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Jobless Rate Hits Lowest Level Since 2007; Trump Taps Mattis for Defense Secretary; Michigan Attorney General Sues to Block Recount; Trump Tapping Top CEOs for Advisory Group. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired December 02, 2016 - 10:00   ET

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

[10:00:16]

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: -- I would have dreams to be able to report this kind of number. Honestly, rewind the tape. It has been a long time coming, but 4.6 percent unemployment, got to go back to 2007. Look at that. To see that kind of number, fall 2007, -- the next lowest is 4.4 percent in the spring of 2007. Here are where the job gains are, Carol, business and information services.

These are technology jobs. These are computer systems designers. These are engineers. Tend to be higher paid jobs, business information systems. Health care, lots of variety in these jobs. And we have seen consistent growth in the American health care system. Manufacturing, though, lost 4,000 jobs here and that's been a trend. We are down I think 54,000 manufacturing jobs over the past year. And in fact, the Republican National Committee issuing a statement, saying that this numbers, this 4,000 manufacturing job highlighting that and saying we have lost 300,000 manufacturing jobs under President Barack Obama.

Let me show you some other strong information we have had this week on the economy because it's not just this jobless number in a vacuum. The jobless rate 4.6 percent, we saw auto sales very strong, GM sales very strong. You know, to buy a car you have to have a lot of confidence in the economy and your job. Auto sales strong, home prices back above the 2006 peak.

That is again, rewind the tape, erasing the entire crisis and you saw GDP this week. You and I reported that right here, 3.2 percent for the third quarter. So, strong economic signs this week, in fact, it is a tailwind. An economy by most accounts, it is humming here, that is as this president leaves and a new president is coming in. The manufacturing jobs though, is what you will hear, I think, this incoming president talk about, what you will hear Republicans talk about, how to fix the manufacturing weakness. That's what you're going to hear from the Republicans. --

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Read those two news releases that we have - because they're very interesting. --

ROMANS: The Republican National Committee says the 4,000 manufacturing jobs that disappeared last month come on top of over 300,000 that have been lost under President Barack Obama. And that Donald Trump will stand up for the American worker. What the White House says, the White House points to a solid 178,000 new jobs in November and the longest streak of total job growth on record. So those are the two ways -- that they are playing this right now.

COSTELLO: And both are true.

ROMANS: Both are true. But when you look at the overall picture this week, no question the economy is providing tail winds for Donald Trump as he heads into office.

COSTELLO: All right. Christine Romans, many thanks.

ROMANS: You're welcome.

COSTELLO: So, the Trump transition team is back at it today, a live look at the gold elevators inside Trump Tower, where a slew of advisers and potential candidates for his administration will be parading through all day long. These meetings coming the day after both Pence and Trump do a victory lap in the vice president-elect's home state of Indiana, and then Ohio. In Cincinnati, the president- elect bringing back that fiery campaign style rhetoric, including one unscripted bombshell.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL-ELECT: We are going to appoint "Mad Dog" Mattis as our Secretary of Defense. But we're not announcing it until Monday, so don't tell anybody, "Mad Dog."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: And the crowd loved it. The formal announcement of the retired Marine General James Mattis, still days away but already a potential obstacle looms. Phil Mattingly is live in Cincinnati with more, good morning.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Always appreciate when the president-elect breaks some news on his own in public. That was nice. No, look, you talk about James Mattis, and I think it's important to note as the Trump transition operation really kicks back into high gear after a 24-hour respite, why this is an important pick. And that's because he's extremely well thought of on Capitol Hill. Why does that matter? Well, you mentioned, he actually has a hurdle to his nomination. As somebody who retired in 2013, he's actually not eligible to be Secretary of Defense. You need to be removed from service for at least seven years. Now, that's because of kind of the bedrock principle of civilians run the military both in the president and in the Secretary of Defense.

Now, Carol, having spoken to a number of Trump transition officials and people on Capitol Hill, there's not a lot of concern that he won't be able to get the necessary waiver to get past that but just something to keep an eye on and you want to keep an eye on the transition in total. As you noted, a number of different meetings today, but one in particular you should keep a very close eye on. North Dakota Senator Heidi Heitkamp, a Democrat. A Democrat who is up for potential jobs in the Trump administration and a Democrat who is up for re-election in a very red state in 2018, Senate Democrats wary of their position in the Senate already, very wary of the possibility of Senator Heitkamp going into the administration. Our Manu Raju, our stellar hill reporter, caught up to her. Take a listen to the exchange.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. HEIDI HEITKAMP, (D) NORTH DAKOTA: 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, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: Are you open to working -

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

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: The always important non-answer there, if you will, Carol. But I do think it's important, you look at the political ramifications of it in 2018, if Senator Heitkamp is not running in the state of North Dakota it will be very hard pressed for Democrats

[10:05:16] to hold on to that seat so there's the political and policy implications.

Also want to talk about what happened here, last night. As you noted, a raucous rally, a return, if you will, to the campaign Donald Trump, not just the President-elect Donald Trump. And when you watched what happened last night, you watched some of the messages, you watched some of the airing of grievances, you kind of recognize the reality that President-elect Donald Trump not necessarily all that different from candidate Donald Trump. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Although we did have a lot of fun fighting Hillary, didn't we? Right?

We won in a landslide. That was a landslide. And we didn't have the press. The press was brutal.

And that person is doing the map and that person was saying for months that there's no way that Donald Trump can break the blue wall, right? We didn't break it. We shattered that sucker. We shattered it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: Carol this was billed as a "Thank You" tour, the first event -- of the "Thank You" tour. It was a little more of a victory tour and "I told you so" tour and "I'm going about to rub this in your face" tour, if you will. But I think it's important to note, the president-elect had no shortage of doubters, no shortage of nay- sayers. And it wasn't just in the media or amongst Democrats or amongst Clinton campaign officials. It was Republicans as well. And when he was talking -- to the various supporters that sent him to a stunning eight point victory in this state, he wanted to recognize what they had accomplished but also call on them. It will be very necessary for him to keep that coalition, a very kind of non- ideological in a traditional Republican sense coalition, if he wants to secure any victories going forward. So keep an eye on that but also keep an eye on this "Thank You" tour. It will probably happen quite a few more times before Inauguration Day, lot of energy in the room last night. Carol?

COSTELLO: We will keep both eyes open. Phil Mattingly, reporting live from Cincinnati. OK. Speaking of that blue wall, we have a little bit of news just in to CNN. As you well know, Jill Stein's Green Party has collected millions of dollars in donations to force a recount in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. The recount under way in Wisconsin but it may not get under way any time soon in the state of Michigan because of this.

The Michigan attorney general, he says he's suing to block the Michigan election recount. He tweeted, "Today I'm filing suit to stop Dr. Jill Stein's frivolous, expensive recount request." In fact, election officials in the state of Michigan said it would cost the taxpayers there more than $1 million if that recount is forced and it may not go on. We will keep you posted.

OK. So, let's talk about that and more and also about the great economic numbers that Christine Romans told us about this morning. Alex Burns is here, he's a CNN political analyst and national political reporter for "The New York Times," Scott Detrow is political reporter for "NPR". Thanks to both of you for being with me this morning. Let's start with what's happening in Michigan, shall we, Alex? A surprise?

ALEX BURNS, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST AND NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER "THE NEW YORK TIMES": Carol, you know, I think for a lot of folks on really both sides of this recount debate it all feels a little bit frivolous at this point. That there's not a lot of optimism among national Democrats that even an intensive recount and audit would shift the result of the election. For Republicans, I think the intervention here is mostly just a matter of impatience and patience with Jill Stein and sort of wanting to put an end to the whole process.

COSTELLO: OK. So Scott, let's move on to the -- because you know, he may or may not stop at the recounts going on, nobody really thinks it's going to change anything, right, but we keep talking about it so we will just leave it at that. I do want to move on to the economic numbers because they were stellar. --

SCOTT DETROW, POLITICAL REPORTER "NPR": Right.

COSTELLO: And you know, it brings up two things in my mind at least, that it's amazing that the Democrats could not be successful with economic numbers like that. It's just insane, isn't it?

DETROW: Well, I think the Democrats were really running an uphill fight in the fact that it's really hard to win a third term in a row. I mean, that's why it doesn't happen that often. George H.W. Bush was the big exception in the last, you know, century or so. I mean, certainly the numbers look good but they looked good for the last few months. These are pretty similar to the numbers we saw in September and October and Hillary Clinton made the case the economy had been slowly getting better. The Obama administration has talked for years about the fact that they inherited a terrible mess and they mostly turned it around, but you know, we in the media are doing so much hand wringing over the relative nature of facts in this election.

And Donald Trump and Republicans hammered on the economy, they said the growth wasn't even. And they said that big parts of the middle chunk of the country, manufacturing jobs had been eroding despite those numbers. Clearly that was a successful message but now it's going to be Donald Trump's economy and the Republicans' economy. And when they control the House, the Senate and the White House, if things keep going well, they will take the

[10:10:16] credit but if things start to turn, you know, that's all on them.

COSTELLO: Yes but Donald Trump is still talking about these huge tax cuts, right, for middle class Americans and also for the wealthy. He's talking about getting rid of lots of regulations for corporations. But the economy is roaring. So what - I mean you have to wonder what that might do to the economy, Alex.

BURNS: You do. And Carol, part of the real challenge for Trump and probably the toughest challenge for Trump and frankly any president is that a lot of the places where his message resonated most powerfully are places that, you know, they suffered in the recession but have been suffering for 30 or 40 or 50 years because of large scale changes in the American economy, the international economy, the basic nature of work.

And so, when you see these deals, like the Carrier deal, that Trump announced this week, these are sort of symbolic Band-Aids that are very politically useful for Trump but they don't necessarily provide a sort of large scale solution to the areas that elected him to fix their problems.

COSTELLO: Interesting. You know the other thing, like if Mr. Trump really does institute these huge tax cuts, right, it will grow the deficit and that will also have consequences for the economy, right, Scott?

DETROW: I mean, yes. This is a pretty consistent trend that you see in both parties as well. When your party is in power, deficits are kind of relative. They are not the big focus. But when you are in the opposition, deficits are a critical, critical problem. I mean, I think they certainly are a long term economic issue no matter who is in charge. But I think you might hear a lot of Democrats who have been very loudly worrying about the growth of the deficit or just the large number of the deficit over the last few years, have other concerns maybe if Donald Trump does go forward with those huge tax cuts that he's talking about. COSTELLO: OK. Let's talk about unity for just a second, Alex. Because if the economy continues to boom, maybe Donald Trump doesn't have to offer an olive branch to anyone because people will naturally gravitate toward him because he is going to get the credit for a good economy.

BURNS: Well, this is generally what we find with incumbent presidents, when the economy is doing well or at least well enough, -- the credit does or down to their benefit. I do think, you know, we would all sort of be well advised after that election to take with a grain of salt the sense that the performance of the economy predicts results at the ballot box. Because certainly, as you mentioned before, Carol, based on the charts showing joblessness over the last eight years, you would have anticipated a fairly comfortable Democratic victory not just in the presidential race but a number of those swing state Senate races and that just didn't pan out.

COSTELLO: So Scott, I will just ask you the same question. If the economy continues to boom, will the country just naturally unify? Does Donald Trump really need to do anything?

DETROW: Well, people are always pretty happy when they have a well- paying job, right? I mean, Donald Trump is taking a victory lap for this Carrier announcement but I think this is something that clearly is very powerful political win in a one-off situation but would be hard to replicate over and over and over again. You know, he said yesterday that there will be consequences for companies that want to ship their jobs overseas. The consequences for Carrier, we need to point out, Carrier is still moving about 1,000 jobs to Mexico. And Carrier is getting about $7 million according to most reports in tax breaks from Indiana.

So, for them, the consequences were positive. But still, you know, we heard especially from the supporters who went to Cincinnati last night for this Trump rally. They are thrilled that Donald Trump stepped in, that he got on the phone, that even symbolically he said I, as the incoming president, care about this one company and am going to do what I can to get them to stay. But, I mean, will Donald Trump spend four years phoning every single company that threatens to move its business to Mexico? That's pretty hard to do on a large scale.

COSTELLO: He says he has people that will do that. That's what he said at his rally last night. But we'll see. Alex Burns, Scott Detrow, thanks for being with me this morning.

Still to come in the "Newsroom," they call him "Mad Dog" and "Warrior Monk". Up next, we'll talk to someone who served side by side with Trump's pick for Secretary of Defense, General James Mattis.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:18:05] COSTELLO: Donald Trump likes to talk tough. So it's no surprise he tap to tough-talking general for Secretary of Defense. Meet retired Marine Corps General James Mattis, his nickname "Mad Dog," a name that stuck after the battle of Fallujah, his military call sign, "Chaos." Here's General Mattis in his own words. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEN. JAMES MATTIS, RETIRED U.S. MARINE CORPS: You have to earn that respect. You have to earn that every day because when it's all over and done with, you're not going to win any fights as a leader. Your troops are going to win those fights, trying to be a popular person as a leader, that's a road to failure. But affection that you create in a unit, an affection so strong that the troops will stick by one another, they will carry out the mission even in peril, the more you can build that kind of affection in a unit, when the going gets tough, when people are getting shot down around you, it will pull together, it will pull through.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: One of my next guests describes Mattis as a cool, calm and deliberate leader. An example, in 2003, the day before the invasion of Iraq, Mattis wrote a letter to his Marines. Here's part of it. "You are part of the world's most feared and trusted force. Engage your brain before you engage your weapon." It went on to say, "Fight with a happy heart and a strong spirit."

With me now, CNN military analyst and retired General Mark Hertling, he led soldiers in Baghdad in 2003 when Mattis led Marines in Anbar Province. I'm also joined by retired Lieutenant Colonel Joe Plenzler, he's a 20-year combat veteran of the Marine Corps, he served with Mattis and was the General's Public Affairs Officer for the invasion of Iraq. Welcome to both of you.

JOE KLINGLER, RETIRED LIEUTENANT COLONEL: Thanks.

LT. GEN. MARK HERTLING, CNN MILITARY ANALYST AND RETIRED U.S. ARMY: Thank you, Carol.

COSTELLO: Thank you for being here. So General Hertling, Donald Trump likened Mattis to General George Patton who led troops during World War II. To get a sense of who Patton was, here's actor George C. Scott in the movie "Patton."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE C. SCOTT, ACTOR "PATTON": All real Americans love the sting of battle. Americans love a winner. And will not tolerate a loser. Americans play to win all the time.

[10:20:16] I wouldn't give hoot in hell or a man who lost. We're not just going to shoot the bastards. We're going to cut out their living guts and use them to grease the treads of our tanks.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: OK. So, General Patton earned the nickname "Old Blood and Guts." So is General Mattis like Patton?

HERLING: I don't believe he is, Carol. General Mattis is a much more reflective and personal guy. But truthfully, all general officers are all good leaders, sometimes have to go into a little bit of theatrics and that clip from the movie "Patton" which I think Mr. Trump likes quite a bit, is a compilation of a lot of George Patton's speeches to his soldiers during World War II. So -- but it is also Hollywood.

There's a certain requirement for commanders on the battlefield to have that kind of approach to get their soldiers or their Marines fired up. And General Mattis has been known to do that. But he's also very much of an intelligence soldier/scholar, a reflectionary. He carries around a copy of Marcus Aurelius' meditations with him. So, he is much more of a leader than General Patton was, truthfully.

COSTELLO: Lieutenant Colonel, you say, there is the tough-talking idea of "Mad Dog" Mattis and you know, generally - by those you know, they say he's tough-talking and then there's the General Mattis that you know and love. So, explain the difference for us.

LT. COL. JOE PLENZLER (RETIRED), SERVED WITH GEN. MATTIS FROM 2000- 2001 & 2002-2003: Yes. I think the dichotomy is a mile wide. I mean, you know, we all knew him by his call sign, "Chaos." And I know General Mattis will be a very deliberate, very thoughtful, very caring leader for those he led. I mean, -- the reason the Marines loved him is first and foremost, he's a person of character. Second, he's a savant at the art of war. And third, he took care of the Marines and soldiers and sailors and airmen that he led at all stages of his career. So, you know, the moniker "Mad Dog," just doesn't fit with the General Mattis that I know. And the ones that - the people I know that -- know and has served with him always knew him by "Chaos."

COSTELLO: So, General, you know Michael Flynn is Trump's NSA adviser. So, how are they two very different -- sort of men and different sort of leaders?

HERTLING: Well, they are certainly both patriots. They have a different view of the world. I would suggest that General Mattis is going to have a much more mature and informed view of strategy than General Flynn. He has an understanding of force and the threats that -- we face around the world, not just ISIS but others like the Russians and Chinese and Iran. He understands NATO much better than General Flynn does. So I think General Mattis, -- if he is formally chosen as the pick for Secretary of Defense, will give a much more mature and informed view as the Secretary of Defense. But he also has to run a very large business called the Department of Defense. And there's a lot more in that, beyond just the soldier and the tactics and the strategy piece of all this.

COSTELLO: Colonel Plenzler, there are plenty of Americans out there who are afraid that Donald Trump might take us to war. Do you worry about that?

PLENZLER: I think all of us that have served and fought in combat, you know, are concerned about that, absolutely.

COSTELLO: Well, I just want to get more into that, because you know, Donald Trump says he likes tough-talking Generals. He wants to talk tough to our enemies and sometimes tough-talk isn't the way. So, should we worry, Colonel? PLENZLER: Well, I would say that the reaction from -- I'm hearing from a lot of my friends who served with General Mattis and have known him is that, you know, we're -- it's a complicated reaction because we're - you know, first and foremost we think that maybe this is the first cabinet pick that Mr. Trump has gotten right. And second, you know, while we share trepidations about Mr. Trump's ability to lead, we also share an admiration and respect for General Mattis. So we just hope that he's listened to. -

COSTELLO: And General Hertling -

HERTLING: Carol --

COSTELLO: Go ahead.

HERTLING: Carol, if I could add something to that, too. I think the Colonel Plenzler would agree with me, that the people who hate war the most are those who have suffered through it. When you have combat experience, you know that the costs are great and General Mattis certainly knows that. He's buried a lot of his Marines. He's also - he's seen some of the -- unbelievably horrible things that can happen in combat. So people who have experienced combat are the ones who are the most likely to push back when those who haven't try and get you involved in combat. So I think that mature approach is going to be welcomed in the Trump administration.

PLENZLER: And we can fill Chicago's soldier field with the dead and wounded from the last 15 years of war.

COSTELLO: Sadly, that's true. Thank you both for your insight, General Mark Hertling and Lieutenant Colonel Joe Plenzler, thanks to both of you for your service as well.

PLENZLER: Thank you.

COSTELLO: Welcome. Still to come in the "Newsroom," election might be over but a tensed battle between top aides from both campaigns last night and I mean tensed. We will show it to you next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:29:32] COSTELLO: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me. We have a bit of news just in to CNN. And here it is. Donald Trump is tapping CEOs from some of the nation's top companies. He's looking to build an advisory group dedicated to helping Mr. Trump on the economy. CNN's Cristina Alesci broke this story. She has more details for us. Good morning.

CRISTINA ALESCI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. That's right. This is really remarkable. It's a cross-section of industries and its leaders who are really bipartisan and what happened here is the president-elect called the president of - the CEO and chairman of Blackstone Group, which an - investment firm and said