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Source: Trump "Irritated" By Conway Attack On Romney; Trump Calls Recount Effort A "Scam" By Green Party; Trump Falsely Claims Fraud Cost Him Popular Vote; Fire Dept: 10 Injured, 1 Critical, In OSU Attack; Cruz's "Pitchforks & Torches" Warning. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired November 28, 2016 - 12:30   ET

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

[12:30:02] BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: -- Secretary of State. Let's bring in our panel. We have CNN Chief Political Correspondent Dana Bash, CNN Political Analyst Josh Rogin, he's a columnist for the "Washington Post" and we have Rebecca Berg, CNN Political Analyst and National Political Reporter for "Real Clear Politics."

OK, let's get to the bottom of this. Let's listen to what Kellyanne Conway said about Mitt Romney being a possibility for Secretary of State.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KELLYANNE CONWAY, TRUMP SENIOR ADVISER: Lost of party unity, but I'm not sure that we have to pay for that with a Secretary of State position. But, again, let me repeat, what Donald Trump decides, Kellyanne Conway and everybody else will respect. It's just the backlash from the grassroots. I'm hearing from people who say, "Hey, my parents died penniless, but I gave $216 to Donald Trump campaign and I would feel betrayed."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: And you know whose interview, that was with -- it was Dana Bash who we have right here. So, I mean that was -- this is the sound of the day coming out of yesterday. What -- what's going on?

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, as you said, I was told this morning by a source who is familiar with Donald Trump's thinking, and talks to him frequently that the president-elect was irritated by that.

Having said that, I spoke with Kellyanne herself just in the last hour and a half or so, who says that if he was irritated he didn't expressed it to her that they spoke yesterday after her T.V. appearances. This morning she's in Trump Tower now and that he knows that her criticism and concern about Mitt Romney for Secretary of State comes out of loyalty to Donald Trump.

KEILAR: What do you think, Josh?

JOSH ROGIN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, here is what we know. We know that Kellyanne Conway is not in the room when he's having these meetings with nominees, OK. She's outside the door. The other thing that we also know is that she doesn't have a job yet, all right. She's not chief of staff. She's not chief strategist.

KEILAR: Under consideration to be press secretary we know.

ROGINL: Something like that. So it's very possible that this is her best way of influencing. Here is what we don't know. We don't know whether or not if she's actually gone rogue or whether or not this is ...

KEILAR: I mean, she's going to have a job in some way. Let's see -- isn't it hard to make -- OK, go ahead.

BASH: My reporting from early on and it's still stand is that she doesn't, probably it's not likely to go inside, but she's more likely to stay outside.

KEILAR: Doesn't mean she won't be an important figure though, right?

ROGIN: Right. But the question really is, is she doing this against the wishes of Donald Trump or is this sanctioned in some way? Or are they playing with us? Is this some sort of orchestrated sort of kabuki division that allows them to sort of X Romney off the list without looking like they did it? I mean, the bottom line is that Kellyanne, if she really is going rogue, it really is unprecedented and pretty shocking.

KEILAR: Is she the potentially the fall guy here sort of? She's the one playing bad cop?

REBECCA BERG, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, it's possible but on the other hand, this is not what we tend to see during a presidential transition. When these candidates are under consideration for cabinet posts, those discussions go on behind-the-scenes. You tend to respect these people who are your potential cabinets for these high-ranking positions in your administration.

And so, if you're Mitt Romney, imagine how he and his allies must feel right now that he went out on a limb, met with Donald Trump even though we know they have some deep profound disagreements, they've had their divisions in the past. He met with him. He's open to maybe serving as Secretary of State and now he's getting blasted publicly humiliated on cable news by close allies to Donald Trump? It doesn't really speak very highly of the respect that they have for some of the candidates ...

KEILAR: Yup, certainly doesn't.

BERG: ... for these positions.

KEILAR: All right, let's talk about Donald Trump tweeting a lot about voter fraud. This is what he said yesterday. Serious -- wait, yeah. "Serious voter fraud in Virginia, New Hampshire and California, so why isn't the media reporting on this? Serious bias, big problem." And then also, "In addition to winning the Electoral College in a landslide, I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally." Why isn't the media reporting on this is because it isn't true, right? BASH: Exactly, thank you.

KEILAR: I mean, it's not true and you even have Republicans who are saying, like out of New Hampshire. They're saying, this isn't going on, right?

ROGIN: Right, so I think two things. One is we can tell Donald Trump is irritated by both this recount effort led by Jill Stein and now joined in a way by the Clinton campaign. He also wants to project he has a mandate, right?

If you lost by 2 million votes, that's not really a very strong mandate. So he's trying to muddy the waters. Overall, it's pretty disturbing that a president-elect has such a tenuous relationship with the truth, and that's bad omen going into this administration.

BASH: And let's remember, the big -- if you are Donald Trump, if we've learned nothing watching him and covering him over the past year and a half, it's all about winning, winning, winning, winning, winning.

KEILAR: But he won.

BASH: Right, but somebody's threatening him with the idea that he didn't really win for real, never mind the popular vote, which obviously sticks in his craw (ph), but he didn't win the popular vote, is something that he just cannot -- clearly cannot help himself.

Also, I don't think it's just personal. I think it's him continuing to rile up his base. It's on the one hand. He's getting his base excited and exercised over the notion of recount of Wisconsin, while on this hand he is considering a Mitt Romney for Secretary of State, you know, by the way he told the "New York Times" that he's not going to prosecute Hillary Clinton and no more climate change.

[12:35:13] KEILAR: He also just seemed very thin skinned, though and I wonder why he doesn't just take the win. And if he just -- what if he just said, "Well, I won. I am the president-elect and just let it sort of speak for itself."

BERG: That would make a lot of sense, but based on what we know about Donald Trump, that's just not how he operates. And so he might now be president-elect, that has changed, his title has changed, but nothing else has really changed since the campaign.

This is the same man. He's going to operate the same way and I mean, look, he won this election. He probably thinks, you know, "I did what I did and it worked. Why change now?"

KEILAR: Yeah. All right, we will see. Rebecca, Josh, Dana, thank you guys so much.

And up next, back to our breaking news, this violent attack on the campus of Ohio State University. We have an update on the injuries and this investigation right after this quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:40:02] KEIAR: We have some breaking news on the attack on Ohio State University's main campus in Columbus. The school says now that the suspect has been shot. The suspect is dead. There are 10 people now, that is a number that is increased being treated at hospitals. Some of them, a number of these, we're told by a congresswoman representing the area, are stab wounds.

A witness telling us that the attacker used a very large knife. What some people describe as machete-like, but the suspect first used a car and tried to mow down some people with the vehicle, causing some injuries. The Columbus Fire Department says one person is in critical condition. A number of these are not life-threatening injuries. We are continuing to monitor that.

And I want to bring in now CNN National Correspondent Deborah Feyerick. We also have CNN Senior Law Enforcement Analyst Tom Fuentes to lend his expertise as well. So, Deb, as this goes in these early hours of something like this, information has been changing. What are you learning?

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we are learning right now is that police are processing the scene and trying to identify the attacker. They're also trying to identify the motive why he may have done what he did and more importantly, was there anybody else involved? Right now it does not appear so.

It appears that there was one suspect. He was confronted by a police officer, and it appears that's when the police officer fired. What we are learning according to a law enforcement official, is that the suspect did have a very large knife. Someone described it as a machete and that he jumped from his car and started swinging wildly at people in that area.

As the crowd began to scattered, that's when the eyewitness says the police officer opened fire saving what could have been a number of people and certainly neutralizing what could have been a much worse situation.

10 people were transported, at least one is described as being in critical condition, none of the injury is life threatening, but as you say, multiple stub wounds as well as what appear to be some injuries of folks who may have been hit by the car that jumped that curb.

All of this happened near the chemical engineering building. It was just after about 9:30 this morning when all of this took place. Right now, police looking to see whether, in fact, who this person was and why he did what he did.

KEILAR: And now, lockdown has been lifted, Tom. This is really a crime scene and you have investigators. They are trying to piece some of this puzzle together, especially with the suspect now dead. So what are they looking for?

TOM FUENTES, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, they're looking for any forensic evidence to make sure that the shooter was alone, or wasn't somebody else involved. If the car was used and still at the scene and they'll be processing that vehicle as well.

Often in the case like this, they'll tow it to a garage where they have, you know, the ability to work on it through the night and in a secure warm environment. But they'll be looking for any other evidence to indicate that this person acted alone and how he acted.

But, again, most importantly is identifying him and looking for possible motives which could come from social media or his internet. They'll be trying to identify where he was living and do searches at that location. So they'll hold back the identity of this person until they've done more of the investigative aspects, such as searching his residence.

KEILAR: And usually, is that hard to find when it comes to social media or someone in this? And I know there are many details we don't know, but it seems like a lot of times people who are sort of perpetrating crimes in this family of crimes, they're not trying to hide it, right?

FUENTES: No. Usually you would have extreme narcissism and they want you to know. They want the world to know what they did and that they're going to be famous, and want the attention, and attribution that they have done this.

So, when they look at the social media and look at other indications interfering family, friends, other students, if he was a student on campus, of trying to see what in -- what he said or did or posted in recent times would indicate what his motive is.

And, again, you hate to immediately go back to something like the possibility of terrorism, but "Inspire" magazine, Al-Qaeda's publication years ago told its people, this was Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, put out, use a car, use a knife, use a hatchet, use a hammer, whatever you have.

KEILAR: So that is one of the questions they'll be looking at. Deb, what are we expecting in terms of updates today, because this is changing?

FEYERICK: Yeah, absolutely. Well, we are expecting as the president of the university is scheduled to give a brief press conference. He went to one of the hospitals, the campus hospital and we're expecting to hear a lot more from him.

You know, initially, just to clarify, this went out as an active shooter report and that may have been because what students were hearing was the gunfire from that officer who was responding to the situation. And that's why you got that shelter in place for those not nearby, but for those who were nearby, you got that alert, run, hide, fight because obviously, officials didn't want anybody to sort of encounter this individual.

And we did see some scenes of classrooms where students were actually taking desk and putting them up against the door trying to ban him or keep him from entering if in fact, that was his objective.

[12:45:13] KEILAR: Yeah.

FEYERICK: So, that's why it initially came through as an active shooter.

KEILAR: Yeah, it's a very good point and we are monitoring. We saw live pictures just a moment ago. We are monitoring along with our affiliate, WBNS that hospital, the Wexner Medical Center there on campus as we await to hear from the president of Ohio State University. Deb Feyerick, Tom Fuentes, thanks to both of you.

And up next, back to politics in the Trump transition and why Senator Ted Cruz is warning about the possibilities of pitchforks and torches in the streets from Republican?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: We're watching some live pictures from Ohio, from the Wexner Medical Center.

[12:50:02] We're actually awaiting the president of Ohio State University, Dr. Michael Drake. He is going to address the situation that we have seen there, which is that now the count is up to 10 people who have been injured.

A suspect, we are told by witnesses earlier this morning, just a few hours ago wielding a large knife after trying to run into people with a car. So we know there are injuries from both of those things.

We've been told from a congresswoman representing the area that most of the injuries are stab wounds, but there are orthopedic injuries, as she put it, from the car hitting some people as well. One person in critical condition, but all of these, the other people not -- they are in better shape, but all of these injuries we're told by officials are non-life threatening.

We don't know who the suspect is. The suspect gunned down by a police officer. The suspect is deceased. We have been told that, and at this point in time, the lockdown situation that the university was under has now been lifted, although classes canceled for the rest of the day, there at Ohio State University.

This was a very dramatic scene, and to hear students who are on campus, many of them in class when this happened. The first notice that many of them got from it happening, for a few of them that was hearing a gunshots, potentially from the police officer who was shooting the suspect, but also all of them got text message alerts that came out just moments after this happened.

One student, one Ohio State University student says he was there when this man pulled a knife outside. It was by the Watts building, which is an engineering and science building there on campus and head he said he was on the scene and this man pulled a large knife. Some people have called it a machete and started chasing people around trying to attack them. That's what the student said.

Luckily, he said, there were so many people he couldn't focus on one target, but, again, we do know that there are several people in the hospital including there at Wexner Medical Center on campus.

This student didn't see anyone get stabbed, but saw the police officer take down the stabber and he said that the police officer waited until everyone was clear, presumably, so he could get a clean shot and the stabber clearly wasn't stopping. He then took three shots to take him down, the student said. He said the stabber had a crazy look in his eyes.

And we're still unaware of the identity and the motive of the suspect here, but we are keeping our eye there on Wexner Medical Center on campus at Ohio State University where we are awaiting the president.

I'm going to bring Deb Feyerick back in. She's been following the story. And so, we're seeing officials. We're seeing doctors, Deb, who are there on-scene at the medical center on campus. This is where some of the victims are and I guess they're probably discussing amongst themselves before they address the media, because we do expect them to speak.

FEYERICK: Yeah, absolutely. We've been waiting for word from the president of the university for about an hour now. He is going to make some statements and, you know, the way this entire thing played out here based on some of the images that we're seeing from affiliates, there's a car that sort of jumped the curb. The doors were opened and it looks as if it was being inspected.

You have an individual who appears to have gotten out and started swinging at some of the people who were by that chemical engineering building. And, again, that eyewitness whose information is crucial to this investigation is that he jumped out and started wildly swinging randomly, but didn't appear that he was trying to attack an individual in particular. And then he apparently was confronted by a police officer and we see the president walking up right now. So we'll hear what he has to say.

KEILAR: Yes, let's listen in to the president. All right, he's going to take a moment there. It seems like he has some of the team of doctors and perhaps school officials who were behind him. This is Dr. Michael Drake, the president of Ohio State University.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL DRAKE, PRESIDENT, OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY: Good afternoon. We have a tragic incident on campus this morning where a vehicle ran into a group of pedestrians people gathered on the street corner resulting in several injuries.

The driver then got out and used a weapon to cut several people who were then transported to local hospitals. I'm here today with two people who were primarily involved in the response. That's our chief of police and our public -- director of public safety and also our chief medical officer.

Let me say first that I want to give our thoughts and prayers and hopes and wishes for speedy recovery to all those who were injured. We prepare for situations like this, but always hope never to have one.

And so we're going to be able to go and visit the people who were injured little bit later on this afternoon, but I just want to tell them all and their families how much we are looking forward to their full and complete recovery.

Second, I want to commend our OSU police and the other police agencies who responded. You'll find within minutes the situation incase something as very unfortunate from being very much worse. Let me now -- for a specific detail, deputy in charge (ph), Director of Public Safety, Monica Moll. Monica?

[12:55:10] MONICA MOLL, PUBLIC SAFETY DIRECTOR, OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY: Hi. We'll have more details for you later.

(OFF-MIC)

MOLL: Yes. We at West 19th Avenue, west of college on the north academic campus in front of Watts Hall, around 9:52 a.m., the emergency dispatch center got a report that a vehicle had struck pedestrians.

At 9:53 an OSUPD officer called out on the radio that shots were fired. He engaged the suspect who had gotten out of the vehicle after hitting pedestrians. The suspect cut multiple individuals. The officer engaged the suspect and shot and killed the suspect.

The first buckeye alert went out at 9:55 to alert the campus community that there was an emergency. Many officers from various different jurisdictions all over the county and outside the county responded immediately.

By 11:00 a.m., the shelter in place notification was lifted, and the law enforcement personnel in the area continue to investigate multiple other things. There are a few buildings that are still closed. We don't have reports of anything else. We believe the threat was ended when the officer engaged the suspect.

Very fortunate that an OSUPD officer was there and took quick action, and we believe that injuries were minimized as a result of that. We will continue probably to have an active crime scene throughout the rest of the day and we'll have more updates for you later on those things.

As I said, we do have a few buildings that are still shut down just as a precaution as we go through and sweep those, but we do believe that the threat ended right when the officer engaged the suspect.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did the suspect fire any shots?

DRAKE: We'd like too have Andrew Thomas also come in and give information on the condition of the people injured and we'll get back to you professor. Thank you.

ANDREW THOMAS, CHIEF DIRECTOR, WEXNER MEDICAL CENTER: Thank you. My name is Andrew Thomas. I'm chief medical officer for the medical center. We received a number of wounded individuals here at Ohio State. We also received word from our colleagues at grant and riverside that they'd received wounded individuals. We actually have great collaboration and coordination between the systems when it comes to events like this. We trained for these events.

Here at Ohio State, we received five wounded individuals from the scene. Two with stab wounds and two with wounds related to being hit by the car. And we've just received a fifth victim who was actually hiding in place as they've been directed to do by the buckeye alert, who actually just arrived here at the medical center not that long ago and her injuries are still being assessed.

There were two individuals with lacerations that were taken to Grant hospital down town. I'm told by my colleagues there that both of those individuals are doing well, not with life-threatening injuries as well two motor vehicle accident victims that were taken to Riverside. And I'm told similarly, those two individuals are doing well, but I don't have any more information on those folks.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: One of the people injured -- was the officer injured?

THOMAS: Not that I'm aware of.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The officer was not injured.

THOMAS: No, the officer is not injured.

(OFF-MIC)

THOMAS: I'll let the chief ...

(CROSSTALK)

CRAIG STONE, OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY POLICE CHIEF: Let me just start from the top and maybe, you know, we'll answer some of your questions. About 9:52 a.m., a male suspect drove a vehicle over the curb, west 19th, west of College Avenue, struck pedestrians.

He exited the vehicle and used a butcher knife to start cutting pedestrians. Our officer was on-scene in less than a minute and he ended the situation in less than a minute. He engaged the suspect and he eliminated the threat.

The suspect is DOA. The investigation is ongoing. I want to thank all. You're such doing a great job. They did what they were trained to do. We have a lot of agencies here that assisting us, Columbus police, Columbus fire.

There were nine people transported to the hospitals, eight in stable condition, one in critical condition. We have a lot of other agencies assisting us here, the state patrol, Franklin County chair's office, FBI, ATF, we are making sure that we do everything we can to investigate this very thoroughly and not leave any hole unturned.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did the suspect have any other weapons? STONE: It's an ongoing investigation. We recovered a butcher knife. The suspect is DOA.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is he OSU student?

STONE: That, we will be able to provide you additional information when we have another press conference later, but the investigation is still ongoing.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Chief, is this a planned thing? Was this -- did this seem to be planned and any indication this could be a terror attack?

STONE: This is too early to say. The only thing that you can say based upon common knowledge that this was done on purpose, to go over the curb and strike pedestrians and then get out and start striking them with a knife. That was on purpose.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did the suspect say anything to the police officers?

STONE: Ongoing investigation.

(OFF-MIC)