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Adviser: Trump's Choice for Chief of Staff "Imminent"; Thousands March in Nationwide Anti-Trump Protests; Ryan: Trump Not Planning a Deportation Force; Is Trump Dialing Back on Campaign Pledges?; Lawyers Asked For Delay In Trump University Trial; Dave Chappelle Delivers Message To Donald Trump; France Commemorates One Year Anniversary. Aired 2-3p ET

Aired November 13, 2016 - 14:00   ET

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

[14:00:02] FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. This is the CNN NEWSROOM, I'm Fredricka Whitfield. Donald Trump soon to make his first big decision as president-elect selecting his chief of staff. Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway telling one of the networks this morning the announcement is imminent.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KELLYANNE CONWAY, CAMPAIGN MANAGER, TRUMP: It is imminent, means coming soon. And perhaps, meaning Mr. Trump up there making a lot of important decisions, taking a council of many people. I think he can't go wrong with the decision.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Also happening, the president-elect is set to receive his first two top level intelligence briefings. Trump will learn about the nation's most secretive intel gathering programs and U.S. spying operations overseas.

But the timing of all of this is playing a part in Trump's ongoing legal woes. His attorneys in the Trump University lawsuit have asked a federal judge to postpone this month's scheduled trial until after he his inauguration. His attorneys argue the trial would take time away from Trump's "Critical and all consuming" transition process.

Meanwhile, protests against the president-elect are entering a fifth straight day now. Thousands marched in major cities across the U.S., not backing down overnight. We will continue to monitor these demonstrations as they progress throughout the day.

All right but first, more evidence that Trump may be waffling on some of his defining campaign promises. This morning House Speaker Paul Ryan told Jake Tapper that under Trump's immigration plan, there will not be any mass deportations. They began their conversation about the nationwide divide. Some people are feeling in the wake of Trump's win.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: There are millions of Americans out there as

I'm sure you know who are frankly terrified about what this America under President Trump will mean for them. Is there anything that you as Speaker of the House, one of the leaders of the nation want to say to them?

REP. PAUL RYAN (R-WI), HOUSE SPEAKER: Sure. First of all, I hated that people feel this way. And second of all, they should not. I think people should be rest assured. America is a pluralistic, inclusive country, it is, it has been and it will continue to be.

So I really think people should put their minds at ease. We're going to get to work on solving the big country's problems, getting this economy growing, fixing our national security, you know, fixing our healthcare problems, getting our budget put together. You know, the things that we've been talking about.

So I think people should just really put their minds at ease. We are pluralistic, we're inclusive, that's the kind of country we want, that's the country we are and that's the country we're still going to have.

TAPPER: But just to accept and acknowledge that there are these incidents taking place all over the country --

RYAN: That's awful. By the way, that's not Republicans. We are the party of Lincoln. People who spouse those views, they're not Republicans and we don't want them in our party, thinking about it and I'm confident Donald Trump feels the same way. So there's no place for that.

And protests, as long as protests are peaceful, if people want to express themselves that way, that's what we can do in this the country. That's what the first amendment is all about.

TAPPER: Let's move forward to some of the action items, obviously, repealing and replacing ObamaCare is one of the big items that president-elect Trump and you want to tackle. President-elect Trump recently said there are elements of ObamaCare he wants to keep. This is what he had to say to "60 Minutes". Take a listen.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LESLEY STAHL, HOST, 60 MINUTES: Let me ask you about ObamaCare which you say you're going to repeal and replace. When you replace it, are you going to make sure that people with preconditions are still covered?

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT-ELECT: Yes, Because it happens to be one of the strongest asset.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) TAPPER: Now, your better way agenda talks about spending $25 billion on high risk pools that would help those with preexisting conditions afford insurance. where would the $25 billion come from?

RYAN: Well, we actually have it paid for in our bill. You really want me to give you a technical answer of this? It's gets us a little technical. The point is, we have in our plan pay for doing that. Here's the bigger point, Jake, we agree, it's in our plan, Donald Trump agrees with this, we need to have a solution for people with preexisting conditions.

In our plan is also allowing younger people up to the age of 26 to stay on their parents plans. So there are aspects that we've all along agreed to.

TAPPER: Under ObamaCare, as you know, millions of people were able to get health insurance for the first time through the expansion of Medicaid. What is going to happen to those people, will they lose coverage under your plan?

RYAN: What I encourage people to do is go to better.gop, it's number five on the plan. We put the most detail out of anybody that's put out on ObamaCare replacement plan and it is to have an answer for everyone with preexisting conditions, people who are the uninsured.

The point I would say is this, Jake. We can have a health care system in America where everyone, regardless of income or health condition can get affordable health insurance, get an affordable health care. This is what we propose. We think a patient center system is the right way to do that and you can have this system without a costly government takeover like ObamaCare that is cranking up premiums, that is making deductibles so high it didn't feel you have health insurance.

ObamaCare is failing. It must be replaced. We're going to do that. We're excited about it. And the point I would put people's mind at ease is we can fix these problems. We can fix what was broken in health care without breaking what was working in health care and that is exactly what we're proposing. And if you want to get any level of detail on this, just go to better.gop and see what we've already offered.

TAPPER: ObamaCare also provides birth control to women at no cost. Is that going to end or will that remain?

RYAN: Look, I'm not going to get into all the nitty-gritty details of these things.

TAPPER: With all due respect, I don't know that the average woman of child bearing years out there who relies upon contraception provided by health insurance mandated by the Affordable Care Act, I don't know that she would think that that's just a nitty-gritty detail. Well, what do you think, is it important to you?

RYAN: You're asked me details about legislation that hasn't been written yet. So I'm not going to get into hypothetical. TAPPER: Right. But is it important to you? Would that be a

principle of whatever replaces it --

RYAN: I'm not going to get into hypotheticals about legislation that hasn't even been drafted yet.

TAPPER: Let me ask you a question about improving security at the border. You and Donald Trump both agree you want to improve security at the border. You obviously have different views when it comes to the 10 to 11 million undocumented immigrants currently living in the United States. This is what you had to say back in April during a town hall at Georgetown University.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RYAN: I'm a person who believes that for the undocumented, we had to come up with a solution that doesn't involve mass deportation, that involves giving people the ability to -- with law to come and earn a legal status while we fix the rest of illegal immigration.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Now take a listen to what President-elect Trump said on "Morning Joe" last year.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We're going to have a deportation force. And you're going to do it humanely.

MIKA BRZEZINSKI, HOST, MORNING JOE: How are you going to pay for this?

TRUMP: It's very inexpensively.

BRZEZINSKI: Will they get to be kicked out of their home, how?

TRUMP: They're going back where they came. If they came from a certain country, they're going to be brought back to their country. That's the way it's supposed to be.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TAPPER: So congress writes the laws and controls the purse strings, is there going to be mass deportation or not? And this isn't just a nitty-gritty detail. There are, you know, millions of people who are very worried about this.

RYAN: Sure. And I think we should put people's mind at ease, that is not what our focus is, that is not what we're focused on. We're focused on securing the border. We think that's first and foremost before we get into any other immigration issue. We've got to know who's coming and going in the country, we got to secure the border.

So we believe border security and enforcement bill is really first priority and that's what we're focused on.

TAPPER: OK. So it's not a top priority, mass deportation but obviously President-elect Trump thinks it is.

RYAN: No. Securing the borders is our top priority.

TAPPER: Right. But what about in year two, year three, year four?

RYAN: That's why I'm saying we're not focused -- we are not planning on erecting a deportation force. Donald Trump is not planning on that.

TAPPER: A minute ago you were talking about how Donald Trump, the president-elect, expressed concern, he wanted to -- or expresses desire to you that he wanted to unify the country. On that note, I want to turn to staffing the Trump White House.

A lot of people, including many conservatives, are concerned that Steve Bannon, who is the CEO of the Trump campaign and the chief executive of Breitbart News that he used Breitbart News to, in their view, the view of conservatives, the view of Republicans to mainstream white supremacist views, antisemitic views, racist views. Do you have any concerns about Steve Bannon being in the White House?

RYAN: No, I don't have -- I've never met the guy. I don't know Steve Bannon. So I have no concerns. I trust Donald's judgment. I think he's going to pick who he thinks will best serve him and I'm sure we will work well with whoever his chief of staff is. So I believe that Donald is going to have a great set of choices to make for staffing.

I'm also very encouraged by the fact that my friend, a great conservative, a man who is shown -- he's a true leader, Mike Pence is going to be running the transition team. So I think between Pence running a transition team -- look, Donald is a multi-billionaire who had lots of companies, who has run extremely successful businesses. So he's done things like this before. He's staffed up. He's running major organizations. He's a successful person. He surrounds himself with successful people. So I'm confident he's going to do the same here.

TAPPER: You sound very optimistic and positive about him but during the campaign, you said that one of the things he said about Judge Curiel fit the textbook definition of racism.

RYAN: Look, I'm not going to relitigate the past. I'm looking for the future. And what I mean when I say unifying, getting people back to work, fixing welfare so people can go from welfare to work, replacing this horrible health care law that is really hurting families, putting health care providers out of business and replacing it with patient centered health care, rebuilding our national security so we're safe again, cleaning up the regulatory state, following the constitution.

I mean these are all good things for our country that we are now working on, putting in place the plan to do just that.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: All right, Paul Ryan with our Jake Tapper earlier. Meantime Donald Trump is vowing to follow through with his campaign promise to deport millions of undocumented immigrants when he becomes president, targeting those he calls criminals. But in a "60 Minutes" interview, Trump is showing some flexibility with his plans to build a wall along the Mexican border. Let's bring in CNN's Chris Frates with more on what Trump has been saying. Chris.

CHRIS FRATES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Fred. Well, Donald Trump's policy positions on immigration have really been all over the map during this campaign season and that's continuing into his transition. And that big beautiful wall Trump called for on the campaign trail, well it could now be part fence.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STAHL: So let's go through very quickly some of the promises you made and tell us if you're going to do what you said or are you going to change it in any way? Are you really going to build a wall?

TRUMP: Yes.

STAHL: They're talking about a fence in the Republican congress. Would you accept the fence?

TRUMP: For certain areas I would. But certain areas the wall is more appropriate. I'm very good at this. It's called construction. The fence will be -- yes, it could be some fencing.

STAHL: What about the pledge to deport millions and millions of undocumented immigrants?

TRUMP: What we are going to do is get the people that are criminal and have criminal records, gang members, drug dealers, we have a lot of these people, probably two million, it could even be three million, we're getting them out of our country or we're going to incarcerate but we're getting them out of our country, they're here illegally.

After the border is secured and after everything gets normalized, we're going to make a determination on the people that you're talking about who are terrific people -- they're terrific people. But we're going to make a determination at that. But before we make that determination, Lesley, it's very important we want to secure our border.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FRATES: Now that sounds a lot like what Trump said on campaign trail back in June when he said he's going to "Get rid of a lot of bad dudes who are here." But Trump also talked about creating a deportation force to round up and remove the 11 million undocumented immigrants who are in this country illegally. But as we just heard from House Speaker Paul Ryan telling our own Jake

Tapper that neither lawmakers nor Trump are planning to create a deportation force. The house speaker said they're focused on border security, Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right, Chris Frates, thanks so much.

So on the heels of Trump promising Twitter restraint. The president- elect fires off multiple blistering tweets over "The "New York Times"" and its reporting. We will talk about it and Trump's future relationship with the media. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right, welcome back. So after campaign full of controversial proposals many are wondering what a President-elect Trump will actually enforce? Before the break, House Speaker Paul Ryan gave us some insight into what he expects. Many policies are much more moderate and here's kind of a breakdown.

Trump himself now saying he will keep some provisions of ObamaCare. On immigration, Ryan says there will not be a mass deportation force. He also has not confirmed that he will prosecute, meaning, the president-elect Trump prosecute Hillary Clinton which Trump said many times would be a day one priority. And Trump is also not commenting on his proposed Muslim ban.

So let's discuss all of this. Joining us right now is CNN presidential historian Timothy Naftali. He is also the former director of the Nixon Presidential Library. And CNN political commentator David Swerdlick and also with the "Washington Post" as the assistant editor there. All right. Good to see you both, gentlemen.

So Tim, let me begin with you. What does this look like to you in terms of a change of language as it pertains to Donald Trump? Is he going back on some of these promises? Is it simply modifying it? Is it to be expected that way?

TIMOTHY NAFTALI, CNN PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: Well during the campaign, it wasn't just Democrats who were saying that Donald Trump, should he be elected, couldn't possibly implement a number of the policy prescriptions that he was promising people. There were a lot of serious, very serious, Republicans who didn't think the wall was a possibility, who thought a deportation force was not going to happen. The idea of moving 11 million people out of their homes, deporting them and their children, it just didn't --

WHITFIELD: So what you're saying is when Donald Trump said this on the campaign trail, no one really believed it, not even voters, not the GOP --

NAFTALI: No, no, Fred. I think a lot of people believed it. What we're seeing now and it's absolutely fascinating and I'm looking forward to hearing David's comments about this.

Donald Trump now has to work with people who have experienced governing and people who've been thinking about governing. One of the things that's so interesting about Paul Ryan is that there's been a lot of obstructionism during the Obama years in the Republican congress.

Ryan has been there building a program for what would happen if they had the power to do what they wanted to do. Now he wants to do that. What's very interesting is the tension between that program for governance and the Trump program which was never -- it never had enough details to be actually implemented. And that's what we're watching now, which is the tension between these visions. At the moment, both leaders, president-elect Trump and Ryan, are using very soft language to give the impression that they will be able to agree and work together. But there are real differences in their visions for what to do next.

WHITFIELD: So David, are we seeing simply work in progress as it pertains to the vision of Donald Trump and that vision coming to fruition or not, also work in progress the relationship between the house speaker and president-elect?

DAVID SWERDLICK, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, Fredricka, I think it's been a work in progress all along. I think Tim is spot on when he diagnose us what's going on right now with the Trump camp. Anybody that's a fan of moderation and judiciousness in governing probably says it's a good thing, myself included, that he's taking at least a temporary step back from what he has said about ObamaCare and building a wall and deporting everybody and so forth.

But that's not what he campaigned on. He campaigned on the idea that he was going to take this aggressive stance towards undocumented immigrants, building a wall, making Mexico pay for that wall and immediately getting rid of the Affordable Care Act and Republicans in congress had been saying that now for years that they wanted to tear it out root and branch.

So as Tim just described, what they're running up against now is this idea -- it's like the dog catching up to the car, right? Once you get there and you have the White House as Republicans with President-elect Trump and once Republicans have both houses of congress, it becomes less a matter of rhetoric and more of a matter of how are we going to do this, how are we going to get it done? And then, how are we going to do it without harming the American public, whether that's removing health care from X numbers of millions of people or affecting the economy in a way that doesn't reflect well on the new administration, that is their challenge.

WHITFIELD: And so, Tim, you know, does Trump also run the risk of losing support, not just from those who voted for him on the premise of the promises that he made but even those within the GOP who have now embraced him as the President-elect with his plans spelled out on the campaign trail?

NAFTALI: He certainly does. The real issue is how long the honeymoon will be for him with his voters. Just to take a page from history, Ronald Reagan did not implement everything he promised he would. Ronald Reagan raised taxes. And yet, Ronald Reagan left with a strong legacy among those that supported him and in fact among some people who hadn't supported him.

Ronald Reagan was able to actually be pragmatic while still seeming to be a totally committed to the vision on which he won the election. Will Donald Trump be able to double or to imitate and parallel the Reagan experience. We don't know yet. But he's going to be disappointing his supporters, there's no question. The question is when does he start disappointing them and does he find a way to make them happy nevertheless?

WHITFIELD: And David, how long does the honeymoon last?

SWERDLICK: You know, I'm not sure, Fredricka. Can I just -- I defer to Tim as a historian but my sense is that this is going to be something that Trump will try to do but it's going to be more of a challenge for him in some ways I think than with President Reagan or if you want to go back further toward Senator Barry Goldwater for this reason.

They were conservatives and accepted as conservatives. And when they deviated from the conservatism, particularly if you're talking about President Reagan, they were making a conscious deviation from a set of principles or a set of ideologies that they had spouse in their supporters understood them to have.

I think in the case with Donald Trump, he's not really an ideological conservative. So all he has to go on is promises that he made during this campaign. If his supporters see him as the avatar of what they want to see in their country going forward then maybe they will cut him some slack. If it was about the issues though, then I think he's going to have a fairly short honeymoon.

WHITFIELD: All right, David and Tim, thanks so much. We will see you back a little bit later on in the hour. Thank you so much for now.

So President-elect Donald Trump admits social media helped him win and says he will now restrain himself. But already, he's not holding back. We will discuss that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Welcome back. I'm Fredrick Whitfield. So Donald Trump vowing to be more restrained with Twitter now that he is president- elect but he's still not there. Today he took aim at "The New York Times" sending several critical tweets directed at its reporting.

One tweet saying this, "Wow, 'The New York Times' is losing thousands of subscribers because of their very poor and highly inaccurate coverage of the Trump phenomena."

Let's talk about this with our senior media correspondent Brian Stelter, who is also the host of RELIABLE SOURCES. All right, good to see you, Brian.

So another example perhaps that he simply cannot help himself even as president-elect. So how does this perhaps continue to set the stage about his relationship with the media and this point forward? BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: Every tweet, every

Facebook post is a clue about how President Trump would behave once in office. For now, President-elect Trump certainly using his Twitter account to settle scores or to gloat in some cases, perhaps even to get revenge against "The New York Times".

You know, he's talking about the paper losing thousands of subscribers but there's no evidence of that. Speaking with (Starbucks) of "The New York Times", executives have run the numbers again this morning. They say there's no indication they've lost thousands of subscribers. Actually, it's the opposite. "The Times" said it has gained many digital subscribers to the web site in recent days from people that want to support the paper.

But Trump's comments about this, the latest example of his anti-media rhetoric, something that seems to be continuing now that he's been elected. Here's what he told "60 Minutes" though. This is going to air in a few hours. But we received a preview clip talking about how he will use social media once in the White House.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I'm going to do very restrained if I use it at all. I'm going to do very restrained. I find it tremendous. It's a modern form of communication. There should be nothing you should be ashamed of, it's where it's at.

I do believe this, I really believe that the fact that I have such power in terms of numbers with Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, et cetera, I think it helped me win all of these races where they're spending much more money than I've spent and I won.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STELTER: Now, that I think is true, social media did help Donald Trump win the presidency, so did television and so, of course, did his points of view. Social media was certainly helpful to him in that regard. But he's saying he will be restrained once he's in the Oval Office. For now though, we're still seeing a pretty free-wheeling Donald Trump.

WHITFIELD: Right. So that's going to have to come after January 19th even (inaudible). OK. So meantime, the White House always has to have its press secretary, someone in that White House press room to answer to questions, commandeer, you know, all of the requests, et cetera. Who's name is being floated to represent the Trump White House?

STELTER: Yes, one of today's big surprises. "The Hill" newspaper reporting that Laura Ingraham, a conservative talk radio host is in the running for the press secretary job.

[14:30:03] This is really intriguing because Laura Ingraham was one of Trump's biggest supporters on the radio, one of his biggest supporters in the media overall. There were times where she was giving Trump counsel and advice with regard to the debates and things like that.

So "The Hill" says she's in contention. I've got to tell you she said some pretty outrageous things over the years, especially recently about the alt-right, a lot of journalists will have eyebrows, eyelids wide open if in fact she is press secretary. We'll see who Trump decides to appoint.

WHITFIELD: We will indeed. All right, thanks so much, Brian Stelter, for bringing us that. "RELIABLE SOURCES" airs Sundays 11:00 a.m. Eastern right here on CNN.

So as the president-elect prepares for the White House, Trump is also facing dozens of active lawsuits. Up next, the impact this could have at the start of his administration.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right, this is the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. Donald Trump's lawyers want his scheduled November 28th Trump University trial postponed until after inauguration in January.

President-elect Trump is at the center of three civil cases by former students who accused the school of defrauding them out of thousands of dollars.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BOB GUILLO, FORMER TRUMP UNIVERSITY STUDENT: They would say if you want to know about your tax deductions as a business, go to irs.gov. If you want --

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: That was the tip.

GUILLO: That was the tip. If you want to go to find property, go to trulia.com --

GRIFFIN: Another great tip.

GUILLO: Another website like that. And I just was shaking my head all the time. I kept hoping that the next retreat I would take that I would get some knowledge that I never had before but never did.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Trump's lawyers filed the request for the delay. Those documents in federal court last night.

[14:35:04]They argue that quote, "The president-elect should not be required to stand trial during the next two months while he prepares to assume the presidency. The time and attention to prepare and testify will take him away from imperative transition work at a critical time," end quote.

But lawyers for the students say Trump's election should not affect the case. I want to talk about this with CNN presidential historian, Tim Neftali, and CNN political commentator, David Swerdlick, back with us.

So David, you first, the judge in this case, Judge Gonzalo Curiel, we know how Donald Trump has felt about him. That judge has previously denied a request to postpone this trial. What might be the strategy behind asking him again?

SWERDLICK: So, I would hesitate, Fredricka, to weigh in on this as a legal matter, but as a political matter, I would ask the Trump team why should President-elect Trump be treated different than anyone else.

Look, part of what Trump ran on was this idea that there was a rigged system and two sets of rules one for the so-called elites and one for everybody else, but here we are in a situation where Donald Trump won the election, by saying, look, there should be one set of rules for everybody.

So why isn't President-elect Donald Trump subject to the same rules? If it turns out that he's exonerated by this trial, he should move forward with this trial, right? That would my take on this based on what we know.

WHITFIELD: And so Tim, is there any precedence for a president-elect facing lawsuits just now two months before the swearing in?

NAFTALI: We have a precedent for a president facing this. In 1997 --

WHITFIELD: President-elect -- sworn in though.

NAFTALI: Let's put it this way, Bill Clinton might have -- I don't believe there's -- I'm trying to remember when the Paula Jones case started. I think it started when after president -- after Bill Clinton took the oath of office.

But the interesting thing is that Trump doesn't gain anything from doing this -- undergoing this trial while he's president. In 1997, the Supreme Court in the case involving President Clinton ruled that presidents, even sitting presidents, have to participate in civil cases involving possible infractions that occurred before they became president.

So it's very strange that his lawyers decided this. He's not going to benefit much from it happening during his presidency. One wonders why he thinks he'll have more time as president to deal with this than he would have as president-elect.

WHITFIELD: David, either way, the headline, the association with this trial as president elect or as president certainly would be undermining of a person in this position to take the White House?

SWERDLICK: Yes, I mean, you can understand why the Trump team is trying to figure out how to strategize and circle the wagons around this, but the reality of the situation is, Donald Trump, President- elect Trump and the rest of his legal team and his political team knew that he was facing this lawsuit when he embarked on the campaign. They knew it on Election Day. They know it now. They will know it on inauguration.

WHITFIELD: So how was it any better if this trial were delayed? It's been on the docket for a while. What would be the psychology from that political standpoint? You know, David, as to why this -- they would want to tackle this after swearing in as opposed to now get it over with before swearing in?

SWERDLICK: Sure, I don't want to speculate too much into the psychology of this on the part of the Trump legal team, Fredricka, except to say it suggests to me they might be just looking to kick the can down the road and using this as a theory to test this as a way to get that done and push this further out and not deal with it right now, deal with it later.

PAUL: And then, Tim, if there were a settlement, in avoidance of a full blown trial, how would you see that impacting the presidency?

NAFTALI: Well, again, like David, I really -- I'm not a lawyer, don't play one on television. I'll put it to you this way. I can't see the advantage to President-elect Trump of testifying in this case. So if they can find a way to settle it so he doesn't have to testify, it seems to me politically speaking, not legally speaking, it would be better for the president.

I keep thinking about the Paula Jones deposition and Bill Clinton, I can't see how a sitting president benefits in this case from a trial about a possible fraud. I don't see how it could be good for him.

WHITFIELD: All right, Tim Naftali and David Swerdlick, thank you so much, Gentlemen. Appreciate it.

All right, everybody wants to laugh a little bit, right? Well, comedian, Dave Chappelle, he's back and he hosted "Saturday Night Live" and had a message for President-elect Donald Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[14:40:04]DAVE CHAPPELLE, COMEDIA: I saw how happy everybody was. These people who had been historically disenfranchised, it made me feel hopeful and proud to be an American and very happy about the prospects of our country. So in that spirit, I'm wishing Donald Trump luck and I'm going to give him a chance and we the historically disenfranchised demand that he give us one too.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right, welcome back. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. So in its first episode since the country elected our next president, "Saturday Night Live" took a more reflective tone. Kate McKinnon who has played Hillary Clinton since the start of her campaign opened by singing the late Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah," and then came host, Dave Chappelle's opening monologue. Less comedy, heavy on seriousness.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHAPPELLE: Before I go, I want to say one thing, I think it's important I say this because they are marching up the street right now as we speak. A few weeks ago I went to the White House for a party, it was the first time I've been there in many years and was very exciting.

And BET has sponsored the party so everyone there was black and it was beautiful. I walked through the gates, I'm from Washington and saw the bus stop or the corner where the bus stop used to be and dream about nights like tonight.

[14:45:11]It was really, really beautiful night. And at the end of the night, everyone went to the west wing of the White House and it was a huge party. And everybody in there was black except for Bradley Cooper for some reason.

On the walls were pictures of all of the presidents of the past. Now, I'm not sure if this is true, to my knowledge, the first black person that was officially invited to the White House was Frederick Douglas.

They stopped him at the gates, Abraham Lincoln had to walk out himself and escort Frederick Douglas into the White House. It didn't happen again as far as I know until Roosevelt was president.

Roosevelt was president, he had a black guy over and got so much flak from the media that he literally said I'll never have another (inaudible) in this house again.

I thought about that and I looked at that room and saw all of those black faces and Bradley and I saw how happy everybody was. These people had been historically disenfranchised and it made me feel hopeful and made me feel proud to be an American and very happy about the prospects of our country.

So in that spirit, I'm wishing Donald Trump luck and I'm going to give him a chance. And we the historically disenfranchised demand that he give us one too. Thank you very much.

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WHITFIELD: All right, Dave Chappelle back and on SNL. Let's talk more with CNN Money media reporter, Frank Pallotta. Frank, good to see you. That was a very powerful message and you know people have been turning to "SNL" during the campaign trail to laugh about it.

And now they tune to SNL and hear the philosophical message coming from Dave Chappelle even with the singing there from McKinnon. Talk about the role that SNL has now played not just on understanding the candidates but now helping a nation heal?

FRANK PALLOTTA, CNN MONEY MEDIA REPORTER: I mean, what makes America great is our satire, being able to make fun of our leaders and fun of our celebrities and really anybody in a way that is both productive and helpful and in a way cathartic. Last night was cathartic for many, many people in this country. I tuned in for that episode and I was almost taken aback by how somber the beginning of the show was. I expected it to include Alec Baldwin and back and forth, maybe a little jokey and serious but this was unlike anything I expected.

And then to go directly into Dave Chappelle who hasn't been around much but known for his sketch comedy. This was a comeback for him, and to speak directly to the audience, he was not doing a stand-up or a bit, he was speaking his mind. It really hit home.

I also think it should be noted that as much as this was a cathartic, emotional moment for "SNL", this is the same program that had Donald Trump just a year ago as host.

So this is a long time variety show that is able to touch many different parts of the American experience and last night, really showed that it can do more than just tell a good joke.

WHITFIELD: How do you suppose the crafting of this came about and the involvement of Dave Chappelle, was he already likely on schedule as hosting after the election, but did this come about as a result of the outcome of the election and things came together and minds came together about how they wanted to approach this show?

PALLOTTA: Well, he was announced host before the election took place, but SNL has been known as a place that is kind of thrown together at the last moment. Perfect example is when the "Access Hollywood" tape came out.

There was a lot of reports that said SNL switched up the cold open to talk about that a day after it happened. You could tell this was something that was not necessarily different. It wasn't necessarily expected.

This was unlike really most of the "SNL" episodes you've seen out there. This is a much different episode with a different tone. People tuned in to have a good laugh but to also be really pushed to really think about where the climate of the country is right now through our art.

WHITFIELD: Pretty powerful stuff. All right, Frank Pallotta, thank you so much. Appreciate it. We'll be right back.

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[14:53:42]

WHITFIELD: Welcome back. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. We are following other news for you. A tsunami has hit the eastern coast of New Zealand. It was triggered by a powerful 7.8 magnitude earthquake near the city of Christchurch. The quake sent people on the streets as buildings were evacuated. The New Zealand Civil Defense says those who were in high risk areas can now return to their homes. Reuters reports two people have died. Iraqi forces are making progress in the fight against ISIS. The Iraqi say the key town of Nimrud in Northern Iraq has been liberated completely. It had been under ISIS control for more than a year.

Today marks one year since the terror attacks in Paris, 130 were killed in the coordinated gun and bomb attacks in France. Today people are expected to gather at the sites of the horrific attacks. CNN's Melissa Bell has more.

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MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: These are the offerings today at the Plaza Republic, this symbol of Paris' grief in the wake of the 13th of November attacks last year. As you can see nothing like the scale of what we saw a year ago and it is a reflection of the ceremonies that have been carried out throughout Paris today much more low key, fairly small scale.

Subdued almost is the atmosphere here in Paris. This at the request of the families of the victims who wanted this issue not to be politicized, just six months to go before presidential election.

[14:55:08]Francois Hollande made no speech even as he unveiled plaques at the places in Paris where the 130 people were killed a year ago today. Six months from a general election, the French prime minister says that the state of emergency is likely to stay in place. For now though, Parisians have been grieving quietly and mostly alone. Melissa Bell, CNN, Paris.

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WHITFIELD: Straight ahead in the CNN Newsroom, President-elect Trump is setting up a blind trust for his empire, but his children are expected to be in charge. Trump adviser, Rudy Giuliani, weighing in.

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RUDY GIULIANI, TRUMP ADVISER: The president doesn't have to have a blind trust. For some reason when the wall was written the president was exempt.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Then anti-Trump protests continue to spur across the nation for a fifth day. Plus we'll hear more from House Speaker Paul Ryan.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPRESENTATIVE PAUL RYAN (R), HOUSE SPEAKER: As long as protests are peaceful, if people want to express themselves that way, that's what we can do in this country, that's what the first amendment is all about.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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WHITFIELD: It is the first weekend after Donald J. Trump was elected president of the United States. Hello, everyone. You're watching the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. Donald Trump will soon make some very big decisions as president-elect selecting his chief of staff among them.