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Anti-Trump Protests Spread Across The Country; One-On-One With Warren Buffett; Pence Not Christie Leading Transition Team; Reports ISIS Committing Atrocities Against Civilians; Bomber Kills 4 Americans At U.S. Base in Afghanistan; What It Would Take To Build A Wall On Mexico's Border; Buffett: Economy Not Weak, But "Softer Than People Think"; Warren Buffet On The State Of Capitalism. Aired 4-5p ET

Aired November 12, 2016 - 16:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:00:00] POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Top of the hour, you're live in the CNN Newsroom. I'm Poppy Harlow in New York. So glad you're with us. We're monitoring protests unfolding in major cities across the country today for the fourth straight day, demonstrators take to the streets to protest the election of Donald Trump and in some cases the protests have turned violent.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[GUN SHOTS]

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: That from police in Portland, Oregon, responding to some violence, throwing flash-bangs into the crowd. They classified some of the protests there this week as riot. And we now know at least one person was injured in a shooting during a march in Portland last night. President-elect Donald Trump has not addressed the protesters directly today but he is calling for unity on Twitter, writing "This will prove to be a great time in the lives of all Americans. We will unite and we will win, win, win."

That unity however not being seen across some American cities today. Our reporters are on the ground across the country, let's begin with Brynn Gingras, she's in New York. And I'm going to go to Kyung Lah in Los Angeles. Brynn, do you specifically, it's been a few hours now a huge group of people across New York City, what are they calling for?

BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Poppy, I can tell you right now, they're booing at this point because some people have just walked out on to the balconies of Trump Tower. And that's who all this anger right now is pointed at. It's interesting that you mentioned that Donald Trump's tweets because talking to a lot of these protesters, their frustration is with the division in this country that they believe the president-elect has only fostered.

One person put it in perspective, he said, "You know, after this election, everybody works, they went to school and this really, this Saturday is the first time that people could actually come out and absorb the fact that they have a new president, they're not happy about it and they can speak up about it." And Poppy, you said it, they have been here for two hours, there is no sign of any letting up in this protest that really numbers are in the tens of thousands at this point.

It's hard to estimate, it stretches for several blocks, 5th Avenue s shut down in front of Trump Tower. But I also want you to hear some of the messages that people have been spreading and talking to you about. Take a listen

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN MEISNER, PROTESTER: But this is enormous, definitely, it's big. And I don't know what we can actually do to change things but we just have to keep coming out and making sure that his hatred and his fear and the anger that he's stirring up or using to get elected doesn't manifested itself in our country.

GINGRAS: What do you think your collective messages is?

ANDREA GARCIA, PROTESTER: I think that we are getting together to support each other as a community because this is a huge loss. This election had set us back and has definitely shown the world that we are not as advanced and plain we are.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GINGRAS: Now police all around this area, Poppy, making sure it doesn't get out of hand. It is still early in the night. We'll see how it goes. But certainly so far it's been rather peaceful, Poppy.

HARLOW: All right. Thank you so much, Brynn. And now let's go to Los Angeles, Kyung Lah is there. And I mentioned (INAUDIBLE) we just heard from the mayor of L.A., Mayor Eric Garcetti who said he was so pleased that how peaceful the protests had been. What are -- what are they asking for there today?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But today was a beautiful action, a beautiful day for the (INAUDIBLE)

KYUNG LAH, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: (INAUDIBLE) are a lot of people talking about immigration, women's rights, as well as gay rights. I just want to give you a brief look though what's happening here. We actually have moved off the street, and they're pushing protesters onto the sidewalk. The LAPD and the CHP trying to make sure the things stay peaceful. And so far overwhelmingly they have been. What you're seeing here it's just the last few remnants of what began as an extraordinarily large protest that snaked all the way through Downtown Los Angeles.

They started at a park about two miles away. And then this stretch of Los Angeles as the protesters snaked all the way through the city, it was blocks and blocks long. We don't have an official count of how many people were here, but you can see some of these protesters. It's quite a diverse crowd and it's difficult to tell from the people who are left, but immigration certainly one of the biggest issues here in Los Angeles, being so close to the border with Mexico. A lot of people of color here filling this particular crowd as well and women's rights.

We saw a lot of women carrying their children here, Poppy, asking that Trump listen to their concerns and talk about family rights as well as women's rights, especially concerned about some of the comments that he's made while he was on of the trail, Poppy.

[16:05:12] HARLOW: Kyung Lah live for us in Los Angeles, thank you very much, we appreciate it. Let's discuss with our panel, Josh Rogin is a CNN political analyst and a columnist at Washington Post. Paris Dennard is CNN political commentator and a Donald Trump supporter. And Anushay Hossain is a journalist and editor-in-chief at anushayspoint.com. Thank you all for being here. First, let me begin with you as a Donald Trump support. I want your reaction to the two ways he's addressed the protesters.

Thursday night he came out and he tweeted this, "Just had a very open and successful professional election. Now professional protesters, incited by the media are protesting very unfair." Then a few hours later Friday morning, he tweet, "Love the fact that the small group of protesters last night have passion for our country. We will come together and be proud." Two very different messages. I mean, which is it and does it concern you that seems it to be on two opposite pages here when it comes to people voicing their first amendment right?

PARIS DENNARD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: You know what, Poppy, I think what Mr. Trump, who is now president-elect Trump, is doing is being presidential. First, he is acknowledging the fact that some of the agitators there are professional. The other night, the sergeant from Portland, Oregon said there were some anarchists there that came and infiltrated the peaceful organization that was going there the protest and caused violence and crime.

And then we saw the mayor just recently that you just reported on saying that there were some people that were agitators who were not a part of the peaceful protests. And then what you saw, the second tweet from Mr. Trump --

HARLOW: That's not what --

DENNARD: -- was him acknowledging --

HARLOW: That's not what the mayor of Los Angeles said. He actually said he doesn't buy the argument that it's professional protesters. And Donald Trump, you know, said the media is inciting this.

DENNARD: Well, I think when the media continues to drum up old stories, past stories, past comments about the past from the campaign trail, that's not looking forward and talking about what Mr. Trump is going to do or wants to do to bring this country together, that can incite people to have these type of outbursts. But when it comes to Mr. Trump's second tweet to your first point, it is important for him as the president-elect to understand and appreciate that there are people that are going to be passionate, that are people going to be disagreeing with him and some of his statements or his policies.

But it is important at the end of the day for us to come together accept the fact he won and move forward as a country, because we always have a peaceful transfer of power. And he is going to lead this country. And he's going to do it together with the support of Republican, Democrat, African-American, Latinos and the coalition of persons who elected him to be president.

HARLOW: Anushay, let me get your take as a Muslim-American who did not support Donald Trump, but who has also, you called on my program earlier this week for people to come together behind the president- elect, what's your take on these protests?

ANUSHAY HOSSAIN, JOURNALIST, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, ANUSHAYSPOINT.COM: Well, I think that there's something called the first amendment that somebody might want to tell Donald Trump about. And of course we have the right to protest. But at the same time I think it's really important for Donald Trump to come out and unite all us Americans and, you know, make clear that he is definitely a president for all of us Americans. He -- it's undeniable that he ran on a campaign of divisiveness and hate. Let us not forget --

DENNARD: That is deniable.

HOSSAIN: -- that this is a -- this is -- actually, it's deniable. He called for a Muslim ban. He called for --

DENNARD: It's deniable.

HOSSAIN: It's not deniable. It's actually a fact. And please let me finish my point.

DENNARD: No, it's not a fact. That's your opinion.

HOSSAIN: It -- actually it is a fact. And if you would let me finish, that would be very nice.

DENNARD: It's not a fact.

HOSSAIN: I let you finish your point. I --

HARLOW: Paris, let her finish.

HOSSAIN: Thank you. And I think it would really great if Donald Trump came out. You know, the Southern Poverty Law Center has said that since he has been elected president there has been 200 different cases of hate crimes across the country. And I think it would make a really big difference for Donald Trump to come forward and say, "Don't make these crimes in my name, don't commit these crimes in my name, you know, we're all united." I have to say as a very strong -- not only as a Muslim-American but as an American, as a woman, as a mother, I mean, I have come to accept that, you know, Hillary Clinton has, you know, lost the -- lost this election, that Donald Trump is our president.

I have accepted that fact. But the million dollar question now is, does he accept us?

HARLOW: Josh, let me get you in here, because she brings up the Muslim ban, which if you go to Donald Trump's website right now, his presidential website right now, that proposed ban on all Muslims coming into this country at least for a specified period of time, it still stands on the website. And it has not been formally updated or addressed by the campaign, what he said in the October 9th debate was that he calls it extreme vetting. You know, just respond to the disagreement between our other two panellists on that point, because it is why some of these people are protesting.

[16:10:10] JOSH ROGIN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes. So first of all, a couple of facts there is no evidence that any of the protesters were paid and no evidence of direct incitement by the media, okay? So when we're -- when we're looking at this, we should start with an agreement on what the reality is. As for Donald Trump's reaction, you know, we can see the two sort of sides of the Trump team battling here in these two tweets. You have one that wants to sort of spread conspiracy theories and push back against any sort of criticism. That's the Steve Bannon wing.

Then you've got the other Kellyanne Conway, Reince Priebus wing who wants to be more open and more inclusive, right? But Donald Trump is going to have to do at some point is do outreach that's longer than 140 characters, okay? And he hasn't done that yet but he still has time. When it comes to the Muslim ban, you know -- when it's -- when he releases his exact plan for the first hundred days, it actually said a ban on immigration from areas where vetting can't occur, okay? That's the -- that's the sort of massaged version of it.

But the bottom line is that the Trump presidency has not started and they don't know what they're going to do. And that, again, is part of the battle between these two wings, right? It's not The Apprentice," it's "The Hunger Games," okay? And these who sides are going to fight until one is gone. And then we'll know which direction the Trump presidency is going. And then we'll see if he's really going to stick with the more extreme stuff or moderate on Obamacare, and all the things we sort of hear trickling out now. We just don't know yet because Trump doesn't know. And by the way, the fact that there was an undertone if not overtone of racism, he's done it for (INAUDIBLE) in his campaign is indisputable.

HARLOW: Guys, thank you very much. Remember also if he does continue to tweet he will be eventually tweeting from the protest account as well. Thank you very much. Later this hour.

HOSSAIN: Yes.

HARLOW: We're going to switch gears for a little bit. Legendary investor Warren Buffett in an exclusive interview with us this week. How strong does he think the U.S. economy is right now? Because you the voter voted with the economy as your number one issue. So I asked the Oracle of Omaha. That is next. You're live in the CNN Newsroom.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [16:15:30] HARLOW: Chris Christie is now not the number one man on

the transition team for Donald Trump. Mike Pence now holds that top spot. The change made just this week. And sources tell CNN loyalty or a lack thereof may be to blame. Also the Bridgegate scandal surrounding Christie. Let's bring in our National Correspondent, Sunlen Serfaty to dig in to all of this. You know, Chris Christie, Sunlen, was the first one to come out of Donald Trump's challengers in the primary. And to back him, I mean, I remember the day was a -- was a shock to everyone. Why is he not number one on the transition team anymore?

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think first, Poppy, we have to note that this is not particularly unprecedented, to have a vice presidential --

HARLOW: Right.

SERFATY: -- person take over the role in the transition. Dick Cheney played a similar role in George W. Bush's transition. But certainly, the argument (INAUDIBLE) that Cheney wasn't under this cloud that Chris Christie is. You know, as you mentioned, the Bridgegate investigation, the Bridgegate scandal constantly in the news and still hanging over his head. And the fact the sources say that loyalty was a big issue that you had Chris Christie really taken a step back in recent weeks, he wasn't as visible as he has been, he hasn't -- wasn't by Trump's side during the whole "Access Hollywood" tape scandal.

And that was significant and I do think that this is an indication of how much Chris Christie's stock has really fallen in the Trump world.

HARLOW: Let me ask you this. Trump's transition team, Sunlen, features very familiar players, really Washington insiders, you've got Newt Gingrich, Rudy Giuliani, Senator Jeff Sessions, the first senator to come out and publicly endorse him, you've got Ben Carson. This as Donald Trump's sort of resounding message in the final weeks of the campaign was drain the swamp, drain the swamp. It doesn't totally seem like that when you look at who he's surrounding himself with.

SERFATY: That's right. It is noteworthy that he is -- he's gearing up in this transition and gearing up to put a cabinet and the many, many appointments that he has to make. It does seem like the leading contenders are people that are from Washington and are insiders. You have one of the leading contenders, Reince Priebus, the RNC Chair, for chief of staff, such an important job in the administration, that really setting the tone for what a potential Trump administration will look like.

And certainly is a little bit different from the rhetoric that we heard earlier. That's different from the rhetoric we heard --

HARLOW: Yes.

SERFATY: -- from Donald Trump on the campaign when he notably said drain the swamp, essentially get all the bums out of there. So that's why people are paying such close attention to these --

HARLOW: So --

SERFATY: -- picks and what tone it's really going to set.

HARLOW: So someone who is not a Washington insider, although Bloomberg has called him the most dangerous political operative out there, is Steve Bannon. And this is the guy who was the Chair of Trump's campaign and he is the one who was, you know, believed to have been behind the very controversial move to bring all of those Bill Clinton accusers to the second debate. He is someone who Donald Trump trusts implicitly. What kind of role do you expect he will have?

SERFATY: He --

HARLOW: Will he get chief of staff? If he doesn't, does he stick around?

SERFATY: Well, the big -- that's the big question now. His name is certainly in there for potential chief of staff. But as of now according to sources it does seem like Reince Priebus is the number one contender for chief of staff. It could be possible that Steve Bannon has a White House adviser job, senior adviser job. It does seem that Donald Trump trusts Steve Bannon and certainly according to sources the things he likes the most about him is the fact that he's all about winning, all about success, two things we know Donald Trump are big things for him and likes to, you know, cultivate.

So certainly that attracts him too and it does seem that he is tempted to put Steve Bannon in quite a big White House job.

HARLOW: Yes. Sunlen Serfaty. We'll find out what, maybe as you said as soon as Monday who will be the chief of staff. We'll wait, we'll see. Thank you.

SERFATY: Great.

HARLOW: Sunlen reporting from Washington, we appreciate it. Coming up next, the battle for Mosul an update from the front lines. Stay with us.

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[16:23:10] HARLOW: Intense fighting in Mosul, Iraq this weekend, as people living this are torn between huddling in their homes and fleeing for safety. U.S. commanders believe there are still 3 to 5,000 ISIS fighters inside the city. But the ground fight is all being done by Iraqi troops. Some disturbing new developments, reports that ISIS militants are committing atrocities against civilians in Mosul, executing people for having cell phones, and killing others for what they call treason and for helping Iraqi forces.

Phil Black is live for us in Irbil, Iraq. It's about 55 miles outside of Mosul. What can you tell us about the fight as it continues now?

PHIL BLACK, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Poppy, it's still bogged down in this very difficult, slow part of the battle. It's been going for more than three weeks now, but most of the time as we focus on the territories and towns surrounding Mosul itself. Now as Iraqi forces try to penetrate the hilltop section of Mosul itself from the east. It's when things started to get really difficult, really slowed down. They're going up against an enemy that is very prepared, they knew they were coming, that has been digging tunnels, setting sniper positions, building car bombs, and other booby traps and improvised explosive devices, all of these are being used against the Iraqi forces on a daily basis.

And so they say they're making progress but by their own admission it is very slow, it is very difficult, it is bloody, brutal urban warfare. And on top of that, the other complication you mentioned that are the civilians. This is still a city of more than a million people or so. The Iraqis are reflectively trying to fight around them and do as little harm as they possibly can. And meanwhile, you're right, we're hearing these stories from people in the city about the atrocities that are being committed.

Thousands of people are said to have been executed just in the last week or so, accused of being spies for the Iraqi operation to retake the city and condemned for being spies simply because they owned cell phones.

[16:25:08] Some of their bodies have been strung out on electrical poles across the town with words like "traitor" across them. It is a brutal, bloody warning to the people who are still in that city as the war rages around them, Poppy.

HARLOW: Phil, I wonder what the response has been to the U.S. election, because Donald Trump has vowed to deal with ISIS quickly and decisively, for example he was very critical of the Obama administration for talking at all in advance about the, you know, the siege on Mosul. He said why give warning. What are they saying about how they believe his approach will be different as commander-in-chief in terms of trying to defeat ISIS?

BLACK: Well, they believe that American foreign policy is set on defeating ISIS. So no one here appears to be worried about the U.S. withdrawing any of its support. And that support is significant. It would be difficult to see this operation taking place in the way that it is without U.S. support, the air power, the air strikes, the training, the advice, the special forces on the ground, all of these sorts of things are making a real difference and really ultimately making this battle possible at this time.

Donald Trump has said that he still believes very strongly in military operations against ISIS coalition, aggressive military action involving other countries and so forth. We know he's ordered -- or he said that he would order generals to come up with a plan for defeating ISIS as quickly as possible. So what we would expect? I think and what people (INAUDIBLE) here would expect is more of the same, more of what we're seeing in Iraq, more of what is being seen in Syria as well.

But how much more, that's really the question. And looking across the border to Syria, the question there, given that many people expect Donald Trump to have a cosier relationship with the Russian president, is whether or not Russia and the United States would come to any sort of agreement to fight ISIS and other militants on the ground there together, Poppy.

HARLOW: Phil Black, live for us tonight, just after midnight in Irbil, Iraq. Thank you so much. Also today, in Afghanistan a suicide bomber killed four Americans. It happened at Bagram Airfield, the biggest U.S. base in in Afghanistan. Two of those killed were American service members. The other two were American contractors. A NATO official said the bomber was wearing an explosive vest and set it off near a group of people getting ready for a group run. The Taliban has already claimed responsibility.

Coming up next live in the CNN Newsroom, it was one of Donald Trump's signature campaign promises

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: On day one, we will begin working on a impenetrable, physical, tall, powerful, beautiful southern border wall.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Well, day one is only 69 days away. Will it happen? How are those living south of the U.S border feeling now that Donald Trump is the next president? We went to Mexico to find out.

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POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: It's one Donald Trump's most memorable campaign promises, but is it feasible to build a wall, a very tall wall, as he said, along the U.S.-Mexico southern border, and get Mexico to pay for it?

Our Ed Lavendera headed south to Mexico to find what people there are saying now that Donald Trump is the next president.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT ELECT: We're going to build a great wall -- the wall just got 10 feet higher -- maybe someday they are going to call it the Trump wall.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The border between the United States and Mexico stretches the 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.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 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."

MICHAEL DEAR, AUTHOR, "WHY WALLS DON'T WORK": A large concrete structure, which might be 25 feet high, which should be very intensive in terms of resources and money.

LAVANDERA: In fact, CNN has surveyed a number of civil engineers, architects and academics about what may be most feasible. The wall would most likely need to be made of pre-cast cement wall panels, 25 feet tall, 10 feet wide, 8 inches thick, requiring 339 million cubic feet of concrete.

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 is going to pay for that wall.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think he'll try to build a wall and I think he'll 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 Torres 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.

(on camera): He says if he tries to remove all of the Mexicans from 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)

HARLOW: All right, Ed Lavandera joins me now from Mexico City. Ed, how is the Mexican government responding to Donald Trump this week?

LAVANDERA: They've had a very kind of subdued response. In fact, the president of Mexico sending an olive branch, saying he looks forward to working with President Trump. Reminding him that Mexico and the United States are friends.

So there hasn't really been a lot of boisterous talk. You hear it on some lower levels, lawmakers who are warning the Mexican government they need to be prepared to fight back against whatever Donald Trump does.

One lawmaker said they would introduce legislation to make it illegal for any kind of Mexican money to go toward paying for that wall. They insist if Donald Trump continues to push on this or NAFTA issues or immigration issues, there are other routes that they can go to fight back as well. There could be a fight.

HARLOW: There could be fight and we saw quite an effect on the Mexican peso after the election this week as well, the currency there. Ed, thank you very much. Fascinating piece. We appreciate it.

Up next, legendary investor, Warren Buffett. We went to home Omaha this week to sit down with him for an exclusive interview, his first since the election of Donald Trump. How strong does he think the U.S. economy is right now? I asked the oracle of Omaha. We'll hear from him next.

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[16:38:49]

HARLOW: It was in the early morning hours on Wednesday that investors started to digest that Donald Trump would be the next U.S. president. That sent markets around the world plummeting with Dow futures down nearly 900 points at one point.

But then the market opened and the Dow not only rebounded quickly, it finished the week up nearly 5.5 percent, hitting a new record high yesterday.

So what does legendary investor, Warren Buffett, think of the U.S. economy right now? And how can more people achieve the American dream? Here is part two of our exclusive interview with the oracle of Omaha.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HARLOW: Let's talk about the economy. In February, you said that the U.S. economy is a little bit weaker than you had expected. What's your assessment as we sit here today?

WARREN BUFFETT, CHAIRMAN AND CEO, BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY: Well, it's interesting, Poppy. I would say at this time I would probably use the term it's softer than I think people think it is. I don't mean it's weak, but it's softer than people think. You know, the GDP comes out for the third quarter 2.9 percent. I don't think it was a 2.9 percent quarter. They've got way better figures than I do.

HARLOW: You think it was lower than that?

BUFFETT: Yes. HARLOW: Why? What signs are you looking at?

BUFFETT: I look at everything. We have 70 plus businesses.

HARLOW: Railroads to Fruit of the Loom underwear.

BUFFETT: I love numbers so I get it on a very realtime basis.

HARLOW: What do you see?

BUFFETT: Now the Federal Reserve are getting a thousand times as many figures and they've got all kinds of people working on it. If I had to bet, if they are revising the third quarter, it would get revised downward. The economy is not growing at 2.9 percent.

HARLOW: Markets move on your words. You're seeing a softer economy.

BUFFETT: I'm buying stocks.

HARLOW: What is it? You've said before, periodically financial markets will be divorced from reality. It sounds to me like --

BUFFETT: Financial markets don't have to go with business.

HARLOW: Right. But are they divorced from reality right now?

BUFFETT: No.

HARLOW: Are stocks at this point overvalued?

BUFFETT: No. I don't think so. This relates to interest rates also. I don't pay any attention to what the business numbers I see in determining the orders I have in for stocks today. I'm buying businesses for ten years. What difference does it make this week or next week? I think I know what they're going to do over time. I don't know what they're going to do next year.

HARLOW: Can you take us into some the signs or numbers that are showing you softness specifically?

BUFFETT: Just take a look at railroad (inaudible), they're probably -- this is not exactly right, but they may have 25 categories or something of the sort, you know, there's coal, there's grain, there all kinds of things, automotive.

Most categories, a very significant percentage of categories, are down. That's physical volume and they measure the movement of goods.

They are not the only thing, but you look at the trucking industry in October, for example. It was not good. So when you take trucks, you're talking about moving goods. It wasn't weather at all, the balance of the weather has been favorable.

That is people bringing things forward who eventually sell to consumers. There's a whole bch of figures, I see, and you may be seeing it in auto fairly soon. HARLOW: Perhaps in auto. So does it concern you to the point of a possible recession in the near term?

BUFFETT: No, I can't predict recessions. If you guaranteed me there would be a recession next year, I would be buying and selling the same securities I'm buying and selling today.

HARLOW: Who is winning in this economy right now?

BUFFETT: The rich. Guys like me. We have gone from having $93 billion in the top 400 in 1982 to having $2.4 trillion. It becomes a more and more specialized market economy. It was an agrarian economy 20 years ago. It's hard to get 20 times more than the next guy if you're a farmer.

But if you are better at some skills now you can become incredibly wealthy at a very young age, not because you earned the money to build one steel mill and saved to buy another steel mill. You get the capitalized value of an idea.

And so the wealth moves big time even on an anticipatory basis. And that has become more accentuated in the last 30 years.

HARLOW: The income inequality continues to grow.

BUFFETT: Absolutely.

HARLOW: And the big question is, what are the societal and social impacts of that?

BUFFETT: You may have seen it in the election.

HARLOW: I think yes. And look at the rise of Bernie Sanders.

BUFFETT: Yes. Bernie Sanders said to a good bit of the American people, you're getting the short end of the stick and it isn't your fault.

HARLOW: Do you think Bernie Sanders would have had a better shot against Donald Trump?

BUFFETT: No.

HARLOW: On the economic message?

BUFFETT: Well, I don't think he would have had a better shot in terms of getting elected. I think that he would have been totally focused, just like you saw him do in the primaries, on just a couple of issues.

HARLOW: So a Harvard study came out earlier this year that absolutely fascinates me. And, you know as America has elected the ultimate capitalist in Donald Trump, this study found that 51 percent of young people between 18 and 29 do not support capitalism.

And the director of the study said they are rejecting the way that capitalism is practiced today. But capitalism is what made you, Warren, into a billionaire. Capitalism is what made Donald Trump into a billionaire. Why is it not working for more young people?

BUFFETT: Because the market system does get more and more specialized as we go along. In other words, if you were -- I'm going to use IQ, and I know the limitations of it, but I'm going to use it just as a marker for a bigger idea.

If you were 130 IQ, working on a farm, and the person next to you was a 90 IQ, the other person probably was worth 90 percent as much as you. You know, it just didn't make that -- there were tools valuables, you couldn't have to do planting or anything like that.

[16:45:07]That was an agrarian society. Then we moved into a manufacturing society. If you run the Ford Motor assembly line in 1915, differences in intellect were important, but they didn't produce 50 for one results or 100 for one results.

Now were in an economy where specialized talents bring incredible sums. And where if you're a little bit where you really don't fit as well into the market system, you are left behind.

HARLOW: So then the question is, do we need a more inclusive form of capitalism? I know that you and some of the CEOs --

BUFFETT: We need an earned income tax credit as much more that's expandable.

HARLOW: That's going to solve everything?

BUFFETT: No, nothing solves everything.

HARLOW: Does capitalism as we know it need to evolve?

BUFFETT: No, capitalism, the market system works. Now, you've got two questions. You want to keep a system where the goose lays more golden eggs every year. We've got that. Now the question is, how do those eggs get distributed? And that is where the system needs some adjusting.

We have adjusted. We voted Social Security. We've done things in the past. We need to address the problem of not how to get more eggs out, we know how to do that, but we have to make sure that in a super rich country, anyone who is willing to work 40 hours a week has a decent living.

HARLOW: What does that mean for minimum wage? You and I have talked for years about the minimum wage debate, you told me before that it's the hardest question I've been asked because I don't know the answer.

You've said I would like to see everyone make at least $20 an hour, but you are concerned about what that would do in terms of depressing hiring.

Since we last spoke about this over year ago, the fight for $15 an hour has really elevated. Is that the answer?

BUFFETT: You don't need a minimum wage. You need a minimum income. Now the wage comes to you from your employer --

HARLOW: That's interesting.

BUFFETT: No, the income comes from your employer plus whatever the government does. And the earned income tax credit can give everyone $15 an hour, even if their market skills don't command it. So you don't lose any employment and you make it graduated so there still is an incentive.

That if your $7.50 an hour, you get to 9, then your 15 becomes even higher. The earned income tax credit is a great answer. Like I say, it isn't how much you get in wages. It's how much you get in cash.

HARLOW: Why does it need to be on the government? Why shouldn't it be on the businesses?

BUFFETT: Because then you lose employment. If you tell me I have a business that pays $15 an hour, I'll employ less people than before. I don't want to employ less people. I just want that person to make $15 an hour.

If you can have a minimum wage that kept everyone in the country working making $20 or $25 an hour, we have the money to do it, but that doesn't work because it leaves millions and millions and millions of people who don't have the skills to actually command that in the market. The earned income tax credit solves it.

HARLOW: So what is the minimum income, then?

BUFFETT: Well, you can design that --

HARLOW: A living wage in this country in an average American city.

BUFFETT: It depends on the geography.

HARLOW: Of course.

BUFFETT: I would think that you could design an earned income tax credit that left people receiving $15 an hour and also with meaningful incentives to move up their own skills so that between 7.50 and 15 they weren't just reducing the amount they received on the credit.

And you would give them a feeling of self-worth and you wouldn't hurt any jobs. Society would say, we've got society, so that, you know, if we got an $18 trillion GDP, we can allocate -- right now we're spending $60 billion a year. We can allocate -- I don't think it could take more than another $60 billion to get the job done.

HARLOW: Is the American dream alive?

BUFFETT: Of course.

HARLOW: For enough people in 2016?

BUFFETT: Sure. It's alive for millions and millions. Take Omaha, right here. A significant percentage of the people in this city, it's alive. We got 360,000 people working at Berkshire. I think that's a very high percentage of the American dream is alive.

American dream should be -- if you work productively at 40 hours a week, you're going to have a decent life. Some people will have special talents, some will make tremendous sums beyond that, and they will be the ones responsible for having more golden eggs to distribute year by year.

HARLOW: Give me the five reasons why you're hopeful today about the future of America.

BUFFETT: America works. When you fly back, New York, or whatever it may be, just look at what you see. You see 75 million owner-occupied homes. You see factories that are producing goods and services that the American public loves that they never even dreamt about years ago.

[16:50:06]You see a country where in one person's lifetime an already prosperous country became six times as wealthy or his income producing per capita. You see more change in our 240 years than happened in millennia before. It wasn't because we were smarter. It wasn't because were worked hard. It's because we have a system that works.

HARLOW: So America is already great?

BUFFETT: Oh, it's more than great. It will become greater. America is great. Just look at the medical facilities. Everything out there is profit. It wasn't here in 1776. There was a bunch of land here that nobody can do anything with. There were primitive little industries, cottage industries here and there. Everything you see here is profit. It's about $100 billion in terms of present value.

HARLOW: And now the hope is that more Americans can share in that.

BUFFETT: That should be -- that should be the number one economic goal of this country. You don't have to worry about having more stuff. You do have to worry about whether people who are perfectly decent citizens, working hard, are getting enough of it so they can live decently.

HARLOW: Warren, thank you very much.

BUFFETT: Thank you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARLOW: An important message there from Warren Buffett. In the next hour, he speaks out for the first time about the scandal that rocked Wells Fargo and cost more than 5,000 employees their jobs. He is the biggest shareholder in the bank. What does he have to say about all of it? At 5:00 p.m. Eastern, right here.

Also you can see my full interview with Warren Buffett at cnnmoney.com/buffett.

Straight ahead for us here, while the election may be over, the jokes, my friends, carry on. A look back at this week's late night laughs. You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:55:37]

HARLOW: The election may be over but the jokes are not. Comedians found plenty to work with this week. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They met for 90 minutes. They were only supposed to meet for like 15 minutes, but Trump had a lot of questions for Obama, like how the hell do I get out of this.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Trump wasn't alone. Future First Lady Melania was there for a private meeting with Michelle Obama to ensure the peaceful transition of speeches.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Of course, a lot of people are unhappy with the election. In fact, there were large anti-Trump protests in the streets of at least seven cities last night including right here in New York. Trump looked out his window from 60 stories up and said, a parade, already? That's unbelievable.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Coming up in the next hour of the NEWSROOM, this.

(VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: One sentiment several cities thousands join anti-Trump protests. You're live in the CNN newsroom.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)