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New Day Sunday

Trump Chief of Staff Decision "Imminent"; Clinton: Campaign Couldn't "Overcome" FBI Letters; Police: Dozens Arrested in Demonstrations; Powerful 7.8-Magnitude Quake Rocks New Zealand; Trump's Key Promise to Voters: I'll Create Jobs; What Kind of President Will Trump Be?. Aired 7-8a ET

Aired November 13, 2016 - 07:00   ET

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


[07:00:00] CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: I should say, because there was a lot to unpack there, and they're so talented.

And thank you.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Yes.

PAUL: And thank you for starting your day with us as we heading into the 7:00 hour here.

BLACKWELL: It starts right now.

(MUSIC)

PAUL: Look, Victor still stuck just a little bit.

BLACKWELL: It was good time.

PAUL: Welcome to Sunday. We are always so grateful that you spend part of your morning with us. I'm Christi Paul.

BLACKWELL: I'm Victor Blackwell. Welcome to your NEW DAY.

Coming soon, the first big decision for President-elect Donald Trump. This morning, Trump appears on the verge of selecting his chief of staff as the person who will help shape Trump's White House and his policy agenda. We've got details on the timing of that pick. That's coming up for you.

PAUL: And we're also following a weekend of nationwide protests against the president-elect from Trump Tower in New York to Los Angeles. Tens of thousands of demonstrators clogging the streets of major cities and venting their anger.

(VIDEO CLIP PLAYS)

PAUL: OK. What you're looking at there is overnight in Las Vegas where protestors were marching from the Strips to the step of the Trump International Hotel. BLACKWELL: Also new this morning, lawyers for Donald Trump have asked

the federal judges to postpone this month's Trump University trial. His lawyers argue that preparing to testify will take away from Trump's critical and all-consuming presidential transition.

PAUL: Yes, as we mentioned, Donald Trump's transition is set to take another step forward as he prepares to pick a chief of staff.

CNN's Sunlen Serfaty has more on what we're looking forward to.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Christi and Victor.

Well, President-elect Donald Trump appears to be closing in and making his first real choice on who will be part of his incoming White House team. His top adviser Kellyanne Conway telling reporters outside Trump Tower on Saturday evening that she believes the choice will be imminent and that likely we will see Donald Trump publicly within a few days, sources previously telling CNN to expect the White House chief of staff announcement to potentially come as soon as Monday. So, potentially, circle next week on your calendar.

Now, we know that the top choices appear to be Republican National Committee chair Reince Priebus and Donald Trump's campaign chair Steve Bannon, with the heavy emphasis on sources telling us that Reince Priebus is the leading contender.

Here's what Kellyanne Conway told reporters on Saturday.

KELLYANNE CONWAY, SENIOR ADVISER TO DONALD TRUMP: I think Chairman Priebus has expressed an interest in the position. There are several people being considered. And it's Mr. Trump's decision ultimately.

SERFATY: Meanwhile, we are getting some insight whether President- elect Donald Trump plans to be tweeting as much in the White House as he did during the campaign. We all know and remember his controversial and at times provocative tweets. Well, in an interview on "60 Minutes", he says he credits many wins in many seats to his ability to get out on Twitter. When he was asked if he would keep up this amount of tweeting, here's what he had to say.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT-ELECT: I'm going to do very restrained if I use it at all. I'm going to be very restrained. I find it tremendous. It's a modern form of communication. There should be nothing you should be ashamed of. It's -- 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 spent. And I won.

I think that social media has more power than the money they spent and I think maybe to a certain extent, I proved that. SERFATY: A surprise to no one that these social media tools are

important to Donald Trump and certainly it's interesting that with everything on his plate right now, getting his transition team up and running, and looking forward to taking over the reins at the White House that Donald Trump is still paying attention to his Twitter followers. He says that he knows he picked up 100,000 new followers on Thursday alone -- Christi and Victor.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLACKWELL: All right. Sunlen, thank you so much.

Joining me now to talk, Josh Rogin, CNN political analyst and columnist for "Washington Post", CNN politics reporter Tom LoBianco, and former congressman and Trump supporter, Jack Kingston.

Good morning to all.

JACK KINGSTON, TRUMP SUPPORTER: Good morning.

TOM LOBIANCO, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: Good morning.

BLACKWELL: So, we're going to talk about Twitter in a moment because we have to talk about it, but I want to talk first about this Trump University lawsuit that Donald Trump's attorneys are asking the federal judge to postpone until after the inauguration. Here's what Donald Trump said about this case on MSNBC a couple of months ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I could have settled this case. I could he settled the case a number of times. I could have settled the case now if I wanted to settle the case. I don't settle cases. You know what happens? When you settle cases, everybody sues you.

[07:05:02] At least with me, I don't settle cases very often. At least with me, they know they have to go through the ringer.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: All right, Jack. You were literally a Trump campaign advisor. The judge in this case, Judge Curiel, had advised Mr. Trump to settle this case. What would your advice be to the president- elect?

KINGSTON: I think this is going to be part of the transition from businessman to president. I think what's going to happen is Mr. Trump will be faced with having to give up some of the practices that he had as a business. And as he just stated, one of his practices was that if somebody sued him, he sued -- or he pushed back and he pushed back hard.

And I see that philosophy. I was a businessman, and I think that's a great tactic to take. But when you're president, you just -- there are certain things you just have to let it go and move on.

BLACKWELL: So, he should settle?

KINGSTON: I think on something like this, I won't give him advice. I don't know the details. I think probably he'll find themselves having to settle a lot of unfinished pieces of business like this.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

KINGSTON: And do it in a manner that's expeditious rather necessarily fair.

BLACKWELL: Josh, speaking of unfinished business, about 75 lawsuits that Donald Trump is facing. Some see this as resolve. Some see this as stubbornness that he says I simply don't settle. Is there some scenario in which you see the future president fighting the 75 or so lawsuits?

JOSH ROGIN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes, and let's also take into account the fact that President-elect Trump has promised to sue all of his accusers in the various sexual assault allegations after he's president. We'll see if he actually follows through on that. I think the bottom line here is that it's very unlikely that Trump as president will have any time to deal with any of this and so, it's very unlikely that any of these things will get resolved in the next four years.

I think it could also point to the fact that President-elect Trump has declined to properly recuse himself from his various business entanglements, right? Most ethics lawyers and experts will tell you that what a president-elect should do in this situation is he should divest himself of all of these businesses and put all the money in equity into a blind trust. He's decided to do that. He's decided to hand over his organizations and his various obligations to his adult children, some of his adult children, who are also involved in his presidential administration transition. So, this is a web of conflicts and interests that the Trump team hasn't begun to think about (INAUDIBLE).

BLACKWELL: Tom, let me come to you on those cases. He said that he would sue the "New York Times." He suggested he would sue each of the women who accused him during the campaign of sexual assault. Any reporting there on if he's going to hold to those promises?

TOM LOBIANCO, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: Well, that's one of the big questions that we still have out there. What will he follow through on? We haven't heard specifically whether he will follow through or not. You do have to wonder whether a sitting president of the United States will be filing suit against individuals. That doesn't seem like a good use of time.

You know, kind of getting back to one of the original points on the Twitter, his comments here on "60 Minutes" on Twitter. He can't focus on Twitter because he's focusing on creating a White House. He's building this thing from scratch basically. You have a lot of Republicans who were not a part of his campaign, weren't supporting him. They're kind of coming home as they say now.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

LOBIANCO: When it was looking like it might go Obama to Clinton, that was going to be an easy transition. But it's a time consuming process. So, to go back to the lawsuits, you know, running the country is, you know, 20-hour a day job at least.

BLACKWELL: But we point out here that he was aware that he gained 100,000 Twitter followers on the day before he got shot that interview.

Let me come back to you, Jack, because you were on this program yesterday and you said something that stood out as we look ahead to the transition into the future Trump administration and his cabinet and here's what you said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KINGSTON: Mike Pence not only knows the Capitol. He knows the players of the House and Senate. He knows how the committee system works, but he also knows all the governors. So, that really brings a unique talent to the picture.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: So, obviously, that's not what you said because you're sitting there with Wolf Blitzer and it's the middle of the night.

Let me read for you what you said because that's the wrong sound bite. You said, "I believe that when he's through," speaking about the president-elect, "selecting his team, the American people are going to be very, very happy, including those protesters. I think you're going to see a very diverse cabinet, geographically, racially, religious, everything that people will want."

Let's put up by the faces of Trump's transition team. Not exactly the rainbow coalition. Where is this diversity you speak of?

KINGSTON: Well, I can't quite see all the roster, but you have people like Pam Bondi, and Marsha Blackburn on there. And --

[07:10:02] BLACKWLL: Neither of those names have been released to CNN. This is based on the list of the chairmen and the executive committee advisors.

KINGSTON: They actually are on the executive committee and I do have that list and it's -- I thought it was public. So I apologize. I don't think I'm speaking out of school.

BLACKWELL: OK.

KINGSTON: There is a diversity of people on there. Remember, this is the selection committee. And so many of the people who, you know, were involved in the campaign are on the ones who are transition committee. But the end product is going to look different, because the end product is going to be a lot more reflective of America, and bipartisan, and geographic spread and everything else. BLACKWELL: Wouldn't this be a good start though? The only African-

American, the only minority that I see from my vantage point and Ben Carson.

KINGSTON: You know, a good friend of mine, Atlanta businessman who's been a guest of your show, Bruce LaValle (ph) --

BLACKWELL: Yes.

KINGSTON: -- headed his diversity committee and it is very much in the groove, if you will. He -- that started, by the way, in 2015. It wasn't something that just Trump thought of would look good in the last 60 days.

BLACKWELL: He's not on the transition team?

KINGSTON: He's not on the transition team. People like that whose name will be batted around.

BLACKWELL: He was here yesterday, actually part of conversation, also not on the transition team. We have gone well over our time for this.

Jack Kingston, Tom LoBianco, Josh Rogin, thank you all for the conversation.

KINGSTON: Thanks.

ROGIN: Thank you.

PAUL: Straight ahead, Hillary Clinton has a frank conversation with her donors about why she believes she lost. Some of her reasons don't even mention the name Donald Trump, but the question now is, how will the party move forward?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAUL: Fourteen minutes past the hour.

Hillary Clinton is moving on and she is sounding off about who is to partially blame for her stunning loss to the presidency in her eyes.

[07:15:08] It has nothing to do with Donald Trump either. She's calling out FBI Director James Comey. According to a source who is on a call that Clinton have their donors, she says her campaign could not, quote, "overcome" the impact of the FBI letters that came just days before the election.

Now, Comey revealed the renewed the probe of e-mails linked to Clinton's private server on October 28th. And Clinton says that disclosure stopped the momentum of her campaign.

Days after the first letter, a second letter from Comey exonerated Clinton again.

So, let's talk about this with Tharon Johnson. He was the south regional director for the Obama's 2012 campaign. Thank you so much for being with us.

THARON JOHNSON, FORMR SOUTH REGIONAL DIRECTOR, OBAMA 2012 CAMPAIGN: Good morning.

PAUL: How much do you collectively all believe that Comey had something to do with this? Because there was a lot. People are acknowledging there were a lot of missteps along the way.

JOHNSON: Well, Christi, you remember. I mean, you guys broke the news on this show and I was fortunate to be able to be here that day to talk about it. And so, was it a distraction? Absolutely, because what it did, it took the campaign off message from talking about issues like immigration, and education and more importantly jobs.

And so, they spent the next five to six days responding to this what we thought was a baseless claim. So, I think that was part of the problem. But let's just be realistic. I mean, the Republicans, and particularly independent white women, which we talked a lot about, voted for Donald Trump.

So, I think if the campaign starts to heal and they go back and they do sort of an autopsy of what happened -- yes, the Comey letter did play a big part of her defeat. But there were just a lot of other things that I think we've just got to get over and we got to move forward.

PAUL: And a lot of people were surprised about the women that voted for him because of some of the things that were revealed in the campaign. But what does that tell you about the Democrats and perhaps maybe there is a disconnect between the party and electorate and maybe policy really does come into play here?

JOHNSON: Well, the first thing is Democrats, we're in the process of healing is that, first, listen, we lost election. Let's take some time to get over it but then we have to move forward.

And I think we cannot shy away from issues that are important to women like wage stagnation in the workplace, making sure that income inequality doesn't affect women, making sure small business owners -- small women business owners have access to contracts and to do business.

But, more importantly, listen, we've got to listen to them. I mean, clearly, there was a message from Democrats and the Hillary campaign that did not resonate with them. So, we've got to take this time and listen to what they want.

PAUL: Uh-huh. I want to listen to this tweet from long-time Democratic strategist Jim Manley. He says, quote, "If there had been no private server in the first place, there would not have been an FBI investigation."

So, when your party is doing a postmortem, where do you -- where do you put this? And what is your takeaway as you do try to move forward, as you do try to find a new leader of the party? JOHNSON: Yes, you know, everyone is a Monday morning quarterback now. Everybody has to excuses and, you know, they're making bold predictions on the cheap seats. I think the bottom line is, is that we've just got to accept that we lost the race. But more importantly, we've got to work with Donald Trump as President Obama said.

But we've got to hold him accountable. We cannot forget our Democratic principles. You know, we believe in a big tent party. Now, we welcome everyone. We believe America is a great place for everyone to thrive. So, I think we have to continue to talk about that to our voters, but also, we've got to expand our electorate.

And at a time when we're going to pick a new leader, I think we need to someone out of the book. It needs to be someone who's inspiring, someone's innovative. It needs to be a person of color I think, someone young. So, I think we're going to have those conversations as we go on.

PAUL: Who do you think in the party can work well with Donald Trump moving forward?

JOHNSON: I think --

PAUL: There was a little bit of a nervous laughter there. But I know --

JOHNSON: No, no, I think, listen, we've got to work with him. But more importantly in working with him, I mean, this is the same guy who ran for office said he was going to destroy ISIS in the first 100 days. He wants to deport millions and millions of immigrants.

PAUL: Well, we've seen a softer side of him in the last couple of days. We've seen him back off or walk back some of these -- from immigration to Obamacare. So, he may be coming to a realization that not everything, as most candidates do especially if they're not incumbents, they come to this realization that, oh, everything I said I was going to do I can't necessarily do because you get into the White House, you get the classified information, you get briefed and you realize that's not possible, right?

JOHNSON: I think Dave Chappelle you know, hit the nail on the head when Donald Trump sat down with President Obama. I mean, you could see his face. I think he was really overwhelmed. He was like, oh, my God, I'm really about to endure and inherit all of these issues.

But I think that at the time as we moved forward, you mentioned Obamacare. Are you going to take away healthcare from 20 million people? And so, there are certain provisions within that law that he sort of try to reverse --

PAUL: He has said there wouldn't be that time lapse so people wouldn't be without it. But just for your party looking forward, who do you look at now and think this is somebody who can help lead us in the party?

JOHNSON: Well, the first thing, we've also got to get a lot of credit to Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Donna Brazile, who I believe two women who did a really good job.

[07:20:06] Now, we better look beyond that. And I think that we can't go back with sort of the typical model to find a chair. I think we have to really listen to the committee. We've got to listen to these voters who did not vote for Hillary Clinton in the election.

But I do think it needs to be someone who's inspiring, someone who's innovative, someone who's outside of the box. It cannot be your typical insider Washington mainstream.

PAUL: So, maybe not somebody who's in the party? Maybe not somebody --

JOHNSON: Maybe not. But if that person, he or she is in the party, I think they've got to basically build that coalition. We've got to embrace the Bernie Sanders supporters, who we also got to make sure the Hillary Clinton supporters stay inspired and stay involved in the party.

PAUL: Tharon Johnson, always a pleasure to have you here.

JOHNSON: Thank you, Christi.

PAUL: Thank you so much.

Victor?

BLACKWELL: Well, for the fifth night in a row now, protestors out across the country offset over the election of Donald Trump. What they hope to gain by taking their message to the streets.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: A fifth night of protests across the country. Thousands demonstrated in Los Angeles and Las Vegas and Portland where police tell us that dozens of people were arrested.

PAUL: CNN correspondent Polo Sandoval is following the latest on these protests.

Polo, is there any indication they're going to continue?

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Probably all the way up to Inauguration Day. We're going to talk about that in (AUDIO GAP). Nightly occurrence (AUDIO GAP) across America from coast to coast.

Again, police forcing to pluck out people from the crowds there believed to be inciting violence.

[07:25:03] I want to take you to the streets, including in Portland, the city that made headlines yesterday. Police arresting there at least 19 people overnight, some of them blocking rail, also vehicle traffic in some parts of the city. There was also the scene of a shooting yesterday morning that left at least one person injured. New developments in that one. At least two people arrested there as the investigation continues. In Las Vegas, crowds also gathering outside of Trump International

Hotel. Protests there though remaining relatively peaceful. No major incidents. Also, the Big Apple where demonstrations stretched almost about five blocks along Fifth Avenue.

Inside Manhattan's Trump Tower, Michael Moore tried riding that famous escalator that you recall was used by Donald Trump the day he announced his candidacy last year. He called President-elect Donald Trump, quote, "an illegitimate president" and does not have the vote of the people.

Again, these demonstrations are expected to continue likely tonight. Many of them peaceful. But again, others did break out in some violence including in Indianapolis, where at least two police officers were hurt when rocks were thrown their way. Several people arrested there as well, Victor and Christi.

But back to those demonstrations, they'll continue. In fact, there is one massive demonstration planned in the nation's capitol the day after Inauguration Day, Women's March on Washington. We checked the website a little while ago. About 44,000 people already signed up. That number likely to grow as we get closer to January.

PAUL: That's not necessarily' protest against Trump though as we understand it, right? That's more about women's rights?

SANDOVAL: Correct. It seems that many of these demonstrations, though, the political elections, the presidential election, does take -- is a topic of conversation. So, we're just going to watch come January to see if that's the only demonstration, if there are --

PAUL: There will be, sure. Absolutely.

BLACKWELL: All right.

PAUL: Polo Sandoval --

BLACKWELL: Thank you.

SANDOVAL: You bet, guys.

PAUL: There's breaking news we want to get to out of New Zealand. A powerful 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit this morning.

BLACKWELL: Let's bring in CNN Weather's Allison Chinchar.

Allison, what do we know about this?

ALLISON CHINCHAR, AMS METEOROLOGIST: We do know that the magnitude has intensified. It was originally estimated around a 7.4. So, they have upgraded it to 7.8.

Now, one positive thing is the depth was a little bit shallower at 10 kilometer. They've now up to about 23 kilometers, which is just about 15 miles, give or take. So, you have to understand the shallower the earthquake is, the more likely it is to cause damage. So, the fact that we know it was a little bit deeper, that does give us a little bit of hope that the damage will be significantly less.

However, the magnitude also went up. So, that also means that it was a stronger earthquake. So, in terms of overall, it may not end up making much of a difference that the depth ended up being a little bit deeper.

Now, we do know that there have tsunami warnings, no tsunami watches issued as of it. However, the ministry of defense in New Zealand has stated that because of the aftershocks that may come shortly after, there is the potential that they could end up issuing something if they deem it necessary. So, they're telling people to be on guard in case they have a very strong after shock that takes place over the water because, again, where this happened was just north of Christchurch but very close to the water.

Now, it happened over land which pretty much negates much of a chance of having a tsunami, but the after shocks may be different. Now, this happened just shortly after midnight local time. This woke a lot of people up from their sleep.

A lot of people on Twitter saying they're not sure they're go back to sleep because the after shocks have been relatively strong. In fact, we've already had at least a few at 6.0 or higher and numerous ones at least magnitude 5 or higher. And that's likely, Victor and Christi, to continue over the course of the hour. So, I imagine a lot of folks are on edge as they're trying to get outside and assess what damage there may be.

PAUL: No doubt about it.

BLACKWELL: All right. Donald Trump -- Allison Chinchar, thank you so much.

Donald Trump promised to create 25 million jobs, adding those to American payrolls. But could his economic plan do more harm than good?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:32:26] PAUL: Sunday morning and we're so glad you're on board with us. I'm Christi Paul.

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

Donald Trump's legal team is trying to delay a lawsuit over Trump University and going to court, filing a motion on Saturday night, trying to push back the trial until after the president-elect's inauguration.

Now, Trump's attorneys argue that he's too busy to focus on a trial as he transitions into the White House.

PAUL: As we could be closing in on the name of a key player in the Trump White House, all of this is happening. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) REPORTER: Do you have a sense of the timetable of when a chief of staff will be announced?

KELLYANNE CONWAY, DONALD TRUMP CAMPAIGN MANAGER: Well, it's imminent.

REPORTER: Today?

CONWAY: No, but it's imminent.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: That was Trump's campaign manager Kellyanne Conway.

Former Breitbart publisher Steven Bannon and current RNC chairman Reince Priebus reportedly being considered for the role of chief of staff.

BLACKWELL: All right. On the campaign, Donald Trump made jobs one of his key issues, promising that during his time in office, 25 million jobs would be created, essentially adding to that couple of years saying over the next decade by implementing a plan to cut regulations, cut taxes, spend on infrastructure and renegotiate trade deals.

But some economists have blasted Trump's plan, one forecasting firm telling CNN that Trump's policies would cost the economy a trillion dollars over the next five years.

Let's talk about this. Stephen Moore, president of the Heritage Foundation and economic advisor to Donald Trump, along with CNN political commentator and "Washington Post" columnist, Josh Rogin, back with us.

Gentleman, good morning to you.

JOSH ROGIN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Good morning.

STEPHEN MOORE, HERITAGE FOUNDATION: Hi.

BLACKWELL: Stephen, I want to start with you and what the right leaning economist Doug Holtz-Eakin calls implausible at best when he talks about Donald Trump's economic plan. Bringing tax rates down to three categories, 15 percent, 25 percent and, 33 percent, I believe, bringing down corporate taxes to 15 percent.

You respond to that claim how?

MOORE: By saying that's exactly what critics said of Ronald Regan's program. It couldn't possibly work. It's going to make the economy worse. The stock market is going to flop. And, of course, we had one of the biggest economic booms in the country's history.

And we think we can duplicate that. We're going to do it by a formula, as you just said, by cutting our tax rates.

And, by the way, you mentioned the individual rates. We think out of the gate, more importantly, is to get the rates down on our businesses, and go from having one of the highest business tax rates in the world to one of the lowest. And there's just no question that will be a magnet for new jobs, and capital, and factories coming to the United States.

[07:35:00] We think there's millions from doing that.

And, of course, you mentioned the regulatory assault. That -- as I've been involved with Donald Trump and meeting with, you know, business leaders around the country, they say the regulatory stranglehold right that's taken place under Barack Obama is even worse than the taxes.

If you alleviate that tax and regulatory burden, I think you get a lot more jobs and then you get a lot more revenue to the government.

BLACKWELL: Hey, Josh, let me come to you on the national debt.

Donald Trump told Bob Woodward sometime ago that he could eliminate essentially the national debt, which is $19.8 trillion if you look this morning -- fairly quickly, he said, and he said over the course of eight years.

JOSH ROGIN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Right. You have to be an economist to understand that if you drastically cut taxes and you raise spending as Donald Trump has promise the to do with his various infrastructure investments, that creates a hole, OK? That's actually building debt not getting rid of debt. So, I've never really heard, I don't think anyone's heard a clear explanation of how Donald Trump plans to get rid of our national debt.

I mean, we've also seen an example albeit on a smaller scale of what happens when you put this exact kind of economic scheme in place. It's in the state of Texas, where Republican Governor Sam Brownback was able to get huge tax cuts and the private sector jobs did not materialize. What ended up happening was that there was a huge budget deficit that went way up. They were forced to cut vital services to people.

So, you know, until someone explains how this is different than that, I think there's going to be a lot of skepticism that, A, Donald Trump will be able to implement the plan and, B, that it will be able to produce enough growth to overcome these deficiencies.

BLACKWELL: Steve, can you explain how Donald Trump or what the plan is to eliminate $19.8 trillion in debt? First, you've got to balance the budget and then have you to have a surplus to pay off the debt. How do you do that in eight years?

MOORE: I don't think you can do it mathematically. I just don't think -- I think most Americans feel good if we can balance the budget in eight years. You know, we've been running trillion dollar deficits now for 10 years. So, the last two Bush years, in the first Obama eight years, you know, we were borrowing a trillion dollars a year.

We can't keep doing that as a nation. If we want to be a great nation, world class super power, we've got to bring that deficit down. Now, I think -- I do think we can balance the budget in eight years

and I think we can start to retire a little bit of the debt. But, no, you're into the going to eliminate $19 trillion in debt --

BLACKWELL: Then why would he suggest it? If his strength is that he's a businessman and he's created this empire, why would he suggest to Bob Woodward back on March 31st of this year that you can get rid of $19.8 trillion in debt in eight years?

MOORE: I don't know. I' just going to simply say this. We are going to -- the most important thing about the economy right now is getting it to grow again. We've had 1.5 percent growth for the last year. That just won't get the job done.

If you're concerned about the red ink in Washington, you've got to get growth up to about 4 to 5 percent. Now, we believe we can do that. I mean, just look at the states. The states that have the lowest tax rates have the most economic growth. Look at Texas and Florida and compare them with states like, you know, Massachusetts, states like Illinois and states like New York that are just bleeding jobs.

So, we think the formula is more private sector investment by businesses, whereas, this last administration has been about growing the government. And that hasn't worked very well.

BLACKWELL: Well, the numbers out from October showed 151,000 jobs, 73rd straight month of job growth but also the fastest wage growth since 2009, the start of the recession or the end of it there.

Stephen Moore, Josh Rogin, thank you both.

ROGIN: Thank you.

MOORE: Thank you.

PAUL: Just ahead, a look to the future under President Donald Trump. How will it reshape the Republican Party? Will the GOP go further right?

Listen to one voice who says, you better believe it.

(COMMERICAL BREAK)

[07:42:32] PAUL: It was a point of pride in Trump's campaign, and now, it's a source of mystery for those looking ahead.

We're talking about the fact that Donald Trump has never held elected office. He doesn't have experience governing, even amongst his vast experience in the business world. He's going to be the first political novice president since Dwight Eisenhower won more than 60 years ago.

So, with no political record to go on, what kind of president will Trump be?

Let's talk about it with two authors. First, we have Trump biographer, Michael D'Antonio, who penned the book, "The Truth About Trump", and also here, historian and Princeton professor Julian Zelizer.

Gentlemen, thank you for being here. We certainly appreciate it.

Michael, I'd like to start with you. And let's take a look at some of what we have seen from Donald Trump in the last several months.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT-ELECT: I called for a ban after San Bernardino and was met with great scorn and anger.

We must find out what is going on. We have to do it. It will be lifted, this ban, when and as a nation, we're in a position to properly and perfectly screen these people coming into our country.

African-American, Hispanics are living in hell because it's so dangerous. You walk down the street, you get shot.

It is time for us to come together as one united people.

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

(END VIDEO CLIPS)

PAUL: So, no doubt about it, gentlemen. During the campaign, we saw a bold, sometimes crass unapologetic Donald Trump. And just in the last four or five days, he's had a more measured tone, has been a little more self-controlled it seems, promising unity.

So, Michael, I'm wondering, do you get the sense that Donald Trump himself is trying to figure out who he is and who he wants to be in this new position?

MICHAEL D'ANTONIO, AUTHOR, "THE TRUTH ABOUT TRUMP": Oh, most definitely. You know, he is profoundly unprepared. Even to mention Dwight Eisenhower in the same breath as Donald Trump is almost shocking to me. Eisenhower was a moderate, sophisticated person who had led the American effort in Europe during the Second World War.

Donald Trump is an intemperate, former reality TV show star who I think was quite shocked by his own victory on Wednesday morning.

[07:45:00] So, he is going to be trying very hard.

You know, one of the things that I think upsets Americans who are protesting is that he's very much like one of us suddenly thrust into the Oval Office. You know, we imagine what would we do if we were going to be president in less than 100 days? It's even compounded by the fact that this is a person who doesn't read, so he gets all of his information from television and from briefings.

Don't expect him to turn to Doris Kearns Goodwin or John Meacham to figure out what a president does. I think it's going to be terribly difficult for him.

PAUL: Julian, Michael brings up a good point, that he doesn't have any experience, but that is what drew a lot of people to him is that he is an anti-establishment man. You wrote -- just wrote a piece with your wife Lynn Jacobs for "The Daily Beast". I want to quote from it.

You said, "In many respects, this week's election has a potential to have even bigger consequences than Reagan's historic victory for conservatism."

Walk us through some of the most striking consequences you prognosticate?

JULIAN ZELIZER, HISTORIAN & PROFESSOR, PRINCETON UNIVERSITY: Well, first of all, you have a very, very conservative Republican Congress. We can't forget that. Much more conservative than Republicans were in the 1980s. And they are going to try to take advantage of these next two years and push Donald Trump with them on a very right ward agenda.

Other than a Senate filibuster, there's very little Democrats can do to stop that. So, a deregulation on tax cuts, on immigration, and even on some version of this ban on Muslims, you could see pretty radical moves combined with executive action, which I imagine a Donald Trump will use freely.

And, Donald Trump, let's not forget, he ran an eclectic and controversial campaign, but on many issues, he ran a really conservative campaign in the way that he talked a lot about many of the social justice issues of our era. So, I wouldn't be surprised if in the next two years, he moves more aggressively than many people imagine he would.

PAUL: Michael, I only have a couple of seconds left, but I wanted to get from you -- one of the driving forces for Donald Trump will most likely be his willingness to delegate and who he delegates to. How do you foresee that?

D'ANTONIO: Well, he has a very narrow range of options because he doesn't really trust very many people and he hasn't drawn expertise from across the country or around the world to him. So, the fact that he's appointed his three children to three of 16 spots in the transition planning group tells us that he's going to be insular, quite isolated.

And I actually think this makes him vulnerable to be pushed towards the agenda that was just described. It depends on who gets his ear right before he makes his decision.

PAUL: Sure. Julian, I've got ten seconds. You have the last word.

D'ANTONIO: Well, look, if you have someone like a Rudy Giuliani advising you on crime policy and race policy with regard to the law, you're going to move right. So, I think his advisors are going to have a big sway. And he's surrounding himself with pretty conservative people so far.

PAUL: All right. Michael D'Antonio and Julian Zelizer, appreciate your voices this morning. Thank you, sir.

And we'll be right back.

ZELIZER: Thank you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:52:00] PAUL: Breaking news for you right now out of New Zealand. A powerful 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit this morning and officials now say they are issuing a tsunami warning. The threat covers the east coast of the country where waves could hit immediately. Officials are warning residents to move inland or get to higher ground as soon as possible.

BLACKWELL: Well, folks who tuned in to "Saturday Night Live" last night, that opening monologue that you expect was a bit different this time around.

PAUL: It wasn't something that anybody sits down in front of the TV on Saturday night and expects to see from "Saturday Night Live." The comedy show didn't open with a joke. Neither did they spoof the presidential elections. Didn't even include Alec Baldwin, Alec Baldwin playing Donald Trump. Rather there's Kate McKinnon singing a rendition of "Hallelujah."

I want to bring in Brian Stelter, CNN senior media correspondent and host of "RELIABLE SOURCES".

So, Brian, give us your thoughts on last night's episode, first of all.

BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: Well, Dave Chappelle was the perfect host for this week's episode. He started with a remarkable monologue, saying that we've elected an internet troll as our president. But then toward the end of the monologue, he said this. I'm going to play the whole thing for you. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID CHAPPELLE, SNL: Before I go, I do want to say one thing. This is not a joke but I think it's important that I say this, because they're 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'd been there in many years, and it was very exciting. BET had sponsored the party, so everyone there was black, and it was beautiful.

I walked through the gates, you know, from Washington, and I saw the bus stop -- or the corner where the bus stop used to be -- where I used to catch the bus to school, and dream about nights like tonight. It was a really, really beautiful night.

And at the end of the night, everyone went into 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. And on the walls were pictures of all the presidents of the past.

Now, I'm not sure if this is true, but to my knowledge, the first black person who was officially invited to the White House was Frederick Douglass. They stopped him at the gates. Abraham Lincoln had to walk out himself and escort Frederick Douglass into the White House.

And it didn't happen again, as far as I know, until Roosevelt was president. When Roosevelt was president, he had a black guy over, and he got so much flak from the media that he literally said, "I will never have a (AUDIO DELETED) in this house again."

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

[07:55:04] 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.

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STELTER: A very effective monologue by Dave Chappelle there, really a form of protest. You know, Victor and Christi, we've seen protests in many major cities, but a monologue like that, use of comedy or use of art is also a form of protest. Particularly around the idea of this election was about race and gender and class. And we're just starting to talk about that. We're just starting to figure out what happened on Tuesday night. So with that in mind, Dave Chappelle hit the nail on there -- nail on the head.

PAUL: All righty. Brian Stelter, thank you so much.

BLACKWELL: Thank you very much.

STELTER: Thanks.

BLACKWELL: Catch Brian Stelter on "RELIABLE SOURCES". That's 11:00 Eastern, right here on CNN.

PAUL: And thank you so much for sharing your morning with us. Make great memories today.

BLACKWELL: "INSIDE POLITICS" with John King starts right now.