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Tom Price Picked as HHS Secretary; Trump's Newest Cabinet Picks; Trump's Flag Burning Tweet; Trump's Romney Meeting; Gatlinburg Wildfires Still Burning; Ripley's Aquarium in Tennessee is Safe. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired November 29, 2016 - 14:00   ET

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

[14:00:07] BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Wolf, thank you.

Hi, everyone. I'm Brooke Baldwin. You are watching CNN on this Tuesday. Thanks for being with me.

Donald Trump. Donald Trump's cabinet is becoming clearer and clearer. The president-elect has just tapped some long-time Washington players for two slots and he also is working on a short list today for the most prominent position, secretary of state. More on that job here momentarily. By the way, we did just find out that he will be meeting with Governor Romney for dinner, along with his wife and Governor Romney's wife.

But, first, let's get to the latest nominations here. Trump has named Elaine Chao to be his transportation secretary. She used to serve as labor secretary under President George W. Bush. As for the Department of Health and Human Services, the president-elect has nominated ardent Obamacare critic Tom Price, a Republican congressman from the state of Georgia. Congressman Price is very tight with Paul Ryan. This is according to the House speaker himself. Here is Speaker Ryan on local talk radio.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. PAUL RYAN (R), HOUSE SPEAKER (voice-over): What I'm excited about is Tom Price, who is a very close friend of mine. Tom Price is one of the architects of replacing Obamacare, of fixing health care. He's a surgeon. He knows how the law works and he's been the most passionate advocate for patient-centered health care reforms that I've seen in Congress. And I'm really excited that he is now going to be the quarterback, the point person in the new administration on reforming health care.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: So that was Speaker Ryan. And as Donald Trump is adding to his cabinet, he's also making headlines again for one of his tweets. This is what he wrote, quote, "nobody should be allowed to burn the American flag. If they do, there must be consequences, perhaps loss of citizenship or a year in jail." Now, mind you, two Supreme Court rulings protect flag burning as a form of freedom of speech under the First Amendment. Senator John McCain is also against the act. Of course as a veteran especially against the act of flag burning. But as far as Trump's tweet there regarding punishment, this is what Senator McCain told to our Manu Raju

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: I have not been commenting on Mr. Trump. I will continue not to comment on Mr. Trump.

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: But he said that the people who burn the flag should be prosecuted. What do you think about that?

MCCAIN: (INAUDIBLE). A very close decision on the United - by the United States Supreme Court. I do not approve of burning the flag. I think it should - there should be some punishment, but I - right now, the Supreme Court decision is that people are free to express themselves that way. But I do not approve of it and I - and I think there's other ways for people to express their views rather than burn a flag that so many Americans fought and died for.

RAJU: He even said lose citizenship over it.

MCCAIN: Yes.

RAJU: He even said that people should lose citizenship.

MCCAIN: I do not commenting on Mr. Trump's comments. I have not and will not.

RAJU: Why - why not? He's the president-elect and you're a very senior member up here.

MCCAIN: Because that's my choice. Because it's my choice. And I am just re-elected by the people of Arizona. And I - during that campaign, I did not comment on Mr. Trump. I will continue to not, because I have to defend this nation. I'm the chairman of the Armed Services Committee. We have all kinds of challenges. My time is devoted to trying to make sure this nation is secured, not to comment on every comment of Mr. Trump's. Now that may be your priority, and yours and yours. That may be your priority to comment every day on any comment that Mr. Trump has. My priority is to try to defend the nation and the men and women who are serving it. And it does not - I cannot carry out that mission by responding to every comment of Mr. - of President -elect Trump's.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: All right, Manu Raju, nice work there.

Lot's to discuss on this Tuesday. With me now, Steve Cortes, served on Trump's Hispanic Advisory Council during the campaign, obviously a Trump supporter, Karen Tumulty is back with us, national political correspondent for "The Washington Post," and CNN political commentator Angela Rye, who is a former executive director of the Congressional Black Caucus.

So, welcome to all of you. ANGELA RYE, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Thank you.

BALDWIN: And, Karen, let me just begin with you. Let's start with Tom Price as the pick for HHS secretary. You know, there's been a lot of criticism from Republicans on, we want to repeal, repeal and replace Obamacare, but there's been this lack of specifics on how and what they'd replace it with. Tom Price is the guy who has an alternative, correct?

KAREN TUMULTY, NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, "THE WASHINGTON POST": That's right. And it is - you know, it would certainly be a big disruption for the current system. But he is someone - he's also a physician. He's someone who's given a lot of thought to this issue. So it's certainly not what I think a lot of supporters of the Affordable Care Act would like to see. I mean this is certainly - this is going to be somebody who is actually going to dig in and try to do this.

[14:05:06] BALDWIN: Well, let's talk a little bit, Steve, first to you, just as a Trump supporter, and Karen's right, you know, he's an M.D., he's an orthopedic surgeon. You know, he also knows where the money comes from because he's the chair of the House Budget Committee. But, you know, as we've heard Trump saying that he's open to keeping parts of Obamacare, specifically the pre-existing condition piece and, you know, allowing kids 26 and under living with their parents to keep insurance, they differ on that, do they not? I mean how is that going to work, Steve?

STEVE CORTES, FORMER TRUMP CAMPAIGN ADVISER: No, they do differ. But, listen, this is politics. This is part of the process. Clearly Mr. Trump is going to call the shots in the end and the congressman, I'm sure, would be the first to concede on that point. But I think this was a brilliant pick. If I could only pick, Brooke, one reason why we won this election, I would tell you I think its Obamacare. The momentum that our campaign got in the last two weeks of the campaign I think was largely due to the fact that those Obamacare premium and deductible hikes were going out to millions of Americans. I think it frightened them, as well it should have. I think it's one of the reasons that our message resonated with them and that we won. So I'm glad that President Trump - President-elect Trump is delivering on his promise now with this pick to repeal and replace Obamacare. It was an albatross of the federal government. It was a job killing monster.

RYE: That's not true.

CORTES: We are going to have sensible health reform going forward.

BALDWIN: Well, I'm looking at Angela out of the corner of my eye, you know, shaking her head. But even before we get to that point, I think it's also fair to point out some of the criticisms today we've heard from - because one of the question is, well, how will this affect women's health specifically. The president at Planned Parenthood is worried about that because we know that he has, in the past, has talked about Planned Parenthood, saying some of the clinics have been involved in what he calls barbaric abortion practices, when Supreme Court ruled on, I know, gay marriage last year, Congressman Price said, quote, "it was not only a sad day for marriage, but a further destruction of our entire system of checks and balances." As a Democrat, how do you feel?

RYE: So there are so many - so many places to go with Tom Price. He's definitely smart. He's been a member of Congress for some time. He was there -

BALDWIN: Six term congressman.

RYE: Yes, he was there when I was working on The Hill. He's known for knowing the rules really, really well. They were - he was the guy that Republicans went to for motions to recommit because he knew the floor procedure rules better than anybody else.

The challenge is, as a doctor, for him to be opposed to children's health insurance - the children's health insurance program, for him to want to privatize Medicare, which we know is a baseline conservative principle, it's also very, very challenging. He has voted to defund Planned Parenthood and so, again, I talked earlier about some of the picks that Donald Trump is making are scary to me.

What do you do with people who have insurance? Twenty million people. We're not talking about two. And this actually has been a job-creating measure. The Affordable Care Act has created health I.T. jobs, a substantial number of health I.T. jobs. And so you've heard a lot of talk about repeal and replace and that's -

CORTES: Angela that's -

RYE: I'm not done, Steve. I'm not done.

A lot of talk about repeal and replace. And they got stuck at repeal, Brooke. You're talking about folks who did that 60 plus times in Congress.

BALDWIN: I know, and I hear you, but he has proposed multiple years in a row, he's -

RYE: Yes.

BALDWIN: The Empowering Patients First Act. So, you know, at least this is something. For Republicans -

RYE: Yes.

BALDWIN: They have someone who has actual specifics and suggestions and recommendations as an M.D. But I hear you.

Steve, go ahead and then I want to - I want to move on.

CORTES: Well, I think regarding - don't take my word for it, by the way, that it was a job killing monster. Take Bill Clinton's word for it, who told us that on the campaign trail, I think somewhat unwittingly talked about how punitive it was to small business. He called it, quote, "crazy." And when you talk, by they way, about defunding Planned Parenthood as being scary, what I think is scary is the fact that the taxpayer is pay for an organization which a great many Americans find reprehensible and which sells baby parts and that was a major part of our campaign, by the way, and we - and we won. --

RYE: That's not true. That's been debunked.

BALDWIN: Come on, Steve.

TUMULTY: If I -

CORTES: We won on that pro-life message.

BALDWIN: No, come on, Steve.

Karen -- Karen, set us straight, please.

TUMULTY: Well, if I could just get here -

BALDWIN: Please.

TUMULTY: What I think is the main point -

BALDWIN: Please.

TUMULTY: Is that many times during the campaign, it was unclear whether Donald Trump himself actually understood how Obamacare really worked. This is not the case with Tom Price. He very much does understand it. He understands the mechanisms and he - and obviously Trump has picked somebody who is going to be willing to do what - something that is unclear that Trump himself has done, which is sort of climb inside the machine and look at the gears and see how it's working.

BALDWIN: Yes. And then let me just stay with you, Karen, because when you look at a Tom Price and when you look at Elaine Chao, as we mentioned, you look at the potential picks for state, you know, today's meeting with Senator Corker, the dinner, as we mentioned, with Governor Romney, do these - do these folks sound like - how do I say this, like drain-the-swamp people to you or no?

TUMULTY: Well, Elaine Chao is certainly - she's married to the Senate majority leader. She -

BALDWIN: Mitch McConnell, right.

[14:10:02] TUMULTY: She will be the second wife of a Senate majority leader to have been both labor secretary and transportation secretary for your trivia viewers. But it does suggest that if Donald Trump, for instance, really does want to proceed on infrastructure spending, there are probably worse picks he could have made in getting this thing through Congress than basically having the wife of the Senate majority leader being in charge of spearheading it.

BALDWIN: OK.

TUMULTY: So she's certainly an insider. But she's an insider who's going to give him some leverage potentially in getting some things done that he wants done.

BALDWIN: OK.

Steve, let's move on to - we played the sound with Manu Raju just sort of chasing Senator McCain down the hallway on the Trump flag burning, you know, toss them in jail or lose your citizenship tweet, and I just have to ask, and then also Senator Cruz echoed the same sentiment that, you know, no, of course no one likes watching a flag burn, but it is protected under the First Amendment. Is this the future for Republican senators to be answering for every little tweet, comment, moment that the president will make?

CORTES: No, and it certainly doesn't have to be, as Senator McCain just displayed for us, they don't have to respond to everything.

By the way, I rarely disagree with President-elect Trump, I happen to disagree here. I don't think we need new laws. I don't think we need amendments to the Constitution. I also, by the way, disagree with Hillary Clinton who, while she was senator, voted for jail time for burning the flag. I think people who burn the flag are reprehensible and should be ignored and dismissed. You know, speech is about words. We tell toddlers, use your words rather than lash out. I would say that to anyone who wants to protest against either Mr. Trump, against the United States generally, use your words, but I don't think we need new laws.

BALDWIN: Angela, what do you think?

RYE: I agree with Steve here. I think this is the type of situation that infuriates a lot of folks, not just protesters, but including me. I'm curious to know why so many burning the flag is reprehensible, but people can literally be losing their lives and that is often something that's ignored. I think that there are bigger fish to fry and I wish that the president-elect would stop using his Twitter account in this way.

One thing, Brooke, I wanted to go back to, Karen, I think, made a great point about Elaine Chao. I don't like the term drain the swamp because I think it can be offensive. And what Donald Trump has found very quickly, even on his transition team, is that people with experience really matter and they can be helpful. Some of them end up being lobbyists. Some of them end up being wives, spouses, kids of sitting senators and members of Congress. I think that it's interesting to see, from a strategy standpoint, him leveraging her in that role because that would make an infrastructure became move, even if it costs a lot of money. That's not a Democratic concern necessarily, but it is a concern of fiscal conservatives, so let's bring it (ph).

BALDWIN: OK. OK. Karen, just last question, is there's a big question mark next to who he will select as secretary of state. Is there anything - can we read into any tea leaves and the fact that, you know, Mr. Trump's wife and Governor Romney's wife will be part of this dinner. Is this maybe a congratulatory situation or "I'm going to buy you dinner on the way out, thanks for playing"?

TUMULTY: You know, I am going to swear off of trying to read tea leaves at all in any of this. All you know is that it increases the drama, it increases the suspense. You know, maybe at the end of it he's going to hand a rose to somebody. I don't know. But it's - he has certainly increased the drama around this particular section.

BALDWIN: Thank you for the laugh. Thank you, Karen, so, so much. Karen and Angela and Steve, thank you all very much.

RYE: Thank you.

CORTES: Thank you.

BALDWIN: Coming up here, let's talk about what's happening in Tennessee. Have you seen these pictures? Dangerous wildfires and all that smoke coming precariously closely to the Dollywood theme park, to hundreds of buildings, to homes already being damaged or destroyed. At one point, the flames threatening a popular aquarium with some 1,500 animals trapped inside. We'll have an update from someone who works there next.

Also, a tragic scene in the mountains of Colombia. Members of this up- and-coming Brazilian soccer team among those killed in this plane crash. But, incredibly, several people managed to survive. We have their story coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:18:04] (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My husband, at the door, there was trees on fire in front of our - where we were at. So we tried to get to our car and the smoke was so bad we couldn't. We covered our face with wet towels.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Widespread panic in and around Gatlinburg, Tennessee, as 14 wildfires are raging across this area. The mayor telling CNN, half of the city has been impacted, including his own home.

And you see this for yourself. The pictures tell the story. I mean look at this thick, thick smoke. Flame engulfing more than 250 homes and businesses in and around Gatlinburg, gutting some of them already. And thousands are forced to leave. Just look at the destruction left behind in this eastern Tennessee mountainside town. This is a resort town. It's a popular tourist destination, gone.

One man barely escaped, speeding through what looks like just a road engulfed in flames. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go, go, go, go, go, go.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's (EXPLETIVE DELETED) melt these tires (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I can't see.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just hit the (EXPLETIVE DELETED) gas. You're on pavement. (EXPLETIVE DELETED) all of Chalet Village is on fire. (EXPLETIVE DELETED).

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: He could barely see in front of him. Nick Valencia is there with us.

You've been in the thick of it. Tell me where you are and how bad it is in that neck of the woods.

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Brooke, we're outside what is effectively the staging area for residents and vacationers here in this area that have been evacuated. We're seeing a lot of drained faces. People that have been through the unimaginable, the unthinkable. A lot of people are still trying to reflect and process what they've went through. Some of them have not slept.

You talk about those that have barely made it out alive. We're joined by two of those people who were asleep when police started banging on their door. You guys are convinced here, Denise Bearden and Mark Benzschawel, you guys are convinced that cops knocked on your door, you guys might have died last night. How are you doing?

[14:20:15] MARK BENZSCHAWEL, EVACUATED FROM WILDFIRE: Well, we're doing great now. Still pretty emotional.

DENISE BEARDEN, EVACUATED FROM WILDFIRE: Shook up.

BENZSCHAWEL: We know that if they wouldn't have woke us up, we probably would be dead.

BEARDEN: We probably wouldn't be here.

VALENCIA: Denise, take us through what happened last night. What happened when the police knocked on your door? What was going on?

BEARDEN: We were just startled up out of bed, you know, cops banging on doors telling everybody to evacuate, evacuate. And we was just able to grab just whatever we could and got out.

VALENCIA: You just grabbed what you're wearing right now essentially.

BENZSCHAWEL: Yes.

BEARDEN: Yes, and got out.

BENZSCHAWEL: As soon as I looked - looked out the window to see who it was, there was just fires surrounding us.

VALENCIA: What are you - what are you guys going through right now? I mean describe to the viewer here. I mean they see the images. They see the flames. They see this - what is just a vibrant, beautiful area just decimated. BEARDEN: There's just no words. It's hard to comprehend.

BENZSCHAWEL: Well, I - the biggest thing I'd like to say is, we have a friend, her husband had passed away a couple months ago, and she just made it out, but her house is gone. So really I feel more sorry for her than anyone.

VALENCIA: You have a lot of friends in this area, I know you guys are going through a lot. What are you thinking when you're getting out of there? What are you thinking, Mark?

BENZSCHAWEL: Well, when we were getting out of there, when they put us in the back of the patrol car, there was fire out both sides and I mean it was crossing the street and we didn't think we'd make.

BEARDEN: It was scary when you have flames all around you and everything and you don't know -

BENZSCHAWEL: You know, embers, embers -

BEARDEN: What ember is going to fly at you or not.

BENZSCHAWEL: They were landing on the car. You know, everything. So it was scary.

BEARDEN: What did you guys do last night? Where did you sleep last night? I mean did you sleep at all?

BENZSCHAWEL: I didn't sleep at all. No, I couldn't sleep. I -

BEARDEN: I got a 20-minute nap. That's about it.

BENZSCHAWEL: I doubt I'll sleep tonight.

VALENCIA: We're outside here what is effectively the staging area and just about two minutes or so ago we saw a lady come out of here just bawling, crying, holding a dog. And we asked, you know, what she'd gone through. She'd just seen her home. Are you guys trying to get back? What did they tell you about going back?

BENZSCHAWEL: We've heard a few different stories. We're thinking like - more like two to three days, but we've heard up to five. So we're really not sure yet.

BEARDEN: Yes, we're not sure if our place will still be there or not. You know, we don't know.

VALENCIA: And if it isn't, at least you guys have each other here. You guys are engaged. You have something to look forward to. And now you're going through this together here, this harrowing -

BEARDEN: We're starting all over fresh, might as well say.

VALENCIA: All right, Denise and Mark, thank you so much for taking the time.

BENZSCHAWEL: Thanks, brother.

VALENCIA: Thank you, brother. Thank you very much.

It's just a slice of life here just outside of Gatlinburg, Brooke, just incredibly hard to listen to what those individuals just went through. And the worst of it is over. I guess that's the good news. Last night those hurricane-force winds, the low humidity contributed to the intensity of the flames that started in the Great Smokey National Mountain Park. Now the wind has died down, but the smoke is still very thick in the air and firefighters here expecting to host a press conference just a couple of hours from now where hopefully we'll get more details about what happens next here in this community that has just been terribly hit hard by the wildfires.

Brooke.

BALDWIN: Please thank them for us. And it just - it happens like this. And not even knowing if you have a home to go home to. I cannot imagine. Nick Valencia, thank you very much.

By the way, CNN has also learned that 1,500 animals tripped at Ripley's Aquarium, the Smokies, they are now safe. So with me now on the phone, Ryan DeSear, he's the regional manager of that aquarium.

And, Ryan, I'm an animal lover, and we'll get to your animals in just a second here, but I want to talk about humans first, like you, your employees. How - how - do you know, you know, how affected you all are or your homes by these fires?

RYAN DESEAR, REGIONAL MANAGER, RIPLEY'S AQUARIUM OF THE SMOKIES(via telephone): Oh, thank you for asking that question. That means a lot. Honestly it does. The answer is, you know, we're doing our best. You know, some staff we certainly haven't been able to contact, either they weren't at work or nowhere in the area. Most have left - left this kind of part of the state for a while. The reason we're having some issues with that is cell phone communication is very, very bad in the city right now. So it's very hard to - you can't even get on FaceBook and do anything like that. So we're having issues with that.

However, by and large, we certainly have an employee page and everybody that we know of that's checked in is in - is in good shape. A lot of our employees' houses are in peril and I know of at least one that did lose her home last night and that just came across there. And, you know, we're really thinking of her.

And I would like to say, just to point out there, those folks that are battling the fire, and our police and fire, first responders out there, they are amazing. They have done a job I can't even begin to imagine under really horrible circumstances. At one point, you know, wind gusts to 93 miles per hour at my home. So I can only imagine what they were dealing with.

[14:25:10] BALDWIN: Thank you for mentioning them. You are 100 percent correct that these men and women are putting themselves in harm's way.

And just looking at these pictures, I'm glad that you've been able to be in contact with some folks, but as far as the animals, Ryan, are they OK? I think we saw video shot from you, so you can really see and feel that smoke I imagine at the aquarium.

DESEAR: Yes, that video - it was yesterday and at that point in time, you know, nobody really knew what was going on. It was early in the morning (INAUDIBLE) and, you know, the winds were just starting to pick up. I had just gotten off a phone call and walked upstairs to our plaza and to see what was going on and that's when that video was shot. So we weren't really sure of any of the circumstances at that point. But, yes, we absolutely could feel it.

And the important thing, the animals are OK. We're fine. No problems at all. Certainly we were worried about them. Last night we were - I would probably say with certainty that we were the last ones in the city and we were - our (INAUDIBLE) marine biologists that we have there and support personnel were forced to leave by police escort. And that was - it was the right thing to do on their part, but certainly their safety was paramount to us and they had to go. And then we were the first ones back in the city today. And largely thanks to the police efforts to allow us back in. And we continue to thank them for that, us being able to get back and forth to that aquarium is certainly primary.

BALDWIN: Ryan, thank you for hopping on the phone. You've got a lot more to do, so I'm going to let you jump off. But just, you know, look after yourself and obviously your employees and those animals as well. Ryan DeSear at the Ripley's Aquarium of the Smokies, thank you so much.

And just quickly, let me read this statement. This is from Dolly Parton, because this is the neck of the woods where Dollywood is right there. So she has said this. "I've been watching the terrible fires in the Great Smokey Mountains and I'm heartbroken." This is where she's from. "I'm praying for all the families affected by the fire and the firefighters who are working so hard to keep everyone safe. It is a blessing that my Dollywood theme park, the DreamMore Resort and so many businesses in Pigeon Forge have been spared."

That is Tennessee. Let's talk about Ohio. Horror at that campus in Columbus at Ohio State. The Somali immigrant, the 18-year-old who attacked his classmates there, reportedly ranted about the treatment of Muslims in FaceBook postings. We have more on him and more on the police officer who stopped him.

Plus, President-elect Donald Trump tweeting this morning. He thinks flag burners, American flag burners, should go to jail or lose their citizenship, but that's not exactly what the U.S. Constitution says. Why did he tweet that in the first place? Let's discuss, coming up.

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