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Vice Presidential-Elect Mike Pence Now Heads Donald Trump's Transition Team; Democrats Search for New Party Leaders; Donald Trump Comments on Retaining Parts of Obamacare; Suicide Bomber Hits U.S. Air Base in Afghanistan; Mistrial Declared for Police Shooting of African- American Driver; Mexicans React to Donald Trump's Announced Plans to Build Border Wall. Aired 10-11a ET

Aired November 12, 2016 - 10:00   ET

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

[10:00:00] MICHAEL SMERCONISH, CNN ANCHOR: But I'm giving the man a blank slate moving forward, and I'll evaluate him based on his conduct. "I haven't been the biggest fan of yours this year. Your grace this morning was commendable. We need to heal." That's what I'm saying. Let's all work together the way President Obama and Secretary Clinton said we need to.

Give me another one. "Thanks for the bug. At least there's one Democrat who doesn't lie." I don't know that Dr. Wong is a Democrat, but he's a man of his word. Give me another one. Keep them moving here. "Smerconish, I think you should run for president in four years. Any chance" No. Zero chance.

I'm out of time, unfortunately. Thank you so much. Tweet me @Smerconish. I'll see you next weekend.

CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: Well, good morning and welcome to Saturday. We're always grateful to have you with us. I'm Christi Paul.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Victor Blackwell. It's 10:00 here on the east coast. CNN Newsroom begins right now. And we're starting with Donald Trump transitioning into power as Democrats, they're doing some soul searching. Both parties turning the page after this historic, stunning election.

PAUL: Trump's team hunkering down, working to fill critical staff positions now. In fact, they're so busy, one Trump insider who was booked on our show had to cancel.

BLACKWELL: Plus, vice presidential -- president-elect, I should say, Mike Pence now leading the charge on Trump's transition team.

PAUL: And as both parties work towards unity, Democrats are asking the critical question, what went wrong and idea do we go from here? Senator Bernie Sanders writes this in a "New York Times" op-ed. "Trump won the White House because his campaign rhetoric successfully tapped into a very real and justified anger, an anger that many traditional Democrats feel."

BLACKWELL: Meanwhile, another day of protests planned after a third night of tense demonstrations. Anger here boiling over in Portland. Let me tell you about one person who was shot there, suffered nonlife- threatening injuries, we're told, and the police are now looking for the peon who ran off from that shooting.

All of this is happening as Donald Trump's supporters wait for the new president-elect to turn promises into policy. Trump now appears to be open to compromise on one of his signature rallying cries, the repeal of Obamacare.

Let's bring in CNN's Chris Frates. He's outside Trump Tower there in New York City. So what are we hearing from the president-elect?

CHRIS FRATES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Victor, well, Donald Trump making some news yesterday, telling "The Wall Street Journal" that he would like to keep some of the key provisions inside that signature health care law. In fact, he said after he met with President Obama at the White House, he felt like they should continue to allow people with preexisting conditions to get health care. And he also wanted to see children be able to stay on their parent's plan long into adulthood.

Now, he did say he want to repeal and replace Obamacare. In fact, he says he's going to do it without anybody losing coverage. Here's what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We're going to do it simultaneously. It will be just fine. That's what I do. I do a good job. I mean, I know how to do this. We're going to repeal it and replace it. And we're not going to have like a two-day period and we're not going to have a two-year period where there's nothing. It will be repealed and replaced. And we'll know. And it will be great health care for much less money.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FRATES: So there's Donald Trump, you know, taking a bit of a softer tone than he did during that hard line during the campaign. A lot less tough rhetoric, guys. And I wonder if he's kind of making a little bit of groundwork for a compromise.

BLACKWELL: All right, speaking of the vice president-elect, who we spoke about a few moments ago, we understand he's now taking over Trump's transition team. We know that New Jersey Governor Chris Christie was in that role. Tell us about that switch.

FRATES: Yes, this is really interesting. Chris Christie had been the chairman of the transition since May, and now he's been bumped down to vice chairman. And alongside some other really top campaign surrogates and confidants for Donald Trump, people like Steve Bannon, who was a campaign chairman, also Reince Priebus, the chairman of the Republican national committee, they're both in the running to be White House chiefs of staffs.

Now, Christie's aides say, look, it's not unusual for a vice president-elect to take over the transition effort. They point to vice president Dick Cheney did the same thing, but Dick Cheney didn't have a cloud hanging over his head the way Chris Christie does with bridge-gate. You'll remember just a couple of weeks ago his top allies were convicted in that scandal, which they were convicted of shutting down lanes around the George Washington Bride, creating huge traffic problems in a New Jersey town to get back at the mayor of that town, who was a Democrat who didn't endorse Christie.

Now, of course, Christie says he didn't know about those lane closures, he wasn't involved in them, but it's bringing a lot more scrutiny. So, you know, Chris Christie kind of falling out of favor here in the Trump campaign and Mike Pence taking over what essentially will become the government and waiting for Donald Trump, guys.

[10:05:00] BLACKWELL: Chris Frates for us outside Trump Tower in New York. Chris, thanks.

PAUL: David Swerdlick, assistant editor for "The Washington Post" and CNN political commentator is with us now. David, good to see you. Thanks for being here.

DAVID SWERDLICK, ASSISTANT EDITOR, "WASHINGTON POST": Hi, Christi.

PAUL: Hi. There's an old political saying, you campaign in poetry and govern in prose. Do you believe that's what we're seeing in these very early days in the Trump administration?

SWERDLICK: Yes, I think so, especially when it comes to Obamacare. Yesterday "The Wall Street Journal" came out with that interview with president-elect Trump saying that he might want to hang on to some of the popular provisions of the Obamacare law, letting people keep their adult children on their plans and requiring insurers to cover people with preexisting conditions.

But he still wants to do that by getting rid of some of the unpopular parts of the plan, or bringing down, bringing down premiums. The problem with that logic, as most economists will say, is that it's a little bit like having dessert without eating your broccoli first, right? There are all these levers and pulleys that made Obamacare work mathematically. And if you keep the popular provisions without some of the less-popular provisions, it's going to be a little tougher to do that with the president and with Congress going forward. That's why some people are already saying, look, he's kind of backing off of what he promised.

PAUL: I just want to point out to our viewers. You're looking at a live picture of Trump Tower, where we believe Donald Trump is right now. But to your point about Obamacare, you know, I was watching an interview yesterday with one of the gentleman who crafted it and said, look, this isn't the perfect plan. We never expected it to be the perfect plan, but modifying it can, in fact, work.

SWERDLICK: Yes, and I think the irony for some Democrats is that Democrats have always said that they were willing to modify it. They just didn't want to tear it out root and branch, as many Republicans in Congress have suggested they want to do, and as Donald Trump suggested he wanted to do, particularly on the last -- in the last few weeks of the campaign. We have a piece up on "The Washington Post" right now, that says,

here's why Trump is starting to waffle on Obamacare. It's by Harvard economist David Cutler. And he explains in detail exactly why it's difficult to withdraw the Affordable Care Act without creating problems downstream in terms of how you keep people covered. Trump is offering things like tax subsidies, but those don't always help people at the lower end of the income scale. Trump has said, as many Republicans have said, that he wants to get rid of the lines around the state borders and allow insurers to sell across state lines. But that presents its own problems, as well.

Obamacare was not a perfect law, but it is going to be harder to repeal and replace, I think, than it was billed.

PAUL: OK, so we have Obamacare. Let's talk about the wall real quickly. Newt Gingrich seemed to walk back Trump's tough talk on a border wall during a conference call this week. Here's what he said, and this is in "The Washington Post." He said, "He'll spend a lot of time controlling the border. He may not spend very much time trying to get Mexico to pay for it, but it was a great campaign device." A great campaign device, that cannot resonate well with Donald Trump's base.

SWERDLICK: Well, Christi, there's been a lot of talk in the last couple of days about this idea, it was first put out there by Salena Zito, who is our colleague and writes for a variety of outlets, you know, a very widely regarded columnist, and this idea that the media took Donald Trump literally and that his supporters took him seriously. The problem is, is that if you're not allowed as a media to take what someone says on the campaign trail literally, how are you supposed to evaluate what they're going to do when in office?

I think at least initially, it's fair to say that Trump supporters are enthusiastic about him and may give him some slack to not do exactly what he said he was going to do on the campaign trail. But the idea that he was going to do -- that he said one thing and might do another on some of these marquis issues I think eventually is going to catch up with him.

PAUL: But David, it would certainly not be the first time a presidential candidate has done it. That's happened many, many, many times. As we know, they say one thing in the campaign, they get in there, and especially for newcomers who are now learning about classified information, realizing maybe I can't do everything that I said I could do, initially. Anyway, David Swerdlick, thank you so much. We appreciate it. He's going to stick with us, too, as we get his take on the disarray in the Democratic Party. That's a bit later in the show.

BLACKWELL: All right, four people dead after a deadly explosion in a U.S. air base in Afghanistan this morning. We'll have details.

PAUL: And he has stakes in more than 500 businesses. What is the president-elect planning to do about all of those as he prepares to move into 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue?

BLACKWELL: Also, the Democratic Party looks to move forward after Hillary Clinton's loss on Tuesday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This is a tough time for our country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:13:05] BLACKWELL: All right, 13 minutes after the hour now. Donald Trump's election to the White House poses a potential ethical dilemma like this country's never seen. The president-elect has a stake in more than 500 companies, both here in the U.S. and around the world. And that's more than any other president in history. So, Trump's plan is to let his three eldest children run his empire while he is in the White House. Let's bring in CNN Money Correspondent Cristina Alesci. And the Trump children in charge of his businesses, detail for us the problems that that could present.

CRISTINA ALESCI, CNN MONEY CORRESPONDENT: So many problems. This announcement, what it tries to do is resolve a big problem for Donald Trump. It questions about whether he can make decisions in the best interest of the country without his business interests potentially clouding his judgment.

But the reality is this arrangement, handing the business over to his kids, does almost nothing to meet the standards that most ethics experts and lawyers recommend. Here's what happened. Trump wants to avoid criticism for backing policies that could directly boost his bottom line, like supporting tax breaks for developers, for example.

Now, a spokesman for the Trump Organization says the new structure, whatever it is, will comply with all applicable rules and regulations. Well, guess what, Victor, there are almost no rules that dictate how a president or a vice president handles conflict. That's in contrast to other officials in the executive branch that have to comply with something called the U.S. financial conflict of interest statute and get rid of the businesses that clash with their duties.

But, there is a long-standing tradition that presidents and vice presidents eliminate conflict. And the only way to do that, experts say, is to sell his assets, put the proceeds in what's called a blind trust run by someone with no connections to the family, and any other arrangement, such as the one that he's proposing, looks like it falls short from an ethical standpoint at least according to the reporting I've done so far.

[10:15:04] So the question for many people at home is, is the president subject to any regulation or oversight when it comes to conflicts? Now, clearly, he can't accept a bribe, right? But let's say he wants to change the terms of a deal he negotiated with the federal government, like the lease he has on his hotel in Washington, D.C., for example. There's nothing standing in his way to go ahead and do that. Now, ethics lawyers are pointing to a clause in the constitution that

they say could trip up Trump. It actually pertains to foreign governments. It's called the emoluments clause. It says that no government official can accept money from a foreign government. But experts don't know if that clause applies to Trump's businesses. After all, we're talking about business deals, not gifts.

Remember, he has golf courses in Scotland, his name is on buildings in India, Turkey, and the Philippines. We don't know whether or not the governments of those countries were involved in those transactions. But experts say it's easy to see how a violation would play out. Let's say a sovereign wealth fund, for example, like the Chinese government, wanted to invest in a Trump-branded hotel. It's very complicated, and we still don't know too much about these conflicts because we don't have his tax returns and it's a private company, so there isn't much information about these conflicts out there, Victor.

BLACKWELL: All right, let me bring in former Georgia Congressman Jack Kingston. And Cristina, I want you to stay with us for this conversation. Jack Kingston, former Congressman from Georgia, as I said, senior adviser to the Trump campaign, Trump supporter. Congressman, you've listened to what Cristina laid out here for us. For people at home, now, you know the man, but for people at home who are just uncomfortable with the Trump children now running the business, being part of the transition, what can you tell them to assuage some of those concerns that the president-elect will not use the office, use the White House, to potentially benefit his businesses and it won't go in the other direction?

JACK KINGSTON, SENIOR ADVISER, TRUMP, CAMPAIGN: Well, let me say this. As hard as we hit Hillary Clinton and the Clinton Foundation, the last thing that the Trump administration would want to do is do a similar kind of overlap between government duties and financial, personal gain. So I think what Cristina has raised very legitimate questions. I think what the Trump administration will do, and not just the Trump administration, but Democrats and Congress people outside of the Congress, natural critics, if you will, will have a lot of say-so about this to make sure that that line is not crossed.

But I can promise you, after watching the Clinton Foundation, we do not want to get into that trap. So, this may take a while to sort out, but it will be a top priority.

But I did want to point out this --

BLACKWELL: Let me ask you this. Without the transparency of releasing his tax returns, this is a privately held company so many of the details that would allow people to determine if there is a lack of a conflict here, how will the American people know that something untoward is not happening here if he doesn't release those tax returns, if he doesn't make his businesses a little more transparent?

KINGSTON: The tax returns are focused on how much he pays in taxes. And in May of 2016, his financial disclosure was disclosed. That was, I think, 120 pages long. And that is the document that they could go by, and that is fully transparent. But I want to point this out. Five blocks from where I sit is the new

Trump hotel in Washington, D.C. To my knowledge, 24 hours a day, but certainly seven days a week, there are protesters out there saying, boycott Trump. And they've been out there now ever since it opened. So if he was only worried about his financial well-being, he would not have been running for president.

I think he's proven that he is willing to risk downside to his business for the name of running for president and being the country's leader. So he is a guy who realizes that he may have to liquidate some assets. I think the blind trust is a natural route for a lot of this. And there's just some things that he's going to have to get out of. But he knows that. And we have seen that example where, you know, an elected official really has to have a strong firewall.

BLACKWELL: Let me bring Cristina back in here. Again, we're talking about this blind trust. Is that realistic for an empire the size of Donald Trump's?

ALESCI: He can do it. And, you know, all of the experts that I've spoken to are not just talking heads, they actually did pull off these kinds of deals for prior presidents. That said, you know, 500 businesses, it's really, really tough.

But to Jack's point, maybe there is a way to identify the areas of his business operations where the deepest conflicts may be, where he may be exposed to the deepest conflicts and liquidate those. But then again, why give your political opponents that ammunition? If you think about it, I mean, everybody's going to be paying tangs to this, the media, his -- the Democrats.

[10:20:03] Why even give them an opening, a potential to question this? Other presidents haven't. Prior presidents have had no problem putting their assets, granted, they weren't as complicated as these, into a blind trust and handing it over to somebody that has no connection to the family. And that's really the best way to keep everything above board and clean.

BLACKWELL: All right, Cristina Alesci and Jack Kingston, thanks so much for a closer look into this as we get to 69 days before the inauguration of the Donald Trump. Christi?

PAUL: This morning, there was a deadly blast in Afghanistan at a U.S. air base. Four people are dead, dozens are injured. We'll let you know what we've learned, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: Breaking news now. New details that the attack on a U.S. air base in Afghanistan, four people were killed, two of them U.S. service members, two were U.S. contractors, 16 other U.S. service members, we're told, were injured in that blast at Bagram air base.

PAUL: The Taliban have claimed responsibility for the attack. They did so via a tweet. And U.S. officials say it was, they have now determined, a suicide bombing. CNN's Will Ripley has been watching this morning. So what else can you tell us about this attack, and let's get into the importance, too, of this air base.

[10:25:00] WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the air base is certainly important because it's the largest U.S. military installation in Afghanistan. Bagram is 30 miles north of Kabul. They built it up after 9/11. There were 14,000 people there now, about 60 percent contractors. At the height of the surge, the population was 40,000. So you can imagine this small city essentially built within the fortress, within the confines of a U.S. military base. You have to go through multiple layers of security just to get into the base.

Obviously, whoever conducted this attack, presumably, was able to infiltrate that security. Did they have any identification badge? Were they somebody who was trusted to get close to these service members and to these contractors who were killed and injured in what was supposed to be a really fun event on a Saturday morning. People were gathering around the dawn for a fun run on the base. This is one of the few times, if there is a time that you feel safe in a place like Afghanistan, where people can relax. They can laugh. They can get some exercise and enjoy the fresh air. And instead what we're hearing is that it was somebody with a suicide vest who detonated it on a sidewalk and turning that fun event into a scene of absolute terror as people were running away, those injured, again, 16 service members, two U.S. service members killed, two contractors killed, as well, and a lot of questions now about how this could have happened.

PAUL: What is NATO saying about it?

RIPLEY: So, there's a statement just out from the NATO secretary general Jens Stoltenberg saying, quote, "My thoughts go to the loved ones of those killed at Bagram airfield and to the wounded. NATO stands with Afghanistan in the fight against terror."

These attacks, while rare, are not unprecedented. You'll remember a couple of years back in Helmand Province at Camp Bastian, Taliban gun fighters were able to get on to an airfield and were running gun battles there. And even back in December at Bagram, there were six U.S. service members who were killed when a person on a motorcycle blew themselves up, a motorcycle suicide bombing. So these attacks do happen. Obviously, any U.S. military installation in a volatile country like Afghanistan is going to be a target. It doesn't make it any easier for the families of those people who were killed and injured in this attack. They know the risks. But it's something that families never want to go through, of course. It's heartbreaking.

PAUL: No doubt about it. And Will, I want to give you an update, because we're just getting it here. We're being told there are 17 people wounded, 16 of them are American. And again, four people killed, two of them, as Will said, U.S. service members to U.S. contractors. Thank you so much, Will. We appreciate it. And we will continue to follow this story, as it evolves and make sure you get the right information.

BLACKWELL: All right, still to come, as Trump transitions, protesters across the country are fed up. Up next, we'll take you to one demonstration that turned violent. Plus, Donald Trump said that he would build a wall on the U.S./Mexico

border and deport millions of undocumented immigrants. We'll have the reaction from Mexico now that he is president-elect Trump.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:31:09] PAUL: Welcome back. So grateful to have you with us. I'm Christi Paul.

BLACKWELL: I'm Victor Blackwell. Good to be you.

PAUL: Yes, a new leader, a new direction. Donald Trump's team is hunkering down right now as they begin to organize for the future here.

BLACKWELL: And vice president-elect Mike Pence is now leading the transition team as the campaign looks to fill those crucial White House positions.

PAUL: As for the Democrats, it's all about understanding what happened. The party is now doing some serious reflecting on Clinton's historic loss.

BLACKWELL: Meanwhile, another day of protests is planned after a third night of tense demonstrations. The anger in some cities boiling over, but let me take you to Portland, where some person was shot and suffered what we're told was nonlife-threatening injuries. Police are looking for the person who fired that shot and ran off from the scene.

Now, after this long and tumultuous election season, the Democratic Party is searching for a new leader. At the top of the list, a couple of familiar faces, former DNC leader, Howard Dean, says he once again is hoping for the job as party chair. Former presidential candidate and former governor of Maryland Martin O'Malley, says he is considering it. And Senator Bernie Sanders is supporting Minnesota Representative Keith Ellison for that job.

The change in leadership is just one of the reforms that Sanders is pushing the Democratic Party to make after Clinton's election day defeat. Here's part of an op-ed he wrote for "The New York Times." "I am saddened but not surprised by the outcome. It's not a shock to me that millions of people who voted for Mr. Trump did so because they are sick and tired of the economic and political and media status quo."

PAUL: For her part, Hillary Clinton is urging her supporters to get out there and keep fighting for what they believed in. She spoke to volunteers on a conference call yesterday and admitted it's been a tough few days.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This is a tough time for our country. I think we've seen how people have been reacting to the events of this election, and I know that we've got to be reaching out to each other to keep it clear in our own minds, that what we did was so important.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: Both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders say they're willing to work with Donald Trump once he does take office, of course, on January 20th. So let's bring in David Swerdlick, assistant editor for "The Washington Post" and CNN political commentator again. David, thanks for sticking around for us. Let's listen together to something that Jane Sanders, Bernie Sanders' wife said about this election and about her husband's future.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST, "THE SITUATION ROOM": Yes or no. Would you be open to a senator Sanders running again for the democratic presidential nomination in 2020?

JANE SANDERS, BERNIE SANDERS WIFE: See, that's exactly the wrong question, Wolf. Nobody cares, except the political pundits. He is not -- he is concerned about 2017. He's concerned about our Muslim population in feeling great fear right now. We're hoping that president-elect Trump will give them a reason to not feel that anymore. He's concerned about the fact that people are hurting, that the water systems in Flint are still not repaired. Those are the things he's focusing on. And what happens in 2020 will happen in 2020. We'll talk to you in 2019. How's that?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: So, David, the question is, can Sanders' wing of the party, the progressives, merge with establishment Democrats to create a new party?

SWERDLICK: Well, I think they're just in the party of figuring that out. In terms of Senator Sanders, his wife, Jane Sanders, she's right on the point that as a U.S. senator, he is a sitting U.S. senator, not just a presidential candidate or former presidential candidate, so he should be focused on what comes next in the U.S. congress, what his role is going to be as a leader and a spokesperson for the progressive Democratic Party.

[10:35:05] I think she's wrong saying that no one cares about what happens in 2020 because so many Democrats and others are dismayed by the election of Donald Trump that they really do need to start thinking that through now. Senator Sanders certainly proved that he can lead a movement or lead the left wing of the Democratic Party, and there's no reason why he shouldn't run in 2020. My own view is that the left wing of the Democratic Party has another, arguably more viable candidate in Senator Elizabeth Warren. So we'll see what happens. But as Sanders said, we are ways away that.

PAUL: So as we talk about the next leader of the Democrats, and we mentioned Howard Dean, Martin O'Malley, Keith Ellison, you threw out Elizabeth Warren. Who do you think is best equipped at this point to really talk to those people who are feeling the loss of this election? SWERDLICK: Well, just in general, in terms of voices in the

Democratic Party, I do think that Senator Elizabeth Warren is very effective at articulating -- whether you agree with her or not, she's very effective at articulating the agenda and the top line sort of -- the priorities of the progressive wing of the Democratic Party.

In terms of who should lead the DNC, the only name on that list that draws a question mark for me is Howard Dean. It strikes me that both Republicans and Democrats should be looking to new names, not old names. There's nothing -- I have no specific criticism of Howard Dean other than to say he's already done that job. They should probably -- look, Democrats should probably look towards someone new.

PAUL: The been there, done that kind of thing.

SWERDLICK: Yes.

PAUL: David Swerdlick, thank you for your insight and taking time for us today.

BLACKWELL: All right, a breaking story out of Ohio this morning. A mistrial has been declared in the fatal police shooting of an unarmed African-American man. We've got details of the case in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: All right, breaking news out of Ohio. A mistrial has now been declared in the case of a police officer who fatally shot an unarmed African-American man. Ray Tensing shot Sam DuBose during a traffic stop in July of 2015. Maybe you remember this, it was captured by the officer's body cam. The officer was charged with murder, a lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter, possibly, as well. But a jury could not come to a decision on this case. Tensing testified that he shot DuBose after he drove away and was dragged by the left arm. Prosecutors disputed that claim. Let's talk about this. We've got back with us Attorney Page Pate, criminal defense attorney. Page, thanks for coming back for.

PAGE PATE, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Sure.

BLACKWELL: And 25 hours of deliberation, and a lot of this hinged upon the body cam videos. Before we start our discussion, I want people to watch it. I have to warn you at home that what you're about to watch could be a bit disturbing. But we should watch it. Let's see that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Take your seat belt off.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I didn't do nothing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go ahead and take your seat belt off! Stop! Stop! I'm hit! Shots fired shots fired! Shots fired! I'm hit!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We need a medic, now! (END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: So that's the video that's been at the center of this case. The difficulty, I think anybody understands is that it's hard to tell exactly what you're looking at here. The officer says that his arm got caught, he was dragged, and he thought that he was going to be killed. That's why he fired.

PATE: And in cases like this, if you have an officer testifying to one set of facts and you cannot definitively disprove it by a video, the jury's usually going to believe the officer. But what happened here is we obviously have a split in the jury. That's why a mistrial was declared. They could not reach a unanimous verdict. Now, we don't know if it's 11 on one side and one on the other side, but when they cannot get together and be unanimous on it, the judge ultimately has no choice but to declare mistrial.

BLACKWELL: And 25 hours of deliberation before they got to this point. Is that something you would have expected, that it would have gone on for several days before they say, listen, we can't come to an agreement here?

PATE: You know, there's nothing in black and white about how long the jury must deliberate. The judge usually makes some inquiries, are you guys making any progress? I know that he received, the judge received a note from the jury saying we are deadlocked. And he received that last week, back on Friday.

But the judge doesn't want to have to retry a case like this, especially one that's obviously bringing in so much, you know, strong feelings on both sides. So the judge is going to let him keep working as long as they're making progress. So here, he brought him back in this weekend, but apparently they could make no more progress.

BLACKWELL: And I think it's important to point out in this case we have body cam video which so many departments across the country, communities are calling for them to have it. A lot of officers would like it as well, but even with this video still no definitive conclusion on what happened.

PATE: That's right. And if it's not clear cut, jurors, again, tend to favor law enforcement officers. And whatever you find in a jury, you have to understand that they're going to come into court with their own set of perceptions, biases, prejudices. And that's why, as lawyers, we always know that the most important part in a trial is picking the right jury. And here, you obviously had people who saw it differently.

BLACKWELL: All right, Page Pate, thanks for coming in this for breaking news. Again, a mistrial there in Ohio in the murder cay of Ray Tensing who shot fatally back in 2015, in July of that month, Sam DuBose. We'll continue to follow what comes out of that. Page, thank you.

PAUL: Thank you, gentleman. Donald Trump, he made a lot of campaign promises, including changing

the immigration policy that would affect millions of undocumented immigrants living in the U.S. Well, now that he will be president, people in Mexico have an awful lot to say about it. We'll show you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:48:25] PAUL: Immigration, of course, has been a big focus of Donald Trump's campaign, and he promised to build a wall along the U.S./Mexico border, but now that he's president-elect, is he going to keep his campaign promise? CNN's Ed Lavandera is with us now. Ed, you're there in Mexico City. I'm sure the people there have been perfectly happy to talk to you and give you their thoughts on this. What are you learning?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Most Mexican people you speak with on the streets say the whole idea of Mexico paying for this wall is absolutely ridiculous. And government officials are also gearing up for that fight, as well.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We are going to build a great wall.

The wall just got 10 feet higher.

Maybe someday they're going to call it the Trump wall.

LAVANDERA: The border between the United States and Mexico stretches nearly 2,000 miles. Nearly 700 miles of it is already covered with some form of border wall or steel fencing. But Donald Trump wants more.

TRUMP: On day one, we will begin working on an impenetrable, physical, tall, powerful, beautiful southern border wall.

MICHAEL DEAR, AUTHOR, "WHY WALLS DON'T WORK": Well, of course it can be done.

LAVANDERA: Professor Michael Dear is an expert in city and regional planning and the author of the book "Why Walls Don't Work."

DEAR: A large concrete structure which will be 25 feet high, which should be very intensive of resources and money.

LAVANDERA: In fact, CNN has surveyed a number of civil engineers, architects, and academics about what would be most feasible. The wall would most likely need to be made of precast cement wall panels 25 feet tall, 10 feet wide, eight inches thick, requiring 339 million cubic feet of concrete.

[10:50:04] The panels would be held together by 5 billion pounds of reinforced steel with an estimated cost of at least $10.5 billion, and possibly much more.

Trump supporters say they can't wait to see the beginning of the border wall construction.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That wall will get built and Mexico's going to pay for that wall.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think he'll try to build a wall and I think he's going to try to secure our borders.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If people want to come into the country, they should do it legally.

LAVANDERA: But in Mexico, the idea of a wall is often shrugged off as a bump in the road north. Jose Torrez Hernandez says he's illegally crossed into the U.S. many times to find work picking fruits and vegetables. He says a wall might make crossing over a little harder, but immigrants like him would always find a way to find work to feed their families. And Armando Flores Gutierrez says he's crossed the border 25 times, starting when he was just 16, to work farm fields all over the U.S. He says keeping people like him out of the country will only hurt the U.S.

He says if he tries to remove all of the Mexicans in the United States, Donald Trump will realize what a huge mistake that is and how much the U.S. economy depends on Mexican immigrants.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LAVANDERA: And Christi, one Mexican lawmaker has already introduced legislation, in fact, a couple of months ago, that would make it illegal for the Mexican government or any Mexican citizen to contribute paying for that wall. That lawmaker says that's just one of the avenues that they would use to fight back any kind of a push by Donald Trump to force this country to pay for that or any other kind of legislation or move that they find aggressive from Donald Trump. As I mentioned off the top, this is a fight that everybody's gearing up for.

PAUL: Yes, very interesting perspective. Ed Lavandera, thank you so much.

BLACKWELL: Before she was the future first lady, Melania Trump was an actress, a model, a mother. We're taking a look at the life of Melania Trump maybe you have not seen.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAUL: Voting underway for the CNN Hero of the Year. And I want to introduce you now to one of this year's top 10 heroes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGIE SMITH, CNN HERO: My name is Georgie Smith and I started an organization in Los Angeles called A Sense of Home, and we create homes for foster youth as they age out of the system. So the kids who never got adopted, who don't have any family to help them with their first-ever permanent living space, we come in with donated items and with volunteers, completely furnish their home and serve as the family would for any youth setting up their first home. You know, they say it takes a village to raise a child. I saw that we, the village, weren't doing what we should be doing for these children. And I needed to do something.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is crazy.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is so pretty.

SMITH: Everyone needs a home. The ache for home lives inside of all of us, Maya Angelou, it's so true. And this, by coming to create someone else's home, is filling a void in all of us.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This means the world to me. Thanks, everyone.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you.

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: That just gets at you, doesn't it? You can vote for Georgie or any of your favorite top ten heroes now at CNNheroes.com, and thanks for doing so.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:57:21] PAUL: So a lot of people wondering, what kind of first lady will Melania Trump be?

BLACKWELL: With an answer, here's Jeanne Moos.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: She's been a model, she's done commercials.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Aflac!

MOOS: She may seem like an odd duck for a first lady, but Melania Trump just like us, at least on first glance at her Facebook, where she posts videos of beautiful beaches.

(MUSIC)

MOOS: And that great Aerosmith concert she attended, as well as the fun night with my two boys, Donald J. Trump, and their son, Barron. The Donald is driving, his son riding shotgun. Unlike her husband, Melania's not addicted to Twitter. But some of her older tweeted photos are fun. Melania is Cat Woman for Halloween, wearing a cat suit, teasing her husband, honey, see you soon. And there's this oldie but goodie, the Clintons at the Trump's wedding.

OK, maybe she's not just like us. Not everyone has fans.

MELANIE TRUMP, DONALD TRUMP'S WIFE: Hi, fans. I'm going to the metropolitan gala. MOOS: And not everyone goes to galas in designer gowns.

MELANIE TRUMP: And thank you, Christiane. It's a beautiful job. Fantastic job.

MOOS: You can't say Melania hasn't had plenty of training for all those state dinners she and President Trump will be hosting. Almost instantly after the election, Melania updated her Instagram, @RealMelaniaTrump became @FirstLadyMelaniaTrump. On Thursday she chronicled her trip to Washington, writing, "Such an honor to visit the White House." Little did she know this would end up being her home back when she tweeted this photo captioned "At home with my husband." Don't worry, Melania, there is a piano in the White House should you feel the urge to recline.

Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PAUL: Well, why wouldn't you switch it to "First Lady" if you could? Sure!

BLACKWELL: So Donald Trump drives?

PAUL: The first thing we thought when we saw that video.

BLACKWELL: That's what I got out of it. Donald Trump drives.

(LAUGHTER)

BLACKWELL: I've just never seen him drive.

PAUL: That's all we got out of it.

We are so glad that you take a little time for us on your Saturday morning. Thank you for being here.

BLACKWELL: Yes, there is much more ahead in the next hour of CNN's newsroom. We turn it over to our colleague who is in Washington this morning, Fredricka Whitfield. Good morning, Fred.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello again.

PAUL: Good morning.

WHITFIELD: I'm here in Washington and the rest of the country, right. Victor, I like your expression, though. You were kind of in a daze there.

(LAUGHTER)

PAUL: He really did. He said -- oh, he drives. Who knew?