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Donald Trump's Conversation with Taiwan's President Draws Criticism from China; Jury Deadlocked in Trail of Police Officer who Shot Black Man; Trump and Clinton Campaign Managers Debate at Forum; Possible Trump Administration Policy on Marijuana Examined; Fire Kills Nine in Oakland, California. Aired 10-11a ET

Aired December 03, 2016 - 10:00   ET

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

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[10:00:35] CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: Well, good morning. We are so grateful for your company as always. I'm Christi Paul, and look who's here.

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Martin Savidge in for Victor Blackwell. It's great to be with you this morning. China is calling foul after Taiwan came calling for Donald Trump.

PAUL: The phone call between the leader of Taiwan and the president- elect broke with nearly 40 years of diplomatic protocol. And now China is sending a warning of sorts to Washington. Yesterday Donald Trump says President Tsai of Taiwan called to offer her congratulations to him. The two also talked about political and economic ties between the two nations.

SAVIDGE: No president or president-elect, for that matter, has spoken directly with the leader of Taiwan since 1979. That's when America began adhering to the one China policy, meaning they backed Beijing's claim that Taiwan is part of China. But now this call threatens to throw U.S.-China relations into a tailspin even before Trump takes the oath of office.

PAUL: We want to go to CNN's Jessica Schneider. She's live at Trump Tower in New York. Jessica, I know you've looked into this. Talk to us about how China is reacting.

JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, Christi, Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi is calling this a play by Taiwan, saying it's a shenanigan. Also Chinese state run television is saying that this represents an unprecedented break from the one China policy. In fact, as soon as it happened China reached out to the White House just as Donald Trump was tweeting that it was he who received the phone call from Taiwan's president, saying it was a 10-minute phone call.

But the spokesman from the foreign ministry of China is not mincing any words. I'll read you part of his statement. He said "I must point out that there is one China in the world, and Taiwan is an inseparable part of the Chinese territory. The People's Republic of China is the sole legal government that represents China and that is an internationally recognized fact. The one China principle is the political foundation of China-U.S. relations. We urge the relevant side in the U.S. to adhere to the one China policy."

But Donald Trump almost immediately on the defensive, again taking to Twitter, tweeting this, saying "Interesting how the U.S. sells Taiwan billions of dollars of military equipment but I should not accept a congratulatory call." So Donald Trump on the defensive. Also one of his top advisers Kellyanne Conway also defending that phone call. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KELLYANNE CONWAY, TRUMP CAMPAIGN MANAGER: Again, I can't discuss anything beyond what's been publicly said, and I won't do that. This is the president-elect. This will be his administration. He'll be commander in chief and he'll be president of the United States imminently now. And he either will disclose or not disclose the full contents of that conversation. But he's well aware of what U.S. policy has been.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHNEIDER: So the Trump team continually backing this call. In fact we've learned that it was Stephen Yates, a Heritage fellow, also an advisor to the Trump transition who facilitated the call. Stephen Yates was formerly an Asia advisor also to Dick Cheney. But many lawmakers and diplomats as well as former ambassadors are speaking out against this call, saying that this could upend U.S. Chinese relations and also saying that this could pose a dangerous threat to the United States itself. Back to you guys.

PAUL: Jessica Schneider, appreciate it so much, thank you.

SAVIDGE: Let's bring in Stephen Collinson, CNN Politics senior reporter, and Gordon Chang, "Daily Beast" columnist and the author of "Nuclear Showdown, North Korea Takes on the World." Gordon, let me start with you. You wrote online that Trump's call with Taiwan, quote, "changes everything." And I want to read a section. You say, "What Trump has done is not reset Washington's relations with China but put them on an entirely new footing. Up to now Beijing has kept the initiative and American presidents, especially George W. Bush and Obama, they have merely reacted, trying to build friendly reaction reactions in spite of an increasingly bold Chinese moves and essentially there in the South China Sea." So you seem to like this, Gordon.

GORDON CHANG, COLUMNIST "THE DAILY BEAST": I think it's important BECAUSE American policy on Taiwan has been unsustainable. We have been undermining a free society, helping an authoritarian state that attacks our values. At the same time we're working against our geo political interest to maintain peace and stability in the east Asia region. China has been trying to dismember its neighbors and in recent years proliferating nuclear technology to the North Koreans. So clearly something has got to change.

Taiwan is an important ally and we've got to recognize that. And I'm not saying that Trump's policy is going to work, but I'm saying our current approach is certainly guaranteed to fail. It's produced some pretty unwelcome outcomes in the last four or five years.

SAVIDGE: This is the true definition of whether or not you're politically correct. Stephen, let me bring you in here. Democratic Congressman Chris Murphy who sits on the Senate foreign relations committee tweeted this, "Foreign policy consistency is a means, not an end. It's not sacred. Thus, it's Trump's right to shift policy allegiances, strategy. And what has happened in the last 48 hours is not a shift. These are major pivots in foreign policy without any plan. That's how wars start." Stephen, do you think it really is that series, that's how wars start? I mean, it is, after all, just a phone call.

STEPHEN COLLINSON, CNN POLITICS SENIOR REPORTER: That's true. But I think what this does, Martin, is increase pressure on Donald Trump to get through that process of naming a secretary of state and senior foreign policy advisors around him pretty quickly.

It's true that elections have consequences, and the president- elect, soon to be the president, will have very wide latitude of deciding what U.S. foreign policy towards Asia and everywhere else will be. The problem is it's not clear right now whether these changes that appear to be taking place in American foreign policy are part of some strategic grand design that's been fully thought out or whether they're just ad hoc changes taking place on a telephone call with the president-elect.

I think when president-elect Trump foreign policy team around him, and we know he's narrowing in the choice of secretary of state, he will at least be in a position of -- to have the foresight of information at his fingertips and go through the possible consequences of what appear to be potentially very big shifts in U.S. foreign policy. Are we going to move from a situation where America is trying to manage China's rise to a more confrontational policy, as Gordon was saying? I think that needs to something that's discussed through much more a wider prism of foreign policy thought than just a conversation with a president-elect on the telephone.

SAVIDGE: Gordon, a lot of these, you know, leaders of nations are trying to figure out where Trump stands on a lot of things here. And it's still very cloudy. But is there a problem with a little bit of uncertainty?

CHANG: Well, you know, of course there can be. The United States maintains the international system. People look to us for consistency, and that's important.

But, you know, with regard to the Chinese, you know, they have challenged the two previous presidents in the first months in office, April, 2001, for George W. Bush and March and May, 2009 for President Obama. And what Trump has done essentially is saying I'm not letting them challenge me. I'm going to take the initiative.

So this is important. I think the Chinese understand the significance of what's going on. This clearly was an arranged call. I think it was part of a policy that was thought out before because Stephen Yates is analytical, thoughtful, and he has clear ideas, though not everyone may agree with him. Therefore I think this is a change in the way the U.S. approaches the world.

SAVIDGE: Stephen, let me ask you this. If you're China, do you believe that this was just a haphazard thing?

COLLINSON: Difficult to say. I mean, we talk about China as if it's some monolithic entity, but there are clearly different power centers in China as well. And that's one of the sort of effects of this call, how it affect internal Chinese politics. Does this raise pressure on the leadership to respond and become more aggressive towards the United States? I think you saw the reactions from the Chinese foreign ministry which were fairly measured. They suggested that this was a ruse by Taiwan to get the U.S. president in trouble.

I think that's a sign right now they're not committed to a course of action that would be aggressively responding to this call with the president-elect and the president of Taiwan. They're just waiting to see how it actually sort of plays out once President Trump, once his whole government is in shape. So I think the signs are that China is waiting to see a little bit. But clearly, as Gordon, said they're going to be interrupting these signals.

SAVIDGE: Yes, but almost, by the way that the Chinese responded blaming Taiwan, they were trying to give Trump a way out, which he didn't accept. He just went on and said why can't I receive a phone call? Anyway, Gordon Chang, Stephen Collinson, thank you both for joining us.

CHANG: Thank you.

PAUL: Well, it was a near mistrial and a controversial murder trial and could still be a mistrial as we head into the week. A jury deadlocked this morning in the case of a former South Carolina police officer accused of gunning down a black man. Why at least one juror is refusing a conviction.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's not over. We kept hearing it's over. It's over. It's not over.

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[10:13:06] PAUL: Deliberations in the murder trial of a black man shot and killed by a former Charleston, South Carolina, police officer will continue but not until Monday. That's after the jury just could not come to a unanimous decision.

SAVIDGE: One juror is refusing to vote in favor of a conviction, telling the judge in a note, "I will not change my mind." Our Boris Sanchez has been following the trial. He's live in Charleston, South Carolina. Boris, where are things right now with the jury's deliberations?

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Christi and Martin. Yes, right now we're basically waiting until 9:00 a.m. Monday morning when the jury will reconvene to see if they could potentially come to a unanimous verdict.

Yesterday was a rollercoaster back and forth between the jury and judge. It started around 1:00 p.m. when the jury asked for testimony from a specific witness. And then minutes later they told a judge it was clear they could not come to a consensus. The judge issued an Allen Charge, sending them back in, telling them it was their duty to come up with a verdict. They came back out, and that's where we got three separate notes from the jury, one from a specific juror telling the judge they could not in clear conscious convict Michael Slager, while on the same note saying they could not look in the eyes of the family of Walter Scott and tell them that Michael Slager was innocent. So some very deep division even within that juror.

The next two notes, one for the foreman saying that it's just that one juror. The 11 others are already decided. And then the third note again from the foreman saying that that juror was having issues and perhaps they needed to be removed. Very, very dramatic day in court. Ultimately, the jury telling the judge that if perhaps they had clarification on some laws, they might be able to come to a decision. We don't know what clarification they might need because they eventually asked the judge to postpone the trial through the weekend. The judge conceded. After that, we heard from the family and the attorneys of Walter Scott. They had a very emotional message saying that this case goes far beyond their own family. Listen.

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[10:15:06] L. CHRIS STEWART, SCOTT FAMILY ATTORNEY: This is not a black family versus Michael Slager. This is the world versus Michael Slager no matter what color you are. You know what justice looks like. And the one juror that's holding out will reflect, pray, look at the facts, look at all the evidence that we heard that was overwhelming. We believe that he'll see the light. We believe that justice will be on Monday.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: So a jury has four options on Monday, one to convict him of murder, which carries a sentence of 30 years to life. The second option, volunteer manslaughter, two to 30 years. The third option, not guilty. And of course the fourth option, which we almost saw yesterday, a deadlock. Essentially they could not come to a unanimous verdict and then we get a mistrial. And we will likely see if that is the case this will be retried again in just a few weeks. Martin and Christi?

SAVIDGE: All right, all eyes will be on that courtroom come Monday. Boris Sanchez, thank you very much.

PAUL: Think about it, they're talking about murder versus manslaughter. Fear versus passion was one of the arguments. All of this playing into these deliberations. We're going to talk to criminal defense attorney and CNN legal analyst Mark O'Mara about how all of this the outcome here. Stay close. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:20:00] PAUL: Well, a near deadlocked jury could lead to a mistrial in the case of former Charleston South Carolina cop on the hook for murdering a black man. Michael Slager is on trial for killing Walter Scott. One juror is refusing to vote in favor of a conviction. Mark O'Mara, CNN legal analyst and criminal defense attorney is with us now.

So Mark, I want to ask you historically when you have a situation like this and you send the jury home for 48 hours, now this lone juror has 48 hours to contemplate, does that amount of time when they go back into the deliberation room on Monday often change anything?

MARK O'MARA, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, I think it could be very problematic. There's a reason why particularly in cases like this high profile cases we sequest the jurors and make them go through whatever they need to go through in one uninterrupted context.

The problem I have is any of the jurors go home for 48 hours, and, one, they could be influenced by other sources, family, media, radio on the drive home. So I'm very worried that there's that potential. I know they're supposed to keep away from everything, and maybe they will. Potentially that jury could go home, get a fresh breath of air, and rethink.

If was the judge, I probably would have told them to stay deliberating on Saturday and work their way through it. You know, it's interesting to me, because we want to bind that juror. And it seems that with 11 in favor of conviction it's that juror's, quote, "fault or problem." We also have to look to the fact that that juror was picked. I'm wondering whether or not they were properly vetted through the jury selection process because, obviously, there was a real concern with this juror probably unrelated to the facts of the case that wasn't properly vetted out in jury selection.

PAUL: That was the other thing I was wondering about. If you see the potential here for this to possibly be a rogue a juror, or a juror that came in with, you know, the idea that I know what I'm going to do but I'm going to act like I'm not going to do it to get on the jury.

O'MARA: We call those "stealth jurors."

PAUL: Stealth jurors, thank you.

O'MARA: I had a high profile case a couple years ago where we caught three very potential stealth jurors. We only caught them through a lot of work and a lot of social media investigations. And yes, there are definitely jurors, particularly in high profile cases, who want to get on the panel for reasons having nothing to do with community service or civic service, because they have an unspoken agenda that they want to infect the jury and the trial with. And it sounds like that may be happening here today. And if that's true, we're done. It's going to be a mistrial and we're going to have to try the case again. PAUL: So I just want to reiterate here. This is a jury of 11 white

jurors, one African-American. There were 55 witness who testified over a five-week period. Slager himself took the stand and argued self-defense, which, Mark, I know is unusual. The defendant doesn't usually get on the stand.

But the cell phone video has been the most compelling. Many people have looked at that video and said they thought that this case was a done deal just based on that video. Is this, though, if this is not a stealth juror, is this an indication of how you can watch the same video but have such different ideas about it?

O'MARA: Yes, we have to start with this premise. It's very difficult to convict a police officer of anything when he or she does something in the line of duty. We still as jurors and as people, we give them great deference. Quite honestly, I think that's appropriate.

But in a circumstance like this, which is the bell weather case why all cops should have body cameras and because we need this type of video evidence. We know without that video evidence the story by Slager, who is certainly seems to be willing to make up stories, like dropping that piece of evidence near Walter Scott, without a video, this would have been a completely different story. Even with a video, juries are reluctant to hold police officers responsible.

And this, I think, is the case that really shows that, because, look, I do criminal defense for a living, but I looked at that video and said there is no justification for a trained law enforcement officer to have discharged his weapon the first time, never mind the other seven times. And yet we have at least one juror who doesn't think so. And again, I believe it is not a misunderstanding of the evidence. I think that juror came in with a preconceived notion that he, if it's a he, is not going to convict this officer no matter what the evidence.

[10:25:00] And that, that bastardizes the criminal justice system we have all lived by if a juror came in with that type of predisposition. And That's why I almost want to blame the prosecution or the lawyers for not vetting that out properly in jury selection.

PAUL: Well, hopefully on Monday they'll come back, we'll find out what happens. If it does end in a mistrial on Monday, I think a lot of the things that you just brought up there are probably going to be looked at very, very closely. Mark O'Mara, thank you so much.

O'MARA: Thank you very much, enjoy.

PAUL: Thank you. Just again to reiterate, those are his thoughts. We do not know any of that to be true, but that is what he believes based on what we've seen thus far.

SAVIDGE: Still to come, a meeting of Trump and Clinton aides at a Harvard forum. But you won't believe how it turned into a very bitter faceoff. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [10:33:53] SAVIDGE: Breaking news now from California. Officials have confirmed that a fire in Oakland has killed nine people. And there are reports of people missing. Firefighters responded to this scene just before midnight last night. It broke out of a building that houses living and working spaces. Oakland fire officials say there was party going at the time of the fire. Structural damage seems to be hindering search efforts inside of the building. CNN has a crew on the way to this breaking news story and we will have more information of course as it becomes available.

PAUL: Donald Trump is scheduled to apparently have a quiet weekend at Trump Tower. There are no meetings or events on the calendar. This is a day, though, after he sent off some alarm bells in Washington because he took a call from Taiwan's president. That is the first known contact between a U.S. president or president-elect and a Taiwanese leader since the U.S. and China established diplomatic relations after 1979.

SAVIDGE: That one move could undo four decades of U.S. protocol in Taiwan and it risks infuriating China over its one China policy which claims that Taiwan is part of China.

[10:30:03] PAUL: So we'll continue to watch that. But yes, the election is over. The bitterness, the anger, the acrimony, not so much.

SAVIDGE: No, no, no. That was very much evidence when you saw what happened at a Harvard meeting of campaign managers from the Trump and Clinton teams when the usually polite discussion turned into something not so.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KELLYANNE CONWAY, TRUMP CAMPAIGN MANAGER: Do you think I ran a campaign where white supremacist had a platform. Are you going to look me in the face and tell me that?

JENNIFER PALMIERI, CLINTON CAMPAIGN MANAGER: It did. Kellyanne, it did.

CONWAY: Do you think you could have just had a decent a message for the white working class voters? Do you think this woman who has nothing in common.

PALMIERI: I'm not saying that's why she won.

CONWAY: He flipped over 200 counties that President Obama won and Donald Trump just won. You think that's because of what you just said or because people aren't ready for a woman president, really?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAVIDGE: There was just one thing that both sides agreed on, and that was to blame the media. So let's bring in Symone Sanders, CNN political commentator and Hillary Clinton supporter and Betsy McCaughey, a former lieutenant governor of New York and a Donald Trump supporter. Good morning.

SYMONE SANDERS, FORMER NATIONAL PRESS SECRETARY, BERNIE 2016: Good morning.

PAUL: Good morning.

SAVIDGE: Symone, let me start with you. How does a discussion in a place like Harvard of all places get down to this level?

SANDERS: Well, you know what, when tensions are high and emotions are still high. I think on both sides it was a really nasty general election campaign. We have to -- from all sides, we were having conversations and still are about white supremacy and racism. We didn't get to have any real policy conversations. Donald Trump trotted out the women who had accused former president Clinton --

SAVIDGE: I don't want to rehash all of the issues. How did this setting devolve into what was a verbal fist fight?

SANDERS: For all the reasons I just listed. The tensions were so high --

SAVIDGE: Emotions are still there.

SANDERS: There are real questions -- real disagreement from both sides, actually, as to how Donald Trump actually ascended to be the 45th president of the United States of America.

Let me bring in Betsy. Before I do, I want to play a little bit more sound from this forum.

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JOEL BENENSON: Listen, listen, you guys won. That's clear. You won the Electoral College. Be honest. Don't act as if you have a popular mandate for your message. The fact of the matter is that more Americans voted for Hillary Clinton than Donald Trump. So let's put it --

CONWAY: And there was nothing that said the road to popular vote, anyway. Hey guys, we won. You don't have to respond. Seriously, why is there no mandate? You lost 60 congressional seats since President Obama got there. You lost more than a dozen senators, a dozen governors, 1,000 state legislative seats.

BENENSON: We're talking about this election, Kellyanne.

CONWAY: No, no, no, you said there's no mandate.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAVIDGE: So I guess what Symone is saying, Betsy, emotions are clearly still raw. This was a very hard fought campaign. There are still many issues that we are left with a question mark. Don't you think the Trump campaign should be gracious in victory? BETSY MCCAUGHEY, (R) FORMER LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK: I think

the Trump campaign has been very gracious in victory. But what disturbs me the most is to see the Democratic Party leaders and spokes people like Symone are still making false accusations of racism, in fact behaving like racists themselves, for example, when the Trump campaign nominated Senator Sessions to be attorney general. He is a civil rights hero. And yet right away they try to accuse him of being a racist. I even --

SANDERS: Betsy --

MCCAUGHEY: -- white person should not lead the Democratic Party. What could be more racist than that?

SANDERS: Well, Betsy, first of all --

SAVIDGE: Hold on, please Symone. We're trying not to get back to the campaign. I'm trying to get -- Betsy, I just asked can the campaign by gracious?

MCCAUGHEY: The campaign has been very gracious.

(CROSSTALK)

MCCAUGHEY: -- the Democratic Party making false accusations of racism. And one reason Donald Trump won is that Americans are sick and tired offend reverse racism. And that's what they heard from Hillary Clinton --

SANDERS: Do you know what, Betsy -- I'm sorry.

MCCAUGHEY: Audiences --

SANDERS: We've got to cut this out --

MCCAUGHEY: Told black people they are the victims of systemic racism and that was a lie.

SANDERS: Betsy, people of color --

SAVIDGE: Symone hold on a second. I'll let you respond. You don't have to shout over me both, go ahead Symone.

SANDERS: People of color in America are victims of systemic racism. And I really think it's important to note that while the Trump campaign, yes, they won. Donald Trump is going to be the next president. There are still some real underlying issues, the rhetoric that the campaign elevated, these fringe elements they brought into mainstream. Like, these are things people in America are still dealing with. That is why we're having conversations about racism and white supremacy. And the Trump campaign and the Republicans have to at least own that so we can move forward.

MCCAUGHEY: We don't own it because those accusations of white racism are false.

SAVIDGE: Betsy. Is there a way you can listen to a counterargument, not shout back --

MCCAUGHEY: I did listen to it. But I don't appreciate these accusations of racism because they are untrue, and the only reason that people like Symone constantly label their opponents as racists is they don't have an argument they can win on the merits.

SAVIDGE: It's not a matter of people like Symone. There are legitimate reasons Jeff Sessions was questioned.

MCCAUGHEY: No.

SAVIDGE: There are serious --

MCCAUGHEY: Let's discuss them.

SAVIDGE: -- concerns about racism that were raised on the campaign trail.

But we're out of time. Thank you very both.

SANDERS: Betsy just "you peopled" me.

SAVIDGE: Thank you very much.

PAUL: The future of marijuana in some states may be a little hazy now that Donald Trump has announced his pick for attorney general. Why marijuana industry leaders are campaigning against Senator Jeff Sessions.

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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

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SAVIDGE: Activists for marijuana use across the country could end up with battle with president-elect Donald Trump's nominee for attorney general. That's because a handful of states, California and Nevada, Maine, and Massachusetts passed laws legalizing recreational use of marijuana. North Dakota, Arkansas, Montana, and Florida passed medical marijuana laws.

PAUL: Now, marijuana industry leaders want Donald Trump to keep his campaign promise to leave the matter up to the states and they've launched a campaign against Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions. At an April legislative meeting Sessions argued that the drug was dangerous.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JEFF SESSIONS, (R) ALABAMA: We need grownups in charge in Washington to say marijuana is not the kind of thing that ought to be legalized. It ought not to be minimized. That it's in fact a very real danger. This drug is dangerous. You cannot play with it. It's not funny. It's not something to laugh about. And trying to send that message with clarity that good people don't smoke marijuana.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: Join me now Bill Piper, senior director of National Affairs Drug Policy Alliance and Kevin Sabet, president of the opposition group Smart Approaches to Marijuana. He was also, by the way, the senior drug policy adviser to President Obama. Thank you both so much for being with us, appreciate it.

Kevin, I want to start with you. We know that your group is urging the president to crack down on governor allowing legalized pot use, telling them that selling marijuana is a violation of the Controlled Substance Act. But let's listen to Donald Trump here on the campaign trail during the primaries.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: The marijuana thing is such a big thing. I think medical should happen, don't we agree? I think so. And then I really believe you should leave it up to the states. It should be a state situation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: So with that, the fact that Donald Trump shares the same position as President Obama, what is your campaign doing? How are you going to try to get through to Jeff Sessions?

KEVIN SABET, PRESIDENT, SMART APPROACHES TO MARIJUANA: Well, the issue is, I don't think anybody wants to be in the business of predicting what a president Trump would do, because also he's talked about law and order and he did appoint probably the most vociferous opponent to marijuana that we've seen in the last half century as his chief law enforcement official. So I think we're not sure what's going to happen. I think Bill

and I would agree it's an untenable situation right now. You have a federal law and then you have states openly violating the federal law. And they're doing it because there's a powerful industry like the big tobacco industry that we had for over 100 years in this country and still have that wants to increase heavy marijuana use. And they're selling gummy bears and candies and cookies and lollipops. They're marketing to kids. They're opening pot shops near schools even though in a state like Colorado they're not allowed to do that but it's continuing to go on.

So this is not a situation that I think is something in line with public health. And what's interesting is that Senator Sessions, the clip you played, was when he was agreeing with the Attorney General nominee at the time, Loretta Lynch, who is also, by the way, against marijuana. And they're also in agreement with the National Institutes of Health. If you look at actually who is in agreement that marijuana is something that should be discouraged. We don't want to put people in prison for low level marijuana use. I think we can agree on that. We don't want to criminalize kids for using marijuana. But the other extreme of legalization which is going on in a couple of states - and, by the way Maine is tied right now. It's a recount.

PAUL: Bill, I want to get your response to that and the thought that if Sessions does continue to enforce federal law, what impact that has on states allowing it?

BILL PIPER, SENIOR DIRECTOR, DRUG POLICY ALLIANCE: Well, there's no doubt that Jeff Sessions is a big supporter of the failed war on drugs. And if he is confirmed as attorney general he probably will arrest and prosecute a lot of people for marijuana, even in states where it is legal. He's no doubt the most controversial of Trump's picks. He was rejected by the Senate in the 80s for a judgeship because racist comments that he made. You know, he once said he thought the KKK was OK until he found out they smoked pot. And I think that says everything you need to know about Jeff Session and the people cheering him on.

[10:45:15] The reality is 28 states have voted for -- to legalize marijuana either medically or legalize it like alcohol or both. And I think that toothpaste is out of the tube. It's going to be really, really hard to put it back in. And Donald Trump said on the campaign trail he's going to let states decide the issue. Sessions does believe the exact opposite, so there is a question of who is in charge. That's why it would be helpful if Trump issued a statement clarifying that he does in fact support letting states legalize marijuana if they want. If you look at the polling marijuana has got more support than Donald Trump does.

PAUL: OK, Bill Piper, Kevin Saban, I apologize we're out of time. So grateful you were here to have the conversation.

SAVIDGE: When we come back it is a big weekend for college football. Andy Scholes has all you need to know. Andy?

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: It's championship Saturday. I'm in downtown Atlanta, the site of the SEC championship between top ranked Alabama and 15th ranked Florida. We'll have a preview of the big game coming up in this morning's Bleacher Report.

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PAUL: The college football playoff picture is going to be much clearer after today's game.

CUOMO: Andy Scholes is live in downtown Atlanta, can you believe it, for this afternoon's SEC championship. Andy?

SCHOLES: Good morning, guys. Yes, it's championship Saturday. Many teams still trying to make their case that they belong in this year's playoffs. Now win or lose today, Alabama is the one team that's likely going to make it to the playoffs no matter what. They're taking on 15th ranked Florida in today's SEC championship game. Now, for Alabama, they've had an amazing season once again under Nick Saban. They're the defending champs. They've won four titles under Saban during his time there. And Coach Saban says he doesn't necessarily love winning, he just hates the alternative.

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NICK SABAN, ALABAMA FOOTBALL COACH: I hate to lose more than I like winning. So this next game is the game we can lose. So what we did, I'm not in love with what we did last week or the week before that or the whole season. The challenge is the next game, because that's the game we can lose. And I hate losing more than I like winning.

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SCHOLES: Always an animated Nick Saban at the podium. Kickoff for the SEC championship is at 4:00 eastern. Alabama a 24 point favorite in this one.

We have two more huge games tonight. Number three Clemson trying to lock up a spot in the playoffs. They're taking on Virginia Tech in the ACC championship. And then in the big 10 title game, you have sixth ranked Wisconsin and seventh ranked Penn State. That game kicks off at 8:00 eastern as well. Last week the fourth ranked huskies making their case that they belong in this year's playoffs. Washington and Colorado both playing in their first every Pac-12 title game. The huskies up seven at the half. In the first play of the third quarter, the interception, takes it the other way for the touchdown. Washington defense just dominant in this one. Huskies beat Colorado 41-10 to end the season at 12-1.

So guys, just to recap, Washington, they're likely heading to the playoffs as that fourth seed. Alabama and Ohio State likely in. So it's going to come down to whether Clemson wins as they're the third ranked team right now, and whether or not Wisconsin and Penn State can do enough to convince the committee members that they belong as well. I want to see upsets today, though, guys, because I like chaos and I want the job to be really hard on that college football playoff committee.

SAVIDGE: All right.

PAUL: Andy, thank you.

SAVIDGE: Yes, much appreciated.

After the break, we have more information on that fire in Oakland, California.

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[10:58:01] SAVIDGE: Let's update you on the breaking news from California. Officials have confirmed a fire in Oakland has killed nine people and more than two dozen people are unaccounted for.

PAUL: Firefighters responded to a scene just before midnight last night. Take a look at this, it broke out at a building that houses living and working spaces. CNN correspondent Dan Simon is live there in Oakland. Dan, what are you learning this hour?

DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Christi and Martin. This is a significant tragedy, what has unfolded here in Oakland, California. As you just said, the chief of the Oakland fire department has confirmed nine people are dead and there are reports that as many as 25 people are missing. I'm going to step out of frame so you can see exactly what is going on. You can see those firefighters here at the bottom of the structure. It's actually the corner building that caught fire. Right now it is still unsafe for firefighters to enter that building and do a thorough search. So they're actually going on the roof of the adjacent building to see how things look.

We know a task force from the fire department here is underway to see if the building can be searched and to see what it may look like inside. We know that this was a work/live space area. There was a party that was going on last night. There were a lot of people inside. According to fire officials it's very cluttered inside with lots of furniture and lots of artist's tools. This is said to be some kind of artist workspace where there's studios and people live here as well. Again, there was a party going on last night. We know that the call to the fire department occurred about 11:30 at night, and apparently it spread very quickly. And so we have quite a situation unfolding. We'll of course have more details as they become available. We'll send it back to you.

SAVIDGE: Dan Simon, thank you very much for that update.

PAUL: Thank you, Dan, yes. And of course, we're going to continue to follow this throughout the afternoon with Ms. Fredricka Whitfield who is here with us now. But we want to thank you for spending your morning with us.

SAVIDGE: Been a pleasure. Fred, over to you.