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Transition Of Power At The White House; Trump Fills Two Key Positions; Priebus And Bannon Take On New Roles; Trump And Inner Circle Discuss Cabinet Picks; Bannon Top Advisor; Bolten Says Nothing Wrong With Disparate Voices; President Obama To Hold News Conference; Trump Qualifies Some Major Campaign Pledges; Obama and Clinton Hold Conference Call with DNC. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired November 14, 2016 - 13:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, I'm Wolf Blitzer. It's 1:00 p.m. here in Washington, 8:00 p.m. in Aleppo, 9:00 p.m. in Baghdad. Wherever you're watching from around the world, thanks very much for joining us.

We start with the transition of power here in the United States. There's been a steady stream of heavy hitters coming into Trump Tower in New York City today, as the president-elect of the United States and his transition team, they work to try to put together the new administration.

That was, by the way, retired Lieutenant General Michael Flynn arriving this morning. He's a key adviser to Donald Trump. A possible national security pick.

Also this morning, we heard from vice president-elect Mike Pence head of the transition team who said this about the job ahead.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. MIKE PENCE (R), VICE PRESIDENT-ELECTION OF THE UNITED STATES: We have an enormous opportunity before us for this country. To revive our economy, rebuild our military, and, in a very real sense, renew the American dream. And I'm humbled to be some small part of helping bring together the women and men in president-elect Trump's administration who will implement his vision.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Two positions are filled so far. The White House chief of staff, with Republican National Committee chairman, Reince Priebus, getting that job. And Steve Bannon, the former chairman of Breitbart News, is now the chief strategist and senior counselor to the president.

Priebus spoke today about the advising team and their importance to the president-elect.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) REINCE PREIBUS, CHIEF OF STAFF, TRUMP ADMINISTRATION: And in regard to advising the president, I think if people understand president Trump, he likes taking opinions from a lot of different people. He's not a person that just listens to one person and does whatever that one person says. He decides.

And so, in advising the president, I would suspect that me, Steve Bannon, I think Jared Kushner, obviously his son-in-law is going to be very involved in decision-making.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

Our Chief Political Correspondent Dana Bash is joining us now live from New York. Dana, Trump's inner circle is meeting, I'm told right now, inside Trump Tower in New York City. Do we know which positions are being discussed and when they might be announced?

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: We don't know specifically. But I was told that after he fast-tracked the chief of staff role, he obviously did, making that announcement along with his senior counselor chief strategist, Steve Bannon, that happened yesterday, that the next thing on the agenda would be the top five cabinet positions that they are going it try to figure out.

The most -- of those, the most important, obviously, are secretary of state, secretary of defense, attorney general and so on. So, that is likely going to be next on the agenda.

But, you know, look, the bottom line is that he has a lot, a lot on his plate, as he realized when he went to meet with President Obama, somebody who's ever been in public life, in public service, in government of any way, shape or form. That he's got a lot of jobs to fill in the administration and beyond.

Listen to what Kellyanne Conway, who was his campaign manager and is now an advisor, said to -- said today, rather.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KELLYANNE CONWAY, ADVISOR, TRUMP CAMPAIGN: This week you'll hear some addition appointments.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: On cabinet or (INAUDIBLE)?

CONWAY: Possibly. Working on all that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Which are his priorities? Which agency, is it country?

CONWAY: All of the above.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. How much work and preparation is going into -

CONWAY: Very well, actually. Everybody is getting along very well. We feel busier than ever. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And are you -- what do you think is the strength

of the Bannon and Priebus appointments?

CONWAY: Well, I have worked with both of them. I think it's a great team and I will continue to work closely with both of them at some capacity. To be decided. They complement each other. They both have the most important thing which is the ear of the boss.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BASH: Now, Wolf, I should tell you, as I first reported yesterday, that my understanding is that Kellyanne Conway, who as you saw there, perfect example, has been very much the face of the Trump campaign in the last few months. And still is -- of the transition is likely to stay out of the Trump administration and to work with outside groups. Be -- continue to be a -- probably a public face but just not as part of the administration. Not a done deal yet, though.

BLITZER: We'll see what happens with her and so many others.

Dana, also learning that Trump and Chris Christie, they had a little discussion, a little dialogue before things really got going in the Republican primary, an agreement of sorts during the primaries. Tell us about that.

BASH: Well, this is a part of a series of interesting nuggets that are coming out in CNN's new book which is going to formally be rolling out at the beginning of December.

Susan Bair, one of the reporters who helped work on this book, was learning that Chris Christie said -- or, actually, I should say, he a conversation with Donald Trump back in, like, early 2015, and Trump apparently said, at that time to his friend, Chris Christie, he didn't expect to be the race much beyond October of 2015.

[13:05:09] And that if that, in fact, happened, that Trump would end up endorsing Chris Christie. Now, we know that the opposite happened. Chris Christie ended up having to drop out and he supported Donald Trump. But this is just one of several nuggets that we're going to be able to learn about in this narrative that is going to come out in this book.

BLITZER: Yes, it's really going to be an exciting book. All right, thanks very much, Dana, for that. And to our viewers, you can get a lot more of CNN's behind-the-scenes story of this campaign as it happened. You can order the new book, "Unprecedented, The Election That Changed Everything." Go to CNN.com/book. Order it today.

President-elect Trump and his transition team still have a lot of spots to fill, secretary of defense, secretary of state, attorney general, treasury secretary, White House press secretary. Literally, several thousand appointments they have to fill. So far, they've filled just two.

Reince Priebus was chosen, as we noted, as the White House chief of staff. He was head of the Republican National Committee during the campaign. And it's the RNC's ground game which certainly went a long way to securing the win for Donald Trump.

Steve Bannon, Trump's campaign CEO, former head of Breitbart Media, has been picked as chief strategist and senior counselor.

Joining us now is Josh Bolten. He's the former chief of staff of the White House under President George W. Bush. Josh, thanks very much for coming in.

JOSH BOLTEN, FORMER WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF, PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: Thanks for having me.

BLITZER: So, give me your reaction to these first two appointments, the new White House chief of staff and a senior counselor.

BOLTEN: Well, first of all, I think Priebus is a good choice to be chief of staff. He's got experience. He knows Washington well. He'll have a steep learning curve with respect to the -- how the executive branch works. But I think both, by temperament, experience and judgment, he's a good choice for -- to be a Trump chief of staff.

I don't know Bannon, but I do know that the White House works best when there's only one chief of staff. So, the tenure of the announcement caused me some concern about who was actually going to be in charge because they -- because the White House really has trouble running if there isn't a singular chief of staff who is well empowered by the president.

BLITZER: And you speak with some authority since you were a White House chief of staff. Because it's interesting, when I got this press release yesterday from the Trump transition team, the headline was president-election Donald J. Trump announces senior White House leadership team.

But then, it went on to say, president-elect Donald J. Trump announced that Trump for president CEO, Stephen K. Bannon, will serve as chief strategist, senior counselor to the president.

Republican National Committee chairman, Reince Priebus, will serve as White House chief of staff. It looked like Bannon got top billing.

And then, the press release went on to say they will working as equal partners which, I assume, means they both report to the president, as opposed to Steve Bannon, as a senior counselor reporting to the White House chief of staff.

BOLTEN: Well, lots of people report to the president, so there's nothing wrong with that. And there's also nothing wrong with having disparate voices within the White House. Steve Bannon, it's great. He could be a coequal or even louder voice in advising the president.

In the White House that I saved in, Karl Rove was a very major presence, both because of his relationship with the president and his astuteness as a political and policy strategist.

So, there's nothing wrong with having disparate voices. The problem arises when there isn't one person who is clearly in charge of the president's calendar and running the staff. And that person --

BLITZER: Well, I assume Reince Priebus will be that person.

BOLTEN: He should be that person. And the president -- my advice to president Trump -- president-elect Trump and any president would be, make sure you've empowered that person to do their job. They don't have to be the most important voice among your advisers. They do have to have the authority to run the staff, set the strategic priorities on the direction of the president.

BLITZER: And so, you did all that when you were President Bush's chief of staff. But you mentioned Karl Rove. He was a senior adviser. He would be able to go ahead and meet with the president, talk to the president. You might not even know about that?

BOLTEN: I would know about it. But, absolutely, he had -- he had full access. And I dare say Karl Rove's advice to the president on many issues was much more important than my advice.

BLITZER: So, what concerns you about this structure that has been established right now for this new White House?

BOLTEN: The rest of the government needs to understand that the president's directions are coming through only one person. And with the one person who sets the calendar of the president, one person who directs the staff, hires and fires the staff. And one person who keeps the government on the strategic priorities of the president.

Now, if the president doesn't like what the chief of staff is doing, he needs a new chief of staff. But my strong advice would be, however you -- however you gussy up this announcement, make sure that Reince Priebus is properly empowered to do the job that I believe he's capable of doing.

BLITZER: If the president-elect were to say, Josh, what's the single most important thing you think I need to do right now at this early stage in the transition? What advice would you have for him?

[13:10:10] BOLTEN: Well, personnel is the most important thing right now and that's on -- I'm sure what they're spending the largest amount of time on. But then, also, set the agenda for the next eight or 10 months. The presidency is, I think they will discover, just an extraordinarily complex institution, very hard to manage and run.

And the inbox fills up with urgent crises immediately the day you step in the door. And what the president and his team need to be sure they do is to leave time for the stuff that's important among their agenda. Don't let the urgent drive out the important.

BLITZER: One final question. I know you like Reince Priebus as the White House chief of staff. You think he's highly qualified, temperamentally fit for this job. Steve Bannon, you don't know him you say but you've read a lot about him. You've heard a lot about him. You've heard his background. Does that give you any concern?

BOLTEN: Well, you know, disparate voice is great. And I would say to all of, you know, the people that I served with in government, I say give him a chance. The same chance we need -- the whole country needs to give the president.

Lots of people among establishment Republicans, like myself, did not support Trump as the candidate. They had plenty of people that voted against Trump. But we all need to give him and his team -- they've earned it by winning this election. We need them -- to give them a chance to prove, in leadership, what they can do for the country.

And, hopefully, they will do it with a tone unlike many of the things that happened in the campaign, that will be uniting rather than dividing.

BLITZER: Josh Bolten is the former White House chief of staff under President George W. Bush. Thanks for joining us.

BOLTEN: Thanks for having me.

BLITZER: Keeping campaign promises is up next. President-elect Trump seems to backtrack, at least a bit, on some of his commitments. We'll discuss.

Also, in less than two hours, President Obama scheduled to hold a news conference at the White House here in Washington. There is sure to be plenty of questions about his meeting the other day with president- elect Trump. CNN will carry that news conference live. We're looking at live pictures from the White House.

We're back in a moment.

[13:12:25]

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[13:16:12] BLITZER: Donald Trump now appears to be qualifying a bit some of those big campaign promises he made. Here are some of the comments he's made in the last few days.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LESLEY STAHL, "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 (R), PRESIDENT-ELECT: Yes, because it happens to be one of the strongest assets.

STAHL: You're going to keep that?

TRUMP: Also with the children living were you their parents for an extended period, we're going to --

STAHL: You're going to keep that?

TRUMP: Very much try and keep that.

STAHL: Are you really going to build a wall?

TRUMP: Yes.

STAHL: They're talking about a fence in the Republican Congress.

TRUMP: Sure. (INAUDIBLE).

STAHL: Would you accept a 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. But a fence would be --

STAHL: So, part wall, part fence?

TRUMP: Yes, it could be -- yes, there could be some fencing.

STAHL: You called her "crooked Hillary," said you wanted to get her jailed. Your people in your audiences kept saying, "lock her up."

TRUMP: Yes.

STAHL: But do you want to put --

TRUMP: But she did -- she did some bad things. I mean she did some bad things.

STAHL: I know, but a special prosecutor? Do you think you might --

TRUMP: I don't want to hurt them. I don't want to hurt them. They're -- they're good people. I don't want to hurt them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: All right, let's discuss with our political panel. Joining us, our chief political analyst Gloria Borger, our CNN correspondent Phil Mattingly, our senior political reporter, Nia-Malika Henderson, and Zeke Miller, he's a political reporter over at "Time" magazine.

So is he really walking back some of those commitments, those statements he made during the campaign?

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, some of these commitments he started walking back during the campaign. For example, on Obamacare, we heard him say that he wasn't going to take away pre- existing conditions. But on the wall versus fence, that's -- that's different. The question of "lock her up" versus "I'll think about it," that's different. We still don't know on the Muslim ban where he's going to eventually wind up on that. He did soften his position on that during the campaign.

So you can be forgiven for watching Donald Trump during this interview and scratching -- and scratching your head and saying, wait a minute, is this the person who was out there on the campaign trail every day pounding these messages day in and day out, or is this a different Donald Trump now that he's -- that he's president-elect? BLITZER: And it's one thing to campaign, Phil, as you know, another

thing to govern. And I've covered a lot of these transitions. It's not all that unusual to see a candidate who becomes president-elect all of a sudden moderate the tone, if you will.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. I think the reality of life in Washington and needing to work with the Congress and needing to work with multiple different other personalities other than yourself on a campaign stage can slap you pretty hard in the face. And I think the interesting element here is, you would never label Donald Trump as an ideologue. You would never label him as somebody who was absolutely tied to his positions no matter what. His aides behind the scenes have always said, look, he's a dealmaker. He's somebody who just wants to get in the room and negotiate. And while he's had very, I think, serious campaign promises up until this point, the idea that he would all of a sudden start to move shows some flexibility. I think that tracks with his career on some level.

BORGER: But if you're a member of his -- of his sort of staunch base --

MATTINGLY: Right.

BORGER: And you see this -- the cement cracking even before he sets foot in the Oval Office for real? I mean the question is, how will his supporters react? Maybe that's what Steve Bannon's going to be doing in the White House, making sure that those people are heard.

BLITZER: Well, it was interesting because on that note, Zeke, in the "60 Minutes" interview when he was asked about gay marriage, he told Lesley Stahl, well, this is settled. This is the law of the land. Nothing you can do about it. Forget about it. We're going to continue to have same-sex marriage here in the United States. But he offered a different analysis when it came to Roe v. Wade and abortion rights for women. Listen to this.

[13:20:01] (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STAHL: Will you appoint, are you looking to appoint a justice who wants to overturn Roe v. Wade?

TRUMP: So, here's what's going to happen. I'm going to put -- I'm pro- life. The judges will be pro-life. If it ever were overturned, it would go back to the states. So it would go back to the states and the states --

STAHL: But then some women won't be able to get an abortion.

TRUMP: No, it will go back to the states.

STAHL: By state -- no, some --

TRUMP: Yes. Well, they'll perhaps have to go to another --

STAHL: But do you want --

TRUMP: They'll have to go to another state.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: So on the one hand, Roe v. Wade, abortion rights for women in the United States, not settled law. Not the law of the land necessarily. But gay marriage is.

ZEKE MILLER, POLITICAL REPORTER, "TIME": Yes, I mean, if anything, that's a reflection of Donald Trump as the political operator that he's become throughout this campaign where he is now sort of a -- if you look at the issue of same-sex marriage, that is a generational issue where younger folks, regardless of partisan affiliation, broadly don't really care about it. But on the issue of abortion, pro-life issues, are still a very -- are still a very polarizing issue throughout the American electorate.

And to Gloria's point earlier, I mean we're sort of at that point where, you know -- and go back to Selene Ozita's (ph) great quote earlier this campaign where it was, you know, Donald Trump supporters take him seriously, but not literally, and reporters -- and we all take him literally but not seriously. And this element of, you know, will they forgive him or not? The -- you know, they bought the man. They didn't buy the ideas. Donald Trump, you know, had expressed zero loyalty to a lot of his ideas throughout this campaign. He'd flip- flopped over and over again. We'd call him on it. But they still bought that. And that's going to be a potent force regardless of where he is.

BLITZER: I'm curious, Nia, what does it say to you that he says, you know, gay marriage, that's settled law right now, abortion rights for women, not necessarily?

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: Yes, I mean, he's got to figure out -- I mean there is an evangelical base to his support and to the party that definitely doesn't like same-sex marriage, would like to see that --

BLITZER: Including his vice president -- the vice president-elect.

HENDERSON: Exactly, including -- exactly. And you wonder how he deals with that part of the base? Is it, in terms of abortion, will they be satisfied as long as he appoints conservative justices who look to repeal Row v. Wade? I mean this is a big mystery. And I think we're learning sort of personnel was policy. The people he's putting in place, Bannon, on the one hand, who represents a very different wing of the party than Reince Priebus, who actually is really going to have -- have the control here in the White House and who's going to have Donald Trump's ear and who's going to tend to these very different factions that got him elected but in some ways are not ideological, aren't like pro-trade in the way that we've seen most Republicans be.

And even in terms of Obamacare. I mean this idea that maybe he keeps some parts of it. You know, I thought it was repeal and replace. I mean that's certainly been the (INAUDIBLE) cry.

BLITZER: Well, he did -- he did use the world "amend" too when it came to that.

HENDERSON: Yes. Yes. Which is very different than repeal and replace.

BLITZER: So everybody -- everybody stay with us.

BORGER: It (ph) improves the economy and their lot in life and they start thinking that their future and their children's future is going to get better, then all of this --

HENDERSON: Yes.

BORGER: As Zeke was pointing out, goes by the -- by the wayside. It's about the economy and their lives.

BLITZER: Well, let's -- we have more to discuss. Everybody stay put. Take a look at this, by the way. Live pictures coming in from the White House right now. Less than two hours from now during the 3:00 p.m. Eastern Hour, President Obama will hold a news conference. His first full-scale news conference since the election of Donald Trump. Of course, CNN will have live coverage.

Later today, the president and Secretary Clinton will speak with members of the Democratic National Committee about the Democrats' path forward. So what will be their message?

Lots of news happening today. We'll be back with our panel right after this short break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:27:51] BLITZER: Less than two hours from now President Obama is scheduled to give a news conference over at the White House. You're looking at live pictures. This news conference happens just ahead of this trip to Greece, Germany and Peru. This will be his last overseas trip as president of the United States. Before he leaves, the president, by the way, will also join Hillary Clinton in a conference call with the Democratic National Committee.

Let's bring back our panel, Gloria, Phil, Nia-Malika and "Time" magazine's Zeke Miller.

The president, I'm sure, is going to be asked a lot of questions about the new president, the president-elect of the United States, when they met in the Oval Office the other day. President Obama was very gracious. I assume that's going to continue?

BORGER: I think it's going to continue. And what we've learned both from our own internal reporting and reporting at "The Wall Street Journal" is that it seems like the president figured he has to pay a lot more attention to this president-elect because there is -- there's nobody who would potentially go in the White House, who has served there before. And so it sounds to me like there may be a bit of a tutorial going on -- an ongoing tutorial about what it's like to work in the West Wing and how it -- how it gets managed because, you know, as Josh Bolten (ph) was just telling you, it's an enormous undertaking unless you really understand going in what it's like. So I think that this president doesn't want this White House to get swallowed up by all of the bureaucracy and the things they need to get control of. And I think what he's trying to do for the good of the country and the good of the next president is make sure that this transition goes as smoothly as possible.

BLITZER: And Donald Trump has been very gracious to the president, too. Very different than what he had said about him, what the president said about Trump during the campaign. He's been saying very nice things, not only about the president, but about his Democratic challenger and her husband.

MATTINGLY: Yes, it's quite an about-face for him just over the course of the last five or six days. And I think the interesting element is, first and foremost, kind of to Gloria's point. I think President Obama recognizes that Donald Trump and his team need help as they come in. Donald Trump recognizes that he needs help and his team needs help coming in. I think we've all covered the White House at one point or another. It is a massive entity. It is staffed to a level that you can't imagine until you've been in there. The build itself is at a size you can't imagine until you get in there. I think there's a recognition that President Obama is offering guidance and council to some degree and Donald Trump would be a fool not to take it.

[13:30:12] Donald Trump, if nothing else, is willing to listen to people.