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Trump & Pence Meet with Speaker Ryan; Trump Meets with GOP Leaders. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired November 10, 2016 - 14:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:00:07] (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT-ELECT: We're going to make it more affordable and better. We're going to do a real job for the public and that's what we want to do and that's what we were discussing (ph).

(CROSS TALK)

QUESTION: How does it feel to be in D.C.?

(CROSS TALK)

QUESTION: How does it - how does it feel to be in Washington, the first day as president-elect?

REP. PAUL RYAN (R), HOUSE SPEAKER: Thanks, guys. Appreciate it.

(CROSS TALK)

QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE) put tariffs on (INAUDIBLE) -

RYAN: Thank you very much, everybody.

(CROSS TALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Guys, the pool, let's head it out. The press pool, thank you very much. A tight pool. Out this way, guys.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: You've been looking at pictures here down on Capitol Hill, first the White House here was abuzz, of course, with Donald Trump meeting with President Obama, and we'll get there in just a second. But - and I'm Brooke Baldwin. Thank you so much for being with me on this yet again another historic day here in our nation's capital.

Let me just bring in my panel and we'll parse through what we saw quickly. Douglas Brinkley, Dana Bash, David Chalian and Martha Joynt- Kumar.

Dana, that was your home away from home for many, many years down on Capitol Hill. And to see - and we'll throw the photo back up if we can, or the video. You had Melania Trump, Donald Trump, Speaker Ryan and Mike Pence. And what - quickly what I can make out was, we'll work together. So, again, these messages of unity.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: I just remember Paul Ryan -beginning in a press briefing with Paul Ryan towards the beginning of the - of the presidential primary season and he was making it abundantly clear, without saying it, that he didn't think there was a snowball's chance in you know where that this moment would ever happen.

BALDWIN: Well, we're staring at it.

BASH: And it happened. And it happened. So, here we are. And I think - look, I've been - I've been trying to sort of think about the way politics works, think about the moment and, you know, been trying to sort of approach this in a very much a glass half full way in that in Paul Ryan and Donald Trump you have a policy wonk and a deal maker. And there's nothing that Paul Ryan likes more than to dig into tax reform, than to dig into, you know, budget reform. And he has a past of digging into immigration reform and wanting immigration reform. And then you have Donald Trump, who wants to be successful.

BALDWIN: Right.

BASH: I mean getting the presidency was just the beginning of the prize. But he wants to do it right. And he actually made that clear a lot on the stump. It got lost in a lot of the Trumpisms that we heard throughout the primary and the general election, but he made it very clear he wants to do it right if he gets in. And so I think that they're a very unlikely partnership, but could be a successful one if they approach it that way.

BALDWIN: I was thinking about the same thing, how he is such a policy wonk and how you saw Speaker Ryan not too long ago standing in front of reporters with like, you know, papers and stacks and I'm thinking, well, that's not necessarily the Donald Trump that we know.

BASH: Yes. You haven't - you haven't been briefed unless you've had a Power Point - a Power Point from Paul Ryan.

BALDWIN: I miss that.

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICS DIRECTOR: I'll just say, just stepping back and looking, these images that are coming into us from Capitol Hill, there you see the president and Donald Trump earlier today.

BALDWIN: Yes.

CHALIAN: These last 36 hours, it's been kind of amazing to me. For a campaign season that never followed the script, the last 36 hours have all been on script.

BASH: So true. So true.

CHALIAN: Donald - starting with Donald Trump's victory speech and the gracious notes he made about Hillary Clinton's concession. BALDWIN: Yes.

CHALIAN: And the desire to bring the country together, followed by Hillary Clinton's concession speech yesterday morning, followed by President Obama's remarks in the Rose Garden, to really try to bring the country together. And to this day today in Washington of the very -

BALDWIN: Actually, let me jump in.

CHALIAN: Sorry, sorry, go ahead.

BALDWIN: Let's see if we can eavesdrop.

BASH: Oh, wow.

REP. PAUL RYAN (R), HOUSE SPEAKER: (INAUDIBLE). This is the amphitheater (ph) that's going to have (INAUDIBLE). And then that (INAUDIBLE) down there with the 2x4 (INAUDIBLE). This is basically (INAUDIBLE).

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT-ELECT: (INAUDIBLE).

RYAN: (INAUDIBLE). That's it right there.

TRUMP: (INAUDIBLE).

RYAN: So the trees by that - the Treasury Department, the trees of the white House. The White House is (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thanks, everybody.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, guys, let's head on out.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thanks, everybody. Thank you. Thanks, guys.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thanks, guys.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you.

BALDWIN: You just can't.

BASH: Yes. Yes.

BALDWIN: It's like photo after photo after photo.

BASH: Uh-huh.

BALDWIN: And, you know, to see the president-elect and the first lady to be, giving them -

[14:05:03] BASH: Right.

BALDWIN: Showing them the lay of the land down the road.

BASH: Yes, and that's called the speaker's balcony because it's the speaker's balcony. And -

CHALIAN: One of the best views in Washington.

BASH: One of the best views in Washington. Almost as good as this. And John Boehner, obviously Paul Ryan's predecessor, it was his favorite thing to do, no matter who came, he would take them out and look at it and -

BALDWIN: I remember seeing Speaker Boehner and the pope, wasn't that - that was that photo.

BASH: Oh, oh, exactly. Exactly. Exactly. There you have it again.

BALDWIN: Yes.

BASH: And obviously Paul Ryan has the same feeling about it. And he's literally giving them the lay of the land. I mean he's not figuratively, literally giving him a lay of the land. Couldn't hear exactly what he was saying, but what they're doing is they're pointing straight up Pennsylvania Avenue.

BALDWIN: Hey, there's my hotel.

BASH: To this, right. I was just going to say. And in between where they are and this behind us, the White House -

BALDWIN: Yes.

BASH: Is the Trump Hotel.

BALDWIN: Yes.

CHALIAN: Dana, correct me if I'm wrong, but I think what we also see there is the inaugural platform starting to be built -

BASH: Yes, it's already -

CHALIAN: On that side of the Capitol. And I believe -

BALDWIN: Maybe that's the banging, banging, banging.

CHALIAN: I believe what Speaker Ryan is also showing the Trumps -

BASH: Yes.

CHALIAN: Is where he's going to take the oath of office -

BASH: Yes.

CHALIAN: And become president.

BALDWIN: You are correct, sir. You are correct.

BASH: So - and on this, just in terms of - I'm sure you're exactly right, as usual, David, but underneath where they are, just in terms of the geography of the Capitol, about two floors down is exactly where the president-elect walks out to - to the stands. And here you can see, they are building it there - there to the - to the station where he is sworn in. And it's - it's right down there. They walk through the crypt and then out - out the door. And I actually sometimes - I mean this - I'm going to dork out right now, but -

BALDWIN: You totally sneak out there and look?

BASH: Yes. Well, just also to take the walk that the president takes and to walk around the crypt and to walk out that door and to see what he sees the day of the inaugural is really cool.

BALDWIN: Seventy days away-ish, right?

BASH: Ish.

BALDWIN: Douglas Brinkley, you're watching all of this with us. As a historian, you are watching history unfold. What strikes you about all - this - this photo here?

DOUGLAS BRINKLEY, CNN PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: The amount of civility that's being seen today in Washington. And it's sorely needed. The country is feeling very divided. I think Donald Trump's really on a listening tour.

I hope in the coming days he might meet with Congressman John Lewis. Lewis famously was beaten during the freedom rides and marched to Selma and, in recent years, with his group called Politics and Faith, he met and hugged the people that actually beat him, John Lewis. He's a moral symbol on Capitol Hill. It would be - behoove Donald Trump to meet with him. Perhaps have a meeting down the line with Bernie Sanders, talk to him about some issues. Just listen some. And I think Donald Trump is doing that today.

And President Obama is going to go out with very high marks. He's had a 55 percent approval rating. By the time of the Trump inaugural, he'll be at about 60 percent approval rating. And - because he's showing us what a class act he is today. The transition of power is essential and we're watching it happen in its first phases today.

BALDWIN: We just heard from President Obama talking not 24 hours ago about how smooth and professional the transition was right from Bush 43 and then on to him and then the proverbial passing of the baton and then, of course, let's take a couple of steps back and the historic moment we saw the president and president-elect sitting in the Oval Office in the West Wing earlier this morning. Let's listen to that conversation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, I just had the opportunity to have an excellent conversation with President-Elect Trump. It was wide-ranging. We talked about some of the organizational issues in setting up a White House. We talked about foreign policy. We talked about domestic policy.

And as I said last night, my number one priority in the coming two months is to try to facilitate a transition that ensures our president-elect is successful. And I have been very encouraged by the, I think, interest in President-Elect Trump's wanting to work with my team around many of the issues that this great country faces. And I believe that it is important for all of us, regardless of party, and regardless of political preferences, to now come together, work together to deal with the many challenges that we face. And in the meantime, Michelle has had a chance to greet the incoming first lady and we had an excellent conversation with her as well. And we want to make sure that they feel welcome as they prepare to make this transition.

And most of all, I want to emphasize to you, Mr. President-Elect, that we now are going to want to do everything we can to help you succeed because if you succeed then the country succeeds.

Please.

[14:10:15] DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT-ELECT: Well, thank you very much, President Obama.

This was a meeting that was going to last for maybe 10 or 15 minutes and we were just going to get to know each other. We had never met each other. I have great respect. The meeting lasted for almost an hour and a half. And it could have - as far as I'm concerned, it could have gone on for a lot longer. We really - we discussed a lot of different situations, some wonderful and some difficulties.

I very much look forward to dealing with the president in the future, including counsel. He's - he explained some of the difficulties, some of the high-flying assets and some of the - some of the really great things that have been achieved.

So, Mr. President, it was a great honor being with you and I look forward to being with you many, many more times in the future. Thank you so much.

OBAMA: Thank you.

Thank you, everybody. We're not - we are not going to be taking any questions. Thank you. Thank you.

It's a good rule. Don't answer any questions when (INAUDIBLE).

TRUMP: (INAUDIBLE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: A little piece of advice there between the president and the president-elect. I mean these - these are wow moments. These are moments when words and tone and body language matter.

Martha, let me bring your voice into this conversation because all this talk of transitions, you were in charge of that transition between Bush 43 and President Obama eight years ago. When you look at those pictures, when you listen to the words, the meeting was supposed to last 15 minutes. It lasted for an hour and a half. Do you feel hopeful?

MARTHA JOYNT KUMAR, DIRECTOR, WHITE HOUSE TRANSITION PROJECT: I do. And I thought that they change - they discussed a broad range of things. They discussed foreign policy issues, which is a very traditional thing for a president to do, to transition himself, as Bush did to President Obama.

But I notice he also talked about the White House staff. And setting up your White House staff early is particularly important because that's your decision making structure and you want to make sure that in all the decisions you make, that you have the kinds of information that you want, but also the kinds of information you need, which may involve hearing from a lot of other maybe outside groups, but also government departments that have information that might be relevant to the decisions you're making in terms of appointments.

And so you want to have a White House structure in place. And it's not easy because while you have an opportunity at the very beginning of the administration to reorganize a White House, a better opportunity than you have later on. At the same time, you don't have people that have the experience and knowledge of being in a White House and how it should be organized. So that is -

BALDWIN: Let me just jump in and interrupt everyone.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Let's - let's dip in. Can we listen?

They're just walking past?

Forgive me, we're juggling. This is how live TV works. We'll stay on these pictures and see if they walk up to any microphones.

Go ahead, Dana.

BASH: So they're walking, obviously, around that corner there. Behind where you're seeing is the Senate chamber and they're walking actually towards the House side. But that's where Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader's office, is. It's right there. So the president-elect went from the speaker's balcony, underneath, and up and around so that he could get, you know, a little bit of a tour there. And you - you do see that Mike Pence is there. I wonder if, when they came up, they took a peek into what Mike Pence's office will be because he is going to be the president of the Senate, which has an office right near where they're standing.

BALDWIN: Have we seen anything like this before, a president-elect being walked around the sort of central grounds of Washington, or is it just because he's never held office he just isn't familiar?

CHALIAN: Well, I think we've seen these pictures before. A president- elect meeting with the congressional leadership that they will be working with when they (INAUDIBLE).

I was just wondering, though, I don't know if we've seen the incoming first lady partake in these meetings. BASH: Yes.

CHALIAN: I was, as you just said that, Brooke, I was trying to wrack my brain to remember if I saw Michelle Obama or Laura Bush join their president-elect husbands in these meetings with congressional leaders. I don't know if you recall, Dana?

[14:15:04] BASH: I don't - I don't. I mean, I don't think so, but I don't know for sure. But I think, to your point, in recent history at least, you know, obviously President Obama was a sitting senator, so he didn't exactly need a tour of the Senate.

BALDWIN: Right. That's what I was - right.

BASH: And most people are creatures of Washington or politics that know that. So, yes, this is ceremonial, symbolic, but for Donald Trump, it's also like, oh, this is where the Senate is, and that's where my office is. Things that other people just know coming in.

BALDWIN: I think this is all just incredibly - forgive me, I'm almost speechless just listening to all of this. Manu Raju, this is your home away from home, Capitol Hill. What do you know about these meetings and how they're going?

Manu, can you hear me? It's Brooke. You're live on CNN.

MANU RAJU, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: Hey, Brooke, we're still getting details of that meeting. It looked like that it went reasonably well, just judging by the body language. You saw pictures of Donald Trump going out onto the speaker's balcony, getting a little tour of the speaker's balcony. In fact, we did not get any guidance ahead of time that that was actually happening. So you would have to presume if this meeting was going poorly, that that would not happen.

But as we know, going into this meeting, the two men wanted to discuss areas in which they could work together, which they could hit the ground running, and where their agendas align. One of the things that Republican leaders thought about going into this meeting is, exactly what does Donald Trump want to do. He pushed a lot of issues that were very controversial and divisive on the campaign trail, like building a border wall with the border on the U.S. and Mexico. He came out pushing that. That could be something that could prompt a war within his own party and certainly among Democrats as well. So I expect that you could hear going in that Paul Ryan wants to push things that could unite the Republican Party. Some ideas that could presumably get Democratic support, like an infrastructure bill.

And you can bet that they discussed how exactly to go about their shared goal, about repealing Obamacare. Now, Brooke, that is something that they could do, take a significant chunk out of the Obamacare law through the budget process, but that could take several months to get accomplished. But they don't really have anything to replace it with yet, at least not anything specifically detailed in legislation. They have some broad policy ideas. So presumably they talked about that, how to deal with Obamacare. And as you just saw right now, Paul Ryan - or Donald Trump walking

with the next person in his meeting list, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, heading into his meeting as well. So important for their decision making going forward about how to deal with this slew of cabinet appointments that the Senate has to take up very soon into the new administration, as well as what to do about that Supreme Court justice. Mitch McConnell said he's going to give some suggestions on - to Donald Trump about who he could select for that ninth Supreme Court slot. So you can expect that to come up a lot. But McConnell, too, Brooke, does not necessarily want Donald Trump to do things that are divisive and that could divide the Republican Party. They want to show some unity right out of the gate, which is one reason why they're having these meetings today, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Listening to you on unity. Also just on how he's listening.

A quick note, and I think, Dana, this is about what you were going to say about Melania Trump and Donald Trump walking hand in hand -

BASH: Yes.

BALDWIN: Holding hands through, you know, Capitol Hill. I want to hear from you in a second, but let's just rewind for a moment and dip in and listen to the conversation between Speaker Ryan and President- Elect Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT-ELECT: We're going to do some absolutely spectacular things for the American people. We look forward to starting. And, truthfully, we can't get started fast enough. And whether it's health care or immigration, so many different things, we'll be working on it very rapidly. And I think we'll be putting things up quick (ph) - quickly. So we're going to have a big meeting, and a very detailed meeting and we're going to lower taxes, as you know. We're going to fix health care and make it more affordable and better. And we're going to do a real (ph) job for the public and that's what we want to do and that's why we're excited (ph).

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: All right, so, Doug Brinkley, and I know you have to run, so let me just come back to you. And as we're watching all of these sort of firsts here in Washington, D.C., I know that with regard to transition there have been parallels of this transition, the Obama/Trump transition, parallel to perhaps Carter and Reagan and how when Reagan came in he yanked all those solar panels right off of - off of the White House and not much - not much talking between the first ladies in the limo down on Inauguration Day. Is that a fair comparison or should we - should the country really give Donald Trump more credit than that?

BRINKLEY: Well, I think Donald Trump's doing a good job today, and Barack Obama. This is not 1980, the way Carter and Reagan just started not getting along. It's very clear for Barack Obama that he is somebody who believes in reconciliation. He is a student of Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King and he's got to heal the country right now. The wounds are deep.

[14:20:12] Gerald Ford called his memoir "A Time to Heal." Today we are witnessing a healing day, a lesson in civility and the world is watching. It's not just about what they're whispering to each other right now, it's sending a wide message that the United States is here, that this election's over and that we are going to have a sense of unity and purpose. We're not Republicans, we're not Democrats today, but we're Americans.

BALDWIN: We are Americans. Doug Brinkley, thank you so much, as always.

We are going to sneak a quick commercial break in, but you really can't turn away from this. I'm Brooke Baldwin here in Washington, D.C., with David Chalian and Dana Bash, walking you through these first, both at the White House and on Capitol Hill with President- Elect Donald Trump and his first lady-to-be here in Washington.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Welcome back. You're watching CNN's special live coverage here from Washington, D.C.

[14:25:02] It's safe to say there's a lot going on. There's a lot going on today in the White House behind me. We saw those very first pictures of President Obama and President-Elect Trump meeting in the Oval Office. There's all kinds of activity just down the road, down Pennsylvania, on Capitol Hill. We've been looking at pictures of President-Elect Trump holding hands with his wife, Melania Trump, walking through the speaker's balcony and really where he will be on Inauguration Day with House Speaker Paul Ryan. We've seen him with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. And also, by the way, we are watching and waiting for some winners to join President Obama in the White House momentarily, the Cleveland Cavaliers, anyone? So this will be President Obama's final hurrah with a winning basketball team. And so we'll take that as soon as we see it, of course. The interesting note, LeBron James, who was campaigning with Hillary Clinton in Cleveland days ago, my, what a difference a couple of days makes here. But - so we'll take that momentarily at the White House.

But, Martha Joynt Kumar, who was at the White House, who was in charge of the transfer of power and transition between Bush 43 and President Obama, let me ask you about the first ladies because we know Michelle Obama invited Melania Trump into the White House as well today. We heard from Josh Earnest that the two enjoyed a tea and a tour of the private residence, including stepping out on the Truman Balcony. What more do you know?

KUMAR: Well, traditionally, one of the things also that happens is the chief usher, who is the person in charge of the residence, Angela Reed (ph) is the current chief usher, there are about 97 people who work on the resident staff. And usually the chief usher is involved too. And meets the first lady-elect and discusses with her what kinds of furniture there are that she can draw on. There are two briefings books. I don't know if she got them today or that's going to be done later. But there are a couple of briefings books that have pictures of all the items in the collection that are in a warehouse so that if they wanted to, they could simply choose furniture from that and not have to bring anything into the White House, although I don't think they're going to choose to do that.

But that meeting her as well as the first lady gives - will give her an idea of the staff that she has that will support her. And she would hear from the first lady how many things that they do for their president and first lady.

BALDWIN: We're also told they talked about just having children in the White House. Barron, little Baron.

KUMAR: That's right.

BALDWIN: But let's go now to the president and the Cleveland Cavaliers.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Welcome to the White House and give it up for the world champion Cleveland Cavaliers.

That's right, I said world champion and Cleveland in the same sentence. That's what we're talking about when we talk about hope and change.

We've got a lot of big Cavs fans here in the House, including Ohio's governor John Kasich and his daughters Emma and Reese. We've got some outstanding members of Congress that are here and obviously we want to recognize Cavs owner Dan Gilbert, who put so much of himself into trying to make sure this thing worked. One of the great general managers of the game, David Griffin. And the pride and joy of Mexico, Missouri, Coach Tyronn Lue.

I also, before I go any further, want to give a special thanks to J.R. Smith's shirt for showing up. I wasn't sure if it was going to make an appearance today. I'm glad you came. Your very nice shirt.

Last season the Cavs were the favorites in the east all along, but the road was anything but stable. And I'm not even talking about what happened on the court. There were rumors about who was getting along with who. And (INAUDIBLE) somebody wasn't in the picture. And LeBron's tweeting and, you know, this was all big news. But somehow Coach Lue comes in and everything starts getting a little smoother. And they hit their stride in the playoffs.

[14:30:05] Yes, everybody can sit down. I'll be here for a while.

They start winning - they start winning their first 10 games in the playoffs, setting records