Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Report: Trump Told Carrier Execs We Can't Let This Happen. Trump Says Companies Cannot Leave U.S. Without Consequences. Trump and Pence Kick Off a Thank You Tour. Trump to Meet North Dakota Senator

Aired December 01, 2016 - 15:30   ET

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

[15:30:00] (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: A week ago, it was watching the nightly news, I won't say which one because I don't want to give them credit because I don't like them much, I'll be honest.

I don't like them, not even a little bit. But they were doing a story on Carrier and I say, wow, that's something, I want to see that and they had a gentleman, worker, great guy, handsome guy, he was on and it was like he didn't even know they were leaving. He said something to the effect "no, we're not leaving because Donald Trump promised us that we're not leaving." I never thought I made that promise.

When they played that I said I did make it but I didn't mean it quite that way. So now because of him, whoever that guy was, is he in the room by any chance?

That's your son, stand up. You did a good job. You did a great job, right? That's fantastic. And I love your shirt. Oh! Wow! Oh, put it on, cameras, go ahead, put it on. Well your son is great. And he meant that, didn't he? He really meant it. At first I said I wonder if he's being sarcastic because this ship has sailed and then I said -- it was 6:30 in the evening and I said the first thing I'm going to do is go there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: How about that? So, you know the headline that Donald Trump really helped save a thousand jobs from this manufacturing plant in Indianapolis from going to Mexico. But that was fascinating hearing from the President-elect and part of the back story as far as how all of this happened and the fact he picked up the phone himself and called the CEO of United Technologies to help make this happen.

I have my panel. David Gergen has been seated and David Gergen, let me begin with you since I haven't heard from you yet. You watched Mr. Trump, what did you make of all of that?

DAVID GERGEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: It was vintage Trump.

BALDWIN: It was, wasn't it? GERGEN: He's so much in his element. He's at the center of every

drama. Like Teddy Roosevelt was a groom at every wedding and a corpse at every funeral. Trump has that quality about him. I thought this was a victory lap he earned and so you can forgive him a lot in that. He was gracious about the leadership of the company, about the workers at the company, about this young kid who stood up and about the people of Indiana and these tax breaks and I thought he was more subdued than you normally see him but before it was over it was the Trump show and I thought it was a successful one.

It's much more symbolic. We've lost five million manufacturing jobs since the year 2,000. We're saving 1,000 jobs. It's a tiny drop in the bucket but it's a very important symbolic message to workers across the country that he'll fight for them. I am on your side that was the message he was sending today.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: As you're saying that, it was occurring that not only is it symbolic for the workers, it's a major PR move for the company.

BALDWIN: Oh, my gosh, Carrier air conditioning. How about that for advertising?

[15:35:00] BASH: Exactly, obviously for advertising but almost for -- he's almost got their backs up against the wall now. This is it. Could they send other jobs overseas? Maybe but now they're kind of put up on a pedestal. They are. They are going to do the ones that weren't -- that he couldn't save in this round but for the future deals he makes it harder for them.

GERGEN: And he's making it a matter of patriotism. He is turning into a question of are you patriotic or not? And a lot of people will object to that and economic forces are all against him in that kind of appeal but nonetheless it's an interesting attempt and I think he's helped himself with this.

BALDWIN: Gloria, I want to ask you, Dana and I were watching the President-elect thinking when was the last time we saw him off prompter for as long as we did. David said it was vintage Trump. This is why millions of Americans voted for this man. Last time we saw him with President Obama for that quick media avail after the meeting in the White House in the oval office, but we know he's going to Cincinnati to start the thank you tour. Is this the President Trump we'll be seeing?

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, it might be. This is the candidate Trump we saw before he went on prompter. We haven't seen him off prompter in months. I think in this smaller environment where what he had to say was pretty straight forward telling the story and then applauding the CEO of the company, talking about workers, talking about his wins in Indiana, talking about Mike Pence. That was straightforward for him and as David said he was quite gracious, we'll have to see tonight at a rally whether they put him back on the prompter again but this was classic -- as David was saying, just classic stream of consciousness Donald Trump that people like. I think he did lay down the law here and made it clear that he would

threaten tariffs if people -- these CEOS did not listen to him. What was interesting to me that it wasn't a politician talking to a CEO, it was a CEO talking to a CEO.

BALDWIN: Exactly.

BORGER: And he was saying I understand, you might have to move from state to state, I understand you have your problems but here's the way you're going to have to do it and I think that Trump talked about how a good CEO needs to be flexible. Good companies need to be flexible and so I thought you saw him on terra firma here because it was not so much as commander-in-chief but actually as the CEO in chief here knowing about how deal in a peer to peer conversation with the CEO United Technologies.

BALDWIN: And I do want to ask you about tonight the beginning of this thank you tour, he will be in Cincinnati but before we do, I do want to play quickly the sound, Josh Earnest, this is the White House reacting to this news there in Indianapolis.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOSH EARNEST, WHITE HOUSE SPOKESPERSON: That's obviously good news and an announcement we would welcome. I mentioned yesterday, Mr. Trump would have to make 804 more announcements just like that to equal the standard of jobs in the manufacturing sector that were created in this country under President Obama's watch.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Just wanted to include that. Ed, now to you. Which Donald Trump shows up in Cincinnati? Will it be like the rallies with thousands of people and Rolling Stones as he's walking up to that podium? What should we expect?

ED O'KEEFE, POLITICAL REPORTER, THE WASHINGTON POST: We'll see. We're expecting thousands of people. As we pointed out. This is one of the first times we've seen him back up on the bully pulpit. Or the bully pulpit-elect. And I guess it's an opportunity for him now to set a new tone if he would like to or to continue the style he employed over the course of the campaign.

There has been a lot of talk about the need for him to embrace the whole country and be a uniter not a divider. In the few public appearances he's made, certainly in the dozens if not hundreds of tweets he sent since election day he hasn't done that much and this would conceivably be an opportunity to do that. But given that this is called the thank you tour and it's going to states he won, one might surmise that won't necessarily going to happen.

So, we'll see but it's unique to see a President-elect do this. I remember that Obama talked about the desire to want to do this. George W. Bush obviously couldn't because of the recount going on but this is a unique thing to see a President-elect go out and go thank his supporters in advance and announce plans to do this as he continues -- as he begins his presidency next year.

[15:40:00] I would point out one other thing regarding the White House. I'm sure they're watching this with great interest but they'd probably like to remind everyone that the recovery act that was passed back at the beginning of the Obama presidency has in one measure or another saved millions of jobs. So, a thousand or 1100 or so is a good start but let's not forget over the course of eight years the Obama presidency has saved as well. We just didn't see the President go factory by factory to point that out.

BALDWIN: Appreciate you all so much.

Coming up next, President-elect Trump adds a Democrat to his list of first transition meetings. The first female senator ever elected in North Dakota. Hear what she's told CNN's Manu Raju about their meeting.

[15:45:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Welcome back. We just learned the President-elect will be scheduled with a Democratic senator tomorrow. Mr. Trump will be chatting with North Dakota's Heidi Heitkamp. She's up for reelection in 2018 in a red state that Trump won big this year. He will need support from Democrats like senator Heitkamp to pass his agenda. Joining me from Capitol Hill, Manu Raju, CNN's senior political reporter. You know, you talked to the senator. What's up for discussion between the those two?

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: You know, she actually does not know, Brooke. She thinks this is just a discussion that Donald Trump has asked her to participate in. Trump calling her and asking her to meet. She could be up for a position in the Trump administration, energy-related position. Maybe even interior or agriculture but we don't know until that meeting happens tomorrow. I had a chance to speak with her on Capitol Hill and she made clear she has a lot of questions just like the rest of us.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HEIDI HEITKAMP, SENATOR, NORTH DAKOTA: The President-elect called me and asked for a meeting and when the President-elect calls you agree to meet. I have no additional information other than what you have.

MANU RAJU: Are you open to working in --

HEITKAMP: I think it's important to just have the conversation. Thank you.

RAJU: Are you open to taking a position in the Trump administration?

HEITKAMP: Well, I think it's absolutely critical to have a conversation and I think it's good for my state, good for the work that I do here to understand

and share some priorities for the country and for the state of North Dakota and I look forward to that discussion.

RAJU: There's some speculation you could be ag or interior. Have you had --

HEITKAMP: I have no idea. Honestly, you know as much as I know.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Elevator door shuts.

RAJU: That usually happens up here, Brooke. This is so significant because of the balance of power here in the Senate. If she were to leave, this would open up a seat in a red state. Republicans would almost certainly pick it up. Both in a special election and in 2018 when she was up for reelection for a six-year term. That's why Democrats are nervous about this. I talked to Chuck Schumer the incoming Democratic leader. I asked if he had concerns and he said "no comment." and the incoming Democratic campaign committee chairman, Chris Van Hollen told me he had a conversation with Heitkamp this morning about this when the news broke and he said he thinks she'll do what's best for her state, Brooke.

BALDWIN: What about the Trump picks for his cabinet and all that is predicated upon the Senate confirmation process. Democrats can't stop the nomination but they can make the confirmation process quite painful. Can they not?

RAJU: Yes, they can try to score political points, but they really can't stop the nominations from being confirmed unless they get Republican support. And the reason why is that back in 2013, Senate Democrats changed the filibuster rules to push through a bunch of President Obama's nominees.

They lowered the threshold from 60 to 51 votes. And Congress will likely have 52 Republican Senate seats. So now a lot of Democrats are expressing buyer's remorse. I had a chance to ask Chuck Schumer earlier this week if he had any concerns about that move to make it easier to confirm nominees. Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: You criticized Tom Price's nomination but the fact that Democrats changed filibuster rules will make it much harder to block Donald Trump's picks. Was it a mistake?

CHUCK SCHUMER, SENATOR, NEW YORK: The bottom line is very simple. On this kind of issue, privatizing Medicare, we expect Republicans will join with us. There are a whole number of Republicans who will not be for privatizing Medicare and there ought to be bipartisan support against a secretary who will privatize Medicare and not fund planned parenthood.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: Now, I asked as a follow up, do you think it was a mistake to change the filibuster rules, and he did not say. So, Democrats realize there is little that they can do to stop Donald Trump from getting his choices for his cabinet.

BALDWIN: Manu Raju, thank you as always. We'll be right back.

[15:50:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: A week ago, it was watching the nightly news, I won't say which one because I don't want to give them credit because I don't like them much, I'll be honest.

I don't like them, not even a little bit. But they were doing a story on Carrier and I say, wow, that's something, I want to see that and they had a gentleman, worker, great guy, handsome guy, he was on and it was like he didn't even know they were leaving. He said something to the effect "no, we're not leaving because Donald Trump promised us that we're not leaving." I never thought I made that promise.

When they played that I said I did make it but I didn't mean it quite that way. So now because of him, whoever that guy was, is he in the room by any chance?

That's your son, stand up. You did a good job. You did a great job, right?

(END VIDEO CLIP).

BALDWIN: Well, I'll tell who you that guy was. He is Will Cornett, the employee that the President-elect referenced there and we just popped him in front of a camera. Will, how are you doing?

WILL CORNETT, CARRIER WORKER: I'm doing great. How are you doing?

BALDWIN: I'm doing excellent. So, did you know that Donald Trump would be referencing you as part of the reason why all of this is now happened with Carrier and these 1,000 jobs?

[15:55:00] CORNETT: No, I had no idea.

BALDWIN: I understand that was your mom in the room who I think Mr. Trump was pointing at. Do you remember the day that you were interviewed by a news network about jobs leaving your company?

CORNETT: No, I don't actually. I was at the fairground rally when he asked was any Carrier employees there. And I shouted we're right here. It was me and Derrick Cheney. And he asked me, you know, how do you feel about them leaving and all that and I was pretty upset about it. And told them how I felt. And he pretty much promised me that they were not going to leave.

BALDWIN: According to the President-elect, he heard some guy, you, on the news saying, well, Donald Trump promised these jobs would be saved. So, you believed Mr. Trump when he made his promise?

CORNETT: Yes. Yes, I believed him 100 percent. That that's why I voted for him. And this was, you know, a promise that he was going to make to us and I believed in it.

BALDWIN: You haven't had a minute with the President-elect, I'm assuming today, right? But if you were to --

CORNETT: No.

BALDWIN: What would you say to him?

CORNETT: I would just say thank you for keeping your promise and that, you know, I believe in you and today you're my hero. And thank you very much.

BALDWIN: And for the rest of America who is wondering if this bar is already set and he saved jobs at this company, how the heck can he manage as a President to pick up the phone and save other jobs at other company, what would you tell them?

CORNETT: I'd tell them not to doubt the Donald, you know. He did it once, he can probably do it again.

BALDWIN: And he did call you handsome as well. Just in case you missed it. He said gentleman, handsome guy. So, there you go, the compliment from the President-elect. Will Cornett, congratulations. Hopefully this means you can stay there in Indianapolis with your family. I appreciate your time.

CORNETT: Thank you very much.

BALDWIN: How about that, from the man himself. I'm Brooke Baldwin. Thank you so much for being with me. We'll send things to Washington, D.C.