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President-Elect Trump Meets with Obama at the White House. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired November 10, 2016 - 10:30   ET

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

[10:30:00] WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: They'll have a little meeting as well.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And Mike Pence will meet with Joe Biden today as well.

BLITZER: At some point, yes. And Mike Pence will get ready to move into his residence over on Massachusetts Avenue. Not too far away from where we are right now at that Naval Observatory.

COSTELLO: We have Manu Raju standing by. He's our congressional correspondent.

So will Democratic and Republican lawmakers be watching for President Obama's remarks and Mr. Trump's remarks after this meeting ends, Manu?

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. They'll want to hear the signals that the president will make after this meeting. I'm sure you'll hear probably gracious remarks from President Obama similar to ones that he made yesterday, but of course, those are often things you hear after an election. The proof will really be in the pudding once legislation starts happening, once each side begins to push their policies, and what direction specifically the Trump administration will want to take initially coming in.

Will they -- will Donald Trump want to try to push bills that will actually win Democratic support or will he actually try to do things that will rally Republicans behind him like trying to repeal Obamacare, but actually would prompt stiff Democratic opposition. That is one -- those are things that actually will be discussed after this White House meeting today, when Donald Trump goes and meets with House Speaker Paul Ryan behind closed doors, as they try to align their agenda and then afterwards, Donald Trump meeting with Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell in his office in the capitol.

All part of an effort by Republicans to sync up because the Republican leaders, Carol, just are not clear exactly on what Donald Trump wants to do as soon as he gets into office, and there is not much time between now and then to really align their agendas. So today a critical day not just for the passing of the torch between President Obama and Donald Trump but also for Republicans to try to figure out what comes next.

COSTELLO: All right. Jim Acosta is also standing by at the White House. We know that Mr. Trump has had a contentious relationship with the press and it kind of makes you wonder what the relationship will be like come January -- Jim.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Yes, Carol, the way I have been describing it is it's sort of like we discovered a new species in the animal kingdom. We do not know what kind of President Donald Trump will be.

Carol, what we have to go off of if it's what we saw during the campaign, what we saw during the campaign when it comes to his relationship with the news media. I witnessed it firsthand. You know, he referred to the news media as the disgusting media, the dishonest media, he called us crooks and thieves and liars and scum and so on.

There were reporters covering his campaign who were banned from his rallies, periodically there were reporters I know from "The Washington Post" and BuzzFeed, for example, who were simply turned away at times during this election. He had something of a press enemies list and eventually cooler heads prevailed inside the campaign and Mr. Trump relented and they started allowing those reporters into his rallies.

So yes, and I think it is unclear what happens after January. I assume President-elect Trump will want to have press conferences here at the White House, in the East Room of the White House, in the Briefing Room of the White House, but if a reporter gets on his nerves, challenges him too hard as my colleague Katy Tur did at times over at NBC and other colleagues, will he call that person out and go after that person?

We just don't know about those things. But, you know, I think, Carol, nobody, as I like to say about the press, nobody cares about us. You know, we can belly ache until the cows come home. Nobody cares about us. What really matters is what President-elect Trump is going to do for the country. And I think what Manu is saying was exactly right. He has to meet with the House speaker, Paul Ryan, he has to meet with the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell.

They will be with him come January as the leaders of this Congress, presumably, and they are going to have to hammer out this agenda. And as Manu was saying we are going to find out soon enough which Donald Trump we're going to see in the Oval Office. Is he going to be the president who wants to immediately build a wall on the Mexican border, who immediately wants to repeal Obamacare, who immediately wants to open up the libel laws in this country so he can go after the press as he suggested during the campaign, or is he going to as he was saying during his gracious victory speech on election night, is he going to pursue things that have broader appeal like infrastructure?

That is something that Hillary Clinton talked about out on the campaign trail. Joe Biden talks about it. Is he going to pursue veterans healthcare reform? That is something that he talked about quite a bit on the campaign trail. Nobody is really going to argue with that. And so if he pursues a more bipartisan agenda, of course he will have a chance to mend some fences and lower the temperature here in Washington.

But, Carol, I have to tell you, I was in Midtown Manhattan last night trying to get to the train station, and it was difficult because there were 10,000 people protesting out in front of Trump Tower.

[10:35:06] There is large segment of this population and Donald Trump is going to have to deal with this, that does not view him as a legitimate president, and I know that is going to be hard stuff for people to swallow but it's just the truth. And this is a difficult time for this country. He did not win the popular vote. You know, and people like Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders and so forth, Nancy Pelosi, my guess is will remind him of that from time to time if he decides to take too partisan tact here in Washington.

You know, there's also this story that came out in "The Washington Post" and other news outlets this morning that the Russian deputy foreign minister was saying that there have been contacts with the Trump campaign, that there were contacts with the Trump campaign prior to the election. That opens up just a whole slew of questions that will have to be answered.

I mean, this is not something that presidential campaigns have done in the past. And so, you know, these are all very pressing questions that Donald Trump will have to answer at some point. He' is the president-elect of this country and as President Obama was saying here yesterday and Hillary Clinton was saying here yesterday, he is going to be our president, and so, you know, this is going to be one of those moments, I think a critical moment in the history of this country where we really have two paths in front of us and a lot of people here in Washington have to determine which path we go down.

Is it going to be one of a unified, more bipartisan spirit here in Washington? Well, we haven't seen much of that in the last eight years. Remember, Mitch McConnell said that he wanted to make President Obama a one-term president. Well, there are going to be Democrats in this town who are going to say what's good for the goose is good for the gander, and so on. So, you know, this is the atmosphere that Donald Trump is coming into here in Washington. And it's an atmosphere to some extent he created himself -- Carol.

BLITZER: It's Wolf here in Washington, Jim. I want to just update our viewers here in the United States and around the world, history is unfolding here in the nation's capital. And we want to welcome those viewers in the United States and around the world as well.

Donald Trump, his plane, you see it there, big name Trump right on the side of that jumbo jet, that plane has now landed here in Washington at Reagan National Airport in -- right outside of Washington, Arlington. The president-elect of the United States, Donald Trump, he'll be descending momentarily, getting into that motorcade and heading over to the White House for his first meeting as president- elect with the president of the United States.

The president, President Obama is beginning this transition process. It's a very quick ride, that motorcade shouldn't take more than 10 minutes to get from Reagan National Airport over to the White House. They will go into the Oval Office and have that first in-depth get- together on this historic moment, the transition is beginning.

The transition from President Obama to president-elect. He'll be president of the United States on inauguration day, that will be in January 20th of 2017.

Dana Bash, as we watch all of this history unfold, a lot of people never anticipated this would happen. I don't even know if Donald Trump anticipated this would happen. I suspect the president of the United States, President Obama, was not anticipating a transition to President-elect Donald Trump but it's happening right now. There's a smooth transition and so far, Dana, both the president and the president-elect, they have said all the right things about how they want to cooperate and make this work.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. And just look at the images that obviously back up what you are talking about. I think --

BLITZER: Here they come.

BASH: In fact, check me if I'm wrong but that is Mr. Trump.

BLITZER: Here you see Donald Trump. Dana, let me interrupt for a moment. You see Donald Trump waving over there. He's walking down those stairs. He'll get into one of those vehicles in the motorcade with Melania Trump and others and they will head over to the White House as I said. Shouldn't take more than 10 minutes to drive from Reagan National Airport over to the White House.

There will be, Dana, I just want to remind our viewers, at the end of the meeting in the Oval Office, cameras will be allowed to go in there. We'll hear a statement from the president and presumably the president-elect. I don't know if they'll answer reporters' questions, reporters will certainly try to ask them questions. I don't know if they'll answer those questions before being whisked out. But this is the historic moment.

Go ahead, Dana. Sorry for interrupting.

BASH: Absolutely. It is an historic moment, for sure. And actually, what I was just going to say was about the pictures that we are watching, Wolf. I mean, we've all gotten used to seeing the plane with Trump on the side and -- but seeing it today in the context of the fact that the plane that we're going to presumably, I mean, maybe this is something we have to talk about will be different, but presumably the plane starting January 20th that we will see him getting in and out of will be Air Force One.

And so that is, you know, one of the many, many mind-bending things for a lot of people who are used to having Donald Trump in their living rooms, whether it's at, you know, "The Apprentice" or now obviously the past year and a half as a candidate, he will be the leader of the free world.

[10:40:20] And this meeting today is so historic because it is so steeped in tradition of peaceful transition, and I mean, I remember the first time I was at the White House, I was actually still in school but I was doing a paper on presidents and the press and I was invited by your -- our own colleague Ann Compton to witness Bill Clinton coming to the White House on this Thursday for the first time to shake hands with the man he defeated, George H.W. Bush, and it was amazing to see.

Now Donald Trump didn't defeat Barack Obama per se, but he effectively did since Hillary Clinton was running to be -- to embrace his legacy and to be a third term of President Obama. So this is going to be really remarkable. Never mind the very real personal animosity between these two men, because Donald Trump started his foray in politics by being the poster child for President Obama wasn't really born in this country.

BLITZER: We see Reagan National Airport, the motorcade has now left Reagan National heading over to the White House.

Jim Acosta, do we know if that motorcade is going to go into the South Lawn area, into the North Lawn area? Do we know which entrance they're going to be going into, the executive -- the executive office area? Do we have any clue which way that motorcade will be entering the White House?

ACOSTA: Well, Wolf, as you know from being over here at the White House, there are as many cameras up around the grounds here as possible to capture whatever scenario emerges. I don't know which entrance he's coming in here at the White House, Wolf. I remember from -- when Mitt Romney came here to the White House four years ago under very different circumstances, he obviously lost that election, we didn't see -- we really didn't catch a glimpse of Mitt Romney going in because he was sort of, you know, rushed in and not really in the view of the cameras.

And that might be the case here as well. But he is the president- elect. He has a large Secret Service contingent with him. And so he might be a bit more noticeable than Mitt Romney was four years ago.

I think this is going to be fascinating to watch, Wolf, when Donald Trump goes into the Oval Office, he will be going into the Oval Office as the president-elect of the United States and he will be meeting with somebody, as Dana was talking about there, who he's clashed with over the years. Each one of these figures thought they had gotten the better of each other over these years and now Donald Trump at the moment appears to be having the last word as he's going to be the next president of the United States and have an opportunity to dismantle the Obama agenda.

You know, just talking to people here inside the White House, they are -- they are sort of focused in on the transition and this is where the professionalism of people on both sides, in both parties, you know, we sort of see this take shape and it's a reassuring sign for the country.

I was just talking to an official here a few moments ago who are saying, you know, I'm just focused on the transition. I want to make sure this is a transition that is a peaceful transfer of power to the next administration. And when you hear that, it makes you think, you know what, you know, things are going to be all right. And I suspect -- and I just talked to an official with the Trump campaign as I was driving into the White House this morning, Wolf, you know, trying to figure out, well, am I going to have a job in the administration and so on?

There's just a lot of activity on both sides. And this is what our democracy is all about. One president leaves, another one comes in.

BLITZER: Eight years ago when President Bush -- let's go back to 1992 when President George H.W. Bush hosted President-elect Bill Clinton, they spoke for nearly two hours, two hours at that time. When President Bush welcomed President Obama eight years ago, they spoke for about an hour in the Oval Office. And we'll see how long this meeting lasts today between President-elect Trump and President Obama.

On the left part of your screen, you see an entrance to the West Wing of the White House, from the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. There's a little street over there that people can park at. He might walk in that way or on the right part of your screen you see the driveway at the West Wing of the White House. He may come in there.

On the other hand, Jim Acosta, you've been a White House correspondent for awhile, they could surprise us and just drive into the South Lawn of the White House.

ACOSTA: Yes. That's right.

BLITZER: And I'm sitting here, if you take a look behind me and you can see behind me, you see the Washington Monument, you might see that motorcade beginning to come in, because it will come -- it will be coming from back there, from Reagan National Airport which is right across the Potomac River.

ACOSTA: Yes.

[10:45:03] BLITZER: And it will head right into the White House. It's a really spectacular view that we have from this location overlooking the North Lawn of the White House. As we see that entire historic presence that so many of our viewers here in the United States and around the world are certainly familiar with.

But once again, they haven't really given us a whole schedule of events, how this is going to unfold. I remember eight years ago, there was a great shot -- a great opportunity when the president and the president-elect, President Bush, President-elect Obama they walked through the motorcade -- through the colonnade on the side of the Rose Garden towards the Oval Office.

Are we going to get that this time, you think, Jim, because --

ACOSTA: I think so.

BLITZER: Some officials have said what President Obama wants to do is precisely what President Bush did for him. He was so grateful to President Bush for that very warm welcome.

ACOSTA: That's right. And remember, George W. Bush, for the duration of President Obama's presidency, did not -- he elected not to criticize, not be partisan when it came to talking about President Obama. So he set a precedent that now President Obama could elect to follow as well. And my sense is you're right, Wolf. If you listen to what President Obama said yesterday on the Rose Garden when he urged the country just how -- even though this is so difficult and people were so saddened on the Democratic side that they lost, that it is the good American thing to do to give this next president a chance.

And you know, this is coming from a president who was viewed by Donald Trump as not being legitimate and not being born in this country. And so President Obama could have taken a different path and decided well, I'm just not going to deal with this guy, but what President Obama is doing here is something I think rather extraordinary. He is rolling out the same welcome mat that George W. Bush rolled out for him and that's what I'm referring to when I talk to, you know, officials here at the White House and with the Trump campaign.

You know, you do get a sense that people are going to try to be professional about this. People are going to try to be civil about this because not only is the whole country watching, Wolf, the whole world is watching.

BLITZER: The whole world indeed is watching right now.

Dana, the words that were exchanged during the campaign between Donald Trump and President Obama were very often ugly on both sides, but that was then. This is now. The words they exchange today will be so powerful in sending a message to their respective supporters and followers.

You know what, there's a new page that's about to begin. Let's forget about what happened in the past. Let's move on right now. There's a much greater responsibility that both of us have to the country, to democracy, as opposed to a political campaign. I suspect we will hear more of that over the next -- not only today, but over the next several days.

BASH: No question. But I think in this instance, the words that they say are going to matter. But it is going to be the proverbial cliche picture that tells a thousand, maybe this time, you know, millions and millions of words. Just seeing the two of them which we expect to do likely in the Oval Office, the most sort of sacred of American locations, the most recognizable maybe in the world of American power, is going to be so -- I think so strong and so telling.

The other thing that I'm looking for, Wolf, is unfortunately something that we'll never know because we can't be that fly on the wall in this meeting, but it's one of the things that President Obama referred to when he talked yesterday about him being heartened not just by the public comments that Donald Trump made but the private comments he made to him when they spoke by phone. That combined with even people like Mike Pence, Donald Trump's running mate, and many, many others that you and I have talked to for the past many months who insist, you know what, there's a public Donald Trump and there's a private Donald Trump.

And so, you know, the reporting that we can do about what goes on, if we can, because it will be quite intimate in that private discussion will be fascinating. But the other thing just to kind of keep this, you know, one Donald Trump versus another Donald Trump idea going is what I have been hearing over the past 24 or 36 hours from people close to Trump is that there is going to be a campaign Donald Trump and a President Donald Trump, and that he -- you know, as surprised as he is, which I'm told he really is, he understands that campaigning and rousing people and performing on the campaign trail is a quite different thing than needing to get the job done and govern, and so this is going to be one of the first tests about whether we see the President Donald Trump that his friends insist is there.

BLITZER: What you're suggesting and I think it's accurate, Dana, is that a lot of the things he may have said and done while he was running for the Republican presidential nomination, while he was running for president of the United States, he did and said a lot of those things because he thought it would get him a lot of votes. And clearly it did get him a lot of votes.

[10:50:03] But now that he is the president-elect of the United States and within a matter of a few weeks, he'll be president of the United States, he'll see it differently and he may not necessarily govern as he campaigned. Is that what I'm hearing from you?

BASH: I think -- well, I think certainly part of it, you know, is about the governing and the policy, but I think even -- we'll see. We'll see how a -- the policy of a President Trump or Trump administration takes shape. I think part of the reason why this is -- you know, many reasons why this is such new terrain is because we don't know because he doesn't know. He's never done it before. But I think more about the way that he approaches the bully pulpit which he's going to have.

The bully pulpit is quite different from the stump. And my understanding is that he gets that and that, you know, as this is seeping in for him, and I'm sure being in the Oval Office is going to be, you know, the ultimate eye-opener, that he is going to recognize that the rhetoric that he uses is going to have to be quite different.

BLITZER: Very different. We're looking -- here you see on the right hand side of your screen, you see pictures coming in from the driveway in front of the West Wing of the White House, the north side of the White House, the North Lawn. There across that little street is the Eisenhower Executive Office building, it used to be called the Old Executive Office building. It was once the War Department of the United States government during World War II but now it's the Eisenhower Executive Office building.

A lot of times visitors to the White House, they'll pull up there and they'll go into that side entrance which you see on the left side of the screen. On the other hand, sometimes they will just drive in through the North Lawn of the White House. There's a driveway coming in from Pennsylvania Avenue. But we don't know which way they're coming in. The White House hasn't elaborated all of the so-called tick-tock, the specifics of what is about to unfold.

Manu Raju is with us as well. Manu, I just want very quickly to give us a sense once Donald Trump leaves the White House, he's heading up to where you are up on Capitol Hill for what will also be a very important meeting with the speaker of the House, Paul Ryan, right?

RAJU: Yes, that's right. And remember, Paul Ryan and Donald Trump have not actually seen eye-to-eye through the course of this campaign season. At one point earlier the last month, Paul Ryan said he would not defend or campaign with Donald Trump. Later in the campaign season, of course, Paul Ryan started to come around to the idea that Donald Trump could get elected and started to push more aggressively for Donald Trump to win the presidency.

Now today will be the first time for these two to meet face-to-face, eye-to-eye, since a lot of the back and forth happened during the campaign season and really to align their agendas, to see what Republicans in the House could do to push forward what Donald Trump wants to do. I mean, the Republican leadership is coming to this, it's sort of unclear exactly what Donald Trump wants in his first hundred days. Of course, he laid that out in the campaign season, laid out a whole bunch of things he wanted to do in the campaign season but it's not clear what order they want to do things, exactly what message they want to send.

Do they want to try to look like they're working with Democrats? Do they want to go after things that will please their base like repeal of Obamacare? Those are all big, big questions, as well as appointments, filling key Cabinet positions. And in that regard, that's going to be important for his second discussion of the day. That is meeting with Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, because the Senate of course has the role of confirming those Cabinet appointments as well as confirming that last justice on the Supreme Court.

So a lot of discussions taking place about strategy, about tactics, and about messaging and also trying to figure out how to work with someone that these two leaders, Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan, just are not sure what he would be like as president -- Wolf.

BLITZER: I just want to point out, and Jim Acosta, you're there at the White House for us. You see some people standing on the stairs over there at the Eisenhower Executive Office building. Maybe they have inside word that the president-elect and his motorcade will be arriving there. If he does, we'll see him walk into the West Wing of the White House on the left part of the screen.

If that's the game plan that the White House has in mind, you can see pictures coming in, a nice shot, I think the shot comes in from where I am across Lafayette Park from the White House. But go ahead.

ACOSTA: Yes. That's right, Wolf. As you know, when there are leaves on the trees there, we don't get quite the same shot as we would if this were happening a little bit later on in the year. But you're right, if there are people positioned there on the steps of the Eisenhower Executive Office building, with their cell phones handy, they are preparing I presume to see, you know, President-elect Trump arrive here at the White House.

[10:55:06] Is he greeted by the president there? I'm not so sure about that. Might be greeted by officials. And then brought in to see the president in the Oval Office. But a fascinating imagery to watch.

Just to pick up on the conversation you were having, you know, does President-elect Trump pursue a more bipartisan agenda? We just don't know about that, Wolf. Talking to Republican sources, they just don't know what they're going to get come January 20th and I think one word of caution, we don't want to get too carried away that this is going to be this big bipartisan moment here in Washington.

Donald Trump talked about things that conservatives in this country are expecting him to deliver on. They are expecting him to deliver on a wall on the Mexican border. They are expecting him to deliver on cracking down on Syrian refugees coming into this country and ending the processing of Syrian refugees into this country. They are expecting him to repeal Obamacare.

And I talked to a Democratic source on the Hill last night who've said that may not be that difficult to do through the budget reconciliation process. They may not need a super majority in the Senate to do that. And so that actually may be easier to do than perhaps people think. And so if Donald Trump decides to go down this bipartisan road, he's -- he might have people on the right, people like Ted Cruz who came on board on his campaign at the very end, intensely disappointed.

And as John Boehner understood as House speaker here, that's a difficult caucus to keep happy. And Paul Ryan knows this all too well, also. But you know, these are all story lines that we'll get to after this historic day. Obviously, Wolf, the imagery of being here at the White House, seeing those flags up and down West Executive Drive, in between the Eisenhower Executive Office building and the White House West Wing, remind us that, you know, this is our country, this is our America, this is our transition of power, and this is just something that we haven't seen before.

We've never seen a billionaire businessman walk into the White House here as president-elect. So we're all witnessing history together.

BLITZER: It's almost 11:00 a.m. here on the East Coast. Donald Trump and his entourage including Melania Trump expected momentarily to arrive.

We are now being told, Jim Acosta, that the expectation is he will actually drive in on the South Lawn, the South Lawn entrance to the White House, not where between the executive or the Eisenhower Executive Office building and the West Wing, the images we're seeing, those people who are standing on the stairs over there may be disappointed that they are not going to see him. They may drive in on that south side, but the South Lawn, and eventually make their way there, but I suspect at an historic moment like this, the president will want to receive him in a more majestic entrance which would be that South Lawn entrance. We don't know that for sure.

ACOSTA: Right.

BLITZER: But that's my expectation. Certainly President Obama deeply appreciates as much as the antagonism that developed, the bitter words that were exchanged during the campaign and over these years, I should say, I think he appreciates totally the historic moment that the country is about to observe and he wants to make it as smooth and as productive as possible.

ACOSTA: That's right, Wolf. And also keep in mind this White House will want this moment recorded. And Pete Souza, the White House photographer, I'm assuming, will be right there taking pictures of it. We'll see those pictures at some point on the White House instagram account later on today.

By the way, it may also be on the Trump Transition Team Twitter account. They've opened up a Trump Transition Team Twitter account that fired up I think last night. And we started seeing those tweets come out there. And I think both sides are going to want this image out there because I think it serves the interest of both parties to see this peaceful transition to occur.

And also, Wolf, we should keep in mind that the press will be allowed into the Oval Office, that small pool of press that follows the president, goes into the Oval Office when he meets with heads of state and so forth. They'll be in there and as you mentioned earlier, there should be a few reporters in there as well who will have the opportunity to ask some questions.

Now one thing that I think is just going to be fascinating to watch, Wolf, is that as I observed that on the campaign trail and we all know all too well, if Donald Trump is asked a question, it is very difficult for him not to answer that question. And so while the president of the United States, when we saw him with other foreign leaders might say OK, thanks, guys, thanks very much, and the press would be whisked out of the Oval Office, he's going to have Donald Trump next to him.

And Donald Trump, if he's asked a question that he likes, he may want to answer it. And -- but, you know, I think at this moment, from what we have seen so far in the last 48 hours since election night, I think Donald Trump, if given the chance to speak in the Oval Office and perhaps he will, will also want to once again send a more unifying message and set a more unifying tone.