wolf, it was an exciting night last night. Clearly, America wanted a Washington outsider. Somebody that's going to clearly upset the Washington elite applecart and work on making this country great again. It's going to be exciting.

BLITZER: I know you were a supporter of Donald Trump. He carried your state, a relatively slim margin but he did win Florida. You can see the results over there, 49.1 percent to 47.8 percent, 29 electoral votes, critically important. Have you spoken to the president-elect today?

SCOTT: I spoke to -- I spoke to president-elect Trump yesterday, and I spoke to vice president-elect Mike Pence. Clearly, they're excited about what's happening. And they know they have their work cut out for them. So, it's -- but I'm going to do everything I can to be helpful to them. I want them to be very, very, very successful.

I need a -- Wolf, this is exciting for me. I've been governor for almost six years. I've never had a partner in the White House. I'm going to have a partner in the White House that I can call and say, look, let's make this better for Florida.

BLITZER: Well, what do you think did it for Donald Trump in your state of Florida? For example, was it the rise in premiums for those individuals who are on the Affordable Care Act, Obamacare if you will, or was it something else?

SCOTT: I -- you know, Wolf, I think it was a lot like my race in 2010. People are fed up with the direction government was going and they wanted an outsider. I think, you know, all these little things added up, the Obamacare premiums going up. But I think just the idea that Washington elites continue to tell us in -- out in these states how to run your lives. And people are tired and they Washington is not working.

And so, they're going to give an outsider the chance to see if he can make this country great again.

BLITZER: You ran as an outsider when you won back in 2010. And chided the Republican establishment, at the time, for not having your back. I think the same could be said for Donald Trump. So much of the Republican establishment, they were not with him, right?

SCOTT: Absolutely. I mean, the Republican establishment opposed me. They spent millions of dollars to make sure I didn't win. We beat them back in 2010. It's the exact same thing that happened to Donald Trump.

So now, we all need to come together, Republicans and Democrats, to say, we all care about this country, our country. How do we make sure that Donald Trump is a successful president so we get jobs back in this country and make sure this is the number one place to raise a family in the world?

BLITZER: Should speaker Paul Ryan stay on?

[13:15:00] SCOTT: Well, that's a decision -- clearly that's a decision for the, you know, the House. But I think we all need to come together and say, look, what -- you know, this was -- this was, we're fed up. This is, we're fed up with Washington outsiders. How do we make this better for Americans? Where -- you know, I think -- what I think about, it's no different than 2010. The elites said I couldn't win. They said, you're an outsider. We don't know you. that was the same thing people were saying about Donald Trump. His message resonated because people know Washington does not care about them.

BLITZER: In your mind, governor, what's the first thing President- elect Trump needs to address now that he's won this election? Among his promises were to build a wall along the southern border with Mexico. Mexico would pay for it. Extreme vetting for immigration. He wants to repeal and replace Obamacare. Really literally wants to start doing that on day one. And he says from the beginning, for months now, renegotiate or simply withdraw from the North American Free Trade Agreement, NAFTA. What do you think? Should he start doing all those things right away? Are you with him on those?

SCOTT: If -- you know, here's what I would do. I would, step one, focus on the economy. That's what I did in Florida. Now we've had -- we've had record revenues in our state. We've added 1,222,000 jobs. I'd focus on the economy. I know a lot of people in Washington say it's fashionable. You can't -- they say, oh, you can't replace Obamacare. Well, we have to replace Obamacare. We have to have a plan that works for Americans. Remember, we were promised you wouldn't lose your doctor, your health premiums would go down. Just the opposite has happened. We have to completely repeal Obamacare and have something that works for all Americans.

BLITZER: During the campaign, he kept calling the system rigged. I guess he doesn't think the system is ringed anymore. He must be pretty happy with that system. I assume you agree?

SCOTT: Well, what I was focused on was making sure we had an election that everybody felt was fair in our state. We had a very hard-working secretary of state and we had an election that worked in our state. That's what I was focused on. And I'm glad we have Donald Trump as our new president and I'm looking forward to having a partner in Washington that I get to work with.

BLITZER: Would you want to pick a position in the new administration?

SCOTT: Well, I want to do everything I can to help him, but I love my job here. I've got 789 days to go. I want to make sure we're number one for jobs, education and the best place to live because you're safe. That's what I want to focus on.

BLITZER: So -- SCOTT: But I'll do everything I can to help him.

BLITZER: So if he says, I need you in the cabinet, you would say what?

SCOTT: I like my job here and I'll pass. I'm going to -- I'll be -- I'll do everything I can to help President-Elect Trump be successful, but I like my job here and I'm going to stay in Florida.

BLITZER: All right, governor, thanks so much for joining us. Governor Rick Scott of Florida.

SCOTT: Thanks, Wolf.

BLITZER: Republicans now have firm control of the White House and the Congress, the House and the Senate. They fought off Democratic challenges, winning virtually all the key battleground races to keep that majority in the U.S. Senate. Right now they're holding 51 seats to the Democrats' 47. Some seats still at play right now. Republicans maintain their majority in the House, holding 235 seats, the Democrats, 191. The House speaker, Paul Ryan, spoke a little while ago praising Donald Trump for his win.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. PAUL RYAN (R), HOUSE SPEAKER: Donald Trump heard a voice out in this country that no one else heard. He connected with -- he connected in ways with people no one else did. He turned politics on its head. And now Donald Trump will lead a unified republican government.

We won more seats than anyone expected, and much of that is thanks to Donald Trump. Donald Trump provided the kind of coattails that got a lot of people over the finish line so that we could maintain our strong House and Senate majorities.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Our senior political reporter Manu Raju is here for us. He covers Congress very closely.

Manu, so where were there surprises?

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: Well, Wolf, overall, it was a major surprise with the GOP stand of losses so significantly in Congress that the party was able to preserve a working majority in both chambers. Now, in the House, officials on both sides expected the Republicans would lose anywhere from 12 to 20 seats. But their losses will probably be only in the single digits.

And in the Senate, the GOP looks like they'll have, at the very worst, a 52-48 majority. Now, CNN has not called the New Hampshire Senate race yet. That's where Democrat Maggie Hassan is leading by the narrowest of margins and declared victory, although Republican Kelly Ayotte has not yet conceded in that race.

But Democrats also fell short in a number of other races last night, including in Indiana, where they recruited former Senator Evan Bayh, but he lost in an overwhelming fashion to Republican Todd Young. And the GOP also benefited from Trump --

BLITZER: All right, hold on. Manu, I'm going to get back to you in a moment. I want to go to the White House. Josh Earnest being asked if last night's results reflected on President Obama's legacy.

[13:20:00] JOSH EARNEST, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I don't know that anybody has the direct answer to that question now because there are some relevant facts that -- the first is that Secretary Clinton won the popular vote. Now, winning the popular vote is not what gets you the keys to the Oval Office. You've got to win the electoral vote. And I think everybody -- I know that everybody knew the rules going into the contest.

But it does underscore the depth of support and enthusiasm for her message and for her campaign. And that is a testament to her leadership and her ability to build support for a national campaign.

The other thing that happens to be true is there are a lot of people, again the math requires this, who voted for Barack Obama in 2008, who voted for his reelection in 2012, and voted for Donald Trump in 2016. And I think it's -- I don't have an explanation for that, to put it bluntly.

But I think certainly all of your networks and all of you are going to spend some time pondering that question; spending some time looking at the returns; looking at the exit polls; and maybe even spending some time in some of those communities across the country where Mr. Trump -- President-elect Trump enjoyed such strong support -- support that exceeded the expectations of everybody, apparently even exceeded the expectations of the Trump campaign.

So that's a worthy question, but I'm not going to pretend I have a real direct answer for you. But it's one that's worthy of careful consideration.

QUESTION: Another thing that we heard him say a lot out on the campaign trail is that progress was on the ballot. And that if Hillary wasn't elected, all of that progress would go out the window, down the drain, would be lost. What does the outcome last night do for the legacy the president wanted to leave -- wants to leave behind, from Obamacare to the (inaudible), to putting a third Supreme Court justice -- justice on the Supreme Court and (inaudible)?

EARNEST: Well, again, Darlene, just with the caution that, you know, we're 12 hours -- less than 12 hours away from this election being decided, there are some things that we knew to be true before the results started being tallied. And one of those things was that the next president, whether it was Secretary Clinton or Mr. Trump, were going to have some difficult challenges and some difficult questions to answer with regard to a range of policies.

We know that our economy is facing some pretty intense headwinds from overseas. What's the kind of approach that the next president will take to ensuring that our economy can strengthen and navigate those headwinds in a way that benefits the American middle class and not just those at the top? That's a difficult challenge that any president would have to face, and certainly President-elect Trump will have to determine the best path for confronting that.

Either president would inherit a country that has some deep and passionate political differences. And what will President-elect Trump do to unite the country? It won't be easy. We know that's for sure. We do know that he can count on the support of President Obama and Secretary Clinton, both who in the last couple of hours have pledged their support to him as he works to do that.

Either president -- either Secretary Clinton or Mr. Trump would have faced a deeply divided Congress that appears totally dysfunctional, or at least it has appeared totally dysfunctional in the last two years. And it's difficult to know -- it's difficult to see how that's going to change. And they'll have to navigate. President-elect Trump and his team will have to figure out how to navigate that situation. And it won't be easy either.

So, I guess the point it, it's too early to tell exactly what the impact will be. There will be an impact, but we knew there would be regardless of the outcome of the race. And there certainly were some priorities where Secretary Clinton didn't agree with President Obama and, you know, in a different scenario, she would be -- you know, you would be asking me the same question about some of those policy priorities, too.

[13:25:05] And, you know, what's true is that the president-elect has some difficult questions to answer and some big challenges to tackle, and it's why it's so important for there to be a smooth and effective, efficient transition from President Obama's presidency to the Trump presidency, because as Americans, we're rooting for the success of our president in leading and uniting the country.

QUESTION: Are there any more details that you can share about the phone call between the president and president-elect? How long they (inaudible)? Did they get into an issue (inaudible) congratulations on your victory?

EARNEST: My understanding is it was not a lengthy call. It did take place very, very late last night. And based on the fact that there was a discussion about meeting in person on Thursday, you know, the specifics of any sort of policy discussions will be left until then.

QUESTION: How do you define not lengthy? Less than a minute, couple minutes?

EARNEST: I don't know with a lot of precision exactly what the timing was. If there's more details about that that we can provide, we'll do so.

OK. Jeff?

QUESTION: Josh, on the policy differences, is there anything that the White House or your administration will do this closing (ph) month to shore up priorities on policy areas like the Affordable Care Act, climate change, the Iran deal, all of which now President-Elect Trump called into question during this campaign? EARNEST: Well, let me start by saying that President Obama will remain in office and will be the president of the United States until January 20th and we will pursue policies accordingly, including the kinds of priorities that you have just enumerated.

What's also true is that the president-elect in the context of a smooth and effective transition will have an opportunity to get briefed by members of President Obama's team and actually have a conversation with President Obama himself about some of these priorities.

And I'm not gonna speak for him or predict exactly what sort of policy decisions he's going to make. And he was pretty explicit on the campaign trail. But part of a smooth transition is ensuring that they have the latest available information about the status of these policies, and that's something that our administration is committed to providing.

QUESTION: Aside from (ph) providing that information, is there anything that the administration will do to sort of put up a firewall to maintain some of these programs in place against what will probably be efforts to repeal in Obamacare's case or to (inaudible) climate change or to rip up (inaudible)?

EARNEST: Yeah, you know Jeff, our position on all those issues is well known and something that we've reviewed in here at some length. I'll -- I'll spare you most of that.

But I think what I -- the way that I'd respond to that is there's no specific thing that I have in mind that we're gonna do differently now. Our plan all along was to ensure the successful implementation of those and other priorities. And we're gonna be committed to doing everything we can to ensure the success of those policies between now and January 20th.

So the easiest example is the Affordable Care Act. This administration is gonna continue to make a strong case that people should go to healthcare.gov, consider the options that are available to them and sign up for health care. And the vast majority of people who do will be able to purchase health insurance for $75 a month or less. That is a -- that is a policy priority that benefits the American people enormously.

Since the Affordable Care Act went into effect, 20 million Americans got access to health care. And you know, we wanna make sure that as many Americans as possible understand the opportunity that's available to them.

The president-elect, when he enters office, will have his own opportunity to set the course of health care policy in this country in a way that he sees fit. It's gonna require some cooperation with Congress, and that won't be easy. But there's a lot at stake.

And you know, Republicans in the Congress have voted 50 times to repeal the Affordable Care Act, and each time they did that, they were voting to take health care away from 22 million Americans. [13:30:00] They were voting to strip critically important consumer

protections from people that prevent them from being discriminated against because they have a preexisting condition or paying more for their health insurance just because they are women.