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Obama Delivers Final National Security Speech; Congress To Investigate Russia Election Meddling; Pence About To Lay Wreath At WWII Memorial

Aired December 07, 2016 - 12:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:32:32] BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: In his final national security speech, President Obama touted his strategy on the war on terror while giving a stern warning to his successor. Changing the course and taking a more aggressive approach would only motivate terrorists and put the country in even more danger.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, U.S. PRESIDENT: We prohibited torture, everywhere. At all times, and that includes tactics like waterboarding and at no time has anybody who has worked with me told me that doing so has cost us good intelligence.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: I want to talk a little bit about certainly the departures in style. But we have CNN Presidential Historian Douglas Brinkley joining me now, he's a professor of history at Rice University and I want to start just really about where the war on terror is heading. Clearly, President Obama has left a mark on it, and Donald Trump could, and very likely will, have a different trajectory.

DOUGLAS BRINKLEY, CNN PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: There's one similarity between President Obama and Donald Trump. Both didn't want to really send ground troops and both believed that George W. Bush's Iraq war was a mistake. That's the common ground. Now, Barack Obama's tried to bring back ...

KEILAR: well, I mean, truly, we heard certainly Trump say that initially he did not say that, which when talking about judgment from the beginning to the end, I just want to put that in ...

BRINKLEY: No, that's true. But I do think that in other words, it's, you know, it's like in the cold war we talk about how did it contain Soviet expansion and some question is how do we stomp out terrorism? And Barack Obama has a very intricate strategy that's worked in some cases, but the key to what President Obama is, is to win the hearts and minds of Muslims, to not turn it into America as the great Satan feast and as the clip just played, if it's waterboarding, or keeping torturing in Guantanamo. If we go back to Dick Cheney, Darth Vader tactics, then President Obama thinks it's not going to work. That we tried that and so his hoping that Donald Trump will continue a legacy of engaging the Arab world in a positive way and not having a war on Islam and don't in -- but of course Donald Trump is going to use rhetoric coming up that Barack Obama never would have.

KEILAR: Do you think he'll get some council (ph) those? We see there are some generals who are incoming to his administration. General Mattis, as secretary of defense, if he gets the waiver. They know what happens to soldiers when anti-Muslim rhetoric creates fervor on the other side. Do you think he'll get counsel on that?

[12:35:01] BRINKLEY: Of course he's going to, and Mattis is a great pick, I think. And the difficulty is going to be, we don't understand -- Donald Trump feeds on unpredictability. That's what he's marketing to the world. You'll never know what I'm thinking.

KEILAR: You never know what I'm thinking.

BRINKLEY: And that gives him a power, but this notion of working with Russia on the war on terror, how will Putin and Trump work together on stomping out ISIS? Will it lead to casualty, deaths, because of quick bombing raids into Syria or Libya or somewhere? That's the danger we're going to have civilian deaths in the Arab world on our hands, because of Trump's impetuousness to stamp it out in a marshal way.

KEILAR: You mentioned Donald Trump-style, unpredictability. President Obama-style. Very much about control in his White House, about being very deliberate. These are very different personalities.

BRINKLEY: I can't think of two different personalities than Barack Obama and Donald Trump. Obama, a constitution lawyer. You almost watch his mind type out words, every word matters in a way. Donald Trump, likes to be a little reckless, colorful, folksy, doesn't worry about at my tweet today, doesn't hold up tomorrow. So rhetorically, these are so opposite people, it's hard to see them in the same room together.

KEILAR: OPK, so I want to talk to you about a moment that we will see tonight at 9:00 p.m. eastern. CNN's Fareed Zakaria talks with President Barack Obama and let's really look back at his presidency. One moment that certain stands out is the shooting last year at the Charleston church. We'll going to take a look at that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FAREED ZAKARIA, HOST, FAREED ZAKARIA GPS: No single moment in the Obama presidency was at once so ugly and unifying at the Charleston church shooting.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The killing is being investigated as a hate crime now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It says you are raping our women, you are taking over our country. I have to do what I have to do.

ZAKARIA: Nine people murdered. The gunman said he wanted to start a race war. When President Obama came to the Emanuel AME church, his hesitance to speak frankly on race was gone.

OBAMA: For too long we've been blind to the way past injustices continue to shape the present. We now realize the way racial bias can infect us even when we don't realize it. Oh, but God works in mysterious ways. God has different ideas. Amazing Grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.

ZAKARIA: And when he sang "Amazing Grace," you know, there was a medicine in that song for 400 years of funeral after funeral. There is a hallelujah anyhow.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: It really was a significant moment and it highlighted how much the president had struggled and yet here he was maybe having a breakthrough in how he addressed the issue of race.

BRINKLEY: Well, he's become our grief counselor in chief. He's had to go to all of these heinous shootings, so I'll say and he hook (inaudible) and kind of heal our country, be a grief counselor. There he would send a pulpit at the AME church, AME is the freedom church, that's Harriet Tubman, that's Frederick Douglass, that's Rosa Parks, they were AME, that's Barack Obama country. And when he got in there and set off the pulpit there, and I would still -- I'm moved when I hear that "Amazing Grace," Thre president singing it, because it reminds us of the slavery, of the middle passage, of Jim Crow, of the fire hoses and barking dogs of Birmingham, and, you know, all of it is there and Barack Obama coming there and trying to heal that congregation and having, as being said, that hallelujah moment there.

KEILAR: What do you think, just a general question here. What do you think the hallmark of the Obama legacy is going to be?

BRINKLEY: That he inherited the great recession and our country was in tatters in October 2008, everything crashed, and the president came in, and things got better.

[12:39:59] I once said if he can drive that unemployment rate down below 5 percent he'd be seen as handling the economy successfully. Now it's down, it's 4 nine for eight for seven year, but he's driven it down. I think everybody could say, are you better off than you were eight years ago economically? Yes. However, Donald Trump showed that a lot of people are still ...

KEILAR: Tapped into those who felt left behind.

BRINKLEY: Felt left behind in the Obama recovery. And I think Obamacare was a signature domestic achievement and now it might be being beat up or gutted or repealed. We'll have to see.

KEILAR: Or maybe just adjusted. That's the thing. Back to the unpredictability. We do not know. But it's, you know, it's fascinating it's and always fascinating to talk to you, Doug Brinkley. Thank you so much. Really appreciate you ...

BRINKLEY: Always. KEILAR: ... being with us today. And join us tonight for the CNN special "The legacy of Barack Obama." our Fareed Zakaria sits down with the president to discuss it all. You can see their conversation tonight at 9:00 p.m. eastern, only on CNN.

And up next, experts may say you can't run the government like a business, but our governments never had anyone fight like Donald Trump running it before. A look at Donald Trump's role as CEO in chief and what other CEOs think about him, coming up.

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[12:45:10] KEILAR: And you are looking at live pictures of the World War II memorial here in Washington, D.C. on the 75th anniversary of Pearl Harbor. You can see veterans gathered there to commemorate this day. We're going to be paying attention as we expect a replaying very soon by Vice President-elect Mike Pence. We'll keep an eye on things there at the memorial for you.

This just into "CNN Newsroom". South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham says he plans to lead an inquiry into the Russia hacking, he said that before the congress should hold hearings, now he's going to step further saying that he will lead the charge through two of his subcommittees. CNN's Manu Raju got this scope from Graham also spoke with him about Donald Trump's stance regarding Russia. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: Should Trump take a tougher tone for Russia?

LINDSEY GRAHAM, (R) SOUTH CAROLINA: I think Trump should take a real tough tone for Russia, because if he doesn't you're going to allow Russia to begin to break apart alliances. The European Union.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Well, Manu Raju, tell us more about this.

RAJU: Yes, so significant, Brianna. Because up until now the calls, there investigate have come from Democrats. And as we know, Republicans will control congress next year and they're the ones who are in charge of the investigation. So you have a Republican senator who's caries two key sub committees for plans to use those committees to investigate Russia's role in the elections whether or not they tried to help Donald Trump and the efforts that they did, the Russian hack into the Democratic national committee. Into John Podesta's e- mail, as Lindsey Graham wants to dig very deep into that he says that he also wants to push congress to impose new sanctions, stiffer sanctions on Vladimir Putin.

Brianna, as part of the interview you told me he along with his friend John McCain will be traveling in the next couple of weeks to Georgia, to Ukraine, to Stonia, and Latvia in Lithuania in order to learn more about Russia's involvement and trying to interfere in their election. So this pressure is going to come from Capitol Hill if Donald Trump does not do more on Russia. Some from the Republican side starting to join those calls from Democrats to do more, to figure out Russia's role in our elections here, Brianna.

KEILAR: They're trying to sway him. All right, Manu Raju on the hill, thank you.

And for a President-elect who defies labels, one step of Donald Trump, for decades now likely to stick for at least the next four years and that is CEO. In just the past week, several weeks before inauguration day Donald Trump has intervened to keep jobs, factory jobs in Indiana, to scrap an allegedly overpriced next generation Air Force One, to lure a $50 billion Japanese investment in U.S. start-ups and just today to bring down drug prices.

Details of all of these things are complicated. They're sometimes murky. We do have an expert though fortunately, Douglas Holtz-Eakin. He's an economist. He's a former director of the congressional budget office and top economic adviser to John McCain during McCain's 2008 presidential run. I will say that Donald Trump has talked to Boeing CEO, Doug, we're going to talk about that in a moment. But just overall, give us a look of how, or on your assessment of how Donald Trump is doing as a CEO?

DOUGLAS HOLTZ-EAKIN, PRESIDENT, AMERICAN ACTION FORUM: Well, I think the biggest thing he's done, quite frankly, is just improve the environment for the business community. I mean, since his election we have seen consumer confidence rise. We've seen the confidence of CEOs rise, we've seen stock market rally. I mean this is all an expectation of better economic policy, faster economic growth on years to come. And so independent of these one-off episodes he has with boeing and carrier and things like that, I think people are really excited about the possibilities and the possibility for better regulatory tax infrastructure policies in the years to come.

KEILAR: What about on Main Street? Because there's always this tension between Main Street and Wall Street and you've seen a lot of bankers certainly who are going into the Trump administration. The concerns of people that this may not be a good thing for the "Little guy".

HOLTZ-EAKIN: I think he promise this campaign on taking care of the little guy. And that's ...

KEILAR: So he has to deliver?

HOLTZ-EAKIN: He has to deliver and indeed some of the back story around his discussions with Carrier where, you know, the workers at Carrier saying hey, you promised my job wasn't going to go away. What are you going to do here? And I think it's really interesting to watch him. Because he's doing now what he knows how to do, he's been a CEO. But this is a transition and I think people forget that it's a transition for a person as well. And he's now moving into a very different job. One he's never had. One where it's not really a matter of saving 800 jobs or helping 800 people. He can help millions of people. He's going to have the power of getting things through congress and putting in place laws and regulations that are enormously - have enormous implications. KEILAR: OK, so he's talking out to Boeing's CEO and he did this after talking to the cameras yesterday, and raising the spectrum of cancelling what he said was a $4 billion contract. Boeing careful to say, look, $170 million contract, a preliminary look at this airplane and working on a future airplane. Okay. The cameras yesterday, and raising the spectrum of cancelling what he said was a $4 billion contract. Boeing was careful to say, look, this was $170 million contract, sort of a preliminary look at this airplane and working on a future airplane. OK.

[12:50:09] The CEO, Dennis Muilenburg, promises President-elect Donald Trump in this phone call that the company will work to limit the cost of the new Air Force One. It's at least a symbolic, positive for Donald Trump. Is this really going to happen, though? Can he turn the screws on every company?

HOLTZ-EAKIN: No. I mean, I will say, you know, I'm an economist. So he mad me really happy there's a president that cares about the price of something instead of just running of the tab, so I thought that was a great moment but it's not about the cost of the Boeing contract. It's about him sending the message that you're going to do your job. Your job's to hold down costs, deliver good products. Now he's going to have to o his job and deliver it to the American public a higher standard of living. And no CEO likes to have the spotlight shined on them and they're uncomfortable with this.

KEILAR: He seems comfortable with it. Or the CEO, I'm talking about Donald Trump. He seemed very comfortable on shining the spotlight using that almost -- almost this sort of incentive, I guess you could say?

HOLTZ-EAKIN: There's a long history of presidents using this -- using that their position as a bully pulpit, On John F. Kennedy lecturing the steel companies about raising prices back in the '60s. This is not new, what's interesting about it is how early he started. And I think it reflects the appetite that the American people have for better performance. And his appetite to get going and make things better.

KEILAR: So he talked to Time Magazine and he says I'm going to bring down drug prices and then pharmaceutical stocks immediately sync to the 4 percent. What do you think of that?

HOLTZ-EAKIN: Everybody's concerned about drug prices. You hear this all the time. Show over on all the public opinion polls.

KEILAR: It's blown up here in recent years. I mean we're talking skyrocketing drug prices for some. For some, that get a lot of attention EpiPens going up several 100 percent?

HOLTZ-EAKIN: Right. I acknowledge there of these episodes, the EpiPens and things like that but, you know, I'm going to turn into the nerd economist on you. Drugs are still 10 percent on national healthcare spending, they were 10 percent ...

KEILAR: You're saying that's not really as big of a problem a this ...

HOLTZ-EAKIN: Mirror episode, but the broad picture is not nearly as catastrophic as you might think.

KEILAR: But it plays well with people.

HOLTZ-EAKIN: It plays well with people. Look, he won the presidency. He's a very good politician. All of this is good retail-level populist politics. There's no question about that. But the real trick for any president is to turn that ability into successful policy and that's a legacy. That's the job that needs to be done.

KEILAR: All right, could be a very different one that he has. Doug Holtz-Eakin, really appreciate it.

And a quick programming note. Tune in this Sunday at 8:00 p.m. Eastern and Pacific for the tenth annual CNN hero's all-star tribute hosted by Anderson Cooper and Kelly Ripa. We have a sneak peek for you.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They are the kind, and the caring, they are the strong and the brave. They are the one whose see a need, fill a void, make a difference.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm trying to give them all the opportunities that they deserve.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This has become my life. I don't ever want to do anything else.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They don't do it for themselves. They do it for all the rest of us. They are the reminder of what's good in this world and what it truly means to be a hero.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We give them the foundation from which they can thrive. The feeling of family.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have transformed the lives of thousands of children.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This Sunday night, CNN presents a very special live event. The 10th annual "CNN Hero's all-star tribute."

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Tonight we're gathered to celebrate extraordinary men and women, to highlight the best of what humanity has to offer.

[12:53:36] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Join host Anderson Cooper and special Co-host Kelly Ripa as we honoring 10 extraordinary people. "The 10th CNN hero's all-star tribute" live Sunday night at 8:00 on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: And you are looking at live pictures of the World War II memorial here in Washington, D.C. down on the National Mall.

And Mike Pence, the vice president-elect, has just shown up at this service that they're having there to honor the Armed Forces, as well as civilians who served during World War II on this day, this 75th Anniversary of Pearl Harbor. We're going to listen in, just to a brief moment of the program.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT-ELECT: ... administration, the Honorable Paul "Chip" Jaenichen.

And from the military district of Washington ...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: All right, we're looking obviously at the introduction there to some of the people who are going to be taking part in this program there on the National Mall on this certainly very momentous occasion.

Japan's surprise attack on December 7th, 1941, 75 years ago, it killed more than 2,000 Americans. It triggered the United States entry into World War II. Veteran Senator Bob Dole and Former President George W. Bush are -- George H.W. Bush, are the keynote speakers at an event at Texas A&M in College Station, Texas.

Senator Dole enlisted in the army halfway through his sophomore year of college in 1942. He was awarded two purple hearts, two bronze stars for his service. Former President George W. Bush became a decorated naval pilot -- I should say George H.W. Bush. He flew torpedo bombers during World War II. Then in 1944 he was shot down over the islands of Chichijima and rescued.

And I want to show you as well these are live pictures coming to us from Pearl Harbor. Where there's a -- where there is a program going on there right now, as well as what we are seeing down at the National Mall. And I'm going to toss over now as we look at these pictures with so many beautiful memories, memorializations today.

[13:00:04] Wolf Blitzer, these are such a important day happening all over the country.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Certainly is Brianna. We're commemorating this infamous day in American history. We're looking to the future as well ...

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