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Source: Trump Taps Iowa Gov as Ambassador to China; Trump: Romney Still Candidate for Secretary of State; CNN Special Report Airs Tonight at 9PM. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired December 07, 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]

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Top of the hour 10:00 a.m. Eastern. I'm Poppy Harlow in for Carol Costello. So glad you're with us. President- elect Donald Trump said that there would be new addition to his administration today and tomorrow and we are learning about the first one. A source familiar with the decision confirms that Trump has offered the post of ambassador to China to Iowa Governor Terry Branstad. The position, likely of course, to be pretty challenging as the president-elect has railed against U.S. trade deals with China and accused China of manipulating its currency.

Trump, also this morning, being named "Time" magazine's "Person of the Year," pushing back though, against the headline, president of the divided states of America. In fact, he says his most ferocious republican critic is still being considered for the coveted Secretary of State position. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MATT LAUER, HOST NBC "TODAY": Let me go back to Mitt Romney. Is he still under consideration?

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL-ELECT (via telephone): Yes, he is.

LAUER: Does he have a chance to become Secretary of State?

TRUMP: Yes, he does. I mean, I have spoken to him a lot. We have come, a long way together. We had some tremendous difficulty together and now I think we have come a long way. But the answer is yes, he does.

LAUER: So this isn't about some case of stringing him along as revenge being a dish best served cold for the comments he made during the campaign?

TRUMP: No, it's not about revenge. It's about what's good for the country. And I'm able to put this stuff behind us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Our Jessica Schneider is live this morning, outside of Trump Tower, turned into the transition headquarters. Good morning, Jessica. JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Poppy. You know, the most anticipated pick from Donald Trump being Secretary of State. He's saying that he will likely announce his pick next week. But of course, all eyes have been on Mitt Romney for many weeks now. He's emerged as one of the leading contenders. He sat down with the president-elect twice, most recently at a dinner at Jean-Georges' restaurant, just a few blocks from Trump Tower. And after he emerged from that dinner with Donald Trump, he said that he was quite impressed by Donald Trump's electoral victory and this morning, Donald Trump saying that the two men have come a long way in their relationship.

Donald Trump has come a long way in how he feels about Mitt Romney, of course, Mitt Romney calling Donald Trump back in March, a phony and a fraud. But despite that, in the past few days we have seen several other names emerged, people like General David Petraeus, also Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson, who Donald Trump this morning called a great man, of course, the former Governor Jon Huntsman.

So, who will Donald Trump pick? Donald Trump says he's not trying to string this out. He's not looking for revenge. He just wants what's best for the country. And in that vein, he says he's even consulted with the current president, President Obama, about some of his potential picks.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LAUER: I was fascinated to read in your interview that you say you actually talked to President Obama about some of your possible appointments.

TRUMP: I do.

LAUER: And the people you would surround yourself in the White House. Can you tell me specifically who you mentioned to President Obama that you are considering appointing?

TRUMP: Well, I don't think that would be fair to him but I have asked him what he would think of this one and that one. I have asked him what he thinks are the biggest problems of the country, what are some of the greatest assets going forward, and we have a very good dialogue. And I must tell you, you know, I never met him before this and I never spoke to him before this. I really, I do like him. I love getting his ideas and I may differ in many cases, I differ very greatly. --

LAUER: Right, just real quickly though -

TRUMP: I would say, that yes, I take his recommendations very seriously and there are some people that I will be appointing and in one case, have appointed where he thought very highly of that person. Yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHNEIDER: Donald Trump giving some insight into his conversations with President Obama. But the White House not commenting on any of those discussions and not indicating who President Obama may have suggested to Donald Trump he picked for one of these cabinet appointments. But Kellyanne Conway, saying this morning, that we could expect more announcements today, perhaps two ambassadorships. We have mentioned the Iowa governor will be U.S. ambassador to China. Donald Trump has picked him, possibly EPA and Homeland Security as well. Poppy?

HARLOW: Jessica Schneider, this morning live outside Trump Tower, thank you so much.

We obviously have a lot to discuss. Let's bring in our panel. Domenico Montanaro is the political editor for "NPR," Jay Newton-Small is a contributor for "Time" magazine, and Josh Rogin is CNN political analyst and columnist for "The Washington Post." Thank you all for being here and Domenico, let me begin with you to really big headlines here, Romney still in the running for Secretary of State. Obviously, Trump putting what he said apparently during the campaign behind them and the fact that Donald Trump is not only seeking President Obama's advice, he's actually putting it to action with some of these picks. Who do you think the president approved of the Donald Trump has already named?

DOMENICO MONTANARO, LEAD POLITICAL EDITOR, "NPR NEWS": Well, I'm not sure at all. You know the White House hasn't commented about that at all. But I do think that there are these two Donald Trumps. And I think that sometimes people get so surprised that they see Donald Trump who might reach out to President Obama, somebody who for five years, he had

[10:05:16] said you know questioned whether or not he was born in the United States. And now seems to value his advice. I think that's one lesson in getting to know people rather than judging them immediately in some caricature form way which is something that we have seen throughout this campaign. But there are two Trumps. We heard Kellyanne Conway, I was in the room for that Harvard meeting for the campaign managers at the Institute of Politics last week and you heard Kellyanne Conway say look, he's transactional, folks. And I think that you have seen that throughout this campaign and you will likely see that as he's president. And you've seen that with some of these business interactions too, where he's tried to way in, to try to bring jobs to the country, even in very small micro managing kinds of ways.

HARLOW: Jay, one of the things I find fascinating is in two different ways here. Donald Trump is doing something that will infuriate or has infuriated his base, right? That is one, as Kellyanne Conway has even attested to, keeping Mitt Romney in the running for Secretary of State. The second thing would be, utilizing the advice of a man, the current President, Barack Obama, who he called "the worst President in U.S. history." Is this the transition from Trump the candidate to Trump the president-elect, soon to be, Trump the president, realizing you have to have cooperation here. It can't all be us and them.

JAY NEWTON-SMALL, CONTRIBUTOR, "TIME MAGAZINE": Poppy, I think, you're absolutely right. And you see Donald Trump really trying to bridge not just to the establishment Republicans but also to Democrats, in reaching out to President Obama - in interviewing some Democrats for cabinet positions, or at least even meeting with Democrats. We don't know if they're actually being interviewed for cabinet positons. But he's - for example, met with Tulsi Gabbard, who is a Democratic congresswoman. He's supposed to be meeting with Rahm Emanuel, the mayor of Chicago, in the next couple days.

And so, you do see him beginning to reach out and trying to bridge the divide -- and as you said, "Time" magazine just named him "President of the Divided States of America." This is something that he has to deal with, something that he has to be able to bring America together and represent both the angry base that elected him but also the rest of the country, 2.5 million of people who voted actually for the opponent - who voted for his opponent.

HARLOW: Josh, I want to get your take on Trump tapping according to our Dana Bash and Jeff Zeleny, Iowa's Governor Terry Branstad as the ambassador to China. Obviously, the governor was very loyal to Donald Trump throughout the campaign. We know Trump likes that. But at the same time, this is someone who has a long history with China you know, and also, someone who knows frankly, President Xi. What do you make of this pick and how tough this job is going to be given all that Trump has said about China?

JOSH ROGIN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST AND COLUMNIST "THE WASHINGTON POST": Yes, I think this is a really fascinating pick. As you mentioned, the governor has known Chinese President Xi Jinping since 1985. When Xi was a rural agricultural officer for some back water part of China nobody heard of, and showed up in Iowa and they stayed friends and they visit each other. And they have had him over for dinner recently. And you know if we are going to have this contentious relationship with China, it seems like we are going to, seems that's the direction President-elect Trump wants to go.

It's invaluable to have someone in Beijing who has that personal relationship. China is basically a dictatorship. President Xi Jinping has consolidated power. Nobody has aligned into this guy. So, the fact that we will have an ambassador in place, who can pick up the phone and call him, I think could make a real difference, both in a crisis situation, but also in a negotiation.

HARLOW: And Domenico, the first job he will have is likely to try to smooth things over after the president-elect took that phone call from the President of Taiwan. How does he do that?

MONTANARO: I mean, that's really fascinating, the fact that Bob Dole was somebody who had -- to kind of be an emissary. And we have seen sort of conflicting reporting whether or not this was, hey, it was just a call, sort of dismissing the importance of it. And then, to learn that it was -- had some time in the making, I think it does reflect on the personal relationships that Donald Trump values. If he knows you, if he trusts you, then you have a way in. If he doesn't, then you have seen some of that vindictive side, some of that thin- skinned side of Donald Trump and that is going to be weighed out. And I think we should expect that you will see both of those things come out at various points in a Trump presidency. HARLOW: All right. I'm just being told that Governor Pat McCrory just arrived at Trump Tower there, about to head up in the golden elevators, obviously after a disappointing loss for him. Guys, as we watch and see who else might come out and who else might talk, as you said, Jay, that we are expecting possibly Rahm Emanuel as well. I mean to meet with President Trump.

Look, the vice president -- former Vice President Al Gore met with Donald Trump about climate change, something that Trump has called a hoax created by the Chinese Rahm Emanuel. Not only the mayor of Chicago, also formerly the chief of staff and someone who has said

[10:10:16] you know I don't care what your administration is doing, Chicago will stay a sanctuary city.

NEWTON-SMALL: Yes, so it's really interesting. He's got a really diverse cast of characters here. And I think that you know thus far a lot of his cabinet picks have been pretty much loyalists. There have been some establishment picks, Nikki Haley from South Carolina, for U.N. ambassador, for example, who was a critic of Donald Trump. But most -- for the large majority of the picks, have been people who have been very loyal to him, like Jeff Sessions as A.G., Michael Flynn, as national security advisor.

And so, it will be interesting now to see as he really rounds out his cabinet, is he going to build a team of rivals, is he going to gather together Mitt Romney, who was highly critical of him. - Is he going to include a Democrat in his cabinet?

HARLOW: He's kind of indicating he is going to.

NEWTON-SMALL: He has been in recent days, really sort of saying he does seem to plan to do that. And it makes -- it's really refreshing, I think. It's a really good idea to have lots of diverse voices in the cabinet. I mean, get lots of opinions that are not necessarily ones that agree with you because that's going to give you the best kind of decision making. And so, we hope to see that. We have to wait and see who he actually names Secretary of State at the end of it. It's been such a long sort of tortured process.

HARLOW: Yes.

NEWTON-SMALL: But I do think that you know it is a much more diverse cabinet than a lot of observers expected early on. And it will be really interesting to see if he includes a Democrat in that cabinet.

HARLOW: Yes. Domenico Montanaro, Jay Newton-Small, Josh Rogin, thank you all very much. We appreciate it.

Coming up, dueling messages on the war on terror, Donald Trump and President Obama both delivering speeches yesterday on exactly that. Different messages though, different tactics on how to keep America safe. We'll debate it, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [10:16:12] HARLOW: President Obama delivers his final address on national security and offers some advice to President-elect Trump not directly using his name but it was pretty clear. Of course, Trump will inherit the war on terror and as you know, has delivered a lot of tough words when it comes to radical Islam, torture, et cetera. Obama never mentioned Trump by name. Clearly, though, this was directed towards him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Adhering to the rule of law is not a weakness in the long term, it is our greatest strength.

The whole objective of these terrorists is to scare us into changing the nature of who we are and our democracy. And the fact is people and nations do not make good decisions when they are driven by fear.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Our Athena Jones is live outside the White House for us this morning. Good morning, Athena, very different speeches from the president and the president-elect, both on the same issue.

ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Poppy. That's right, very different speeches from two very different leaders who have different ideas about how to approach these issues. Lest anyone call President Obama weak on terror, he delivered a forceful defense of his administration's counter terrorism efforts and he made the case for continuation of his approach to dealing with these issues. He talked about killing Osama Bin Laden. He talked about weakening al Qaeda, the progress made so far against ISIS. And he talked about the need to continue to focus on diplomacy and working with allies, not only to defeat terror groups but also to deal with other issues like Iran's pursuit of a nuclear weapon. Here's more of what he had to say on that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: Terrorists would love to see us walk away from the type of work that builds international coalitions and ends conflicts and stops the spread of deadly weapons. It would make life easier for them. It would be a tragic mistake for us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JONES: And there again, the president was referring to the Iran nuclear deal, something that Trump during the campaign railed against. This was just one of several areas where he was drawing contrast with some of the views expressed by President-elect Trump. The president continued to make his case for closing Guantanamo Bay, the prison at Guantanamo Bay, for instance. That's a prison that President-elect Trump has said he wants to fill up with more bad guys. The president also talked about the need to maintain the ban against torture, something that Trump has seemed to be opposed to. He said -- talked about bringing back waterboarding. But this focus on working with allies, with coalitions, is something the president clearly, very much wanted to stress. -- In the view that President-elect Trump has talked about putting America first. President Obama wanted to stress the need to work with -- partners. Poppy?

HARLOW: Absolutely. Athena Jones, thank you very much for the reporting from the White House this morning.

And President Obama working to solidify his legacy as Republicans threatened to dismantle it. With me now, Fareed Zakaria, host of CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS." He just sat down for the longest interview, television interview the president has ever done. You got an hour and a half with him. And it's for your special report airing tonight on CNN. Your take away when you walked out of the room, Fareed? I always do this when I leave interviews. OK. What surprised me the most? What was it?

FAREED ZAKARIA, HOST CNN'S "FAREED ZAKARIA GPS": The degree to which Obama is at peace with himself. He is somebody who I think thinks very hard and carefully about stuff when he confronts it. He balances pros and cons and then makes a choice. And I'm struck by the fact that there's very little second guessing. He has very few second thoughts, you know. You could -- some people would call that arrogance, some may call it confidence. It's certainly is a kind of cool, forward-looking determination.

HARLOW: Race is a key part of your discussion and it was a very poignant part of what is airing tonight. He was asked about race. Let me just read one of the things that he said that, "I think there's a reason why attitudes about my presidency among whites in Northern states are very different from whites in Southern states." And he talked about the birther movement and the impact that that had on him.

ZAKARIA: You know, he tried very hard, he's always

[10:20:16] tried to navigate these two positions and he did in the interview. He has always wanted to be the president who just happened to be black and at the same time, he recognizes that for African- Americans. There's something very deep and resonant and important about it. So, in almost every one of these racial crises that he confronted in his presidency, he's navigating between you know, wanting to be white enough or kind of non-racial enough to assure and reassure most Americans, but at the same time being black enough not to make blacks feel that he's betraying them or letting them down. And you see him navigating, you that starts -- we talk in the documentary about the very first episode people might not remember is Henry Louis Gates, this black professor at Harvard, who's arrested because he was trying to get into his own house. Obama criticizes the Cambridge police, backlash. -

HARLOW: And they have the "Beer Summit."

ZAKARIA: Exactly. And he decides, I'm not going to go there. For two years, I think, he really doesn't talk about race again because he realizes he's in an impossible position.

HARLOW: And then he makes it very personal talking around the case of Trayvon Martin and talks about himself and his children. Looking at policies, though, health care reform, obviously the first domestic big thing he took on as commander-in-chief, now threatening to be completely dismantled by the Republicans. Also, you know, when it comes to foreign policy, he says that Syria haunts him still but then he has the Iran nuclear deal and he has what has been done in opening up Cuba, so many of these on the world stage.

ZAKARIA: You know, it's interesting, I think he feels that he has really changed the orientation of American foreign policy, the way he's reached out to countries that we had no conversations with like Iran, Cuba, Burma, Myanmar, for decades and decades. And he's made openings to them to try to see, are there places we can cut a deal, are there places we can find a new opening.

And I think perhaps most importantly, we talked about this in the speech yesterday, he has tried to put terrorism in perspective, to say look, this is not an existential threat, this is not like the Soviet Union, this is not like Nazi armies marching across Europe. These are a band of thugs and if we elevate them, and we overreact and we start shredding civil liberties and the Constitution, would giving them what they want. That has been a very important part of the kind of discipline that he's been - he's wanted to bring. And of course, that personality is very different from the president-elect, who one might argue kind of, enjoys inflating or exaggerating these things for dramatic effect.

HARLOW: Then now we have learned from the president-elect this morning telling NBC he's taking some of President Obama's advice which is really interesting on some of these cabinet picks. Let's take a listen to part of what we are going to watch tonight in this special.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ZAKARIA: Let me ask you if it's possible in your position to be completely honest and say the rise of the Islamic State surprised you. It took you by surprise. It took the administration by surprise.

OBAMA: The ability of ISIL to initiate major land offensives, that was not on my intelligence radar screen.

ZAKARIA (voice-over): Everyone was stunned that a few thousand militants swept through Iraq and Syria sowing fear in the region and the world.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We chop off the heads of the Americans. Chop off the heads of the French. Chop off the heads of whoever you may bring.

ZAKARIA (voice-over): They created a caliphate, ruled by strict Sharia Law, meeting out punishments in the most barbaric ways imaginable.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: The special obviously, we will see all of it tonight. When you talked to him about the war on terror and frankly, the huge debate throughout the election about the words he would use or not use. What did he say that sticks with you most as this fight continues under the next president? ZAKARIA: He has always been very determined not to paint Islam with a broad brush. And I think --

HARLOW: He did that last night.

ZAKARIA: Right, he did it last night and I think you know, people who think he doesn't understand that there are people in America who don't get that, who feel like he's pussy-footing, or -- he gets it. He knows he pays a political price for that. He's a very good politician. He just thinks it's the wrong thing to do. And he is - you know, it's another case where Obama has been willing to do things that are unpopular on the theory they are the right thing to do and history will vindicate him. We'll have to see.

HARLOW: His - you know, approval rating right now is near a record high for him. Quickly, what do you think he will do next?

ZAKARIA: I think he's going to take a long vacation. I think that he's

[10:25:16] absolutely right when he says that and I think he will read a lot. Lot of presidential memoirs because I think he intends to write one of the great presidential memoirs.

HARLOW: Fareed Zakaria, thank you so much. I can't wait to see it. That is tonight. Fareed's Special Report, "The Legacy of Barack Obama" that is at 9:00 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN.

Coming up next, Trump may be deal maker in chief but will the tactics that made him a billionaire outside of the White House work for him negotiating while he's sitting in the Oval Office?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)