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Trump on New Air Force One; Flynn Under Fire; Carson Compared to Wu-Tang Clan's Ghostface Killah; Obama Doctrine versus Trump Doctrine; Iran Warns Trump; Merkel Says World Must Sort Out Russia Relationship; Japan's Softbank to Invest $50B in U.S. Jobs. Aired 2- 2:30p ET

Aired December 06, 2016 - 14:00   ET

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


[14:00:00] WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: "Amanpour" is next. For our viewers in North America, "Newsroom" with Ana Cabrera starts right now.

ANA CABRERA, CNN ANCHOR: Hello on this Tuesday. I'm Ana Cabrera, in for Brooke Baldwin. Thanks for joining me.

Now, President-elect Donald Trump wants to permanently ground the next Air Force One. That is what he said in a quick comment to reporters in the Trump Tower lobby this morning. It all started with a tweet. I quote, "Boeing is building a brand new 747 Air Force One for future presidents, but costs are out of control, more than $4 billion, cancel order."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT-ELECT: Totally out of control. It's going to be over $4 billion. It's for Air Force One program. And I think it's ridiculous. I think Boeing is doing a little bit of a number. We want Boeing to make a lot of money, but not that much money.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: Joining me now, CNN aviation analyst Mary Schiavo, who once served as inspector general of the U.S. Department of Transportation. Also with us, CNN aviation correspondent Rene Marsh.

Rene, Trump threw out this number, $4 billion. What's Boeing saying and what have you learned about the contract?

RENE MARSH, CNN AVIATION AND GOVERNMENT REGULATIONS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Ana, I spoke with a source familiar with Boeing's deal with the government. It's safe to say, first off, that the airplane manufacturer was caught off guard by Trump's comments today. But in response to Trump's tweet, the source says, and I'm quoting now, that they do not know exactly where he's getting that number from.

Now, right now, Boeing only has a contract with the government for design and redevelopment of that new Air Force One. And the company is saying that in the statement that you see right there on the screen. It says, quote, "we are currently under contract for $170 million to help develop the capabilities of these complex military aircraft that serve the unique requirements of the president of the United States." They go on to say that they look forward to working with the U.S. Air Force to deliver the best planes at the best value. So in other words, Boeing is working with the government, still working with them, to figure out all the bells and whistles that need to be added to the plane. My source also telling me that the Pentagon has not even decided whether they want two or three planes. So the final cost has not been set just quite yet.

CABRERA: So very preliminary stages in some ways when it comes to this new Air Force One. And, again, $170 million that Boeing cites is a lot different than $4 billion than Donald Trump is saying.

Mary, I want to ask you, though, about safety. Because we know the current Air Force One has been flying since President H.W. Bush, since 1990. When it comes to safety, how necessary are these new planes?

MARY SCHIAVO, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Well, because Air Force One is not flown in punishing service like commercial airliners, it only has about 10,000 hours on each of the planes. Compare that to a commercial service plane of the same age, it would have 100,000 hours. The Air Force checks it very carefully for any problems, fatigues, cracking, and it has been updated with a state-of-the-art hardened communications system that is secure, tested very frequently down in Texas by the Air Force and it has Matador and Nemesis missile systems, anti-missile systems rather, that confuse missiles. So it is continuously updated and is state-of-the-art and it's not anywhere close to being tired iron. So President Obama, President-elect Trump and probably a couple presidents after that would be safe on the plane. And then -

CABRERA: So you're not worried about life span (INAUDIBLE)?

SCHIAVO: No, not at this point. Not with the hours on the plane. It's a low-hour plane - planes, two of them.

CABRERA: So since Donald Trump has weighed in on this already, is it a done deal or what happens? Does the deal go away with Boeing?

SCHIAVO: No. What will happen is he - Boeing can't really get any more money and the Air Force can't spend any money until Congress appropriates it. So two things can happen. The Air Force can decide to push this back, as they have many times before. This was pushed back in 2012 and so this date has already been pushed out several times so the Air Force can push the date back further or Congress can say and take a lead from the president-elect and say, you know, we can delay this and we're not going to appropriate any more money for it. And, of course, it's against the law to spend money that Congress hasn't appropriated. So that could end it, too.

CABRERA: All right, Mary Schiavo, Rene Marsh, our thanks to both of you.

Meantime, a couple of Trump staff picks are under fire today. Let's start with his national security advisor, retired Lieutenant General Michael Flynn. Fifty-three organizations are now calling for Trump to dump Flynn from this position which does not require Senate confirmations. Now the groups are all non-profit, activists organizations. They say in a letter that Flynn, quote, "has written that fear of Muslims is rational and said that Islam is a political ideology and a cancer that hides behind being a religion and continuously peddles the nonsensical fear of sharia law spreading in the United States."

[14:05:02] Let me bring in CNN political director David Chalian joining us now.

David, these groups also say Flynn is a threat to national security. Now help us remember, he was elected, or at least selected, I should say, a couple of weeks ago. Why are we seeing this new bombardment, do you think?

CHALIAN: Oh, I think the criticism has been out there and I think that people are just becoming more aggressive about it. Here's what you have to understand. You noted in your remarks there, there is no Senate confirmation here. I haven't seen Donald Trump run away from a controversy in the entirety of the presidential campaign, really. So I don't - I don't see how this blowback is going to amount to something because that would be out of character for Donald Trump to say, "oh, you're right, two controversial of a figure, let me get rid of him and move on." I do there's a reason that Mike Flynn is in a non- confirmable position, just a presidential appointment in the West Wing -

CABRERA: Because he might be controversial.

CHALIAN: Because it would be tough maybe to get him fully through a Senate confirmation process.

CABRERA: I mean do you think the timing might have to do with that tweet from General Michael Flynn's son who was also part of the transition process, we understood, until today when Trump's camp came out and said, no, no, no, he's not part of our transition anymore.

CHALIAN: Right. I don't know that the timing is at all connected to that. I do think in looking at the fact that the Trump campaign clearly cut ties, the Trump transition cut ties with Mike Flynn's son, remember, they said all he was doing was scheduling work for his dad. That's why he had a government official transition e-mail address to help be in a -

CABRERA: Right.

CHALIAN: But he was not part of any conversation. But what became clear is, that e-mail address is no longer existent. He official has been said by the transition to have nothing to do with it. Even that limited role that he had before. And that's clearly in response to this fake news controversy that he was enmeshed in.

CABRERA: Do you think secretary of state and who is selected by Donald Trump to be the nominee, in that position, might be selected based on some kind of strategy in balancing General Flynn? CHALIAN: Well, potentially. Remember, the role of the national

security advisor traditionally has been coordinating defense, state, all the different big high profile national security cabinet proponents and those departments. Sort of coordinating their information incoming and giving them their marching orders to those cabinet secretaries from the Oval Office. So that has been a critical position. I do think there is no doubt when he's looking for that secretary of state position, he knows he's going to formally name General Mattis to defense today, he's already named Mike Flynn. This is a third leg of that stool that will need to work together.

CABRERA: Two generals. We'll see what happens with number three.

Now, another pick of Trump's receiving pushback, Ben Carson, now being the nominee for the Housing and Urban Development secretary. Listen to what Marc Lamont Hill said about this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARC LAMONT HILL, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: His leadership skills are not transferable. You know what I mean. Like - like - like - like those things kill (ph) us. The leader of Wu-Tang Clan, right? LeBron James, the leader of the Cleveland Cavaliers. It doesn't mean they should be the leader of Housing and Urban Development. He himself said, I don't know how to run an office. I don't know how to run a bureau. I don't know how to handle bureaucracy. I don't have any experience in government. So if he says that himself, why do you choose him to be the leader of one of the most significant departments in America.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: He was animated. Do you think his criticism is fair?

CHALIAN: I think that Democrats are seizing on this Carson nomination as one that they want to sort of plant the flag on and really express opposition towards. Part of that is because Housing and Urban Development, the department deals with so much of the base of the Democratic Party and urban pockets across the country and they feel that Ben Carson completely goes against the values that they, Democrats, want.

But remember with these appointments, Ana, it's most important to look at sort of where Donald Trump's own party is disagreeing with him. The Democrats are in the minority in the Senate, in the minority in the House. They can make a big stink about it. They can try to really convince the country in some groundswell way that Ben Carson doesn't belong in this position. But they don't have a lot of levers to pull, other than sort of making their opposition known, so I'm not sure that it will amount to Donald Trump in some way reversing course from this.

CABRERA: I've got to ask you about Chris Christie real quick because we saw a dismal 19 percent approval rating today from the Quinnipiac survey and this is the lowest of any governor that Quinnipiac has found in its past 20 years of polling. CHALIAN: Yes, in all the states, the Quinnipiac polls, and they do a

bunch of states around the country, no governor in 20 years has been that low.

CABRERA: What does this mean about (INAUDIBLE) future?

CHALIAN: This is clearly a result of the bridgegate controversy. I think more than seven in 10 New Jersians in that poll say they don't believe Chris Christie. They do think he had knowledge of what his aides were going to do on the bridge. And it's a, quite frankly, reflective of his fading national star, being removed from being in charge of the transition of Trump, sort of being sidelined from that. All of this happening after his failed presidential bid. This is clearly sort of the bottom of Chris Christie's political popularity in his home state, which is on his way -

[14:10:01] CABRERA: Is his political future toast, do you think?

CHALIAN: Well, I don't - you know, you never want to say somebody's political future is toast. Politics has a way of reinvigorating, rejuvenating people and they can reinvent themselves. But this is a tough moment for Chris Christie who has only got a year left in his job. He's leaving at a very low note.

CABRERA: All right, David Chalian, thank you so much.

CHALIAN: Sure.

CABRERA: Well, very soon, President Obama is giving his final speech on national security. He will be giving Trump some very public advise, including on the subject of torture. New details about what we can expect, next.

Plus, tonight, a white supremacist will be speaking on the campus of Texas A&M. You're about to hear from the man who invited him.

And, for the first time, the manager of the deadly warehouse fire in Oakland speaks out and lashes out over questions.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DERICK ALMENA: No, I'm not going to answer these questions on this level.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you - are you worried that you will be charged -

ALMENA: I would rather get on the floor and be trampled by the parents! I'd rather let them tear at my flesh than answer these -

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CABRERA: President Obama is less than two hours away now from what's expected to be his final address on national security. It is a speech on his legacy, his successes, his challenges, his unfinished business and maybe some advice for his successor Donald Trump. There are several topics Mr. Obama will cover that he and the president-elect simply don't agree on.

[14:15:07] Let's break it down with chief national security correspondent Jim Sciutto in Washington and senior international correspondent Clarissa Ward joining us from London.

Jim, to you first. What do we expect the president to focus on today?

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, this is going to be a broad presentation, I mean you might even say defense, of the Obama foreign policy, national security legacy over the last eight years. We're told by the administration this was a speech he was planning to deliver before the election. So regardless of whether it would have been Clinton or Trump in the White House.

But when you look at the positions he's going to lay out, the cases he's going to make, many of these are ones that he has stark disagreements with his successor. Closing Guantanamo, of course, that was the promise that President Obama signed really within days of his inauguration, hasn't been able to follow through on it. Donald Trump has said that he wants to expand Guantanamo, put a lot of bad dudes there, he said. That's one difference.

Barack Obama's going to talk about the benefits of diplomacy with the Iran nuclear deal. Of course, Donald Trump has said he wants to tear that up. On torture as well. Obama's going to make the case that torture just doesn't work but also doesn't mesh with American values. Donald Trump, during the campaign, has said that he wants to reinstate it, although his choice for defense secretary has spoken to him about how he believes it simply doesn't work, it is ineffective.

I will say, Ana, that there is possibly some area of agreement here with Donald Trump because Barack Obama's going to talk about benefits of surgical special forces led strikes over broad military invasions, like the Iraq invasion. That's something that perhaps Donald Trump might agree with because he has said that he thought the Iraq War was one of the greatest mistakes in recent memories. So possibly somewhere in there a little bit of agreement. Not that anyone from the Trump camp's necessarily going to be looking for those areas of agreement.

CABRERA: Yes, Jim, you just painted a picture of contrast. We know national security is one area where the current president, president- elect do have differences.

Clarissa, what's the view of folks overseas as they're watching this transition?

CLARISSA WARD, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I think, Ana, it's fair to say that there is a lot of concern, a lot of anxiety about this transition, but it's not perhaps for the reasons that people might expect. It's not necessarily because President-elect Donald Trump has any one specific policy that is particularly controversial or particularly frightening, though certainly there have been some of those that he elucidated on the campaign trail. But the real source of anxiety overseas, and particularly here in

Europe, is the fact that at this stage Donald Trump is still something of an unknown commodity and he is essentially in the way he is carrying out business, he is dispensing with the rule book. He is saying no more diplomatic protocol. He is back channeling instead of going through central channels of power. He is tweeting instead of going through mainstream media.

And the result of that has been that all of these world leaders are somewhat on the back foot. They don't know what to expect. China was certainly caught by surprise with the whole incident with Taiwan. Donald Trump not going about that in a traditional way. And that, I think, is the real source of concern. Not just among world allies - world leaders, but particularly among the U.S.' allies. Some of those allies have also been very disenchanted with President Obama. They didn't feel that they were getting the support that they need, that they have enjoyed traditionally from the U.S. They're looking for some kind of affirmation from Donald Trump but they're not sure what exactly, Ana, they're actually going to get.

CABRERA: Yes, some concern among allies, but perhaps among some foes, too. We're hearing from Iran's president today coming out saying he's not going to let the U.S. go back on the nuclear deal. Donald Trump, we know, wants to renegotiate this deal. That's what he said during the campaign. And we also know his pick for defense secretary is supposed to join him on stage tonight. James Mattis, the general. He says Iran is the number one enduring threat in the Middle East. Jim, so what does this mean for the Iran deal?

SCIUTTO: Well, here's the thing, folks have got to remember the Iran deal is not just between the U.S. and Iran. There were multiple powers. The five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council. You have Russia and China involved and European partners, too. The idea that Russia and China are going to want to renegotiate this, extremely unlikely. But even U.S. allies in Europe, I mean, you have loads of European companies who have already signed or are signing lucrative business deals in Iran now that those sanctions have been lifted. Do you get them on board to the same degree? Really it's difficult to imagine that all coming together.

There are other ways, though, that the U.S. can push Iran. It can more actively, more aggressively enforce parts of the deal. It can also go out - go after things that are outside of the nuclear deal. One thing that's been mentioned, including by advisers to the Trump transition, is going after Iran's missile technology, for instance. But (ph) the negotiations did not touch that. But Iran, as you've seen, Ana, and Clarissa has seen as well, we've all seen missile tests, ballistic missile tests by Iran in the wake of that deal. It made a lot of people very nervous about Iran's advancing missile capability. That's an area where the U.S. can apply some pressure. But tearing up that deal, renegotiating it when you have all those partners involved is difficult to imagine how that happens.

[14:20:18] CABRERA: Clarissa, some interesting comments today from the German chancellor, Angela Merkel. She says, quote, "we are dealing with a situation in the world right now, especially after the U.S. elections, in which the world has to sort itself out, especially with a view to NATO and the relationship with Russia." What do you take away from that statement?

WARD: Well, this was an interesting speech. And I think what Angela Merkel - listen, she herself is facing reelection next year. She has seen firsthand, as we all have, this wave of populism, not just in the U.S. with the election of Donald Trump, but also in the U.K. with Britain voting to leave the EU. On Sunday we saw this referendum. Now the Italian prime minister handing in his resignation. This is spreading all across the region.

She's also referring specifically to the issue of NATO and Russia and essentially the order, the world order as we know it, being upended. It's no secret that Donald Trump has said that he is -- favors closer ties with Russia, more cooperation with Russia. He has spoken in praise of President Vladimir Putin many times. He has also spoken out against NATO. He has decried the fact that Europe does not, quote, in his view, pay its fair share of the bill for that alliance. And, of course, we know as well, that President Putin, also not a fan of NATO, sees it as an existential threat to Russia, see this NATO encirclement which he views as hostile.

So essentially Europe here is really doing some soul searching, trying to read the tea leaves, see what happens for them next. This alliance may be shifting. There is definitely a shift in the zeitgeist here in Europe. And I just wanted to read, Angela Merkel also went on to say that many people now feel the world is, quote, "going off the rails." It is difficult, Ana to overemphasize just how profound the sense of change is here in Europe and the sense of anxiety about that change and the sense that 2017 could be a very pivotal way in many, many different capacities.

Ana.

CABRERA: Change is not easy, even when it is good change in some cases.

Clarissa Ward and Jim Sciutto, many thanks to both of you.

SCIUTTO: Thanks.

CABRERA: This is just in. Donald Trump making a rare appearance right now in front of a peer of reporters at Trump Tower with a special guest also and an announcement on jobs. Stand by. We'll get to that, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:26:59] CABRERA: Just in here in the NEWSROOM, Donald Trump making a surprise appearance before reporters at Trump Tower, making an announcement moments ago about jobs and he had a guest. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT-ELECT: This is Masa (ph) of Softbank from Japan and he's just agreed to invest $50 billion in the United States and 50,000 jobs. And he's one of the great men of industry. So I just want to thank you very much.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you. Thank you.

TRUMP: Thank you very much.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: OK, let's bring in Jessica Schneider. She's there at Trump Tower. Also with us, CNN Money's Cristina Alesci.

To you first, Jessica. Tell us more about what exactly went down here.

JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Ana, first of all, this has been a very vocal and visible Donald Trump today. This was actually the second time that he came down to Trump Tower to address reporters. The first time that he came down this morning to talk about his Boeing tweets. But this time to make an interesting announcement. As you saw there, he stood with a Japanese businessman he referred to as Masa from Softbank saying that Softbank would, in fact, invest $50 billion into the U.S. economy toward businesses and 50,000 new jobs. So a very interesting announcement that, of course, we still have to discern the details on and figure out exactly what this deal might entail.

But Donald Trump definitely has been visible and vocal today. Of course, Donald Trump had campaigned on putting America first, spurring jobs, spurring the economy, as well as putting innovation first and working for the American worker. And it appears that he seems to be doing that. Of course, just a little - a few days ago he announced that Carrier would be saving a thousand jobs. Today talking about this deal with the Japanese bank. But, of course, a lot more details that we need to figure out here. Donald Trump giving us very little there in the lobby of Trump Tower but, yes, saying that that Japanese bank agreeing to invest $50 billion into the American economy and create 50,000 new jobs.

Ana.

CABRERA: It certainly sounds like good news on the surface.

Cristina, this seemed to be a rather off-the-cuff moment. Did you see this coming?

CRISTINA ALESCI, CNN MONEY CORRESPONDENT: No, no one saw this coming. He's obviously taking meetings with a bunch of people, having conversations with companies and CEOs. But I think one of the things to keep in mind here is, the devil really is in the details. This could be a great thing, but Softbank is an investment arm of a big company basically and they can come in and buy companies here in the U.S. So he may be talking about a potential big acquisition that Softbank is going to make. Softbank actually bought Sprint a couple of years ago.

CABRERA: OK.

ALESCI: So we don't know what kind of - what this could be. It could be a simple acquisition. This is another example of Donald Trump, the showman, getting stuff done. What he wants to show the American public is that he can get stuff done day one. He could - he could pick up the phone and call these heads of industries and CEOs and really make a deal, right? The question is, what kind of deals is he making because we don't -

[14:29:52] CABRERA: And at what cost, perhaps.

ALESCI: Exactly. With the Carrier deal, as we saw him bringing jobs back to Indiana, will that cost local taxpayers some money, right? So we have to get the real details of all of these deals and what Donald Trump is talking about because he likes to go out there, you know, with Boeing today, for example, he was out there saying, you know, it costs too much for Air Force One