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President-Elect Donald Trump Holding Back to Back Meetings; Involvement of Trump Children in Transition Blurs Lines Between Public Service and Private Profit; Trump Names Michael Flynn National Security Adviser; Obama Backing Up President-Elect Trump; President Obama APEC Summit Speech. Aired 5-6p ET
Aired November 20, 2016 - 17:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[17:00:12] POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Top of the hour, 5:00 p.m. Eastern. So glad you're with us. I'm Poppy Harlow in New York. You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM. Let's look at what's been all day pretty much a revolving door. Not just today, but all weekend.
President-Elect Donald Trump holding back to back meetings today after meeting with potential cabinet and staff picks yesterday. He is working to fill a lot of key slots. Take a look, this are the 12 people scheduled just today to speak with Donald Trump, included on the list, Rudy Giuliani and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. Both have been incredibly loyal to Trump. As far as we know, neither has been top for position in Trump's administration yet.
We saw Giuliani arrive just a short time ago. You see him there walking in. He is actively gunning for the Secretary of State post. The same position Mitt Romney is said to be under consideration for.
As for Chris Christie, he was heading the entire transition this entire process until a few weeks ago. Then Trump very quickly replaced with his vice presidential team mate, Mike Pence, to run the transition.
Phil Mattingly, stake outside the administration, following every single coming and going and every single word. So let's first get to Rudy Giuliani and Chris Christie. What do we know about their meetings today and also just where they stand with Donald Trump right now, where his thinking is at about these two men?
PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, Poppy there's probably no more interesting individuals right now than Rudy Giuliani and Chris Christie and what happens to them. As you know, you look over the course of the campaign. There have been no two advisers more loyal to the President-Elect than Rudy Giuliani and Chris Christie. And you could say, at least for a time after the President-Elect's victory on November 8th, they were heading in divergent paths. As you know, Chris Christie, once the head of the transition team and no longer head of the transition team, so, Chris Christie's top allies, all senior positions on the transition team, now they're all gone, as well. There is a lot of behind the scenes activity that is going on there, some bad blood, some questions about performance, some questions about perhaps some of the things that Chris Christie had done when he was a prosecutor in New Jersey and a son-in-law of Donald Trump, as well.
Here's what we know. The meeting between Chris Christie and Donald Trump was not very long. When asked if Chris Christie had a spot in the President-Elect's administration, Donald Trump replied, only that Chris Christie was a very talented guy, said nothing else about a potential administration position.
Now let's talk about Rudy Giuliani. As you noted, has been openly asking, pleading for on some level, campaigning for the Secretary of State transition. For the better part of a week, the Trump transition officials were confirming, he had the upper hand. He had the leading role toward getting. When asked today, Donald Trump, the President- Elect, about whether or not Rudy Giuliani was in line for the Secretary of State, he nodded and said, but also some other things, as well. So there is little bit of a hedge there and pretty good reason why. We talked about it all day yesterday, Poppy, Mitt Romney, coming in, under active consideration for Secretary of State, still a lot of questions about whether that is a real position, a real possibility. But no question at all, the President-Elect is intrigued by the possibility. That may mean Rudy Giuliani might not be in position for that, Poppy.
HARLOW: Phil, all right, so, let's plays a little game here, if you will and that is, let's assume that it is between Giuliani and Mitt Romney for Secretary of State. You've also got to think, you know, what message, would Donald Trump be sending, if he were indeed to form a team of rivals and to bring Mitt Romney on, despite the bitter back and forth and the barbs they traded and the policy differences they have. That would send quite a message, wouldn't it?
MATTINGLY: I think that is what is appearing. When you talk to advisers, when you talk to people in the Trump orbit, part of the reason, why this Romney idea floated up and became a real thing, much to the surprise of everybody, including some of those inside the Trump transition operation, is this idea of the perception of it. What it would mean, what it would show, the message it would send, not just to Republicans, but to both people in the United States and also world leaders, as well.
Again, I think there are a lot of questions about whether or not this is something that could actually happen. Whether or not Mitt Romney would want to serve in a Trump administration, whether the President- Elect can put the last 15 months behind him and as we talked about last night, Poppy. Whether or not policy positions that are very divergences on some crucial areas can be, kind a married together, if you will. But I do think, as you talk hypothetical game we're playing here, the idea of the message it would send, the perception it would bring, is something that is very important and something you shouldn't overlook as this all plays out.
HARLOW: Yeah, and we know we could get some of the appointment announcements tonight, possibly, certainly, possibly tomorrow. They could come in anytime. You'll be there for us, Phil. Thank you very much.
Lets' bring in our panel. Ron Brownstein, CNN Political Analyst and the Senior Editor of "The Atlantic", Ann Compton is also with us, former White House Correspondent for ABC News and Mary Katherine Ham, CNN Political Commentator and a Senior Writer for "The Federalist." Thank you so much for being with me and Ron, let me just begin with you, when you look at Rudy Giuliani actively lobbying for this and then you got, you know the transition team clearly looking at Mitt Romney, listen to what Mike Pence, the vice president elect said today about Trump's meeting with Romney.
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[17:05:30] MIKE PENCE, VICE PRESIDENTIAL-ELECT: I know the President- Elect was very grateful that Governor Mitt Romney came here to New Jersey yesterday. We spent the better part of an hour together with him. Then I know that the two of them actually had some private time together. I would tell you that it was not only a cordial meeting, but also a very substantive meeting. I can say that Governor Romney is under active and serious consideration to serve as Secretary of State of United States.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARLOW: I thought that Donald Trump was all about loyalty.
RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Look, I mean after all the reasons Phil said, you can see why it would be attractive. Also, I think it is more important on the domestic side, because when look back at the campaign. The biggest breech between Donald Trump and kind a, the Republican intellectual policy and infrastructure was on foreign policy. You had 50 former senior officials in Republican administrations writing an excoriating letters, saying they didn't believe he was fit by qualifications or judgment or experience to be Commander in Chief. Appointing Michael Flynn as the NSA, excuse me, National Security Adviser is not going to reassure any of those people.
HARLOW: No.
BROWNSTEIN: Appointing Rudy Giuliani as Secretary of State is not going to reassure any of those people. With Mitt Romney, he has a much better chance of tapping into the kind a, Republican, you know infrastructure, but remember what Mitt Romney's principal foreign critique was a president or a candidate. Russia, so is Mitt Romney prepared to implement a Trump foreign policy that divisions closer relations with Russia and kind a blinking your eyes, probably not.
HARLOW: Probably not, I think the questions is can Trump get on Romney's page on that? Perhaps he knows more about this.
BROWNSTEIN: He was the one elected president though. One of the two men in the room was elected president.
HARLOW: We've already seen him shifting on issues. (Inaudible) It was interesting this morning, in the State of the Union, a representative Adam Sheppard a Democrat, head of the house intelligence committee, he said that he would love to see Mitt Romney. That is a Democrat saying he'd love Mitt Romney in that post.
And let me ask you, the "New York times" wrote about how they see Donald Trump picking his cabinet. Here is part of it, Mr. Trump loves detention, and drama of a selection process and has sought to stoke it. A senior adviser described the Romney meeting in part as Mr. Romney simply coming to pay his respects to the President-Elect and kiss his ring. Do you buy that, or do you believe this was exactly the way that the vice president elect describe it, as a very substantial meeting and that Romney is under active consideration?
ANN COMPTON, FORMER WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT FOR ABC NEWS: Well, we'd have to imagine there is a little bit of truth in perhaps all of it. What strikes me is for Donald Trump, he is done a lot of hiring and a lot of firing in his professional career. But he is hiring now for positions that he is really had no experience in. He has not gotten and received intelligence. He is not run a foreign policy. And he is someone who is known to like, kind of entrusting his own gut instinct. So these meetings are incredibly important, because he is taking the measure in person of someone he vilified before. Trying to think, could I work -- would I get along with this person? I have to think back eight years ago when Barack Obama took his primary opponent, Hillary Clinton, and installed her in exactly that same position.
HARLOW: And she initially said no and then he got her to say yes. Maybe it'll take a little arm twisting. Mary Katherine, let me get your take, your read on Governor Chris Christie. I mean yes, he was booted out of leading the transition, not only because of the fog of bridge gate over him, but also the more than just a little bit of bad blood between him and Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law. Does he have a role? Is there a place for him in this administration do you think?
MARY KATHERINE HAM, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well it seems to me from the moment that Christie endorsed Trump and he was, of course, one of the early establishment-type folks to come out and do that, Trump has sort of, even sometimes gleefully kicked him around. Like, told him to get back on the plane and go home. Now he is taking him off the transition team. This is a very short meeting he had within the day, I think all of this is partly, largely, perhaps, Trump enjoying putting on a show and having a lot of attention. It is like the greatest apprentice board room meeting of all time and it is playing live for everybody on TV.
I don't know how much is drama and how much of it is real. I'm sure somebody like Mike Pence is certainly pushing for a Romney to be the reassuring figure that ends up as Secretary of State, who is a little bit more hawkish on Russia. But is Trump interested in reassuring people? I think that remains to be seen. Romney may end up in the administration somewhere else, perhaps. I think people would be reassured no matter where he ended up, maybe V.A. I think he may be a good fixer there, for instance.
[17:10:09] HARLOW: All right guys, stay with me, got to get a quick break in. We will be right back. Coming up, Donald Trump promised to keep his business interests completely separate from being the leader of the free world. But with his children in such key roles, how is he planning to keep that pledge? A number of interesting, perhaps concerning meetings he had with world business leaders already this week.
Also, he is still tweeting a lot, taking on "SNL" and the cast of "Hamilton" in new tweets. And this may have something to do with it.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hello, sir. Heard you went to see "Hamilton." how was that?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was good. I got a free lecture.
(LAUGHTER)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Heard they booed you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Absolutely.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I love you, Mike.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
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HARLOW: President-Elect Donald Trump is promising to drain the swamp in Washington, but the involvement of his children in the White House transition, as well as in his business dealings maybe blurring the lines between public service and private profit. Our Brian Todd reports.
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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT-ELECT: Our government will be honest, ethical and responsive.
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BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: When Donald Trump is in the White House, he plans to hands off his business holdings to his children, but there are growing signs of potential conflicts of interest. Trump's daughter Ivanka joined him in his meeting with Japan's Prime Minister.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It looks like is, he may be forming less of a team of rivals and more of team of relatives. That is a problem.
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TODD: Like any business, Trump's empire is affected by policies set by the government. But with his children playing key roles in his transition team, choosing the countries top policy makers, critics say it is problematic.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is incredible, I mean, there are conflicts at every turn. Trump has said there will be a wall between, you know his kids and his business interest and his public ambitions. There is no wall that we're seeing right now.
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[17:15:03] TODD: The Trump transition team says it will make sure all rules and regulations are followed, and Trump's business organization says, this is how it plans to handle the ethical dilemma.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It'll be placed into a blind trust.
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TODD: But experts say your children are not what most lawyers would call a blind trust.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is not credible to say it is a blind trust, because in an actual blind trust, he would divest himself of all the interest that he holds. He would sell off his properties that he owns, and he would put the proceeds into a trust that is run by an independent third party.
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TODD: Trump himself has shown uncertainty.
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TRUMP: Well, I don't know if it is a blind trust if Ivanka, Don, and Eric run it, but is that a blind trust? I don't know.
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TODD: One of Trump's top supporters offers this assurance.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There will have to be a wall between them with regard to government matters.
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TODD: Also complicated, the case of Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who is playing a trusted role in the Trump transition team. He runs a newspaper and a $1 billion real estate company. Could Trump give a top post to his own son-in-law?
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MATTHEW SANDERSON, POLITICAL LAW ATTORNEY: It may be legally questionable and politically perilous for him to choose someone close to him, and the number qualification being that they're related to Donald Trump.
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TODD: Why doesn't Trump just turn his entire business empire over to an outside, third-party trustee?
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Donald trusts no one, more than he trusts Ivanka, Donald Jr., and Eric. But the problem that Donald has is that he doesn't trust for very many people.
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HARLOW: Brian Todd reporting. Thank you, Brian. My panel is back. Ann Compton, Ron Brownstein, and Mary Katherine Ham, all right, so, let me just, let's talk about what happened this week. A number of things happened. He had a meeting with three Indian business leaders who flew here to meet with him. They are the developers of this luxury apartment complex in Mumbai that obviously has his name on it. His daughter Ivanka sat in the room when he met with the Japanese Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, and this week. And then also, the "Washington Post" is reporting the D.C. Hotel, Trump's brand-new hotel, is marketing itself, to say the least, to the foreign diplomats. Holding a party, inviting people over, saying you should stay here. This raises questions about potential conflicts of interest when he does become the president, here is, how the Chief of Staff answered that this morning.
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REINCE PRIEBUS, INCOMING WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: Look, Donald Trump has been very clear, from the very beginning, that his family is very important to him. I think while it is unique, it is certainly compliant with the law. Obviously, we will comply with all of those laws and we will have our White House council review all of these things. We'll have every I dotted and every T crossed. I can assure the American people that there wouldn't be any wrongdoing or any sort of undue influence, over any decision making.
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HARLOW: He is saying, take our word for it. Rudy Giuliani says you got to trust the president. You do to an extent. For the "Washington Post" editorial is now calling on Trump to put everything in a blind trust, have it run by an independent trustee. The "Wall Street Journal" editorial board actually went further this week, said he should sell his stake in the company entirely, Mary Katherine, as a conservative, what is your take? Putting his kids in charge, complies with the law, it does, but is it enough? HAM: It could be a problem for him, given that the promise he made
was drain the swamp and no cronyism. If that is the promise, then you end up putting your kids in charge and it looks like a conflict of interest. Look, it is very obviously that Trump cares deeply about Trump and the Trump businesses. That is always been number one for him, has it should have been.
On the trail, he is criticizing Hillary Clinton rightly for all the various conflict of interest and appearance thereof. And to come in and do the same thing will be problematic for him. But as is always the case with Trump, if you freak out about every single thing he does, it play into his hands. There are going to be so many intersections here and so much reporting about it, that many people and especially supporters are going to tune it out and go, I don't think it is really a big deal. That is what we've seen over and over again.
BROWNSTEIN: The flipside of that is allowing him to normalize behavior that is outside of the boundaries that we've ever accepted from presidential candidates, much less a President-Elect. Before all three of the examples you gave this week are deeply troubling to anyone who looks at ethics:
HARLOW: What is he most troubling? Do you think Ivanka was in the room with Shinzo Abe without security clearance?
BROWNSTEIN: I think that is very troubling, meeting with Indian business partners while President-Elect is pretty troubling. And I think if any of these things that had happened with Hillary Clinton, we would see a full scale eruption from Jason Chaffetz in the house and all sorts of, you know arms of conservative media. And don't forget, all of this is, kind a resting on the foundation that we know less than we know about any previous presidential candidate in recent times, because he never released his tax returns, we really don't know what all of his business interest are and where they extend.
HARLOW: Important point.
BROWNSTEIN: This is an area where, I think, we are going to see sustained focus and concern, unless they can draw broader lines than Reince Priebus basically saying, trust us.
HARLOW: And he could release his tax returns, like every other, you know, sitting president has done and therefore let people know, these are the business interests I hold and these are the ones I don't hold. And you make a really good point, you said, whoever he chooses to be White House counsel is so important here, as we look at him walking out of more of the meetings at minister. But you heard Reince Priebus say in the interview with Jake Tapper this morning. White House council will take care of it. All eyes will be dotted. All T's will be crossed.
[17:20:27] COMPTON: That is right. The new chief staff at the White House has already laid down the marker on one of the most important hires that Donald Trump will face sooner rather than later, is the choice of a White House counsel. Not some corporate lawyer from his Trump organization, but someone who knows government ethics and someone who would be able to look at the presence, and say, that is not enough. You haven't done enough to separate yourself, no one expects him to stop talking to his children.
HARLOW: Right.
COMPTON: But you do expect a legal wall to be erected so that he doesn't know how those companies are doing and he would never be in a position of making a government decision, a tax decision that would have impact on his own properties. It would seem to be an almost impossible job.
HARLOW: Ann Compton, Ron Brownstein and Mary Katherine Ham, thank you all very much. A lot more to get into but we're out of time.
Coming up, fear and anger after a Trump transition adviser raises the idea of a registry for people coming to the United States from so- called high-risk or terror-prone areas. The real question now is will Muslims in this country be singled out, if so, how? Our Drew Griffin investigates next.
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[17:25:23] HARLOW: Donald Trump hosting a steady stream of visitors today in Bedminster, New Jersey. He is holding face-to-face meetings with potential members of his administration, which takes over in just 60 days. A short time ago, this man had his time with the President- Elect. Kris Kobach is the Secretary of State from Kansas and early supporter of Donald Trump for president and a man who's strict immigration policies, like in Arizona, are so sweeping, he has been heavily criticized by some civil rights groups. Our Drew Griffin takes a close look at one of his more controversial programs.
DREW GRIFFIN, CNN INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: It is an idea that has immigration groups in a panic, forcing people from some majority Muslim nations to register when they come to the U.S. And it comes from this man, Kris Kobach. The Kansas's Secretary of State, a highly polarizing figure, who was an immigration hard liner and reportedly helping President-Elect Trump form immigration policy.
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TRUMP: My plan ends illegal immigration and suspends immigration from terror-prone regions. Now, I have to tell you, we're going to have the wall.
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GRIFFIN: The idea isn't new. The U.S. had such a registry in place for nine years. It was called the NSEERS or National Security Entry Exit Programs, develop largely by Kris Kobach when he work at the Department of Justice.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One of the things that we did right after 9/11, I see, we have a Justice Department, I was the one implemented the NSEER system, which took people from high-risk countries and required that they check in after 30 days.
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GRIFFIN: Immigrants and visitors from more than two dozen countries were required to check in, be interviewed, fingerprint and had monitored while they are in the U.S. Virtually all of those countries were predominantly Muslim. Kobach is talking with the Trump, transition team to bring it back. Critics call it a Muslim registry. Today a text to CNN, Kobach says, it's no such thing, there is no registry of Muslims proposal whatsoever, he wrote. The model I discussed was the NSEER System for screening aliens from high risk areas without regard to religion. The program began on President George Bush, following the 9/11 attacks. It ended nine years later. And inspector general support in 2012 called the program then obsolete, unreliable and inefficient use of resources. The ACLU which fought the program says it was worse than that.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It actually made genuine efforts at trying to combat terrorism more difficult by destroying relationships with immigrant communities and actually negatively impacting the ability of the federal government to cooperate with foreign governments in fighting terrorism.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRIFFIN: The screening of people from certain high-risk countries is just the start of the ACLU's problems with Kris Kobach. He is spoken before groups critics considered to be white nationalists. He has pushed for very strict immigration laws in at least six states. He was the architect behind Arizona's controversial state bill 1070, which allows police to ask for immigration papers for anyone who looks like they might be from another country. Kobach has been sued half a dozen times over his policies against illegal immigrants. The ACLU says if Trump follows his advice, they expect to file many more lawsuits.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our focus is on his policies and the abject failure of those policies to respect the constitution and the laws and the fact that they have been incredibly discriminatory.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARLOW: Drew Griffin reporting there. I want to bring in Peter Bergen, his not only our National Security Analyst, he is more expert on Al Qaeda and ISIS and the key issues facing the next administration, Peter, thank you for being here.
PETER BERGEN, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Thank you, Poppy.
HARLOW: Let's talk about a man that President-Elect Trump has already tapped. Mike Flynn, a retired, three-star general. He will be this nation's next National Security Adviser. You wrote a long piece on him. And you note this pick is critical, because he has serious credentials in the fight against al Qaeda in Iraq, obviously the parent organization of ISIS. Let's listen to what he said just this summer about Islam as a whole.
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MICHAEL FLYNN, INCOMING NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: Islam is a political ideology. It is a political ideology. It definitely hides behind this notion of it being a religion. It is like cancer. I've gone through cancer in my own life. It's like cancer. And it's like a malignant cancer though in this case. It has metastasized.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[17:30:05] HARLOW: There are 1.6 billion Muslims in this country -- in the world. There are many Muslims in this country, so your thoughts on this rhetoric from the person who will be the next National Security Adviser. Does it alarm you? Does it trouble you?
BERGEN: Well, it certainly is inaccurate. I mean, General Flynn has had his distinguished military career. But in the clip you just showed, perhaps he was summarizing some arguments in a not particularly articulate way. Because clearly, it is not Islam, the political ideology, it is militant Islamism and militant Jihadiism, which is a political ideology. There are lots of forms of Islam. That is a minority form.
Yeah, I think that wasn't an accurate thing to say. General Flynn has also written a book which claims we're in a world war with Radical Islam that may take several generations. He is -- he said a lot of different things. You know, what distinguishes him, Poppy, from so many other people that we've heard on the Trump transition team, other than General Jim Mattis, who might become Defense Secretary, at least reportedly so, he spent significant amount of time on the ground in Afghanistan and Iraq, fighting the parent organization of ISIS in Iraq, had a distinguished career as an intelligence officer.
So -- and he will be -- we're at a point in American history where policy is very much set the White House. Every administration we've seen that has come along has increased that and made the White House even more powerful. The National Security Adviser is really the most important position for the kinds of decisions that are going to be made. More important, arguably, than the Secretary of State, more important arguably than the Secretary of Defense, I think.
HARLOW: Wow.
BERGEN: So, you know, he is going to have to --
HARLOW: So...
BERGEN: Yeah. Go ahead.
HARLOW: So Peter, to that point, because, you know he certainly ruffled feathers when he testified back in 2014 about the level of threat from Jihadists, about the level of threat. He said it was growing. And the position of the Obama administration at that time was it was not. That it was declining obviously, hindsight is 20/20. Many would argue he was correct when he said that. But it didn't go over so well, necessarily. He is a registered Democrat. Did he have a better read on the situation than many of his peers at the time?
BERGEN: I think he did. You know, I think that he was sounding the alarm bell about what would become ISIS and other groups earlier than a lot of people. And I think that, you know, why he was forced out of the defense intelligence agency, is kind a controversy about that and there are probably multiple explanations.
HARLOW: Let's listen to that, because we actually have him answering that exact question from our Fareed Zakaria just about a year ago. Let's play that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FAREED ZAKARIA, CNN HOST: Were you pushed out of the DIA?
FLYNN: I was not. Nope, I was not. I was asked about, you know, some things, and I -- and it was a mutual agreement as to when I would depart service to this nation.
ZAKARIA: That sounds like a diplomatic way of...
FLYNN: Yeah, it was. I mean it is. You know, I'm going to maintain the moral high ground for a reason and maintain my integrity. I've always stood on my principles. I'm not going to let my principles fall to the side. To me, I was standing on my principles of what I believed in. And it was a mutual agreement as to my departure.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARLOW: You were saying, Peter Bergen, about his departure, something that you should be concern to the American people or just a difference in ideology?
BERGEN: I think there were three reasons for it, Poppy. One was -- he was pushing Defense Intelligence Agency to put more people out in the field. I think a great idea.
HARLOW: Yeah.
BERGEN: That was getting a fair amount of resistance in the building. He also was having personality clashes with some of his bosses, like -- and that contributed to it. And finally, you know, what he was saying wasn't publicly -- it was sort of different from what the Obama administration was saying. So, you know, it was a complex set of reasons, but he was certainly pushed out. In his view, in his book, more recent than the Fareed Zakaria interview, he says it was because of the congressional testimony in which he was saying things that were not in line with the Obama administration line at that time.
HARLOW: You note in your piece on him that the fiery speech that he gave at the RNC this year in support of Donald Trump really confounded, really puzzled a number of his peers, mainly because he was taking such a partisan position.
BERGEN: Yeah. I mean, it is one thing to sign a letter as 88 admirals and generals signed a letter supporting Donald Trump.
HARLOW: Right.
[17:35:00] BERGEN: More than 100 or so signed a letter for Hillary Clinton, but to lead a cheer of "lock her up," that was seen as, sort of outside the code of what a senior general, actually a three-star, he is not a one-star general, should do, even in retirement. General Dempsey, who is the former chairman, wrote a letter to the "Washington Post," condemning Michael Flynn and also General John Allen, who had done his own ways, sort of partisan speech at the convention for Hillary Clinton.
That said, you know, President Eisenhower was, after all, a general before he was a president. So there is a debate that we're not going to resolve on this program about the extent to which it is ok for retired general officers to get involved in politics. But certainly, some of Michael Flynn's peers felt that he had gone, sort of over a line.
HARLOW: As you said, you cannot overstate the importance of this choice as, you know, the western world and many in the Middle East continue to battle ISIS, et cetera. And critical choice, especially for a president who has no military experience. Peter Bergen, it is a fascinating piece up on CNN.com. Thank you very much.
BERGEN: Thank you, Poppy.
HARLOW: Coming up, live in the CNN newsroom, any moment, you will hear from President Obama. His final International News Conference ahead tonight. Live from Lima, Peru.
And of course, we continue to watch who will show up next at the door to meet with President-Elect Donald Trump as he fills his administration.
Up next though, the Vice President-Elect and the President-Elect, not getting along well with the cast of a Broadway hit show "Hamilton", the latest on that, the President-Elect tweeting about it again today.
Also, he is back.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Who will -- what is ISIS?
(LAUGHTER)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) HARLOW: You're looking at live pictures of two big events happening
tonight. First, President Obama will give his last international address tonight from the APEC conference in Lima, Peru. We're waiting for the president who could speak at any moment. We're going to carry it for you in entirely live, right here on CNN. On the other side of your screen, the revolving door where potential cabinet picks and White House staff member's picks have been coming in and out, all day to meet with President-Elect Donald Trump. It has been a busy weekend of transitions for him. The President-Elect, in the meantime, in the midst of all these meetings, he also took to twitter for a fourth time today, finally back at the cast of the Broadway show "Hamilton."
He tweeted the cast and producers of "Hamilton," which I hear is highly overrated should immediately apologize to Mike Pence for their terrible behavior. Trump was referring to a speech made at the end, the curtain call on Friday night, because Mike Pence, the Vice President-Elect was in the audience. They expressed their concerns about the incoming administration and asked the vice-president elect to, quote, uphold our American values. Pence in response said he was not offended.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[17:41:05] PENCE: I heard the remarks that were made at the end, and you know, what I can tell you is I wasn't offended by what was said. I'll leave to others whether it was the appropriate venue to say it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARLOW: Joining me now, CNN's Senior Media Correspondent, host of "RELIABLE SOURCES," Brian Stelter. Brian, he has tweeted a couple of times now by what happen on Friday. I think four times, including one tweet that appears to have been deleted.
BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: Right.
HARLOW: Because we can't find it anymore. Let's pull it up. Very rude and insulting of "Hamilton" cast member to treat our great future VP Mike Pence to a theater lecture, couldn't even memorize the lines. Two-fold question for you here, A, is the media making more of this than there really is? Does it matter that he tweeted four times about this? And also, if he deletes tweets after inauguration, is he violating the presidential records act?
STELTER: That is an interesting question. The President-Elect it includes tweets and Facebook messages. So everything a president says online is archived, is a public record. So, yes, the answer is yes. If he were to delete a tweet, it wouldn't really be deleted, because the library of congress, the government would have a copy of it. I text with Twitter, they keep very close track of these things. In fact, there is a plan in place to move President Obama's account over and make way for President-Elect Trump.
HARLOW: To the potus account.
STELTER: That is right. Now is the media making too much of this? I think every word a President-Elect says matters. That is something Donald Trump is now getting used to. Certainly, it is probably easier to cover a "Hamilton" dust up than the cover the important conflicts of interest. You were covering over this hour. There is also important here about Trump going after artists, going after Broadway.
HARLOW: Free speech.
STELTER: These are not people, who probably voted for him, but he is sort of criticizing artistic expressions by saying this should not happen, they should apologize. As I said before, Trump should go and see "Hamilton." it is not a bad idea. I was talking to an investor in the show who said, I pray he keeps tweeting about this, because the show will be sold out for decades, not just years, if Trump keeps this up. But certainly, I think the invitation is on the table for the President-Elect to go and see the show.
HARLOW: What about "Saturday Night Live"? He tweeted that, he said it was totally one sided, bias show, nothing funny at all and he called it at the end of his tweet, equal time for all of us. He is actually referring to a federal equal time law for networks, but it only applies during the campaign, right?
STELTER: During the campaign. During the campaign, when Donald Trump was a guest on "SNL," actually guest host, NBC had to provide equal amount of air time to his GOP rivals. People like John Kasich, by then. They were given 12, 13 minutes of air time. But that is only during an election campaign season. Once the election is over, there is no equal time.
So I guess if Trump was referring to the equal time rules, he is not aware that once you win or once you lose. There is no more equal time. I suppose Trump is suggesting that people should be making -- having just as many jokes, you know, positive about him as there are negative, or something like that, but it was a curious tweet. I hope he elaborates on it. It is another example of that, sort of possible chilling effect about artistic expression.
HARLOW: I should also, but we are out of time, let's just, pull-up on the screen for people to see, it has been 100 days since Donald Trump has held a press conference.
STELTER: That is right. July was the last press conference. Normally by now, a President-Elect does hold a press conference, usually in the first few days after being elected.
HARLOW: Maybe we'll get one soon. Brian, thank very much.
We are waiting, as you see in the bottom of your screen there for President Obama. He will make his final international address. It will be a news conference, live from Lima, Peru, tonight. Set to come out any moment. You will see it right here. Stay with us. You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.
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[17:48:15] HARLOW: You're looking at live pictures out of Lima, Peru. President Obama there, right now, is attending for the last time as sitting president, the annual APEX summit, leaders from the economic powers in the Asia and Pacific Rim region. The president is about to speak. We were just given that two-minute warning let's go to Athena Jones, traveling with the president. Walk us through what the past few days have been like for the president whom he met but I know he had a few minutes today with Vladimir Putin.
ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: He did, Poppy. He chatted, we're told, for about four minutes with the Russian president. They talked about Ukraine. They talked about Syria, the need to continue to work towards a way to diminish the violence and the suffering going on in Syria. He also met today with Canada's Prime Minister and also the Prime Minister of Australia.
And yesterday, he met with President Xi Jinping of China. And also the President of Peru, President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski. In many of his meetings both here and also on the other side of the Atlantic, the first legs of his trip in Europe, he is tried to do a lot to reassure world leaders and the citizens of the world that there will be some sort of continuity of U.S. engagement with the world, even in a Trump presidency. He is talked about the importance of remaking engaged in the world and he also tried to ask really everyone, give the President-Elect Trump a chance. Don't assume the worst about a Trump administration. Give him a chance to put his team together, to begin carrying out his policies. And then begin making judgment that is something we've seen him stress here in Peru and also before he left Germany. So those are some of the messages that we could hear him make at this press conference.
HARLOW: No question. Quite a change in tone from certainly the final few weeks of the campaign, when he said things like, he is woefully unprepared to do this job. I mean those are not only things that American voters heard, those are things that world leaders heard also. I assume a lot of this trip was sort of trying to reassure world powers.
[17:50:18] JONES: Absolutely. We saw a very different tune from the president immediately after those stunning election results. He spent months really talking about how unqualified and how temperamentally unfit Trump was to be president. He also, at the time we know, did not believe that Donald Trump would win the White House. Donald Trump is now going to be his successor, not the successor that he would like and so he is really stress, I can't stress enough how much the White House and the President himself has stress the importance of a smooth transition. The importance of making sure that they do everything they can to try to help Trump administration succeed.
And part of this, began in that meeting of, just a few days after the election in the oval office where President Obama sat down with President-Elect Trump for 90 minutes and discussed a series of topics, foreign and domestic. And we understand from that meeting the president talked about Obamacare, for instance. While, about Trump ran on as promise to repeal and replace it, later on in an interview he talked about being open to saving some of the provisions. So this is the sort of influence the White House hopes to have on him in these coming weeks. HARLOW: And as this is taking place and the president said to give,
his final International Press Conference in just a moment from now, here in the United States, President-Elect Donald Trump is holding all of these meetings with potential cabinet picks, potential White House staff picks. Any response from world leaders over there to the picks made thus far by the President-Elect?
JONES: Not so far. There hasn't been a lot of opportunity to hear from world leaders in press conferences that the U.S. journalist has attended. When the president was in Europe, he held a press conference with German Chancellor Merkel. It's been a different set up here. I will, we have to listen to what the president has to say as he walks up here.
HARLOW: Let me jump in. Let's listen in to the president.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Wonderful of Peru for hosting us and for their outstanding, hospitality. Peru is one of United States strongest partners. I am standing up for democracy to promoting jobs and growth, to fighting climate change. This summit has been a success, thanks to the great work of our Peruvian friends. So on behalf of all of us, we just got this. This summit, in my trip over the past week is obviously occurred against a backdrop of the broader debate over globalization and trade. As I have said over the decades of global integrated economy is help to improve the lives of billions of people around the world with historic gains in prosperity, education and health.
At the same time when jobs and capital can move across borders, when workers have less leverage, when wealthy corporations and global elites to often seem to be playing by a different set of rules then workers and communities can be hit especially hard. The gaps between the rich and everyone else grow wider. That can reverberate through our politics. That is why I firmly believe that one of our greatest challenges in the years ahead, across our nations and within them will be to make sure that the benefits of the global economy are shared by more people.
And that the negative impacts such as economic inequalities are addressed by all nations. When it comes to trade, I believe that the answers is not to pull back or try to have barriers to trade given our integrated economies and global supply chains that would resolve but rather the answer is to do trade right. Making sure that it has strong labor standards, strong environmental standards that it addresses ways in which workers and ordinary people can benefit rather than be harm by global trade.
All of this is the central work of APEC. This debate moves forward in the United States it is important to remember how vital the Asia Pacific is to America's prosperity. The 21 Asia Pacific Economies here represents nearly three billion people, the majority of global middle class. Six of America's top ten trading partners, more than half of the global economy and the world's fastest growing region. In other words, these 21 countries represent tremendous opportunity for the United States to sell our goods and support U.S. jobs. [17:55:00] That is why as part of the rebalanced of our foreign
policy, to be specific, we boosted U.S. exports to the region by some 50 percent. Nearly 60 percent of our exports go to the region. This is part of broader progress for 95 percent of the world's customers 40 percent, to record levels. And this exports support more than 11 million American jobs. Moreover, we know what companies that exports tend to grow faster and hire more employees and pay their workers more than companies that do not export. All of which is why exports have helped to drive our economic recovery. That is one of the reasons that U.S. businesses have created more than 50 million new jobs.
So that is the kind of progress that trade, when done right, can deliver. And that is the kind of work that we tried to do here in the summit. We are continuing our work to make it easier to do business between our countries, so we're creating more jobs. In the United States we're simplifying the process of starting a new business, increasing access to credit, all of which will help more ventures especially small businesses get up and running and helping them to be able to export as well so they can access a global market even if they can't afford fancy lawyers and accountants, foreign offices.
We agreed to increase our collective efforts against corruption, by targeting the bribery that enriches the elites at the expense of people and we committed to making it easier to trade services as well as goods. We also discussed the excess capacity that exists in certain sectors like steel and aluminum that distorts markets and hurts businesses and workers including American workers and even as I have argued that we cannot engage in protective measures, my administration has been at the forefront of really cracking down hard on unfair trade practices and brought consistently cases against under the WTO against those who are engaging in unfair trading practices and we've had a great track record of trade enforcement that has to be a part of this process.
I have been very clear that excess capacity is not the results of market forces, it is the results of specific government policies and it needs to be fixed and through APEC we have taking steps as we were at the G20 to start addressing these issues in a systematic way. With regard to the digital economy, we endorse rules to protect the privacy of personal information as it crosses borders. We discussed the importance of maintaining the current moratorium on custom duties for digital goods and innovation and given growing cyber threats our 21 APEC economist affirm that no one should conduct or support cyber enable theft of intellectual property including trade secrets with the intent of providing a competitive advantage to companies or commercial sectors.
We're also moving ahead with making our economies more inclusive. And one particular focus is making sure that women have fair access to economic growth. Expanding education, expanding access to careers in science, technology, engineering and math, helping more women entrepreneurs to access finance and integrate their businesses into the global supply chain. According to one study, if women around the world participate in the labor force, it could add up to $28 trillion of additional output for the global economy, $28 trillion. When women are more prosperous then families, communities and
countries are all more prosperous as well. My meeting yesterday with my fellow leaders of the Trans Pacific Partnership was a chance to reaffirm our commitment to the TPP with its high standards, strong protections for workers, the environment, intellectual property, and human rights. Our partners made very clear during the meeting that they want to move forward with TPP. Preferably they like to move forward with the United States. The number of countries already starting to ratify TPP, at the same time we're hearing calls for a less ambitious trade agreement in the region with lower standards, lower protections for workers, lower protections for the environment.
That kind of agreement would obviously exclude U.S. workers and businesses and access to those markets, so for all those reasons, I believe that TPP is a plus for America's economy, America's workers, American jobs, I think not moving forward would undermine our position across the region, are able to shake the rules of global trade in a way that reflects our interest...
