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Trump And Obama To Meet This Morning; Anti-Trump Protests Erupt In Cities Across U.S.; Trump Begins To Build His Administration; Markets Stay Positive After Trump Win; Donald Trump's First 100 Days. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired November 10, 2016 - 09:00   ET

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


[08:59:57] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, and thank you so much for joining me. I'm Carol Costello live in Washington, D.C.

President Obama, just a couple of hours away from meeting with the man who vowed to dismantle the key pillars of his legacy. Behind closed doors, Obama will sit down with his successor, President-elect Donald Trump, in the Oval Office. It's a long-held tradition to assure Americans that even the most bitter foes will work together on a peaceful transition. But few presidential races have been this bitter and polarized.

In fact, just hours after Trump's stunning victory, angry protests bubbled up in at least 25 American cities. From New York to San Francisco, and Seattle to Nashville, thousand rallied in the streets to disavow their next president.

CNN's Athena Jones previews the Trump-Obama meeting this morning. Jason Carroll looks at the huge challenge of assembling a Trump administration.

But let's begin at the White House. Good morning, Athena.

ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. A lot of anticipation of this meeting just a couple of hours from now. It's going to get started in the Oval Office planned for 11:00 a.m. We do expect to see some video of President Obama meeting with President- elect Trump at the bottom of that meeting. We don't expect them to make extensive remarks, but we could hear some brief remarks.

But there is a lot else going on also today at the White House. Melania Trump is going to be meeting with First Lady Michelle Obama. Vice President Biden later on this afternoon will be meeting with Vice President-elect Mike Pence.

But a lot of the focus, of course, is going to be on this morning meeting at 11:00 a.m. between two men who haven't had a whole lot of nice things to say about each other. For months, President Obama has been saying that he doesn't believe Trump is ever going to be President. He's called him temperamentally unfit, uniquely unqualified. On the Trump side, you have the man who led the birther movement, who questioned the President's citizenship and his legitimacy for the office. So it could be an awkward meeting.

But one thing the White House is stressing is that you've heard from the President and his staff about how much they appreciated the professional and smooth way that George W. Bush's team handled the transition back in 2008 and 2009. And the President said yesterday in his speech in the Rose Garden that he's directed his staff to follow the example set by President Bush.

Now, the White House says -- the White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said it's too early to say what kind of impact Trump's election will have on President Obama's top policy priorities. But, Carol, we know that Trump has run on plans and promises to undo many of Obama's legacy items.

So, for instance, we expect Trump to get to work right away on trying -- on repealing and replacing Obamacare. He says he wants to roll back and reverse executive actions on immigration, on regulations at power plants and the like. Trump has also said he wants to withdraw from agreements, agreements like the Iran nuclear deal, the Trans- Pacific Partnership trade deal, and the Paris climate accord.

And we've already gotten some indications from Congress that TPP, that trade bill, is all but dead. So a lot to discuss as these two men get together, a lot that could change with a Trump presidency. Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Athena Jones reporting live from the White House for us. Thanks so much. Now, let's turn to Trump's top priority, filling the thousands of jobs that will shape his administration. CNN's Jason Carroll is outside of Trump Tower with that. Hi, Jason.

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And good morning to you, Carol. As I stand here in front of Trump Tower, I'm thinking about how we were standing in front of here last night with thousands of protesters who were out here. Some of those names being thrown out that they were protesting against are some of the names that are on Donald Trump's short list for key cabinet positions.

So let's take a look at what lies ahead for the Trump administration. There are 72 days, including today, until inauguration. Some 4,000 appointments that need to be made, 1,100 of those require Senate confirmation. Some of the key positions that are up for grabs, chief of staff, and some familiar names on that shortlist, including Newt Gingrich, Chris Christie, Rudy Giuliani, Reince Priebus. Secretary of state, another key position, Senator Jeff Sessions on the shortlist, along with John Bolton and Senator Bob Corker.

Two of the key men who were part of helping Donald Trump get to where he is, Governor Chris Christie and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, speaking out this morning about being part of a Trump administration.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MATT LAUER, NBC NEWS HOST: Would you want to be chief of staff? Would you want to be attorney general? GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE (R), NEW JERSEY: You don't really think I'm going

to --

LAUER: Would you --

CHRISTIE: You don't think I'm going to --

SAVANNAH GUTHRIE, NBC NEWS ANCHOR: That's what is called a pregnant pause.

CHRISTIE: Do you think --

GUTHRIE: Are you saying no?

LAUER: Would you want to be attorney general?

CHRISTIE: You really don't think I'm answering any of these questions, do you? You know me better than that. The answer is I am not committed to doing anything in the new administration, or not. You know, the bottom line is that I have a job to do to help get the administration ready. If there's some role for me that I want to do and that the President-elect wants me to do, you know, we've known each other for 14 years, we'll talk about it.

LAUER: Like chief of staff or something?

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Do you have it in you to be attorney general? Do you feel that you have the energy? Do you feel that you have --

RUDY GIULIANI (R), FORMER MAYOR OF NEW YORK CITY: Oh, my God.

CUOMO: -- the desire?

GIULIANI: I certainly have the energy, and there's probably nobody that knows the Justice Department better than me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[09:05:07] CARROLL: And, Carol, we're just getting word that Trump's motorcade has just left Trump Tower. He's now heading to Washington, D.C. for that meeting with the President.

You know, going back to Governor Chris Christie, he says that the Bridgegate scandal that's been hovering over him, he does not think that's going to, in any way, affect any possible position that he might have with a Trump administration.

You know, as we see Trump's motorcade leaving, one of Trump's rallying cries during his whole campaign was drain the swamp. What he's going to do is drain the swamp from Washington insiders, Washington corruption. His critics already, Carol, looking at many of his potential picks and saying all of these people, for the most part, are Washington insiders. Where are the outsiders? Carol.

COSTELLO: OK. Jason Carroll reporting live for us this morning. Thank you.

Oh, to be a fly on the wall when President Obama and President-elect Trump sit down in the very same room. Talk about history, as in bad history.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: I hope he was born in the United States. If he wasn't, it's the greatest scam in history. Not political history, in history.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Donald Trump is uniquely unqualified to be President.

TRUMP: He is the founder of ISIS.

OBAMA: You don't see him hanging out with working people, unless they're cleaning his room.

TRUMP: We've got a person in the White House that's having a lot of fun. It's like a carnival act.

OBAMA: He's erratic. If his closest advisers don't trust him to tweet, why would any of us trust him with the nuclear codes?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Ain't American politics grand? Let's talk now. With me now, CNN political commentator and assistant editor of "The Washington Post," David Swerdlick. Rebecca Berg is here. She's a CNN political commentator and national political reporter for "Real Clear Politics." And Heidi -- I always have problems with your name.

HEIDI PRZYBYLA, SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER, USA TODAY: Przybyla.

(LAUGHTER)

PRZYBYLA: Sprinkle some vowels in.

COSTELLO: I know, I wish I could. She's the senior politics report for "USA Today." Thanks to all of you for joining me this morning.

REBECCA BERG, NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER, REAL CLEAR POLITICS: Thanks, Carol.

COSTELLO: So, Heidi, do you think the -- I mean, will the two men sit down and say, hey, how's the wife and kids?

PRZYBYLA: No. No. We won't be there for that part, though. You know, we will see a small portion of this at the end, which President Obama will do justice to the institution itself. And I think that's the way that he maybe gets through this moment because this has been so personal between these two men.

We've seen that Trump, if there was one person that he had gone after even before his unlikely rise in this election, it was trying to basically delegitimize the President, based -- questioning his citizenship. And secondly, just the efforts, you know, his first priority is going to be to try and basically roll back the President's signature legacy item, which is Obamacare.

It's questionable how much they're actually able to do that because I studied this when I was in Congress. And this reconciliation measure, which requires a lower number of votes to get things done, using that, you can only peel back certain portions of Obamacare. And so you can't really -- it's really a false equivalence.

COSTELLO: Right.

PRZYBYLA: You can't repeal the whole law.

COSTELLO: Right, right. We're going to get into that much later. I just want to go back to this initial meeting because both men have been so gracious in their remarks after Trump was elected President of the United States, right? So will this meeting sort of be, you know, President Obama will talk to Donald Trump and say, you know what, here's what you can expect. And here's what I think --

BERG: Absolutely.

COSTELLO: -- your top concerns ought to be, you know, based on my experience, you know, of eight years in the White House.

BERG: Absolutely. As President Obama has said in his remarks yesterday, we should all rally behind Trump and, you know, be rooting for him to succeed. And I think President Obama genuinely does want President-elect Trump to succeed when he is sworn in because President Obama, anyone who is a lawmaker in this country, clearly cares about what happens to the country.

And so I think President Obama wants to give him as many tools as possible, as many pieces of advice as possible, to bring that reality, to make that happen. That said, I mean, you can't suddenly, you know, have President Obama trust President-elect Trump as, you know, someone who can necessarily be a good steward in the White House. There's still a lack of trust between these two men and still some skepticism, certainly.

COSTELLO: Right.

BERG: But be that as it may, they both sort of want the same thing, and that's for the country to be in a good place. And so they want to do --

COSTELLO: You would hope so.

BERG: And so I think, today, we're going to see a meeting that's probably professional, an exchange of ideas, and pleasantries.

COSTELLO: Right. And there will be a photo-op, right? And afterwards, maybe the two men will say something publicly.

DAVID SWERDLICK, ASSISTANT EDITOR, THE WASHINGTON POST: Yes, absolutely. And that's part of that peaceful transfer of power that we were talking about. There are -- a lot of the country is sad about the election of Donald Trump. A lot of the country is happy about the election of Donald Trump. But the job of the President and the President-elect clearly is that peaceful transfer power.

[09:10:08] I think that President Obama, like Rebecca said, and Donald Trump are skeptical of each other, but also both have incentives to try and have a constructive conversation and work together.

COSTELLO: So the protests overnight -- and I mean, clearly, we're a divided country. One half of the country is enthusiastic and excited and full of hope, and the other half of the country is quite frankly scared. So you would think that the two men would talk about that in their private meeting and find a way to bring the two sides together.

PRZYBYLA: And I think the Democrats, from their part, have made that clear from the very beginning. If you -- very beginning meaning right after the election. Hillary Clinton, in her speech, which is giving a lot of plaudits, you know, for the fact that very early on, the first priority she made clear is that we need to, as Americans, honor the time-honored tradition of a peaceful transfer of power.

But, Carol, no matter how much -- you know, there's limits to leadership messaging at this point because people are so angry. And you know, this is now, from a Democratic point of view, the second major election that we have had where a Republican has taken over even though a Democrat has won the popular vote. So you are now going to see that rage at the institution that we have seen on the Republican side channeled, I think, through a grassroots Democratic upraising potentially.

I am seeing people already this morning pushing back on the whole notion of the Electoral College system because now, we have had two elections like this. And I think there's a lot of questioning about the system that you're now going to see on the left.

COSTELLO: Right, right. I think, though, the salient point is that these two men have to try to figure out a way to bring this country together because, I mean, that's the law -- I mean, that's the way politics works, the law of the land. The President --

PRZYBYLA: And they would do that. They would do that.

COSTELLO: -- is going to be President Trump.

PRZYBYLA: Will the people listen?

COSTELLO: Right. OK.

PRZYBYLA: Yes.

COSTELLO: So, perhaps, one of the things that could be done to draw the two sides together is just to drop this -- I don't know what to call it against Hillary Clinton, but, you know, to prosecute her in some way is still on the table.

BERG: Right.

COSTELLO: In fact, Chris Cuomo asked Rudy Giuliani about that again this morning. Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GIULIANI: I think that somebody should review that very carefully as to how bad is that evidence and if it isn't as bad as some of the exaggerators think it is, then maybe the best thing to do is to forget about it and move on. If it is really bad, then somebody's got to look at it who is independent.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: OK. So the Republicans are going to say, you know, this is necessary. She's a criminal. She got away with something. Democrats would say it's a witch-hunt, just stop it, and let's work together. So what do you think will happen?

BERG: It's interesting to me that Rudy Giuliani, in that interview, suggested that, you know, if there's no there there, that they could potentially drop this because this was a campaign promise from Donald Trump. This wasn't just, you know, if the evidence is there, we'll pursue it.

He said at his rallies, there will be a special prosecutor if I am President. Now, he is going to be President, so there might be some political repercussions for him if he weren't going to pursue that. His passionate supporters, this was a big deal for them. That's why they chanted "lock her up" at his rallies.

COSTELLO: Although, I will say, in speaking to Trump supporters, even they say, you know, sometimes Donald Trump says things and he doesn't mean them literally. He just -- he says them to get things going.

SWERDLICK: Right.

COSTELLO: To show that he's tough. So maybe he didn't mean that?

SWERDLICK: So two things, Carol. One is that, you know, there's been a lot of talk in the last 48 hours about this idea that you couldn't or shouldn't have taken everything Donald Trump said literally. I disagree with that. I think that presidents or presidential candidates campaign for a reason. They make promises for a reason. And if they are essentially out on the trail saying things that they don't mean, that's a problem with our system.

In the specific case of Secretary Clinton and this legal issue, I think there are two reasons why it would be, at least, a political mistake for the Trump administration to pursue it. One would be that FBI Director Comey has already said no charges. Number two is that the American people already rendered a judgment on Secretary Clinton. Whether people are happy with it or not is one thing, and she's out of the picture now. He has to move forward, not look back.

COSTELLO: All right. I have to leave it there. Thanks to all of you for joining me this morning.

PRZYBYLA: Thank you.

COSTELLO: I do appreciate it.

Coming up in the NEWSROOM. A tall order for Mr. Trump, pulling off all those huge campaign promises and fast. Can he do it?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:19:09] COSTELLO: The winds of change in Washington are blowing green on Wall Street, at least today. Markets are looking at a higher opening in just a few minutes, keeping up yesterday's surge after Republicans bring home a win in the White House.

Alison Kosik live at the New York Stock Exchange.

Good morning.

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.

Well, well, well, the stock market freak-out over Donald Trump winning the election never materializing and instead Wall Street giving a warm welcome to President-elect Trump as we watch the Dow get closer and closer to record territory. In fact, this morning, we are expected to see the Dow open at its highest level ever.

What I think you saw happen yesterday was investors putting aside their concerns about a possible Trump anti-trade policy and instead focusing on a Republican controlled president and Congress which may be able to push through programs that many believe could help the economy like infrastructure, spending, tax cuts, and lighter regulations. These are the kind of things that can be beneficial to business and stocks.

[09:20:04] So what were investors buying yesterday? Hmm, they poured into shares of pharmaceutical companies like Pfizer and Merck, thinking that Trump is going to focus on undoing Obamacare, to pay attention to high drug prices. Defense stocks like Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin on expectations that Trump will push for more military spending.

Investors also filing in to construction and engineering stocks. Those are the building block companies for increased spending on infrastructure projects, something that Trump is expected to push for as well.

So, Carol, as we begin the trading day, we are watching one number. We are watching 18,636. That's the number that we want to see the Dow hit to hit that record high -- Carol.

COSTELLO: OK. We'll know in just a couple of minutes.

Alison Kosik reporting live from the New York Stock Exchange -- thank you. Repealing Obamacare, building a wall on the southern border with

Mexico, defeating ISIS -- just some of the items on Donald Trump's agenda as president. He'll now have a Republican House and Senate behind him. So, will Trump be able to push it all through?

CNN's senior political reporter Manu Raju joins me now with that.

Good morning.

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: Good morning, Carol.

He will indeed have a Republican Congress but that doesn't mean he will get everything he wants. Already Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell throwing cold water on the idea of imposing term limits on members of Congress. He's a six-term Republican flatly saying that is not going to happen.

And other measures, too, causing some consternation within Republican ranks, including that border wall with Mexico that Trump championed on the campaign trail, but many Republicans in Congress are nervous about such a provocative move.

Now, yesterday at a press conference Carol, I asked McConnell three times whether he supports a wall on the border with Mexico. And McConnell would not say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: Do you support his central policy idea to build a wall on the border with Mexico?

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY), MAJORITY LEADER: Well, I'm not going to go back and relitigate the events of the past. We have a new president. I'd like for him to get off on a positive start. And I think we should look forward, and not backward and kind of rehash and relitigate the various debates we had both internally and with the Democrats over the past year.

RAJU: What about the wall?

MCCONNELL: We're going to be talking to the president about his agenda. Border security is important. I think even our Democratic friends realize we haven done a very good job of that. And achieving border security is something I think ought to be high on the list.

RAJU: Do you have a personal preference on the wall?

MCCONNELL: I want to try to achieve border security in whatever way is the most effective.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: Now, today, Trump is scheduled to try to align his agenda with the congressional Republican agenda, meeting in a closed-door session with his running mate Mike Pence as well as House Speaker Paul Ryan who had differences with Trump this campaign season. It will be an important signal about what direction Trump will choose, whether to push some of those more divisive proposals that made him a hero among his base or try to work with Democrats on an infrastructure bill, even Bernie Sanders suggesting he could be open if Donald Trump were to pursue such an approach.

But, Donald Trump may also push -- talk about pushing the repeal of Obamacare. And that could enrage the left, while it unites the Republican Party and while that repeal may have a chance of passing Congress, passing a replacement bill will be much, much harder because of Senate procedures requiring 60 votes to get anything enacted -- Carol.

COSTELLO: OK. We're in for quite a ride. Manu Raju reporting live for us this morning -- thank you.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM: Obamacare on life support now that Donald Trump's heading to the White House. But what does that mean for the millions of Americans who are enrolled in Obamacare? And will the president-elect talk about that with President Obama at their meeting this morning? We're on it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:28:17] COSTELLO: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.

We're live overlooking the White House in Washington, and oh, it's a gorgeous sight, isn't it a gorgeous day here in Washington, D.C.

A meeting for the ages about to take place in the White House. President Obama will sit down with Donald Trump to help Mr. Trump get off to a running start. We'll talk about a peaceful transition of power for sure.

But some wonder if Mr. Obama will try to convince Mr. Trump to reconsider the repeal of Obamacare. The president signed that into law six years ago and it became one of Obama's signature achievements, as Joe Biden so aptly put it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOSEPH BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Ladies and gentlemen, the president of the United States of America, Barack Obama.

(APPLAUSE)

This is a (EXPLETIVE DELETED) deal.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Remember that?

But if Trump has his way, that big deal is about to go down.

CNN's chief business correspondent Christine Romans is here to talk about that.

Will it be so easy to repeal Obamacare?

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: I will say for Republicans, it's curse word. It has been a curse word for some time in a very different way.

Look, in a word, Carol, it takes Congress and it takes a plan here to repeal and replace Obamacare. Let's talk about what they could do here. They could repeal and replace it then with a brand-new law. That's what Congress could do.

They could repeal it just like that and return to the old system. Or they could remove parts of the law, and keep the broader law. Remove parts of it, and basically fix it.

But what Donald Trump has said he wants to do is repeal and replace it. If he repeals it, you suddenly then have 20 million people who don't have that Obamacare protection. The points have been that the premiums are too high and the implementation of Obamacare has been rough.

But the essence of Obamacare that people with pre-existing condition would have coverage, remember, they used to be ostracized by the health care system.