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More Anti-Trump Protests Erupt in U.S. Cities; GrubHub CEO Call For Resignation of Any Employees Who Agree With Trump. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired November 11, 2016 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:15] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning. And thanks so much for joining me from the nation's capital. I'm Carol Costello.

Angry protests erupt across the United States for the second night in a row. Thousands of people pouring into the streets.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CROWD: Not my president! Not my president! Not my president! Not my president!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Protesters citing a bitter presidential election often tainted with racial overtones and outrage, voicing concerns about the future of civil rights in Trump's America. And our President-elect tweeting this, quote, "Just had a very open and successful presidential election. Now professional protesters, incited by the media, are protesting. Very unfair."

And then just a couple of hours ago, this morning, Mr. Trump tweeting this, quote, "Love the fact that the small groups of protesters last night have passion for our great country. We will all come together and be proud."

Now, most of last night's rallies were angry but peaceful. But in Portland, Oregon, tensions exploded. Police saying the protests had escalated into a riot. They deployed flash bang grenades to break up the crowds. Across the country, more than 200 people were placed under arrest, and more anti-Trump demonstrations are planned for tonight.

Stephanie Elam is following the protests for us this morning. Jason Carroll is covering the transition to the Trump White House. But let's begin with you, Stephanie, in Los Angeles. Good morning.

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. In Portland, it started off peacefully but then it escalated throughout the night. They're saying there are some 4,000 protesters that were there in Portland, and eventually, police saying it went from being peaceful to what they call, quote, a riot. They said 26 people were arrested in Portland.

They said to disperse the crowds, they went to less lethal ways of breaking up the crowd like the flash bang grenades and also tear gas and what they call rubber baton rounds. They're saying that they started calling them anarchists, one police member referring to the people who are out there among the crowd who were vandalizing property. They were breaking windows. They were throwing objects, as well. All of that just playing out on the streets as you can see here in this video.

So once it became a riot, they called it extensive criminal and dangerous behavior and an unlawful protest. That was the worst of it.

But Portland was not alone in the protest. There were also protests in Denver, in Philadelphia, also in Baltimore, Dallas, and here in Los Angeles. We know about some 128 people were arrested. There are people who are gathering in front of Los Angeles city hall chanting, "Not my president." There were also arrested for blocking roads and some minors were arrested for breaking the curfew.

In Oakland, we know that there are 11 people arrested there. They say there are about some 1,000 protesters that turned out on the streets last night in this third night of protesting after the presidential election. They said they were arrested for graffiti, for also having Molotov cocktails and also M-80 firecrackers, that they were being thrown, and also threatening police officers.

So across the country, for a third night, we have seen this disruption. But really turning way more aggressive and violent in Portland, of all the cities that we've seen. Oakland also seeing some violence there, as well. Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Stephanie Elam reporting live for us from Los Angeles. Thanks so much.

There are now just 70 days until Donald Trump takes the oath of office. He's meeting today to start assembling his White House staff. Let's talk about that now. CNN's Jason Carroll is outside the Trump Tower. Good morning.

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And good morning to you, Carol. And in true Trump fashion, Donald Trump already tweeting about the transition just about 30 minutes ago, saying, "Busy day planned in New York. We'll soon be making some very important decisions on the people who would be running our government."

The Trump transition team hard at work, trying to come up with the names of the people who will fill his administration. You know, Carol, he's been criticized for having too many insiders involved in this whole process. You know, he was the one who said he was going to drain the swamp, get rid of the Washington insiders, get rid of the corruption.

A number of insiders involved in this, people like the former Attorney General Edwin Meese, a former adviser Dick Cheney and former administrator from the Bush administration also involved in all this. But there's also an argument, you need some insiders to help out with this. One of the positions being talked about a lot in the media is White

House Chief of Staff. It's typically one of the first announcements that's made. I say typical but this has not been a typical election. As you know, one of the names being thrown out there is Steve Bannon, the campaign CEO, a controversial figure in his own right, head of Breitbart, former investment banker, also a staunch critic of Speaker Paul Ryan, which would make for an interesting dynamic.

[09:05:05] Another name being thrown out there for a suggestion, perhaps Trump's son-in-law.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. CHRIS COLLINS (R), NEW YORK: Steve Bannon has pretty much, you know, decades of experience, with Mr. Trump. Mr. Trump has to have someone in that position that he trusts implicitly, certainly a longer tenure relationship. And I think the trust factor would certainly be higher. You know, I think the third person to throw in there is his son-in-law, Jared Kushner. I mean, he has all the traits.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARROLL: Well, you heard from Trump tweeting again, Carol, an announcement should be coming soon with some of these key appointments. Trump will be meeting with his transition people over the weekend, specifically about some of the 800 or so positions that need to be filled that involve security clearances. Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Jason Carroll reporting live from New York City this morning. Thank you.

So let's talk about all this. I'm joined now by CNN Politics Executive Editor Mark Preston. Lynn Sweet is the Washington bureau chief of "The Chicago Sun-Times," and Susan Page is the Washington bureau chief of "USA Today." Welcome to all of you.

Reince Priebus was on "Good Morning America" this morning. He was asked about these protests going on across the country. He intimated that some of it could be orchestrated. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REINCE PRIEBUS, CHAIRMAN, REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE: What I do know, though, and I think what President-elect Trump knows, is that it's very clear that, at least in the e-mails that were released, that we had the DNC, the Hillary Clinton campaign, or someone in between, going to Donald Trump rallies and inciting violence. And so that happened. And so there are such things as professional protesters.

But I'm sure that the vast majority of people are just very disappointed with the outcome of the election, so I'll give them that. And I'll also say I understand the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights. But this election is over now and we have a President-elect who has done everything he can do over the last 48 hours to say let's bring people together.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: So, Lynn, what exactly did he say? Did he say he does believe professional protesters are at work here, or is it just, you know, people unhappy with the election's outcome and protesting?

LYNN SWEET, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES: He -- first of all, he said he will probably be -- out of the names that you put out there just now, he's the most likely Chief of Staff candidate from those. He was saying that there were, without any facts, without understanding the nature of each protest in each city where there might be different stories as to how they originated or who organized them.

One thing we learned in this election is that there are a lot of ways of communicating with people, and a group in Chicago might be different than the group in another state that's protesting. So I would just say, respect that people are upset about the election and they want to vent. To make an allegation when you don't know if it's true or not -- and I'm not denying the stuff that they found out about in the WikiLeaks. So having said that, this is what leadership is now. And I would think that sending out tweet that was inflammatory as President-elect Trump did, I don't see how that helps.

One other quick point when Kushner's -- the son-in-law's name was mentioned, I think that we have to research. There is a law that came into play after JFK appointed Bobby Kennedy, that you can't hire your relatives for federal government spots. So I don't know if a son-in- law would qualify as a relative --

COSTELLO: Uh-hmm.

SWEET: -- in this case or if you could hire --

COSTELLO: No, no, I hear you. We're going to talk much more about that in the next block. Right now, I want to concentrate on what's going on across the country.

MARK PRESTON, CNN POLITICS EXECUTIVE EDITOR: Right.

COSTELLO: Because, you know, in looking at some of these protests and how violent they got, especially in Portland, it's disturbing, right? So as police in Oregon were trying to stop a riot, Mr. Trump, who is the President-elect, tweeted this, "Just had a very open and successful presidential election. Now professional protesters, incited by the media, are protesting. Very unfair."

And then again, just to review again this morning, Mr. Trump changed his tune, tweeting, "Love the fact that the small groups of protesters last night have passion for our great country. We will all come together and be proud." But they weren't small protests.

PRESTON: No, they weren't but --

COSTELLO: There were 4,000 people protesting in Portland, 5,000 in New York City, thousands of people in Denver. In Omaha, police had to use pepper balls to break up the protests. PRESTON: Right. So a couple of things, and to just follow on Lynn a

little bit. Look, the DNC, I would bet my bottom dollar the DNC or the Hillary Clinton campaign had nothing to do with the organizing of these protests. But let us understand how politics work here in the U.S.

[09:10:00] There are outside groups that do organize, and now we have the Twitter and Facebook that is able to mobilize people very quickly, and people are angry. And this is our democracy, so they can go out there and they can trek down the streets. And that is fine. I mean, that is democracy at work.

What is not fine, though, is the destruction of private property, the destruction of public profit. And what else is not fine is attacking police officers, right? There's peaceful protesting and then there's violence as well.

I will say this about the Donald Trump tweets, not a good tweet in the middle of the night, when he sent that out. But at least, the second tweet he did send out was to say, listen, we're all going to come together. So clearly, somebody got to him and said you need to help quell this down a little.

COSTELLO: OK. So clearly, someone got to him. Who was that person?

SUSAN PAGE, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, USA TODAY: Yes. We don't know. We know that this follows a pattern in the campaign. What's different now is that the megaphone that Donald Trump has has gotten much, much bigger, and has much more power to reverberate than it did even when he became the Republican nominee for President.

And I think this is something that President-elects learn, the kind of consequences that their words can have, including unintended consequences. We're at a point where everybody in America and around the world are looking for signals about what kind of President Donald Trump will be. And we have less information about that than we do about most people who get elected President because his campaign has been so extraordinary and because he has sent mixed signals about various things.

Everything he says, every appointment he makes, his first appointment, we expect, as Chief of Staff, will send enormous signals about what kind of president he's going to be.

PRESTON: Right.

SWEET: Yes.

COSTELLO: Well, but I can understand why he might be a little irritated because there are other examples out there in our culture right now that, you know, you kind of raise your eyebrows. For example, "People" magazine. They put Mr. Trump on the cover. That's pretty normal, right? New president, put him on the cover. And the cover of "People" magazine simply says, "President Trump."

But now, many Hollywood stars say they'll boycott the magazine, right? Because remember, a "People" magazine reporter claimed Trump sexually assaulted her.

The CEO of GrubHub, right? He sent out a warning to all of his employees, and I'm going to read what the warning was, quote, "As we all try to understand what this vote means to us, I want to affirm to anyone on our team that is scared or feels personally exposed, that I and everyone else here at GrubHub will fight for your dignity and your right to make a better life for yourself and your family here in the United States. If you do not agree with this statement, then please reply to this e-mail with your resignation because you have no place here." This is extraordinary.

SWEET: Well, we're in extraordinary times. I don't know what the reaction would be if I were a GrubHub employee who was didn't -- who was a -- who was excited about Trump.

PRESTON: Right.

COSTELLO: Who voted for Mr. Trump, right?

SWEET: And remember, this is a divided country. Hillary Clinton won the popular vote, not the Electoral College. But it is highly likely that there are people with even mixed feelings, and this is such new territory for us to be in politically, emotionally, culturally. We don't know where the next few days will bring us with this unexpected win, unexpected by the media polling class. So that is an extraordinary statement by the GrubHub guy.

I actually kind of think, people process things in different ways. And I know that Andrew Cuomo talked about, in earlier segment, with a psychotherapist. We kind of need a national moment of let's deal with this in a productive way.

COSTELLO: I know. And we're not dealing with it in a productive way. California, for instance.

PRESTON: Right.

COSTELLO: There's a movement to secede from the union, which reminds me of -- you know, remember Texas wanted to secede from the union because of President Obama.

PRESTON: Right. Right.

COSTELLO: It's like stop it.

PRESTON: Well, I mean, and that's ridiculous, right? It's absolutely ridiculous. I mean, look, tensions are high. But, if you remember, when Texas was talking about seceding, it was because of Barack Obama and the policies he was going to push upon us, right? You know, and now California says, oh, we're going to cut off.

You know what? It's impossible. It's ridiculous that they're even going to say that. I do think people need to grow up a little bit here, OK? And there are going to be differences. And there are going to be some really big policy differences come January 21st when Barack Obama leaves office and Donald Trump comes in, and health care is changed, and tax cuts are put through. Argue on those issues. You know what I mean?

Let's argue on the issues and not on the state of play that we all feel about --

SWEET: But there is emotion going here that you can't deny. I don't know about all of you, but sometimes I just need to vent if I'm upset about something.

PRESTON: Right. And you can protest and they are protesting.

SWEET: Right, I'm protesting.

PRESTON: That is absolutely fine. What is not fine, though, is to have violence and destruction. I mean that is just --

SWEET: Oh, I agree. But the -- that's where, I think, these inflammatory tweets aren't productive because you got to understand --

PRESTON: Well, clearly he tried to back off it, Lynn. He did try to back off, but we've got to get the people in sort of this mess out.

SWEET: Yes.

COSTELLO: But he is giving conflicting messaging though.

PRESTON: Well, he's been doing that his whole campaign.

COSTELLO: And you know --

PAGE: Do you mean the first tweet or the --

COSTELLO: I know. But that's exactly the thing.

PRESTON: And he still won.

COSTELLO: People are so unsure.

PRESTON: And he still won.

PAGE: You know, one of the big concerns I think some Americans have is that not that President-elect Trump is intentionally trying to incite division, but that there are divisive elements in our society that are going to take advantage of this, that they are going to be empowered by this election to -- to be aggressive toward Muslims.

[09:15:17] To be aggressive toward Mexicans, or other immigrants. To have rhetoric or take steps that offend kind of the sense of America that wants to be welcoming and united. So, I think there are legitimate concerns by some Americans that this is going to be a consequence of the election.

And that's something that I think President-elect Trump might well want to address himself.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: We're going to talk more about this in the next block because I have good examples exactly of what you were talking about.

So, still to come in the NEWSROOM: these protests erupting on the streets. That's not the only place. What's going on in some classrooms might shock you.

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[09:20:08] COSTELLO: All right. We've seen passionate responses to Donald Trump's win on both sides. But what you're about to see is disturbing, because it shows racist and intimidating behavior from children. This is Royal Oak, Michigan, a middle school.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KIDS: Build the wall! Build the wall! Build the wall! Build the wall!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: All right. So you can see those kids were chanting "build the wall" in front of their Hispanic classmates, and then there's this from a high school in York, Pennsylvania

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KID: White power. White power. White power.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: All right. So these kids are walking down a hallway holding a Trump banner and chanting white power.

So, let's talk about this and more I'm joined again by Mark Preston, Lynn Sweet and Susan Page.

So, I mean, they could be -- they -- I hope they are isolated incidents. But it's still disturbing to see, right?

PAGE: It's distressing to see. And I think it's distressing to those Hispanic kids --

MARK PRESTON, CNN POLITICS EXECUTIVE EDITOR: Right.

PAGE: -- in Royal Oak, Michigan.

Now, I understand that the school suspended the kids who were chanting that, and I think that educators like all of us have a responsibility to use this as what you call a teaching moment about the American tradition, and American constitutional rights, and our obligation to fellow citizens, and people who live here.

COSTELLO: But, but I think it does demonstrate why some minority groups are so frightened at the moment, and why there are such protests breaking out across the country, because, there are people who are very afraid. PRESTON: Right. And they have every right to be given the right that

we saw over the campaign, and some of the things they said about banning Muslims and all.

But I think we all agree at the hat this is a moment now to talk about leadership. It is a moment for Donald Trump to step up, and put his foot down and say that this is not appropriate. You know, quite frankly, it goes beyond him. It goes to parents, quite frankly, that got to sit their kids down and say that' not appropriate. You know, you're not supposed to do that.

I mean I have two children if my kids did that, I mean -- I couldn't even tell you -- I would get arrested if I told you what I would do to them for doing that.

COSTELLO: So, does Donald Trump, I know he's, you know, I know it's not traditional, but does he need to come out and -- and address the country and say you know what? I want us to be united. We're not a racist country.

(CROSSTALK)

COSTELLO: My -- my -- my most passionate supporters are not racist. Like and those who are I don't want them to be supporters.

LYNN SWEET, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, CHICAGO SUN-TIMES: That would be a nice message to make, I think that he could use the example of this peaceful transition of power. His most bitter critics, Carol, conceded. They were gracious. President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama had -- had the Trumps over at the house, at the White House.

Use this gracious concession as a way of saying, I won, and I won my way, but I want you to, in a persuasive way, figure out a way to tell the people that now I do want to be your president of everyone.

I know he said. But somewhere in there, find the right tweet --

COSTELLO: You know --

PRESTON: In a right tone, a right tone and a right venue.

PAGE: It's not just what he says. It's what he does.

SWEET: Yes.

Does he make appointments? Does he announce what his priorities are going to be in the first 100 days? Does he address questions about whether he's actually going to ban Muslims from coming here, as immigrants, and let's see what he actually does. Does he reach out to Democrats --

PRESTON: Right.

PAGE: -- on issues like an infrastructure bill?

SWEET: Right. PAGE: That Nancy Pelosi said let's work to the on that.

COSTELLO: Let's talk about the chief of staff position. Because Steve Bannon supposedly he wants this man -- I mean, Steve Bannon, is also the former editor of Breitbart. He is largely responsible for pushing the birtherism movement, right? So there's been some racist elements on Breitbart.

So, if Donald Trump really does appoint him as a chief of staff, that will send a message, too.

SWEET: It sends the wrong message, not only for everything you said, Carol, but he doesn't know government. That's as -- you need someone in chief of staff who is experienced in how a White House works and who knows how Congress works. When you look at past chiefs of staff, Rahm Emanuel, Bill Daly, Andrew Card, and by the way -- and I meant Chris Cuomo, not Andrew Cuomo, you have people that know, one of the things that Trump and Obama talked about yesterday was just how you organize the White House.

You have an incoming president who's never held government office. Who's going to have to learn that Congress, and I'm sure he kind of knows it, but you have to absorb it, they're not employees who you can fire or hire. You have to live with them. And they can block things you want even if they're in your party.

So I would think that the first question is get somebody there who knows how to make it work, and that alone should disqualify people who don't have that.

[09:25:04] But, unless you have somebody who is very special, I wouldn't pick somebody who's inflammatory.

COSTELLO: OK. So here's a kooky idea --

PRESTON: Kooky time --

COSTELLO: So, President Obama turns out the working class, right? Donald Trump turns off many minority groups, right? Why don't both men come out and stand together and say something unifying?

PRESTON: I mean, you could potentially see that. But there are huge policy differences I mean between them.

COSTELLO: This has nothing to do with policy.

PRESTON: No, no, no, but it really does.

COSTELLO: I know, but, but, as far as like, give the guy a chance --

PRESTON: Look. There would be nothing more powerful than to see Barack Obama and Donald Trump from the national address. Will that ever happen? No.

But it would be extremely powerful and send a message not only here domestically but internationally. And I think that's very important. COSTELLO: But aren't these extraordinary times?

PAGE: They are, indeed. But you know, I think we've had situations maybe not quite as -- as inflamed as this before.

I mean, I remember in 1980, when Ronald Reagan name James Baker as his chief of staff, somebody who had opposed him, had run the campaign against him in the Republican primary, rather than Ed Meese or someone who was more kind of traditionally aligned with him, that had huge repercussions. People took that as a message that Ronald Reagan wants to work with us. Maybe I misjudged Ronald Reagan.

It got him a long way -- it bought him a lot of credibility that he didn't have before.

So, this is a moment where Donald Trump could do something like that. Name somebody who has been with him from the start, like Steve Bannon, or, reach out, may even someone who opposed him.

COSTELLO: All right. I got to leave it there. But it's a great conversation that I'm sure we'll continue for a very long time unfortunately.

Mark Preston, Lynn Sweet, Susan Page -- thanks so much.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, the Democrats forced to confront an uncertain future after a bruising loss in the race for the White House. Where does the party go from here? And who should lead the Democratic Party?

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